The CIOKOLATE Fever

Well, of all things edible on Earth, Chocolate is my favourite food. So anything that sounds like Chocolate will surely get my interest, even if it is an inedible pedal power.

Good news for those who have just too much pedals on their rig. Cioks is coming up with CIOKOLATE! 16 outlet power supply for you (because 10 outlets are too mainstream! =P )

That's the good news. Every good news is followed by a bad one. The bad news is CIOKOLATE is a celebration for Cioks' 20th anniversary (Cioks has been around since 1992, a year before I was born). Well, not exactly bad if you'd think of it. It is already July by tomorrow and August is just a month away!

Good news for those in Singapore #2

Here is another good news, my dear friends.

Hmm, Swee Lee got their prices revised and opening up a new branch and now SV is having a sale. Is this just a mere coincidence or is it more than that? *shrug* Heaven knows. But do you notice that the brands that are on sale are actually those that are available at Swee Lee? =)

But customers like us are definitely at an advantage. Too bad, I'm stuck here in Myanmar.

Good news for those in Singapore #1

Yes, good news. Everyone loves good news. Everyone loves hearing the good things. And I'm going to do just that.

Swee Lee is opening up a new branch at Peninsula there. Great isn't? Now, you don't have to travel all the way to Bras Basah (but of course) unless you are looking into something more than guitars (like drums and keyboards, synths)

Tesla + Swing

It appears that Swing guitars are now using Tesla pickups on their guitars.

 +

This is what Tesla said on their website:

We would like to welcome Swing guitar Technology, recently Swing started using Tesla Pickups in their guitars, this is the perfect combination because both companies have the same goals such as to create products of the Highest Quality that can be used by professional musicians all over the world.

They should have done it long time ago. Hehe.

la Resurrección

Previously on Kamikaze Episode-3,

A Takamine has fallen (literally).
But it has been resurrected.

Looks like new isn't? What sorcery is this? Definitely not necromancy. 

It is the work of a tech whiz (named David Wong) at Novelty Guitar @ Parklane Shopping Mall (Basement 1). If you are a gamer, there is no way you can miss this place. Even if you are not, you can hardly miss it. It is just beside McDonald's. 

Another place I can recommend if you are looking for repairs (apart from Luther Music) is TYMC @ City Hall. They do repair such damages. 

And the story of the little ones continues...

I've always been talking about Modtone stuff since I started writing this blog. I've tried a fair share of its products, owned them and sold some of them. One of them which still remains and I have no intention to sell is the green Speedbox Distortion.


I know this is kinda late but I don't care anyway. I will still post them. Here are the new Mini-mods after the 1st five little ones.

The mini-Buzz Boy. Sadly, I am not really a fan of fuzzes (or fusses as well =P).

Mini-Clean booster. This is an ideal size for a booster pedal because one doesn't want too much space to be eaten up by just a booster alone on his/her pedalboard. Maybe it's just me, maybe this is a common preference.

High gainer is just another drive pedal. An alternative for you to choose between its mini-overdrive and this. Sadly, Myanmar is not 'blessed' with a large variety of equipments. Needless to say, I doubt there are Modtones around here. Well, good news for those in Singapore is that SV Guitars carries this brand. An awesome guitar shop it is. It was my favourite shopping place when I was still in Singapore and one day when I come to visit Singapore again, I will definitely go there again.

Here's Lemon Squeeze compressor sustainer in a smaller chassis. 

And last but not least, the mini-Colosseum reverb with all the same controls as its bigger sibling. 
I think all the above apart from the compressor and the fuzzer are available in Singapore. Do correct me if I am wrong because I'm physically present in Singapore to go and check at the shop itself.


How I wish there are more guitar shops in Myanmar. Oh yes, I remember that there Sinamax and Guitar 77 here. I have yet to check them out!

Ballad~!

Just wanted to share something that has been stuck in my head recently, if you guys so happens to have not heard of this before, be in for a lovely suprise! ;)

Otherwise, just enjoy the short solo :D

Myanmar Guitar-ology, Episode-3: In the beginning..

Back to this series once again. Fathers' Day kept me busy and thus I couldn't post anything.

This is the guitar which caught my attention first.

Reasons? Here they are:

1. The only guitar sporting a brand name on its headstock
2. Has a cutaway (I favour guitars with cutaway over those without one)
3. Larger guitar body than any others
4. Look suspiciously like a Martin.

Well, I was correct. It is a Martin (See the photo). Why would Ko Cho feature a guitar of other brand in his guitar show? That is because he made it. Here's the story.

