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Stumpus posted:Been playing chords, and my fingers feel SO FAT. I feel like they get in the way of eachother like I had sausages instead of fingers. I used to feel the same way. You will eventually end up with better control of your fingers. It is rather strange, because at first, even when you take a minute or two to make a cord change, your fingers still seem to get in the way. You will get it eventually. Just take the time to practice the cord changes. Ironically, I haven't played any cords but barre cords in a while, and I tried playing some Led Zeppelin songs, and its like my hands forgot how to do the basic cords in first position. So let that be a lesson to you. Always make sure to practice some of the basics every once in a while. Gripen5 fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Oct 7, 2010 |
# ¿ Oct 7, 2010 16:07 |
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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 18:01 |
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So a while back I bought a AL-3000. Its a nice guitar and all, but from it I basically learned that LP style guitars just aren't for me. I don't like the way it sits when I am playing sitting down. I feel like its too heavy on my shoulder when I am standing. And I feel like it has somewhat limiting access to the high notes, especially on the low strings (E, A, etc.). I also like the neck on my MIM strat a lot more than the neck on the LP. The LP one feels a bit to chunky for my medium to small size hands and the strat has much better access to those upper notes. I do, however, like dual humbuckers and the TOM bridge. I am looking at other guitars, which I might be able to get that have a strat like neck with humbuckers and a fixed bridge. I went to a few local guitar stores and nothing really caught my eye. I figured a telecaster would have a neck similar to a strat, but it didn't seem like it at the store, but I feel uncomfortable in a guitar store for whatever reason and feel like I have never pickup a guitar before, so nothing feels quite right. I did like a Jag I picked up, but it has a 24" scale, which from what I read, the bridge can be tricky to adjust to a good string height and require heavier gauge strings to prevent the strings from popping out of the saddles. Which has me a little concerned because I normally use 9s or 10s. Is this typical of that style guitar? Do you not get additional string tension because of the shorter scale even with heavier strings, so bends won't be any more difficult? I was originally looking for something with 22 frets, because the strat sometimes toys with me that it only has 21 frets, and a TOM, but these aren't hard requirements. The obvious answer is an SG, of course, but I figured it would have the same type of neck as an LP. I was hoping to keep it under $500 if I can. I also don't mind the electronics and hardware to be crap if its a great platform to build off of. I kinda was looking at this as a project guitar anyway. I for a short time considered just getting a telecaster body with a TOM routed for humbuckers on warmoth, but I was worried that starting from scratch might be getting over my head very quickly. Any suggestions on where I should go in my search? I don't really know much about various necks and how they compare. So I figured I should at least find a place to start rather than running all over the place with no direction. For reference, the Jag I messed around with in store was this one: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/fender-classic-player-jaguar-special-electric-guitar So it wasn't the squire or the blacktop.
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# ¿ Apr 9, 2014 17:10 |
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Krustic posted:You need to try an Explorer body shape. Seems to be everything your looking for. I own an ibanez dt-50 that is really nice but I've also played some Hammer and Epiphone explorers that were solid as well. I think they are especially good for people with long arms. I have owned every guitar type you listed and I'm set on the explorers now. Thanks. I will definitely look into them. umalt posted:The only Jag bridge you'll need to worry about is the standard kind; Thanks for all the info on Jags. I always liked the look of them, but between the fact that they have all the controls, the short scale, and are typically on the higher range of prices, I never really looked at them too closely. I guess they are definitely an option. The stratocaster I have is a Mexican made one from around '08. I don't know much more about it than that. If there is something I can look at on my instrument to get you more info, I can take a look when I get home tonight. As far as TOM bridge go, I felt like palm muting on the LP was easier than on the strat. However, a large part of that reason is because the volume control is right below the bridge and it feels in the way when palm muting the e, B, and sometimes G strings. I am probably focusing on it too much for no particular reason in truth. But I do want a hardtail. I love my strat, but sometimes you just don't want to have to deal with a tremolo.
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# ¿ Apr 9, 2014 18:17 |
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comes along bort posted:Just deck your trem and install a humbucker in your strat. That isn't a bad idea. Looked it up, seems simple enough. I will have to take a look how the guitar is routed. I know it can fit a humbucker in the bridge, not sure about the neck. But I might want to rethink how I want to do the neck pickup, because I do like the strat sound on neck pickup that it has now. Maybe I can do an HSH or HHS configuration? Still leaves me with 21 frets, but probably a whole lot cheaper than getting a whole new guitar.
