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Archive for the ‘Guitars’ Category

When I was a lad the 2 guitars that fascinated me the most were the Yamaha SG1000/2000 and the other was the Ibanez Roadstar. The Roadstar was Ibanez’s second attempt at an original design based loosely on the Fender Stratocaster. The earlier Blazer model was just a plain attempt, but with the Roadstar they really went to town.

By 1984 the design had evolved into a plethora of variations offering unlimited choices to the modern 1980’s player and boy people used them, a mainstay of the early 80’s working musician even some Pro’s like Steve Lukather had a signature model, Gary Moore,Gary Kemp from Spandau Ballet, Allan Holdsworth. No wonder Fender were on there knees. In Back to the Future, Michael J Fox’s character Marty McFly owned an Ibanez RS440. for an all American boy to be playing a Japanese guitar in a Hollywood movie really showed how successful the Roadstar had become.

In the mid 80’s the guitar to beat was not even Fender anymore. Charvel and Kramers S-type designs were being used by both 1980’s metal types and top session guitarists. Ibanez realised that the key was too offer an S-type guitar with a Floyd type trem.
By 1986 they had managed to secure a license to make the floyd and rechristened it the Edge trem.

As 1987 became 1988 Ibanez had secured the endorsement of Steve Vai and a host of other up and coming widdlers such as Paul Gilbert and Vinnie Moore, The Jem 777 and legendary RG series exploded on the scene and became the must have rock guitar of the day.
However 1986’s Ibanez Catalog is perhaps the most interesting. Stuck between the traditional and the widdly era’s one can see some interesting guitars evolve. The Proline
managed to bring together the Roadstar body and RG series headstock design with some really odd mini button pickup switching options.

The final incarnation of the Roadstar actually had RG model prefix’s and the first year of production the RG/Sabre/S series were branded under the Roadstar series in America only.

I’ve spent the last 6 months trying endless Strat type guitars and have been dissapointed, when in January I tried a Roadstar RG440 (like the blue guitar at the top of the page) it was a black one and besides the Floyd type trem it had an oil finished neck that was quite substantial, yet easy to play. However good old Denmark Street had priced it at around £300 yet it had the shit kicked out of it.

However a good guitar is always easy to track down and I’ve just bought a Roadstar RG440 off Ebay and its possibly the cleanest 22 year old guitar I have ever played. The pickups are nothing exceptional however the neck is……probably one of the best necks I’ve played, fast, yet with enough mass to dig in. I’d say it was more like the excellent Ibanez Joe Satriani Guitars in terms of feel and the floyd licensed Edge tremelo system is like new.

A few days after I bought the guitar I was contacted by a chap called Nigel who missed bidding and wanted to buy the guitar off me, I was tempted for a black one, but relented.
Nigel is 41 and plays in a covers band, owns lots of guitars, Fenders/Gibsons/Yamaha etc. However his main axe of choice is a black Roadstar RG440, he’s pretty much sold on the the 1986 incarnation of the Roadstar as the ultimate gigging S-type. Well made, easy to play with a great tremelo and above all….cheap as chips. He compares it to an early 80’s Charvel. I’ve never played one, but I did play a Musicman Luke (Steve Lukather’s current signature guitar) last year. The quality and feel of this Ibanez reminded me of a Musicman.

These guitars are seriously undervalued right now. A good clean 22-25 year old Roadstar can be had for around £180-£300. Thats less than a used Mexican Strat and a much much better made all round instrument that I suspect will increase in value.
As usual beware of guitars with knackered tremelo systems and hacked up bodies, also an unfinished neck is much more susceptable to damage and dirt. The Edge tremelo is still in production,so spares are plentiful however beware the 1983 pro rocker tremelo, it doesnt work well, also the pre floyd locking system popular on RS430/440 models from 1984 is impossible to find parts for, unless one gets lucky on Ebay.

A weekly scan of Ebay reveals a good 6-8 Roadstars on the market at any one time, usually 2 or 3 1986 RG models. If one wants to do the high performance tremelo equipped Superstrat guitar on a budget and own a future collectable to boot, there really is no better place to start.

Its been buzzing on the Guitarist magazine forums of late, due to a post concerning the new distribution arrangements of Gibson guitars. One posting was even taken down in whole by the moderators on there, so its clear that even the bods at Future publishing are scared of offending the US behemoth.

Gibsons mighty name had been in the shit in the 1980’s when basically a decline in quality coupled with them being out of fashion meant that flash bolt on neck widdle machines by the likes of Charvel/Jackson/Ibanez/Kramer ruled the roost. In the early 1980’s a Les Paul was as desirable as Herpes and not quite as freely available. I remember no one really stocking new ones in the 1980’s, especially outside of big cities.

