Restring errors...

I helped my friend restring his acoustic guitar. (I love to do this! Polish guitar, clean here and there)

The G-string was already restrung so left only the other 5 strings for me to do his job.

After I am done restringing all the strings and stretching them properly, I continue tuning it. What did I found out? 

-There is a problem in G-string-

No matter which direction you turn the tuner (Clockwise or anti-CW), the string will tighten. As you know, if one direction tighten the string, the other should loosen it, isn't? 

Apparently, that friend of mine do not know proper method of restringing. 

He tightened the lower end of the string before he tied around the tuner. Next, he discovered that there is a long 'leftover' strings dangling at the tuner. So he wound it up over the tuner. I should have taken a picture to better illustrate this 'scenario'. 

This is a very wrong way to restring any instrument I believe. 

This guy owns a guitar with a Floyd Rose bridge and I really wonder how does he ever tune his FR guitar. Hmm...

Rosewood or Ebony

A friend of mine asked me what is the difference between a rosewood fretboard and an ebony fretboard and how to differentiate it.

Well, basically, it is very simple; the look tells everything.

Here's a rosewood

and here is a ebony

Ebony can be identified by its shiny look and smooth feeling. (I told him it looks like dark chocolate when he asked me to further elaborate 'shiny').  Rosewood doesn't shiny look. 

Maple gives you a bright tone, rosewood a darker one and ebony gives you a brighter tone with more sustain.

In terms of durability, many say that ebony is most durable.

Swee Lee online shop kenna hacked?

Today, I noticed something strange when I go to Swee Lee's Online Store. The title of said "Hacked by SerCom". Is swee lee's website really hacked? Only Swee Lee knows.

 CLICK HERE TO SEE FOR YOURSELF.

DR for this month.

I have this habit which some people may say as wasteful. Well, especially to those who are still students and do not have a work that is.

"I change strings of my guitar almost every 2-3 weeks. One reason is my sweaty palms rust them off very easily. However, ever since I changed to coated strings, it lasted at least for 1 month. Still, I just couldn't stand not changing it. 

 

So my Fernandes is restrung with  DR EXTRA-LIFE Cool Blue. The strings inside are coated blue as well. Since my guitar is red.. and red and blue doesn’t complement each other, it looks rather awkward. >.<

But nonetheless, performance-wise, I still love DR strings. Easy bending, very distinctive and clear notes on each string. While it is not a major contribution to the tone, it still matters to me.

All I have to do is to bear with the awkward look of the Fernandes.a

Not sustain-able

I was playing through my Modtone Extreme Metal, which I own it for at least 3 months when I finally discovered something today.

The effect pedal isn't good at sustain. I am using a Tesla VR-extreme inside my Fernandes, which do a perfect job in sustaining through my old Zoom G2.1u and my cousin's Digitech Grunge.

Tubescreamer

I'd been looking for an overdrive pedal I want. After trying dozens of OD petals (MXR, Boss, Modtone, Fulltone) of all price range, I finally decided to buy Ibanez TS7 Tubescreamer. 

Reason: I wanted a thick and yet warm overdrive and it should be able to boost the overdrive of the amplifier. TS7 does the job well. Though it doesn't give a very nice sound when played with my Squier Strat, it gives the exact sound I want with my Fernandes. Well, the quality of the guitar is very different which explains the reason why.


Tone: It has a very smooth and warm sound. There are two modes in TS7, TS9 and HOT modes. Hot mode has a higher output than the TS9 mode. TS9 gives you a milder overdrive, which I ultilised it as an amp booster. 


Features: 3 knobs. (Drive, Tone, Level),  Push Lok retractable knobs. 


In my opinion, Biyang Baby Boom Mad Driver has the tone close to TS7 but not identical. However, Mad Driver has 3 modes instead of 2. I still chose TS7 in the end because in terms of warmth, it is better. 

Mini-sized

Last year Modtone had announced about their coming-soon BuzzBoy pedal. 

This January, they are introducing Mini Mods

What you can see on the photo right now are just empty shells just for the people to see. They have yet to assemble all the components. According to the manufacturers, it would probably take 3 months from now for them to be released.


