Quick Review: Fender Modern Player Jaguar
I went to Guitar Center Tampa to pick up some strings and picks, and while there scanned the guitars for the refreshed 2013 Squier Affinity Stratocaster series (new headstock logos and new colors). They didn't have any, but there was a "2 Color Chocolate Sunburst" Fender Modern Player Jaguar, which comes with Fender's version of the P90, the MP90.
Being that I'm into single-coil pickups, I tried it out.
The strings weren't stretched at all, so I spent a few minutes doing that.
After I was done stretching, I plugged into a little Bugera amp and started noodling around on the MP Jag.
Surprisingly, I really liked the way this guitar played. Yeah, it has a gloss-polyurethane neck coating with tint, but play-wise it was really easy to get used to this thing. It definitely "felt like a Fender".
Also, the body on this particular Jag is insanely comfortable. The shape just molds right to your body because there's not a single sharp edge to be found anywhere. The Jag body is even more smoothed out than a Strat body is (which is already smoothed out to begin with). Very easy to get used to sitting or standing. And the weight of it is just right too.
The "Chocolate" sunburst looks far better in person than on the internet. Every internet photo I've seen of the MP Jag in this color makes the guitar look like it's unfinished (as in "not completed"), but when you see it in person, oh yes, it's totally finished and a very nice looker; it could easily pass as an expensive-looking Fender.
Speaking of price, that's my first of three knocks against this guitar.
The only reason this guitar has a $399 price tag is because there's a Fender logo on the headstock. This is a China-made Fender, remember. If the only thing changed were the headstock logo from Fender to Squier, this guitar would be priced at $275, which in all honesty is what it's really worth. Even if it were priced a little higher at $325, that would also be acceptable. But $399? Nope, too much.
My second knock against this guitar is the "Gibson-like" setup. It's basically set up just like a Les Paul except it doesn't have 4 control knobs. Three-way toggle on the top horn, master volume and treble below the pickups, bridge + tailpiece just like a Gibson (which Fender calls an "Adjusto-Matic"). This guitar would be so much better off with the 3-way on the bottom horn instead of the top, because on top it just feels weird being there. Also, the control knobs just feel all wrong (black "top hat" knobs or textured metal knobs should have been used).
My third knock are the MP90 pickups. What a P90 is supposed to do is "growl" while at the same time have some "honk" to them. I know that sounds weird, but if you've played enough guitars with P90s in them, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
The MP90s do growl, but they don't honk at all. Now it could very well be that the little Bugera is what was causing the MP90s not to honk like a P90 is supposed to, but I doubt that. The honk of a P90 (usually heard best when using the middle bridge+neck pickup selection) can usually be easily heard no matter what amp you're using. But on the MP Jag all you've got is growl, which would be fine for some, but not for me because the tone just doesn't have a character I go for.
Final verdict: If the knobs were replaced with the kind with proper texture to them and the pickups replaced with P90s that have some honk as well as growl to them, this guitar would be a winner. The price is a bit steep for an Asian build, but it's a solid guitar all around that only needs very little to sound as great as it plays.
xanga's impending doom, yet another web 1.0 internetting casualty
Xanga.com originally launched in 1998. Yep, it's that old. And in July 2013 it will probably shut down. Either that or it will "pull a Friendster" where it will be rebranded/retooled into something else and totally lose the flavor or what it originally was...
...and so goes yet another early-internet site.
Xanga is a blogging site, and people do like to write stuff on the internet whether it's short-form like Twitter, semi-short form like Facebook or long-form like Blogger or WordPress. Whatever it is, people do like to express their thoughts online in their 'personal space' in one way or another.
The problem with personal space web sites is that they all ultimately fail due to herd mentality. GeoCities was at one time 'a thing', as in trendy, as in The Thing To Do On The Internet, and then the herd got bored with it and moved on. LiveJournal was 'a thing', and the herd moved on from that. Friendster was also 'a thing', MySpace was 'a thing', etc.
Xanga was also, of course, 'a thing' at one point in time with a monster amount of active users. But that time has since long passed and the herd has moved on.
Right now 'the things' are Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. And every single one of them will at some point fade into obscurity and the herd will move on just like it always does.
