List of existing reviews in LYN Musicians sub-forum.


- To be updated by Musicians' Moderators only.
- Post your reviews in a dedicated thread, where you can pour your whole heart out about the review, and we will make a copy here

We hope this solution will satisfy most of us

... work in progress ...


GUITARS
BCRICH WARLOCK
BRIAN MOORE DC/1
EPIPHONE LES PAUL 100
ESP JAMES HETFIELD SIGNATURE TRUCKSTER
ESP KH-3
IBANEZ GAX30
IBANEZ JS1000
IBANEZ RG (by metalhead)
IBANEZ RG (by ssslayerrr)
IBANEZ RG470L
IBANEZ S470
Ibanez RG1527
FENDER STRATOCASTER HIGHWAY 1
FENDER TELECASTER CUSTOM '72
PRS SE SOAPBAR (with P90)
SHERATON ES-335
SQUIER STRATOCASTER DELUXE FMT

AMPS
FENDER BASSMAN 100 (combo)
FENDER STAGE 1000
PEAVEY CLASSIC 50 4x10
VOX AD30VT
VOX AD50VT (by Led Zep Freak)
VOX AD50VT (by Nick Drake)
WASHBURN BAD DOG 25W BD25R

BASS
IBANEZ GSR205
YAMAHA BB415
OLP MM3 (Musicman Stingray 5)

ACOUSTIC GUITARS


EFFECTS/MODELLERS
YAMAHA MAGIC STOMP MK II
IBANEZ TS9 (modded to TS808) & TS808 reissues

OTHER INSTRUMENTS

MISC.
Aluminium casing, by Metalzone

This post has been edited by TheWhacker: Feb 17 2007, 10:59 AM

During my trip to hong kong, I tried this guitar...
the Brian Moore DC/1 (HK$ 22.5k = RM 11k)


Test : during two days, on a Marshall TSL 60W (tubes)

Look : it looks like a les paul, from the front, but much lighter and with a much more luxurious feel (maybe all this gold...). Two main differences are the head, well-balanced and more modern, and the curved body. It is hard to imagine how it feels just by looking at it, but it's quite revolutionnary ! More comfort, and lighter.

Neck : much thinner than a les paul 50s round neck, perhaps comparable with a thick strat neck. Even with my small fingers and used to play on Ibanez, I managed to feel at home quickly. The wood is excellent, it is chocolate-color, the touch is super soft and the frets are very impressive. I got a biiig grin when I put my fingers on it, which says a lot !


Sound : Singing, open, dynamic and RICH. Probably the most expressive sound I've ever got on a guitar ! Clear sound : close, astonishingly close, to an acoustic sound. The guitar is equipped with piezo, and during the few seconds I tried the piezo, I didn't hear any big difference between magnetic and piezo.
Crunch and Lead : solos and double-stops are vibrant, voice-like. By diminishing the tone, I can get a pure jazz tone in the neck pickup, or get a modern crazy shred cutting-thru with the bridge pickup, full of harmonics and yet totally manageable.

I compared it with many Gibson Les Paul Custom, which all striked me by their very dark sound, as if the high-frequencies were cut or dampen. The sound is much more compact on the Gibson, but less "full" (rich is actually the perfect word to describe the DC/1 sound).
Gibson LP :

Big drawback > the DC/1 sounds like crap as soon as you play any chord with more than 3 strings in distorsion !! I guess the sound is soooo open that it becomes messy when you cumulate to many strings. What a BIIIG pity.

For this price, one expects full satisfaction... and not being able to send one thunder-like A major a-la AC/DC, that's quite a disappointment.

This post has been edited by Pix: Dec 16 2005, 02:23 PM

Bought myself a Ibanez GSR205 the other day from Harmony Music in Damansara Utama. (sorry, don't have an actual photo yet)



The tag said RM900. I asked for a discount and promptly got it. Packed a set of Planet Waves gold plated cables, and a nice Planet Waves strap with padding and I was one happy guy. Slightly below RM1K for the bass, strap, cable and bag.

I didn't have the time to really test it out yet but from the few minutes of playing it, this is the impression it gave me...

Looks wise, it's pretty simple and stunning. Black looks good. hehe.

It weighs really light, especially for a 5-string. Being a Soundgear, the neck is thin as expected, excellent for some really fast action. 4 knobs controlling the front pick up, back pick up, tone and a 'bass booster' for some enriching low goodness.

I didn't quite get to test out the sound as I was busy but I did get some friends to test it out, as he played for the Sunday Church service. Unfortunately, I woke up too late that Sunday and missed service... hehe (I did go back again for 2nd service but the sound personnel in-charge did a pretty bad job with the sound system that morning). From the 1 minute of testing the sound on an old Crate bass amp, it sounded OK to me, solid, strong, loud but yet a bit hollow, not rich like a Fender Jazz Bass. Slapping it did give quite an acceptably nice sound with quite a bit of versatility. I'd expect that you might be able to squeeze in quite a number of playing styles with this baby. I'll be playing in October using a Trace Elliot bass amp so I'll edit this post and add more comments once I'm done.

