creepingnet's forum posts 42

I don't really have a preference these days honestly, I've seen the good and bad of both. If I were to be honest though, I'm more of a Modeling guy.

Like most my age (I'm 42) I started out on Transistor amplifiers in the 90's when the whole "hey man, this sounds like real tubes (Transtube Peavey et. al)" thing was a thing. And honestly, I used a lot of them and could make them sound great if I dialed em' in good. My favorite coveted transistor amps were the Peavey Stereo Chorus 212 and Classic Chorus 212. Anything blue-stripe with a Supersat knob was probably my favorite. Even against current modeling though, those amps sound very flat by comparison.

Tube amps are typically warmer and have a nice "glassy" sound when clean that I really like, and if I had infinite pockets I'd probably be more gung ho of continuing down the Tube Amp path. Some of my favorites were the Mesa Boogie Heartbreaker, Carvin X60, and Marshal TSL JCM2000 Superlead, but those were all spendy. I finally got my first Tube amp in 2008 with the Bugera 333XL.but the cost of ownership keeps going up on changing tubes, and it's been a lot of care and mainteannce keeping that thing up compared to a transistor amplifier. Also, I have no use for it now since I'm not playing live anywhere.

I just got a Boss Katana for a modeling amp. I can dial it in so It sounds like the Bugera, it's 100W so it's plenty loud enough for the stage, but has an 0.5w setting with a 5" speaker so it's good for jamming aloud in the house during the daytime. It plays well with my Line6 HD500 so I've been able to reduce my pedal-count drastically. That's where I'm personally heading with amplifiers these days because I'm just tired of clutter, lots of wires, and having to have 2-3-4-5 different amps when one will get the sound I want.

hehehe, that sound should be my ringtone when I call people, LOL. Just impromptu bought a Squier Jaguar and was buried in builds all last summer for not just myself but people close to me. If it's not bought, I'll probably build it.

Jesse Welles is awesome, that guy puts out a new song almost every day.

Well, there's this ambitious project, a headless guitar based o the Atari logo.

https://creepingnet.neocities.org/geartech/geartech/builds/guitari/mockup1.png

Ernie Ball Paradigm .009-.042 on all my guitars at this point. They last so long it saves me about $20+ on guitar strings each year.

Currently I'm running two boards....

My "Analog" Board is a SKB PS-45 powered pedalboard with - BOSS TU-2 Tuner - CreepingNet FazzFuzz Fuzz Pedal (home built) - CreepingNet SkullFuzz Fuzz Pedal (home built) - EHX Pitch Fork - Crybaby GCB95 Wah Wah - Behringer PH-9 Phaser - Digitech X-Series Flanger - EHX Small Clone reissue - BOSS DD-7 Digital Delay - Behringer (Plastic) Noise Gate

I use a mix of Radio Shack, Horizon, Home Built, and Monster Cable cables.

I'm also building a "Digital" board for Direct input, and possibly just moving to a digital solution for the halfstack using a Line6 HD500 currently. I was fairly well able to replicate everything above on that board the way I use it and then some so I might start using that instead. Postage Stamp sized stages are quite a reality for me these days.

I'm not too worried about it right now because I'm not really gigging, and somehow the tubes in my Bugera 333XL are lasting a long time despite me having played. I do have 4 spare EL34s to use if it comes down to it. But since the Pandemic, I've not been playing out and I've been using my Line6 HD500 and BandLab's amp modeling more.

In some ways, I kind of wish to try playing in a band with just amp modeling direct to board. I did this a few times playing open jams and got a LOT of compliments on my sound (probably in part due to the full stereo chorus I use - I was using a Digitech RP250 at the time), yet I joined a Seattle area band about 7 years ago and when I suggested this for the smaller clubs the Mennonite on Rhythm guitar said "no man, those things sound like shit" - even though I had just brought in a demo of my own music a few days before and everyone mentioned how it sounded like a "studio album" - yeah, that was the Digitech into a SoundBlaster card on an old PC. With the Line6 HD500 I'm using now, I'd be taking up 1/3rd of what I do on stage with the full live setup with analog pedals and a tube halfstack, and be able to do actually quite a bit more. Sometimes limitation bolsters innovation. And with the dwindling sizes of stages in clubs these days, I'd much rather walk down the street with 2 guitars and a Line6 board in my back, than need to schlep a friggin 120 watt halfstack, 50LBs of stompboxes, and at least 2 guitars to a show, and then find a parking spot, and spend about $10 in gasoline to get there and back due to all the driving around for a parking spot.

