Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock Band Set

Happy New Year!

I haven't been posting for quite a while. The Guitar Junkie has now been moved to blogger so here's a new post to kick off the new year.

To curb that inner kid in me. I just had to get this with an excuse that my kids wanted a go at it. Kinda pricey for plastic equipment but loads of fun. I did not get the set for the guitar but it was more for the drum set. An additional Nyco pedal is on the way for double pedal mayhem. 

Yamaha Arius YDP S31

I'm not all guitars you know.

I'm a bit of everything.

No strings attached.

Alert! Stolen Suhr Pedals

A Suhr Riot (S/N: 2268, Magenta) & Shiba (S/N:987, Electric Blue) were stolen on 14/12/2010 from Woodworkz. Our Singapore Police Force is investigating. If anyone out there stumbles upon these 2 particular serial numbered units, please alert the good folks at woodworkz.

SLASH Asia Tour 2010

If you have been living under your little sisters bed and don't know by now, Slash is coming to town!

Ask any rock guitarist out there about a Les Paul and slash’s name will come into mind. The living rock guitar icon will be making his way to town for a one night concert at the Fort Canning park on August 2nd 2010. His posse will include the vocal talent of Myles Kennedy of Alterbridge fame and Coheed And Cambria. Slash and his posse will be dishing out new songs from slash’s new album along with some good old G&R hits according to sources and this is going to be a heck of a wild show!

I remember those G&R days, Slash made guitar playing so darn cool. That big curly afro, a cancer stick up his lip looking buzzed out and playing those killer riffs with so much aw and mojo. Everyone wanted a Gibson Les Paul Standard Gold Top after watching slash walk out of the church to shred his guitar solo in the November Rain MTV. It was just too damn cool! Way back then, the Singapore government banned the Metallica and Guns & Roses world tour in Singapore with fears of violent public reactions during the concert. I guess those days are over and things are starting to open up here in sunny Singapore.

Now here’s your chance to catch this rock guitar icon in the flesh! Mark my words, Slash will be a legend in his own right in time to come. Do not miss this rare opportunity!

With the concert in mind, the good folks at LAMC Productions and Visa, will be holding an Air Guitar Contest from 9 – 28 July, where contestants simply have to submit a 30-second video clip of their air guitar performance covering any Slash song to win. The winner of the contest will win for themselves some great prizes which includes tickets to the show, a Jim Dunlop Crybaby Slash Wah, an autographed Epiphone Les Paul (What?! it’s not a Gibson?) and a chance to meet the rock icon himself in the flesh who will autograph your axe. take some pictures and maybe even share a joint with you. Just kidding on the last part.

Click on the picture above to join the contest!

Please Log on to http/lamcproductions.com/ for more info on the concert and contest details!

Hurry! Get your tickets now!

Since we are on the topic of Slash, Check out this Gibson Slash Appetite For Destruction Les Paul!

G.A.S .........

Guitar is Available at Davis Guitar

Price: Arm, Leg, Kidney and Maybe Your Wife.

Retro Ibanez RG

Just completed the mods to give my Ibanez 350MYE a face lift.

Ibanez RG350MYE

Dimarzio Breed pups

Redone and Rewired all the electronics.

My conclusion after this project is that colored parts are hard to find locally. If all else fails, Ebay is the answer....

Ibanez RG350M YE

This just in from the good folks at BGW Guitars! Excellent service as always. Thanks Brendon!

• Basswood body

• Maple Wizard II neck

• Maple fingerboard

• 24 jumbo frets

• Black dot inlays

• INF3 humbucker neck pickup

• INF4 humbucker bridge pickup

• INFS3 single middle pickup

• Edge III tremolo

• Black hardware

Recently i have been gasing for a RG. Many non modern guitars have passed through me or maybe i just wanted to feel young again. It crossed my mind to purchase a higher end MIJ Ibanez models but ended up choosing this affordable MII piece instead. Before commiting to a purchase, I googled for info on this guitar and some sites claim that these RG350MYE's are limited edition but i'm seriously not too sure about that claim.

