EVH Striped Series Guitar Review

I recently ordered an EVH Striped Series guitar from Japanese online music store Ikebe-Gakki and received it in the post a couple of days ago.

Carton from Ikebe-Gakki

This is my first time dealing with Ikebe-Gakki and I must applaud them for the quality of their communication and their prompt replies to my emails. They only accept payments by bank wire transfer for purchases from outside Japan, though, making a schlep to the bank to fill out forms necessary.

The EVH Striped Series guitars ship in a softcase so I requested that they pack the guitar with extra layers of bubblewrap to ensure it got to me in one piece.

And did they pack it well!

The guitar was shipped thoroughly bubble-wrapped and double-boxed. And despite the Floyd Rose nut not being locked, the guitar was actually pretty much in tune when I took it out of the softcase, with only the G and the B strings slightly flat. Ikebe-Gakki will definitely be seeing more business from me in the near future.

Carton within a carton and generous amount of bubblewrap!

The Mexican-made EVH Striped Series is manufactured in Fender's Ensenada factory. Fender Mexico has really upped their game in recent years -- the Roadworn series in particular, stick out as very well-made instruments with tons of vibe. In my opinion they gave more bang for the buck than any relic'd guitar from the Fender Custom Shop.

Eddie Van Halen is well-known for being very hands-on with the design of every guitar model that bears his name, choosing wood combinations, hardware and voicing pickups.

He is also legendary for giving guitar manufactures a hard time whenever he visits a factory, simultaneously striking fear and a sense of awe into the hearts of those who happen to be tweaking guitars in the final setup department on that particular day.

It's here! Shrouded in mystery

I reckon it was his early experience with Kramer in the 80's where only his name and likeness were used in ad campaigns to sell guitars, with virtually no creative input from Eddie himself, that set him on a tangent of being very involved in the design and manufacture of every one of his guitars and amplifiers, from Ernie Ball/Musicman, to Peavey, and now, Fender EVH. In all honesty, I can't recall ever having played a bad guitar or amplifier that had Eddie's mark on it.

To think that Kramer missed out on a golden opportunity, all those years ago, to recreate an Eddie Van Halen signature model, stripes and all!

But on to the review.

EVH Striped Series Main Features

The EVH Striped Series guitars are available in three color combos -- black stripes on white, yellow stripes on black, and the iconic red, white and black.

All models feature a hand-rubbed, oil-finished quartersawn maple neck with built-in graphite reinforcement rods, an easy access trussrod adjustment wheel at the base of the neck, Stratocaster headstock, jumbo frets, EVH-branded tuners, basswood body, Wolfgang humbucking pickup, single volume control via an EVH-branded 500k low-friction pot, and side-mounted output jack.

Of course, the Striped series just wouldn't be EVH enough without a Floyd Rose bridge.

Oil-Finished Neck With Graphite Reinforcement 

Quartersawn neck with 'quarter flowers'

The necks on these guitars are devoid of any kind of finish other than a couple of coats of oil applied at the factory. Oil-finished necks, or any neck that has not been hard-finished in lacquer or polyurethane, are prone to shrinkage, expansion and warping, depending on the relative humidity the instrument is stored in.

All EVH Striped Series guitar necks are carved from quartersawn wood for the simple reason that  quartersawn necks are much more resistant to twisting and warping than flatsawn necks. And if you're dealing with an oil-finished neck, quartersawn is much more stable and definitely the way to go. You can tell a quartersawn neck from flatsawn by the vertical grain pattern and visible row of 'quarter flowers' running down the centre of the neck.

And to make doubly sure the neck on your EVH guitar lasts through years of sweaty gigs, the built-in graphite reinforcement rods add even more stability. Graphite is so stable that some companies like Vigier guitars have even done away with trussrods entirely, relying on graphite rods to keep their necks stable and fingerboard relief constant.

The Neck of Legend!

The first thing that struck me when I picked up the EVH Striped Series was the neck profile. This is the neck that vanished from the face of the earth!

In 1987, when Ibanez released the first Steve Vai JEM guitars in that lurid Loch Ness Green, I remember trying one out and being immediately amazed by the profile and feel of the neck. Even before plugging it in, I wrapped my hand around that neck and I just knew.

EVH-branded tuners

But the mystic, magical properties of the original Loch Ness Green neck was forever lost after that limited run of seven hundred and seventy seven guitars.  The many subsequent incarnations of the JEM series did not use the same neck profile as the Loch Ness and I could never understand why. It was as if someone decided to simply can it, the blueprints relegated to some secret archive in the Hoshino factory.

Or Steve Vai's basement.

I was really happy when I reached into the softcase to pull out my guitar. There are some things you just cannot forget. The neck profile on the EVH Striped Series is exactly like the one on the almost mythical Loch Ness JEM!

