Rally JD-QMA OBL

Recently, I have been bitten by the PRS bug. I have been watching too much video of the PRS factory tour and being a big fan of figured tops, I have been conditioned. However, I can't afford a PRS. It's expensive for me. However, I know there are good copies out there. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that the copies are as good. The copies themselves are good guitars. Just not PRS quality and workmanship. I headed down to SV guitars and aided by the friendly staffs, I was allowed to try the Rally copy of PRS.

A little history of Rally guitars. Rally used to make Epiphone for Gibson and they definitely know what they are doing when it comes to guitar crafting department. However, we are definitely not expecting a chambered body or top notch bullet fret ends or flames that pop in your face. However, what I wasn't expecting is a real quilted maple top for this price range. It actually has a real quilted maple top instead of a veneer, which is what most guitar companies will do for a guitar at this price range.

Although the headstock is significantly different from a Gibson or PRS, we aren't exactly looking for a direct copy aren't we? The fret ends of the guitar are nicely filed and rounded off. The rosewood (Sonokeling) of the guitar has an impressive sheen, almost flame like.

Instead of the usual Asian Basswood or Poplar in a PRS shape like most Gibson copies out there, the mahogany is pretty evident here and it's a set neck instead of bolt on neck. The mahogany used are pretty nice and has a good weight around them. This overall contributes to the warm tone and nice acoustics of the instrument.

What puzzled me was instead of the typical 10 inch radius which most PRS guitar has, the Rally copy has a rather flat raduis which looks very close to 16 or 16.9 inch to me. This to me isn't a bad thing as I am a huge fan of flat radius, thanks to my Ibanez guitars. This allows super low action without compromising fretting out when doing high bends. Additionally, the chances of the guitar buzzing with very low action is probably next to impossible. This makes this guitar superb for scaling.

The neck is fat. Baseball bat fat. While I am not a fat of baseball bat necks, I was able to break into the neck effortlessly. I have to say that the neck is very well constructed and doing fast runs on the neck is rather easy.

Electronic wise, I believe that these are pickups similar to those that comes with Epiphone units. I might be wrong about this but chances are, they are. The pickups aren't all that bad but they can be better. A pickup swap is highly recommended for the buyer. Tested both clean and with distortion, on clean the tone is fat and rather on the bright side, which is typical of mahogany. Distortion, the tone is fat and punchy. It can get a bit muddy for solos but that is probably just the pickups.

For anyone looking for a good PRS copy on a budget, I urge the prospective buyer to go look for the Rally PRS copy unit. This is by itself a very good guitar and with modification, it can be a workhorse that can serve you very long and even wow the crowd.

For more information, click here.

TH2 Overloud custom Steve Vai lead patch according to Steve Vai's rig

Alright. This is another one of those Overloud TH2 patches that I am so obsesses with lately. This time, instead of getting the setup from my stomp boxes, I took out my Young Guitar Magazine and copied the setup stated in there as close as I can find them. The amp simulator I used in the program is a Bogner Ecstatic patch and is what Steve Vai was using before he switched over to Carvin. I also changed the signal chain a bit but the 2 4x12 cab stayed. Played with my Frankenstein and recorded with my super awesome phone, the Samsung Galaxy S2. I have to say, this patch sounds a lot closer to the one I made previously.

TH2 Overloud custom Steve vai FTLOG patch by Adrian Goh

Steve Vai custom patch for Overloud TH2

I was having too much fun in playing around with the TH2 program and decided to have some fun by trying to get Steve Vai's "For the Love of God" sound with the patches. The effects and amplifiers choose are based on my pedalboard. Settings are set to what I think Steve Vai settings are in his amp. The clip is recorded with my Frankenstein and again with my super awesome handphone, the Samsung Galaxy S2. Check out the 2 amp heads with 2 4x12 cabinets! Things that I can't afford but the program makes it possible!

Overloud TH2 with custom Steve Vai lead patch by Adrian Goh

TH2 Overloud simulator program

Just gotten my copy of the TH2 Overloud custom and I must say, this program really rocks. The amp and effects simulator are all top notch and I am actually running this through my netbook. I did a quick recording with my Frankenstein with the guitar hero patch. Once again, recorded with my awesome Samsung Galaxy S2. Also, the output speakers are just ordinary Altec Lansing desktop speakers with subwoofer. It sounds pretty good for a pair of laptop speaker!

