1982 Takamine F369 Acoustic Guitar Review

Hiya!

It seems like I have been on a Takamine lawsuit guitar kick the past few months, but I have seen quite a few of them lately. But, today we are looking at an F369, which is a very rare bird – in fact, this is the only one of these I have ever seen.

Takamine is a Japanese guitar maker that has been in business for over 50 years now. They have started building guitars in other countries, but all of their high-end guitars still come from the land of the rising sun. Don’t sniff at their products and say that imports are junk, because they build some fantastic acoustic and acoustic-electric steel string guitars. By the way, the company is named after Mount Takamine in the Gifu Prefecture of Japan. Over the years I have owned and played many of these Japanese-made Takamine acoustic guitars and have found nothing to gripe about with their craftsmanship, playability or tone.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, this company became famous (or notorious) for building righteous Martin guitar copies that earned them a strongly-worded memo from the Martin legal department. Today we are looking at one of these animals: a 1982 F-369.

The F-369 would be a shameless copy of a Martin dreadnought, if Martin sold all-rosewood guitars. They went whole-hog on their reproduction, even using Martin’s headstock shape and logo script. I can see why Martin was upset, particularly when you consider that this is a nice guitar, and surely provided unwanted competition for a fraction of the price. This would be a lawsuit guitar, if a lawsuit had ever been filed.

The body has the traditional dreadnought size and shape, with 14 frets free from the body. This one has an East Indian rosewood body, back, AND TOP! There is no S or SS in the model name, which is usually (but not always) the designation of a solid wood instrument in the Takamine world, but this one appears to be made of solid wood. Who knows, and actually who cares at this point? It is a nice-sounding guitar.

The body has a multi-ply binding around the top and back while the neck is not bound at all. The rosette is elegant, and combined with the black pickguard and the ebony bridge it fits in well with the visual theme of the guitar.

The mahogany neck has 20 chunky frets, and they are skillfully sunk into the rosewood fretboard. The peghead has chrome-plated sealed tuners, probably made by Gotoh. This Takamine shares Martin’s 1 11/16-inch nut, and 25 ¼-inch scale. The fretboard is a bit more curvy with a 12-inch radius, instead of 16-inch.

This guitar was unsold new old stock, so the condition of this F-369 is fantastic, particularly for a 32 year old guitar. There is no wear to the original frets, no cracks or evidence of repairs, and no dings or scratches. It is a real time capsule!

After a quick set-up with new light gauge strings, I have to say that this Takamine is really a winner. It is not terribly powerful, but it has a sweet sound with fabulous overtones. The volume is well balanced from string to string.

The frets are level, and it is a very easy-playing guitar with no fret buzz. It is not super-good for fingerstyle, but it is still a fabulous instrument and it would be terrific for a beginner or intermediate player. By the way, it weighs in at around 4 pounds, 12 ounces, in case that makes a difference to you.

If you are looking for one of these guitars, remember that they are all over 30 years old now, so you should look it over carefully or have a luthier check it out. Just look for the usual stuff: bridge lift, cracks, evidence of previous repairs, and fret wear.

But, good luck with finding one! As I said earlier, this is the only one I have ever seen…

Mahalo!

Billy Jones Bluez – I’m a Bluesman Album Review

Good day!

This CD review was originally published in the August 1, 2013 edition of Blues Blast Magazine. Be sure to check out the rest of the magazine at thebluesblast.com

Billy Jones Bluez – I’m a Bluesman

Self release through American Blues Recording Company

http://www.myspace.com/billyjonesbluez

7 tracks / 34:12

Blues music does not have to come out of Chicago, Memphis or the delta, and I am reminded of this as I listen to Billy Jones Bluez’s latest CD, I’m a Bluesman. Billy Jones hails from North Little Rock, Arkansas, which I had never even considered as being a hotbed of blues music.

Billy Jones has long been a bluesman, having been exposed to the blues as a boy at his grandfather’s café and at a nearby juke joint. He was inspired to be like Elmore James and B.B. King, and by the time he was in his early teens he was quite a guitar player. He went on the road at the age of 14 and has not stopped since, playing all over the US and Europe.

His newest CD is a short one, coming in at a little over a half hour. There are seven tracks, including one cover and six original songs. Billy takes care of the guitars and vocals, and he is joined by Corey Bray on keyboards, Derrick Kendricks and Palmalee Byrd on bass and Rickey Martin and Reginald Hammeth on the skins.

