Recently in Guitar-related Category

My much-awaited new baby arrived on 25th Jul!! Why so long before I post an entry about it? Well, let's just say that I've been playing it almost daily, took it on its virgin gig last week and already broken her in a bit ;) Let's cut the talk and see some pictures...I present to you, Gibson CS-336, straight from the Custom Shop:

Of course, I tinkered with it, like for most of my guitars. When it first arrived, it looked like this:

This baby plays like a dream! With a semi-hollow body, it's so light that I already felt reluctant strapping on my other guitars *lol* The powerful 57' classic humbucker pickups give me all the gain I need, and yet the knobs are so responsive that I can get slight overdriven tone just by turning down the volume knobs. When I took it to the final jamming session just before my gig, my band members were really impressed with the warm tone it produces! It also raised eyebrows and won praises during the gig :) I'm a happy man!

There hasn't been a more frustrating period of time compare to what I've been through for the past 2 months in my quest to acquire my new 'mistress'. Just when I thought it was tough getting my lefty Fender Jaguar with block inlays more than a year ago, having to engage a 3rd party middle man to help purchase the guitar and have it shipped over from Japan to Singapore, this is like...100 times more frustrating!

Well, I'm still in the process of getting this baby into my hands, so I'll update along the way with new progresses. Here's what went on so far...(long, boring entry of non-exciting details, so if you're keen, just click to read more...but at your own risk)

The last entry was in fact, weeks overdue and this entry is a tad better since it dates to a week back *lol*

Anyway...look what the courier service has delivered to my doorstep again, deja vu, isn't it?

Details of the box:

Oh-oh...this isn't yet another...

Yes sir...It's a Fender 72 Custom Telecaster Reissue! :) Fresh out of the box with the pickguard plastic still on.

Details of the sexy black Tele minus the strings

The customary/obligatory 'family' portraits:

L to R: Fender Jaguar, Fender US standard Strat, Fender '72 Custom Telecaster, Fender Jaguar

Okay, I've not gone out of my mind and went on a guitar-shopping spree but the last story hasn't ended there. Unfortunately after giving the previous Tele a spin, I realised that while it sounded pretty good, I wasn't really happy with the feel of its neck. It was too 'sticky' for my preference and got in my way of playing. Also, the Bigsby didn't function as well as what I had in mind. Finally, it also came with some blemishes probably caused by shipping...a tiny dent, lose tuners and rough fretwires :( So, in the light of these issues, I decided that I should try to return it and get some sort of a refund. After emailing the friendly fella, he has agreed to take it back albeit the loss I had to suffer due to shipping, etc.

After lugging the packed guitar to the post office with the help of my bro, I bade the butterscotch baby farewell and made plans for a replacement. Hence I've decided to get a new Fender '72 custom Tele after learning from an expensive lesson on what I'd really want.

It didn't arrive in a breeze in the sense that after ordering and paying an online Japanese store for the guitar, I was informed only after a week later that they couldn't ship it over due to restrictions placed on them by Fender Japan, so I had to quickly find another source before they put a clamp on the stores nationwide. Luckily I was able to liaise with the ever friendly Koichi from Ishibashi, whom quoted me the price and details of the order. Immediately, I sent my debit card info over and wham! 3 days later, the guitar arrived in a recording-breaking shipping time! Boy I was glad cos apparently, alot of international orders were rejected but I was lucky Koichi had mine processed.

Well, it doesn't take a rocket-scientist to realise that having 6 electric guitars is probably a little overkill, so I've decided to take a personal 'vow' that I will not buy any more guitars for at least a year (and hopefully longer) *lol* Time to put my savings aside for more practical things like...ermm...my future girlfriend? Heh. I sure hope I don't end up being in a situation like this fella here

Oh, that aside, it's probably old news by now but during this absence of online activities, alot of things happened and one of them was the changing of my band lineup. It was a tough time coping with the decision to let go of 2 members (especially our vocalist, who's the 'voice' of LGF) but after these few months of hunting high and low, posting on forums, tonnes of awkward random messaging via friendster, wholivesnearyou.com, superstar-style of auditions, etc...we've finally found someone worthy to fill the shoes of our ex-vocalist :)

We've wasted no time coping with changes which include getting to know more about our new vocalist, adjusting the key of our songs, fine-tweaking on them, mutual sharing of musical influences, etc. And so here we are, ready to showcase the new LGF to everyone. We've finally gotten ourselves one or two 'warm-up' gigs this year which I'll announce soon. So, watch out for LGF mk II....faster cleaning action! *lol*

It was really quiet these days until...

