The Guitar Column

Ordering A Tokai SG118 From Ishibashi's U-Box

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 17:36:00 +0000

I've always said that to call oneself a serious electric guitar player one had to own the Big 5 of guitars, namely a Stratocaster, a Telecaster, a Les Paul, an ES335 and an SG.

And owning a Gibson SG has been on my wishlist for a number of years now. As a teen who listened to Cream with Eric Clapton, my ideal SG had to be a '61-style with the small pickguard instead of the larger 'bat wing' version. Maybe I saw too many of those with rusting screws given the owners' penchant for sweating like Angus Young while banging out Back In Black in front of their bedroom mirrors. You know who you are..

In all seriousness, I've always felt that in the case of the bat wing, where the pickups are mounted directly to the plastic pickguard, the tone of the instrument is softened and tamed down somewhat. The whole guitar just seems to resonate differently.

For maximum wail you need the pickups on mounting rings. There's an immediacy to the response with the pickups mounted Les Paul-style, standing tall and proud. Although Angus sounds absolutely fine with either configuration.

Shot Down In Flames

I had actually ordered a '61 Reissue Gibson SG from Ishibashi back in 2017. Having paid in full I was informed that since the guitar had rosewood as one of its wood components there was a need to obtain a certificate stating that the rosewood was harvested pre-2017 when CITES was enforced. Utter madness if you ask me.

Imagine making it compulsory for musicians to apply for CITES permits, a process that took months, just because of a skinny slab of rosewood for the fingerboard or else they wouldn't be able to travel with their instruments. Thank goodness common sense prevailed -- eventually -- and the restriction on musical instruments was lifted in 2019.

And that SG? I never saw it.

According to Ishibashi they could not prove with certainty that the guitar had been made before 1st January 2017, the cutoff CITES date for export certificate approval. And never mind that this was a 2011 model. Apparently Gibson's serial numbering system and date stamp on the back of the headstock holds no weight with Japan's CITES office.

Anyway, all was good, I got my refund and I put it down to experience despite the 2-month wait.

Since 2017, Ishibashi's used prices of '61 Reissue Gibson SG's have risen dramatically to regular Les Paul Standard levels. Any notion of having an SG to round off that part of the collection seemed to fade -- as I distracted myself with other guitars. Until the other day.

Shot In The Dark

Browsing Ishibashi's U-Box I came across this rather mint looking Tokai SG118 from 2006. Having purchased a Tokai LS173 gold-top Les Paul copy a while back and being thoroughly impressed with the workmanship and faithfulness to the original Gibson specs I decided to spring for the Tokai SG. And it was just a little more than a third of the price of a new Gibson '61 Reissue SG.

Doing a little research, I found that Tokai derived it's model numbers from the prevailing Japanese yen price of that instrument at the time it was manufactured. The Tokai SG118 would therefore have retailed for ¥118,000 in 2006. The same guitar with the same specs today is listed as the SG124 due to its current price.

Imagine if Gibson had adopted this scheme for its ES175 or ES335 guitars. What an interestingly phenomenal mess it would have been.

Shoot To Thrill

The Tokai SG118 is part of their Japanese-made Vintage series and features the following specifications:

One-piece mahogany set-neck with 18 degree headstock angle
Rosewood fingerboard
Two-piece African mahogany body
Tokai PAF vintage-voiced Mk II humbuckers
Kluson-style tuners with green tulip buttons
Tune-o-matic bridge and stopbar tailpiece

Big Gun

The guitar was well-packed and shipped in Ishibashi's new carton with guitar graphic which basically made the contents known to postal workers to Handle With Care. At any rate it's always a bit of a crap shoot shipping guitars by regular mail.

The guitar arrived with strings slack -- always a good idea when shipping or travelling with a guitar -- in a decent quality non-original soft case. And of course I had to do the obligatory taps on the back of the neck to check for a rattling truss rod which could indicate a break. There was a rattle but I traced it to the front pickup being adjusted a little too low and there not being enough torque on the pickup mounting springs. A little quarter turn of those flathead screws, just like how you would find on an actual vintage SG from the '60s, fixed the rattle.

Ishibashi inspects, sets up and does a string change for every guitar that ships out from their U-Box, and this one played like butter when I tuned it up. The neck relief was set up just how I like it -- almost straight -- although I will admit to lowering the action just a tad at the bridge. The intonation was dialed in perfectly.

True to '61 specs, the necks on the Vintage series Tokai SGs are a little on the chunkier side and the frets are medium low. There are no fret nibs on the 118 and the frets extend to the end of the fingerboard. Fret nibs on the binding are reserved for Tokai's Premium series guitars. One niggle I have with mid-priced Japanese guitars though are their glaringly white acrylic inlays. This one is no exception. Again, like fret nibs, the yellowed acrylic inlays are found on the higher end instruments such as the Tokai LS173.

For Those About To Rock

So what is it about SG-style guitars that makes them unique. For one, the thin slab of mahogany that makes up the body has a lot to do with its tone. There's an organic quality to the sound as the wood vibrates a lot more than, say a Les Paul with a certain spank and 'wiry-ness' that translate into a petulant snarl when plugged into an overdriven amp. Want to sound like an absolute vandal on guitar? The SG is it.

Ordering a Zemaitis A24SU White Pearl Diamond from Ikebe-Gakki Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 15:50:00 +0000

Browsing Ikebe-Gakki's site the other day, I happened to pull up a search for Zemaitis guitars and came across this particularly spectacular piece. And as luck would have it, Ikebe-Gakki just happened to be having a closeout sale on Zemaitis Series 2 guitars to make way for the forthcoming Series 3's.

I knew I just had to pull the trigger on this one.

Ikebe-Gakki's email response time has always been quick and efficient and I was able to confirm my order the following day.

And so began the anxious wait.

Most Japanese online guitar shops ship by EMS, the very reliable Japanese postal service. It's SingPost in Singapore that has always caused me some concern which you can read about extensively on my Tokai LS173 article.

With the tracking number provided, the guitar shipped out via EMS Japan last Friday January 31st, and arrived in Singapore on Sunday night, February 2nd. Determined not to miss the postman this time around and face having to deal with the SingPost office yet again, I took a day's leave from work in anticipation of its delivery on Tuesday 4th February.

But it was not to be.

To top it off, the automated reply to a call to SingPost on Wednesday startlingly said that an attempted delivery was made on 4th February! I immediately searched for an attempted delivery slip but it was nowhere to be found, not under my door or in the mailbox. "More SingPost shenanigans!", I thought to myself.

I was about to trek down to the post office and bang on a few tables (just kidding!) when I told myself, "Relax, it's only a guitar".

I decided to call the SingPost hotline to reach out to an actual human being on the status of the shipment. After being put on hold accompanied by some jarring, slightly distorted piano music I was politely informed that the package was in the queue for delivery the following day.

I was now even more determined not to miss the delivery, so I put up a sign on my gate, indicating my phone number. The package was delivered at precisely 9am by a very cheery postman who called me on my mobile number when he was at my front door.

Wait a minute Mr Postman..

In all, the guitar was with SingPost from Sunday February 2nd til the morning of February 6th -- four working days. Not too bad SingPost, not too bad.

And just like my previous order from Ikebe-Gakki, the guitar came very well packed, literally a box within another box, containing the guitar in its hardcase.

Ikebe-Gakki outer carton box

Inlays for Days

The first all-white Zemaitis guitar debuted at NAMM 2015. Part of the Japanese-made Zemaitis Superior series, this model featured abalone inlays encircling the rim of the guitar body but didn't yet include the large abalone diamond inlays next to the tailpiece.

Sheer wow factor and bling!

And it was all that abalone that initially caught my eye. On close inspection, I could see every little square inlay was separate and individually inlaid by hand. A CNC machine can cut the slots for the inlays, but there are some things that machines can't do just yet.

Stunning inlay work

The Zemaitis A24SU Superior White Pearl Diamond features:

A mahogany top with abalone inlays
African mahogany neck and body
Set-neck construction
42.5mm nut width
Rosewood fingerboard with 24 medium frets
Bone nut
25" scale length
Dragon Classic pickups
Duralumin bridge, tailpiece, pickup mounting rings and control knobs
Gotoh SG381 1:16 ratio tuners
12 1/32" fingerboard radius
Les Paul-style controls with two volume and two tone controls with 3-way selector switch
Polyurethane finish

What Is African Mahogany?

Traditional mahogany from Honduras is known for its strength and beauty and is still the wood of choice for guitar building. Old growth Honduran mahogany stockpiles have long since dwindled and have become exceedingly expensive. Almost all the Honduran mahogany available these days is new growth from plantations but still commands top dollar. Naturally, alternatives to Honduran mahogany were sought out, one of which was Khaya from West Africa, one of five known species of mahogany.

On a solidbody instrument, African mahogany is as resonant and lightweight as its Honduran counterpart.

Zemaitis A24SU in plush hardcase

Zemaitis Set-Neck Construction

Upon examing the neck joint, the first thing I noticed was the unique neck pocket design, true to the original guitars built by Tony Zemaitis. The body is routed at the neck joint to form a pocket which encloses the neck heel on three sides when it is inserted and glued. Instead of a Les Paul-type tenon joint, the entire width of the neck heel fits into the pocket forming a very solid connection. I noticed a similar neck pocket design on my Aria Pro II Cardinal, albeit in a bolt-on configuration.

Zemaitis unique neck pocket joint

Fingerboard and Frets

The A24SU comes with 24 immaculately dressed and polished medium frets on a 12" radius rosewood fingerboard. Attention to detail here is extraordinarily high for what is still basically a production instrument. The crowns of each fret are perfectly rounded with no sign of levelling -- flattened crowns are a sure sign of cost-cutting -- and the fret ends are nicely chamfered for a perfectly smooth feel up and down the edge of the fingerboard.

Impeccably polished medium frets

And thank goodness for the lifting of the CITES control of import and export of musical instruments with rosewood in November 2019. Having to get CITES certification for every guitar with a rosewood fingerboard was ridiculous from the get-go.

One little niggle I have is that I wish they hadn't used the cheap white plastic pearloid inlays for the fingerboard. Real mother-of-pearl would have added to the overall look and stun factor and frankly it's not expensive. The Generation 1 Zemaitis guitars built by Greco, from what I've seen, had genuine MOP inlays.

12th fret inlay

But I'm glad that Zemaitis Japan considered going with a 42.5mm width bone nut for the Superior series instead of plastic. One interesting fact is that many of the hand-built original Zemaitis guitars had very narrow nut widths in the region of 37.5mm.

Zemaitis headstock logo and engraved trussrod cover

25" Scale Length

Somewhere between the Fender's scale length of 25 1/2" and Gibson's 24 3/4" is what I've long thought to be the domain of Paul Reed Smith at 25". As it turns out, Tony Zemaitis was using a 25" scale on his guitars since 1957!

A 25" scale length on a mahogany body, in my opinion, yields more resonance and a different feel to the instrument overall. Coupled with the scale length, the lack of a maple top on the Zemaitis A24SU also makes the body resonate more freely -- you feel the vibration very distinctly under your fretting hand when you strum an open chord.

Here's an earlier article on scale lengths that may be of interest.

Duralumin Bridge, Tailpiece and Pickup Mounting Rings

One distinct feature of Zemaitis guitars is their art-deco style bridge and tailpiece design. Tony Zemaitis used to fashion his bridges by hand out of aluminum billets and the originals had an abundance of tooling marks, imperfections and a definite homemade quality.

Zemaitis Japan has chosen to go with Duralumin, a hard aircraft aluminum alloy for all their bridges, tailpieces, mounting rings, control knobs and, depending on the model, the metal tops. Exceptionally detailed acid-etched engravings on the tailpiece, pickup mounting rings and headstock badge and truss-rod cover raise the bling factor of the Zemaitis A24SU by a factor of 100. At least.

Dragon Classic pickups with engraved mounting rings

The original Zemaitis design bridge is wide and rounded and very comfortable for the picking hand to rest on when playing. On close inspection you'll notice the string saddles to be larger than usual and there are slots on the back of the bridge where the strings can pass through to the tailpiece. The tailpiece is bolted flush to the body and the slots on the bridge are so that the strings contact only the saddles and not the edge of the bridge. It's an extremely well thought-out design, both in function and aesthetics.

Zemaitis Duralumin Bridge and Tailpiece

Dragon Classic Pickups and Electronics

The proprietary Dragon Classic pickups are modelled after the old vintage Gibson PAF humbuckers. Not particularly high in output, they are warm but with a smooth top-end that cuts through nicely, especially on the bridge pickup. Overdriven tones are very reminiscent of a vintage Les Paul with that elusive crying overtone. With the amp set to clean, the neck pickup yields an almost acoustic tone, but that is definitely also due to the combination of the guitar's construction, aluminum bridge and tailpiece, and all-mahogany body.

I also like that Zemaitis has chosen to steel-wool the chrome pickup covers, dulling the shine down a bit to more closely resemble the rest of the hardware.

Under the hood

The Zemaitis AS24SU Superior White Pearl comes in a faux suede, dark 'British green' plush hardcase.

A hardshell case befitting a Zemaitis guitar

Read about my earlier Ikebe-Gakki order:

EVH Striped Series Guitar Review

DIY Stevie Ray Vaughan Strat Build | Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 19:06:00 +0000

In Part 1 of our DIY Stevie Ray Vaughan strat build series, we detailed budding blues guitarist Shuen's choice of a quartersawn flamed maple guitar neck. After the first few coats of nitrocellulose lacquer were applied, the gorgeous figure of the flamed maple is finally starting to really show through.

Nitrocellulose lacquer takes several days to dry between coats, and longer if humidity is high. While she waits for the neck to receive its final coats of lacquer, she could now turn her attention towards purchasing a guitar body.

Your (SRV) Body Is A Wonderland

I don't know if she was being serious but Shuen initially indicated to me that she wanted to go with a cheap Squier body. Which went against the grain -- pun intended -- of her original intent of getting the best possible after-market parts for her DIY SRV strat build. My reaction to that of course was why would she want to couple a beautiful 450 dollar quartersawn flamed maple neck with a glued-together-from-5-or-more-pieces-of-wood, el cheapo Squire Statocaster body?

No offence meant to any Squire guitar owners out there. Your guitars rock. But only if it was made in Japan in the 1980s.

After trawling eBay for a good fifteen minutes in between sets at my regular Saturday night gig, I suggested that she look into getting an actual Fender Stevie Ray Vaughan signature model guitar body . EBay seller The Stratosphere had a few nice ones on sale, loaded with Stevie Ray-approved lefty gold Fender bridge, neckplate, neck screws and backplate. After a few messages back and forth the next day, we both agreed on the one that had the nicest wood grain of the four, made from two pieces of alder and joined right down the middle.

Fender Stevie Ray Vaughan body in 3-tone 'burst

The good thing about guitars with finishes like the Fender 3-tone sunburst is that the grain of the wood is plainly visible and for this reason, guitar companies also typically save their better-looking woods for their guitars with transparent finishes. No ugly knots or unsightly grain -- those are reserved for solid colors.

Dig that mellow 3-tone sunburst!

Ebay seller The Stratosphere has an interesting business model. They seem to routinely take apart various models of Fender guitars -- even the Custom Shop ones -- and list the necks, bodies and hardware separately. Perhaps they move stock more quickly this way, rather than selling complete guitars.

Wherefore Art Thou UPS?

The Stratosphere shipped the SRV body via UPS.

Now I don't know about the quality of service of UPS anywhere else in the world, but the service of their Singapore division leaves much to be desired. They seem to require more than one delivery attempt, which makes me wonder if the first delivery attempt was even made at all.

Case in point, my own recent experience with UPS prompted me to advise Shuen to leave a clear notice outside her office door. In spite of the sign, she received an SMS message from UPS that a delivery was attempted but was unsuccessful since no one was there to sign off on the package. And since they had her cellphone number which was stated clearly on her door sign and the package, they could at least have called when attempting to deliver.

Shenanigans.

The now famous UPS sign that UPS missed

At any rate, after a phone call to UPS customer service in which she made her dissatisfaction clear, she received the package with the SRV body the next day. The phrase 'Hell hath no fury..' comes to mind.

Pickup The Pieces

Shuen and I entered into a heated debate on the merits of purchasing a loaded pickguard versus obtaining the pickups, potentiometers, capacitor and 5-way switch separately and doing the soldering of the electronics ourselves. And by 'ourselves' I meant bringing it to a professional who could do it properly.

Loaded pickguards, on the other hand, are off-the-shelf units that come complete with pickups and soldered electronics. The only soldering that needs to be done is the connection of the ground wire and the output jack. She decided, wisely I think, to go the loaded pickguard route.

After another round of debates about pickup choices -- this one more testy than the first -- Shuen decided that the Fender Custom 69 pickups were the most pleasing to her musical sensibilities. And lo and behold, there was another seller on eBay, Twilight Guitars, offering a loaded pickguard with this very pickup configuration.

Tortoiseshell pickguard loaded with Fender Custom 69 pickups

On her initial enquiry email, I suggested that she ask if they could do a simple wiring modification where the second tone knob controlled the bridge pickup. The conventional 3-knob Stratocaster wiring is master volume and two tone controls, one for the neck pickup and one for the middle.

