Inventory Update:Second Quarter of 2011

Hi there!

What does Rex have in stock right now? I am sure everybody is dying to know, and a surprising number of guitars from my first quarter update are still here. Here we go:

1. Art and Lutherie Ami parlour guitar. This is not getting as much use as I thought it would, but I have some travel coming up and it might come along.

2. 1982 Fender JV Precision Bass. The oldest Japanese Fender I have ever seen. I recently had this one strung with Jamerson flats. My god, Magnum.

3. 1983 Fender JV Precision Bass. This one is still hanging in there. I have D’Addario flats on it, if I remember correctly.

4. 1984 Fender JV 62 RI Jazz Bass. This bass was really hard to find. It seems like there 20 JV P basses for every JV Jazz Bass that comes along.

5. 1997 Fender 52 RI Telecaster. I recently had this set-up with Ernie Ball 0.010’s, and this is the best-sounding Telecaster I have ever had. And the heaviest.

6. 1999 Fender 75 RI Jazz Bass. This is the only bass I have ever found in Japan that had flatwound strings on it. I left them on, and I think they are Ernie Ball Group III’s.

7. Kala Tenor Ukulele. Code named “Operation Bad Idea”. I need to put some more time into learning how to play this thing.

8. Simon & Patrick Songsmith dreadnought. I get a lot of comments about these guitars on my blog. People love these things.

9. 1983 Tokai Love Rock. This may be going on sale soon. Stay tuned.

10. Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0 with 2 12-inch Shuttle cabinets. I have somehow withstood the temptations of the Genz 9.0 and the new Genz Streamliner. The 6.0 is sticking around for now.

11. Cave Passive Pedals. These are the only products on my pedalboard besides my trusty Boss tuner.

12. Fender Vibro Champ XD. This amp has not been getting a lot of use lately, but it is not in my way either. I will be keeping it for awhile.

Check back on June 1st. You never know what the future will bring.

Mahalo!

1970s Aria 1532T Guitar

Good day!

I have written about a lot of guitars that were made during the “lawsuit era”. These were 1970s Japanese copies of famous Fender, Gibson and Rickenbacker guitars. The guitar we are looking at today was made before any of the lawsuits were settled, but somehow does not copy anything terribly well.

This guitar was made by Aria, and the sticker on the back of the headstock identifies it as model 1532T, and I am going to say it is closest to a Fender Jaguar in style. But there are only similarities to the Fender as the shape of the headstock and body, and the layout of the electronics are all quite a bit different.

I found this guitar at a pawn shop in San Pedro about 10 years ago, and I think I paid about $200 for it at the time. It was probably made between 1968 and 1972, and was in original condition with no modifications that I could find.

The body is made of alder with a modernistic offset shape. The white finish yellowed nicely over the years. The vintage tremolo is kind of awful, but it never bothered me much because I do not use the whammy bar on my guitars anyway.

The bolt-on neck was very nice and did not show much wear for a 30+ year old guitar. It was straight and the trussrod still worked fine. Look at those tuners! Their base is cast as one piece, which is pretty strange in the electric guitar world. The 21 original frets were in good shape, and the rosewood fretboard showed no wear. By the way, the 1532T is a 24 ¾-inch scale guitar.

The electronics are a lot simpler than the Jaguar. The Aria just has two single coil pickups (big ones, aren’t they?), a three-way selector switch and volume and tone controls.

Don’t get me wrong -- just because this is a bizarre take on the original does not mean it is not a great guitar. It sounds good and is really lightweight and fun to play. You get a lot of guitar for the money with these older Japanese electrics.

While researching this I found that Aria has re-issued this guitar as model Retro-1532, with a list price of about $300. I have not had a chance to try them out, but they look right and come with a 1 year warranty. I am pretty sure they are no longer made in Japan, but the quality of Chinese and Jorean guitars can be surprisingly good.

I f you’ve had a chance to play one of the re-issues, why don’t you drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Mahalo!

Top Ten Worst Songs on My iPod

Buenos dias, amigos!

Continuing on in the spirit of the self-indulgent ego trip that I call Rex and the Bass, I have complied my list of the top 10 worst songs on my iPod (which has about 5000 songs on it right now). The only rules for my selections are that each “artist” is limited to only one song on the list. Here we go:

10. Shania Twain: “That Don’t Impress Me Much”: Her success must be because she is smoking hot, not because of songs like this.

9. The Beatles ”Revolution 9”: Eight minutes of Yoko Ono-inspired crap. Maybe the band got a bonus for coming up with 4 album sides of material.

