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Roland Cube * *whatever fits your budget. Ah, the Cube. 
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Feb 19, 2012 05:15
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| # ? May 22, 2024 08:33 |
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I was thinking about the same thing last week and went into Guitar Center to mess around with some low priced practice amps. I didn't play with anything VOX, but between the Fender and L6 I would've picked the Fender Mustang. If I were you I'd go find a music store that has a bunch of different amps and play a few. I remember they had some kind of Mustang that you could actually turn a knob from clean-blues-rock-metal-whatever and it'd emulate effects simply on that. Also I haven't played one but I think the general goon pick is the Cube series by Roland. You should check those out too.
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Feb 19, 2012 15:17
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I have a big valve amp - would it make sense to get a mic and use that to record into a DAW for my own tracks? Or a direct input? Are there any drawbacks? because the mic would be able to be used for vocals, other instruments, etc.
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Feb 19, 2012 16:25
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Southern Heel posted:I have a big valve amp - would it make sense to get a mic and use that to record into a DAW for my own tracks? Or a direct input? Are there any drawbacks? because the mic would be able to be used for vocals, other instruments, etc. A mic would be preferable, depending on the amp. If you would have to use a preamp output to send into a DI, you'd lose the tone shaping that you can get from overdriving the power amp tubes. That kind of distortion is generally considered preferable to the type you get from overdriving preamp tubes. In addition, you can get a little more lifelike of a sound from miking the amp, depending on how live your room is. Even if you use a DI, though, you can just work some reverb/delay into the track to give it more life.
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Feb 19, 2012 18:29
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I'm trying to replicate a certain guitar tone and I'm wondering if anybody's able to help me get a little closer. I'm using a Gibson LP double cutaway with P-90s through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe III. I don't have a lot of pedals at my disposal, so this may be more of a theoretical question. I'm trying to match the guitar solo tone in this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WAwU4uduCE It's metal, in case you're not a fan. Solo lands around 2:30.
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Feb 19, 2012 18:32
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Sounds like Satch without the reverb/delay.
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Feb 19, 2012 21:01
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I don't think you need any special gear for that. Just crank a Tube Screamer until it saturates, and use more treble than you think you'll need.
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Feb 20, 2012 04:03
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Use your bridge pickup too, I'm fairly certain Per tracked the entire album on the bridge pickup, solo included.
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Feb 20, 2012 04:16
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So, Ive been looking for a used solid mahogany guitar, and have settled on the Martin 15 series. I'm seriously considering buying this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1999-Martin...#ht_6464wt_1042 But to be honest, I have no idea how much of an issue humidity cracks will pose. Is this a worthy purchase?
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Feb 20, 2012 04:47
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Humidity (low humidity) cracks are bad news. While the tone might not be affected too much, other symptoms of abuse might exist that wouldn't be apparent from the picture like neck warpage, fret protrusion, soundboard problems and other issues that may require expensive repair and refurbishment. If a guitar has cracks it's because someone has not been storing it correctly and/or treating it like poo poo. You could examine the extent of the damage yourself if you had access to the guitar (with a straightedge and some feeler gauges) but I would never buy a cracked used acoustic guitar through ebay unless you're planning on using it around a campfire.
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Feb 20, 2012 20:11
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Pretentious Turtle posted:Roland Cube * Speaking of the cube... is there any good list of settings for it? I found a little .pdf file (in German!) with some songs/bands and the recommended settings, but besides that and "whatever sounds best to you", I haven't been able to find anything online. I mainly use Brit Combo with the tone a bit past the midpoint towards low, a pinch of reverb and gain/volume at the midpoint give or take.
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Feb 20, 2012 21:01
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Goddamn there isn't a single good cover (read: pleasant to listen to) of This Darkened Heart on Youtube. I won't toxx it, but I'll be damned if I don't make the best one on the site by the end of the year.
