Vintage guitar of the week #13 - 1969 Fender Stratocaster in Lake Placid Blue

Very expensive. But very cool.

The '69 Strat in LPB is not cheap at all. If you want this Strat, you will need deep pockets.

Now of course, this is one of my favorite Strat designs because of the "swoop" STRATOCASTER logo on the pegboard and WITH SYNCHRONIZED TREMOLO beneath it. That is just a very, very cool look. The only way to get it new right now is with a Malmsteen Strat. I so wish that Fender would put that logo treatment on a Mexico model like the Roadhouse. That guitar has the same pegboard, but Fender will not put the full logo treatment on it. And I've no idea why.

Anyway, aside from the logo treatment, what makes the '69 worth its price tag is if it's all-original, isn't a refin and uses a 4-bolt neck and not 3-bolt. It does however have "F" tuners. Some players don't like those, but I can get along with them just fine. These are the same tuners used on the Fender Classic Series '70s Stratocaster now, so if you've ever played one of those (which I have,) you know what the tuner feels and acts like.

If in addition it's not a refin, a naturally aged Lake Placid Blue usually results where the finish darkens, the blue diminishes and the green starts to come out more. There's just something about naturally aged LPB that gives a Strat a very elegant look.

Like I said, this '69 is expensive. But if it looks correct, it's unmolested and all-original, it should have quite a few years of life left in her.

Switching guitar string brands, and why I sometimes do it

Sometimes it's necessary to switch guitar string brands. I just did.

Most of my followers know that my string brand of choice is Dunlop DEN0942. I've recently switched over to Fender Super 250's, and I'll explain why.

Dunlop's VCI stopped working

VCI means Vapor Corrosion Inhibitor. In every pack of Dunlop DEN strings there's this little silica packet that's supposed to prevent corrosion so every new set of strings has no rust on them.

As of recent, every pack of strings no matter where I buy a Dunlop set from has had rust on the strings, namely on the unwound B and G.

Fender Super 250's also use VCI. No silica packet is involved, but I've not seen any rust on them yet.

Dunlop availability is a problem

It's really annoying to want to buy a new pack of strings, only to find it's not only difficult to find in local guitar stores, but also difficult to find online. Dunlop has this problem with their DEN strings.

Does Dunlop have this problem all the time? No. It seems to be a month-to-month problem. On some months, DEN strings are available pretty much everywhere, and on other months, available pretty much nowhere.

Fender (finally) fixed their guitar string quality problems

I don't know what company manufactures Fender guitar strings these days, but whatever company is doing it does a far better job compared to how Fender strings used to be.

There was a time, not all that long ago, when Fender guitar strings were bad. And I mean bad. As in "snaps in less than a week" bad. As in "rusted right out of the pack" bad. As in "never stays in tune" bad. As in wrecks-your-frets bad. Fender guitar strings used to be all those things.

I was hesitant to try the Super 250's again for all of these reasons. But fortunately, the quality of the string has greatly improved pretty much across the board.

Now again, I don't know who makes the Super 250's for Fender. For all I know, Dunlop could be making them. Or maybe D'Addario. Maybe some other company. I don't know.

What I do know is that I now consider the Super 250's good.

Even though the 250's don't break in as fast as the Dunlop strings do, they are a lot easier to come by (availability is never a problem,) they're affordable and the build quality has gone up several notches.

Sometimes it's necessary to revisit a string

I stayed away from Super 250's for years because of the problems I mentioned above. But because of the problems the Dunlop strings were having, I decided to give the 250's another go, and things ended up all right. (If they hadn't, Dean Markley NickelSteel would have been my next choice.)

What I notice with guitar string brands is that they have good and bad years.

During the good years, the strings are always great for every pack you use.

During the bad years, something happens in the string manufacturing process, the string starts to not feel right, build quality declines, and you know it's not you but rather the string that's the problem. That's when you switch brands.

My tips for guitar string shopping when seeking out a new brand to use

1. Go cheap; stay cheap.

Spending more on guitar strings only does one thing, and that's make you poorer faster. Purposely use cheap strings. One brand will stand out above the rest that will work for you.

