If anyone is curious about the specs on the Yamaha, here's the text from the listing: "Yamaha RGX220 with Steve's Custom one of a kind paint job! Whole guitar has been painted including neck and headstock! New Floyd Rose Special, and string lock after the nut! You get that good bone tone and can dive bomb all day long while staying in tune! Upgraded the pickups to a dragonfire screamer in the bridge (16.8K) and a Rockfield fatass in the neck (10.5K). This guitar is beast. Has a mini toggle switch called a "Blower" switch. One way is regular, the other is like direct wiring your bridge humbucker to the jack. No volume or tone just juice!! Changes the sound of the bridge pup to a Wolf status! Good effect to have on board and also acts as a kill switch when needed by turning down the volume. New Alpha pots and wiring too! The neck on these old Yamaha guitars are to die for! Moved the input switch from the face of the guitar to the side where it should have been all along! Frets and neck are in great shape. Guitar sounds killer!" I can vouch for what he wrote about the feel of the neck on this model, that was one of the things I truly loved about my old one. As far as the "Upgraded" pups, we'll see...I may just have the Zakk Wylde EMG's taken out of my Schecter and put in the Yamaha, and these put into the Schecter. I'm also thinking that low buck FR Special may need to be swapped out for a Pro model. I'll wait until I actually get my hands on it before making any plans, but if this thing is decently done and solid, I'm going to make it a real hot rod.
I'm going to bite the bullet and buy an original Rockman. The first one I played through was in '83 in a music store in Fort Smith, Arkansas. I was checking out a Rick 6 string and they plugged me into an original Rockman. Holy. Shit. What sounds came out of those headphones! I drove back home to Oklahoma and my brilliant ass decided I could recreate the sound by disconnecting the speaker wires on my amp and hard wiring them to headphones. I almost exploded my ear drums. A couple of years ago I bought one of the newer ones and all it did was make me angry. They are complete shit since Dunlop bought them out. The original 80's models give a full, thick, lush Boston sound. The new ones are absolute garbage. I hate paying $300 for an original, but fuck it. Here's a video of a dude using it as a pre-amp. (Notice the Strat he's using with it's scalloped neck. Anyone else ever played a scalloped neck? It's a different experience.)
I finally got to hear my Yamaha use her voice tonight. I bagged the idea of buying an original Rockman and bought an old Boss BR-8 8 track...mainly because I have a newer model Boss and figured the learning curve would be minimal. That and it was $120 delivered with a whole bunch of recording medium (Think old floppy disks.) And it has built in effects. Sadly, no chorus...I like chorus. Anyways, chorus is a moot point....this guitar doesn't do a clean sound. It was built for dirty, dirty overdrive. Not that that's a bad thing, but I kind of like to play clean sometimes. But, pushing power she sounds great....thick, full, great harmonics and tons of sustain. I was under the cans for about 3 hours....my fingers are dented, but they don't hurt, so apparently even after 10 years my calluses are still hiding under there. Now if I could just knock off the 10 years of rust on my playing...
This might be old news to you music people, but I had no idea. Kurt Russel's character in The Hateful Eight thought they had swapped in a dummy guitar for the scene where he grabs if from Daisy and smashes it. Ended up being the real thing. An 1860's Martin. https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6867202/jennifer-jason-leigh-hateful-eight-guitar-destroyed
Yeah...that scene in the movie was painful, knowing that. I also wear a tinfoil hat on it, and think Tarantino knew it was the real guitar. If you ever get the chance to visit the Martin factory/museum, it is a very interesting place, and some of the guitars at the museum are pure works of art. I got to tour the big three (Martin/Gibson/Taylor) when I was a sales guy. All three are unique. But Gibson served us the best food.
Super excited... like a kid waiting for XMas morning... For decades I've always wanted a Les Paul. This week I pulled the trigger on a Les Paul Custom Axcess in Cobra Burst. It's hopefully showing up here tomorrow in time for the long weekend. I don't have pics of the exact one (they pulled down the listing before I could save them), but it looks very close to this.
Nice! Is the Axcess still the one with the Floyd bridge? EDIT: nevermind, I forgot the Axcess just means is has that super smooth neck joint. Which is extremely comfortable, good choice. If it’s good enough for Alex...
Doubly nice. when I finally have a house and a dedicated studio, I’m getting a ‘59 in Iced Tea Burst. Those guitars are lovely.
I'm jealous, I've always wanted an LP with a Floyd Rose. Although I use a tremolo rarely...my Yamaha with a FR is sitting in my storage unit, still just the thought of an LP with a FR makes me excited. Congrats and enjoy!
A college friend of mine is a huge fan of Rush and Neil Peart. His band did a soundalike cover of Limelight recently. Figured you guys would enjoy, especially @Rush-O-Matic He does it justice, if not for a few spots where the quick rolls get a little dicey.
That's great! I love the fingerless gloves on the lead singer. Critical. And the way he says "long eewaited friend." I appreciate the guitarist bothering to select good tone/modelers for his part. Those guys are legit.
Looks like a Kemper in the background... they are no slouch. I love how they got The Edge to play bass. Is it just me or is just a tad slow? Sounds like they were laying back just a bit... whereas Rush got out ahead of it a bitl Still a great job... very enjoyable.
I thought it felt a bit slower too, but I think you are right. Same bpm, different approach to feel. Probably because of the spots right after the 2:00 mark. I know his drumming well, we played on a lot of stuff together. He definitely would lay back in the pocket.
In the live recordings, Alex plays his down beats ever so slightly before time, which gives it a bit more aggressive feel/sound. I think it was a big part of what gave the song energy. This version is great... technically sound, and bang on... but I'd give it an 8/10 because it seems to be missing that little bit of aggression. Very solid band. MAKES ME WISH MY FUCKING GIBSON WOULD HURRY UP AND GET HERE. I also ordered a Fractal Audio rig (the axe-fx iii), which I can't wait to dig into. This weekend should be a lot of fun... dig out a case of beer, some bbq, and shred my fingers to the bone.
Dude...apartment living fucking SUUUUCKS. I can’t turn up when I play, I can’t even LISTEN to music as loud as I want. I can’t wait to find a house.
Well, I'm loving it. Gotta say, it's a slightly different playing feel than I'm used to, but I appear to be adapting pretty quickly. And I can't believe the Floyd Rose is actually keeping in tune. REALLY!?!?!? But here's my only major fuckup... I go to plug it into my effects board, and FUCK. I'd totally forgotten that a year ago (really the last time I played electric), I tossed all my cords when I emptied out my home office / noodling room. You know... that messy tangle of wires that are covered in dust and grime that you just can't be bothered to unravel and clean before putting away... you sell it to yourself by thiniking "I'll just get some new ones... it's not like they're expensive or anything... and who doesn't like fresh, new cords?". Ha. Fast forward to tonight... new guitar shows up... I let it temp adjust... I get my rig set up, pull out my gig bag, dust it off, open it up, and I have no fucking cords. Not a one. Not even a really shitty one from 30 years ago that SHOULD be at the bottom of a gig bag I haven't gigged with in over 10 years. Oh... I _DO_ have a half dozen 6" pedal patch cables... which makes perfect sense, seeing as I haven't had a single pedal in a decade. Fuck. So yeah... sounds great unplugged... now I'm just waiting on the front step for Amazon to show up with all new cords.