Something came in the mail today!

Something came in the mail today. This is part of my quest looking for cheaper and good pickups alternative. I've yet to test them though. Will probably do so after I finish testing my loot from yesterday (Blackheart Killer Ant).

Alan Entwistle is a guitar designer from UK and his CV includes heading up Hohner’s UK based Custom Shop where he designed models including the JT60, Blond, Black Widow and Revelation. More recently he has designed guitars for Alden and Tanglewood and his electronic circuit wizardry is being incorporated into selected Burns models. People who knows him hails him as the Guru of Guitars in the UK. The line of pickups are his own designed model and manufactured by Artec.

His pickups are one of those which are designed based off Neodymium magnets. For more information about his pickups, please click here.

Pickups that gives a run for your money part 1

Every now and then, I enjoy surfing the net looking for cheaper alternative replacements to the higher end parts. One of such parts are the pickups of the electric guitar. Let's admit it. Not everyone is able to afford Dimarzios, Seymour duncans or Bareknukles for all our guitars. Precisely for such reasons, I look for alternative pickups choices.

One such instance which i come across is Dragonfire pickups. I've recently gotten myself a pair of these for $29.90 and installed them in my Frankenstien. These pickups are definitely by far better than the stock pickups that come with the newer Ibanez models. Even compared to the older Ibanez V series, this pickup probably surpass in terms of tone.

The pickup doesn't go muddy when gain levels are cranked up high while the pickup remained highly define with responsive pick attack. These pickups also gives a hot, fat and creamy kind of tone without the harshness while leaning more towards on the bass side of the curve. The best part about these pickups is it comes with 5 wire allowing you to split the pickups giving you the option of single coil tone. This is a huge advantage compared to cheap or most stock pickups. For more information regarding the pickups, please click here.

My only qualms about these are that they lean too much on the bassy side to my liking. However, for people looking to replace their crappy stock pickups, these pickups are highly recommended. As a matter of fact, these pickups are even comparable to their higher priced counterparts of other brands such as Dimarzio and Seymour Duncans.

These pickups are made in Korea by Artec. Artec has been producing pickups for cheaper and lower end guitars for a long while and has since broke into the pickup market with their own line of pickups, going by the name of Artec Giovanni. Artec has also produced custom spec pickups for companies such as Guitarheads and Guitar Fetish.

Brand Concious Syndrome Part 1

There are many times when we decide to buy a piece of gear, the first thing that comes to our mind is probably the brand name of a product that we usually associate the product with. This is hardly a surprise and this is pretty evident in especially in Singapore. When I started changing the pickups of my first guitar, i wanted the best pickups with the amount of money I have. I bought a pair of Dimarzio Evolutions and don't take this in a wrong way. Dimarzio Evolutions are really good and probably still is my favourite pickup up till today. However, contrary to my believe at that time, installing Dimarzio Evolutions didn't make me sound or play anywhere closer to Steve Vai, as much as I would have liked.

However, there are many times when we make our decision relying too much on the brand image that we are being conditioned with and we make our decisions picking up those costly "branded product" without giving other lesser brands a chance. Guitar pickups are definitely one of those that are always being overlooked.

Thanks to a few local shops (namely Tymc and SVguitars), they have provide our market an alternative voice in the choice of lesser priced pickups; namely Tesla and Artec Giovanni. I personally believe that products of lesser brands should be given a chance instead of being bash and shove aside due to it's lesser known brand name and country of origin.

Next time, before anyone of us decide to buy any product be it pedals, pickups or tunners, do our necessary research on what's available to us and what exactly are we looking out for, before we make our final decision. We might just pick up a golden egg while saving a lot more money in the progress.

Cheap Tremolo Stopper

Most of us have probably heard of the Tremolo no. It's a device that you install at the back cavity of the guitar to prevent a floating bridge from floating. Lone Phantom from Jemsite had this brilliant idea of creating a cheap tremolo stopper from parts that you can probably buy from any DIY stall in the world.

By using a barrel bolt meant for doors, instead of installing it on a door, you install it at the back of the guitar, replacing the middle spring. It gives you the option to set your floating bridge into non floating or floating position. More information on how to do the procedure can be found here.