I’m a Bluesman kicks off with its only cover tune, “The Iceman,” which is a modern interpretation of Big Joe Turner’s “Ice Man Blues.” This is a fun song with an easygoing vibe, and Billy’s voice and guitar playing are smooth and restrained. Bray has good keyboard skills, and his playing helps fill in the spaces in this well done piece.

After this, you will see that Billy is comfortable enough with his writing and playing that he does not need to be shoehorned into any one genre. “I’m Yo’ Freak” has a funky hip-hop beat that is dominated with 1970s synthesizers and heavily distorted guitars. He keeps this funky vibe for “Nothing But The Blues” but the music is harder-edged with more modern keyboard samples and rocking guitar parts. This song has classic blues lyrics and structures, but he has evolved it into something totally different.

“I’m a Bluesman” is a more traditional blues rocker with a dance beat, neat doubled guitar parts and Hammond B3 samples. This title track is the longest song on the album and there is a cool jam in the middle where it sounds like there are five layers of guitars stacked up.

Billy Jones gets back to more traditional blues for “Do Right Baby” which has some fantastic guitar tone over an assortment of different synthesizer sounds. There is a slow rolling 12-bar blues base to this one, and the lyrics include one of the coolest lines ever: “You gonna have to run off and join the circus, baby, if you’re looking for a clown.” This song fades out while he is still singing, which is an interesting choice as blues songs usually have a distinct conclusion.

There are synthesized strings and heavy organ work on “Love Nobody Else,” which ends up with a Latin nightclub flair as Billy channels his inner Carlos Santana. His voice works well with this genre too, and his guitar work is smoking hot. This mood carries over to the final song on the album, “You and Me.” His guitar playing on this one crosses over from Santana to Prince, and Corey Bray does a great imitation of Jan Hammer on the keyboards.

Billy Jones’ I’m a Bluesman is an interesting piece of work, and shows that he has solid writing, performance and production skills. If you choose to seek it out you will find it is not in a traditional blues form, but it is still fun music to listen to. He performs regularly throughout the Midwest, and I think it would be a kick to check out one of his shows.

Mahalo!

Youth Orchestra LA (YOLA)

Hello!

If you watch the news, it is usually a big time bummer, but there are still plenty of good things that happen out there in our world. One of these is the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Youth Orchestra LA (YOLA) program.

YOLA was started by the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s musical director, Gustavo Dudamel, and it is based on El Sistema, the Venezuelan program that nurtured his musical career. The Phil and its community partners provide music education and training, as well as educational assistance to students from underserved neighborhoods. I am a believer in the power of music, and know that this type of approach will foster inclusiveness and help kids grow into thinkers and leaders, all while helping to change our neighborhoods for the better.

The biggest and most accessible component of the organization is the YOLA Neighborhood Project (YNP), whose goal is to improve the community through universal access to music. The YNP is a multi-pronged approach, which encourages local students to join YOLA, while parent ensembles provide families with the opportunity to learn music. As a part of the program, LA Philharmonic neighborhood concerts allow thousands of residents to see one of the world's greatest orchestras at no cost to them. The highlight of the YNP is the annual joint performance of over 1,000 students from partner schools and YOLA.

There are also three YOLA programs that support over 600 Southland students:

-- YOLA at EXPO Center in South Los Angeles includes three orchestras, a preschool, mentorship, group lessons, chamber music and parent ensembles. Students attend four days each week and they perform annually at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and regularly at the Hollywood Bowl. ‘

-- YOLA at HOLA (Heart of Los Angeles) is in the Rampart District, and it provides after-school orchestral instruction five days a week. Their activities include music creativity, singing, ensemble rehearsals, and an hour of academic tutoring daily.

-- YOLA at LACHSA (Los Angeles County High School for the Arts) is located on the campus of California State University, Los Angeles. This is a high-intensity guarantees that each student receives at least 15 hours of musical instruction and academic tutoring per week.

Programs like Youth Orchestra LA help give me hope for our future, and I hope you get the chance to check out the results of their efforts. By the way, in the US there are now around 100 El Sistema inspired music education programs, so chanced are good that there is one near you. Please help them out if you can.

Mahalo!

2000 Ernie Ball MusicMan Stingray 5 Bass Review

Greetings!