The shrill beast that is the bridge pickup is untamed by the tone controls and, in the wrong hands, has been known to blow audience's minds but not in a good way. She checked with the seller and they replied that they already include this mod as a standard feature on all their loaded pickguards. Awesome.

Loaded pickguard wired by Twilight Guitars

Shuen chose a tortoiseshell pickguard and white parchment pickup covers, knobs and switch tip which look stunning against the sunburst of the SRV body. Yep, it's all coming together very nicely.

(Photo credits: Shuen Ong)

Stay tuned for Part 3 of Shuen's DIY Stevie Ray Vaughan Strat Build!

DIY Stevie Ray Vaughan Strat Build | Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 19:38:00 +0000

A good buddy of mine, Shuen, recently mentioned that she wanted to put together a Stevie Ray Vaughan-style strat from after market parts. A capable guitarist steeped in the Texas blues tradition, she wanted to know what the best options were as far as neck and body woods, neck profiles, pickups, electronics and hardware.

Having gone this route very recently with my Warmoth/MJT strat-style partscaster (an article on which will appear very soon), I felt I could give her the benefit of my experience as far as some of the potential pitfalls of assembling a DIY guitar. As well as the frustration she might encounter with a certain well-known courier company. But more on that later.

My first reaction when Shuen told me that she wanted to get the best parts for her DIY build was why not just buy a regular Fender Stevie Ray Vaughan signature model Stratocaster. After all they were pretty common on the used market for 500 to 800 bucks below retail.

Wring That (Guitar) Neck

Her response was an expletive-fueled rant about the shape and feel of the SRV necks from Fender.

When the dust had settled and I had stopped blushing, I gathered that the stock SRV necks were too big and chunky for her relatively small hands. And the glossy polyurethane finishes on them were something she just couldn't jive with.

Fair enough.

I tried to steer her towards ordering a Warmoth roasted maple neck with stainless steel frets which I felt would give the best bang for her bucks.

My own experience with Warmoth necks is that they require minimal fret dressing since their frets are already so meticulously installed and level. And she could choose the neck profile that best suited her, out of dozens of neck shapes. Roasted maple necks also do not require a hard finish, a plus since she liked the feel of raw wood so much, and the stainless steel frets were likely to last for a couple of decades before they were even worn enough to require a fret dress.

And it's a heck of a lot more fun wringing that neck for those huge Albert King bends on slippery smooth stainless steel frets, let me tell ya...

But of course, off she went shopping to Singapore's guitar haven, Peninsula Shopping Centre, in search of a new neck.

What she purchased wasn't half bad, although pricey at 450 bucks. It wouldn't have been my personal choice but she chose a quartersawn flamed maple neck, with a rosewood fingerboard and medium jumbo frets. Quartersawn flamed maple is one of those rare wood types that one doesn't see very often, hence its higher price tag.

Regular flame and quilt maple is commonly derived from flatsawn wood, so to see a combination of flame maple on quartersawn is only less rare than finding a pearl in a dinner plate of oysters, as far as guitar necks go. Even Warmoth charges a premium for it.

But most importantly though, she felt the neck profile fit her hand perfectly.

What every girl wants - a nice dark rosewood fingerboard with medium jumbo frets

I recommended that she go with a gloss nitrocellulose finish for the headstock but a matte nitro finish for the back of the neck since she was averse to the sticky, tacky feel of a gloss finish. Nitro finishes I feel, allow for maximum resonance and are not as thick as polyurethane finishes which basically encapsulate the wood in a layer of plastic polymer.

What every girl needs - a quartersawn flamed maple neck

And as luck would have it, the same shop she bought the neck from also offered guitar finishing services in nitrocellulose. Nitro, I might add, is one of those hazardous materials that require a spray booth, full protective gear and a respirator mask when being applied.

But about a week after sending in the neck for finishing, Shuen suddenly remembered that the edges around the headstock felt sharp to the touch -- a testimony to the accuracy of CNC machining technology, no doubt. Unlike polyurethane which covers quite thickly, the nitro finish would only yield a finished sharp edge. She called the store only to be told that they had already sprayed the initial coat. They didn't mind sanding over the sharp edges on the headstock but informed her that it would add another two weeks to the finishing process.

Nitro tint comparison with a vintage Stratocaster

The pictures of the partially finished neck they sent over as a teaser are nothing short of stunning! Nothing like glossy nitrocellulose lacquer to bring out the natural beauty of wood.

Highly figured quartersawn flamed maple!

(Photo credits: Shuen Ong)

Stay tuned for Part 2 and Part 3 of Shuen's DIY Stevie Ray Vaughan Strat Build

Ordering A Kiesel Vader V6X | Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 19:48:00 +0000

It's been a long 4 months since I put in my order for my Kiesel Vader V6X, but it's finally here. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but the 4 months far exceeded Kiesel's stipulated 9 to 10 week build time.

"This is the droid you've been searching for", quipped a buddy of mine, given that it's the week of the opening of Star Wars 'The Last Jedi'.

Vader V6X

I'm a pretty patient guy. I put in my confirmed order on August 10th but when November rolled around with absolutely no updates from Kiesel, I shot my sales representative an email on the 5th.

And guess what? No reply.

Another email on the 20th November and a Facebook message to another Kiesel rep, Chris Hong, finally got me a rough estimate on the completion date -- December 4th. Chris, I should mention has been stellar in bridging my email communications. My very first email enquiry went unanswered for two weeks until I contacted Chris.

Sorry Kiesel, you guys make great guitars but I'm just telling it like it is.

Interestingly, the build tag attached to the shipping carton states that the build for my Vader V6X started only on November 6th, a day after my email. The build tag accompanies every Kiesel guitar through each stage of construction from the very beginning. The build tag for my Vader also states 'Rush', which makes me think they might have overlooked my order. It also didn't help that a buddy of mine who had put in his Vader order a few days after mine received his guitar in October!

But it's always exciting to see one's long-awaited guitar appear on the Kiesel Facebook page. In that one fleeting instance, everything is forgiven.

The guitar arrived well-packed in the cardboard carton, softcase snug within. Kiesel ships exclusively via FedEx, so you can be pretty assured of reasonably careful handling and fast shipping. And did I mention that the flat rate of $27 that Kiesel charges applies to shipping anywhere within the US as well as anywhere else in the world? Pretty amazing, and kudos to Kiesel for that. I hope that doesn't change anytime soon.

Amazingly, upon my initial inspection, the guitar was actually in tune when I took it out of the softcase with the exception of the low E which had flattened just a tad. A testament to the headless design no doubt.

Vader V6X in White/White

My Vader V6X came with a clean, flatsawn maple neck with no unsightly mineral marks -- those random brown streaks you sometimes see, even on high-end custom shop guitars. There was even a tiny bit of flame in the maple at the 6th fret. But that's wood for you -- we can never guess how it'll turn out after it's cut into shape, unless we have the luxury of handpicking the piece ourselves.

Vader V6X maple neck and mahogany wings

The fingerboard is made of a nice slab of ebony with meticulously inlaid jumbo stainless steel frets which are immaculately well-dressed and polished with smooth fret ends. The neck was set up with virtually no relief, which usually means buzzes at the first couple of frets, particularly on the low E string. Not so in this case. Kiesel obviously has certain construction methods in place that allow for extremely close tolerances. And with not a single Plek machine in sight. That, or whoever did the fret dressing on this Vader is a genius.

Vader V6X ebony fingerboard and stainless steel frets

The dual-action truss rod coupled with Kiesel's twin carbon fiber rods that run alongside make for a very stable neck. I've always felt that carbon fiber reinforced necks actually make the guitar sustain and ring a little better, making every note on the fingerboard sound absolutely even. Truss rod access, if the neck ever needs to be adjusted, is conveniently located at the top of the neck behind the nut.

And those absolutely sublime abalone inlays! Where does Kiesel get stuff of this quality from?

While browsing the Vader guitar galleries on the Kiesel site I noticed that the abalone inlays looked consistently amazing. I had to go for block inlays for maximum bling since the rest of the guitar is pretty plain. And I certainly wasn't disappointed. The blue, green and pink swirls are among the very best I've seen.

Vader V6X abalone inlays

And if you need help seeing the side dot position markers on dark stages, Kiesel's standard Luminlay dot markers glow very distinctly in low light.

When I ordered this guitar with stainless steel jumbo frets and super-flat 20" radius, I thought it would take some getting used to. But surprisingly the flat profile is super comfortable.

I prefer .009 to .042 strings for 25-1/2" scale Fender-style guitars and .010 to .046 for 24-3/4' Gibson scale. I figured that the slick stainless steel frets would enable me to bend strings effortlessly on the 25-1/2" scale Vader. The stainless steel frets coupled with the flat 20" radius makes for a string bender's dream. And given how long wearing stainless steel is, this guitar will never need a refret. Ever.

Vader V6X 20" fingerboard radius

On one of Kiesel's Q and A videos, someone once asked Jeff Kiesel what experience would be required to join the company as an employee building guitars. Surprisingly, Jeff said he would prefer someone with no experience in lutherie at all. In this way they can be trained according to Kiesel's methods without any interference of bias or opinion that an experienced luthier would have. If this guitar is any indicator of that philosophy, then it definitely works.

This Vader V6X is a pretty simple build. I didn't want any kind of wood top glued to the body as I felt it would interfere with how the guitar resonated, particularly with a small-bodied instrument like this one. I also chose mahogany for the body wings, as mentioned in my previous article, as I wanted to take advantage of Kiesel's supply of Honduran mahogany. And I'm happy I did.

Vader V6X Honduran mahogany body wings

The quality of the wood is outstanding, literally orange with straight close grain. I could be wrong, but I can't detect any resonance-dampening wood filler on the mahogany through the clear gloss finish. And this guitar resonates loudly unplugged!

But because I chose to go for no top and a clear gloss back -- one of Kiesel's Option 50s, which is any specially requested feature not listed in the online Guitar Builder -- the guitar becomes non-returnable. Which was fine by me. The clear gloss back and sides also allowed the beautiful mahogany to show at the bevels at the front.

The Vader V6X comes standard with a master volume and master tone and a 5-way selector switch. I chose the standard Lithium pickups although I was seriously considering the Holdsworths. The Holdsworth pickups were, oddly enough, not wax potted which to me meant greater potential for microphonic squeals at high volumes. I can't substantiate this as I've never tried them.

The Lithium pickups supercede the old Carvin M22 pickups that were introduced in 1978. The M22s were designed by Jeff Kiesel's father, but the company has decided that the Lithiums are good enough for the M22s to be phased out entirely.

The Lithiums strike me as a very versatile pickup, with an almost chameleonic nature. Depending on one's amp rig, pedals, and playing style, they cover everything from heavy metal, classic rock, stinging blues, to clean jazz with ease. One thing I noticed when researching the Lithiums by watching the many pickup demos on YouTube was how good the split-coil positions were. At my usual Monday night blues-rock gig I was able to coax credible single-coil SRV-type tones with the pickup selector switch in positions 2 and 4.

Vader V6X 5-way pickup selector, volume and tone controls

According to the Kiesel site, when Allan Holdsworth was invited to test out the Hipshot/Kiesel tremolo bridge, he liked it so much that he asked the new bridge to be a standard feature on the Kiesel Holdsworth models. The Hipshot/Kiesel bridge is extremely responsive and sensitive. On my Vader, the trem effortlessly pulls up four frets to the note B on the G string and drops the strings absolutely slack on divebombs.

Vader V6X Kiesel/Hipshot tremolo system

String changes look simple enough -- something I haven't attempted yet -- although a Vader owner buddy of mine did warn me about over-tightening the Allen screws that hold the strings at the nut. He broke two brand new high E strings from torquing the screw too tightly.

Vader V6X Kiesel/Hipshot tremolo system fine tuners

(All photos courtesy of Jeffrey Toh. Thanks Jeff!)

Overall, I'm very pleased with how this Vader V6X build turned out. The workmanship is truly impeccable and there is definitely a strong 'wow' factor the first time you open the case. Kiesel offers a 10-day return policy on all their non-Option 50 guitars and you can tell that they want to take your breath away at first sight of your new guitar.

But Kiesel could improve on their email communications and follow-up on reasonable enquiries such as, "It's been 4 months since I placed my order. Any idea when my guitar will be ready?" But we can't be absolutely perfect in everything can we?

www.kieselguitars.com

Ordering A Kiesel Vader V6X

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 20:22:00 +0000

Took the plunge yesterday and put down a deposit for a Kiesel Vader V6X.

Do I really need another guitar? Nope.

But do I need a headless guitar? Most definitely!

Before I get too excited, let me backtrack just a little bit.

I'm not sure why, but there was a spate of orders of Kiesel guitars by a few of my guitar playing friends recently. And everyone who bought one was raving about their build-quality, stunning wood tops, and all-round great tones and playability.

I'm quite familar with the Carvin brand, now known as Kiesel, having pored over their advertisements in Guitar Player magazine back in the 80's where the ad copy guaranteed the action at the twelfth fret be 1/16th of an inch! Not too shabby, especially for a time when most guitars seemed to ship set up for slide playing.

I made several pilgrimages to Sunset Boulevard and the now-defunct Carvin store in the early 2000's. On my first visit, I remember trying out the very first few Allan Holdsworth models to be produced, marveling at how the Wilkinson tremolos were so well adjusted that they seemed to flutter unfettered for several seconds when you flicked the trem bar.

And all this recent hubbub about Kiesel had me revisiting their website again after quite a number of years. It was nice to see Kiesel still producing the good old Carvin staples like the DC, Holdsworth and Bolt series, along with a bunch of new models I was completely unfamiliar with.

But I must admit, one glance at the new Kiesel Vader immediately drew me in with its sleek profile and delicious curves. And all for a ridiculously low base price of $1199 for the 6-string model.

Essentially a neck-through instrument with body wings, the Vader is available in a myriad of wood and finish options. 'Myriad', in this case, is an understatement -- the options available are staggering.

Did I mention that the Vader is also available in 7 and 8 string versions, in regular and fanned-fret 'multiscale' configurations? So if you're the OCD type and prone to option anxiety, it's best to browse the cool Guitar Builder tool with the supervision of another adult.

Ah, that Guitar Builder tool. What a slippery slope it is.

Kiesel Vader Guitar Builder -- hours of fun

After a couple of hours with Guitar Builder I actually hit the checkout button all set to pay for the Vader V6X. But when I clicked for shipping options, only a $27 Ground Shipping option was available. So off went that first email to Kiesel.

Strangely, I didn't hear back from them for almost two weeks. In the meantime, a near mint 2011 '61 Reissue Gibson SG floated past on Ishibashi's U-Box which I pulled the trigger on. But that's a story for another article.

When I did hear back from Keith at Kiesel, he informed me that the $27 covered shipping by FedEx Air to Singapore. Which is an amazingly good deal!

So off I went to the races again with the Guitar Builder tool, trying to envision in my mind what the different wood and finish options would not only look good together, but work well sonically, while keeping within a budget of around $1500.

Here's what my initial specifications looked like:

Kiesel Vader V6X with Hipshot/Tremolo System

Maple Neck/Alder Body
Clear Gloss Finish
White/White
Clear Gloss Finish Back Of Neck
Rear Body/Neck Natural Clear
Birdseye Maple Fingerboard
Staggered Offset Dot Inlays
Abalone Inlay Material
Stainless Steel Jumbo Frets .055"H .110"W
20 Inch Fretboard Radius
Kiesel K12B Passive Bridge Pickup
Kiesel K12N Passive Neck Pickup
White Coils With Black Bezels
Black Hardware
Black Logo
Metal Knobs With Abalone Inlays
Dunlop Straplocks
Black Ultimate Soft Guitar Case

Browsing the web further, I came across a white Vader with a beautiful Kiesel-treated, baked maple fingerboard that showed off the grain of the birdseye very impressively. Jeff Kiesel apparently hand finishes each Kiesel-treated fingerboard personally, with, some say, an upgrade from a special wood stash with extra grain and figure. Beautiful indeed. Unfortunately the baked maple and Kiesel treatment would have put me over budget.

It'll have to wait for my next build...

Instead, I decided that I was going to bling out the fretboard with nice blocks of abalone on a birdseye maple fingerboard. But I had a feeling that the blue-green of the abalone wouldn't stand out as well on pale maple. At any rate, I already have several several guitars with maple fingerboards and only two guitars with ebony fretboards -- a Gibson ES347 and my trusty Ibanez Pat Metheny PM100. So ebony it was going to be, to contrast against and really make those abalone block markers pop!

After a couple of days of sleeping on it, I came up with these fresh specs which I emailed to Keith at Kiesel:

Kiesel Vader V6X with Hipshot/Tremolo System

Maple Neck/Mahogany Body
Clear Gloss Finish
White/White
Clear Gloss Finish Back Of Neck
Rear Body/Neck Natural Clear
Ebony Fingerboard
Block Inlays
Abalone Inlay Material
Stainless Steel Jumbo Frets .055"H .110"W
20 Inch Fretboard Radius
Kiesel K12B Passive Bridge Pickup
Kiesel K12N Passive Neck Pickup
White Coils With Black Bezels
Black Hardware
Black Logo
Metal Knobs With Abalone Inlays
Dunlop Straplocks
Black Ultimate Soft Guitar Case

Kiesel's mahogany stock is of the Honduran variety, close-grained and with a beautiful reddish-brown hue. I figured it would be a shame not to take advantage of this option -- it would look really good in contrast with the neck-through maple neck, visible on the back of the Vader which will be finished in clear gloss.

