

Ibanez 2680 Bob Weir Professional 1765536 1976 Japan

I bought this guitar in Cambridge in 1978 to replace a 1974 Gibson SG Special whose Bigsby vibrato had often been a nuisance. This was a vastly better made instrument, with far more powerful pick-ups. It was one of the first of the high-end non-copy Ibanez models that established the brand’s credentials in the UK in competition with the much more expensive Yamaha SG2000 with which it shared rave reviews back then. It remains a firm favourite with me despite the inherent head-heavy issue that it shares with SG-style guitars: the original owner had fixed this by moving the string button from the tip of the upper cutaway to the back of the neck.



Ibanez JEM Steve Vai Signature C0025F 2015 Ibanez Premium Factory, Indonesia

This was purchased from Musicians’ Oasis, Kingaroy, QLD, an aptly-named, excellent store that typically has a surprisingly extensive stock for its location in a small town in rural Queensland. They also had a 2014 white JEM at the time, for much less, but the blue floral finish was too much to resist given that I didn’t then have a Paisley Telecaster. Though rarely heard with clean tones, this instrument also has exceptionally good clean tones from its DiMarzio pick-ups. It’s a wonderful instrument, with an extraordinary action, too, and I expected this would become my favourite rock instrument, but within a couple of months of ownership I discovered the RG550XH below. Later, I discovered the downside of the Floyd Rose vibrato system: it is very challenging to change the strings, as they have to be held in tiny clamps that are seriously fiddly to use — you really wouldn’t want to have to replace a broken string in a Floyd Rose bridge at a gig, especially in a poorly lit backstage area.

Ibanez RG550XH 30-Fret Guitar 2013 (MY2014) I130506483 Indonesia

This is one of my favourite non-synth-access rock guitars, despite it being one of the cheapest in my collection. I only discovered the existence of this limited edition model in late 2015 but there were still a few available online. It is as good as the JEM to play, for about a third of the price and has an excellent clean tone as well as plenty of output from the picks for overdrive sounds despite lacking the JEM’s DiMarzios. There’s no neck pick-up but one is simulated via an active circuit. For any metal player suffering from violin envy, this is a must-have guitar, as it’s very easy to access notes beyond usual top-note limits. Or at least it would be, were it not for the possibility of doing even better by using a current Line6 Variax with an octave-up tuning, which is also far better for handling the really high notes as the fret spacing is much wider than for equivalents (and beyond) on the RG550XH. It also goes beyond the JEM in having a string-tension adjuster wheel built into the back. It may not have the blue floral paintwork, but the red sparkle paint (which the photo doesn’t do justice) also sets it out from the norm. The red sparkle and white colour scheme made it the obvious guitar for use (with a Santa hat) at a Christmas gig! Its Floyd Rose-style bridge has a smaller range of movement than the one on the JEM, but the same potential broken string nightmare for a live gig unless one has a spare guitar at hand.

Ibanez AZ242BC Premium Deep Espresso Burst I17121276 2018 Indonesia

Given my dislike of the Floyd Rose locking vibrato system, the AZ242 attracted me as an alternative to the JEM and RG550XH. It has 24 frets but comes set up for 10-46 strings, which I also prefer to the 9-42 strings on the other two, and with split-coil humbuckers and a five-way switch it has a bigger range of tones, pretty much all that you might hope for from one guitar without going down the guitar modelling route. I find it hard to see why anyone would pay half as much again for the Japanese-built Prestige version, as the build quality on this one is excellent. It was purchased at the Mooloolabar Music Centre.

Shijie Tonemaster S181438 2018 China

I had never heard of Shijie guitars until stumbling across this one at the website of Royce Music House in Toowomba, QLD in late 2019, but to judge from this example Shijie is a brand established guitar makers need to take very seriously indeed. It looked like it might be the Chinese firm’s take on an Ibanez AZ242, and indeed it feels very similar to play, despite costing little over half the price. However, Shijie have done their own thing with this one, as it has only a three-way PU selector switch instead of the AZ242’s five-way switch, despite having a similar coil-split switch. However, it has an additional small three-way switch for an active bass-/treble boost. The body is three-piece walnut with an AAA flame maple top, and where the Ibanez AZ242 has Seymour Duncan pick-ups, the Tonemaster’s are by Gotoh, with locking tuners and stainless steel frets. Utterly extraordinary value for money, eye-catching, and a joy to play.

