Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Taylor 210e Acoustic Guitar

I'm not a fan of cutaway acoustic guitars specifically because of the the attenuated volume of such models.  This Taylor 210e plays as good as it looks.  When I found it used at Guitar Center, I could not believe that is was a used guitar -- everything looks and feels new, specially the fretboard.  About the only thing that was non-standard is the Gator case that came with it, which incidentally is a perfect fit to the guitar.
The beautiful spruce top and the simplest of bindings make this guitar a little more elegant in design without the excess of fancy that don't really add to the sonic quality of the instrument.  Plugged in, this 210e is very bright and balanced with feedback at a minimum.  Just about every song I play sounds better on the 210e's fast neck; plugged in or unplugged, it'll do the job for a very long time.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Vox SDC-33 Guitar

After I tried this guitar at the Guitar Center on Sunset, I was pretty convinced I needed one.  Vox is better known for amplifiers that axes and I've seen it before but just hadn't been too inspired to try one.  Until the SDC-33 caught my eyes walking in the amp aisle at GC.  The electronics alone is interesting because besides the usual pickup selector switch, it has a Mode Select switch (close to the bridge) to toggle between Clean and Lead.
The other thing that makes this guitar different is the neck width (at the nut) at 1.7" which is a bit wider than my Strats (at 1.625") making it a little bit easier to fingerpick that most electrics I own.  But there are a couple more design features that I really like.  The first being the specially designed bridge finished in a brushed alloy just like the tuners.
The Vox SDC-33 has a set neck and CoAxe pickups. Some additional info on the CoAxes are found on this site.

I ended up ordering the guitar from Amazon through a vendor Music123.  When it arrived, the guitar wasn't setup at all.  Fret buzz on the low E, 2nd through 4th fret so I had to adjust the bridge height and play with the truss rod a bit.  Not sure it's perfect but it's playable for now.  Also, the fretwires weren't smoothed out so I always feel like I might get a finger cut when I play around the 12th fret.  Again, something I can mess around with to fix.  So although, I saved some money buying online, the aggravation of having to set it up properly is going to make me think twice about buying online again.  (This is my 3rd online guitar purchase after the PRS Tremonti and Fender Marauder).  Overall, I'm happy with this Vox as it gives me several tones not achievable through my selection of Fenders.  My only worry with this guitar is the fact that it's the lightest (6.4lb) of all the electric I own and with that light weight comes the question of how it can withstand getting dropped or some other kind of abuse.
And last but not least, the goldtop finish is flawless.  Form and function.  Sound and style.
Body: Mahogany
Neck: Mahogany w 22 frets
Neck Width at Nut: 1.7 in
Scale Length: 25.125 in
Weight: 6.4 lb

Sunday, February 3, 2013

60th Anniversary Fender Telecaster

I think a Fender guitar made in Mexico in the last 5 years is better than any Fender guitar made in the US 15 years ago.  This Lake Placid Blue Telecaster is proof that US-Mexican relations had been good in the area of collaborative guitar manufacturing.  Any blue guitar is worth looking at so when I saw this used 2011 Tele on Craigslist, I knew it would be a short courtship.  The neck plate on the back states the year of manufacture -- which is 60 years since the introduction of this Fender product in 1951.  Couple the Lake Placid Blue with a fast maple neck and I'm sold.
The third selling feature (of all Teles) is the fact that it doesn't have a tremolo bridge.  I hardly use the whammy bar on all my Strats and quite frankly, I find it visually cluttered.  The pearloid pickguard does add an air of elegance to this piece of functional sculpture.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Pedal Board V201301

No self-respecting player has a static effects pedal board.  What's in and what's out changes with mood, playing style and of course, technology.  This is the current layout of my pedal board.  Starting with the GIG-FX Chopper (which I use for Audioslave solos), an MXR Super Compressor (which I use to overdrive a tube amp ever so slightly), a Danelectro Dan-Echo box and my trusty Dunlop Crybaby Wah Wah.
I got the MXR Comp brand new from Amazon but the other 3 are used.  The board itself is an SKB and has accommodations for eight 9-Volt DC power sources.  I actually used the space just below the MXR for any amplifier footswitch.  Nonetheless, these 4 pedals can give me an endless set of combinations from rock to rockabilly to reggae to punk.