zerolight

On the whole, guitar amp modellers suck big hairy balls. No point in beating around the bush. I’ve tried most of what’s on the Market, and they all sucked.

Back before I met my wife, when I had no kids and really didn’t give a rat’s ass about my neighbours, I went through a series of nice valve amps that sounded incredible and made your nipples vibrate. My favourites were the Peavey EVH 5150 and the Mesa Rectoverb. I used to play through those things for hours every day.

Then I moved into a flat, and shortly afterwards my future wife moved in too. That, understandably, resulted in me parting company with my valve amp. The guy who bought that Mesa got a bargain!

This was 2001. Digital amp modelling was taking off in the shape of the Line 6 Pod series. I bought one since they were quite cheap. Compared to the amp modelling that preceded it, the POD was terrific. Compared, to a real amp, the POD was pap. There’s a sterility to these modellers, combined with a slighlty unpleasant fizz, and a stiff feel. This feeling is the hardest thing to quantify, impossible to describe to a non-guitarist, yet the most important thing to a guitarist, even more so than tone. A good guitar amp does more than just amplify your guitar, it’s a instrument in it’s own right, and like all instruments feel is everything. So this failing on the PODs part is significant.
Continue Reading →

I was thinking about the guitars I’ve owned since I started playing back in 1987. There’s been a lot! I think, 21. Bear in mind that mostly, I’ve only owned one at a time, two at the most more recently, so there was a good stretch where I never owned a guitar for longer than a year! Updated.

I started off with a Marlin Nasty. And it really was nasty. Poorly built, near unplayable action. I’m amazed it kept playing. I upgraded to an Ibanez Roadstar II a year later and threw in a pair of Dimarzio humbuckers, one pink, one blue. A year on traded that for a nice Kramer Beretta III (for a great price as Kramer had just gone bankrupt). That lasted me through Uni and was a great guitar. It’s one of the few I’d like to have been able to hold on to.

As soon as I graduated Uni, I traded the Kramer for a used Gibson Les Paul Standard. A dream guitar – I’d always wanted a Les Paul, almost as much as I wanted a Musicman EVH. The Les Paul was Wine Red, and it played and sounded great. It was allegedly used by Del Amitri on one of their albums. This is yet another guitar I wish I’d kept a hold of.

As fantastic as the Les Paul was, GAS (Gear Aquisition Syndrome) was always (is always?) burning inside, and I was feeling the need to trade again. It didn’t help that a friend at the time, who was a big advocate of super-strats for improving technique, persuaded me that a shocking pink Ibanez JEM 777SK was the way to go. Of course, it wasn’t long until I missed the Les Paul and hated the pink, heavily gigged, used JEM I’d bought. Can you really see me playing a pink guitar?

And so the downward spiral began. I traded guitars over the course of a year trying to find something that spoke to me like the Les Paul had – money was an issue, so I was trading for used guitars of ever decreasing value. I went through the following in no particular order: Ibanez Sabre, Fender Heavey Metal Telecaster, Hamer Steve Stephens Prototype II, and a Moon Les Paul Special. All in the space of a few months. I finally settled on a new Fender Strat to which I fitted Dimarzio stacked humbuckers.

At the time the strat was too retro for. But looking back, it too was a great guitar. You don’t find many great strats, but this one sounded good, and looked cool in a custard yellow finish with a rosewood fingerboard and white scratch plate. It was classy. I shoulda kept it. 6 months later I’d sold it and bought a Gibson Les Paul Classic. Finally, I was back to the good stuff again.

That shoulda been the end of it right? Well no, because I still hankered after the Musicman Axis (formerly Musicman EVH) – but couldn’t afford it. But Eddie jumped ship to Peavey and brought out the Peavey Wolfgang, almost as good as an Axis. I bought one in black. I even kept the Les Paul – yay… two guitars. I played the Wolfgang all the time, the Gibson barely getting a look in. It turns out that I tend to prefer the longer Fender style scale, rather than the Gibson. So naturally when GAS hit and I found myself trading a guitar to buy an acoustic Taylor 710CE, I traded the Les Paul right? Well no, sold the guitar I liked best, a mistake I’d later repeat. More than once.

So now I have an acoustic and an electric. Every guitarist needs an acoustic right? Wrong! I can count on no hands at all how many acoustic songs I like to play. So that mistake sat gathering dust. Then one day I walked into McCormacks whilst Zee was out shopping. And there, hanging on the wall, was the most perfect Musicman Axis, translucent gold (more like a warm yellow) with a flamed maple top. I traded the Les Paul and the Taylor on the spot (dashing home to collect them and bring them in).