The thoughts on the debt to Fender, and Fender probably being in Debt as a result will probably lead to Fender being the next ones to have problems, and that bothers me because I like Fender.

Oh well, it's not like I need more gear anyway, I'm currently purging a good bit of my collection off, and I tend to stay out of music stores. If I really get G.A.S. bad and want a piece of gear bad enough I can just break out the tools and build it myself.....as more than half my collection already shows.

Well...I play a Jaguar and I play metal/high gain rock on that. But then I don't exactly subscribe to normalcy at all when it comes to gear either.

But if you're looking for something a little more "generic" or a "beater" as we sometimes call them, nothing beats a good ole "Fat strat" or HSS Strat. They're a dime a dozen, not that expensive, most of them have a nice high output humbucker in the back (ie. 9K-16K Ohms, usually Ceramic, and often are 3 or 4 conductor and therefore splittable - also doable with 2 conductor if you are handy with soldering and adding wires ot hair thin wire). They can also be had with a Floyd Rose locking vibrato of some kind, or with the standard strat vibrato and can be anywhere from $75 on up depending on weather you buy new, used, and where on the price totem-pole it is.

Some good cheapies to buy - both HSS Strats and some HH and HSH guitars as well

• Squier Bullet HSS - My wife owns this one, sounds amazing and plays rather well and stays in tune really well, I strung it up with .008's to make it easier on her fingers
• Squier Affinity "Fat Strat" - played a lot of these, can be hit and miss but some are great, vintage strat tremolo stays in tune well
• Ibanez RX Series - played a lot of these, can hardly go wrong with Ibanez, HH, HSH, and SSH with various trem units
• Ibanez RG2EX1 - I bought one of these for $25 and fixed it up, AMAZING playability, hardtail HH "Guitar Center spot model"
• Memphis 302HB - The early Matsamoku models are underrated and sound amazing, it's also the same guitar as one of the Hondo models so you may be habel to find these as a Hondo Hsomethingsomething as well. The later Samick built Korean ones can have neck issues though, but the pickups in the Samick built ones are bloody amazing. HSS vintage trem, coil split.
• Ibanez Roadstar II - I've played these in 3 single coil, HSS, and HH formats. As always, great Ibanez model, comes in hardtail and in tremolo, though I'd avoid that strange tremolo unit they used in the 80's where the strings attach to the bridge plate, wrap around the saddles, and are locked in place with screws as those are bloody TEDIOUS to change strings on.
• Aria Pro II ____Cat (Cat Series) - I've played one or two of these, great guitars, has a coil split, usually comes with a Kahler 2300 locking trem system that stays in tune really well and is very smooth. Japanese made and underrated.
• Squier Jagmaster - These can be hit and miss, the early 2000 models (up to 2005 or so) are 25.5" scale, the newer ones are 24" scale. with a conversion neck. These are HH with a standard strat trem, the pickups are on the Cobainy-side of things but do metal really well. Beware though, the early "Vista Series" ones are amazing guitars but go at a premium now because they are not as common, those use the same neck as your Jaguar does basically.
• 80's Kramer Focus/Striker/Aerostar/KX 1xxx/2xxx/3xxx - These are all based on the Kramer Beretta, Pacer, and Pacer Deluxe, they usually have licensed floyds, though some Strikers may have an ORIGINAL Floyd Rose with no locking tuners. Focus were made in Japan by ESP, Striker were made by Samick, Aerostar and KX by whoever made Harmony. Be careful though as some of these are ridden hard and put away wet which can give them some tuning/stability/wlectrical issues if they were not properly taken care of.
• YAmaha Pacifica 112 series - Anything made by Yamaha is pretty solid, I owned a Pacifica 112V a few years ago, great guitar, only reason I got rid of it is I have too many HSS Strats already.

If ytou really like the Jaguar there are also a lot of Jaguar/Jazzmaster variants with humbuckers including....

