Guitar of the Day: Fender Stratocaster

Hi Everyone!

I hope you're having a glorious Thursday! Today marks the end of the guitars I used on my album "Legacy", and that's just in time because the release is just a couple of days away!!!

This guitar is my 1988 Fender Yngwie J. Malmsteen Signature Edition Stratocaster. The fingerboard features scalloped frets, i.e., the wood of the fingerboard is scooped out, so when you press down on a fret, you don't have wood under your finger, just fret wire (unless you REALLY dig in, but that kinda hurts!). This guitar is a real trip to play.

"But wait! Fender didn't make that model available in translucent blue!"

You're right! This guitar was originally a cream color, but over the years, the finish didn't agree with one of my old guitar stands, and started melting away. My wife & I took on a project a few years ago to strip off the damaged finish and re-do it in blue. I love how it came out! I've also just recently re-adjusted her pickup heights, so she really sings these days!

This guitar was played on "Time Machine" for the break after the first chorus, then again at the end of the song.

Thank you for following along with the guitar-a-day posts!

I'm super excited for the release on Saturday and I'm so thankful for your support. I really hope you'll get as much enjoyment out of listening to my album as I did in creating it for you.

If you haven't already done so, go visit my website and pre-order your copy of "Legacy" on CD, digital download, iTunes, or Amazon MP3 today! I'm already starting to fulfill the CD orders, and the digital downloads will be activated in just about a day and a half! The Google Play options should be available any day now, so if that's your preferred format, sit tight just a little longer!

http://chrisstark.com/

I'll have an announcement tomorrow to herald the official release -- and there's some big news there, so stay tuned! Thank you so much to all of you who have already ordered the album. I'd love to hear what you think of it when it gets to you.

You all rock!

Guitar of the Day: Ibanez S5521Q

Happy Wednesday!

Today's guitar is my workhorse guitar. This is my 2014 Ibanez Guitars Prestige S5521Q in Nebula Green Burst finish. This guitar is thin, light, and an absolute dream to play. She has a gorgeous quilted maple top on a mahogany body, so with the hardtail bridge, this guitar's tone is sweet, warm, and sustains beautifully.

You can tell how much I love this guitar by the fact that I used her exclusively for all of the guitar parts on "Spheres", "Daydream", "Marci", "Racing The Wind", and "Dreamtime", and also for the verses and guitar solo on "I'll Be Waiting" and for the guitar solo on "Time Machine".

If I were ever to have a signature guitar, it would have to be based on this particular guitar. It fits me like a glove.

Now if you haven't already done so, go visit my website and pre-order your copy of "Legacy" on CD, digital download, or Amazon MP3 today! The CDs are on the UPS truck on their way to me right now, so tonight I'll start getting them numbered, autographed, and all the pre-orders will be sent out first thing tomorrow morning!

Still no word on iTunes or Google Play, but fingers crossed that they'll be online in the next day or two. Please visit my website if you'd like to pre-order...

http://chrisstark.com/

So tomorrow features the last guitar I used on the album, see you then!

Guitar of the Day: Jackson RR7R

Hi Everyone!

Yesterday's guitar was my wife Marci's guitar, and today's guitar is one that she bought for me from a guitar shop in Las Vegas after we were dating for only about a year. Yeah, it was clear very early in our relationship that she was a keeper. ❤️❤️❤️

Here's another cool tidbit about my lovely wife Marci. She was my recording engineer for all of the guitar parts on "Legacy", and she did an absolutely amazing job of keeping the levels correct and keeping the quality control way up high. I'm a little embarrassed to admit how often I heard, "That was OK, but you can play better... Do it again...". She's a big part of why I am so proud of this album! She kept me playing my best for you, and I look forward to her helping with all my future home studio projects.

This is my 1998 Jackson Guitars - Official! 7-string RR7R in Candy Blue finish. This is my only 7-string guitar, and its fierce looks are equally matched by its fierce tone. For years, this guitar was really pretty hard for me to play, as the neck was pretty poorly adjusted, and fixing it was beyond my skill level. About 6 months ago, I brought it to Rogers Guitars in Keaau, and owner/luthier-supreme Devon Rogers fixed her right up. She plays really nicely now: perfect string height & no buzz. Devon is a master!

So I used this guitar for all of the parts on my song "The Descent", which takes advantage of that deep growling low B string. I also used it for the rhythm guitar chorus on "Time Machine", again taking advantage of that low B.

If you haven't already done so, go visit my website and pre-order your copy of "Legacy" on CD, digital download, or Amazon MP3 today! I'm still waiting on iTunes, Google Play, and the other online distributers, but they should be available any day now!

http://chrisstark.com/

See you tomorrow for another guitar from the album!

Guitar of the Day: Ibanez RG421QM

Happy Monday Everyone!

I'm back with the "guitar of the day" posts, featuring the guitars I used on my album "Legacy" which will be released this Saturday, April 30th! 

So have a look at this beautiful guitar! This is my wife Marci's guitar, and she was gracious enough to let me use it to record. This is a 2014 Ibanez Guitars RG421QM with a Sapphire Blue finish.

I used this guitar for the heavy rhythm parts on "Ethereal", tripling the riffs played on my EMG-loaded Ibanez RG220 and my Gibson Les Paul. I also used it for the intro riff (and break) on "I'll Be Waiting".

