(null)Created 9 Feb 2005 at 21:57 UTC by baggins.
URL: http://www.guitarcenter.comNotes: ok kids. i figured we should create an entree about musical gear in general. the alliteration of Guitar and Gear-o's (Gyros) worked, hence the title of this entree. however, feel free to discuss any and all musical equipment here.
not a guitar, but if anyone needs a bassoon the in very good condition...did i mention that already?
I'm getting some back pay this weekend for a couple jobs I played so I can finally order new pickups! I'm going to put in an order for some Aero Instrumen jazz pickups. They're handwound by a guy in Hawaii and he even throws in a capacitor replacement for the tone knob. I'm also thinking about adding a push/pull pot to the neck volume so as to switch the pickups from parallel to series. Apparently when you wire them in series you can get a punchier p-bass style tone.After I get the pickups in my next piece of gear to buy with gig money is a Radial Bassbone. It's a pre-amp/DI that's basically a sans-amp with some more features. Designed to take two basses and swtich between them easily it also handles on bass with two EQ settings. I may end up realizing I don't need all the cool features and just buy a Radial DI. I never thought a DI could sound so good. Or maybe I should just get the sans-amp since that's also a nice piece of gear. [I do this everytime I find something to buy. I make a decision and then spend months trying to figure out if there's something better or maybe I don't need said gear anyway.]
My final gear project is to finally buy a multi meter and order some parts and build me a bass OD/fuzz/distorion pedal. I've got a Big Muff Pi but I'm looking for more of the Jack Bruce seriously overdriven marshall head tone. I've thought about trying to just mod the Big Muff to make it a little bass friendlier but I also think it will be totally fun to build your own stompbox. Who knows if it will work. Sten tried to breadboard one back in Circuits class and we had a hell of a time getting it to sound at all decent. I was prompted by this because I wanted to build a mini headphone amp for quiet home practice--something with the ability to drive a little 8" or a pair of headphones. So I weant searching the DIY Stompbox sites and found a really great set of sites, forums, schematics, etc. This would all be so easy if I had a garage with a workbench...
would you mind posting links to the DIY stombox sites? that sounds fun and interesting.also, I've been interested to hear a Big Muff Pi for a while now. i've been checking them out on ebay, just to see where they go. i also found a guy who made some pretty sweet mods to his BMP and posted some audio samples. then again, i don't know what it sounded like originally, so... however, a coworker mentioned that he has one (the russian one, though. not the NYC one) and would like to sell it. i'm thinking about buying it from him if i like it. but then i have to justify buying another distortion/overdrive/fuzz pedal. maybe if i can figure out how to tweak it. also, my friend and our assistant manager is a gear freak. he knows everything about everything. he really does. and he's 20 years old. anyway, i'm going to make him show me how to modify pedals. i want to make my Dunlop GCB9 do something other than the weak WAH that it does.
i've got the muff pi, or at least i should, it's hiding in a box somewhere, I've got one of the green ones, it was always really noisy, if i find it, I'd be happy to let one of you have it for shipping (bww hasn't gotten me my w2 yet, some i'm poor). Of course, if you wanted to throw some extra bones at it, i'll look harder. One of the knobs is broke, not broke as in doesn't work, but broke as in the knob was cheap plastic and broke. For some reason i bought it cause when i tried it, it was a bit raunchier than the fuzzface, but after i got to my lesson and really played on them both, i ended up really like the fuzzface better. anyway.
Aron's Stompbox Page - This is the place that has a ton of schematics and great forums
Geofex - schematics, pcb, parts, info.
amzfx - technical articles, schematics, pcb
Runoffgroove.com - more schematics, articles, etc. has the portable amp I want to build
Bazz Fuss - the dist pedal I plan to build with a selector switch to change between diodes, led, etc.
Small Bear electronics - online retailer for DIY hobbyists (I usually order from Mouser)Have fun!
tom, i might be interested. i will let you know sometime soon.
Okay there's a little bass break on this song Sad & Lonely by the Secret Machines and that tone right there is so huge and I need to make that sound. It's freakin awesome.
i freakin' love that record!!!!!!
i will have to check it out. i have been meaning to focus a little bit of energy and cash on my basstone. on a few respectable recommendations, i've been considering picking up the MXR bass driver pedal. it's bassically(ha!) a little EQ/DI box with (i think) some solid punch and a bit of overdrive. since i often play through a DI straight into the board, it may be very handy. i know several bassists who swear by it.we'll have to see how badly i want/need it vs. the cost.
how bad of an idea is it to run a bass through a Big Muff Pi? what about are there mods i can do to make it more suitable for a bass?
I was always under the impression that the muff pi was for the bass. It's not a bad idea, i think it works fine, fine being the operative.
Hrrm.I had a Big Muff and a didn't much care for what it did with the Thudstaff, but I thud B, E, A, D. I've used a Boss DS-1, a beat up MXR distortion pedal, a DOD Metal Maniac, and a Boss Heavy Metal, but the best bass distortion I ever heard was the end result of a regular Boss OD-1, the regular overdrive pedal. Mike Starr, ex of Alice In Chains, would use it all the time. He may have changed when Ozzie picked him up.
I think it is yellow.
