Recycled seat belt guitar strap? Cool!
The recycled seat belt guitar strap is something I'm seriously considering buying for basically two reasons.
First, seat belt material (yes, the kind that comes from a car) is made to last basically forever. It will not stretch and there it is extremely unlikely it would even fray.
Second, they are insanely comfortable as they are meant to smoothly go over your body.
Doesn't really get any better than that.
And by the way, it comes in 13 different colors.
I like the blue, but I'm thinking the darker burgundy color would go well with my red Jazzmaster. :)
Being a left-handed guitar player can suck sometimes
Did you know I'm left-handed? It's true. I play right-handed, but I am a lefty.
The left handed Fender Standard Stratocaster exists. Does Fender make a bunch of Strats in lefty? Of course they do, both for Mexico and American models.
Being a lefty player can suck because the selection of guitars available is very little compared to righty guitars. Every lefty knows that it's a righty's world when it comes to electric guitars or guitars in general.
Squier is actually one of the most accommodating brands for lefty players. For example, the lefty Squier Classic Vibe '50s Telecaster is for all intents and purposes the best damned Tele a lefty could buy. Why? Because more often than not, a Fender version either doesn't exist, is priced way too high to be affordable, or simply isn't available anywhere.
Want to know the only lefty Telecaster that Fender makes with the ashtray bridge on it? That would be the American Vintage '52 Telecaster lefty - if you can even find one. The Squier on the other hand mentioned above (which also has the ashtray bridge) is available for lefty players right now. Squier saves the day once again. And yes, lefty players, if you love Teles, you will love that Squier CV. Go get one. Don't bother waiting for that Fender to appear unless you want to throw $3,000+ at Fender Custom Shop just to have one made.
Lefty Gibson guitars
I received an email recently from a lefty player asking about Gibson USA Les Paul models. Specifically, the Les Paul Studio Pro. When I did my research on it, there have been lefty players not only asking but outright begging Gibson to make a lefty version of the 2014 Studio Pro model. I swear, from what I saw out there, lefty players were ready to throw money at Gibson just to have one made.
The 2014 Studio Paul exists as a lefty, and that literally just happened this month as certain online music instrument retailers are taking preorders for them now. But as for the Studio Pro, nope. Of course, the one the lefty players actually want is the one Gibson didn't make.
Will Gibson make it? I've no idea. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. Gibson is not talking about it. Do they even care? I don't know.
On the Les Paul side of things, I tell lefty players not to buy Gibson. Instead I recommend to simply examine the other options out there. There are plenty of lefty options to choose from that have the Les Paul shape.
On the SG side of things, Epiphone has lefties covered with the G-400 PRO in cherry. True, it's not Gibson, but the price sure is right, it has the smaller pick guard and totally looks like a Tony Iommi guitar. The PRO model in particular plays and sounds as good as it looks.
What is available for lefty players that is cheap?
Squier and Dean pretty much own this market.
Squier has a lefty Telecaster and a lefty Stratocaster for a little more. Dean has lefty options that look decent.
Are lefty guitars that sell for less than righty guitars cheaper in build quality?
A common belief guitar players have is that "if it's cheaper, it must suck". Wrong. And especially wrong when it comes to lefty guitars.
Guitar stores don't like stocking left-handed guitars because they take forever to sell. With online retailers, same thing.
For example, this Honey Burst Left-Handed American Standard Stratocaster is just $900 new at the time I write this. Yeah, this guitar should be $1,200, but it's $900. Why? It's most likely a display unit that never sold where there's absolutely nothing wrong with it, but it's just got to get sold because now it's taking up space.
You can find really good deals on Fender American Standard left-handed guitars quite easily. You'll be surprised in a good way what you'll find. Sometimes it's better for a left-handed player to just go for the high-end stuff because a lot of it can be had for fire sale prices since retailers have a tough time selling them.
Cheap 12-string electric guitars
I was talking about Rickenbacker electrics and their 12-string offerings recently, so I decided to take a look at what was available for cheap electric 12-string guitars.
Why are 12-string electrics hard to come by?
The 12-string electric is not a regular seller, so you don't see them too often. You'll see 12-string acoustic guitars a lot, but for electrics, not-so much. Rarely, in fact.
Why is this? Mainly because not many players want one. That, and there are a few standard problems just about all 12-string electrics have.
Problem 1: It takes forever to string one up and tune it. It takes a bare minimum 45 minutes to do this right. As in detune, clip off the old set, give the body and fretboard a basic wipe-down with a polish cloth, install the new set, clip excess, stretch and tune. There's no way to do this fast.
Problem 2: It's not easy to intonate a 12-string. The 12-string electric is notorious for being difficult to intonate. You have double the amount of strings, and the octave strings are of a different tension for half of them, while the other half isn't. I'm not saying a 12-string can't be intonated, because it obviously can be. Just don't plan on it being a quick process.
