Gibson Melody Maker Explorer - an affordable and great guitar for riffing

A US-made ​​Gibson Melody Maker Explorer checked in to my house a few months ago. I swapped it for a Telecaster, not a Fender but a "noname". It turned out to be a good deal and the guitar turned out to be a really riff monster with one Seymour Duncan HB-103 pickup and volume knob. 

It is not an exclusive guitar, to be honest. But the overall impression when putting the guitar on and turning the volume up is "good quality and very light weight". the whole thing with that is that the guitar is the striped down and made ​​for guitarists with a strained economy. Miraculously, Gibson has yet created a good and easy to play instrument. It feels pretty damn fun to meet a cheap and really good guitar. Melody Maker was initially considered a cheap student product from 59's / 60's, but has now returned in a limited edition and in different varieties.

The headstock on original Explorers has the classic "hockey stick", but this one has "The Spear", which gives the overall impression a little different touch, and I like it. The guitar is also slightly smaller than regular Explorers, and therefore a bit more comfortable to play if you´re not a giant.

The body is made of Maple and the neck is Mahogany. The fingerboard, with 22 frets, is made of Baked Maple. A wood that replaced Rosewood when Gibson got problems with illegally imported wood as the availability of Rosewood was strangled. Domestic Maple is not a bad solution, it feels great actually. Baked Maple delivers a very rich tone, nice clarity and great sustain and it´s fairly similar to Rosewood's dark appearance. Baked Maple is used by many other brands, like Fender and Suher, and is not some sort of budget wood, although it´s cheaper due to the manufacturing process which has a lower cost.

The Pickup, a Seymour Duncan HB-103, is a ceramic high-output pickup with awesome attack. The clean sound works ok but it´s in the gain area this guitar really stands out. No compromises. I liked it from the first moment. A really charming and tight sound indeed! I have a Melody Maker "Joan Jett" too with the same feeling, but that guitar is a lot more lavish.

A fall back is that the tail piece is a bit weak. It´s a "wrap aoround the tail piece" with less opportunity for intonation with only two screws for adjustments. My piece is good intonated so I should not whine. It seems  to have a tight contact with the body and it delivers a good "tone".

The tuning screws are the weakest part but the guitar holds tuning quite well and that's the main thing I think. I guess they suposed to give a "vintage feel", but instead they feel a bit childish if I'll be honest. I would prefer better quality here actually, as Gibson's Groovers for example.

A sad thing is that the Gibson logo is printed on the truss rod cover, which makes it feel cheap and not at all "Gibson Style", and perhaps that´s the whole purpose? To make a good, cheap guitar for beginners.

The rating would have been higher if it had more lavish and more stable tuners, but it is nevertheless a really playable guitar, made for high-gain enthusiasts.

The price? Around 300 USD on eBay, a very affordable guitar.

Rating
Zombies 3.5 (5)

The Guitar Zombie will soon reach 6 000 followers, and goes for 10 000...

It has now been a few weeks since The Guitar Zombie launched and the blog has already close to 6,000 followers on Facebook. It is absolutely amazing. The goal is to reach 10,000 followers by Christmas this year. I have many interviews with known and unknown guitarists and lots of equipment to review the coming months. 

The Guitar Zombie

I keep getting feedback from guitarists from all over the world who give me suggestions on what they want the to read about, and I'm of course very grateful for that. Nothing is more important than this feed back.

If I reach 10,000 Zombie Readers, perhaps even 20,000, it will mean a lot to how The Guitar Zombie will be developed next year.

If you have tips or suggestions on how you think I should develop the blog I´m more than happy to hear from you, here on the blog or on www.facebook.com/theguitarzombie

Stay Zombied!

The Guitar Zombie

Frank Levi, the Wizzard of Amps, speaks out...

Frank Levi is probably one of the most interesting guys in the history of guitar playing,  especially when it comes to modding amplifiers and guiding guitarists to refine their guitar tones. His most famous "artwork" in amp modifications have become edged with mystery and secrecy. His awesome work is without doubt one of the best in history. 