Maple and ebony are both really tight sounding woods so I'm hoping the mahogany body wings will temper the brightness a little.

This will also be my first guitar with a very flat 20" fingerboard radius. Definitely Holdsworth-approved.

The stainless steel jumbo frets are also a first for me but I've always been fascinated by how smooth and slick stainless steel feels -- .010 to .046 string gauges play almost like a .009 to .042 set in terms of bendability. And the fact that fretwear over time will be next to imperceptible is a huge plus. The guitar will likely not need to be refretted -- ever.

Browsing the Kiesel Vader V6X picture library, I couldn't find another guitar with the exact same specs as what I have in mind so I cobbled up this picture composite -- just to have something to look at before the real thing comes in in a couple of months.

Kiesel Vader V6X

Larry Coryell | Memorable Quotes

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 00:06:00 +0000

This article is dedicated to Larry Coryell who left us on February 19th 2017 at age 73. Thank you for the inspiration and the music, Sir.

On composing and improvisation: "We felt that we had to build the structure and then do the freedom within the structure, and if the structure was strong enough, the freedom within the structure would give us enough freedom to do what we wanted."

"I tried to change my philosophy and to make music first. But I know that very often I will fall back into 'guitaristics' and techniques, and I accept that."

"It's really hard to do an imitation of a Charlie Parker solo, but by the same token, it's not that easy to do an imitation of Eric Clapton when he was on the Bluesbreakers trip."

Larry Coryell (pic source: Wikipedia)

On studying Wes Montgomery's solos: "I would listen to Wes Montgomery and not have any idea how he did it. Not the technique but just the mind. Not because I wanted to play like Wes, because that would be like asking a Ford to be a Rolls Royce."

"I would go out with the boys in the old days and laugh at Paul Desmond, just because I wanted to go along with my peer group, and now I really listen to him, and he can make me cry."

"Jazz goes beyond music -- it's enlightenment. Enlightened to those things which cannot be seen or felt. Rather than, 'Oh man, I boogied all night, and I threw up and had a great time getting loaded."

"There's a big difference between performing and creating, and I feel the really great jazz performers, even though as a sidelight they may be entertaining, feel it their duty to create."

"That was what made Cream so great, they were considered a pop rock group but they were creators. When Cream came on, Eric Clapton never repeated himself, Jack Bruce never repeated himself, and Ginger Baker had to get some repetition going. But they were all creators."

"You can get down there and play four-four, but if you're not cooking, you're not creating."

"I think people are looking for enlightenment, not escape. And I think that enlightenment is just one degree beyond that musical escape that really gripped our musical fabric."

"That was Elvin Jones' philosophy, "You go up there and play like it's the last time you're ever going to play." If there's one person in the club, he'll be up there playing up a storm."

"I've just been lucky enough to be around musicians who have given me the knowledge that I've gleaned from them. It lets me know who I am, and who I'm not."

On great musicians: "I think what they are projecting is the music which comes out of the cosmos and out of the earth, and they just allow themselves to be an antennae. All this music is in the earth, in the sky, and it comes through some people, their bodies, their hands, and their instruments, and what comes out is pure music."

On the ego: "Needless to say you've got to have some ego just to check into a motel, but ego is a double-edged sword. You can either fill a house with it or cut yourself."

"When I'm improvising I'm not conscious of anything I do, but when I'm practicing it's all mind. When I practice I'm all mind and when I'm improvising I'm all heart. I try to turn the mind off."

"You have to practice to use your mind in the woodshed in order to free your mind when you're up there onstage."

"Music is everybody's property."

"My calling on this planet is to be a searcher, in search of something new. But I won't be disappointed if on the day I die I don't find it -- at least I'll be searching."

Les Paul Junior Kit Build

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 19:05:00 +0000

Our guitar wiring expert friend, Arnold, has always been a fan of Les Paul Juniors. And while browsing the net recently, he came across a seller offering a double cutaway Junior-style neck and body for a little over 300 bucks.

Taking the plunge, the beautiful raw wood kit that arrived featured an Indian rosewood fingerboard, mahogany neck, and a one piece mahogany body. Our luthier buddy, Luca Quacquarella, was tasked with assembly, painting and final setup.

Raw mahogany neck and body

Arnold chose to not have the mounting stud holes for the bridge drilled. The kit maker would only provide metric sized screw holes whereas Arnold wanted to use a compensated MojoAxe bridge that came with Imperial sized studs.

Ah, the age old Imperial versus metric quandary.

Some Les Paul Junior History

Originally issued in 1954, the Les Paul Junior was Gibson's foray into the budget and student market. Featuring slab mahogany bodies and very simple electronics in the form of a single P90 bridge pickup and basic volume and tone controls, the Junior eschewed all accoutrements of its more expensive Les Paul solidbody cousins.

No carved maple tops, binding, or fancy inlays for this little guy!

Checking the neck to body fit

While the very first Les Paul Juniors were single cutaway instruments finished in a brown sunburst, Gibson later made available a TV Yellow finish model in 1955. In the days of black and white television, white guitars tended to 'wash out', appearing overly bright on-screen. The TV Yellow finish made the guitar appear a more natural white.

The double cutaway Junior, like Arnold's kit, was released in 1958 in response to player's requests for more access to the upper frets.

Assembly and Paint

A little bit of play was evident in the neck to body joint when the kit arrived -- they could have cut it more precisely for a snug fit.

After gluing the neck to the body, Luca proceeded with applying a light dark stain to bring out the grain of the wood a little more under the final paint. Three coats of nitrocellulose lacquer, closely matching Gibson's original TV Yellow, were then applied, with the paint allowed to dry thoroughly between coats.

Spraying the first coat of TV Yellow

On the black painted headstock face, Arnold chose to go with a smaller, stylized Luca Custom Guitars logo for simplicity.

Luca custom logo and Kluson tuners

Hardware and Electronics

In the spirit of the original Les Paul Juniors, Kluson button vintage-style tuners were chosen, along with a black, single-ply pickguard. Luca also installed a bone nut he cut and polished from scratch.

Next came the tricky task of drilling the screw holes for the bridge studs.

Because the Junior used a simple stopbar tailpiece that functioned as a bridge, the measurement had to be very precise as there are no individual saddle screws for intonation adjustment. The MojoAxe stopbar bridge is compensated for better intonation by way of subtle ridges molded into the top, but its placement is still crucial nonetheless.

Instead of measuring from nut to bridge, Arnold suggested attaching a high E and a low E string to an anchor point on the workbench. Sliding the bridge along the body and checking with a strobe tuner until intonation was achieved, the stud holes were then drilled and the bridge mounted. No room for error here!

Porter P90 hot wound pickup installed

At Luca's suggestion, a hot wound Porter P90 pickup was chosen, with Arnold supplying his own wiring harness for the electronics -- Emerson pots, in values of 500k for the volume control and 250k for the tone, with a .022uF paper-in-oil capacitor. Apparently, pot values of 500k for volume and 250k for tone are the magic numbers for P90 equipped guitars.

Emerson volume and tone pots and paper-in-oil capacitor

Relic'ing

To give it that lived-in, played for decades look, Luca gave the guitar a tasteful relic finish.

Relic'd TV Yellow finish

So many guitar manufacturers these days use templates to map out wear spots and dings on new guitars. It saves a lot of time, but one can't help feeling a little cheated that almost no thought went into relic'ing the instrument. Not to mention that you would have guitars with about the same wear spots in the same places.

Nitrocellulose TV Yellow finish

Luca still does it the old fashioned way -- artistically and with much deliberation for where a guitar might receive its dings, scrapes and wear spots after years of gigging.

And damn, does this thing look like a real Les Paul Junior from the 50's!

Refinishing A PRS Custom 24 Part 2 | The Final Reveal

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Wed, 11 May 2016 20:11:00 +0000

In our last article, Refinishing A PRS Custom 24 Part 1, we detailed the removal of the guitar's cloudy green lacquer and extensive prep work for the big refinish -- entirely in nitrocellulose lacquer -- by luthier Luca Quacquarella.

In my humble opinion, our Italian friend really outdid himself on this particular job.

The following pics were taken by Reggie Tan at Luca's workshop on the day he went to pick up his newly refinished PRS.

As always, click on the pictures to enlarge. Enjoy!

PRS Custom 24 refinished top. This guitar was finished entirely in nitrocellulose

Stunning flame maple top on this PRS Custom 24 Artist model

Artist models like this one also feature choice abalone mother of pearl bird inlays

Another view of the top and 'scraped' maple binding

Inlaid abalone PRS logo and Indian rosewood headstock veneer

Back and neck also refinished in nitrocellulose lacquer

A view of the back of the headstock. Note distinctive quarter sawn grain pattern

PRS's distinctive neck joint

Final view of the top. Note light shading of violet mixed in with blue on the edges

Happy owner, happy luthier! Luca (on the left) with Reggie

Refinishing A PRS Custom 24 | Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Sun, 08 May 2016 21:50:00 +0000

If you read my previous two posts about my good friend Reggie Tan's Music Man Luke guitar, what I didn't mention was that Reggie had also sent in his PRS Custom 24 for a refinish at the same time.

His PRS, built in 2004, had developed a strange cloudiness in the finish and the turquoise was slowly fading from the original blue to a faded green for some reason.

PRS Custom 24 in 2008 before the finish started to cloud

PRS uses both acrylic urethane and polyester in their guitar finishes, laying down the poly basecoat before spraying it over with the acrylic. The acrylic urethane is supposed to give the guitar the look and feel of nitrocellulose, without having to deal with the labor intensive application of nitro in a factory setting.

I strongly suspect that PRS's layering of the two kinds of finishes -- combined with Singapore's crazy humidity -- caused the finish to go cloudy over time. And unlike Reggie's Music Man Luke where the finish was literally flaking and falling off the body like potato chips, I have seen quite a number of PRS guitars with cloudy finishes.

PRS Custom 24 before refinishing. Note cloudy, green finish

When Reggie mentioned he wanted to get his Music Man Luke refinished, I recommended Luca Quacquarella.

Reggie wasn't familiar with Luca's work but meeting our Italian friend and seeing the quality of some of his other refinishing projects convinced Reggie enough to entrust both his Music Man Luke and his PRS to him.

Finish clouding is apparent. Could it be humidity?

I remember that Luca's initial reaction to being asked to refinish the PRS was one trepidation.

He explained that with the guitar's carved top and tough polyester finish, it would take considerable time to strip the guitar down to bare wood. He also mentioned that he couldn't be certain if he could strip off the original turquoise stain entirely -- too much wood would need to be shaved off. Wood stain goes deep into the pores of the wood and now the turquoise had turned a sickly shade of green! To be fair, he asked for a couple of days to consider taking on the project.

Reggie had a specific finish in mind -- a transparent light blue stain to show off the flame maple in the center and a darker shade of blue on the outer edges, sprayed in a sunburst fashion.

Needless to say, Luca had his work cut out for him, if he agreed to take on the project.

The Big Refinish

The first major task was stripping the poly finish off the body's top and back, the headstock, as well as the back of the neck.

There was some discussion about just refinishing the guitar's top only. But given that the finish was also starting to get cloudy on the back, neck and headstock, a complete refinish of the entire guitar was decided.

A major overhaul.

Even the clear finish on the neck and back weren't spared

Luca spent the most time sanding the finish off the carved top by hand, being careful not to flatten out the original contours. Once the poly finish was completely sanded off, the original turquoise stain was finally visible. Which tells me that the cloudy clear polyester topcoat was yellowing as well, causing the finish to take on the green hue. Yellow and blue equals green.

PRS body stripped revealing turquoise stain underneath

There was still a good amount of the original turquoise stain in the wood after he was done, but rather than try to take off more wood, he decided he would apply a blue stain over it.

Again this was a close judgement call. Too many layers of stain and the top gets too dark.

Beautiful flame soaked up the original turquoise stain

Fortunately, the Custom 24 features an inlaid Paul Reed Smith logo in beautiful abalone on the headstock which meant one less thing to worry about. The headstock could just be stripped and clear coated, unlike the Music Man Luke where the logo had to be painstakingly recreated.

Stripped PRS headstock with inlaid Paul Reed Smith logo

After a couple of coats of stain, the guitar was allowed to dry thoroughly before applying pale blue clear lacquer. Luca is old school and very much a traditionalist when it come to guitar finishes.

He prefers to work with nitrocellulose instead of polyurethane, even though nitro is far more tedious to apply, requiring multiple coats with ample drying time and a thorough wet sanding between coats.

All nitrocellulose finish. Shades of things to come!

(Photo credits: Luca Quacquarella and Reggie Tan)

Stay tuned for Part 2 of Refinishing A PRS Custom 24 for a dose of serious guitar eye-candy!

Refinishing A Music Man Luke Part 2 | The Final Reveal

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Wed, 04 May 2016 20:36:00 +0000

In Part One of refinishing this Music Man Luke guitar, we talked about the many stages and the weeks it took to get it to its final state.

Reggie the owner spent many hours with our patient Italian friend, luthier Luca Quacquarella, discussing, poring over and, at times, agonizing about the many small details to get everything just right. It was, without doubt, a labour of love that transformed this guitar from a very sorry state to its current glory.

But enough jibber-jabber.

I am very pleased to present to you, dear reader, the refinished and resurrected Music Man Luke. Click on the pictures to enlarge, and enjoy!

(Photographs courtesy of Reggie Tan. All Rights Reserved)

Seven coats of nitrocellulose lacquer was used to build the finish

Sparkly!

Recreated Ernie Ball Music Man and Luke logo

Another view of the headstock

Recreated 'Made In San Luis Obispo' logo

The back of the neck refinished in clear nitrocellulose

View of the Music Man 5-bolt neck plate and refinished back

Full view of the refinished neck and back

Stainless Allen screws replaced the original rusted saddle screws

Rainbow of pink, green, gold and silver mixed in the metallic purple flake

The metallic purple body against the highly figured maple neck. Stunning!

Full view of the refinished Music Man Luke

Refinishing A Music Man Luke Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Tue, 03 May 2016 23:51:00 +0000

In an earlier article, I mentioned my encounter with a Music Man Luke and its unusual flaking finish. The polyester finish -- usually the toughest, most impervious of guitar finishes -- was very mysteriously lifting and peeling away from the body in brittle chunks. A potato chip-sized piece even fell away as I was examining the guitar, landing on the floor with a distinct 'plik'.

This Music Man Luke's original flaking finish.

Our good buddy Reggie, the owner of this guitar, had left it in the care of a repair shop where it languished unattended, for -- get a load of this -- not days, not weeks, but several months! The shop owner claimed that he was 'waiting for the Music Man decal'.

Sure. Waiting for it to materialize out of thin air, maybe. And it didn't occur to him to at least start working on the body? Amazing.

Headstock area where more of the original finish seems to be peeling off

When Reggie told me how long he had been waiting on that guitar, I instantly thought of my luthier friend Luca Quacquarella. Showing him a few pictures of the Les Paul BFG that Luca had refinished for me convinced Reggie that our Italian friend was indeed the man for the job.

Luca had to clear his backlog of repairs before he could start work on the Music Man. But within a week, Reggie sent me this picture.

The Luke stripped down

To Ernie Ball/Music Man's credit, they did choose a pretty clean piece of alder for this guitar. Nicer woods are normally reserved for where the wood grain would be visible, like in clear or sunburst finishes. More gnarly woods are used for opaque colors like the black sparkle finish this guitar came in.

With the body stripped down to the bare wood, the refinishing process could finally start!

Luca recommended going with an all nitrocellulose finish for this guitar. Nitro finishes are much more labour intensive to apply but they allow the guitar to breathe and resonate better than the plastic, polyester finishes. Perhaps not a significant difference tone-wise on a solidbody guitar like this one, but a huge difference when it comes to acoustic and hollowbody instruments.

With a nitrocellulose finish, up to ten coats are needed for a mirror-like shine. Each coat must be allowed to thoroughly dry for a day or two, then wet sanded with very fine grit sandpaper before the next coat.

Many major guitar manufacturers that claim to use nitrocellulose usually mix in a plasticizer to allow for fewer coats to achieve a high gloss finish. Far less labour intensive and they are able to get the guitars out the door more quickly.

Luca started off by spraying a couple of initial coats of white to act as a base coat.

Initial white base coat

Luca has managed to source a local supply of nitrocellulose paints in a stunning variety of colors. Because of current restrictions on importing paints and flammable liquids, a license would be required if he were to order them by mail through companies in the US like Stewmac.com

Metallic purple nitrocellulose paint

After a few tests of the purple lacquer mixed in with different degrees of black tint to decide on the final shade of metallic purple, the next step was choosing the right size of metal flake or paint glitter.

