Dean Zelinsky guitars review
This is a reader requested review.
(If there is a particular guitar or other piece of music gear you would like me to review, email me.)
Marc writes:
Could you review Dean Zelinsky guitars?
To be completely honest I am not necessarily shopping for guitars, I am happy with what I have for the time, but I am still incredibly curious about one guitar specifically (LaVoce) and the pick up he is promoting the "sidekick".
Before getting this email, I had never heard of Dean Zelinsky guitars. The photo above is the Tagliare model.
I describe Dean Zelinsky models as mid to upper-mid tier guitars, pricewise. They don't appear to have any super-boutique models, or at least not yet.
The "SideKick" pickup Marc stated in his email is supposedly a major selling point of Dean Zelinsky guitars, as it is touted to be the "first pickup to achieve true single-coil and true humbucking tones - all in a single pickup". That's their words, not mine.
Here's my take on the SideKick:
It's a good idea. I definitely like how the SideKick keeps the volume consistent whether using one coil or two. That is a genuine innovation in pickup tech. I'm also very appreciative of the fact it's a passive system and not active, because I personally can't stand guitars with batteries in them.
My favorite part of the SideKick in the Tagliare however has nothing to do with the pickup but actually the positioning of it. I really like the fact that in the way it's positioned, the rear coil matches that of a Fender Stratocaster traditional SSS layout. This means that yes, the positioning is correct and you can achieve true Strat-like tones out of the Tagliare with SideKick equipped in it.
Does position of a pickup mean everything? To me it does. If that SideKick were positioned even 2mm further back or forward, it simply wouldn't sound right in single-coil mode. Fortunately, it is positioned correct in the Tagliare model.
As for the LaVoce model, that's a single cutaway shape (sort of like a Les Paul), and I'm of the opinion that the sound of humbucker-to-single split or a tapped humbucker does not work on that body shape. If you're going to have singles on a single cutaway shape, P90 is the only one that really works for that real-deal single-coil tone there.
Guitars are bad investment pieces
There are certain things that are worth investing money in; guitars aren't one of them.
Take a Fender like the Fender Kurt Cobain Jaguar. If you buy one of these for investment purposes, you're an idiot.
An example of something that would retain its value over time, provided it's properly cared for, is a Rolex Sea-Dweller wristwatch. You drop 9 or 10 grand on one of those, and it will retain its value plus gain value over time. In fact, it's almost a certainty it will because Rolexes are very, very good when acting as investment pieces. The same can be said for other certain wristwatch brands, but Rolex is an easy buy as long as you "keep it steel" (meaning not gold and not two-tone). Heck, even a Rolex Submariner will retain its value. If there is anything you want to dump money into as an investment that's not land, not a property and not a stock option, a wristwatch is actually pretty darned easy choice, provided you go Rolex.
Guitars are bad investment pieces. Really bad. Maybe not as bad as cars (if there were a top 5 "worst investments ever", cars would be in that list), but darned close.
Now to note: It is 100% okay to invest in yourself as player. If you drop 600 bucks on a Standard Strat and play the crap out of that thing, that is absolutely well and good because you're using the guitar for its intended purpose - TO PLAY IT.
But if you buy that guitar to have it do nothing but sit in a case and go unplayed, wow are you stupid. Why? Because there is absolutely no guarantee the guitar will gain value over time or even retain its existing value.
Take the bad investment option I mentioned above, cars. The reason cars are so stupid to invest in is because the depreciation value is so unbelievably high no matter which car you buy. Anyone in America knows that a brand new car with 0 miles on the clock loses 30% of its value the moment its driven off the lot. It doesn't matter if it's a Ford or a Ferrari. The moment you sign that dotted line and drive off the lot, whammo, that car just lost 30%.
Using that same scenario with new guitars, you lose 15% to 20% of its value after 30 days. This means for a brand new American Standard Strat, you lose between $195 to $260 the second the 30-day money back guarantee expires.
Will you ever make your money back? NO! That guitar, should you decide to sell it even just 3 months later, will be sold at a loss and there's not a thing you can do about it. It doesn't matter if it went unplayed, still has all its original stickers and doesn't have a scratch on it, you will lose.
And God help you if you dropped a few thousand on a more expensive guitar. The more you spend, the more you lose.
"How come I see other guitar players touting cheap axes as 'gem' or 'sleeper' guitar investments that I know are garbage from personal experience?"