The closest I ever got to that sound was to run the Thudstaff through a 60 Watt Roland Amp and use the onboard Distortion Channel.
Watt gets a real nice od from his rig naturally.
Growl and purr...THUD ON!
btr
Dave
I've always thought the muff has sucked some of the lows from my lowend--which would be even more apparent on a 5-string. I'm considering doing some surgery on my muff to replace the input and output caps to beef up the bottom. The OD-1 is a fine pedal...very similar schematic-wise to the TubeScreamer. The TS-9 sounds pretty sweet on bass, but needs the same adjustment to the input cap to make it really thump.
LukasSeriously, do you know how to hot rod pedals? I've been looking to get my friend Greg's Tube Screamer tricked out for like 2 years. Could you do this? I'm not a hippie, I would totally pay you for your services.
btr
Dave
Seeing as the most I've done to pedals is replace pots and jacks and have yet to follow through on my ambitions to build all sorts of leet homebrew distortion boxes I'm a little wary about modding someone else's TS. However, the basic mods aren't that hard to do. Are you looking for better bass response? 808 conversion? more distortion? different type of distortion?The easiest mod is to replace two resisotrs and a TS-9 becomes a TS-808 which supposedly has a richer creamier sound. My guitar player has a TS-9 that it always going haywire so maybe when I get my multimeter I plan to order this week I'll go hogwild modding his pedal and if I don't kill it then I'll offer my services to you.
my friend (and one of my bosses, oddly enough) does/can do that kinda techie shit to pedals and stuff.i bought that BMP and have been running the bass through it. it definitely loses response in the lower registers. and i'm using a standard 4string. that lower octave most certainly drops in clarity and attack (although that happens with whatever tone i use with a bass...) the mid/high frequencies get a great fuzz though.
it also loses a little bit on the lower end of a guitar in the same way as it does to the bass described above. i wonder why that is?
anyway, i think i would like to try it with some compression on it, and see if it beefs up the crunch a little bit without making it too clean. unfortunately i have no compression as of yet. but that's small details.
what do you guys know about Full-Tone stuff?
Pretty much any distortion pedal has capicitors on the input and output stages wired to ground that act as filters. The majority of pedals out there today are designed to work with guitar signals. What you can do is increase the value of those filter capacitors and increase the low-end response. The problem then is that too much bass often makes a fuzz box have no definition--it muddies the tone up. If you can mix in a bit of clean signal with the massively distorted signal you end up with pretty nice sound. You can do this with a homemade parallel looper box or buy one (I know loooper makes them, you just have to add a blend pot).If you start reading a lot of DIY places you'll find out the Fulltone doesn't have a very good reputation. His schematics are mostly modifications of already available stuff and his pedals are costy. However, my ear tells me they sound fantastic. The Fulldrive and Bassdrive are based on the Tube Screamer and I haven't played a bassdrive but the fulldrive sounds pretty nice. Maybe not as nice as the hype, but still, pretty good. The thing is, there are a gajillion overdrive/distortion pedals out there all working from a few basic circuits trying to sound special.
good point. yeah, i keep hearing that fulltone is amazing. but we played with a vibrato/chorus pedal that came in the other day and it didn't seem to do anything. i don't know, but it sure wasn't worth $325!we got a bunch of cool used pedals in recently. many of them are already gone, but a few still remain. there were a couple from some homemade place called ZVEX. you guys ever hear of them?
lukas, how does a guitar signal gain/retain or lose its definition? i know what you mean, and i would hate to lose any definition on my bas tone. and i always want more crunch to every thing i play. so how does that relate to the signal and what the pedals do to it?
also, we just got a shipment of NEW electro-harmonix pedals in. including the nyc and russion BMP, the small stone, the small clone, the reverb one, and a couple others. i can't wait to hear them.
ZVex pedals are rad. Check out the website and watch the video demos for the fuzz probe and the seek-wah. The wooly mammoth is also totally cool. His pedals are very unique and they are all handpainted. I would love to own a wooly mammoth...but not for $300.
From the State Champs has a Wooly Mammoth.Not only is it the sweetness of a sounding pedal, it has had the same battery for like a year and is still going strong.
Rad.
btr
Dave
pedro: i forget whether i was looking for the upgrade packages for the MOTIF or the TRITON? i think it was the former. also, we can get in any guitar that any other store has. we can even get in the exact guitar from another store, if we want. as long as it's not a used piece.anyway, i'm seeing what i can do.
phil, i don't know if you got my message. we have a Moog, MOOGERFOOGER analog delay pedal in. it's pretty freaking sweet. there is an expression pedal for it, too. i don't know if the price i saw was for both, or just the unit, but the unit itself, at least, is $149. pretty sweet for that pedal man. i wish you were closer and could come check it out. if you wanted to come down on a night when i got out of work around 6 or 7, and check it out and then go have dinner/beer or whatever, that would be cool. but when i saw it, you were the first person i thought of. and i called you up.
anyway, let me know.
what is your schedule like this week?
here is what i work, pretty much consistently:monday: 1-close tuesday: open to 6pm wednesday: 11-7 thursday: OFF friday: 1-close saturday: 1-close sunday: OFF
let me know if any of those times works for you? what's your schedule like?
i can see about getting out early or switching shifts with somebody if it means i get out at 6 or 7 when we're done and then we go hang out or whatever. let me know what you want to do.
