Gibson Les Paul Axcess

Hey guitar addicts,

Here is a recently released video on the Gibson Les Paul Axcess. The guitar is loaded with Floyd Rose tremolo, 2 Burstbucker pickups, with coil tapping features. Scarfed neck to get to the high notes. Shredders, this is the Les Paul that was made for you. So go crazy with divebombs like Eddie Van Halen and Tommy Morello.








You can check it out here at these Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass .

Hey Dude and dudettes,

In the battle for the virtual guitar, you have the three big names duking it out.
1) The Fender VG Stratocaster is a regular Stratocaster but with an extra Roland pickup. It has 37 modes where you can choose what type of sound you want (single coil, humbucker, acoustic,....) and 6 tunings. If your battery runs out, there are always the three single coil pickups for those classic strat tone.

Fender VG Stratocaster


2) The Gibson Dark Fire is a continuation of the Gibson Robot guitar where you get the classic Burstbucker 3 humbucker for those classic humbucker tone, a P-90 pickup for those classic single coil tones and a Piezo pickup for more acoustic tones. With the Chameleon technology, you get more tones by mixing these pickups. It also comes with the auto tune and intonation technology so you don't need to fiddle with your tuners in the middle of the show. This ensures true organic tones.

It is due to be released 11th of December so book early.
Gibson Dark Fire


3) Then comes the grand daddy of the virtual guitar. The Variax comes with a plethora of classic guitar tones and some other tones which are not to common, like the sitar. It can be switched with the foot controller and if you need to, can be transplanted to another body style supplied by Warmoth guitars. Check it out.

Line 6 Variax


You can check it out here at these Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass

Paul Reed Smith Custom 24 demo by Paul Reed Smith

The master craftsman himself, Paul Reed Smith shows us why PRS guitars are some of the most
highly soughted instruments in the market. The tonal options, the finish, it's enough for a person like me to drool.



You can check it out here at these Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass .

Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Mayhem

Sometimes, you just have the urge to get loud, really LOUD. But you also want to have the smooth tube tone as well. Enter the Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Mayhem. All tube distortion especially for you metal heads. Check it out now. Don't say I didn't warn you.

You can check it out here at these Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass .

New pictures of P-rails in guitar

Just to show off some pictures of my P-rails axe. This is my tone machine. Awesome!

[caption id="attachment_75" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="P-rails les paul"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_76" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="p-rails close up"][/caption]

Check out some cool stuff at Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass .

Stuck in a jam session?

Heya guys, I met up with a couple of friends and we thought we should go for a jamming session. We have never played together before and when we arrived at the studio we didn't know what to play. After a brief pause, I played the first few chords I learnt and doodled after that. You may come across this situation so this should help you guys out to make the jam session enjoyable fo everybody. One suggestion is to go with the classic C, Am, F and G. Most 60's songs use these basic chord progression and it will break help to break the ice. Enjoy.

You can check out Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass .

Line 6 has accomplished with the Spider Valve where you have a modelling amp powered by the Spider III engine and fuse it with valve circuitry and you

I've always been a fan of combo amps. Mostly cos I'm a hobbyist and rarely need to use a full stack, although having one would be nice. Coming from a Fender G-DEC background, I really like modelling amps as you have a wide array of tones and sounds that you can achieve. However, sometimes I do miss the organic all tube tone. Line 6 has accomplished with the Spider Valve where you have a modelling amp powered by the Spider III engine and fuse it with valve circuitry and you get natural organic tone and go crazy if you need to. The Spider Valve can be bought as a combo or amp head and cabinets.

You can check it out here at these Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass .

Installing P-rails pickups experience

Continuing on the post of from my Youtube Video on installing the pickup, I'm going to share the experience of installing these pickups. Before anything, you will need to look at the wiring diagram of the type of connection you want to do. Plenty of options can be done from here.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/

I'm using

http://www.seymourduncan.com/images/support/schematics/2_prails_2v_2t_tspp.jpg

From the diagram in the above link you will need 2x 500k push/pull pots, connector cables and some solder wire. Also you will need to have a soldering iron and basic tools (screwdrivers, pliers, wrenches....) and some experience in soldering. If you haven't done much soldering, don't worry because it is as easy as using a glue gun, only you're sticking metal with metal and its hotter.

