It is currently Tue Mar 17, 2020 5:29 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 5 posts ] 
Author Message
Post subject: Seabuscuit Beats War Admiral
Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2013 10:25 pm
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2011 12:38 am
Posts: 650
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada. USA
Fair Warning. This is a long story.

It's been a crazy few months for me. I quit my band due to a couple of control freaks who have so far ripped me off. I'll keep that short and to the point.

I went back to woodworking, and stopped playing so much guitar. I still want to record my own music, so I have accumulated a full bass rig, keyboard rig, vocal rig, I have to learn bass and keyboard for my stuff, and it isn't always easy. Guitar had been set aside while I figure that stuff out.

Eventually, I'd grown weary of the new instrument process, and the guitar business was calling me again. I was finding some good deals on guitars in the local pawn shops. I've gone from 1 Schecter Tempest to 3 (freaking love those guitars). I finally found the ever elusive Squier Talon pickguard and I'm getting ready to pimp that ride.

But as I looked through the pics of my experiences with Hale-, I noticed how much a white guitar stands out in pics. In the past, I despised them and would never own one. Now, I've grown quite fond of them. So I set out to find a white Strat body to pimp another guitar out. Plenty of necks around here. Just need a body.

I scoured the Vegas pawn shops looking for one and eventually ran across a Squier Affinity for $60. Didn't care about anything else, just the white body.

When I got it home, I was immediately reminded of a piece of advise given by our own forum member "Martian". Always take a listen first.

Strings are wound up all funky. Looks like a beginner did it, played it a few times and never touched it again. Only to be pawned later.

When I plugged it in and played it, my jaw dropped. The sounds coming out of it oozed major tone. There's no way these are the stock pickups. I took the pickguard off to take a look. 100% stock and untouched.

I couldn't put the guitar down for a couple hours after putting the pickguard back on. The music coming from it was astounding.

I kept thinking it was some sort of NGD syndrome where it's nice at first, then you come to your senses, and let the pimping commence. I bought new pickups, thought long and hard about how I was going to put a new neck, bridge, pots, cap, block, etc.. We all know the routine.

Tonight, I put the guitar to its final test. A head to head against my finest frankenstrat. Something I spent many hours perfecting to what I like. Clarity in the clean channel. Overdrives like a champ. It's so hard to find that equal balance between hum and single.

Typically I favor hums. Certain Duncan's, Gibsons, Dimarzios, Fender, obscure Hums, I've grown very accustomed to and know what to expect. Singles rarely ( if ever) raise my eyebrow when it comes to distortion.

After doing head to head comparisons to over 20 of my guitars, it finally came down to this. The very fact that a stock Squier Affinity could make it through all of these guitars is astonishing as it is. I've spent thousands of dollars and endless nights over the past five years honing in on my personal guitar OCD tone experiences.

Tonight.. Seabiscuit took down the War Admiral. It's as rewarding as it is sad. I've come to realize so many myths and snake oils that are awry in the guitar business. I could care less about reviews of brands, parts, and so called " common knowledge" about what should be considered a pro guitar.

But it has been rewarding in a big way as well. The folks who built this guitar in Indonesia in 2000, did a fine job. The neck is smooth as silk, and the tone coming out of it is ungodly good in the clean and distorted channels. A big myth buster to me that single coils, ceramic at that, CAN be very good and versatile in both channels.

It's hard to describe the sound of it. Power, air, character, flavor, it has it all. It agrees with my gear better than any of my other guitars in all versatility aspects of what I require for what I do.

Guitars are like anything else. No two are exactly alike. With this guitar, all planets are aligned. I wouldn't dare touch a thing. I'm literally afraid of it. Not one pickup, pot, or cap will be changed unless it's absolutely necessary. And this guitar will be used extensively on my future recordings.

I will, however, be ordering a new red pickguard for it in honor of the whole Seabiscuit analogy. This single Squier Affinity has restored my drive to play guitar vigorously again. It restored my inspiration to keep writing and playing guitar.

I have to give a big thank you to Fender and Squier for restoring my view of the Stratocaster. And another thanks to Martian for his advise. To all of you kids out there who maybe got a Squier for your first guitar, don't be so quick to off it for what may be considered " more professional". Try not to be in such i big hurry to " customize" or to modify. You might just be sitting on a gem like this one and not realizing it. It's all a crap shoot.

Can't wait till you guys get to hear my Seabuscuit in action.



Image
Seabuscuit and War Admiral

_________________
Image


Last edited by Jah Soldier on Sun Mar 31, 2013 6:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject: Re: Seabuscuit Beats War Admiral
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:30 am
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2011 1:59 am
Posts: 492
Not too surprised, actually - I was lounging around in a music store a couple of weeks ago and wanted to try a couple of amps, so I asked for 'something Stratty' to play through them.

Salesman returns with an Affinity Strat. I was not particularly amused, but by then he had disappeared, so I shrugged and tried it anyway. You know what? I actually rather liked it. If they had built cheap guitars like that when I started learning, I'd have been in heaven.

