Just a quick post today. I wanted to add another guitar to the ever-lengthening short list - an Ibanez JS100 Joe Satriani model (the cheaper one). Yeah, I know they cost $800 new, but the local Music Go Round (OK, the closest one, which is an hour and a half drive away) has two of them for $399.
I love them because not only are they Satch's own guitars, but they're like a new classic guitar. Imagine being able to go to a car dealer now and pick up a brand-new 1984 Corvette and you get the idea (had to stick with an 80s reference on that one). It's basically an old Ibanez Radius with different pickups, so it has an old body style and an old neck profile, and because of that it looks anachronistically cool.
Of course, these being used guitars opens up another colossal can of worms - do I pay $400 for a new Indonesian or Chinese guitar, or do I pay $400 for a used Japanese guitar? For the record, the JS100 is made in Indonesia, but look how much it costs new. I'm already enjoying the fruits of used guitar buying, having bought my Telecaster for almost half of what it cost new.
Too many choices. I know what'll probably happen - I'll have too many choices and end up getting nothing. I don't think I'd mind that outcome too much.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Save my Strat
Ever since I dialed in my Telecaster, it has become my go-to guitar. I love the way it plays, I love the way it looks and, most importantly, I love the way it sounds. I love the dual humbuckers. I love their power, their depth and their texture. Dual-pickup guitars are also easy - two pickups, one three-way switch, no fuss. I wish all my guitars had this setup.
This is all well and good, but what about my Stratocaster? It means that it spends a lot of its time in its case. I love my Strat. It's the best playing guitar I own, including the Tele. It's just that whenever I take it out and plug it in, I don't like the way it sounds. I miss the Telecaster's twin humbucker power. So the Strat goes back in its case and I go back to the Tele.
I don't want this to happen. The Strat has been my main guitar up until the point when I finally got the setup right on the Tele. This is the same conundrum I face in the potential purchase of another guitar - I don't want to not play any of my guitars, and adding another one to the mix will mean another guitar in the rotation. But what if the guitar isn't even in the rotation? I have a similar problem with my Hondo - I like the way it sounds, even with the cheap pickups in the HSS pickguard, but I hate how easily it goes out of tune and I'm out of patience with non-locking tremolos.
So what's a guy to do? I need to save my Strat from being relegated to occasional player status. I have a few options.
I could take the pickguard off my Hondo and put it on the Strat. I thought about this before, but this is the most serious thought I've given it in a while. This is by far the cheapest option. It's essentially free. All I need to do is borrow a soldering iron or, even better, pick up one from Home Depot or similar store (they're cheap), remove both pickguards, and install the Hondo's on the Strat. This does lead to two problems - first, although I like the humbucker in the Hondo, I don't much care for the single coils, and second, the Hondo will go back to being a useless hunk of wood. The Fender's pickguard won't fit without some filing of the neck pocket and I don't have the tools to do that. Another cheap tool - this time a file - is all I'd need, but it's more work and it means the Hondo has almost no saving grace. It will have pickups I don't like and a tremolo I don't like.
I could go back to GuitarFetish.com and buy another cheap prewired pickguard. For the price, they're pretty good. As I said, I like the Hondo's humbucker, and the singles, while not the best, are definitely passable at this price range. Ideally I'd like to get a dual humbucker pickguard, but I'd have to take the guitar to Spotlight Music for installation because the Strat is routed for an HSS setup and I'd need to get the neck pickup rout widened. All of this means more money.
I could spend a little more and get the Carvin HSS pickguard I mentioned in another post. While pricier, it won't require a re-rout and the singles should be much higher quality than the stock Mexican ceramic pickups on the Strat. But it still means money.
So do I go the free route, or wait until I can do one of the other options? I'm getting impatient, so we'll see what happens.
This is all well and good, but what about my Stratocaster? It means that it spends a lot of its time in its case. I love my Strat. It's the best playing guitar I own, including the Tele. It's just that whenever I take it out and plug it in, I don't like the way it sounds. I miss the Telecaster's twin humbucker power. So the Strat goes back in its case and I go back to the Tele.