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Feb 20, 2012 22:49
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What do you guys think about taking rest days? I've been pushing my technique really hard for the past couple months and I keep taking 1 or 2 days off each week to rest, but I can't tell if its helping or if I'm just being lazy. :/Edmond Dantes posted:Speaking of the cube... is there any good list of settings for it? I found a little .pdf file (in German!) with some songs/bands and the recommended settings, but besides that and "whatever sounds best to you", I haven't been able to find anything online. My cube is permanently set to: JC clean | Gain=1 | no effects | tone=7 And then I run any effect pedals I need into it. Try it out if you have a distortion pedal around. Salt Fish fucked around with this message at 07:49 on Feb 21, 2012 |
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Feb 21, 2012 07:44
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It's comparable to weight lifting, you don't lift every day of the week. I don't even turn the metronome on on weekends.
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Feb 21, 2012 08:24
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I'm hoping you guys can help me out, while being patient with my ignorance. I'm on deployment right now, so I don't have the option of going to a store and trying out different guitars to see how they feel and sound, and even if I didn't I'm sure that wouldn't do me a whole lot of good, being a complete guitar virgin. I was leaning towards an Agile AL-2000 (http://www.rondomusic.com/al2000rootbeer.html), since I've heard lots of good things in this thread about them, and it's fairly inexpensive. But then I foolishly just started looking around at what else they had to offer and I saw this Agile Valkyrie EB HC Slim (http://www.rondomusic.com/product4429.html), and I fell in lust. Now my problem is, I don't know a drat thing about guitar beyond "This One Looks Cooler, but is More Expensive" So can you guys possibly explain to me what the functional differences between these guitars would be? Sorry if I'm coming off like the annoying younger brother, here. I feel like Luke Skywalker asking Han Solo "WHAT'S THAT FLASHING?!"
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Feb 21, 2012 10:21
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Basically, the biggest difference will be in how the body feels, how it sits on your leg or how it falls when you're standing up. There's going to be a difference in sound too, but at that price point the difference won't be very major. In this case, I'd recommend going with whichever one you like the look or specs of more.
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Feb 21, 2012 10:26
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All I can see is: The Valkyrie has two more frets, which is pretty inconsequential. The Valkyrie weighs 1.5 lbs less, which actually might matter to you if you plan to play standing for long periods of time. It looks like the Valkyrie might have slightly upgraded tuners and pickups, but probably not all that different. It just comes down to whether the money is more important to you than the aesthetics. I'd go for the one that you think looks cooler because you're more likely to pick it up and play it if you love the way it looks.
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Feb 21, 2012 10:35
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The Synsonics got here. It's not total crap! Just mostly. The frets are rough, action is a little high, tuners are rusty, the tone knob has been removed/possibly broken off, there's a bottle cap where the whammy bar would be, headphone jack doesn't seem to work at all, aaand the built in amp doesn't seem to work, even with two fresh 9v batteries. I heard it for a second, but haven't been able to reproduce it. So that's the bad news. The good news is that it's playable. The neck isn't worthless, just a little chunky. Tuners suck but with no whammy they stay somewhat in tune. It looks like the tone knob was removed and the wiring was bypassed, which is sort of a philosophical choice but I'm cool with it. I'll be honest, I'm not a single-coil guy (I appreciate the sound but they've never clicked with me) but these pickups sound...okay? I don't doubt that getting as much output from them as possible is probably a good choice. It's got plenty of hum, natch. To be honest, I think with a little work, this could be a really fun lead guitar. Mostly smoothing out the frets so you don't shred your hands going up the neck, haha. If I had to guess, the last or at least a recent owner of this actually played it, figured it was a cheap pos, and decided to make as much of the situation as possible. Obligatory hipster cellphone pic:  e: Nope, the tone knob has just been snapped off, and the speaker is loose and broke one of the connections. No worries! Manky fucked around with this message at 22:36 on Feb 21, 2012 |
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Feb 21, 2012 19:54
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I'd kinda like that thicker humbucker sound, but the only guitar I have is a MIM Strat and I don't know if I want to have two electric guitars just yet. Can I just get a single-coil–sized humbucker and solder it in there, like a franken-HSS?
