Post Musical Equipment Here....

[|iR|Focalor]

Been kicking around the idea of ditching my rackmount rig and going the plain-jane guitar into pedals into head+cab route. The older I get, the less I give a shit about being "metal". These days I'm playing nothing but blues and classic rock stuff, so the face-melting heavy chugging distortion of a modern Marshall hi-gain lead channel like I used to use on my old Marshall JMP1 preamp goes mostly unused. These days I'm after more of that old 60's Marshall Jtm45 or 1959 Super Lead sound (or even an old Fender). Something mostly clean and clear even at stupid ridiculous loud volumes but also with the ability to kinda "push" it a little and get that ever-so-slight beginning edge of breakup like the old Marshall Super Lead heads used to do with the diode clipping switches.

I don't think I should have to buy a real '66 Marshall to get that sound. And I don't think I should have to pay upwards of $1500 for something that claims to be a JTM45 or Super Lead clone either.

Well I came across one rather cheap alternative. Not exactly a classic 60's Marshall sound. Most people call this thing a 1980's era Marshall JCM800 soundalike. I don't think they make them anymore. But I found one sitting at the guitar shop up the road from me. Kinda surprising, because usually this particularly guy doesn't have ANYTHING worth a shit in his shop. Since the recession, he's lost all his distribution with Ibanez and Fender and everyone else, and now all he sells is one-off irregular shit he buys from manufacturers.

Peavey Windsor 100w head and cab. They discontinued it a couple years ago, so you can still find a few very lightly used, which is a plus. He had a tag on it saying the head w/ 4x12 cab was selling for $550. But... truth be told, he marks up everything in his damn store hoping some sucker will pay it. The head typically sells for between 200 and 250 depending on where you buy it. Pawn shops might have it a little cheaper than 200, but it might be in worse shape from there too. The cabs sell for 150 to 180. So even a head and cab combo deal in near mint shape is probably only gonna run you 450.

Sounds great though. No onboard reverb, which might be kind of a bummer for someone expecting a tube amp to always have spring reverb as standard and customary on it, but even the Marshall JCM800's didn't have reverb, and neither do the modern JCM800 reissues either. It's just your very basic classic british EL34 amp. It doesn't do INSANE amounts of death metal distortion, but it gets plenty dirty for hard rock and metal if you need it to.

As I mentioned, it's a plain old amp, no reverb. At the very least, I kinda need reverb. I was hoping to find something with true spring reverb onboard, but I really haven't seen anything for cheap. Years ago in the 90's I was kicking around the idea of buying one of those little standalone Fender spring reverb boxes that they were reissuing and were selling for only 200 or a little more. These days, those little spring reverb boxes are collectors items and impossible to find... and unfortunately no one else has thought to jump on the "clone" bandwagon and make cheap modern copies of them. So if I go with a non-reverb head, I'll probably have to go with a digital spring reverb pedal. I've seen these Caitlinbread "Topanga" spring reverb pedals that are supposedly Fender-y sounding, dunno, haven't tried one.

Like I said, seeeeeeriously considering hocking all my rackmount shit and trading it for one of these.

[|iR|Focalor]

Are you tired of shitty fuzz pedals? ME NEITHER!

<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hpWbKnlrRvs/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hpWbKnlrRvs"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/hpWbKnlrRvs" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/hpWbKnlrRvs</a>

<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/87kB4iAtbJQ/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/87kB4iAtbJQ"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/87kB4iAtbJQ" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/87kB4iAtbJQ</a>

Dunno what to think about this pedal. The housing is obviously the most hilarious thing I've ever seen, even moreso than the old Metasonix Alien Butt Probe pedals. It sounds.... unique. Probably not what would qualify as a "good" fuzz pedal sound. Very thin and sizzle-y, like one of the modern New York made Big Muff Pi pedals with the tone knob maxed to a nearly unusable level. It has no knobs to adjust anything. It sounds like it sounds. There's some kind of hidden screw you can turn to adjust the "output volume" I guess, because they knew they couldn't get away with not having SOMETHING to rein it in and make it tolerable.

Piece of shit in my opinion. I'm more of a mid-90's Russian bubble font green Big Muff fuzz kinda guy, or maybe even the Dunlop Hendrix Fuzz Face (the one without that annoying cheap sounding octave bullshit). Anyway, still one of the more unique pedals I've ever seen that I'd probably buy just for "collecting" if I ever saw it in a used music shop.