But what goes around comes around & since the arrival of Slash on the guitar scene in 1987 and the arrival of new owner Henry Juszkiewicz at Gibson in 1988. Gibsons decline in fortunes since the 1980’s has been reversed in some style. Like Fender they are a mighty global concern owning and eating up their once nemisis’ of the 80’s Kramer, Steinberger, and Valley Arts

However unlike Fender who had brought in new managers and efficient Japanese style quality control to their American factorys. I’d say Gibson were just lucky that they came back into fashion and had to do nothing Quality Control wise and like all good global companies they have expanded their range of brands at every price point.

However from April longstanding UK distributor Rosetti will no longer be handling Gibson’s brands. Instead this falls unto the hands of Gibson Europe. The biggest change is how they supply guitars to stores and from what I can gather they’ve imposed a few restrictions that may contravene EU competiton laws as well as pretty much write off the chance of any smaller retailers selling Gibson guitars in general. According to a very nice chap on the Guitarist forums the following rules will now apply:

1:In order for a chain store to continue selling Gibsons they have to have £75,000 worth of Gibsons in each shop at all times.

2: This must make up 50% of their wall space.

As an example if Soundcontrol with 25 stores wanted to sell Gibson brand guitars, the total MINIMUM stock of Gibson product they must have at all times is £1,000,000 worth!

3: Gibson products must represent 20% of their turnover!!!

The numbers are scary, but I also imagine this will make Gibsons own highly unrealistic and excessive “Manafacturers Suggested Retail Price” a grim reality once and for all.
For the last 6 years the dealers have managed to give us the sub £1000 Les Paul Classic, wheras the MSRP is £1749 last time I looked, and we’ve got used to a Les Paul Standard being nearer £1500 rather than the £2000 it is on Rosetti’s books.

However I suspect those days are now gone, which will be a big blow to the bulk buyers such as Coda Music and Peter Cook’s guitar world who’ve always managed to price guitars way below some of the loftier chain stores.

However I suspect Gibsons own tactics to generate sales on their terms will backfire on them in the long run. The biggest winners will be people selling used Gibsons, but also the grey import market will thrive and once it does its impossible for the manafacturer to control,however they scare the retailers.

For example, despite a forced ban by Fender on sales of their Japanese made guitars to retail customers outside Japan (they even have a warning label on the Ishibashi website). A quick study of Ebay today found 52 new stock Japanese Fenders available & all at sensible prices. In addition there are numerous grey importers on the web who will furnish you with your J-Craft fender at an excellent price. Some are even keeping larger stocks of the more desirable models such as the Japanese Clapton Strat and Yngwie Malmsteen guitars.

In addition, with the global credit crunch looming, who are Gibson trying to kid? The Dad who wants to buy his kid the £380 Epiphone Les Paul, will probably baulk at it being £500 all of a sudden and simply go for one of the excellent Trev Wilkinson ‘Vintage’ brand guitars or god forbid a Korean Tokai. Which will all doubtless be better made and really all this scary stuff is about that at the end of the day.

Given that they now have a disclaimer on the back pages of their catalogs proclaiming that as Gibson guitars are handmade, their will be production inconsistencies from model to model. Perhaps Henry Juszkiewicz, the investment banker who owns Gibson ought to cease this madness & pull his fucking finger out and just make better guitars!

If the modern Les Paul was as consistent and as well made as the Yamaha SG1000 I recently bought perhaps I wouldnt haver sold my Les Paul in the first place, after all theres no cop out on the back of their catalog about production inconsistancies eh Henry ???

I was reading one of those free “Reverb” magazines that you get from Soundcontrol on a train today. When my eye was cast towards the Myspace/PRS guitars advertising campaign.

For those of you who havent seen this. In the United Kingdom PRS are asking guitarists to send in their pics and their bands myspace urls, the best of which will be put in PRS adverts across music media throughout 2007 and into 2008. From the looks of it lots of guitarists have responded to this.

Now you could argue that this is a good thing, PRS giving exposure to new bands/players etc… however I’m afraid its worked in reverse for me.

When I look at that ad, I see 2 types of guitarist

1: Young Lad in a metal band about 14 with his SE Tremonti or Santana pulling his best lead guitarists face, photo taken by mum/dad/care giver. Awwwww Bless him…..at least he’s not out on street corners kicking working class fathers to death.

2: The other sort of contender is older…wiser and erm…. what I’d call…er…theres no easy way to say this….