The EVH's neck profile can best be described as a slim 'C', with beautifully rounded, rolled fingerboard edges. The glued-on maple fingerboard features a compound radius that goes from a Gibson-like 12" at the nut, to a very flat 16" at the fingerboard end, allowing for super-low action without fretting out when bending strings. I'm not an ultra-low action kinda guy -- I like a teeny bit of fight from the strings but they must still be low enough for me to throw in the occasional right-hand tapped legato run with ease.

But just for a lark, I brought the EVH Floyd Rose down about as low as it would go, and the guitar still played very evenly, with no odd chokes or fret-outs at random points indicating that some fret were higher than others. Kudos to Fender Mexico for the stellar fretwork. And did I mention that the jumbo frets on this guitar were polished to a chrome-like, mirror shine?

Gleaming frets!

While waiting for my guitar to arrive in the mail, I came across a few negative reviews on a couple of guitar forums that said that the EVH Striped Series guitars came with sharp fret ends. This was not my experience with my own guitar, but I can understand why this might be the case for some.

As I mentioned earlier, oil-finished maple necks are sometimes prone to expansion and contraction, depending on relative humidity. If the guitar has been stored in a relatively dry environment for several weeks, the wood is likely to contract, causing the fret ends to protrude slightly. Some guitar manufacturers cut the fret tangs a little shorter at the fingerboard ends for this very reason. Fortunately this is something that can be easily fixed by any competent luthier or repairman. A quick buff of the fret ends with a fret rounding file, a dash of linseed oil to restore the finish on the fingerboard edges, and you're done.

So what's with all the hype about oil-finished necks?

To put it simply, oil-finished necks feel as smooth as butter -- much smoother and silkier to the touch than any kind of man-made polyurethane satin finish. But like it or not, when the naturals oils from the hand react with the wood of the neck, it will start to darken up in some areas more than others. You can pretty much analyze a guitarist's playing style and even his knowledge of the fingerboard by looking at the grime marks on an oiled maple fingerboard after a couple of years. The more evenly marked, the more it shows he uses more of the fingerboard!

On my old black Ibanez JEM 77V, I sandpapered the finish off the back of the neck in an attempt to replicate the feel of the Loch Ness JEM I mentioned earlier. Despite being lightly finished, the back of that JEM 77V neck felt unusually 'hairy' with slightly raised grain. Strange.

To counter the hairy, slightly rough feel, I buffed it down with very fine sandpaper and applied several coats of Warwick beeswax to seal the wood. I checked just now, and the contents of that one-and-a-half-decade old can of beeswax had solidified into clumps that resemble a broken yellow candle.

Guess I'll stick to Dr Duck's AxWax for general maintenance of the EVH neck.

That, and as Ritchie Fliegler mentions in his book The Complete Guide To Guitar And Amp Maintenance, regular wipings of the back of the neck with oil from the forehead every morning!

How's that for a personalized guitar?

After playing the EVH for a couple of days at home and at one of my regular Monday night gigs, the fingerboard is starting to darken up in the more well played areas. Not so much from finger grime, mind you, but from the black carbon residue from the factory-installed strings. My fingertips were literally a gun-metal grey from playing the guitar out of the box for a couple of hours when it first arrived. Ok, maybe there was a wee bit of grime involved.

Before my guitar arrived I thought about taking some fine steel wool to the body to take away some of that glossy shine off from the polyurethane finish. Now that the guitar is in my hands, I kinda don't have the heart to. But I think that as the oil-finish starts to dirty up some more, it will save me from having to relic the body in any way -- a well-played dirtied up neck will take the eye away from the 'too new' poly finish body. And we all know how awful it looks when a poly finish guitar body is relic'd.

EVH Floyd Rose with D-Tuna

As I mentioned earlier, the EVH guitars feature a handy trussrod adjustment wheel at the base of the neck. No popping off the neck to do a simple truss rod adjustment. The wheel can be tightened or loosened accordingly using any metal object that can fit into the holes on the adjustment wheel and they have even provided a simple, slim hex-wrench for this purpose.

EVH-Floyd Rose Tremelo System with D-Tuna

The EVH Striped Series just wouldn't look right without a Floyd Rose trem system.

And the EVH-branded Floyd Rose that comes standard on these guitars is not some licensed cheap knock-off. According to the Floyd Rose website, the EVH Floyd is exactly the same as the German-made Floyd Rose Original, except that it is made in Korea. Same specs, different country of manufacture.

As stated on their website also, the EVH Floyd is OEM and made exclusively for the EVH line of guitars, meaning that you can't buy an EVH-branded Floyd Rose off the shelf. But if you do want to buy one, the equivalent model would be the Korean-made Floyd Rose 1000 series.

And you've got to give it to the Koreans. Aside from the hex wrenches needed for the bridge and locking nut screws, they even provided an additional regular length string lock screw and one more longer string lock screw that fits the D-Tuna!

Obligatory hex wrenches and complimentary string lock screws

Which means also, that if you do not wish to have the D-Tuna installed, you can remove it and install the shorter string lock screw in its place, for a more traditional Floyd Rose look.