That's right folks, metal flake is available in many colors and in several sizes! Too small, and the effect is too subtle. Too large, and it's Mardi Gras time!

Metallic purple glitter flakes

Decisions, decisions..

After a couple of test runs, Reggie and Luca agreed upon the metal flake size that they felt would work best. And although the jar says 'purple metallic flake', the end result shows a mix of purple, pink, gold and silver flecks. Real nice! But unfortunately something that doesn't show up readily in photos.

And through the entire process, Reggie was not a mere bystander.

Luca has a go-to guy he always uses to make his custom guitar decals. And when the finish was stripped off the headstock, the original Music Man Luke logo on the front and 'Made In San Luis Obispo' lettering on the back, went along with it.

Reggie's challenge was to put his design skills to use to recreate the headstock logo in graphic form. For Luca's decal guy to reproduce it properly, it also needed to be to the exact scale as it would finally appear on the guitar.

Not bad, Reg. Not bad at all. Even Steve Lukather wouldn't be able to tell that this was a reproduction decal.

Music Man Luke decal applied to headstock

And since his guitar was undergoing a major refinish, Reggie decided to also source for a set of stainless steel Allen screws to replace the rusted height adjustment screws of the bridge saddles.

In the process of installing new stainless steel saddle screws

Why on Earth guitar manufacturers would use ordinary metal screws on a part of the guitar that would be constantly exposed to sweat and grime from the player's hand, I could never understand. And on a high-end guitar, no less. Once those suckers rust up, any attempt at adjusting saddle height becomes impossible. And stainless steel screws are cheap too.

Luca's initial plan was to follow the original Music Man style of lacquering the back of headstock up to the first fret, and using a mineral wax composite for the rest of the neck for that bare wood feel. In the end I was quite relieved when he decided to hard lacquer the back of the entire neck. Minimal chance of that thing moving, ever!

He must have heard my protestations and my mentioning playing another Music Man Luke recently where the neck was starting to twist, resulting in several buzzing frets along the treble side only, despite the high action.

It's always a crap shoot when going with an oil finished neck. Especially in Singapore's high humidity and warm weather. Factor in a highly figured maple neck, like what Music Man uses, and the odds of having a warping neck increase several-fold.

Just my humble experience. Your own experience may vary depending on the climate and humidity of your country and the quality of your environment where you store your guitars.

After spraying the white undercoat, Luca next applied several coats of the metallic purple paint, allowing each coat to dry and wet sanding between coats as mentioned. The purpose of wet sanding between coats is to ensure that the finish has no bumps, drips or 'orange peel', a fine dimpled texture as a result of overspray. All imperfections and uneveness must be removed before the next coat is layered otherwise they will all show up in the final finish in all their lumpy glory. Which will look awful on close inspection.

Checking in bright light for spray flaws

The final coat is then polished on a buffing machine to a high gloss lustre.

And in case you're wondering, Luca does all his refinishes in a proper spray booth with a suitably sized exhaust fan. And did I mention his white haz-mat suit, gloves and respirator? Nitrocellulose is highly carcinogenic and is not something you would want to inhale in its liquid form!

Stay tuned for Refinishing A Music Man Luke Part 2 and the final reveal!

Aria Pro II Cardinal Series CS-250 | Vintage Find

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Sun, 01 May 2016 20:41:00 +0000

A few weeks ago my good buddy Eric forwarded a couple pics of this Aria Pro II CS 250 from the early 80's that he happened to see at a local rehearsal studio. My response was the usual "Cool guitar, man. Go for it!".

I forgot all about it until last week when Eric and I met up for lunch and our usual Thursday afternoon jaunt to our favorite local music store. Eric needed to buy a guitar stand and the ones we saw on sale were way overpriced for some reason. Long story short, we ended at up at the same rehearsal studio where Eric had seen the Aria a few weeks before.

The photo Eric sent from the rehearsal studio

I remember the Aria Pro II Cardinal Series as being the most ubiquitous of the budget guitars back in the day. A step below the 'lawsuit' Ibanezes and Grecos that were going for $300 to $350 Singapore dollars, new and used in the late 70's and early 80's, the Aria Pro II CS-250's were about $200 retail.

The price as I recall, matched the model number -- common practice amongst some Japanese guitar manufacturers. In Japan, the CS-250 might have had a suggested retail price of ¥25,000.

Aria Cardinal Series CS-250 in Walnut finish

When Eric sent me the pictures he had taken of this guitar I wasn't overly impressed. But when I actually held it in my hands I realized that it was in amazing condition for a guitar that was made in the early '80s. Other than a small ding on the lower horn and rusty pickup mounting screws, this guitar was in excellent shape. There was hardly any wear on the frets and the headstock was devoid of any dings or chipped paint that are commonly seen on guitars of this age.

Beautifully grained Ash wood veneer over the headstock face

And did I mention that it was just dripping with vibe?

If you read one of my earlier articles, How To Choose A Guitar That's Right For You, I mentioned that if a guitar seems to scream 'take me', then that was the guitar for you. This was indeed one of those rare moments.

And all for $250, including original hardcase!

A Bit Of Aria History

Arai & Co., Inc. was an import company founded by classical guitarist Shiro Arai in the early 50's, In 1956 they began retailing acoustic and classical guitars and in 1964, Arai commissioned Matsumoku, a prominent musical instrument factory, to build acoustic guitars. By 1966 the first Arai, Aria and Diamond electric guitars were born. Arai had decided that Aria would be a more suitable, musical sounding name for the international market.

And target the international guitar market they did, with their budget, bolt-on neck copies of the Gibson Les Paul in 1969. More copies of other Gibson models, along with Fender and Ampeg guitars soon followed.

By the early 70's, American guitar manufacturers had begun to notice the outstanding sales of the Japanese copy guitars and basses, and Cease and Desist letters were sent to US importers of these instruments, hence the term 'lawsuit-era guitars'.

Aria's answer to the ban on the import of their copy guitars were the Aria Pro II models which they built at the Matsumoku factory starting in 1975. Instruments from this period are sometimes referred to as 'Matsumoku Era', since the Matsumoku factory stopped building guitars in 1987.

The CS or Cardinal Series began production in 1981 and comprised of the CS-200, CS-250, CS-300, CS-350, CS-400, CS-Deluxe and CS-Custom models. Only the CS-400 and CS-Custom featured set-in necks, with the other models being bolt-ons.

Aria Pro II CS-250 Features

The Cardinal Series was Aria's attempt at producing an original design after their 'lawsuit' Gibson and Fender copy guitars could no longer be distributed in the US. Since they were up against established American brands, Aria was determined to make their guitars both more affordable and more versatile.

Aria's Accurate Bolt-On System neck joint. Notice 3-piece maple neck

The Cardinal Series' take on Gibson's three-a-side headstock featured a straighter string pull over the nut for better tuning stability while the bolt-on versions featured what Aria proudly proclaimed to be their Accurate Bolt-On System. Aria's bolt-on maple necks sit snugly in a deep neck pocket that held the neck firmly, without any possibility of any side to side movement. With Fender's bolt-on design, a hard bump could instantly misalign the neck in the neck pocket necessitating the loosening of the bolt screws and realigning the neck.

Why Aria never licensed out their Accurate Bolt-On System we'll never know. It surely makes a bolt-on have the tone and sustain of a set neck at least, without losing that snap and bite you can only get with a bolt-on.

Deep pocket neck joint of the Accurate Bolt-On System

Electronically, the CS-250 really excels. The two Protomatic IV humbuckers are wired to coil-tap and phase reversal switches so that the player could get more sounds out of the two humbucking pickups. The coil-tap switch sets both pickups to single coil mode while the phase switch works only when the pickup selector switch is set to the center position, both pickups on. The effect of the phase reversal switch is very subtle but the coil-tap instantly drops the output of the humbuckers and provides a very clean, thinner sound. Not exactly Strat-like by any stretch of the imagination, but handy for funky rhythms and twangy lead lines.

One problem is remembering what these switches do, especially if one hasn't played this guitar in a while!

Coil tap and phase reversal switches on the CS-250

For the bolt-on Cardinal Series, Aria chose to go with 3-piece maple necks, with the center piece set in a reverse grain from the outer two pieces. Other than being a cost cutting measure -- smaller pieces of wood could be glued together and cut -- it also made for a more stable neck than if it were made out of a single piece of maple.

Aria Pro II CS-250 Features List:

Ash body with contoured edges
3-piece maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, 22 frets
630 mm scale length (Gibson scale)
Protomatic IV humbucking pickups with cream/black bobbins
Two volume and two tone controls
Mini toggle switches for coil cut and phase reversal (phase switch only works when both pickups are on)
Through-body strung die-cast bridge
Walnut matte finish (Padouk Red was the other finish option)

Feel-wise, the Aria Pro II CS-250 is a lot like a double cutaway Gibson Les Paul Junior -- small and compact -- although the roar and sustain from the twin humbuckers make it anything but. Those Protomatic IV pickups have some serious output and are one of the loudest pickups I've encountered. The neck pickup was especially loud and tended to overshadow the bridge pickup.

Setting it further away from the strings and bringing the bridge pickup up as close as it would go without touching the strings helped to even them out.

Zebra coils of the Protomatic IV pickups

The neck of this particular guitar is adjusted nearly straight, with minimal neck relief, just how I like it. However, my attempt at turning the truss rod either way to see if it was working proved futile. It was tight as can be and refused to budge out of the position its held for the last 30-something years. Rather than risk breaking anything, I decided to not force it. Leave well enough alone, I always say.

On close examination, I noticed the die-cast, string-through-body bridge had one of the most unusual -- and original -- saddle designs on any guitar I've seen. Rather than the usual, rectangular saddle blocks, the Cardinal Series' taper from the two height adjustment screws to a single 'lug' that attaches to the intonation screws. This design cuts down on the mass of the saddle by about half! Beyond aesthetics, I cannot be certain how this actually affects the tone.

Unusual saddle design on Aria's die-cast bridge

I feel that the CS-250 would benefit from having a set of 009-.042 strings installed, instead of the .010-.046 set I decided on. Beyond the string tension aspect, I think that a set of 9's would show off the tonal variations of the coil tap and phase reversal switches a little better. To my ears, true single coils and coil tapped humbuckers 'sparkle' a little bette with .009 gauge strings.

According to Aria authority site matsumoku.org, the Aria Pro II Cardinal Series was produced from 1981 to 1983, making this guitar at least 33 years old as of this writing!

Prince | Quotes From The Purple One

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Sun, 24 Apr 2016 18:48:00 +0000

This article is dedicated to Prince Rogers Nelson who left us on April 21, 2016, at age 57.

"An idea is still yours even if you give it to someone."

"You have to respect your spiritual base. You have to respect the instrument. The volume and tone of an instrument is so important."

"I'm competitive, and I've definitely let my ego control me. But I've discovered that when it comes to music, ego has to sit down."

"I appreciate the time it took for someone to make an instrument. It doesn't matter if it's a guitar or a synthesizer."

On being an independent artist without a record contract:

"It's simply preposterous to me that someone is going to own your work in perpetuity."

"The benefit of having your artistic freedom is that there won't be anyone forcing you to do a remix or anything else you don't want to do. I don't believe in remixing songs that are in the key of Life."

"Bands break-up over contracts -- just talk to The Eagles about that."

On the recording process:

"I always know what the whole thing is going to sound like. It's all in here (taps his head), but it's in here too (points to recording console).

"(With analog tape) I use punch-ins and spot erasing as a compositional style. I'm quick enough with the Record button that I can shave a letter off a word."

"When I play all the instruments I'm not as greedy. I'm more greedy when we play live."

"Sometimes I use the band to get the rhythm down. In a way, it's more fun to get it out of people."

"A lot of times I'll sample a guitar that I've recorded, and then overdub the same (sampled) part with a keyboard. The attack of the keyboard gives guitar lines more impact and punch."

"Sometimes I record acoustic guitar and vocals live, just sitting here at the console. That's how I recorded Truth."

On the guitar, and sometimes playing all instruments himself:

"I'm always trying to work in the bass notes when I'm playing funk rhythms."

"A lot of cats don't work on their rhythm enough, and if you don't have rhythm, you might as well take up needlepoint or something."

"Pitch -- that's universal. You're either in tune or you ain't."

"Listen to singers for solo ideas -- especially women. Try to play one of the runs that Beyonce or Ella Fitzgerald does and you will surely learn something."

"On some songs, I just like the way I play drums and keys better than anyone I know."

"If you need a path to follow, a good place to start is by listening to Ike Turner, or James Brown, who is all about rhythm."

"God gives you everything, and one of those things is freedom."

Attaching An MXR EVH Phase 90 To A Pedalboard Without Sticky Velcro

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 15:55:00 +0000

If you read one of my earlier posts on attaching pedals to Pedaltrain pedalboards without sticky Velcro, I wrote about using a rather cumbersome method involving non-adhesive Velcro straps and nylon cable tie.

Two cable ties were looped around a pedal, torqued sufficiently, and Velcro straps were threaded through the cable ties from underneath and then tied to individual slats of a Pedaltrain pedalboard.

Did it work?

Sure.

Pedals were held in place securely and the idea proved gig worthy. But I'll be the first to admit it wasn't the most elegant solution. The cable tie was very visible, and there was the possibility of some pedal paint wear with prolonged use. It was also a bit of a hassle to remove a pedal or swap pedals around, not to mention that this method would only work with slatted pedalboards such as the Pedaltrains.

MXR EVH Phase 90

However, astute reader 'REM Tribute Band' certainly came up a much better idea and offered this in the comments section of that earlier blog post:

"I remove the screws from the bottom of the pedal, pierce some holes in some Velcro strips (non-adhesive) and screw them back in so the Velcro is screwed to the bottom of the pedal! Nice and tidy and no glue gunk."

A great idea and one which I've copied and used with great success over the last couple of years. And also something I've been meaning to blog about for some time now.

Baseplate of the MXR EVH Phase 90

So when I got my hands on an MXR EVH Phase 90 today, I figured better late than never.

The MXR EVH Phase 90 features a really cool paint job with the Edward Van Halen-approved black and white stripes against a red background. Even the baseplate of the pedal is painted in the same graphic -- not something you would want to stick patches of adhesive-backed Velcro, leaving gunky residue, or worse peeling off patches of the pedals paint job should you need to remove the Velcro later.

MXR EVH Phase 90 baseplate removed

The Velcro I used was taken off a regular MXR Phase 90 which, when placed before my Dunlop Band of Gypsys FuzzFace has started to sound a little too radical. The EVH Phase 90 is a little less swooshy and more vintage sounding, especially with the Script button engaged, creating a pleasant and not overpowering modulation for single-note lines and riffs.

This is how we do it!

So off went the Velcro from my orange Phase 90.

In the picture above, you can see how grotty the Velcro has become, living under that pedal all this while. And just for illustration purposes, I show how I made the holes with a sharp pointed tool from an old screwdriver set that has been with me since the '70s! Notice also, how I left the plastic backing on the Velcro so as not to expose the adhesive.

After making suitably sized holes in the Velcro, I simply threaded the four screws through and screwed the base plate back on.

Base plate screws threaded through the Velcro

My estimation on the screw distance for one of the Velcro pads was a little off as you can see in the picture, creating a slight crimp in the Velcro. The perfectionist in me wanted to redo that particular strip, but then I realized that I had run out of white Velcro!

Base plate reattached with Velcro in place

In a similar vein to all things Van Halen, check out my earlier review of the EVH Striped Series guitar. We just can't get enough of that black, white and red paint job!

Fender ST72-80SC Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster | Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Tue, 15 Dec 2015 21:32:00 +0000

I mentioned in Part 2 of this series that I wanted to completely rewire my Japanese Fender ST72-80SC Stratocaster from Ishibashi. This guitar is an unofficial Malmsteen model from 1992 or 1993, for sale in the Japanese market-only, so just for kicks, I decided to up the Yngwie pedigree and change the front and bridge pickups to DiMarzio HS3's.

So off I went to Singapore's Haven For All Things Guitar (Peninsula Shopping Centre to you readers from these parts) in search of supplies for the big rewire.

I managed to procure a CRL 5-way switch, two .047 Russian military-grade paper-in-oil capacitors, and of course the two DiMarzio HS3 pickups. In addition, I also bought three Seymour Duncan YJM 250k potetiometers. The pots are made by Bourns and are probably the smoothest, fastest pots you can buy. Great for quick volume swells but one must be careful when using these puppies in a performance setting. It's really easy to accidentally turn a tone pot down to zero.

Duncan YJM volume pots

But why two capacitors you might ask? I wanted to get the guitar wired so that the centre tone knob controlled the neck and middle pickups, while the second tone knob controlled the bridge pickup. That bridge pickup can be a beast sometimes, especially through a bright-sounding amp like a Twin Reverb.

Russian paper-in-oil .047mf caps

The stock Stratocaster wiring never made sense to me. In the stock layout, the first tone pot was wired to the neck pickup while the second tone pot controlled the middle pickup. The bridge pickup, the brightest and potentially most brittle sounding of the the three was tonally always wide open.

