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Black Sheep Boy posted:
Did you buy that just so it would match the pack of reds? 
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Feb 20, 2009 21:57
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| # ? May 17, 2024 13:39 |
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Well my THD Hot Plate has been purchased and is on its way to a fellow forum member so when I found one of these for $50, I snatched it up. Hope it's here by next week. I only wanted it because Fuzz II mode on it is exactly the pedal Electric Wizard uses to get their sound so I figured I'd give it a shot. I am so unoriginal. I just like that chainsaw sounding fuzz. For example, skip to 1:40 in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37xKzcjGXHw
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Feb 20, 2009 22:18
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The Stizzle posted:My next Bolin will have side-dots only. I've been playing mine so long, I really don't look that much anyways. Aesthetically, I think guitars look way better without fret markers, especially if the fretboard is ebony, or something more exotic. I look forward to seeing it. I always enjoy seeing what people cook up at home. Makes these things more interesting. I don't think I will ever buy another Fender. They're so easy to make from good parts that it probably won't be worth it. If I get into woodworking like I plan to I may never purchase another guitar I'll just make them myself.
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Feb 20, 2009 23:10
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ZoCrowes posted:Thanks! I never really thought about a neck with no inlays that might be pretty sweet. i had no idea gfs bodies were so cheap. looks like i'll be building one myself once i get some ca-esh.
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Feb 20, 2009 23:40
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ZoCrowes posted:I look forward to seeing it. I always enjoy seeing what people cook up at home. Makes these things more interesting. But I will have another one in a custom configuration. Oh yes, I will. It will be mine.
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Feb 21, 2009 00:31
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So I decided that I would get a few things, whynot First, a Behringer Dynamics Compressor. AKA a DynaComp clone.  Metal housing, isn't that swell of them? Most definitely not true-bypass but I bought it to leave it on all the time anyway, in front of my DI; not for a super squish, but to give myself a controllable volume ceiling and even out the input a bit for my modelers. This is basically a trial balloon to test the idea of compression before my DI, and I quite like it, except that in true compression fashion it makes the buzz louder relative to the signal  But other than that the idea holds quite well, I'm just going to have to get some kind of buzz killing machine. It's the proximity to my computer, I think, or maybe a ground loop, or just dirty power. I don't know, I don't have this problem with any of my guitars when playing into my amp but my computer setup is apparently a recipe for buzz disaster. I've got it mostly under control since all of my guitars except the (for this reason quite unfairly neglected) Marauder have either H/H, noiseless, or active pickups. But throw the compressor on and it's back to the buzz basics again. If I knew what to do to fix it I would  For all that the test is a big positive, I like what it does to the modeling, so I'm going to invest in a better compressor. Either the MXR Super Comp or the EHX White Finger, I think. Leaning towards the Super Comp since I like the DynaComp "sound" but some people think it's a tone killer apparently. Anyway, moving on:  Vox DA5 portable digital modeling amp! For he so loved the Roland Microcube, that when he sold his only Microcube for a pittance, he was remorseful and eventually sought out a replacement. Played this one and I was hooked, it's 10x the amp the Microcube was. For instance, check out the control panel:  Lots more amps, effects, etc.; still one master tone control; and it's switchable between 0.5, 1.5, and 5W operation. I keep it in 0.5W to conserve battery life, that's loud enough for what I do with it which is just sit around and jam. Also, this comes with a 6.5" speaker, stock, which means that rather than having a big upper-harmonic bass boost circuit to make a tiny speaker appear to have phat bass  it actually puts out regular guitar bass. Runs on 6 C-cell batteries, which kind of sucks compared to AAs, but the battery life is pretty unreal, they quote 36 hours or something like that for 0.5W mode and around 16 hours for 5W mode (5W mode is very loud). Because of its higher power needs, it also comes with its own stylish wall-wart which is pictured above, 12V/650ma. It has an adjustable noise gate (global effect, not on the rotary effects knob), and all of the effects have adjustable parameters as well which is way, way better than the Microcube's 1/4th of a knob range of adjustment. Tap tempo for delay and other time-based effects.All around a much cooler product than the Microcube, in my opinion and experience. I loved my Microcube while I had it but it is no longer top of the heap. And I don't think the new Microcube 4x4 nano-halfstack thing is a big step up, either... Also there's another thing which I'll be adding to my reviewing (and which will also, I think, make my reviewing sound better all-around, not that it sounds bad now but holy crap this thing's preamp is amazing):    It turns out the quality of the DI has a hell of a lot to do with the quality of the modeling, and that the Rig Kontrol 3 DI is actually only "pretty good," while the class A preamp in the StompIO is "outta sight," if there is a missing ingredient to genuine amplike tone it is getting a badass DI and I think this is pretty much the best of the best, for guitar (or bass).