Bad thing is that I found some slight buzzing. Possibly remedied by making some adjustments to the neck and bridge (which feels a bit high now) or improving my bass playing as I only play once or twice a year these past few years.

At below RM900, this entry level bass is a must buy, considering this is my first bass guitar even though I've been playing bass (off and on) since the early 90s.

This post has been edited by azxel: Jan 24 2007, 02:32 PM

I THINK I HAVE GAS! I HAVE PURCHASED AN AMP, A ZOOM, AN ACOUSTIC, MY SHERATON AND GOING TO GET AN SX TELE IN THE SPACE OF A FEW MONTHS!!! HELP MEEEE!!!

Anyway, I'd like to talk about my beloved Sheraton.. haaaiihh..


She is so beautiful! The first time I laid eyes on this sunburst beauty, I knew straight away I gotta have her- Buying an ES-355 is out of the question because of the ridiculous tag price but this one looks even better! pearl dot inlays and abalone-gold hardwares- beautifully shaped neck and maple top.

Soundwise, its not as great as a Gibson of course, but the Sheraton has the best blues/Jazz tone I've ever come across. The bass is deep and heavy and the highs are sweet. Some musicians have said that Epiphone had problems with selectors and switches but so far, I havent had any problems. The selectors are quiet, (no pops) volume knobs and tones are accurate (not just slow, medium loud and very loud!). I'm planning to switch to Gibson's 57s for that more authentic sound of an ES-355. (apparently, p90 soapbars wont fit hehe)

On the downside, I regret not having asked the store to setup my guitar before collecting it. I won't touch it myself mind you-wont risk damaging it in any way- but the neck is set too high. So playing higher scales are a bit clumsy. My friend said that archtops are meant to be that way ut I dunno. Will check with my 'guy'. And it is quite heavy. I never knew maple was quite this heavy, but it might be the size. Hollow or not, this beast will sure give you a workout!!!

thats all folks! thx for reading! anyway, my squire tele is up for sale! (GAS symptoms - trading old guitar for new)

This post has been edited by gizmoduck: Sep 13 2005, 10:15 AM

Ok, my turn to review. And this time, it's the Fender's 50th Anniversary Gold Stratocaster. Why is it 50 ? It's because the Fender Stratocaster's five-decade tenure (1954-2004) has seen it travel through many a rocky road and still come out tops. Naturally, the folks at Fender wanted to celebrate this 50 years golden anniversary with a big mama bang. And what other way to do this than with a golden Strat. There are two versions of the 50th Anniversary Stratocaster, this one, which I'm reviewing, is "made-in-Mexico" version of this instrument. The more "grand" version is the "made-in-America" version which has a Sunburst colour.

The body of this Stratocaster is alder, mated to a one-piece maple neck, carrying the Fender-scale maple fingerboard and 22 vintage style narrow frets. The colour is Aztec Gold which you'll never find on every other guitar. I personally never be keen on gold colours but Fender did a good job on balancing between gold body, maple fretboard, anodised gold scratch plate and gold hardware is a very pleasing proposition indeed.

The guitar has a trio of single coils, a five-way selector switch and, a single tone and two numbered volume dials. Basic stuff for any Strat out there. All six strings are anchored on the vintage synchronised tremolo while the vintage style machine-heads provide for tune-ups on the headstock end of the proceedings.

I was really turn-off by the "made-in-Mexico" workmanship. The American version has the 50th anniversary logo etched on the neck plate at the back. This guitar however gets a cheap sticker on the plastic covering of the trem block.
The guitar's five-way selector takes you through all the classic settings of a standard Stratocaster, and this particular unit does it as it should. Its neck pickup provides a plump, bluesy tone. The middle pickup dishes out some earthy funk grooves while the bride unit is surprisingly polite.

Stinging blues tones scream from the neck and middle pickups as expected, but it's the bridge transducer that really throws a curve ball. Talk about grind and a toothy response - this one wrote the book on them. Never have I had quite so much fun with a Strat bridge pickup and it's really the absence of some of that top end detail that makes this pickup highly desirable and extremely useful.
This guitar plays like the rest of the Strat family. The controls on the Gold Strat are highly responsive and scaled smoothly, too, and thankfully, the trem system on this unit was in more than decent form, staying perfectly in tune through some mild abuse. I tried other trem system on some other guitars and tuning will just run way out of tune.

There's nothing to complain with the 50th Anniversary Gold Stratocaster since after all a Mexican-made Strat and the American-made Highway 1 series will burn a 'smaller" hole in your wallet then those American made guitars which will blow a hole in your bank account.

