Trade made, Ibanez no. 2 comes home

The new Ibanez RG3EXFM1.

Last weekend, I finally got around to taking a trip to Guitar Center to see about trading in my Les Paul Junior Lite for a new Ibanez. Well, as you can tell from the title and the picture on the right, the trade was a go and the new guitar came home with me.

My original goal was to come out of there with a guitar, a case, and a strap. Luckily I was able to do that, but not without a little help from some dead presidents.

You see, it was President's Day weekend here in the good ol' U.S. of A. which means, in the proper American tradition, that retailers everywhere held sales and specials in order to separate the masses from their hard-earned cash. Guitar Center was no exception, and fortunately for me, the very guitar I wanted was on sale for the ridiculous price of $279, a whole $70 off regular price.

It's fortunate because I ended up not getting as much as I'd originally hoped for my Gibson. Originally I thought I could get about $500 for it, but I noticed right away when I was cleaning it up for the trade that it had a lot of dings and scratches on it. I knew I probably wouldn't get what I thought, and I was right - they offered me $390 for it. Now normally I might not have went for the trade, but because of the serious sale, I pulled the trigger and was able to get the guitar, a hard case and a strap, plus about $24 in my pocket. Nice.

The two Ibani.

So I've been playing it a lot since then and I have to admit it's probably the best guitar I've ever played. Even though it's almost identical to my other Ibanez, there are two major differences - first, it has a hardtail, which I like better, and second, it has different pickups. Instead of the HSH setup on Triumph, it has an HH setup with Ibanez' V7 and V8 pickups. These are the same pickups that were in the purple Ibanez I played last year and they sounded as good as I remembered. The V stands for "Vintage" and they are voiced much more like a vintage PAF but with a little more power. Suffice it to say, I like them much better than the INF pickups that Triumph has.

I haven't named this guitar yet, but it has quickly become my desert island guitar - the one guitar I'd pick if I were stranded on a desert island. If I were to have a signature Ibanez, this would be it. I can easily say it was the best trade I've ever made.

And yes, I picked the transparent black one. It looked so much better in person than on Guitar Center's Web site.

Some practice videos

I've had some spare time this week so I've been making practice videos. I made three, each one with a different guitar. The first one is me playing Jacob's Ladder by Rush with my Ibanez, the second one is me playing Pigeon Camera by The Tragically Hip with my Strat, and the last one is me playing The Trees by Rush on my DGW Contender. Enjoy!

Recording again!

Those of you who've been reading this blog from its inception know that it's about guitars and recording, not just guitars. Well, after a flurry of early experiments, I stopped trying to record and focused on guitar, mostly buying new ones.

I recently found myself with some unexpected time off, so I decided to finally try some serious recording. I turned my PC into a dual-boot XP-Ubuntu machine a while ago and installed all the Ubuntu Studio audio packages but I never had a chance to try it out. Until now.

I've mentioned this before, but I'm a fan of Rob Chapman a.k.a. Rob Chappers a.k.a. The Monkey Lord on YouTube and I became a member of his forum to help design his latest guitar. Apparently, the members of this forum have occasional collaborations and I just happened to notice their latest one, so I wanted to try to record something. I downloaded the backing track - a simple blues progression in E - and got to work trying to figure out Ardour.

My recording rig was slightly comical. I didn't want to plug directly into the computer, but I needed a way to get the sound into Ardour. So I used the microphone I got with Rock Band. Yes, you heard me, I used a Rock Band microphone. It's USB, so it worked just fine with the computer. One thing about Ardour (and Linux in general) is that it's open source, so there's a wealth of information on how to use it. I Googled "ardour usb microphone" and got my setup instructions immediately.

With the microphone set up, I got to work recording. I already have some experience with Jack, the audio connection system, and Patchage, the excellent graphical connection manager, so setting that up wasn't bad. After fumbling around with Ardour I managed to get the backing track imported and I rattled off about eight or nine solos. I also managed to figure out how to export just the tracks I wanted into WAV files, although I still don't know how to export as MP3s, so I brought the WAV into Audacity to convert it to an MP3.

I ended up with one that I thought was pretty good so I submitted it for the collaboration. It was done on my Strat through the neck pickup with the volume on 10 and tone on about 6 and a half, then through my DigiTech RP90 on a custom preset based on a Marshal JCM800, then through my Line 6 Spider III 15 as an amp only - I had it on the clean channel with a flat EQ - then through the Rock Band microphone and into Ardour.

Here it is, I hope you like it. I know it's not perfect (I messed up in a few places) but I think it's pretty good for my first attempt. Enjoy!

Decision made

In my last post regarding Les Pauls and how they don't fit me, I ended with a question as to what to do with the one I have, my Les Paul Junior Special. It's a fantastic instrument, but it's not one that I see myself playing much if at all in the future. I've had it for a while, though - over 12 years - so parting with it won't be as easy as it was when I traded my Telecaster for my new Ibanez.

But, after careful deliberation and discussion with my wife, I've decided that I'm going to do it. I'm going to bring it to Guitar Center and trade it for the guitar I really want, a hardtail Ibanez RG. Or at least I'm going to try. I see no reason why I shouldn't get as much as I got for my Tele, if not more. It's a genuine, made-in-USA Gibson, and a rare one at that. They were only made for a few years - based on my research, they were made between 1998 and 2002 - and very few of them were black. Most of the ones I've seen on the 'Net in pictures or for sale are either cherry or natural. But, if they don't give me enough for the guitar, I'll bring the Gibson back home with me, no harm, no foul. I think it'll work, though. If I get what I got for my Tele, I may even have enough for a case.

Another bonus, too, is that I don't have to shop for a guitar. I know exactly what I want, and according to their Web site, they have some in stock. I want a hardtail version of my Ibanez, and I found almost exactly that - the RG3EXFM1. There are only two minor dissimilarities - it's a flamed maple top, not quilted like mine, and it doesn't have the center single coil pickup. Actually, though, I prefer the H-H setup anyway, so that's a bonus in my eyes. The only thing I have to choose is the color. They have two colors available - blackberry, the same color as mine, and transparent gray burst. The only decision I have to make is what color to get. If they only have one left in stock, well, that decision is made, but if not, whatever one looks best in person is the one that comes home with me.

They're both nice colors, though, so I'd be happy with either one. Don't take my word for it - see for yourself:

So you see, either way I win. I'll let you know if it works out. I hope it does, because I really want another Ibanez. They've become my favorite guitars. If I were a professional, I'd try to get an Ibanez endorsement contract. Really. I like them that much.

Wish me luck!