2. Buy what's readily available.

Whatever is always available in the guitar store and/or always available online is the brand you go with. If you buy one of those boutique brands that are tough to locate, not only are you spending more but waiting more just for them to show up in the mail.

3. Hop between as many brands as you need to before you find the right one.

I got lucky with the Fender Super 250's and came across a brand that worked for me. But I was ready to hop over to another brand if they had not worked out, and I would have kept on doing it until I found the right strings.

Trust what your eyes and fingers tell you

When you look at strings you usually buy brand new out of the pack and say to yourself, "That doesn't look right...", that's not you that's the problem. Or if the strings look right, but when you play they don't feel right (maybe too loose or too tight?), again, that's not you that's the problem there either. Something changed in the way the string was made. Something bad.

If your eyes or your fingers are telling you something is wrong with the string, then something is wrong with the string - especially if the problem keeps happening from pack to pack of whatever brand you use.

Switch string brands if you have to. And don't be afraid to revisit a brand you've not tried in a while, because that brand might have improved since you last used it.

Cheap guitar of the week #29 - Schecter Omen-6

If there's one thing Schecter knows how to do very, very well, it's pack a lot of pro-quality build construction into a guitar that sells for a very low price.

The Schecter Omen-6 is something where you get a lot of guitar for the money.

If I were to pick one word that describes the Omen-6, it's "solid". When you pick up one of these and start noodling around, the guitar just feels good in every way. The tuners feel smooth and accurate, the neck finish feels right, the neck shape feels right, the frets feel right, the inlays look great, the electronics work great, the body (with binding, by the way) has a nice weight to it without being too heavy, the nut is a TUSQ, the knobs are real metal with set screws. Heck, even the strap buttons just seem to have a higher quality to them compared to most other guitars in a similar price range.

But what about the sound?

This is tough to describe, but I'll try to explain this.

The Omen-6 is a true player's guitar. With its 25.5-inch scale length "thin C" neck, flat 14-inch radius fingerboard with X-jumbo frets and Schecter Diamond Series pickups, this guitar is ready to rock. You can chord and/or solo on this thing all day long...

...but the issue is that the Omen-6, just like almost all low-priced guitars with two humbucker pickups in it, has a "flat" tonal character.

Imagine an EQ, then imagine all the EQ settings at dead center. That's flat, and that's how the Omen-6's pickups are voiced, more or less.

Now for rockers and metal guys and gals, that is absolutely the type of pickup tone they want because it works very nicely with many amps and effects. A guitar with flat-response pickups is something you can plug into just about anything and the guitar will sound good.

For players seeking something that has more tonal character to it however, that's where the Omen-6 falls short.

Take a guitar that is the same price as the Omen-6, the Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster Deluxe. That guitar is HH and also a "hardtail" just like the Omen-6, but is voiced very differently. It has when Fender and Squier call "Wide Range" humbucking pickups, and that pickup has distinctive tonal character to it.

You will spend more time trying to find amps and/or effects that the Telecaster Deluxe works with best, whereas the Omen-6 is a plug-in-and-go because it's voiced flat.

There are more than a few players out there who will say the Omen-6 is far and above the better guitar in many ways. But at the end of the day, it all depends what sounds right to your ears.

Who would get best use out of the Omen-6?

Kid rockers/kid metalheads like this guitar a lot because it basically needs nothing. Plug in, stomp a distortion pedal and go.

Adults looking for a thinner neck with bigger frets will very much like this guitar as well.

Recording this guitar using your effects or software of choice is also stupidly easy with this guitar because of the flat pickup voicing. If you just can't get a good recorded sound out of your guitar no matter what you've tried, the Omen-6 might be just what you're looking for to finally get that good multitrack recording.

There is something else to the Omen-6 that's never said but definitely worth a mention. Longevity. The Omen-6 has been in Schecter's lineup for a long time (either close to or over 10 years by this point.) Over the years, it has seen minor changes here and there, but the point is that it has always been a good seller for the company.