The Musicman was simply amazing. Of course GAS hit again, but I wasn’t going to part with the Musicman. No chance. So I bought myself a PRS McCarty Rosewood as an engagement present to myself. My first really really expensive guitar. I considered a James Tyler Studio Elite at the time, but didn’t know much about them, so plumped for the PRS. This too was a mistake, but I never realised it at the time.

When you buy a new guitar, there’s a honeymoon period. You play it all the time, ignoring other guitars in your collection. It is new after all. This was true of the McCarty. So much so, that I convinced myself that the PRS was it, “The Guitar”. I didn’t need two guitars. I sold the Musicman! It didn’t take long to realise I’d made a mistake – but admit it? No chance. Quick tip: don’t go for a rosewood neck on your McCarty, it sucks a lot of warmth away from the tone. Anyway, I bought and sold another load of guitars trying to replace it: Ibanez JEM 7VWH, Ibanez J-Custom RG8270, Musicman John Petrucci and a Fender Custom Shop 51 Nocaster. The Nocaster had a cool vibe, but the tone wasn’t for me. You gotta play like Bruce Springsteen or Keith Richards if you have a Nocaster. The J_Custom was very nice, but not quite what I wanted. The JEM was amazing – but the look was perhaps a bit too… Elvis. It’d have been nice to hold onto the JEM though.

None really fit like the Musicman. Then I bought a James Tyler Studio Elite HD. Yes, the same model I’d nearly got instead of the PRS. At least now I had both the PRS and a Tyler. For two years, the PRS gathered dust and the Tyler got played all the time. It was hands down, the best guitar I’d ever played. Yet after two years I sold it! I have no clue why. I bought a PRS Navarro (Custom 24) to compliment the McCarty. Looking back on it, for the 4 or 5 years I owned the McCarty, I almost always played whatever other guitar I owned more often than the PRS. So why buy another PRS? I dunno, I guess I kinda felt like I couldn’t sell the McCarty because I’d bought it when I got engaged.

So at the start of this year I had two PRS’s. But I was haunted by two guitars I’d owned in the past, the Musicman and the Tyler, mostly the Tyler. GAS got the better of me and I ebayed both PRS’s and to fund a custom order James Tyler Studio Elite HD (and a bed for my son). I’m glad I did. It’s fantastic, lots of pictures here. Barring a lottery win, it’s probably the last guitar I’ll ever buy. I certainly won’t sell it.

Here’s the full list, some mistakes, some I wish I’d kept(*) and one I still own(**):

Marlin Nasty
Ibanez Roadstar II
Kramer Beretta III*
Gibson Les Paul Standard*
Ibanez JEM 777SK
Ibanez Sabre
Fender Heavy Metal Telecaster
Hamer Steve Stevens Prototype
Moon Les Paul Special
Fender Strat*
Gibson Les Paul Classic
Peavey Wolfgang*
Taylor 710CE
Musicman Axis*
PRS McCarty Rosewood
Ibanez JEM 7VWH*
Ibanez J-Custom RG8270
Musicman John Petrucci
Fender Custom Shop ‘51 Nocaster
James Tyler Studio Elite HD*
PRS Navarro Custom 24
James Tyler Studio Elite HD**

My custom ordered James Tyler Studio Elite HD is done, and is now with the UK distributor. It’ll be with me next week. It’s the first Orange Shmear Studio Elite, a special order I put in for my guitar. More details here.

I knocked up another video clip to highlight (the very slight I’m sure some of you will say) differences between a PRS McCarty and a PRS Navarro. Admittedly, the biggest differences are in feel, the Navarro having a thinner, faster neck which is great for Hard Rock. The Navarro also features 24 frets vs 22 on the McCarty, and a trem. In terms of tone, at high gain levels, the Navarro is a little thicker, fuller, and more modern sounding. The McCarty excels at lower gain stuff. Both guitars were recorded with exactly the same amp settings… lots of gain!

Looks great. Sounds great. Plays great. Feel is consistent with, though faster than, my PRS McRosie. Feel was the biggest barrier I had with my Tyler… the longer scale length meant I was always relearning how to play when changing between guitars. That’s the main reason I replaced it. Does it make me look this cool? Not a chance.