The other week I was expounding how fiddling with my amp led me to question the need to ever buy another pedal or indeed guitar for that matter.
Well now, I can report an interesting follow-up study reveals that GAS does indeed trump well-reasoned arguments and rational thought.
Less than 12 hours after @DarrellW pointed out a nice guitar, I had already hit the buy button for my birthday.
It arrived today
The
I could not find any faults with it, despite being B-stock.
I like the (Daphne blue) colour (I have 3 black guitars)
The roasted maple neck feels amazing, and I think Iâd keep it for that alone.
Stainless steel frets & locking tuners.
Iâll have fun with the tremolo arm.
I love the chrome controls (donât know why most guitars have the plastic ones?)
Reasonably well set up.
Excellent value for ÂŁ280
The
It doesnât affect me now, as I donât bend, but the strings feel âscratchyâ when you do bend them. Iâm not sure whether it is just the frets that need a little polishing or if itâs the actual fingerboard (a bit of oil/sanding?). I was aware of this from a German review I watched before buying)
I expected the sound from the single coil pickups to be âbrighterâ. Most reviews say they are decent, but not great pickups, and some folk might want to switch them out later. I had a quick look under the bonnet, and it seems fairly straightforward. Weâll see.
Anyway, itâs a keeper and Iâm already bonding with it.
Two questions:
The humbucker is tilted back towards the bridge (actually similar on my Hagstrom Viking). Anyone know if this is design or artefact? See pic. (I canât tell the difference if I straighten it and stum)
Also a little metal ârodâ fell out of the box after unpacking. It has two little ratchety things in the middle. Any ideas what it is or what it does?
I think that little bar you have is for adjusting the truss rod (which is at the body end of the neck).
The frets may need a bit of a polish if theyâre quite scratchy, you need very fine emery paper, something like 1200 grit or finer, then polish with lapping paste.
She looks rather nice
I donât think that the tilt on the pickup is a problem provided itâs sitting straight on the height adjustment screws.
Have fun with the wiggle stick, I know when I had a guitar with one I did!
Oh, happy NGD, Iâm insanely jealous
Nice guitar Brian!!! I quite like that blue colour as well. Maybe youâll need to go travelling down the road of learning a bit about guitar maintainence now
I wasnât having you for a guy who likes these flashy colours love it Brian you made a good choice and it looks stunning! So what is your verdict - playing the same settings on amp do both of your guitars sound different from each other or is the sound difference negligible?
Wish you happy hours of play, Brian. Looks gorgeous.
Ballad, punk, rock, Iâm not fussed just look forward to a song from you playing this new guitar.
The SC pups are neck and middle that would tend to be the warmer tones. As per Adrianâs question have you tried some comparisons between Hagar and the new guitar?
I saw Darrellâs comment and he has more experience than I do. That disclaimer made, it doesnât seem logical to me. The point of the HB pup is to reduce hum through having the two sections wound in opposite directions (I think thatâs how the hum is cancelled). Iâd assume that the pole pieces should be at the same height to generate same strength signal from the strings for the cancellation to be most effective.
Maybe a YT video on HB pup setup would be worth looking at.
Of course if you hear no difference then neither here nor there.
Iâve seen this tilted humbucker thing on other guitars, and I would personally try if I could get it to sit a little more level. Seems to me like itâs going to be hard(er) to adjust pickup height when itâs sitting like this. Perhaps some of the wiring is pushing on it from under? Something to check at leastâŚ
The body-end truss rod adjustment is so nice to have, youâre going to love it if/when you decide to get your feet wet in setting up your own instruments.
The scratchy feeling when bending will go away after youâve bent enough notes But you can also help it along the way with some polish. Never used sand paper on frets myself (although it might work), I just rubbed it real good with a polishing cloth. Itâs a super annoying feeling, this scratchy bending thing⌠for me at least!
Happy NGD and she looks very nice! I had one from Thomann and I have to admit I did polish the frets as a few were a bit scratchy and you do use emery/sandpaper but itâs so so fine it just has a polishing action. Plenty of articles on the web and get a fretboard guard before you do it. Looking forward to hearing something from it next!
@DarrellW Thanks for the nudge and advice my friend. (Serves you right )
@mari methinks you are right. Laziness and stinginess prevent me from doing more in the maintenance dept. Iâm happy enough to take things apart and âhave a goâ. I might make a date with a good guitarist friend for a pampering night for my new toy. Iâm following your building session with interest
@adi_mrok Ahem it is a pastel
Haha, of course I can (although I did have to switch back and forth number of times to try and figure out what the differences are). My point was never that different guitars (or rather pups) donât sound different. It was that 95% of the sound we hear comes from the amp (incl. subsequent manipulation, recording & playback device). I am quite confident that if I play a home recording (without video) nobody who will ever listen to it, would be able to say what guitar I was using.
Forgot to mention that the most âdisappointingâ sound is when you pull the tone knob to split the humbucker to single coil, you lose a fair bit of volume for a sound that doesnât do much for me. Thatâs something to bear in mind if I ever do switch pups in the future.
@ Tony, cheers mate
Now if you had left it at that, I would have claimed you as a convert to the dark side
A propos, Iâm disappointed with the carpet. I was a couple of hundred quid in Ikea. Handwoven, but turned out to be very poor quality, fraying etc. We had a fire and the insurance paid for replace old with new, so we had to get the same. Same disappointing wear
Regarding the humbucker, I did have a quick look online, but lost the will following a flame war between folk of opposing viewsâŚ
Iâm sure Iâll be taking a closer look under the hood again in the not too distant future.
@SgtColon Cheers mate. Haha, this is my conclusion
I may wheel her out for the OM so people can make their own minds up
@Kasper Mange tak! Much appreciate your advice, esp re fret scratch. I will probably go down the polishing road as I do about two bends per month, which might take longer than the time I have left
Regarding the bridge humbucker. On my SG the pup is parallel to the body but the strings cross at an angle. The humbucker only has one set of poles however.
I really like that âpaste imageâ function on the forum, so Iâm going to use it again.
Going back to that humbucker tilt. On my higher end guitars there are actually three screws to adjust each humbucker. They do that so itâs possible to really control that tilt youâre seeing.
For example, when splitting the humbucker it can become relevant to (slightly) adjust the height of each coil on the humbucker. I tend to keep my humbuckers pretty much level thoughâŚ
See image (apologies for the dirt - high res cameras are better than my eyes⌠and I do play all of my guitars )
If you like the tone of that, then all is fine, but I think that looks like the PU is very high. Personally I would consider lowering it a bit. When I received my new âgoldenâ MusicMan it had a very high bridge PU, but I felt it both overloaded the input of my interface when recording it and also the magnetic pull on the string made them fret out more easily when bending high on the neck.
I lowered mine a few mm on both sides, and have been happy with the tone and bend action ever since
love it Brian you made a good choice and it looks stunning! So what is your verdict - playing the same settings on amp do both of your guitars sound different from each other or is the sound difference negligible?
But you can also help it along the way with some polish. Never used sand paper on frets myself (although it might work), I just rubbed it real good with a polishing cloth. Itâs a super annoying feeling, this scratchy bending thing⌠for me at least!
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