GUEST POST: Jeff Loomis clinic report by Johan Westman

Huge thanks to Johan Westman for the following report. You can find Johan on Myspace and Twitter.

For every generation of players, there's a select few who achieve an iconic status over time.

Players who either bring something new and fresh to the table (which is a bit hard to do these days) or players who take what already has been touched upon but make it their own and expand the limits of what a guitar player is thought of being capable of doing.

One of the players who have taken the guitar and put his own stamp on it, done his own twist so to speak, of this current generation is Nevermore's shred lord Jeff Loomis.

Jeff is currently out on a clinic tour with Schecter guitars in which he gives some insight to his philosophies regarding writing, playing and gear, as well as shredding through a nice six-song set composed of two Nevermore classics and four songs from his debut solo album, Zero Order Phase.

I heart guitar asked me to go there and to report from it, so I figured I should try and ask Jeff a couple of questions. Thankfully, he was an grade A dude, very approachable and very funny.

Jeff actually started playing drums before moving to the six-string (and eventually adding a seventh to his arsenal). Starting on a three-piece kit that had such a foul odor that he gravitated away from playing it, he eventually heard Yngwie Malmsteen and his work in Alcatrazz, which caused him to gain enough interest in guitar to pick up one of his dads instruments.

From there, he went to Jason Becker and Marty Friedman who remain big influences to this day which shows up in Jeff's playing such him as utilizing a Becker-like approach for the whammy bar phrasing of the song Jatu Unit.

As a 16 year old, Jeff actually auditioned for Megadeth and though he was deemed as too young and inexperienced at the time by Dave Mustaine, he took him aside and told him that he really was on to something and to stick to his guns, because he would one day, according to Mustaine, become a great guitar player.

Lo and behold, Mustaine was right on the money, seeing as Jeff is one of the most revered guitar players in metal today and actually toured in his own band Nevermore with Megadeth on Gigantour in 2005!

After his audition, the young Jeff (not Jeff Young) went to see a Cacophony show and as Marty Friedman left the stage after it, Loomis told him about Megadeth seeking a new guitar player and "Marty’s eyes just lit up", and well, we all know how the story about Marty and Megadeth went on from there.

Jeff himself struggled on, playing in death metal bands until he got tired of the vocal styling and wanted to find a singer who sung with a more traditional approach. In 1991, he was able to join the band Sanctuary as a touring member, which was where he met Warrel Dane and Jim Sheppard.

4 months after him joining Sanctuary, the good ol’ “musical difference” thing snuck up and the band dissolved. Jeff, Warrel and Dane went on to form Nevermore who, six studio albums (plus one EP), a live album/DVD-package and a new full-length on the way, have truly become a force to be reckoned with. With Jeff being the main-composer of their music, a big part of their success can be attributed to him, so I was really expecting this clinic to be something extra-ordinary.

From the get-go, Jeff comes out all guns blazin’ with the first track from his awesome solo album Zero Order Phase, Shouting Fire at a Funeral and he delivers a stellar performance, his fingers flying across the fretboard. Between the six songs played, he opens the floor for questions three times, revealing that the new Nevermore album The Obsidian Conspiracy has been recorded and it’s currently being mixed, hopefully to be out in January, as well as philosophies regarding picking. For example, he reveals that a lot of the fluid sound of his runs descending down the strings comes from his use of economy picking instead of straight alternate. On Chris Broderick, he gets a bit emotional, saying that:
- “I miss him, for sure. We were best friends and we still are” and how he thought the new Megadeth album Endgame, which Broderick performed on, was
- “killer and a bit of a return to the roots. The best album they’ve done is Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying and it was a bit like that so I really like the new album”. Jeff also dropped a fairly big bomb, revealing that he was offered the lead guitarist position of Megadeth after Glen Drover left the band. However, Jeff declined and stated that
- “I’ve been in Nevermore for over 15 years now, and though the paycheck from Megadeth would’ve been really nice, the music goes before the money”. Also addressing the fact that Nevermore live shows have been remarked as “thin sounding” due to the lack of a second guitarist;
- “I think the main problem is to find someone who can replace Chris, which is a big thing. He’s a great guy and an amazing player so it’s not easy. But yeah, we will try to find a new guitar player” (can we freeze-frame here for a couple of decades so I can practice and get good enough?).