Today we are looking a fantastic bass I found on the wall at my local Guitar Center, and at a really good price – a 2000 Ernie Ball Musicman Stingray 5.

Ernie Ball started building fivers in 1988, and they have gone on to become the best selling 5-string basses ever made. It seems like every country bassist I have ever seen on stage has a one of these. They have a relatively narrow (17.5mm) string spacing, so the neck is not too wide. Originally only available with a single humbucking pickup, Stingray 5s can now also be had with 2 humbuckers or a humbucker and a single coil. You can even throw in a piezo bridge and go fretless if you want to.

This one is a plain-Jane single humbucker bass, and it rocks. It looks to have been hardly played at all over the past 14 years, and the glossy Trans Teal poly finish is in great shape.

It is all original, including the kick-ass hardware, which includes a six-bolt neck joint, a high mass bridge (bolted AND screwed to the body) and Schaller tuners. This was made before the age of compensated nuts, so it did not get one. Do you really need a compensated nut on a bass?

The electronics are the stock ceramic pickup (alnico was used until 1991 and after 2008), with a 3-way selector switch. The positions are: series, single coil (closest to the bridge) and parallel. I am a big fan of the parallel mode. The knobs include the volume control and a three-band equalizer.

After I got it home, I cleaned it and installed new strings and it is a fantastic bass. After more than a decade the 22 frets are still level and the finish shines like new. I like the feel of their gunstock oil necks and this one is no exception. The electronics have no hum, and I really like the tone of this instrument, as it really cuts through the mix. It is pretty much a winner! It is a tad heavy at 10 pounds, 8 ounces, but that is the way it seems to go with these.

Ernie Ball is a fabulous company that still makes their instrument in San Luis Obispo, California, so you are going to pay a bit more to get the Cadillac of 5-string basses. The cheapest ones available have a list price of $2350, and a street price of $1645. Shop around a bit if you want to pick one of these up new.

Of course, my track record with 5-string basses has been terrible. Most do not stick around for more than a month or two, but I am going to give this one the old college try, and it is a great playing bass. We’ll see if this one makes it until my 3rd quarter inventory update.

Mahalo!

1997 Sadowsky Standard J Bass Review

Hi there!

Today we are looking at a gorgeous Sadowsky NYC Modern 4-string bass guitar. It has to be one of the nicest basses I have ever owned, and that is saying something as a lot of instruments have come through the studio over the years.

Sadowsky NYC basses are built in New York City by Roger Sadowsky’s luthiers, and are the best Fender-inspired guitars and basses you can buy. Some haters (i.e. guys without enough money to buy one) sneer and call them “parts basses.” They should go buy a box of parts and see how well they can build one…

This bass was made in 1997 and it still in exceptional condition. I love burst finishes, and this one has a perfectly sprayed ’59 Sunburst poly on its alder body and it looks wonderful especially as their Standard series basses do not come with a pickguard. It is not chambered but it is not heavy, coming in around 8 pounds, 12 ounces.

This bass has a traditional four-bolt neck and the neck pocket fit is super-tight, and after 16 years of use and transportation there are no signs of finish damage (i.e. cracking) around the joint. The Sadowsky luthiers really do a fantastic job.

The 21-fret neck is very good, and the original frets are still in great shape. The frets are perfectly level and are finished very well on the edges. It has a 1.5-inch wide neck and has a 12-inch radius on the pau ferro fretboard. The trussrod adjusts at the heel, and there is a nice cutout in the body and pickguard, making the process a little easier (newer Sadowsky instruments use a truss rod wheel). The tuners are first rate, as is the high-mass bridge.

This bass still has its original pickups and Sadowsky pre-amp -- this was made before Vintage Tone Control. The knobs control: volume, pickup pan, bass boost and treble boost. There is a separate mini switch to switch from active to passive. Overall this bass is astoundingly quiet, and sounds flawless. It is versatile, and can attain high-gain growliness and ultra clean tones.

The overall condition of this bass is very good with only a few light dings and no fretwear. It plays well and sounds killer, and is probably the best bolt-neck bass you can buy. Unfortunately I am way overloaded with basses right now, so it is on loan to a friend in Texas. I will surely be re-united with it someday, one way or another.

If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up. But now is the time to start saving -- a Sadowsky Standard 4 starts at around $4000, and it will take at least 6 months to get it built. Be patient!

Mahalo!