This guitar, in addition to its stunning blue finish, has a solid sustain due to its hardtail bridge. It's a fun guitar to play, and I'm grateful that my sweetheart is so generous in letting me play her guitar.

If you haven't already done so, go visit my website and pre-order your copy of "Legacy" on CD or digital download today! Amazon pre-orders are now available, but iTunes, Google Play, and the other online distributers should be available any day now, so if that's your preferred format, sit tight just a little longer!

http://chrisstark.com/

See you all tomorrow with another guitar from the album!

Guitar of the Day: Ibanez RG250LTD

Happy Earth Day everyone!

Today's guitar is my 2001 Ibanez GuitarsRG250LTD. I didn't know it when I bought it, but it turns out that this is a pretty rare series, only made in 2001.

On my "Legacy" album, this guitar can be found doing all of the guitar parts on "Kosmos". This guitar is exceptionally flexible with its tone, which can range from screaming high-gain leads to metal crunch rhythm tones to just-barely-overdriven blues tones to sparkly clear clean tones. Its flexibility and tone quality is comparable to my JEM, and that mirrored pick guard makes me think that if I have a spirit animal, it would be a crow since I always seem to fixate on shiny things. 😝

The finish color on this guitar is pretty unique too. Reading through old Ibanez catalogs, it appears the "Zinc Silver" finish was only ever offered in Japan and on this rare "Japan-made" American series of RG that happened only in 2001. It was truly a stroke of fortune that I found this cool axe. Japanese-made Ibanez guitars are the absolute pinnacle of quality in craftsmanship, and this axe is no exception!

So I'm going to take a break from the "guitar of the day" posts for the weekend, so the next guitar post will be on Monday.

However, I will have some exciting news for you all a bit later tonight. Stay tuned!

Guitar of the Day: Ibanez RG220

The news of Prince's passing dampens the mood for me. I really loved his music, and I feel like 2016 has just been absolutely brutal to the music world. And it's only April. Enough already!

But as much as I'm saddened by Prince and all of the other truly amazing artists we've lost this year, I am still excited that I'm going to be able to share my music with you very soon, so continuing with the daily guitar posts, today's guitar is my 1998 Ibanez Guitars RG220. This was my first Ibanez guitar, and I still remember the day I picked it up from my first ever visit to a Guitar Center in California.

A few years ago, I decided to upgrade the pickups in this guitar from its fairly ho-hum stock passive humbucker pickups to a set of active EMG 81/85 pickups. The difference in tone was striking to say the least.

The EMG pickups made this guitar a perfect candidate for the heavy metal rhythm parts on "Zero" and "Ethereal", which I doubled on the Les Paul. When I'm recording I tend to double my rhythm parts using different guitars because each instrument has its own tonal character, and adding them together creates a rich harmonic texture.

Go throw some Prince on your playlists and crank it up!

See you tomorrow with another guitar from the album!

Guitar of the Day: Gibson Les Paul

Happy Wednesday!

Today's guitar is my 2014 Gibson Les Paul Standard 120th Year Anniversary. This guitar is just oozing with bluesy goodness! Its solid mahogany body and hardtail bridge translates to sustain for DAYS!

On my album "Legacy", I played the heavy metal influenced rhythm guitar parts on "Ethereal" and "Zero" with this guitar, and it really excelled -- the heavy, solid wood lays the foundation for an absolutely brutal metal crunch tone.

However as a contrast to that heavy rhythm crunch tone, I played all of the song "Orbit" with this guitar, using West African influenced clean melodic riffs. The pure, crystal clear tone of this guitar is remarkable.

See you tomorrow with another guitar from the album!

Guitar of the Day: Ibanez JEM505

Hi everyone!

Today's guitar is my 2010 Ibanez Guitars JEM505.

I used the JEM for the chorus on "I'll Be Waiting" and for the melody on "Moonlight". The song "Moonlight", which is my interpretation of Beethoven's "Piano Sonata No. 14 in C#m, 2nd Movement", only has one single guitar part, recorded in one take.

The Ibanez JEM series of guitars is Steve Vai's signature line. I have a number of Ibanez guitars, but what sets my JEM apart from my others is its maple fingerboard. I love the bright, responsive sound of a maple fingerboard, and that was one of the factors that made this guitar call out to me. Its dual-single-dual coil pickup configuration and 5-way selector means a huge palette of tones. This guitar excels at versatility.

See you tomorrow with another guitar from the album!

Guitar of the Day: PRS Custom 24

How's it going everyone?

I'm getting super excited about the April 30th release of my album "Legacy"! The CD duplication is on schedule, and all the digital distributors (iTunes, Google, et al) are currently verifying the files I uploaded. It's almost time!!!

So in anticipation of the release, each day I'm going to post a photo of a guitar that I used on the album with a few details.

Today's guitar is my 2015 PRS Guitars 30th Anniversary Edition Custom 24 with the Azul finish. This guitar has a beautiful tone and is a dream to play -- and come on, she's just gorgeous to look at, right?

The PRS makes her debut appearance on my song "Time Machine". You'll hear her sweet tones on the verse and chorus melodies and harmonies. You can be assured that you'll be hearing a lot more from her on my next album! She's a truly wonderful instrument!

See you all tomorrow with another guitar from the album!