sorry to inform you man, but somebody sold that MOOGERFOOGER pedal before I had a chance to put it aside on saturday. if you still want to check out the DL4 i know we won't sell out of those. i wish we still had that thing. i wanted you to have it.let me know what you think.
i was going to come out but, if you don't have it maybe i should stay out here. let me know if you get it again.
somehow i doubt it. they don't make that thing anymore.up until i worked at GC and have seen some of the delay pedals i hadn't ever really considered a delay pedal. but now, i really enjoy playing through them. i am going to have to rethink my entire rig (or lack of one) now that i have been able to explore some options.
who knows. maybe i will have to get myself a GT-8 or a Pod XT Live.
i have really been enjoying the Line6 Echo Park delay pedal. it's got some really cool features.
I kind of went on an spree the other day when I was home sick and ordered up some strings (d'addario half-rounds, medium gauge), some cables from bayou cables since my planet waves went all microphonic on me, some copper foil to shield the cavities and a push-pull pot to wire my pickups series/parallel, new pickups from aero instrument, and a multimeter so i don't screw all this up. In my weakened condition I ordered the wrong pot and had re-order a push-pull. I should have waited to re-order because the guy making the pickups recommended a linear 250k pot for the tone control so that's the last thing I need to order. When I called the guy at aero to give him my cc# to pay for the pickups we ended up chatting for like 45 minutes about all kinds of random stuff. he gave me great advice about setting them up and he's going to include his preferred tone capacitor for those pickups and how great they were going to sound. When the pickups get here I'm going to completely take apart the electronic sectino gof my bass and shield all the cavities and then install the new push-pull pot, new tone pot and cap, new pickups and some fresh strings. I'm already nervous, but i'm hoping it makes for a sweet new tone.
M-Audio Mobile Pre USBIt's got two balanced XLR ins with phantom and 2 high impedance line ins so you could track guitar and vocals at once on separate tracks. Or do stereo line outs from the motif into the two 1/4" ins and record in stereo. I played with once and they are pretty neat little devices.
I want to get an iMic (since my new laptop only has two jacks (mic and headphone)) and I would probably use the 4-track as a mixing board for multiple inputs. Of course, that doesn't provide phantom power! My solution is pretty low-end, but it should do the trick. That M-Audio Mobile is pretty rad though!One thing I would like to get is a decent compressor that I could use in-line into a portable recording setup for Audacity on vocals and acoustic guitars. Any suggestions?
we've got the mobilepre for $149.95. and the imic for $39.99. i can probably get you a slightly better deal on both, as well as a compressor. i don't know enough about the compressors to suggest one, but i can find out for you. i do know that people seem to like PreSonus.also, i looked into the stuff you were asking me about, pedro. i can deinitely take care of the whole thing as far as getting you the stuff you need. i would probably have to order the upgrade for the keyboard plugin. and we can get stuff in the store that we don't have in stock currently, if there is a specific model acoustic guitar you're interested in. otherwise, you should come out and play the ones in hour store. i have been going through all the higher end acoustics that we have and have come across a few that are really nice - and a few that don't live up to their name. which is why you should really play a guitar before you buy it.
The presonsus bluemax is supposed to be pretty nice for a cheap compressor. FMR Audio makes a compressor called the RNC1773 (Really Nice Compressor) that's supposed to be a fantastic compressor for the price. Those both would need a mic-pre though. The other product that's super cool is the Joe Meek ThreeQ which can act as a preamp, compressor, and eq all-in-one. Of course you could always just dump the signal into audcacity or ardour and use a plug-in for your compression.
I thought that post-processing compression isn't as good as whatchamacallit "in-time" compression. And, if I was doing 4-track stuff, I would have to do my 4 tracks, then send them one at a time to audacity and compress them and then sync them back up in the computer. are you telling me the days of the 4-track are over???baggins: interesting about your work situation/hookups. I also have a yamaha acoustic electric 12-string and would be interested in possibly trading that in towards the purchase of a new guitar. It's in pretty good shape although it needs a setup. Still trying to decide what to do -- this may have to wait until May. And thanks for looking in to it.
Well I think audacity (or garage band or logic express or whatever the kids are using these days) is the new 4-track, especially if you are just doing one or two tracks at a time. I really don't know about the relative quality of the fully digital compressors versus the analog compressors with real knobs. There are plenty of VST plug-ins that emulate analog compression or just do dry digital compression and one advantage would be no added noise from a true analog compressor. But if you do it in real-time you also can make sure you don't get any nasty digital clicks from any harsh transients but then you are altering the signal in an irreversible way. Of course, if you have a nice analog compressor and like the sound then do it in the analog domain so as not to end up with a bunch a A-D then D-A then A-D again. Personally, I like fully analog recordings but editing in a DAW is just sooo much easier than no 2". It's just those 2" machines look so cool with lighted VU meters and huge connectors. mmm glowing lights.