Pros: Workmanship ok la; Guitar looks good (people WILL notice you); predictable array of sounds just like any other Strats.
Cons: It's lacking that "50th Anniversary" taste if you what I mean

Yamaha Magicstomp MKII

Price : RM990 (Retail) RM800 (Street)

As we all know of recent, the multi-effects processor market has been the central of attention in the guitar world, with companies like Line 6, Digitech, Boss, Zoom etc releasing their own unique models. Hence in 2004, Yamaha joined the crowd by introducing a new multi-effects stompbox Magicstomp, which joins its older siblings : UD Stomp, AG Stomp & DG Stomp. Yamaha claims that the Magicstomp combines all the sound features and versatility of ALL 3 stomps with some from their SPX racks, and more.

The unit I have here is the new version MKII and the amazing thing about it is how simple the interface is. Like the Magicstomp I, it has 3 stomp buttons (Up, Down & On/Off), a master volume control, 3 parameter knobs, input jack, l/r stereo output & USB midi out. With the USB out, you could connect the MG to the computer for further editing & save/load your patches, however the software bundled DOESN'T support OSX (Works with OS9 tho, if that matters), which is a shame really. The software interface is very need but IMO, has lots of room for improvement, again a shame. Anyway, as you can see in the following screenshot, the pedal offers great flexibility of the sound you're looking for, all of them ARE EXTREMELY tweakable!

Anyway since this is the MKII, what improvement did Yamaha put into this??? Well first is the headphone jack, a cool feature for late-night practices. Secondly, deep-editing capability, with the MG1 you're not allowed to edit the parameters of a certain patch on-board but the 3 you assigned to your knobs. Thirdly, feedback eliminator for acoustic patches, AG Stomp feature.

Sound
Here's where the MG shines, and I'ill divide this part to a few categories :
Amp & Cabinet Modelling 5/10
Alright, the thing here is that the Magicstomp is supposed to emulate the DG Stomp. Some may find great sounds from these patches but to me, they sound pretty bland and too digital.

Distortion 6/10
Again, digital-sounding however, some of the sounds are usable if you put in time to tweak it. Lots of EQing as you're gonna run this in front of your amp! Surprisingly, the MG has some nice usable fuzz in it.

Modulation 10/10
All I can say is WOW, great job Yamaha!!! The chorus is very lushy & the symphonic chorus is just, unbelievable! I've compared this to one of the Boss chorus boxes and the Boss is far inferior to the MG. And the same thing goes for flange, phaser, & tremolo effects! Plus, they're very tweakable! Kudos to Yamaha!

Delay 9/10
Anybody remember the UD Stomp, designed by the amazing Allan Holdsworth??? It came with the 8 band parellel/series delay??? That was amazing and very tweakable right??? The good news is the MG has the UD living in it. The bad news is, no tap tempo.

Reverb 10/10
Rack-quality reverbs.

Pitch Shifting, Ring Modulator, Rotary, Filter (N/A)
All these effects are seperated because they can't be combined with other effects. Pitch Shifting soundsd pretty good but I wish it could be operated with an expression pedal ala Digitech Whammy. Ring Modulator, not sure how it sounds compared to analog ones but they're usable. Rotary, not bad at all. Filter, not as good as the analog ones but quite usable.

Acoustic 9/10
We all know that Piezo pickups sound plastic-y and sometimes awful (Even though you have a good acoustic amp). The purpose of these patches are to emulate microphones to get rid of the plastic sound of those piezo pickups. I would say Yamaha, again, has done a great job bringing the AG Stomp patches into the MG! My borrowed acoustic sounds beautiful with added reverb and some light chorus. Kudos to Yamaha!

Verdict
Yamaha has created a very unique yet amazing sounding multi-effects stompbox. The point of the MG is to eliminate the need to have individual stompbox & it's quite true as the effects sound very very good. However, the MG does kill you guitar tone a bit but if you really love your tone, get a looper!
True, the MG is not for everyone, I've seen 2 groups of users online. 1 being the ones who love their MG to death (One of them owned 4 MGs!) & the other hates it as much as.... well I dunno.... but nonetheless, it's worth a try if you get a chance to do so!

Pros : Versatile, great sounding effects, highly tweakable, compact size.
Cons : No tap tempo, kills bit of your guitar tone, doesn't support OSX.

The Fender Stage 1000 is a three-channel amp (Normal/Drive 1/Drive 2) that delivers 100 watts (yes its 100 watts NOT 1000 watts) into the single 12-inch Celestion G12T-100 speaker. My friend told me this amp could be pushed to 160 watts by adding an eight-ohm extension cabinet which I yet to try. This amp also houses a variety DSP effects, a built-in chromatic tuner, along with a four-button footswitch for channel/effects/reverb selection, balanced line output, preamp out, power amp in (the last two via quarter-inch jacks, and which also double up as an external effects loop) something called "Timbre" which I have NO idea what this does.

There's the Normal or some guitarist would love to say clean channel, with its own treble, mid and bass controls. Beside it, there's a button that switches between the Normal and either of the two drive channels. Drive 1 has gain and volume level knobs, then there's the button to select Drive 2, which has both those controls as well ... treble, mid and bass knobs common to both drive channels are provided.

