The "relic" guitar phase may finally be over (but the replacement kinda sucks)
Something happened at NAMM this year that was good...
...and that was Fender showing a lot of non-"relic" guitars.
Make no mistake that as long as Fender exists, they will build "heavy relic" guitars because there are buyers out there willing to spend many thousands for a distressed Fender electric.
However, the fact that Fender did not have a prominent showing of relic'd guitars at NAMM this year signifies that the popularity of distressed guitars has at long last run its course. When Fender scales back showing off fake-old guitars, that basically tells the guitar industry that it's time to move on (thank God).
What's the Next Big Thing?
Before I tell you what my guess is, bear in mind I play trebly-extreme, big-single-coil Jazzmaster guitars and primarily focus on surf rock with some '50s stuff and country pickin' intermixed with that...
...which is the absolute opposite of what the internet guitar community is focused on.
And what is the internet guitar community focused on at the moment? Shredding.
There's a guitar out there right now, the Mitchell MD200. Not my style of guitar, but it is a game changer. It's cheap, it has 24 frets, it has a 13.75" fingerboard radius, black nickel hardware, offset dot inlays, thin neck. Someone on my Facebook page even asked me about it recently.
The MD200 is an Ibanez fighter, and it has the goods where it counts. This is the cheap shredder guitar anyone can buy that gets the job done...
...but hang on, there's also another inexpensive contender, the Jackson JS12. And there are other contenders besides that too.
I'm seeing more cheap 24-fret cheap shredder guitars appearing, and there will be plenty of people buying these guitars up left and right.
I don't shred and I don't listen to shred guitar at all. But I do recognize that is what the kids are buying these days. And if that's what they want to play, at least it's good there are genuinely good and cheap ways to do it.
I did a search for the Mitchell MD200 on YouTube, and I couldn't find anything. This means anyone who gets that guitar and posts a video will be found first on a search.
Will the high-priced shred guitar make a return?
Presently, there really aren't that many high-price shred guitars. Not compared to current "relic" stock, anyway. And by high-priced I mean "well into 4-figure territory".
The go-to guitars at the moment for a high end shredder are the upper tier Ibanez JEM offerings, almost anything made by Charvel and upper tier Jackson models. There are other brands, but for the moment I see Ibanez, Charvel and Jackson dominating the shredder space. You could also throw ESP in there too, but most of their super-high-tier stuff is signature model and special one-offs while Ibanez/Jackson/Charvel have better production run choices.
I do think there will be more shred guitars coming. I won't be playing any of them, but if that's your thing, there should be more coming to market real soon.
Fender Mustang 90 review
This was a bit of a disappointment, but it could have been great.
Because none of the local guitar stores had the Squier Bullet Mustang HH in stock yet (which is a total steal in all the right ways), I decided to try a Fender Mustang 90 in Olympic White to get a feel for what the Squier could feel like.
The first thing I'll say is something I've said before about this guitar. The style decision to go with black pickup covers was very smart of Fender. I've seen the Mustang with white covered P90s and it doesn't look right.
Another thing Fender got right is the Olympic White finish option, which is the one I played. This works really nice with the pearloid pick guard, rosewood fingerboard and the oh-so awesome Fender logo that is not the spaghetti style seen on Strats and Teles. This Mustang has legit style character to it. It works.
As cool as the guitar looked however, I unfortunately played one that had a bad 3-way selector switch. I had to fiddle with it a lot just to get any sound out of the guitar at all.
What was even more unfortunate is that there was no other Mustang 90 in the store. The one I was playing was the only model in stock...
...and that being true, I'm going to get what I didn't like out of the way first.
What I didn't like
Bad pickup selector switch which made the pickups cut in and out like crazy.
The really sad part is that I know these pickups. This is the MP-90 set (MP formerly meaning "Modern Player"), and I know them to have a nice "growly" tone. But the bad switch just totally ruined that experience and made the pickups sound next to dead.
What I did like
This is a short scale like the Duo-Sonic I reviewed, but I got along much better with the Mustang neck compared to the Duo-Sonic. The position felt better, the closeness of the tuners to me wasn't bothersome, and the headstock design is bigger and just looks better.
Out of all Fender short scale electrics I've played, this one felt the best. The Duo-Sonic felt weird, the Jaguar has controls that I fight with (a big reason why I play a Jazzmaster), but the Mustang 90 seemed to get everything right...
...if the electronics actually worked the way they were supposed to.
Specs
Alder body, maple neck with 9.5" radius rosewood fingerboard, 22 medium jumbo frets, MP-90 pickups.
The pick guard on this Mustang is actually a 4-ply. Not really noticeable unless you look real close.
Knobs are from the Jazz Bass. I don't like these and never did, but they're easy enough to swap out. I would actually take the knobs off a Duo-Sonic and put them on this guitar.
Bridge is "hardtail Strat" with strings that mount through the body, like the Duo-Sonic.
Tuners are the modern Fender standard sealed style.
Overall
It's like I said above, this guitar could have been great. But a bad 3-way switch killed it before it even started to be cool.
Fender Duo-Sonic review
A little Fender that's good - when plugged into the right amp.
Last weekend I tried out three guitars and two of them were Fender Duo-Sonic models.