A nice touch!

Like the Floyd Rose Original, the EVH Floyd features hardened steel saddles and baseplate, nickel-plated brass trem block, a stainless steel tremelo arm and a locking nut to clamp the strings down
firmly.

The EVH-branded Floyd Rose tremelo also comes with a D-Tuna that allows you to instantly drop the low E string to a low D, just by pulling out on the knurled post attached to the low E string's locking screw.

EVH-Floyd Rose

Of course, in order for the guitar to still be in tune when the D-Tuna is pulled, the entire bridge must have it's back end resting firmly on the body. If you set the Floyd to a floating position, activating the D-Tuna would throw all the other strings out of tune.    

I'm leaving the D-Tuna on mine for now to see how it works out in a live playing situation. If not, then it's back to floating the trem and removing the D-Tuna.

For good measure, and to ensure that there was minimal friction at the fulcrum points, I applied Rene Martinez's GraphitAll guitar lube to the Floyd's bridge posts and knife edges, really getting it in there with a toothpick.

EVH Striped Series Finish

The stripes on the EVH finish were sprayed on one by one, in layers.

A painstaking process no doubt, which probably went something like this:

• Over an undercoat of primer, the body was first sprayed black. 
• The black base coat was taped up and the entire body was sprayed white. When the tape was removed, the result was black stripes on a white body. 
• More tape was applied and red paint was sprayed, again over entire body. 
• When the tape was removed, the final red-white-black combination was achieved.

What I find amazing is how Fender managed to replicate Eddie's original red-white-black finish down to the smallest detail, using tape just like he did. No easy task when you consider that the factory's finish department has to do exactly the same graphic on hundreds of guitars! No wonder the Striped Series is made in Mexico -- American guitar factory workers would probably have gone on strike!

EVH striped finish back detail

Eddie's original guitar -- the one featured on the cover of the Van Halen I -- started out as a white guitar with black stripes. As his popularity exploded, he soon found his guitar being copied not only by fans but also by a few Japanese guitar companies who were making a few unlicensed 'tributes'. To throw them for a loop, he masked off certain areas of his black and white guitar with tape and sprayed everything red. When the tape was removed... well, you know the rest.

Fender could have just gone with a single template and sprayed all the different colors on all at once, but it would probably have caused the colors to run into each other, and the lines would not look quite as crisp as if they were sprayed on one by one, with each color layer allowed to dry separately. And you can see this in the finish -- the lines look slightly raised at the edges where the tape was peeled off after each color was sprayed.

EVH Wolfgang Humbucking Pickup

Earlier in his career, Eddie preferred a single humbucker screwed right into the body in the bridge

Double Phillips screws on each side of the pickup

position with a single volume pot and no tone control. He has said that he cannibalized the pickup, an original PAF, from an old Gibson ES335 he owned and dipped it in paraffin wax to stop microphonic squeal.

True to form, the bridge EVH Wolfgang humbucking pickup is screwed right to the body, but with two smaller Phillips screws on each side of the pickup instead of just one screw on each side. This makes for a very solid mount and I can't even get the pickup to move even a tiny bit back and forth when I grab on it!

The EVH Wolfgang pickup features Alnico II magnets, have a DC resistance of 14K and are double wax-potted to ensure absolutely no microphonic squeal even at ear-shattering arena volumes.

How It Sounds

All this jibber-jabber would mean diddley-squat if the guitar didn't sound good.

When I brought my EVH Striped series to my usual Monday night gig, I was a bit worried as to how it would fare tonally, with only a bridge pickup and a single volume control.

Low-friction 500k volume pot -- most likely a Bournes pot

My band's repertoire is pretty wide -- Hendrix, Cream, Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd -- and I do a fair amount of switching between the neck and bridge pickup during songs and on solos, along with much tweaking of the tone controls.

To be honest, I didn't feel I was missing my neck pickup at all. Although to compensate, the worry wort in me decided that I needed to set each of my overdrive pedals differently, one brighter, and one much darker with the tone almost rolled off.

But I found that I was fine with just hanging with one pedal into an early '90s Marshall SL-X head and cab the entire night. The Wolfgang pickup performed admirably, cleaning up nicely when I backed it off, and really laying on the juice when cranked.

And that low-friction pot -- it'll get away from you if you're not careful!

My guitar as it appeared on the Ikebe-Gakki site 

The EVH Striped series is, all in all, a joy to play. And if you've been jones'ing to dust off your Van Halen riffs and licks with some Floyd Rose divebombs and stratospheric harmonic screams thrown in, this guitar is for you!

Don't forget to check out these sites:

Ikebe-Gakki.com

EVHGear.com

Jackson Adrian Smith Signature

This just in from the good folks at Fender, which now also owns the Jackson guitar brand -- the Jackson Adrian Smith Signature.