GREAT QUESTION, and I'll give you a great answer:
To artificially inflate the value so it sells for more later.
I have seen several guitar players on YouTube - crappy ones, mind you - that purposely buy guitars that have no videos about them on the internet. These guys buy cheap guitars knowing they're junk, then record videos saying how great they are so they're #1 in a search result for that crappy axe. What that does is generate interest and, with any luck, inflates the value through good ol' hype. After a little while, they sell that junk guitar for a nice tidy profit.
Guys who do this are after one thing - your money. They're in the business of what's called "flipping" guitars. Buy cheap, hype up the axe, then sell for as high as possible. Happens all the time.
Are there any good investment opportunities with guitars?
There's only one way, and everyone has already beaten you to it:
Parts.
Guitar parts always sell better and faster than fully assembled instruments. An original set of vintage Fender Strat pickups, or knobs, or bridges, or string saddles or necks or whatever is actually much easier to sell than the actual guitar.
Guitar parts guys have been doing this on eBay for years, and in fact it's so profitable that several buy brand new guitars and purposely disassemble them just to "part them out". And oh yeah, they make money - EVEN WITH SQUIER PARTS! It's true.
But as I said above, everyone has beaten you to the punch. Don't get into the guitar parts business because there's a mountain of competition out there, and you will lose.
You want to invest in a thing that will pay you back later? Get a steel Rolex
Just pick a steel model you like. I mentioned the Sea-Dweller and Submariner above. Other models I'd recommend are the DateJust, Explorer, GMT and Daytona. Any one of those will pay you back over time.
Yes, a Rolex will cost you anywhere from $4,000 to even as high as $50,000 or greater, but it does retain and gain value. You can also choose to buy new or used with Rolex. Compared to guitars, it is okay to invest in a used Rolex piece in good condition. True, you have to look for things like over-polishing, re-dials (always avoid re-dials) and so on, but the point is you can get a good piece for a decent price and be comfortable with the purchase, provided it comes with the original box and papers.
Oh, and another thing. Obviously, a Rolex is far easier to store and care for compared to a guitar. Keep it in a safe at home or in a safety deposit box at the bank. If you keep it at home, you may want to get a watch winder so the gears stay moving and don't freeze up.
As for guitar investment pieces, there are none. Oh sure, there are expensive new and vintage guitars out there, to be sure, but they are ALL horrible investment pieces.
Buy a guitar for just one person. You. Don't buy it to keep in a case or hang on a wall just to sell it later. Buy it to play it, scratch it up, beat on it and make beautiful noise with the thing. Investing in a guitar to sell later is just plain stupid; you will lose your shirt.
I don't care if you spend $100 or $10,000 on a guitar as long as you never buy it as an investment piece. Buy it for the love of creating music.
You want an investment piece? Buy a Rolex. You want to make music? Buy a guitar.
Casio AE1200 mod hack thing to remove ladder bars
This hack/mod makes the Casio AE1200 watch much easier to get along with.
Yeah, another watch article. But you'll like this one, trust me.
I own a pair of Casio AE1200 watches. One which is all scratched up and definitely used, and the other sitting neatly in its box that has never been used.
A joke name for this watch is the "Casio Royale", named after the James Bond film Casino Royale. I don't know exactly why fans of this watch named it that, but they did.
Whether you get the watch with a steel bracelet, resin strap or nylon strap such as mine is, they all have the same face.
At the middle-to-upper right side of the face are those two stupid thin ladder bars that cast large shadows on the LCD. What a stupid design decision it was to do that. You would not believe how much these things get in the way when trying to read the date or the function indicators at top right.
Thankfully, the AE1200 is easy to take apart. Four little screws, take off the back plate, a little squeeze on the inner mechanism and the whole thing just pops right out.
I've got to hand it to Casio here, the AE1200 was designed well, as this thing is stupidly easy to take apart and service if necessary. It also allows for really easy modding.
All it takes to remove the bars is just to put the front plate face-down, then cut the bars with an Xacto knife.
After that, just put it back together and ta-da, done.
I said at the beginning that this makes the watch much easier to get along with, and I meant that. Without those stupid ladder bars, I can now see the weekday/month/day and top indicators much easier since they're small to begin with.
I've seen other mods of this watch where the "WORLD TIME" and "ILLUMINATOR" outer case text is removed, and some will even go so far as to remove "5 ALARMS" and "10 YEAR BATTERY" from the inner face as well using Goo Gone cleaner and some good ol' scraping. Will I remove that text? Maybe. I'll have to give it some thought.
