Piezo?

Take a look at this guitar.

If you don't do a thorough study of the guitar, you might just think, 'Oh, it's just another strat.' For those who are much sharper, you might have notice a toggle switch in place of a 'Tone' knob in a Fender. A kill-switch? Nope.

This is a Piezo toggle switch.

I first saw this guitar in the Swing's brochure. I was intrigued when I see that Swing Prism 250  is equipped with a Piezo and that it is an alder body. (YES~~!! Alder FTW) So I headed down to City Hall yesterday to try it out.

Piezo bridge is actually an active pickup at the bridge which has a very special role; to boost an acoustic sound. Why active? It runs on a 9v battery like all active pickups do. Piezo does its job rather well. I am amazed at the acoustic sound. While I would like the usual clean tone of pickups, Piezo does provide me with another alternative of 'clean' acoustic tone. Most of the songs I play consist of acoustic (not clean guitar) then followed by distortion. An example of such song? Take this as an example.

Alder is a wood which has very bright clean tone. This characteristic has boosted the function of Piezo even more. Of course, it still will sound different from a Martin, but if any of you want an simple acoustic guitar together with the electric, Piezo is for you. I'm not sure what pickups are in there but I think it is a Swing Heartbreaker at the bridge and the Bluesbreaker for neck and middle pickups.

Take note that while the Piezo is activated, the pickups on the guitar is not in function. So the toggle switch is a switch between the normal pickups and Piezo.

Now you don't need to switch guitars when you wish to play some rock when you are previously playing some acoustics!

Epiphone G-400

One of my friend actually wanted this guitar.

Epiphone G-400

For Epiphone guitars, I prefer SG guitars rather than Les Paul. The reason is because of the neck profile. SG's neck allows me to reach to the last fret at ease without any strain on the hand.. Les Paul, on the other hand is different. Despite being a set-neck construction for most LP, the neck and the body is joined at 17th fret for most cases. To some, there might be difficulties in playing the lower frets due to this.

My initial plan was to drop by Swee Lee to buy a microphone for Musicians' Club. Coincidently, I happened to see this guitar so I give it a try.

Neck
A set-neck construction. Comes with a rosewood fretboard. The neck of G-400 is rather huge, as expected from Epiphones/Gibsons. To me, it is definitely not a good shred guitar. I sometimes wonder why does she choose G-400. While I may not have any trouble playing given my large hands, it might be difficult for a girl's hand.


Body
It is a mahogany body.


Tone
Clean sounds rather superb. Very warm feeling, especially with the neck pickup. Played it clean for quite long before I decided to try with distortion.
Distortion-wise, I find is a little too muddy. The lead notes will sound alright on this guitar but the tone is a bit muddy when I was playing chords. This muddiness can be reduced by using the bridge pickup of course but if you can feel it, the muddiness will still persist. Those who can't hear the difference, just ignore it.
The set-neck construction gives G-400 a good sustain, too.

Overall: 4/5
While I like G-400 because of its easy accessibility to low frets, its muddy tone is what I would normally avoid. It can be improved by changing its stock pickup, I guess. Moreover, I prefer a brighter tone from a guitar, which is why I like Alder. Even though mahogany is a good wood, it doesn't appeal me. Apart from that, everything else of the guitar is fine.

Hamer XT

City Music's new video on Hamer guitars. Previously, I had always thought Hamer to be a lousy brand. I shouldn't judge a guitar lousy just because I do not know much about the brand. I should try them out one day! 

Sound Drive SG-15

The other day, I was helping my cousin, Ivan, to look for an amplifier. His requirement is a good quality amp with an affordable (and reasonable) price. I found him one at SV guitars today. 

Price: $100

Peavey rage-158

Price: $148

Both amp come with a clean and OD channel each and 3-band equalisers. SG-15 features a CD AUX Jack input as well, allowing you to play your mp3 through it. SG-15 is a 15W amp and rage-158 is a 30W.

Clean

I played the clean channels using the middle pickup of the S1. SG-15 clean is not a very bad. But I prefer a warmer tone for clean. But SG-15 doesn't give me enough warmth I want. I prefer the Peavey Rage 158's clean channel as it has a much warmer tone. 

Over-Drive

The overdrive for SG-15 is a wonder for a 15-watt amp. Has a crunchy tone and is very good for shredding. When the gain is at its maximum, it is very sensitive to picking and just the way I like. As for Peavey Rage-158, it sounds a bit too muddy for my likings. 

Currently, I would choose SG-15 at my amp when I move house. Can't buy new stuffs now or else there will me more things to move. Reason: It is cheap and the amp looks well-built, too. 

To Ivan (Continuation)

Hey Ivan, sorry to make you wait two days.
Here is the new member of my pedal family!

Reasons for getting Vox V847:
1) Wah is needed for a particular song I've to play in school.
2) I want to know more about Wah. I am totally clueless about how to use it.
3) Vox is affordable and the sound of it is just awesome!

I had 5 wahs in mind before actually buying one; Modtone Vintage Wah, JD Crybaby and Vox V847 and V845. I had tried Modtone Vintage Wah before. It just wasn't the type of tone I want. JD Crybaby is too expensive. So that leaves me with the last two choice V847 and V845.

So I headed to City Music on Saturday to check the two wahs out. With the help of Asyraf, I managed to try them out. I immediately notice that difference in the clarity of the sound the two wah produces. V847 give a much brigher tone with much clarity inside compare to V845.

Once again, (to Asyraf) thank you very much for helping me choose my 1st wah. =)

Tuner times six!

Sick of tuning your guitar one string at a time? Well, that is where being polyphonic comes in handy.

