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Archive for the ‘Guitars’ Category

I think I first came across a Floyd Rose guitar in 2005. Mr Rose has been developing his “speedloader” tremelo system since the early 90′s and as this new system with double ball end strings makes the headstock redundant. Mr Rose decided to launch his own brand of guitars to show off the new tremelo system.The strings were pre-cut to a very precise length (to sound very close to the right pitch when installed) and had special ends which snap into the bridge and nut. Once the replacement string is in place, fine-tuning is performed in a fashion similar to the Floyd Rose Original bridge. The process for changing strings is simpler and faster; the idea being that you able to change all 6 strings in under a minute. Clever huh???

Basically what we have here is a high end US made Superstrat with a “decorative” headstock. Think Anderson/Suhr/Charvel maybe? Swamp Ash body, Rock Maple neck, 22 Jumbo frets etc etc

I remember a positive write up in Guitarist magazine, innovative tremelo and excellent build quality and then………………..nothing.

The only time Ive seen one of these used was at Live8 in 2005 by Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi ( who was briefly an endorser). Beyond that I dont know. They did try a chinese made one, but it didnt take off. A few US dealers have them, but as far as I know production has ceased.

But since then Ive seen the odd one coming up used and they are…………..incredibly fucking cheap!!!!! So much so that Im starting to consider looking out for one. Face it these babys were high end US made rock guitars. They were on sale 5 years ago at £1300 and that was when the exchange rate was much nicer…now it’d be nearer 2 grand for sure.

But the ones Ive seen were cheap cheap cheap. £400-£500 for a guitar no more than 5 years old. Made in tiny numbers, I bet theres more custom shop reissues on the planet from Jan 10 than there is for these babys. My local guitar shop had one for about £700 end of line a while ago. I know if you went to audition for Interpol they’d laugh at you, but image aside, thats a lot of high end guitar for very little bread.

Your big issue froma player perspective with this is Spares and strings. Floyd Rose made their own brand strings and Dean Markley do as well. But there are horror stories on the net about string quality and also cost.

But in terms of exclusivity….these are only going to go up. The internet was awash with Kahler trem parts long before they started up production again. So I reckon these are a top tip for an affordable, playable, but quirky shred guitar.

The Ebay hunt starts here

Its been an interesting 12 months in guitarland in the UK, although VAT dropped down to 15% last year, if you wanted to buy a new guitar you’d think quite the opposite. The fluctuations in the worlds currency markets coupled with the big manafacturers own price increases has added about 25%+ onto the price of many desirable guitars, as guitars are now a measure of inflation in the Retail Price Index I’d wager that this has kinda contributed to the recent rise of inflation in the UK. Who’d have thought it eh?

When I last looked in 2008 the average dealer price in the UK for an American Deluxe Strat was £949.00…..now some dealers are selling old stock at that price …but for many shops the price is nearer £1100-1200.00 now.

Meanwhile American Standards seem to have gone up to about £849.00….considering they’ve been around £650-700 for the last few years thats quite a kicking your wallet would get if you bought new.

What I find curious is that Fender have now almost made the American Standard redundant. The introduction of the new American Special series has seen to that. Priced at a point between the Highway 1 budget US guitars and the American Standard, this is the Fender Ive been waiting for.

Essentially the American Special is a very canny move. The guitar is basically the upgraded version of the Highway 1 guitar, the SSH model has the modern C neck and Jumbo frets, the SSS model has a beefier 57 style neck with Jumbo fretwire coupled with nice gloss finishes (black/red/sunburts etc), hotter pickups (Fenders sublime Texas Specials as used in the Mark Knopfler sig guitar) and the H1′s 70′s style big headstock and logo.

Now Ive played a few Highway 1′s in my time and the neck is superb….the Super Jumbo frets make it such a fast and fluid guitar to play. I found it actually really enjoyable and Im not usually a fan of Fenders skinny modern ‘C’ shape neck believe me.

So great necks, great pickups: All the strat tones will be there as its got a vintage style bridge….so essentially….why on earth would anyone buy an American Standard?

If you want a modern Strat with a trad tone this is it. If you want more contemporary voicings….splash out another £300 and buy an American Deluxe.

