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Stringed Guitars

Created by a passionate guitarist, containing a bit of gear reviews and news

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Gibson SG GT

Yes.. another SG! I haven’t bought an SG for a few years I think… and I stumbled across the GT version, which I knew nothing about apart from the fact that existed.

So… for the official info.. you can go to SG Wiki: https://solidguitar.fandom.com/wiki/SG_GT

I love that website! They actually used one of my guitars for their pictures of a 71 SG :).

Anyway.. it is just like any other SG? Mmm kind of… but of course the tailpiece gets all the attention, I originally thought it was just a cover for the regular SG tailpiece, but no… it’s a whole thing that is bolted to and through the guitar! And ma man is it heavy! It feels heavier than my other SGs. Pretty cool design which attempts to resemble the bonnet or a car.

The Pickups are the 490/498 Alnico II. To me these are great pickups, I’ve been raving about Alnico II and Alnico III for a few years… preferring them over the Alnico V pickups.

The neck… I haven’t compared measurements but it feels chunky and not as slim/taper like a 61 reissue, just about the perfect size. You might have seen on other recent posts that I’ve discovered that chunkier necks seem easier to play…

The frets… this has caught my attention, they are quite thin… good height and crown… but they are thinner to what I’ve been seeing on standards and custom shop… There’s usually not a lot of info on frets used on different versions.

The inlays! These are not your usual mother of pearl… these are “mirror” inlays… of course probably made of plastic… but they add to the cool chrome look of the guitar.

All in all, I’m very pleased with it, it plays great and it sustains nicely. A definitely good addition to the SG collection.

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EVH? Let’s give it a go

I’m no EVH fan, but of course who doesn’t respect and think of Eddie as a guitar monster! The dude was incredible, just not my preferred music style.

But to pull all these “stunts” he must have had a very comfortable guitar, right? Plus… he was always looking for improvements and tweaked all his guitars until he actually created his own brand which is built by Fender.

So.. I bought an EVH Wolfgang Special, I really wanted the pro… which is made in Japan… but I found a flamed maple top under offer… and I couldn’t resist.

This isn’t my first “shredder” guitar… but it’s the first time o by an expensive shredder guitar. I’ve had Ibanez and I still have an old Shecter.

This EVH is awesome, first of all… whatever Fender is doing with Frets lately…. is just incredible and much better than any other brand! Definitely better than Gibson, are they stainless steel? I don’t know, but the strings just glide on them… the ends… are just so well rounded off. Impeccable work here.

The neck is roasted maple, which is a first for me, and it also feels really good, it offers zero resistance to your hand cause I believe there is no finish on them and it has this tanned color that looks very cool.

The headstock… I know it’s minor, but lately I’ve been looking at headstocks more and more and in occasions..: it has put me off from buying certain brands… some look just too big, too crazy, too similar to other brands. The EVH headstock looks great, good size and “original” shape (very similar to a musicman also owned by fender?)

So… Playability? 10… definitely a 10, not just for shredding, which isn’t something I do great… but for general stuff and of course mainly soloing, this combination of features are unbeatable.

The body… on the smaller side… quite comfy with good curves and cutouts. It has a floyd rose system, but… it bonoy goes one way… down… which means changing strings isn’t a pain in the neck. It does have nut locks and the micro tuning on the floyd rose too. It also a d-tuner which took me a few attempts to understand the best way to use it (mechanically speaking) and I can say… it is very well designed.

Pickups! Boy these are hot! But still very articulate and they clean up nice when volume is rolled down… which brings me to another feature, the volume pot… slightly different to your regular pots, these have very little mechanical resistance yet they are firm (they won’t move on their own) very cool for volume sweeps.

All in all, an outstanding instrument and very well built, made in Mexico.

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Gibson Firebird V

I had an Epiphone Thunderbird for a while and while it looked cool… it was so uncomfortable to play… that I never considered a Firebird guitar as I thought it would be just as bas, boy was I wrong.

So… i sold a couple of SGs as I has way too many and some had almost never been played since I bought them, I started to look for something different.. something special, until I stumbled upon the Firebird, what a piece of art this is… designed by an ex car designer… it just screams luxury.

It’s a neck through construction, which gives it that raised middle section and then two “wings” attached to the side, the neck is built by 9 continuous pieces of wood glued together, two of those bits… are walnut, and it gives it that distinctive two lines of slightly different wood colour.

The pickups are something of their own… constructed with blades instead of poles… and in a much smaller package, I’d say they sound a little bit like P90s.

