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SubG posted:A few months back I switched out all of the electronics of my archtop and I definitely prefer the feel of the Switchcraft Gibson-style selector switch over either the cheap generic one that was already in there or the `official' one in my older Les Paul. It's got a more positive clicky feel than the LP switch, and a lot better/more solid all the way around than the stock Ibanez switch. I was going to go switchcraft because I do like the one on my SG, but the difference is more like $5 to $20. I am not really sure it is worth that, unless I find a place that isn't Stewpidly over priced mac.
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May 29, 2015 01:04
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Switchcraft is the best in feel and reliability and the $15 difference is worth it in my opinion.
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May 29, 2015 01:08
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unlawfulsoup posted:I was going to go switchcraft because I do like the one on my SG, but the difference is more like $5 to $20. I am not really sure it is worth that, unless I find a place that isn't Stewpidly over priced mac. Yeah what's the best US source for switches/pots etc? I need some too.
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May 29, 2015 01:24
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The blue balls are quite in effect waiting for my Fidelitron bridge pickup now. Sitting in a sorting facility two hours away. 
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May 29, 2015 01:30
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Crosspost from the gear purchases thread but I had a fun solder-filled day today. Dream 90, split vintage bucker, Dream 180. Those three plus the switch as a tone selector makes for a drat fine array of sounds. I'm kind of taken aback by how much bite that D90 has but god drat if I ain't happy with it. 
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May 29, 2015 06:59
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I'm getting back into electric guitar again after having pretty much ignored mine for years. I've still been playing acoustic the whole time and I'm decent at it, but now I know nothing about electrics and all other related stuff so I have some questions. 1: I want to get quite a few effects going, and I'm wondering the best way to do this on a budget. A lot of amps now seem to have quite a few in built effects, but I'm wondering if these are any good and essentially able to replace pedals. I'd be happier getting a more expensive amp if it meant I covered a lot of bases and didn't need many pedals. On the same note, is it worth paying more for high quality pedals? A lot of pretty cheap ones seem to do the job and get decent reviews. 2: Does it matter what cables you use? They seem to vary wildly in price, but I suspect they're all roughly the same - maybe different in build quality. Am I wrong, or is it okay to use pretty much whatever
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May 29, 2015 16:12
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Paperhouse posted:I'm getting back into electric guitar again after having pretty much ignored mine for years. I've still been playing acoustic the whole time and I'm decent at it, but now I know nothing about electrics and all other related stuff so I have some questions. 1. You're going to come across lots of effects in lots of styles. Good amps use tubes, but some amps use solid-state transistors and others still use digital modeling. Digital modeling and solid-state usually aren't considered as good as the real deal tube amp overdrive, but some can be really good and are much much much cheaper. Along those lines, you can get solid-state stomp-boxes for each effect in the chain you want, and then they'll give you really exact control over your sound, but it'll cost a lot to build up all your effects. Alternatively you can get some digital modeling like a POD or an amp that has it built in (line6 spyder poo poo, etc.) It won't sound quiiiiite as good, but you basically buy one pedal or one fancy amp and it can imitate a whole range of hundreds of pedals. For the musician on a budget, that's definitely the way to go. Go to a guitar center and find a line6 amp and just press buttons and marvel at all the sounds that come out. Its fun stuff. For a super budget you could even use your computer to do digital modeling for you, but if you don't have a fast system or an external sound card, you could get processing delay and that KILLS your ability to just jam, and makes it worthless. Something like a Line6 toneport would serve as an external sound card and do all kinds of effects processing, which can be very fun on the cheap. Although for that matter you could just get a POD and then not have to worry about your computer. For instance, I have this pedal: http://digitech.com/en-US/products/ex-7-expression-factory Its digital and so its able to reproduce the effects of like 10 different stomp boxes and like 5 different wah-wah effects. It doesn't sound quite as good, but buying all those individual boxes and wahs would cost me thousands of dollars. I think it sounds pretty good. I personally think the cheap effects gear sounds mostly great, unless you're a stage musician who is really making money off your performing nobody'll notice the difference. There's probably a few bad apples in the mix, but even professionals sometimes can't tell the difference between digital modeling and real effects in a blind sound test. 2. Not too much; a cheap cable or a broken cable could introduce all kinds of noise, it is an analog signal so its more prone to it than say an HDMI cable. So you want some good insulation so you don't get extra noise or buzz in your sound. But I've had very little problems with "cheap" cables as long as they're in good shape. Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 16:29 on May 29, 2015 |
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May 29, 2015 16:25
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Just go find the solid state amp with built in effects that you dig and enjoy it for a while until you figure out exactly what you want. Alternatively, something like a POD HD500 into a small powered speaker is a lot of fun and can sound REALLY good, plus it works well with other amps once you move on or upgrade or whatever. Hell, I've been enjoying using Bias on my iPhone into a powered speaker and/or straight into the PA quite a lot recently. I just put together a little 'quick rig' that consists of an interface for my phone, a little Bluetooth pedalboard with an expression pedal and a battery pack for practices and grab-and-go stuff. The biggest difference I've seen in cheap v/s expensive pedals is generally improved reliability and holding up to abuse much better. There might be a sound difference between some of them but really, with few exceptions most pedals are all variants of the same theme with the differences being the durability of components or MAYBE improved shielding against interference. As far as cables go, just pick up something and use it. I like Mogami because they have a no questions asked replacement warranty (a lot of people like Monster for the same reason but I've heard you have to SHOW a fault with them, with Mogami you just say 'cable bad') but the only things you really need to worry about are that it doesn't sap all your treble (cheap cables with high capacitance), the conductor and sheath aren't fragile and break and that the connectors aren't lovely and fall apart. GC's LiveWire cables are cheap as hell and sound pretty good.
