Boss SY200 Guitar Synth Review

This is what I’ve been waiting for. A polyphonic guitar synth that doesn’t need special pickups and tracks flawlessly. Boss have really delivered and in a very portable package. These days I like my gigging gear as small and light as possible. One trip from the car if possible!  

Here’s my YouTube quick demo https://youtu.be/VkQa-fomGIo

The good

The best thing about this pedal is that it just works! You can literally plug and play. But you can also go deeper into the controls and menus to tweak the sounds. The tracking is breathtaking even in polyphony. In my YouTube channel I set the ultimate test of getting the unit to track a twelve string guitar.  https://youtu.be/RgMWqHfAYNc

There are a big variety of sounds available, based on good old analogue synth voices. You can choose whether or not to mix in the guitar with the sound.

The new larger sized Boss pedals give far more control and this one is expandable with further foot control and MIDI control.

The bad

I’m sure this technology will evolve but here are my gripes which I hope Boss will address. 

Firstly I don’t like the sound through a guitar amp, even with the ‘amp’ setting turned on on the pedal. They sound far better through a full range speaker.

The sounds are only mono.

There are no effects built into the pedal, and most of the sounds benefit from the addition of some extra effects.

You cannot control a midi sound generator from the pedal. This is a shame as you are restricted to the library of sounds in the pedal, although there are a lot of them, as always some are more usable than others.

There’s no computer based app to do deeper editing of this pedal, the usb is simply for updates.

The ugly

Not much to report here. The pedal looks and sounds good. It’s pricey, but not in comparison to what has gone before.  It’s highly addictive and should definitely carry a health warning!

Handmade vs Machine Made Guitars

The skill of luthiery is a very ancient one and is really still immensely important for classical stringed instruments such as the violin, not only in manufacture but in set up and maintenance. 

The growing popularity of the guitar coincided with the mass production philosophies of early 20th Century factories, and this had a very big influence on how guitars were designed and built. Scaling up production lines meant the price of a guitar to the musician was incredibly cheap compared to other stringed instruments made in small luthier’s workshops.

While factory methods have been used very effectively throughout the recent history of the manufacture of guitars, and many small production luthiers now base their models on the standards of these guitars, it isn’t true to say that a factory built guitar is simply produced by a machine. They are not stamped out on an automated production line.  Usually many of the steps to make a factory guitar are carried out by hand, while machinery is used to save time and labour in some of the processes. More recently CNC machines have really revolutionised some hugely labour intensive processes like cutting out, carving and fretwork. I have one of the first electric guitars produced using these methods, a Peavey T-60, it’s a beautifully finished guitar with lots of detail.

So hand building is perhaps a matter of degree. A company like Eastman, for example, still seem to do a lot of work by hand, whereas other companies may choose to automate much of their production line. However all guitar production will have a significant amount of hand working and finishing. Most individual luthiers will also of course use power tools and may choose to automate some of their production processes, but expensive machines, like a plek machine, only really make sense for a large production run.

So there’s  not really a simple divide between automation and hand building.  Nor is one necessarily better than the other. It’s worth noting that in some things machine accuracy is far greater than a human could ever achieve with hand tools. However in something like the selection of perfect matched wood or overall quality control, an experienced human eye is hard to beat.  I’d prefer the money for labour to go primarily into  specialist skills rather than into laborious tasks which can be done equally well or better by machine. Also, not many of us are good all rounders, a guitar requires a great many different skills to complete so there is perhaps some benefit in having different workers trained and focused on the different skill sets. Finishing a guitar for example is a very different skill to carving a top.  A good luthier will have mastered all the different craft skills, but this takes a lifetime of learning and experience.  However the advantage is that the luthier follows the whole process and artistry through and perhaps this gives the instrument a bit more soul and personality.

We should probably here draw a distinction between electric guitars and those designed primarily to be acoustic instruments. 

An electric guitar benefits from individual luthiery primarily in the attention to detail and customisability and uniqueness. There are a huge number of variables once you start thinking about it, and it is wonderful to have something truly made to measure.

The acoustic guitar is arguably an instrument that is far harder to manufacture to both sound and look good. The luthier has to develop the skills to bring the finest tone out of the materials being used, and the work is often much more delicate.

The advantage of a small workshop luthiery is that you can talk to the luthier about what you want, and even present them with your old mantelpiece to work with, or specify very particular requirements. Custom shops in big factories might give a bit more choice to the standard models, but this is generally much more limited in scope unless you are a celebrity. A small workshop luthier probably has more flexibility to change the levels of hand detailing, but of course you can’t usually try before you buy, so you are putting a lot of trust as well as a lot of cash into the final deal.  If you believe in the magic of tap tuning and the minuscule differences shaving mass off the braces of an acoustic guitar can make, then a luthier is probably the person to go to.