The big selling point for me here is the maple fretboard and neon yellow finish. I wanted something that screams big hairy 80's and found this as the perfect candidate without having to dry my pockets for that moment of G.A.S that might fade overnight.

Ibanez have a huge array of RG's and i have to admit that it can get rather complicated if one does not keep track. There is just too many RG models in the market! Most RG's come with a basswood body. Many will cry "cheap wood" or "soft wood" but basswood bodies does have it's own advantages it more ways than one.

Factory Setup

Straight out from the factory setup with the standard 9's, It was not bad and the electronics were wired quite well. Action and setup were pretty decent and playable straight from the box.

The Indonesian QC Department

According to the QC hang tag. My RG350 was inspected by Salim & Haris. I closely scrutinized the make of the guitar and i was not too impressed at all with the QC. The back of the neck was not sanded down well (fixed with some ultra fine sanding), The painjob was scratchy at the heel of the neck where the 4 bolts go. Besides these factors, The make was pretty decent. No major manufactuing flaws were found.

The Edge III Bridge

Many owners have complained about the Edge III bridge. Most users mentioned that the Edge III would not stay in tune, it causes string breakage and it's unstable. I only have one thing to say about that... SETUP YOUR GUITAR CORRECTLY!!! I do not have any problems with my Edge III but if one is to compare it to a Edge Pro then do fork out the extra moola for those upgrades. As the saying goes in hokkien " Want Cheap, Want Fresh, Want Big Titties ". You pay for what you get. And the Edge III is not a bad bridge if setup correctly and that applies to all guitars.

Tone

The pickups are rather ok for a stock set of pups. I have heard worst stock pups but these infinity pups are on the ok side for stock pups. This is one department that this RG can do better.

What's Inside?

I took the guitar apart to have orange caps installed and also to check for any cold joints that needed my attention. The stock wiring was done neatly. No complaints there but i think i will see an upgrade to better quality electronics in this guitar. I was surprised to find that the cavities have been insulated with shielding paint. Not bad... This is something the guys at Fender need to add to their to do list in production.

Summary

This guitar does have it's pro's and con's and players who intend to buy the RG350 series can also think about saving up some money for upgrades to make this guitar a killer possesion. If you are into 80's big hair nostalgia and don't mind forking out some extra money to have the pups swapped, This is one good rekindled trip down memory lane that got murdered by teenage pop music.

New electronics, Neon pink dimarzio pups & neon green plastic knobs will be in the works sometime soon.

Rock n Roll!

More detailed pics can be found in the "Guitar Porn Gallery"

Suhr Riot Distortion Pedal #901

This arrived from the postman yesterday. It's always a nice feeling when you know it's something good inside. Packages from the postman never fails to bring a smile to my face.

John Suhr makes not only great sounding guitars but also stompboxes. This one here is the Suhr Riot Distortion pedal. I have tried hunting this pedal down from several online shops but most of them had been sold out. From my knowledge, these Suhr Riot pedals are getting snapped up everytime stocks arrive. Most online shops offer a T.B.A pre-order duration for at least 2 weeks but that was just not my thing. I needed the thrill of the hunt so I had no choice but to stalk ebay for several days. Finally 4 pieces showed up and the rest was history. The other 3 were snapped up within the day itself and it was back to sold out status again.

So what's the hype with this purple pedal? I have read many raving reviews on how excellent this pedal sounded and watched one too many youtube demos of this pedal in action. They sounded really good. Too good to be true! But does this pedal live up to it's hype for real?

First Impressions:

My first impression of this pedal was the color of the housing. If purple is your thing then i guess you'll love how it looks like grape candy when looked from reflecting light. The pedal is well built and feels very sturdy in hand and could probably take a couple of hard knocks.

Tone

I have read many reviews before deciding to take the plunge on getting one of these and all the reviews and hype i have read are true! This pedal really sounds more like an amp rather than a stompbox. Nice transparent tone with a good amount of gain. The pedal cleans up nicely when the volume is rolled off producing some very nice sparkle with my Fender American Deluxe. The voicing switch adds some versatility to this pedal. The voice switch enables some mid boost, scooped mids and a marshall vibe when toggled. There are many possibilites in tweaking to hit the right spot. It's hard to describe tone through words. Youtube has several demos of the pedal and they really can be accounted for.