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Feb 21, 2009 05:34
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Agreed posted:It turns out the quality of the DI has a hell of a lot to do with the quality of the modeling, and that the Rig Kontrol 3 DI is actually only "pretty good," while the class A preamp in the StompIO is "outta sight," if there is a missing ingredient to genuine amplike tone it is getting a badass DI and I think this is pretty much the best of the best, for guitar (or bass). I've always wondered about this. I've been using a Guitarport for a while and I can't say I'm very happy with some of the sounds I get with modeling software. So much that I actually prefer to play with my Microcube if possible. I've always wondered if getting a better interface would help. I'm really wanting to wait until the Stealth pedal comes out though.
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Feb 21, 2009 05:39
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So it turns out that the Danelectro Transparent Overdrive, having been outed as a Timmy clone, is now being redesigned courtesy of Steve at Danelectro. Weirdest situation I've ever seen, they were under no obligation to do this but they appear to be doing the right thing?  , confirmed by Paul Cochrane the builder over at HCFX. So if you have any local shops that have a Transparent Overdrive that you know has been there awhile, well, you might want to go buy it because there's actually, wonder of wonders, a chance that it might appreciate in value. Not by a lot, the Timmy itself is only $129 new, but there is a big waiting list and that could mean "pre-revision" TODs might be worth something.
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Feb 21, 2009 06:34
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Agreed posted:So I decided that I would get a few things, whynot Not to be a douche, but you do turn off your monitor when recording, right?
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Feb 21, 2009 07:10
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 Click here for the full 639x503 image. MXR EVH Flanger, which for some bizzare reason, was cheaper than the standard MXR flanger. I'm not sure if this counts as new, since I've had this a couple of years... but considering what has been done, it may as well be.  Click here for the full 640x480 image. Heavily Modifed Crybaby Wah: take one lovely sounding standard Dunlop GCB-95 Crybaby Wah and add: 3P3T True bypass switch. Indicator LED. Change 3 resistors turning it into a the Vox 847 circuit. Output buffer so it plays nice with other pedals. Replace the worn potentiometer with a new one. At this point, I was pretty happy with how it sounded, however I'm a compulsive tinkerer, and couldn't stop there... One red Fasel inductor later, and it sounds (to my ear) perfect. It's much more throaty sounding (think: Alice in Chains - Man in the box) and completely non-sucky like it was originally.
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Feb 21, 2009 10:25
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MasterWerk posted:i had no idea gfs bodies were so cheap. looks like i'll be building one myself once i get some ca-esh. Yeah they are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. The neck pockets are a hair wider than Fender spec. I'm talking less than the width of a credit card. That's actually what I am using as a shim. On the other hand the bridge pickup route is a hair too small. I've had to enlarge both of mine with a dremel tool. The string ferrule holes also need to be enlarged before you can install the ferrules. Not that big of a deal so long as you have the right tools. Oh yeah, the routings for the bridge and string throughs also sit a bit farther back on the body than Fender spec so there is a slightly bigger gap between the bridge plate and pickguard than on a Fender. I've only built these with vintage style bridges so it may fit fine with a modern bridge plate. This is purely an aesthetic issue. With a Fender scale neck the guitar still intonates just fine. If you know all of this going in then the GFS bodies are a great deal. Any problems they have can easily be worked around with a little bit of patience. For the price I am not complaining.
