Jem "Evo Edition"

In the Namm show of 2012, Ibanez has a special treat to all Vai fans out there. Similar to the Yngwie version of the "duck", Ibanez produce a limited to 100 pieces Steve Vai's JEM "Evo". It is the replica of Steve's personal favourite guitar and comes with all the knocks and knicks.

The work man ship of the guitar is very impressive and every relic work on the guitar looks very similar and identical to Steve's favourite Axe. It also comes with the duct tapes that prevent the player to cause the string to stuck at the pickups.

Complete with the package is Steve's personal signature, drawing and numbering of this extremely limited production.

Boss GT-100

Namm show 2012 was just around the corner and this is truely the most exciting time of the year for all guitar lovers like me. Boss has something exciting this time round and they are show casing their latest of their GT line. The GT-12? Ok jokes aside, it's the GT-100.





This version of the GT line sports the DSP chip which increase the processing speed for effects tuning and not to mention, more accurate amp modelling. It contains a huge array of other effects including overdrives, distortions, delays, pitch shifters, modulation, reverb, and many more.





Newly designed interface also allows easier tonal selection. This version of the GT also has duo screen monitor which allows the user to navigate through the huge array of effects while programing the tones.

Attached are videos by Boss and Namm demos courtesy of Rob Marcello from Danger Danger.

Ibanez premium in Desert Yellow and Shocking Pink first looks

First looks on the Ibanez premium of the 2012 line. Desert Yellow and Shocking Pink has always been an iconic color for the era of hair metal and Ibanez was once famous for producing guitars of that era. Loud and bright colors with high output pickups makes this guitar for showmanship and it seems that it is here to stay. Instead of having them in the normal series such as the RG350DY of last year, Ibanez decided to up the quality this year round for these iconic guitars. Do enjoy the pics as most of us are also eagerly waiting for the arrive of these beauty.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy a very Happy Chinese New Year and use the holiday and long weekend for a well needed rest to recharge for the on coming year. Hopefully, the dragon year will be a year of wealth for everyone and a year of improvements for all guitar lovers and everyone else alike! Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Setting up an Ibanez part 3: Neck Shimming

First of all, allow me to explain what a shim is. A shim is a piece of something (usually cardboard) that is used to elevate the angle of your guitar neck, so that the upper frets are angled slightly higher. This allows you to adjust your bridge's height higher while keeping the action on the fretboard low.

After straightening the neck and balancing the spring of the floating bridge of my friend's Ibanez, I realized that the action of the guitar is still ridiculously high. Somewhere around 2mm on the 12th fret. The worst part is, the trem posts have been screwed down to it's maximum. Meaning, I can't lower the trem posts anymore. So the only option that is left in this case, is to shim the neck at the neck pocket.

I proceed to cut a piece of cardboard (I used a name card) at about 1.5 cm, remove the neck from the neck pocket and placed it towards the very end of the neck pocket as shown in the picture. If you are using a piece of cardboard as a shim, please keep in mind that there is no real need for you to make the holes for the screw. Since the screws are already sharp, you can actually screw through the cardboard pretty easily.

Proceed to string up the guitar after re-attaching the neck back to the neck pocket. Make sure all 4 screws are tighten. We don't want the neck shifting around in the neck pocket after you have strung up the guitar. Some of the tuning instability can be attributed to this. After that, proceed to adjust the action of your guitar again and make sure that the neck is still straight and the spring of the bridge is balanced. Test every note on the neck and make sure that no notes are chocking or buzzing. Especially around the upper fret area. Notice in the picture on the super low action I was able to set for my friend. There weren't any buzzing or whatsoever. The guitar now plays like a dream. At least a shredder's dream.

Setting up an Ibanez part 2: Truss Rod adjustment

Usually, when we purchase a guitar from the store, chances are no setup was being done to the guitar. There is a high percentage that the neck is warped or bowed if it's a metal/steel string guitar. The good news is that it can be rectified with slight adjustment of the truss rod.

What is a truss rod? The truss rod is a piece of metal rod within the neck that is used to stabilize and adjust the lengthwise forward curvature (also called relief), of the neck. The truss rod is also the fear of many players who never dared venture into the realm of setting up guitar themselves and mere mention of adjusting the truss rod can probably scare them away. However, have no fear. It isn't that scary if you know what you are doing. IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!

