Ibanez Talman: Spring Special 2011

This is one of the acoustic additions to the Spring special, an Ibanez Talman model with a maple fretboard. The pickguard there looks a little desperate in trying to blend in with the astral theme (the finish here is called the Aurora Sparkle) but I'd like to hear how this performs considering the maple fretboard isn't the standard spec for an acoustic.

Re-string: Rally/ Ibanez

This was the first guitar which received a new set of strings last night, my TM-70. There were some traces of mould on the fretboard as well but that was taken care of with a quick reconditioning treatment. I really love my TM-70 because of it's semi-hollow nature. This guitar was largely ignored by those looking for a semi because of it's 'wrong' body depth; it's thinner than its peers so we can't expect the same warm tones, it also manifests a brighter acoustics. Therefore, it sounds splendid with lots of distortion- my kinda guitar.

The Neosound JR, on the other hand, had a set of .010s by default; not my preferred string gauge & with all the rust, it deserves a re-string. I have D'Addarios in both these guitars.

Talmanlele

Ha! The Ibanez Talman is now offered as a ukele but don't get too excited, it's not offered here *bummer*.

A Talman weekend

I spent the last 2 days playing my Ibanez Talmans.

Saturday, 5th Feb

I spent about 2 hours (at night) playing my acoustic Talman. Sometimes it's good to focus on finger dexterity, leaving the pick aside. For the first half hour or so, it's an unplugged session but frustration set in because I plucked my strings too hard, the right hand became lethargic & mistakes set in. Subsequently, I got the bass amp out & plugged the guitar into it with some chorus & it was a joy to hear that tingling cleans. No chords in play though, just some triads & arpeggios.

Sunday, 6th Feb

I tried to emulate yesterday's clean + chorus episode without much success because the TM-71 in use here isn't a pure acoustic instrument.There's no full-sounding hollow cleans to be had. So it was distortion thereafter, this induced some speed in me but when it's all about speed, the musical aspects of playing gets compromised. Sometimes, when one gets too comfortable with one's gear, drifting into utter rubbish is inevitable.