Post Musical Equipment Here....

[|iR|Focalor]

My pedal collection keeps growing. Still haven't gotten a volume pedal yet. Haven't completely decided on which one I'll get. The Ernie Ball ones are pretty popular with people, but I'm starting to wonder if one of these pot-less optical type volume pedals like the Morley ones might be a better and less noisy option.

And speaking of noise... Been having a problem with noise out of this amp with higher gain settings. Anything past about 60% on the gain knob and you get this horrible "sshhhhhh" snow sound like when you'd unplug the cable from a tube TV. I tried out a Boss NS2 noise suppressor on it right after I got it (June 2019), but wasn't really impressed with the results. And since I'm going to be using an assload of pedals, it occured to me that I'm gonna need to get a line driver/boost pedal at some point to combat the "tone suck" on some of these pedals that aren't completely true-bypass. Apparently these old MXR noise gates do the job of a boost buffer. They don't make a pedal like these anymore for some reason. They have a couple of 1-knob noise suppressing pedals, but none that also act as a line driver. It's supposedly from the early 80's, but I don't really know, it could be 70's. Paid 99 for it, 120 with tax & shipping. Says it has the original box too. Looks to be in decent shape. Has some odd ring around the knob like a grease spot. Hopefully it comes off. I guess these are one of the few "vintage" pedals that hasn't caught on enough to make prices ridiculous. Hopefully it works out for me.



I've also been seeing several old 70's Thomas Organ Cry Baby wahs with the old TDK inductors for about 120 bucks. Might end up getting one of those one day too. Should be FAR easier to find replacement pots for them than for my old US-made Vox wah with it's weird long shaft 100k pot.

[quadz]

reasonably close


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfwBuzE9OFE

[|iR|Focalor]

One thing I notice there in their side-by-side comparison of riffs is that their sound seems to be using a noise suppressor that's chopping off the very early pick attack of each note. Back then, amps weren't the massively distorted type that they make now like the Peavey 6505's, Marshall DSL's, or any other "high gain" amp. Back then, amps probably weren't as hissy as the modern high gain ones, and nobody really needed any suppression as much. To achieve that scream-y heavily distorted sound, everybody tended to use a Rangemaster treble booster. You go back and listen to Duane Allman's lead sounds from the Fillmore East album he's getting from his early 50-watt Marshall head which was either a Marshall Super Bass or a Marshall plexi. Those amps on their own didn't have the power to achieve those tones, but with a Rangemaster goosing the input gain, it gave it the extra boost to get the distortion right. That's part of the problem you get using high gain amps NOW to try to recreate those tones. All the gain is being generated in the tube stages of the preamp itself, and it makes the tone "looser" sounding.

That's why pretty soon I'm gonna look into getting some type of Rangemaster clone myself.

Everyone on the gear forums seem to recommend the AnalogMan Beano Boost pedals. I think the AnalogMan site even has a video of Steve Hackett of Genesis using one live on the order page for the pedal. I've seen a couple of used ones online, and the used ones seem to be priced just as high if not HIGHER than the brand new ones straight from AnalogMan.

Several others make supposed "clones".

Daredevil pedals makes one called the Silver Solo but it uses a different type of transistor and doesn't get quite the same frequency range as the original Rangemasters.

Catalinbread has the Naga Viper pedal, which is a 3 knob thing, and is basically a supercharged version of a remade Rangemaster.

There's a pedal maker right here in Athens GA called Greer Amps that makes two pedals. Ones called the Pork N Beans, which is basically an Analogman Beano Boost copy, with one knob and a 2-way toggle switch, just like a Beano Boost. They also make the Moonshot pedal, which is basically the same thing but with 2 knobs, and the 2nd knob tweaks the range in increments rather than just a 2-way high or low setting. Probably gonna get one of those.

But I'm also considering one of these look-alikes from British Pedal. Probably not... I think I'd rather have a pedal I can easily tap on and off.

http://britishpedalcompany.com/product/dallas-rangemaster/

[|iR|Focalor]

Dunno what that oily ring was around the knob. When it came it looked clean. VERY clean. Surprisingly clean for how obviously old it is. No scratches or dings at all, looks almost brand new. The letters on it look like they were just painted on this year. This suckers pretty much collector quality.