[quadz]

Are you tired of shitty fuzz pedals? ME NEITHER!
[...]
Probably not what would qualify as a "good" fuzz pedal sound. Very thin and sizzle-y, like one of the modern New York made Big Muff Pi pedals with the tone knob maxed to a nearly unusable level. It has no knobs to adjust anything. It sounds like it sounds.

Most amusing. 

I'd recognized the lick he plays (in the first video) starting at about 2:25 as being a Kyuss song. My first reaction was, oh yeah, that sounds pretty close to the original. So much for my memory, as the original—while definitely fuzzed all to hell—is a lot smoother, without the fizz:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew6qzoN2sqk
<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ew6qzoN2sqk/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ew6qzoN2sqk"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/Ew6qzoN2sqk" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/Ew6qzoN2sqk</a>

[|iR|Focalor]

Fuzz, in my opinion at least, is one of those effects that too many pedal makers do poorly. And for some reason, too many people still buy the damn things. One of the reasons that the old Russian-made Big Muff fuzz pedals have become so sought after is because of the way they handled the bass end of the spectrum. They're so bass-rich that they work just as good with a bass rig. Too many other fuzz pedals just go OVERBOARD with the clipping part of the effect. From what I've read about fuzz, it's created by ramping up the gain in stages through a series of transistors until it produces a heavily clipped squared-off wave. Seems like too many fuzz pedals are probably using TOO MANY transistors and boosting the gain TOO MUCH I suppose. I've heard so many that make an electronic buzzing booping beeping sound even when you're not playing. Sounds like shit!

This is one of the newer fuzz fads I've seen many people praising: Zvex Fuzz Factory. You can see around 2:00, he's got the drive knob set to maybe 20%, and it's ALREADY sounding like a typical fuzz pedal with sustain/gain knob maxed to 11.

<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/MomzVgL_2KA/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MomzVgL_2KA"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/MomzVgL_2KA" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/MomzVgL_2KA</a>

It's got a lot of knobs on it, so if you're an experi-tweaker, this pedals probably gonna look attractive at first sight. And, yeah, it gets some pretty wild sounds. But most of if it "broken" sounds. "Gimmick" sounds. Not anything you can use consistently, just something you throw in for a tiny part of one song in a 10 song set. Hardly worth the 200 dollar price tag on it.

I dunno man, I don't see how they sell these things. People are suckers and half deaf I guess. There's plenty of better alternatives. There's a slew of "Green Russian" clones out there now. Stomp Under Foot makes one that's supposed to be pretty close sounding called the Green Russian. Wren and Cuff makes one called the Tall Font Russian, as well as the Box of War, which is a spot-on sounding clone of the early 90's gray and blue "civil war" Big Muff's that David Gilmour was known for using and had a much more liquidy smooth sound to them.

But for my money, anybody wanting an authentic mid-90's green russian Big Muff sound should order one of these: Formula B Soviet Tank. Sounds dead nuts spot on compared to a bubble font Sovtek Big Muff, and apparently has an improved tone control knob that doesn't do **as much** of the wacky quirky wide-band EQ shifting stuff like all the green and black russian boxes were known for. Looks very nice and sturdy too. For an additional 25 bucks or so, it can come with the walnut wood base and sides. Made in Italy. Ooo, foreign, it's all cultural and shit.

<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FMmYY6UETmM/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FMmYY6UETmM"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/FMmYY6UETmM" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/FMmYY6UETmM</a>

But if you want something altogether unique and very flexible as well as MUSICAL AND FUCKING USEABLE... unlike the Fuzz Factory... the Dunlop/Way Huge Swollen Pickle seems like a decent pedal. The video doesn't really show what happens with the sustain knob rolled way back for more of an overdrive-ish effect.

<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Boehiv3VRLE/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Boehiv3VRLE"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/Boehiv3VRLE" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/Boehiv3VRLE</a>

[|iR|Focalor]

As I said before...

Been kicking around the idea of ditching my rackmount rig and going the plain-jane guitar into pedals into head+cab route.