Further down are buttons to select "Timbre" ... which my friend said it quite simply, a preset EQs for different overall voicings - Flat, Bright, Dark, Deep, Scoop, Squawk and Acoustic, which I think you know what they do. The engineer at Bentley Music told my friend not to overdo the EQs as the results from the Timbre settings would also depend on the nature of your guitar and the amp's EQ configuration. Using the chromatic tuner will mute the amp while you're tuning your guitar.

And finally the effects sections where all the reverb level and type, effects level and type, and time/rate control to adjust parameters for the effects are what you get. There's ALOT of effects on this amp, you have Ambient, Room, Hall, Arena, Plate and Spring, with two to four sub-types for each. The modulation array includes Delay (digital, tape echo and ducking), Vibrato (Vibratone here), Tremolo, Phaser, Flanger and Chorus, plus one Delay/Chorus combination.

The Stage 1000 is very loud. On the normal channel, the volume have to be kept at "3" so that I won't annoy the rest of the household and neighbours. It will go loud and cut right through on a small stage without tripping up. The sound is bright, open and punchy.

There's flexibility of tweaking the effects, what you get here is more than decent and useable in a variety of circumstances. If you don't want to carry too many pedals or even a multi-effects box the Stage 1000's effects is a great provider but I'll say your pedals will deliver a much better result in terms of it's sound. But still, it's good having some extra features to play around with.

The drive channels on this amp works really well. Drive 1 is perfect for those who want to blues up their leads. It's not too heavy and not too light, it's just in the middle. For those who love super heavy metal distortion, the Drive 2 might not be your best friend, as the over-drive seems abit on the "week" side. Nonetheless, it's still gives that punch to your riffs.

I think this is a very good amp for those looking for more punch then your little small practice amp. You can't go wrong with those effects on board as well as 3 different channels to play with and price tag of Rm3,100, I definitely recommend this amp.

Pros: Good clean and drive channels; maddness tons of effects; build in tuner
Cons: Drive channels abit "week"

Modded TS-9 to 808 specs:

tone: huge improvement in clean od from the normal ts-9... yes... better than the original. When used as OD for dist i believe that very few can match against this pedal. It retains your original tone and makes it better, what more can you ask? A big improvement from the old one trick pony

durability: extremely tough and the finish does not fade or chip easily unlike most of the Boss pedals.

overall: 10/10. Try one and you'll love it. Even the original will make you weep. IMO its the best OD pedal ever and it doesn't cost a bomb. Don't know how it compares with some of the other boutique pedals but it beats the Hotcake hands down in terms on clean OD and value.

Ibanez TS808 reissued

tone: Can never get a clean OD better than this, PERIOD.

10/10. Had the chance to mess around with this pedal for a few weeks. Dist OD is pretty much the same but the clean OD is better.

Ibanez RG470L

I bought this baby last year from Bentley. Wanted to get a lower end Ibanez model.. either the 350DX or the 320FM but there wasn't much choice considering teh fact taht i was after a left handed model. I have 3 guitars to choose from, the MIA fender strat, Jackson DK2 or this. Fell in love with her the moment i grabbed its neck
*the MIA strat was way out of my budget anyway Rm4000 without discount

The 1st thing you'll notice is the incredibly thin neck. No problem executing jimis baseball grip. Smooth unfinished neck with little to no friction when sliding along. Shes made of Basswood like most Ibanez guitars, which makes it very light.

Shes got a HSH configuration with Ibanez V7/S1/V8 pups, which i later switch to the Tonezone/BV/Air Norton. Stock pups are quite "dead".... only found this out when i use her with my 15w cube. "Strangely" however she sounded pretty damn sweet on the AVT100 amp...lol. One of the mistakes i made when choosing my guitar.

Action was pretty damn bad and the strings were quite rusty. But it was all good after sending it to my friend for a set up. Before that it was almost impossible to get a good legato run.

She is fkin beautiful with the ermm.. cosmic black finish or watever its called. But the finish is very weak... the coat can be easily chipped off. I bet i can do a better finish than that.

She also came with a Edge Pro bridge. It holds tune better than most floating trems but it stills go off by a few cents after each divebomb. Did a few mods with it and its much better now. Credit goes to Rich from Ibanezrulez.

Overall i give it a 7/10 stock. As you can probably tell i had to make alot of mods to ensure she plays well. And ive been told that shes a 2nd class model... which most guitar companies sell to most Asia countries. But heck... I love her now and thats all that matters
Valuewise Ibanez guitars definitely tops the list. With a few changes you can make any Ibanez guitar play like a custommade one.

Ok, this time round I get to review my friend's Squier Deluxe Stratocaster FMT. Yes, you can review your friend's gear too as long your friend knows about it and you're the one actually reviewing it. The best part of reviewing your friend's gear is that, you can try it as long as you want. Music shops will just give you that "please go home" body language. Trust me, I seen that many times.