You should check the pickups if there are any defects or loose cables. Once you are satisfied,you will need to first remove the strings, then open the pickup and control cavity covers. Next comes the part where you will need to dismantle the connector cables of the pots. Heat up your solder iron and once it is hot enough, touch the tip of the solder to the cable and the pin until the solder becomes loose and you will just need to pull the cable free. When all the connectors are free, you can pull the pickup out from there respective cavities. Repeat for the second pickup. Replace the volume (or tone) knobs with the push/pull knobs.

The next step is to install the P-rails pickups. This is the most difficult part in the process as you will need to thread the cables through a hole the width of a pen and the length is the same as a pen (very long relatively). The default pickups comes with only two conductor cables whereas most new pickups comes with four. I still haven't found the best way of doing this except pushing the cables with your pliers very, very slowly. This took me a couple of hours.

Once you get those cables through, just solder them as illustrated in the wiring diagram. It is recommended to have a multimeter to check for conductivity but if you don't, you can install one string, pick it and hope that it sounds on all the coils and humbucker configurations. This may take some time but once it is completed, string up your guitar, pat yourself on the back and jam. This is the most flexible pickup there is and you will only need this guitar for any style of music. Cheers.

For people who would like to have a ready made P-rails guitar, check out the LTD PB-500. Be sure it's the one with the P-rails as they have others without.




PS, if you have a P-rails installed, post them here :)

VG stratocaster with Greg Koch

The VG Stratocaster is one of the most modern guitar around. 37 sounds,6 tunings and with working a tremolo. Demonstrated by the hilarious Greg Koch, there are no short of laughters. Check it out here

ESP Eclipse II

If you love the Les Paul shape but looking for something different, check out the ESP Eclipse. For the metal guitarists, the guitar comes with EMG active pickups which gives clear hard tones for your shredding adventures.



You can check it out here at these Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass .

Johnny Hiland PRS guitar

This is a cool video on the Johnny Hiland Signature PRS guitar. If you search on Youtube on Johnny Hiland, he has the fastest fingers in the west. The guitar caters for his needs and for most guitarists. You get solid humbuckers and clear single coils tones. Bolt-on neck with 24 frets. PRS tremolo. The finishes are legendary PRS and comes in a variety of finishes such as quilt, flamed and clean colors. You can check out the video here



Here is a sample from Musician's Friends.



You can check it out here at these Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass . .

Youtube testing out P-rails pickups

If you have followed my previous post, I have finally installed the P-rails pickups on my Epiphone Les Paul with Floyd Rose. The pickups are really awesome. You can get heavy tones in humbucker mode, bluesy P-90 tone and really, really clear rail tone. The test on the video is used with the G-DEC and the video does not do it justice. The tone is really awesome through a Marshall Valvestate. It sounds best if you use a clean to middle gain tone, then when cycling through all the tones can be heard the best. If you need your guitar to be like 3, should check this out.

You can check it out here at these Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass .

Continuing the lessons in lead guitar soloing, this is the long version of the E minor pentatonic. It is the same five notes but you use the same shape on the six strings. This will allow you to have three octaves of the scale. It will also allow you to use all the strings, so you can impress your friends too. This is also called the Jimi Hendrix scale.

Check out some cool stuff at Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass .

Save up to $2500 before 26 November!!!!

Just click on the below link for up to $2500 savings on selected items. Hurry, time is running out!!!


Check out some cool stuff at Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass .

E minor pentatonic box form

This is the first lesson in guitar soloing. The minor pentatonic in the box form. Just 5 notes to start you off with guitar soloing. From this, you can start with the classic Hendrix tunes. Add the blue note and you can get the blues scale. Add and subtract some notes and you can some modal scales like the dorian, lydian and others. Enjoy

Check out some cool stuff at Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass .

Replacing to Seymour Duncan P-rails pickups

I've finally done it. After replacing my stock pickups to the Seymour Duncan Hot Rodded set, I've changed them to P-rails and it was definitely worth it. The humbucker sounds tough but not as sharp as the JB, the P-90 sounds original, like a rowdy kind of tone but the star is the rail tone. It sounds crystal clear and really stratty. Below is an excerpt of how I changed the pickups. Takes quite a bit of work but worth it. I highly recommend it, if you're not comfortable with soldering, you can always send it to a guitar tech to do it. Now, to shield my guitar.