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May 29, 2015 16:54
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Try amps out and take your guitar, don't worry if it's valve or not, get whatever you like the sound of. BB Kings preferred amp was solid state and after 67 The Beatles used solid state mainly, as did many others. I say this as a confirmed valve snob as well, it's all about what your ears tell you, either way.
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May 29, 2015 20:06
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This is me sperging out a bit but I think the main reason people hate on solid state is that they start out on a cheap solid state, which sounds bad not necessarily because it doesn't have tubes, but because it's cheap. Cheap caps, cheap resistors, cheap speaker - particularly the speaker. A great tube amp that used the same speaker as a cheapo solid state amp would still sound crappy. They do respond to stuff differently, but hell the Roland Jazz Chorus is basically a go-to for its clean tones, and that's all solid state - but not cheap. Shugojin fucked around with this message at 20:19 on May 29, 2015 |
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May 29, 2015 20:17
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Current modeling amps are amazingly good if you have any ability to dial in a good patch. Also, they are usually a fraction of the cost of tubes with none of the maintenance. I didn't sleep last night and I think it was because something in me said I have to tab out the main theme to the movie Ravenous. Half way there. 
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May 29, 2015 21:06
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Shugojin posted:This is me sperging out a bit but I think the main reason people hate on solid state is that they start out on a cheap solid state, which sounds bad not necessarily because it doesn't have tubes, but because it's cheap. Most of the time they sound cheap because they're tiny practice amps with lovely tiny speakers, which more often than not are general purpose loudspeakers and not guitar speakers. Take something like a mircocube and plug it into a 2x12 or 4x12 and it's like night and day.
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May 29, 2015 21:21
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I'd agree with the sentiments posted here, and I'd add that maybe I get coloured against solid state because when I got my first gear I sucked and my guitar was a heap of poo poo too, and it's easy to lump solid state into those early dark times ha ha
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May 29, 2015 21:39
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Just get a blackstar, those things are kickass
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May 29, 2015 21:51
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Intellectually I know you guys are right about solid state but I still want a SuperSonic.
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May 29, 2015 21:54
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NTT posted:Just get a blackstar, those things are kickass That's what I did, it is really good Edit: Got Vox in the studio and Blackstar at home, works well
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May 29, 2015 21:57
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I think the biggest problem with current-gen solid state gear is the same issue with TV's these days. People hear the factory presets that are basically designed to show off its capabilities and leave it at that without taking the time to dial them in beyond a few minutes of knob twiddling (just like people never actually calibrate their TV's out of the box). If you take a little time to do either the results can be surprising. A lot of the issues with modelers are really the fault of the cab sims. If you take a POD HD500, disable the cab sims and use a 3rd party IR it sounds really REALLY drat good. Several people I know use the HD500 with a Two Notes Torpedo C.A.B. as their main rig and it sounds really loving good.  NTT posted:Just get a blackstar, those things are kickass
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May 29, 2015 21:58
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The black star kicks rear end and so does an orange micro terror (buy used)
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May 29, 2015 22:07
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Alternately get a Mustang III and get so loud that you can feel the house shaking apart.
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May 29, 2015 23:15
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unlawfulsoup posted:Alternately get a Mustang III and get so loud that you can feel the house shaking apart. Seriously loud.