The more I think about it, the more I anticipate that I will grow to regret it if I hock my rackmount amp rig that took so long and so much money to acquire. I haven't gotten any official estimates from anyone, but from the little research I've done myself, these are the typical going prices:

• Marshall JMP1 preamp, unmodded: $550-650 or more depending on condition (mines very clean, excellent-good condition)
• Peavey Classic Series 120/120 dual mono stereo tube poweramp (6L6 tubes): $500 or more

So on a straight trade, I might get around 500 or 600 bucks in credit, which would be a VERY generous 50% of the value, which I'd probably NEVER get. I'd probably get between 25% and 35% of the value, which would be maybe 300 bucks on a REALLY good day. So... FUCK THAT. JMP1's are hard to find now. When you do find them for sale, many times they've been modded by Voodoo Amps and that'll drive the price up to over 1 grand for the unit. Peavey Classic Series 120/120's... you NEVER see them for sale anymore. Anyone who has one would sooner let you fuck their wife than sell you their Peavey poweramp. So if I sold these two units, regretted it later and wanted to recreate the combination, I'd have to spend well over a grand to find others, and finding others would be very very difficult.

That said, yeah, I think I'm gonna stick with my rack, at least for the amp portion of it. I'm gonna try to phase out and remove the Digitech GSP2101 multi-effects if I can. It does happen to have a nice throaty and clear clean tube preamp setting that sounds neat stacked against the "clean2" preamp sound coming out of the Marshall JMP1. Problem with the Digitech preamp/processor is that you CAN'T turn off the preamp section of it and just run the effects. The signal MUST hit the preamp section first. And most of the preamp settings are fucking terrible. The tube distortion it gets from the 2 onboard 12ax7 tubes is pure crap. And the solid state tones are... fucking retarded, because the whole point of this rack rig is to get a TUBE sound, so it's retarded to add a class D preamp section to the signal chain anywhere.

See? This is why I'm trying to go old school and just use pedals. They're so much easier to work with. Just plug it up in the spot you want it and go. No studying manuals, no programming presets or linking inputs to outputs.

Anyway, been looking at reverb pedals a bit. In years passed, I wanted to add some kind of REAL tube driven spring reverb to my rack rig. The two candidates were a Peavey Valverb 1-rackspace unit, or one of those reissued '63 Fender Reverb amp-top boxes. Never got around to tracking either one down at a price I liked before I decided to go with the digital reverb in the Digitech GSP2101. After looking at the stompbox alternatives currently available, I think this stompbox spring reverb actually sounds better than the real thing.

<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/J0y1iz6GvlU/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J0y1iz6GvlU"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/J0y1iz6GvlU" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/J0y1iz6GvlU</a>

With real tube driven spring reverb units, you get that characteristic high pitched plucking attack harmonic when you turn the reverb way up to some kinda vintage surf guitar/ Horton Heat setting. This Catalinbread Topanga pedal seems to nail all the usual dynamics and slappy characteristics of spring reverb with none of that annoying harmonic plucky shit at the start of every note.

ASSHOLE MODE ENGAGED

But I'd also like to point out that the guy on the right is everything that's wrong with the guitar market now. He's a try-hard boutique-guitar hipster douchebag. With his soft little grandma sweater, his indie beard, his scarf worn fucking INDOORS, his overpriced coffee with the gay little cardboard slip thingy around it so he doesn't burn his girly little faggy fingers, his old books on the table that NOBODY FUCKING READS, his dangling glass bulb strand lights, even the god damned "goin' green" bicycle that's clearly only for decoration seen poking out over the top of the vintage cloth douchebag couch. FUCK THAT GUY AND HIS COFFEEHOUSE OVERPRICED GUITAR FETISHISM.

You ALMOST NEVER used to hear the term "boutique" when talking about amps and effects. You can't STOP hearing it now. And retarded hipster douchelips like the asshole in this video are precisely WHY the price of guitar effect stompboxes have gone from an avg price of $100 in 1996 to an avg price of $225 today - a more than 200% increase. Gouging. Thanks, hipster fuckfaces.

Rant over.

Anyway, yeah, that Topanga spring reverb sounds cool as shit. It's gets everything from your normal modern Fender combo spring reverb all the way up into crazy long ringing Dick Dale/Southern Culture on the Skids/Rev Horton Heat kinda stuff.

Then again...

<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FcSEc6zCRlo/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FcSEc6zCRlo"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/FcSEc6zCRlo" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/FcSEc6zCRlo</a>

...they make a KILLER 70's plate style reverb pedal as well. Holy shit, that's cool. I hate to admit it, but as awesome as that spring reverb pedal sounds, I think their Talisman plate reverb sounds even better. Just kinda bummed that both of these are 1-in/1-out pedals. Ideally, I'd be running it directly after a stereo-out delay pedal, so I'd kinda want a stereo in+out reverb. Boss makes the RV-6, which has 2 ins and 2 outs, and even though I've heard demo's and it sounds "decent", it just doesn't wow me like the Talisman and Topanga does. Not to mention, the Boss pedal on spring reverb mode seems to accurately reproduce that spring reverb cliche harmonic chirp that I'd like to eliminate.

