infactuated with my new cij tele

October 20, 2009

last week, wednesday, i sold my brownburst ”made in mexico” (mim) tele (haha, funny photo!) after having kept it for about two (?) years.  it was kept in near mint condition and had some minor things done to it—nothing spectacular.  my original plan was to gut the electronics and install lollar special t pickups, warmoth neck and kluson tuners.  seeing that the pickups alone would be more than half the cost of the price of the tele, i opted to post it up on craigslist to fund the purchase of another tele.  eying several “made in america” (mia) teles, i wasnt able to find a finish i liked on craigslist nor on thegearpage.

then came friday. after work i was able to capitalize on a “crafted in japan” (cij) tele found on the local craigslist.  it’s a beautiful off-white blonde ‘62 reissue with usa texas special pickups and wilkinson vintage bridge on an alder body, rosewood fretboard on glossy maple neck.  the feel of the guitar is glossy smooth, much attributed to the low action and very comfortable 7.25″ c-shaped neck.

i’m much infactuated still, just take a look:


give me some more umph

October 9, 2009

alright…i’ve been accumulating some pedals this last week. i picked up a sonic research turbo tuner, mi audio blues pro, and mi audio boost n buff.

turbo tuner.  tt is a true strobe tuner, outclassing the peterson strobostomp in price, looks, and build quality.  of all tuners i’ve bought (planet waves, boss tu-2, boss tu-12, korg pitchblack) the turbo tuner has a faster response time, is more accurate, and sexy.  i should mention that the pitchblack is a fantastic pedal and is more durable and accurate than boss and planet waves tuners; some prefer it over the strobostomp.

mi audio blues pro. the blues pro is a tame pedal, but has plenty of gain to the point of fuzz.  i’m still testing out the pedal, but notice that the tone knob is very responsive.  it’s voiced differently from the FD2, not as mid-humpy, i suppose…but still a TS-style pedal. it definitely works better with my amp than the FD2 and has nice, thick overdrive.

mi audio boost n buff.  one knob. clean. simple.  rising sun japanese flag painted on enclosure.  the bnb is non-true-bypass to buffer and preserve the signal strength from your guitar to the amp.  i set mine at 9 o’clock and leave it…trust me, that’s plenty loud.

any new pedals for you to give you that extra umph in your sound?