Powder Yellow is a cool Reverend guitar color
This is one of the best Reverend Guitars colors I've seen to date.
Take the Reverend Flatroc model in Powder Yellow. If there were any Reverend Guitars model I'd buy if I had the cash, this would be it. The look is what sold me on it first. Yellow against a roasted maple neck really works here. Smartly done.
But aside from that, the rest of the guitar also pretty much exactly the way I'd want it.
The Flatroc has many things going for it (Korina body, pin-lock tuners, proper dome knobs, dual-action truss rod, etc.), but what attracts me other than its look is the configuration. It has a Les Paul style top-loader system with bridge and tail piece and Telecaster style knobs and pickup selector switch.
You're probably thinking, "So what's that knob above the pick guard?" That's the bass contour control. Most if not all Reverend electrics have this feature. It's a passive bass roll-off that adds in some very nice tone shaping. Useful? Actually, yes, it is.
One of these days I'm going to get another yellow guitar in the barn, because I really miss having one. I've got a thing for yellow electrics and always have. The Flatroc, being it's offered in a very nice yellow, is now on my to-get list.
Used BOSS pedals aren't worth buying
I saw my fair share of used guitar pedals at the show I went to recently. The prices weren't good for them. And they never are.
Something I saw at the guitar festival in addition to guitars were of course pedals. This one particular seller had a whole table with a bunch of BOSS effects on it.
They were all overpriced.
The two examples where you save next to nothing buying used are the SD-1 for $40 and the DS-1 for $45. Brand new, the SD-1 at the time I write this is $50, and the DS-1 new is also $50. Had I bought those two pedals from this seller, I only would have saved $15.
I can't blame this particular seller for overpricing used BOSS pedals however, because all sellers that sell used BOSS do this.
For example, a truly good used price on a DS-1 should be $35. But that's not what happens. Every seller tries to get rid of these for more when they're simply not worth it.
Prices aren't that much better on eBay. If you search for a used DS-1 with free shipping, the best price available is $40. Again, it should be $35. For the ones without free shipping, guess what happens. The shipping cost punches up the price to, you guessed it, 40 bucks minimum total spent.
If you're going to buy BOSS, buy new, because you barely save anything buying used.
Heritage Guitars is a cool guitar company
This is a guitar company you already know, even if you didn't know it.
A guitar company I've known about for a while is Heritage Guitars. And the entire reason I know about them is because of their location. Kalamazoo, Michigan. It's not that I've ever been to Kalamazoo. It's that they build guitars in the exact same place Gibson used to.
Here's the very quick story of Heritage: Gibson originally used the factory up until 1984 and then moved to another state. Some of the employees obviously didn't want to leave Michigan, so they pooled resources together, bought the old Gibson factory, and that's how Heritage Guitars came into existence. They've been building guitars ever since...
...and they're damned good instruments. A lot of what they make uses old world style guitar building, and it's done right.
When I went to NAMM 2015, Heritage wasn't there. If they had been, I would have most certainly gone to their booth.
They were however at the guitar festival I just went to recently, and I finally got to play an H150 model for the first time.
It was as good as I hoped it would be, and more.
The guitar I really wanted to see was the H150 in a finish called Dirty Lemon Burst. This is a finish that is as far as I know exclusive to Heritage. Only they make it, and there's less than 100 of them in existence. Yes, it was there. And it was a treat to play it.
The model in the Dirty Lemon Burst finish is available at the moment for $2,499. But before I discuss price in greater detail, I have to talk about that finish more.
There is absolutely no photo anywhere online that accurately shows how much this finish really pops. Professional photos of it obviously exist on the Heritage web site, but even that still doesn't show how crazy-good the color is. It is absolutely a custom shop style finish that goes far above and beyond the price the guitar sells for.
As far as how it sounds, it has the exact set of humbuckers I would otherwise put into it myself, the Seymour Duncan '59 set. I just talked about these recently. These things are voiced to sound like vintage PAFs. Perfectly suited for classic rock tones. The H150 is thankfully not a shredder guitar with super-hot output pickups.
Concerning weight, it has some heft but isn't boat anchor heavy. The first thing I said out loud when I picked it up is that it didn't have the weight of a Les Paul Traditional - which is a good thing. LP Traditionals usually weigh at least 9.5lbs. The H150 weighs less, thankfully. I actually got along with it quite nicely.
The neck felt fantastic, and the rosewood fingerboard was one of the nicest cuts I've ever seen. I actually thought it was ebony at first because the cut was so nice.
Standing next to me in the photo above is master builder Pete Farmer. He chatted with me a little bit as well as anyone else that wanted to ask him about what he and the other guys at Heritage are making. And being one of the builders, he will of course build whatever you want as a custom order if you like.
Is the H150 worth the $2,499? Actually, it's worth more than that. For those who have been following me a while, yeah I know it's weird to hear me say that as I champion cheap guitars. But this is different. Heritage is not some new company that sprouted up and started making copies of something else. They've been around for almost 25 years, know what they're doing, and the H150 is a continuation of a classic.
