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.