[|iR|Focalor]

Rant over.

Rant continued.

Another thing these hipster cocksuckers have needlessly injected into the guitar market: Relic'd guitars.

They buy an absolutely beautiful American Fender Stratocaster for between 1 and 2 grand, and then they immediately take it to someone else and pay them ANOTHER GRAND to beat it up, sand off the finish in a few places, put some chips and dents in it, wear the frets down, and cover the fretboard in grime and shit. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU ASSHOLES!?!

Friday afternoon, I was at a used music shop taking a look at a used Ibanez Tubescreamer pedal and a few other light overdrive pedals. They had a Mario Martin strat for sale as well. If you're not familiar with those... it's basically like a super high-end custom shop Fender Strat. This thing had a nice big fat round baseball bat/tree trunk neck even fatter and rounder than a Les Paul 59 neck. The fret wire was HUUUGE-ly tall fret wire that was polished and rounded smooth as glass on the edges. The whole thing was very light and very resonant. Sounded like a spanky twangy Nashville wet dream. WELL worth the $2200 price tag (probably sold for 2600 new). But... it was relic'd!



You take a masterfully hand built piece of art like one of these Mario Martin S-style's and then beat it up and make it look shitty. WHY!?! It doesn't make it sound better. It makes it look used and abused. I just don't understand exactly WHAT some people find so attractive about a beat up old guitar, when an old guitar in better condition is even better... isn't it? Thing is... these guitars are BRAND NEW! What happens in 30 or 40 years when it becomes a vintage guitar? How do you assess what condition its in and value it?

Douchebag hipsters. Die.

[|iR|Focalor]

Ask, beg, and plead long enough, and ye shall receive, I guess.



https://www.ehx.com/products/green-russian-big-muff

Recently announced: Electro-Harmonix is coming out with a nano-box sized "Green Russian Big Muff". Haven't seen any particulars yet about the circuit and what's in it. But I don't expect it to be a carbon copy of the 90's green russian pedals. If anything, it'll probably be a copy of the current "bass big muff" just in a simple green box.

It's really strange. Kinda like the different versions of the Ibanez TubeScreamer and how different ones have very slightly different op-amp chips and that one tiny difference of part value makes the pedal sound so different from another variant. Same with the Big Muff. The circuit and parts values of the small box "black russian" version that I own is almost identical to the slightly older "green russian" version, but the "green russian" has different value parts in one or two single spots that make them really "rip" in a way that the other versions can never precisely duplicate.

Got my fingers crossed though. Oh I hope hope hope these are 100% faithful reproductions of the old mid-90's russian-made circuits. That would be so awesome, not just because I want one, but because I know it'll put these "boutique clone" makers outta business in that area of the market. (see earlier rant)

[|iR|Focalor]

Picked me up a used Ibanez TS9DX Turbo Tube Screamer for 80 bucks. This pedal on the surface claims to be a turbo-charged version of the TS9 Tube Screamer, but it actually contains the JRC4558D op-amp chip just like the original and reissue TS-808 Tube Screamers. Basically, you're getting a TS-808 plus a few extra boosted and shifted EQ modes to choose from. I really only liked the "TS9" setting on it, which supposedly is an exact copy of the TS-808 circuit and parts. The other modes are less chimey and boost the bass up more and more with each harder boosted mode setting. And the last mode, "turbo",... I dunno if it's just the little bass amp I was running through or the pedal itself, but it boosted the LIVING FUUUUUUUUCK outta the signal volume to where I dial the level knob back to 2 or 3 to keep it around the same volume as the bypassed through signal.

Originally I spent the 80 bucks on a used Squier Standard Strat. I was gonna replace the bridge with an all steel bent saddle vintage Fender lookalike tremolo from GuitarFetish for about 40 bucks. Then I was either gonna replace the stock pickups with some lipstick tube pickups or some Fender TexMex pickups. At that point, I'd have a damn-near Fender quality strat for under 200 bucks. But the neck needed a tilt adjustment, the 6-point bridge seemed to stick too much, couldn't get the action set to anything decent. So I swapped it out. Fucking bummed about it. I really wanted that strat to work out.