I have seen this before .....

The Squier by Fender Deluxe Stratocaster FMT has all the attributes that you'll find in any Fender by Fender Stratocaster, generally speaking la. The headstock of this guitar is very similar to the ones used by the '70s Stratocaster, big and fat. It has a flame maple top and a fancy three-ply white pearloid pick guard on it. The body is crafted out of either alder or agathis, which I have no idea what material this is. The guitar comes with a beautiful three-tone sunburst under a highly glossed finish to give it a very handsome look, if not pretty.



Neck is of maple construction and has a "C" profile with a 25.5-inch scale length. The guitar also features a 9.5-inch radius rosewood fretboard. Both body and neck have polyurethane finishes. The guitar comes with 22 medium jumbo frets and a synchronous twin pivot tremolo bridge.

The Strat is loaded with three Alnico magnet single coil pickups. Electronics are the standard affair for all Stratocaster guitars that consists of a five-way pickup selector, one control knob for volume and two more for tone. All hardware on the guitar is chrome. A tremolo arm is also provided here. Behind houses the neck plate that is engraved where the four bolts join the neck and body are joined together.
What I'm trying to say here is, the finishing and assembly of this guitar is top notch, first-class, outstanding workmanship. And I cannot believe this guitar is from Squier's Indonesian factory.

...... and it sounds like .....

The amplification used to test the sound quality of this guitar was the Fender Stage 1000. The guitar was plugged directly to the amp with all the EQ controls to "12" o'clock. Using the neck pickup with the clean channel gives you a warmth and glassiness sound. The middle single coil boasted a nice punchy sound suitable for any soloing work. The bridge pick up brought forth a very ballsy and bright voice. The remaining two pickup settings delivered some very tasty funky sound. .Position 4 (middle and neck) is mellower and seemed to sound more neck the neck pickup's position.

This guitar can rock 'n' roll too as I switched the amp to its overdrive channel. No matter what amount of gain you pump into this guitar, the guitar's natural tone shone through without getting muddy and losing definition.



The volume and tone controls on this guitar are very responsive, obeying very command you dialed in. Turn the volume knob down halfway and the overdriven tone cleans up beautifully, keeping it warm and punchy. Switching to the bridge pickup and you'll get screaming and piercing rock sounds.

My friend tried some of his tricks with the tremolo arm locked in. This guitar had its bridge set up so that you could only push the bar down and we found this a wee bit annoying, as the bridge knocked on the body of the guitar every time I came up from a dive with the bar. Going crazy on the tremolo is not recommended as the guitar will go badly out of tune. This is because there are no locking tuners whatsoever, so do it if you really need to and gently.

.... a good guitar.

The Squier Deluxe Stratocaster FMT is one of the good looking, great sounding and playable guitar. It can easily knock off any high-end guitars out there without breaking your pocket. If you're new to guitars or you're looking a entry level guitar, this IS the guitar you should get. With the price tag of Rm1,250 you can't go wrong with this guitar. I highly recommend this guitar.

Pros: Good workmanship; great sounds; looks beautiful and expensive; very comfortable.

Cons: I can't find any

Haha, if you have been following this thread's reviews you might think that I'm a Fender man. I'll play any type of guitar regardless it's brand name as long it's affordable, playable and looks good. Just ask any guitarist here at the forums and they'll tell you they can never find that "all-perfect" guitar. Or even if they did, the price tag will be enough to pay for a wedding dinner.

This is my friend's Fender Highway 1 Telecaster that was just 30 minutes old from the time he bought it from the shop. Very lucky guy indeed. And 15 minutes later, we're back at his house to do a little stroll on the Highway.

Body way .....

The colour of this guitar is Honey Blonde with a Satin Lacquer Finish. The body is made of Alder while the neck is made out of Maple with a Modern "C" Shape and Satin Polyurethane Finish. There are 22 Medium Jumbo Frets on a Rosewood fretboard.

A three-position blade selector switch allows you to alternate between the two standard vintage-style Alnico Magnets single-coil Tele pickups. A knurled volume and tone dial complete the electronics package. All the hardware on this guitar is chromed to perfection.

..... Sound way ....

One thing I love about Telecasters is that they have a lovely feel once you strap it and ready to play. You can seat, jump, stand, fly or anything in between, the feel stays great and neck comfort is wonderful.

The guitar was plugged into a Marshall MG100DFX and the Highway 1 snarled as if it wants to eats us. This was having the gain turned way up and on the bridge pickup.

Change the pickup positions to the middle and neck positions and you'll get those 1960s and 1970s soft rock sounds. Double note bends and double stops possessed a rich vowel-like quality.



The Highway 1 Tele responded to the strums and flat-picking with a rounded, plump tone while on a clean channel. The bridge pickup is perfect for soloing work while the other two positions invited cool, bluesy and jazzy single-note licks. This guitar can match any humbucker-equipped guitar because of the rosewood if you know how to work with the volume and tone dials.