Problem 3: Standard tuning or nothing. On a 6-string you can get away with changing tuning without having to intonate again for the most part. But on a 12, nope. You have to basically pick one tuning and stick with it because that's what you're going to intonate to. Standard tuning is the best option. If not standard E, standard D is the next best thing.
Is there such a thing as a "dirt cheap" 12-string electric?
In the under-$300 range, yes they exist. But I wouldn't buy one. On a 12, you are already battling intonation issues. With a dirt cheap 12, it's even worse because it's pretty much guaranteed the guitar will never intonate correctly.
In other words, you can go cheap with a 12. But when you go dirt cheap, that's just a waste of money and you won't enjoy the instrument.
A selection of (somewhat) cheap 12-string electrics
At the time I write this, this is the best cheap 12-string electric I could find. The immediate advantage is that the tuners are easy to deal with. They're all side-by-side and easy to figure out. And the fact this guitar is uses a regular stop piece is a plus as well.
The drawback is that yes, it will have intonation issues. You'll notice that the Tune-O-Matic style bridge does not have separate intonation for the octave strings.
Basically, what this means is that you'll be in tune up until around the 9th fret. After that, not-so much on the wound-string side (meaning strings 4, 5 and 6). The wound strings will be intonated, but the octave strings won't and will be slightly out. Then again, it would be rare for a 12-string player to hold fretted bass-side notes above the 9th fret unless using a capo.
We're already busting over the $350 mark here, but when you want a proper 12-string, you have to spend a little extra.
The advantages of the Danelectro is that the string saddles are easier to deal with, and the lipstick-style pickups will give the guitar are more vintage-style '60s tone to it.
I can tell just by the bridge setup that string changes would be easier on this compared to the Dean. I also personally think it's looks cooler than the Dean does.
Will this have intonation issues like the Dean? Yes. But again, it's probably true you won't be playing much if anything above the 9th fret.
Now we're in over-$450 territory. Yeah, I know. Not cheap. But in this instance, you do get a better guitar for the money.
While not as easy to intonate and adjust as the Danelectro, this one has the best tuners and best pickups. You also get more tonal control from the 4 knobs compared to 2 on the two other guitars.
Oh, and there's another advantage as well. In the way this guitar is made, neck dive is a non-issue. While there shouldn't be any neck dive on the other two guitars, the Ibanez has the least chance of that happening.
Given the choice between the 3 guitars, this is the one you could buy without trying it out first and be the most confident you'd get something good. With the other two, I can't say that. But with the Ibanez, I can, because Artcore is a damned good series that has known good build quality to it.
How do you get the best sound out of an electric 12-string?
There are two things that are required to make an electric 12-string sound good. Flatwound strings and compression.
Why flatwound on a 12?
Flatwound was the popular string of the era at the time the guitars were being made in the 60s. On a 12, they have a very specific sound to them that cannot be emulated with a roundwound set.
Unfortunately, a proper set of flatwound strings for an electric 12 is not cheap, and almost nobody makes them.
One of the few companies that does make an authentic new vintage-spec flatwound set for a 12 is Pyramid with this specific set:
Pyramid Gold 12 Light Electric Guitar String Set
Warning: You will get sticker shock when you see the price of that string set. But it's the only generally available 12-string flatwound set you can buy, and guaranteed to have that vintage-style 12-string tone.
If you want a cheap, extra-light-gauge set in roundwound flavor, you want RotoSound R30SL set.
If you want cheap, super-extra-light-gauge (which you may like because of the double amount of strings you have to hold down on a 12), again, RotoSound with the R30XL set.
I do not recommend 10-gauge roundwound on an electric 12. That exists, but remember, you're holding down double the strings you're used to. With flats, a 10-gauge set is fine because your fingers won't get wrecked. On roundwound, yes they will get wrecked unless you go lighter.
If you can't afford the flatwound set, you won't hear any complaint from me because it's a really expensive set of strings. So if you have to go roundwound to save a buck, that's fine. Just remember you can't get true vintage-style tone out of them. And no, that doesn't mean they sound bad. Round is just a different tone than flat, and that's just the way it is.
Why compression on a 12?
To accommodate for the weird voicing of a 12-string electric pickup.
Pickups on 12-string electrics can't be overly "hot" because they'll be noisy as hell and pick up overtones that will make the sound produced almost unusable. Combine that with the fact that on the bass string side you've got little octave strings "fighting" to be heard, and it's no wonder why a 12-string "rings dead" so quickly.
Do not be surprised if any electric 12 you play has little to no electric sustain to it. Note that I said electric and not acoustic. Acoustically, it will ring out fine. Electrically, it won't...