Does a decent job of noise gating. I keep it turned down just a hair lower than what the knob is showing in the picture so it doesn't cut off any of the attack and the sustain trails of notes, but still kills all the amp buzzing. No more annoying background wooshing is heard during pauses with the flanger through the dirty channel with the gain cranked. Can't really tell how well it "drives" the line if at all. I don't hear anything I "don't" like with the pedal, so that's good enough I guess.

I tried out a Boss NS2 noise suppressor on it right after I got it (June 2019), but wasn't really impressed with the results.

Does maybe a little better job of noise control than the Boss did. And it's dick-simple to use, just one knob, set it and forget it. Love this thing. She's a keeper! No 9v input though, so I'm probably gonna have to custom fab a new rear plate with a hole in it for adding a 9v battery adapter.

------

Interesting video about SRV's pedals.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxOdmUITeXM

[|iR|Focalor]

GOIN' DOWN! DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN!

The Walmart of guitar stores, which devoured all the best local mom and pop guitar stores from my childhood in the Atlanta metro area, might be crashing and burning... for REAL this time.
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fbTqM0nMx8

Got this email on Friday...

Dear (my name),

Thank you for being a loyal customer of Guitar Center. We genuinely appreciate your business.

I'm pleased to share that the Guitar Center Company has announced an agreement to strengthen our financial structure which will allow us to serve you better for the long term. During this time there is likely to be press coverage, so we wanted you to hear from us what to expect.

    Our stores, e-commerce, lessons and call centers are open and available to you as we continue to operate our business as usual.

    We will continue to serve your needs as usual, therefore, customer service, financing with your GC Card and Pro Coverage remain unaffected.

To facilitate this financial process, we will voluntarily file for restructuring under Chapter 11 which we expect to complete quickly. During this time, we will continue all of our operations without interruption.

Most importantly, we are staying focused on helping more customers make music. We continue to have the gear you want and need, with new gear arriving regularly and we are here to support your holiday shopping needs as we have exciting holiday promotions ready for you.

If you have questions or concerns please feel free to email us at service@guitarcenter.com or call us at 866-498-7882.

Ron Japinga
Chief Executive Officer
The Guitar Center Company

So... maybe they'll last through Christmas this year, but don't expect them to still be around by next Christmas.

I'm kinda hoping they just downsize and re-organize from there. I'd hate to see the Atlanta Guitar Center go. The ones elsewhere can close, but that ones been there since I was a kid. While I'm a little annoyed that Guitar Center expanded so much when they bought out everyone like Mars Music and killed off all the small local shops, the Atlanta store in particular was kinda always there and on it's own it never really hurt the smaller mom-n-pop shops in the suburbs.

I really don't want to have to rely on Sam Ash as the "big" music store. Their website is fucking AWFUL. It's so ridiculously slow, and it's impossible to hunt for used shit nationwide through it. And these days, the "small" shops that keep popping up tend to be these stupid "boutique" style stores that cater to the lawyers who are guitar hobbyists, with assloads of 2grand guitars and shit that regular musicians can't typically afford.

[|iR|Focalor]

Lida Machine by Yellowcake pedals.

They recently got some of these little weirdos in at the independent NON-GUITAR CENTER music shop not far from me. Almost Moog synth inspired, I guess. It's... it doesn't really have an official name for WHAT it is. It's basically two modulated resonant filters strung together in series. So it's not a phaser, it's not a flanger or chorus, it's not really a rotating speaker simulator or a univibe (although apparently you can tweak it to sort-of mimic one in some ways). Anyway, sounds pretty interesting. Might have to pick one of these up. They're asking $239.99 for one.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYJSOB6NzB4

[|iR|Focalor]

There's a pedal maker right here in Athens GA called Greer Amps that makes two pedals. ... They also make the Moonshot pedal, which is basically the same thing but with 2 knobs, and the 2nd knob tweaks the range in increments rather than just a 2-way high or low setting. Probably gonna get one of those.