• Squier VM Jaguar (early version) - This is the older hardtail version with dual humbuckers and concentric pots that was released in 2008 and discontinued in 2012, they never sold too well but are great guitars for the money.

• Fender Modern Player Jaguar P-90 - this has a pair of P-90's with plenty of oomph for high gain tones. Again, it's a hardtail though.

• Fender Blacktop Jaguar HH - Simialr to the Squier VM Jaguar, made in Mexico, a bit more expensive, but they play great.

• Fender Jazzmaster Blacktop - Another one that did not sell well, combines a Jazzmaster pickup, simplified switching, and a Jazzmaster vibrato unit with a newer version of the bridge to make it more stable. These are great for hard rock. Bridge pickup is pretty good

• GFS JZ Series - A bit smaller than a Jag/Jazz but they make them in all sorts of configurations including dual P-90's, Jazzmaster pickups, SSS, and HH configurations with and without various vibratos that GFS sells as separate parts in a rainbow of colors. I've heard a lot of good things about those, and a few not-so-good things on par with what to expect from a $200-400 guitar.

• SX Jag Copies - They make a few variants of the Jazzmaster with 3 single coils and possibly in HSS configuations as well. Have heard good and bad, can't think they are that bad as they are popular guitar brand to buy to hot-rod. They also make a model called the "Liquid" if you want something very Jazz/Jag like yet weird.

The SX can be found on Rondo Music, and there they have some good stuff too in Strat/Tele/Les Paul/SG format with humbuckers and so on for not too bad. They only get expensive once you get into multi-scale, fanned fret, 7+ string guitars.

I've tried out the HD500X and would love to get one but I can't really afford it. Maybe after I move next year I can afford this - I am tempted to downsize considerably.....I'm kind of curious if there's a way to emulate some of my home-made wacko pedals with it (FazzFuzz in particular).

Well....I can vouch for the Univox UB-252 if you like wacky old vintage stuff. They only go for around $300 or so with the matching 1X15 cabinet. Just recently fixed up a 1976 model, it's on my Equipboard.

Musical curiosities.....most of mine involve guitar design...

Did Fernandez ever Sell the Artwave V7 guitar outside of Japan, in the USA perhaps? http://dreamworks.fc2web.com/yamaki_daion/image/artwave_v7.jpg

Why does Fender hollywood have a Jag-Stang that looks like a Indonesian made Squier VM series instrument hanging on their wall and is there ever a chance that model will ever come out? https://www.jag-stang.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/BillEliaFenderCelebratesHollywoodOfficeaATmVVesCnrl.jpg

Who used the Hondo/Kramer Paul Dean body shape first? Was it Paul's own design, Attila Balogh/Odyssey's, or Larrivee's? Did Larrivee run off with the Kramer variant? Is the Larrivee Langcaster supposed to be like a modern day reissue of that style of guitar?
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/06/80/a1/0680a18e859eb1c172924d6405dd12dd--guitar-players-guitarist.jpg https://sites.google.com/site/deanmachine2016/_/rsrc/1494008884367/the-guitars/unnamed.jpg https://s13.postimg.org/gd5bzrogn/pdo3.jpg http://www.halkans.com/images6/1236larivee.jpg http://www.vintagekramer.com/stagesig/pdyellow.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Basd-kDCMAE4zMy.jpg

And who the heck made this thing? Someone found it in a dumpster, I can't find info on it so that's one way to pique my curiosity EASILY. https://imgur.com/a/Byigg https://imgur.com/a/dulsy https://imgur.com/a/7H9Io https://imgur.com/a/w4qEd

Well, when it comes to least favorites I don't even give them enough thought to really know what they are, I can just say "that guy right there" when they come on the youtube or whatevers..

Some musicians that are favorites of mine...in no specific order...you could look at all whom I'm following to figure out who all I'm into since I like researching famous guitar rigs to learn how to get this or that sound.

Kurt Cobain Dave Grohl Ric Ocasek Elliot Easton Greg Hawkes Benjamin Orr Ricky Wilson Paul Dean Billy Gibbons Dean DeLeo James Hetfield Dimebag Darrel Whoever those guys in Ghost are

Cars......you can't go wrong with some Cars!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6fBPiFY-QA

Golden Gate Park huh? I visited San Francisco about 3 years ago, had a nice experinece checking out Height Ashbury Music.