...and that's where compression saves the day with this pedal:
The Dyna Comp, while a bit "thumpy", works nicely with an electric 12. It has old-school electronics in it that suit the odd voicing of an electric 12's pickups.
Yes, I've mentioned the Dyna Comp several times before in other articles. But it's a damned good compressor pedal. If you want something better, get a CS-3 (another pedal I've mentioned several times). Either will be fine, but I personally think the Dyna Comp is better for the more-authentic "snappy"/"thumpy" vintage 12-string electric tone.
Is it worth it to own an electric 12?
That depends on what your musical desires are.
Nothing sounds like an electric 12. In the world of electric guitars, the 12 is unique, cool, interesting and can make sounds that 6-string guitars can't.
If you currently gig with a band at all, when you break out the 12-string, everyone pays attention. When people see all those tuner buttons on the headstock, it just looks impressive. And when people hear the 12, that's also impressive even when playing nothing but simple chords on it.
For songwriting, a 12-string is a damned fine guitar to own because it has such a full sound to it. And since you're basically forced to play just chords and no solos on one, it can arguably be said it's a better songwriting guitar.
For song styles, the 12 has what's best described as a cinematic quality to it.
In the end, if you think, "Wow. I could get cool sounds out of a 12...", buy one. You will enjoy it, as long as you remember a 12 is a bit of a pain in the ass to intonate and restring. The guitar is more inconvenient compared to a 6, but the sounds you can get out of a 12 make it worth it to own.
Why aren't Rickenbacker guitars more popular?
George Harrison's 1962 Rickenbacker 425 just sold for $657,000. George was in a band called The Beatles. You might have heard of them.
Can you buy a new 425? No. Rickenbacker currently does not make one as far as I know. And to be honest, I'm surprised they don't, because it's normally par for the course that any guitar company that has any famous model will produce some modern version of it whether it's a signature model or not. Rickenbacker has chosen not to do that with the 425 for whatever strange reason.
Rickenbacker is a weird guitar company, and they make weird guitars.
Why is the company weird?
Rickenbacker is in the position to make huge money based on the fact so many famous guitar players and bands have used their instruments over the decades. And yet, Ric does not capitalize on this nearly as much as they should. They could easily do so without losing an ounce of integrity, but don't.
Ric is also in a damned good position to release exclusive-run models for particular guitar store chains, such as models sold in Guitar Center only. But Ric doesn't do that either.
If you look at the Rickenbacker web site, it's a joke. The site looks like something that was programmed back in the early 2000s and was never updated. In fact, on first view you would think the company is defunct, but it isn't.
Basically put, Rickenbacker does not act like the storied, very-influential guitar company that's been in business since 1931. Instead, they choose to act like some ragtag outfit that's 20 years behind the times and can barely make ends meet. And I wouldn't be surprised if that's not too far from the truth.
The fact I can buy a Schecter Stargazer right now and not see a Rickenbacker model right next to it when I search online for the guitar is pathetic. When I search "Rickenbacker", the Schecter is the guitar that shows up. I should not see Schecter first when searching Rickenbacker on Amazon, but yet I do. That's bad. For Rickenbacker, that is.
And yeah, Rickenbacker, that means Schecter is getting sales you would otherwise be getting.
My message to Rickenbacker would be this: You are one of the most influential electric guitar brands that has ever existed. GET ON THE BALL AND ACT LIKE IT.
Why are Ric guitars weird?
On the rare occasion you do see a Ric in a guitar store, it will most likely be a 300 series. Probably a 360 model.
What makes the guitar weird you've got this semi-acoustic thing with 24 frets on a 24.75-inch scale set-neck that starts at 1.63-inch at the nut and ends at 1.93-inch at the heel, with 10-inch fingerboard radius. But if that weren't weird enough, it can output in mono or stereo.
For those interested, yes there is a 3-pickup model, the 370. Personally, I'd take a 360 because I wouldn't have much use for the middle pickup on a Ric.
Have I ever seen a Ric in person? Yes, I have seen a few at guitar stores in Tampa. And if I remember correctly, they were either 360 or 370 models. I think the price was somewhere between $1,200 to $1,500, but don't remember the price exactly because I wasn't paying much attention to it really. Why priced so high? Rics are all US-built as far as I know.
What makes a Ric weird if specifically talking about the 360/370 is the following:
24 frets. On a 24.75-inch scale. In stereo. On a semi-acoustic. Let that sit in your mind for a moment think if that's actually useful to you or not.
Your answer is "probably not", but still, a Ric can be useful.
What is a Ric good for?
Rics do have a tone all their own that you can recognize just by hearing it; they are amazingly good strumming guitars. Big, bold-sounding chords in concert with the trebly goodness of the single-coil pickups.