I found that I had to constantly compromise on the amp settings when using a stock Strat. When I got the bridge pickup sounding warm and full, the neck pickup sounded muddy. When I dialed in a bright, twangy, ballsy tone on the neck pickup, the bridge pickup became a raging banshee -- absolute shrillsville.

What to do? Take a cue from tone guru Eric Johnson and dedicate the second tone pot to the bridge pickup.

In this very early article, I mentioned how Joe Bonamassa is also a fan of this mod. Although I'm not sure if his suspiciously overly simple description in the video of moving one wire on the 5-way switch to the left (or was that the right) would actually work.

I'll leave wiring my guitars to the pros.

Luckily for me, my go-to guy for guitar electronics, our good buddy and film location sound recordist Arnold San Juan, had just wrapped on a TV series he was working on and was on a two-day break before his next project. Arnold, if you remember, also rewired my Gibson BFG Les Paul, replacing the pots and caps, reconfiguring everything to traditional Les Paul wiring -- killswitch be damned.

After unsoldering the old Gotoh pots from the stock pickups, Arnold proceeded with installing the Duncan YJM pots. As expected, the shafts of the Duncan pots were a tad larger than the Gotohs which meant that the holes in the pickguard had to be enlarged. Good thing there was a circular file lying about.

Unsoldering the Gotoh pots and 5-way switch

After seating the new pots in the pickguard, it was time to break out the DiMarzio HS-3's from their packaging.

Duncan pots installed. Time to unleash the DiMarzios!

The store I bought the HS-3's from only had them in black and white. White would have looked fine, but a single black pickup would really have looked out of place. Fortunately, the store a few doors down had a set of three DiMarzio pickup covers in cream. And they weren't too expensive at 15 bucks.

The original owner of this guitar had replaced the front pickup with a generic Fender single-coil, so rather than buying three HS-3's, I decided to switch this pickup to the centre position, with the two HS-3's bringing up the front and the rear.

Original Japanese Fender single-coil pickup. Note additional magnet below

'Bringing up the front and the rear'. Bet you've never heard that phrase applied to guitar pickups before.

The cream pickup covers slipped over the HS-3's without a hitch, but the Fender pickup's coil was too short for the DiMarzio covers. The polepieces were just buried underneath, so I chose the best looking of the three original pickup covers and used that for the lone Fender pickup instead.

Using the supplied DiMarzio pickup screws and springs, Arnold mounted the two HS-3's in the neck and bridge positions. Oddly enough, we found that none of the original screws fit the mounting holes of the Fender pickup. All of them simply slid through the mounting holes without engaging the threads. Very strange, considering that the neck pickup was securely mounted with the old screws. Arnold managed to dig up a pair of pickup screws from his tool box that fit nicely although they were a little rusty.

Okay, very rusty, but they'll do for now.

Installing CRL 5-way switch

So why not the new Seymour Duncan Yngwie pickups, the ones that Malmsteen has been swearing are the best ones he's ever heard? Believe me, I was tempted.

But after hearing the Duncan Yngwie's and comparing the two, the DiMarzio HS-3's just sounded juicier to my ears. There was a slight compression to the tone of the Duncan's I didn't quite dig, and the overall tone was a little more scooped around the mid-range. But hey, Yngwie swears by them.

Our other good buddy, Sherman, recommended I give paper-in-oil capacitors a try when I wanted to rewire my Les Paul BFG. I liked how they sounded on the BFG so I decided to go with .047mf PIO caps for this rewire. So out went the stock dark green mylar capacitor along with the three Japanese Gotoh potentiometers.

Russian military-grade paper-in-oil capacitors

But does it all really make a difference? To be honest, with better pots and better quality capacitors you can expect a 10% improvement in tone. The pickups and the wood on the guitar itself make for the other 90%, player notwithstanding. But hey, we're replacing 20-something year old parts for a few bucks so why not?

It's like wearing a nice, clean pair of socks. No one can really see 'em, but at least you know they're there.

Wiring done!

When Arnold did the obligatory screwdriver tap-test on the pickups, we found that the Fender pickup, relocated to the middle position was the loudest of the three.

DiMarzio HS-3's are known to not be very hot, but I found it a little strange that they would have less output than a generic Fender single-coil. Setting the middle pickup low and flush to the pickguard a la Yngwie helped to even out the volume difference.

And I'm glad I didn't go with three HS-3's. The stock Fender is a nice contrast tone-wise and I often find myself playing off the middle pickup by itself, something I never used to do.

DiMarzio HS-3's installed in neck and bridge

The DiMarzio's by themselves do the job very nicely. They are smooth and creamy at high gain -- a very even sounding pickup with no surprising frequency spikes. But I do miss that typical ballsy Fender twang.

Leo Fender wasn't messing around, he certainly got it right way back when.

Fender ST72-80SC Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster | Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 21:17:00 +0000

If you read Part 1 of ordering this early 90's Fender Japan ST72-80SC Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster from Ishibashi's U-Box, I mentioned that I would be peering under the hood for a peek at the pickups and internal electronics.

In Part 1, I also mentioned that I would be installing KTS Titanium Saddles. Which didn't go too well as I'll detail later.

Taking a Strat's pickguard off to check for cracks in the body wood is something I have been doing since buying my very first Stratocaster on 1989. I had returned home in the evening after a day of guitar shopping and was plugging in my new pride and joy, a black, rosewood-neck Japanese Fender Stratocaster into my 60-watt Ibanez IBZ amplifier. It sounded great as I put it through its paces and explored its different tones while 'Good Morning Vietnam' was showing on TV.

But over Robin Williams' histrionic dark humor, something told me to take a look under the pickguard. And lo and behold, there was a huge break in the wood where the neck pocket meets the front pickup. The bare wood was visible through the black finish. It was as if someone had dropped the guitar head first, which would have also left a huge dent in the headstock at the very least. Oddly enough, there wasn't a single mark.

What made me look under the pickguard? It was just one of those things -- something I can't explain to this day. And somehow, that memory still haunts me whenever I buy a new Strat-type guitar. And checking under the pickguard of any bolt-on guitar I might buy, regardless of manufacturer, has become a ritual of sorts.

The happy ending to this story was that I brought the guitar back to the store the next day, expecting to show the damage to the store's owner and have to explain that the guitar was already damaged when I bought it. Surprisingly, he didn't even ask to look at the guitar but offered me an immediate exchange. I asked how much a Fender American Standard would cost -- four extra bills -- and went with one of those, a black Strat with a rosewood fingerboard.

The store owner fetched it himself from the storeroom, the guitar in a molded black Fender ABS hardcase, still in the factory sealed cardboard carton. I offered to open up the carton myself and had to ask for a pair of pliers to remove the large brass staples. I didn't even have to try another American Standard to compare it with. It just felt right and it definitely had that Hendrix at Monterey vibe.

That black American Standard Stratocaster became my main workhorse instrument for many years and is a guitar I still own. Some things are just meant to be, I guess.

But back to my latest acquisition.

Brass nut and chrome bullet truss rod nut

After cutting the strings off the ST72-80SC, I proceeded to remove the eleven pickguard screws, which I noticed, were brand new. I'm guessing the old screws were replaced as a courtesy by the good folks at the Ishibashi setup department since 20-something year old nickel-plated screws would be seriously tarnished with rust, grime and who knows what else.

Popping the pickguard off, I noticed no splits, cracks or breaks in the wood -- phew.

I also noticed that despite the pickguard having been on for two decades, the paintwork underneath was the same shade of yellow cream as the rest of the body. I was expecting a 'shadowing', where the paint under the guard would be a much lighter color than the rest of the body that was exposed to light for 20 years. Interesting.

The pickup cavity of the ST72-80SC

But I was most curious about the pickups. Johan Lindh at Ishibashi informed me that the front pickup had been exchanged for a Fender USA model number 016730. Which turned out not to be a model number at all, but a part code one of Fender's pickup bobbin suppliers used. Part number 016730 can be found stamped underneath the stock vintage-wound pickups used on many Fender USA and Mexico models.

Note additional grey magnets underneath the middle and bridge pickups

Fender Japan's brochure from the '90s lists the pickups supplied with the ST72-80SC as 'ST-Current'. Note the additional magnet under each ST-Current pickup in the middle and bridge positions. Not your typical stacked single-coil configuration. And they sound pretty good -- a little higher output than regular single-coils, but without the screechiness especially at the bridge.

DiMarzio HS-3 pickups, Yngwie's personal choice at the time, came standard on model ST72-950SC in the bridge and neck positions. The ST72-950SC is identical to the ST72-80SC in specifications except for the pickups.

The wiring on the ST72-80SC features Japanese-made Alpha potentiometers, ubiquitous green capacitor and typical cheapo plastic 5-way switch. No fancy cloth-covered vintage wire here. If you ask me, even the soldering is a little sloppy.

Alpha potentiometers and ubiquitous green Fender Japan capacitor

Perfectly functional, but I might upgrade the circuitry at a later point with a CRL 5-way switch, Bourns 250k pots and a nice paper-in-oil capacitor. And yes, some braided cloth-covered wire, just for kicks.

I found out that the Fender Japan ST72-80SC and ST72-950SC were not official Malmsteen models -- hence the absence of Yngwie's signature at the headstock. Although the US-made Fender Yngwie Malmsteen model had already been around for a few years, Fender Japan had yet to strike up a deal with the Swedish maestro and were producing these unofficial Malmsteen models for sale in Japan's domestic market only. And the best part is that they were more like Yngwie's famous 'Duck - Play Loud' 70's Stratocaster, than the American Standard-style Strats that passed for the official Malmsteen signature model at the time.

An unofficial Ritchie Blackmore model, the asymmetrically scalloped ST72-75SC was also available at the time, decades before the current Mexican-made Fender Blackmore signature. No surprise really, seeing as how popular both Messrs Blackmore and Malmsteen were in Japan.

Scalloped, lightly figured maple fingerboard

Speaking of scalloping, the ST72-80SC is not as evenly scalloped as the current USA Yngwie signature models. Fender Japan seems to have played it a little safe and the scallop starts about 1mm after the fret, leaving each fret on a slight ledge. Not a bad thing really, it's just something I noticed when taking these pictures up close. And since each fret is on its own ledge, it might actually be easier to refret should I ever need to.

Closeup of scalloping

I also noticed that this guitar has an unusually thin finish for a Japanese instrument. The ding you see in the picture below -- one of several -- shows the thinness of the urethane finish against the bare wood underneath. Most polyurethane finishes render the guitar almost bullet-proof.

A ding to the bare wood shows how thin this finish actually is.

And about those KTS Titanium saddles..

These KTS saddles were a gift to me some years ago by a good friend of mine, but I never had a Strat lying around that needed a saddle replacement. I'd always been a GraphTech guy and would replace the stock bent steel or diecast saddles on a newly acquired Strat as a matter of course.

KTS Titanium saddles

When this guitar arrived I immediately thought of replacing the die-cast saddles with the KTS Titanium saddles at the next string change. I had never experienced playing a Strat with titanium saddles and I was definitely curious as to how differently the guitar would feel and respond. But I made sure to bring the guitar with its stock die-cast saddles to my usual Monday night gig first so I would have at least some remote frame of reference for tonal comparison later.

Original die-cast saddles and KTS titanium set

Things looked rosy as I removed each die-cast saddle and replaced it with a KTS saddle. I had replaced the saddles for the low E, A, D and G strings when I started noticing a problem. Instead of lining up in a straight row, I could see that the saddles were starting to fan out in an arc. The KTS saddles I had were too wide for this Japanese bridge!

Dang!

Saddles starting to fan out

Browsing the KTS site, I realized that the KTS saddles I had were from their PR-11 set which fit American and Mexican Fender bridges. The bridge that came with the ST72-80SC, probably made by Gotoh for Fender Japan, required the narrower saddles from the KTS PR-04 set.

Nothing to do then but to put the old die-cast saddles back on. I used the different hex screw heights on each saddle to determine their original order on the bridge and also so I wouldn't have to do a massive readjustment re-setting the saddle heights.

Stay tuned for Part 3 where I will upgrade the electronics and pickups on the ST72-80SC.

Ordering A Fender Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster From Ishibashi's U-Box | Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 20:44:00 +0000

Watching a couple of Deep Purple and Rainbow videos recently had me hankering for a Strat with a scalloped fingerboard. Preferably one in Olympic white, with a rosewood fingerboard and black Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder single coils. Just like you-know-who used to play before he went medieval.

Ishibashi's U-Box had a Mexican-made Fender Ritchie Blackmore signature Stratocaster for ¥84000 or US$690 at the prevailing rate. Which was a bargain considering that a new one sells for ¥165000 or US$1350 on the Ishibashi site.

I must admit that I have long gotten over my Mexican vs Japanese vs American biasness when it comes to guitars. My Mexican-made EVH Van Halen is a good case in point -- it plays amazingly well and the workmanship is top-notch. A lot of great guitars are coming out of Fender's Ensenada, Mexico plant these days.

But as with most guitars on the U-Box that are a great value, the Blackmore signature was snapped up quickly by another customer.

Beat me to it. Foiled. Dang.

So continue browsing I did.

I noticed one particular guitar, listed as 'ST72-80SC YWH Mod' had been languishing on the U-Box site for a couple of weeks. From the model number I could tell it was a Japanese '72 reissue Fender Stratocaster, but what was with the 'SC' delineation?

'SC', it turns out, denoted a scalloped fingerboard, which meant that this particular guitar was an Yngwie Malmsteen signature model of some ilk.

Fender only ever produced scalloped fingerboards on two of their artist's models -- the Ritchie Blackmore signature, which came with an asymmetrical, gradated scalloped rosewood fingerboard, and the Yngwie Malmsteen signature models which came with evenly scalloped maple or rosewood fingerboards.

Asymmetrical scalloping on the Blackmore signature Strat

I wasn't sure if I was ready to bring a Malmsteen signature Strat out on gigs, since I don't associate my style with Yngwie's by any stretch of the imagination. You know how it is -- whip out an Yngwie Strat and people immediately start wincing, in anticipation of a barrage of swept arpeggios and a flurry of 16th note triplets. But a Strat is a Strat, is a Strat, right? Whatever that means.

My consolation was that the ST72-80SC YWH lacked the ubiquitous Yngwie signature at the headstock, found on all Malmsteen models. So for all intents and purposes, other than the scalloping, it was a just another blond, large headstock 70's style Strat.

And like the cherry on an ice cream sundae, that chrome bullet truss rod nut looks very cool. And you don't have to pop the neck to do a simple truss rod adjustment.

70's style bullet truss rod

Listed at ¥60000 or US$493, I thought it was pretty good deal. Actually, it was an amazingly good deal. And why no one had jumped on it so far, I just couldn't figure.

So off went my ever hopeful email to Johan Lindh at Ishibashi who handles all the English correspondences with overseas customers.

And he replied with this description:

Thank you for your inquiry. Below, I will list all information we have
available for this item, and information on how to order.
=======================================================================
03-316479209 (used) FENDER JAPAN ST72-80SC MOD YWH M
Basswood body, 1p Maple neck / fretboard. Scalloped fretboard.
Neck pickup is a non-original Fender USA 016730 and the switch has been replaced as well.
Overall scratches and dents. Larger dents and chips in the lacquer/wood. No playability issues. Frets, truss rod and neck in good condition.
Serial: MIJ N043967
Made in Japan 1993-1994
WEIGHT: 3.6kg
Non-original gigbag

Item price: 60,000 Yen (excluding tax)
Shipping cost including insurance: 10,000 Yen
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Total cost: 70,000 Yen
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Wonderful. It hadn't been sold yet.

And seeing as how it was built between 1993 and 1994, this guitar, as of this writing, is 21 or 22 years old!

Fender ST72-80SC YWH M

But the basswood body, I'll admit, I wasn't too thrilled about. The wood snob in me was hoping that it was alder, the standard body wood for Stratocasters.

Basswood is softer than alder, which, to my ears, gives more of an emphasis around the lower midrange. Alder is a harder wood and sounds a little brighter and springier. But since this was an all-maple neck, I reasoned that the basswood body would balance off nicely against the maple, tone-wise. And we've all played Strats with the alder body and maple neck combo that sounded a little too bright haven't we?

Basswood it is.

See, if you set your mind to it, you can rationalize almost anything.

The guitar shipped out from Tokyo International last Saturday, October 31st, and was at my doorstep on Tuesday evening. Or rather, the postman was at my doorstep with a large Ishibashi carton on Tuesday evening, with nobody home to receive it.

I immediately had a flashback of my last Ishibashi order, the Tokai L173. And like that last experience, the postman rang me on my mobile and sounded a little disappointed when I told him no one was home. He then told me that he had to go back down 14 floors to the van to get a delivery notice to slide under my door.

What? You mean you don't carry around a bunch of those in your pocket just for these instances?

But of course I didn't tell him that. I didn't even dare suggest it. The last thing I wanted is for a disgruntled postal worker to hurl my precious Fender ST72-80SC -- SC mind you -- into the back of the van in a huff.

Yeah, I'm paranoid that way.

And what do I find when I get home? A crumpled delivery slip jammed in the handle of my front gate. What happened to putting important documents into the mailbox or slipping it under the door where no one can get at it? Wake up, SingPost!

