Pre-national SALE! @Swee Lee

Yes. Once again, Swee Lee is holding up a sale again! And this time, it is at Bras Basah. This definitely isn't just clearing of stocks since they have just restock most of their items. 

As usual, long trials will not be allowed. Or trials may not be allowed at all depending on the crowd. So please do understand them. Serving a crowd on the sales day is not-at-all an easy task. There is no dress code for this sales and no entrance fee as well. Some people had complained about the entrance fees Swee Lee had imposed during some sales at Katong. It is just a strategy to filter all the window shoppers and thus reducing the crowd. 

I definitely am going there, if they have the stuff I want.

Is this okay?

It's 4:52 AM and I can't sleep. So I decided to do some blogging.

I'm very sure the above statement is very familiar to many of us, especially if we shop 2nd hand stuffs online on forums. You get to see this statement more often nowadays. Some people would conveniently use this term 'lowballer' without even understand what it really means. It means: to bargain extremely lower than that of the retail price or the reasonable price. So if a person is selling a pedal at $100 (when it costs $80 for new) and the buyer bargain it for $70, will you call him a lowballer?

In my opinion, this term is best not used when selling an item. I had never used this term when I'm posting ads in the forums. Reason? The negative connotation of this word is enough to chase people from buying stuffs from you. People may think twice before wanting to deal with you. After all, first impression is very important. Of course, I do get rather excessive (sometimes even absurd) bargains while trying to sell my things. Never would I scold the person off or ignore their SMS when a simple & polite reply could solve all the problems.

Now, I'm not targeting this to any specific people in the forum or anything. I know the frustration of getting 'lowball-ed'. However, why would you want to chase potential buyers away from you? 

Just my personal thoughts...

Pronunciation

A few things I noticed nowadays. Many people have various interesting ways to pronounce names of a guitar.

I see many people calling Squier as 'Squire'. 

Different people pronouncing Ibanez differently. Some pronouce it as Ai-Ben-Nex while some pronounce it as Ee-Ben-Nex (sounds so much like the shop). The worst case I've ever heard is 'Ai-Ban-Ne-Zz'. 

Basswood.. People would conveniently pronounce it as Base-wood. The correct pronunciation would be Bas-Wood, rhyming with words like 'has'. I myself used to have this problem.

Another mistake of mine. I used to call Strymon pedals as sty-ra-mon (like how you would pronounce Poke'Mon). I just realised that it's pronounced as Sty-mon (rhyming the 'mon' of the word demon).

One of my schoolmate couldn't pronounce Seymour Duncan. I'm not being mean but it's 'entertaining' to make him pronounce that. Thus, he simply calls it SD. 

DiMarzio is another one. Some pronounce it as Di-Marzio while some would simply make it D-Marzio. I once know a guy who ended up calling it D-Mario. 

Well, I'm not saying you MUST pronounce them correctly. It is just fun to listen to people calling them in different names. :)

SOLD: Behringer VT911 Vintage Tube Overdrive

SOLD my Behringer VT911 Vintage  Tube Overdrive. This is a classic vacuum tube overdrive and as its name suggests, there is really a 12AX7 tube in it. 

• Condition: 9/10. No scratches or no paint chips. It is also working perfectly fine. 
• Comes with box as shown above
• Do not run on battery. Comes with its own 9V adapter. You can also use other alternative 9V power supply.

Sold at 7:10pm, 31/07/2011

It is a nice tube overdrive. However, I do not ulitise it to its fullest. So it would be better off with someone else. Plus, I'm investing on something else. 

Selling: a few stock pickups

I've got a set of pickups for sale. They are the stock pickups for 2008 Epiphone Les Paul Standard Top Plus.

I don't own any Epiphone Les Paul. So this is definitely not mine. Please contact Z @ 83998341.

• Still available: Fernandes FGZ-400 (MIJ) stock bridge pickup. Contact me for this at 84050766

SOLD: Vox V847 Wah

SOLD my Vox V847 Wah.


This V847 is the one with the AC power connector. The older ones don't have one. I bought this wah on February this year. I just wanted to know what is so great about a wah and what it does. I keep all my first-hand pedals in perfect condition so this one is no exception.

• Condition: 9/10. Cosmetically fine and it is fuctioning perfectly as well.
• Unmodded
• Comes with a vinyl carrying bag. I often mistaken it for a shoes bag. 
• Velcroed with industrial velcro

Sold at 11:18pm, 30/7/2011

Why am I selling? For the 'greater good'.

Modtone MT-RV Coliseum Reverb in SG!

Modtone MT-RV Coliseum Reverb is finally in Singapore. This is one of the reverb I've been wanting to try out. 

I think MT-RV is the first Modtone pedal with a toggle switch on it. 

It is available at SV. Please contact them for more info or check the SVGuitars website.

Mix-and-Match: My Personal Reflection

Among all the pedals I have, many of them are drive pedals. What's the use of having so many drives? Well, as least I can try to mix and match and experiment what kind of tone is produced.