His name pops up in several forums on internet when it comes to tweaking guitar amplifiers. But there is not that much information out there about the man himself and what he actually has accomplished, which made me very curious. After some basic research it´s obvious to me that he has contributed to some really big and important guitarists 'tones' through the years. Warren DeMartini (RATT), Doug Aldrich (Bad Moon Rising and later Dio and Whitesnake), George Lynch (Dokken), Billy Squier and not least Slash in conjunction with Guns n 'Roses debut album Appetite For Destruction and Use Your Illusion I & II, to name few.

I contacted him to find out about how it all started and especially his work with "modding" amps.  I realized that he probably is a very busy man and I had actually no expectations to get any respons at all. But I thought "what the heck".

After a couple of hours I got the answer that he was more than eager to help me out with my questions.

The interview have been carried out over Facebook and through email contact. The work has, for various reasons, taken several months, but now it's finally done. I have made ​​my own comments in the text where needed, dressed i italic. I can proudly present to you one of the world's most legendary and influential nodders of all time, Mr. Frank Levi.

Enjoy...

You have your seat in New York nowadays? 
Yes, I am actually born in New York and lives in the State of Island. My shop is located in Long Island City, Queens Rocket.

You are one of a few really "big names" when it comes to amp modding, how did it all start? 
 I actually got my start in New York. In 1969 I repaired my first Marshall and in 1970 I started experimenting with some modification ideas as well as repairing HIWATT amps. 

What was your first amp that modded? 
I think the first mod that I did was in the mid-60s on a Fender Bassman 4x10.

But it was in the 70s, it really took off? 
Yes it was. By 1972 I was servicing and modifying both Marshalls and HIWATTs. I was heavily into my HIWATT mod, Marshall mods were more of a hobby. I didn’t get serious about modding Marshalls until I hooked up with Billy Squier and his band “Piper”. “Piper” had 3 guitarists, all with 100 watt Marshalls and Billy wanted each one to sound different. This made me get very serious about modifying Marshall amps. Servicing and modifying English amplifiers quickly became my forte.

You had a pretty long collaboration with Billy Squier... 
Well, after Billy Squier Band was formed, I continued to modify his Marshall amps. It was a new challenge this time, he had 2 main heads that sounded a bit different than each other and Billy had me modify his 2 spare heads to sound exactly the same as his main ones. I not only succeeded in doing this but, I also designed and built a switching system to switch between each main amp and its spare without missing a note.

So he let you continue to work on his Marshalls? 

Yes he did. When Billy was in the studio recording the “Signs of Life” album, I was busy creating the “Squierfire”. It was a 100 watt plexi tremolo head that I heavily modified…it took me the better part of a year to do the mod and get all of the bugs out. 

What was his reaction? 
I will never forget Billy’s face when I brought it to the recording studio and he plugged in! He was thrilled to say the least and he used the “Squierfire” on his guitar track for the album. I, too, was thrilled with the amp and his reaction.

Billy Squier himself has said in an interview in Premiere Guitars 2009: 
"I've got 10 or 12 Of These heads That I've had since the early 70s. I have a few That are a bit later, but the ones I use are the old Super Lead 100's. Frank Levi These reworked for me over the course of many nights of creative abuse. He'd start out with an idea and I'd try it, and then we'd just keep going Until We got what we wanted. I love the way These sound Because They don 't compress. They have the classic Marshall tone, but do not compress into That midrange 'box.' in set the volume around 2, but They sound like they're on 12-they're incredibly powerful. "

When you modd an amplifier for a client, what goals do you set up? 
My aim in modifying amps is to give the client what he wants and make the amp as flexible as possible sound wise. My favourite mod gives out anything from Joan Baez to Slayer with no channel switching, just the guitar volume or a volume pedal…this take a lot of practice on the part of the guitarist.

Who else have you worked with? 
My next heavy influence was Warren DiMartini (RATT). When I first went on the road, they had eight 100-watt full stacks. When I finished, Warren was using two 100-watt heads; one was just for his solos. Warren had close to 20 heads and I worked on almost all of them with him as my “test pilot”. He was great to work with. I also went out with Def Leppard on their “Pyromania” tour and modded their Marshalls.

