Riaan C's gear - ignore the two earlier posts!!

Riaan-Combrink

Now that I know you guys a few weeks, guess I should show you mine!! Picture quality isn't great,but here goes. First, a badly composed group-pic: My first electric, bought second-hand about two years ago, is a Cort X-6. Five pickups and a really fat tone. Sufered early retirement a few months ago when a drunk idiot stumbled onto the stage during a break between sets, tumbled over my rig and not only totalled a SM-58 grill, but emptied an entire glass of beer into the X-6's pickups! Despite dilligent cleaning, etc, weird sounds emanated the next day, so she went in to Cort for repair. Received her back two weeks ago. But, in the meanwhile I had to gig, so ... PERFECT EXCUSE to buy a new guitar!!! Along came my main squeeze, an Ibanez ZS320. The difference not only to my enjoyment but also my playing has been immense. I'm in love. Mahogany body with a carved maple top. Duncan-Ibanez pickups, one humbucker at either bridge or neck position, or two single coils, depending on my mood. I just love the thru-body stringing. No more tuning with Allan keys. Hate those floaters!! My main stage acoustic is a Cort SF5X. Has a solid spruce top, solid mahogany back, mahogany sides & neck and,most importantly for the live stuff,a Fishman Prefix Plus EQ & Matrix pickups. The Fishman sounds great over a PA, and I really love this guitar's amplified sound. I use an ancient Boss ME-5 with her, as I've never been able to recreate the awesome acoustic patches some guy programmed for me on my GT-6. My first love is an Epiphone copy of the famous Gibson Everly Brothers guitar - the SQ-180. I think the real-deal Gibson played by Phil & Don (and also Neil Diamond) is the J-180. Spruce top and maple body and the infamous "dual moustache" pickguard. My first guitar, bought in 1985. You know what they say about first love. My last acoustic is an Epiphone PR-100E, really just a nice strummer for braais, etc. Very nice low end, though. I don't use a guitar amp at the moment. Just my Boss GT-6 straight into the mixer. Yes, I know, its sacrilege, but I have to pack an entire PA into the back of a VW Golf! Rest of the gear is 2 x Seer PS-15" speakers, Laney CP-12 monitor, Behringer Eurorack UB1832 FX-Pro mixer and a Behringer EP 2500 power-amp. Also have 2 x 12" Behringer Eurolive B1220 and 2 x 15" Eurolive B1520 speakers I'm trying to sell, as I'm saving up for two JBL Eon 15" G2's. Anyway, that's my gear.

Riaan-Combrink

Guys, my most sincer Uber-Noob apologies.

Can't seem to get posting pics right. Been at it for over an hour now.

Will have to do a Picasa album online & link to it.

Sorry.

Riaan C

PS: Norio, could you delete these three posts, please?

AlanRatcliffe

Well... it reads well.

I've removed the earlier posts and await the new pics with much interest ?

Riaan-Combrink

Thanks, Alan!

OK, guys, just click on the link below to see the Picasa album containing the pix that didn't make it above.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Synchronicity.RSA/RiaanCSGear

For guys who don't know Picasa,j ust click on 'slideshow' tab, or click on any pic and use arrows to navigate. That way you can see the captions too.

Will try to integrate pix into post for archive purposes when I'm more experienced.

Cheers

Riaan C

Riaan

Hey Riaan, that's a really nice collection of guitars!

AlanRatcliffe

Nice collection of working guitars. I like the Ibanez. I've long preferred hardtails to trem equipped guitars and Ibanez does a few nice ones.

The Epiphone SQ is an interesting one - not my kind of guitar (too big for me). How is the tone with those huge scratchplates? I see it needs a string or two and a new nut, but I suppose not having a pickup, it doesn't get as much playing time as the Cort.

I had the GX-700, which is the rackmount version of the GT-6, and while the newer ones have better sound, there is nothing wrong with the GT-6 - some very good effects in those boxes. I even hung on to mine when I got a POD Pro, using it for the piezo acoustic sounds (they do the clean stuff and delay, chorus and reverb very well). I only got rid of it when I got a GT-Pro.

Riaan-Combrink

Alan Ratcliffe wrote The Epiphone SQ is an interesting one - not my kind of guitar (too big for me). How is the tone with those huge scratchplates? I see it needs a string or two and a new nut, but I suppose not having a pickup, it doesn't get as much playing time as the Cort.

Hi Alan.

The SQ has the most amazing warm tone and rich bottom end. Has the nicest bass tone I've heard on guitars in its price range. Your eagle eye spotted the neglect - since the nut chipped (which was about three years ago), I haven't played her. No way to treat your first love, I know. Just really stuck in the rut of playing the circuit and using the guitar (Cort) that's good for that purpose. Sadly, don't find the inspiration lately to play just for playing's sake. Also, I've only been playing electric for two years of my approx 20 years of playing, so what time I have is spent trying to improve that. As you advised Fritz the other day when discussing the D-chord on his new baby, its obviously an entirely different ball game. I've been a rhythm guitarist all along (hiding behind, or perhaps augmenting, some really good lead players), and am now only starting to incorporate riffs and basic leads into the repertoire - so the learning curve is steep!

By the way, Alan, what do you think of the Yamaha Silent guitars? Saw a fellow cover muso use one the other day, and he was using it as a dual acoustic and electric. Had a cool acoustic tone,and next song he was running it as an electric using distortion patches, etc. Once you take the cut-away frames off, it stores to about the size of a cricket bat. For approx R 4 500,00, seems a good idea for a working guitar for someone who plays both acoustic and electric on stage.

http://www.yamaha-europe.com/yamaha_europe/uk/10_musical_instruments/30_guitars_basses_amps/65_silent_guitars/10_silent_guitars/index.html

http://www.yamaha.co.jp/english/product/guitar/silent_guitar/features.html

Cheers

Riaan C

AlanRatcliffe

By the way, Alan, what do you think of the Yamaha Silent guitars?

I've never seen one in the flesh. Nice concept for a travel guitar though. It is more of an acoustic than an electric though, not having magnetic pickups. So I think your fellow muso was "faking it" by using distortion to make it sound more like an electric.

There's been quite an upswing in the number of hybrid "super guitars" that feature acoustic and electric tones. Obviously there's the Taylor T-5 that started it all, but others are jumping on the bandwagon. The Taylor is an acoustic that can also do electric tones and uses an acoustic bridge and bronze strings, but there are others like the Parkwood Hybrid (a Cort brand, BTW) which are more electric that can also do acoustic. http://hybrid.parkwoodguitars.com/

Another thing that would work well is to take something like that and fit a Roland GK-3 pickup to the Silent guitar and use it with a Roland VG-99 to get all manner of guitar sounds from it, including fake 12-strings, Nylons, acoustic steels, various electric guitars and even banjos and mandolins. That's about as flexible as you can get. Of course it will work with any 13-pin equipped guitar too.

Riaan-Combrink

Thanks for the advice, Alan.

I was unaware of the Parkwood. The Roland pickup option sounds really good. Thanks for pointing out some alternatives. Will give it some thought!

Riaan C

FatBoy

Nice guitars you have there Riaan C!

AlanRatcliffe

Also, don't forget, you can take any decent guitar you like the look and feel of and turn it into a hybrid by adding a piezo bridge or saddles. Doing that gives you access to not only "acoustic" piezo sounds, but 13-pin output for VG processors or guitar synths too:
http://ratcliffe.co.za/articles/piezo.shtml