After an hour of fretboard blazing and Q&A, the clinic’s over and it’s time for us clinic-visitors to try and take it all in which is a pretty tall order, seeing as Jeff has kindly shared a lot of cool, memorable tips with us. If Jeff has a clinic coming up anywhere near you (or if Nevermore swing by on tour), you should go, seriously. It was a lot of fun, if nothing else, and Jeff is one of the kindest and most awesome famous guys I’ve ever met.

Setlist (the order might be slightly off):

Shouting Fire at a Funeral
Jato Unit
This Godless Endeavour
Enemies of Reality
Sacristy
Miles of Machines

NEWS: More Schecter 8-strings

Wow, Schecter's really getting on board the 8-string thing. Check these out! They'll be available in early October at authorized Schecter dealers, and only 50 of each will be produced!

FEATURES

*26.5” Extended Scale
*EMG Active 808 Humbucker(s)
* Custom Hipshot Bridge
* Custom Inlays
* Tuned F#/B/E/A/D/G/B/E

HELLRAISER DEVIL-8 US$1299.00 MSRP

DEVIL SPINE-8 US$1199.00 MSRP

And strings!

REVIEW: Schecter C-1 BlackJack ATX with Seymour Duncan Blackouts

Just as there are many different schools of metal – heavy metal, stoner metal, death metal, thrash, death-thrash, grindcore, gore-grind, industrial metal, black metal, TRUE black metal - there are also many different schools of metal guitar design. Radical shapes and extreme colours compete on the shelves against stripped back, simple but deadly designs. Active or passive pickups, fixed or floating bridge, 22 frets or 24 (don’t even joke about building a metal guitar with only 21 frets. How can you possibly be evil if you can only reach a high C#?). In many ways the C-1 Blackjack ATX FR is almost too classy to be a metal axe, with its carved top and chunky neck profile that are more likely to remind blindfolded players of a Les Paul than a day-glo heavy metal meat-axe. But don’t worry, there are still plenty of badass features in here for shredders and rhythm chuggers alike.

Spec check
This bad boy features a solid mahogany body with a carved top and aged binding, and a 3-piece maple neck with 24 jumbo frets and a rather flat radius. The fretboard is ebony, the grain of which is extremely tight, giving the fretboard a very smooth feel, especially combined with those huge frets. The only inlay on the face of the fretboard is an ‘active’ symbol at the 12th fret, although there are side dots too so you can still find your way around. The neck is glued in, but carved with Schecter’s ‘Ultra Access’ shape, which makes it feel like a neck-through. The back of the neck is painted, which some players will love, and others, not so much. If it bugs you that much, a good tech can scrape it away neatly, but even though I’m a player who likes a good chunk of unfinished maple, I didn’t find the painted neck to be obstructive or distracting at all. The headstock is Schecter’s pointy 3-a-side design, which looks traditional and hard-edged at the same time.

The review model has an original Floyd Rose locking tremolo bridge. There’s also a fixed bridge version available in 6 and 7 string but frankly, as a shameless 7-string noodler and whammy bar abuser, I feel the range is just that little bit empty without a Floyd Rose-loaded 7-string version. There, I said it. Schecter, please don’t send Zacky Vengeance after me to enact his namesake.

Pickups
The pickups are Seymour Duncan Blackout actives, with a volume control for each and, a global tone control. There’s a three-way pickup switch which selects between each humbucker or a combination of both: no split coil settings here, so the Blackjack’s clean tones lean more towards Metallica than Dream Theater. Seymour Duncan describes the Blackouts thusly: “The ‘other’ USA-made active humbuckers use unbalanced inputs in a differential preamp. The problem is, an unbalanced differential preamp is not very effective at cancelling hum. Our engineers figured out how to capture the tone that players want in an active design, but using balanced inputs. The result is 12dB to 14dB less noise, plus more lows, more highs, and more output. Simply put, Blackouts have more tone than other active pickups.”