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Feb 21, 2012 20:10
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404notfound posted:I'd kinda like that thicker humbucker sound, but the only guitar I have is a MIM Strat and I don't know if I want to have two electric guitars just yet. Can I just get a single-coil–sized humbucker and solder it in there, like a franken-HSS? You can. A few companies do single coil HB's. The most famous are Seymour Duncan Rail pickups. I may be wrong but I think they are a direct swap for your Strats single coil. Edit: Have some examples http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/stratocaster/high-output/cool_rails_for/ http://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/strat/hum-canceling-strat/tone-zone-s http://www.irongear.co.uk/irongear_019.htm Sadsack fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Feb 21, 2012 |
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Feb 21, 2012 20:26
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Salt Fish posted:What do you guys think about taking rest days? I've been pushing my technique really hard for the past couple months and I keep taking 1 or 2 days off each week to rest, but I can't tell if its helping or if I'm just being lazy. :/ "rest days" or just not touching the instrument? For me, a "rest day" is one where I don't structure my practice, and just jam with tunes or noodle while I watch something. It's more of a rest for the brain, as the hardest part of practicing is maintaining mental focus. If you are practicing so hard that you have a physical need for rest, you are probably doing too much (or need to evaluate your technique). Doing the same thing every single day can cause you to burn out, so definitely vary your practice routine from day to day. You can "rest" by focusing on workouts one day, then learning/transcribing tunes the next, writing music the next day, etc. What you want to do avoid is working on one skill at the expense of others. Varying your routines lets you apply your skills broadly. It doesn't really matter how good your metronome chops are if you never sit down and work that skill into a musical context, and creative skills are wasted if your fingers can't keep up with your imagination.
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Feb 21, 2012 20:38
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Sadsack posted:You can. A few companies do single coil HB's. The most famous are Seymour Duncan Rail pickups. I may be wrong but I think they are a direct swap for your Strats single coil. I have a Vintage Rails in my guitar, in the middle position. It's technically a lower output humbucker, and the sound is somewhere between a single and a bucker. It's definitely harder and more trebly than something like a standard Fender single coil, but not as "flat" and bassy as a normal humbucker. The sound works really well for classic rock tones. I also have a Seymour Lil 59 at the neck, which is a single size true humbucker. It sounds quite like a regular humbucker. Which single do you intend to replace with a mini-bucker? Remember that the slanted pickup in a strat is made just for the bridge slot; it's size is slightly different to accommodate the slant. I don't think you'll get the best use out of a replacement by just popping any old thing in there. I'd suggest replacing the middle coil if you want a humbucker sound. The guitar's body is probably routed to accommodate any pickup configuration, it's just the pickguard that's particular to the SSS, HSS, or whatever setup. It's really not that hard for a guitar tech to sand away the plastic to fit a bigger pickup.
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Feb 21, 2012 20:46
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I'm still in the market for a new guitar, and I'm rethinking dropping $800-$1K on something. I'm not looking to upgrade, I just want something with a distinctly different sound than my Epi Les Paul. The LP has Ultra-Hot humbuckers in it, which are great for a whole lot of blues and rock, but I want a lead tone. Am I better off sticking with my guns and spending as much as $1K on something, or buying a $300 (very arbitrary number) guitar and replacing pickups/hardware to fit my preferences? Also, if I plan on using a tremolo bar frequently, am I best off getting a double-locking system right off the bat? (I will not be getting a Fender, more likely something with a Floyd Rose or Ibanez Edge tremolo). I understand this may be a really subjective question, but I'd like to hear other people's experiences. I suck at making large purchases without second guessing myself repeatedly.
