The Guitar Diaries - #1

The Guitar Diaries - 4th September 2015

Hi guys, welcome to the first guitar diaries post!

As this is the first installment, I'll be going over some recent events in my guitar world.

In this installment:

1. My New guitar - Schecter Omen-8
2. YouTube pick
3. My new Metallica Video
4. Miscellaneous 

Schecter Omen-8 demo

The main piece of news to tell you about is my new guitar!  

It is a Schecter Omen-8.

If you play guitar and use Youtube,  you have no doubt come across a guy called Rob Scallon, if not, check him out. (Just search his name)  He has a song called Anchor which he played on an 8 string, which just happens to be a Schecter Omen-8.  Watching this video, and a few from a guy called Pete Cottrell, lead me to purchase an 8-string guitar.  I wasn't after the same one as Rob Scallon, but for the money, they a really good value, and mine is Walnut Satin, as opposed to Vintage White, or Gloss black.

I looked at Ibanez 8 string guitars, but the good ones are a bit pricier, so I went with the Schecter, and most reviews said it was worth getting.

As I said before, for the money it is really good value.  It plays great, it looks great, and the construction is that of a high end guitar, apart from a few niggles such as the binding having scratches on it, and the fretboard and neck not being completely smooth where they join on the underside, but this is only in one place. A number of people who reviewed the Schecter Omen-8 found issue with the access to the 24th fret. I didn't really think this to be an issue as you can get to the 24th fret, and still do full bends quite easily.

Other than those minor niggles, I can't find fault!

The pickups sound OK, but really they need to be changed in the future to get a better sound. But they are good enough for the meantime.

Since purchasing it, I have added a push/pull tone knob to add a coil split! (Full description to follow in a new post).

It wasn't difficult, however I ended up reversing the tone knob, and the coil tap so it all works, but back to front!  I will fix it eventually, but only when I upgrade the pickups as I need a better tone pot, (it was cheap, the rotary action is too loose, and it crackles as it turns, so this needs upgrading anyway).

I am currently writing  song to demo the Omen-8, so watch this space! :) The ideas are coming thick and fast, I think the new guitar with 2 extra strings inspired me as tons of riffs poured out of me as I played my new guitar!

YouTube Pick

Every week, I'll list some interesting videos from YouTube that are from people I subscribe to, or I just happened upon.

• Rob Scallon released 'Half hour of bass' which is him playing bass guitar for half an hour.  it is chilled, and worth a listen if you want to relax:

• And another original song of his called Chronosil:

My Videos

I am filming and editing a new video of Metallica riffs.  It is all the intro riffs for Metallica Metallica, (aka. the black album) arranged for 7-string ( but played on an 8-string). ( see screenshot right.)

I will be publishing this, around Friday next week, so watch out for it!

Miscellaneous

• I am quite into Chilli Beef Pot Noodles at the moment, which are quite hot!
• I am now on instagram as well as facebook, twitter and Youtube ( see links to right, or my main site leeallan.co.uk

Well, that's pretty much it for now folks!

Please watch my videos and like, share and subscribe!  Your support is much appreciated!

Lee

See you around :)

Welcome

Welcome to my blog! Check my main site leeallan.co.uk

I am Lee, I play guitar and write music.  Here, I will blog about all things related to my guitars, guitars in general, my music, and anything else guitar or music related that I think you will be interested in.

There will be a weekly(ish) guitar diaries post, plus anything else relevant that deserves its own post.

Things to look out for in the near future:

• Metallica Riffs video with a twist.
• Schecter Omen-8 demo (featuring an original song)
• more original songs...

So a little about me:

I am Lee.  I play guitar, write music, film videos for YouTube ( which is a fairly recent thing apart form 2 videos I made 8 years ago).

I started playing guitar when I was 14, over 20 years ago! 24 to be exact!

I was heavily into Guns 'n' Roses, Metallica, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai to name a few, and played the guitar for hours on end...

The first guitar I played was a fender copy by Encore.  As well as learning to play, I wanted to be a luthier, so I had a go at levelling the frets.  It didn't go well...

I think I took most of the metal off, and it was far from playable after.

Not to worry, I was able to buy my first guitar at that point.  It was a Dean DS91.

As you can see it is in a slightly sorry state!  For some crazy reason I swapped one of the pickups, and I have now lost the middle single coil.

This guitar was heavily used for around 4-5 years, and the frets have some deep gashes in them from excessive wear and tear.

I have attempted to level them, but still need to finish it off...

Anyway, after that, I got an Ibanez Jem 555 in Black, in 1998, which I still use to this day (you will see it featuring in some of my videos).

It has had the frets levelled, which had some deep grooves in them, just like the Dean, but there is still enough meat on them to use it from time to time.

From there, I got a 1972 Les Paul Deluxe, an Ibanez Jem7V (second hand as I couldn't afford the large price tag), and SG double neck, and more recently, a Schecter Omen-8, which I love!

Stay tuned for my forthcoming posts and videos! :)