Sound
The C-1 Blackjack ATX FR plays like a much more traditional guitar than a shredder’s plank thanks to the combination of the arched top and the neck carve, which is deeper and rounder than the majority of guitars oriented towards the speedier side of axemanship. The Blackout pickups are an interesting spin on the expected active metal pickup sound. They’re a little blunter and a bit warmer than you might expect, with more midrange and ‘woodiness’ than traditional actives. You can really hear the personality of the guitar, which isn’t always true with actives. The bridge unit has plenty of articulation and chunk – you’ll hear plenty of crunch and grind, which is especially great for ultra-fast, muted thrash riffage, while legato techniques have a real sense of movement and dynamics as overtones jump out. The neck pickup sounds round and vocal, responding especially well to huge vibrato, and again there’s a very musical pick attack. You know the kind of pick attack that sounds like an integral part of the note, rather than just a percussive bassy thud at its beginning? Well that’s what this baby excels at. Awesome. Both pickups are ideal for metal, but due to the warmer character they can be used for softer styles too. You may turn a few heads showing up at an indie gig to plug the C-1 Blackjack ATX into a small Fender combo for some ambient jangle, but it’ll fit the bill sonically, no problem.

My only niggle is the placement of the controls. The neck pickup volume is closest to the strings, with the bridge volume in the middle and then the tone control. This makes sense from one perspective – after all, it mirrors the placement of the pickups themselves – but practically, the bridge pickup will probably get the most use and it’s difficult to turn it down with the control in the second position. Easy enough to flip around if you know what you’re doing though if it becomes a problem, but I think the vast majority of players would prefer it to be swapped around to begin with.

Conclusion
This is a very powerful, great sounding and playing guitar with killer features and construction. While some guitars lend themselves more to either rhythm or lead playing, the C-1 BlackJack AX seems to cover it all pretty easily. It takes a lot to drag me away from my beloved neon shred axes but this monster could well do it.

Musician's Friend shopping links:

Schecter BlackJack ATX C-1 FR Electric Guitar Aged White
Schecter Blackjack C-1 Electric Guitar Black

Seymour Duncan Blackouts Active Humbucker Set
Seymour Duncan Blackouts Active Humbucker Neck
Seymour Duncan Blackouts Active Humbucker Bridge

Links
Schecter
Seymour Duncan

NEWS: New Schecter 8 strings!

Oh my god, look at these! Not only are these beauties available in several styles (the Blackjack C-8 is superstrat-shaped, while the Hellraiser V-8 is a freaking V!), there are several colour options and even a left-handed one. Schecter should really be applauded for getting so heavily into the 8-string thing and not leaving lefties behind.

These guitars are en route to retailers now, and as soon as they're available I'll update my 8 Is Enough ...For Now article about 8 string guitars. In the meantime here are a couple of 6-string Schecter reviews for you to sink your teeth into:

Schecter Hellraiser C-1 FR

Schecter Hellraiser Solo-6

Schecter Solo 6 Classic

NEWS: Jeff Loomis joins Rock House

Hey, have you heard Jeff Loomis's solo album, Zero Order Phase? It's intense, like Strapping Young Lad meets Cacophony. Loomis has some serious chops and his signature Schecter 7 string seems to be one of the hottest guitars out there at the moment.

JEFF LOOMIS of NEVERMORE JOINS ROCK HOUSE
One of Today’s Most Influential Players to Reveal his Closest Kept Secrets

(West Haven, CT., July 23, 2009) – Rock House, the leader in music instruction, announced today that one of this era’s most influential guitarist Jeff Loomis, has joined Rock House’s roster of master instructors. Jeff is the lead guitar player and main songwriter of Nevermore, a band that has certainly made its mark on modern music by forging a unique sound that fuses different forms of Metal that has given birth to an authentic and very influential style. His recent solo CD Zero Order Phase took the #4 spot in a April 2009 Guitar World Magazine Readers Pole in the Best Shred Album of the year category. A notable accomplishment when you consider the top three vote getters, Paul Gilbert, Yngwie Malmsteen and Joe Satriani. Jeff has become one of his generation’s most recognizable guitarists and the source of many of the last decade's best riffs.

Jeff's complex shredding has been a central part of the progressive power guitar scene since 1992 and is responsible for some of the most awe-inspiring riffs modern metal has ever heard. Nearly every aspiring musician who has been listening to metal for the past 10 years or so, has undoubtedly had the pleasure of hearing Jeff Loomis’ progressive and technically superior playing. “Jeff epitomizes the very essence of modern guitar playing; there is a huge fan base that has waited a long time for this type of product from him.” Stated Joe Palombo, Executive Director of Rock House.

