mylittleeye's Electronic Synth Setup

For the cost of this thing new, or even second hand you could most likely set up an entire home studio with 'proper' gear... However since I'd never consider myself a 'proper' musician this thing fulfils the role of being my basic 'home studio' - one that I can take anywhere in my backpack! Sure I could perhaps get an ipad to do as much or more but I face more than enough screen time in my daily routine already and the OP-1 offers an escape from that. It's a very tactile and hands on little instrument; a pleasing relief from the flat, cold touch-screen experience. There's an immediacy to it too; having the OP-1 within reach just inspires me to make music, capture sounds and record spontaneously. It's the synth equivalent to keeping a parlour guitar by the chair for whenever the urge to play strikes.

I saw this as the perfect upgrade from my first electric guitar an aged hand-me-down Stagg strat copy. The fellow I got it from brought it back from the US for use as a backup gig guitar; a role for which it's perfectly suited. The specs certainly suggested it could be my One Axe To Rule Them All! Its special sauce is its two high output ceramic Fender Enforcer humbucker pickups. The Pawn Shop Special's trick is in the three-position switches offering the option to split each humbucker and use either the forward or rear half of it as a 'single coil' This, in combination with the pickup selector by the horn, multiplies up to a mind boggling 15 selectable tone configurations!

Economically this was a wise purchase too, saving me hundreds of £€$ I might have otherwise been tempted to squander on a proper Strat, Les Paul and/or Tele. For me this fills all those niches. As an intermediate player who is still on the learning journey this versatility is a godsend. For example with a flick of the switches I can put a single coil at the bridge and a humbucker at the neck and with eye's closed and a little imagination (all right a lot) have Keef's Micawber tele in my hands; switch off the neck entirely for some country twang; have just a single coil on the neck for wholesome cleans or else double down on both buckers for full bodied filth. The wide range pickups are hot but clean up very nicely too with the volume rolled off. The Pawn Shop Mustang Special delivers it all.

All this tonal capability belies the fact that this is a tidy little guitar. Its mustang body is slightly shorter than the standard and has a thinner profile. That along with its short scale neck would make it a more comfortable fit for someone of smaller stature. If you're a big fella already used to wielding a mighty axe this might look and feel almost toylike in your hands; it's the lightest most compact electric guitar I've used.

I would give this guitar five stars as it meets practically all my needs. However, while I like to imagine it can substitute for a tele, strat or SG, in reality it only gets about 4/5ths of the way there. Ultimately it's its own thing, a versatile workhorse perhaps but not the thoroughbred instrument a more discerning guitarist might desire.

I really do. I'd saved up for a swanky G7th capo but the fella in the music shop talked me out of it. He said "This is what the pro's use" and handed me an NS Capo Pro which cost £10 quid less! I think he must've been fed up with all the G7th returns. There must be a reason the first words that come up for the G7th website when I googled G7 capo were "We will replace your defective capo free of charge, no quibble"!

Confusingly D'Addario do a cheaper "NS Capo" made from plastic. You don't want that one. It's the NS Capo PRO we're talking about here.

The pro version is finely manufactured from aircraft grade aluminium making it exceptionally light and strong. The G7th is a fat hefty chunk by comparison; you really feel its weight on the neck whereas the with an NS Capo Pro you wouldn't even know it ws there. I very much like the minimalism of the design. There's nothing to it and yet it is as rigid and robust as any capo I've used. It slips on and off the neck with just a twist of the knob between finger and thumb and very little fuss. in fact it's so light and inconspicuous that when I'm not using it I just keep it clamped to the headstock. I'm truly surprised I don't see these capos around more often. Perhaps £20 seems like a lot to pay for such a slight piece of engineering but in this case I feel less (size, weight, fuss) is more (effective).

You see, the capo I DO see the pro's using all the time are those big ungainly spring loaded clamps that hang off the fretboard like some sort of pub signpost. I saw Norah Jones recently doing her lockdown youtube mini sessions and even though she's an accomplished performer, seeing her move about that big L shaped clamp was an inelegant distraction. The NS Capo Pro on the other hand is effortless and I think more precise in its application, such that it's easier to position correctly first time. I don't know; the L clamp style capos ought to be instant but as often as not the artists I watch will double check and reseat them anyway. I believe the NS PRO is less struggle, especially for small hands, requiring just a touch of finesse rather than hand strength and wrist coordination. It's much less conspicuous too - it doesn't broadcast "Here's My Capo!" and when I'm done with mine it just slips away in a pocket or onto my headstock.

I did lose mine for a while and so to replace it I got a much cheaper Alice brand equivalent. It was bigger, chunkier brassy and heavy, like the G7th. It did the job okay but really the featherlight aluminium NS Capo Pro is the one you want. Such a relief when I found it again!

Experienced guitarists will find these somewhat 'atypical' However if you're a newbie to the guitar and/or perhaps starting out with the Rocksmith guitar game then I found these to be REALLY helpful with hand/eye/string coordination. Now that I've achieved a level of proficiency where I'm no longer compelled to look back and forth between fingers, strings and screen it's more rewarding and less dorky to use regular more traditional strings. That is, of course unless dorky is your thing - in which case these things are especially awesome under UV light where you can imagine you've been sucked into a total 80's Tron simulation. Good luck on the speeder circuit!