Part of the Jackson Bloodline series, the Jackson Adrian Smith features a maple neck, with either a maple or rosewood compound radius fingerboard, basswood body, high-output Jackson humbucking bridge pickup, noiseless single-coil pickups for the neck and middle positions, 5-way selector switch, and a Floyd Rose bridge.

In other words, a not atypical '80s-style super strat.

The maple fingerboard models, like the one pictured here, come with black pickguards while the rosewood models come with white pickguards. The body finish on the Adrian Smith Signature is in a color that Jackson calls Snow White -- decidedly un-metal, if you ask me, but a cool looking axe nonetheless.



Jackson Adrian Smith

The Les Paul Quest Part 2

In Part 1 of The Les Paul Quest  I wrote about the Provision Les Paul my friend was contemplating on getting.  But you know, contemplate on something for too long and it'll grow legs and walk away.

With the Provision Les Paul snapped up by another buyer, Sherman sent me an email with pics of a Les Paul from the far, Far East -- Thailand! 

Thai-made guitars are a fairly recent entry into the guitar market and I'd tried a couple of bolt-on strat and tele-style guitars over the last couple of years.  Both were made by one Prasit Pariyarungsri. 

The guitars were pretty well-made and the attention to detail was definitely there.  But because they used indigenous local woods, they tended to be extremely heavy -- imagine a tele-style axe with a bolt-on neck weighing in at almost 9lbs! 

That would be on the heavy side even for a regular Les Paul.  And at that kind of weight a guitar is just not going to resonate.  The two guitars I tried felt like the pickups were speaking directly to the strings, with no contributing acoustic resonance from the body and neck at all.  Which is fine, maybe even desired, for heavier rock and metal, which would appeal to a sizeable chunk of the Thai guitar-buying market. 

From what I understand, Prasit apprenticed under another Thai guitar maker -- whose name eludes me now -- who also made a variety of solidbody guitars in the style of Gibson, Tom Anderson, Fender and PRS and marketed under the brand 'POT'.  And browsing the NNG Guitars website -- Prasit's current guitar company -- it looks like they are taking a similar approach.

This particular Prasit-built NNG Les Paul copy comes upgraded with woods more traditionally associated with the Gibson family.  The description in the email from Prasit himself is as follows:

********
Neck Joint : Set in (Long neck tenon type)    

Neck : One piece mahogany
Fretboard :  Rosewood with Mother of Pearl trapezoid inlays
Headstock shape : Les paul standard shape with real ebony wood veneer
Body :  Almost one piece Honduras mahogany (the one piece has 90% of total width body jointed with another piece has 10% of remainder).  However I ever found original Les Paul jointed same as this, everybody can be called that one piece body
Body top : Book match highly curly flame maple(4A grade)
PUs. : 2× genuine Alnico V magnet

********

And I appreciate the guy's honesty about the ratio of wood that makes up the body joint. Try getting the Gibson Custom Shop to openly offer up that kind of information!

Prasit's current approach, now that he has access to Honduran mahogany, is to bring his Les Paul guitars in at between 7.5 to 8lbs. 

I'm really digging the real mother of pearl inlays!  Why Gibson continues to use cheap pearloid plastic for the inlays on their Les Paul Standards continues to elude me. 

And it looks like NNG Guitars is getting their own Alnico humbuckers custom made as well.  Interesting.


Check 'em out -- http://www.nngguitars.com/

Pickmaster Plectrum Punch | Lifetime Supply of Picks!

Here's a neat little gizmo that promises hours of fun. 

The Pickmaster Plectrum Punch allows you to punch out your own picks out of any piece of plastic flat enough to fit into its jaws.  Old credit cards, plastic container lids, file folders are all fair game. 

After punching out your pick, a quick smoothing out with extra-fine-grit sandpaper will remove any rough edges and you're good to go.  Or you could try my favorite method, which is to buff the pick against carpet, something I do constantly to smooth out the rough edges after those spur of the moment Van Halen-esque pick slides.   

And if the classic #351 Fender pick shape is not your thing, another company called Pick Punch manufactures a similar device capable of stamping out picks in the Dunlop Jazz III shape.  Ooh, the competition these days.  

Either way, you'll probably never look at an ordinary piece of plastic the same way again.   It's all PPM -- Potential Pick Material! 

Here's to guilt-free pick tossing at gigs.

Fender Yngwie Malmsteen Nylon-String Stratocaster | Random Guitar of the Day

Here's something we don't come across too often -- a scalloped Yngwie Malmsteen nylon-string Stratocaster!

This guitar was made by Fender Japan, who seem to come with all kinds of fun variations on the traditional US Fender models, exclusively for the Japanese market.

This particular guitar, listed in the Japanese Fender catalog as model STCL-140YM, features what appears to be GraphTech's Ghost pickup system and a single volume control.  No fancy parametric EQs here.  And from the sound of it, it doesn't need one.