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# ¿ Apr 9, 2014 18:52 |
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^^ I think it was just the standard neck. I think what I like better about the strat is that it has both a smaller neck and a smaller fretboard. It lets me use my thumb a little bit better than on the LP. But it also just feels more comfortable. baka kaba posted:What about Jazzmasters? Basically the same body, fewer controls, standard scale length... Interesting. The Vintage Modified line looks very close to what I am looking for. It has a locking button on the tremolo system, so you can change that in no time. Two humbuckers. I need to look closer at the specs of the neck, but the 9.5" radius is the same as what is on my strat. It lacks the typical upper horn controls that are in normal jags and jazzmasters, but I doubt I would miss the functionality. Thanks for all this info, guys. It gives me a lot to think about. I am leaning towards selling the Agile and getting something new to replace it at this point, while leaving the strat alone. I got some upgraded stuff for it and like it as is for the moment. Gripen5 fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Apr 9, 2014 |
# ¿ Apr 9, 2014 20:31 |
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booshi posted:I don't think you were looking at a VM Jazzmaster. The trem is non-locking, it has a SS pickup configuration, and it has all of the standard JM controls. You are right. I think I was looking at the Modern Player. http://www.fender.com/series/modern-player/modern-player-jazzmaster-hh-rosewood-fingerboard-crimson-red-transparent/ I was planning on replacing the pickups no matter what I did. So I might just go for the squire and upgrade the hardware and electronics and still probably make out in terms of price. Is the replacement Mustang bridge pretty standard?
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# ¿ Apr 9, 2014 20:51 |
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booshi posted:^^^^^^ Haha, yep. I was looking at GFS at least to play around with various sounds. When I started thinking about a new guitar, I had this weird idea of putting their humbucker sized mean 90 in the neck and a power rails in the bridge. But I think that is mostly because I have been listening to a lot of Muse lately, and they are vaguely similar to pickups Matt Bellamy uses, without spending over $100 per pickup. However, I will probably end up with something like a Crunchy PAT in the neck and a VEH in the bridge, since I probably play more blues and Rock than anything really.
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# ¿ Apr 9, 2014 21:24 |
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comes along bort posted:Power rails are stupidly high output and kinda dark because of the emphasis on low-mids. You'd need to screw them down pretty far to balance a P90. Yeah. I don't need anything that is super high output. I don't really do a lot of super high gain stuff, so something meant for a little less distortion is probably better. I guess I can still do my plan of a mean P90 in the neck and maybe do a VEH in the bridge. I know GFS did that one one of their guitars at some point. I do like to turn up the gain and distortion sometimes, but I doubt it really gets much past basic 80s metal sort of sound. Edit: Something I didn't think about until now is that since P90s are single coil, they probably have some minor hum. Does that disappear or at least reduce when the pickup selector is in the middle position when wired with a humbucker? Gripen5 fucked around with this message at 13:56 on Apr 10, 2014 |
# ¿ Apr 10, 2014 13:48 |
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I've never used open top tuners, but the ones with the hole seem pretty easy to work with. Put the string through. Pull back two finger worth. Crease the string on both sides of the tuner. Even before winding, you can pull on the string and its clearly not going anywhere.
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# ¿ Apr 10, 2014 18:22 |
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I noticed that Musician's Friend's Stupid Deal of the Day is a Moog 12-Stage Phaser. I am not really in the market for one, but I know that a few people have proclaimed there love for all things Moog, so I wanted to give a heads up. It's still $200, so not exactly inexpensive, but they claim that $300 is regular price (and that seems consistent with a quick search elsewhere), so not a bad discount.
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# ¿ May 22, 2014 17:02 |
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GF use to (until very, very recently I think) have a Xaviere guitar and the body was practically an exact replica of the SG body. I was surprised they were able to get away with it, but I am sure it only lasted as long as it did because they are so small time, that Gibson never noticed.
