Segue: "All You Ever Need"

On 29 January, 2012, my musical bro and I finally sat down after many, many months to have an electric guitar jam session. It was a special event as I was visiting him for CNY, and at the same time, was bringing over a newly acquired Fender Telecaster (a review on this later) for him to try out as I believe any Fender or Les Paul/SG guitar has to be tested by him. What begun as a casual jam session turned out to be an analytical exchange of guitar knowledge, studying of styles and appreciation for Fender and Epiphone (yes, EPIPHONE) guitars. This was the rig we used;

Musical Bro:

1. Squier S-65
2. Fender Stratocaster 1954 Classic Re-issue
3. Marshall Amplifier
4. Ibanez TS7
5. Boss FZ 5

Me:

1. Fender Telecaster Deluxe Blackout
2. Epiphone G-400 Custom Special Edition
3. Kustom Amplifier
4. Boss MT-2

We started our jam session at around noon and ended close to 2.15pm. 2 hours of solid jamming from blues licks to metal pentatonic runs - this was certainly an enjoyable session. Throughout the 2 hour session we traded licks with each other and begun analysing one anothers style. We've concluded that we are both not "Rock School" material at this point, but have over the years developed a solid style of play which mimicks some of our guitar heroes. My musical guitar bro is theoretically sound, understands the fretboard well, and moves through it a lot more fluid than I do. Steeped in blues influences such as Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray and some Gilmour thrown in, he's ready to take on any premier blues player this country has to offer. That's not to say he can't throw in some metal when required, but this guy is a blues master hands down. His weapons of choice? Well, a wicked Squier and a Fender Strat.

A lot can be said about the Squier. The tone is really "one of a kind", and it's hard to duplicate. An exquisite anniversary edition, this Squier was built like a tank, has a killer "SG" look, and is ready to rock out but also mellow down to some blues or jazz. With his TS 7 and FZ 5 in tow, musical bro was blistering through blues lead lines with such ease with this guitar. The tone is nice, round and fat (exactly what you want your one year old baby to be). Output is moderate, but is able to cut through with the right amount of mids. He had no issue cutting through my Tele's rhythm while using his TS 7.

However, it was the end of the 2 hour session which yielded the best line of the day, which spawned the title of this blog post. This stemmed from my musical bro plugging up an Epiphone G-400 Custom SG through to his Marshall and TS 7 - and the results were amazing. This guitar was recently re-set by a fellow Malaysian blues master, and I had been aching to give it a good whirl - and boy did musical bro give it a good work out! While the playing was equally as awesome, the tone which was produced by this Epiphone was exquisite. The neck produced a creamy rounded tone, while the treble produced the thinner "mono" type sound you'd use in classic 60s solos. Plugged through the Marshall the tone remained warm and the fuzz added a certain depth to the lead lines. Musical bro was impressed, and I was more than impressed with his playing which produced these exquisite tones. Prior to testing the Epiphone, he tried out the Telecaster and was equally happy with the 3 pickup configuration, the versatility of the tones produced by the 5-was toggle, and the weight of the guitar. This spawned the line "Dude, these two? All you ever need....."

While I am extremely happy with the tones they produced, he knows that I will beg to differ on these two being all I'll ever need (my guitar collection is up to 26 guitars now!). And furthermore, sitting in his house, he was kind enough to allow me to give his Les Paul and Strat a whirl, and boy are they fantastic pieces of wood. The LP was fitted with a beautiful pair of Seymour Duncan pickups (JB and 59). Soloing on the neck of the Les Paul is a joy, and the feel of the Les Paul is "full". That's the best way I can describe it. I feel really good playing the LP. His Fender on the other hand has recently been set up beautifully, and playing it was amazingly comfortable. I enjoyed the tones I could produce from the guitar, but up till now have no idea how he bends those strings with 5 springs hooked up to it! It sounds great, but I'm quite sure my fingers got real sore after trying to bend those strings lol. But it sounds great and I wouldn't want to change any of the set up for anything else. So dude, you know you have some awesome guitars too!

In conclusion, we realised we need to jam way more often than we have been doing so. We're trying to schedule in something the upcoming holidays - but we both agree that we need our fingers to recover from the soreness prior to anymore jamming! Age must be catching up....

Dude, next week Mon/Tues?