guitar stuff

New Gear Day & Review: Korg Pitchblack+ Tuner

Mario — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 11:08:22 +0000

I spent the last few weeks reassessing what’s on my pedal board and made some decisions that led me to replace stompboxes I’ve had for the most part of this year. The first was my tuner – I was quite alright using a Planet Waves CT-04 for over a year but it’s tuning accuracy [...]

2009: What’s going on…

Mario — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:23:31 +0000

Now that I’m back online after a while, I owe visitors and readers an update on what’s up with the site. The hosting migration took place like clockwork but I did not get time to post confirmation or do much after that. 2008 was an interesting and trying year, that kept me from revamping/updating my [...]

Web hosting migration this week

Mario — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 09:46:31 +0000

I’ve been hosting my websites at Godaddy for over 4 years and things were going well until I ran into performance and configuration issues this year. I was reasonable and tried working with them from March, but finally gave up last month when they jerked me around for requesting a downgrade until they resolve all [...]

Breaking the silence

Mario — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:47:10 +0000

I’ve been busy the last two months looking for work and working on my tone for a demo I’m recording, hence the silence. However, I’m back for a while and will continue developing the site and making it as informative as it used to be. Over the next few months there will be lessons, exercises, [...]

For Sale: Pickups and Pedals

Mario — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:58:03 +0000

With the number of visitors here I decided to list the stuff I’m clearing out, all in excellent condition: 1. Boss MT-2 Metal Zone (with Monte Allums Sustainia & Tri-Gain mods) – Sold 2. Boss DS-1 Distortion (with Rectifier mod from Monte Allums) – Sold 3. Boss CS-3 Compression Sustainer (with Monte Allums Opto Plus mod) – Sold 4. [...]

Pickup upgrade for my Jackson JS30

Mario — Sat, 24 May 2008 22:27:23 +0000

Last week I decided to play around with the JS30 by throwing in the stock DiMarzio humbuckers from my RG2550E. I wasn’t very excited about how these pickups sounded in the RG so I didn’t expect much. It would obviously sound different in the JS30’s alder body (as opposed to the RG’s basswood) but [...]

Custom Ibanez RG2550E all set up!!

Mario — Sat, 17 May 2008 16:52:04 +0000

Last weekend all major changes to the RG2550 were complete but it took some tweaking during the week to perfect the setup for my style of playing. Overall, I’d say it’s as good, if not better than many £1500 guitars out there – glad I didn’t spend that kind of money on a JP6/JS1000 [...]

Customizing my Ibanez Prestige RG2550

Mario — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:27:53 +0000

A list of mods planned for my Ibanez RG2550E, parts have arrived but I need a whole day to complete the work and get the guitar fully set up. 1. New pickups: Been testing many pickups since the guitar arrived and will settle on something soon. I’m convinced about the Evolution neck and I’m removing [...]

DiMarzio Tone Zone and Blue Velvet

Mario — Thu, 01 May 2008 22:54:24 +0000

Both pickups arrived yesterday so I took them for a spin and the Tone Zone sounded so much better than all the demos I’ve heard of it. While it doesn’t look as cool as the other DiMarzios I own it certainly lives up to it’s name. The Tone Zone nails everything from classic [...]

Jackson DK2M vs. Ibanez RG1570 vs. Ibanez RG2550E (Part III)

Mario — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:50:20 +0000

Ibanez RG2550E Galaxy Black: Since I have already talked a bit about the RG2550E-GK here, I’m going to make this a quick subjective review about why this guitar was worth every £ I spent on it. What I liked (besides the great build quality): - Perfect fretwork: Supposedly same frets as the RG1570 but for some reason this [...]