If I had the money I’d definitely be thinking of getting a local luthier to build me a guitar to my own specs. This isn’t because it will necessarily be better than a factory built one, but because it would be personal to me. I also love the fact that these people exist, they deserve to succeed. Even if you have a factory guitar, a good luthier can work wonders with set up and after market changes, additions and repairs. But having said that I have no issues with the lovely guitars I already own, most of which are largely hand built and finished, probably by many different skilled workers in a factory rather than a luthier or two in a small workshop.

G&L L2000 Tribute Bass Guitar

 Many manufacturers when they make cheaper versions of their production models in the Far East try to make them noticeably inferior so you feel some pressure to move from a student style instrument to the professional model. G&L are much more generous. Their Indonesian models are superbly built and finished (at least in my limited experience of them) and come with exactly the same hardware as their more customisable siblings from the US. This, as they claim, puts high quality instruments into the hands of every working musician.

I really can’t understand why G&L aren’t more popular. They are, after all, Leo Fender’s final word and innovation, but they’ve never hit the public imagination in the same way as Musicman managed to do.

The L2000 bass I have I has a carved top flame maple over swamp ash body. This is quite unusual as most are flat slabs like a traditional fender bass. I really like the solidity of the G&L bridge, another of Leo’s little masterpieces. The same can be said for the pickups which are of really high quality and deliver in a range of tones. The MFD pickups are the same as in the US models which is a real bonus. Leo really understood what he was doing with this advance in pickup technology. Together with the carefully thought out active electronics and switching, this bass has a huge variety of sounds and takes some time to learn how to get the best out of it. 

My bass came with a maple neck in a vintage style finish. If I’m being picky I’d say that the poly finish is a bit thick on these basses, but nothing really to lose sleep over. The tuners are excellent, and the bass is extremely stable.  The swamp ash makes it relatively light.

The bass plays extremely well. I work in a very fluid band of musicians and switch between instruments, so others often play this bass as well and it is widely loved by my fellow bassists, matching well to a wide range of musical genres.

I’d say Leo got it about right with this bass. It is an evolution of the jazz bass and Musicman.  Shame it isn’t more understood and popular than it is.

Epiphone Century Masterbilt Deluxe Review

I bought this quite a few years back when production was ending, and a local shop reduced the price to a very tempting and manageable amount. I didn't really need it but I figured it was better investing in a guitar than having the money losing value in the bank, and I certainly haven’t lost any money looking at the secondhand prices. As you’ll see from my other reviews I already own a Zenith which I really like, still have and use regularly.  I nearly bought the Olympic too as it was on offer secondhand nearby, but I wasn’t sure I’d use it as much.

The Deluxe is the top of the range in this series and is a large 17” solid spruce topped archtop with flamed laminated maple sides and nail with a laminated neck with ebony fingerboard decorated with very attractive diamond inlays.  The emphasis is on retro looks with modern playability. The finish is a thin satin poly. The neck is on the chunky side, but really well done in a laminate that adds strength and stability. The guitar is quite heavy for an acoustic, but not excessively so.

You get a lot for your money with these guitars. The pressed solid spruce top works really well. The holy grail of course is a carved top, but the carving has to be done with skill and care.  At this price point arguably a pressed top is much more consistent, and environmentally friendly, and lots of manufacturers use this pressing technique even at a much higher price point.

The guitar has a shadow pickup system with an under saddle piezo. The controls are hidden in the treble f hole. This pickup is good as far as it goes, it is an easy way to plug the guitar in and minimise feedback, but in my view it doesn’t do full justice to the acoustic sound of the guitar. This is a limitation of any piezo based system not just this one, but the positive is the convenience. I like to attach a clip on condenser mic (in lower volume scenarios) to the trapeze and aim it near the edge of the treble f hole for a more authentic tone.

The build quality of these guitars is extremely high. Indonesia seems to be turning out some top notch instruments easily on a par with what was coming out of Korea in the 90s and early 00s.  The fit and finish is excellent and the playability out of the box is excellent too - it’s not really needed any adjustment after several years of light use. 

The acoustic sound of this guitar is a challenge to describe. It’s fuller than the Zenith, but maybe because of that has less cutting power than the Zenith’s focused midrange sound.  The bass on the Deluxe is richer, but like all archtops I have played, less immediately pleasing to the ear than a flat top guitar. You have to work at the sound and in the context of playing with other instruments it suddenly makes sense, where the richness of a flat top might get lost, the archtop finds its own space and sings through.  The Deluxe is loud acoustically, and rewards good strong playing.

These guitars haven’t been overwhelmingly loved by the jazz crowd. I think a lot of the criticism has been unfair, as the Epiphones were hitting a very low price level for an archtop guitar, and unashamedly going in part for the “you hear with your eyes” philosophy.  They are very pretty instruments. The Epis suffered because they came in at a very similar price point to a cheap carved Chinese guitar brand which a number of people raved about, but all the examples I tried were hugely disappointing with major building and finish flaws so I could never understand the comparison. Does the Epi sound as good acoustically as my Heritage carved archtop guitar? Well no, but it’s only worth a fraction of the price.  People definitely comment when I play this Epiphone because of the looks and the image of the guitar. They usually say how much they like how it sounds too. 