The pickups on this guitar are kinda week according to my friend. Even with the amp's gain at max, the guitar still sound too "gentle", lacking that punch. You can always add in an Overdrive pedal to boost its "gentleness"

Highway ?

Overall, this guitar is good for those in between rich and poor. It's plays well and kinda good-looking. The best part about this guitar is its comfort while you're strapped on ready to go. Once you put in on, you won't want to take it off. I would recommend this guitar to everyone but with a price tag of Rm2,990, get this guitar IF you have the money.

Pros: Comfortable while playing; Great workmanship; Variety of tones

Cons: Price; pickups very "gentle"

Epiphone Les Paul-100



A cut-down version of the Les Paul Standard, this baby features an Alder and Mahogany Body with a Mahogany Bolt-On Neck, without any binding. Of course, this is lighter compared to the regular Les Paul Standard, but it still is heavier then most of the knock-offs. Also, it doesn't have the block inlays, and instead uses the regular dot inlays.

To me, it feels good whether it's played standing or sitting down, thanks to it's fantastic curved body. You can really get into a fast picking frenzy on the higher strings on the upper frets with the cut-away. Although, I did remove the pick-up guard for even faster playing.

Sound wise, it's a classic Les Paul tone. Warm and full bodied tone resonates from this baby. I haven't put both the Les Paul Standard with the Les Paul-100, so I can't really comment on the difference. But to me, playing a wide varity of music ranging from Blues and Country to Rock and Heavy Metal, it performs well.

The Les Paul-100 uses regular Open coil humbuckers but if you want to spice things up, you can easily add in new Pick-ups easily (I added in the EMG-ZW set which are slightly modified EMG-81 and EMG-85), because it comes with the standard 2 tone, 2 volume knob like the Les Paul Standard, unlike the Les Paul Special with comes with only 1 set of tone and volume knobs. Using the EMG's really adds great ammounts of sustain and gives it an even fatter tone, especially when played through a Dirty amp.

Overall, i'm extremly happy with this Low Priced Les Paul. It's a great beginner's Les Paul and with better pickups, this can definately stand up with it's bigger brothers.

This post has been edited by blacktrix: Sep 16 2005, 12:13 AM

Yet another Fender review ? What's with this dude man ? Seriously speaking, I don't even know why. Really, I went to my friend's shop to inquire if he allows a member of this forum (evo.com) to borrow a left-handed guitar. But the only left-handed guitar he has at the shop was a Fender (again ?) American Deluxe Stratocaster® Left Handed. He told me, "the only way your friend is going to "borrow" is to pay me Rm4,900 and he can "borrow" for the rest of his life. But you can try out that '72 Telecaster Custom over there"

Tele looks .....

My first look on this guitar was "why all the Fender Telecasters look the same wan ah ?" Maybe it was me, or maybe its because of 50 years of building guitars for artist around the world like James Burton, Muddy Waters, Danny Gatton and many more players of the Telecaster. Those folks love the body design of the guitar so why change to some design that can kill someone with those sharp designs ?
The Fender '72 Telecaster Custom Telecaster's body is made of alder, with a 1970s vintage hard tail strings-thru Strat bridge (with three-piece saddle) and a funny looking black pickguard which in my opinion, looks way nicer with a white one. Why '72 you ask ? It's because this guitar was created at 1972 la, huh.



The pickups on this guitar really have that Gibson Les Paul influence. Seated at the neck position of this guitar is a Fender Wide Range humbucking pickup (with three pole pieces each on opposing ends of the pickup) and the bridge equivalent is a standard Tele single coil. Both these pickups are controlled by a pair of numbered volume and tone dials, and a three-way toggle switch located on the upper bout of the guitar.

The neck of this guitar is made of Maple "U" Shape design with a Gloss Polyurethane Finish which is attached to the back of the guitar via three screws on the neck plate. This guitar also has the Micro-Tilt Adjustment feature. My friend told me that the 0.10 gauge strings on a 25.5" inch scale length could kill your fingers and hands into shreds, unless you're Stevie Ray which I'm no where near there. The Fender®/Schaller® Vintage "F" Style Tuning Machines on the guitar's headstock keeps all the tuning in check.



The guitar is really well built. Whoever hand built this masterpiece most likely took long and painstaking hours to put everything together. This is a Mexico-made guitar that is part of Fender's reissue series.

.... Tele Tunes ....

I never tried a guitar with both single coil bridge pickup and humbucking neck and I must say it sounds so good even better while playing it. Plugging on to a Fender Stage 1000, this guitar can do pop, funk and country picking genres.
Through the Stage 1000's overdrive channel, the '72 Telecaster Custom becomes a vintage rock monster and it sounds blistering when I strike those open position chords. In the bridge position, the '72 Telecaster Custom is a crunch monster, providing some strident, punchy sounds with tasty top end. Toggling the switch's central position results with a rockabilly tunes. The balance between the warmth of the neck pickup and the snap of the bridge single coil does wonders for this style of music.



