Blog – Page 2 – The Guitar Learner

Musicman Guitar James Valentine signature series

Musicman james valentine is… oh, Hello 😀 well this time is past a year from my latest blogpost, and I have to admit, this coronavirus , covid-19 has brought me back to start writing again. Yeah, need a pandemonium to take me back here. okay let’s get move on.

I do really have a good stuff to talk about. yup, it’s THE Musicman guitar, the James Valentine signature series one. Pretty isn’t it?

James Valentine is Maroon 5 guitar player and one of great guitarist. He plays riff perfectly, has strong sense of guitar phrasing and articulation, great taste of music. funny thing is, some people questioning his worth to have A Musicman signature series guitar by his name. (yea it was the comments on facebook when i shared my guitar review video, says “it’s funny you have to put maroon 5 on your video title, it means he’s no worth it, and i completely disagree with that. I respect James Valentine as my guitar hero. done.. no more whining.

Let’s talk about this guitar shall we? See, this musicman james valentine guitar has the best body design I’ve ever seen and touch. it has classy almost-gibson look while definitely i can feel the telecaster right away after i strummed it.

so beautiful.

The neck.. i smell strong maple syrup came out from this roasted maple wood neck. it’s almost like i wanted to lick it (i did by the way, and it’s tasteless 😀 ) . literally it smells so sweet

I was really happy when I hold this guitar.

ah yes.. the sound. It is definitely a tele sound with upgrades. it has booster engaged by push-pull volume knob and neck split coil on tone knob. check it out on my vlog video >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL8bdLGPkk4

the headstock is gorgeous, definitely high class musicman style

so overall this is the most gorgeous guitar i ever play and yes, it was sold to guitar collector already. i missed this guitar. likely I’ll buy another one someday

Musicman James Valentine Guitar Specifications

Model: Valentine

Size: 13-1/4″ wide, 1-3/4″ thick, 38-7/16″ long (33.7 cm wide, 4.5 cm thick, 97.6 cm long)

Body Wood: Ash

Body Finish: High gloss polyester

Bridge: Music Man® Modern hardtail with vintage bent steel saddles

Pickguard: Shell

Scale Length: 25-1/2″ (64.8 cm)

Neck Radius: 10″ (25.4 cm)

Headstock Size: 6-3/8″ (16.2 cm) long

Frets: 22 – High profile, medium width, Stainless Steel

Neck Width: 1-5/8″ (41.3 mm) at nut, 2-1/4″ (56.9 mm) at last fret

Neck Wood: Select roasted maple neck

Fingerboard: Select roasted maple neck

Fret Markers: 1/4″ Black Face dots

Neck Finish: Gunstock oil and hand-rubbed special wax blend

Neck Colors: Standard – Natural with finished headstock

Tuning Machines: Schaller M6-IND locking

Truss Rod: Adjustable – no component or string removal

Neck Attachment: 5 bolts – Sculpted neck joint allows smooth access to higher frets

Electronic Shielding: Graphite acrylic resin coated body cavity and aluminum control cover

Controls: Custom Music Man® active preamp; push/push volume for gain boost, 500kohm push/push passive tone for custom split pickup configurations – .022µF tone capacitor

Switching: 3-way lever pickup selector

Pickups: SH – Music Man® custom wound staggered pole piece single coil (bridge) and humbucker with chrome covers (neck)

Left Handed: No

Strings: 11p-14p-18p-28w-38w-48w (RPS 11 Slinky #2242)

so.. is this an epic comeback or what?

see you next posts

April 15, 2020
Ibanez JS1600 PSV Premium silver, for us or for Joe?

hello everyone and I’m sorry. I’ve been fooling around for last 3 years and this year, i am making my comeback to this blog. I hope this time topic will bring back the writing fun in me. haha

lately I made a small business by trading my stuff, to get new gears and new stuff for my videos on my youtube channel, and that activity brought me to meet the Ibanez JS1600 PSV Premium silver guitar. a made in japan guitar by Team J. Craft, surely it’s not a joke. check this crazy specs:

specification of Ibanez JS1600

Ibanez JS1600
Made in: Japan by Team J. Craft
Finishes: PSV (Premium Silver)