Ovation Breadwinner 3633 1975 New Harford, CT, USA

This one was purchased on eBay in 2018 from a local enthusiast and is in amazingly good condition for an AUD990 guitar that is over 40 years old. I had been wanted one almost since it was made, having tried on in the shop of the UK distirbuter Rose Morris in Shaftsbury Avenue, London during my student days. I had never played a guitar with such a good action before, and it still impresses today in that respect: definitely a ase of ‘better late than never’.

Paul Reed Smith McCarty 10 Top 269962 2006 USA



Gibson EDS-1275 6/12 Twin Neck 92457732 1997 Nashville, USA

I ordered this one new in Christchurch, NZ in 1997. It’s a white one purely because it was the last one left in Gibson’s warehouse from the batch made at that time — not because I am a great fan of The Eagles, who used a white one on Hotel California, or because those played by Steve Howe and Alex Lifeson are white. With hindsight, I’d have bought the Epiphone version (in red), but back then I’d never laid my hands on an Epiphone to discover how similar to a Gibson they are to play. Actually, I’d have preferred an Ibanez Artist twin-neck, as access to the top frets on the Gibson EDS1275 is dreadful beyond fret 17 on the six-string neck and it only has 20 frets in total. The placing of the pick-up selector switch is also ergonomically poor. It does have a great sound once in tune but it’s a guitar you need to play often to ensure a good ratio of time spent tuning it to time spent actually playing it. A much simpler (and cheaper) solution to the need to switch between 6- and 12-string guitars is to use the 12-string electric sound in the Roland GK55, or create an even better model in a Boss GP10 (where I also have put together a convincing 12-string Danelectro model). So, I really ought to be selling this one, were it not for its potential as a stage prop and the guitar to which everybody gravitates when visiting my music room. In 2019, I at last discovered a way of dealing with its head-heavy problem (which also afflicts a single-neck SG): in searching for vegan guitar straps I came across a super-wide Basso ECO-03 vegan strap that clings to one’s clothing and keeps the guitar heads from heading earthwards.



Gibson Les Paul Custom 91070676 1990 Nashville, USA



Epiphone SG Les Paul Custom 1012203031 2010 China

Tokai Legacy Series SG-Style CN15001159 2015 China (with Gotoh Tuners and Seymour Duncan FatCat Pickups)



Gibson Flying V 125910435 2011 Boseman, USA



Epiphone Flying V U06092851 2006 Usung, Korea

Tokai Traditional Series Explorer 2011 CN11120435 China

This was actually purchased new for AUD599 as a ‘Black Friday Special’ in 2017, the spectacular deal presumably because of how long it had been sitting in the distributor’s warehouse. This is the first time I bought a guitar before I had even had breakfast, but, hey, I had been considering getting a Gibson or Chapman Explorer for several times what it cost and it plays superbly. The only hassle is finding a suitable stand-alone stand: presently it has to sit in a five-guitar rack stand.

Tokai Vintage Series ATE95A PR/M Pink Paisley Metallic, Telecaster Style 180508 Japan



Fender Telecaster N2927711 1992 Corona, USA.

I bought this early in 1993 from the Christchurch Rock Shop in New Zealand, It is an early example of the updated Telecaster with a six-saddle bridge. It’s a vast improvement on the 1975 model I owned in my student days, whose intonation was impossible to set properly with only a three-saddle bridge and which was prone to suffer from feedback. However, it’s role is now in question after the arrival of the Paisley Tokai.