Ftlog by Adrian Goh

Rock meets Pirates of the Caribbeans

Another day of random Youtube surfing and I found this. Check out Hayatebune! I think he is the first person who got the whole Pirates of the Caribbean theme song together in Rock theme. I have to say he did a pretty good job at it and it sounds really good. He is also one of the guitarist who usually appear in the internet guitarist concert in Japan, held by Hidenori in Japan.

DIY Fret crowning tool

I was checking online on how much it would actually cost to get a fret crowning file and it actually cost quite a fair bit to get a file that I will probably use once in a very long time. I read somewhere online that I can actually do it with scrap pieces of wood and some sand paper. The whole idea of crowning is to get the fret to return to round shape after a fret leveling. So I decided that it is probably cheaper to get sand paper and some wooden blocks to do this.

I actually get most of my stuff from Daiso, the $2 shop. It actually has a lot of DIY tools that are really cheap. You can see that I gotten myself many different types of needle files with diff filing texture. Needle files are very useful for fretwork and they don't cost a lot. Sometimes, if it's just one or 2 frets buzzing, just a quick file and crowning on the fret can actually solve the problem instead of full neck fret leveling. Well in this case, I just want to do a Fret crowning block.

First, I create a groove on one of the blocks. This is a guide to the center point where I will begin filing with a needle round file. Beginning filing until an obvious groove appears. Look at the top pic for example. That's it. My very own fret crowning block. Now, how do I crown frets with this?

It's actually very easy. After the frets are leveled and probably flat, after taking off quite a fair bit of metal, hold the block with the groove below and stick a piece of sand paper on the block. Angle the block making sure the groove touches the fret and begin filing. I use 180 grit sand paper for this operation. Make sure that you do not over sand it as the sand paper takes away the metal pretty fast. All you want to achieve here is for the frets to become round. Not further flatten the frets.

I've tested my fret crowning blocks on one of my guitars and I must say that this works perfect. Not to mention, it is so much cheaper to make one of these instead of buying one of those fret crowning tool. Notice the first 2 fret being more shiny than the other frets? Those are the frets I've tried on.

On a side note, someone actually taught me to use a pair of disposable chopsticks for this. Get one of those disposable chopsticks that are joined, and use the end (the part that hold both sticks together) and a piece of sand paper for the same application. However, what I realized is that the wood for disposable chopsticks are too soft and warps out of shape too easily.

Made in A country is better than made in B country?

This is a common scene everywhere in the world. People are claiming that a guitar made in "US/Japan" is probably better than a guitar made in "Indonesia/China". What do we define as better? Tone? Quality? Craftsmanship? Play-ability? There are a lot of factors that contributes to this meaning of good. Being an avid guitar DIY person for over 4 years, I've came to a few factors that if those points can be rectified, "Good" is only a variable that can be tweaked.

I've once walked into a store with people claiming to me, that a particular guitar "Sx" Strat is not as good as the "Squier" strat and how a Mexican Strat pales in comparison to a US made one. Really (Inserts sarcastic tone here)? I bet that if I were to put that person in a blind test on both instance with the same electronic parts, he probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between guitars. I am not saying that there isn't a difference in tone for different woods. In fact, there is a huge difference between different woods. However, we know that most of the tone of electric guitar comes from it's electronic parts. Which means, the amp and pickups play the most important role in defining that tone. Does that mean that we can buy any cheap Chinese knockoffs, throw in really top end boutique pickups and it will scream like there isn't an end till tomorrow? The answer is no. Imagine if you put and really out of shape person into a pair of top end running shoes. Do you think such a person can finish the marathon with top timing? The answer is pretty obvious. The person wearing the shoes will need training and toning and in guitar terms, setting it up right.

I firmly believe that the guitar sounds as good as the player playing it, and the person setting it up. It's just that simple.Let's talk about setting up. Why do we often hear that Japanese guitars are better than Chinese made ones? Well, that is almost a given and in fact, I agree to a certain point. However, what is so great about the Japanese made guitars are the superior quality of the hardware and by far, the most important point; the quality control. Japanese are well known quality control freaks.

Let's take one variable and change it around for now. Let's say we take a Chinese made guitar and put in Japanese superior made hardware and parts. Let only the body and the neck stay. Put quality control out of the picture and presume that the person who is doing the swap knows what he is doing. Let's put (Insert your favourite guitarist here) as a player for this new guitar. Will the guitar actually sings? My answer to that is yes. Definitely yes.