It certainly wasn't the best Strat I've ever played, but it was far from being the worst - including some with the magical 'F' word on the headstock.

I'm going through a big change in my gear as well at the moment. I've spent years being totally OCD about pickups, pots, capacitors, cables, pedals, amps, etc - I've recently decided that I really don't care any more, as some of the best tones I ever got over the years were with gear which would make most of the 'boutique' people twitch uncontrollably. :lol:

I've sold off most of my fancy pedals and a few rather 'desirable' guitars, to replace them with cheaper stuff which I actually enjoy, and I couldn't be happier. No more obsessing about true bypass, exotic tone caps or if a guitar was brushed against by the sacred llama of Ni, just enjoyable music. And I'm absolutely loving it. :mrgreen:


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Seabuscuit Beats War Admiral
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 1:18 am
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:13 pm
Posts: 19026
Location: Illinois, USA
Hi Ted, good to see your post,
"It's been a crazy few months for me. I quit my band due to a couple of control freaks who have so far ripped me off. I'll keep that short and to the point. But as I looked through the pics of my experiences with Haleamano,"
That part raised the question mark, I mean your playing is Haleamano. Crazy control and ripped off sounds a pain so I hope you can recover. After all you will be better than ever. The rippy's loss most definitely. Cool that you've found some guitars action. Keep going, looking forward to some new shredd 6 music.

_________________
you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Seabuscuit Beats War Admiral
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 6:06 am
Offline
Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician
User avatar

Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2011 12:38 am
Posts: 650
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada. USA
Vulpinity, I was very shocked. Most of my guitars are fitted with after market pickups. The Hamer you see in the picture has a Gibson 498t and A2 modded Dimarzio Tone Zone in it. I've recorded a few tracks with it, and it's my producer's favorite guitar to use and borrow.

My first reaction was that the Squier was modified with possibly stacked pickups. The output is as hot as the other guitar, and as hot as another one that is fitted with a Dimarzio Fast Track 2 and Duncan Hot Rail. Usually when I ran into that sort of thing in the past with Squiers or other lower level guitars, the pickups were ice picks on a chalk board along with mud and immediately yanked out.

This set is crystal clear and very open. I've run into a few good Squier sets, all of them ceramics. I'm starting to lose my interest in Alnico Singles. Although, I would consider this a case of what I call a perfect accident.

Oddly, I just recently bought 2-schecter tempest customs. Both fitted with Duncan designed hums. The two guitars sound very different to each other. It kind of shows the inconsistencies from guitar to guitar. That's why it's hard for me to take in account online reviews. One of them sounds exactly as described though. Its a dead ringer for a JB/Jazz set. You wouldn't know that they were HB pickups. The other sounds bland compared to it. Not sure why that is.


SBLS, the guy who initially started Hale- decided he wanted to be the "Star" of the band. He first made the band an LLC in his name (along with his parents) and made us all his employees. He took control of the practices and set lists for the shows. And wouldn't you know, we mainly worked on his songs. My songs on the new album weren't practiced by the band first. They were just recorded on the fly. My 2-best songs for the album never made it to be recorded. The guy refused to have them on the album. He took me aside one practice, and said he was putting out a 10-song Cd instead of practicing mine and getting them on there.

I didn't even have control over my 2-songs that ARE on there. A different drummer was brought in behind my back, without my knowledge, to record Crown, and In my opinion, it's an awful performance. But I couldn't do anything about it. I had no control over any aspects if my songs for the recordings, and I was only allowed to play 2 of my songs in a 45- minute show. If we played a 30- minute, I was only allowed to play Jah Soldier. There was never a time in the band where there was an equal representation of the 3-singers. Not on the album, or live. That's when I decided enough was enough. There's no democracy anymore. It's all employer/employee run now.

When the cd was pressed, there was a big meeting at his house. Dude's dad walks up to me and says, "when I was told you quit the band, I said no no no, he isn't quitting. He's just on a hiatus."

Then he (the dad) says, " you can have one cd and that's it. And the CDs are $12. Don't even try to ask me to change that." I asked him about getting a cd for my parents, he said "No, your parents are getting download cards".

My parents aren't tech savvy at all. They don't even know how to do that. So they got nothing. That's when I mailed them a resignation from the LLC.

As it stands now, I was 1099'd for my earnings for 2012. A lot of that money went into the recordings of their songs. And so far I've received 1-CD for it. That's it.

The LLC refuses to disclose the numbers of what's been sold. To this day, I haven't been paid anything for any of my songs, and they're still selling them online and at shows.

It's a shame. But I knew it was time to get out before I REALLY got ripped off by continuing to stay in it.

_________________
Image


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Seabuscuit Beats War Admiral
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 6:49 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2009 7:13 pm
Posts: 19026
Location: Illinois, USA
Ted, you have my condolences. I have seen the transformation of good friends into egotistical monsters too. Glad that you got away from that scene. You are the talented one in that group so you will be better than ever. :D 8)

_________________
you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 5 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: