Shark's Warzy.

I happened to pass by Guitar 77 and I decided to take a look inside.
In the end, I ended up trying Shark Warzy Drive with a Schecter Blackjack ATX C-1 (which was randomly given to me.)
It had been at G77 since long time ago but I never had a chance to try it.
1. I was too lazy to try.
2. There's always someone else trying something else.

First impression on it: it is just like any other metal distortion, or so I thought. Its distortion would be somewhat special, especially if you are the type who play Visual Kei. It has the 'Japanese' feeling (as I would term it) which couldn't really be explained in words. However, anyone exposed to such Japanese music will immediately recognise it. I guess this is why this pedal is so popular in Japan.

It has double boost feature, which I think is rather excessive. One boost would have been more than sufficient. Double-boost is just too noisy.

Labour Day SALE

Guys. Make your trip down to Swee Lee Katong this coming Monday!! Why?

This year seems to be a prosperous year for Swee Lee. I have lost count on the number of sales they had made. It is far more than last year. =)

What are you doing!!!

It always pisses me off very badly whenever I see someone else not handling my guitar properly. To me, regardless of what guitar it is (a TMG or a Gibson), all guitars need to be handled with care.
What I want to bring up today is 'How people scratches their fretboard'. I was reconditioning my Squier when i discover a scratch at the 21st fret. Nothing serious you may say, but serious enough for me to irritate me.

How do you normally strum when you are playing an acoustic guitar? Where do you actually strum?

I believe it should be as shown above.

I just can't understand why people can't apply this same concept on electric guitars. In fact, it really irritated to see people strumming at the 19-21 fret. This is especially true when they are standing up and play. It should be at the pickups instead.

Guitar pick is made of plastic but given enough force, it is able to scratch the rosewood fretboard especially when you are using the picks made of similar material as Stubby.

The "Pawn Shop"

Pawn  Shop? Pawning your guitar? Nah.. It's just a name.
I am still wondering why Fender would give their new guitar model the name "Pawn Shop". 

Fender '51

If anyone can recall, this '51 isn't something entirely new. Previously, there was already a squier version of it available, which was discontinued. This Pawn Shop features a push-pull spilt-coil system and the pickup selector comes in form of a 3-Position Rotary.

Fender '72

A modification of '72 Thinline? Somewhat I guess, just that the bridge pickup is an Enforcer and not a Wide-range. However, '72 Thinline is a Telecaster. This is more like a stratocaster featuring a telecaster's headstock. The same goes for '51. No pickup selector for this guy. It comes with a tone blender instead but they serve the same purpose.

Mustang Special

The old mustang features a set of single coil. The Pawn Shop is equipped with Enforcer™ "Wide range" Humbuckers. It also feature a different bridge; a '70-style Hard-Tail Stratocaster bridge. No tremolo bar this  baby.

In remembrance of 'hide'

Coming May 2 is hide's (X-Japan) 13th Death anniversary. It is nothing to celebrate about but it serves as a reminder that such excellent musician had once lived. 

In remembrance of hide, Fernandes has revealed a limited-edition guitar, namely JG-hide Model.

This guitar is handmade and a duplicate of the same one hide had used during this 'Psyence a Go Go' solo tour. In the youtube video below, you will see hide featuring this guitar. This guitar is limited to only 200 pieces worldwide and I doubt it can be found in Singapore. Most of the 200 should still be in Japan, I guess. It is selling for  ¥180,000 and this is approximately S$2723.57.

Hide - Rocket Dive

He was with the Spread Beaver here, not X japan.

The FIRST custom-made fender for a Chinese guitarist.

Well, Fender has made a Custom Fender guitars for various artists like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and many others. In fact, it wouldn't be a piece of ground-breaking news even if Fender has endorsed another artists at the west.

Fender making a Custom Fender for a Chinese guitarist is something new though. In fact, this could be the first time Fender has ever made a custom guitar for a Chinese artist. 

The guy's name is Liu Lin. Here are some pictures of his guitar. The special feature of this guitar is, his name is engraved at the 12th fret.

(I wish it was much redder. xD)

Wallets SPECIALLY MADE for guitarists?

Believe it or not, there are wallets that are specially made for guitarists by Whipping Post Leather.

• 3 Credit Card Slots 
• Cash compartment
• Pocket for guitar pick
• Driver's license compartment
• 100% Full Grain Leather.

Price: $30. (I have no idea which currency though. However, it is usually in US$. In SGD? I'm afraid you may have to do the math yourself)

Personally, I won't buy this wallet. 

Reasons, I got more than 6 cards (EZ-link, Popular card, Borders, etc...). 3 card compartments is not-at-all enough and I'm used to the usual fold-able wallets like my current Converse. xD

Touching....

Here's the song which actually touches me so deeply, deep enough for me to actually tear.
If you can't understand the lyrics, perhaps the PV itself explains a lot.. I think it is like how Mr. Children was formed. I'm not sure if it is true or fictional.

Mr. Children - Kurumi

Swee Lee Promotion update (Amp Sale)

Apparently, Swee Lee is trying to clear off amplifiers of various brands.