First, to determine if you guitar needs a truss rod relief. You will need to check if the neck is warped in anyway.We usually call this up bow or back bow. To determine the bow, please click here. Once you determine the warp, it's time to rectify the problem.

We can determine that the guitar used in this example (My friend's Ibanez Guitar) has an up bow, due to the action and the slight curve at the 12th fret.

Usually located at the headstock of your guitar, covered up by a plate is the access to the truss rod of your guitar. Use a Hex key or an Allen wench (depending on the shape of your truss rod) and slot it in as shown above. There are 2 schools of thoughts on whether you should loosen the strings or not. In my opinion, there isn't a difference. We would want to determine that after straightening the neck, it should be straight right? If that's the case, why not leave the neck with strings strung on with full tension?

Anyway, the guitar used for the example in the picture above has an up bow neck and the way to rectify it is to tighten the truss rod. Usually the direction to turn (left), as shown in the picture above is to tighten the truss rod and the opposite direction (Right) is to losen the truss rod. There are exceptions but I am use you can feel if the truss rod is tightening or losing when you are turning the wench. Continue tightening the truss rod until the neck is straight or the truss rod is really tight. Which in this case, stop turning. If you force tight truss rod, you might break the truss rod and hence spoiling the neck. It causes as much as replacing the neck to replace the truss rod. So, do not force it to turn! Remember to do small turns and constantly check the relief of your guitar after adjustment.

After adjusting the truss rod, check the relief again. After that proceed to tune up the guitar and play the chromatic scale on the whole neck making sure that all notes right out properly and isn't buzzing. If it's buzzing, check the action of the bridge, making sure that it isn't too low. At the same time, check the relief making sure that the neck isn't bowed at all. If the notes are buzzing around 1st to 12th frets, chances are the truss rod is too tight. Proceed in loosening the truss rod and try again. If it's buzzing around 13th fret and above, chances are, the action of the bridge is too low. Raise the action and check again. Just make sure that all the notes on all the frets are ringing out nicely. Once the notes are ringing out on all the frets, neck adjustment is done. Now, it isn't that hard isn't it?

Setting up an Ibanez Part 1

For those who wants to skip the story, just go to paragraph 2. I received many mails asking me how to setup an Ibanez nicely and I seldom have the chance to get a badly setup Ibanez for an example for picture taking but luckily, my friend happened to just bought one which was pretty badly setup. So as a favor, I will be doing the setting up for him.

First of all, the action of the guitar is high and from the first look, it can be attributed to the spring of the floating bridge not being balanced and neck warp. Whenever you wish to lower the action of the guitar, NEVER, I repeat, NEVER, did i say NEVER start with the truss rod. The truss rod is a rod that counter acts the tension of a steel/metal string instrument and it is not a magic wand that magically lowers the action of your instrument.

From the above example, we can tell that the bridge is tilted forward. For an Ibanez Edge bridge, the saddles or knife edge should be perpendicular to the cavity line of the body.

In this case, I will start with adjusting the spring claw screw in an attempt to balance the spring. Tighten the screws in this case as you want the spring's tension to be tighter to pull the tremolo down. If your tremolo is tilted towards the tail, loosen the screws.

There isn't a sure formula on how much you need to tighten and I usually do it with an estimation of half a screw turn. Do note that a little twist is enough to change the balancing of the tremolo.

After tightening the screws, proceed to re-tune the guitar to standard (or whatever alternate tunings) with a tuner (This is extremely important). Make sure that all notes are resting at the correct pitch accurately. Check again if the saddles or knife edge should be perpendicular to the cavity line of the body. If it isn't, check again if it's being pulled upwards or tilting backwards. Repeat tightening or loosening the screws until the saddles or knife edge should be perpendicular to the cavity line of the body.Remember to stretch the strings to make sure that it doesn't go out of tune later on when you decide to abuse the whammy.

After balancing the springs, the bridge should look like this with the knife edges or saddles perpendicular to the cavity line of the body.

Stephan Forte Practicing?

Adagio is a French progressive metal band that is founded by Stephan Forté and he is well known for his compositions that is both dark and technically demanding. Recently, he posted his own practice video and from the looks of it, its probably a level that most of us can only dream of being able to play at. Nonetheless, this video gives a rough idea on how Adagio sounds like as a band.