My knowledge in this area is a little sketchy so I probably have some weird ideas that could possibly be just plain wrong.In other gear news: Larry shipped my pickups on Monday!
so sunday afternoon I spent a good 9 hours working on my bass. A good portion of it was me just staring at the wiring and trying to get it all right. I pulled the old pickups and all the wiring out and then I shielded the cavities with some adhesive copper foil and made little copper foil tubes for the wires to run between cavities. Unfortunately the foil made the pickups fit too tight so i had to take some off the sides of the pickup cavities. After I shielded and screwed in a makeshift ground lug to the bottom of the control cavity I started wiring everything up. The push/pull pot was a little too tall so it stics up higher than my bridge vol and the terminals for the switch were tiny so the soldering was a pain. I didn't really plan out my soldering so I ended up with a couple spots where it was like playing twister trying to get a hot irong and smoe solder onto the right terminal. After getting is mostly wired except for the tone capacitor I made sure I had noise and went too bed. Last night I tested a bunch of different capacitors for nice tone. The stock cap rolls of a lot of high end to the point of muddiness. I tried a 1mf that when rolled off even more high end to thepoint of huge rumbling tones which sounded cool in my bedroom but would never work live. I went with the cap that larry sent me and I can't quite get that velvety mud tone but it seemed to have more usable tones in the range of the knob. I'd love to install another switch to flip between to tone caps but that would involve drilling on the control plate that's a step i'm not prepared to take. I also re intonated a couple strings and adjusted the truss rod a little but. All I have left to do now is find some foam rubber shims so I can set the pickup height to the sweet spot.
I used it at rehersal on tuesday and I can't believe how freakin great my bass sounded. Huge low end and crisp highs I didn't think my j-bass could put out. I can't quite get the midrangey punchy sound I used to be able to get because they are so much fuller range. But that's not my regular tone, so I'm not all that concerned since I can use an amp eq to find that one. Dropping the bass into series mode turns my bass into a huge thumping beast. It reminded me of how a musicman sounds. Can't wait to play it out live tomoorow night at the Velvet Lounge. I just hope I got all my grounds right and I don't get werid buzzing in a stage environment.next project: simple bass fuzz
so, here is my rant regarding Monster Cables.I have pushed Monster Cables since i started working at Guitar Center. mostly because I make more money on cables if people buy them. the profit percentage isn't any different, i don't think. if it is, it's slightly less. but overall, 30% of $50 is more than 40% of $15. so i would always pitch them to customers. and i had read the boxes, and heard that they were constructed better, etc. but i was skeptical. are they REALLY going to sound any different? if so, is it REALLY worth the extra $$ for that slight difference in tone?
well, last week we were given the opportunity to go to the Monster training seminar in Arlington Heights. while there we learned all about how Monster started, how they make their cables and the theory behind their patented technology that supposedly makes the cables better. we also learned about their Clean Power technology, and the power conditioners they had available. they also gave us free stuff. I ended up with 2 Bass Cables (Monster makes their higher end instrument cables instrument-specific, designing the wiring to get the best sound for each instrument and it's application). I figured that here was my chance to see if they really stand up, or would i just end up with 2 extra cables? well, i used them last weekend, and i was thoroughly impressed! i had more bass tone coming out of the same bass through the same amp i play through at church. it was seriously a fuller fatter bass tone! i was sold.
since then, i have been telling all my customers about Monster Cables. i am telling you guys too, because you deserve to know that these cables are awesome. you would think that a simple cable wouldn't matter much to your tone. but, that's not the case. you can get all the tone you paid for in your instrument by using better cables. plus, they're guaranteed for life. which means, anything happens to your cable, you bring it into Guitar Center and they hand you another one. no questions asked.
anyway, i thought you might want to know that.
*Monster wires their cables with time-correction technology. apparently sound frequencies travel along your cables at different speeds. lower frequencies tend to travel slower than higher frequencies. so they wired a thicker inner cable for bass, shielded that, wired braided cables around that for mids, and then had more shielded thinner cables for the highs braided around all of that. plus there is extra braided shielding to block out noise and magnetic hum and all of that. pretty cool stuff if you ask me.
the only things that matter are resistance, capacitance and shielding. Resistance is negligible because a few ohms of crappy copper versus zero ohms won't make that much difference when driving a high input impedance amp or DI. But because you got a low voltage signal with miniscule current it's very supsceptible to EM interference. Hence, shielded cables. Sheilded cables will, by their nature, have capacitance and capacitance will suck out high frequency content--so only high end, not low end. So al you need is a quality conducotr core and some good shielding that provides for low capacitance to preserve the upper highs. As far as the phase correction goes, I am assuming the mean between low and high frequenciesand that's total bs. The phase delay between the high and low end is on the order of nanoseconds and I can't believe that even someone with golden ears could hear the difference. I don't doubt that monster makes a fine cable with a nice lifetime warranty but there's a huge markup for the marketing bs. If they really were so great they would publish spectrum analysis for their cables as well as some high quality recorded A/B tests. Until then, I don't believe the hype.