You can check it out here at these Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass .

Parker guitar factory tour by Premier guitar

Another factory tour by Premier Guitar. This time to the Parker factory where they make those Ultra modern Composite Parker Fly guitars. If you want a super light state of the art guitar, check these out at.

Musician's Friend



Music123.com



ZZsounds.com



Here is the video



You can check it out here at these Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass . .

Lace Music Alumitone pickups

Like any amazing discovery, I came across this purely by accident. I was going through the Musician's Friend website and saw this weird looking piece of metal. Hang on, its a guitar pickup. Whoa!! Its the new pickup for the new century. Based on an Aluminium exosceleton, extremely light weight, you gotta give these a go

Either from Musician's Friend



or Music123.com




Check these videos out !!



You can check it out here at these Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass . .

Music T-Shirts

I've searched and found these cool shirts if your a guitar gear head, like me. Check it out!

PopShops™ affiliate stores

D'addario strings

I love these "How do they make it" them videos. This is one on D'addario guitar strings. I've been using D'addario s for over ten years on my guitars and bass and they've been treating me well. It comes colour coded which saves us from figuring out my E, A or G-string, hehe. The bass slow wounds have been really tough cos I haven't changed them in years.

You can check it out here at these Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass . .

Seymour Duncan Factory Tour by Premier Guitar

Hey guys,

I've been away for a bit but I did manage to check out some cool guitar videos. This is a factory tour and a lesson on how guitar pickups are made which is just mind blowing. You can make an OK guitar sound awesome with some great pickups. This cheaper than buying new ones, of course and make your guitar, YOURS. Seymour Duncan makes some fine pickups, with some technology added. Check out the red pickups in the video. As always, you can check them out Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass . .

Dean from Hell from Dean Guitars

ok, this is an old video but hey, its Dimebag Darrel's Dean From Hell. Nuff said. RIP Dime.






You can check it out here at these Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass . .

Seymour Duncan Blackout Guitar World Review

Hey guys,

Metal heads, try out the new Active pickups from Seymour Duncan. Very clear pickups which will show up even if you pump up the gain and distortion.






Check it out at Music123 ,MusiciansFriend ,ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass.

More Marshall Amp Reviews

Yup, in my insatiable need to look for guitar reviews on youtube, this is another Marshall amplifier review from by Rob Math from gearwire.com. This is on the JCM 2000, DSL 100 Watt amp head and amplifier. Excellent Marshall tone and versatile too. For you gigging artists, try it out.

Here is part 1


Here is part 2


You can check it out here at these Musicians'Friend , Music123, ZZsounds or Woodwind and Brass . .

Marshall MG100DFX guitar amplifier review

This is one of my favourite reviews of the Marshall amplifier. Here Rob Math is demonstrating Marshall MG100DFX combo amp. Its 100Watts of goodness ready for gigs and be louder than the drummer. I've always been dreaming of a Marshall amplifier. It is THE guitar to rock out. When you're on stage, the gold Marshall console at the back of you is a comforting site. Check it out.

Here's part 1


Here is part 2


You can check it out at Musicians' Friend or Music123 or ZZsounds .

P.S. Take advantage of Musicians' Friends 25th anniversary sale

Gibson Les Paul Classic Custom review from Guitar World

I've always loved the Gibson Les Paul. The shape is so classy and has so much character compared to other shapes. I have an Epiphone Les Paul but the dream is always a Gibson Les Paul. Here is a Guitar World review of the Gibson Les Paul Classic Custom review for you to drool on :)



As always, you can check it out at Music123 or Musicians' Friend or ZZsounds .

PS. take advantage of Musicians' Friend 25th anniversary sale.

Epiphone Slash Les Paul Review by Guitar World

Hey guys, this is a Youtube video which I found on the Epiphone Slash Les Paul Standard Plus Top. I'm a big Les Paul fan and Slash was one of the reasons I played guitar. Paul Riario of Guitar World magazine gives a run through of this amazing instrument.