Like I’ve said about the Zenith, it’s not surprising that Epiphone didn’t make these for very long. The market for an acoustic archtop is very limited. Most jazz players still prefer a magnetic pickup to a piezo. You could fit one to this guitar but a number of other manufacturers have already done this for you on their models at a similar price point. The acoustic jazz players will probably want to up their game and go for a carved top if they can afford it. Flat top players may find the sound a bit thin. I personally like the tone and volume and the fact that the guitar sets you apart from the 99% of other guitarists who will get a flat top out of their case. Everyone wants to try it out  of curiosity. It definitely looks cool!

Framus FDG 20 S Dreadnought Guitar

I recently got hold of this guitar. I thought for the record I'd try to gather together some of the things I found out about it.  In the interests of accuracy, I've not been able to verify much of the history of this guitar because there is so little information out there and some of the information is contradictory.  I'm very open to any corrections because of this, and will amend the review in the light of any new evidence.

Framus

The early history of this company is well attested and I won't add too much here as the internet has lots of information about the company formed in Germany after the Second World War to make instruments.  The popularity of the guitar post war, made this instrument the prominent production of the company rather than classical instruments. There's loads more information here https://www.framus-vintage.de/en/About-Framus/History/   The original company went into administration in the late 1970s.  What's interesting in the story of the FDG 20 S is that Hans-Peter Wilfer, son of the founder of Framus, revived the marque in 1995 as part of the Warwick company.  I have an early 2000s Warwick bass which is superbly crafted and one of my favourite instruments. Certainly to begin with the Warwick influence rubbed off on Framus and led to some very, very good Framus instruments being produced.

Warwick/Framus have no online information about the acoustic guitars they produced in the mid 1990s.  However, as I have trawled through the sparse  internet references to this guitar, it would appear that the FDG 20 S is one of the first guitars the company released following the relaunch of the Framus brand.  While Framus is most known for more midrange and quirky instruments in the 1950-70 period, in the 1990s they went relatively high end.  If the conflicting reports on the internet are to be believed then the FDG 20 S production was probably outsourced to Japan, and overseen by a master luthier named Hansu Piita Uiruha.  I can find precisely nothing about this luthier on the web, and nothing to confirm that these guitars were in fact made in Japan.  The guitar itself has no indication of the country of manufacture. It would appear that they were only made for a very short run between 1995-7 and are therefore fairly rare.  

The Guitar

This is a bit of an easier task to describe as I have the guitar in front of me so I can verify most of the details of construction!

The guitar is a matt finished, slope shouldered dreadnought.  One internet seller claims that the top is AAA grade spruce.  It is certainly solid spruce with very good and pleasing, close, straight grain.  Over 25 years or so this has aged to a rich brown colour, much darker than my early 1980s Takamine which has travelled across the globe with me. The back and sides are of solid rosewood, very nicely grained, finished and bookended, with a marquetry divider between the back pieces, which looks extremely classy.  The neck is mahogany with a bound rosewood fingerboard and bridge. The bridge and nut are of bone and well finished. The frets on mine are slightly worn but still very playable. The action is superbly low, with no bottoming out of the strings.  It’s wonderful to have a guitar this old that is so playable. My 1980s Takamine is the same and a testimony to Japanese craftsmanship. The Framus is beautifully inlaid with abalone blinding and rosette.  The headstock is black with well executed mother of pearl inlays. The inlays on the fretboard are pearloid snowflakes.  Here is the first small gripe as they are set into filler in a drilled circular hole rather than routed to shape, which is a bit disappointing, although only noticeable on close inspection.  The second gripe is that inside the guitar there is some glue overspill showing on the joints, which mars an otherwise very well executed guitar.  The machine heads are gold grovers and of extremely good quality.  Generally despite the couple of gripes the guitar is very well finished indeed, and not showing many signs of wear or any signs of structural issues after 25+ years of service.

Because the action on this guitar is very low it is extremely easy to play, with no choking of the strings anywhere on the neck.  The tone is superb, less bassy than my Eastman, but very good for fingerstyle as the note separation is impressive.  It is loud like a dreadnought should be, but strong on dynamics, sounding lovely both played gently, and with more vigour.  I'm grateful that, unusually for a guitar of this vintage, no-one has tried to butcher it with any pickups, so there are no unsightly holes or dated preamps on the highly resonant  body.  Playing unamplified with other musicians the instrument holds its own very well.

The good news is that these guitars can be bought quite cheaply if you can find one.   You would have to spend well in excess of £1000/£1500 these days to get anything close in quality, more if you wanted that quality made in Japan. But of course Framus is not so well known, and Warwick sadly have cheapened the Framus brand acoustic guitars with some very uninspiringly average current production models. I hate it when companies do this but we are in harsh times. This gem of a guitar is old and a relatively unknown quantity, so you may find one for a very reasonable price indeed, as I did.  If you find a good one, as I was fortunate enough to do, you won't be disappointed with the richness of the sound, the quality of the finish and materials.