The next day, with delivery slip in hand, I made my way down to my neighbourhood post office in the afternoon to pick up my guitar.

The young lady who assisted me had some trouble finding the carton in the backroom, walking back to her workstation a couple of times to re-check the shipping number. She left the door slightly ajar as she went back to search for the third time and through the crack I noticed the Ishibashi logo emblazoned on a carton standing against the back wall.

I found it a little strange that she told me in Thai to go to a security side door where she could hand the carton over to me. Stranger still that I actually understood her. A new guitar will do that to ya.

The carton looked very well packed and felt well-padded from the inside so I decided against asking for a pen knife to check the contents for damage. I also didn't want to draw the attention of the somber looking people queuing to pay their bills and traffic fines by whipping out an ostentatious scalloped blond Fender Stratocaster in their midst.

Guitar in carton under my soon-to-be aching arm, I trudged my way home, stopping for a leisurely sushi lunch along the way.

My self-restraint these days is amazing.

In my impetuous youth I would have hopped into a cab, ripped open the carton with my bare hands and teeth in the backseat, tuned the guitar and then enthralled the cab driver with the plinkety-plink of my hottest licks along the way.

When I ordered the guitar, I expressed to Johan Lindh at Ishibashi that I needed the guitar to be very well packed since it had to endure a long trip in a softcase all the way from Japan. And also that SingPost could at times be quite rough in handling items. He told me he would take care of it and pack the guitar personally.

And man, did he oblige.

The famed Ishibashi carton. Good things do sometimes come in large packages

He bubble wrapped the guitar thickly in its softcase, enclosed it further in a cardboard frame and placed it snugly into the carton surrounded with lots of packing paper. The guitar would probably have survived a drop from the cargo hold of a plane at take-off.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how you properly pack a guitar for shipping.

Thanks Johan! Much appreciated.

The guitar arrived strings loosened and in perfect condition other than the dings and dents on the body as Johan had described in his email.

On closer inspection, the few dings didn't look too bad, considering this guitar is 22 years old. They add a bit of real vibe and character unlike the faux scrapes, scratches and dents you find on the relic jobs coming out of the Fender custom shop these days.

Two dents on the lower bout. No fake relic'ing here!

Surprisingly, the entire neck of this guitar is in pristine condition with nary a scratch or even a spot of wear. Even the top edge of the headstock, where most guitars of this vintage would at least have a couple of battle scars, is absolutely immaculate.

There is also almost no fret wear on the thin vintage-style Fender frets, and neither has the shiny brass nut lost any of its luster.

Amazing. The previous owner really took care of this instrument.

The setup guys at Ishibashi had strung the guitar with fresh .009 - .042 strings and adjusted the neck nearly straight with a hair of relief at the seventh fret and also adjusted the intonation. Interestingly, they had set the tremelo bridge so that it sat flush against the body, which is how I always set up my Strat bridges. This allows for maximum transmission of tone from the strings to the body and the guitar doesn't go wildly out of tune if you break a string.

Perfect.

What I found a little odd though is the extreme angle the tremelo arm sits when it is screwed into the bridge -- it points up at nearly a 45 degree angle relative to the body. I guess I'll have to bend it back to a more reasonable playing position.

Stay tuned for my next post where I peer under the hood of this Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster to check out the internal wiring and pickups. I might even install a set of KTS titanium saddles for good measure.

Replacing The Wilkinson Bridge On A Tyler Guitar

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 20:13:00 +0000

Back in July 2009 I mentioned getting a Wilkinson WVS 50 II K bridge to replace the original Wilkinson VS100 bridge on my James Tyler Psychedelic Vomit.

And guess what? I'd just got around to swapping out the bridge a couple of weeks ago in time for my Monday night gig, slightly more than six years to the date I bought it.

How's that for procrastination!

The Tyler Psychedelic Vomit had been one of my main gig guitars for a good eight years since 2001 until the corrosion on the original Wilkinson bridge got a little out of hand. Or more precisely, all over my hand. Rather than risk blood poisoning -- the side of my right hand would turn rust brown from playing the guitar for any length of time -- I put the guitar away, telling myself I would install the new bridge soon. Since then, the guitar has been sitting in a corner of my music room on a guitar stand in semi-retirement mode while I flirted with various Fenders, Suhrs, Firebirds and Les Pauls.

The original Wilkinson bent bridge saddles that came with the Tyler are similar to the current Wilkinson/Gotoh VSVG vintage tremelo but with the VS100 two-pivot point baseplate. The original Tyler Psychedelic Vomits came with the VS100 tremelo, with saddles that were solid blocks like the ones on the WVS 50 II K. But around 1999, when I bought this particular guitar, Jim Tyler decided to switch out the saddles with the then-newly available Wilkinson bent saddles while keeping the original VS100 bridge baseplate. Interestingly, this particular bent saddle/VS100 baseplate combination was never made available commercially -- the bent saddles always came with the traditional 6-screw plates.

VS100 bridge with original block saddles on this earlier Tyler Psychedelic Vomit

Theoretically, replacing the original block saddles with the lighter, low-mass bent saddles would give a brighter, vintage, more resonant tone. In practice, I don't think anybody can really hear the difference. To me, it's the baseplate and tremelo block that make any kind of audible difference as far as Strat-style bridges are concerned. And even then, the differences are subtle at best.

Swapping Out The Bridges

Initially I thought of keeping the original Wilkinson VS100 baseplate and simply replacing the bent saddles with the block saddles from the WVS 50. But just from looking at it, I could see that the black screws holding the block saddles to the baseplate were a different size and length. Anyway, the original baseplate screws securing the bent saddles to the baseplate were seriously corroded as well.

How the heck did this thing get so rusty?

Rust in peace, old friend..

Instead of mucking about any further with baseplates and Imperial versus metric size screws, I decided to just swap out the entire bridge.

I loosened and cut off the old strings before removing the three tremelo springs from the spring claw in the trem cavity. With a little maneuvering around the bridge posts, the old bridge came off, releasing a generous sprinkling of powdered rust everywhere, like a final farewell.

Note to self: Never, ever, remove rusty guitar hardware in bed. Ever.

Out of curiosity, I unscrewed one of the bridge posts to see if there were metal bushings anchoring the bridge posts to the body and I was happy to see the glimmer of a shiny, like-new brass insert. I could never understand how some bridge manufacturers would choose to use simple wood screws without metal bushings to hold bridge posts that would have to cope with string tension and constant friction during use. That's a lot of stress put on them.

The earlier versions of the original Floyd Rose trem, for example, had wood screws anchored directly to the body. No wonder the more vigorous exponents of the Floyd found themselves having to have their tremelo knife edges professionally filed and resharpened every few months just to stay in tune -- small movements in the wood screws probably caused the knife edges to get chewed out sooner. Like in the case of Steve Vai, who claimed to go through a new Floyd Rose trem every week on his Green Meanie guitar! Ain't nothin' worse than a Floyd that won't return to zero after a dive bomb or stratospheric harmonic up pull.

With one of the original bridge posts out, I tried to see if the bridge posts supplied with the Korean-made WVS 50 II K would fit. I found the WVS 50's posts much larger and if I wanted to use them, I would have to remove the original bushings and drill larger holes in the guitar's body to accomodate the larger bushings. A major modification, and unnecessary. Not that I would have the skill, tools, or the daring to carry out such a mod on a Tyler guitar!

I cleaned up the slight bit of gunk buildup off the original bridge posts with a toothpick and cotton bud and lubed up the groove where the bridge would contact with the posts with Graphit-All. As expected, the new Korean Wilkinson bridge worked fine on the US-bridge posts, pivoting nicely once the tremelo springs were reattached.

I tried to see if the original VS100's tremelo arm would fit the slot on the new bridge, and it did. The only thing was that the VS100's trem arm sits unusually high on the WVS 50 bridge -- the tremelo arm slot on the VS100 is about an inch deeper. The tremelo arm that came with the WVS50 is made from a hollowed piece of metal but works just fine.

Imperial Versus Metric - Why, Why, Why?

And this was where I came upon a major problem.

The bridge posts must have moved when I was cleaning them because the guitar's action had become unplayably low for some reason when I put a pack of fresh strings on. I needed to raise the two bridge posts and the metric-sized wrenches I had on hand were either slightly too large or slightly too small. And my old set of 16ths of an inch, US-sized hex wrenches were nowhere to be found.

Since it was a Monday, and I really wanted to play my Tyler that evening, it dawned on me that if I was to loosen the strings, remove the bridge and adjust the bridge posts by hand, I could very possibly raise the action up to where I needed it to be!

So that's exactly what I did.

Fortunately the Tyler came with locking Sperzel tuners so the strings remained firmly attached at the tuner end when the bridge was removed. I managed to turn the bridge posts, bringing them up by just a hair before they refused to turn anymore without a proper tool.

Reattaching the bridge and trem springs, the action was still too low but playable, without fretting out too much on string bends. I deemed the setup gig-worthy but decided to ask my good buddy Keane to see if he happened to have a non-metric set of hex wrenches. He said that he might and would come by my gig that night with a few different sized wrenches.

Wilkinson WVS50IIK installed

I was a little uncomfortable playing the first set with such a low action on the Tyler, having to watch my bends on certain notes that were most likely to fret out. But thankfully Keane showed up the during the middle of the set and I was able to do a quick adjustment, raising the action up to where the Tyler could wail uninhibitedly once again.

Thanks Keane! Both you and Liverpool rock!

The Verdict

As expected, the WVS 50 II K performed very well, from subtle wiggles to divebombs. Frankly, I could not tell the difference in tone or sustain between this Korean-made bridge and the old US-made VS100. But I did notice that the WVS 50 feels a little more solid when I rest my hand on it and the block saddles feel smoother unlike the bent saddles.

Or maybe it was all that rust on the old VS100.

Music Man Luke Signature Model with Flaking Finish Problem

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Sat, 25 Jul 2015 18:35:00 +0000

I met with my good buddy Reggie for lunch recently to talk guitars and gear, and also for him to pass me a batch of his superb homemade cheng tng -- a sweet Chinese dessert known for its cooling or 'yin' properties. We all need to balance our yang with some yin once in awhile. And if we can get our yin while satisfying our sweet tooth, so much the better.

Tupperware containers of cheng tng firmly in hand, Reggie told me he wanted to show me a guitar he had left in a music store that was awaiting a refinish. I thought it was going to be just another 'vanity refinish', much like the refinish job I had done on my Gibson Les Paul BFG a few months ago. Purely cosmetic and didn't really need to be done, but you know how it is -- a newly refinished guitar is the next best thing to a new guitar!

We entered the shop, made some small talk with the owner and looked around a little bit. Reggie disappeared into a corner of the shop and reappeared holding a guitar. It was going to rain outside and it was getting a little dark in the shop, but judging from the silhouette (no pun intended!) of the headstock, I could tell it was a Music Man guitar of some sort.

And when he brought it into the light, I could hardly believe my eyes.

There it was, an Ernie Ball/Music Man Luke model sans strings and looking a little worse for wear.

Which is probably a huge understatement.

Finish flaking off the headstock face of this Music Man Luke

The black sparkle polyester finish seemed to have cracked and was lifting off in chunks, leaving either bare wood or the black undercoat. Indeed a small piece cracked off as I was examining the guitar and when I picked the piece up off the floor, I found it had the texture and brittleness of a potato chip, yellowed, hard and crumbly.

It was something that, in my 40 years of being around guitars, I had never seen before. And as we all know a polyester finish is as hard and durable a finish as you can get.

Finish on the guitar's top

My luthier friend, Luca Quacquarella, was just complaining to me a few months ago about how difficult it was to scrape off a polyester finish, saying that even an overnight soak in paint remover sometimes failed to do the job!

Back of the guitar

But frankly, Ernie Ball/Music Man finish problems are something not entirely new to me.

Another good buddy of mine returned from the States in the early 90's with a fire-engine red 5-string Music Man bass. It played great and sounded even better. Ernie Ball chose not to mess with the original Leo Fender-era Music Man bass's design and electronics, and the pickups on this bass were classic Sting Ray with all their growl and clarity.

Close up of the finish around the 5-bolt neck joint

Paired with a highly figured bird's eye maple neck, the glossy red finish was also really something to behold.

But after a couple of months of owning the bass, things started to go south rather quickly.

That wonderful red polyester finish started to dull and become tacky and sticky to the touch. It got so bad that fibers from the inside of the hardcase were actually sticking to finish like tiny hairs.
Fortunately, there was no Ernie Ball/Music Man dealer in Singapore at the time, or else they would have been faced with quite a sticky situation -- literally -- as this was not an isolated case.

Put it down to Singapore's 90% humidity and tropical heat I suppose. But strange that other major instrument brands never had the same problem.

Oddly enough, Reggie owns another Music Man Luke also from about 2005 and in exactly the same color, and it is in pristine condition!

Reggie's other Music Man Luke from 2005

The only thing indicating its age is that the Luke logo has yellowed from its original silver.

Black sparkle finish on Reggie's other Luke

(Pictures courtesy of Reggie Tan)

Ordering A Tokai LS173 From Ishibashi's U-Box

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Tue, 26 May 2015 21:19:00 +0000

I recently ordered a pre-owned Tokai LS173 from Ishibashi in Japan and received it in the mail a few days ago. That is, if you could call going personally to Singapore Post's headquarters not once, but twice, 'receiving it in the mail'.

It all started when the guitar was delivered at 5pm on a Friday evening, with no one home to receive it.

I hate when this happens. I immediately start imagining a disgruntled postal worker schlepping a bulky cardboard box containing a delicate guitar and hurling it unceremoniously into the back of the van after a failed delivery, prominent 'fragile' stickers notwithstanding.

After a couple of fruitless calls to customer care that same Friday night -- both of which promised a call back which I never received -- I decided to try my luck and go to Singapore Post's headquarters on Saturday morning to collect the guitar.

At SingPost, I gave them the tracking number and waited for 20 minutes while they tried to locate the carton. They finally came back and told me that the guitar was in the 'holding area'. And the clincher was that the staff member on duty who had the key to the holding area was nowwhere to be found, and neither was this person answering their cell phone.

Well done, SingPost. Looks like you have a disciplinary problem on your hands.

I was told I could collect the guitar 'probably' on Monday or Tuesday, with more promises of a call back. So off I went home, guitar-less and slightly agitated.

Make that very agitated.

I was up bright and early on Monday morning and back at the post office -- call backs be damned -- reminding myself not to lose it if they gave me another 'holding area' story. The cheerful girl at the counter, who seemed to be harbouring a nasty cold, took note of my tracking number and went around back.

I felt like Mel Gibson in the final climactic scene in the movie 'Signs' -- "his lungs were closed, his lungs were closed, no poison got in, his lungs were closed.."

Except my chant was "the holding area is open, the holding area is open, someone has the key -- and that person is there -- the holding area is open.."

Sure, we laugh about it now, but those were some intense moments.

The Ishibashi carton at the post office -- finally!

Thankfully, this time they located the carton with my guitar in it. I decided it would be prudent to check the guitar there and then for any possible shipping damage.

The guitar, snug in its case, was well packed in an Ishibashi carton with lots of bubble wrap. Opening the Tokai hardcase I found more bubble wrap around the headstock and the strings completely loosened.

It's always wise to loosen a guitar's strings for shipping, especially on Gibson-style instruments with angled headstocks. If a guitar at full string tension is accidentally dropped during shipping, the delicate headstock and neck joint is more likely to crack from the impact because of the strings pulling at it.

Safe and sound

After a few light taps on the back of the neck to check for a rattling or broken truss rod, I looked the guitar over and was surprised at the extremely new condition it was in, especially for a used instrument. These Japanese guitar players either baby their guitars or hardly play them at all!

Put it this way, I was expecting a guitar in a far more used condition based on the description Ishibashi sent me:

=Used TOKAI / LS-173 GT /03-315959009

Some light used appearance as light scratches and some tiny dents could be seen on whole item

On the top, there are scratches and some tiny dents

On the back, there are some buckle wear scratches and dents

Edge and side body, there are scratches and dents

Neck condition is good

Fretwear could be seen, approx 80-90% remains

Working condition is good

Serial number : 1433041
WEIGHT : 4.4kg

It comes with original hard case

The guitar as listed on the Ishibashi website

I literally cannot spot any of the scratches and tiny dents described, which I think is something very telling about Japanese retail culture. They would rather err on the side of extreme caution than to send out a used guitar to a customer as 'near mint', no matter how microscopic the imperfections.

But why a Tokai Les Paul-copy you might ask?

Amber celluloid inlays

If you remember my series of articles on Sherman's Les Paul Quest, my good buddy Sherman's most recent acquisition was a Tokai Pacifix Exclusive, based on a 1956 Gibson Les Paul goldtop. Pacifix is a high-end music retailer in Yokohama, Japan that collaborates frequently with Tokai guitars to produce limited run models built to their exact specifications.

Meticulous fretjob

Sherman has been through so many Les Pauls and Les Paul-type guitars of late that I've lost count. But his newly aquired Tokai was unique. It had a vibe and tone that rivalled the best and most expensive of Gibson's custom shop Les Pauls. And at about a third the price.