I'm the kinda guy who can stomach paying a grand or so for a Les Paul. But a Stratocaster is a bolt-on neck guitar with pickups mounted to a plastic pickguard and strings connected to a spring tension bridge system. It produces a thin springy sound because it's a thin springy cheap little guitar when you get down to it. A Les Paul has all it's points anchored firmly to the wood and the quality of that wood comes out in the sound it makes. They're hardly the same animal. Strats are simple and easy. I don't really see much reason to spend more than 500 on a guitar built the way that a stratocaster is.

[quadz]

Tour de force from DOOM 2016 sound designer.

It takes until 35 minutes in (he's a guitar player himself) for him to find a way around the initial edict of "NO GUITARS".

Good stuff:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4FNBMZsqrY
<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/U4FNBMZsqrY/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U4FNBMZsqrY"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/U4FNBMZsqrY" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/U4FNBMZsqrY</a>


P.S. if you're in a hurry, start about 16:30 in (you'll miss some intriguing technical details about modulating bass pads with high frequency white noise, in clever ways, that result in tasty frequencies)

[quadz]

^ relevant, a particular pedal he identifies as the "metasonix TX-3" and then says, "Google it, or dont."

[|iR|Focalor]

I love how every knob is labeled "knob", haha!

Yeah, they make some of the most fucked up broke-ass sounding shit ever. I posted a pic of their "amp" in this same thread many moons ago, I do believe. The "Fucking Fucker". It was some kinda low wattage tube head with some gnarly Tone Bender-ish fuzz built in. Pretty much a useless broken sounding piece of shit unless you WANT that kinda sound. I've yet to hear tell of ONE working guitarist who uses one as their main amp, but I've heard of plenty of people who keep them as quirky collectibles and play toys. But the tubes in them are really strange non-typical tubes that are virtually impossible to find (6bk5 according to the manual). If a tube fails, you're pretty much screwed.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuAaTEn8fcw
<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YuAaTEn8fcw/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YuAaTEn8fcw"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/YuAaTEn8fcw" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/YuAaTEn8fcw</a>

And if the glorious sound of that pile of beautiful shit isn't funny enough, try reading the owners manual.

http://www.metasonix.com/G1000ownermanual.pdf

Possibly the greatest thing they ever gifted us with was the Assblaster toolbox. The most versatile everything-in-one-plus-more-shit-you-probably-don't-need tube driven fuzz effect box that the world has ever seen. They go for just south of 2grand on Reverb. Honestly, it's better for keyboard and synth kinda stuff than guitar. Eh.... actually the same kinda goes for most everything Metasonix makes. Like I said, everything they make sounds broken as shit, and I imagine most guitarists can't find a use for effects this strange. It's just fuckin' NOISE, lol!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IEYakABr0U
<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1IEYakABr0U/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1IEYakABr0U"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/1IEYakABr0U" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/1IEYakABr0U</a>

I also got a chance to test drive the Fender Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) signature precision bass earlier this week. Sweet mother of bitch tits, that damn thing is heavy. It's like lugging around a fucking granite tombstone with a bass neck on it. It's a 2pc maple body, maple neck, maple fingerboard, heavy hi-mass bridge, thick-as-fuck gloss polyester finish on it, metal pickguard plate. My ESP LTD C-series bass is 98% maple, and it's pretty damn heavy compared to most basses, but it ain't got shit on Mr. Harris' weapon of warfare, god damn. Makes me wonder how he's not in a wheelchair after lugging that fat heavy bitch around for 3 hours a night for the last 35 years.

And for all that weight and how unique it's make-up is compared to other Fender p-basses... it's really not very impressive sounding. You'd think it would sound bright and booming, but I guess all that thick polyester finish on it serves to mute the natural resonance of the wood.

[|iR|Focalor]

... Blackstar HT Metal 60 watt tube combo ...

...

The speakers it ships with stock are middle-of-the-line Celestion Seventy-80&#039;s
Celestion Seventy-80's which sound alright. I'm considering upgrading them to Celestion Vintage 30&#039;s
Celestion Vintage 30's at some point.

This is the first real tube amp I've owned, and it's a lot of fun. (Glad I'm no longer living in an apartment!)