...I think I spent $40 on cables last year.In the future, I will go Monster just for the guarantee.
btr
Dave
I just wired the basement room with monster cable in the walls. The reason i chose to use monster cable is that they were the only cable i could get that was 14 gauge, and heavily jacketed/ rated for in wall use. I also like how thin the copper strands are, this adds to the surface area of the wire, (i read somewhere, i can't remember, that the signal actualy travels over the outer surface of the wire, not in the middle...i don't know). I don't buy that whole "time correct" thing. I don't doubt that different freq. travel at different speeds, but if so, how would you fix that without using shorter lengths of wire? Maybe i should have paid more attenetion to physics this semester... The warranty is key though. If this wire fails, i don't know how i'd replace it, all i'd have is some cute looking binding posts sticking out of the walls...
otherwise, I would like to know about how oxidation of the wire effects performance of the cable. Do you guys know? I've left some slack in the wire to trim it down in the future if it needs to be done, but i'm also thinking about sealing the wires to that they're not exposed to the air to begin with, at least to slow the oxidation. I was thinking about using a combination of heat shrink tubing and maybe a dab of petroleum jelly/vaseline on the other end, but i don't know. I may not even need it. Thanks.
high frequencies travel along the outer edges of the conductor due to self-inductance and travel slightly faster. At audible frequencies the effect is negligle and woud be inaudible. If you are concerned about skin effect, you'd be better off choosing large diamter wires with close spacing, but since you're not going to hear it, it doesn't really matter. I'd also be curious about how they claim to "Timecorrect" wires.only copper that is exposed to air is going to oxidize so just clip the wiers and leave it insulated. When you are ready to build connectors just strip the wire, clean the connectors and you're set.
can one of you guys explain what exactly phantom power is, and what it's used for? thanks
Most microphones create an electric signal purely by transforming the sound waves to electrical energy. That energy is low -- and so it needs to be amplified upon coming into a mixing board or pa. (This is why when you plug in mics you have to turn up the gain on that channel or push the switch for "mic level" instead of "line level" like from a tape deck.)In contrast, phantom power devices are "active" devices which use electricity to "power" the process of recording. Rather than simply amplifying the "passive" signal, I understand that they use electricity in the process of obtaining the signal, allowing for greater fidelity in reproducing the sound. (I could be wrong though, they may only use the power to amplify the signal from a passive mic, but this is better since it is amplified before leaving the microphone for the long journey to the console.)
Some mics require phantom power to operate -- these are usually fancy ones; Shure SM-57s and 58s and your other "Joe Blow" mics do not use phantom power. A "phantom power" console can provide power to the microphones which are plugged into it.
Regardless, the idea is that because phantom power devices are getting a better signal from the very beginning, you have better fidelity down the road.
thanks a bunch.
pasive mics, or dynamic mics, are a coil of wire in a magnetic field. Changes in air pressure move the voil in the field creating electric charge via inductance. the active mics are capacitor mics (or condenser mics) and utilise a capacitor with one of the plates floating so the changes in air pressure vary the capacitance. This creates a signal voltage that is amplified by an onboard preamp. The phantom power charges the capsule and powers the preamp in the mic.
You need a 1998 GMC Sonoma pickup with 60k miles to haul all your gear around in! Baggins, I'm thinking about you and your bandmates especially! Only $5,800! Look on cars.com for comparable prices, it's a steal...
our guitarist has a van with removable seats that he just got. we'll be loading our gear into it regularly.
you work tomarrow?
i am actually closing tomorrow night. so i work 1-close (we close at 9, i get out around 10).you guys coming out? call me and let me know, and i will see if i can take my lunch when you get there. then we could eat and then do the deal(s). yea? nay?
so my band, Synthetic Earth> is going well. we have been ramping up the songs and getting them tight (and learning the bass lines as i write them!) for our upcoming show. (June 15th. we go on at midnight. Nitecap Lounge 5007 W. Irving Park Rd. more details on the website!!) also, the other 3 members have all quit Guitar Center for new opportunities in employment (which may become necessary for me as well, depending on how well the Guitar department works out for me). but, Adam, our guitarist (and the guy who does a lot of the behind the scenes busy work and takes charge of that stuff) has hooked us up with this guy...the guy apparently talked to Adam a while back at GC, and Adam sold him some monitors for his studio, and they hit it off. Adam has a degree in sound engineering (or some other sound tech degree. he knows his shit...) and told the guy about this 3month program where you get intensive sound training in applications like recording, mixing, producing, live sound, etc. the guy checks this program out, goes to it, and graduates (or whatever) and gets some ridiculously large sum of money through grants or investors or whatever. he's building this home studio that's almost complete with top of the line gear, and he has hired Adam to help him run it and do all the technical work with it. he has also made it clear that he wants to have our band come in and pretty much be his 'pet band'. we'll get to do whatever we want in the recording studio, use the place to rehearse, record, mix, do CD duplication, etc. all for free. so the guy has something to work with in his new studio and on his record label. and he's got bigger plans that that. so we have this cool hookup that we plan to excercise to our advantage.
i think there is a lot of promise in this band, the way things seem to be shaping up.
ya, pedro and i should be out when ever we can make it out there.
that sounds awesome wags!
baggins, my fiance and i were in town for her birthday. she went shopping, i went to guitar center. i said, 'j. wagner working today?' the dude said, 'who? i don't think i know that guy.' they look you up, it turns out you work in naperville. what the freakin H? on top of all that, the theft board is god knows where. god damn! -stys
sorry i missed ya.you should make it to my show sometime. when we have more.
we should play a show together. we're willing to travel. www.myspace.com/syntheticearth
or email me. lets hook something up.
hey guys, i'mm thinking of getting one of the peterson portable strobe tuners. VSII is the one i'm looking at, cause i don't need the builtin metronome. Anyway, i'm just wondering what you guys have heard about them, if anything. I know they're expensive, but i want to get one that will never have to be replaced. I have a korg dt-3 right now, but it doesn't pick up my lower notes (b flat below the bass clef) without a mic/pickup which is a pain to use. I also want something that doesn't tune to equal temperment, since most of my playing is with the orchestra, which technically shouldn't be tempered.