LTD Beginner/Intermediate Recommendation

My friend, who wanted to start learning the guitar asked me, what guitar should he get that can last him a long time. Well, not forever but at least something that can fight GAS for a while. The first guitar that came to my mind was the ESP F-50. I've personally tried the MH-53 and I find it of above average quality for it's price.

Measuring 42mm at the nut allowing enough string spacing for fast scale runs while sporting a 25.5 scale neck makes it a real pleasure to play with. Although not super wizard thin, the neck however has a comfortable grip to it giving it a shred-able feel. Sporting a rosewood fingerboard, this gives warmer tones compared to harder woods giving nice tonal balance with pickups of high output while easy maintenance makes this a beginner friendly guitar.

The neck is also equipped with super Jumbo frets, giving you the feeling next to a scalloped neck allowing very minimal fretting strength when fretting notes. The amazing thing about the factory dressing is that, I am actually able to lower the action to 1.5mm at the 12th fret without the next buzzing like a bee. This is something to be applaud for a guitar that is made in china.

The guitar features a Tune O Matic bridge, a bridge I highly recommend to beginners. No Tremolo string changing nightmares or tuning instability. Lowering or raising action and string changing is like a walk in the park.

The guitar sports a Basswood body, which is considered a tonally neutral tonewood. I personally think Basswood is an excellent tonewood to allow Pickups tone to sing through and to me, Basswood is more of a Mid Bass dominant wood. Basswood is also being used by well known guitarist such as Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai and John Petrucci.

Lastly, the thing that I hate most about this guitar, is the pickups. It lacks character and is muddy when you push the gain high. This is a nightmare for shredders and metal head. However, this can be easier solved from a pickup swap.

Cheap Guitars for modding recomendation part 1

Recently, I've written about how getting a cheaper guitar for the sake of modding can not only get you an instrument with quality but at the same time also a very rewarding experience. You can read about it here

If I were to presented with the question what guitars I will recommend for this, the first that will come to mind is the Fender Squier Stratocaster series. It doesn't matter which version of the Squier Stratocaster but most of them are generally decent for it's price. For example, the Squier Affinity series is a good platform to start with. Even though it may be a beginner's guitar, the QC of the instrument is generally decent (looking in terms of only the neck and the body). The parts are easy to replace and guarantees a very positive end product.

The neck has a C shape narrow neck, measuring 41mm at the nut with a radius of of 241mm. This sound radius although doesn't allow for low action, it however allows easier chord works (think Jazz Chords).

The body although Basswood is however deemed usually an "inferior" wood, I can assure to all my readers that Basswood in by no means inferior and in fact basswood is tonally similar between different pieces. Basswood has also been used by many well known artist such as Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert, John Petrucci and Steve Vai.

The main problem with the guitar however is the inferior tremolo bridge that it comes installed with. This is usually one of the main things that kills off the tone of the guitar, considering the strings go through the Tremolo block, which is anchored on the body of the guitar. However, the good news is, the tremolo is easily replaceable and in fact, Guitar Fetish actually made a custom Brass Block Tremolo that is a direct drop into Asian or Mexican made Stratocaster.

The pickups however are below par which is expected of guitars of that price range. It is thin sounding and has too low an output for Rock lovers out there. However, as per majority of the guitars, all of the electronic hardware can be easily swapped out and in our age of the guitar parts that are available to us, we can easily replace the stock pickups with more than satisfying substitutions. Guitar Fetish once again has more than satisfying pickups in the price range that won't leave a hole in your pocket. For the tone purist, you can also consider Dimarzios or Seymour Duncans into the guitar. These branded pickups can definitely leave it's listener contemplating on the quality of the instrument.

Lastly, although the radius of the neck leaves the guitar unable to achieve that low and sick action, however that can be easily rectified by flattening the radius of the frets from 13 onwards. This is known as compound radius. It may seem daunting for first timers but I assure you it isn't as hard as it sounds.

For aspiring DIY-ers or just players who wants a hand in customizing and modifying guitars, do consider the Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster as a starting platform and a gateway to a guitar you call your own.

Cheap guitars for modding

I was doing some random guitar forums surfing just earlier on and a question popped up in one of the threads. "Is this Guitar worth modding?"