Whats interesting is that there are now 2 ranges of US built budget guitars below an American Standard…but spend another £100-150 on a deluxe and you’d get better pickups, hardware, electronics and in some cases a roller nut and locking tuners.

So who on earth buys an American Standard Strat these days?

Thinking of my player friends who own US Standard Strats its interesting to see that a pattern soon emerges as to why they own them.

They were all birthday presents…..usually for landmark birthdays such as 21sts or 18ths or even 50ths!

Only one of the 5 guitarists I know with the Am Std Strat guitar bought it used, and they turned it into a test bed for some pickups they was trying out. So in effect the American Standard is really a “house” guitar….a guitar thats unlikely to be used in anger beyond the odd jam in someones living room.

But my problem is this….of the recent American Standard Strats Ive played since year 2000 none has really lifted my skirt. Its almost like they’ve taken the soul out and made a generic, flat and characterless version of a classic guitar. Its the “pasteurised Strat” one without any real spite… bite…. or character. The only people who gig these are called “Barry”……they’ll be in the function band at your local Walkabout, Miners Welfare, British Legion or Pontins. Barry wears a nice jacket and a bowtie with his American Standard and probably chats up teenage girls in the interval….y’know those fame hungry, doe eyed, puppy fat pleasure units with pushy avaricious showbiz type parents….the ones that talk about auditioning for some dreadful TV talent show but never make it beyond Karaoke once a year and whose only rock and roll experiences will amount to some foul sexual pecadillo on the nightshift at ASDA with the Grocery Manager during unpaid overtime……My God…..how wretched!

But back to the guitar…

In past times…people would buy an American Strat and upgrade it, change the pickups and often upgrade the frets etc…..now Fender are offering guitars with these upgrades already carried out for less money than the base model….I cannot see the point of anyone owning an American Standard anymore.

But in some ways I can see exactly what Fender are trying to do with the American Special.

Its priced at around £660 on the street that puts it squarely in competition with Fender Japans own domestic market guitars, these popular grey import guitars (which coincidentally often have Texas Specials fitted as standard pickups) have attracted many buyers. Two years ago the Yen used to be about Y200 to the GBP which meant for about £600 you could buy a really nice J-Craft 57 or 62 type Strat with a lovely glossy finish. Despite the likes of Ishibiashi being banned by Fender from selling new J-Craft guitars, thanks to Ebay and the internet there is still a thriving market of third party grey import dealers, who can get you anything from Fender Japans domestic market range.

However the Yen is nearer Y145 to the pound now, which has made the grey import guitars increasingly expensive and just not the bargains that they once were. Fender know the most popular price point for an electric guitar is around the £500-600 mark. But Fender also knows that despite the increasing popularity of its Mexican made guitars. Many players would rather go the extra yard and buy a US guitar or instead opt for the Kudos of increasingly cultish J-Craft Fenders (the likes of Music Ground in London and Leeds still bring the odd guitar in).

So in effect the American Special kills two birds with one stone…it plays the patriot card and keeps the US guitar affordable and also enables Fender to compete with its own competition from Japanese domestic market grey imports and ranges from Tokai and Levinson Blade also.

Above: A used Relic for £1100 on Gumtree

But to me Fenders product line is still a mess, given they make the same basic designs in 6 different countries now at price points between £150-£5000, everything is now about brand values and marketing terms. If one steps away from the hyperbole of a Parchment scratchplate or a “custom shop” design. What we have are simple classic guitar designs that were born for mass production and also modification

The increased gentrification of the Fender Custom Shop ( A Custom Shop that builds more guitars in a month than a real boutique builder like Suhr would do in a year) has only made choosing a Fender guitar a more complex task and in some cases, a financial minefield. If you look carefully (I did find a couple on Gumtree and Loot), its perfectly possible to buy a limited edition Fender US Custom Shop “Relic” Strat on the used market today for the price of a new American Deluxe….Yes not allrelics loose value, if you have a John English masterbuilt relic its probably doubled in value as John English is now sadly deceased, but for the average team built guitar?

Thats a depreciation of 50% on the Relic in just 4 years…and with ever more reissues and marketing strategies of the worlds most popular Electric Guitar. Fender are selling us the same thing over and over again, which begs the question…

Are Fender not now at the point of actually devaluing their own brand?

