Summer Vacation? Booked!

You might remember a while back during Golden Week I saw some unbelievably cheap fares back to Australia that I missed out on?

Well Jetstar are having another sale which allows me to go back for about AU $500 return. Nice huh?

So, I'm really happy that I can get another chance to hopefully bring as much of my guitar stuff home as possible. It'll be a relief to hear some "real" English too, and get to drive my car again. I can also get re-acquainted with all my guitars that miss me so much.

It'll be Winter there but meh, I need it. I'll come back to Tokyo reinvigorated, shiny, super happy, and genki.

And that's a good thing, right?

Oops almost forgot.. I went to Ochanomizu and Akihabara today.

Apart from being overcast it was a good day without any rain. I didn't make my way out the door till 4pm, but it still gave enough time to visit both.

I tried an Edwards E-LP-92CD. The brand probably doesn't sound familiar, but maybe ESP does, which is the company that makes these.

For a Les Paul it looks great and has a nice feeling ebony fingerboard which felt very smooth. The neck slowed me down a little but it feels good.

As for the sound, it's totally useable but I didn't think it sounded exactly like a Les Paul. There was a noticeable lack of Gibson chunk on the bridge, and the neck pickup didn't have that Slash-like lead sound that I notice from a Gibson.

In Akihabara's Revole, I tried a Squier J5 Telecaster.
Squier is the budget version of Fender. In a previous post I mentioned I tried one of the Fender signatures that I liked despite the weight of the damn thing.

Funnily enough this one is just as heavy being the same Alder body as that one. Sound-wise I liked it. It sounded more like a Les Paul than the Edwards! It has a nice chunky quality, and was quite a bit cheaper than the Fender version. It has dual volume controls which gives the opportunity to use the pickup selector as a kill switch. Nice touch that.

I guess there is only the stigma of buying Fender's budget line guitar, rather than the "real thing". If it had a Fender badge on top, I'd be tempted to spring for this baby. Actually I might still be tempted anyways. I don't have a telecaster to add to my collection yet.

Uh oh.