Well....they have kind of lost me as a customer, I just started building pedals now, all that's left is amps, and I can have pretty much anything I want made by me myself for a fraction of the cost.

Either would work. I use an Affinity Telecaster as my only Telecaster (check my Equipboard - the only thing I changed was the tuning keys - I should probably review that guitar).

At that time Bruce Springsteen was using a Fender Esquire from circa 1952 or 1953 I believe, which I think I read somewhere he bought it new, and bought the neck pickup (and probably pickguard) from Fender later on and had those installed.

One thing about those old Esquires and Teles from the early 50's is that they had very hot bridge pickups - around 7.xK Ohms resistance, they were the same pickup taken from the Fender Lap Steels (G.E. Smith also used a similar configuration in his signature model, and I presume also with SNL and Hall & Oates). Going by what that song sounds like, I'd say The Boss had a more moderate bridge pickup than usual - I hear more treble, I'd say play both and whichever one "feels/sounds" right to you should be the one to go with. That's what I did when I bought my Tele.

Well, I never RTFM'd REAPER or QuartzAudiomaster or N-Track and have used (and still use 2) of those three and I do quite alright with them, enough to have my bandmates think my demos sound like produced album cuts at least.

Of course, everything I learn is from trial and error - then verification after the fact.

As a Musician in General

1.) People whom are living legends in their own minds. Been in bands with these sorts of people - most of the time they are the singer/primary songwriter and think they write "hits" and that we are going to become the next top 40 overnight sensation, when in reality, and in a lot of cases, just another guy who wants to get rich/famous quick. Before too long with these people, it becomes more and more about the sex/fame/money than about the joy of making music and the "magic" gets sucked out of the project by that attitude. A lot of these types have no idea how the modern music industry works either.

2.) People who refuse theory because it's not "punk rawk" or some other crap like that. It sucks when I try to explain something technical musically to someone and they can't understand it because they either developed their own language, or just play random stuff but can't explain how it works.

3.) People who are snobbish because they know theory. Theory is for inter-musician communication and nothing else, it does not make you a better person for knowing it, it just makes you a better musician to convey to other classically trained musicians. I kind of ride this ridge somewhere in the middle, and just keep learning as I go. I know how to read staff and tab and 99.9% of the time I still do everything from memory because it's faster. Does not make me lesser, just makes me efficient.

4.) Musicians who bring their significant others into band decisions when the S.O. is not a musician or not involved in the project. All that is is a catalyst to drama and causes all kinds of annoyances.

5.) People whom seem to think that controlled substances are an important part of making music. I don't like babysitting a stoned out drunkard who can't play. Have had to do it too many times. You know what sad is? A 28 year old babysitting a 38 year old alcoholic bass player whom is probably on way more than that.

6.) This fucked up contradictory view on money vs. wholesome reason to be performing. Ie. the catch 22 that if you make money as a musician that's what you are after, but if you don't make money you're a no talent hack - who are you to judge based on what is coming in and going out. Even Sonic Youth and the Sex Pistols played for money! Even hitmakers like Journey and Lady Gaga do this because they enjoy what they are doing.

I think a lot of musicians need to stop being judgemental pricks. It'd make the world a better place.

As a Guitarist

1.) Gear Snobs, my #1 enemy. They always pester me to buy this or play that because it's "better" than what I have. Um, I've worked DAMN HARD to figure out what gear I like to play, go buzz off and go shill your Les Pauls and Marshalls elsewhere bub. If anything, I love to tell these guys that it's not 1979 anymore, amps have more gain, you don't need Humbuckers to shred anymore, and Kemper is going to make their oh so special "Valves" obsolete. Don't like that I play a Chinese amp I modded myself, or wacky angular "gumbyesque" "Kirt Kobain" guitars - well, nobody is telling you to watch me, why not go visist some friends with a beer at the bar instead.

