Some guys treat their guitars like girlfriends. I'm a little more modest. But they are like good old firends. And crave the same attention. As you maybe have seen in earlier blog spots I'm a Hagström man. I love the Hagström intruments. But when bying a better electro acoustic guitar I went to by a Hagström MOCON, short for Mora Concert. It's a great guitar and my son has one but Hagström had changed the factory it was built in so for some months they could not deliver. Well waiting is not my thing so I looked around and found the Yamaha APX 700 II, wich is my friends profane name.
As anything labled Yamaha she is well built and have a nice finish. I bought a black one they had on the wall in the store. It has a "concert" body, slightly smaller an a bit thinner than traditional acoutics, and a really nice neck. She's really comfy to play compared to other electro acoustic, but not as good as the thinner and a bit heavier electric guitars. And then it was the tone .....
Yamaha wrote "....you just got to love the tone of this guitar". So I thought, of course, there is something wrong with the tone. And yes it's a little trebly. But, as i found out, plug it in and it shines! Wonderful tone, sounds semi electric guitar. Trebly but it works so well when amplified. And also, I found out after bying it, it has a pic up designed to performe good on stage without feed back problems. I have good use for that!
When we formed Forsberg Wilson & Muller we took Gus Muller songs to the stage. The songs are not rock'n roll and I play the acoustic guitar on most recordings. So too on stage now. So the picup system is wonderful. And the trebly sound of the APX 700 II works great in a band. So good that I actually make it a bit more trebly and sharper when playing with FW&M. I tap the EBS UniChorus pedal to make the tone shine and the EBS Billy Sheehan signature drive pedal to make it a bit sharper and even more trebly. It works great. Maybe the treblyness works so good because I run it thru the EBS Reidmar amplifier with a EBS Classic 1*12 cabinet wich is a bass rig.
So finally I was so good friend with my Yamaha that I lost interest in the Hagström. I even bought an other one. Just like the black one but now a sunburst. I'v must have spent hundreds of hours playing the Yamahas now and I still love them. Like good old friend. Dependable too!
Listen to Fangs wich is played on the APX 700 II. Almost a electric sound but yet .... not? And, yeah... just the rhythym guitar. The solo is played by Stefan Hedenström on a Les Paul.
/Gus
