Category: Guitar GAS

There’s no tone without the guitar, right? Anything and everything to do with guitars.

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Here Come The Strats

Before you order that new PRS Silver Sky, you might want to check out these custom-order Fender Stratocasters from Andertons:

These Strats are the sister models to the Telecasters that Andertons recently had made. They feature a 59 neck carve – based on guitars made by the late John English – rosewood fingerboards and ash bodies. Pickups are Custom Shop 69, reverse-wound Custom Shop 65, and a Texas Special for the Bridge. The end result should be a Strat that you won’t find anywhere else.

Tone-wise, there’s a certain something that they seem to share with the original run of Telecasters from the earlier video. There’s a clarity and definition that even survives what YouTube does to video audio tracks. I suspect that, in person, these’ll exhibit that 3D sound quality that marks out the very best-sounding guitars.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Andertons’ video.

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Hagstrom Super Viking Demo

Shane’s got his hands on a Hagstrom Super Viking. Does he like it? Let’s find out.

I loved the tone he got for the opening track, and indeed throughout the demo. I thought it’s one of the best sounds he’s had on the channel to date.

And I’m not surprised. Hagstrom did a demo evening at my local guitar shop AStrings, and every single guitar that night sounded fantastic. They were really nice people to talk to afterwards too. If you’re looking for guitars that’ll go head-to-head on sound with the top-dollar gear, Hagstrom should be on your list.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Shane’s video.

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Crimson Guitars and Tonewood

Ben’s just posted a video where he gets into the thorny topic of tonewood and fretboards.

Watch the video, digest what he thinks and why … and share your opinion over on YouTube if you feel you must either way.

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250 Dollar Rig vs 7000 Dollar Rig

Paul Davids (and … er … Paul Davids) is back with a video comparing his first rig to his current rig.

We don’t learn how old his Squier is, so please don’t refer to this when trying to decide whether or not to buy a brand new Squier today!  These kinds of videos are meant to be a bit of fun 🙂

Hopefully Paul will post a follow up where we hear both guitars into the Tone King.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Paul’s video.

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John Mayer Talks PRS Silver Sky

I promise that I’ll stop posting about the PRS Silver Sky soon. Before I do, I have to share with you John Mayer’s own thoughts on his new guitar.

He’s not pulling any punches here. He tackles the guitar’s Fender heritage, why he went to PRS for this guitar, what makes it different from a Fender Strat, and where the time went on designing the Silver Sky. If you want to understand how he sees this guitar, it’s compulsory viewing.

The key thing I took away from this is that this all started with tone.  He wanted something that looked like a Strat, and played like a Strat, but that addressed some of the things he didn’t like about the Fender Strat sound. Paul Reed Smith is all about tone in a way that few other guitar builders are. And things evolved from there to become the Silver Sky that we’ve all been talking about.

Whether you like John Mayer or not, he deserves credit for putting out a video like this. It’s not some slick PR video. It’s just John talking into his phone on a livestream. How many other mega-artists would do this?

Sadly, he doesn’t post directly to YouTube, and I don’t know where the original video was posted. I couldn’t find it on Instagram or on Facebook.

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PRS Silver Sky – John Mayer Rig Shootout

Today, we have a different kind of demo from Peach Guitars. They’ve done a shootout between John Mayer’s current rig – PRS Silver Sky and JMOD amp – and his old, pre-PRS rig – Fender 63 Stratocaster and a Two-Rock amp.

The PRS Silver Sky continues to be the most talked about guitar of 2018. I still can’t figure why it’s generated the reaction that it has – including my own reaction.

The more I hear it though, the more I’m interested in trying one for myself. To my ears, it sounds like a lot has gone into tuning it to be a great guitar for completely clean tones. That’s where I used to live before moving onto Les Pauls. I’d love to find the right guitar to go back to that style one day.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Peach Guitars’ video.

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2018 Rig For Clinics

Sam Coulson has posted a short video, showing us the rig he’s using when he’s giving guitar clinics this year.

He’s running a modded Charvel into a Helix, out to the Yamaha THR-100HD. The Yamaha’s setup as a clean platform for the Helix. It’s a simple rig that looks very easy to load in and out without a lot of effort.

I’ve got the Yamaha THR-100HD myself, and for a couple of years it was my main practice amp. It takes pedals better than any other modelling amp did at the time. You can run two amps at once out into different cabs, and that gives you a taste of that two-amp blended tone thing.

My main complaint with the THR-100HD is that it felt like Yamaha abandoned it to a large extent. It’s been a couple of years since the last firmware update, and they haven’t added any new models – or improved the existing ones – since launch. It’s become a very much take-it-or-leave-it amp.

But – unlike some modelling amps – you can use it as an amp, without hooking it up to a computer. Which means that they’ll continue to be usable long into the future.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Sam’s video.

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Which Is The Best Strat – Fender, Suhr, PRS

Not to be outdone by Anderton’s PRS Silver Sky video today, Thomann have shot a shootout video comparing a real Fender Strat against two of its competitors – Suhr (who used to work for Fender) Classic Pro and the new PRS Silver Sky.

It’s wonderfully click-bait-y – but do we learn anything from this video? I’m not sure that we do.

I didn’t hear much difference between the three – and nowhere near the amount of difference that I was expecting. The extra low end we heard the PRS Silver Sky do on the Andertons video isn’t there, and neither is the high-end from the Suhr’s stainless steel frets. I played a Suhr Classic Pro about a month ago, and in person that extra high-end is far from subtle.

So yeah, I’m surprised, and I’m not sure what to make of it.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Kris’s video.

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PRS Silver Sky Demo and Discussion

The PRS Silver Sky has been the most-discussed guitar of 2018 … and now Andertons are weighing in with their thoughts. Oh, and they have one to demo for us too.

This is a great video, and not at all the kind of sales-y video you might be expecting. From a first unboxing to first impression playing to discussing many of the points raised online – including comparing it to Fender Strats – there’s a lot of useful ground covered.

One thing in particular – there’s plenty of string bends in this video, showing that the vintage radius isn’t going to cause string bends to choke out.

For me, it sounds fantastic in this video. It has that quintessential Strat tone in buckets. There’s both a top-end snap and a bottom end chime that I personally look for from Strats and the like. The pickups seem nicely balanced in output too, and across the full range of the neck.

When they’re more readily available, I’m definitely going to try one out.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed this video.

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Gretch Jet BT G5220 Demo

A-Strings have just gotten their hands on the new Gretch singlecut guitars, and Adam’s done a demo for their YouTube channel.

These are definitely something a little different from most singlecut-shaped guitars, thanks to the wood choices and the pickups. And I’m a big fan of the new natural look of the backs of these.

Once you’ve got the Holy Trinity of guitars – Les Paul, Strat and Tele – or maybe you just don’t feel any of them are for you, then something like this is well worth a look.

Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed Adam and Tom’s video.