I Love/Hate my Ibanez Musician

[jmagick]

Odd to say... so let me explain.

Back in 1977 I went and purchased my first "real" guitar. I chose it over two Martins at the time. An Ibanez acoustic. Beautiful sound, but rather plain in appearance, so who looks anyway. The salesman steered me away from electrics at the time stating I needed to learn on an acoustic model first.
So I practiced and I practiced and eventually fell in love with it. In the meanwhile I tossed the guitar pick in favor of a self-taught fingerpicking style.
Not quite a year later, I bought my first electric. An Ibanez Musician. I used the same critiria for the electric that I had used for the acoustic. Amazing sound, plus an amazing finish. Natural blond with gold plated hardware and tuners. So I took it home.
Here comes the hate part.
Apparently fingerpicking and the electric didn't work for me, so I went back to the pick. Never could create the sounds that I had heard at the Guitar Shop. So I put it back in it's case and stored it away. From time to time I'd pull it out and practice some on it just to become disappointed and put it back in the case.
I've had, over the years, different guitarists pick this guitar up and have it singing beautifully! Their only complaint was it's weight. Some of them made offers to buy it from me. But I kept it just the same.

So... After hearing Ironbaden's version of Pink Floyd's Time, I've pull it out again. This time I'm hoping it "will" sing for me. I'll have to get a new amp as the little Fender practice amp I have probably won't cut it.

I'll be using midis to help me along. Any suggestion on how I should start? What songs? Amp suggestions?

ironbaden: I'm curious to know something more about the Ibanez RC and the amplifier you play.

Jerry

[ironbaden]

My Dad bought areally nice Ibanez acoustic back in 79. Black . Still have it actually. My Rg? well I bought it second Hand for 250 dollars ( the retail on it was 395 I think ) its an entry level guitar and i bought it as a backup but it play's really well, stay's in tune and altho it could use some new Pickups ..sounds ok. Amp? well I was using a Laney 212 but the darn thing died so i bought another cheapie.... an SGH 112 60 watt amp. I don't like it that much but when Times are tough you make due. for effects I was using a Zoom 505 and an old Boss SE 50 processor which will go with me to the grave...its a great multi effect unit that has great sounds for guitars, Key's, and especially Vocals. I'm Testing out a new Digitech RP 100 effects unit that sounds really good... very similar in style to the Zoom 505 but the sounds are Fine. Great Rock, Blues and Country Presets. I'll run that Thru my SE 50 and it sounds great.

When I did this recording ( TIME ) I douwnloaded the MIDI from the Pink Floyd Forum that I belong to ( neptunepinkfloyd we actually have put together 2 Pink Floyd tribute CD's and are soon to release a third ) I used my Virtual sound canvass to create Waves of the instruments. I actually seperated the instruments so i had a wave of the Drums, bass, and Keyboards. i loaded each file seperatly into COOL EDIT PRO so I had 3 tracks. Bass, Drums and keys. I did this so i could EQ and add effects if needed seperatly. I believe I recorded 2 rythym Guitar tracks and each one was Tweaked using the guitar Amp simulator plugin from cakewalk. as a note a lot of plugins you get for programs carry over into others... for example.... when i loaded cakewalk 9 the cake walk effects showed up in sound forge and cool edit pro. I ran my guitar thru my zoom 505 and into the SE 50 and out of the SE into the computer line in. and tweaked with amp simulator.

I sang Directly into the SE 50 using a P/V mic ..there is a great Vocal preset and then eq'd with COOL EDIT plugins. If you listen to the tune you may realize that on the outro solo IO'm actually playing the Another Brick in the wall Riff..... every Time the riff starts over I added a harmony guitar that I played ...no copy and paste there. by the time the song actually fades out there 10 guitars playing.... the computer I used was an old 333 mghz 128 megs of Ram. Worked pretty darn good. If ya have any other questions drop me a line at [e-mail] or add me to msn messenger [e-mail] I never use the hotmail for email just for messenger. Talk to ya soon.

[nevnbron]

Electrics, as you say, can prove a little tricky in the finger-style department. I think that this is due to the idea that these guitars need to be strung with cotton. Most steel strung acoustics are strung with a slightly heavier guage string because the lighter stings tend to sound a bit tinny, but it also makes finger picking a little easier, gives you something to feel on you fingertips. 11 or 12 to 52 is a string that is still fairly easy to fret but is much more successfully finger-picked. D'Addario make a "Half-round" which I have always foung good for the purpose. I say this in the full knowledge that there are probably lots of finger-pickers out there who love their "lights". Hope it helps - Nev

[jmagick]

@ Nev I read your post yesterday which kinda made a lot of sense.
The acoustic that I have has never had a E1 string heavier than a .010 on it. At the moment it is currently strung with Adama 1717E's.
.010 .014 .023 .030. 038 .047

It does play well and the sounds are full and rich. Also does well with the Bill Lawrence pickup when I'm so inclined.

Now the Musician originally had a heavier string on it, what gauge is beyond my memory, since then it most likely has never had anything more than a .010 on it. It is currently strung with D'Addario EXL120 Nickels.
.009 .011 .016 .024 .032 .042

I have several sets of each on hand and I'm going to try a set of the Adama's on the electric. The package says acoustic on it, but what the hey, if it plays better I'm all for it!

I'll be looking for those "half rounds" the next time I head to the shop. Thanks for the info!

Jerry

[nevnbron]

The half rounds are great also besause they eliminate a lot - but not all - of the squeak as your fingers move over the lower strings, but you may need to order on line from some where as they can sometimes be a little difficult to find - Nev