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Feb 21, 2012 21:54
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It depends on the guitar - some of those 1k range guitars are basically cheaper guitars with hot rodded hardware and pickups. And if you're going for something with a trem, I'd be very very careful when looking around. I'm no big trem fan, but I try to avoid cheaper Floyds, because they can become even more finicky than a high quality one. All the trems on new Ibanez Indo/Chinese imports are good enough, but the older ones you should avoid. And as always, the MIJ guitars' trems are excellent. So, you should make a list of things you think you'd be interested in, like neck shape, scale length, neck joint, pickup configuration, etc. That'll make it easier to narrow down what you're looking at, and you may end up at a price that surprises you. In a good way, probably.
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Feb 21, 2012 22:01
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Pretentious Turtle posted:It depends on the guitar - some of those 1k range guitars are basically cheaper guitars with hot rodded hardware and pickups. And if you're going for something with a trem, I'd be very very careful when looking around. I'm no big trem fan, but I try to avoid cheaper Floyds, because they can become even more finicky than a high quality one. Is there a hard and fast way to determine whether an Ibanez is MIJ or not?
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Feb 21, 2012 22:08
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All new MIJ ones are branded as "Prestige" and have a "Prestige" script above the Ibanez logo on the headstock. I'm fairly certain Ibanez didn't have any Korean models before the introduction of the Prestige name. That'd be around 2000 or so.
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Feb 21, 2012 22:11
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Holy poo poo I just got iLife '11 and the guitar stuff they added is great. I don't know if it's new or they changed the layout and I didn't know about it before but the loops you can pick are great. They definitely added a lot of pedals too. This is awesome.
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Feb 22, 2012 01:08
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explosivo posted:Holy poo poo I just got iLife '11 and the guitar stuff they added is great. I don't know if it's new or they changed the layout and I didn't know about it before but the loops you can pick are great. They definitely added a lot of pedals too. This is awesome. is this free for Mac OS owners? I've practically given up on trying to do actual recording in GarageBand.
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Feb 22, 2012 03:58
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CalvinDooglas posted:is this free for Mac OS owners? I've practically given up on trying to do actual recording in GarageBand. No, it's software you can buy. Garage Band is separate in the App store for $15. I had the version that came with my computer (which I got in '07) and just upgraded to this today. It's good, but I've never done any serious recording so I don't know exactly how it handles that stuff. They even have lessons and a chord book exercise that pretty accurately tells you what strings you're playing correctly. I know I missed a few versions but this is a huge upgrade from the last one I used.
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Feb 22, 2012 04:13
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Thinking about picking up this guy tomorrow. Anybody here have one? http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical-instruments/guitars-basses/amps/thr/thr10/
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Feb 22, 2012 05:45
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Never seen it before but it sounds pretty decent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRTyVnxHrPc Nice that it has USB as well so you get an audio interface, if you can record your direct tone while you monitor it through the actual amp that would be great
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Feb 22, 2012 19:31
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keyframe posted:Thinking about picking up this guy tomorrow. Anybody here have one? if you ever get it post a review I'd really like to know how good it is.
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Feb 22, 2012 19:40
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So I'm still browsing for a used American Strat and I found this on craigslist for $775:quote:2003 Fender American Stratocaster Model #011-7400(RW) Serial # Z3073135 Sunburst. Maple Neck. Rosewood fingerboard. Fender DeltaTone Pickup System with 5-way switch. Purchased new in 2003. Played maybe 10 times. Need to sell. Hard shell case included. Is there anything I should consider asking, or anything I should look out for if I go check the thing out in person?
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Feb 23, 2012 01:13
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Fina posted:So I'm still browsing for a used American Strat and I found this on craigslist for $775: If you can check it out in person, please do. I wouldn't drop $800 on something without first getting my stink on it. Plus, if you're in the market for jamming with other musicians, buying/selling is a great networking opportunity.