When Ko Cho first started out as a luthier (I guess nearly 16 years ago or even more), he tried to seek knowledge from other luthiers and guitar companies. I am sure he would surely have contacted famous guitar makers like Gibson, Fender, Ibanez, Taylor, Martin, etc... and luthiers alike. It is a wonder how he contacted them back in those time, when there is no Internet on this piece of land called Myanmar. My guess is that he must have used airmails to contact them. 

His teachers back them were books. Kind souls would mail him back books on guitar-making and apparently, it seemed that the only company that bothered to reply him was (none other than) Martin. They replied to him that he could start out by buying their unassembled guitar parts and try to assemble it himself. Now everyone familiar with Martin would know that their guitars are definitely not cheap. The less pricey range of Martin was only introduced a year ago (probably because Taylor started mass-producing some of their guitars). Hence, it must have cost him quite a lot when he purchased those parts and get them send over to Myanmar (let's assume he doesn't get taxed over those). And because of the price, he didn't dare to start assembling it in case he makes a mistake. All he could do was to read the tutorial booklet that came along with the parts over and over again. It took years (like 4-5?) to muster up enough 'courage' to make this guitar. 

What is commendable here is not the guitar but Ko Cho's eagerness in becoming a luthier. An amateur would not bother contacting all the companies and luthiers out there or face any rejections. An amateur would not dedicate his life in instrument-making and study about different types of tone wood and alternatives. I hope there are those in my generation who are like him. I'm sure there are some out there in Myanmar. Just that I have yet to meet them. =)

Green Bean ?

This is madbean's take on the TS-808 pedal, with added controls, and i've dropped in most parts except for diodes, potentiometers and ICs.

Waiting to be housed :)

Solo concert @ Yangon

Dear guitarists and music lovers in Yangon,

Please take note that this is happening on the 22nd of June.

Maybe some of us will not know this dude. I do though. This is a rare opportunity to miss, especially when the admission is free. I am sure though it may be just the minority, there are still people out there in Yangon who love classical stuff so I just want to share this joy with these people. Yes, I am definitely going for this.

Do check out his website >>>HERE<<<
and WGC's website >>>HERE<<<

Guitars and Cars: Fender & Volkswagen

Remember my post about Gibson and Renault joining forces? Well, Fender has its own ally as well, Volkswagen.

And here is the car made from their collaboration. 

The car's name is 2012 Beetle Fender if I remember correctly. Here is the interior of the car.

When Gibson and Renault 'allied' together, their 'allied' car was built with the theme of a Gibson (Guitar strings and traditional Tone knobs of Gibson). Likewise, Volkswagen has made this Beetle's interior with the Fender's theme. That tobacco sunburst theme alone describes enough of Fender. 

Of  course, a guitar-themed car should have something about guitars. So Fender and Volkswagen gives you this:

Yes, what you are seeing is actually an amp. Smart of them to feature this in their guitar-themed car. If my dad ever get me this car, I swear that I will spending most of my time in the car, not driving but playing guitar instead (neglecting the fact that I get very anal about sound quality of course.) 

Of course, there are other highlights of Beetle like its audio system and stuff. Click here for more info.

Myanmar Guitar-ology, Episode-2: The Balance

Many Chinese people and especially the acupuncturists believe that the balance Yin and the Yang is crucial. Likewise, some of the guitarists believe that the balance in tone (how bright and how dark) is important as well. 

Ko Cho had a customer who wishes to have a balance in the tone of his acoustic guitar. He wants the bass to sound less of the bass and the treble to sound less of the treble. In other words, he wants a brighter bass and warmer and darker treble. So here's what Ko Cho did to meet his requirement:

A picture speaks a thousand words, isn't? As you can see, half of the top of this particular guitar is made from spurce and the other half is made from red cedar. But what is the purpose of this? Here is his explanation.

Spurce has a brighter tone, trebly in nature. By making the left half of the top with spruce, the side with the bass strings, it helps to give a more brighter and distinctive bass notes. I have heard it in action and I really like the tone of the bass strings. Even when playing a real bass, I would settle for a jazz bass rather than a precision because I prefer my bass notes to be distinctive and bright. The compatibility with the music I am playing is, of course, another story.

Cedar on the other hand, is the direct opposite of spruce; it has a soft attack and warm in tone. These two are just the things needed to get that warmer treble. So with this in mind, the luthier made the other half with red cedar (probably imported from the States since red cedar is super rare here). 

The combination of these two types of wood gives precisely what the customer has asked for. Oh, the sides and the back is made of mahogany if I remember correctly. 