What I am trying to say here is, the guitar is only an instrument and play-ability is the only thing that stops a guitar from being good. Not the place of it's origin. We have seen good wood from China and that includes Rosewood, Mahogany and Maple. As long as the neck and body fit is alright (This is one of those points that is actually hard to rectify) and the wood is decent to semi decent, as long as the person setting it up knows how to set it up properly, the sub par Chinese made instrument can turn into a high end instrument with quality parts. I've proven that with my Squier. (I have done an awful lot of work with that).

Remember, the guitar is only as good as the player playing it and the person setting it up.

P.S. The pictures of Ibanez RG350 and RG2570 is only an example of Indonesian and Japanese made guitar used as a comparison.

Paul Danial and Michael Das performance for Mosaic Music Festival

Last Sunday, I attended the Mosaic Music Festival, specially to watch this performance. Paul did a really great set on that night and I am always awed by the technical proficiency that he wields when playing the guitar.

As much as I am a guitar playing person, I won't ignore the fact that the bassist beside Paul is an excellent bassist. Again, watch out for the proficiency and precision when he plays the bass. Did I mention, nice bass he have there?

No more Rust 2!

I was looking at my Strat and I thought to myself. What exactly can I do to make it better that it already is. Don't get me wrong, it already is an awesome instrument. I saw rusting at the string trees and I know that Graphtech makes string tree too. I head down to TYMC and got myself a pair and changed the string tree.

I have to give thumbs up to this product. It allows me to do whammy with my strat and the string can go back to pitch without much problem. Not to mention, it looks really slick! Tone wise, well, I can't notice any much difference, even though the guitar by itself is already bright enough. Especially with the scalloped neck and brass nut.

No more Rust!

Finally done swapping out the old rusty steel saddles for the String Savers graphtech ones. They look really slick. These saddles are made with stainless steel. Including the saddle height screws. This means, no more rusting for the bridge area!

Shopping day! Snark Tuner and String Savers saddle

Ok. I have a confession to make. I am a shopaholic. Ok, not that bad of a shopaholic for stuff that I don't use but, I just enjoying shopping for Guitar related gear. I just happened to lost my tuner. Conveniently. I wrote about how good Snark Tuners are previously. Well, it isn't a lie. It is that good. The best part is after you string a note, the needle points to the tuning VERY fast and tight. Thumbs up.

The other thing I bought, was a set of String Savers saddles. If you have guess it, it is for my "Malmsteen". I like this guitar to look relic and used. However, I hate rusted parts. Why? Well, I hate the fact that the threading of the screws tends to wear out after rusting and not to mention, it leaves your hands really dirty after playing. So, I was contemplating on changing either the saddle height screws or the saddles themselves. Since a set of them retail for just below $40, I chose the latter. I wanted the full String Saver version but they only had the classic version left for my bridge's size. I got it anyway. The rust cannot stay!

Jem70VSFG first take

So, today I was wandering around Excelsior hotel and in SV guitars, the Ibanez Jem70VSFG was just staring at me. I couldn't resist. I had to try it. This is my first take of the instrument.

If your are thinking of getting this and hoping to get the feel of a Jem, this isn't like the Jem7V. It has a thinner neck compared to the standard Jem necks and the last four frets isn't scalloped. The frets aren't 6105 but instead the 6100. This means that it has the standard jumbo frets that comes with most of the other Ibanez.

That being said, this doesn't mean that this is a sucky instrument. The build of the instrument is top notch. The walnut strips behind the guitar are very thick. A lot thicker than the prestige. In fact, I would argue that the build of the instrument is comparable to a prestige or in fact better. The bullet fret end finishing is top notch and the inlays, even though plastic looks really sick. Nothing like a Chibanez. The tremolo that comes with this guitar is an original Edge and comes with locking studs. That is a big major plus point.

Tonewise, it display the standard overdose of mids from the Dimarzio Evos and the basswood body. Acoustic wise, the notes ring out clearly and sweet. This is really a top notch instrument. My conclusion from the first take is, this isn't like the other Jems. However, this is nonetheless a real Jem. And a different one that is very well build!

I saw this thing on the top of my amp.....

So I saw this standing on top of my amp and how lonely it was, considering the fact that I just gotten my Blackheart Killer Ant Head. So for reminiscent sake, I plugged my guitar into this little amp instead. The volume of this thing never fails to amaze me. However, that being said, I decided that since I can record with my super handphone now (Samsung Galaxy S2), I might as well do a short sound sample on how this thing actually sounds like with the Amp Cab. The Gain is set to 20%, the Tone is set to zero and the volume is set to 50%. The guitar I've used is Kizu. The whole sample is played with only the Seymour Duncan Customs pickup. Also, for the theme, I've played the starting of "Don't say Lazy", the first "Kon" ending theme.

