New Ibanez project!

Recently, the DIY bug got the better of me again. I know I have a spare Ibanez RG570(The gold one in the picture) body lying underneath my bed. One of the surplus parts I have from building guitars. I was just missing a neck to kick start the process. I wanted a MIJ super wizard neck but those are a lot rarer compared to a few years ago. Recently, MII made Ibanez has seen better quality production and I decided to try my luck on one of these.

I found myself looking at a MII SRG420FMZ neck. The main thing that attracted me are the sidedot inlays. Hence, I bit the bullet and ordered one of these necks but when the neck came, to my disadvantage, it was a "used" neck. Mounting holes were pre-drilled and the neck has scarfs all over. The lucky part was, to my surprise the mounting holes actually fit. I decided to fit the neck to my RG520QS body anyway. I left the old electronics in there and as such, this guitar is fitted with "Entwistles Dark Star" pickups.

I have always gotten good results from Gotoh machine heads and this guitar will not be an exception. However, as with all non MIJ Ibanez, the side holes on the machine head has to be drilled. Additionally, I  have a spare allen key holder which I decided to fit it to the guitar too. This will allow me to tune the guitar anywhere as I please. 

The second guitar which I build this week was a combination of the RG570 body and the RG 270 neck previously. I didn't have much problem fitting them together, as I've pre-dowel the neck to fit MIJ bodies. 

Again, I had surplus of "Entwistle pickups" and some guitar electronics. Hence, this guitar is fitted with Gotoh pots, switchcraft 5 way switch and "Entwistle HDN" pickups. More to come on the golden guitar!

Luther-ing morning

One of my friends gave me 3 guitars (In which I am going to mention 2). All of the guitars are actually replica guitars (No, I DO NOT ENDORSE REPLICAS). However, the DIY bug in me wanted some free guitars to work on and hence, I took all 3 guitars home. So, finally, I decide to spent the whole morning and half an afternoon doing luther work on these guitars. The evident thing about China Replica guitars is, it's either a hit or miss thing. And those that he passed me, are pretty much misses. First up is the Jackson Kelly replica. First off, since it is a floating tremolo guitar, the stock floating tremolo honestly is a piece of crap. Not even worth salvaging. Hence, it's replaced with a Korean Floyd Rose licensed. One thing to note, if you ever want to buy a China Replica guitar (No, honestly, don't buy them), do not buy guitars with floating bridge. This guitar took off extra hours off even after I level the frets. It's honestly hard to setup as well, thanks to the poor craftsmanship. I nailed it in the end though.

Second up is a Gibson Flying V copy. Now, the copy is bad. Really bad. One look and you can tell it's a fake. But besides that besides the point, I did fret leveling on this guitar and added a shim to it. This isn't as hard to setup compared to the Jackson Kelly copy though. All and all, these guitars gave me an eye opener on Chinese copies. Could have swore that my Al Di Meola copy wasn't that bad.

Jack Tammarat

Jack Tammarat came down to Singapore yesterday. I missed his performance yesterday but instead, I went down to the grand opening of Sound Alchemy music school. Jack was invited to showcase and played there. The only thing I can say about Jack is, he is an amazing player. No wonder on why he won the guitar idol competition.

Steve Vai's Story of Light

Finally, the awaited album is finally here in Singapore and I have finally gotten my hands on a copy! After spending one hour listening to it, I concluded that this is one of Steve Vai's best albums. In fact, I feel this is Steve Vai's second best album next to Passion and Warfare! I urge everyone go out there and get a copy of this. It's mainly rhythm influenced but a superb album nonetheless! Well of course, it's Steve Vai!

Steve Vai's Rig run down

I woke up this morning, feeling very drowsy (the effect of how intensive work can do to you) and having the habit of reaching out to my phone and click on the facebook tab (Andriod phone), I saw this video glaring at me, posted by my friend on my wall. For those of you who don't know, I am an avid Vai fan. Yes, read avid.

Anyway, the title reads "Steve Vai rig run down". I was thinking, another one of those? Didn't he do one years ago. Well, I was shock to find the amount of changes he done to his rig. He took out the TC eletronics G system and instead, added in Fractal Audio Axe Fx II. He added a whammy DT to his board as well.

We also get a tour of his room filled with guitars. Do take sometime off to watch this exclusive video by premiere guitar of guitar/gear porn.

Noir, Local Singapore contemporary Jazz Band

There was one Saturday about 3 weeks ago where I was wandering around aimlessly. Well, actually, that seems to be the common occurrence anyway. I went to the Esplanade and there was this fantastic contemporary Jazz band performing. Well, I am not exactly a great Jazz fan but I do appreciate Jazz. They were so fantastic that I keep wanting to buy their CD. Well, today I gave in to temptation and bought the CD. Although, I have to say that the CD is somewhat disappointing, it wasn't as good as they were when live. Well, at least I did a recording with my phone and going to share with all of my readers out there. Copyrights all rights reserves to Noir, who performed this piece on that day. Well, and they made my day!

Noir It might as well be spring.mp3 by Adrian Goh

Singapore Street Fest DJ party

Sorry for the disappearance for the past few weeks/months. My new job has been pretty taxing and have been really busy. As with taking on all forms of new job. Anyway, I was at the Singapore street festival last week, at Vivocity, looking for free entertainment. Tons of cosplayers but I wasn't there for them. I wanted to watch the band performances. Two bands kind of shouted out to me to highlight them. Alright, I admit it's not the bands. It's the guitars.

First off the list, is Haruna Tan and her band. Sorry, I don't remember her band's name. Her vocalist has to introduce her in such a dramatic way that I can only remember her name. Anyway, she is a fantastic guitarist. She has the chops and the fluidity. She plays an ESP guitar.

Anyway, her band is a pretty good one. In fact, one of the better ones in the whole line up. I'll definitely watch them again, given the chance. I've attached a video of them for the convenience of my readers. Look at the way she plays! No pun intended.

The other guitarist that I would like to highlight is this girl from this band (Yes, I don't know the name for both) who uses an (ESP) Edwards Horizon III. Yes, you read it correctly. I want to repeat. (ESP) EDWARDS HORIZON III. That's a really beautiful guitar mind you. Her playing is alright, with the standard metal chugga chugga kind of style. But did I mention she has an AWESOME guitar?

Overall, it was an alright experience. The performances were prettey enjoyable as a whole. I'll wait for next year again, for the next street fest!

Yngwie Malmsteen Far Beyond the Sun Live in Lennigrad

Some people hates him. Some people loves him. I dun hate him but I don't adore him either. However, this is a tune that I can never get boring of. This song also seems to have become the protocol where most technical players will have to know how to play this before they can be considered shredders. Well, enjoy this anyway. This was when Malmsteen actually still has that experimental streak in him.

Guitar Link with TH2

Just gotten my hands on a guitar link recently. As most of my readers might recall, I was using this guitar simulator effect called the TH2. The guitar link is one of the ways to be able to connect to the computer, other than owning some sophisticated mixer or equipment. This tool is totally no frills and serves only one function. It isn't very expensive to boot! If you are on a budget and limited to not being able to have an amp in your room, this is the key answer to that!

Split coil installed

New Job started. Less time on my babies. However, I will never desert them. I finally got around in having a coil split switch installed on my Shishinhime. Went down to Beez and got this specially installed. As usual, Beez did a wonderful job and there probably isn't anyone else i would recommend for hardware installation.