Something that surprises me is how much more expensive the watch looks with those bars gone. It almost looks like an older ritzy Seiko digital.
As you can probably tell, I'm really happy with this mod. Very simple, very easy, took under 10 minutes to do, improves the readability of the face, looks great. It pretty much doesn't get any better than that.
Cheap guitar of the week #43 - ESP LTD M-50FR
LTD continues to hit home runs with cool, new guitars that are cheap, and this is one of them.
The ESP LTD M-50FR is a guitar you may have to hunt around a little to find, but once you do, you'll see it in its glorious neon green or neon orange color. This is a cool axe because it's a cheap rocker/metal/shredder axe that actually looks good.
I applaud LTD for having the balls to release this guitar in neon colors, and do it for a low price. In a sea of guitars all with muted "safe" colors, it's nice to see the super-bright stuff to change things up a bit.
Specs
Basswood body. Bolt-on 25.5-inch maple neck with "Extra Thin Flat" contour, rosewood fingerboard, 24 extra jumbo frets, 350mm (13.78-inch) fingerboard radius, 42mm (1.65-inch) nut width.
Tuners are standard LTD, bridge is "LTD by Floyd Rose". Neck pickup is "ESP Designed LH-150N" and bridge pickup is "ESP Designed LH-150B". Passive electronics all around. Switchgear is volume, tone and a 3-way blade selector. Nice and easy.
The good
It's cheap, easy-to-use, looks awesome and has a very fast-playing neck.
The bad
Basswood body that while light will dent easy.
The FR system will probably break in 2 to 3 years. But then again, for the price you really can't complain.
Pickups are spaced very close together, possibly making neck pickup useless since it has been shoved back because of the 24-fret neck.
Verdict
This is a great "beater" guitar. Looks cool, the electronics are simple, the layout is easy to get along with and the guitar was made to play and beat the crap out of.
Don't buy this guitar only to sell it later. Buy it to play the thing, play it loud and play it often.
Epiphone Les Paul Standard PlusTop Pro Review
This is a reader requested review.
Fredrico writes:
Can you please review the Epiphone Les Paul Standard Pro (Plus Top)? I would love to know your opinion about that guitar :)
The Epiphone Les Paul Standard PlusTop Pro is a guitar I give the award for unnecessarily and stupidly long model name, as it is SEVEN WORDS LONG. Not even Squier was dumb enough to do that, although they got real close with six words, Squier Black and Chrome Stratocaster HSS.
I also give Epiphone the award for stupidly made-up word in a model name, "PlusTop". Yes, that is how Epiphone spells it and not as the two separate words "plus" and "top" like it should be.
What does PLUS mean in an Epiphone model?
"Better" wood. Usually a fancy looking veneer for the body top.
What does PRO mean in an Epiphone model?
"Better" electronics. Usually the addition of coil-splitting for Telecaster-like tones on a guitar that features two humbuckers.
How can this be a STANDARD when it's both PLUS and PRO?
Answer: Epiphone logic. This is a Standard yet not a Standard because of the extra stuff in it but called a Standard anyway.
Yes, this means the model name of the guitar directly contradicts itself.
Epiphone, has anyone ever said that you really suck with model names? If not, let me be the first. YOU SUCK WITH MODEL NAMES.
Is this guitar good?
Yes, however, this is really, really close to the price of a Mexico-made Fender Standard Stratocaster, and that's... not good. You're paying a lot of cash here for a Les Paul copy. Yes, it is Epiphone, and Epiphone is fully licensed to copy Gibson Les Paul design by Gibson themselves, but at the end of the day, this is still a copy of a Les Paul.
But is it a good guitar?
Yes. It does have the SlimTaper "fast" neck. It does have the upscale pearloid trapezoid inlays on the fingerboard. The pickups are ProBuckers (Epiphone branded, not Gibson.) The tuners are premium Grovers.
As far as how it looks, yes it hits all the right marks.
As far as how it sounds, yes it also hits all the right marks.
But that price... just sucks. And bear in mind the price doesn't even include a case or a gig bag. Yeah.
If the price of this guitar was in the high $400s, I'd say go for it. But at the price it sells for, sorry, no. I can't recommend buying this.
You simply get way more for the money with an Epiphone G-400 PRO. True, it's an SG and not a Les Paul, but it is priced correct for what it is.
(Would you like to request a review? Email me.)