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Feb 21, 2009 15:18
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Gramps posted:Not to be a douche, but you do turn off your monitor when recording, right? Haha, trying to help is never a douche thing to do. But, nope, it's an LCD monitor so it doesn't do anything anyway. I've tested it, it's definitely all coming from my computer itself. My guitar is literally less than three feet from my computer when recording, ergo the problem. I would imagine a lot of it's from the fans, as they're quite electrically noisy and I've got four 120mm ones, two of which are anterior relative to the case. I don't think it's dirty power since I don't get the problem at all when using my real amp and pedals even when I've got tons of gain going (same guitars, obviously, too). I guess it could be a ground loop, but most of the noise is between 500hz and 3500hz...
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Feb 21, 2009 17:11
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Chalupa Joe posted:
Give me that.
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Feb 21, 2009 17:32
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Agreed posted:Haha, trying to help is never a douche thing to do. But, nope, it's an LCD monitor so it doesn't do anything anyway. Uh.. LCD monitors are lit by bright fluorescent bulbs.
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Feb 21, 2009 17:39
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ZombiePeanut posted:Uh.. LCD monitors are lit by bright fluorescent bulbs. Turning the monitor off doesn't change it. I don't know how much clearer I can be, do you think I'm an idiot who wouldn't have tried trivially simple things to fix a pernicious problem? I'm thinking about picking up the EHX Hum Debugger just to see if it would do something, but I have a feeling it's intended for real "hum," not EMI "hiss/buzz." Agreed fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Feb 21, 2009 |
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Feb 21, 2009 17:58
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The buzz around the Hum Debugger is that it samples the power supply and uses that to digitally filter any constant oscillation out of your clean guitar signal. So if your power is clean it won't do much.
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Feb 21, 2009 18:17
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Yeah, that doesn't sound like it would help, but the one thing is that my amplifier and pedals are all on one circuit, while my computer and LCD monitor, my studio monitors and sub, my audio interface, and my compression pedal are spread across two or maybe three circuits. I'll TRY it if I can get one at Guitar Center just to see if it would help, with their return policy I'd have nothing to lose, but I guess I won't hold my breath.
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Feb 21, 2009 18:25
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Agreed posted:Turning the monitor off doesn't change it. I don't know how much clearer I can be, do you think I'm an idiot who wouldn't have tried trivially simple things to fix a pernicious problem? No... I was just pointing out that turning off an LCD in an attempt to fix buzz isn't pointless because they have a pretty powerful fluorescent bulb in them.
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Feb 21, 2009 18:26
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Ah, okay. It's just a much, much lower degree of EMR than you'd get with a CRT, which is why so many studios eschew CRTs and have for a long time.
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Feb 21, 2009 18:45
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I just had kind of a weird idea... but have you tried shielding your computer with something? The PSU or something inside could be slightly damaged and throwing off some kind of interference.
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Feb 21, 2009 19:15
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Do you have them plugged into the same circuit? An old LCD monitor of mine would cause a nasty noise to come through my studio monitors, whether it was on or off, unless I used one of those ground adapter things on its power supply. If you have one sitting around it might be worth a shot to try lifting the ground on some of your stuff.
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Feb 21, 2009 19:19
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Black Sheep Boy fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Sep 18, 2020 |
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Feb 21, 2009 23:53
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Anyone want to elaborate on the differences between the MXR Flanger and the MXR EVH Flanger?
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Feb 22, 2009 00:45
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vac posted:Anyone want to elaborate on the differences between the MXR Flanger and the MXR EVH Flanger? http://www.guitarworld.com/article/mxr_evh_117_flanger It has a pre-set button to get the "Unchained" flanger tone.
