Tag: guitar

Gretsch g5420t Electromatic versus Ibanez AS53 TF Hollow Body Guitar

Ibanez AS53-TF Hollow Body Guitar

Gretsch g5420t Electromatic versus the Ibanez AS53 TF Hollow Body Guitar. I decided to sell my Gretsch g5420t Electromatic after owning it for six years. Not because I don’t like it but because I am not playing it much. It is a great guitar, has got a great tone but it was, most of the time, “collecting dust” in my studio.

Since I was looking for a smaller, thinner, more lightweight guitar I decided to sell the Gretsch g5420t Electromatic. But before it was  shipped out I wanted to do a final review video about it. Hopefully the new owner will use it as it’s intended to be used: “play it day and night!”. In this video I do some clean playing (chords, lead) and some distortion leads.

Below the video of the Gretsch g5420t Electromatic there’s a video of the new Ibanez AS53 TF Hollow Body Guitar. Of course two different beasts! And there are differences in sound. The Gretsch is fuller sounding but a heavy, big, beast. I was looking for something smaller and more lightweight. The Ibanez really fits the bill for me.

Gretsch g5420t Electromatic

Guitar Amp: Fame Vintage Line GX15R Combo

Ibanez AS53-TF Artcore hollowbody

Guitar Amp: Fame Vintage Line GX15R Combo

Lead and rhythm guitar, clean settings. Bass, Mid & Treble all center. Some parts with a little reverb, some parts with some additional gain for distortion.

The Ibanez AS53-TF Artcore hollowbody is a semi-hollow guitar made in Indonesia. Great tone, low action (out of the box). The nyatoh neck is fast and comfortable to play.

Standard strings included are substandard. In this video I use the guitar as it came, with the strings that were on it. This guitar is not, as many of it’s competitors, build in China! It has a very nice, rich, tone and the playability is, for me, great. The tuners keep the guitar in tune, but you might want to upgrade – I probably will later on and will probably choose black tuners, btw. Sine I think that looks a lot better on this guitar.

The guitar was bought online at BAX (https://www.bax-shop.nl/​). Good shopping experience, fast delivery. I normally buy at Thomann when I buy guitars online but they were out of stock so I opted for BAX. First time I bought a guitar there and the overall experience was good.

Specifications:
neck type: AS Artcore Nyatoh Set-in neck
top/back/side: Sapele top Sapele backSapele sides
fretboard: Bound Laurel fretboardWhite dot inlay
fret: Medium frets
number of frets: 22
bridge: ART-ST bridge
string space: 10.4mm
tailpiece: ART-ST
neck pickup: Infinity R (H) neck pickupPassive/Ceramic
bridge pickup: Infinity R (H) bridge pickupPassive/Ceramic
string gauge: .010/.013/.017/.030/.042/.052
nut: Plastic
hardware: Chrome

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Don’t Say We’re Over. Out now on Spotify!

Don't Say We're Over Album pre-releaseIt’s here! Don’t Say We’re Over has been officially released this week and is now available on Spotify and other online streaming services! Of course it is also still available on BandCamp since that’s where we have made our complete (back) catalogue available.

The official album release was done trough Amuse. We are considering re-releasing some older albums trough Amuse also, making them available (again) to the public trough services like Spotify and Amazon Music. Our experiences with DistroKid were fine so far but didn’t turn out to be successful in terms of sales. So we’re giving Amuse a try for distribution! So far, so good! Amuse has delivered the album to all platforms we’ve opted for and all went perfectly well.

Download or stream from BandCamp
https://barkingaunts.bandcamp.com/album/dont-say-were-over-2

Listen for free at Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/0tLnwkIbovvo0fAXgWWgQy

 

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Lottery Tickets, aren’t they cool?

Lottery Ticket, You’re so cool – You keep me dreaming, One Day Soon – I’m nobody’s fool!

Isn’t that what we all dream about? To say to the boss “I’m out of here”? To tell the landlord we’re moving out because we’ve bought a house ten times bigger than he has? And drive over to the new house in a brand new car?

Last week I heard an interview on the radio about the lottery – it inspired me to write this upbeat “Rock and Roll”  song. Just imagine what you could do only if.. – that’s a big IF of course. So many people hope for this big break. And some keep on hoping, all of their life. Gambling, big or small, is a big issue in society these days. Well, in fact it has been for centuries. Many songs were written about it. Here’s my take on this.

Song details
Recorded at the ZolderStudio (LoftStudio) home recording studio.
Words & Music 2019 (c)Rudy Brinkan/Solid Rock Blues Band

Drums & Bass – Digitecht Trio
Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Harp, Vocals: Rudy

 

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New EP Released: Morning Ritual (free single download)

A brand new EP by the Solid Rock Blues Band has been released today on ReverbNation, BandCamp and SoundCloud.

We’re moving! Moving to a new house and this also means: a new studio! To mark this big change here’s the last production ever made in the old “Loft Studio” – our brand new EP “Morning Ritual”. The album includes four blues, country and rock inspired original songs.

The Title Track, “Morning Ritual” can be downloaded for free at SoundCloud. But if you’re willing to support independent music, please consider downloading the full album (EP) from BandCamp for only $2!

The album is available exclusively as a download, for now, trough BandCamp.