I'm also thinking about getting a new metronome (again, something i neve want to buy again) so i'm wondering if i should get the yamaha clickstation, or the dr beat. My concern is the one dr. beat i've tried was really quiet (but they have a few models), and i like a loud ass metronome. the one i have now my old teacher wouldn't let me use in lessons cause it was so loud. Unfortunately, i need one that is loud and does subdivisions, which mine doesn't do.
any suggestions?
was always pretty loud, as i recall
peterson's website: http://www.petersontuners.com for more info on the tuners. they're way f'ing accurate. i don't know how low they register, though. perhaps the site has that info.don't know much about the metronomes.
does your orchestra have a piano tuned to something besides equal temperament? Does the bassoon have a natural temper based on the keys or can you tune individual notes? I thought the temper for a woodwind would be based on key placement. I guess you can set it to tune to a certain root though. Anyway, I know the VS-II has a bunch of tunings to choose from and also goes down to like 5hz.Okay. Just downloaded the manual. It goes down to 4hz plus has 13 built-in temperaments and 2 user programmable ones. And it does say the the just tuning scale is useful for woodwinds. That's a rad tuner. I want one but I'd probably get the strobo-stomp to use on stage.
we only use tempered instruments on occasion, otherwise any orchestra should always play untempered (natural temperement?). So my understanding is that the only instruments that use any kind of temperment are instruments that you can't tune, pianos and other keyboards, maybe, accordions, so like when you play a P5 on the piano, it's not really perfect, it's just close. Which is fine for most people....it also leads me to another, unrelated question: do people with "perfect pitch" have perfect tempered pitch, baroque tuning, A442? I find the whole concept of "perfect pitch" to almost be an insult, if i had perfect pitch, i think i'd do my damndest to not let anyone know, i'd also probably not like listening to luciano berio....
doesn't a woodwind have a tuning of sorts or can you "lip" individual notes into tune? I figured you tuned to concert A and then when you played a note it was some set interval from that pitch based on the physical qualities of the instrument. But since the closest I ever got to playing a woodwind was dating an oboe player I really have no idea what I'm talking about. People with perfectpitch frighten me. I can understand being able to hear intervals because you can learn that but when you can hear the difference between 440 and 442 and tell me which is which, I worry that you might have a chip implanted in your brain or something.Fascinating history of tunings and another article about why equal temperament sucks
many of the instruments are made to "play" at A440, so when you tune the a, most of the rest of the instrument is in tune, but it's not as easy as just playing. especially on the bassoon. Unfortunately, if you manufacture and instrument to correct out of tunes notes, you make other notes out of tune, so i suppose in a way, these instruments are tempered in a way, the ideal would be to play the requisite notes higher or lower, depending on the key and tendancies of the instruments etc.
because there was a "sale" at one store i ordered the peterson tuner, it's really cool, it's also really, really big. I was telling one of my friends about it and how i wish they could make it smaller (it's about the size of two vhs tapes stuck together, maybe a little smaller, and part of it is the rubber case-like thing). so my friend was saying that it might be a heat issue, but it also might be that they need some long lines for frequency modulation or something, i don't know, that why he's studying elec-e and i'm not. Anyway, it's huge, so i don't know if i want to lug it around with me, but it is light too.
I did also get the yamah clickstation, which is pretty cool, everyone needs help with their 16th notes, loud enough, programmable, you can save settings and stuff which might be a neat feature, but it may be something i never use as well. It has one gimmick, a little pad on it that when you press it it vibrates with the beat, but you know, it takes a little time to spin down, so it doesn't feel that accurate, i don't see myself using that feature...not that i have a free hand when i'm playing anyway. Doesn't feel super sturdy, but no less that the newer dr beats, though the last dr best i looked at came with a slip cover which would be nice to have...
anyway, i'll give them a few days and see if i want to keep them both, or return the peterson, I just don't know if its worthwhile enough to carry it around with me...it costs alot, but it's so light i can't really tell how durable it is, i'd hate to bust it...i'd be pissed if it got busted.
I finally ordered parts today. I'm getting a couple things to fix a friend's wah pedal and then I ordered parts for to build a fuzz face, a tube screamer 808, and a bazz fuss. The 808 and the bazz fuss are for me and the fuzz face is for a friend. woo!
i have always shied away from fender guitars. never really been a fan of them. sure, people have made some good music with them, but i've always been more of a humbucker kind of guy. les pauls are awesome. jacksons with emg's are awesome.i came to the realization the other day that i may have been prejudiced because all the guitars i have tended to play with humbuckers have been strung with heavier gauge strings than any fenders i've played. usually the strats and teles come from the factory with .09's on them. les pauls come with .10's. i string my electric guitars with .11's and my acoustics with .12's or .13's. and i also play bass, so thicker strings are a breeze for me when i play guitar. and when i play something like a fender with .09's, it feels way too thin for me. i thought this might have influenced my opinion of fender's guitars. and so i strung up a telecaster with .11's the other day, and plugged it into a nice marshall half-stack, and boy did that thing smoke! i mean, it was a really awesome sound and feel. i am very much in love. i really want a telecaster now. it doesn't even have to be a fancy american one, or a deluxe series with humbuckers, or a vintage one... i'd settle for the little old mexican standard i restrung. and i liked the maple fretboard too. very crisp sound.
i still like les pauls, but my next electric guitar will be a telecaster. unfortunately, that won't be for a looooong time, unless i come into some extra money and i find one used for $cheap$...
