Accessories Revisited.

In looking back at the older posts, I looked back to the one on accessories. In reading that article, I realized that there should be a rehash; as new products have come out, and favorites have been discontinued. Translation: Dave gots a new guitar and has mods on the brain!!

Straps: The general thoughts on this has stayed the same. Nobody has really come out with anything too earth-shattering in the last 5 years. I've been buying up Ernie Ball studded (chrome) leather straps whenever possible, as I'm fearful they'll be discontinued. I actually have one in my picture on this blog. These are the ones that are adjustable to 60", and though people speculated that they were just cheap straps that were made in China, I still use the first 2 I bought 5 years ago and they're nowhere near wearing out. They dun broke in rather nicely!! I also have some funky looking JS straps by Planet Waves (same company that owns D'Addario). These are the same straps as the Planet Wave nylon straps, but have neat designs done by Joe Satriani. I've actually owned one of these longer than the Ernie Ball Leather ones; over 5 years. I did pick up a Souldier strap a couple years ago; these are made out of recycled seat belts and move around a lot on the shoulder. Not usually a fan of these, but this one was an olive drab color with 3 Boy Scout Merit badges sewn on, and I picked it up at Riot Fest in Chicago. Very sturdy, but still pricey. Aaron is still using the same Levy's leather strap with the skulls on it and will probably be buried with that thing.

Tuners: Last time we approached this topic, we were singing the praises of Sperzel, Schaller, and GFS' "Sperzel Style" locking tuners. As great as these tuners are, they didn't work on every guitar without drilling holes. Grover has recently gotten on board the locking tuner bandwagon with a set that are a direct replacement with their standard tuners on the newer Epiphones, and some Gibsons, giving us more options. The Grovers boast a 14:1 turning ratio which is similar to Sperzel. Fender has locking tuners available that directly replace stock tuners on the American and Mexican made Strats and Teles that don't have classic style tuners. More than likely these Fender locking tuners are made by Schaller. We just put a set of these on Aaron's Standard Telecaster, and they are phenominal.

As far as standard tuners go, we don't have a lot of opinions because we're always looking to switch to Locking. What we do know is we hate open-gear tuners; the ones that came stock on Gretsch 5120's never held a tune. Kluson style never impressed us. Granted, we grew up in the era of Gotoh tuners, Gibsons with Grovers as OEM, and Fenders with sealed Schallers. Klusons may look more classic on Gibsons, but we never liked the way they looked, never liked how they held a tune, and have had them break on us. Fender vintage style tuners drive us nuts as well, mainly because they take too long to restring. Anything Schaller or Gotoh style seem decent, and Grover is nice as well. 

With bass tuners, we've never replaced a set on a bass. That said, most of the basses we've had have either had Schaller cloverleaf style tuners, or the smaller Gotoh style machines. Both hold their tuning well, and have never failed us, even the ones on the Squier basses. The Grover bass tuners (usually OEM on Rickenbacker basses) function well, but we've noticed they can rattle over time.

What should be mentioned is we don't know who the parent companies are to these manufacturers, and it's quite possible all these tuners are coming from the same factories.

Tuning Devices: What we're seeing more and more is musicians using clip-on style electronic tuners. Snark seems to be the most possible, and they are nice little tuners, quite accurate and easy to read, plus you can buy them for around $13. What we don't like is the fact the batteries are button style, and though not overly difficult to find, it's not something you can find in a 7-11 in a pinch. There are some complaints on these saying they're too breakable, but we never had an issue with that... BECAUSE WE DON'T LEAVE THINGS CLAMPED ON TO OUR HEADSTOCKS!! The Snark is nice for home use, or to keep in a case, but not something I'd leave swinging around while rocking out like an asshole. Plus they just look bad (we tend to not use capos for that matter either).

In live settings, we use tuner pedals. I use a Korg Pitch Black which is true bypass, and has survived over 5 years of abuse in my pedalboard. Snark makes a tuner pedal that's going for about $60 and is true bypass as well. GFS has a tuner pedal that's true bypass, and goes for about $45 (not including shipping). Rack tuners were quite popular years ago, but there seem to be few of those on the market.

For those of you who like guitars that tune themselves, almost all 2015 Gibson guitars will be outfitted with their G Force auto-tuning setups by Tronical. What we've also been told is that there are companies coming out with replacement kits for these Gibsons for those of us who know how to tune a guitar. 