Apart from anyone looking 10 times cooler when holding a firebird… these guitars sound awesome, great sustain due to their construction method and great playability too! Although… they are meant to be played standing up, so… when playing seating down.. the guitar feels a little

Bit offset to the left, because of the curve of the body where we wedge our thigh on… the guitar feels longer, even though it’s scale isn’t longer. When you stand up… everything just feels normal.

The pickups, the bridge pickup sounds almost like a humbucker but like I said.. it has a p90 twang, a bit more bite than a humbucker, the neck pickup even though I think it’s the same construction… sound a bit more single coil, like the 5th position of a strat, which I love.

The one I bought is a 1991 Firebird V which means it has two pickups and the bigger inlays. The tuners were changed to the steinberg ones which apparently is what Gibson used before.

The Firebird hasn’t always been on Gibson’s catalogue because it was an expensive guitar to build and not very popular, however they just added it back in… but… it’s construction method is like all other gibsons… just a set neck. If you are looking for a Firebird… please buy an older one with the traditional neck through, this way you’ll experience the real Firebird!

An awesome guitar that is becoming one of my favourites to play.

The finish is starting to crack a little bit which looks incredible.
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Epiphone 1959 ES 355

One of the hottest guitar on the internet right now. Everyone is raving about it.

Of course I bought one.

Who doesn’t like a 355?? They are probably the coolest looking guitars out there, we know who is to blame for… Marty McFly! Or Chuck Berry!

This guitars is part of the “gibson custom shop collaboration ” series. Which allows a lot more people to own a oiece of history and something that doesn’t scream Epiphone as soon s as you see it. They dressed it up every nicely.

Custom headstock logo, headstock binding, headstock with the right shape, block inlays, the whole thing just looks stunning!

I would not have many situations where I find myself playing a 355… so I was having a hard time deciding to invest a lot of money in this purchase, trust me.. I spent a week! Having a Gibson 345 in my cart… of course the gibson 355 is only custom shop and it’s double the cost of the 345… so that was out of the question.

So… I received the guitar, very well packed and presented, the case is very nice! (Not as nice as a Gibson custom shop) the guitar itself looks very smart too, the finish is matte and the gold hardware… is very gold… so… it looks too shiny on a matte finish, this hardware should be more like a VOS finish so it would blend in.

The good? It looks great, it plays well… like an Epiphone.

The Bad?

I don’t think you are getting a better Epiphone for the money… the frets are the same as any other Epiphone.. the rounding, the size, the feel. Was I expecting a better Epiphone? I think so… it costs twice as much….and… they spent a lot of time and effort dressing this one up… so.. why don’t make it better?

So… what are these extras?

Custombuckers: i love custombuckers… almost all my guitars have them, I have 3 custom shops with them + I have bought a lot of custombuckers and fitted them on my standards SGs, I know them very well… do these sound the same? I don’t think so… but why? Is it the pickup or the guitar? I don’t know… impossible to tell.. but I don’t think they feel like a regar Custom Bucker, also… their cover is just too shiny.

The Case: who cares for a case now? i don’t.. I much rather get the leather gig bag Gibson introduced a few years ago… but I understand what they are trying to do.

Aesthetics: block inlays, split diamond headstock inlay, neck binding, headstock binding, body double binding. I love all of the above, they make the guitar look incredibly smart.

So.. is it worth it? I think so… i think is 20% too expensive… I would’ve dropped the hardcase and focus on the frets. Still.. it can be sorted with a good setup, it’s a nice playing guitar and costs around 30% compared to a Gibson 345.

If this won’t be your main guitar… and you can afford a Gibson . Get the Epi..

If this will be your main guitar and you can afford the Gibson… get the Gibson

If this will be your main guitar and you can’t afford the Gibson.. get the Epi! It looks awesome…

If this will be your main guitar and you can’t afford a gibson and you don’t care for the looks.. get the Epi 335 that we’ve all known for years

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Boss Katana Artist Gen 3 (Combo)

Alright, this might be the most reviewed amp on the internet right now… so of course… I ended up buying one.

If you have read any of my other posts… you will by now know that I’m a simple guy… guitar + amp and nothing else (maybe the solo dalas tower…) but… in summary… I don’t like buttons, knobs, etc. give me something simple so I can go straight to the action. So you might wonder…. why even bother with the Katana? well.. I wanted to buy something different.

let’s get the first thing out of the way. This amp does not sound like a tube amp! but.. that is not a bad thing… tube amps always sound different… why? think about this… if you are old enough as me… you’ve heard music on tapes… or even vynils…. do they sound the same as the cd? or the same as spotify? No… should they sound the same? No… it’s a completely different technology…. what is the draw back of a Tape? well.. it ends up stretching… every time you hear it.. the tape degrades, the same with the Vynil and the CD…. but.. Spotify (quality aside) gives you the same exact sound every single time. The Quality? well… it’s easy.. Spotify has to compress a file send it over the internet… put it on your laptop/phone.. and then play it out… so.. even though it’s all 1s and 0s… there are algorythms behind.. the quality suffers but it’s scientific.. we know how much it suffers and we still choose it.