The postman brought me a huge parcel:

...and it said:

After a tough struggle to free the content out of its box:

Flipping the case open and momentarily blinded by the light reflected from the chrome...Lo and behold:

Just look at the amount of chrome and 'bling bling' on it...

Boy I just love the look of the old school bigsby on it:

The new boy meets the Fender family for the first time:

During my absence online, I've gotten myself yet another 'mistress' (okay, at times I call them 'mistresses' cos they're so sexy with their curves and they're calling out for my attention *lol*). This time, it's a Telecaster hand-built by a fella in the US. I wanted to get a cheap'no-brand' tele so that I can mod the hell out of it, 'abuse' it and still not feel bad if it's quite beat-up. And it's about time I give tele a try cos I've always wanted to try out a tele for its famous twang.

With all these babies calling out for me, it's no wonder I've got no time to blog *lol* Excuse me while I do indulge in my guitar porn ;)

I've been caught up with alot of things lately. A huge part of it is work, guitar stuff took up another huge chunk, not forgetting a few gigs and all.

Taken at DXO after the recent gig. Mel's colleagues, Elaine and the two Kais came to support us :) I looked especially cheeky in that pic *lol*

A more accurate portrayal of my mood these days...a bit of melancholy, a pint of uncertainty...Indifference is killing me.

Recently, I got promoted at work and naturally I'm happy about it (wasn't expecting it even though I've been here for around 3+ years). My big boss was really kind to actually send an email to all the staff for the announcement and to congratulate me. Now all was well until a close colleague revealed to me that some people are not happy about my promotion. Namely 2 other colleagues who've been working in the same office. One of them just joined us for slightly over a year and she was displeased that she didn't get a promotion and all. Now I don't even wanna start with the comparisons between us but let's just say that not everyone is pleased with her work ethics. Hardly a veteran in this workspace, she already started to boss around (when she's not even a supervisor or anything), scolding students and staff unnecessarily, creating bad relationships with internal and external people. I'm not gonna rant on and on about her since I'm sure people can see with their own eyes what kind of person she is.

The other colleague on the other hand, has worked here for more than 10 years. But word goes around that she has never been promoted before. Just goes to show what type of performance/attitude she's been having. After hearing about my promotion, she even had the cheek to tell the big boss that it's because of him that ruined her day when he casually asked her how she was feeling when he saw her. *Shakes head*. Luckily our big boss is a very kind person and didn't take it to heart...if it was our previous no-nonsense boss, she'd get into trouble.

It's funny why some people can't see their own flaws or shortcomings and only knows how to complain and not work their way towards their goals and all. To begin with, I'm not even nasty to them at all and instead, always treated them with courtesy and politeness. Maybe their mindsets are clouded with office politics and treat me like a threat. I don't know. It doesn't bother me at all cos it's their lives they're leading. As long as I'm doing what I believe in and not being malicious to others, I'm happy about it.

On another note, I'm really glad on how good signs and motivation are showing up in my work life. Recently I attended an external training course and the trainer was so surprised by my enthusiasm and participation that he told me he'd write me a recommendation letter to my company :)

Okay, now that I'm done with the boring work stuff, I shall reveal what the other huge chunk of my time went to (okay...maybe it's just as boring as the work part *lol* But still...)

(Close friends who've already knew about it, you can skip this part *lol*)

A month or two ago, I had the idea of modifying my guitar and had lots of cool ideas and all. Being a newbie in modding, I was really excited and discussed with some veterans in the guitar shops on my ideas, only to be told that they were too radical/impossible to carry out. Of course, it dampened my hopes to hear that. Unfaltered, I began to read up articles and materials on the internet and learn more about the related topics on wiring and electronics. Having a strong hunch that what I came up with could work, I piece together all the relevant information and drew my very first schematic (wiring layout)!

Which eventually translates into this...