Dunno if that would be wise. Seventy80s are rated at 80 watts, and Vintage30's are 60 watts (not 30). If the amp is a 60 watt amp, that might be fine. But you might wanna get some expert advice from an amp tech familiar with Blackstar amps before trying that. I think as loose single speakers, those Vintage30's usually sell for $150 each. Would suck to flatten a pair of 300 dollar speakers.

But if you wanna save a little money...

Have you heard of these US made Warehouse Guitar Speakers? Supposedly they sound indistinguishable from the Celestions they are replicating. They make a Vintage30 clone called the Veteran 30 which goes for 90 bucks each.

I've been trying to find myself an at the very least 2 x 12 stereo cabinet. You can find mono 2x12 cabs ALL DAY LONG, but stereo 2x12 is a little harder, and it's even harder to find one that DOESN'T have cheap shitty little Peavey Sheffield speakers or some garbage like that. Marshall and Mesa make some Greenback25 or V30 loaded 2x12 cabs from birch or pine and they sound totally tits, but they want almost a fucking grand for the things. And after pulling my head out of my ass and taking a good look at my power amp FIRST (duuuuuuuuuh), then it seems I'm gonna need something that can handle at least 240 watts. The only thing I've seen that comes close to being a stereo cab that can handle 120watts per side (because I'm using a Peavey Classic 120/120 dual mono poweramp) and comes loaded with some decent speakers is the Peavey 6505 4x12 cab which has 4 Celestion Vintage30's. I was hoping to get some Greenback25's, but unless I trade my Peavey Classic Series 120/120 poweramp for something like a Peavey Classic Series 50/50, then that can't happen safely. And the last thing I wanna do is turn loose of this poweramp. It runs on 8 6L6 valves (4 per side I guess), and the Classic 50/50 runs on EL84's. Personally, I prefer the massive headroom and clarity of 6L6's, especially these days since I like to play 100% clean a lot.

[quadz]

This guy's into trying to replicate guitar tones from various albums. Pretty interesting. (His vid on the early Iron Maiden albums was fun, too.)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-Ew18T75VQ
<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/w-Ew18T75VQ/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w-Ew18T75VQ"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/w-Ew18T75VQ" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/w-Ew18T75VQ</a>
(audio demo begins at 2:18)

[|iR|Focalor]

Yeah, that's the first time I've heard anyone pinpoint that as Jerry Cantrell's "secret cab miking technique", but it's not an entirely mindblowing revelation in my opinion.

I've often thought that if I were ever going to record mic'd cabs rather than going stereo direct out from my rackmount setup with stereo delays kind of acting as "cabinet simulation", HOW I would mic the cab would entirely depend on the cabinet itself. A lot of people tend to prefer the closed back 4x12 cabs because they push all that bass resonating around inside the cab straight out the front to the listener. And with open back cabs, you tend to lose a little bass because it falls out the back and goes off into oblivion where you never hear it. But as a speaker vibrates, miking the front and back will effectively record both instances of the speaker moving towards the mics and thus give a rounder fuller sound.

And whether it's a 4x12 or a little 1x12 box, who cares. Either way you've got only ONE mic set up in front of the cab. So I don't see that the number of speakers makes a difference in that instance. 4x12 might make a difference if you're using a multi-mic setup though. I've heard of people miking the cab a few inches from the cone and then setting a 2nd mic about 15 feet away in a corner and then blending the two.

He states that Cantrell used a 100w Marshall JCM800, which I'd imagine would be true. EVERYONE did back then. They were one channel workhorses and sounded great. The JCM900's were good too and had a bit more intense distortion, but they were two channel, and matching channel volumes was sometimes a pain in the ass for people, so a lot of people prefered the simpler one channel JCM800 series. However... his amp clearly doesn't look like a JCM800. It looks more like an earlier JMP or a reissue. They're very similar, but not exactly the same.

I'd kinda like to find some cheap used 1x12 cabs that don't look like they've been hammered on with shit covered shovels. I've recently found out that Eminence makes some decent sounding 120w 12inchers like the Manowar that are half the price of Celestions. I'd much prefer to have two individual little 1x12 cabs sitting around rather than a big fuckin' 4x12 that's a pain in the ass to move around and probably TOO FUCKING LOOOOOUD!

Also been looking into maybe getting a mini head with a line out or headphone jack so it'll be perfect for recording direct or running into my rack for effects and then on to the PC for recording. Fender's got these Bassbreaker amps that sort of copy the Marshall format. Haven't tried one out myself yet, but the demo videos I've seen sound decent.

