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!