Although it must be a real pain stringing up the nylon strings onto the Fender Kluson-style machine heads.  Nylon strings are extremely stretchy when new, and before you know it you would have more wraps than those tiny tuning posts can accomodate.  You really have to underestimate for the amount of string slack you will need to use when stringing up this baby, especially on the plain nylon treble strings!
  
Yngwie Malmsteen does a fine job on his nylon-string Stratocaster in the video below:



Check out the eBay listing for this rare bird.

And here's an earlier post on a Fender Yngwie Double-neck Stratocaster!  Like I said, all kinds of fun variations..

Blankenship Amp Owned By Mike Landau On eBay!

Up for your perusal is a Mike Landau owned Blankenship Fat Boy Supreme with Sour Cream option -- a 6-position bright switch.

Unlike the stock Fat Boy Supremes which come with a single 15" speaker, this amp is outfitted with a pair of 12" Rola Celestion G12-65's which seem to be Mike's favorite. 

And to up the deliciousness factor, this particular amp comes in a rich chocolate-brown tweed.

According to Blankenship's website, their Fat Boy amps allow the player to switch  between a pair of 6V6 or 6L6 power tubes, without having to re-bias the amp.  The Sour Cream option gives the customer a choice of either a Volume and 6-position bright switch or two dedicated Volumes, controlled by a footswitch.

Decisions, decisions..

Past listings by the seller, LA Vintage Gear, also included a pristine 1967 Fender Twin, also owned by Mike, that was reworked by Roy Blankenship.

eBay Item #:  200504434748

Paul Rivera's Fender Princeton Mod Link

If you read my post on Steve Lukather's Rivera modified Princeton amp, here's a link I recently discovered that provides instructions and schematics to get your Fender Princeton souped up to Lukather's specs:

http://www.stratopastor.org.uk/strato/amps/prii/modifications/gainmods/gainmods.html

Bear in mind that I make no claim as to the accuracy or safety of the amp mod information on that site. 

And make sure you know what you're doing before opening up any amp and poking around in there -- these kinds of mods are best left to a qualified technician.

Aethertone Steampunk Style Stratocaster on eBay

Here's custom work you won't see too often.  No EVH Frankenstein or SRV 'Number One' clones for this creative DIY'er!

Dubbed the Aethertone AE1, this Steampunk style guitar is actually an '89 Fender Stratocaster that was modified so that the entire body appears to be wrapped in burnished metal plates. 

A tribute to Victorian-era steam engines, the plates, according to the seller, are not really metal.   And neither are the 150 painted-on screws that seemingly hold the plates in place!

The Steampunk even  features its own steam pressure gauge that opens up to reveal a secret compartment to store picks! 

And check out that deeply scalloped fretboard!


It wouldn't surprise me if the Fender Custom Shop starts knocking on the door of the Aethertone AE1's creator very soon.

eBay item number: 140430483553

Pristine 1964 Fender Vibroverb on eBay!

From the folks at LA Vintage Gear comes this eBay listing for an immaculate Fender Vibroverb from 1964! 

According to the seller, a few caps and resistors on this amp have been replaced over its lifetime --perfectly normal as capacitors are prone to leaks or drying out after a decade -- and a JBL speaker swapped out for the original Oxford 15-inch speaker.  As a bonus the seller is also including the original Oxford speaker. 

And every tonehound knows that a 15-inch speaker is the key to that elusive Stevie Ray sound!   Crank up that Strat neck pickup because that 15 is going to make your guitar sound like you went up two string gauges.  At least!

Seriously, the condition of this amp is unbelievable -- even the grille cloth is a perfect, just-out-of-the-factory silver and light grey.  Not bad for an amp that is 46 years old! 

Originally released in 1963, the first year of production saw this amp as a 'brownface' -- brown faceplate, brown knobs, light brown grille cloth and a cabinet clad in brown tolex. Fender switched to the classic blackface and silver grille cloth for the Vibroverb in 1964 and upped the wattage to 40W from the previous 35W on the brownface with some modifications to the tube layout. 

The Vibroverb was also the first amp in the Fender line to incorporate a built in spring reverb.  These spring reverb tanks which Fender procured from Hammond helped define the Fender sound and indeed the guitar sounds used in pop music in general in the 60's.  And it still stands that if you want a defined, ballsy reverb that doesn't wash out your guitar tones at more extreme settings, a spring reverb is still the way to go!

(eBay Item #: 200475280868)

Fender Custom Shop 1960 Relic Stratocaster Owned by Michael Landau on eBay!

Here's an eBay listing for a Relic 1960 Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster owned by Michael Landau! 

According to the seller LA Vintage Gear, this Sonic Blue Strat was specially built for Landau by the Fender Custom Shop in 2002.   And for many big name pros that usually means a visit to the custom shop to hand-pick choice bodies and necks out of the batch.  A privilege for the lucky few! 

And if there's anybody that knows what he wants in a Strat, it's Mike.

Weighing in at 7.8lbs, this axe comes with all accessories and a Certificate of Authenticity.