I don't want this to happen. The Strat has been my main guitar up until the point when I finally got the setup right on the Tele. This is the same conundrum I face in the potential purchase of another guitar - I don't want to not play any of my guitars, and adding another one to the mix will mean another guitar in the rotation. But what if the guitar isn't even in the rotation? I have a similar problem with my Hondo - I like the way it sounds, even with the cheap pickups in the HSS pickguard, but I hate how easily it goes out of tune and I'm out of patience with non-locking tremolos.
So what's a guy to do? I need to save my Strat from being relegated to occasional player status. I have a few options.
I could take the pickguard off my Hondo and put it on the Strat. I thought about this before, but this is the most serious thought I've given it in a while. This is by far the cheapest option. It's essentially free. All I need to do is borrow a soldering iron or, even better, pick up one from Home Depot or similar store (they're cheap), remove both pickguards, and install the Hondo's on the Strat. This does lead to two problems - first, although I like the humbucker in the Hondo, I don't much care for the single coils, and second, the Hondo will go back to being a useless hunk of wood. The Fender's pickguard won't fit without some filing of the neck pocket and I don't have the tools to do that. Another cheap tool - this time a file - is all I'd need, but it's more work and it means the Hondo has almost no saving grace. It will have pickups I don't like and a tremolo I don't like.
I could go back to GuitarFetish.com and buy another cheap prewired pickguard. For the price, they're pretty good. As I said, I like the Hondo's humbucker, and the singles, while not the best, are definitely passable at this price range. Ideally I'd like to get a dual humbucker pickguard, but I'd have to take the guitar to Spotlight Music for installation because the Strat is routed for an HSS setup and I'd need to get the neck pickup rout widened. All of this means more money.
I could spend a little more and get the Carvin HSS pickguard I mentioned in another post. While pricier, it won't require a re-rout and the singles should be much higher quality than the stock Mexican ceramic pickups on the Strat. But it still means money.
So do I go the free route, or wait until I can do one of the other options? I'm getting impatient, so we'll see what happens.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Albums that shaped my guitar playing
I was on Facebook the other day when I noticed one of my "friends" posted a list of albums for no particular reason - it was like "15 albums in 15 minutes" or some crap like that. It got me thinking, though of the albums that have shaped my taste in music and, by extension, my guitar playing.
I could easily list the top ten or so albums I'm listening to right now, but that wouldn't be the point. A list like that would tell me where I am now. I'm more interested in how I got there. The list below should answer that question. Now, not all these albums will be good. Some may be downright embarrassing. I'll go back as far as I can, at least until the first time I actually noticed guitar playing in songs and realized I needed to play. Here they are, in chronological order, at least in chronological order of their appearance in my life.
I could easily list the top ten or so albums I'm listening to right now, but that wouldn't be the point. A list like that would tell me where I am now. I'm more interested in how I got there. The list below should answer that question. Now, not all these albums will be good. Some may be downright embarrassing. I'll go back as far as I can, at least until the first time I actually noticed guitar playing in songs and realized I needed to play. Here they are, in chronological order, at least in chronological order of their appearance in my life.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Buying new vs. updating old
I've been talking a lot about my short list that I will use to make my next guitar purchase decision, but I had a thought. Why not take that $400 and instead put it toward updating my Strat and LP Special?
So here's a quick list of updates and their costs, and then I'll go back to my needs and see how the upgrades fair.
For the Strat:
1. A good tremolo - I always considered getting a Super Vee locking tremolo for my Strat, but a quick visit to their site (I haven't been there for a while) revealed that they have a new non-locking tremolo called the BladeRunner. Even though the Super Vee is designed to be non-destructive and easy to install, the BladeRunner is even less destructive and easier to install. I know I won't have the locking nut, but the BladeRunner should hold tune pretty well. Cost: $150 (including shipping).