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May 29, 2015 23:55
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My rewire has a problem I'm trying to diagnose. The output volume's pretty OK, but I have like, no sustain on higher notes. My high E plays clear and just drops to silence instead of ringing out. Is this a phase problem or did I screw up grounding something, or what the hell's the deal here? It's having trouble holding a note long enough to make it through the Rocksmith tuner right now to give an idea.
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May 30, 2015 03:04
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I just watched a 14 year old girl destroy Arpeggios from Hell and now I feel like my half hour spent learning the Final Fantasy intro scales thing means nothing. Why can't I just be the best at everything????
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May 30, 2015 03:34
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Play a punk song really loud, you'll feel better
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May 30, 2015 04:11
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fullroundaction posted:I just watched a 14 year old girl destroy Arpeggios from Hell and now I feel like my half hour spent learning the Final Fantasy intro scales thing means nothing. Real talk here: how did that time progress you towards your current goal (learning the Final Fantasy intro scales thing) as well as to your larger goals (that seems like something that could help with interval training and thus to your songwriting)? Even if your ultimate goal is to be generically the Bestest, there will be a lot of steps along the way. You don't know what her steps were to get to playing like that, since you weren't privy to them, but she went through that same process herself. You are now a little better at doing a thing you wanted to do, and I hope you enjoyed the sounds you were making in the process. That certainly isn't time wasted. 
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May 30, 2015 07:04
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fullroundaction posted:I just watched a 14 year old girl destroy Arpeggios from Hell and now I feel like my half hour spent learning the Final Fantasy intro scales thing means nothing. Because those kids practice those tricks day in day out without appreciation of how those things were written and can't make a melody on their own worth a poo poo.
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May 30, 2015 12:12
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Spanish Manlove posted:Because those kids practice those tricks day in day out without appreciation of how those things were written and can't make a melody on their own worth a poo poo. Some of us don't practice all day and can't make a melody either.  USPS cock blocked me this weekend from routing the cavity for the Fidelitron by holding the package in a processing facility for two days.  Maybe I should see about a stainless control cover to match the bridge?
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May 30, 2015 12:35
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something I've never been able to do on a solid state like I could on a tube amp is use my guitar's volume knob to control how broken up the tone is. On a solid state it's just volume. Unless I'm doing something wrong.
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May 30, 2015 13:06
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Dewgy posted:My rewire has a problem I'm trying to diagnose. The output volume's pretty OK, but I have like, no sustain on higher notes. My high E plays clear and just drops to silence instead of ringing out. Is this a phase problem or did I screw up grounding something, or what the hell's the deal here? Is this true with all the pickups? E: I looked back and see nothing wrong with the general setup but just for funsies try out cutting out the fancy cap switcher (unsolder it from the tone and just slap some electrical tape on the end) in favor of a boring old single cap? It's the only thing fancy you did so it's my first guess. Shugojin fucked around with this message at 14:52 on May 30, 2015 |
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May 30, 2015 14:46
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Schpyder posted:Play a punk song really loud, you'll feel better Did, thanks. After The War posted:Real talk here: how did that time progress you towards your current goal (learning the Final Fantasy intro scales thing) as well as to your larger goals (that seems like something that could help with interval training and thus to your songwriting)? Even if your ultimate goal is to be generically the Bestest, there will be a lot of steps along the way. You don't know what her steps were to get to playing like that, since you weren't privy to them, but she went through that same process herself. My actual goal was to figure out the Twin Peaks theme song, but then I got derailed because the first arpeggio reminded me of the FF thing and then I just looked up the tab for that. But I did eventually figure out the TP theme, which is basically just [ F Dm F Dm / A# C A# C ] for the part I was concerned about. Things I did learn that further my eventual goals of being the generic greatest: a little bit of ear training, and strengthening my ring/pinky finger relationship during scale runs. I still tend to flatten out those fingers instead of using the tips when using them concurrently, which I really need to work on. e: In case anyone doesn't know what I'm talking about, but I'm sure you do because goons: http://www.playityet.com/artists/nobuo-uematsu/48240-final-fantasy-crystal-theme fullroundaction fucked around with this message at 15:47 on May 30, 2015 |
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May 30, 2015 15:44
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Bb, not A# ! 
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May 30, 2015 16:11
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juche mane posted:Bb, not A# ! At the risk of sounding dumber than I already do, why does it matter which one you pick when not in the context of a whole piece of music? Every guitar chart on the internet lists Bb/A# as the same chord.