Tube amps are the same.. every time you play them.. they will wear.. they will sound different if there’s high humidity… if it’s cold… if it’s too hot.. if it’s been pushed around.. maybe the tube isn’t well placed in the socket… and you never know what makes it sound appealing… maybe your biased isn’t set to what the manual says… but you still like it…. and if you go in to try to fix it… you might not like it anymore…

I have and have had over 50 tube amps… I play in an AC/DC tribute band… i’m not an expert on tubes and amp building… but I know my sound when I hear it. And the Katana… isn’t my sound… but… it is still a great sound.

The Speakers / Cab: The Artist combo comes in an oversized cab.. which I love! the speaker is superb… it’s clearl not a regular guitar speaker because it doesn’t need to be broken in… it sounds as good as it gets right out of the box. the body of the sound and the tight end is unreal… you’ll need a 4×12 to get that sound

The Sound itself: I’ll probably end up using just one setting on this… “pushed” + my guitar volume, And that’s ok… but hard to accept when they offer “hundreds of options” I hate options.. I hate fiddling with knobs and apps.. I hate buying a rock album and getting a balad… so… I want an amp that can do one thing right at least. The Katana gives you a great break up sound with very clear bottom end at most volumes

How does it react with the guitar: I find that the amp works nicer with single coils… with humbuckers.. the guitar volume behaves differently compared to a tube amp.. I have to get used to that.

The Features: I have no idea… but dude… this amp should have the freaking bluetooth and a footswitch included! come on! at least a simple one to go from clean to the drive section

Should you buy it? I guess so…. I wanted a combo amp that I could just plug and forget about it.. I was between the 1974x, the Fender Tonemaster and the Katana… but… the Katana fits for the new project I’m working on.. I might need a bit of delay.. I might need some reverb.. I might need some fuzz… but what I definitely need is an amp that requires 0 maintenance, that I can load in the back of my car with one hand… and have the tone I had at home.

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Gibson SG Special faded

2nd special SG in my collection, the first one was the ebony board one and this one.. was an accident.

I tend to place bids and then forget about them, 99% of the times I usually lose the bid… but this time it was collection only and the guitar was filthy

Look at that fretboard… filthy!

So based on those factors, no one really placed any bids and to my surprise… mine won :).

I went to pick it up not being too excited as I really didn’t want it, having so many standards and custom shops… I wasn’t excited about just a special faded.

But you know how it goes… when you least expected is when you are surprised the most (not always!). So I pick it up… take it home… and the next day I went for a cleanup, man… the amount of sweat on this fretboard, i had to scrape it off, then do lemon oil, then scrape a bit more…. Even the back of the neck had to be scraped! Being unsealed wood… they seem to pip up a lot of dirt.

Once the fretboard was clean

So once I finished with the neck… I did a good clean to the body, and then…. i used the instrument food from Monty’s guitar, again… as being unsealed wood… I was excited to try the clear instrument food.

It really made the grain stand out

I also used the coffee one on the fretboard because it give it a nice shade and males the pattern stand out.

After like 2 hours of cleaning and changing strings… I plugged it in, I loved it instantly. The neck is chunky just like the ebony special, the frets are well defined and on the big side, the pickups… Alnico II 490/498. i love these, much better than Alnico V which I believe the SG Standard comes with.

These specials are becoming my favourite! They do rock, you can beat them up a bit more , they are just a rocking machine with nothing fancy on them.

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Are Mods worth it?

Debatable! Of course… probably the most debatable subject on guitars, us musicians are weird people, we love one thing today and hate the same thing tomorrow and we start tweaking things until we go “oh man.. I loved how this thing sounded yesterday “ we are almost never happy with what we have for more than a week.

Well… sort of, we get used to a sound and this will sometimes stop causing an impression on us… when something blows your mind out it’s because it’s new… fresh… different. But we often just get bored and our brain sort of fills in the blanks and the sound just becomes “standard”.

I’ve experienced this many many times. Now… I’m in a different mind set… I have enough guitars and amps that I can just switch stuff around when it’s just not working… this made me understand that sometimes one thing sounds better than the other, it could be us… could be placebo… could be voltage, humidity.. who knows! But… I try not to tweak things (apart from volume, treble, mids, etc) I’ll just swap guitars… and try again.