Main differences between its bigger brothers? They are NOT true bypass. Not much info was given apart from that. The street price is US$49.95, which is around SG$ 66.  

Taiwan's METAL

Some people told me: "Taiwanese do not produce metal, heavy metal or death metal musics. They only produce pops."

Well, time to prove them wrong.

Heard of this band? This is a heavy metal band. Origin = Taiwan. Wikipedia shall prove it. Haha. Even though it is spelt as ChthoniC, it is pronounced as 'ThoniC', muting the 'Ch'. Quite an interesting band, especially their lyrics of the songs. But the most interesting thing about this band is......

they've got a hot bassist.. A girl bassist. Her name is Doris Yeh and she is endorsed by ESP. 

Here's their official website

>> Click here for their official website << 

Don't worry for those who can't read Chinese. It's all writen in English

The Physic!!

I'd never read so much about Fernandes Sustainer before and didn't really know how it works.. until I suddenly thought about it on my way back home from school. So, I did some immediate research. 

The driver A in the sustainer will release pulses of magnetic field. As the word 'pulses' suggest, it is not a continuous emission of magnetic field by the driver. Every time a pulse is release, there will be a force due to the magnetic field acting on the string. Then, the driver would stop emitting a field for a while before it emits again. When this repeats, it will cause a vibration of the strings and this would cause the string to 'sustain'. 
So what is so special about this sustainer when there are compressor sustainer pedals around? According to the manufacturer, their sustainer gives a natural sustain which pedals can't give. I agree with it to a certain extent. 


There are 3 modes in the Fernandes Sustainer

01Harmonic Mode: 
Within seconds, the pitch of the ringing note(s) will rise to the 5th natural harmonic.

02Natural Mode: 
The note(s) will continue to ring its natural fundamental tone as long as the string(s) are free to vibrate and the Sustainer System is on.

03Mix Mode: 
Available on select models including our FSK-401 Sustainer Kit, the Mix mode blends the Natural and Harmonic Mode to harmonize indefinitely every ringing note creating a harmonized feedback effect.

UPDATE: Sustainer (FK101) is available at Sound Alchemy for S$280. FK101 is a humbucker-sized sustainer.

Importance

I hate to do things last minute even when it is told to you long time ago.

Here's an incident. My school has an open house and my CCA was told to perform beforehand. Sadly, our president failed to organise anything and in the end, we were asked to play impromptu. Playing impromptu is not a major concern to me. What frustrates me is that he failed to even do a proper sound check and tune the guitar.  

What is a performance to you? I believe that any performances should be taken with a certain degree of seriousness, do you agree? It doesn't matter how important or prestigious it is, I think it is still important to be well prepared. At least get all the instruments in tune and have a proper sound check beforehand.

New arrivals

I'd ordered a set of inlay stickers from Music Ensemble and ask them to post it to my place, since I would be busy during that period of time. Well, today I received a call from the shop and the shopkeeper said that it had been posted to me. When I asked her if she'd any new goods, her answer came positive. She'd brought in some new stickers. Previously, there are red, silver and abalone inlays. Now come metallic. Here's are a few photos of them.

I think the above guitar is a Fernandes, same model as mine. xD

Here are some pickup covers.

Sorry

I've been busy with all the stuffs, moving things about the place since I just came back, doing my school stuffs and so on. And hence, I couldn't update anything much these days.
Will resume my routine very soon.

Sorry~

SV guitar is expanding.

I headed down to SV guitars in the afternoon to get an adapter and try some effects. In the end, I only bought the adapter and never managed to try any effects. Because, Sv guitar is doing some renovating. They are expanding their shop. So the place was rather of a mess with boxes. So I decided to wait until next week, when the renovation is by then done. I think we will all have a bigger space to try out guitars and effects by then. =)

BACK IN TOWN

Hello everyone~!
Happy extra-belated New Year!!
I am finally back in Singapore. How was your Christmas and New Year? Hope you all enjoyed it.
And since I can sign in to blogger once again, I shall continue with my daily blog posts again from tomorrow onwards~.
Thx