I have some food for thoughts though. Combining these two woods does give a balance to the tone right now.  However, the common belief and opinion is that these two types of wood mature at a different rate. Spruce takes a longer to mature and open up than cedar. So let's say in 4 years time, what will the tone be like?

Myanmar Guitar-ology, Episode-1: The Cheap Alternatives

I went for a guitar show today, organised by a well-known luthier (people call him Ko Cho) in Yangon (Rangoon). He gave us some insightful ideas about making guitars. Here's what he said:
"In other countries, due to the availability of materials, guitars can be made from proper tone-wood. Such is not the case in Myanmar. Tone-wood is hard to obtain and usually a bit too expensive for consumers like students to afford. As such, I make do with whatever we have here, whatever wood that I can get, to make guitars at affordable prices and years of researches allow me to imitate the tonality of popular tone-wood".

One would say the tone of an acoustic guitar is mostly the magic of its tone-wood. However, what many may not have realised is that, the processing of the wood, this whole process of guitar-making also play a great role in the tonality. This is what a Malaysian Luthier once said when he'd won the first prize in a certain guitar competition (I will fill in the details when I have looked up for them); he used a commonly-found rainforest wood to make his entry for the competition and the best tone was through all the drying and heating of the wood before putting them up together.

And Ko Cho has basically used this same idea in mind. He's used various types of wood that are readily available in Myanmar such as teak and other wood commonly used for furniture-making.
Here's a photo I took at there.

Here's the name of the wood (Italicised words are actually Burmese words): 

1. Jackfriut

2. Taraphi (description there said Kerpliner but google doesn't know it)

3. Local mahogany 

4. Teak

Wood No. 1, 2 and 4 are commonly found in Myanmar and mahogany is rarer than these 3. These are the types of wood used to make the sides of a guitar. Some of these woods have been dried for decades under proper temperature and humidity. That piece of teak there is actually dried for 90 years. Teak is not really used to make guitars because it produces too much oil to glue the wood together. But from drying them over for years, that was no longer a problem.

The wood you see on the left is called Ya mi ni, another furniture wood. It is used to make the neck of the guitar, even the top of the guitar. Tone-wise, it is very similar to spruce but harder. The one on the right, which I have difficulties spelling out the name even, is a wood used to make furniture, wood ornaments and many more. It is used for fretboard due to its hardness and rigidity like rosewood and ebony. But compare to them, this wood has a less appealing look and colour and from what I can observe, it is an open grain wood like rosewood, which means it will actually need conditioning.

(to be continued...)

Haze-y memory (Marshall Haze 40W)

One of the latest equipment I got to try was a Marshall Haze 40W combo. 

This Haze 40W was my companion when I used to play in a praise and worship sessions at a church (U Naw Baptist Church) here. So I had spent quite a lot of time tweaking around with this amp. And here is what I have to say for it. If you would search for reviews on the Internet, you will see some people praising this amp while the others think this is a failure product by Marshall. But well, here is my opinions on this amp at a neutral point of view since I am not inclined to a specific genre and rather versatile. You will understand what I mean by this later.

Simple introduction on Haze 40W

A tube amp loaded with 3 ECC83 tubes and 2 EL34. It comes with a 3 band EQ like many standard amps do and needless to say, two channels. The EQ is shared between the two channels. There is a boost switch to drive more gain into the amp. So if you add some boost into a clean channel, you would hear some dirt in the tone as well as a volume boost. Well, of course, if you add some in your drive channel, you just get more drive. It also comes with some simple effects; a delay, chorus and vibe and only one will be active at one time. Of course, there is a reverb but I am not so much of a reverb fan so this function is the most under-utilised. It comes with a footswitch which allows you to switch the two channels quickly and also includes a switch for the effect.

Clean channel

The clean channel of this amp, I have to say, is pretty awesome. Being a tube amp, it usually have a warm clean tone. The tone is rather balanced. With all the EQ settings at 12 O'clock, the sound is neither too treble-ish, nor too bassy. I would call this 'neutral' sounding. Such warm and balanced sounding clean channel is good to be played clean (well, of course. -.- ) or you can also plug in your drive pedals and play as well. I did exactly just that and I'd try my Satchurator, TS7, Speedbox and Metal End King through this. The outcome was rather satisfying. It brings out the full potential of each of these pedals very well without any tone-sucking. This is why some guitarists would recommend us buying a tube amp with a warm clean channel if most of our guitar tone is coming from the pedals than the amp. But during the worship sessions, I have always played without any of my pedals and just utilising the amp's clean channel. Occasionally when I need some drive, I would add some dirt using the boost and switch to my bridge pickup on my UNO or my Squier.