As Im not in a band at the mo, Ive been thinking about guitars and amps in a more frivilous way, Ive also been thinking about the guitars Ive always liked but never owned (and believe me thats quite a lot)

The PRS CE 24 was one of those guitars that by rights given my playing style & influences I ought to own. I had a quick look on the PRS website tonight….only to find out they have been discontinued for 2010……….Discontinued…..gone…….

But I remember them so well…

They came out in 1988 as the affordable PRS guitar. The first PRS with a bolt on neck, originally they were called the Classic Electric, but Peavey threatened to sue over the name (ironic really as Peavey have never made a classic design in their history). They had alder bodies to give them a more strat esq tone. The market was confused at first, so gradually they offered black faced headstocks so they looked more PRS, then maple tops, bird inlays etc and the guitar became established in the PRS line. The body was changed to Mahogany in 1995, although at one point I believe both wood choices were available. A 22 fret model became available from 1994.

The most famous user of the CE24 is probably Alex Lifeson of Rush who toured with a mixture of PRS models from the early 90′s through til 2004. Brian Forsyth from 90′s rockers Kix was also an endorser

But lots of other working players, gigging guys, people in cover bands alike and pro’s used them, they were the workingman’s PRS. The entry into the US made line….the PRS I could afford.

I guess I always liked the shape of PRS guitars since I saw Gary Moore use an early one on the “Wild Frontier” tour in 1987. When I eventually played a Custom 24 a few years later I thought the body was too thin and insubstantial.

But in 1991 there was a Classic Electric in metalflake red sitting in the window of Chas Foulds and son, it sat there for years. I tried it twice and liked it, but the price at the time was simply too high…..so the guitar sat there for another two years. A guy who lived in the street behind me bought it, I went to see his band…..he was running a top flight guitar into a nasty Yamaha multi FX unit (one of those infamous “Car Stereo” sized ones popular at the time) then into an old Burman Valve combo….it truly sounded awful.

So I forgot about the PRS CE until 1999 when I was offered one by a mate of a mate….of a mate…..in a dodgy pub….it was £400 and had been lent to a local punk band who’d duly beaten the shit out of it. Had it been a good colour I’d have said yes, but it was a green maple top one with an ornate flame…..I didnt know the guy selling it very well, assumed at that price it may have been hot and duly declined.

But then in 2005 PRS released the 20th Anniversary models and the did some mahogany bodied guitars with hot rod dupont style paintjobs. The CE24 in Blazing copper looked gorgeous

But at the time I was in telecaster heaven recording the Heroes’ debut album and had neither the funds or need for such a guitar.

Then a year later my nephew asks me to go with him to buy a Gibson Explorer and we walk out of the shop with a CE22 in Cherry Red. I spent some time with it and liked it.

But even now to players of perhaps my age PRS have that “Bank manager” guitar vibe about them. Something too pristine and not very rock n roll. PRS clearly get this too and have introduced the Mira in recent years, essentially a stripped down mahogany bodied guitar simillar to a Gibson SG. As the hedge fund managers dissapear and the baby boomers start to die off I guess PRS have to make something for the alternative nation. The Mira is nice enough and ironically I was offered one when I bought my SG last year, but again it was the wrong colour.

For now that remains the cheapest entry into owning a American made PRS, especially the new X’ version which substitutes basswood for mahogany (I know ridiculous….Basswood was good for 80′s Floyd type superstrats cos it was cheap light and easy to apply flashy paintjobs too, why oh why PRS are using it is a joke).

The CE appears to be destined for collectability, unless of course PRS start up production again, but to me there a guitar that made PRS a more affordable choice for the everyman player and they also managed to combine Fender like Clarity with a Gibson like fatness. For that they are an important model and if I ever find the right guitar in the right colour…..who knows I might get the wallet out. The Gumtree hunt starts here.

Lots of OMG shock horror on various guitar forums at the moment. Joe Satriani has apparently decided to dump his longstanding endorsement of Peavey amps and use Marshall JVM410′s on the upcoming tour of the new “Supergroup” Chickenfoot. Despite having the Peavey JSX signature series heads made to his exacting specifications, Satriani has decided to go for the new(ish) 4 channel head from marshall.