Ibanez JS1600 PSV Premium silver guitar

Ibanez JS1600 PSV Premium silver guitar back side

Body
Body material : Mahogany
Neck joint : Tilt Joint
Bridge : Gotoh GTC101 bridge
Hardware color : Chrome

Ibanez JS1600 PSV body guitar

Ibanez JS1600 PSV body guitar back

Neck
Neck type : JS Prestige
Material : 1-Piece Maple
Fingerboard : Rosewood
Inlays : Abalone Dots
Frets : 22 /6105

Ibanez JS1600 PSV headstock guitar

Ibanez JS1600 PSV tuning machine guitar

Electronics
PU Config : HH
Neck PU : DiMarzio PAF Pro
Bridge PU : DiMarzio FRED
Controls : 1 Volume (with High-Pass filter)
1 Tone (with coil tap) / 3-Way Toggle

Ibanez JS1600 PSV Premium silver guitar complete

Neck dimensions
Scale length : 648mm/25.5″
Radius : 250mm

and it came with great hardcase, beautiful neck plate and joe satriani and steve vai signature. FYI it was preloved guitar. the previous owner had a chance to bring it with him and got it signatured by joe satriani and steve vai.. what a lucky man

Ibanez JS1600 hardcase guitar

Ibanez JS1600 neckplate guitar

Ibanez JS1600 joe satriani signature

that’s almost all about the guitar details.. wonderful isn’t it?

main problem

now, for my real topic here. Ibanez JS1600 guitar has fixed bridge! for a two thousands five hundreds dollars guitar which is a Joe Satriani signature, don’t we think it is overpriced? no whammy bar? come on, besides this is professor satchafunkilus we’re talking about. even mr. Satch himself using whammy bar mostly on his performances.

that’s what i thought first when i saw the ads of this Ibanez JS1600 PSV Premium silver guitar . but when i plug it on my small amp, i know this one is no joke. As a result, it’s a beast machine waiting to be unleashed on big stages. the neck feels great and the strings are stay in tunes forever. furthermore, what make it best is the volume pot knob! it responses like any other guitar I’ve tried so far.. it’s so easy to dial to get exact amount of volume and gain we want to, even the tone knob does great job, too. certainly i made a sample sound on my youtube channel:

after checking the video i hope you understand what i’m talking about, most importantly, this guitar feels like a kind of joe satriani’s understanding point of view as non whammy bar user guitarists. so it is like more for us, or for satriani’s fans who love his playing and wants to discover their own playing styles such as a non whammy bar guitarists (like me 😀 i’d love to learn though).

Conclusion

so, the conclusion is, this guitar is worth to be collected whether as our private collection or as our main axe on our gigs. i hope you like my review. i know this kind of writing is old ones, you know, nowadays people goes to Instagram and making judgement by one picture or one minute videos and short captions, but i stick on this. having my own site and writing honest reviews. therefore it’s more me.

one thing i feel need to say is, please subscribe to my youtube channel guitar learner. it is synchronized with the stuff i write here so i guess it is still correlated as “old but gold” way of learning. I’d really appreciate that if you do. thanks, see you next posts

February 13, 2019
Stratocaster mods for SSS pickups configuration, which one is best?
Stratocaster mods is one thing popular with many ways to get into, and me is excited about that, too. (but one thing first i wanna say is, It’s been a while since my late post. I’ve been busy and lazy at once, but finally i got my mood to write again here.)

back to topic. Recently I got a decent strat with good deal, of course it’s not Fender. This guitar brand is “selva”, japan market guitar,a new brand i guess. my series is SELVA SST-201 OTM/M, SSS pickups with poplar body and canadian hard maple neck. Check how it sounds on youtube at https://youtu.be/Z_LyWDVQYF8 .