At least two instructional DVDs showing the building blocks that make up his signature sound are planned. Production on his Rock House products are slated to begin late the first week of August, no exact release dates have been set at this time, however, it is likely to be some time in the fourth quarter of 2009 or the first month of 2010. Stay tuned to www.RockHouseMethod.com, www.JeffLoomis.com and http://www.myspace.com/jeffloomis for more information on release dates.

Jeff’s Rock House instructional products will be available at MI retailers around the world for $24.99. Stay tuned at. All Rock House instructional products are distributed through Hal Leonard Corp. 1-800-554-0626. Each on of Jeff’s DVDs will come with a FREE tab lesson booklet, iPod ready video and membership to Rock House’s lesson support site at www.RockHouseMethod.com. This feature, exclusive to Rock House and its partners offers students supplementary support for the lessons featured on the DVDs.

###

Rock House has developed an accelerated yet easy-to-use system of learning that utilizes the functionality of DVD and Print, integrated with the accessibility of the Internet. Aspiring musicians who have a product produced by Rock House receive free membership to www.RockHouseMethod.com for 24-7 lesson support. Students use this fully interactive site along with their product to enhance their learning experience, expand their knowledge, link with instructors, and connect with a community of people around the world who are learning to play music using The Rock House Method®.

CLICK HERE to buy the Schecter Jeff Loomis C7 FR 7-string Electric Guitar Vampyre Red Satin from Musician's Friend for $999.

NEWS: Schecter Solo-6 limited editions

Woah! Check out these Schecter Solo-6 limited editions! Only 100 of each model. I quite dig the Solo-6 series. Check out my reviews of the Hellraiser Solo-6 and Solo-6 Classic.

Top to bottom you're looking at the Solo-6 Limited EMG (with EMG 81/85 pickup set, US$1,099), the Solo-6 Vintage Limited (with Seymour Duncan-designed P90 pickups, US$899) and the Solo-6 Limited SD (Seymour Duncan JB/59 set, US$1,099). All feature set-in mahogany neck, TonePros systems and GraphTech nuts, while the EMG and SD models also have pearl Grover tuners.

REVIEW: Schecter Hellraiser Solo-6

GRAAR! Did I scare ya? Good, cos this Schecter Hellraiser Solo-6 is one mean son-of-a-fish, and I had to do something to set the mood for the rest of the review. While the Solo-6 Classic reviewed here is a classy, refined instrument which excels at clean voicings, this Hellraiser cousin is built to be a brutal death machine from hell.

I’M SCARED!
First of all, the Hellraiser Solo-6 has a lot of the features you’d expect for a single cutaway solid body guitar: The body is mahogany with a maple top (quilted if you choose the Black Cherry finish, otherwise there’s Gloss Black or Gloss White). The 3-piece mahogany neck has a rosewood fretboard and 24 (not 22 like you might expect) X-Jumbo frets. The inlays are demonically evil gothic crosses, and the body is ringed with abalone binding. That’s right, this guitar is so evil that it sacrifices sea creatures and decorates itself with their remains. Creepy.

However if you’re looking for a stock-standard brutal metal axe design there are a few construction surprises to throw off your preconceptions (and laugh at them derisively from a throne of evil): the scale length is a manly 25.5”; the neck joins the body with a very ergonomic Ultra Access cut which flows through diagonally, and there are a pair of EMG humbuckers. That’s an 81-TW in the bridge and an 89 in the neck. Both are splittable into single coils, if you want to get all pretty for a few bars before unleashing the brutal hellfire once again.

UNLEASH THE BEAST
The first thing I did with the Hellraiser Solo-6 (after stocking up on wooden stakes, silver bullets and garlic) was to set my Marshall to ‘kill’ and make sure the bridge pickup was engaged in full humbucker mode. Of course your Metallica ‘Black Album’ tones are here in abundance, as are your Dethklok death metal sounds. This is a muscular, tough sounding guitar with great note definition, and unlike some axes which seem to beg for mercy if you pick too hard, this one practically pleads for you to give it the walloping of a lifetime. I couldn’t resist adding a little delay and chorus, tuning to C-G-C-G-C-E and blasting out a few Devin Townsend riffs circa Ocean Machine. In fact, the Devin Townsend comparison is a good one because in single coil mode the Hellraiser Solo-6 does a good job of approximating his earthier ‘Terria’ era tones as well.