For more details you can check it out at Musicians' Friend or Music123 or ZZsounds . Cya

PS. Take advantage of Musicians' Friend 25th Anniversary sale.

Billie Joe Armstrong Gibson Les Paul Jr Review by Guitar World Magazine

Hey guys, another cool Guitar World review from Youtube. This is on the Billie Joe Armstrong Gibson Les Paul Jr. The signature guitar is modeled closely after "Floyd," Billie Joe's original 1956 Les Paul Junior. With a Mahogany body and neck and Nickel hardware. Do I hear "When I come around", "Basketcase", "Welcome to Paradise"? :)



Check it out at Musician's Friend or Music123 or ZZsounds . Cya

Epiphone Les Paul Ultra ii review by Guitar World

Hey guys. I found this cool review from Guitar World on the Epiphone Les Paul Ultra ii by Paul Riario. This guitar has the standard two humbuckers but it also has the Nanomag shadow pickup which gives acoustic sounds. Very cool guitar if you want to just bring one guitar on stage and do 'Stairway to Heaven".



If you're interested, you can buy it from Music123.com or ZZsounds.com or MusiciansFriend.com. Cya.

PS. Take advantage of Musicians Frend.com 25th anniversary sale

Body: Mahogany, Strategically Chambered. Top: Quilted Maple. Neck: Mahogany. Neck Profile: SlimTaper, Satin Finish. Neck Joint: Glued-In. Truss Rod: Double-Action, 2-way. Fingerboard: Rosewood. Fingerboard Radius: 12". Frets: 22, Medium Jumbo. Scale Length: 24-3/4". Nut Width: 1.65". Neck Pickup: Alnico Classic. NanoMag Low-Impedance. Bridge Pickup: Alnico Classic Plus. Bridge: LockTone Tune-o-matic. Tailpiece: LockTone Stopbar. Front Controls: Neck Humbucker Master Volume. Bridge Humbucker Master Volume. Master Tone. NanoMAG Master Volume. 3-way Toggle (Humbuckers). Rear Controls:. NanoMAG Treble. NanoMAG Bass. NanoMAG Gain. Tuners: Grover, diecast. Outputs: 1/4" Mono, 1/4" Stereo. Power: 9V battery. Hardware: Gold. Binding: Body, Neck. Warranty: Limited Lifetime.

Testing out the SH-4 pickup

After all the effort putting these new pickups in, its time to give it a go. I must say, it is a lot brighter than the stock pickups. The series and parallel do have some difference where one is louder, more crystal clear (like a Fender Hendrix Little Wing) while the other is still clear but more subtle, jazzier (George Bensonesque). The tone knob really plays a part on the sound you want. I've got here with a bit of distortion so you can tell the difference. Definitely, worth the effort. Now, to plan for the neck pickup, cya.

Changing guitar pickups

Finally the time came. I've finally decided to install my new Seymour Duncan Pickups on to my Epiphone Les Paul with Floyd Rose. The main aim for now is to install SH-4 pickup on the bridge and to change to a push-pull pot on the volume knob.
You can get them from Music123.com



or Musiciansfriend.com



and here is the special edition Nickel Version




Why am I doing this? The default pickups are alright but I miss the single coil strat sound and I have seen some good reviews on the SD Hot Rod set. I wanted to get the DiMarzio push-pull pot but the store didn't have stock so they got me another 500k push-pull pot. Me being a newbie, bought the pot, but little did I know that it is a long pole kind and doesn't directly replace the default pot, but we'll get to that later. Some of the things I got from Seymour Duncan's video here but some is just learning as you go along.




The first thing we need to do is to read the instructions!

First thing is to remove the strings. Since I had a Floyd Rose, it is a bit tricky, plus, this is the first time I'm removing since I just bought the guitar many moons ago. We'll need to loosen the locking nuts near the headstoc and loosen the strings. Then, you'll need to wedge something strong, long and flat (in my case, a fork) under the bridge and unscrew the saddles. You should not have much problems taking out the lower three strings but the high strings may be bent inwards so you'll need to take care while removing them

Then I took out my trusty note book and just drew the wiring up (very roughly). I also took a couple of photos of the current wiring. So far,so good. Then it's time to remove the current connections. I took my solder and tried to remove the ground connectors on the pot but the tin isn't melting. I checked if the solder is hot and ,ow, yes its hot. After about an hour struggling, I decided to cut the ground connections from the base of the pot and then remove the solders from the pot ears. Then its just a matter of wrapping my shirt around the plastic knob, pull it out and just unscrew the nut.



