Cheap guitar of the week #34 - Ibanez RG421
This is a traditional, no-nonsense electric.
I've seen a lot of Ibanez RG series guitars over the years. The RG421 is one I recommend.
The reason I've seen so many RGs is because there are so many variants of the RG model line. The RG655 for example sells for over a grand. The RG6005 is a mid-priced model. And if you do a generic search for Ibanez RG, you'll see prices all over the place. Ibanez does things weird. But then again, so does Fender with their million-different-Strats crapola as well, so... I suppose much studying of the model line is required.
RG421 is the lower priced model. Simple, easy, classic design, stays in tune because of the straight line from nut-to-tuning-post and because no vibrato system is present. It has a 24-fret neck, which I don't like, but many other players do like.
What's it sound like?
The RG421 is one of those "just works" guitars with a tone that's predictable. And by that I mean the guitar will work with just about any pedal and/or any amp you plug it into.
What you will get is something that's arguably the guitar's biggest selling point, reliability. From my experience, most Ibanez RG guitars don't have "off days". You can trust that the guitar will play and sound the same, day in and day out, practice after practice, gig after gig. It's like I said, this is a "just works" guitar. Plug in, tune up, go and don't worry about it.
If you go searching for sound demos of the RG421, you'll notice many owners of this guitar perform pickup "upgrades". And I suppose the fact this RG takes pickup replacement so easily is its second biggest selling point. Not only can the guitar be bought for cheap, but also have its electronics changed around for cheap as well.
Who is this guitar best for?
This guitar is best for players who like a guitar with a thin, 24-fret neck that's easy to mod and has an understated look to it.
The neck on this RG is the "Wizard III", so yes, it does have the Wizard neck even at the low price it sells for. It could even arguably be said that the neck is the guitar's second best selling point.
Don't expect this RG421 to be a tone monster if you buy one (you may need to swap out pickups with something that has more "flavor" to it). But do expect it to be a great player guitar, because it should be.
Vintage guitar of the week #17 - 1979 Music Man Sabre II
The Music Man Sabre II is, for all intents and purposes, a Fender guitar.
Music Man's Sabre is known as a bass guitar (and in fact, Music Man only uses the name Sabre on bass guitars now), but the model name was also used on a 6-string, the 1979 Sabre II model.
Why is this a Fender guitar? Because Leo Fender himself came up with the idea for it during his short tenure in the company. Fender was with the company until November 1979 (it started in 1974).
Is the Sabre II a Strat copy? No. It's distinctively different in several ways. The bridge is a big ol' chunk of metal, the pick guard is a bit of a hybrid between a Strat and Tele, and the bottom metal control plate borrows from the Jaguar. And, of course, dual humbucker pickups are found here.
Where things get a little nuts is with the active electronics.
There are three knobs, two toggle switches and a blade selector. Where does the 9-volt battery go? There is, thankfully, an easy-access control plate for that in the back.
How this guitar works is as follows as far I know (I've never played one personally, so if I'm wrong, feel free to email me and I'll post a correction):
The first toggle acts as a switch between humbucker and single-coil. The second toggle switches between active and passive (which should mean you can play the guitar even without a battery in it, if desired.) The volume control only controls volume. For the two tone controls, in passive they act as normal tone knobs for each pickup, and when switched to active, one acts as a treble boost while the other acts as a bass boost.
"I've never heard of this guitar before."
If before reading this you never heard of the Sabre II, that wouldn't surprise me at all as they did not sell well.
As for why they didn't sell well, I couldn't say because I'm not sure. Maybe it was poor marketing. Maybe Music Man didn't have enough presence in the guitar marketplace. Maybe the guitar was too complicated for most players. I'm just not sure.
What I do know is that it is a well-built instrument, and once educated how a Sabre II works, then oh yeah, it sounds all sorts of awesome when you know how to dial in the tone you want. Big, beefy humbucker tone along with snappy, twangy single-coil tone is all present in the Sabre II.
Worth it to buy?
It is if you appreciate "practical vintage" electrics.