2. New pickups -The pickups in my Strat are OK, but after playing my Tele for a while, I really see where they're lacking. I'd like to keep the Stratty tones of the single coils, but I need a bridge humbucker. The HSS prewired pickguard I put in my Hondo is average, but I want something good in my Strat. Enter the Carvin AG2K Assembled Pickguard. For $129 plus shipping, I get a drop-in replacement pickguard loaded with a humbucker and two single coils, a master volume, a master tone, and a mini toggle switch to coil split the humbucker. Epic win.
For the LP Special:
1. New pickups - I could probably get a set of mini humbuckers that would fit in the P100 holes, but why not get some good P90s? Seymour Duncan makes a P90 pickup called the Hot Soapbar for both bridge and neck positions. They may not be humbuckers, but they're just as powerful, and since they're Seymour Duncans, you know they'll sound good with minimal hum. They're a bit expensive, though, at $75.95 each from Guitar Center, and I'll probably have to send it to Spotlight Music to get them installed, so we're talking $151.90 for the pickups (shipping is free) plus an estimate of $50 to get them installed for a total of $201.90. Expensive, but probably worth it.
So for a total of $480.90 plus whatever Carvin charges for shipping, I can upgrade two of my guitars for a little more than my $400 budget, but how do the upgrades fare on the needs list? Let's see, shall we?
1. 24 fret guitar - Both fail. Having a 24 fret guitar isn't a necessity, but it will limit some of the songs I can play. Of course, writing my own stuff is no problem.
2. LP style guitar with dual humbuckers - While this need is technically not filled, the Hot Soapbars are close enough to powerful humbuckers as to make little difference, so I'll call this need filled.
3. Reliable tremolo - Maybe I'm making a mistake saving $100 and going with the non-locking tremolo, but usually a good non-locking tremolo will stay in tune. PRS guitars are known for excellent tuning stability - hell, Alex Lifeson uses and abuses them with no obvious issues. I saw a few demo videos of the BladeRunner and I'm convinced it will solve my tuning problems, so I call this need filled.
4. Shredder neck - Another fail. Still, this is another need that is less of a priority, so I should be able to live without it.
So for about the same budget, I can upgrade two guitars, fulfill two of my needs, and not have to buy another instrument. One thing that concerns me about buying another guitar is the fact that I have difficulty playing all my guitars the way it is. Once I get the new one, which one will I stop playing? I don't want to stop playing any of my guitars. Having another guitar would be nice, but maybe this makes more sense. Plus, I can do it a little at a time if I have to.
This decision is getting more convoluted every day.
So here's a quick list of updates and their costs, and then I'll go back to my needs and see how the upgrades fair.
For the Strat:
1. A good tremolo - I always considered getting a Super Vee locking tremolo for my Strat, but a quick visit to their site (I haven't been there for a while) revealed that they have a new non-locking tremolo called the BladeRunner. Even though the Super Vee is designed to be non-destructive and easy to install, the BladeRunner is even less destructive and easier to install. I know I won't have the locking nut, but the BladeRunner should hold tune pretty well. Cost: $150 (including shipping).
2. New pickups -The pickups in my Strat are OK, but after playing my Tele for a while, I really see where they're lacking. I'd like to keep the Stratty tones of the single coils, but I need a bridge humbucker. The HSS prewired pickguard I put in my Hondo is average, but I want something good in my Strat. Enter the Carvin AG2K Assembled Pickguard. For $129 plus shipping, I get a drop-in replacement pickguard loaded with a humbucker and two single coils, a master volume, a master tone, and a mini toggle switch to coil split the humbucker. Epic win.
For the LP Special:
1. New pickups - I could probably get a set of mini humbuckers that would fit in the P100 holes, but why not get some good P90s? Seymour Duncan makes a P90 pickup called the Hot Soapbar for both bridge and neck positions. They may not be humbuckers, but they're just as powerful, and since they're Seymour Duncans, you know they'll sound good with minimal hum. They're a bit expensive, though, at $75.95 each from Guitar Center, and I'll probably have to send it to Spotlight Music to get them installed, so we're talking $151.90 for the pickups (shipping is free) plus an estimate of $50 to get them installed for a total of $201.90. Expensive, but probably worth it.