TRACKS
All songs are recorded at the LoftStudio. The song “Summertime” has been mixed and produced by Jay H., writer of the VocalKing plugin (click here to check his website).

01 – Wine
A song telling the story of a lady, addicted to Wine.. up-beat, guitar driven, track!

02 – Morning Ritual
The Title Track. Well, .. a song about drinking coffee and the End of the World. But it seems as long there’s coffee, we do not need to worry about the End of the World, right?

03 – Stone Hearted Mandy
Previously recorded and released on the Barking Aunts’ album “Yesterday’s Coffee“. This was a concept album, a story in a handful of songs, about family life and how it got torn apart. We thought this track could be improved so we re-recorded it.

04 – Summertime
We can’t wait for Summer to begin.. mixed and produced by Jay H. using his Vocal King plugin and giving it a good creative treatment. It brought the song to a level we would have never expected.

CREDITS
Special thanks to my friends who helped me out on this one!

  • James Zheutlin (a.k.a. Acid Cowboys) – Text contributions;
  • Jay H – mix & production on “Summertime”

(click on their names to find out more).

DOWNLOAD
Download the full album at BandCamp
https://barkingaunts.bandcamp.com/album/morning-ritual

STREAMING

Available for streaming at SoundCloud or Reverbnation

 

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Review Harley Benton TE-52 NA Vintage Series Telecaster

The Harley Benton TE-52 NA Vintage Series Telecaster is a Fender Telecaster “look-a-like” Telecaster guitar and not only a lookalike but also a ‘sound-a-like’. It comes with all the sparse features the original Telecasters had: 3-way switch, tone and volume, 2 single coil pickups (Roswell TEA alnico-5 TE-style). A solid wood (Ash) body. C-profile neck, decent tuners, 21 frets and deluxe chrome hardware.

The guitar comes with with d’Addario .009-.042 strings according to the Thomann website. I do have some doubts about this. I’ll get back to that later on.

Anyway, how’s that for a guitar that will only set you back EUR 139.00??
What can you expect, build and sound wise?

BIRTHDAY PRESENT

As I wrote in the post about the MXL770 mic, I turned 50 the other day and my wife gave me a few very nice presents! Apart from the MXL770 she also gave me (amongst other non-music related gifts) this Harley Benton Telecaster. It had been on my wish-list for some time. But I already have a very decent collection of guitars so I didn’t dare to buy another one 😉 She knew, however, that I wanted a Telecaster. So, .. I got it as a birthday present! This now more-or-less completes my wish-lists as far as guitars is concerned!

 

 

Worship-Guitar

I started to play in a worship band (in Church) last year and I’m using my electro-acoustic Samick guitar for that. However, on stage I noticed I was having feedback issues sometimes – so I have to turn it down too much. I want to use this telecaster instead. An electro-acoustic is, in the setting I’m playing in (Drums, electric bass, electric piano, vocal-group) just not a good choice. Hope the other band members agree.

d’Addario Strings?

I’m having a hard time believing these strings are really d’Addario. Or perhaps a certain type that just don’t feel comfortable to me. On my Gretsch I have a set of d’Addario Nickel Wound (.010-.046’s). They have a different ‘feel’. The ones one this guitar don’t feel slick, they really hurt your fingers when bending or sliding in to a note. So they will be replaced one day soon. I will probably opt for the d’Addario Super Light Plus (.095-.044) because Telecasters aren’t build to have super heavy strings on it but I’m not completely satisfied with these. Anyway – that’s the only “con” as far as I’m concerned. Other than that, it’s a superb guitar for the money!

 

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Lost Faith, Lost Hope – New original song!

A new, original, song has been released on AudioMack. And there’s more to come in the near future as we’re working on yet another new album.

An acoustic demo of the song was released earlier on Youtube (click for the video). Below you’ll find the finished studio version.

Vocals, guitars, recording & mixing by Rudy, Soldi Rock Blues Band.
Drums & Bass: Digitech TRIO Band Creator.

Recorded using Ardour/KXStudio (Linux Audio).

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DIY Guitar Upgrade: stratocaster mini humbucker (from China)

Upgrading your guitar, especially a stratocaster, telecaster or les paul model, isn’t too difficult. You can buy complete kits for it, or just put in some new pickups yourself. A few years ago I build a stratocaster from material left over from other guitar kits. I “painted” it by mixing ink and water and rub it into the wood. After that I sprayed clear lacquer over the body and put oil on the neck.

For some years I hardly played on it. It is a nice guitar and it plays very well, it has, for example, a very low action, I already had a stratocaster (Fender Starcaster) though. Some time ago I bought a “mini humbucker” from Geek (or eBay, I’m not sure). Anyway, I spend almost nothing on it. To see if it was any good, I put it into my DIY stratocaster.

Here’s the now upgraded and finished guitar. I love how it looks and how it plays. Even though the mini humbucker or ‘hotrod’ doesn’t turn out that good. Combined with the middle pickup it does give a nice ‘growl’ especially if you use some overdrive or distortion on your amp.

PICTURES

VIDEO

In the video below you can hear how the guitar sounds now. I played it over my Fame (Fender copy) amp, with a touch of reverb on it and I go trough all the positions with the selector.

 

 

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