Gripen5 fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Jun 19, 2014 |
# ¿ Jun 19, 2014 21:22 |
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I keep toying with the idea of getting a tele routed for humbuckers and put the Dream 90 in the neck and the VEH in the bridge. It seems like a great combo for what I want to do. However, I really feel like I need to get rid of one of my guitars first.
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# ¿ Jun 22, 2014 13:05 |
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Mr. Wiggles posted:Posting for the other guitarist in my band, who is having a very hard time deciding on a new guitar. We need some suggestions, since I think we're tapped out on thoughts. Fender's Blacktop series should probably fit the bill. They come in Jaguar, Strat, Tele, and Jazzmaster. They are routed for humbuckers and I believe they are just one tone, one volume, and one pickup selector (the jazzmaster might have more but I don't think so). The one drawback is they are at the high end of your price range. They all retail for about $500. But you might get lucky and find one used for under $400 locally. If you don't mind used, I have heard good things about mid level PRS's and ESP guitars. Looks like the Jazzmaster has a humbucker bridge and Jazzmaster neck pickup, but does not have any of the other buttons on it. Also I should note that the strat does have a floating bridge if that maters. Also, the Jag has the 24" scale he wasn't so fond of. The tele fits what he is looking for. I am looking at getting a fixed bridge guitar routed for two humbuckers and I really want to look at the blacktop tele and jag and the PRS Single Cut, but finding any of the three local seems drat near impossible.
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# ¿ Jul 7, 2014 19:21 |
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There is an Agile Hawker with a Wilkinson floating bridge on Craig's list for $140,which I would love to get just to mess around with. However, the guitar has no strings on it and hasn't been played in a year. It doesn't say how long it has been without strings, but I would say that it will likely be for an entire year. Is it likely the neck is messed up from not having any tension on it? It would also be difficult to tell if anything else is hosed on it. Should I just give it a pass?
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# ¿ Jul 12, 2014 16:34 |
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unlawfulsoup posted:I would not bother unless you plan on removing the awful "Thank you Lord" sticker on it. Yeah. I definitely was. But I had a feeling it's not gonna be worth the trouble. Oh well. Maybe I willl splurge and get a low end. Santana some day.
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# ¿ Jul 12, 2014 19:03 |
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Kilometers Davis posted:True except for That really reminds me of something... One of the many guitars custom made for Matt Bellamy of Muse by legendary luthier Hugh Manson. I can never tell if these guitars look absolutely horrible or loving amazing. I think it depends on my mood. Edit: Image doesn't seem to be working. Oh well. Edit2: Fixed. Gripen5 fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Jul 28, 2014 |
# ¿ Jul 28, 2014 18:30 |
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unlawfulsoup posted:It is just really plain if you ask me. Yeah, that one is rather plain. I kind of like the more plain ones he has rather than the complex. This one is probably my favorite, even though I wouldn't really feel a need for all the on board effects and most of the knobs and switches would probably get in the way: I mean really. An on-board fuzz factory, phase 90, midi strip, and proximity wah prob. I feel like it would be hard to use most of that while playing. While I really kind of hate this one: I just don't like bright glittery paint jobs. But obviously others love that sort of things. Even more so because it would piss off someone like me Although the MIDI pad is pretty neat.
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# ¿ Jul 28, 2014 21:44 |
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When decking a strat trem (most likely with the 5 spring method), does it matter which bridge system is already in place? Would the two post trem system from a Modern Player Strat work just as well as a 6 screw MIM bridge? It seems like the MP bridge is meant to flex towards the body (to sharpen notes) and could create issues when trying to deck the trem. The reason I ask is that I was thinking of getting either the HSH MP Strat or a MIM blacktop HH strat, and they have different bridges, and I wanted to know if I was better off with the blacktop even though its more expensive. Chances are that I will likely change just about everything on the guitar except for the neck and body by the time I am done messing with it.
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# ¿ Aug 5, 2014 17:48 |
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Sockington posted:If you're changing everything, is there a reason your not using a Squier CV/VM as a base? HH routing. From what I can gather, it looks like the CV/VM are both only routed for S in the front slot. However, I mostly found that from looking at people selling old squier bodies. I am hesitant to take a chisel or dremel to the guitar body. Plus wouldn't I have to refinish it afterwards so the wood doesn't dry out or rot or something?