In humbucker mode the neck pickup lashes out hyperspeed arpeggios with clarity, power and articulation. Flip to single coil mode and the sound becomes sharper and grittier. No matter which mode you select with either pickup, there’s lots of treble and bass, and great sustain.

RUN FOR COVER
That I managed to make it through this review without the Hellraiser Solo-6 stalking me like the dreaded Chupacabra and dragging me into the bushes to feast on my innards is indeed surprising. This is a well-made, intense, brutal, powerful guitar with a voice – nay, a mind – of its own and a lot of musical versatility, especially for those who dwell in the shadows, emerging periodically to murderlize the ears of the weeping masses with an onslaught of metal power.

Music123 shopping links:

Schecter Hellraiser Solo-6 Electric Guitar Black
Schecter Hellraiser Solo-6 Electric Guitar Black Cherry
Schecter Hellraiser Solo-6 Electric Guitar White

CLICK HERE to see Schecter guitars on eBay.

FEATURE: How to sound like The Cure

It seems that in the current musical climate, a lot of people are discovering (or rediscovering) the Cure. Their influence on bands like AFI and A Perfect Circle has turned a new generation onto the moody, atmospheric sounds of flanged chords and baritone guitars.

CLICK HERE to buy The Cure albums on Amazon.com

A key element of the Cure sound is the use of baritone guitars, and not of the ‘downtuned metal axe’ variety. The Cure sound is often built around a Fender Bass VI, the same instrument Nigel Tufnel declared too valuable to even look at in This Is Spinal Tap. This instrument looks a lot like a Fender Jaguar, but it’s tuned a full octave lower. It doesn’t quite sound like a bass, and you can still play chords on it without the sound turning to low-end mush, but it sounds especially great around the middle of the neck. You can approximate this sound by using a regular guitar in standard tuning and staying around the lower frets on the wound strings, but you’ll notice that the tone sounds ‘looser’ than the real thing, because the string tension is completely different even though you might be playing notes of the same pitch. To compensate for this a little, pick right up near the bridge. This will give you the characteristic treble bite of the Fender Bass VI, and will also reduce any pitch drift effects. The rigidity of the note is a big part of why the Bass VI is so unique, and why it’s also used by Placebo to add solid rhythm behind Brian Molko’s more jangly edge.

Another important part of the Cure’s sound is their use of keyboards. This poses certain challenges to us guitarists, but you don’t need to spend thousands on a guitar synth. Many multi effect units include synth patches which manipulate your incoming guitar signal in a way which imitates the sound of analog synths. These are especially useful if you can blend in the original, unaffected guitar sound. Sometimes these settings don’t hold up so well on their own, but mixed at about 60-70% of the volume of the straight guitar sound, they can be very useful. You might also try using a reverb pedal with the original note turned all the way down, set for about a second of reverb with very fast reflection, then fed into a compressor and a delay. Tremolo-pick the hell out of the note, and you can get somewhere close to the keyboard sounds of The Cure’s classic ‘Fascination Street.’

CLICK HERE to buy the Schecter Ultracure Robert Smith Signature Model Electric Guitar from Guitar Center for $849.

CLICK HERE to try to luck out on a Fender Bass VI on eBay.

FEATURE: 8 Is Enough… for now - Production 8-string guitars

The 8 string electric guitar isn’t a totally new phenomenon – Meshuggah fans have been lusting after their own readily available version for years now – but since Ibanez made the brave move into the mass-produced world of the low F# string, other companies have stepped up with their own monstrous creations. Here are a few readily available production 8 strings. All feature EMG 808 active pickups, and all are tuned F#-B-E-A-D-G-B-E at the factory, but of course you’re free to come up with your own tunings. Personally, I’d probably drop the F# down to E. You’ve already gone down that far, why not get all the way down to bass territory? Then again, following that philosophy, I’d probably want a 9 string so I can go as low as a 5 string bass… Hehehe.

Ibanez RG2228
SPECS:
basswood body, 5-piece maple/wenge neck w/rosewood fretboard,
24 jumbo frets
27” Scale
Gotoh Tuners
Edge III-8 fixed bridge,
2x EMG 808 pickups

CLICK HERE to see the Ibanez RG2228 on eBay.