It's time to remove the pickup. Just unscrew the screws holding the pickup plate and the springs connected to the pickup and just pull the humbucker out along with the cable. Make sure all of the connections to the pots has ben severed.

That was the easy bit. Now its time to put the new pickup in and that starts with threading the pickup wire through the wire cavity to the control cavity. Threading is a close enough word as you will need to guide the wire through a hole barely the wire's width for a length of about 3 inches or more. After about 10 tries, the cable just get stuck in the middle of the hole and need to try again. I tried wrapping tape around it but no go. Tried to cut the sleeve off but no help too. At the end, i guided my high E string from the pickup controls to the pickup cavity, hook the cable through the wire and pulled it back through the hole into the control knob. Success!! After 2 hours!!

Now its time to assemble my new push-pull pot. Just put the pot in and... oh oh. The push-pull pot was a long pole pot which is about halve an inch longer than the normal pot. Also, width of the screw is bigger than the normal pot's pole. So its time to take out my pocket knife and scrape abit of the hole off. It didn't feel too bad to put a knife through this guitar but if it were a $2,000 Gibson Les Paul guitar, I would not dream of doing this. Anyway, now the hole is wide enough to fit the pot through but the pole sticks out way to long. I need to put a 1 cm length spacer in there but I was in a rush. So I went through the toolbox and found an old, used glue cover and fortunately it fits.



Now, its time to solder the conections together. Make sure you print out the wiring configuration you desire from the Seymour Duncan website, in my case, it's the push-pull series-parallel setup. I followed as best as I can and soldered the pot. However, the default Epiphone wiring doesn't follow the SD diagram as the cable from the pickup selector switch is made up of 2 wires instead of one. So, i just grounded the bare wire and connected the main cable to the pot. When, I plugged my guitar to my amp, just buzz/static came out. This is when I learnt the importance of grounding the pickup as when I touched my amp cable, the static cleared a bit. So, I connected the ground from the cable jack to the ground of my pot and the noise disappeared. Now, the neck pickup sounds doesn't work at all. I'll probably leave it there for a while and replace it after I've played around with my SD bridge pickup. :)

Slash's signature guitar

Gibson has just released the Slash signature Les Pauls. Honestly, I would not have played the guitar if I had not bought Use Your Illusion cassette ( that was a long time ago). I went to college and I finally listened to Appettite for Destruction. When you hear Sweet Child of Mine, its like .......... I've heard my calling. The only electric guitar for me is a Les Paul. Check it out here at this link here.

http://www.gibson.com/slash/
He's releasing the budget Epiphone, the USA Gibson and the VOS Custom Shop which is a replica of his first Gibson Les Paul.

You can also preorder the guitar at my store here.

http://www.shazli.com/music.html

Don't miss out!!

Just got back from the States

Howdy Y'all,
I've been bad not updating my blog. You see, I spent 6 weeks in Austin, Texas and it has been an eventful time. Too much stuff too blog. My bad. But... I had a good time there as well. Hopefully, I can chronicle a bit some of it here. Saw the Superbowl semifinal between Patriots and Packers ( I think). That was a good game. But I missed the Superbowl final but caught the highlights. That throw from Manning and the catch from the receiver which he caught with the tips of his finger and nailed by the Patriot was the turning point which could have been 19-0. But it was the Giants game and they were worthy winnners.

Austin is a lovely place and all the people are nice and courteous. "How're you doing" and "Have a good one" just makes me smile. The city itself feels cozy and not fast paced and it is the capital of Texas. Everything is bigger in Texas. The spring climate is cool and refreshing. But I am glad I'm home. Hopefully, I'll put some pix soon. Oh yeah! Vote for Obama. If he can inspire with just his speech, think what he can do for USA.

Shazz