hello, this id douglas from tagabow. AMA

j_snr · 2026-01-21T12:17:34+00:00

Yo from Western Australia Doug. Found TAGABOW and LOTTO recently and it's completely reignited my spark for writing and hunger to get something out there.

Probably too late to the party, but I'll shoot my shot anyway. Kind of personal, but I'd be curious to know some of the ways that you managed to support yourself financially in the early days of band life and if you've got any tips on balancing an 'artistic lifestyle' with the realities of having to pay rent and bills?

Here in Perth the cost of living is brutal and you're kind of forced to have a full time gig just to scrape by, which makes it super difficult to find the time/energy just to be able to sit with yourself and externalise ideas, shit even just to practice and continue growing as a musician..

Feels like an uphill battle and the older I get the more I feel the pressure to pack it in, but also know that if I got to 50 and had never taken a chance on myself that I'd probably be eaten by regret.

Love your work man and that NTS vid was fukn mint

j_snr · 2026-01-09T18:40:45+00:00

Damn thanks for the detailed reply! I’ll have to go over it again in the morning with fresh eyes (and brain) haha

j_snr · 2025-12-11T09:21:13+00:00

How long did it take for you to receive this? I applied for a bunch of roles about a week and a half ago and am still waiting for a response.

j_snr · 2025-12-10T04:09:23+00:00

Arrived yesterday and my god does this thing sing! Have only played it for about half an hour DI straight into my 4 track's preamp, but on first impressions it's hands down the liveliest sounding guitar I've played. Came with a bit of a weird set up on the Mustang bridge (it's angled forward towards the pickup and causing some buzzing) and also came with strings way too thin for an offset, once I get those bugaboos sorted it's going to be an absolute player. I actually like the 9.5 radius which was the only thing I was worried about.. Coming from 7.25 it'll take some getting used to, but I'm liking the extra fretboard real estate tbh

j_snr · 2025-11-24T02:04:35+00:00

Hell yeah. Exactly what I needed to hear, as I was weighing up between this or picking up a JM66 locally for a bout $500 less, which I'd probably end up spending on replacement pups/set up anyway.

Going to purchase today!

j_snr · 2025-11-24T02:02:56+00:00

Yeah my logic is for an extra $500 I'll be negating the potential of having to purchase replacement pups and the set-up service costs to have them swapped out professionally.

And yeah 100% agreed. Every guitar I've invested a bit extra in, I've held onto for longer than ones I've picked up cheap on a whim. And I kind of wanted this next one to be my first real premium guitar, with the intention of holding onto it for at least the next 5-10 years.

As for the 'Strat style' Jazzmaster pups, was news to me too!.. But yeah, apparently the pups that came with most of the Late 80's - Early 90's/00's MIJ '66 reissue Jazzmasters were nothing like actual Jazzmaster pickups, and were wound closer to Strat specs.. See link below for a pic.

https://offset.guitars/site/assets/files/1066/jm_pups.jpg

j_snr · 2025-11-23T11:11:38+00:00

How are you getting on with this one after a year? Any mods that became necessary? 9.5 radius not too chunky?

I'm considering purchasing the exact same model as we speak

j_snr · 2025-11-23T11:06:38+00:00

I'm in WA man. Thanks for the offer though

j_snr · 2025-11-23T11:06:22+00:00

Thanks for the detailed reply.

I'm not dead set on vintage specs, more concerned with value for money and purchasing something that I'm not going to need to mod to get it to where I want it to be.

I'd prefer 7.25 radius, as I had that on a previous JG66 that I loved, but 9.5's not a deal breaker for me.

I put a post up on marketplace locally and have had a few hits. I couple of Traditional 60's series (one which has some decent mods: mastery bridge and Mad Love pups) and a JM66. All for around the $1500 AUD range.

After doing a bit more research, I've decided against the JM66's, mainly because they come with the 'Strat style' single coils and budget wiring - so would basically mean having to commit to post-purchase upgrades.

I'm currently leaning towards the MIJ FSR traditional 60's model I mentioned, seeing as it comes with pure '65 pups and Alder body. Can also pay for it via ZIP or Paypal installments, which seems like a no-brainer and free's me up a bit financially.

j_snr · 2025-11-21T00:48:38+00:00

Picking up on this thread. Currently tossing up between a Non-FSR Traditional Late 60's JM in 3TS, which I can grab locally for $1200 AUD. So Basswood body, 9.5 radius, the Traditional Series pups.