The 12-string version of just about any Ric electric is "that sound" of hippie-era 1960s music. For example, if you were trying to get the sound of the guitar in The Byrds Turn! Turn! Turn!, get a Ric 12-string and you've got it. Instantly.
Similarly, you'll quickly realize there's a ton of '60s music you'll all of a sudden have "the sound" for with a Ric 6-string, specifically on the bridge position.
For me, I prefer vintage '60s Fender over Rickenbacker tone. However, I don't deny for a second that Ric tone was a huge part of popular 1960s music.
Could Ric tone be used for modern music?
Yes, but there's a problem. Ric guitars are hard to come by; that's Rickenbacker's fault 100%. Because of that, Rics aren't seen by younger players, so they never buy them since they were never exposed to the brand.
I'm not saying Ric needs to ramp up production, say to hell with build quality and start flying out guitars left and right.
What I am saying is that Ric really needs a good swift kick in the ass as far as their brand presence is concerned.
Here's a small example: Rickenbacker could work a deal with Guitar Center to have a factory special run, and have nice big posters put in selected GC stores so customers could really see that GC has Rics for sale. What would be on the posters? Total nostalgia. 1960s stuff. Huge hippie-style vibe.
Yes, it would work. I'm sure of it. I'd even use the tagline "Nothing sounds like a Ric!"
I could put together a campaign that would have Rics flying out of GC stores.
Would this get the attention of younger players? Damned right it would. There would be teen players begging their parents to buy them a Ric instead of a car, and many would get them.
Squier pretty much proved this was a totally possible, totally doable, totally profitable thing.
While I know Squier is the lower-cost brand for Fender, keep this in mind: With really not much promo, when Squier Jaguars and Jazzmasters came on the scene in 2012, they flew out of the stores and fast. In a sea of Strats, Teles and Les Pauls, whammo, there was something different and cool. Jazzes and Jags. The 60's came back with a vengeance. And it worked. Players bought those guitars in droves, as did I.
Rickenbacker has the cool '60s vibe thing going for them. Big time. Anything '60s is known to be a good seller, and Ric is not taking advantage of that. They should.
Gattaca movie review
Gattaca is a movie I only watched because there are certain sci-fi movie nerds who say this flick is one of the best ever made.
Is it? Well, here's my take. And yes it was my first time watching it.
First I'll talk about the one thing that dates this movie. Computer keyboards. This may sound like a huge nitpick, but it's not because there are more than a few times when a computer keyboard is in fact a rather important plot device of the storyline to keep it moving along.
The moment I saw the keyboards used, which were of course using full-height keys, I thought to myself, "Yep. Dated." In 1997 when the film was released, yeah, they were modern. But it's 17 years later they are absolutely not and stick out like a sore thumb.
I could totally tell the film tried so hard to conceal anything in it that would make it appear dated later. That attempt was successful, except for the damned keyboards.
Aside from that, Gattaca is about as perfect as it gets. The flow of the storyline is just right. It is easy to follow along while at the same time being a complicated-in-a-good-way plot. The cinematography is top notch stuff. The CGI used, amazingly, does not look dated, even today.
My favorite character is Jerome. As in real Jerome. However, just about everyone in the movie did a stellar job. My only real complaint is with the Detective Hugo character. Out of all characters in the movie he just seemed to come out of left field with his whole crusty gumshoe thing and... it just didn't seem to fit. It worked, yes. But didn't exactly fit.
Is the Gattaca story one that could become real?
No. The film says that it can, but I don't buy it for a second because I can't ever see genetic engineering going that well.
In the back of my mind, all I can see is bureaucratic crapola getting in the way of the human engineering seen in the movie from ever becoming possible.
I'll put it another way. It is much more likely the engineering seen in The Manchurian Candidate would become real first well before the future depicted in Gattaca. And heck, if you want to get really accurate about it, I'd see the dystopic future of American cities depicted in The Running Man happening first before anything else (I suggest watching that, and don't be surprised when you come to the frightening realization that we're really, really close to that happening in certain cities in America).
Is Gattaca good?
Yes, damned good. I really was interested in knowing how the story would unfold, and the ending, while bittersweet, was satisfying.
One of the best films ever? I can't say that it is. Definitely above-average, true enough. But not in the class of The Shawshank Redemption as far as cinematic masterpieces are concerned, as there are very few films as good as that one. Believe me, there are reasons why that flick scores a 9+ on IMDb consistently while Gattaca doesn't (although it should be noted it does routinely get high 7's).
In the end, yes, Gattaca is above-average good. It's classified as sci-fi, but I seriously dig the fact the movie mainly concentrates on a really good story that purposely puts the sci-fi stuff as a back seat. Stories are what move films along and not tech. Gattaca's story moves along very well. I liked it.