But the thing wowing me most at the moment are these cool as hell EHX pedals. For a good while I've been wanting the ability to use some of those classic melotron sounds I heard in ELP, Pink Floyd, and Genesis records. I'm sure they require a bit of practice to get your playing style to where it makes these pedals sound proper and realistic, but god damn if they don't sound amazingly close. I wouldn't never thought a single pedal could work this kind of magic. ME WANT. ME WANT.

<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/MiTHc8d9D20/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MiTHc8d9D20"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/MiTHc8d9D20" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/MiTHc8d9D20</a>

More early 70's prog keyboard goodness.

<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oZKVPzRyn50/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oZKVPzRyn50"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/oZKVPzRyn50" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/oZKVPzRyn50</a>

Working on getting a green russian bubble font Big Muff pedal sometime around Thanksgiving I hope. We'll all be glad when that happens so I can finally shut the hell up about it and talk about something else, I know right?

[|iR|Focalor]

Get it while you still can!


http://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/Klon/Centaur-Gold-No-Horsie-Effect-Pedal-113699394.gc

A gen-u-wine original 1990's gold Klon Centaur boost/overdrive pedal. Basically an over-hyped and over-glorified Ibanez Tubescreamer. It can be yours for the low low price of 2,200 dollars.  I think these things sold for about 250 brand new back in the 90's, or somewhere adjacent that. I can't recall ever seeing one in person back then. Then again, in those days I wasn't really paying attention to "overdrive" pedals. I thought overdrive was for pussies and butt-rock. MUST HAVE CRUSHING BRUTAL DEATH METAL DISTORTION!

Anyway, these days I'm way more into the vintage sounds than the metal ones, so overdrive and chimey clean boost pedals have finally got my attention. I wouldn't "mind" having a Klon Centaur, but I can't BEGIN to justify paying more than 2 grand for a single overdrive pedal that was built in the mid 90's. I could argue that "Well, it's a collectors item, it's very rare, it's sure to go up in value." But I dunno about that. Maybe. Maybe not.

They had a "gold horsie" version as well for 100 dollars less I think, but I guess it must've been sold in the past day or two. They also had a slightly less desirable "silver no-horsie" version for 1800 that was sold within the past 2 or 3 weeks.

I've been keeping an eye out for any green russian Big Muff fuzzes, but they sold the only 2 they had before I had the cash. So now I'm checking every day hoping they get another one in somewhere. They have a couple in different stores in the Music Go Round chain, but I've recently had some pretty shitty dealings with that store outright REFUSING to negotiate sticker prices (on fucking USED GEAR, like WTF MAN!), so I won't be giving those assholes any business for a while.

To anyone who might be interested in buying used guitar shit... probably DON'T shop at a Music Go Round. The prices are fucking retarded. They tend to always ask the tip top going price for shit even though any given item is RARELY in perfect condition to warrant that asking price. If they would negotiate on price and be reasonable about things, then the price tags wouldn't be so offensive. But when they tell me "We don't negotiate off the sticker price unless you have something to trade.", then that STILL means, "We don't negotiate prices.", because with a trade, they still make MORE money than if you bought the item alone.

So yeah, fuck Music Go Round. I used to love it. 10 or 15 years ago, I could walk in there and find some decent shit and actually do business with them. I bought my big ass beastly Peavey 120/120 dual mono 6L6 tube poweramp from them, and the guy threw in a used 10-space plywood road case as well. It was in pretty rough shape, but fuck it, it works and I still use it. These days, they'd sell that same case extra for probably 100 bucks or more.

Fuck it man. I know it ain't cool and hip to be a Guitar Center guy, but fuck it, at least you can negotiate with them and get fair prices. They don't give a shit if you touch things and try things. I've been to several stores in the past year where the clerks all follow you around like a puppydog, you have to ASK to touch anything, and they wipe it down with a towel afterwards to get your fucking cooties off of it. stereotypical ethnic ghetto-style individual please. These newbie hipsters and their fucking guitar anal retentiveness is fucking annoying. A couple of fingerprints isn't gonna RUIN a fucking guitar, asshole. Even a 4 grand Collings or a custom built Suhr superstrat. Guitars are meant to be played and heard, not looked at from across the room every day. Guitar Center might be the Walmart of the guitar world, but fuck it, I shop at Walmart already, ain't no shame about liking low prices on my shit.