I stopped modding guitars (as much as I can) the guitar has to feel right… if it doesn’t… there is no mod that will make it “better” or more suitable for you, and once you break that “mod seal” there is no going back… and there is no end on the amount of mods you can do!

One of my Custom Shops sounded just slightly darker than others and there was something about the volume pot that I didn’t like… but I love the guitar… it feels like home… but that volume pot…just.. was weird. So I changed it with a vintage spec 550k ohms, and boom! There it was… missing piece.. feels perfect.. never touched it again and I play it a lot!

I had another custom shop.. that came with 57 plus humbuckers.. which I hated.. too nasal and bright.. I went ahead and purchased some custom buckers and installed them… got rid of the 57s. It sounded better… but I still wasn’t getting along with the guitar… it felt “stiff”. I ended up selling it because when I kept “rotating” guitars… that one never ended up pleasing me.

I’m a true believer of “magic dust” inside the guitar… the good ol’ mojo… if it has it… then maybe some minor tweaks will be acceptable.. if it doesn’t have any “magic” or mojo… then I think no mod will make it much better.

I even try not to open the control cavity if I feel that the guitar is perfect… because you know what? “Ignorance is bliss” if you open that up and you notice something that you don’t visually like… you’ll want to change that.

Just today.. I bought an SG Special that I just love how it sounds! But the pots where a bit stiff because the guitar was filthy!! I did a whole clean up… but pots were still stiff… I opened the control cavity to put some contact cleaner… and guess what… there’s a PCB controlling the pots… I just put the contact cleaner to loose them up and close it quickly before I convinced myself of “upgrading” to one of those fancy wiring kits.

To mod or not to mod… that’s the question… go for the small upgrades… maybe a pot… maybe a bit of a clean… but you know what the best upgrade is? a new set of strings :). And a guitar that feels just right. If it doesn’t feel right.. it is not for you… sell it and buy another one

Most recent purchase
Another underdog
An unbeatable custom shop
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Pushing 2 Amps with one guitar

So… when you see AC/DC live… you see tons of guitar cabs, and you have to wonder… how are these people pushing all these cabs??

Well… That I don’t know… however… you can do this at home pretty easily, given that you have more than one cab.

My recent OR15 purchase was because I wanted to use 4 cabs for a specific gig, and I either had to carry my mesa boogie which is a 295… meaning 2 amps.. 95Watts. Or… I have to buy a new amp to go with my SV20h

Well.. I bought the OR15 and then I remembered I had this Y cable which splits one signal into two different 1/4 inch jacks.

Pretty basic, right?
Worked like a charm!

I can now push 4 cabs with these two amps, they also sound pretty similar.

I had one hiccup with the Orange as the cabs are 8ohms each and the OR15 has a minimum of 8ohms load… so.. Palmer sells a device that allows you to connect cabs in series or in parallel, meaning that 2 x 8ohm cabs can turn into a 4 or 16ohm load.

It’s tiny!

I attached it to the back of the Orange with zip toes tot the grill and I plugged everything in, neat and tidy.

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Orange OR15

Spent last Sunday at the Birmingham Guitar Show here in the UK, it was a great day, the place was buzzing and there were loads of stands.

ATB had their display of vintage guitars including two 1960 Les Pauls at £300k! There was a nice 1962 ebony block SG. First time I see one of them in person. All in all it was a feast for our eyes.

As I walk past the Orange stand… it comes to my mind a distant memory of me using an Orange at a rehearsal place and quite liking it. So I stopped to see what they had, it wasn’t much… but one of the guys from Orange approached me and talked me through their collection, they had this OR15 heavily discounted because it was in black tolex and apparently hadn’t sold well.

I was with a friend who was lugging his 69SG which he offered me for trying out the amp, these places tend to be loud and it’s hard to really test anything out… but as soon as I plugged in and hit a note… I knew I was buying this thing.

It sounds like something between a Marshall and a Mesa Boogie, it has the Marshall growl but the mesa boogie sustain and body. I heard that Orange amps tend to be a bit on the darker side. This could be true… but speakers play a big part.

I plugged it in to some 4x10s

It sounds great, it complements the SG really well, it also has great response at al volumes, it doesn’t fall apart if you abuse the gain or the volume.

It’s not made in the UK as it’s not top of the line but still it is a great amp, this black edition i saw it retailing at anything between £550 and £600, I paid £349 at the guitar show!

If you are looking for a small amps that can kick like a mule… try this one out, it’s more manageable than the SV 20 H as it has a master volume and gain knobs, which means you can probably get a clean-ish sound for pedals.

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