Sennheiser HD 229 Headphones Review

Howdy!

Ear buds are the most convenient way to take your sound with you, but they can be uncomfortable, especially for extended trips. But there are some nice options for lightweight over the ear headphones, such as the industry standard Koss Portapros. I recently picked up a pair of Sennheiser HD 229 cans, and they are working out to be a good compromise for travel. I already own a few pairs of Sennheiser phones – the HD 280 and HD 380 models, and they are really a phenomenal value.

The HD 228 headphones have a compact over-the-ear design, and fold flat to make them a little more portable for travel. They are available in black and red or white and orange, and come with a 1/8-inch (3.5mm) jack on the end of a 4.5 foot (1.4-meter) single-sided cable. It does not look like the cable or the vinyl ear pieces are replaceable, so these will not last for the rest of your life.

These cans are very lightweight, and with the padded headband and swiveling ear cups they are super comfortable. They are springy enough to stay on at the gym or while walking, but not so tight that they hurt. I have worn these for hours on end with no problems.

Neodymium magnets are used for higher output, and specs-wise, there is nothing unusual going on with these dynamic headphones. They have a frequency response of 18, 000 to 22, 000 Hz and they are capable of putting out 110 dB. Total harmonic distortion is supposed to be less than 0.5% with 100 dB at 1000Hz. These phones have 16 Ω of resistance, so they are loud enough for travel, (32 ohms is as high as I would want to go with headphones for an iPod).

I have burned them in for around 100 hours, and they loosened up quite a bit and sound much better than they did out of the box. I use them or traveling on planes and at the gym, and though they do not have big ear cups, they provide pretty good isolation and not much leakage to annoy my neighbors.

Sennheiser says that the HD 229 phones “provide excellent bass performance” and are “optimized for iPod, iPhone, MP3 and CD players.” Well, they sound good with my iPod and my laptop, but I would not say the bass performance is excellent. I did try them with a few different headphone amplifiers and they really perked up, but that is not really the sort of use these phones were designed for.

They do, however, have a nice crisp tone with good enough bass. I hear some mid-range resonance, and they are not nearly as good as any of my over the ear Sennheisers, but they were never supposed to be as good. The HD 229s are cheaper, more portable phones so I did not expect miracles. All-in-all, they are a good value.

By the way, avoid the white ones like the plague. The ear cups get dirty and do not clean up well, and the plastic turns yellow, so they look nasty in less than a year. I made this mistake with some closeout HD 228 phones that I bought a few years back, and am not going there again.

The Sennheiser HD 229 headphones have a list price of $79.95 and they sell for around 40 bucks on Amazon. For the price range and portability they are very good, but if you want heavy sound, spend another 50 bucks and get a pair of HD 228 Pro headphones (but they will be bigger). But, if you crave portability and comfort, these are a great value.

Mahalo!

Snapz Acoustic Guitar Bridge Pin Puller Review

Hi!

There are a lot of ways to pull stuck bridge pins from acoustic guitars, and many of them involve misusing tools that were designed for another purpose, as well as the possibility of damaging the instrument or the pin. There are a few different tools out there that are specifically designed for this task, and the Snapz bridge pin puller is one of my favorites.

This tool is very easy to use:

1) Slide grip ring up so the jaws can move

2) Press tip down onto bridge pin so the jaws will open up and pop over the end of the pin

3) Slide grip ring down to lock the jaws into place

4) Pull on the handle to remove the pin

And that is it! The Snapz bridge pin puller is made of plastic, so it is a lot less likely to damage your bridge and your wood, plastic or bone bridge pins. A friend of mine said it seems kind of cheap since it was made of plastic, and that he would rather have one made of metal, but that seems like a bad idea to me. They makes things like chisels and files out of metal, and I would rather minimize the exposure of my delicate wooden instruments to such things.

An added bonus is that the pin is held captive by the tool, so it is less likely to fly off under a workbench or into a dark corner when it finally pops loose.

These things are cheap enough that I bought a couple of them so I could have them at home and in my emergency kit. It is better to be safe than sorry, and I would rather have one of these with me than having to resort to a pair of pliers in an emergency.

If you are thinking of picking up a Snapz bridge pin puller, make sure you shop around. I found them for $7.50 from Stewart MacDonald and Amazon (plus $6 shipping!) or $10 from Allparts. It really is a neat tool, and you should try one!

Mahalo!