(eBay Item #:  270581947272)

And here's a link to a Mike Landau-owned Tyler Studio Elite!

Schecter YM-1 Yngwie Malmsteen Signature on eBay

Here's a rare Schecter YM-1 Yngwie Malmsteen signature model on eBay. 

Both Schecter and Aria Guitars were quick to sign up Yngwie when he landed in the US in the early 80's and started making a name for himself as rock guitar's new wunderkind.  Both endorsements were short-lived however, and Yngwie continued to play his Fender Stratocasters exclusively, right up until the time when Fender decided it made good commercial sense to produce an Yngwie signature model themselves.

The Schecter YM-1 featured an ash body, fully scalloped rosewood fretboard and a two-point fulcrum-style bridge, likely made by Trev Wilkinson.  Ash-bodied Schecters from this era are noticeably heavy -- think 80's era Les Paul-type weight in a Strat-shaped body!  

The Schecter YM-1 is also the very first example of a production model guitar with a scalloped fingerboard and is probably one of the reasons so few were made.  1986 was pre-CNC, and scalloping fingerboards was still an arduous, time-consuming, blister-inducing affair.

Electronically, the YM-1 takes the cake!  Since Yngwie never used the middle pickup on his Strats, the middle pickup on the YM-1 is wired as a hum-cancelling coil for the front and bridge pickups while the 3-way selector switch allowed for classic out-phase Strat tones in the middle position.  The single-coils on this axe bear former Schecter employee Tom Anderson's large-polepiece, cover-less bobbin design. 

Also unique are the three control knobs on the YM-1 which are wired for master volume, treble and bass!

Just under 5 hours to go on this auction! 

(eBay Item No:  220601401779 )

And here's a link to a rare Fender Yngwie Malmsteen Double Neck Stratocaster!

Fender Splatocaster by Scott Buehl

If you can think it, the Fender Custom Shop can probably build it.

Based on Jimmy Stout's winning entry to Guitar World's 2004 'Design Your Dream Guitar' contest, the Splatocaster was realised by Fender Custom Shop veteran builder Scott Buehl who took up the task of creating the aluminum-framed, fluid-filled instrument. 

Wait a minute.. fluid-filled? 

Buehl chose to go with bullet-proof, clear Lexan polycarbonate, formed into a hollow Stratocaster body to fit into the aluminum body frame.  The hollow Lexan body was then filled with a fluid made up primarily of paraffin oil, distilled water and food coloring to form a swirl-a-licious ever changing pattern of colors!  

Jimi woulda been proud.

(Pic Source:  www.fender.com)

Fender Furniture | Fender HotSeat and Stratocaster Tables!

Outfitting that newly refurbished den or basement jam room?  Think out of the IKEA box for a bit and consider these.


With designs licensed from Fender, Overkill Design LLC is producing a range of HotSeats and Fender Tables.  


The HotSeats are designed to mimic the look of a Fender combo amp in either Tweed or black Tolex. A cool feature is the strategically placed volume knob that releases the seat cushion allowing access to storage space within the HotSeat's cabinet.  Great for stashing cables, pedals and other contraband.

Measuring 13" long, 13" wide and 19" tall and weighing 22 lbs. these HotSeats would be difficult to move around were it not for the amp handles, accessible through the clever cut-out on the seat cushions. 

Overkill's Deluxe Stratocaster and Telecaster Tables are solid maple, custom tinted and lacquered for a vintage look.  Six tuning peg caps made of chrome plated steel disks are mounted flush to the table surface while the Fender logo and lettering are silk-screened and laquered over to stand up to everyday use.  Chrome-plated legs and a unique stamped serial number complete the package.

I'm totally digging that natural wood and detailed lettering.  I mean, seriously, wow..

Overkill is also producing a Standard Stratocaster Table made of a varnished wood composite with a vintage tint, silk-screened tuning peg caps and Fender lettering with silver powder-coat legs.

I've never wanted a piece of furniture so much in my life.

http://www.overkilldesign.com/

Leon McAuliffe 1950 Fender Broadcaster on eBay!

Here's a rare gem.  You don't come across too many Fender Broadcasters on eBay, let alone one belonging to a pioneering country guitar legend. 

Leon McAuliffe, one of the finest pickers to absolutely own it on both the six-string and steel guitars, was a long-standing member of Bob Wills And The Texas Playboys.  An untitled steel guitar instrumental written by McAuliffe became Steel Guitar Rag which was to be the biggest hit for the Texas Playboys. 

To add to the cool factor, the inside of the bridge cover is inscribed 'Property of W.L. McAuliffe, Bogalusa LA', perhaps by McAuliffe himself.

At a Buy It Now Price of $150,000, this Fender Boradcaster doesn't come cheap but it is in pretty good shape for a workhorse instrument that is 60 years old!  As usual, do the necessary research before shelling out the dough!