Muso Wanker!

Yes thats right, you know, the sort of guy who comes in with his band at your local 3-4 band indie night, tries to intimidate every other guitarist on the bill. Has top notch gear and at least 2 PRS guitars (one for spare right?). One of the band members will work in a music shop and the singer will be barechested onstage, the singer and bassist are usually the ones that have long hair, I dont know why…..it just is. They always take years to soundcheck too.

He will scoff at your guitar and remind you that he’s carrying 4 grands plus woth of guitars with him, he will not share amps or cabs and try and maintain a disctinct sense of superiority to any guitarist on the bill, even if they are better than him. He may walk up to your pedalboard…and sniff at it in a dismissive fashion. If he owns a distortion pedal it will always be a Keeley modified one.

Sounding familiar yet?????

The band will have usually managed a decent following, and can usually play, but musically will always be the kind of derivative sub Reef/Stereophonics type “Classic Rock”. Y’know that sort of crap that almost became fashionable after the Darkness first got famous. For this reason alone, they will never become bigger than local heroes to their mates in the local bars and usually struggle on the wider toilet circuit. They will also be angry at promoters as they usually bring a crowd and feel they are not respected and cast aside by the promoter giving attention to more….esoteric fayre.

These guys….theres one in every town, the PRS ad actually confirms that for us. Theres actually 2 or 3 in my town. I’ve seen their bands and….well…..its not pretty. PRS guitars are very very expensive in the UK, people used to call them “Dentists guitars” as it was only the well heeled middle class hobby player who could afford them. Now this advert doesnt have any of those guys in, instead we get much worse.

In a way this ad campaign has put me off PRS guitars. After my dissapointment at my Gibson Les Pauls performance. I’d been impressed with my nephews CE22 and then missing a set neck guitar with a pretty maple top. I was seriously considering a McCarty as a potential purchase in late 2008. However I feel that if I turned up at a gig with a PRS….people might think I’m y’know……one of them!

Back to the drawing board I’m afraid. Ooooooh the power of advertising!

Fender have chosen to update the Standard production model of the US build Stratocaster/ Telecaster/P & Jazz basses, you will probably see this as a cover story in Guitarist Magazine very soon. But the gushing press release has all the usual hyperbole

<em>Significant improvements to the electric guitars include a redesigned bridge, new bent-steel saddles with elongated string slots, a new neck and body finish, and a Fender-exclusive high-tech molded case. Similarly, the bass guitars feature a new neck and body finish, a Fender-exclusive high-tech molded case, lightweight tuners, height-leveled pole pieces, and the new HMV high-mass vintage bridge. And for the first time, Fender will be offering the traditional Precision Bass® in a five-string passive version, taking the classic platform to a new level.

Aw man, could I be any more confused as to which Strat to buy. Also does any of this PR shit mean anything anymore? The Classic platform to a new level???? So that must mean that as players we can be even better than those that went before??? Aw….no…..err…..?

I’m all for choice, but FMIC is a triumph of Marketing over content now.

As someone who uses a Fender Richie Kotzen Telecaster as his main guitar, I do like a versatile instrument that looks traditional.

But I’ve yet to find the perfect Strat, despite having tried a shedload of em. I have a few suggestions for the boys and girls of FMIC to make the guitars better.

Simplify the fucking range, why have 180+ variations of essentially the same thing?

Just make 2 types of pickup option 3 single coils or 2SC & 1HB

A choice of neck profile would be nice – Yes I prefer a 50’s soft vee nck ala Clapton, but the only way to get that with modern Jumbo fretwire is to buy an American Deluxe V neck and pay a grand.

Put the nice hardware and pickups on as Standard from the start

There are other choices regarding, pickups,fretboards, woods and finishes, but by my reckoning, there are only about 40 realistic variations of this guitar before the silly marketing men get involved and we see this most celebrated of instruments used as a billboard for an alchohol company or endless Signature guitars, which curiously all sport the same essential neck profile.

Despite the fact that Jeff Beck’s Strat originally had a thick U profile ala a 50’s Tele, the modern JB strat has a modern C shaped neck. Fender said that this was cos people had problems with the mass of the original necks…..Fucking wimps! its easy, my main guitar has a U profile neck, they are a piece of piss to play, so long as you actually play the fucking thing and not spend your time in guitarshops telling people you own a JB Strat!!!

What really happened is I suspected in order to maximise profits, Fender changed the design as no other production guitar used that neck profile. Sneaky huh?