The '72 Telecaster Custom has 4 controls to play with which are Volume 1 (Neck Pickup), Tone 1 (Neck Pickup), Volume 2 (Bridge Pickup) and Tone 2 (Bridge Pickup) plus with the pickup switching, the Custom is a highly versatile beast and will take you through most musical styles without having any problems at all. From jazz, blues, ska and anything in the middle, this guitar can play them all.

.... Tele Good ?

I think so far this is the best Telecaster design ever built by Fender. It feels so comfortable when you strap this guitar on and it sound so good to be true. If you're a professional guitarist looking for a new guitar for that professional use, I highly recommend this guitar even if it cost a cool Rm3,850. You won't regret this guitar. Get it and enter the Telecaster's Hall of Frame.

Pros: Excellent workmanship; very comfortable play; a lot of tonal options

Cons: Price

What to eat ? That's the question on one fine Saturday afternoon. I just played Battlefield 2 and earned 549 global points but my stomach is making too many "I'm hungry" noise. So I drove down the hawker store and passed by Harmony Music Center at Uptown. To my surprise, there's no one at the shop expect for the auntie who is the wife of the uncle who owns the shop. My church bought most of our music equipment from this store so both auntie and uncle knows me very well, even though they don't even know my name. So don't go there and ask "Auntie, you know who is TheWhacker ah ?"

So I went in and asked the auntie how was business? She replied saying business was going very well hence the shop has expanded into 2 shop lots now. She further on told me that they bought in some new Ibanez guitars and invited me to try them out. They are very friendly people indeed.

S what ?

The guitar was a S470 that is under Ibanez S series. Ibanez claims that this is one of the most versatile guitars ever made, with adherents in every genre. My first impression on this guitar was very handsome yet sexy looking guitar. The guitar's body is in black colour and the body itself is made of Mahogany. The fingerboard is made of Rosewood and with 22 Jumbo Frets running across the guitar.



The neck however is made of Maple. The inlays of the S470 are a "flying bird" which the proper name is S Special Inlay. I'm not joking, look at the first picture above and laugh for yourself. Something different then the traditional circle inlays. The controls on the guitar are handled by 1 Volume knob, 1 Tone knob and a Pickup Selection Switch for you tweak out pickups on the guitar.

S tones

The pickups on the S470 consist of 2 IBZ INF1 Humbuckers at the neck and bridge position. The third pickup right in the middle of the two humbuckers is a single coil IBZ INFS1. From the pickup lineup on this guitar, you know for sure that this guitar is meant to rock & roll. So Ibanez's claim of "with adherents in every genre" is very in doubt now. Or so it seems.



Well, the problem of testing a guitar at a shop is that you can't just test any instrument and equipment that is available at the shop. Others will have that "tak tahu malu" impression on you even if you know the shop owner well. So I plugged the S470 to a MG50DFX, which is on the floor. Well, there's a MG100DFX that is on the top of the shelf, but like I said, you just can't just test any instrument and equipment that is available at the shop.

On the normal channel, the guitar speaks out clean and clear tones. Using clean channel on the neck humbucker with some reverb sounds really good. You can also play some jazz riffs on the neck humbucker and using only the middle pickup (the single coil) delivers puckable tones.

Neck humbucker with distortion is too smooth and leads with it in my opinion sound not too good, however jazz sounds good enough. However, using the bridge humbucker is perfect for those metal players because the guitar speaks out boldly and has that little punch to your face.



The ZR Tremolo system on the guitar works well but even with the tremolo lock, I suggest not to go crazy with it since the tuning of the guitar may go out of tune.
One thing I notice is how comfortable this guitar is. It has a very thin body design and all the edges around the guitar are so thin to be true.

S stands for Superb

Overall, the guitar's construction is ok since I found that the controls for the volume and tone knobs are placed very close together. Other than that, it's a good guitar with quite a diversity of tones you can get with the H-S-H configuration. Some may find this a little expensive with the price tag of RM2150, but with its attributes above, I recommend this guitar to anyone and most likely the last guitar you ever buy, till something better comes along.

Pros: Workmanship ok la; very comfortable play; a lot of tonal options; great for rock players

Cons: Controls knobs too close together;

What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about bass ? Mostly people will think of the name Ibanez. Some will think BIG amp. Others will look at the history. So when Mr.Fender (or Leo Fender) built an amp for his Precision Bass back at the 1950s, little that he care about what he thinks in the first place that this amp will be a hit with bass players. The Fender Bassman was born in the era where blues, rock and country were getting popular. And little did Mr.Fender knew that Mr.Marshall (Jim Marshall) adopted the Bassman's circuitry to launch a new line of Marshall amps.

Bassman cool man.....