I'd always thought Tokai guitars were cheap Japanese knock-offs. I had no idea that they also made very high-end models priced at what Gibson was charging for some of their custom shop Les Paul Standards.

Needless to say, my curiousity about Tokai guitars was piqued.

A Little Tokai History

Tokai Gakki started out in 1947 manufacturing harmonicas. Based in Hamamatsu prefecture, Shizuoka, the original factory is still where Tokai is based. A family-run business, the current president, Shohei Adachi is the grandson of Tokai founder Tadayouki Adachi.

Tokai started making guitars in 1967. Its sole model, the Hummingbird -- not to be confused with Gibson's steel-string acoustic of the same name -- was Tokai's take on Semie Moseley's Mosrite line of guitars.

By the early 1970's, Tokai's quality had improved to the point where they had begun to take on sub-contract work from other larger Japanese companies. Tokai was even commissioned by the iconic American acoustic guitar company C.F. Martin to produce guitar parts and to manufacture their budget-priced Sigma line.

When the contract with Martin guitars ended, Tokai continued to produce acoustic guitars under their own Cat's Eye brand which were excellent copies of various Martin models. Interestingly, the Cat's Eye series is still being made -- by a single craftsman who builds every Cat's Eye from scratch! Pun slightly intended.

By the early 80's, Tokai was making about 100 different models, almost all being direct copies of Fender and Gibson guitars and basses. And they had begun exporting to Europe and the United States.

Tokai Les Paul Reborn, Reborn Old And Love Rock

In the beginning, Tokai unabashedly named its Les Paul copies 'Les Paul Reborn' -- emblazoned in large script in gold letters on the headstock, no less -- which naturally caused Gibson to threaten legal action.

'Reborn Old', and subsequently, 'Love Rock' replaced the 'Les Paul Reborn' script.

The 'Reborn Old' model designation was used for a short time and are the rarest of the vintage Tokai models, making them quite sought after by collectors. 'Love Rock' remains Tokai's model designation for all their Les Paul clones.

'Love Rock'

These days, Tokai makes guitars almost exclusively for the Japanese domestic market with only a handful of small companies handling their distribution in the UK, Australia and Europe. And because they are meant for the Japanese market and produced in relatively small quantities, they are able to copy Gibson's headstock design exactly without fear of legal repercussions. Or, more likely, fly under the radar just enough for Gibson not to bother.

Tokai LS173 Premium Series Specifications

In 2014, the Tokai LS173 model designation replaced the previous LS160 model.

Quartersawn mahogany neck

The LS173 features a one-piece mahogany back, two-piece maple top, long tenon '59-profile mahogany neck with 18 degree headstock angle, amber celluloid inlays and a nitrocellulose lacquer finish. Hardware includes an ABR-style bridge with brass saddles, aluminum tailpiece and Gotoh tulip peg tuners.

Beautifully figured one-piece mahogany back

The LS173's electronics feature US-made CTS potentiometers, Sprague orange drop capacitors, a Switchcraft outout jack and Switchcraft 3-way selector switch. The pickups are Japanese-made PAF-Vintage Mk II's.

Sprague orange drop capacitors and CTS pots

What I found particularly conspicuous about the LS173 were the yellow brass saddles. I was familiar with nickel plated cast metal saddles, graphite saddles, and even nylon saddles -- but brass?

Brass saddles

A quick consult with the oracle of all things Gibson (my good buddy Sherman) revealed that original Gibson '59 Les Pauls featured brass saddles which Gibson chose to nickel plate to match the rest of the hardware.

Looks like Tokai was trying to make a statement by showing off their brass saddles au naturel.

Setup And Tweaking The Action

The guitar came with .010 - .046 nickel plated strings, and was intonated perfectly by the setup guys at Ishibashi before shipping. The neck was adjusted with a tad more relief than I liked -- I like my necks almost straight -- so I popped the truss rod cover and gave the nut a quarter turn. There seemed to be almost no tension on the truss rod nut and it turned with minimal effort.

Straightening out the relief brought the action extremely low, perfect for checking for potential uneven fretwork. Applying the ubiquitous 1-2-3-4 fingering exercise along the whole range of the instrument revealed no overly buzzy frets or fretted out notes. A sign of a good and very even fretjob!

Raising the action out of ultra-low Allan Holdworth territory to a more playable height, I could almost feel the guitar chomping at the bit to start wailing at its first gig that very night.

How It Sounds

Not exactly a featherweight at 9.7 lbs, the LS173 is nevertheless very lively when played acoustically. Even unplugged, chords jangle loud and clear and single notes ring true with no dead spots.

But I was a little concerned about the pickups. And I'll be honest, outside of the Ibanez Super 58's -- which I think are really fine -- I have never been a fan of Japanese-made pickups.

The general consensus on the various Les Paul forums was that the pickups the Tokais came with should be immediately removed, quarantined and destroyed, lest the hapless Tokai owner develop a life-threatening case of Horridtoneitis causing him to be shunned by band members, past, present and future. They were supposedly that bad.

The pickups, not the band members.

Plugging in the guitar at home for the first time instantly allayed any doubts I had about the PAF-Vintage Mk II's that come stock on the LS173's.

The neck pickup was warm without being wooly or dark. And the Sweet Child O' Mine intro lick -- don't laugh, its my go-to lick for testing neck humbuckers -- sounded throaty and absolutely convincing with the tone control backed off.

The bridge pickup, meanwhile was sweet sounding, with that elusive cry that Les Paul players crave and sell their first-born for.

But seriously, that cry, that sweet top-harmonic that adds a lilting tail to the high notes, is why people throw big bucks at boutique pickup makers. Unbeknownst to many, the quest for this ghost harmonic is a walk to the edge of a very slippery slope, leading to an endless loop of buying, selling and replacing of pickups. It's a descent into gear acquisition madness.

You know you're in trouble when your pickup soldering chops have superceded your ability to play the A minor pentatonic scale in 8th notes at 120 bpm in the fifth position.

But yep, that tone -- that cry -- is right here, folks Go get your pair of Vintage-PAF Mk II's if you can find them.

Using the Tokai LS173 at my regular Monday blues-rock club gig that night confirmed my opinion further. These pickups sound as good or better than any pickup on any top-end Gibson Les Paul I've played. And frankly, Emperor's New Clothes aside, don't you think that some of those pickups on those custom shop signature Gibson Les Pauls are downright anemic sounding?

So there it is. You might say that I'm a total Tokai convert.

And why I wasn't hip decades earlier to this dark horse of Japanese guitar manufacturers I'll never know.

EVH Striped Series Guitar Review

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 15:37:00 +0000

I recently ordered an EVH Striped Series guitar from Japanese online music store Ikebe-Gakki and received it in the post a couple of days ago.

Carton from Ikebe-Gakki

This is my first time dealing with Ikebe-Gakki and I must applaud them for the quality of their communication and their prompt replies to my emails. They only accept payments by bank wire transfer for purchases from outside Japan, though, making a schlep to the bank to fill out forms necessary.

The EVH Striped Series guitars ship in a softcase so I requested that they pack the guitar with extra layers of bubblewrap to ensure it got to me in one piece.

And did they pack it well!

The guitar was shipped thoroughly bubble-wrapped and double-boxed. And despite the Floyd Rose nut not being locked, the guitar was actually pretty much in tune when I took it out of the softcase, with only the G and the B strings slightly flat. Ikebe-Gakki will definitely be seeing more business from me in the near future.

Carton within a carton and generous amount of bubblewrap!

The Mexican-made EVH Striped Series is manufactured in Fender's Ensenada factory. Fender Mexico has really upped their game in recent years -- the Roadworn series in particular, stick out as very well-made instruments with tons of vibe. In my opinion they gave more bang for the buck than any relic'd guitar from the Fender Custom Shop.

Eddie Van Halen is well-known for being very hands-on with the design of every guitar model that bears his name, choosing wood combinations, hardware and voicing pickups.

He is also legendary for giving guitar manufactures a hard time whenever he visits a factory, simultaneously striking fear and a sense of awe into the hearts of those who happen to be tweaking guitars in the final setup department on that particular day.

It's here! Shrouded in mystery

I reckon it was his early experience with Kramer in the 80's where only his name and likeness were used in ad campaigns to sell guitars, with virtually no creative input from Eddie himself, that set him on a tangent of being very involved in the design and manufacture of every one of his guitars and amplifiers, from Ernie Ball/Musicman, to Peavey, and now, Fender EVH. In all honesty, I can't recall ever having played a bad guitar or amplifier that had Eddie's mark on it.

To think that Kramer missed out on a golden opportunity, all those years ago, to recreate an Eddie Van Halen signature model, stripes and all!

But on to the review.

EVH Striped Series Main Features

The EVH Striped Series guitars are available in three color combos -- black stripes on white, yellow stripes on black, and the iconic red, white and black.

All models feature a hand-rubbed, oil-finished quartersawn maple neck with built-in graphite reinforcement rods, an easy access trussrod adjustment wheel at the base of the neck, Stratocaster headstock, jumbo frets, EVH-branded tuners, basswood body, Wolfgang humbucking pickup, single volume control via an EVH-branded 500k low-friction pot, and side-mounted output jack.

Of course, the Striped series just wouldn't be EVH enough without a Floyd Rose bridge.

Oil-Finished Neck With Graphite Reinforcement

Quartersawn neck with 'quarter flowers'

The necks on these guitars are devoid of any kind of finish other than a couple of coats of oil applied at the factory. Oil-finished necks, or any neck that has not been hard-finished in lacquer or polyurethane, are prone to shrinkage, expansion and warping, depending on the relative humidity the instrument is stored in.

All EVH Striped Series guitar necks are carved from quartersawn wood for the simple reason that quartersawn necks are much more resistant to twisting and warping than flatsawn necks. And if you're dealing with an oil-finished neck, quartersawn is much more stable and definitely the way to go. You can tell a quartersawn neck from flatsawn by the vertical grain pattern and visible row of 'quarter flowers' running down the centre of the neck.

And to make doubly sure the neck on your EVH guitar lasts through years of sweaty gigs, the built-in graphite reinforcement rods add even more stability. Graphite is so stable that some companies like Vigier guitars have even done away with trussrods entirely, relying on graphite rods to keep their necks stable and fingerboard relief constant.

The Neck of Legend!

The first thing that struck me when I picked up the EVH Striped Series was the neck profile. This is the neck that vanished from the face of the earth!

In 1987, when Ibanez released the first Steve Vai JEM guitars in that lurid Loch Ness Green, I remember trying one out and being immediately amazed by the profile and feel of the neck. Even before plugging it in, I wrapped my hand around that neck and I just knew.

EVH-branded tuners

But the mystic, magical properties of the original Loch Ness Green neck was forever lost after that limited run of seven hundred and seventy seven guitars. The many subsequent incarnations of the JEM series did not use the same neck profile as the Loch Ness and I could never understand why. It was as if someone decided to simply can it, the blueprints relegated to some secret archive in the Hoshino factory.

Or Steve Vai's basement.

I was really happy when I reached into the softcase to pull out my guitar. There are some things you just cannot forget. The neck profile on the EVH Striped Series is exactly like the one on the almost mythical Loch Ness JEM!

The EVH's neck profile can best be described as a slim 'C', with beautifully rounded, rolled fingerboard edges. The glued-on maple fingerboard features a compound radius that goes from a Gibson-like 12" at the nut, to a very flat 16" at the fingerboard end, allowing for super-low action without fretting out when bending strings. I'm not an ultra-low action kinda guy -- I like a teeny bit of fight from the strings but they must still be low enough for me to throw in the occasional right-hand tapped legato run with ease.

But just for a lark, I brought the EVH Floyd Rose down about as low as it would go, and the guitar still played very evenly, with no odd chokes or fret-outs at random points indicating that some fret were higher than others. Kudos to Fender Mexico for the stellar fretwork. And did I mention that the jumbo frets on this guitar were polished to a chrome-like, mirror shine?

Gleaming frets!

While waiting for my guitar to arrive in the mail, I came across a few negative reviews on a couple of guitar forums that said that the EVH Striped Series guitars came with sharp fret ends. This was not my experience with my own guitar, but I can understand why this might be the case for some.

As I mentioned earlier, oil-finished maple necks are sometimes prone to expansion and contraction, depending on relative humidity. If the guitar has been stored in a relatively dry environment for several weeks, the wood is likely to contract, causing the fret ends to protrude slightly. Some guitar manufacturers cut the fret tangs a little shorter at the fingerboard ends for this very reason. Fortunately this is something that can be easily fixed by any competent luthier or repairman. A quick buff of the fret ends with a fret rounding file, a dash of linseed oil to restore the finish on the fingerboard edges, and you're done.

So what's with all the hype about oil-finished necks?

To put it simply, oil-finished necks feel as smooth as butter -- much smoother and silkier to the touch than any kind of man-made polyurethane satin finish. But like it or not, when the naturals oils from the hand react with the wood of the neck, it will start to darken up in some areas more than others. You can pretty much analyze a guitarist's playing style and even his knowledge of the fingerboard by looking at the grime marks on an oiled maple fingerboard after a couple of years. The more evenly marked, the more it shows he uses more of the fingerboard!

On my old black Ibanez JEM 77V, I sandpapered the finish off the back of the neck in an attempt to replicate the feel of the Loch Ness JEM I mentioned earlier. Despite being lightly finished, the back of that JEM 77V neck felt unusually 'hairy' with slightly raised grain. Strange.

To counter the hairy, slightly rough feel, I buffed it down with very fine sandpaper and applied several coats of Warwick beeswax to seal the wood. I checked just now, and the contents of that one-and-a-half-decade old can of beeswax had solidified into clumps that resemble a broken yellow candle.

Guess I'll stick to Dr Duck's AxWax for general maintenance of the EVH neck.

That, and as Ritchie Fliegler mentions in his book The Complete Guide To Guitar And Amp Maintenance, regular wipings of the back of the neck with oil from the forehead every morning!

How's that for a personalized guitar?

After playing the EVH for a couple of days at home and at one of my regular Monday night gigs, the fingerboard is starting to darken up in the more well played areas. Not so much from finger grime, mind you, but from the black carbon residue from the factory-installed strings. My fingertips were literally a gun-metal grey from playing the guitar out of the box for a couple of hours when it first arrived. Ok, maybe there was a wee bit of grime involved.

Before my guitar arrived I thought about taking some fine steel wool to the body to take away some of that glossy shine off from the polyurethane finish. Now that the guitar is in my hands, I kinda don't have the heart to. But I think that as the oil-finish starts to dirty up some more, it will save me from having to relic the body in any way -- a well-played dirtied up neck will take the eye away from the 'too new' poly finish body. And we all know how awful it looks when a poly finish guitar body is relic'd.

EVH Floyd Rose with D-Tuna

As I mentioned earlier, the EVH guitars feature a handy trussrod adjustment wheel at the base of the neck. No popping off the neck to do a simple truss rod adjustment. The wheel can be tightened or loosened accordingly using any metal object that can fit into the holes on the adjustment wheel and they have even provided a simple, slim hex-wrench for this purpose.

EVH-Floyd Rose Tremelo System with D-Tuna

The EVH Striped Series just wouldn't look right without a Floyd Rose trem system.

And the EVH-branded Floyd Rose that comes standard on these guitars is not some licensed cheap knock-off. According to the Floyd Rose website, the EVH Floyd is exactly the same as the German-made Floyd Rose Original, except that it is made in Korea. Same specs, different country of manufacture.

As stated on their website also, the EVH Floyd is OEM and made exclusively for the EVH line of guitars, meaning that you can't buy an EVH-branded Floyd Rose off the shelf. But if you do want to buy one, the equivalent model would be the Korean-made Floyd Rose 1000 series.

And you've got to give it to the Koreans. Aside from the hex wrenches needed for the bridge and locking nut screws, they even provided an additional regular length string lock screw and one more longer string lock screw that fits the D-Tuna!

Obligatory hex wrenches and complimentary string lock screws

Which means also, that if you do not wish to have the D-Tuna installed, you can remove it and install the shorter string lock screw in its place, for a more traditional Floyd Rose look.

A nice touch!

Like the Floyd Rose Original, the EVH Floyd features hardened steel saddles and baseplate, nickel-plated brass trem block, a stainless steel tremelo arm and a locking nut to clamp the strings down
firmly.

The EVH-branded Floyd Rose tremelo also comes with a D-Tuna that allows you to instantly drop the low E string to a low D, just by pulling out on the knurled post attached to the low E string's locking screw.

EVH-Floyd Rose

Of course, in order for the guitar to still be in tune when the D-Tuna is pulled, the entire bridge must have it's back end resting firmly on the body. If you set the Floyd to a floating position, activating the D-Tuna would throw all the other strings out of tune.

I'm leaving the D-Tuna on mine for now to see how it works out in a live playing situation. If not, then it's back to floating the trem and removing the D-Tuna.

For good measure, and to ensure that there was minimal friction at the fulcrum points, I applied Rene Martinez's GraphitAll guitar lube to the Floyd's bridge posts and knife edges, really getting it in there with a toothpick.