Poor old Jeff actually plays a modern JB Strat with the bigger neck taken off the original JB signature model. So why on earth pay £1200+ for a guitar that is not like the one El Becko uses onstage in the first place??

A quick glance at a fender catalog shhows they only really make 3 neck profiles, so surely mass production is a peice of piss. Yet you are made to pay more for the tinyest variation.

And finally….

Stop being silly on pricing, you have the most automated guitar factory on earth, your so called Custom Shop churns out more guitars in a week than some proper “hand” builders do in a year. So get real on pricing, especially in the UK. Theres so little between an American Deluxe and a Custom Shop “Classic Player” Strat in terms of features, why does one cost £400 more?

Will I be trying the new Strat? Probably not

I’m off to browse the used guitars on Ebay rant over;)

Happy 2008

Well

After my last post I finally put my money where my mouth was. I started watching lots of Yamaha SG1000’s/2000’s on ebay.

The going rate in the uk seems to be between £450-500 for a mid 80’s 1000, but the condition of guitars varied a lot. Most were mid 80’s examples, needing fret dresses and set ups etc.

I did find a used SG1200 in a guitar shop in Edinburgh going for £599, but it was pretty bashed up it was from 1986 and had been well gigged. Although it played nicely.

After just missing a late 70’s SG700 on Ebay. I turned to the online Japanese guitar heaven that is Ishibashi.

Theyn had a black SG1000 in their Used U-box section for 76,000 Yen.

Thats about 320 quid

add 80 quid for delivery and then 3.5% Duty, then 17.5% VAT and your looking at a shade under £500.

The guitar was in the Uk after 2 days a week, but the knobheads at Parcelforce and Customs took their time so a week later I picked her up.

My SG doesnt have a name yet, but shes black and gold and looks like a John Player special packet. Theres a few dings, but nothing major, she’s been gigged, but not trashed.

The guitar is weighty, about 9lbs. Shes a real bruiser, with a much brighter unamped acoustic tone than my old Les Paul. She feels more solid and better made too. Both Humbuckers have coil taps in the tone controls for maximum versatility.

But the big mystery to me is this guitars age

Yamaha repeat the serial numbers every 10 years, Some have letter prefixes, but mine does not, the serial begins 108XXX, which could mean 1981, however the gold plate is not badly worn apart from the tailpeice shows signs of fading. But the real shock is the fingerboard and frets.

The frets are completely clean and unworn, like a brand new guitar, the ebony board is also clean, yet the binding is yellowed like a 20 year old guitar. From what I can see the original SG1000’s had rosewood boards, but this is ebony. As there is no dinging in the binding and the frets are seated, the frets look like they are the original ones rather than a refret.

Popular myth says Yamaha discontinued the SG series in 1988 and concentrated on the replacement models the Martyn Booth designed MSG/Image and American designed Weddington guitars.

However from what I can gather they continued SG production for the Japanese market and merely stopped shipping to the west.

One of the earliest issues of Total Guitar magazine did a review of an SG2000 reissue and that was in 1994, so I assume Yamaha-Kemble Uk were shipping them in again. They do seem to be a cult guitar now. A classic for those players in the know or old enough to remember them first time around.

Therefore my guess and it is only a guess, is that this guitar is from 1991. Although if any SG fans want to help me out here I’m all ears.

The SG popped up in the Yamaha range from time to time during the last 10 years and Yamaha did do some low cost models, the SG 500/700 more recently with thinner bodies and in the case of the 500, a bolt on neck. But now Yamaha seem to only make the SG1000/2000 as a limited run. Which o my mind is a shame.

In some ways if they revise the design, make it more contemporary. I think they could have a real world beater on their hands again.

So far I’m enjoying playing her. I’ve restrung her with my usual choice of 009-046 Ernie Ball Hybrids, but as this guitar has just come from a different climate I need to let her settle in for about 6-8 weeks before I have her set up properly. When I bought my Kotzen Tele in from Japan it was 2 months before tuning really settled down.

Am I pleased……? Yes. To my ears she handles clean sounds a lot better than a Gibson LP would and the build is outstanding. She feels like a guitar built for the road. Superior in build and finish to my Les Paul, maybe not as delicate, but when your playing 3 band bills in shit kicking bars who needs delicate.

My only niggle is the case, which feels flimsy, so I’m on the lookout for an aftermarket replacement. I tried a Hiscox one, but it felt too thin for the massive 2 inch thick body.

My Strat challenge seems to have run aground in all of this, part of me would love to buy a Yamaha SA series semi acoustic or an Ibanez AS from the 1980’s. But we shall see in the new year.