Cables: Generally, we don't follow the hype on any cable gimmicks. We use to buy either Rapco, ProCo, or Horizon cable depending which brand was available at our local stores, and never found a difference between any of them. We're told that ProCo now owns the other 2 companies, and some stores will have their own brand of cables that are made by ProCo. We also have some budget cables that were made overseas, and they work great as well. As far as sound goes, we never noticed a difference from the $15 cables and the $100 cables. We have had colleagues who have had bad experience with Monster cables, mainly breakage by the jacks. Also, I've been using Line 6 wireless systems for over 5 years (since they bought X2), so I don't go through a lot of cables.

Cases: For our guitars and basses, we never mess around with gigbags. Generally we have hardshell cases for all our guitars and basses (the ones we take out of the house anyway). A lot of our better instruments have come with cases. Lately, we have had some purchases that did't include cases, and have had to improvise. At Guitar Barn, they have their "Musicians Gear" cases, which are generally lower end Road Runner cases. It should be noted that this big box retailer never stocks the lowest priced cases in their stores, and when asked they say they can order them (I can order them too). The guitar cases offer enough protection and have impressive lastability. I actually prefer the budget bass cases by Road Runner and Gator (I usually find these for around $50) because they fit into my car better when loaded with gear. You'll see reviews on these cases where people say they're made with cheap materials, but unless you pay top dollar for the Canadian made cases, the $100+ cases are made with the same materials. 

There are also poly-foam cases which are supposed to be the happy medium between cases and bags, but they can become useless if the zipper goes.

Stands: We shy away from any of the tri-pod tubular guitar stands, especially the ones made for multiple guitars. The tripod multiple stands worry us because of their lack of stability. The guitar racks are a much sturdier way to go; currently I use the Rockstand by Warwick, although the bolts are constantly coming loose on the thing. GFS has some 6-guitar racks that fold into a case for about $80. At home, we tend to use hangers. Hercules is a favorite of ours, they have the plastic tabs that secure the guitar.

Bridges and Such: Unfortunately, Leo Quan is no longer with us, and his famous Badass bridges are no longer in production. In the Fender bass world, we've had to look to alternatives. The Schaller roller bridge is a real crowd pleaser, but the rollers tend to move side-to-side when restringing. Fender has started making some nice higher mass bridges that work well, and they're available for standard and string-through model Fender basses. These bridges are also considerably cheaper than the Leo Quans too.

Our opinions on guitar bridges hasn't changed much, but what should be noted is that some of the newer Epiphone models now have their own locking bridges and tailpieces.

Straplocks: We still mainly use Dunlop and Schaller straplocks. What we have been seeing are some copies, and some of our insiders tell us that some of these copies are less than stellar. We're still reluctant to try the newcomers, and some of the new systems are massive and not aesthetically pleasing. We'll stick with what we know works, and looks good.

Strings: For guitar strings, we were always fans of DR. Aaron converted to DR Hi-Beams in 10 gauge from Dean Markley Blue Steels back in 1994, and now uses DR 11 gauge. I was ecstatic to find DR string sets in the 10-52 gauge, which I was only seeing in the Ernie Ball sets earlier. I actually switched back to Ernie Ball because of the newer packaging DR has; 2 strings per envelope. DRs stay bright a little longer than the Ernie Balls, but that packaging is a deal breaker. I also don't use D'Addario guitar string for the same reason; they have all the strings in one bag. Ernie Ball and D'Addario seem to be the same string quality-wise, and we've theorized for years they're made in the same factory. On the bass side, we tend to go with D'Addario because we can get them in 2-set packs for $25, and they stay bright for quite a while. DR stays bright longer, but also run over $20 a set, and have been breaking too easily.

We tend to shy away from Dean Markley, GHS, Rotosound, and any similar strings due to bad past experience. One must remember, there are only so many factories actually winding the strings, and it's just a matter of who slaps their name on the package.

Picks: Dunlop Tortex is a great pick, and they're available everywhere. The thing is, they are Delrin picks, and Dunlop doesn't own the patent on Delrin; DuPont does. We actually custom order our picks, and generally we order Delrin .88 mm (green like the Tortex, all companies selling Delrin picks color code the thickness the same) from Steve Clayton. We've never broken a Delrin pick. We don't like the slickness of celluloid (standard Fender picks), the feel of nylon, or the feel of the other materials.