There are quite a range of brands you can choose from actually. However, this offer is only limited to Katong Showroom. The 50% off discount might be an incentive for you to check them out.

Ultimate fingerstyle?

I wish I am in Germany right now. it would have been very awesome. Why? That's why Musikmesse is.

I am sure that the name 'John Renbourn' sounds very familiar to you. Yes, he is one of the world's most brilliant fingerstyle guitarist. 

Christ Martin unveiled the OMM John Renbourn at the Musikmesse. 

Comes with a Solid Italian Alpine Spruce and back and sides of Madagascar rosewood, which many claims to be the close substitute of the now-endangered Brazilian rosewood. It seems to cater all the needs of a fingerstyle guitarist in terms of action, a big and wide neck (1 3/4" at the nut) and a low-profile. I am not a good fingerstyle player but I would still like to give it a try. 

Martin also unveiled several Ukulele at Musikmesse as well. Take note that Martin's ukuleles were the best ukuleles in 1930s. Not a claim but it is a fact recorded in History.

2011 Fernandes

I have downloaded Fernandes 2011 Catalog since the day it was released. However, I'd failed to give it a thorough look, assuming there isn't any new stuffs that will fascinate me. Well, again I questioned myself, "What is the point of making a new catalog if there isn't anything new?"

Fernandes has introduced the V-hawks for 2011. Here's the picture.

V-Hawk Elite

V-Hawk Deluxe

V-Hawk X

Like any of the Elites, V-Hawk Elite features its renowned Sustainer (click on it to read about it's function). Same goes for its Deluxe: it is loaded with EMG active pickups like any others. X stands for the models equipped with high output passive pickups and comes with an alder body for most of the model. 

As for the shape of V-Hawk, it resembles ESP-Arrow. Of course, 'resembles' doesn't imply that they are 'identical'. The cutaway at the end of the guitar body is the evidence. 

Where to get? (Singapore)

I believe BGW-guitar is the only source of getting it. However, you might wish to try your luck at Yamaha. Afterall, Yamaha is supposedly the main distributor of Fernandes guitars. However, it seems to me that Fernandes is definitely NOT their area of focus.

Today is wonderful

Today is just wonderful.

Why?
1: I passed my NAPFA!!!!
When I was still in my first year in Junior College, you couldn't have imagine how lousy I am in term of fitness. I can't even run for 2 minutes continuously, do a single pull-up, finish a standing board jump of 200m. The only thing I can pass is sit and reach.
However, it seems that I have improve much over a year.
This is just the result of dreaming and persisting for that dream

Same goes for life. I've always wanted to take musician as my future career. But it is not what my parents want though. That is not going to stop me from trying to be one.
I always have this little song to give me encouragement whenever such thing comes to my mind. Here is the video. (It's in chinese though.)

 

Baked?

This is a baked potato. Water-watering, isn't?

Well, sadly, this is what Singapore's recent weather is turning us into; it is baking us up with high temperatures. In fact, managed to hit as high as 35 'C. To some, it may sound exaggerating. However, during my 7 years in Singapore, I won't doubt that this year is the hottest year. During hot days, everyone would wish for a cool breeze or an afternoon rain to cool us down. We get neither of them. and ironically, you get hot wind blowing to you and increased humidity instead. Any geography student would say that this is the result of global warming. 

This can be rather troublesome for my guitar-ing as well. Normally, I would sweat a lot. Now it's worse. This quickens the rate of rusting of my strings. Sweat will trickle on my guitar and I have to wipe them off all the time. The weather also spoils your mood to play guitar, too. 

Air-conditioning? Nah. Electrical bill is equally screwed up as well. 

2nd chance

I've used a set of Gallistrings for electric guitar, which didn't last long at all. In fact, I decided to just stick back to my favourite strings, GHS coated Boomer.


Let's give Gallistrings another try, shall we? xD

As you can see, Gallistrings is now on my acoustic. Apparently, from what I know, this band would be the cheapest coated acoustic strings. D'addario would have cost $15. Gallistrings costs $4 less. This makes a world of difference for those under a tight budget. =)
Gallistrings can be bought at SV guitars/Standard Value

Modtone UPDATE!

This is what I see on Modtone's facebook.

ModTone Effects

Up next……ModTone Digital Reverb!
More details coming soon.


Reverb huh? 
I am not sure how appealing will it be. Strymon's bluesky is one of the few reverb pedals which I actually like. Usually for reverb, I will give the role to the amp's in-built reverb instead. Since reverb is the last pedal in a pedalboard set-up, letting the amp handle it would be as good as placing a reverb pedal in the last place.


Alright! Time for me to return to my novel which I'd borrowed freshly from the school library.  

Lex Rotary?

Strymon's newest creation, Lex Rotary is finally available. They took quite a long period of time preparing of this. 

The sole strymon distributor in Singapore is Standard Value/SV guitars. However, it will take quite a while before Lex can reach Singapore.

How rotary works? I myself am not sure how to describe it. It is rather sophisticated.
>>Click here to read more on rotary<< It requires quite a persistence to finish reading it though