As seen from above, I've tried to pair the Behringer Vintage Tube OD and Modtone Speedbox. Normally, people use the OD to boost the distortion. I use it otherwise. I tried to boost the tube OD with Speedbox and here is the result.
When played through my Fernandes, it doesn't sound good at all. Too bassy for my liking. So I used my Squier instead. I find that the above combination is a better match for a strat with SSS pickup configuration. The Tube OD sounds much bright and I like the crunchy overdrive from it.
However, there is one more problem. Too much noises are produced when I join them together. This is worsened by the hum of the single coils.

Anyone wants fresh cakes and cookies?

Apart from playing guitar, another thing I enjoy to do is to EAT. Good foods are irresistible. 


I am doing my buddy. He's a good friend of mine who has been introducing me great songs. I'm doing him a favour by helping him advertise this. Now, I am not a Malay or a Muslim but I still enjoy good food. =D 
Anyway, if anyone needs to order some cakes and/or cookies for Hari Raya Puasa.

2011 LIST OF COOKIES & TARTS QUANTITY / SIZE PRICE PINEAPPLE TARTS 1 BTL +50 pcs SGD 15 2 BTL +100 pcs SGD 27 SUJI CHEESE 1 BTL +50 pcs SGD 15 2 BTL +100 pcs SGD 26 MOCHA HAZELNUT COOKIES 1 BTL +50 pcs SGD 15 2 BTL +100 pcs SGD 28 CHEWY CRUNCHY COOKIES 1 BTL +50 pcs SGD 15 2 BTL +100 pcs SGD 26 CORNFLAKES ALMOND ROCHER 1 BTL +50 pcs SGD 15 2 BTL +100 pcs SGD 26 WHITE CORNFLAKES MACAROON 1 BTL +50 pcs SGD 15 2 BTL +100 pcs SGD 26 CHEESY CHEESE COOKIES 1 BTL +50 pcs SGD 15 2 BTL +100 pcs SGD 26 CASHEWNUT COOKIES 1 BTL +50 pcs SGD 15 2 BTL +100 pcs SGD 26 HONEY BELINJAU FLAKES 1 BTL +50 pcs SGD 15 2 BTL +100 pcs SGD 26 CEMPEDAK COOKIES 1 BTL +50 pcs SGD 15 2 BTL +100 pcs SGD 26 RASPBERRY COOKIES 1 BTL +50 pcs SGD 15 2 BTL +100 pcs SGD 26 ALMOND SNOW COOKIES 1 BTL +50 pcs SGD 15 2 BTL +100 pcs SGD 26 GOLDEN HONEY CORNFLAKES 1 BTL +50 pcs SGD 15 2 BTL +100 pcs SGD 26 2011 LIST OF CAKES QUANTITY / SIZE PRICE CHOCOLATE ROSE FONDE (plain) 1 box of 50 pcs 10"x10" SGD 15 CHOCOLATE ROSE FONDE (nutella) 1 box of 50 pcs 10"x10" SGD 17 MARBLE NUTELLA CAKE 10" x 10" SGD 25 KEK KUKUS BUAH (steam fruit cake) with wallnut 10" x 10" SGD 45 LAYERED CAKES - LAPIS PRUNE 9" x 9" (abt 1.8-2kg) SGD 45 LAYERED CAKES - LAPIS MASAM MANIS (GAMBIH / HAW FLAKES) 9" x 9" (abt 1.8-2kg) SGD 42 LAYERED CAKES - LAPIS REMPAH (ORIGINAL) 9" x 9" (abt 1.8-2kg) SGD 42 SWISS ROLL - NUTELLA 1 ROLL SGD 7 4 ROLLS SGD 26 SWISS ROLL - LEMPOK DURIAN 1 ROLL SGD 7 4 ROLLS SGD 26 SWISS ROLL - RASPBERRY JAM 1 ROLL SGD 6 4 ROLLS SGD 22

You can also order all these for other events such as Birthday and so on. If anyone of you want something that is not in the list, my friend here might be able to source it for you!
A few things to take note:

• mixture of swiss roll will be counted as individual pricing
• for orders of SGD100 and above, home delivery is provided
• for orders of less than above, meeting point will be informed

Call/SMS to order:

• Azhar - 81142890
• Suhaila - 81102436 / 97742794

Homecoming

I am supposed to update this 3-4 days (or even 5) ago but I just couldn't find the time. Well, anyway I've got my Squier back, safe and sound.

I may have mentioned this before but mounted on my Squier is a set of Tesla Plasma-1. They are not a high-output pickups. It is not very twangy (as some single coils does), which is a factor I like about it.

Action is set to low as you can see from the picture below. The setup is made for gauge-9. The set of strings used is an Ernie Ball coated Slinky. It is a nice set of strings which I would say is 'bend-friendly'.

Previously, I mentioned about fret buzz. It is due to the unleveled 12th fret. It was higher than the rest so it needed to be re-leveled. Mike did a great job on that.

Lastly, you can now find a Tesla Vibration Damper between the tuners and the nut on the headstock. Did I buy it? No. Tesla Vibration Damper is FREE whenever you purchase Tesla Pickups (regardless of humbuckers or single coils). If you can't find one in your box of Tesla, it is probably the old batch of Tesla.