Drive channel

Tone-wise, the drive channel has a very warm overdrive tone when all the EQ settings are at 12 o'clock. The gain rolls up rather slowly and steadily, which I would say it an advantage since you have more control on the gain. For Christian musics, the drive channel is rather suitable. But you may have read many people saying that this amp has a very bad drive channel while others are praising it. This is because of the range of gain this amp has. Even with the booster on, the amp's gain is not fierce enough to meet the expectation of the metal heads. As such, I would drive extra gain to the amp by either using a Tubescreamer or even a distortion pedal. Another solution is to use it's clean channel and play through a metal distortion pedal. However, for rockers, I would say it is just perfect without needing much adjustments. With all that said, the amount of distortion or gain that you can produce may also depends on how hot the pickups on the guitar are. A simple illustration would be this: you have 2 litres of water but the bottle you have can contain a litre of them. Likewise, an amp may be capable of producing much greater gain but given that your pickups are hot enough.

Effects

The effects are the best thing I like about this amp. One reason is because of the simplicity in controlling them just like many other Marshalls are. Another is because of the tone. Chorus is of course one of my favourites. It is not modern voicing but a simple vintage-style chorus. However, I don't use it to colour my tone but instead use them to play arpeggios in clean. The delay tone, I would say, isn't too dry like what many would say about digital delays; the delay in this Marshall is digital (please correct me if I'm wrong, I can't remember on that and I have troubles checking that one the net thanks to the connection). So please do not expect warmth of an MXR Carbon Copy. Personally, I prefer delay to sound neutral in tone, without adding too much colour, precisely why I prefer my Memory Boy over MXR CC despite both of them being analog. Vibe is the effect I used the least. I have to admit that I can't think of a creative way of using it yet and I hardly get to use much of it at that church, too. 

Summary 

Here's a quick summary in bullet format:

• A 40W Tube combo. 
• 3-band Eq controls
• Warm clean channel, excellent for playing if you are using effect pedals.
• Simple and user-friendly effects with a relatively decent tone. Comes with reverb.
• Limited gain capacity. But could be solved by boosting the amp.
• Rating 8.5/10

Phew, I hope this is good enough. I am really getting rusty at this. Please forgive me. =(

Loki

Secret !

Anyone make a guess what this contains ?? :)

Dr Boogie, Mesa Boogie ?? (Part one)

This is my first post about pedal building, I'd try to be as concise as possible and cover as much ground as possible at the same time!!

This project is called Dr. Boogie, its considered as a replica of a Mesa Boogie™ Dual Rectifier. I tried the pedal with all original values and weren't too happy with the sound that I got. Sure it closely emulates the sound of a Dual Rectifier, but the TMB (Treble, Mid, Bass) controls were not responsive enough for me, hence, I modified the values of the caps in the pedal, resulting in a more "raw" tone. (If anyone is interested in the values please comment below!!)

You may have noticed that there is 6 knobs on the pedal, quite many for a pedal ehh?? The control are as follows.

Top row, left to right: Treble Mid Bass

Bottom row, left to right: Presence Gain Volume

The presence knob acts like a small volume trimmer and a mid-high end tone filter, which has a rather low sweep, hence indeed, its called a "presence knob" rather than a "mid-high" knob. This knob is highly interactive with the TMB controls, and though I find it very difficult to fiddle with the knobs to find a sweet spot, the end result is a sweet but brutal DISTORTION!!! This knob is definitely useful when playing live!!!

More to come, stay tuned :D

Z

New Editor!!! :O

Hey all!! I'm a new editor for this blog! I'm Z!!! The main topics that i will be talking about will be effects and pedal building!! If any of you are interested in this, do stay tuned to the blog!!!

Pandora MINI presets settings

Here are some of the Pandora MINI presets which I made for myself at home. Most of them are presets specifically made for a SSS strat (which is my Squier).

 These two settings are mostly used for playing ballad songs. I have to create two different settings for one that is single-coil friendly and one for humbuckers. This is because my squier has more high end than my UNO. So I have to reduce some treble and increase a bit of bass. For my UNO, I did just the direct opposite. I added a bit of delay in both settings so that the sustains would be slightly better (well of course some vibratos would help with that, too). The purpose of the chorus is to add some colour to the tone, some warmth to be precise. But it is very minimum because too much chorus would actually produce the 'detune' effect. It would sound nice if it is played clean but not so when played dirty.