The last time I played one of these, it was a Squier Duo-Sonic in gold. I really wasn't too impressed with that guitar mainly for the reason I just didn't like the look. And speaking of which, the look of the Fender Duo-Sonic is the first thing I'll start with.
The Torino Red version looks unbelievably cool in person but awful in online photos. Not even Fender themselves got good photos of this guitar. You absolutely cannot tell at all from internet photos that the pick guard is a 3-ply mint green. And it looks killer. The red and the mint guard go together very nicely.
There are two versions of the Duo-Sonic. One is a humbucker/single Duo-Sonic HS model and the other a single/single. I chose the single/single because that's what I like, and that's the one I'm going to talk about.
This guitar is a short scale 24.0" (for reference, a Stratocaster is 25.5" and a Les Paul is 24.75"). Neck is one-piece maple with 9.5" fingerboard radius and loaded with 22 medium jumbo frets. The bridge is "hardtail Strat", and yes the strings do go through the body. The body is made from alder wood.
Atypical is the fact the guitar comes loaded with 10-46 strings instead of the usual 9-42 size. This is actually something I totally agree with because 9-42 on a short scale is a bit floppy, even for me (and I prefer super light strings).
What I liked
My favorite part of the guitar is the 3-way switch. No plastic on it at all. It's a big, chunky, all-metal switch and feels good to use. Given the fact the vast majority of electric guitars use plastic-tip switches, to actually use one that's 100% metal is nice. It just feels more solid.
I liked the knobs, too. They're Telecaster style flat-top with knurled sides. And yes, they have side screws for easy adjustment. The turn of the knobs had good give to them also. Slightly heavier than usual.
The sound of the pickups is good, leaning more toward a Strat-like tone. However, I found that the tonal character is greatly affected by what amp the guitar is plugged into. The Duo-Sonic seemed to hate a tube-type VOX combo but loved a tube-type Orange cube combo.
What I didn't like
The short scale 1-piece maple neck just felt odd. But this is due to the fact that short scale necks usually don't agree with me.
My main guitar is a Jazzmaster. That guitar has a 25.5" scale, but also has offset waist construction, meaning the neck is "pushed out" slightly further than a Stratocaster or Telecaster. And I really like it.
The Duo-Sonic, while having an offset waist construction, has a neck position I didn't really care for. The tuners felt way too close to me, I found myself getting lost on the neck sometimes, and I was also hitting wrong notes because of the closer fret spacing.
If I owned this guitar then yes, I eventually would get used to it. But it was definitely not something I felt instantly comfortable playing.
Another thing I didn't like is that I would sometimes whack the front pickup (i.e. the "neck pickup") when playing.
Overall
It's a good little guitar that has some genuine mojo to it.
The only thing that really surprised me is how different the guitar sounds when going from amp to amp. This is true of any electric, but with the Duo-Sonic it was really obvious. There's just something about the "Duo-Sonic Single-coil" (that's what Fender calls it) that makes one amp sound great and another sound like total garbage.
Build quality was good. There were no flaws in either of the two I tried. One was Arctic White and the other Torino Red as described above. But again, the red one just stole the show with how good it looked.
Could you buy this guitar unheard/unplayed and be comfortable with the buy? With some guitars you can't do that, but you could with this one. You have to bear in mind I played one at a guitar store that wasn't set up to my preferences. Once set up right, I'm certain I could make it sound just fine with any amp.
How to get quality guitar audio on the ZOOM R8
The book is done and is available now.
I recently released a video showing the kind of sound you can get using nothing but the ZOOM R8 standalone multitrack recorder.
When I say "nothing but the ZOOM R8", that's exactly what I mean. Just the R8. No pedals or amps used. Just the guitar plugged in direct.
There are a lot of R8 owners that don't know they can do this. But yes, you can.
Originally, I wrote The Better ZOOM R8 Manual, and while that is comprehensive, I left out talking about the guitar effects. Why? Because it's a subject big enough that it needed its own book...
...and now it has one.
Get your copy of How to custom create guitar patches on the ZOOM R8.
Living with extra super light strings (D'Addario EXL130+)
For a good long while now I've been playing nothing but Dunlop DEN9042 strings. But then I saw that D'Addario offers a size between 8-38 and 9-42, the EXL130+ 8.5-39 size, labeled as "X-Super Light Plus".
Concerning how the strings sound, they are notably brighter compared to the Dunlops. Not as bright as Pro Steels (those are ridiculously bright), but enough to where I had to roll off some treble. Bear in mind I do play a Jazzmaster that has huge single-coil pickups and factory installed 1meg pots.
The feel of the strings is what's really amazing. This is not the D'Addario I remember. This is a whole lot better. I distinctly remember D'Addario strings as feeling stiff and rough on my fingers regardless of gauge used. These however feel nothing like that. I don't know if the formula for the way the string is made has changed, but if so, it's for the better because this is a seriously good feeling string.
Will I switch brands?
I'm seriously considering it because I am very impressed with how these strings feel.
What I don't know yet is how long they last. Past experience tells me these strings will get old and cruddy quickly, but maybe that won't be the case. Time will tell.
For the time being, yes I am totally happy with the D'Addario EXL130+ string set.