EVH Striped Series Finish

The stripes on the EVH finish were sprayed on one by one, in layers.

A painstaking process no doubt, which probably went something like this:

Over an undercoat of primer, the body was first sprayed black.
The black base coat was taped up and the entire body was sprayed white. When the tape was removed, the result was black stripes on a white body.
More tape was applied and red paint was sprayed, again over entire body.
When the tape was removed, the final red-white-black combination was achieved.

What I find amazing is how Fender managed to replicate Eddie's original red-white-black finish down to the smallest detail, using tape just like he did. No easy task when you consider that the factory's finish department has to do exactly the same graphic on hundreds of guitars! No wonder the Striped Series is made in Mexico -- American guitar factory workers would probably have gone on strike!

EVH striped finish back detail

Eddie's original guitar -- the one featured on the cover of the Van Halen I -- started out as a white guitar with black stripes. As his popularity exploded, he soon found his guitar being copied not only by fans but also by a few Japanese guitar companies who were making a few unlicensed 'tributes'. To throw them for a loop, he masked off certain areas of his black and white guitar with tape and sprayed everything red. When the tape was removed... well, you know the rest.

Fender could have just gone with a single template and sprayed all the different colors on all at once, but it would probably have caused the colors to run into each other, and the lines would not look quite as crisp as if they were sprayed on one by one, with each color layer allowed to dry separately. And you can see this in the finish -- the lines look slightly raised at the edges where the tape was peeled off after each color was sprayed.

EVH Wolfgang Humbucking Pickup

Earlier in his career, Eddie preferred a single humbucker screwed right into the body in the bridge

Double Phillips screws on each side of the pickup

position with a single volume pot and no tone control. He has said that he cannibalized the pickup, an original PAF, from an old Gibson ES335 he owned and dipped it in paraffin wax to stop microphonic squeal.

True to form, the bridge EVH Wolfgang humbucking pickup is screwed right to the body, but with two smaller Phillips screws on each side of the pickup instead of just one screw on each side. This makes for a very solid mount and I can't even get the pickup to move even a tiny bit back and forth when I grab on it!

The EVH Wolfgang pickup features Alnico II magnets, have a DC resistance of 14K and are double wax-potted to ensure absolutely no microphonic squeal even at ear-shattering arena volumes.

How It Sounds

All this jibber-jabber would mean diddley-squat if the guitar didn't sound good.

When I brought my EVH Striped series to my usual Monday night gig, I was a bit worried as to how it would fare tonally, with only a bridge pickup and a single volume control.

Low-friction 500k volume pot -- most likely a Bournes pot

My band's repertoire is pretty wide -- Hendrix, Cream, Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd -- and I do a fair amount of switching between the neck and bridge pickup during songs and on solos, along with much tweaking of the tone controls.

To be honest, I didn't feel I was missing my neck pickup at all. Although to compensate, the worry wort in me decided that I needed to set each of my overdrive pedals differently, one brighter, and one much darker with the tone almost rolled off.

But I found that I was fine with just hanging with one pedal into an early '90s Marshall SL-X head and cab the entire night. The Wolfgang pickup performed admirably, cleaning up nicely when I backed it off, and really laying on the juice when cranked.

And that low-friction pot -- it'll get away from you if you're not careful!

My guitar as it appeared on the Ikebe-Gakki site

The EVH Striped series is, all in all, a joy to play. And if you've been jones'ing to dust off your Van Halen riffs and licks with some Floyd Rose divebombs and stratospheric harmonic screams thrown in, this guitar is for you!

Don't forget to check out these sites:

Ikebe-Gakki.com

EVHGear.com

Vintage Gibson ES-175 Restoration

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 18:09:00 +0000

Our favorite local Italian luthier, Luca Quacquarella, was recently commissioned with this vintage Gibson ES-175 restoration.

This guitar, which dates back to 1964, was the property of one of the local hotels in Singapore and had been languishing in a damp basement storeroom, unplayed and neglected, for a few decades. Someone had even pasted a couple of hotel baggage stickers on the back, just in case the ownership of the guitar would ever be in doubt.

The nitrocellulose finish had clouded with the passage of time and the seam on the lower bout of the guitar had split due to water damage. The Hofner tailpiece, that someone had used to replace the original ES-175 'zig-zag' trapeze tailpiece, had also severely corroded.

Hotel baggage stickers

Although how anyone could possibly damage an ES-175 tailpiece to the point where it had to be replaced, we'll probably never know. Remember that this was a guitar used by the hotel lobby band and not subject to the rigors of outrageous stage antics or heavy usage. My guess is that someone took a fancy to the original tailpiece and swapped it out for the Hofner tailpiece when no one was looking.

Luca's first task was to remove all the hardware and electronics, labelling everything to facilitate their re-installation later. The pickups that came with the guitar had the rectangular black stickers with Patent No. 2737842 on the underside, and very large diameter volume and tone potentiometers, true to the period that this guitar was from.

Interestingly, Patent No. 2737842 was not the patent designation for the humbucking pickups but was actually the patent number for Gibson's trapeze tailpiece bridge!

As you can see in the pic on the right, the lower seam had completely split and was lifting away slightly.

After Luca glued the seams together, he needed to match the deep brown color of the original finish on the sides. Mixing dark brown nitrocellulose lacquer with a smidgen of black, he managed to perfectly match the original finish.

Relic'ing and check lines added!

To match the checking of the original finish, Luca added artificial check lines to the new, pristine lacquer. A good knowledge and understanding of the grain and directional patterns of how lacquer would naturally check is definitely required here.

Although the precise technique that he used to artificially create the checked lacquer lines is something that he does not seem to want to talk about. A trade secret shall remain a trade secret!

Once the repair had been completed, the entire guitar was gently wet-sanded to bring back some of the original shine of the lacquer on the headstock, back of the neck, and the body of the guitar.

But according to Luca, he was careful not to make it too shiny, lest it look too new and fake.

To complete the repair and restoration, an after-market ES-175 tailpiece and pickguard were special-ordered to replace the Hofner tailpiece and the original celluloid pickguard. Celluloid starts to de-gas after a few decades and this pickguard was already warped and starting to disintegrate.

CrazyParts.de in Germany, by the way, makes an excellent after-market ES-175 zig-zag tailpiece!

Looks like this 1964 Gibson ES-175 is ready for another 50 years of music!

Be sure to also check out my earlier interview with Luca Quacquarella

Refinishing My Les Paul BFG Part 5 | The Big Rewire

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 20:48:00 +0000

In this fifth and final installment of Refinishing My Les Paul BFG, I decided to let my good buddy Arnold San Juan put his remarkable skill with a soldering gun to good use and do a complete rewiring of my guitar.

Arnold San Juan

A sound recordist and mixer in the film industry -- twiddling knobs and faders of various persuasions -- Arnold is also remarkably adept at guitar electronics and building effects pedals. And his skill with a soldering iron has left many local electronics gurus slack-jawed in awe, he'll be the first to admit.

Jokes aside, this guy really is one of the best.

The Les Paul BFG comes with one of the strangest electronics configurations of any Les Paul model. With a P90 in the neck and a Burstbucker 3 in the bridge, both pickups have separate volume controls but a shared tone control. In place of where the neck pickup tone control would be, Gibson elected to situate the 3-way pickup selector switch.

And this is the main reason why I so wanted my Les Paul BFG rewired. Where the selector switch would normally be on a conventional Les Paul, Gibson, in all their unfathomable wisdom, chose to add an on-off 'killswitch'. Flipping the killswitch on and off rapidly creates an auditory version of a flashing strobelight, pulsing in rhythm to the music. Or out of rhythm, depending on who's playing.

I found the killswitch to be about as useful as a piece of gum stuck under my shoe.

During the first couple of gigs with the Les Paul BFG, I found myself instinctively flipping the killswitch when I really intended to change pickup positions. The first time it happened, the guitar went dead silent and I actually panicked for a microsecond before I flipped the killswitch back to the 'on' position.

I'd made up my mind. Someday I was going to rewire this thing to regular -- some might say boring -- old Les Paul specs.

My other good buddy Sherman (who regular readers will remember as a recurring figure on The Guitar Column) suggested that I get a new set of CTS 500k audio taper potentiometers -- 'long shaft' he emphasized, with a wink and a nudge -- and a pair of Russian .022 mf paper-in-oil capacitors.

CTS pots, Russian PIO caps and selector switch ring

It was all pretty much Greek to me, but shopping for parts I went. But I did know to also get the cool, cream plastic ring that said 'Rhythm' and 'Treble' on it for the selector switch.

And a custom-made pickguard by MojoAxe.

Sherman turned me on to MojoAxe, mentioning that they produced the most material-accurate plastic parts that even vintage Les Paul owners would turn to when they needed to get a spare pickguard or control cavity cover. MojoAxe also makes a well-intonated wrap-around replacement tailpiece for old and reissue Les Pauls.

And since the Les Paul BFG had a P90 soapbar in the neck and a humbucker in the bridge, MojoAxe would also be able to cut a custom pickguard for me.

Dealing with Dan at MojoAxe was an absolute pleasure. He asked for the measurement between the neck and bridge pickup and had the pickguard cut and mailed out the following day along with an aged nickel mounting bracket and screws. He even sent me the picture you see here before mailing it out.

Custom pickguard by MojoAxe

But back to the wiring. And a couple of potential problems.

The first thing we noticed when Arnold removed the original Gibson potentiometers and the 3-way selector switch was how much larger the hole drilled for the switch was. Remember that on the Les Paul BFG, the selector switch is located where the tone pot for the neck would normally be on a regular Les Paul.

I was a little worried because the tone control for the neck pickup was going to be re-situated there and that the hole would be too large to hold the pot in place. Fortunately, the metal washer that held the nut for the tone pot was wide enough to cover the hole entirely.

Note larger hole where the pickup selector used to be

The second thing we noticed was the unusually long pickup selector switch used on the BFG. Unlike the usual Switchcraft switch used by Gibson, this switch was a good 1/2" or so longer. Again I was worried that the switch would be too long for the cavity where the killswitch originally was.

Fortunately again, the plastic selector switch cavity cover fit over nicely, but in full contact with the square base of the switch. No problems there.

And did I mention that the Les Paul BFGs come with these cool clear acrylic covers for both the pickup selector and main control cavity?

The original killswitch came mounted on a nice, sturdy countersunk metal barrel that held the switch very solidly in place. After all, if one was to go ape with the killswitch all the way through a show, it had better be solid.

This metal barrel also fit the 3-way selector beautifully, but because of its slightly larger diameter, Arnold had to file and enlarge the hole of the plastic Rhythm-Treble selector switch ring. The cream plastic ring is purely cosmetic, I know, but I felt that the guitar would look incomplete without it.

On the advice of Sherman, I picked up a pair of .022mf Russian-made NOS (new-old-stock) paper-in-oil capacitors. Military-grade, and indeed, designed for military use, these caps are all the buzz on

Russian-made Paper-In-Oil .022 capacitors

Les Paul forums for their sweet tonal properties. They weren't that cheap but a definite improvement nonetheless, on the matte-orange .022 ceramic caps that came with the guitar. And as you can see in the pic, Arnold very thoughtfully applied rubber heat-shrink insulation to each leg of both capacitors.

If you're interested in these Russian vintage capacitors, the part number and description for them is K40Y-9 PIO (paper-in-oil). They come with a dark silver body and have just a +/-10% tolerance variance.

Arnold then asked me if I wanted my guitar wired in the 'modern' style or with traditional 50's wiring. These things always give me a case of option anxiety.

Consulting the Oracle Of All Things Gibson (the entity also known as our good buddy Sherman), he recommended going with the 50's wiring for more twang and clarity -- muddy-sounding Les Pauls, he said, usually came with the so-called 'modern' wiring. And with the P90 in the neck position, traditional 50's wiring would bring out the bright single-coil qualities of that pickup even more.

It's nice to have friends who know stuff!

Les Paul traditional 50's wiring. Very neat work!

Arnold proffered a practical solution to my conundrum and said that he would wire the guitar with 'modern' wiring, and then switch to 50's wiring to compare. Apparently, it was just a matter of moving one of the legs of the capacitors to a different lug on the potentiometer.

'Night and day' is probably the best way I could describe the difference between the two wiring schemes. The modern wiring sounded like how you would expect a Les Paul to sound -- fat and creamy, with the notes in a chord just melding together. If you were playing heavy-rock or metal, the modern wiring would probably be more suitable.

The traditional 50's wiring brought out a lot more clarity and and brightness. You could hear each of the notes in a chord, even through a distortion pedal. Single notes popped more, and had more definition with richer overtones. You could hear the string as you played.

Finishing touches

Another thing I noticed was that the volume and tone pots seemed more responsive. Playing through a Chandler Tube Driver with the gain up three-quarters (which is a ton of gain), I immediately noticed that rolling back the volume controls on the guitar to 3 or 4 cleaned up the sound considerably. Also, rolling the tone controls back, even to zero, didn't make the sound muddy or woofy. And the combination of using the neck P90 pickup and rolling the tone control back to 4 or 5 put me squarely in Grant Green-Wes Montgomery territory.

I was convinced -- 50's wiring it is then.

Great job, Arnold.

Coda

So, after about a month and a half of working on my Les Paul BFG project, we have reached the point where the guitar is probably more traditional Les Paul than BFG!

The guitar is light, probably from having all that wood shaved off the top, resonant, and a joy to play.

Done... finally!

No surprise that it has taken on a different personality from its previous incarnation. And it is loud acoustically. A lot louder than it was before.

Sherman probably said it best, "I don't remember your guitar sounding this good."

Pretty cool, coming from someone who used to sing in a club band every Monday and Thursday night for years with me playing this very same guitar!

And if you haven't already, be sure to read Refinishing My Les Paul BFG Part 1, 2, 3 and 4 and my Interview with luthier Luca Quacquarella.

Also, be sure to visit mojoaxe.com for the best in Les Paul parts.

Refinishing My Les Paul BFG Part 4 | The Final Reveal!

noreply@blogger.com (Clinton Carnegie) — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 23:10:00 +0000

A last look at the gold top

This installment of Refinishing My Les Paul BFG will finally reveal the completely resprayed guitar top in vermillion nitrocellulose lacquer!

According to Luca Quaquarella, the luthier who did the refinishing job -- and who was also featured in his very own interview in my last post -- the most difficult part of this project was sanding the top of the BFG completely smooth.

He sanded the top entirely by hand and had to ensure that the curvature of the arched maple top stayed true to Les Paul specs. His biggest concern was making sure that there were no flat spots that would ruin the curvature and symmetry of the arch.

In his own words, he sanded off "a hell of a lot of wood!"

After he mixed the right proportions of red and orange nitrocellulose, Luca applied many coats to the top, wet sanding between each coat. Bear in mind that only pure nitrocellulose lacquer was used.

Gibson now uses a nitrocellulose that has a good amount of plasticizer mixed in to give an impeccably shiny surface. Pure nitrocellulose will 'sink' into the pores and surface imperfections, so no matter how many coats you use, the same type of mirror-like nitro-mixed-with-plasticizer shine can never be fully achieved.

Applying the first few coats of nitro

I wanted to keep the back of the BFG in its semi-raw state. I felt that sanding it smooth and filling in the pores of the mahogany back would affect the sound of the instrument too much and suck some of the liveliness out of it. If you read my Larry Corsa article from a while back, he talks about the very same thing, and I'm totally with him on this.

And after all, it is a beautiful one piece mahogany back that is simply gorgeous to touch!

I also didn't want the neck refinished for the same reason but I did ask Luca to roll the edges along the entire length of the fingerboard on both the treble and bass sides. Rolling the fingerboard dulls that sharp 90 degree angle of the edge of the fingerboard so that it feels slightly rounded to the touch.

Again, true to the spirit of the Barely Finished Guitar concept, Gibson had left out this very important step.

As far as guitars, I can get used to almost anything. Set me up with minimal fingerboard relief, get the string height medium-low and the intonation in the ballpark, and the guitar is pretty much ready

to go as far as I'm concerned.

And if the frets don't draw blood, it's a bonus.

Playing the BFG consistently for a long time made me forget how rough the edge of the fingerboard actually is. But when I play one of my other better made Gibsons, and then come back to the BFG, this is when I start noticing how the edge of the fingerboard feels like a piece of firewood.

"The Gibson Firewood. A Few Steps Beyond Aged-Relic. It's Firewood!"

Perhaps not the best marketing campaign for a new Les Paul model.

Gotta love that flame top!

Luca also thoroughly cleaned and oiled the fingerboard and the back of the neck removing a lot of built-up crud from the fingerboard. He also took a razor blade to that hard-to-clean-spot right next to each fret.

And according to Luca, there was a lot of crud!

During my younger days, I would take all the strings off my guitar every six or seven months, and give the fingerboard a good scrub with a stiff toothbrush and lemon oil to remove every bit of crud. Those days are over. Life is just too short.

Stay tuned to Refinishing My Les Paul BFG Part 5 where we will get a cool custom pickguard by MojoAxe installed, as well as a complete rewiring done to do away with that dang killswitch!

And if you haven't already read the earlier installments, catch up on Refinishing My Les Paul BFG Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3