The really crappy part about sites that die off (or change enough to where anything left of the original is gone) is that any content you posted there usually goes away forever. Yeah, the site will probably send out a broadcast email that says, "Hey, on [date here] we're shutting down go grab your stuff off our site before that happens!", but the thing is that for really old web accounts, the original user probably signed up with an email address he doesn't even use anymore and just forgot to update to the current email address used, so the notification is never received. Then the end date passes, the content gets whacked, and... yeah. Totally screwed.
What a lot of site owners have found out - myself included - is to always host everything yourself whenever possible. I basically host everything but video because video files are too huge and consume too much bandwidth, but as for text, images and audio, yep I have all that here. Sure, I share it out to other sites (like the way I share out Radio Free Menga to iTunes), but the point is that there's always a copy here just in case the places where I share stuff out to goes down.
I used to tell people to get a free blog, but I don't do that anymore. What I tell people to do now is to register a dot-com/net/org/whatever instead, pay the yearly registration fee and pay for web hosting. Hosting for most companies get either be paid by month or by year. Better to pay by year if you've got the cash because it's cheaper that way, and starts at between $75 to $100 for a full year of hosting depending on what you use for a web host.
Yeah, hosting your own domain is a totally computery, totally nerdy thing; it's not easy and not free either. But at least you know what you put there stays there and doesn't vanish like a fart in the wind because the site you were using just up and dies due to herd mentality.
This is, incidentally, why sites like DreamHost (a web host provider, and you can also register your dot-com/net/org/whatever there too for true one-stop-shop domain'ing) have been in business since 1996. The only way I know of for a web host provider to up and die is due to massive fiscal bungling since every account is a paid account. But that's so rare it's not even funny. Registrar/Host providers like DH have way, way, way more staying power compared to any free blog service because they're actually making money on every account. Yeah, you pay, but your stuff stays and won't vanish just because a particular free web service ceases to be trendy for whenever that happens. That alone makes it worth paying for.
Epiphone Les Paul Special I P90 proves what's really collectible and what isn't
In my experience, there are a few hard truths when it comes to collectible guitars.
Any guitar promoted as a collectible from the start really isn't a collectible. An example of this are any of those high-end Fender Custom Shop "Heavy Relic" guitars.
Electrics that are sold as being collectible from the moment they first appear on the market are already overpriced from the beginning.
First of all, unless a kid was born with a silver spoon up his ass, there's no chance whatsoever that a kid would receive one of those Fender Custom Shop guitars as his first guitar. Not happening.
Second, custom shop guitars like I mentioned above have zero player's value as they're nothing but furniture.
Third, and most important, there's absolutely nothing magical about those multi-thousand dollar guitars.
"Guitars can be magical?"
Yes. Certain guitars are magical in the respect that they bring back fond memories of days gone by...
...but only the ones that people could actually afford back when they were new.
Ultimately, it is the cheap guitars that end up being magical years later and not the expensive kind.
"The one you remember" is usually the most difficult to find
Take the Epiphone Les Paul Special I P90. I own one of these, bought new for $89.
I did a search for this guitar just just to see if it was still available, and yeah, it is, but not the TV Yellow version. That guitar in that color is absolutely 100% gone. The yellow version didn't even last 7 months on the market. Very short run.
Maybe Epiphone will re-release the guitar in that specific configuration in that specific color again at some point in the future, but probably not for a while. I may be mistaken and they may release it again next year, but the point is that the 2012 models are now literally extinct.
Now of course you know there were a whole bunch of people who happened to be in Guitar Center when the guitar was there and they bought one, and it was probably a parent who bought one for their kid as their first guitar. That kid will play the guitar for a while, probably beat it up, not take care of it and eventually sell it. Years later, that kid will become an adult and kick themselves for originally selling that guitar and go out on eBay and try to find another one exactly like his first. Same year, same color, same configuration, same everything. At that point, whoever has one can command a high price for it because people are willing to pay big money for rare guitars - especially if it was a guitar the buyer used to own as a kid.
I'm not saying the '12 Epi Les Paul Special P90 is some masterfully-built guitar or anything like that. But I knew from the moment I saw the listing for it that it would sell real quick. And it sold out fast.
