Epiphone Joe Perry Boneyard Les Paul

Aloha!

I am as much of a guitar snob as the next guy and am often quick to sniff at a cheap instrument and buy something more expensive on general principle, but this imported Epiphone is no joke. Today’s pick is the Joe Perry Epiphone Boneyard model which was introduced in 2004, and were discontinued a few years ago.

Joe Perry is an American icon and guitar hero (to me, anyway), and I’ve had a couple of his Gibson signature models over the years. But when I saw his Boneyard Epiphone back in 2005 I had to head down to Guitar Center and try one out.

And I was amazed, especially when comparing it to the guitars that Gibson is crapping out of its American division.

You can see that the Boneyard is a Les Paul model, with its traditional body shape and layout of components. And it is a distinctive-looking Les Paul with a super-flamed out tiger maple top that has been tinted orange-y to really bring out the grain.

The list of specs for this guitar is as impressive as its top. It has a mahogany body and neck that have both been finished in satin black. The rosewood fretboard has trapezoidal inlays and the same cream-colored binding as the body. The tuners are Epiphone-marked Kluson replicas, and the bridge is standard Les Paul fare. And check out that juvenile Boneyard logo on the headstock!

They did not bother to include a pickguard with these, which was probably the right choice given the looks of this guitar.

The electronics are a step beyond what you would find on other Epiphones, as they installed Gibson USA Burstbuckers on the Boneyard. They chose to put a model 2 in the rhythm position and a more gnarly model 3 at the bridge. An extra-cool feature is if you put that orange pickup selector tip in the middle position (both pickups on) you will find that the pickups are wired out of phase (ala Peter Green)

This is a solid collection of parts, and Epiphone’s Chinese factory did a fab job of sticking them together. I am continually astonished that the public continues buying $2500 Gibson Les Pauls with lumpy fretboards and hillbilly smile frets when there are much better alternatives out there for less money.

This Boneyard had a fantastic neck with perfect frets and a pretty low action right out of the box. It has a C profile and its thickness is right in the middle between the 50’s and 60’s neck profiles that are so popular. This translates into a lot smoother playing experience for me, which is worth a bunch because I am a horrible guitarist.

The tone is killer if you are looking for the classic blues/rock sound, especially with the selector in the middle position. The out of phase Burstbuckers are just magical in this guitar. It has more of a processed sound than I was expecting in the middle position, almost like there is a wah or phaser in the loop. The other positions provide traditional Les Paul sounds, so you can get plenty of overdrive and crunch.

This one is pretty light for a Les Paul, coming in just a hair over 8 pounds, which is lighter than the Telecaster I am playing right now. Then again, maybe that says more about how ungodly heavy my Telecaster is.

When the Epiphone Boneyard guitars were new their street price was around $700 (with no case), which is pricy for an Epiphone Les Paul. But, as I said earlier, these guitars were discontinued, and they seem to be very hard to find now. I have not seen any pop up on eBay recently, so the guys that bought them must be holding on to them.

Mahalo!

Kala Tenor Ukulele KA-JTE-M

Hiya!

Today we are looking at a super Kala KA-JTE-Mahogany tenor archtop ukulele. This is a pretty rare one in the now-discontinued clear mahogany finish. Most of these you see are finished in various burst colors or are black.

I am impressed by the sound and the build quality of this ukulele, and even more by the price, which is quite reasonable.

It is a pleasant-looking ukulele, with a glossy clear finish, and classy mother-of-pearl body and fretboard binding. There is a cute mother-of-pearl palm tree inlay on the fretboard too.

The back and sides are mahogany and the spruce top is tinted to match. The neck appears to be mahogany and it has a rosewood fretboard.

The sealed tuners are nice quality and hold well. The bridge is made of rosewood with a synthetic saddle.

This model comes standard with the Shadow P3 pickup with volume and tone controls. The electronics are quiet and reproduce the uke’s sounds accurately.

The workmanship on this one is good: all of the joints are solid, and the fretwork is nice. The frets are level and the edges are neat.

It is nice and light, weighing in at a featherweight 1 pound, 11 ounces according to my scale.

So, overall it is a nicely-made ukulele that is made with solid materials. But, it sounds good and plays well too! It has a sweet, balanced tone. Due to the f-holes it has a little less volume than a conventional ukulele, but it still has some good low-end tone. It is pleasant to play, and would be great to gig with if you plug it in.

The MSRP on these is $395, with a street price of about $277. You will not find a better electric ukulele for the money.

Mahalo!

Bass Amplifier Thoughts

Hello!

I am as guilty as most when it comes to searching for the perfect tone from my bass amplifiers. My experiments over the past 25 years of this have resulted in dozens of different rig changes from tube to solid state to hybrid, to all different sizes and types of drivers/cabinets, and lots of effects pedals. But I think I have finally become more realistic about what to expect.