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# ¿ Aug 5, 2014 18:01 |
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Agreed. Do you have any recommendations for midi pedal boards for Amplitube 3? I would prefer not to spend an arm and a leg. I have a stealth pedal, so expression pedals isn't as much of a concern, but extra pedals are always nice. I have heard both very positive and negative things about the Behringer fcb1010 and most other options are like 2 footswitches or at least $400 to $500.
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# ¿ Aug 16, 2014 16:01 |
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I can't get proper intonation (like not even close, flat by almost half a semi-tone) on the 12th fret on my strat. It is the standard MIM bridge and I have unscrewed the saddle on the bridge to almost the point where it looks like it could pop right off if I unscrew it anymore. Does this just mean that I need new strings? Or just heavier ones?
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# ¿ Aug 25, 2014 16:11 |
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juche mane posted:You need to use new strings to intonate. They wear at frets and where you bend, so after a decent amount of playing, there's less mass and less tension at certain parts on the string. Gotcha. Thanks. Probably time to try a new brand anyway.
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# ¿ Aug 25, 2014 16:39 |
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The only string I am having an issue with is the high e string. I am using a set of Ernie Ball 9's. It has been probably a few months since I last change them, so that is likely the problem, but I can look a little bit into neck relief tonight. However, I believe one of the other threads mentioned that Ernie Ball's are generally terrible strings, so I might look into something else, like maybe NYXLs, which I see recommended all the time. Not like I change the strings often enough where the $5 difference is back breaking.
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# ¿ Aug 25, 2014 18:51 |
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Alleric posted:I ran D'Addario 9's on my MIM and had no issues, even on the stamped saddles. And I had to change the saddle depth minimally when I went back and forth between 10's. Heh me too. Thanks for the offer though. I will probably just find a youtube video and do a complete set up when I can string a few hours together to do it.
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# ¿ Aug 25, 2014 19:15 |
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unlawfulsoup posted:If you go for a CV make sure you try it in person first (I know, sound advice for any guitar). I bought mine off rave reviews and even after having a luthier set it up I am still dealing with buzzing, a month after it was fixed. Also I have said this a billion times but whoever did mine did the loving laziest wood matching ever. It is so bad I am considering a loving bigsby to cover up the section. A loving bigsby, ugh. Spare yourself that kind of headache. Sounds like my C-1. It buzzes all the time on the high e 12th fret and the b 17th fret, which is bizarrely the same note. Sometimes bridge or truss rod adjustments fixes it for a few weeks. But it always seems to come back. Great guitar otherwise, but really frustrating. Brought it to a luthier and he says it has an unfixable blemish on the neck. But my my untrained eye can't seem to find, so I have no idea if he was just bull making GBS threads me. He also said that Schecter's were known for neck blemishes.
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# ¿ Aug 27, 2014 22:28 |
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I do not plan on doing this, but I just had a strange thought experiment. Is possible (or reasonable) to replace the tune-o-matic style bridge on a Jaguar or Jazzmaster with a wrap-around style bridge to turn it into a hard-tail? It seems like it could work if the replacement bridge lines up and fits into the existing inserts. Smash it Smash hit posted:I like how dick dale suspends his spring reverb from the ceiling with a rope so not to get any vibrations loving up his sprinnnng. gently caress yeah. Hanging something from the ceiling sounds like your goal is to make sure nothing dampens the vibrations rather than eliminate them. But even then it would dampen vertical vibrations, but not vibrations in any other direction. If anything, I would think that would make things worse. I feel like it would result in the opposite of what you are describing. Unless I am just not understanding what you mean. I feel like you would get really unexpected and inconsistent results. Then again, maybe that was what he was going for. Musicians are a superstitious bunch when it comes to "tone" so for all I know it doesn't do a drat thing.
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# ¿ Oct 2, 2014 19:53 |
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I am probably an anomaly. But I bought an Agile and don't much care for it. Turns out I am not a fan of the LP shape and they are heavy as hell. Mine is over 10 lbs, which doesn't sound heavy until you have it strapped over your shoulder for an hour. Bought a wide padded strap and that only marginally helped. Its a nice guitar, but in the end, just not really for me. Trying to sell it, but not much action so far.