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Feb 23, 2012 01:40
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Is there a way to find the right pickups for your guitar without wanting to stab your eyes out? I'm trying to replace the humbuckers on my Epi LP, as the ones I have in there (Epi Ultra-Hots) become a wall of mud with any kind of distortion behind them. I've narrowed my options to Seymour Duncan, mostly for budget reasons, but finding the right pickup is a little difficult. Their sound samples have started blurring together, and I can't distinguish well between them anymore. I'm leaning towards one of the combo packs they sell (either Jazz at the bridge and a JB at the neck, '59s at both, or SH-6 Distortions at both). Anyone have any of these? I want something that's gonna give me some clarity and control, even when I really ramp up the gain, but still have a clean channel with some good definition. I'm kind of trying to find a solution that will give me a solid tone for both blues rock and metal.
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Feb 23, 2012 03:22
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Traditionally, the JB is the bridge pickup, whereas the Jazz is the neck pickup. It's a great combo, I'm a big fan of the JB. DiMarzios are great too, and you can sometimes find them cheaper than Duncans. As for sound samples, they're always a little generic, but they give you a small taste of the pickup's general qualities without having to make soundclips that would potentially alienate customers from the product. As for more clarity, it might seem counter-intuitive, but if you're having a lot of problems with mud, lower output pickups can help with that. Look around the DiMarzio site, maybe even try the pickup finder there, and then just shop around for prices. I also recommend looking at GFS pickups (http://www.guitarfetish.com/GFS-Guitar-Pickups_c_7.html), they're cheap, and I've heard they easily compete with the "big names." It wouldn't be hard to, technically, since they're all machine wound.
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Feb 23, 2012 03:46
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I have a JB at the bridge and it's a pretty clear and sharp with distortion. I have that Seymour mini 59 at the neck and it's great, but is way too mellow for heavy playing. I think the combination is a good compliment - use your bridge for distortion and leads, use the neck for clean/rhythm.
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Feb 23, 2012 04:43
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KingColliwog posted:if you ever get it post a review I'd really like to know how good it is. It was sold out at all the music stores I went to. 
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Feb 23, 2012 07:29
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I was just kinda messing around and noticed that I get an interesting sound if I pluck the strings at the 12th fret. It sounds kinda like a square wave, I believe. It's not the same sound as a harmonic played at the 12th fret, when you have your fretting hand gently touching the string as you pluck at the normal spot. Anyway, I was wondering if there's a name for this. Is it a type of harmonic or something?
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Feb 24, 2012 12:22
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| # ? May 22, 2024 08:33 |
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Interesting. I never thought about it, but it really does sound a lot like a square wave. I wonder what is happening to the even harmonics if this is the case (square wave is made up of just the odd ones). It might be that you actually create a node when you pluck that is fine for the odd harmonics, but is destructive to the even harmonics. I'm not sure this makes sense though, because a node right in the middle should theoretically be great for the 2nd harmonic (octave) and poor for the 3rd (octave+fifth). My best guess is that, when you pluck from the middle, fewer partial nodes are generated, allowing the fundamental and lower harmonics to come through with less interference, and so the result is a deeper sound. Sort of like the opposite of playing a harmonic, where you are limiting the fundamental. Edit: http://online.physics.uiuc.edu/courses/phys406/Student_Projects/Fall02/JHusinsky/Johannes_Husinsky_MT_Writeup.pdf According to this, when you pluck at a node of a harmonic, that harmonic is not excited, which makes sense since energy directed at a node shouldn't contribute to that part of the sound(2nd paragraph, last sentence). Therefore, when you pluck in the middle of the string, you basically lose the 2nd harmonic (octave) and all the other even harmonics, as they all have nodes there (wikipedia article has a nice diagram), generating a square wave containing only odd harmonics. Nice observation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic The Mystery Date fucked around with this message at 13:14 on Feb 24, 2012 |
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Feb 24, 2012 12:56
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