Here's Neil Young's guitar tech talking about Neil's amp set-up. And here is a page on Neil's sound.You might be able to get some the splatty tones with a nive germaniun fuzz face or a vox tonebender. Z.Vex makes a fuzz factory that might be able to get you some of those sounds.
make me a lukas original? i would totally pay you dude. just let me know what you need.
sure dude, i'd love to build you one! I'm thinking you might enjoy the tonebender mkII. It's a huge fuzz pedal with tons of gain and wicked sustain. There are also some insanely weird pedals that people have designed that you might enjoy. I'll email you some links to sound clips so you see if you have specific ideas. If you don't want distortion there's always envelope filters (for your funk) or tremolos or phasers. Those are a little more complex and given my speed of building it may end being a Christmas gift, but you will get added to my list of projects.
i'm not that funky. i have all the tremolo i need in my amp. maybe i could send you some sound clips too and we can brain storm.
not really gear. but i got a super sweet taylor 810ce. it's gorgeous.
lukas, i came across this and thought you might be interested, if you haven't already found it yourself.
That's a great link! They've got a schematic for the Alembic F2B pre-amp that I want to build. The tubes and high voltage transformers kinda scare me though.We were playing a show the other night and Jeff had the Fuzz Face I built out and another guitar player was asking about it and the long and the short is that he wants me to build a TS808 for him. Although I know I still have to figure out something to build for phil, but another tubescreamer is good practice. Plus maybe this one will be less noisy than my first attempt. It will also be nice to make a little money off my hobby.
lukas, i think it's way rad that you are building these pedals. perhaps someday i can order a lukas original. not sure what i'd want yet, but probably a bass overdrive, or maybe an octave splitter thingy. yeah, that'd be cool.
Anyone have any suggestions regarding good condenser mics, that fall somewhere around the 2 century mark? The Shure mics we have just don't cut it for vocals, esp. when Raskol starts busting out the Diana Ross style grooves.Guess I'm wondering just what we should be looking for in a quality condenser at a decent price. Wow, I bet no one's ever tried to balance those two consumer concepts before!
Guitar Center really does have the best prices. I'm not a mic expert, so I can't recommend anything. but if you go to GC and tell them what you're looking for, what you're using it for, they'll be able to help you out. and just ask for a better price. most of the guys that work in most of the departments will just give you a better price if you ask.
so, we've parted ways with one of the guitarists in our band. since we were practicing in his basement, we no longer have a place to jam. we're working on that. however, i was borrowing his 5 string bass (although it's not much to talk about, it got the job done...) and i now need to solve the problem of playing bass with a guitarist who tunes down to a drop-B. i'm thinking my current solution is to restring my old washburn bass with the low 4 strings of a 5string set. however, i tried it before, and i think it needs more than just a restringing to function properly. is there any setup stuff you'd recommend to get this thing running as easily and cheaply as possible? i mean, i don't mind doing a truss rod adjustment or anything like that. probably have to reset the intonation as well.but do you have any tips for me? i know you play your 4stringer tuned like that...
BagsI use heavier strings. Otherwise, things get out of control.
I tune B, E, A, D
That alone should suffice if your bass is decent. However, somewhere down the line you will probably need:
A. A new nut, cut for heavier guage strings. This makes a huge difference.
B. The whole thing intonated.
I had been experiencing on and off with the idea of using a that tuning for almost 10 years, and everyone I ran the idea by told me that I would ruin the neck of any four string bass I used. Well, I started using the tuning full time four years ago, and my basses are fine.
btr
Dave
i think i might be in business then. will probably consult with out store's tech and see if i can get him to strobe-tune it and intonate it with a custom nut. not a very expensive process all told... way cheaper than buying a new bass.
i got a new guitar today. it's just a mexican telecaster. but its pretty cool, nonetheless. the Official color is mettalic blue, per fender's catalog. but everybody asks me why i got a purple guitar. it looks gorgeous and plays really nice (i may have to increase the tension in the neck, though. i put .011's on it. i also took off the white pickguard and put on a marbley-blueish green one. looks nice. plays nice. and for 138 bucks, you can't beat it.if i can get ahold of a digital camera one of these days, i'll post a pic.
oh, i also put black straplocks on it. and there was already black string saddles on it (it was a used guitar...)
i'm selling guitars. if you or someone you know is looking i'm selling my telecaster and my strat. both are american. the tele is a 83' and i think the strat is a 93'. looking to get 500$ for either. let me know.