 This is the preset I used whenever I practice the song "Falling in love again" by Jack Thammarat. I wanted some crispy and 'glassy' tone on my strat and I can't get it from any of the amp modulations in this. So I decided to improvise a little; I used a Boutique Clean, which I think has that glassy tone I'm looking for, and I added a bass overdrive. And I got just the tone I want. Again, I added some delay because the song itself is played with some delays too. It sounded a bit empty so I decided add a little chorus again. I am a fan of chorus and I would add a minimum chorus in almost everything I play. When I am using this setting to play that song, I still have to play around with my tone knobs. I rolled down the tone for my bridge pup because it was excessively bright. I see no problem with the neck pup though.

 This preset is named Rusty Nail because I was playing X Japan's 'Rusty Nail' that time. No delay for this one. Sometimes, delay doesn't always fit every songs. I use this setting for both single coils and humbuckers, with some adjustment made to the guitar using the tone knobs. But most of the time, I would use Ballad (H) with the delay off and tone knobs rolled down slightly when I am playing with UNO.

Lastly, the Warm OD preset and I usually use this most of the time whenever I am playing Christian songs. Once again, the delay is back to give that 'warmth' in the tone and of course, there is chorus (though you can make do without it too). Reverb is halved this time because I feel that too much reverb would make the tone 'overly' warm. I also reduced the number of repeats for the delay too. It may sound contradicting when I name this preset as "WARM OD" and yet the bass is only 2.7. But it is because that BOUTIQUE OD modulation already sound bassy enough. This setting is however made for my strat and I have yet to play with my UNO.

I also use the 'Jack Tham' preset for playing Christian songs and other songs of that are not 'fierce' but requires me to switch from clean and overdrive throughout the song.  An example I can think of would be Taylor Swift's Love Story and for a Christian song "The Angels Cry Holy" by Planetshaker. I rolled down the volume knob by half or so when I am playing clean. The purpose of rolling the volume is to reduce the gain and not really the volume. After all, our hearing can only detect the changes of the volume knob from 1-3 and 8-10. In my opinion, volumes changes from 3-8 is hardly audible since the pot I am using for the volume is a linear taper. But the audible changes is the difference in the amount of drive. After all, I don't usually use the volume knob to control the volume but the amount of 'dirt'. Volume can be controlled using a Volume pedal.

There are more presets than this but I'll leave them for another day!

EDIT: If you are playing your Mini through a small practice amp and you set everything according to the settings above, you can still get a decent tone if you crack up your bass and mid to about 7/10 and 7-8/10 respectively and cut down the treble to about 2/10. In the end of the day, there is always the EQ to adjust the tone we want and thus we should fully utilise it

Loki

Back to blogging

Life has been rather boring ever since I am back here. It is not that I have too much free time; life back here is quite busy as well. So I thought one way to entertain myself is to start blogging again. Hopefully, some people in Myanmar would actually read it.

I don’t have an amp back in Myanmar here. Well, I thought it would be rather unnecessary if I buy one. One reason is that music instruments here are overpriced. An Ibanez TS7 costs S$80 in Singapore but in Myanmar, it is priced at KS 110,000 (approximately about S$180). So at the moment, Pandora MINI is my best friend.

I’ve read many comments and reviews saying that Pandora MINI

• A failure
• Sounds horrible
• Drains a lot of battery

and etc…

Well, here is my response to the 3 listed points.

Pandora MINI is much compact than the previous version of Pandora. I don’t really see why it is a failure. Maybe it sounds horrible? Well, Pandora MINI WILL sound horrible if you plug it into any amplifiers (15W, 30W, 100W, tube or whatever).  Pandora MINI should be a stand-alone effect and its potential can only be brought out if you are using a headphone. I wouldn’t suggest in-ears because unless your in-ears are bass-biased, it will sound too treble-ish and that can be plain annoying. For me, I am playing through my medium-sized stereo speakers.

I do have another pair of smaller speakers and I do use them. But whenever I use them I would cut down on the high ends in the EQs of Pandora and perhaps, a bit more of the mid and the low. But that really depends on what guitar and pickups I am using as well.

As for Pandora eating a lot of battery, I have to agree with that. An alkaline battery will last no longer than 9 hours of continuous playing according to my experience. But again, 9 hours is pretty long. There are many ways to save up on batteries. I would use rechargeable batteries and it lasts about the same length of time. Or you can hook up your Pandora with to an USB. I believe that is not much of a problem because almost everyone owns a computer and all computers have at least one USB port.

So if someone tells you that Pandora Mini is lousy without giving a reason why, don't believe them straight away. I've been playing with it for 3 months and though it has certain limitations, the tone it gives is still good enough for me to enjoy a good playing. Also if you are going down to a guitar shop to try this, don't try it through an amp. Use your headphones instead.


Loki