Fretless/Fret Hybrid Bass

Was surfing the Ibanez Website as a temporary GAS fix today and I happened to chance upon Ibanez latest innovation of Fretless/Fret Hybrid Bass. I am not a bass player myself but I find this concept highly innovative. This is Ibanez's attempt to give bass players option in their instrument. First 2 strings being fretless while the rest fretted.Four fretted strings are tuned normal E-A-D-G to cover cool bass lines, while the two fretless strings are tuned to the same D and G as the fretted strings.

It also features a Light Ash body with 5-piece Jatoba/Bubinga neck. This combination of exotic wood gives this bass a unique blend of tone. If I were a bass player, I will definitely give this bass a go. The next question would be if they are going to do something similar for the guitar. Scallop/non-Scallop hybrid?

Buzzing!

Today, I was at a music store, playing around and came in this guy, wanting to test a Jackson guitar. So after the attendant aided him in plugging into the instrument, he was complaining that the guitar is buzzing all over the neck. So since I was beside him, I offered to take a look at the guitar for him and realized that everything was in order. Straight neck, nice action and such.

I proceed in telling him that the guitar isn't really buzzing. I then told him that if it ain't buzzing in the amp, it ain't buzzing. The notes in fact are ringing clearly. Most of the time, people who have no clear idea on how the instrument works will mistaken such nature of the instrument as being faulty. There are a lot of cause to buzzing and picking hard is one of them. However, are they truely buzzing or just rattling?

Sometimes, it's really just the players.

Action!

The Action of the guitar is probably one of those terms as a player, especially a beginner would have heard of when first encountering a guitar technician. What exactly is the Action of the Guitar? It is the amount of space between the string and the frets of the guitar. Why is the Action of the Guitar particularly important? It is because, the Action of the Guitar determines how comfortable it is to play the guitar. Although there are many different kinds of action available that each individual players prefer, I personally like very low action on my guitars, usually measuring 1mm at the 12th fret(This is only for electric guitars).

What are the advantages of having low actions. The lower the action, the less pressure required for you to fret the notes. Meaning it's a lot easier for you to play. However, for players who center around the first 3 frets of the guitar, the action probably wouldn't make that much of a difference.

What are the disadvantage of having low action then? Well, the string get robbed of it's vibration property therefore giving you less crystal clear tone. What is then a good action to have? According to Rich Harris from Ibanezrules.com, he usually sets his guitars at 1.5mm measured at the 12th fret. That is adequate enough for easy playing and giving enough space for the string to vibrate.

My personal preference is 1mm however, what is yours?

Rocksmith

For once, I am allowing my inner geeky video game side showing. Presenting to you the Rocksmith video game. The only game that allows you to plug in ANY guitar into the game system and play the game. Now I personally thing this is a fantastic idea to get one to start learning how to play the guitar. The last time they made a guitar related game, which is Guitar Hero/Rock Band, we have players from all over the world claiming rights in playing perfect for Dragonforce's Through the Fire and Flames (Which is harder for guitar players by the way).

The best part about the game is, it scales according to your level and it has build in effects for you to make your in game effects board. Did I mention that the advertisement is actually very inspiring too?

True Temperament Frets

If you are a fan of Steve Vai, you probably might have seen him playing with frets that looks like this. This isn't just some bad fret job but quite the opposite. The theory of having frets like these is equivalent of having perfect intonation for your guitar. The idea is that the guitar, being a screwed up instrument doesn't give you perfect intonation even well intonate. For example, if you play an A chord, it should not give you the perfect tuning of an A chord. If you do tune your guitar to a perfect A chord and play the D chord, you will realize that the guitar is very out of tune.

This is especially noticeable when you tune your guitar using the 54555 way and attempt to tune every note accurate to the previous string (an additonal note is when you tune with a tuner, you notice that the notes ring slightly different), by the time you hit the 6th string, you will realized that your 6 string isn't exact a perfect E verify with the tuner).

What the True Temperament frets does is to correct that, making sure that no matter which part of the frets you are using, you are well intonate and in tune. I've never personally tried one of these but would love to.

Ishibashi Shanghai

Good news for fellow Singaporeans who are travelling to Shanghai. There will be an Ishibashi Shanghai soon. If this isn't the only good news, Ishibashi will be having a Ubox sale for 3 days, in celebrating the opening of the Shanghai store. Start surfing their Ubox page and look for your dream gear!

Nightwish live at Wacken full length concert

Nightwish full length concert can be seen on Youtube. Nightwish is one of my favourite metal bands as they are the first few to combine symphony elements without overdose of power metal riffs and rhythms. Although they have changed their singer, whose style resembles more hard rock than metal, they however kept the symphony elements in their music. Their previous singer whom they fired off is now doing projects of her own. Both of them are nice in their own way and I still like the band nonetheless. Well, enough talk, enjoy the concert!

Fake Dimarzio Pickups?

Today is another day of random window surfing and I chance upon these on Ebay. The first thing that struck my mind is, are these real? Well, after researching a bit on Jemsite, these are 100% fake Dimarzio. Even thought these should only come with the Ibanez prestige guitars, this seller (From Hong Kong) somehow manage to acquire stocks for these and they all seem to be damaged at the bobbins.

A search on google confirms that the ones above are fake. Compared to the real ones, noticed that the DiMarzio fonts are somewhat different?

Floyd Rose Special bridge

Have you ever seen guitars with sub $1000 price tag armed with one of these? These are real Floyd Rose tremolos but however, they aren't the same as the Original Floyd Rose. These are kind of like the licensed bridge by Floyd Rose themselves. However that being said, they aren't that bad either. These are pretty high quality bridges compared to a lot of the licensed bridge out there. However, it is still always better to take note that these are the Original Floyd Rose and might not give the player the same kind of performance.

Let's talk about nuts

Today, I was playing around with my "Malmsteen" and it occurred to me that in addition to the scalloped fretboard, I also took the liberty to change the nut into a brass one (One that I cut myself). I wanted the guitar to be as close to the YJM Model as close a possible but within budget.

Anyway, the nut change did change the tone, making it significantly brighter compared to the stock plastic nut (Squier). However, what most people do not know is, it doesn't change the tone (At least not in an audiable way) when you fret the notes. Think of it this way. What acts as the nut after you fret the note, is your fingers and the fret. So, logically speaking, shouldn't the tone of the note produced by the nut, when fretting a guitar be replaced by the way the note is fretted and the material of the fret?

The next question will be, why would I want to change the nut of the instrument, if it doesn't affect the tone that much anyway since I will be fretting most of the time. Well, it isn't a necessary change but, I changed it due to the fact that I scalloped the fretboard of the instrument. Due to that, the tone of the guitar is considerably brighten so to speak and to balance out the sound when I am doing my open chords and strings, I changed the nut to a brass one instead.

The same principle applies to nuts of other material. This is exceptionally so if it's being performed on an acoustic guitar, where majority of the players are playing open strings. However, that will be another story or discussion for another day.