New Guitar Day (H-1001). Guitar straps.

Yesterday I stumbled across a great deal on an ESP LTD Deluxe H-1001 in “Violet Andromeda Satin finish.”

ESP LTD H-1001 in Violet Andromeda Satin finish

This thing is sweet: 

The first thing you’ll notice about the new LTD Deluxe H-1001 is its Violet Andromeda Satin finish. The Andromeda finish makes the guitar appear various shades of blue, violet, and even green as light is reflected from various angles. The H-1001 is the first LTD version of this outstanding design in a satin finish. It also features a set of direct-mount Seymour Duncan Sentient (neck) and Pegasus (bridge) pickups with push-pull coil splitting, a Hipshot bridge with string-thru-body, and stainless steel frets. 

 Maybe someday, this will be me?

 Anyway. It checked almost all of my boxes: 

☐ Made in Japan
☑ Made in Korea
☑ Passive pickups
☑ Non-Floyd Rose (i.e., hard tail, Tune-o-Matic, EverTune[1])
☑ Set-thru neck
☑ Locking tuners

My (at this stage in life) dream guitar would be an E-II or something, made in Japan with neck-through construction and not “LTD” on the headstock (and if I’m being honest, a traditional angled or reverse inline-6 headstock, not this sort of stylized 3+3), 'cause I still have some lingering brand snobbery (no one tells you how hard it is going from Porsche and BMW M3 to Toyota-built Subaru EV 🤣), but, at the price I found this for, I couldn’t pass it up. I’m not sure if the seller ever played it. Kinda like the EC-256 I got for $250 including the hard case ($100 by itself), which still had the plastic protective stickers on the pickups!) (Up there with the $200 for the modded EC-500.)

The specs are roughly the same as on my $100 made in China MH-100QMNT (same radius, nut width, neck contour, scale length, fret count, etc), so I’m thinking the 100 will be my lesson / everyday guitar and it should be an easy transition over to the H-1001 for performances. Probably overthinking things, but whatever. (Then thinking I really need to cull. Get rid of both of my Jacksons (might be able to get $50 each, with fresh strings on 'em?), bring the Ibanez into the office where it was originally. 

Anyway, I had a little Christmas cash and it’s been about a year since I started getting serious about playing again (my first lesson with Eliza was a benefit thing she did for survivors of the Eaton Fire), and I finally decided to commit to really learning a “stretch goal” song to perform at the next recital (Symphony of Destruction, it seems apropos in the current mode), so, this was my treat to myself. And now that I’ve hit my apex guitar (the next level up is multiples of what I’ve spent so far, and I’m not good enough, and the guitars aren’t that much better, for that leap to make sense), I can concentrate on, you know, playing, getting better, work ... 

Which keeps me at the office long hours, such that I’m toying with the idea of getting a Boss Katana:Go for late night wireless practicing. (There’s a lightly used one on Facebook Marketplace for 1/2 off...)

Edit: I wanted to go fully wireless, I like to move around when I’m practicing. So I found a good deal on a “Used – Like New” Positive Grid Spark NEO headphone system. I’ll report back. There’s also a Marketplace seller with a less-than-half-price Katana:GO (2nd version) that I might pick up, just to see what all the hype is about vis-a-vis the “stage feel” spatial audio.

Straps 

But, now, how to hold it?

I’m in the < $35 range for straps for my guitars. My go-to used to be the Ernie Ball Polypro Guitar Strap ($9), including the convenient Pickholder variant (which I even adapted to hold my transparent bag for the Chappell Roan show, to have some signature pics as part of my fit), but holy hell they’re scratchy and uncomfortable! I also wanted to start using locking straps. My used acoustic came with Dunlop Straplok hardware but I didn’t really want to have to retrofit everything with new hardware (even if the process is generally pretty easy). That’s when I found the D'Addario Auto Lock Guitar Strap, which doesn’t require modifying the guitar at all, snaps on easily, removes easy with the tiniest bit of deliberation, and are affordable ($20 for the polypropylene version), but they still can be scratchy and there’s no padding. Spending another $13 buys the D'Addario Planet Waves Auto Lock Guitar Strap line, which are double layer nylon and a lot more comfortable (I have the green one on the EC-256), but not available in the kinda cool designs in the D'Addario Auto Lock Vintage Planet Waves line (same $33 price point). I think I’m gonna gamble on the single-ply blue or silver strap from the latter, for the new axe.

[1] Maybe not EverTune. I need to know more about this design. One reviewer of the MH-1000ET writes: “Tuning is done at the bridge, and the tension on the strings is adjusted by the tuning pegs. Once the string has the right amount of tension, that saddle will be ‘activated’ in what is referred to as ‘zone 2’. Here, the springs will counter any additional tension applied to that string up to a given point. This means that you cannot do bends or change the pitch in any real or easy way. Some people may like this, but it feels very odd, and the people at Evertune know that most people don't play like this.” Except, I’ve learned two songs in the past couple of weeks that have some distinct bends (I Love Rock and Roll; Obsessed). 🤔