You suddenly left touring as amp tech, why? 
I got tired of lying on the road and began making repairs to the SIR LA instead. I had previously worked for SIR-NY when I was not on tour.

And then you got involved in some classic mods? 
Yes. One day I asked my boss to let me hear #39, that Caswell had modded…the amp was not getting rented and I asked him to let me take the Caswell mod out and put my own mod in…I got the OK and shortly the legendary #39 was born. It became so popular that I had to modify another amp and, thus, the legendary #36 was born. Both amps were never on the shelf for more than a day. With both #39 and #36 out, I had to come up with a mod for a 2203 that would be similar to #39 and #36 and, thus, the legendary #34 was born.

Which amp models was the origins? 
# 39 was a 1973 (ST/A4259E) model 1959T.
# 36 was a 1977 (SL/A07422J) model 1959th
# 34 was a 1985 (S/AS01796) model 2203 Mk.II.

Did you do anything with the power supply? 
I did not make any real changes to the power supply in #39 and #36 except adding an additional filter cap for the extra tube. #34s power supply is stock. I do not like using a Variac on amps unless they have an independent filament transformer.

 # 36 was used on the Guns n 'Roses debut album "Apetite for Destruction" and # 34 was the one on the "Use Your Illusion", did you do anything else with Slash after that? 
I met Slash before GNR became famous…he used to bring me his amps (Marshalls & Boogies) after his gigs. Unfortunately, we lost touch around the time I was leaving SIR. I was kind of disappointed that I didn’t hear from him or Marshall during the development of the AFD100. To date I have not been inside an AFD100 to see exactly how it is put together. BTW I remember that Slash used pedals on his recordings, but I don't recall what pedals.

These amps are still the most discussed individuals of your mods, I mean # 39, # 36 and # 34? 
SIR-LA #39 and #34 are the most talked about amps with my mods. The forums got #34 right, but #39 is another story. I have done many, many #34 mods since then but, only one #38 mod for a friend and excellent client of mine. I do not plan on making any more #39s nor will I give out the real details of that mod.

The rumor says that George Lynch rented #39 around 1986 for touring? 
I if I remember correctly, he used #39 on tour yes. I also did about 5 of his amps between 1987-1988. A Super Bass -79, three Super Leads, and a JCM800 S/2203
I plugged including the Lee Jackson Metaltronix mods, sitting in some of them, and made ​​their own fully customized to George Lynch himself.

There´s a great chance that you can hear some of these amps from the live recording "Beast from the East" with Dokken which was released in 1988 and the studio album" Back for the Attack " from 1987. Here is a clip from "Back for the Attack", "Mr. Scary", with isolated guitar track. I'm not entirely sure if this actually is one of Levis's mod (but most likely ), but you can still get a picture of the Lynch guitar sound at the time. It starts 8 seconds into the clip. 

If we return to the SIR mods. How did it feel to be excluded when they developed the Marshall AFD100, actually based on your mods? 
I was of course a bit disappointed. As far as them not contacting me, i wasn't surprised, the only time Jim Marshall really wanted to sit down with me was after he heard my HIWATT creations (PRE-1, PW50 and PW100).

Why don't  AFD100 nail the exact sound on Appetite For Destruction? 
The main problems with the AFD100 is they are built like a computer...computer generated boards....computer style wiring with all of their jumper cables (like the TSLs) PLUS all of the solid-state crap in the amp. Excessive lead lengths & circuit board traces create their own capacitance which, in turn change the sound of the amp.

You have also designed your own amplifiers at HIWATT? 
In late 1988, I left SIR-LA to design a line of amplifiers for Four Life, the holders of the HIWATT trademark at that time. I designed the entire HIWATT 2000 Series over the next few months. Four Life was actually part of Fernandes. My time with HIWATT ended in late 1993 and in 1994, after the Northridge earthquake, I returned to NYC.

