Post Musical Equipment Here....

[|iR|Focalor]

Wasn't much of a Type O Negative fan past the October Rust album. But from what I remember during the Bloody Kisses and October Rust period, Kenny Hickey used a Fernandes Revolver, which is a strat looking thing, but it came with some kind of special "Fernandes Sustainer" system on-board, which was some kind of feedback looper thingy that he used create a lot of those feedback squeals and long sustains heard so often on those two albums.

[|iR|Focalor]

I'm considering getting into synths, kinda because I like some of the synth and mellotron sounds that bands like Pink Floyd, Genesis, and ELP used back in the 70's. I can't really play piano though. But at these prices... maybe I could learn.

Behringer makes a dirt dirt dirt cheap line of guitar effects pedals, the cheapest in the business probably. And apparently some of them aren't terrible. People say the Behringer chorus pedal is comparable to the sound of a Boss chorus. Others aren't so great. They have one pedal that attempts to copy the somewhat-rare and sought after Boss Heavy Metal distortion pedal, and it's not a good approximation, the midrange is way off.

I hadn't been paying attention, but apparently they're making synths and synth consoles now too, and they're very affordable compared to the Moog's. According to reviews, Moog is a little better quality, but while you might "get what you pay for", it looks like you can get close enough for less money.

Behringer Neutron goes for 300 at Guitar Center. This one has a patchbay onboard that routes everything in any crazy way you can imagine.

<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/xfD8RmALHwQ/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xfD8RmALHwQ"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/xfD8RmALHwQ" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/xfD8RmALHwQ</a>

[|iR|Focalor]

Spotted this piece on the Guitar Center site, selling at the Lake Forest CA store.

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/In-Store-Vintage/Vintage-Vintage-1960s-Binson-Guild-Echorec-Effect-Pedal-115774476.gc



I'm pretty sure it's not the same model since it's branded "Guild", but if you've ever seen the Pink Floyd Live from Pompeii film, this is the strange multi-head delay unit that David Gilmour is seen sitting on ground and manipulating the knobs off to get some of those trippy echo sounds. They are highly collectible, and honestly, I'm surprised someone would've hocked one to Guitar Center of all places.



Here's a good demo of one in action, although the guy isn't really "playing" very much through it, just plucking to muted notes mostly to show the different styles of repeats it renders. A really really cool old school echo unit. The next pedal I add to my board in progress is probably gonna be a delay, and Catalinbread makes an "Echorec" delay pedal based on the sound of these old units. I'm still on the fence, debating whether to try one or just go with a more traditional tape echo type of pedal like the Dunlop Echoplex I've been eyeing.

<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/Ws2GPpHuxlk/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ws2GPpHuxlk"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/Ws2GPpHuxlk" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/Ws2GPpHuxlk</a>

In the video, he has the top cover off the unit and you can see the revolving drum and each of the 8 or so magnetic heads that read from the drum as it turns.

[quadz]

In the video, he has the top cover off the unit and you can see the revolving drum and each of the 8 or so magnetic heads that read from the drum as it turns.

Cool to see it in operation.

I understand one of these was used to produce the echo on John Bonham's When The Levee Breaks drums (contrary to an apparent urban legend stating echo occurred naturally in the room.)

[|iR|Focalor]

What the fuck is Fender thinking? I can't believe they're actually shipping these guitars out with fingerboards that look like that. I can't believe they're allowing Guitar Center to post photos of their guitars looking like this. It looks like SHIT!!! It looks like someone wiped their ass with the fingerboards. From what I can tell, ALL of their American guitars with ebony fingerboards look similar to this. I think only the American Elites and Custom Shop models have ebony as an option, the lower priced ones are maple, rosewood, or that pau ferro shit. Who's gonna pay 2 grand or more for one of these things looking like this? Yeah, not all ebony is gonna be uniformly dark, I get that. But you'd think the pieces they choose from the pile to use on a 2000 dollar "top shelf" American Fender guitar WOULD be.

[|iR|Focalor]

I suppose this could be shoehorned into this thread, since it's about Willie Nelson's musical equipment specifically.

Came across this blog/article thing in my Firefox startup "recommended" stuff. It talks about "Trigger", Willie Nelson's old late 60's Martin classical guitar.