When I first saw this amp, I notice the new Fender logo on the grille. And you cannot miss the "Eminence Inside" label at the bottom of the grille. This label tells you that whatever you hear from this amp is coming out from a reputable 10-inch American speaker manufacturer. And to my surprise, this 100-watter (yes, one hundred) amp is actually light. So don't worry if this amp is going to break your back or some bones while moving this amp around.

The single instrument input has a -6dB switch, so you can plug in either a passive or high-output active bass. There's a mute switch which is useful when you're tuning your bass. There's also a tuner output is located at the back of the amp.

I'm not a fan of semi-parametric EQ but my friend is and boy he was excited. Seeing him playing around with the semi-parametric EQ is like watching a kid playing his Christmas toy on Christmas day. The Bass and Treble controls are represented by a knob each but the mid can be controlled via "Mid Level" and "Mid Frequency" knobs. For your desired tone, simply dial in a mid frequency (between 150Hz and to 1.5kHz) and choose to cut (down to -15dB) or boost (+15dB). This apart, the Contour control also allows broader scooping of the overall mid frequencies.

An XLR Line Out socket with a Pre/Post EQ switch, a Line Level control and a ground lift switch are also provided. Behind the amp there's a pair of Effects Send and Return sockets. There's also an auxiliary input for devices such as a drum machine or CD player to be plugged in as well as the headphones too as there's an output for this device.

Bassman sound

Enough of design and let's talk about how this amp sounds. The Fender Bassman 100 is pretty normal like other amps but it's a bit "gentle". It's 100-watter amp and I was expected to be blown away by that. But somehow, I stood on the floor which I should been thrown to the wall.

If you're good at tweaking the semi-parametric EQ mid controls on this amp, you can get a lot of variety of sounds from this amp. The combination of the Contour knob and semi-parametric EQ resulted in some awesome tones. The 10-inch Eminence speaker produced a punchy and focussed sound. Bass was solid, not just some low-end rumble, even playing with the low-B string on the bass guitar. The treble was sweet, especially when you're slapping or popping. You'll find yourself tweaking the mid controls ever so often so those mid controls will be your very best friend.

So I Mr.Guitarist who don't even know a single thing about bass, pIugged in the Fender '70s Stratocaster with the Fender Bassman 100. I was expecting a heavy low tone sound from my guitar but to my surprise it produced a very nice clean sound.

Bassman cool ?

Despite being made from the Indonesian factories, the Bassman 100's price can really raise some eyebrows for a cool Rm3, 350. But with its semi-parametric EQ which you can get a variety of tones from this amp, bassist would love this feature (if they're good at tweaking the controls) more then they love their bank account.

My humble point of view is if you're not good at tweaking the controls on the semi-parametric EQ, then you probably won't want to get this amp. However, if you're seasoned bassist who knows what you're doing, by all means go ahead and get this amp because this will be the last bass amp you'll ever need.

Pros: It's light; the semi-parametric EQ is a very good feature.

Cons: Price; tweaking the semi-parametric EQ is not for everyone

ESP James Hetfield Signature Truckster



Before I begin.... here's the price tag: RM 10279. Yup. Today I got to test a 10k guitar....... Thanks to the guys at Guitar Collection midvalley to trust me with their stuff. But when you look at it, 10K for a signature guitar isn't really THAT expensive or cheap either... It's more like the right price for a signature guitar. And remember, this is the ESP we're talking about.

Upon first inspection, the artwork/damage is extremly cool. Imagine! You're spending 10k on a new guitar that looks old! WOW! Even the backside of the guitar shows scratches and dings around it. I remembered that last time someone wanted to fix his gutiar from dings on the forum.... this guitar is DEFINATELY not for him then.

When you pick it up, you'll find it EXTREMLY light. Even lighter then my Epiphone Les Paul-100! A Gibson Custom Les Paul weighs in roughly 3 to 4 times heavier then that. Then I got to some of the WEIRDEST controls ever. If you look closely, you'll see a pick-up selector swtich at the top. That was the first place I went to since I'm a Gibson Les Paul man through and through. Turns out, it's a fake. Pure cosmetic looks only. The REAL switch is next to the tone knobs. Speaking of the knobs, it has 2 tone and 1 volume knob, which means I can't have a mute-switch like I do on my Les Paul (I normally roll down the volume of the pick-up I'm not using, so I can switch to that for mutting the sounds).

When I start to play the opening chords of Enter Sandman, that's where you'll see where it shines. Using an EMG 81/60 pick-up, the tones are fat, thick and has a heavier bottom end then Jennifer Lopez on an eating spree. It really sounds like a cross between a Les Paul Standard and a Bartione guitar. I ripped through some of their newer songs (like Memory Remains and Frantic) which has great growl to it and seemed to be MADE just to play them. Of course, I switched on full Zakk Wylde mode and it ripped through No More Tears, Demise of Sanity, and Suicide Messiah without breaking a sweat. For suicide messiah, it even had the great palm mutting "chug" that really worked wel