Now lots of people are pointing out quite correctly that Satch doesnt actually use the 2 distortion channels on his own amps & instead uses his own signature distortion pedal, made by Vox…. The Satchurator through his Peaveys clean channel and that its unlikely that there will be much difference in tone through the clean channel of a JVM.

Whatever the reason its good news for Marshall, who, thanks to the exchange rate and a much revamped product line, seem to be regaining ground lost in recent years. But all this news has done to my mind is point out the absolute nonsense surrounding Endorsement deals and the “signature” product industry as a whole.

Its quite common knowledge that a guitarist may be endorsing one brand of amplifier or guitar, while actually using another. The biggest culprits for this racket must surely be Laney & Crate, who whenever I see the artists in their adverts onstage its usually with another brand of amplifier. When Oceansize mentioned how good Laney were in a recent issue of Guitarist, it was embarrissing to see in the accompanying pictures of their backline a Marshall JCM2000 head perched atop a Laney 4 x12 in the background. Crate are also comical in the way most of their endorsers either endorse cabinets only and use another brand of amp ( Marcos Curiel from POD with a Mesa dual rectifier) or just practise amps (Lita Ford/Yngwie Malmsteen). In the early 90′s Bon Jovi’s Ritchie Sambora had a wall of Fender Tonemaster heads onstage and hidden behind them 5 rackmounted Marshall JCM800′s . Even Status Quo allegedly have Vox AC30 chassis built into Marshall JCM cabinets.

The biggest pisstakers in all this though are a tie between

1: Metallica – Kirk Hammetts new signature Randall Head isn’t all he uses, he still confesses to using Boogies live, with the bulk of his tone being created by Triaxis preamps and Dual Rectifiers again, and while James Hetfield talked to Guitarist mag about using a Diezel VH4 as the main amp in the woeful “St. Anger “sessions. His producer Bob Rock told Guitar world it was all done with a Marshall DSL100. Not that I imagine they’d be queuing up to admit to that one…..Ahem.

2: Eddie Van Halen – THe 5150 brand is now ubiquitous, with products made by Fender, Dunlop, Peavey, Musicman & Kramer. The big problem here is while Eddie is a legend, do you really want to buy equipment from a man who hasn’t written anything decent for 17+ years & made all his greatest work on a “parts” guitar costing $50 & an old Marshall plexi?

As with guitars it gets even weirder. Despite having longstanding endorsements with PRS & Gibson. The one guitar Rush’s Alex Lifeson has used as his main recording guitar for the last 2 decades is a decidedly non collectable 52 reissue telecaster. Lifeson bought it in 83 and its on pretty much every Rush record since then.

Obviously a musician has the right to use whatever he or she feels does the job best. But in this world of massive advertising campaigns and marketing hyperbole. It’d be nice to see some honesty rather than PR for a change.

Fender recently launched 2 US Custom Shop tribute edition Strats based on Dave Gilmours “legendary” Black Strat, the original guitar was a Stock 69 Strat bought from Manny’s in New York in 1970 and used on most of Pink Floyds classic albums. Atom Heart Mother/Dark Side of The Moon/ Wish You Were Here etc etc. Lots of people are excited about this, half of Future publishings editorial staff are wanking over a CD of ‘Atom Heart Mother’ even as I type. Gilmour has a new live album ‘Live in Gdansk’ to promote and sadly Rick Wright has passed away.

RIP rick.

It seems that the whole guitar fraternity are excited by this new arrival to Fenders range. I am a massive DG/Floyd fan, but somehow the hyperbole has vexed me. There are 2 models a New Old Stock guitar and a lovingly bashed up ‘Relic’ addition.

Personally I find the whole relic’ing guitars thing a bit pathetic, if you play live your guitar will get war wounds simply by gigging and being used. The dings and nicks are genuine and tell part of your guitars and therefore ultimately your story. The idea these scars are put on as part of a finishing process is as pathetic as it sounds and when guitarists disagree with me and say “oh but they feel played in” my reply is “BOLLOCKS you fucking girly dentist weekend warrior, get back to stealing my pension with your hedge fund!!!!”