(eBay Item #:  280477417662)

Fender American Special Prototype Guitars Giveaway

Fender has announced a special giveaway for three lucky winners to win one of three Fender American Special Stratocaster and Telecaster prototypes.  To up the cool factor, Fender promises that these instruments have been "roughed up pretty good in the test-pilot phase".

Pegged by Fender as 'value-conscious guitars-for-the-times', the current American Special series includes three models -- the American Special Telecaster, American Special Stratocaster and American Special Stratocaster HSS.  All three US-made models feature Fender Texas Special pickups, alder bodies, urethane finishes, 9.5" fingerboard radius and jumbo frets.  Interestingly, the Telecaster models feature the vintage-style bridge with 3-piece brass-saddles.



Go to http://www.fender.com/promos/2010/americanspecial/, fill out the contest form online and hope for the best. 

This giveaway ends 22nd April 2010 and is for US residents only.

Steve Lukather Guitar Clinic 13th March 2010 | Review

Randy Brecker's Soul Bop Special Edition is in town for a concert, featuring the guitar pairing of Steve Lukather and Robben Ford!  Are we lucky or what!

Playing his new copper-gold Musicman Luke into a rented Marshall JCM2000 Triple Super Lead head, Steve Lukather showed us why he was still a player to be reckoned with, in this up-close and personal guitar clinic.

Starting his clinic 25 minutes late for some undisclosed reason, and after an informal self-introduction, Lukather launched into a beautiful, moving chord-melody solo based on Larry Carlton's  It Was Only Yesterday.  Reminiscent of Carlton's own chordal intro on the same track from the live Paris Concert dvd,  Luke laid it all out for us to hear with emotion, nuance and absolute control over his instrument.

Channel-switching his Marshall to the 'red' high gain channel, he next unleashed a barrage of classic Lukather-isms -- slinky pentatonics and wah inflected licks -- before playing some Jeff Beck-style pseudo-slide-guitar using the whammy-bar to gliss between notes.  Here's a guy who makes it point of learning something from everyone he can!  Bringing things down, Lukather closed off with a near note-perfect rendition of Jimi Hendrix's guitar outtro from Castles Made Of Sand.  And that was just the beginning!

Despite his volume I was surprised by how warm his sound was -- a far cry from the searing, high-gain, mid-range scooped Steve Lukather tone of old.  Nice.


Self-deprecating as usual -- "I'm just jammin', goofing off" -- Lukather came across as someone who obviously still loves playing the guitar.  By his own admission still the eternal student, it was refreshing to see a musician of his caliber still re-inventing himself on the instrument.  After 35 years in the music biz, most cats would be kicking back in the producer's chair and thinking about where to go to later for dinner.

Luke's pedal rig was modest by any standard -- an Ibanez Tube Screamer, two Boss Digital Delay pedals for long and short delays, a Providence Chorus and a Boss Tuner pedal.   And according to him, rental amps were an economic necessity in this age of high airline freight charges -- "It would cost $20,000 just to ship my three road cases over here!" 

Turning to his new copper-colored Musicman Luke guitar -- "I'm not sure if I like the color; it kinda looks like my 2 1/2 year old baby's poop!" -- he talked about his current disdain for Floyd Rose bridges and their inherent string-changing hassles, opting instead for a non-locking floating bridge on all his current Musicman guitars. 

He then demonstrated the range and tuning stability of his Musicman's traditional fulcrum trem with Jeff Beck's Where Were You and more faux slide-guitar licks -- "When Jeff Beck does that stuff, he sounds like God's guitarist!"  Luke even gave us a little background on Beck's fingers only technique.  Apparently Jeff had told him that he dropped his pick playing live on the Ed Sullivan Show on TV and swore after that that he wouldn't rely on a pick anymore.  "With Jeff, it's all in the right hand.  Put a pick in his hand and he doesn't sound like Jeff Beck."  Interesting!

When asked about his work on Michael Jackson's Thriller album, Luke launches into the famous Beat It riff.  He states matter of factly, "I did all the grunt work on that track; I played all the (rhythm) guitars.  I even played bass!  But Eddie gets all the love."  Luke even goes into an uncanny impersonation of Michael's personal phone call to him to play on the Thriller sessions, hanging up on him three times thinking it was a prank call! 

With Eddie Van Halen having laid down his solo -- but refusing to play over a certain section of the song that was eventually edited out -- Lukather set about re-recording the basic rhythm tracks with a barrage of heavy Marshall tones, "I mean we had Eddie Van Halen playing on it, right?"  But according to Lukather, producer Quincy Jones wasn't thrilled with the wall of heavy guitars and instructed him to re-cut the guitars so the track would fit in on the R 'n B radio format.  "So we took off the barrage of Marshall amps from the track and brought out our little Fender Princeton's."  He seemed reluctant when prodded to dish the dirt about Jackson, offering little more than "I saw him kind of change -- facially.." 