A default sound of conventional SSS strat by itself is great. It has three pickups and 5-way switch and two tone control knobs, which means it has more options than a tele or les paul. and actually stratocaster mods will bring us more options. here the two of them which for me is the most interesting stuff.
- SSS configuration stratocaster with humbucking style by adding dummy coil
sure you can change the pickups with stacked humbuckers or mini humbuckers, but If you love your single coils pickups, why don’t try adding a dummy coil into your pickups wiring? this method will work as noise reducer for bridge and neck pickups (not middle pickups since it’s RWRP). it will compromise the treble sound, a little loss, but with decent overwound dummy coil, the loss is minimal. it’s worth to try.
- SSS configuration stratocaster with blender pot ( 7 sound options strat)
Some say this is the oldest mods for strat, and i would say this is the best one. By changing the wiring scheme, we convert the first tone pot into a blender pot, blending the pickups. we will get a bridge+neck pickups option just like a telecaster(!) switched on the middle, and bridge+middle+neck pickups (all 3 of them is on!). we still got our single coils sounds and 2 more soundstyles! this becomes my choice for my selva strat mods and it works great. here’s the wiring scheme:

Sure there are more than these two mods. these are my top choices for strat mods, which hopefully inspire everyone. thanks, see ya next post 😀
October 15, 2016
Guitar Authenticity Check
Guitar Authenticity Check is a must-to-do thing when we buy a guitar, whether it’s new or pre-owned one. Why? because counterfeit is one thing nobody likes it, include us, guitarists. Unfortunately, this issue has been among us in decades, and it’s really important for us to take serious measurements about this.

personally, and professionally(!), I don’t hate customized guitar by luthiers, I kinda like the way they set their own standards on how a guitar is supposed to be. But I really hate if my friends (or even myself) found out that they paid TOO MUCH for fake guitar.. and one more thing, there’s almost nothing i can do about this counterfeit issue.

BUT, i think i can help a little by sharing my notes about Guitar Authenticity Check. Recently I helped my friend buying a guitar and the result was quite great. It’s Epiphone Les Paul 100 guitar, cherry sunburst with pickguard, very lovely.

I knew (as everyone else does) that Epiphone is one of leading brand in guitars, and for couple times i found epiphone parts such like backplates were sold separately, yes, it has counterfeit-risks.

so I’ve checked all detailed parts and found out few details which might very useful for us. Here’s the pic:

although there’s no serial numbers carved or printed on headstocks and neck, I found it labeled under the bridge pickups, yup, there you have it. I’ve checked the serial number on epiphone serial number decoder at guitardaterproject.org and this guitar is made in Indonesia on november 2010 by Samick Factory. quite nice info right? also i found out “Epiphone” brand carved/molded on stop bridge, tune-o-matic bridge, below pickups, even on mono jack socket. well done, Epiphone.

based on those, I made some notes, at least for my own standards, when i want to buy a guitar

Guitar Authenticity Check points
- Get the guitar images and other info from its official website. there we will get its specs, and the closest guitar model looks
- Get the sound samples from videos/youtube reviews. we can also get the guitar physical appearances there
- compare it directly by try the guitar first before we decide ANYTHING. nothing beats the real sound and the playability/actions when you need to decide whether buying it or not
- bring your friend who is also a guitarist to get more proper considerations
- always choose trusted seller, if it’s not possible, ask the seller to provide the guitar authenticity info and proof. remember, it is you who hold the money, keep that in mind always
those words above just might be not enough, but i think those could be useful as basic considerations. good luck and have fun playing guitar! 🙂
March 7, 2016
Relic Guitar, The DIY Art of Aging
Relic Guitar is an itch for guitar lovers. Guitar relicing idea is always contagious. Sometimes we just love to see an old guitar with fully working parts, decent actions and playability which are difficult to find. Or the vintage image on guitar is so sexy, so we feel good when we play it. The senses and vibrations from old wood are just irresistible and I fell for those reasons.