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Feb 22, 2009 01:02
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It's got to be something to do with a ground loop, what makes me wonder though is that the noise is very broad-band, starting at 60hz but most prominent around 2000-4000hz, yet with lots of noise above 4000hz as well. I can unplug my guitar and leave the compressor in and still get the noise, somewhat when the compressor's switch is in the off position but only slightly weaker than when the guitar is plugged in when the compressor's switch is on. However when I unplug the compressor from my DI (so that there is no signal chain at all, it's just the DI amplifying nothing plugged into it) there is still SOME self-noise as you would expect when I run that non-signal into a lot of amplification, but not the ugly broad-band hiss and buzz that I'm getting. I'm going to try some more stuff to diagnose the problem now but it definitely seems to be something related to the power, and in that case I would think the Hum Debugger might in fact be just what I need. Thoughts?
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Feb 22, 2009 01:30
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I'm making this its own post because it is a new subject. I took my wife to the music shops today to show her an amp I'm thinking about trading one of my amps for, and she wanted to go to another shop in town to buy some music books for her bass. We got there and split up, she went to the books section while I went back to the guitars area, and lo and behold there was a USA-made, late 1980s Peavey Generation Standard in metallic blue hanging up. I hooked it up and played on it, and apart from the fact that the strings were in really, really bad shape, I could tell it was a great playing instrument with surprisingly good sounding stock pickups. Since I've been wanting a tele, and since this guitar came with a hardshell case that will fit any strat or tele, it was kind of a no-brainer for $200. I bought straplocks and a set of BB King 10-56 pure nickel strings, took it home, cleaned it up, installed the SLs and strings and set it up. Great playing guitar! The fret work is some of the best I've used, very, very smooth all around. Very comfortable low action and hardly any buzz at all. The pickups in it are Peavey's noiseless setup from the time period, and true to form they don't have single coil hum (and sound good, I won't be changing them any time soon). The body's control cavity on the back has a separate routed chamber to accept a battery, so I'm thinking about adding a boost to give it some extra oomph on tap. Pics:    Don't know if you can tell from the photos, but the body has all of the same comfort routs as the Wolfgang guitars, and while there might be a small ding or two in the body and a thin scratch or two on the back, the finish is in good shape with no paint missing. I need to seriously buff the front, as without a pick guard the finish on the far side of the strings is tarnished from a lot of picking, but I've already buffed some of it out with just G'wax and a cloth so I figure it'll clean up very pretty when I get some power tools after it.
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Feb 22, 2009 01:39
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Agreed posted:It's got to be something to do with a ground loop, what makes me wonder though is that the noise is very broad-band, starting at 60hz but most prominent around 2000-4000hz, yet with lots of noise above 4000hz as well. I can unplug my guitar and leave the compressor in and still get the noise, somewhat when the compressor's switch is in the off position but only slightly weaker than when the guitar is plugged in when the compressor's switch is on. However when I unplug the compressor from my DI (so that there is no signal chain at all, it's just the DI amplifying nothing plugged into it) there is still SOME self-noise as you would expect when I run that non-signal into a lot of amplification, but not the ugly broad-band hiss and buzz that I'm getting. I'm going to try some more stuff to diagnose the problem now but it definitely seems to be something related to the power, and in that case I would think the Hum Debugger might in fact be just what I need. Thoughts? Not be insulting, but the noise is still there without the Behringer, right?
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Feb 22, 2009 01:48
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Haha, good question, totally worth asking, but yes unfortunately it is there no matter what I plug in. Although to be honest it's been a long time since I didn't have ANYTHING plugged in but my guitar, I need to check and see if it still does it then. The Behr dynacomp clone is actually a really cool little pedal, it does the Dynacomp thing exactly (because it's a clone) without introducing noise or hiss of its own, well, except in the sense that it compresses the signal and so certain undesirables get louder and the signal gets a little quieter in extreme cases (like my situation). Not the Behr's fault.