Stephan Forté uses a LAG SF1, his own signature series by LAG guitars. It is a seven string guitar that has 27 frets and is scalloped from 18th to 27th fret. It features Dimarzio pickups that can only be obtain from this model. Unfortunately, we don't have access to LAG guitars here in Singapore but from my time testing it in France, it definitely is a brand of noteworthy.

Tightening the Tremolo Claw screws?

When you buy a guitar or own a guitar that sports a traditional tremolo bridge, sometimes, you might notice that the bridge seems to popping out of the cavity, making it "float" and sporting a higher action. This is good if you enjoy a higher action and want the floating function.

For those who prefer not having their tremolo bridge floating, you can actually rectify the floating by tightening the 2 screws behind, commonly known as the tremolo claw screws.

Ibanez M8M (Meshuggah signature model)

Finally, an 8 string signature from Ibanez. This is the guitar of Mårten Hagström and F redrik Thordendal. Instead of having two humbuckers, the guitar sports 1 bridge humbucker instead.

Mshuggah is an extreme metal band from Umeå, Sweden that features voice grinding vocals and hard pumping guitar riffs.

Ibanez Premium JEM70V SFG

It would seems that the Ibanez Premium series is a success as the next premium line up, there is even an Ibanez Premium Jem. Instead of something like a Jem junior or Jem 555, the premium Jem actually features an original Ibanez Edge bridge with vine inlay extending all the way to the 24th fret, unlike it's made in Japan and Korea siblings, the Jem 505 and Jem 555. To make it even more exclusive, it is offered in a color exclusive only to the premium series; Sea Form Green. Finally, a Jem that doesn't compromise the inlays nor bridge quality and is cheap(er). I also see this as a huge step taken to combat against counterfeits commonly known as Chibanez. I look forward in seeing and testing and maybe buying the model.

Kiko Loureiro Sambal Da Elisa

Kiko Loureiro is the well known guitarist of Brazillian power metal band, "Angra". Other than being a very good technical player of heavy metal riffs and licks, he is also a very accomplished Brazillian Jazz guitarist. Sambal Da Elisa is a track off his second solo album which is more Jazzy compared to his first solo album. Nonetheless, I really enjoy the second album and this is one of the tracks that left a sweet aftertaste.

Portable Gear II

Before I got myself a Vox Amplug, my portable gear revolves around a pair of headphones, a pair of guitar cables and the Line 6 Pocket Pod. I wanted something similar to a Pandora but a little extra. So I went ahead and got myself a pocket pod and it was one of the most worth it investment ever.

For starters, it comes with various level of distortion and amp patches. This gives me the versatility of having mild over driven gain to heavy crushing metal distortion. Additionally, since it's a digital effects unit, I get access to many other effects such as flanger, phaser, reverb, delay and etc.

It also has an USB pod where I can configure my personal settings via a program that I can download off the Line 6 home page. I also get to download ready made patches by users all over the world and load it into the device just like that.

The amazing part of all, I get the excess to quality sound anywhere and anytime I want them.

Hayatebune wishes everyone a Happy New Year!

This is a video of Hayatebune. One of my all time favourite Japanese Youtube guitarist. This was played in response to the change to the year of the Dragon and we can hear the Malmsteen-ish influence in his playing from his use of scale running and series of arpeggios. Hope you enjoy the video and feel the festive New Year as I have watching and listening to him play.

Children of Bodom LIVE Chaos Ridden Years

A day of random net surfing and I found what seem to be in my constant playlist. Children of Bodom Live. The best part about the youtube clip is, it is the full concert length.

This concert kind of reminds me of the one that just happened in Singapore. Their concert are so ever amazing and full of energy. This is coming from someone who doesn't listen to a lot of music that involves voice grinding and screaming,

Ibanez FR series in mid range category

The Ibanez FR series is a model based on the Fender telecaster. Instead of a fat C shape-ish neck like the telecasters, Ibanez decide to keep with it's tradition of thin wizard neck which they are so famous for. I believe there is even an industry standard to refer thin neck as "Wizard Thin".

Another difference being with the bridge of the FR models, known as the tight end bridge. The FR models used to be only prestige but it would seem that Ibanez wants to break into the mid range market segment this time. Think of it this way, an affordable Telecaster-ish guitar with the attributes of Ibanez. Not a bad idea at all I would say.