And Lukather really got animated when someone asked a question about the rampant use of digital editing in recording, obviously one of his pet peeves.  "People criticise Toto's records for being too slick, but we were all playing live in the same room together.  We overdubbed some solos and background vocals but that was about it."   Referring to the ubiquitous ProTools recording system, he said most artists these days lacked the talent to get a decent take in the studio, choosing instead to 'Tool it.  "Back then you had to be good (to make a record).  Then MTV came along and you had to be good, and pretty.  Now you just have to be pretty."

Closing his guitar clinic with a verse of Hendrix's Little Wing, which he sang through the driest of guitar clinic PA's, Lukather talked a little about the virtues of slow and deliberate practice.  "Think of music like sex, take your time and take it slow."

Words to live by indeed.

Stay tuned for my review on Robben Ford's clinic tomorrow!

(Pic Source:  http://www.stevelukather.net/)

Bolt-On Vs. Neck-Thru Tone Difference for Bass

This is a very cool vid that compares the tonal difference between bolt-on and neck-thru basses.  The instruments in question, both by Ken Smith, feature 18-volt BMT (Bass, Middle, Treble) EQ circuits so they are identical electronically.  The neck-thru features a walnut/maple/walnut sandwich body, while the bolt-on is maple/walnut/maple. 

It is immediately apparent that the neck-thru sounds rounder, smoother and more compressed on the slap section (0:07-0:34).  The slap section on the bolt-on (0:35-0:47) on the other hand is very bright with wilder harmonics that seem to jump out from the instrument.  Personally, I prefer the tone of the bolt-on for slapping -- chalk it up to listening to Marcus Miller and his Fender Jazz bass on Miles Davis' We Want Miles in my formative years.

The bolt-on gets my vote as well in the pizzicato section (0:48-1:25).  The notes just have more clarity and definition and react more to the player's touch depending on how hard the string is being played.  The neck-thru again is very smooth and more even dynamically.  One might even say that the neck-thru is more forgiving of flaws or unevenness in a player's right-hand finger technique.

The neck-thru really shines in the chordal section (1:27-2:05) and the tapping section (2:07-2:29) where its natural compression provides a solid platform for the notes, with no interfering harmonic frequencies as on the bolt-on.

SmithGroove's YouTube channel has a bunch of other bass demos and song grooves.  Check it out.

And in case any guitar players reading this are feeling a bit left out -- "Hey, isn't this The Guitar Column, dude?"-- all the principles that apply to bolt-on and neck-thru basses translate to the guitar world just as well.  Something else to think about when deciding on that next guitar purchase.

10 Comebacks For The Next Time Someone Asks You About Your Custom Shop Relic Guitar

It's funny how non-guitar-playing folk get the concept of a new pair of faded, distressed jeans but absolutely balk at the idea of a relic guitar. 

And sometimes you just get tired of having to continually rationalize the rather beat up appearance of your relic'd axe to annoying relatives -- your lengthy explanation of the precise scientific processes involved in simulating age on a brand new guitar is usually met with glazed looks, and a subtle shaking of the head.

Followed by the inevitable, "How much did you pay for it?!"

With that in mind, here are 10 quick comebacks for the next time someone asks about your prized custom shop relic guitar:

• I keep my guitars in a toolshed I built out back. One day I'll get round to putting a roof on it.
• I left it with my brother for over a year.  Whenever he and his wife have a fight she takes it out on the guitar.
• When I told my kids not to play with daddy's new axe, they tried to chop a tree down with it.
• I tied the guitar to the back bumper of my car and dragged it around town for a couple of hours.  I heard that's how they do it at the Fender Custom Shop sometimes.
• If you think this is bad, you should see what our cat does to the furniture!
• Vandals!
• I've used this thing in more bar fights than I can remember.
• People say I play harder than Stevie Ray Vaughan.
• It was a brand new guitar when I checked it in on United Airlines!
• This is my dog's guitar.

Thanks to Stratoblogster for inspiring this post!

Tom Morello | Support For Laid-Off Cort Factory Workers

Following up on my article on the plight of laid-off Cort guitar factory workers, it looks like some prominent guitar folk are getting involved.

Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello showed his support at a recent Cort Action Solidarity concert on January 13. 

The concert, dubbed A Night of Guitars, was staged during NAMM 2010 week in Los Angeles while guitar manufacturing bigwigs were in town.  In addition to their own guitar line, Cort also supplies Fender, Ibanez, Gibson, Lakland and ESP. 

Morello also issued this statement:

“Guitars should be a means to liberation, not exploitation. I fully support the Korean workers’ demands for justice in the workplace. All American guitar manufacturers and the people that play them should hold Cort accountable for the awful way they have treated their workers. Without us, they would go out of business. Simple as that. No one should have their job taken away because they stand up for their rights.”

Fender apparently, is the first to step up to the plate and will be conducting their own investigations into the Cort guitar factory lay-offs.

(Pic Source: http://cortaction.wordpress.com/)