It got me kickstarted on working further with my ideas and I consulted friends and forums on the feasibility of the project...and ended up with good feedbacks. So, armed with my blueprints and a psyched-up mood, I went ahead and worked on it with the help of my dad (who'd probably make a good guitar technician with his skills and mechanic/electronics know-how! :P)

Operation room *lol* Working on not one, but two guitars!

The sunburst guitar which my cool/radical ideas are implemented on.

The white one which went through simplier modication with just swapping of parts (pickups only)

And lo and behold....

It's alive!!!
And in case you can't tell the differences:

(Technical info below: Not for the faint hearted!)

Mods done:
-Routed another cavity (done by a guitar tech)
-Hot rails (bridge) pickup added + spare CIJ jag pickup cover installed
-Rewired and 3-way toggle switch added
-Changed to black pickguard (custom-made by another fella)
-3-way toggle selects Hot rails/all pickups/AV pickups (with individual on/off switches). Bottom tone/vol controls AV pickups and top roller vol controls Hot rails.

Frankenstein and his bride:

Now this is certainly a very pleasant surprise and a huge achievement for me as I started out with zero knowledge on it and beat the odds when everyone said it couldn't be done. It's not just about guitars we're talking about here. It's like this entire experience will open up the doors to many things in my life. It's mainly about determination and the courage to try things out.

~Edit~ Please note the change in our performance time on Friday, we'll start at 8.10pm!~

Warning: Long post with pictures. This is what happens when you blog only once in two weeks *lol*

Had quite a few things going on over the two last weeks.

But before anything else, I'm happy to inform everyone that my band, LGF, will be having a few upcoming performances...starting from this Friday :)

Details are as follow:

NYF LAUNCH PROGRAMME
Date: 23 JUN 2006 (FRI)
Time: 8.10pm 7.30 pm
Venue: Skate Park (near Somerset MRT, next to Orchard Cineleisure)

This is the National Youth Forum launch event. Something to look out for is Paul Twohill's band, Through The Discord (yeah, he's the 'emo-messy-haired' guy in S'pore Idol *lol*) as they'll be performing too.

The local bands (in order of performance) are:
- Page
- LGF
- August Star
- Caracal
- Fishtank
- The Great Spy Experiment
- Through the Discord

Orchard Jam '06
Date: 2 July (Sunday)
Venue: Outside Wisma Atria
Time: 5 to 6pm

This gig is a busking event organised by Arts For Us All (AFUA). We had fun performing along the streets of Orchard in the same event last year. Looking forward to this one again!

Straits Times Pocket Fund charity album launch
Date: 22 July (Saturday)
Venue: DXO
Time: To be confirmed.

This will be a launch gig for the Straits Times Pocket Fund charity album. We've contributed our song, Smashed, to the CD. Purchase the CD and get free tickets to this album launch gig! All proceeds will go directly to the fund. Stay tuned for the details!

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Alright...now I've gotten that down, let's get on with the recent happenings:

A new member of the family!
I don't think it can get any more self-indulging than to buy another guitar of the same model but of a different colour! *LOL* But frankly, I've got more plans for it than mere craziness. Heh. I'll explain later but just savour the pictures for now...though these pictures don't even do justice to its beauty:

You can imagine my excitement at the sight of the familiar bulky package from Japan.

Lo and behold! My new Fender Jaguar...with block inlays and binded neck!! Goodies not only include the standard accessories like cable, allen key, manual, etc but also some high-tech cleaning cloth, picks, Fender pouch, and some funky sets of strings :)

I couldn't help swap the necks to see how it looks on my current sunburst Jaguar:

Heavenly!!

The Fender Jaguar duo:

I had to go through lots of trouble getting this baby. This ultra rare model can only be acquired thanks to a forum member who gave me the link to a Japanse store's website in which the guitar is exclusively made available through them only. Bad news is that they don't deal with people outside Japan (they don't even reply english emails!). Luckily with the help of someone (you know who you are! :D), I managed to get a middleman to help me purchase it and shipped to me. You wouldn't wanna know how much this baby costs me in total *lol*

And what was I thinking getting the same model I already owned?! Well, I love the Jaguar sound so much but yet I wanted a totally different sound altogether; I wanted the best of both worlds, so I decided to buy another one so that I can modify one to give me versatile sounds which I can use as my stage/main guitar...and at the same time, keep the other one original and stock as a form of 'collection' and for studio recordings.