Heritage makes their single cut electric like Gibson used to make theirs, but with just enough modernization to keep it both classic and modern at the same time. That's no small feat. It has every single upgrade most Les Paul players would put into their guitars in the first place, matched with build quality that is second to none.
I think the best compliment I can give the H150 is that it just felt so solid. It's not some dainty thing. The guitar was made to be played.
The H150 one of the very few guitars in the 4-figure range where I can absolutely say yes, you really do get what you pay for here. More so, actually.
I was glad I finally got the chance to play one.
The proper direction for a Les Paul bridge
The main reason anyone flips around the orientation of a Les Paul bridge is for extra intonation adjustment. But is that the correct thing to do? Let's find out.
On Les Paul guitars that have the standard bridge and tailpiece (meaning not a wraparound bridge), there are two main types of bridge used. ABR-1 and Nashville.
Traditionally, ABR-1 has the intonation screws facing front towards the neck, and Nashville bridges have screws facing the tailpiece.
But let's say for the moment you wanted to flip the bridge around the other way. This is typically done with ABR-1 bridges because then you get some extra screw length to work with for intonation.
Is it OK to do this?
Whether you can safely do this or not basically depends on one factor. String saddle notches.
If your Les Paul bridge has string saddle notches that are sized on a per-string level, then no, you cannot flip the bridge around. If you do, the wound strings won't seat properly in the saddles and instead sit on top of them. The end result of this is possible buzzing noises and early string breakage.
If however your string saddles have notches that are all the same size, then yes, you can flip it around and you're good to go after setting intonation again.
Is there any tonal advantage to flipping the bridge around?
No. Flipping around the bridge isn't the same as top wrapping at the tailpiece (which I will probably talk about in another article later) that would affect how the guitar sounds.
Said again, the reason you do the flip is for extra intonation adjustment.
And yes, this means if your Les Paul is intonated fine the way it is, then you have no reason to flip around the bridge.
The annoyance of having the screws facing the tailpiece
A new annoyance that happens when you flip the bridge around is that it's more difficult to get at the intonation screws when they're facing the tailpiece...
...but this is only a minor inconvenience, because once your intonation is set, the saddles stay put. Unless you bounce around with string gauges (which most players don't), once you're done with intonation, you shouldn't have to do it again for a long time.
Gibson and Epiphone differences
Gibson Les Paul Standard 2019 model uses a Nashville bridge; the intonation screws face the tailpiece.
Gibson Les Paul Traditional 2019 model uses an ABR-1 style bridge; the intonation screws face the neck.
Epiphone Les Paul guitars for both the Standard and Traditional models use an ABR-1 style bridge with intonation screws facing the neck.
In fact, I am fairly certain all Epiphone Les Paul guitars with the bridge + tailpiece setup have ABR-1 style bridges on them, again with intonation screws facing the neck. When I scanned over all the LP models that Epiphone currently offers, I didn't see any with a Nashville style bridge on them.
Alesis Fusion book update, Casio CTK-7200 stuff
This is as niche as it gets (more or less), but there are still some out there who care about this synth.
Way back in 2007, I wrote a book called Alesis Fusion PowerStart Guide and published it. Then in 2016 I started publishing books to Amazon. What I should have done in '16 is moved the Alesis book over to Amazon but didn't for basically one reason. Big pain in the back side to convert the book to a format Amazon "likes".
Since there is still a small (but dedicated) following of the Fusion synth still to this day, I manually went through the entire book once again, reformatted the whole thing, and now it's finally on Amazon. If you're a fan of the Fusion synth and want the book, here's the links:
- Alesis Fusion PowerStart Guide - eBook Kindle version
- Alesis Fusion PowerStart Guide - print version
The eBook is actually the big deal here. Yes, there was an "ePub" version on Lulu, but with the Amazon Kindle version is it now much easier for people to download it to their phones or tablets.
I did modify the book slightly.
The cover is new.
I made an introduction that said hey, this info is old but still historically valuable, so there will be some outdated-but-usable info in here. An example is any time I mention how to do things with Microsoft Windows XP, which was the most current Windows OS of the time. Windows 7 wasn't even released yet, never mind Windows 8, 8.1 or 10.
I also included a small chapter at the end with updated web links to get things like the Fusion Convertor software, Hollow Sun Sound packs and so on.
Without question, the Fusion book is the most advanced guide I've ever written. As I was going through that book, I was actually amazed at just how much stuff I gave instruction on how to do.
Fusion gone, replaced with Casio
I don't have the Fusion workstation anymore. These days I'm playing a Casio CTK-7200.
Will I be writing a book on that synth? Maybe.
The 7200 isn't a current model anymore. But technically, the CTK-7200 is functionally identical to the WK-7600 (they share the same manual). The only real difference is that the 7600 has more keys and more importantly still is a current model.
I definitely could write a book on it, to be sure. There's a lot to the 7200/7600 that isn't covered anywhere on the internet that would be genuinely useful in a guide.
If I have any updates on that, I'll be sure to post them here.
But for now, yes, the Fusion books have finally been republished in proper formats to Amazon.