Thursday, September 4, 2008

My New Ibanez (RG2550Z in Galaxy White)

So, after saving up for quite some time, I was able to pickup this baby. Its amazing to play on, especially after the GIO I had this feels great, its super fast, has the right fit, finish and the great tone I was always looking for. "WAY TO GO IBANEZ!!". Although, I've always loved Ibanez. Anyway, onto some features that I liked.


TREM: As a first time prestige user, I wouldn't be able to judge the improvement of this over its predecessors but of what I've played on it, it surely is amazing "THE EDGE ZERO" stays in tune even after a lot of trem use, doesn't go flat. The zero point system works wonders!! Though, I feel it could have been a bit more smoother. Also they say, it doesn't go off even if it breaks a string, I don't know about this as I haven't broken any strings yet. Also they provide you with the locking studs separately to be installed by the buyer!! this is something odd, they should have installed it themselves.

SOUND: It features H-S-H 5way switching Dimarzio/Ibanez Pickups, even though there might be folks who don't dig these, for me these have the perfect tone!! I must admit I don't play through a fancy rig to know much difference but these are very good. Listen to it here





ACTION/NECK : Out of the box, this was perfectly setup didn't have to do anything with it except for maybe just pick it out of the case and plug it ;). This guitar has the thinnest neck I've ever played on, took me some time to get used to it but damn it feels awesome!!!

FINISH: Well this has a pretty unique finish as well, the white has gold sparkles in it. Looks pretty sweet!! wasn't able to capture it in the pics.. but it looks pretty awesome in person...


Well that's about it I guess, Now for some Photos :)










For Sale : Dimarzio Breed (Neck) Pickup

Well, here we have a new open box, never installed Dimarzio Breed Neck Pickup.

UPDATE: Will also include a stock ibby pickup with the sale if the buyer wants :p

Description taken from dimarzio.com

If you've seen Steve Vai play in the last few years, you may have seen him playing an Ibanez® Jem guitar with the word “Pogo” taped on the face. Steve wanted one of his instruments to have a fat, classic humbucker sound to contrast with the hotter, screaming Evolution®-equipped guitars. These are the pickups we developed for him. The neck pickup is a bit louder and fatter-sounding than the PAF Pro® pickups that Steve used on his earliest Jems. The bridge pickup is not as hot as the Evolution®, but it's got a warm and punchy mid-range coupled with a fat low end that rolls off before it can get muddy. Harmonics are easy to get, and the 4-conductor wiring coil enables cool "notch tone" coil-splitting.
Recommended For: Neck position on bolt-on trem guitars, bridge position on set-neck fixed-bridge instruments.
Tech Talk: The Breed™ is a bit louder and fatter-sounding than the PAF Pro®s that Steve used on his earliest Jems. As a neck pickup, it has more than enough power to balance with high-output bridge pickups: it will work with the Tone Zone®, Super Distortion® and Evolution® as well as The Breed™ bridge model. In the bridge position, it has a very warm, hot PAF® tone--really smooth, with nice harmonics.



Some Pics:







Price: Rs. 4000

Location: Pune (will ship elsewhere for that extra shipping $)

so yeah that's about it, email me on arniesaha@gmail.com if there is an interest.


Arnab

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

!!SOLD!! For Sale: Ibanez GRG270 (In India)

!!SOLD!!

Hey Guys,
So here we have my Ibanez GRG270 for sale, its a little over a year old. Good condition. Has emg-hz in the bridge. I can ship within India. Below are photos and video.

Price: Rs. 8500

Photos:

Body (Front)


Full (Front)


Body (Back)


Full (Back)


Neck



A small ding (couldnt picture it clearly though)


and heres the
Video:



Let me know if interested,

Arnab

Monday, July 7, 2008

Accidentals and The Chromatic scale

  • ACCIDENTALS:
As the octave consists of 12 notes, but there exists only 7 note names, there arises the need for accidentals (i.e. flats and sharps) for being able to name all the 12 notes.


NATURAL:
A note without accidentals is called natural (i.e. without flats or sharps)
For eg. 'G' is natural that is neither flat or sharp.


SHARP:
A sharp makes a note a semitone higher.
For eg. 'G#' will be a semitone higher than the 'G' natural making it sharp.


FLAT:
A flat is the exact opposite of a sharp, it makes a note a semitone lower.
For eg. 'Ab' will be a semitone lower than the 'A' natural making it flat.


Observation: Both 'G#' and 'Ab' are the names of the same notes but in different directions and point of references one is sharp and the other flat.


DOUBLE SHARP:
As the name suggest, this makes a note sharper by two semitones.



DOUBLE FLAT:
This makes a note flater by two semitones.




  • THE CHROMATIC SCALE:
A chromatic scale is made up of all the 12 notes within the octave, which means having covered all the 12 semitones from the root up to its octave.
For eg: Open 'E' up to 12th fret 'E'

One should pay attention to the orientation as well, i.e. are you going higher or going lower?
It is essential to keep in mind the direction, a guitar fretboard is arranged chromatically.

For eg.






Ascending using #'s :
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C
Descending using b's:
C B Bb A Ab G Gb F E Eb D Db C

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Octave

Octave is the interval at which the root note rings at a frequency exactly double than that of the root note itself.

For eg. The open 'E' and when fretted at the 12th is also 'E' but an octave higher. On a similar note if we have 24fret guitar, if we fret at the 24th we would get another octave even higher. Over a single string, we can get 2 octaves.

The octave is divided into 12 smaller intervals, that are the semitones. In practice, one fret distance corresponds to one semitone, making an octave consist of 12 semitones.

The 12 semitone notes are C,C#/Db,D,D#/Eb,E,F,F#/Gb,G,G#/Ab,A,A#/Bb,B and starting over again

A whole tone is equal to 2 semitones, thereby making an octave made up of 6 whole tones.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Notes and Intervals

Hey Folks,
It has been quite some time now that I have been struggling with theory myself, but I pondered awhile back why don't I go through few concepts for the guitar over a blog reinstating my knowledge while I publish, and you might get some juice out of it as well :) So, lets see how well this endeavor goes....


  • Fretboard
Lets just have a look at the fretboard first..




  • Notes and Intervals
A note is sound with a specific frequency. For example, the high E string of a guitar tuned in concert pitch vibrates at 261Hz, thereby producing the 'E' note.

An interval is the distance between two notes.
For Example. The distance between fretted 1st note of the 'E' string being 'F' is one semitone, similarly the distance between the 1st and 2nd fretted note being 'F#' is also one semitone.

A semitone is the smallest interval, other larger intervals are multiples of this smallest interval i.e the semitone. Intervals are given other names depending on the interval, mastering interval in practice and theory proves to be very beneficial in mastering the modes and scales.

  • Interval Names
Here is an example of the intervals from the open 'E' upto the octave 'E'




legend:
m: minor
M: Major

















Interval NameDistance(in semitones)Example
Unison0E-E
Minor Second1E-F
Major Second2E-F#
Minor Third3E-G
Major Third4E-G#
Perfect Fourth5E-A
Augmented Fourth6E-A#
Diminished Fifth6E-Bb
Perfect Fifth7E-B
Minor Sixth8E-C
Major Sixth9E-C#
Minor Seventh10E-D
Major Seventh11E-D#
Octave12E-E


More to come soon...

P.S. There might be some issues I may have with alignment and stuff.. but hey being as time goes it will smooth out :)