Our Guitars and some History

I have a photo of me when I am 3 years old with a Ukulele.  Mother said I loved that instrument as a kid. I have no memory of it, but it makes sense now. I wanted to learn to play the guitar in Junior High School, but mother thought that was a stupid idea. She only ever listen to talk-back-radio, never music.

The first guitar I bought was a very cheap, no name, worn out Stratocaster I bought through The Trading Post after driving out to Cabramatta, Sydney NSW to see it. The very end of 1976 or start of 1977, after finishing High School, before University started.  It was a classic Sunburst finish.  What I used for my first Akai 4000DS sound-on-sound recordings.

When I left Fairlight Instruments in 1986, I was given a MADE IN JAPAN 1984 SQUIRE, my first not rubbish guitar.  I still have it. The only guitar I had for 35 years!

In 2005/2006 or so I discovered the Reaper DAW and got more serious in home recording again after a some 18+ years of midi only sequencer music making using a Roland D-110 multi-timbral and other synthesizers. Used MicroLOGIC for the longest time and hadn't touched the guitar.

I shielded it, and replaced the bridge pick up with a DiMarzio DP117W, a white HS-3.  That finally got rid of the hum that had bugged me for many years recording with it.  Standard single coil pickups are just not useable in High Gain tones. 

The Tremolo, no matter what I did was always just a detuning leaver, and my solution was to put a wooden block in it. That also stops the boing boing of heavy down picking. I never learnt how to use that Tremolo.

In 2021 I became interested in the heavier down tuned metal tones, and inspired by Ola  and guitar god Mattias IA Eklundh (even though he doesn't play 7 strings) and his Freak Kitchen, bought this Ibanez GRG7221QA-TBB GIO Series 7 String Guitar.  Seemed a good way to try a 7 string. It is ¥42,222 today, but I paid ¥28,000 back then!

It is with this that I started to down tune a half step. Makes a nicer tone, and .009 strings are just that little easier to play that I came to love. Had a very sticky plastic nut, that once dressed properly doesn't 

cause any problems and is a good guitar. Humbuckers so no hum with metal tones, is all good to me. I have it in DROP G#.  THE BOTS ARE AT IT AGAIN, is a track using it.

I thought the jack in the guitar was a little iffy at one point and bought a much better quality one to replace it, but haven't felt the need to change it.  I sit in my tiny studio with these guitars so aren't putting any real strain the way you would moving around on a stage.

In 2022 I bought a Ibanez RG350ZB Weathered Black Electric Guitar. Finally, a non "beginners" guitar with a locking nut and tremolo.

Very nice. The BEST guitar I have. There isn't anything wrong with the frets or fretboard on the cheaper GIO 7 string, but some how, this RG is nicer.  So paying more gets a nicer guitar straight out of the box I guess is what I learnt. I haven't had to do anything but change the strings. I have started to learn how to use a Tremolo, but I may have left that a bit late. 

In 2024 I became very curious about 8 string guitars. Attended Mattia's May Osaka Guitar Clinic and his 8 string sound was awesome. Wow. Later I went to all the guitar stores around Umeda Osaka, and there was no 8 string to be seen, and only one or two 7 strings. So trying one wasn't easy.

Ended up ordering the Harley Benton R-458MN WH MultiScale from Germany as my best option to try an 8 string. 

The fan frets stop the neck from being too long and I think that is brilliant for me.

Like my original Squire, this has taken a fair bit of refining and setting up to become truly usable to me. But it also took a while to get used to it enough before I did any of that.  A 7 string is almost a 6 string and doesn't take any effort to play for me, but an 8 is like a different instrument. Especially for muting. 

The 8 strings issues finally came down to tuning stability and intonation. The plastic nut isn't just "sticky", but cut so there are 2 bends in most of the string going from the fret board to the tuners. Dressing the nut to remove that problem doesn't take much effort or time, but you do need Nut Files. The other issue was the down tuning I wanted, required cutting and changing bridge screws to allow the bridge saddles to move far enough back for correct intonation, and the adjustment screws to not foul with the guitar string in the process.   

I have a whole blog on that. 

But once all that is resolved it is a very usable 8 string. That low end is really something. I don't have it in a DROP tuning like the others. That just makes the lowest 8th string too floppy.  I think it sounds awesome. The feel of the 8 string is a lot like my Squire, even though the fret board is much wider! Nothing wrong with the finish of the neck or frets to me. The pickups are all fine too.

So I had one Squire guitar for 35 years, then in the last 6 years bought another 3. They are all very different instruments though. It isn't like I bought 3 of the same thing. But I really don't need the Squire any more, the RG does anything it can do but better. Give it to our grandson as his first guitar when older. The 8 and 7 strings are for heavy rhythm guitar duties, and the 7 in DROP does something the 8 and 6 don't do. The RG covers all the lead/ solo/ melodic stuff best and has that wiggle stick that doesn't hurt the tuning. I still don't think of myself as "a guitarist", just a guy making simple heavy music as a hobby at home. It has always been making recordings that has been my focus, not performing or being "a guitarist".

Some time after getting my no name Stratocaster, I bought a similar no name P-Bass, for bass duties. What struck me about that instrument, is that it was very much a one sound instrument, as at the time I didn't have an amp modelling and it was just DI'ed in to a 4 track recorder. 

I sold it before I moved to Japan the first time in 1987. Then around 2008, I bought an Affinity Squire Jazz Bass. 

A Jazz Bass is far more my style, with the thin neck. Wasn't a fan of the single coil pickups, but with them both up full, it did cancel hum. I mostly used it with a LINE6 FLOORPOD which did amp sims fine for my recordings.  Then in 2023 I replaced the single coils with WILDE Jazz Bass J-45 humbuckers.  I could now use either neck of bridge pickup alone, and this has been a step forward.  

I am a Bass Player in the same way as I am a Guitarist. I can do what I need. 

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