So for a total of $480.90 plus whatever Carvin charges for shipping, I can upgrade two of my guitars for a little more than my $400 budget, but how do the upgrades fare on the needs list? Let's see, shall we?
1. 24 fret guitar - Both fail. Having a 24 fret guitar isn't a necessity, but it will limit some of the songs I can play. Of course, writing my own stuff is no problem.
2. LP style guitar with dual humbuckers - While this need is technically not filled, the Hot Soapbars are close enough to powerful humbuckers as to make little difference, so I'll call this need filled.
3. Reliable tremolo - Maybe I'm making a mistake saving $100 and going with the non-locking tremolo, but usually a good non-locking tremolo will stay in tune. PRS guitars are known for excellent tuning stability - hell, Alex Lifeson uses and abuses them with no obvious issues. I saw a few demo videos of the BladeRunner and I'm convinced it will solve my tuning problems, so I call this need filled.
4. Shredder neck - Another fail. Still, this is another need that is less of a priority, so I should be able to live without it.
So for about the same budget, I can upgrade two guitars, fulfill two of my needs, and not have to buy another instrument. One thing that concerns me about buying another guitar is the fact that I have difficulty playing all my guitars the way it is. Once I get the new one, which one will I stop playing? I don't want to stop playing any of my guitars. Having another guitar would be nice, but maybe this makes more sense. Plus, I can do it a little at a time if I have to.
This decision is getting more convoluted every day.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Refining the short list: wants vs. needs
There are a lot of guitars I'd like to have. In fact, I would be more than happy with any guitar on my short list. More than one of them would be even better. Hell, I'll just take one of each.
Excuse me for a moment while I collect myself. OK, that's better.
Where was I? Oh yeah, guitars. Bottom line is, I want a lot of guitars for one reason or another. If I had unlimited disposable income, I wouldn't have to worry about a list and I'd get any guitar I wanted. But life isn't that way, and I'm glad it's not. Buying a guitar is fun and exciting, but after the initial high wears off, you end up with a lot of guitars that you don't really play. It ends up being nothing more than runaway consumerism. What a guitarist really needs is a handful of guitars that suit specific purposes and, combined, gives that player the ability to play pretty much anything they want.
I have most of that. I think one more guitar will round out my collection nicely (and officially give me a handful) and will probably make a great 40th birthday present, as that's when I'm most likely to get one. So the real question is not what do I want, but what do I need? What gaps are there in my current gear that a new guitar will need to fill? What gaps do I want filled?
With these questions in mind, I created the following list of four things I don't have in my guitar rig. I'll also point out which guitars fill those holes and maybe even add some new ones to the list.
Excuse me for a moment while I collect myself. OK, that's better.
Where was I? Oh yeah, guitars. Bottom line is, I want a lot of guitars for one reason or another. If I had unlimited disposable income, I wouldn't have to worry about a list and I'd get any guitar I wanted. But life isn't that way, and I'm glad it's not. Buying a guitar is fun and exciting, but after the initial high wears off, you end up with a lot of guitars that you don't really play. It ends up being nothing more than runaway consumerism. What a guitarist really needs is a handful of guitars that suit specific purposes and, combined, gives that player the ability to play pretty much anything they want.
I have most of that. I think one more guitar will round out my collection nicely (and officially give me a handful) and will probably make a great 40th birthday present, as that's when I'm most likely to get one. So the real question is not what do I want, but what do I need? What gaps are there in my current gear that a new guitar will need to fill? What gaps do I want filled?
With these questions in mind, I created the following list of four things I don't have in my guitar rig. I'll also point out which guitars fill those holes and maybe even add some new ones to the list.
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