And not long after, something arrived in a small package:

It's one of the components I got from Ebay for the modification...a Seymour Duncan Hot rails single coil-sized humbucker :D

It'll be a long road to finish the modifications considering the fact that I'm gonna give it a major overhaul...cutting up the body, changing lots of parts and wiring. But for those concerned, I'll be doing the major 'surgery' on my older sunburst Jaguar, for the white one is just too gorgeous for me to mess her up *lol*

Alright...enough of that for now (reluctantly tho...), let's move on to the other events that happened during the past two weeks:

Polymate's wedding dinner
Attended an ex-polymate's wedding dinner at the M Hotel. Was pretty excited cos we haven't seen one another like for years! It felt like my poly graduation Dinner & Dance back in 98! *lol*

It felt really nostalgic to be in such a setting...with familiar faces, all dressed-up for the occasion. All our friends in the clique looked as if they never aged a bit even though it's been so many years! One of them even has a baby kid already! I felt as if I never moved on with time when all of them either got married or are planning to. Yeah, I'm the only bachelor on the table (save for another lady who just broke up with her boyfriend) :/ It was really great to catch up with all their latest happenings and somehow, being the only bachelor and leading a more 'different' lifestyle (read: playing guitar in my band) seem to garner more conversations in such settings *lol*

Pop Agenda Performances
The whole Saturday of the first week was spent on watching a series of performances by locals and overseas artistes/bands under the event called Pop Agenda. Went to the recording studio in the morning to mixdown one song that will be used in an upcoming charity cd compilation put together by Straits Times. We got down to Fort Canning Park around 4+pm and 'hogged' the area right in front of the barriers to get a good view of the performers. The funny thing about Singaporean audiences is that either most of them are too 'paiseh' (embaressed) to step up front...or they're not enthusiastic about live performances. So, amongst the pathetic less-than-50 crowd, my band members and I were the ONLY 4 person to stand right up against the barrier to watch the performances...which in a way, was quite awesome cos we got to gawk at the bands' equipment and make eye contact with them...which were returned with appreciative smiles from the performers themselves :) It's a two-way thing cos that's what fuels both the audiences and performers. That's why I always try to make it a point to make eye contact with my audiences whenever I perform. It's a way to reach out to people I guess.

The performers were:

Concave Scream (Singapore)
China Magpie (China)
Chou Pi Jiang (Singapore)
Addy Rasidi (Singapore)
Ji Xiao Jun (Taiwan)
Ryu (Korea)/ Guest: Chua Lee Lian (Singapore)
Aikawa Nanase (Japan)

Here are the few pictures I managed to take that night with my mobile phone:

China Magpie, a group of musicians that comprised of a violinist, guitarist, pipa-player and the above wind instrument player/singer (who is actually the first to modify his traditional instrument to work with modern guitar multi effects!). The Taiwanese native tribe singer, Ji Xiao Jun and her musician family members did some wonderful tunes with amazing vocal harmonies.

Of course, those who listened to Japanese music would probably know that Aikawa Nanase is the biggest highlight of that night's gig. So, only prior to her performances, more people went up front...some to catch the good-looking Korean singer, Ryu. By the time Nanase took the stage, the mood finally felt like a real concert. With fantastic lights and stage presence, the pink-haired Nanase rocked the stage with audiences asking for more. And 30 mins zipped by so effortlessly.

More gigs-watching on Sunday!
As if the previous night's 6 hours straight of music blasting wasn't enough, I dropped by the Street Festival event, DJ Party at Youth Park to catch up with friends and watch some of the bands performed. Most of the bands were relatively new to me but I was quite glad to catch up times with some of the 'old birds' there...be it acquaintances, other band members, friends, long-lost ones, etc. Was pleasantly surprised when I was asked by a particular lady to take a pic with her cos she recognised me from one of the older gigs she attended :P A few other surprised turned up as well, like knocking into an acquaintance whom I've not seen for years and completely changed his looks and lifestyle! The day ended with dinner with a few closer friends we knocked into during the event.

Whew! That's a mouthful! Not sure when I'll update this space again but till then, I'm out...