In this golden age of guitar building, we have available to us access to cheap and decent guitars, usually meant for starters and beginners but are these instruments that bad to the point of not even worth mentioning? The purist may argue yes however, not everyone of us can afford a $3000 Gibson or Fenders.

That aside, there are aspiring DIY-ers out there who just want to try modding guitars without spending a bomb on an expensive mid range to high end guitar later to be screwing up rendering the guitar unplayable. However at the same time, one wouldn't like it sounding like a sub $200 guitar. Well, the good news is, you can actually make that sub $200 guitar sound way more expensive than it cost. As a matter of fact, you can make that sub $200 guitar play and feel a lot better.

Let's face it, what makes the guitar playable? I will argue it's the neck that you are holding 90% of the time, telling you if you like the guitar or not. Majority of the sub $200 guitars come with un-even frets, badly sat frets and etc. That usually is a huge turn off to the most of us. However that can all be rectified, especially to Diy-ers.

The next thing that we will look at are the electronics included with the guitar. Sub $200 guitars usually comes with below par bad muddy sounding pickups. Pots and switch that are included usually oxidize faster than you can change your strings, causing more unwanted scratchy noises. However, that isn't that much of a problem either. Pickups can be swapped out while electronic parts can be changed. One might argue that the pickup is only a "microphone" to a singer and it only amplify what the guitar produces. However, I also believe that there are Gems within the sub $200 category and not all of them are bad. I've personally played Made in China Squiers that sounded sweet and Made in USA Fenders that sounded crap (No I don't have them in my memory on their particular models). On a solid body electric guitar, the electronic plays the biggest part in the tone while the wood sets a tonal characteristic to the tone. That being said, being conscious of the wood materials used to craft the instrument can set up a step ahead in modifying our favorite instruments. For starters, I highly suggest Alder, Basswood or Mahogany as these wood appears to be tonally similar with each different pieces.

Lastly, things that I will usually change are the hardware themselves. Especially the Tuning pegs and Bridge. Most of the Tuning pegs that comes with sub $200 guitar usually aren't of high quality and can give us tuning hell. Changing those can maintain tuning a lot better. The bridge of sub $200 guitars are usually made of mystery pot metal to cut the cost. This once again kills off the whatever tone the guitar might actually have. This can be changing the Vibrato Tremolo (Floyd Rose), Vintage Tremolo or a fixed Tune O matic bridge. A change of those parts can guarantee an immediate improvement in tone.

An optional change is the nut. Usually the nut is badly cut and require some additional work but for the extreme DIY-ers, Graphite is a good replacement nut. Not only does it maintain your tuning better (From excessive Whammy) it also improves your open string tones.

The answer to the question posted at the top of this article is "Yes". The general rule of thumb is, if the guitar sounds good to you, if it feels great to you, then you should probably try doing some DIY yourself. The next argument will be, after changing those parts, it will cost as much as a mid or high range guitar. Well yes and no. Mid range guitars definitely don't come with higher end pickups (Dimarzio, Seymour Duncan, EMG and etc) nor hardware you hand pick for yourself. While it might not necessarily be cheaper to mod a cheap guitar, however it is a fun experience and satisfying to call a guitar "your own".

Disclaimer:Some of the guitars shown as pictures in this post might not necessarily be a guitar with inferior parts. However they will fall under the guitars I will get and modify category.

A day of setting up my cheapo recording gear

So I decided that if I were to write a blog about guitar, I should be able to provide means to allow people to hear the sound samples. So I got around in buying the cheapest mic I can afford now, which is an omnidirectional dynamic mic and hook in straight to my EEmu external sound card. It ain't the best setup out there but still gets the job done for now till i can afford an USB condenser mic.





EEmu external sound card

My Omnidirectional dynamic mic

To test my new recording setup, I've tried recording something. I've played this with my Frankenstein, which are equipped with Dragonfire screamers. It is played directly to my Marshall mini stack with max gain and max Reverb, with EQ set at flat. Pardon my bad playing and slightly out of tune guitar (which I conveniently forget to tune while recording), none the less it gives a rough idea on the recording quality and the sound of the Dragonfire Screamer Neck pick up.

Psuedo baroque by Adrian Goh