Any suggestions, ideally from ownership or at least a decent bit of use , for a late 70s/early to mid 80ās Japanese guitar? Iām thinking Matsumoku/Yamaha/Tokai etc. Iām primarily a bassist but I play a bit of 6 string too and Iāve got a few guitars Iāve collected over the years. So in terms of bases covered Iāve got a Tele, a Squire CV strat, a 330, a Korean Gretsch semi and a Lawsuit era Antoria Semi. I like the single coil/P90 sound and Iām not a huge fan of LPās or Gibsonās in general. I play funky and twangy (badly) through a Roland JC120 and donāt own a distortion pedal that might give you an idea of what Iām looking for. Prob not a shredding legend!
The thinking behind that era of MIJ guitar is that Iāve got a few bases from that time that are fantastic instruments. Two Aria Pro IIās and a Yamaha BB. Iāve had others too from lower down the pecking order such as Hondo IIās and a Westone Thunder that weāre great players too. I believe some of the guitars were just as good too so Iām basically looking for your experiences of them.
I owned a 79 Yamaha SG2000 for a few years. If you can find one in good condition and the right price, consider it a long term investment. Sturdy build quality, built to last. Great stock pickups that have a rich natural distortion. Still the best guitar Iāve ever laid hands on. But be warned: It is super heavy. Thatās the only reason I sold it.
Yvette Young is so much appealing for new guitar techniques!
I learned guitar seriously when I was about 16, with Police, James Brownās guitarist stuff, which I most appreciated technically (control of ghost notes).
Wasnāt fan of Satrianiās examples tapping lessons I tried, Yvette Young may me want to work on new techniques again! Thanks!
Btw I really donāt care about the green color of its guitar.
Yep I hear you. Sounds like my SB basses. The BB is no lightweight either. Iām a knee player so the weight thing isnāt as big an issue for me. Iāve got a Wal Custom that I used to play out. I swear Iāll end up with a shoulder complaint in old age! It weighs an absolute ton!
Itās one of the solutions to the problem of two-handed tapping. When your picking hand is being used to tap, it is harder to use that same hand to mute unwanted open-strings. So if the guitar is tuned to a particular tuning and the piece is also written to focus on the notes of that tuning, it doesnāt sound so bad if you canāt mute an open string while you are tapping.
I learned to play guitar when my roommate in college volunteered to teach me some Beatles songs on a guitar he just bought from a flea market. I didnāt think I would get all that serious about playing guitar, but somehow I got more interested over time.
I had a Chapman Stick for a bit. I learned the basics of tapping on that one. It comes with a dampener so that the player does not have to worry about open strings ringing. I eventually sold the Stick because I realized I do like to strum, which the guitar is designed for and the Stick is not.
I stopped playing guitar for several years. Then I joined a band that was formed by a guitarist who wanted to play music like Mogwai, Mono, and Explosions in the Sky - so-called āpost rockā music. I was the bass player, then he asked me to switch to 2nd guitar so that somebody else could join as the new bassist. Post-rock music doesnāt require a lot of solo practice so I started learning Preston Reedās song āTribesā on my acoustic guitar. It is in the CGDGGD tuning and requires both fingerstyle technique and tapping - like Yvette Youngās music. Eventually I got frustrated with the unstable tuners. My cheap steel-string guitar does not handle that tuning well, especially the low string being turned down to C.
So was my experience with open tunings, I even used different strings to correct that, keeping the open tuning for a guitar. (DADAAD, then BF#BF#BF# with a custom gaunge on a strat like).
For my relatively new 8 strings, I just drop the F# to E if needed / wanted, both being interesting. I chose a 80-10 set for that. Changing all strings tuning would be a nightmare!
Anyway, I think Yvette Young tricks can be transposed / used on different scales /tunings.
Easier to learn with same settings, for sureā¦
The frontman for Eastern Youth, one of my favorite Japanese bands, plays an old Yamaha SG-1000 from that period. Iāve never owned one but have been tempted many times.
Had a go at Section A of āNeroā. I had to slow down Youtube playback and repeat the last section many times. One advantage of the tuning for this song, is the major 3rd is easier to play on the 2nd and 3rd strings with right-hand tapping.