Who used your HIWATTs? 
One that I worked with was Dough Aldrich, who among other things played my Hiwatts during his time in the band Bad Moon Rising. We cooperated throughout the development period when I was on Hiwatt, and he also played the first Power Amp, PW-50 in the 2000 series, but also a lot of other prototypes

Which Marshall do you think is best, from a modding perspective? 
I prefer a well built tube amp that is not full of solid-state circuits. Marshall 2203s and 2204s are my favourite Marshalls to work on. I try not to deface any amplifier with a bunch of holes for new controls, etc. because it tends to make the amp harder to maintain its value.

Discussion on what is most important for the "tone", playing style and technique or the amplifier's sound? 
A guitarists playing style definitely influences the sound, although not as much as most mods.

Thanks for letting me do this interview...
Thanks, it was fun.

Pykmax -An new way of using a guitar pick

For a while ago a reader asked me if i had tested the new "Pykmax", a innovative guitar pick. A piece of strange plastic that invite guitar players to a complete new way of playing. The designers behind Pykmax has created a product that actually add new values for some guitar players, not every one, but at least some of them.

I ordered one right away to check out what this thing was all about. I am a rather curious person, and sometimes this curiosity leads me to interesting experiences.

The price was a bit high for me, around 35 dollars including shipping, but that didn't stop me and after 3 days the package landed in mail.

By applying a handle to the the pick it offers a more stable playing, especially for beginners, although the company claims that the main target group also includes the pros. They say that it´s good for speed players, but I am a bit "sceptic" to that.

I think, though,  the idea is good, the is some times a hurdle  for many beginners, and reason for them leaving the guitar world. In this case the Pykmax offers a support and I´m sure that Pykmax works really good for beginners. I'm not a beginner, but I sure remember struggling with my picking hand.

To hold a Pykmax is pretty much like holding a pencil and it isn't strange at all and its very easy to learn how to use it, its a smart construction. The grip, which is made of wood, feels well designed and very smooth i the hand, but the colors? Well, not my cup of tea, it feels like an echo from the 80´s.

The actual pick feels pretty much like a normal pick, but a little too "soft and smooth" for my taste, but on the other hand there is no need for a "gripping" surface layer.

They are sold in three thicknesses: 0.6 mm. 0.88 mm and 1.0 mm. I like heavier stuff, like 1.4.

Here you can see and hear how it works ...


Verdict
After playing with this thing for a couple of hours it became a bit constraining for some of my picking styles that I have developed over the years. But for some stuff it works fine. When I change between finger-picking and playing with the pick it's very smooth and the playing becomes much easier. But when I play stuff that requires active variety in my playing, like harmonics for instance,  it becomes problematic. In this situations the Pykmax feels a bit in the way and stops me. Maybe it's a matter of taste and a thing to get used to, I do not know.

This is not about something that is "black or white", I think. It won't  replace the normal "vintage pick", so pick lovers don't have to be worried that the Pykmax will take over the world some day. It sure adds some variety to some guitarists, especially those who wants to play with their fingers and thinks that it´s tricky to hide the pick in their hands. But most players will stick to the old ones.

I´m absolutely sure that the Pykmax´s not gonna boom the market. People are far too conservative, and many players will condemn it immediately.

The sad thing is that without the power of innovation and brilliant new ideas, the guitar industry would be awfully boring. Unless Jim Marshall, Leo Fender, Orville Gibson, Les Paul had violated the normative limits of their time, this blog hadn't exist and you hadn't read it.

The idea about Pykmax is undoubtedly good and the company behind it is definitely on to something interesting here. I like it very much, but a few weeks after I did the test I found the Pykmax laying there lonely on the amp...

Rating:
3.5 zombies (5)

Edwards E-SG-100LT2 "An affordable quality guitar from China/Japan"

I had been scanning the internet and local guitar shops for quite some time looking for a suitable SG guitar. I love the look of that guitar and the great playing comfort. I also like that special tone that has served as kind of a "tone model" for iconic guitarists in many genres through the years. My first electric guitar back in 1979 was actually a Sigma SG. I actually still have it. Sigma was a Japanese brand from the mid 70's. The playability was pretty good, as i remember it back then, but today it feels both scrubby and rigid. It is more of sentimental reasons it's allowed to remain in collection. I've also owned a few other SG models over the years, but they all left fore something else better, cooler or more interesting. 