I want to discuss this with you.
pedro is going to talk too you about this
i'm thinking of piecing together a custom tele. trying to decide how i want to do it.i have a couple options. i bought a book about putting together a custom tele, and i work with a couple techie dudes who are willing to help me out. i just have to figure out how i want to go about acquiring the pieces and designing what i want, etc.
since i just bought the other mexi tele, i ordered black sperzel locking tuners for it. i also was bidding on a black control plate and a black bridgeplate. i won the bridgeplate but got outbid on the control plate by fifty cents. not like i can't get another one. then i got to thinking that i would have the parts laying around and i wouldn't mind a project guitar to fiddle with. so i decided i'm going to do this. somehow.
one route is to find the pieces on ebay and put them together. fairly simple, just need to make sure the neck sits in the pocket properly and is set up for the proper string tension (i use .011's). obviously i'd have to have one of my buddies help me with the wiring of the electronics. i'm sure i can learn, but i would want some guidance. i'm also thinking about doing something unordinary with the pickups. maybe a duncan humbucker in the bridge and i don't know what in the neck. also, i'd look into adding the piezo in the bridge and wiring a separate output for an acoustic sound (kinda like a Nashville Tele). I'm not sure at all on the pickup configuration yet. i don't think it matters too much yet.
another route is to figure out exactly what i want and order most of the stuff (mostly the body and neck) through Warmoth. this will most likely be a significantly more expensive route. i'm not sure yet. though i am really starting to fall in love with doing a Rosewood body. I like heavy guitars, and rosewood is heavy, beautiful, and sounds killer. I don't know if I'd go with another maple neck/fretboard or if i should switch it up and go with a rosewood fretboard.
lukas, have you built a guitar or bass yet? anybody have any comments or suggestions?
killer!!!
i'm leaning more toward picking up cheap parts on ebay (as long as it's not squier bodies, i should be ok) and putting together what i find. maybe if i find a cheap body that looks not so awesome i will just sand down the finish and relacquer it. i don't know yet.
"The John and Rudy Dopyera CollectionWe are very proud to offer for sale the combined collection of John and Rudy Dopyera. Few instrument makers represent the American Dream quite as completely as these two inventors, innovators, marketers, and all-around creative force behind both the National and Dobro companies. "
http://www.elderly.com/articles/dopyera/
I have not built a guitar but if I did I would start with prefab parts like from warmoth. if you want to go all out check out stew-mac for parts and tools.
but i don't have the time, the space, the money, or the skill. i'd love to build a guitar with somebody.
Your princess is in another castle!
gillian welch and david rawlings rigs (and richard buckner and taj mahal!)
I would go to my store right now, and plunk down the absurd amount of cash required for a victor bailey j, if only they made a left handed model, I would even pay extra for a lefty model.I may just see if the guys in the shop can switch a righty around so the knobs wouldn't be in the way of my arm.... but that would be nuts, and they'd have to be able to make the old holes not look like butt.
I know fender makes the deluxe am. J in lefty model, but the one we carry looks horrible, i just don't like the sunburst look.
damn, the one thing i really wish i had been forced to learn right handed as a child...
My sister is looking for a new guitar.. she's currently playing on a walmart special. Can you guys recommend anything? Obviously something like a T5 is out of the question, even though we have a few at half off...I guess what i'm asking is what is available for up to say 400 that's good quality with a good sound?
An aside to all this, for my own info is: what's the difference between the Gibson and the Epiphone models of the same guitar? Do you guys know where the epiphones are made?
Thanks guys!
Gibson vs. EpiphoneGibson: USA made. better quality wood, electronics, hardware. solid wood construction. longer neck tenon (cavity in the body where the neck is joined, giving greater wood-to-body contact increasing sustain). Sharper angle at the headstock/nut/neck joint (increasing sustain). handmade (to a certain degree, depending on the model) Hard case (usually) included.
Epiphone: Korea (more China now) made. Laminate wood construction. Cheaper electronics and hardware. Machine/assembly line made by workers who get paid 50 cents a day. cases sold separately.
Epiphones are still really good guitars (probably anything in the Studio model or up) and usually play and sound pretty good. The differences above are significant and justify (to a certain degree) the price differences between Gibson and Epiphone. but that doesn't make them bad guitars. Certainly a good value there for your sister. just make sure you play it first (or have somebody who you trust do it) before you pick one out for her. the nice thing is you get employee pricing and a liberal return period should you need it. at least we do.
I would say, depending on your employee pricing, which brands and models are available to you, and your sister's preference in musical styles, comfort, color, etc. you should either look at: Epiphone studio models and above, Fender mexican standard strats/teles or PRS SE models. that's probably where the greatest value lies. if she wants a hollowbody, go with the Gretsch G5120. really sweet guitars for the price.
you can email me or post on here if you have any other questions. I love helping out on this kind of stuff. It's what I do all day long anyway.
we decided that electric wasn't the way to go...we being my sister and I, so... we both got washburn. Hers is actually pretty nice, the wood i gorgeous and I thought the sound was great. Mine... well, it sounds good too, but there isn't much choice for lefties at my store.
I hate to support foreign manufacturing, even though it put my hands on it every day.
My mom is looking to buy a guitar for an 11 year old she's friends with (yea, painfully cute). There's a Guitar Center near them. Any advice on a good beginner guitar for a little girl?