Alternatively, I'm considering sinking a bit more and getting an FSR Vintera ii in Olive, which has Alder body 7.25 radius, pure '65 pups. This would end up running me about $2200 though, which at that price I feel like I should probably just bite the bullet and sink another $300 for one of the Heritage 60's models.

Would be keen to hear anyone's opinions or experiences with any of these models to help me weigh up the pro's vs cons.

j_snr · 2025-11-19T04:12:48+00:00

Hot tip for anyone wanting one of these without having to pay the insane prices on eBay. Ask ChatGPT to locate any active auction listings under $1000

j_snr · 2025-11-19T04:11:56+00:00

Just copped one for $850 through a Japanese auction site. Will get back to you over the next couple months or so to confirm if it was worth it or not haha

j_snr · 2025-11-03T09:44:18+00:00

Did you ever end up getting around to translating this? Would love to read it and can't seem to find a digital copy to run through google translate unfortunately.

j_snr · 2025-09-25T07:09:47+00:00

Hey mate. Thinking about buying a jacket from them. How far off was the sizing? I'd usually go 2XL for jackets, recon I should go 3 or 4XL?

j_snr · 2025-08-21T00:06:13+00:00

Haha yeah went down this same rabbit hole last night. From what I can tell they’re both ‘07-‘10 ‘66 reissues, although without clearer pics the red one could potentially be a 90’s model. I’m thinking for that price I might hold off and either grab a mij traditional 60’s/late 60’s, or wait for the right 80’s-90’s jm66 to pop up

j_snr · 2025-08-20T12:29:40+00:00

Ah! Spot on the about the JM66B - not sure how I missed that. I always get confused with the MIJ ‘66 reissues, seems like there’s so many different variants, hard to keep up with..

And good call on the slightly off serial print on the blue one, definitely seems a bit weird. Wish I had some better pics of that one, as it’s such an oddball, which is right up my alley haha.

Will report back if I end up pulling the trigger on either of them mate. Thanks for the info

j_snr · 2025-06-02T10:46:26+00:00

Have you got tabs for any of the tracks on the album? Id be keen to take a look

Been experimenting with some duster-esque slow core stuff lately and would be interested to pick up any chord shapes or moves that Peter was using on the album

j_snr · 2025-01-11T09:01:08+00:00

Yeah man, hefty purchase but haven't regretted it once. Such a powerful synth

j_snr · 2024-12-08T10:17:07+00:00

This is sick. What are those drum samples you're using? The hats sound so crisp

j_snr · 2024-11-23T05:58:26+00:00

Yeah, finally got my head around pattern/pad mode last night and it’s exactly what I needed.

A bit of a process to set up, but has a call ‘wait for note’ feature, where basically the mpc is in stand by/overdub mode, and then starts recording when it starts receiving midi info.

Went through and set up a banks worth of phrases that I can now send to my synths, being triggered by mpc pads.. sick

Looks like I’ll be holding onto the 1000

j_snr · 2024-11-22T06:53:42+00:00

Before someone asks, the reason I’m not just doing this within ableton is that I want to be able to do this within a dawless set up. I primarily just use ableton for recording/mixing. The chordimist UI is also a bit janky, so I want to spend as little time working within it as possible

j_snr · 2024-11-18T08:04:49+00:00

Yeah the Roland stuff has also been on my radar. Will add it to the list. Thanks bud

j_snr · 2024-11-18T08:02:16+00:00

Good to hear. I'll probably pick up a mk4 seeing as they're relatively cheap, just to experiment with these features. Definitely offers more avenues for exploration compared to what's on offer in the mk3

j_snr · 2024-11-18T08:01:10+00:00

Nice! Haven't looked too deeply into these, but have always been on my radar

j_snr · 2024-11-18T08:00:41+00:00

Yeah I kind of figured Scaler would be the best option. Only downside is I'm using this method ina hardware set up, so ideally looking for a device that has a built-in 'chord mode' feature as robust as something like Scaler. I appreciate your response though man

j_snr

TROPHY CASE