What I sought for now was a comfortable "individual" with high playability and not to expensive. I did not really have the 3000 dollars required for a descent vintage Gibson SG. I also wanted it to be black with the small black pick guard. Quite tricky demands in a way because affordable guitars always have something that does not feel right.

Gibson SG Special 
The first object I was looking for was in fact a Gibson, and there are plenty of them out there. I tested the cheaper models like "Special", "Faded" and the more expensive "Standard". Unfortunately no one fell into my arms.

One thing about this is that many Guitar Shops rarely adjust their guitars, and I think that's very strange. They say that they do not have the time nowadays. But who wants to spend a thousand dollars on something that feels like crap and sounds out of tune?

If you have the slightest interest in guitars, you can feel right away if the guitar doesn't as it should. I think they underestimates the customer. A rightly adjusted Gibson SG Standard is not a bad guitar, it's actually a really good guitar. But the ones I came across did not fit my needs. Maybe I'm picky, I do not know?

As I was reading various forums on the internet I discovered that a lot of people actually preferred a brand called Edwards, who makes brand new clones of the Gibson SG Standard with an almost surgical precision. Edwards have been making clones for ages, I actually owned a great Les Paul clone in the late 80's.

Edwards is today a brand under the ESP group and are recognized for their Gibson clones, especially the SG Standard. The problem is that they are not in stock here in Europe, as they are primarily made ​​for the Japanese home market. Edwards guitars are manufactured in the northeastern part of China by an ESP company called Heilongjiang ESP Electronic Audio Co. The wood comes from Russia according to several sources on Internet. When ESP actually moved their production to China is unclear, but sometime in the early 2000's.

ESP factory in China 
The reason for moving the production to china was clearly money related. China has cheaper labor and cheaper facilities than in Japan. What made it possible was a "trade agreement" between China, Japan and Russia that made it advantageous to buy and sell between countries.

The production takes place under the strict supervision of Japanese design engineers from ESP. When the guitars are finished and assembled, they are sent to Japan for "The Final Touch", and this is where all fine adjustments takes place, the one that makes them superior. The factory in Japan is called Saitama and is located north of Tokyo. They have chosen not to put the final quality work in China due to "lack of quality skills". Presumably this is the answer to how they can keep such high quality in the critical part of the process, but still find attractive price levels. These guitars are "Made in China/Japan", interesting times we are living in. The former enemies build cool guitars together.

I guess that this is an approach that several "new" Japanese-made brands will apply in the future. On the Japanese website Rakuten you can buy them directly from the final plant in Japan at great prices.

However, one must add the cost for shipping and customs. But even with those turned on, the guitars are much cheaper than US Gibson SG Standard here in Europe or America. So I hit the button, well aware of the risks of buying a guitar that you have not tried. But with thorough research in the forums, you can reduce the risk ratio quite well.

Edwards E-SG 100LT2 

Body: Mahogany
Neck: Mahogany
Fingerboard: Rosewood, 22 frets w / White Binding
Radius: 305 R
Scale: 628 mm
Saddle: Bone (43mm)
Inlay: Pearloid Dish
Neck Attachment: Set-Neck
Tuners: GOTOH SD90-SL
Stall: Old Type Tune-Matic & GE101Z GOTOH
Pickups (Neck) Seymour Duncan SH-1n (Bridge) Seymour Duncan SH-4
Mechanics: Nickel CONTROLS: 3 way switch, 2 volume, 2tone,
Color: Black

Right out of the box is perfectly adjusted and with perfect intonation. It's impressive, especially if one considers that the guitar was transported in an airplane all the way from Japan to Stockholm.

The mechanics are Tune-O-Matic and tuners from GOTOH and it feels stable with a perfect tuning, even after quite a rough treatment.

The neck is very nice shaped and the binding is "pale yellowish" and gives the guitar a vintage feel. The fingerboard of Rosewood is easy to play, as most Rosewoods are. The guitar actually feels better than a well made Gibson SG Standard. Sorry boys and girls, this Edwards SGs rocks every day in the week.

