Stick a fork in 'er and call 'er 'done' ...

Thursday, March 12, 2015 -- The correct pots for my Ibanez Gio GAX 30 arrived earlier this week. They were identical to the first set I received except the shaft was longer. The first ones were

Before photo.

designed to be mounted on thin material like a strat-like pickguard. The Ibanez pots are mounted in the body, therefore, the threaded mount had to be longer to accommodate the thickness of the wood in the electronics cavity.

As a guy who has spent his life in electronics, I find it a little funny when guitar people say they "replaced the electronics" in a guitar -- meaning the pots and the pickup switch. Pickups are usually described individually if they are replaced. In guitar world lingo, I suppose I "replaced the electronics," though all I really did was to replace the two bad pots with new ones.

The three-way switch was fine; I've read about guys replacing perfectly good pots and switches and swearing they make the guitar sound different. I strongly suspect that its a lot like the effect I get when I wax my car -- it seems to run better after putting that much sweat into making it look nice.

Of course, cheap-ass pots can get dirty and scratchy, as well as wear quickly. Replacing them is indeed usually better than replacing them. But I don't think my amplifier can discern between one 500k pot and another, and I really don't think it is going to change the quality of the output signal (unless the pot is somehow defective anyway). I know guitar folks also talk about replacing the capacitor as well, but here again, unless you are changing values, I don't know that there's any real difference between caps.

Anyway, late last night I finished installing and wiring the new pots and mounted them. The new pots DID make a difference because the old volume pot was dead except for one spot that gave me about half output level ... it was one of those deals where you had to hold your tongue just right in the corner of your mouth to make it work.

The new "electronics" installed, this morning I had to find the speed knobs I received some time back. It took some searching, but I finally found them on my desk. They were the final touch that marked the Ibanez's official completion.

At full volume now on a clean output, I noticed a little bit of buzz on the low E string ... the saddle needs to be raised a bit I think ... once I find the hex wrench that fits it, lol. But overall, the guitar plays easily and sounds good ... a much more aggressive, metal sound than my strat copy. I was going to take a photo of the completed guitar, but I really need to clean 'er up and get the dust out from around the pickups and the headstock.

I'm still not sold that these pickups are the best, though I generally read good things about them. One reviewer said this model Ibanez  has an "SG vibe" .... Not sure about that, the way I remember it, a Gibson SG is a heavier instrument.

The GAX 30 is lightweight and comfortable to play ... the neck is fairly narrow at the nut, which is an important consideration for someone with smaller hands (like me). I think its pretty much the same scale as a typical strat or strat copy, though it has 22 frets vs. 21 on my strat (the extra fret on the Ibanez has a final fret at the very end of the neck at the body end, whereas the strat copy does not).

Overall, I really like the guitar and I've been impressed with Ibanez's overall build quality (for a Chinese-made low-end guitar). While the finish on my Chibson looks better than the Ibanez, the build quality is superior on the Ibanez (or that's my experience with it ... your mileage may vary).

Anyway, my wife is home waiting for me to come upstairs and go down on her for her first orgasm since her hysterectomy ... don't want to keep her waiting. Here's to sex and rock 'n' roll!! (" 'Cause two out of three ain't bad ....")

Rock on!

My first try with coated strings ...

Thursday, March 5, 2015 -- With a snowstorm under way last night, I decided to restring my Peavey Raptor with my new set of Elixir super light coated strings.

The honest truth is that this is my first set of coated strings I've owned; I've known of them, but frankly, as an amateur player, I've never felt the need to pay double or triple the cost for strings. For example, I recently bought a pack of 5 sets of strings for just a little over the price of the coated Elixir strings.

I really had to put some thought into which guitar to restring ... I've been playing the Ibanez as my go-to guitar lately. It's light and just a nice player. I hadn't played the Peavey in quite a while, and I had forgotten how sweet it plays too.

I love the sound of new strings, and the Elixirs certainly sounded beautifully bright and clear. I'm anticipating that these will last me quite a while given the fact I'm spreading my playing around between several guitars.