And I did. Just ordered one. From what research I've done about "treble booster" pedals, the original Rangemasters used germanium transistors, and the most authentic modern versions of Rangemaster clones (Analogman Beano Boost, Fulltone Ranger, etc) tend to use the ac128 germanium transistor like this pedal does. Ones like the Daredevil Silver Solo and the Catalinbread Naga Viper substitute a different silicon transistor and feature a different overall but "tighter" character to them because of it.

Hopefully this thing gets along with my amp well and does what I hope it will. I already have an Ibanez Turbo Tubescreamer, and the 4 different "modes" of that pedal ramp the output gain of the pedal up in steps, but as you increase the output, it also boosts the bass considerably to the point where it is completely unusable with my amp which is already lacking treble. So hopefully this Greer Moonshot actually will boost the gain while also boosting the upper frequencies in a pleasant way.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnkmsY7OXuc

[|iR|Focalor]

My Rangemaster clone came finally.



Played around with it for 30 minutes or so. Dunno that I could completely recommend this thing. It seems to do a good enough job of achieving an authentic Rangemaster treble boost, but the "treble/mid" knob doesn't have much of a varied range to it. The extreme ends of the knob are not screeching the treble or the mids. If anything, all the way left is a normal Rangemaster sound, and rolling it to the right just cuts a portion of the high frequencies. An Orange Rockerverb 100 mkIII tends to lack the treble at lower volumes, so pairing it with this pedal seems to be a perfect marriage. It gooses the gain up, and it adds just the perfect amount of treble. Problem some people might have is that this pedal won't ADD a lot of EXTRA treble. And the gain boost through the VOL knob isn't so much that you could use this pedal on a clean channel as an overdrive. But like I said, for just a plain old Rangemaster in a pedal, this thing seems to nail it really well.

Took some pics of the guts. You can tell by the way the wirings bent around the walls of the chasis, the person assembling these things actually gives a shit about doing a good job - a rare quality these days.





I tell ya what though, without a good noise gate, don't consider using one of these things. In addition to the input gain, it boosts the living shit out of a tube amps dirty channels background hiss. So glad I bought this old vintage MXR Noise Gate now.

[|iR|Focalor]

Was at the Marietta Guitar Center today. First time I've been in a music shop since Jan or Feb when covid started. Shelves were kinda half empty. The acoustic guitar room was less than half full. The big wall of electrics was pretty much the same too, about half capacity. I asked about the bankruptcy and whether he heard anything about any potential store closings. The guy working assured me, "They're just restructuring, they're not gonna close any stores, it's all good."

Mmmmmhmmmm.

Went with my old man to pick me up something for a Xmas gift. Picked up a pair of mics and cables so hopefully I can start getting on to recording some shit next year.

Sterling SP150/130 Studio Condenser Microphone Pack. Pretty great deal - only $99 for 2 microphones. 2 different sized diaphragm condenser mics, the smaller one should pick up higher frequencies better. Gonna try recording with both mics aimed at one speaker in my 4x12 cab and blend the two signals.



Still need to get a recording interface though. Probably gonna wait until after New Years to get one. Either a brand new Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, or perhaps a used Focusrite Claret 2-input. I've seen a couple demo videos, and it sounds like the more expensive Claret interface has a much better, warmer, and more open sounding mic preamp.

[|iR|Focalor]

Tychobrae Pedalflanger. One of the first, if not THE first, flanger pedals. Made in the early to mid 1970's. Pretty damn rare. Guitar Center has one right now at the Hollywood store for $890. God damn, I wish I had the money for it.

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/In-Store-Vintage/Vintage-Vintage-1970s-Tycobrahe-PEDALFLANGER-Effect-Pedal-116283128.gc


Found a video demo of a modern clone made by Chicago Iron.

It sounds a bit like the EHX Mistress with it's peculiar but not totally overpowered regeneration harmonics, especially at the 4:50 mark. But it's actually not just different version of the Mistress as you can hear. It's kinda got it's own thing going on, and it seems to do a WIDE range of things for a pedal with only two knobs and a rocker treadle. The "SPREAD" knob is unique. If I had to guess, that's probably like a delay setting to stagger the time distance between the effect and dry signal coming out, kinda like some of the 80's DOD chorus pedals had with their "delay" knobs. And whoever played in the demo did a SPECTACULAR job of showing off this pedals ranges. A lot of these wackos makes these videos about modulation pedals and use the wrong guitar, play the wrong thing, set the pedal horribly, etc.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IIOshUTWH4

[|iR|Focalor]

Fender has ANOTHER special edition strat coming out. Some are ugly as hell. All of them are usually overpriced. Occasionally you see one that is kinda nice looking.