One explanation is that it truly is a great guitar made with finess and skilled workers in combination with great efforts to adjust the guitar carefully on the spot. I think it's in their blood and culture actually. They just have to do a good job and the "japanese company culture" is about being proud of what they do. I am not talking about asia in general now or brands in general, I am talking about ESP/Edwards and this guitar.

The guitar has, like other SGs a surprisingly strong sustain, given that it is much less in weight than, say, Les Pauls.

The pickups are 59' Seymour Duncan SH-1 in the neck. SH-1 are often called "poor" PAF's by some "users". Sure they have slightly lower output, but I must say that they are quite hot with a fat bottom..

The bridge pickup is a SH-4 which has a significantly higher output than SH-1and behave an elegantly high-gain, and they are also called "hot-roded humbuckers".

The bridge pickup produce a classic AC / DC character in a Marshall if you like, but it also works very well in a tight metal context, in for example Rectifier or Peavey 5150.

Finally 
This is a very good SG for both beginners and the more experienced guitarist and if you're out hunting an affordable guitar with high quality and if you can imagine refrain from "Gibson" on the head I can warmly recommend this guitar. If you get one in your hands you can easily feel the quality at once. Everything with this guitar feels solid.

rating:
5 zombies (5)

My Floyd Rose "sings badly", department of easy tips....

I got an email the other day with a question about what to do when the Floyd Rose Tremolo "sings". When I got my first guitar with Floyd Rose I had the same problem, and it was extremely disturbing. Especially when you play with no effects and you have the need for sudden "stop" in the music, where the point is to be completely silent. A "singing" tremolo totally crashes the party. 

Singing tremolos are a fairly common problem and occurs on almost every tremolo systems around, even Strats, but in particular different types of Floyd Roses.

The reason, for most of the cases, is that the springs behind the back of the guitar vibrates so much that it is taken up by the pickups. It's very annoying that they can not fix things on the factory. Even on the more "expensive" guitars costing up to like 3000 dollars this problem occurs, and it seems to be accepted in the quality chain before delivery to customer. I think its more than strange actually.

The simple way to solve this is to try to suppress the tremolo from the inside.

One way to solve this, and perhaps the easiest to start with, is to open the back of the guitar and put in a little cloth so that the springs "shut up".  Not so much that it "kills" the springs completely, they perform a very important task for the tremolo. You can put the cloth on top of the springs, or beneath them. The idea is to let the cloth surpress and keep the springs from "ringing".

 On the right, an Ibanez Jem7VWH the operation completed, I had apparently chosen a piece of old curtain.

//The Guitar Zombie

Ebow -One cool playing technique

About a year ago I hade a friend over for some jamming att my house. The guy, Holger Thorsin, was wagging with an Ebow i front of me and asked if I had seen such a thing before. Ebow, for what I know now, is a super cool tool that was invented in 1969 by Greg Heet. I had never seen such a thing before in my life and I was stunned about how it sounded. I can't understand why I hadn't  bumped in to this super cool playing technique before. Maybe it says something about my real ability to keep track of cool stuff? Embarrassing thought ha ha.

Nevertheless, the gadget, which is battery powered, has magnets that create an electromagnetic field that makes the string to vibrate and to create harmonics captured by the microphone. The result is an almost endless "tone" that of reminds of "sustain". You change the character of the "tone" by moving up and down the neck, wile playing the guitar neck as usual.  It sound amazing.

Guitarists who have actually played Ebow over the years is, for example, Eddie Van Halen and U2's The Edge.

I tested the thing. It wasn't  really that easy to learn how to handle it though, but my friend spun off like a cat on his Gibson SG. Wonderfull melodies and amazing sound-effects just blew my mind. It's hard to actually explain how Ebow sounds, but you can check out the YouTube-clip below, it might help you to understand what you can do. The guy playing is Phil Keaggy a real super pro. 

Phil Keaggy is otherwise best known as an awesome "finger-picking" guitar player, considered by many as total genius. He is well worth checking out in general.

Go grab the Ebow Zombies....

//The Guitar Zombie