I bought an old-cheap guitar for this. It’s a strat branded “vantage” on its headstock.From what i’ve learned when i got it on my hands, this guitar actually has a decent neck profile, while its body is plywood. Yes, it’s a plywood body guitar. It came so dirty with motor oil smell on it.

I read some articles on the internet, saying this guitar is korean made while it was on matsumoku (japan?) era. the headstock is similar to other matsumoku guitars product.

well, I’m not good at conclusions, here’s the pics when i first got it:

My best guess for this guitar series is Vantage stratocaster vie 10. the body and neck were good, but not for the other parts. so i change them with new ones and did relicing the guitar. basically i just messed up with it 😀 so here the results:

relic guitar Vantage Stratocaster vie 10, before and after

does it look good? well, for me it’s just an amateur job done by me for the sake of curiosity. The pickups were default and I’m so happy with the way this DIY relic guitar sounds.

I’m not interested explaining about how i done this project, but I DO have something to say after doing this.

here’s some thoughts on relic guitar :
- The Art of Aging Guitars is NOT that easy. To make guitar looks old and worn is one thing which is different from destroying things. We need to research on how it’s made; the materials, the finishing types, then we do research on how make them look aged, not destroyed.
- Guitar parts are NOT CHEAP. surely we can find cheap parts anywhere on the net, but the durability and low quality cheap parts are just making thing worse. Arrange your budget for DIY relic guitar project.
- Do this project with proper amount of time. rushing it will make us loosing the learning moments. take some espresso and begin reading relic’d guitar stuff. it will help us to get exact image for the guitar.
- Know our limits. if we just don’t get it about things, ask to a luthier and get educated. This is the real purpose of this project. knowing deeper and understand the closest real value of a guitar and compare it to the way it sounds and played. If we don’t get it, let other people educate us.
well, this relic guitar project is the most intensively fun, entertaining project I’ve done so far. I remembered when i wanted this project result would look like Steve Ray Vaughn relic SRV stratocaster guitar, but I’m glad i didn’t. this relic guitar design looks much lovely with my sweat on it
March 6, 2016
Guitar Riffs Intro to Boost Your Self-Esteem

sometimes it’s hard to get some confidence in our playing. there are others with better licks, arpeggios, or even their own awesome songs those make us feel “not that good”. When you pick a guitar on your friend’s house or stages then begin playing it, you feel nervous. yes, it happens to me too many times. We all need some sparks to get the heat started. One way I do for most of the time is, doing some cool guitar riffs i like to get a grip into the situation (we could say it when we do check-sounds). Surely with early preparation. So i made a list, short one, of five guitar riffs to bring myself into confidence.

first on my list, well of course, the intro of “enter sandman” metallica. It’s very popular intro, even some people would say it’s a cliche, i wouldn’t say that. The first clean riff section will make sure your clean tone is set. the next section presents our overdrive and distortion sounds whether it’s ready or not, so you can do some adjustments onstage. the important thing is, this guitar riffs is so hot so by doing it you can feel the hype and forget your nervous.

the second, “can’t stop” – RHCP‘s intro. hot sweet punches to the strings with funky rhythm tempo wake your both right and left hands instantly without making them shaky. a slight overdrive and bright light bridge pickups’ sound will drive you fast into the confidence. Red Hot Chili Peppers makes everyone hopping their hips better than any hip-hop.

third intro is “Humans Being” – Van Halen. I like this because it’s van halen and it’s the easy one. I’m not doing “eruption” to impress anyone, i know that doesn’t work for boosting self-esteem. actually i chose this intro because i like the reverb and modulation effects created by van halen in this intro. Somehow by doing this on checksound, i will know how my modulation effects setup works on different stages. the point is, if our preparation is set and the output sounds just like we want to, there will be no more reason of getting lack of confidence.