If players thought the Omen-6 sucked, nobody would buy it. But that's not the case here. Many players own this guitar and are very happy with it.

As I said at top, solid is the word that describes the Omen-6 best. Great guitar, as long as you're okay with the flat-voiced pickups, which, again, is the sound rock and metal guys appreciate quite a bit.

Fender Standard Jazzmaster HH Review

Not bad for what it is, but a little on the plain side.

So I'm at the guitar store and I see a Fender Standard Jazzmaster HH, black-on-black. I tried it out, and this is what I thought of it.

Hidden feature I did not know about until later: It has a push/pull to split the humbuckers to outer-coil single mode. I never even thought to look for this on a Jazzmaster because this style of guitar never has a push/pull. The Standard HH does.

What I can comment about is the humbucker tone. Good? Yes. Jazzmaster-like? Also a yes, but obviously doesn't have the voicing that the big Jazzmaster singles usually have - nor did I expect it to.

Pros

It's Mexico made (not a bad thing) and the same price as a Mexico Standard Stratocaster, meaning you don't pay too much for it. Very good.

The neck is the best part of this guitar. Smooth satin urethane finish on the back, right-size frets (medium jumbo), and a proper 21 frets because 22 on this guitar would be seriously dopey.

As far as Jazzmaster guitars go, this is the "most civilized" I've ever played. Anyone could pick up and play this axe easily. If the traditional Jazzmaster is too much for you, yes, you'd like this one.

Cons

The outer coil of each humbucker has a shiny covering that is chrome-like and not white that looks tacky and cheap. Fender should have just went with a cream or off-white cover for the outer coil, zebra pickup style. But they didn't. That was a mistake.

This is one of those Jazzmaster vibrato systems where the vibrato plate was moved forward. While the end result is far less string ring, I personally don't like it. This is part of what makes this Jazzmaster "more civilized," as mentioned above. But I consider it a con and not a pro.

My last complaint has everything to do with the styling of this guitar. It looks plain. Really plain. The headstock does not have the traditional Jazzmaster "swish trails", the sealed tuners while good and functional have far less pizazz compared to the vintage-style slotted style, and as I noted, the chrome-like outer coil covers just look tacky.

Verdict

Well-made, solid, sounds good, not overpriced... but has very little wow-factor to it because it looks so plain.

There is, however, a very easy way to spruce up the look of this Jazzmaster.

Get the one in a Ghost Silver finish. It doesn't cost any extra.

That particular finish has metal flake in it with some sparkle going on, making the shiny chrome-like outer coil covers work a whole lot better, appearance-wise. Of three 3 finish options (Black, Olympic White, Ghost Silver), if you like this guitar, specifically get the Ghost Silver finish. If I were getting this guitar for myself personally, that's the one I'd go for.

Vintage guitar of the week #12 - 1989 Gibson Les Paul Custom

Why bother with a Gibson reissue Randy Rhoads Les Paul when you could buy this instead for less?

This 1989 Gibson Les Paul Custom to many guitar players says one thing: "Looks like a Paul that Randy Rhoads would play." And you would be right.

This Paul is really, really close to the Gibson Randy Rhoads Les Paul Custom guitar. Technically, the Gibson Rhoads Paul is a 1974 VOS reissue model while the '89 model isn't, but that doesn't matter for much.

I'd still take the '89 model anyway and do so for two reasons:

1. The '89 literally costs $3,000 less than the new Gibson Rhoads Paul (I'm not kidding).
2. The '89 is usually found in very good condition and doesn't say "Randy Rhoads" on it anywhere since it's not a signature model. It's just a regular Gibson Les Paul Custom, usually in white.

To me, it's pretty obvious that the '89 LP Custom is a much better deal.

If you like the look of this Paul, grab it if you have the cash, because otherwise you'll have to spend $3,000 more for a new reissue of the same thing.

Does Epiphone make something similar?

Yes. Seek out an Epiphone Les Paul Custom in white. You'll get the look you want.