You know in 10 years that the kids who play these guitars today and eventually get rid of them will seek them out again when they become adults. Why? Because they're going to be looking for the stuff that recaptures their childhood; that's where the magic is, and that's why the cheap guitars are the true collectibles.
Remember, Fender Strat used to be "the cheap guitar".
Have you renounced your metal citizenship yet?
Metal music is cool and all that, but one thing that has always ticked me off about the metal community is how snobby many are. Anyone who's into metal music knows what I'm talking about. Metalheads just love their classifications where something is "totally metal" or "somewhat metal" or "not metal enough" or whatever. Very annoying.
I listen to a ton of different stuff for three reasons. First, I enjoy it. Second, I don't like being pigeonholed into liking just one thing and only that one thing. Third, it makes me better as a guitar player.
For example, I like the song The 2,000 Pound Bee by The Ventures. A lot. That song (or songs, rather, as there is a part 1 and 2) was the first commercial release that featured the fuzz effect on the guitar. And it's awesome. I also like Six Days on the Road by David Dudley. Total country trucker's song. And it's cool. I also dig the "Outlaw Country" sound like Christine's Tune by The Flying Burrito Brothers, and I'll even listen to Love's Theme by Barry White every now and then, because it's a great song.
And yes, I will mix this in to listening to metal songs.
There was a time in my life when I listened to nothing but metal. Metal, metal, metal all day long. After a while that gets really boring real quick. And I'll tell you exactly why it gets boring.
If all you do is listen to metal, metal, metal, what happens is that it all starts to sound the same. Every riff, every chug, every "face-melter" scream, every fast drum track, every solo... all of it. Totally boring if that's all you listen to.
And yes, the exact same thing can happen to any other style of music that exists. However, metalheads make it a point for whatever stupid reason to only listen to metal and absolutely nothing else. That's stupid. And what's even more stupid is that if you dare go outside of the only-metal rule, you're actually made fun of for it, as if you "betrayed the community". Whatever.
From the guitar player's perspective, nothing will put you in a rut faster than only listening to just one kind of music exclusively. There will be days you'll pick up your guitar and just not be able to come up with a single new idea, and you will get bored and put the guitar down. It will happen...
...unless you're willing to listen to other stuff. And I don't mean other styles of metal music. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about actually listening to totally different genres like jazz, country, disco, orchestral, big band, swing, rockabilly and so on.
A whole new world of inspiration is opened up when you ditch the metal-only "rule".
In addition, also from a guitar player's point of view, a whole new world of guitars are opened up by ditching the metal-only rule.
For example, if you dared showed up to metal band practice with a Squier Mustang, you would instantly be made fun of for showing up with that because it "doesn't look metal enough". Because the guitar doesn't have a "badass" look to it, well then, it just "sucks" then, right? Wrong. You play what you want because you're the one spending the cash to buy the guitar.
I stopped being a metal-only guy years ago, and to be honest I wish I had done it a lot sooner.
Like I said, metal is cool and all that, and I do listen to metal music from time to time, but it is absolutely NOT the only thing I will listen to, nor do I base my guitar buying decisions off of it either. And neither should you.
On a final note, here's why you should renounce your metal citizenship:
Think of your favorite food. Now think if that's the only thing you were ever allowed to eat. How long would it take before you got sick of eating the same thing? Not long at all. It doesn't matter how you prepare the food, what temperature it is when you eat it or how it looks when served to you because it's the same thing over and over. Day in and day out, same thing. Totally boring.
As the old saying goes, variety is the spice of life. Well, you can't have any variety if you're always listening and playing the same stuff now, can you? Of course not.
"Metal 'til I die" is a joke, because those who sincerely believe that are already dead inside. Try other styles for a change; it's not a sin to do so.
Cheap guitar report for May 2013
Something I didn't even realize until just recently is after all this time, I own the two most popular guitar shapes in existence, that being the Stratocaster and the Les Paul shapes. That doesn't mean anything, but it feels kinda cool.
So anyway, here's how my 'yellow brigade' guitars have fared out.
Problems, if any
I have owned the Squier Bullet Strat for a total of 849 days (2 years, 3 months, 4 weeks, 1 day), and the Epipihone Les Paul Special I P90 for a total of 166 days (5 months, 2 weeks, 1 day).