Line6 Variax 500 Modelling Guitar 04039933 2004 USA//Indonesia

Line6 Shuriken SR270 Baritone Modelling Guitar W17080329 2017 USA/Indonesia

My partner Annabelle calls this ‘The Stealth Guitar’ because its unusual semi-gloss dark grey finish calls to mind a stealth bomber. I bought this as a back-up for the original Variax to get access to alternative tunings and a two-octave neck. In standard tuning, the 27-inch scale is great for playing on the upper frets, which I do frequently, as it gives one’s fingers a bit more space. But it took me a long while to figure out how to make it interchangeable with the old Variax when using either of my Line6 multi-effects units that enable guitar type and pick up position to be stored as part of a patch. The problem is that the Shuriken has a maverick set of preset and user banks that isn’t shared with other Variax guitars, and it doesn’t include the Rickenback 12-string models. With a Telecaster on bank 2 on the Variax but on bank 5 on the Shuriken, I feared I would either need to have the floor units programmed with different sets of patchs to accommodate both guitars. One solution was to spend hours reprogramming the Shuriken by moving all the banks around and using the Workbench software to create the missing guitars. But eventually I decided to try reinstalling the firmware on the Shuriken whilst sticking to the default option instead of trying to preserve patch settings, and it works: the default firmware is the regular set of Variax/JTV models and banks. As well as raising questions about the point of the 30-fret Ibanez RG550XH for super-high notes, this guitar also raises questions about the point of having 7- and 8-string guitars, given that the octave-down tuning is easy to access — I thus have a ‘metal’ bank on my Line6 Firehawk that has rhythm, lead, octave-up and octave-down for this guitar.





Danelectro 1959 reissue Electric 12-String 21189 2014 Korea (Purchased from Bandland, Toowoomba, QLD.)

Electric guitars I used to own: Watkins Rapier 33 (1960s — my first electric guitar, 1971-4. Not bad: I’d like to have one again!), Gibson SG Special (with a Bigsby vibrato unit, which was a mistake) (1974-8), Fender Telecaster (blond/rosewood, but three-piece bridge made accurate intonation challenging, and it had feedback problems) (1975-6), CSL Les Paul Deluxe (1976-9), Washburn A10-12 Electric 12-string (1989-2018: sold to accommodate the Ovation Breadwinner; it hadn’t been getting much use but a delightfully eccentric instrument with a great sound).



Playing the CSL Les Paul, 1978

Amplification: Blackstar ID CORE stereo 40W V2 Combo (my favourite: tiny, cheap, but a brilliant sound); 2014 Roland Cube 80GX; 1985 Fender Studio 50W Combo. However, when playing live, I often don’t use a guitar amp and instead simply run my guitar synth and guitar multi-effect unit into a pair of Boss L1 Compact PA towers, via a Zoom R24 recorder. Occasionally I have tried just using my Boss eBand10 backing track player/effects unit for a small cafe venue and found it perfectly adequate, though it normally lives in my study. On an even smaller scale, I also greatly enjoy using my Marshall MS4 1W microstack, which packs a surprising punch for its tiny size and sounds quite like a big one. From 1976 to 2017 I had a Yamaha 50-112 Combo (bought second-hand in 1977 to replace a Marshall 30W combo that had been stolen at a Cambridge May Ball) and it was still going strong when I sold it to make some space: a lovely clean sound, usable distortion option and utterly reliable.

Multi-Effects Units: My regular live floor units are a Roland GR55 Guitar Synth (which also serves as my foot-controlled backing track player) and a Boss GP10 Guitar Processor (with an Iron Horse power supply/tuner, since the GP10’s tuner only works on guitars that have synth access despite it otherwise allowing inputs from both regular and synth-access guitars).

I am also starting to get to grips with Line6 Firehawk and BOSS GT1000 multi-effects units, and still have my old Line6 POD/POD Floorboard, Line6 XT Live and Peavey Max 100 pre-amps and a Roland GR30 guitar synthesiser.

Shredecon Guitar Gallery (1): Synth-accessing Guitars and Unusual Stratocasters

Shredecon Guitar Gallery (3): Basses and Extended Range Guitars

Shredecon Guitar Gallery (4): Jazz Guitars, Acoustic Guitars, etc.

A shot from the Shredecon wardrobe: rock-star-style business shirts by David Smith Australia.