Don't say lazy Vox Azusa Amplug by Adrian Goh

Guitar Bench online magazine

Guitar bench was an online site which was kind of like an online magazine, mostly giving information about acoustic or classical guitars. Instead of offering the information in an online forum style, the founder and owner changed it to an online magazine style instead. This is especially useful to people who have kindle or are reading this with their tablet on the go. I high encourage guitar enthusiast to go and take a read of this totally free magazine with a lot of guitar related information. Enjoy!

Click here!

New recordings for Kizu

While I was doing a recording for the Entwistle Dark Star neck pickup, I had Kizu right beside me. I picked it up, plugged it in and did a sound sample recording with Kizu. Kizu is equipped with Seymour Duncan Jazz neck pickup. Once again, pardon the sloppy playing.

Seymour Duncan Jazz Neo classical by Adrian Goh

Sound samples for Entwistle DarkStar Neck

Finally I've got around to do some recording for the Entwistle Dark Star pickup. Did I mention to anyone I have a really Awesome (sic) phone? I've just found out that, instead of trying to hunt for a condenser mic to do sound recordings, out of curiosity, I tried the voice recorder app that came with my phone and recorded some sound samples and to my astonishment, the quality is pretty good. Well, not studio quality but it's good enough that you can tell a difference in terms of tone.

The sound sample was obtained with my Frankenstein through a Monte Allum modded DS-1 with my Blackheart Killer Ant amp head. Tone was set to 9 o'clock, Level was set to 2 o'clock and gain was maxed out.

Entwistle Darkstar Neck Neo Classical Test by Adrian Goh

Fender N3 Noiseless Telecaster Pickups, both bridge and neck for sale!

Helping my friend to post this up. He has a pair of Fender N3 Noiseless Telecaster Pickups, both bridge and neck for sale. He is looking to sell at SGD$190 for those living in Singapore.

For those living overseas and is interested in the pickups, he is willing to send the pickups overseas too. He is looking at USD$160 including shipping.

Please drop an email to kirishima.rei@gmail.com for inquires or dealing.

Evolution of my Pedal Board part 7

This is the current pedal board that I am using now. Compared to the previous version, this version has gone through a lot of changes. We can see from the pictures about that some pedals has been cycled out while there are additions of several other pedals. Noticeably, the original DS-1 Monte Allum modded is no longer around. Additions to this board are BYOC 5 knob Compressor, BYOC Orange Distortion,  Boss Noise Suppressor (NS-1), Morley Little Alligator Volume pedal and a BYOC Reverb pedal. Also visibly, there is an additional pedal board to house the additional pedals which takes up a lot of space.

I originally wanted a super long pedal board, to be able to house all of the pedals but it seems that it might prove to be a problem, especially when I need to carry my pedals out for jamming. So my friend gave me a bright idea of getting another pedal board to add on as an extension. Since I am connecting my pedals in such a way, that I can separate them by "Drives" and "Modulation", I've decided as such to make 2 pedal boards in this category. In the event that I need to use them for Jamming, I only have the need to carry out my "drive" pedal board and this is by far a lot lighter compared to the full board. The next question is, when will I ever need to carry out 2 boards or have the use for all the effects? Well, maybe if I ever need to use it for a performance that requires me to use those effects or recording.

Again, this board is build with Steve Vai's setup with only stomp boxes in mind. The Morley Little Alligator has been added in for purely that reason. Of course, when I feel like doing volume swells or change my volume between lead and rhythm, this pedal is exceptionally useful. The compressor has been added for easier picking and more sustain when I am doing fast runs. The compressor sounds really transparent and has a very nice warm tone with nice pick attack. It does in some ways exaggerate the picking tone. The Orange Distortion is actually a clone of the original MIJ Boss DS-1. For those who have tried the MIJ Boss DS-1 with TA7136 Toshiba opamp, you will know what I mean. This pedal's tone is honestly amazing. The best part is, the guys from BYOC did additional modification by adding the preamp knob and allowing the option to add in additional switches for the Keeley Ultra and All seeing Eye mod. This gives me tones of tonal variation from just the DS-1 alone. With the preamp knob, I am also given the option of using it as a preamp pedal, by turning the gain knob to zero while boosting the preamp to my already overdriven tube amp.