The '79 Sabre II is a guitar you could in fact gig with. It's different-but-not-too-different, has the big humbucker sound along with great single-coil tone that's suitable for basically any amplifier setup and should have many years of life left in it.
Personally, I think the best part of the guitar is that it's different without being tacky. Nice design all around, lightweight (it's under 8lbs) and has that cool '70s era "woody" appearance going on.
Does Music Man still make the Sabre II?
Yes, but now it's just salled the Sabre.
Cheap guitar of the week #33 - Ibanez Talman TCM50
A different look for an electric-acoustic guitar that actually works.
Ordinarily, when a guitar company releases an acoustic with a non-traditional shape, it doesn't work. The Ibanez Talman TCM50, however, does work.
Even in a natural finish (same price as the dark finish), it looks pretty darned good.
Yes, there is a very-obvious pickup mounted in the front position. This is an acoustic-electric that leans more towards acting like an electric. The body style is thinner than a traditional dreadnought, but what really makes this act more electric-like is the way the electric sound is delivered.
When unplugged, the TCM50 has a traditional acoustic sound. When plugged in, you get more of a solid-body electric sound out of this guitar, which for many players is actually quite desirable because it's easier to record with.
The TCM50 might have "that acoustic-electric sound" you've been looking for, and if so, it doesn't cost a lot to get it.
Coil tap vs. Coil split pickups - which sounds better?
You probably don't even know the difference between the two. You will after reading this.
Take the 2015 Gibson Les Paul Studio in Desert Burst (definitely the best color for the 2015 model year). This guitar does have, in Gibson's own words, coil tapped pickups.
What's the difference between tapping and splitting?
Coil split: A coil isolation technique. In a dual-coil pickup, one coil is literally turned off when split.
Coil tap: A coil winding technique. During the wire winding process of pickup construction, another wire is routed in, usually at the midpoint (e.g. if there were 1,250 winds on a pickup, this wire would be introduced at around the 625-wind mark,) then the rest of the original wire winding process is completed. That midpoint wire introduced is the tapped part, and when engaged will have the pickup produce a distinctively different lower-output sound compared to the regular wire at the end of the pickup windings.
Which sounds better?
Surprise answer! Neither, because they're totally different from each other.
I'll explain.
What is a coil tapped humbucker supposed to sound like?
Many players think "coil tap" means "single-coil sound". That is not universally true. You can set yourself up for some big disappointment if you think all coil tapped humbuckers are supposed to sound like single-coil pickups when tapped.
The fact is that some coil tapped humbuckers sound single-coil-like when tapped, while others don't and instead just sound like vintage low-output humbuckers; it depends on how the pickup manufacturer voiced them during construction.
For example, certain coil tapped humbuckers only do one thing. Lower the output when tapped. That's it. It's almost like switching on or off a boost, with tapped being "boost off".
Then there are other coil tapped humbuckers where it's tapped in such a way to have a very single-coil-like character to it (usually depending where the midpoint wire was introduced during pickup construction.) But rest assured, that humbucker is absolutely not acting like a single-coil pickup when the tap is engaged.
What is a split coil humbucker supposed to sound like?
Like a single-coil pickup, because you are in fact physically turning off one coil when you split.
If you want a humbucker that physically switches to a single-coil pickup via a push/pull knob or other switch, you absolutely want split and not tap.
But in the end...
If you want single-coil tone, which is probably what you were after in the first place, use a guitar with single-coil pickups in it and just skip the split altogether.
On a Gibson, that means to use a Les Paul that has P90s in it. Or if you want to save money, Epiphone makes them too (the "1956" Epiphone Les Paul in particular is quite nice).
Will the P90 Paul have single-coil hum? Of course it will. But it will also have that awesome "growly" P90 tone you're chasing after. And the pickups will also be mated to potentiometers with proper resistance for P90s (which should be a linear taper 300K for the volume pot.)
By the way, I'm not saying not to buy the Gibson Les Paul Studio. If you want one, get one. Just don't expect those tapped humbuckers to sound like real P90s or emulate real Telecaster tone, because that's just not happening.