8. Enya “Only Time”: Repetitive and slightly nauseating, but a staple of weddings and wedding receptions everywhere. I cringe whenever I see her name come up as I am scrolling through my tracks.

7. Peter Gabriel “Sledgehammer”: Oh, this song is about sex? How clever! What a shame that this innuendo-fest was Peter Gabriel’s only number 1 hit in the US. He will never get another chance at one.

6. Korn “Dead Bodies Everywhere”: Thank god I do not have to explain why I have some of the music in my library. This is pure junior high school level crap. I hope adults do not buy these albums.

5. LL Cool J “Big Ole Butt“: A paean for all ganstas that like steppin’ out on their ladies. Not the best single of 1989.

4. Kelly Clarkson “Breakaway”: I do think she is very talented, but this overplayed radio hit is too damned la la la for me.

3. Blind Melon “No Rain”: No offense to the departed, but Shannon Hoon had the second most irritating voice in the history of recorded music.

2. Blink-182 “All the Small Things“: Tom DeLonge beats out Hoon for the most irritating voice contest. I wish I could put every Blink-182 and Angels & Airwaves song on this list.

1. Johnny Cash “The Legend of John Henry’s Hammer”: I know Johnny Cash is a legend, but this song is the longest 8 minutes and 27 seconds you will ever endure.

Mahalo!

Why Tool is not my favorite band

Aloha everybody!

In another brazen stroke of ego, I am going to use Al Gore’s tremendous internet to share a bit about Tool. Though they have cranked out some awesome music, there are a plenty of things hold me back from loving this band.

In case you have unplugged yourself from the music scene since 1990 (and it seems like a lot of people have), Tool is a Los Angeles-based progressive rock band. They have released 4 albums and an EP, earning three Grammy awards along the way.

Tool’s rabid fan base (more on that later), assert that Tool’s music is genius, the lyrics are brilliant poetry and nobody has better performance skills.

Well, on some level I agree with parts of this. Over the years, Tool has honed their craft. They have some truly great songs, and their production is slicker than snot on a doorknob. I think they are all first-rate musicians, and that Danny Carey is a brilliant drummer that really holds everything together.

1993’s Undertow was the breakthrough album for the band, and was very good as a whole. All of the songs had plenty of anger yet were still listenable. I really think this album was their high-water mark, and we have seen a steady increase in self-indulgent offerings from Tool.

Their 1996 album, Aenima, won the band their first Grammy award. And it certainly is a slick album, with some sort of deep concept throughout. By the way, I think the concept of the album is that the recording industry and their fan base are mindless sheep (chew on that for awhile, fainbois). But this album is also where Tool started working in a lot of non-musical crap into their content. And, of the actual songs they recorded for this album, there are only a few stand outs.

And, their latest two albums, Lateralus and 10,000 Days, complete their spiral into the Hubris Hut. I think there are only about 3 good songs in the bunch. I attended a few of the shows for the Lateralus album tour, and their performance gave me the same cheated feeling that I get from these later albums. They played very little of their older material, but they found time for Maynard to stand like a statue for 15 minutes while a pre-recorded synthesizer track and light show played. Come on…

But Tool fans continue to eat this up and ask for more. Why is this? The short answer is that Tool fans are insane.

Because Tool’s music is more progressive than anything else played on the radio, their fans have deluded themselves into believing that the music is deep and intelligent. This could not be farther from the truth. Writing songs about religion, violence, sex and abuse does not put them in a terribly exclusive club.

But, because the fans have “discovered” this deep and intelligent band, they feel that they should be exclusive members of a club that should only include deep and intelligent persons such as themselves. This is personified by the Tool Army, their official fan club (toolarmy.com) which charges members fees from $40 to $99 to join. This is the ultimate indication of zealous these fans are, not to mention how the band really feels about their fans.

Of course, true fans think that they are the only ones who “get it”, and that the vast majority of other Tool fans do not “get it” and are therefore unworthy to be fans, and should not be included in the club. Of course, the sad truth is that anybody can understand Tool’s music if they step back and realize that a lot of what the band does is for their own entertainment, at the expense of people who buy their records and who pony up for concert tickets.

Anyway, step back a little and think about why you really like this band before sending me hateful e-mails. And, look at the bright side: if you are a Tool fan you are probably not a Rush fan!

Mahalo!

Rex and the Bass, Literally

Just for you, Howard…

Mahalo!

Visual Sound 1 Spot Combo Pack

Howdy!