the fourth is “this ain’t a love song” intro by bon jovi. a fine touch by richie sambora’s taste. Sometimes all i need is one clean tone sound and all will be set and ready. i use this many times, especially when i get my analog pedals on stage. a rich clean tone will be overdriven nicely and stay clear in distortion. at least that’s what i think and it goes smoothly in most of my performances.

the last Guitar Riffs is important

the last one, our own songs’ intro! surely as guitarist we have our own riffs or licks and i like to play my own riffs on stage, just to get myself comfortable while I’m checking my own sound style exactly. this one is the most important. making our own licks and riffs is the great and fun part of guitar learning. because, YOU WILL NEVER GO WRONG about it. It’s the reflection of our hard works. so be proud and get more confident about our own playing.

surely we can do some riffs created by famous instrumental guitarists, or some hyper crazy licks exercises. it’s all up to you. now I’ve shared my list. Where’s yours?

actually we can exchange our guitar riffs list and get better in our guitar playing, right?

two men exchanging 1 coin, both of them get 1 coin
two men exchanging 1 list of 5 guitar riffs intro, both of them have 10 guitar riffs intro

September 25, 2015
Made In PRC guitars and gears, really okay?

Some of us found this out and start saying things, some stay quiet. Well, let’s start with the abbreviation first. P.R.C stands for People’s Republic of China, so Made In PRC means those guitars and amps are made in China. Yes, all the famous guitars and amps brands those have this label are making their products in china. we could be surprised by it,but it’s a common industry’s strategy called overseas production.

How can this even happens? surely we can imagine the almost same thing happen to fast food brand. they have recipes and patents, so they can sell the fast food to all over the world in fresh condition and precise product quality. but what happened to guitars and amps? they are not FOOD! guitars and amps are supposed to be someone’s lifestyle!… correct.. so is food. food is lifestyle.

It is likely emotional rather than rational. Of course we want the real taste of American built guitars such like fender or orange amps made in U.K. we feel that our love and loyalty is completely betrayed by the brands just by seeing “Made In P.R.C.” label behind our gears. Unfortunately it affects us in guitars deals subjectively. No, it is not wrong thing to feel like that, but let’s make wide searches and get a bigger vision about this Made In P.R.C. stuff.

In the last decade, China becomes a huge source of industry. China has materials, tools, workshop and workers to do things with minimum running costs, while in USA and Europe, those elements are getting expensive. With rapid technology shared worldwide like now, china takes this opportunity into maximum efficiency and high target in quality competitions. there’s nothing wrong about it besides the living wage issues in china. they are just developing rapidly, that’s all. and if we believe that science belongs to the world, this is not anybody’s fault. But exactly that’s the main reason. the world balance is changing its weight. Now, guitars and amps from china are coming to houses and stages all over the world.

Enough about industry and world economy. Let’s talk about the product quality. Personally, my gears are almost all Made In PRC. my Gretsch G5236 is made in China, my Orange amps TT15JR is made in P.R.C., I have Boss GT-8 made in Taiwan and more of this kind of stuff. I don’t really care about the differences between china or Taiwan or somewhere between both (sorry. it feels like they change names into taiwan, china, PRC as marketing strategy to boost sales. 😀 ) but i do have my attentions in Korean’s made such like My Fender SE Telecaster Spalted Maple (great guitar). I don’t have USA guitars, yet, since i have few disappointment on Fender Stratocaster Highway One made in USA. so far, my empress multidrive pedal (hand-made in Canada) and Celestion G12EVH (made in U.K) satisfy me. and so the Made In PRC. I love how they sound.

yup. just like that, i picked my own gears and i love them because i know how they sound. I don’t really care about where it’s made, but i really DO despise counterfeits. faking people’s name and get money because of it means take away someone’s salary and discredit the hardwork and quality. The ironic thing is, China has this counterfeit issue, too. big one.

I really do hope people stop making counterfeits and start their own brands. i present my big RESPECT to anybody who do that

September 2, 2015