Also, just as a final side note, Gibson does have this thing called "Tuned Coil Tap" with certain pickups they make, which they directly describe in their words as:
...a gentle, but distinctive, midrange scoop - without thinning the sound or dropping the output [and] also [retaining] most of a humbucker’s hum-rejecting properties.
That is Gibson's words on what that type of tap does to the tone in their guitars with pickups that have Tuned Coil Tap. It's not-exactly-single-coil, not-exactly-humbucker in tone representation. It is, more or less, a "filtered" tone (via capacitor) when the tap is engaged. Is it any good? Heck if I know, because I wouldn't bother and just use guitars with real single-coil pickups in them anyway, which, in fact, I do.
Anyway...
Now you know that split and tap are absolutely not the same. Just remember the following: For single-coil-like sound out of a humbucker that you can toggle on/off, split. For a lower-output voicing option out of a humbucker that you can toggle on/off, tap.
Vintage guitar of the week #16 - 1959 Fender Jazzmaster
Time to talk about an old Jazzmaster.
Concerning a real-deal 1959 Fender Jazzmaster, you're probably thinking, "there is no way a Fender made in '59 can look good today". With a Jazzmaster, it's actually routine that yes, most do in fact still look (and perform) very nicely, and I'll tell you exactly why.
The Jazzmaster way back in the day was Fender's flagship guitar. It was the guitar built to compete with other jazz electrics of the time, and probably had a price tag to match. Not too many people cared for it, but was picked up a few years later in the early '60s by the kids who were making this newfangled noise called surf music.
Really, really old Jazzmasters are usually in really, really good condition. Something you have to remember is that with the exception of surf music players and a very small selection of grunge players in the '90s, nobody wanted this guitar. People saw the crazy switchgear all over it, "weird" vibrato system, "odd" shape and wanting nothing to do with it.
There were several guys who actually bought a Jazzmaster in the '50s and early '60s, only to pluck around on them only a few times, then put in a case and not touch the guitar for decades.
Prior to 2012 when Squier put out the Vintage Modified Jazzmaster (I'm on my second one currently,) I never even touched one of these guitars. The only time I ever saw one was in a guitar store waaaaay in the back where nobody could see. This was back in my teens in the '90s. I barely knew anything about guitars back then, but I do remember seeing that "weird" guitar.
Is it worth it to buy a 57-year-old electric guitar?
I can't say for sure. But what I can say is that out of all vintage Fender electrics, a Jazzmaster is the one I would trust to actually still work like it should today.
While 1959 isn't the oldest Jazzmaster (that would be 1958,) the thing to know about '50s and '60s Jazzmaster guitars is that Fender put a lot of effort into building them. Again, remember that this was Fender's flagship guitar at the time. This was supposed to be a premium jazz instrument and the best electric guitar they could possibly make. Combine that with the fact that many '50s Jazzmasters even to this day were barely played, and that's why I'd trust one over other Fender electrics of the time.
I'll put it another way. The Jazzmaster is the only '50s Fender electric I'd even consider touching from that era. 1958 Strat electronics only had 3-way switching, and I've explained before why I can't stand vintage Tele wiring. The Jazzmaster however pretty much has the exact same electronics today as it did way back in '58.
There are a lot of players who dream about owning a '50s era Fender. I'm not one of them, but if I were, functionality of the instrument counts a lot with me. I know vintage Jazzmaster wiring would agree with me, but vintage Strat and Tele wiring absolutely would not.
If I ever do have the disposable cash to pick up a real-deal vintage Jazzmaster, I'd have to weigh that decision carefully, because in all honesty, I could get a new one built by Fender Custom Shop for the same price (probably for a few thousand less, actually.) This ticks off collectors when I say this, but I don't care because I'm a player and not a collector. Guitars aren't "investments" to me. I buy them to play and not to sit in a case in the closet for 20 years.
Anyway, in the end, yes the '59 Jazzmaster would be a solid purchase for a collector.