I barely run any powered effects on my pedalboard, but I used to. That was when my Visual Sound 1 Spot Combo Pack came in handy.

If you run a large pedalboard with lots of effect pedals, you are looking at a major investment in power. Either you are maintaining a stock of 9-volt batteries (which suck the soul out of our Mother Earth), or you are buying AC adapters at 15 bucks a pop and have to lug around a power strip. Not to mention adding an arterial system of extra power cables going every which way.

I avoided both of these scenarios and bought the 1 Spot Combo Pack, which looks frickin’ amazing on paper.

The kit includes the power adapter (with a slim profile), an 8-pedal cable, two battery clip converters (for pedals that do not have power inputs, like vintage pedals), two 1/8-inch converters (again for vintage pedals) and an L6 converter for Line 6 modeling pedals. Who buys those Line 6 pedals, anyway?

The 1 Spot can power up to 8 effects with only 1 inverter/transformer, assuming your total draw is no more than 1700mA. Supposedly you can buy additional multi-plug cables to “power a virtually unlimited number of pedals!” Well, as long as you do not exceed 1700mA.

Supposedly this system will power Boss PSA, Morley, Danelectro, Dunlop, Ibanez, and Zoom pedals. I only used mine for Boss pedals and a Tech 21 VT (which is not even on this list). I never had a pedal this thing would not power.

Another of their claims is that you can use the 1 Spot “anywhere in the world without a voltage converter because it automatically converts voltage worldwide.” I have not tried the 1 Spot anywhere besides the good old USA. But, despite their assertions, I would rather trust a 9-volt battery than a wall outlet in a Moroccan pole dancing establishment.

Visual Sound’s last claim is that there is “No need to worry about AC hum coming through an adapter - the 1 SPOT is one of the quietest power sources you can buy.” I emit hi-ho hearty bullshit cough on this one. The one I got added of hum on every pedal I ever plugged into it. Every single one. My Boss adapters add no noise. Go figure.

That’s about all I have for you on this product. It did work on my pedals and I ended up with some extra noise. I never used 8 pedals, so I always had a bunch of extra plugs that had to be routed somewhere and tied off. If you look online, you will see plenty of reviews by musicians who say that their 1 Spot failed completely, and most reviewers complain of noise.

If you want to try out the Visual Sound 1 Spot Combo Pack, they are not expensive. The list price is $39.95, or you can find them online for $33.10. Or you can buy my barely used one for a little cheaper. Shoot me an e-mail if you are interested.

Mahalo!

Ernie Ball MusicMan SLO Special Stingray Bass

Como estas?

Today I have dragged out some photos of a 2009 MusicMan Stingray SLO Special bass. You may ask: “What’s so special about it?” In a nutshell, it is the neck.

The Stingray Bass has been made since 1976, with numerous improvements and refinements over the years, particularly after Ernie Ball bought MusicMan in the early 1980s. But, one thing that never changed was the neck profile.

And this was a problem for some bassists who did not care for the Stingray’s beefy P-bass neck profile. MusicMan does make the Sterling bass, which has the narrower Jazz Bass profile neck with a 1.5-inch nut. But the Sterling is a smaller bass that does not sound like a Stingray, so what to do?

How about taking a Sterling neck and putting it on the Stingray body? Wouldn’t that be special?

Well, that is exactly what they did. The named it “SLO Special” as homage to San Luis Obispo, California where MusicMan guitars and basses are built. They were introduced in 2009 with little fanfare and no advertising support, so chances are good that not many bassists even know these exist, which is a shame.

Other than the neck, everything else on the bass is pure Stingray. It has all of the high-quality appointments you would expect from MusicMan, including Schaller tuners, the solidly attached bridge, a 6-bolt neck joint, quiet electronics and tons of craftsmanship.

The SLO Special pictured here was made in 2009, and is all original. It is finished in glossy black poly (with a tort guard!) and there are no finish flaws that I could find. The neck pocket fit is very tight and the fretwork is perfect.

This one has a single humbucking pickup and the 2-band equalizer, which is my preferred configuration for the Stingray.

An unexpected surprise with this bass was that it came in at around 8 ½ pounds, which is very light for a Stingray.

I had it set up with Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinkies (.045 to .105), and it was a really smooth player but I eventually traded it off so I could get one of the new Stingray Classic models. I actually prefer the beefier neck of the regular Stingrays…

If you want to buy one of these new, you had better start saving up. New Stingrays have a list price of $2300 and a street price of $1645. Or if you are not super picky about condition, you can buy them used on eBay all day long for $900.

Mahalo!