Sorry…;) Rant almost over….

Basically if you strip away the marketing hype. This guitar is a US Custom shop 57 reissue with different pickups, a Callan shortened tremelo arm & block and a clever switch that gives you the neck and bridge positions together. Gilmours original is essentially now a bitsa thats had more surgery than the average Hollyoaks cast member. I had a peruse of (long time roadie) Phil Taylors book ‘The Black Strat’ in Waterstones the other day and the beast has had 3 different necks, several trems and more electronic things inserted into it than Jodie Marsh at an Ann Summers Party. It even had a Charvel neck and a Kahler trem at one point. Here it is hanging on the Hard Rock Cafe’s wall sometime in its history.

Somehow though the “legitimacy” of this model has kinda made people forget that they could easily doctor a black used 57 reissue (US or J-Craft) and simply shorten the trem arm themselves and buy some pickups to mount on their aftermarket black scratchplate. I’ve seen quite a few people already doing this and I for one think its great that with a few spares and imagination its possible to accurately replicate a guitar that a well heeled Floyd fan would pay a couple of grand for.

The irony of this signature model for me is that anyone who has seen DG live with Pink Floyd between 87 and 94 will know that his main guitar was not this (it was on loan rusting away in the hard rock cafe at the time), but a red secondhand early 80′s 57 reissue bought from Chandlers (the guitar was ex of Mick Ralph’s from Bad company I believe) and fitted with EMG pickups and a shortened trem arm. I saw Gilmour on the telly at Live Aid using this guitar with Brian Ferry, then on the telly again when Pink Floyd played Venice in the late 80′s and their ‘Earls Court’ residency in 1994.

Again this guitar has been widely copied by keen DG/Floyd enthusiasts for years. EMG actually make a Dave Gilmour DG20 signature pickup set complete on ready to mount scratchplate. I wonder how all those devotee’s with EMG powered 57 strat’s are feeling at the mo. Is it time for a respray and some pickups to be changed I wonder?

Don’t get me wrong, The Black guitar is of huge historical significance. But if your under 40 years old the guitar you most associate with Mr Gilmour is certainly not the black one. The fact that DG lent it to a Burger chain to hang on a wall for several years kinda makes me wonder if it was all that special anyway?

In typical cynical Jeztone style I wonder if this move towards a DG strat was not instigated by Dave Gilmour but by his Roadie Phil Taylor. Guitar techs to big name artists are increasingly powerful people who can act as a point man between artist and equipment manafacturer or Vintage guitar dealer. One of Metallica’s roadies has an Endorsement deal with Mesa Boogie…so I bet he welds some influence over the equipment choices of the bands he’s teching with for sure.

A DG signature based on the red one would have little in the way of difference to a stock Fender guitar, wheras the black instruments long running history of a test bed instrument for new hardware and pickups, makes it more of a Marketing mans dream. In addition it’s use on the classic Floyd albums of the 70′s also makes it sit nicely with the age group of the Doctors/Lawyers and other Baby Boomers with the money to spend £2k+ on a guitar they could replicate for less than half that amount.

In addition Dave Gilmour is the owner of a 1954 strat, serial number 0001. This guitar was used by Gilmour at the Stratpack 50th Anniversary a few years ago, while there is also claims this guitar is a bitsa, it is still the most iconic guitar in the Gilmour collection. Luckily Fender Japan make a very unofficial reproduction, basically a 57 reissue with Texas Specials and a gold adonized pickguard. A perusal of Ebay should get you one of these babies for around £550 quid, much cooler looking and far less common than a used red strat with EMG’s in ha ha!

While we are on the subject of Strats anyone who read my £500 strat challenge last year will probably be wondering if I ever did buy a guitar? Well the truth is…..after I went out and had a bit of an early 80′s nostalgia trip with my Ibanez Roadstar and Yamaha SG fetish. I’m back on the Strat trail and boy its a hard slog.

The reality is that finding a guitar to tick all my boxes is proving quite a challenge. The problem so far is that any guitar I buy will probably need some modifications in order to meet my needs as a player. Despite Fender making 150+ variations of the same guitar, nothing is quite hitting the mark yet.

Expect an update next month!