Being sentimental about your guitars is one thing, but... I dunno, on the other hand, I'd personally be SO sentimental about such a guitar that I'd probably be hesitant to bring it with me everywhere and virtually destroy it like he's done. He's played it so much that the top sounding board is probably 50% worn off (in the places where it's NOT 100% gone). He's got signatures from EVERYBODY on it, many people who are dead now, and most of them you'll never be able to make out who signed it and where. Is the continued usage of this guitar "sentimental" or evidence of "mental illness" (hoarding habits, etc)? When he finally kicks the bucket... and he's probably older than most people realize (86 yrs old)... his guitar is probably gonna end up being one of the most valuable guitars in the world simply because EVERY time you've ever seen a picture of Willie Nelson at any point in his career or heard a recording of his**, it's been that one guitar and none others. Nobody else has done that. Eric Clapton had his black Fender Stratocaster "Blackie", and she's been retired for a long time. Billy Gibbons had his 1959 Les Paul "Pearly", and he never takes her out anymore.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/trigger

**= From 1969 on. He actually started in the mid-50's, writing hits for Nashville legends like Faron Young and Patsy Cline, but he didn't purchase Trigger until 1969-ish.

[|iR|Focalor]

Digitech must be trying to clear out all their DOD pedals. They have some incredible prices on their old compact reissues. Most of them are 60% to 70% off.

https://www.digitech.com/dod/

This bundle in particular caught my eye. The Phasor 201 and Envelope Filter 440 bundle for 80 bucks.

https://www.digitech.com/bundles/funky-filters-bundle-201-440.html

A few months ago I was considering cashing in some of my Guitar Center e-gift card codes I get for doing online surveys on a used one of those Phasor 201's they had listed about 59 bucks. At 80 for the bundle, that works out to 40 bucks per pedal, even better than the used price... and it's BRAND NEW. Probably gonna be ordering myself this one. The rest are just overdrive and distortion pedals, which I really don't need anymore since I bought a good amp with drive that sounds better than any pedal can.



Also had an opportunity to try out a Friedman Dirty Shirley head this past weekend. They sound pretty good, the EQ is very shapable and responsive. I compare it to my Orange Rockerverb mkIII, which kinda doesn't have the most shapable EQ to it. My Orange head lacks the ability to really boost the highs to ear piercing levels with the EQ, whereas on the Friedman Dirty Shirley with the help of the "presence" knob in addition to the standard low/mid/high 3-band EQ, you can totally screech it up with the highs. Friedman's website says it's based on a modified Marshall JTM45, which is immediately what I thought when I played it, that it sounded like one of the Marshall Plexi's AC/DC would've used, only boosted with some extra drive. It's got two 5881's in the power stage, which is kinda nice. It's got that nice mid-range bark like a Marshall with EL34's, but not as soft and fluffy as EL34's sound. Wasn't really familiar with the 5881 sound and feel before, but I'd put right in the center between EL34's and 6L6's. It's the best of both worlds. Honestly, at this point, if someone told me I could retube my Orange head with 5881's, I might try it.

It's a one channel amp though. (For a "gigging" amp, I DEMAND 2 footswitchable channels) No onboard reverb. Does have an effects loop though. Only 40 watts. And it sells for about 2800 I think. Meh, I still think my Orange head is the much better deal.

Also bought an EHX Tone Corset compressor weekend before last. I was originally planning on getting a MXR Super Comp, but this thing was the same price and was actually IN STOCK (unlike the MXR). I wanted get that super-tight Nashville chicken-pickin' kinda sound on my Stratocaster, and it sounded good in the store. But on my amp, all it did was boost the notorious background hum (see earlier posts about my amp right after I bought it), which is NOT what I want any of my fucking pedals to do. So I'm probably gonna be  taking it back and forgetting all about ever owning a compressor pedal.

[|iR|Focalor]

Did in fact take back that Electro-Harmonix Tone Corset compressor. Couldn't get it to work relatively quietly without the effect volume being so low that it was basically non-existent and thus pointless to even use.

Got 3 pedals for Xmas though.



All kindsa fun shit you can do with this one and all it's delay type variations. Some of the special types of delay it's capable of that isn't commonly available on other delay pedals... The "REVRS" is a reverse delay thing that sounds pretty cool and it makes the repeats play backwards. "SHIM" is what they call a shimmering delay, with strange shimmering warble overtones accompanying the repeat trails. "OCT" applies an octave up effect to the repeats, kinda weird, dunno if I'd use that kinda thing for any actual song.

If someone wants a "basic" kind of delay pedal, this one probably ain't it. "ECHO" is a plain digital delay, "DMM" is like the Deluxe Memory Man (analog delay), and "TAPE" does tape simulation style delay using a bit of modulation in the repeats to simulate tape flutter and tape age. So it can do traditional kinds of delays, but all the added options make this one of those gimmick style delay pedals you use only occasionally and not really an all-purpose delay... at least for me.

Got another delay pedal too, one I've really been wanting, one that will be my main all purpose delay pedal.