In's & Out's

The usual input & output, 9v-18v dc input is there but this unit also has a special FX Link input. What the heck is that you ask? The FX Link is a way for MIDI to turn pedals on/off without having to insert them into a loop-switcher.

Summary

The many raving reviews online and on youtube speak for themselves and this pedal has a lot of tone to offer. On the downside, The Suhr Riot did not have insane amounts of gain on it's own but by stacking pedals with the riot can coax some major gain altogether. I'll recommend stacking it with a BB preamp. They work beautifully together and have very minimal noise issues on my strat with vintage spec pups.

If your setup consist of a clean tube amp, In my case, it's a VOX AC15 Heritage Handwired head and cab. The Suhr Riot pedal can compliment that clean amp into a modern hi gain stack. Lots of saturation, sweet overtones , transparency , tight low end, responsive dynamics and with a dash of rich harmonics. The Suhr Riot has the key ingredients of making a great dirt pedal.

Be sure to check out the Koko Boost and Shiba Drive as well. These Suhr pedals are really something.

Price

Buy It Now Price on Ebay at USD$199 excluding shipping.

Street Value: $250 - $300 Used

Ratings: 9.8/10

Danelectro Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive Re-House

When the Danelectro Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive V1 was released into the market. Many guitarist were so amazed at how this pedal sounded for a mere SGD$38. It was so good that people were calling it an exact clone/copy of Paul Cochrane’s Timmy pedal minus the waiting list and Fugly housing. The big turn off on this pedal would be how it looks. Many Cool Cat users hated how the knobs were placed on the pedal. It’s hard to access and tweak with the knobs placed so close together on the top side of the pedal. The green metal housing is a big turn off for many users too.

I decided to take this pedal apart and see what I could do with it. I love the tone of this pedal enough to want to try a re-house. The big problem here was to relocate the existing PCB mounted pots to the face of the housing and sadly, my un-steady hands messed up the pedal to the point that it made screeching noises when activated. It’s always good to attempt it before bringing it to the pros. It’s a good learning curve to attempt it even if there were risks involved. But in this case, the risk were not too costly so i guess it's ok.

So I took it to one of our local guitar techs to complete the job. Low and behold the Danelectro Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive Re-Housed with 4 knobs on its face, 9v dc on its side, battery compartment removed and housing painted.

BEFORE

AFTER

The Insides

Stripped!

Painted in Florecent Pink and Dried With My Wife's Nail Dryer Machine.

Just When You Thought Manicures Are Dumb.

Re-Assembled & Soldered

The Final Product!

The new housing now spots 4 knobs. Volume, Treble, Bass and Gain. The new pots used are 100k pots. I bet scott could not find 20k and 50k pots locally as these don't come by easily unless you have them shipped over. Changed the blue LED to a bright white LED, Changed the 3DPDT switch and new switchcraft inputs. Tone remains the same but just that the pots are more sensitive as the value for the new pots are higher and needs some getting used to in tweaking but it still beats the original placements of the PCB mounted pots. I have yet to get some waterslide decals to have fonts applied... On second thought, I might just leave it as it is. The lazy factor is kicking in after so much work.

Credits to Scott from Sound Alchemy for the re-house and also to my lovely wife for loaning her beloved Nail Dryer to me.

I'll name this pedal.....

THE HAIRY PUSSY !

Cat

Transparent Overdrive !

The BBE Sonic Stomp Sonic Maximizer "4th Gen"

The Maximizer! Not to be associated with the kind that involves trickery and deception to men. This one is a stomp box that makes a hell of a difference in tone. Like the manual quotes, "It's like removing a blanket over your amp". I first bought this pedal after reading many positive reviews over harmony central The BBE Sonic Stomp makes a crappy amp sound good and a good amp sound even better.