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May 30, 2015 16:16
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fullroundaction posted:At the risk of sounding dumber than I already do, why does it matter which one you pick when not in the context of a whole piece of music? Because even though Bb/A# are enharmonic, Bb is a key that will use way fewer accidentals to express the same notes. It's a centuries old best practice/more sane way of expressing the same information since a Bb major triad is Bb, D, and F and an A# major triad is A#, C##, and E#. Both will sound the same to the ear but it's just silly to have C## instead of D and E# instead of F. Waldstein Sonata fucked around with this message at 16:39 on May 30, 2015 |
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May 30, 2015 16:36
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In the context of the chords F, Dm, and C, then that collection of notes is Bb, not A#. That piece is in the key of F, which contains the following chords: F, Gm, Am, Bb, C(7), Dm, Em7b5. the note A is natural in your key, not sharp. However, the note B is flatted. Using A# would be confusing as you would have to repeatedly switch between a natural sign when encountering the note A present in the F chord and Dm chord, and the "A#" (more elegantly named Bb) note present in the A# chord. (e: expressed much more succinctly by that guy ^ )
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May 30, 2015 16:51
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A more directly half-assed explanation is that in yr normal modes and whatnot, you have one each of the notes A B C D E F G. Some of the notes will actually be inbetween, so you can name them F# or Gb (for example), but there'll be a way to still have one (and only one) of each C D E Gb G A B <- bad, missing an F and you got two Gs! C D E F# G A B <- badass, everyone gets a participation award With the normal modes you can just pick either all sharps or all flats, one will work and one won't (until you get to the mayhem at the bottom of the circle of fifths, then you get a choice of hells) The other nice thing about this is you can see scales as a variation on the plain A B C D E F G run - G major is just sharping the F. Now you know G major. D major has a sharp F and a sharp C. A major has a sharp F, C and G. Not much to remember and hopefully you can see the simple pattern that's developing here too, which I won't get into since I'm trying to keep this short You can still have things like this: Eb F G Ab Bb C D which is Eb major, and then have a Cb in it. Enharmonically Cb is the same as B, but functionally you're taking the 7th (C) and flatting it (mixolydian mode, basically). Calling it Cb shows you exactly what you've done in the context of the key, changing the 7th and not the 6th (the Bb), and it maintains that one-of-each setup. It's also how that minor key I can never remember the name of works - the one where it's minor 7th going down and major 7th going up. Melodic? Anyway what you're doing there is literally changing the 7th note, so it makes sense to describe that with the notation baka kaba fucked around with this message at 17:44 on May 30, 2015 |
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May 30, 2015 17:41
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What's the most elegant and cost-effective way to send the wet sound from my EHX Freeze pedal to a different amp when I use it onstage?
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May 30, 2015 17:49
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Music theory: where you can be Right, Wrong, Not-Right, and Not-Wrong all at the same time. I appreciate your explanations though. I don't put any thought into #/b designations when I'm just notating things quickly, but I guess it would be beneficial for me to as an exercise to do so. I think I may have asked this before, but is there any "official" way to write (for example) Emajor in different positions/octaves? Example: code:
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May 30, 2015 18:17
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Shugojin posted:Is this true with all the pickups? Just tried this, removed the lead wire from it, no change. It's like my pickups are completely unresponsive at lower string volumes, it's happening on the A too. I'll see if I can get a sound sample.
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May 30, 2015 18:24
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fullroundaction posted:Music theory: where you can be Right, Wrong, Not-Right, and Not-Wrong all at the same time. It's not that it's wrong exactly, it's just that theory (which in the end is about 'why does this sound good and how can I make more') is like a framework with a bunch of rules, and if you apply those rules you'll get useful info and patterns that make things easier to remember and understand. I mean I'm a complete amateur, but what I do know is pretty elegant when I see it in action. It sort of all comes together nicely, and you start to get why it was developed that way. But in the end it's just one language for describing music stuff
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May 30, 2015 18:27
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Okay dumb question incoming! If I down tune my PRS to C#/D standard with 10s, will the intonation be as accurate as it is at E with the same strings? I've tuned my SG down to C# with 11s to play some Sabbath/QotSA and it sounds and feels so good to me right now. The PRS is a one piece stoptail and has spot on intonation in standard with 10s so I'm hoping I'm good.
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May 30, 2015 18:47
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Dewgy posted:Just tried this, removed the lead wire from it, no change. It's like my pickups are completely unresponsive at lower string volumes, it's happening on the A too. I'll see if I can get a sound sample. If you can take a picture of your wiring would be nice too. I have your diagram but a picture would let me spot any weird mistakes. If everything is low volume then it sounds like something is grounding where it shouldn't.
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May 30, 2015 19:00
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