Archive for January, 2011

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Blackstar HT-1R combo – review

Monday, January 31st, 2011

Packs a punch well above its weight.

Following on from my Ibanez RG465M mini-review, here is my Blackstar HT-1R combo review. The Blackstar HT-1R is the newest edition to the HT line of Blackstar amplifiers. This tiny little brother to the Blackstar HT-5 is a 1watt 2 channel valve amplifier, sporting 1xECC83 and 1xECC82 valves, digital reverb, and an 8″ speaker. The control set is slimmed down from the HT-5, and only has a gain, volume, ISF control for tone, and the aforementioned reverb. It is also equipped with the speaker emulated output and headphone jack, and sports an MP3/line in.

This slimmed down control set sounds like it could be fairly limited when it comes to dialing in a tone, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. It seems that the Blackstar crew have really taken the time to dial in the perfect tone into the HT-1, which allows the ISF control to offer a wide range of tonal options to suit most people. I found that by setting the ISF control in the same 3 o’clock position that I set on my HT-5 to, that I had pretty much the same sort of tone I got with my HT-5, even with my personal 3 band eq settings. (more…)

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Posted in Amplifiers, Reviews | 8 Comments »

Ibanez RG465 – review

Friday, January 28th, 2011

Ibanez please make something like the RG465 a regular production model!

Since my wife and new-born son were still in hospital, and having a nap I thought I would go into my local music store and try the Ibanez RG465 and a Blackstar HT-1 combo. I thought I might give them both a mini review.

The RG465 is an Indonesian made, special limited run guitar. They come in red and blue, and feature a basswood body, reverse headstock, maple fretboard with colour-matched dots, and a seriously cool humbucker-single coil pickup combo. The bridge is an Edge III, which is probably the only downside to the guitar.

Picking it up, the RG465 had a nice moderate weight just like you would expect from an Ibanez RG. The neck is a Wizard II, and construction on this particular guitar was top-notch. Acoustically the guitar sounded quite nice and full, and wasn’t too muddy, like some guitars with basswood bodies can be. (more…)

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Posted in Guitars, Reviews | 1 Comment »

Restoring a corroded bridge

Friday, January 28th, 2011

Exhibit A: Ratty looking Cosmo Black Ibanez Edge Pro bridge

Guitar hardware can get quite ratty and corroded over time. Climate, humidity, and sweat can eat away at your nice bridge locking nut and tuners, etc. Some hardware finishes are more robust than others, but they don’t always hold up.

I’ve noticed that the cosmo chrome and cosmo black finishes used particularly on a number of Ibanez guitar hardware parts have a particular penchant for finish wear and corrosion. Gold is particularly bad for this problem as well. So many nice Ibanez guitars have hardware that looks so much older than they really are due to the finish just being eaten away. (more…)

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Posted in DIY, Hardware | 4 Comments »

A new little man added to the clan

Sunday, January 23rd, 2011

I’ve just been through one of the toughest days of my life, and thankfully it ended on a high. My wife gave birth to my second son this afternoon, after a marathon slog of stalled labour, epidural gone wrong, and an induction that could have caused major complications resulting in a c-section to get my boy out.

Thankfully the induction went ok, and eventually with a lot of hard work, my wife was able to deliver him.

With the new addition to the family things might be a little quieter than usual for a few weeks. I do have a few DIY posts, and reviews to write up at the moment, so hopefully they will trickle through over the next three or four weeks.

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Posted in Babies, General | 2 Comments »

Cool gear: The Creamery

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

The Creamery, based in Manchester, United Kingdom.

The Creamery, based in Manchester, United Kingdom, is a small one-man boutique company building custom guitars and pickups. All electric guitars are built by hand, in many cases from quality reclaimed wood. All pickups are handwound to vintage and modern specs.

Many of the guitar designs are based on classic electric guitar shapes, and will be familiar to most guitar players.

If you are looking for some quality hand-made pickups with amazing tone The Creamery have a large range, from Strat and Tele single coil sizes, P90s, Humbuckers, and more.

The Creamery has been launching a number of new pickups over the last several months, including Swingo-Os, a Filtertron style humbucker pickup, and the “Wide-Os”, a single coil voiced humbucker. (more…)

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