The only problem the Squier had was that one of the 12-fret fret markers sunk into the neck in the first month I owned it, replaced under Fender warranty. No problems since.
The Epiphone hasn't had any problems at all.
Setup and re-setup
The Strat's advantage over the Epi Les Paul is that it's a true "set it and forget it" guitar. Once you have the neck adjusted and the saddles set up, the only time you'll have to set up the guitar again is if you change string gauge (such as from 9-gauge to 10) or if the guitar was subjected to some significant climate change, like being stored in a cold basement or something like that. I've only had to make minor saddle adjustments, and only because I switched from D'Addario to Dunlop strings, which have a different string tension that required minor saddle height adjustment.
The most annoying thing about the Les Paul is the wraparound bridge on the specific model I have. The annoyance is that when you take off the bridge when doing a string change, the height adjustment screws are totally exposed and turn way too easily when doing a cleaning.
I'll explain that a little more in detail.
Okay, so you've got your Les Paul with the wraparound bridge, go to do a string change and take off the bridge like you're supposed to. Fine. Then you take a dry cloth and do a body wipe-down just to keep the guitar clean before putting the new strings on, wipe where the screws are and whoops, you just turned one of the adjustment screws two full revolutions. Yeah, it's that easy to turn them, because when the bridge is off, they're loose. Not loose in a bad way, but without the wraparound bridge there for tension, yeah, they can be spun around pretty easily.
The fix for keeping the screws from spinning while cleaning around them is just to put your finger on top of the screw and hold it there while you wipe with a cloth around it with your other hand. Easy enough.
As for why the screws are so loose when the bridge is off, it's mainly because of the wraparound bridge design. Traditional Les Pauls with the bridge + tailpiece have height adjustment screws that have notably more tension to them even when the bridge is off. Or at least they should.
Tuning stability
As for which guitar stretches out strings and tunes up quicker, that would be the Squier Strat, no question. A "decked" bridge combined with a stiff maple neck with 25.5-inch scale makes for quick tuning. The Paul on the other hand is a 24.75-inch scale, and since I'm using 9-gauge on it, that in combination with the mahogany neck means it's one of those "guitar has to sit overnight to get stabilized tension" guitars...
...which brings up a point that I haven't mentioned before. There are some who say that in order for a guitar to have strings stretch out properly, it has to sit overnight, while others say that's not necessary. In my experience, if the guitar is a 25.5-inch scale with a maple neck (i.e. Stratocaster or Telecaster), strings can be stretched out and keep tune proper in just minutes. However, if the guitar is shorter than that, like a Jaguar 24-inch or a Les Paul 24.75 inch, and/or the neck is mahogany and not maple, yeah it needs to sit overnight before strings hold tune properly.
Will this work for you? That I can't say, because it depends on your playing style and what strings you use. I ordinarily use hard picks and play hard, so I bang up strings pretty good.
Breaking-in-period
It took about 6 months for the Strat to break in properly, and for the Paul it took about 4 months before it "felt like mine".
Ordinarily, it takes me a bare minimum 90 days for any guitar to "feel right" for me. As I've said before, I have never picked up a guitar (no matter the price) that felt perfect on the first try. Will that ever happen? Maybe, but I doubt it.
A guitar isn't "mine" until I've really put her through her paces, so to speak. My finger oils have to be worked into the neck, I have to get used to her character and it's absolutely not an overnight thing.
I take a risk every time I buy a guitar, and the risk is that after time, I may hate it and want to get rid of the thing for something else. I've done that several times with other guitars I've owned, but both the Squier and Paul are definitely staying in the stable. Both of them are worn in proper, and both look better than when I originally bought them just because they're now banged up a bit.
On the Squier, yes the color has changed. The Arctic White (which I call banana yellow) body now "looks more like a Fender" because it doesn't have that shiny-new "plasticy" look to it anymore. The pick guard is also slightly darker.
On the Paul, not enough time has passed for its color to change, but I'm certain at one point the body will develop a spot either from my forearm or pinky finger where I anchor when playing certain stuff - and that's fine because it's an "earned" spot.
Conclusion...
Both guitars are great players, broke in properly to the point where I don't feel I'm 'fighting' with either of them, and I'm sure they'll continue to provide a lot of playing goodness for a very long time.