Way Huge Supa-Puss analog delay.

By pressing the feeback knob like a button, it subdivides the repeats, which at this point, I really don't see the usefulness of that feature... so if someone wants to explain it to me, feel free. (It seems to only function to shorten the delay time available through the delay knob) The tiny depth and speed knobs controls the modulation, I guess like the Canyon delay, to simulate the flutter and age of a tape delay. The tone knob is great because you can kinda darken the repeats with it to kinda mimic some of the older analog delay pedals like the old Boss DM-2 delays. The gain knob kinda slightly boosts the gain on the repeats without boosting the gain of the dry part of your signal coming through the pedal. Then of course "delay" is basically the delay time, "feedback" is the number of repeats, and the mix knob is a wet/dry blend.

I like the dual buttons, and both of them are silent clickless buttons, one for effect on/off, one for a tap tempo and trails controller. Some of these delay pedals they have these days are quite expensive, and this one probably is ($250 new). It sounds really good though, definitely the best sounding one I've heard so far, and thus worth the money.

And also got one of these, which I've also been wanting for a while.



Fulltone Octafuzz. Supposed to be a faithful clone of the old Tychobrae Octavia like Hendrix used. The octave fuzz is okay, but really it was the no-octave fuzz-only mode that drew me to it. It's not an overpowered fuzz (basically a metal distortion) like the Big Muffs generally kinda are. It's more buzz-y sounding, a little more consistent with the 60's and early 70's fuzz tones I liked. Like my Fulltone DejaVibe, it's built tough with a nice thick metal housing.

[|iR|Focalor]

Was browsing the pedals section of my local Music-Go-Round's website when I came across something odd...

Can someone tell me... what the hell is pictured on the face of this distortion pedal?



WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE!?!

edit: I looked up the company webpage... A rather interesting description of this pedal. Good is grammar for the pedal of the page. Like the budget quality pedals, they must've hired a budget quality Chinese to English translator.

https://www.donnerdeal.com/products/donner-metal-head-guitar-effect-pedal-super-mini-metal-distortion-pedal

This is the metal distortion pedal from Donner Company with the name of Metal Head, which is also a pure analog circuit metal distortion pedal. And maybe it's the smallest analog distortion effect ever. The improvement of the high frequency of the pedal makes the heavy tone-color and difficult skills perform in a clearer level. Entirely gaining and boosting the distortion degree of metal, has the special and strong distortion effect. Great tone, easy and perfect operation. It would be easy for you to design own guitar sound in different live performances. Although Metal Head has a small size, it is equipped with complete basic adjustment knob. There are three function knobs, namely VOLUME, TONE and GAIN. VOLUME is used to set the effect output volume. TONE is to set the effect brightness of tone. GAIN is used to set the gain of distortion sound. Two models: BOOST and NORMAL. True bypass switch lets your instrument's signal pass through a non-electronic bypass line when the effect is disengaged, feeding your amp with direct, unaltered signal from your instrument.

[quadz]

Can someone tell me... what the hell is pictured on the face of this distortion pedal?

Looks like half of Iron Man

e.g.

[|iR|Focalor]

After a few years of looking around for one of these at a decent price, I finally did it.





It's coming from a Guitar Center up in Glen Burnie Maryland, which is kinda between Baltimore and DC. Price on it was $219.99. Different Guitar Centers had a couple other green bubble font Big Muffs for a few weeks. One appeared to be in okay condition, had all three original knobs, had the original switch-top, but was listed as being in "fair" condition, and they wanted $350 for it, which is kinda typical. The "fair" label made me say, "I'm not buying that one." The other one they've had for a few weeks was listed in "good" condition, but had one of the knobs replaced with something not original, and they wanted $330 for it. Battery door I don't much care about, the rubber feet either, but I want the 3 original knobs. It's too hard to find replacements that look like the originals. So that one was out too.

This one was listed as "good" condition, has the knobs, the switch has the top. It probably doesn't have the plastic battery door for the price I paid. It appears to be an early issue of the bubble font version since it has the solid cast case like the previous tall font versions used. Kinda odd, because at that time, I think they were also still using that shitty defective paint that the tall font versions were famous for, where it ended up bubbling up and peeling off the vast majority of them. So if that's true, then it might mean this one has been taken care of fairly well in it's life.

I kinda feel dumb spending that much on a used pedal and even paying extra for shipping. Right now, the Atlanta Guitar Center has a used Wren and Cuff Tall Font pedal (more recent smallbox version) which is supposedly a spot-on clone of the tall font big muffs. And I already have a 2008 black russian big muff which is supposed to be really close to a 1990's green russian bubble font.