The Sonic Stomp has only two control knobs. "Lo Contour (Bass)" & "Presence (Treble)". I have always considered this pedal as THE MAGIC BOX. Some argue that an EQ pedal would be able to produce the same results but personally, It has that little bit of something that i can't really put my finger on about the Sonic Stomp. This pedal is a must have in my setup to boost my VOX AC15 Heritage to sound close to a modern Hi-Gain amp.

I had one of those "What the F**K" was i thinking!" moments where i blindly used a 110v 9v adapter that was provided together with the pedal to power up the Sonic Stomp and i'm living in a country with a voltage cap of 220v. The obvious happened and that incident left a void in my pedalboard. Big lesson learnt here on being conplacent. I had fried the IC chip and the pedal is now a paper weight on my desk. I thought i could go cold turkey and do without it but after months of not having it around, I felt that my pedalboard was really lacking a key ingredient so i had another one bought off ebay for half the price i paid for the first and this was the newer " 4th Generation" BBE Sonic Stomp Maximizer.

From Left: Old Version and the 4th Generation BBE Sonic Stomp

The 4G version sounds identical to the previous that i had owned. The main difference here for me is the change in it's cosmetics. It now spots new fonts and a new color. The new fonts somehow remind me of that 70's T.V show "I Dream Of Genie". The height of the housing is slightly higher compared to it's older counterpart. The Sonic Maximizer is also true bypass and runs on the regular 9v battery or dc power.

My final word on the BBE Sonic Stomp:

If you are using a vintage spec amp and looking for that little bit more versatility then the Sonic Stomp will really come in handy. It can also be used to boost the frequencies to bring out those solos and let that lead tone stand out in the band. Not only can this MAGIC BOX be used with guitars, it can be used with Bass, Keyboards and probably anything else which has a 3 3/4 inch jack that produces sound. It boosts the low and high frequencies very nicely and with a tinge of clarity to top things off.

I'll highly recommend this pedal to anyone looking for more "BOOMZ" in their setup.

Price & Availability:

I have seen the old version of this pedal at WoodWorkz some time back in the display window but it was only available for a very brief period of time. Swee Lee only has the rack mount version the last time i checked.

This pedal can be bought off Ebay at USD$69 excluding shipping.

Rate: 9/10

Xotic Effects BB Preamp USA

The pedal that is so famously associated with Andy Timmons. BB is also known to stand for "Blues Breaker" . It has a metal housing and is built quite well. Runs on 9v and is sized rather small in boutique fashion. I picked this one up pre owned. My first impressions of the BB preamp when i plugged it into my VOX AC15HW was the amount of creamy fatness it gives out with all knobs at the noon position and the gain at 9 o clock. The clean boost that the BB gives out is a warm sounding organic tone. Nothing digital about it since this is an analog pedal in all it's glory.

The BB has 4 knobs. Volume, Gain , Treble and Bass. When the gain knob is pushed up to 3 o clock, It produces saturation and the break ups are very nice and can produce tones that comes pretty close to Andy Timmons "Electric Gypsy". Another note about the BB is the dynamics that the BB is very capable of coaxing. There is no need to rool back the volume knob to get the tones into the clean categeory. Picking dynamics can greatly smoothen out the tone almost to a clean state.

Not only this pedal sounds good stand alone but when the BB is stacked, In this case i stacked the BB with a hardwire CM2 in classic mode, The tone becomes a fat saturated lead signal that is very harmonical in dynamics. This pedal stacks really well and is pretty quiet.

I would recommend the BB preamp if your looking for a warm clean boost and more. unlike the AC and RC booster, The BB preamp has got more versatility in terms of having more gain. The BB is definately not a one trick pony. There are variations for the BB as well, There is the BB preamp Andy Timmons signature, The BB Preamp MB Custom Shop ( MB stands for MID BOOST ) And the BB preamp plus.

Probably one of the better TS type pedals around.

The BB preamp retails brand new in stores around the SGD$300-$330 range.

Street value wise is around SGD$180 - $240

This pedal is definately staying in my rig!

Rating: 9/10