This is probably because during the past year I have started to do more work as a sound man. From what I have seen, it does not make a ton of difference what bass amplifier is being used as long as it is loud and clean.


A friend of mine recently summed up the situation perfectly:

”I think testing amps and tone on their own is pure wankery. It's really all about how your sound sits in the mix with everything else. Nice heavy bass sound with an improperly tuned bass drum? Mud. Instant mud. Likewise if you've got a keyboard player with a severe over affection for his left hand.

If you want to sound great with the band, you have to consider your sound as part of the whole.”

And it is true, you can agonize over your tone all you want, but just because it sounds good in the store is no guarantee that it work on stage. Maybe you should agonize over whether you can haul it up two flights of stairs, or if your amp is going to shut down when it gets hot because it is too old or too temperamental (i.e. made in Italy).

Plus, remember that if you are playing at a big enough venue, your bass signal is going directly into the board and are your tone is going to be at the mercy of the sound man anyway.

So, my advice is to get a reliable set-up that puts out tons of power, and is light enough that you can lug it to the gig from the parking lot 2 blocks away. Of course, if you are just going to play it at home, you should find what sounds best for you, and maybe that 8x10 cabinet is perfect for you.

Anyway, feel free to turn up the fire and send me some hate mail, my tube amp aficionado friends…

Mahalo!

1982 Fender JV Precision Bass

Aloha!

This 1982 JV Fender has become my new #1 bass, usurping my 1983 black JV Precision Bass.

Perhaps I had better explain the whole JV thing. JV stands for “Japanese Vintage”, and was the serial number prefix for these instruments. This was the first series of guitars that were built for Fender in Japanese factories, and they were produced between 1982 and 1984.

These instruments were constructed at the Fuji Gen-Gakki factory in Matsumoto, Japan. This was the same factory that was building Ibanez and Greco guitars.

The JV-series instruments have become very collectible, and were built using the original blueprints to be authentic replicas of pre-CBS Fender models. They got the full treatment, including vintage-style tuners and cloth covered harnesses, as well as the original body contours and neck radii.

Our subject bass today is a non-export JV Precision Bass, model PB57-95. You can decipher the model number pretty easily: PB = Precision Bass, 57 = 1957 reissue, 95 = 95,000YEN (original price). There was also a cheaper model, the PB-57-70 (70,000YEN) , which I have a couple examples of. I imported it from Japan a while back, and it was original meant for the Japanese market.

The PB57-95 has a few improvements over the PB57-70. These include US pickups and pots, as well as the anodized pickguard. You have to get something for 25,000YEN.

This bass is finished in 2-tone sunburst with a maple fretboard. put the US made Fenders of the time to shame, and therefore were not imported to the United States. I brought this example back from Japan on one of my business trips.

The finish is original, and it shows a lot of wear, especially some buckle scars on the back. But, it is a true relic, showing 29 years of honest wear, and not some guy’s contrived idea of what a “relic” should look like.

It has the original electronics, and I must say, I love the cloth-covered wiring.

The neck is very nice. The vintage-style reverse tuners work fine, none are bent and they do not bind. The frets are good, with some wear, but there are still years of life left in the frets. The neck is true, and the truss rod works freely. There were some marks on the back of the neck, but my tech sanded them down, and it feels great. At the same time he replaced the truss rod nut, as it was kind of chewed up.

I think the bass is unmodified, with the exception of the knobs. These basses usually came with cheesy looking knobs, and these look a step nicer.

The serial number is JV04085, with a neck date of 6/22/82. This is only two months after the beginning of JV production. It is fairly light, coming in at around 8 pounds, 11 ounces, according to my scale.

It plays very well, and my guitar tech with La Bella Jamerson flats and it sounds killer.

When plucking the open strings with the bass unplugged the tone is rich and there is a strong resonance. Playing unplugged there is no buzz at all, even though the action is low. The strings are big (.011 to .052) so they require a little more strength to play, but they are still very comfortable.

Plugged the bass in tone is relatively bright, because these are relatively new strings , but they will darken up as time goes on and provide the thumpy tone of the 1960s that everybody and their brother is looking for.

I might be selling the black 1983 JV Precision Bass, so drop me a line if you are interested. It is a peach too!

Mahalo!

2003 Gibson SG Standard Guitar

Hiya!

Holy cow, a Gibson with a decent neck! I’ve seen (and bought) a seemingly endless procession of Gibson guitars with crappy fretwork and bum necks, so finding this SG is a treat.