At $250, which is what I paid total with shipping, it feels less dumb. I've been obsessing over the green big muff ever since I first tried one out back in 1995 or 1996. Even if I never play it (which I probably won't, honestly) at least I can quit obsessing over wanting one.

[|iR|Focalor]

My Big Muff came Monday. Being that it was priced at $220 when I've seen them consistently priced at $349 and $399, I figured it was probably partially broken or had some sort of problem. But not really. It's got all 4 of the rectangular rubber glued-on feet, doesn't have any extra holes drilled in it for anything, isn't really modded in any way. The previous owner did apparently take a whiteish-silverish paint pen and write "IN" and "OUT" above the jacks on the top, I suppose to know which is which in low light situations or something. And of course, the plastic battery door was missing, but I expected that. Most that I've seen for sale were missing the battery door. But other than that, it works fucking perfectly.

I cracked it open to examine the guts and see if it had been modded or repaired at any point. Looks completely original to me. I was also wondering precisely WHAT was inside of it. Being that it's using a "Tall Font" Big Muff's housing and "bubble font" Big Muff paint/graphics on the case, the guts could've made it entirely a "tall font" or a "bubble font".

Turns out it's a very unique beast. Just from the circuit components, you can't classify entirely as a tall font Muff or a bubble font Muff. The pots happen to be the green resin filled ones typical of a tall font Muff, which were superior to the all metal shell ones typical of the bubble font Muffs, because that resin sealed the pot, kept the dirt and crud and static out, and makes them operate completely noise-free, even today, some 25 or more years after it was first built.



The circuits in the transitional period bubble font Muffs typically had the peculiar boogary looking capacitor on the far right edge (which were metal canister caps during the tall font period and went BACK to metal can ones once the bubble font Muffs began using their own bent steel housings rather than the previous tall font housings) Everything in the circuit is typical of what the early transitional bubble font Muffs used, except the pairings of green and silver striped resistors like mine has, which were the type of resistors used in those positions on the tall font Muffs and replaced with different value black 3-striped resistors for all the bubble font Muffs.



For reference...

Tall Font circuit with green striped resistors:
http://www.kitrae.net/music/V7_1st_edition_B_circiut.jpg

Transitional period early Bubble Font circuit with black striped resistors:
http://www.kitrae.net/music/V7_ist_Edition_Bubble_Font_circuit.jpg


So to classify mine, I suppose you could call it a legit hybrid of a tall font and a bubble font, and most likely one of the very first bubble font units ever produced, somewhere around 1995 or 1996 I think.

I've heard so many people online say that the sound the v7 green russians are quite similar to the later v8 black russians. I've even seen youtube videos comparing the sound of the two side by side. The videos support that assertion. But when I plug my black russian and the new green one up side by side... HUUUUUUGE difference. The black one sounds like completely castrated mid-scooped-to-death dog shit. The green one has a nice fat, warm, and articulate sounding midrange that has character to it. The underlying texture they produce is somewhat similar, because they are both fuzz pedals. I was thinking I might've wasted my money on this green one. But once I plugged it up and heard it... NOT AT ALL. I see once again why this particular pedal made such a huge impression on me back in the 90's. It sounds sooooooo damn good.

[|iR|Focalor]

Nerdin' out on some expeeeeeeeeeeensive ass master crafted classical guitars.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fixMWe-O5u4

[quadz]

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

(figured he was going to attach a pre-made neck, but nope: builds that too!)

[|iR|Focalor]

No strap pegs? I guess it's a knee-player only. With all the effort he went to with the entire guitar, and the great collection of tools he obviously has at his disposal, he might could've made some knobby protrusions where the pegs would screw in that he could've carved into pegs. Epoxy is probably about as heavy as solid maple, and probably sturdy enough to support the weight, especially since he was smart enough to use a vacuum pump.

The neck looks like it turned out really well too. The figuring in that piece of maple he used looks killer. My old man has a bunch of woodworking tools, including this really nice expensive-as-fuck table saw he bought a few years ago (and has NEVER used  ) and I've considered attempting to build a custom guitar, but the neck is where I'd lose all confidence.

I'm still in the process of buying up pedals I want for a couple of pedalboards, and when I get all the vital ones, I'm probably gonna make my own pedalboards for them out of something fancy and unusual. The woodworking store where he bought that saw has all kinds of exotic woods for sale: zebrawood, purpleheart, leopardwood, figured maple, etc. I'm wanting to make two boards. One will have my wah, univibe, octafuzz, big muff, phaser, flanger, chorus, pitch shifter, etc. The other will be a smaller one with just the delays and reverb pedals from the rear panel FX loop as well as the amps channel/reverb switches.