One advantage of an open-string tuning is you can get some nice sympathetic string resonance. Itās more noticeable on acoustic guitar but I heard a bit with the Strat plugged in. Itās like getting a pad sound for free.
I noticed that the Ibanez YY10 comes with .011 strings, which is unusual for a production Strat-like guitar, but the heavier gauge is probably well-suited to her music, with all the tunings that she uses. My Thinline Strat came with .010s. Itāll be interesting to see how this music plays out on the Tele with the .009s.
A few G&L mentions here lately. Iām looking into the L-1000 and Fallout Bass Launch Edition. I wonder how much custom shop options are and if they are worth it.
I like anime and I like guitars but I havenāt watched any Evangelion other than the first TV series. So I was surprised to see Asuka get her own signature Tele model
I donāt know much about those, but I have one of the Japanese G&L L-2000 basses and itās great. So many tone options itās insane. If you can find a used one they are really good value IMO.
I had a Heartfield bass for a while in the late 90ās, used from late 80ās?, Japanese made. It was pretty good, but I had a dozen basses back then. They made 6ās too. I only remember them because there was a mid 00ās dream pop band by the same name, also MIJ.
The color is closer to regular white than āvintage creamā as depicted on the site. My Eric Johnson Thinline Strat is āvintage whiteā and that guitar has a more pronounced yellow tinge.
It arrived tuned pretty much like a regular guitar, instead of the CGDAE tuning that the website said it would be tuned to. Thatās ok - I tuned it to CGDAE, which is the same tuning as a cello with an extra E string on top.
There is occasional noise, depending on how the cable is inserted into the jack. Maybe that can be fixed by having pots and/or wiring replaced? Other than that, the pickups sound fine, with the neck being surprisingly louder, as reported by other customers.
Neck feels pretty good to play. Having gotten used to the EJ Stratās baseball bat neck, the DāAngelico Deluxe SSās relatively thinner neck, and my Teleās compound radius neck, Iām pretty flexible with necks anyway. Iāve never been good at evaluating fret quality - they seem ok.
The low C string has some flop to it. I might look into having a tech adjust the truss rod for a bit more neck relief and maybe raise the action a hair to improve the low string tuning stability. I do like the current low action though. Iāll give the Warren Ellis 5 some time to settle into the CGDAE tuning.
I started learning the bluegrass standard āRed Hair Boyā from Andy Woodās bluegrass mandolin course. I quickly found that the notes are quite a bit further apart than on a real mandolin - more like a cello than a violin as expected. I have to shift my hand around a lot more than I would on a fiddle or mandolin-scale instrument.
I barely remember some chords I used to play on cello but have already discovered some other cool chord voicings made available by this tuning. Bending notes is fun because the short scale makes bending up a minor 3rd so easy. Overall, I think itās a good buy for the money. I might look into upgrading the pots, wiring, and shielding but thatās about it
Thanks for posting your thoughts. Iāve been curious about the Eastwood stuff. The Eastwood McGeoch looks cool, kind of wish Yamaha had done it though, or at least a Revstar with a non-flame sunburst finish like that.
Iām sure this has come up before so apologies if soā¦
I just put my electric guitar direct into my novation circuit mono station and no sound even with the gate open so I guess I need to preamp itā¦ Any suggestions for the cheapest, smallest but effective way? Thanks
, for a late 70s/early to mid 80ās Japanese guitar? Iām thinking Matsumoku/Yamaha/Tokai etc. Iām primarily a bassist but I play a bit of 6 string too and Iāve got a few guitars Iāve collected over the years. So in terms of bases covered Iāve got a Tele, a Squire CV strat, a 330, a Korean Gretsch semi and a Lawsuit era Antoria Semi. I like the single coil/P90 sound and Iām not a huge fan of LPās or Gibsonās in general. I play funky and twangy (badly) through a Roland JC120 and donāt own a distortion pedal 
that might give you an idea of what Iām looking for. Prob not a shredding legend! 
One advantage of the tuning for this song, is the major 3rd is easier to play on the 2nd and 3rd strings with right-hand tapping.