The Noise Suppressor is there, to suppress noise obviously. There are times where I will be boosting my distortion to insane levels and I need the Noise Suppressor to suppressor the sound. There are times where I've plugged into an amp with ground hump and when my gain levels are slightly higher, the extra sound isn't tolerable.  This is where the Noise Suppressor comes in. Lastly, the Reverb pedal has once again been changed to the BYOC Reverb pedal. This pedal is honestly very warm sounding and it can do a slight reverb to lush cathedral hall kind of reverbs. The pedal sounds so convincing that if I were to accidentally kick it, I might actually expect spring like sound disturbance you might get from natural spring reverb. This is by far the warmest reverb pedal I've ever owned.

This is the last stage of "Evolution of my Pedal Board" series and there probably won't be any more articles on "Evolution of my Pedal Board" unless I add in more pedals. I am pretty pleased at the performance of this pedal board at I probably won't be adding more pedals for the time being. Watch out of individual pedal reviews!

Evolution of my Pedal Board part 6

Nothing much has changed from the last version of my Pedal Board. However, at this stage, I am still experimenting my reverb. I've always wanted a cheap but good reverb and the Biyang Tri-Reverb is such instance. The problem with the Beta Aivin RV-5 is that it is too digital and cold sounding. I prefer something more warm. The Biyang Tri-Reverb is a true bypass pedal that has digital circuits that emulate analog reverb. It has tons of setting to boot. Although, I  pretty much only utilize the subtle reverb mode. This stayed in my board for a long while. To be continued

Stephan Forte playing for Jason Becker

Stephan Forte Playing for Jason Becker from Loudguitars.com on Vimeo.

Stephan Forte, virtuoso and guitarist of French progressive metal band Adagio played for Jason Becker at his own home. In his comments and in the video from his playing, you can see that he was in fact very nervous and to him, playing in from of tens of thousands of people is nothing compared to this experience. I believe that everyone of us have an idol that all of us would considered "God like" and to be able to play with or in front of this person is considered a lifetime achievement and experience. For Stephan, Jason Becker is this person.




Jason Becker is a prodigy guitarist that one can only see probably once in his lifetime. His speed and precision with the guitar is considered one of the top by many and has influenced many others. His mastery of the instrument is such that he can play purely on just legato and if he needs to play a lap guitar, he can just lay the guitar down on his lap and use it like a lap guitar.

This was however all before he is being diagnosis with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ALS, is a disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement. Jason is currently still composing music with only the use of his eyes and still inspires many up till today. Jason's story is one that can tell the world that nothing can stop one from achieving something that he is passionate and truly love.

Evolution of my Pedal Board part 5

At this point of time, I was pretty much quite sure on what I was going for. The previous casing was not big enough to contain all my pedals and as such, I shifted to a soft casing instead. Which is actually a lot lighter compared to the hard case. Also, since it's longer, it also allows me to fit in more pedals, which actually isn't a very bright idea considering how much they weight when together.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to snatch a MXR EVH phaser pedal which is used by Steve Vai. That immediately replaced the Biyang that I had before. Also, adding to the list of modulation effects that I have is a Beta Aivin RV-5 reverb pedal. To be very honest, this pedal is actually a clone of the Boss RV-5. No prizes for guessing! Having both a Delay and Reverb pedal allows me to achieve that "For the Love of God" Steve Vai kind of tone on pretty much any amp I want.

Additionally, I've also managed to land myself an Ibanez TS-9DX Tube Screamer pedal on a local forum at a really good price. This is once again a pedal that was being used by Steve Vai when he wants to do solo boosting. He actually replaced this pedal with the Jemini and his version of the same pedal is actually a Keeley modded version. However, mine remains stock. I use this pedal as a booster to my other drive pedals, to give me a thicker, creamier saturated tone. This is especially nice when boosting a modded DS-1.

It is actually quite hard to see in the pictures but the DS-1 I have is actually a modded version. It is done with the Monte Allum Mod and it has all 3 sounds of the DS-1. The stock, All Seeing Eye and Ultra Mod sound. This is particular useful as it allows me full tonal control over the kind of sound I want. Also, with all 3 different drive pedals, I am able to achieve different gain intensity, which pretty much allows me to do any drive voicing from slight over-driven blues to Heavy Crunchy Metal Distortions. To be continued