It is a crying shame that people continue to buy Gibsons for thousands of dollars that need fret jobs or fretboard planning right out of the box. I can only figure that most of them never get played very much.

Anyway, the Gibson SG is a classic guitar that was introduced in 1961 as a cheaper version of the Les Paul. It has not really changed much over the years, and to be honest I think they play a bit better (easier) than the Les Paul models.

This unmodified example is an SG Standard that was built in July of 2003, and is finished in glossy black over its mahogany body and neck. It has chrome hardware, including Gibson Deluxe tuners and a Tune-o-matic bridge with a stopbar tailpiece.

The humbucker pickups are a 490R at the neck and a 498T at the bridge. They are wired in the typical Les Paul fashion: two volume and two tone pots with a 3-way selector switch.

As I said before, the neck is what makes this SG so good. It is a standard scale (24.75-inch) neck, with a bound rosewood fretboard and trapezoidal inlays. BTW, the only time I ever use the word “trapezoidal” is when I talk about Gibson guitars. Anyway, they got this one right. The fretboard is true, and the frets are dead nuts level. The fret edges are smooth as silk, and the action is low and buzz free.

And lastly, this one comes in at around 7 pounds. This is a real blessing for any of you out there that have grown used to 11 pound Les Pauls. It almost feels like a toy in comparison.

The moral of this story is that there are still some good Gibsons out there, but they are few and far between -- always try before you buy.

Mahalo!

ESP Vintage 4 Bass

Howdy!

Today we are looking at the ESP Vintage 4 bass guitar. The Vintage series was introduced in 2007, and has not been a very hot seller for the company.

I reviewed the Vintage Plus strat a few months ago and ground it about the overdone phony relic look. There is the same concern about the Vintage 4, but the appearance is the only major gripe I have as it is still a great bass.

For starters, this is a real live ESP bass, not an LTD model that was made by craftsmen in Japan, not by little kids in some third world country. And every ESP bass (or guitar) I’ve had has been a great player with no cosmetic or functional flaws.

And the Vintage 4 is no exception, this is a super smooth-playing bass, and the build quality is first rate. The neck is spot on, with perfect fretwork, and a great action right out of the back.

The body is alder, and has a traditional Precision Bass shape. As I said, it has a relic look, which some genius in the design department decided to cover in clear lacquer. It looks horrible.

The hardware is very good, with a Gotoh high-mass bridge and vintage-look tuners. ESP has carried over the trussrod adjustment at the base of the neck, with no cutout in the pickguard to access it. Again, pure genius.

The maple neck also gets the relic treatment, but it is very cozy. I like the ESP inlay at the 12th fret, which hearkens back to the ESP 400 models that inspired this bass.

The electronics are first-rate, as ESP sourced Seymour Duncan P and J pickups. The wiring and joints are very neat, and the cavity is nicely coated. The controls are two volume pots and a master tone control.

The Vintage 4’s electronics work well, too, but then again I have always been a sucker for PJ-equipped basses. I find it easy to get any tone from Motown thump to gnarly loud fingerstyle, and everything in between. This bass can do most anything you need from a 4-string bass, if you can get past the way it looks.

These basses ship in a black ESP deluxe tolex hardshell case, which is to be expected at this price. And that price is the final deal-killer for me.

As you may know, the dollar has been weak for a long time, and ESP needs a lot more dollars to make the same amount of Yen. The list price for the ESP Vintage 4 bass is a nut-shrinking $2499, and I did not see new ones for any less than $1499 online. That is Sadowsky Metro series money, so you can see why ESP is having some trouble moving these. There are a lot better values for your money at this price point if you want to buy something new.

Mahalo!

Jodix WMA to MP3 Converter Freeware

Good day!

Should you ever need to convert .wma files to .mp3 format, you do not have to purchase expensive and/or complicated software. Jodix.com has a great freeware program that is easy to use, and will convert all Windows Media formats, including .wma, .wmv, and .asf.

The trickiest part is figuring out what file to download from the jodix.com website. There are a lot of Google ads with hyperlinks that will take you to other websites with .wma converters that cost money. Just click on the link on the left side of the page under the Freeware header.

After completing the install, the process is easy. There is good support in the help section of the program if you get stuck. Here is a quick tutorial (pretty much lifted from the help section):

Step 1: Add one or multiple Windows Media files to convert by clicking the Add Files icon.

Step 2: After adding files, you can modify MP3 settings and edit ID3 tag (if you wish). The ID3 tag can be derived from the input file automatically.

Step 3: Repeat step 1 and step 2 to add more files.

Step 4: click the Start icon to start the conversion process.

That is about it. Pretty easy, huh? I see that Jodix has a few other freeware conversion programs on their website, so I will have to give those a try and let you know if I find anything helpful

Mahalo!