Digitech Hardwire provides us , the guitarist, with HT-6 polyphonic tuner. Instead of plucking one string at a time, all you need to do is to strum and HT-6 picks up different signal from every strings. Interesting huh?

To Ivan

To my cousin stuck in Myanmar =P
Hey Ivan..
I know are online.
Guess what I got from City Music today?

Selling Modtone Extreme Metal

Selling my Modtone Extreme metal. It is still in tip-top condition. Cosmetic-wise, there is not paint chips or whatsoever. In fact, it is just like brand new! Going for S$90. Negotiable.
Reason for selling: I m buying something else. =)
Please email me at metalfoxkid@gmail.com.

SOLD!!

Thirty-six!

Anyone out there complaining that 24-frets are too little? Well, ESP Russia has a 36-fret guitar.

Apparently, the neck pickup of this guitar is covered by the excessively long fretboard of the guitar. I assume it be a neck-thru construction. How can a neck like this be bolted-on?

However, my question is, is the additional 12 frets really necessary?
In fact..

Syu's 27-fretted CRYING STAR - REBEL is already high pitch enough for me. So don't you think a note played at the 36th fret will be outrageously high pitched?

Change of plans

Remember my post on mini-sized Modtone effects?

Previously, I had mentioned that they are NOT a true bypass.

However, the producers had changed their mind. They decided to make them true bypass instead. As for the price,  they did not mention if there will be any changes.

Wrong Voltage

A few days ago, a friend of mine borrowed my Biyang 5-way adapter.

Well, I have absolutely no problem using the adapter. It is supplying enough power to all 5 '9V' pedals attached to it. However, that wasn't the case for this friend of mine.

Here is the story: He said the adapter is faulty.
Reason: It failed to give enough power to two of his pedal and it spoiled his Korg Pandora PX5D. Only his DS-1 and chromatic tuner was powered up.

Apparently, he failed to notice that the power supply for his Pandora PX5D is a 4.5V d.c. and my adapter supplies 9v to each. So... his folly spoiled his $300 PX5D and not the adapter.

I asked to see the two pedals which was 'so-called' underpowered. A quick look at the power jack and it was written '18V d.c.'. Well, he can't expect my 9V adapter to supply twice the voltage, isn't?

So.. please check the power input of the pedal and the output of the adapter before joining them together..

SWEE LEE'S CNY SALE

Swee Lee is once again having sales again, tempting all of us to spend away our Ang Baos. There will be 2 sales at Katong and Bras Basah on different days.
Well, the poster will tell you more. =)

Discount is not stated in here. However, from my experience, there is usually a 50% off to all showroom items (guitars, basses, drums) and 10-20% of all other items.
Be sure to go there early as the place will be very crowded and make sure you are fast in getting what you want before it falls into others' hand. Once again, trials are near impossible or only short trials are allowed too.

JC LIFE!!

Damn.. JC life is very demanding.. Homeworks keep coming everyday.. Couldn't even have enough time to watch TV or even facebook. Needless to say, even though I have things to update about, I just can't find the time. =(

BEHRINGER PB-100

Well, look what I've got myself using portion of the Ang Bao I got!!

Behringer PB-100

Its function is well stated on it. It is a preamp booster (aka) clean booster. Got this for a cheap $29 from Subversion! Today was the first time I see him in person. =) He's indeed a very nice and friendly guy as many say. The pedal was as good as new. The pedal was thoroughly cleaned. No shoe prints on the switch shows that this pedal has never been gigged before and hence looks brand new!

Almost immediately after I'd got it from sub, I ran straight back home to try it out. 

Well, I placed the newly acquired PB-100 in the first position, followed by my Ibanez Tubescreamer TS-7. the Zoom G2.1u is just there to act as a tuner. -.- 

The PB-100 do wonders with the TS-7. The boost makes the TS-7 sound 'fatter'. I tweaked my treble at 3 o'clock on the PB-100, bass at 11 o clock and the gain in the middle. 

Many of the Keeley modded overdrives like Keeley modded TS-9 and Keeley SD-1 works in the same way. Instead of having a clean booster outside, they had a integrated boost circuit inside them. (Sub told me this! xD) 

Zoom H1 Handy Recorder

My band leader, KJ, has bought a Zoom H1 handy recorder to record our jamming when we are at the studio. He bought it at City Music. Any shops that has links with City Music like Sound Alchemy sell Zoom products.

And yesterday was our first time trying the recorder. It features an Auto-Level function; it dampens the sound of a instrument that is too loud while beefing up the ones too soft such as the vocals. This recorder is amazing.

HOWEVER.. it has its flaws, too.

While the Auto-Level function can be of a great help, it can also be more of problems than help. In order for the function to function properly, it depends on the set-up of all the instruments.
This is a preferred set-up.

Unfortunately, not many jamming studio rooms are in this formation. So, in such cases, manual leveling is better than Auto-leveling.

READ FROM HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ZOOM H1.

TS-7 goodness

I am quite happy with the performance of my TS-7.. which is probably 1.5 week old. The strange thing is... I hardly ever use it alone.. My main purpose of using TS-7 is to beef up the overdrive and distortion of another effect.

In fact, it does the job rather well, especially with my (anique) G2.1u which I am not intending to upgrade to the new G2.1Nu. I use the TS9 mode as a booster. Hot Mode is too noisy. I usually use it alone instead.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR

Hello to all Chinese readers of my blog!
Tomorrow is the Chinese New Year already. =)
This year is the Year of Rabbit!!

I am busy having Reunion Dinner with my family and can't post today; just to wish you all a Happy New Year!

And to those friends who are thinking of going to Peninsula Plaza in City Hall to look for guitar stuffs, don't bother. Almost all the guitar shops will be closed and will open only by next Monday.

Once again, 新年快乐，万事如意！