Right now I have restrung the Ibanez and the Oscar Schmidt semi-hollow body with "standard" strings, and they too sound really good. You forget how crappy old strings make a guitar sound. You don't have to convince me that coated strings will be more cost effective over the long term, but when I can buy quality uncoated strings cheaply -- and given the fact I'm not gigging professionally -- I'm going to give coated ones a try and see how long they last.

I played the Peavey for a while, and boy howdy, those strings sound great! I think I'm going to continue to evaluate coated strings and watch for some deals on eBay for two or three-string sets. We'll see!

Rock on!

Dialing 'er in, enjoying the jam ...

Sunday, March 1, 2015 -- After playing my Oscar Schmidt semi-hollow body for a while, I decided to switch to my Ibanez Gio GAX30. The OE-30 weighs on the order of 10 lbs, and playing the guitar irritates my still-sore left shoulder (some days worse than others, of course).

The little black-on-black Gio needed some additional tweaking anyway. The new pots haven't arrived, so I don't have the new speed knobs on ... in fact, I have to be careful not to bump the volume pot or I'll lose my signal path from the pups to the output jack. The new pots are coming from China, so here's hoping they'll arrive soon.

One thing I didn't really realize is that some version of the GAX30 came equipped with the same speed knobs I purchased for mine. On later versions, the guitars were equipped with metal knobs (chrome or black). I've also seen versions with different pickups, including what look like P90 pups, and also one GAX30 with EMG-style pups.

I've continued to tweak the pickup height, trying to find that sweet spot between "loud enough" and "too damn loud its distorted." I've run across some very good YouTube videos that discuss setting pickup height, and its been very helpful. After several nights playing the Ibanez (and tweaking the

pup height) I think I have found that desirable middle ground. I'm very, very pleased with how it plays now ... it is a very sweet, easy-playing guitar now. It's fairly lightweight, the action and intonation are good, and there's no damn tremolo to deal with.

Speaking of tuning, I've found the weather and temperature seem to affect the Ibanez. Last night when I picked it up, the tuning was sharp on every string! Some more than others, but all were sharp. Not sure why, but I expect there's well-known reasons why.

But the Ibanez hardtail bridge eliminates any variance from a tremolo, and frankly, I don't miss a trem at all. I'm thinking of blocking the tremolo on my Peavey Raptor just to improve its tuning. A tremolo arm didn't come with my Raptor, and I've never had one on it. Why the hell have the trem system in place if all its going to do is screw with the tuning?

It probably comes from familiarity, but the Ibanez just feels going when you play it. It's like it becomes part of me or something, rather than his foreign slab of wood hung on a strap over my shoulder.

According to eBay, the pots should be out in my snowed-in mailbox. Maybe I'll retrieve them today, I would like to replace the pots and get be able to declare the Ibanez completed. Next project will be my Spectrum strat copy, which is going to need to be refinished (the body anyway).

I'm still looking to paint it Surf Green, though not sure if I want to try to use automotive lacquer or paint from a luthier shop. One thing I'll have to do is spend a lot of time prepping the wood, filling the grain, etc. I probably should go on and purchase the filler and primer and get started on it. First things first, though .... I gotta get those new pots installed in the Ibanez.

Right now I'm using a cheap-ass nylon guitar strap on the Ibanez ... I need to order another quality padded strap like I have on my Chibson, my Peavey and my Jazzmaster. A quality strap sure makes a difference in keeping shoulder pain away.

NEW AXE?  I keep looking at guitars on eBay, all the while knowing my wife is off work the next six weeks and adding another guitar to my collection will be a very tough sale. I've seriously considered buying a red semi-hollow body and selling the OE-30 (it is a tobacco sunburst), but that sounds petty.

I still want a telecaster, plain and simple. There's an eBay seller who has a surf green one for $109 shipped. I would need to replace the bridge in order to intonate the thing, but that's doable. I'm just not sure however of what that tele copy is going to offer me different from what I already own. I'm not the best player in the world anyway, and I've wondered if I shouldn't just focus on being a better player rather than buy more guitars.

I was following an auction for a very worn hollow body that needed lots of TLC... always looking for a new project that is within my skill set. I keep finding Gibsons for sale cheap, only to find they have split headstocks. Nope, not something I'm interested in. Next week I hope to cruise the local pawn shops and see what they may have hanging around for sale. I'll report back on what -- if anything -- I find.

Rock on!