I really like this one. I love the "violin burst" color on the ash body. It looks very similar to their tobacco burst color, but several shades lighter. The gold hardware and gold locking tuners with pearl tuner buttons looks good on that color. At $1950, it's a "decent" price, basically the same price as the current "Ultra" series top shelf models, and the features are pretty much the same as the old "Deluxe" series models that WERE the top shelf models a few years back. The Custom Shop Fat 60's pickups sound pretty much the same as the pickups in the Mexican-made Jimi Hendrix models.



https://shop.fender.com/en-US/electric-guitars/stratocaster/75th-anniversary-commemorative-stratocaster/0177512833.html

[|iR|Focalor]

Posted these over on the Orange Amps forums, figured I might as well post em here too.

My very first guitar. An old late 50's or early 60's Silvertone acoustic. From what my dad said, he scratched the logo off the headstock when he was a kid. His dad promised him that if he learned to play it, he'd go buy him a nice Hagstrom electric, but he never kept up with it enough to learn to play anything... so his dad never bought him that Hagstrom electric... so now I don't have that vintage 1960's Hagstrom guitar either... thanks dad. I could've had a really cool 60's Hagstrom, but no, you couldn't learn to play a fuckin guitar.

[|iR|Focalor]

The shithole. I need to dust.

[|iR|Focalor]

Oh what the shit, man. I thought hand-sanding my old shitty pink 1980's BC Rich Mockingbird was fucking stupid. It's Mensa level brilliance compared to this travesty.



https://reverb.com/item/40111299-2013-epiphone-les-paul-plus-top-pro-fx-in-honeyburst?utm_source=rev-ios-app&utm_medium=ios-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=40111299

I guess it's a 2013 model judging from the serial number and headstock shape. The ad states "2013", but you never know if they're telling the truth sometimes. It's a Epiphone Les Paul plus top (made in Korea). They are very decent guitars. With the right adjustments it can sound and play as good as any Gibson Les Paul Standard these days. Brand new, I think they sold for about 600 dollars. Although this one is a special "FX" model, which I think is because of the Floyd Rose bridge, which is kinda rare on these things, and probably bumps the new price to about 700. And after swiss-cheesing this motherfucker and sloppily painting the insides of the holes, this peckernuts is asking 370... PLUS another 75 for shipping!

And some sucker will pay it I bet.

I can't think of what you'd even use to drill holes that big. A single drill bit isn't gonna be fat enough. Maybe a hole saw bit?



Just imagining someone taking a drill with a hole saw to a new Epiphone Les Paul plus top... what the hell.

[|iR|Focalor]

I've seen all kinds of other videos all over youtube telling you that if you wanna get that "Metallica sound" you gotta have THIS kinda amp, and this kinda cab, and it's gotta have THESE kinda rare Celestion speakers, blah blah.

This dude uses a Marshall DSL20 mini head, a little Mesa mini-Rectifier 1x12 slant cab, an MXR 6-band eq in the amp loop, a noise gate (of course), and an MXR Zakk Wylde overdrive pedal.

To be fair though, really "THE" Sound always came from multi tracking and panning the guitars Left and RIght to give the sound more width. And he does that in the video. But I've seen virtual amp shits that do stereo delay to create that effect live with one guitar. in my opinion, this guy sounds better.

Pretty spot on though.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO_iUQSILxw

That's the thing about these Marshall DSL amps though. You can get a decent sound out of them. Just don't compare them side by side with something  a little more expensive like a Mesa Mark 5 or an EVH or an Orange. They don't sound as flexible and lively.

I dunno how he gets his bird to sit there so quietly. When I start playing with my bird in the room, she always starts screaming at me because I ain't paying close enough attention to her. damn Bitch.