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Feb 22, 2009 01:55
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Agreed posted:So it turns out that the Danelectro Transparent Overdrive, having been outed as a Timmy clone, is now being redesigned courtesy of Steve at Danelectro. Weirdest situation I've ever seen, they were under no obligation to do this but they appear to be doing the right thing? that's weird. i'm going to need to pick one up asap, then. been wanting a timmy, but can't afford one. a dano pedal, though, i can swing.
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Feb 22, 2009 06:19
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It's kind of a long story, but this upright electric bass ended up without a home, and now it is on it's way to me. I've never played one before, so I'm going to look into taking lessons. Anyone know any good resources online for learning to play this thing? It's too pretty not to play. It's a Palatino VE-500.
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Feb 22, 2009 09:24
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Here's a pic of my "work" guitar. I use this guitar to learn about how to basically do guitar repair/maintenance work. I've replaced everything but the neck/body. New pickups, pots, switches, etc. Next step will be to replace the neck and see what I can learn from that. Is there an easy way to figure out which neck can fit on this guitar?
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Feb 23, 2009 00:08
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Adrian Finol posted:Is there an easy way to figure out which neck can fit on this guitar? Decided I'm not going to be "that guy" theflyingexecutive fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Feb 23, 2009 |
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Feb 23, 2009 00:18
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theflyingexecutive posted:
 >Anyways, measure the neck width at the pocket, but most tele necks will fit into that bad boy. Warmoth.com and allparts.com will have these things, and you could maybe even find one on rondomusic.com.
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Feb 23, 2009 01:19
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Actually, you might have a slightly harder time finding a replacement neck for that one, given that it looks like a 22-fret neck instead of 21, like most teles. Still, why exactly do you feel you should replace it? Assuming you've taken it off and put it back on, and fully set it up, what else is there to learn how to do?
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Feb 23, 2009 07:13
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No reason to be honest, curiosity mostly.
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Feb 23, 2009 09:45
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Hi, Adrian. Howdy, all. It was a lot more work than I wanted to do, but I finally got the pickups installed in my newly acquired Ibanez USA Custom. It's a 1992 USA Custom Exotic Wood, flame maple, in translucent blue. It came loaded with direct-mounted PAF-Pros and a single-coil in the middle. I already had guitars loaded with: Duncan Pearly Gates with Texas Specials Duncan JB / DiMarzio Blue Velvet / Duncan '59 DiMarzio FRED / JEM Single / Humbucker From Hell I knew I wanted Duncans, and in the neck I love the '59, I went with zebra. I kept the original single-coil for the time being and put a replacement aged white cover on it. In the bridge I opted for a Duncan Custom Custom trembucker in Zebra. The pickups are direct-mounted so I had to get the baseplates cut to fit the pickup cavities. While I was at it I sprayed the baseplates flat black, and also blacked out some of the single-coil cover. I got everything together and discovered that the neck '59 was WAY too tall to fit in the cavity and since I couldn't do the metal-work I did wood-work instead. I drilled out the pickup cavity just enough to lower the neck pickup into the body. I didn't want to remove any wood but there was no other way to proceed. I replaced the pots with A500K push/pull pots and wired them to series/parallel mod the two humbuckers. Finally it's done. I am so glad I went with the Custom Custom. It's got balls. I had been told it lacked low-end, but it sounds nice and full through my rig (a Peavey Classic 50 4x10" and a Blues Classic 1x15"). Both humbuckers sound great in series and although it's not a huge difference they sound great in parallel also. I took a bunch of pictures yesterday morning. I now present the Dr. Faustus model Ibanez. Check the pics out here at photobucket: http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d132/DrFaustus777/UCEWFMTB/
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Feb 23, 2009 10:59
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Adrian Finol posted:No reason to be honest, curiosity mostly.
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Feb 23, 2009 12:03
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    (I seriously need to stop buying amps while between guitars  )
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Feb 23, 2009 18:55
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Nice! Are those cabs sealed?
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Feb 23, 2009 19:29
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| # ? May 17, 2024 13:39 |
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Stux posted:
You bastard. Sound clips please. I am very strongly considering one of these in a combo.
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Feb 23, 2009 21:53
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