ESP LTD FM-418
SPECS:
Neck-Thru-Body
Basswood Body, Maple Neck w/ Rosewood Fretboard
24 XJ Frets
25.5" Scale
Grover Tuners
Hipshot Fixed Bridge
EMG 808 pickups

CLICK HERE to see the ESP LTD FM-418 on eBay.

Schecter Hellraiser C-8
SPECS:
Manhgay body, Mahogany Neck w/Rosewood Fretboard
26.5” Scale
Schecter Locking Tuners
Hipshot Fixed Bridge
EMG 808 Pickups

CLICK HERE to see the Schecter Hellraiser C-8 on eBay.

NAMM 2009: Schecter 8-string

This just landed in my inbox... now THAT'S the stuff. Want!!!

The new Schecter Hellraiser C-8 has 8 strings (the lowest is tuned down to F#, but I figure that if you're going to go that low anyway, you might as well tune it down to E so you can play octave-down power chords, Drop-D-style.

By the way, check out that ad copy: "A custom designed Hip-Shot bridge that DOES intonate..." Who could they be taking a dig at there? The only other production 8 strings I know of are the
Ibanez RG2228, which has the genius FXEdge bridge, and the ESP/LTD Stephen Carpenter models. Hmmm...

Click the image for a closer look or go to Schecterguitars.com.

CLICK HERE to buy the Ibanez RG2228 Electric Guitar Galaxy Black from Musician's Friend.

CLICK HERE to buy the ESP LTD SC-308B Baritone Stephen Carpenter Electric Guitar Black from Musician's Friend.

NAMM 2009: Schecter Solo Classic

Now this, I like.

CLICK HERE to see more 2009 Schecters, or visit their website at www.schecterguitars.com

NAMM 2009: New from Schecter

Here are a bunch of new 2009 Schecters. Just click the images to see the full-sized versions. I especially like the ATX V-1, and it's cool to see Seymour Duncan Blackout pickups rapidly finding their way into production guitars.

NAMM 2009: Michael Kelly upgrades Hex, Vex

The Michael Kelly Guitar Company has upgraded the Hex Deluxe and Vex Deluxe for 2009, adding new active Rockfield pickups. I kinda dig the Hex, with its dark smoky colour and that reverse headstock, but the Vex looks a lot like a Schecter to me, and there are an awful lot of twin-humbucker, string-thru, flamed-maple, abalone-bound guitars out there. For a long time EMG had the whole active pickup thing stitched up, but Seymour Duncan's Livewires are giving them a serious run for their money at the moment. Even Ibanez introduced their own active pickup last year on the ART300 and ART400 models. Perhaps these new Rockfield pickups are further evidence of the active market opening up.

Here's the press release about the new Michael Kelly guitars:

Michael Kelly Guitar Company has announced new versions of its popular Hex Deluxe and Vex Deluxe double cutaway models. The featured upgrade for 2009 is the addition of a scorching new set of active pickups. The Deluxe twins are the first guitars on the market to come equipped with Rockfield Pickups new Black Betty active humbuckers. "Consumers were asking us for a specific tone and performance level for the modern music environment. When Todd Rockfield shared these new pickups with us, we instantly knew that these exactly matched what our users had been asking for," explained Tracy Hoeft, the company's founder.

Another key feature on the Hex Deluxe and Vex Deluxe is their set-thru-body construction. This construction provides the great tone of a set-neck instrument with the added access provided by a neck-through-body construction. Both of the Deluxe models have 24 frets, a custom inlay design, Grover tuners and exotic wood options. The Hex Deluxe boasts an original Floyd Rose tremolo while the Vex Deluxe has a string-through body design and a fully carved top.

CLICK HERE to buy the Ibanez ART300 from Music123.

CLICK HERE to buy the Ibanez ART400H from Musician's Friend.

CLICK HERE to see eBay pickups on eBay.

NEWS: New Schecter V

Schecter has just unveiled the new-for-2009 Damien V-1 (fixed bridge) and Damien V-1FR (Floyd Rose). I couldn't find any specs on these yet, but they appear to have EMG-HZ passive pickups and a matte finish, which leads me to believe they won't be mega-ultra-expensive models. I like the offset carve at the treble side of the neck/body join. I think lot of players are into more traditional V shapes but want modern playability, and this is the perfect way to get it. I'd like to see this model with a pickup upgrade, but ya gotta dig those bat inlays.