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# ¿ Oct 28, 2014 18:20 |
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40 OZ posted:You are not an anamoly. I'm one of those, but there are alot of people who don't like LP's specifically because of the weight. I would love a tele with strat comfort contours. Maybe some humbuckers. I know warmoth makes bodies like that, but I wouldn't want to building a guitar from scratch without knowing if I even like it.
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# ¿ Oct 28, 2014 19:42 |
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unlawfulsoup posted:Agiles can be kind of heavy but that is more of a Les Paul thing in general unless you get chambered ones or are lucky enough to own a less dense piece I guess. Really that is all the more reason people should go to guitar centers and try everything before you buy. You may not be able to try an Agile but if you do not like a high end Epi because of weight/feel, you probably will not want an AL either. A few months back I decided to go to a guitar shop and play just about every guitar that I had even a mild interest in just to see what type of guitars I liked. Oddly enough I tried LP style Epiphones and ESPs and enjoyed them. But as much as I want to like my Agile I just can't because of the weight. Messing around with a guitar for 10 minutes just isn't the same as owning it. In fact, I don't think I found a single guitar I didn't like. I do admit I keep going back and forth on getting rid of it, just because it is quite different than my strat and is a classic guitar to own. I bought a Blacktop Jaguar HH as sort of a replacement for it. Haven't really figured out if I do or don't like it either. Guess I am not really happy with guitars that aren't strats. Nothing like your first guitar I guess
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# ¿ Oct 28, 2014 19:59 |
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RagingHematoma posted:I really liked the Humbucker sound on the Gibson SG I had, but I found it really uncomfortable to play sitting down. How does the humbucker sound compare on the Jaguar you have to a Gibson SG or similar? I wish I had a good answer for you. But have never played an SG plugged in (just noodled in the store unplugged) and don't really have a good ear for that anyway. All the reviews seems to say that the pickups in the the Jaguar are terrible and muddy. However, I haven't really thought that, but through amplitube in headphones they sound pretty good. Did notice that the pickup selector switch cause my signal to crack when the switch is touched at all. A common problem from what I read. I mostly play my cleans on an AC-30 model and my dirty stuff through a Marshall JCM-800 model. Sounds pretty good to me. Definitely the classic humbucker sound. I think it sounds fantastic for cleans especially. Can't do it tonight. But maybe over the weekend I will try and A/B it a bit with my Agile-3000 and report back on my impressions. It's sounds terrible when recording through reaper, so I am not sure I will do that. But I wouldn't want to subject you guys to my playing anyway.
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# ¿ Oct 31, 2014 04:57 |
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RagingHematoma posted:I really liked the Humbucker sound on the Gibson SG I had, but I found it really uncomfortable to play sitting down. How does the humbucker sound compare on the Jaguar you have to a Gibson SG or similar? This is from a few pages back, but I finally got around to doing a little messing around. So I will warn you to take everything I say with a grain of salt as my ears are really bad at comparing tones. So I compared my Jaguar HH with an Agile AL-3000. Don't own an SG so that is the best I could do. The Agile sound a lot better quality. So I am guess all of the electronics are much better so the comparison might not be fair. I did all my testing on Amplitube 3. I played most of the cleaner stuff on an AC30 model and most of the heavier stuff on a JCM800 model. The tone for the Agile was heavier but still clear. At first I thought the Jaguar was twangier, but the more I compared the two, I think it was just my ears playing tricks on me. I thought the Jaguar was somewhat brighter, but not by a lot. Heavey gain settings were similar for both, but the Agile seemed to deal with the high gain better. The biggest differences seemed to be when played clean. Honestly, I feel like most of the differences were due to the Jaguar pickups just being low quality. I am not really finding the words to describe the difference and only had about 20 minutes to mess around with them. I will try to record something this weekend, but last time I tried, Reaper sounded like I was smashing my guitars into speaker cabinets. Hopefully I have a free moment to figure that out.
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# ¿ Nov 7, 2014 03:37 |
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Verizian posted:To get Reaper working right make sure you're using ASIO4ALL drivers and add ReaGate VST in the FX list. Just tweak it to cut out unwanted noise without squashing any dynamics. What interface are you currently using? My interface is an IK stealth pedal. It sounds great through my headphones, but just awful when I play back a recording. I will look definitely have a look at those settings next time.