A little something till the next proper entry :)
Warning: self-indulgence entry

Learnt how to play this solo from a song, Wait, by one of my favourite 80s hair-band, White Lion. It's quite fun to play something that involves tapping. Almost the whole solo is played via tapping :P Pardon the shorts, bad sound quality (since I recorded using my mobile phone) and sloppy playing *lol*

~UPDATED ON 10 APR~

FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!

Pardon my outburst of profanity *lol* I don't really swear in real (or virtual) life but this incident somehow hits me right between the eyes. But I'm perfectly fine now :)

I'm in the foulest mood right now. I woke up this morning at 4.00am just to bid for a 1980 lefty Gibson Les Paul Custom with confidence that I'd win it and indeed I would've won it if not for restriction placed by the seller to block all international bidders!!!! URGH!! I still can't believe it. I keyed in the amount of US$1875 just 15 seconds before the bidding end and Ebay showed me a page where I need to get permisson from the seller to bid!!!!! WTH!!!! 13 seconds to go and all I could do was to stare at my monitor with disbelief and disgust.

And the highest bidder won with a bid of US$1251.

Fuck. I should've known better than to take such risks. But I had everything planned!! It was simple: bid last minute to secure the deal, immediately pay the seller via Paypal and specify the US address given from the Vpost service. There's no way the seller would refuse me once he/she gets the payment and seeing that the shipping location is in US.

For a brief moment, I had my doubt whether the seller could actually block international bidders from bidding. So I read up the Ebay rules and information (and found out they could) but gathered that there isn't any sign of that in the listing other than the "We do not ship international" line (they didn't specify 'No international bidders what!!). Still in doubt, I tried to place a bid and even though ebay did prompt that the seller might not ship international, it had the 'CONFIRM BID' button at the bottom...so, I thought it'd still go through and waited for the right moment to place the bid.

...And boy I was darn wrong. It did block me AFTER I click on the 'CONFRIM BID' button during the nth second.

Geez. Initially...in the very beginning, I wanted to email the seller whether I could bid for the item, but assuming that such sellers would usually brush international bidders off (on the stereotype that we're capable of frauds, scams, etc), I didn't do that...and decided to go ahead with the bidding instead.

Wrong move. A BIG mistake.

I almost wanted to smash my monitor. I threw myself back to my bed and I swore it almost caught fire from my fury. Was kept awake for a long while from being fuming mad. Then I had some crappy dream and before long, I had to drag myself up for work.

The sulk on my face probably won't wear off anytime soon.

This morning, I bidded for a 1973 Lefty Gibson Les Paul Custom on ebay during the last few seconds of the remaining time and I was the highest bidder when it ended!!!! I was thinking...hey, it wasn't such a bad deal when I threw in US$1875 for it. But as I scrolled my eyes down the annoucement, I almost got into a fit..."Reserve price not met"!!!! The silly me actually thought I won it but didn't realise that I didn't meet its reserve price!! URGH!!!!! Just when I thought I emerged the winner amongst the 30 bids...hmpt! Anyway, I've gotten over it since it might be a sign of better things to come *lol* (I love to console myself with such silly thoughts) Hopefully another one (in better condition) will come my way and end up hanging on my bedroom wall :P Wish me luck, guys.

In the light of this incident and recent events, I have decided to write a tiny poem of sorts:

My elusive life

The glittering stars above my head, they eluded me.
Sweet dreams of love and passion, they eluded me.
A stage bathed with spotlights and screaming fans, they eluded me.
Lyrics and melodies to unfinished tunes, they too... eluded me.
Self-expression is at a bottleneck
Expectations riding on my back
Self-indulgence is a vice
A winning bid above the reserve price
...all of which eluded me.

That's it. I'm getting desperate. I'm offering up to US$2100 (including shipping) for any used 1970/80/90s left-handed Gibson Les Paul Custom (Black/Ebony). Please feel free to contact me at: khaz@pacific.net if you have one to sell (overseas welcome). If it fills my bill, we'll work out a deal :)

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Hopefully that'll bring some results since I've hunted high and low everyday on ebay, websites, online stores, and even Japanese Yahoo Auctions for it. Guess this is the results of accumulated "GAS* attack" and not having a g/f *lol*

*GAS=Gear Acquisition Syndrome