All I want for Christmas: Must Have Guitar Gear for Jrock Fans on a Budget

Happy No Fret Friday again!

Today, I’m going to highlight two guitars that are a great choice if you’re looking for something well-made and reasonably priced. With only eight days left until Christmas it may be a stretch…but these are much more interesting gift ideas than picks or band scores.

First off, both of these guitars are LTD, a series produced by the American branch of ESP. These guitars are a great alternative to buying ESP because of their price and the fact that they’re made to resemble some of the more popular ESP Japan guitars.


LTD F Series
Price: $139-$279
Where to buy: Sam Ash, Amazon, and Musician’s Friend

The F-Series is probably one of the most well-known LTD guitars. The body is very similar to ESP Japan’s Forest series and like the Forest, it gets a makeover every few years so you know this series is going to last. I actually own an F-50 myself (named Aoi for obvious reasons) and it’s the kind of guitar I’d recommend for beginning guitarists because it is so cheap. However, don’t let the price fool you into thinking it’s a bad guitar. The quality really is excellent and if you want an upgrade just change out the pickups.


PB Series
Price: $499-$649
Where to buy: Amazon, Sears, Sam Ash

The PB series runs a little more expensive than the F-Series but for good reason. This product is the American brother of the extremely popular Potbelly series which has been widely used by a countless number of jrockers. On the down side, the ESP site advertises the guitar with only a flat finish and usually you can only find it in gold. The positive? I recently found one on eBay with a yellow sunburst finish, so with a little research you’ll find that these guitars do have some variety to them.

In speaking of eBay…remember that it’s your friend!

If you’re looking to buy a no-kidding ESP Artist Series guitar, try not to break the bank by purchasing it from an overseas site. I’ve found that if you’re patient, the guitars do tend to pop up on the auction site at a much lower price with the ability to negotiate.

NIL Uruha Bandscore Translations Part 2

D.L.N

The main guitar is acoustic, but there is also an electric nuance. The electric guitar adds a bright interlude to the chorus because it is essential in expressing the emotion in the song. I think for all of the acoustic arpeggios, you should take care to make your backing strokes subtle. I’m assuming he’s referring to upward picking as opposed to downward

SHADOW VI II I

This song is in D tuning, but only the sixth string is tuned down a whole step because it relieves tension. The riff in the intro was recorded an octave down but I think using the octave compactor (pitch shifter) during lives comes close to that. Playing with a fighting spirit is the number one thing I want to point out.

Baretta

I put my soul into playing the guitar solo, so playing this song live with the band is something that I genuinely enjoy.I didn't elaborate on the sound in particular, so just go from one mood.

Cassis

This song is reminiscent of snow falling in the winter cold but during the chorus, there comes an image of something warm. I wanted to try to make the solo sound like a cry of love so I used my guitar with a whammy bar.

SILLY GOD DISCO

At first glance, the melody is definitely a dance number. However, surprisingly there is a rock phrase that goes into it and I wanted the entire rock feeling to complete the song. Because of the backing sample tones in the song and the fact that I don’t use distortion, I think this song is relatively easy to play.

DISCHARGE

This song has a sense of speed is life. Because it’s expected to be played at 100% live, I had to get over playing it without getting tired. Needless to say, the song is like some heinous sport (laughs).

Taion

This is really a downer song. The delay feedback in the A melody is in a place where it’s really quite subtle. The scratching noises made with the pick in the beginning and during the solo are like a cry, and I played it using different kinds of metals to create that nuance. Something about metal stumped me in this sentence… I think he used different metal materials as picks. I recorded the solo an octave lower so please copy that using a pitch shifter. He uses the term octaver instead of octave, so I think he’s referring to that sort of effect.

Uruha NIL Bandscore Translations Part 1

It's No Fret Friday again and today I'm posting translations of a few comments from my favorite guitarist. As a student in intermediate Japanese, translating from the NIL band score took way more time and patience than I expected. The process is dreadful, especially when it comes to looking up unknown kanji, but by god it's worth it.

To be honest, I don't really care for reading interviews where the artist tells you his favorite animal or something ridiculous like his shoe size. In most interviews, the questions are silly and frankly they have zero substance. That's what I love about the commentary in band scores, they're nothing but that. The comments are a chance for the artist to seriously explain their techniques and let you know exactly what it is they do aside from looking pretty.

These people are musicians dammit, not your best friend!

At any rate, here's what Uruha has to say about some of the songs from NIL. Enjoy!


Nausea and Shudder: The main hook is basic with the exception of the scratching (muted strings?) parts which gives playing it a lengthier feel. The intro comes in with an 8 beat section, but I had to be careful of the different variations in speed. At any rate, the delay (in the chorus) is sweet, like a bird flying. *It leaves an entangled feeling in my heart.

*感じを心がけておこうThis sentence, I’m not so sure if he means himself or maybe what he wants for the listener.

Bathroom: In this song I used a 7 string guitar in B tuning. As for having a seventh string, dealing with holding it down turned out to be okay. I’m assuming that’s the first time he played a 7-string and had doubts about how it played. For the A melody I adjusted the front pickup halfway to give the song a fuller sound. I believe he literally lowered his pickup to achieve the heavy tone in the song.

Maggots: In this song please play the parts with sharps as if they weren’t there, keeping your right hand tightly muting the strings. Because the B melody is fairly tricky to achieve with the whammy, I think whether or not it gives rise to that scale is up to the player. This last sentence was a little tough but I think that’s the gist of it. He uses the word adoribu, which translates to adlib but after some research it looks like it also refers to a type of scale or a certain way of playing guitar.

Namaatatakai ame tozaratsuita jounetsu:I decided that starting out with a fast-paced shuffle was the first thing I wanted in this song. I vigorously pour my soul into keeping the rhythm while I play the main hook (laughs). Also, playing the solo feels like the start of a match. With the exception of the solo, I used only one pickup to record, never the rear. This was just my preference as I saw to it.

Introducing...No Fret Fridays

“We are here to make a sound. Maybe this sound is one we first heard someone else make, a sound that spoke to us or moved us in some profound way. Every guitar player has a story like this to tell.” –Philip Toshio Sudo

I was inspired by jrock to do many things, and naturally, becoming somewhat of a musician was one of them. An ESP LTD-250 has been my best friend for five years now and even though I’m not the most skilled guitarist, I’m very passionate about playing my favorite songs. I went from playing MALICE MIZER’s BEAST OF BLOOD to GazettE’s Reila, learning any song I loved. After what seems like a long time, I still find learning new songs enjoyable, even if they’re not mine (although I occasionally cry over never being able to master anything written by Hizaki).

Now why am I getting all anecdotal on you people?

For one, I know that many jrock fans are also musicians, but few sites and communities seem to acknowledge it. It seems like Jrock Tabs was about the only popular community I could find.

Because of my interest and the interest of other fans, I wanted to make guitar a significant part of my blog.

And here we have it. What I like to call “No Fret Fridays.”

Every Friday I’ll be posting something related to both jrock and playing guitar. Just to give a preview, next week I’ll be posting the commentary translations from GazettE’s NIL bandscore.

Aside from translations, I’m planning on highlighting signature guitar techniques that bands use, best songs for beginners to learn, and maybe even sparking a little bit of debate.

Comment if you have suggestions and happy No Fret Friday!