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# ¿ Nov 7, 2014 04:40 |
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appropriatemetaphor posted:I've got a strat right now, and kinda want to get a short-scale guitar like a jaguar. what's the recommended cheapish but not garbage model? probably looking at spending ~400 or so. Just a heads up. If you are still looking for a Jaguar style guitar, Musician's Friend has the Blacktop Jaguar (TOM bridge and two Humbuckers) on sale for $400. I don't know if you are looking for a more traditional style Jag or just something with a shorter scale, but its $100 off its usual price. Plus you can probably give them a call and get some additional percentage off based on whatever coupons that have going right now. The Modern Player Jaguar is $300 (normal price of $400), which is basically the same, but it has two p90s and a rear route control cavity instead of a "loaded" pickguard.
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# ¿ Nov 19, 2014 15:21 |
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Looks like it comes as both a head for about $400 and a 1x12 combo for about $600. If you bought the head version you would need a cabinet. But the combo version looks like it can hook up to two external cabs if you decide you need more than one 12" speaker. Reading up on it, it looks really versatile. Something to keep in mind if I ever am in the market for a smaller Tube amp.
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# ¿ Nov 22, 2014 21:13 |
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I have wanted to make a budget humbucker/p90 parts caster for a while. Never quite figured out a good bridge option. It seemed like a rare but interesting combination.
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# ¿ Nov 26, 2014 02:05 |
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Kilometers Davis posted:Well there we go. 15% off over 200 on Musicians Friend. Makes the baritone right under 300 if anyone's interested! Nine times out of 10, if you call up MF they will accept the coupon. Their deal with the major brands say they aren't allowed to include them in store wide coupons/sales. But its an open secret that that is just for legal purposes and minimum pricing. If you really want the guitar. Give them a call. They want your money and will do what they can to get it. Just be warned this might have a negative impact on your bank account. Double edged sword.
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# ¿ Jan 1, 2015 15:08 |
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How long can you leave the strings off a guitar before doing damage to it? Is it in the range of a few days or is it just don't leave them off for months? I am doing some mods to my strat and I needed to get some extra parts and it might be a few days. Should I put some sacrificial strings on it while I wait?
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# ¿ Jan 4, 2015 16:49 |
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Warcabbit posted:Oooh, the PAC510V has the P-rails Single/P90/Humbucker. Anyone have any strong opinions on P-Rails one way or the other. They seem like a pretty neat concept. Most reviews I see about them are very positive, except that they have a somewhat "weak" strat sound with the rail.
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# ¿ Jan 14, 2015 17:48 |
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mekrob posted:I really like the p-rails on my Godin icon convertible, they're pretty versatile. I mostly play humbuckers, though, so I might not notice if the single coil mode wasn't up to snuff. I like the idea of having p90s, PAF style humbuckers, and hot humbuckers all in one guitar. It would be nice to throw in strat neck as well. I wouldn't much miss either the quack or bridge single coil. Supposedly you can get a better strat neck sound by flipping the rail towards the neck, but you lose a little bit of the quack. Which would be fine by me. Is there really much difference in the voicing between series and parallel that you have noticed? Or is it just a difference in output? At any rate. Thanks for the input.
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# ¿ Jan 14, 2015 19:40 |
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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 18:01 |
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mekrob posted:I haven't touched the wiring, the p-rails came stock on this guitar. According to SD, the p-rails are usually in series, so I'm guessing this one is too. They sound pretty hot, but that might also be due to the active boost on the guitar. Gotcha. I was under the impression that it was two toggles that worked in conjunction to get all 4 settings. Something like the bottom diagram on the link below but with two 2-way switches instead of push/pulls. But from the sounds of it, there are two ON-OFF-ON 3 way switches that control each pickup like the middle diagram. http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/the-tone-garage/the-p-rails-wiring-bible-part-3/ I keep thinking I am going to wire up a strat (cause I can't get enough strats) like either the icon 2 or icon 3. But that is probably a bit into the future as I am currently wiring up a strat for a p90/humbucker combo. Which is something I have wanted to do for about a year and finally decided to go for it.
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# ¿ Jan 14, 2015 21:35 |