2.) Non-Musicians commenting on how many guitars I own. I own 30 because I BUILD, PLAY, and MODIFY existing guitars. I also sometimes sell my creations and want to make some hard to find models accessable to a handful of people who like them if I feel like. Yes, I'm aware I'm not Paul Reed Smith, Tom Anderson, Les Paul, Leo Fender, or Ned Steinberger - and I don't care or really want to be. Most of these people are the type of snooty Bellevue/Park Avenue/Hollywood types whom drive a BMW and have to live a "status symbol" life so if it's not 100% about money, it's not worth "investing" time into. Have you ever heard of "hobbies"? Maybe you should get some other than judging people on what they do with their free time, stop looking at everyone else and start taking a look in the mirror. Guitars are a passion, not a profession for me currently.

Crossing into non-musicians actually because of the above...

3.) I'm over 30, so a lot of people think I just need to cut my hair, hang it up, make a few babies, and "Grow Up". Well, that might be YOUR dream, but it's not mine. I'll keep doing this till I die. I'm not after money (already have it, I do I.T. for a living), I'm not after sex (I have a smoking hot wife), I'm not so crazy about fame, what I'm after is doing what I enjoy doing, creating/playing/performing. Sure, I'm not selling out Madison Square Garden, yes I'm just a little peon playing guitar on the small time local dive bar scene, but I ENJOY IT. That's why I do it. If I ever got bored or tired of it, then I'd quit and go do whatever else I'm into.

4.) Just because I'm into doing musical things does not mean I don't need to take a break every once in awhile and pursue other things. A lot of people know me as "the man of 1000 hobbies" but really that's just how I nurture my interests all around. Sometimes I need to put the guitar down and pick up a keyboard/mouse and study for I.T. work and my computer passions instead, or video games, or handyman things like fixing things around the house/car/whatever. I'd say I do a pretty good job at staying well rounded. Yes it generates a lot of clutter in my life, but that clutter is only temporary.

So there's some pet peeves I have to deal with as a musician....true love is having such a long post like above and being willing to keep going despite.

TBH, those good vintage guitars were good because they always have been a good guitar. Ditto anything new. I've mostly ever played newer guitars, and started playing when the "vintage market" was already alive and kicking.

My #1 go to is a Fender Jag-Stang - she's not vintage, she has EMG's from the late 1990's, but that guitar has a special magic to it - and it's only 22 years old, I've had that guitar since it was six years old, and she's always been that good a guitar. Granted though there are some things where the wood parts tend to wear into a certain "settlement" where they are "broken in" and that can determine things like tuning stability and how strongly it will retain it's setup under certain conditions. That guitar is always strong, even played a gig in the rain, my friend's Jackson started to drift and parts started to rust, Jag-Stang just shrugged it off like it was nothing. That's why that one is my main.

I had a 66' Fender Mustang, that guitar was a nice sounding guitar and pretty good playing, but there was just something "missing" about it that I could not place - and the 15 layers of paint, and slightly deader nature of that Mustang is what showed me Vintage guitars are not all that. By contrast, I'd played a 63' Fender Jaguar that pretty much set the bar for what I prefer in a Jaguar, that guitar was beat to shit, and it was because it's last owner LOVED it, it sounded great, played great.

I don't think age has anything to do with what makes a guitar sound better. I think it's the guitar itself, and one musician's potion is another's poison. Some people hate EMG's, I love them. Some people could not stand the 1" Nut width on a Hondo Paul Dean II - I LOVE that neck for that reason. Somepeople like more bass, some like more treble, and some more midrange. Exceptional instruments just sort of are regardless of how old they are.

Actually, that Hondo Paul Dean II is another one. That was a 28 year old guitar I bought that had the original strings on it, some crazy Loverboy fan probably bought it in the early 80's as a memoribilia piece and kept it in the closet, then I got ahold of it and started to show that hiding behind that piece of wooden wall art was an exceptional instrument. The action is low (lower than the last Tom Anderson I played after I Leveled and recrowned the frets), the neck is fast, the original pickups were great, but the vintage DiMarzio Super II humbuckers I put in it that it would have shipped with with the $60 upgrade package at the time really showed that even Hondo could put out a pro-grade guitar. The reason I sourced "Vintage" pickups was because those Super II's from the late 70's/80's had a different construction (plastic epoxy covers) from the metal covers or open coils they do now and I wanted to keep period correct and some more "Grind" to it. It's goodness is not because it's a 35 year old guitar, it's because it was a good guitar to start with.

1995 Peavey Transtube Rage 158 - it looked exactly like this....

https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NTc2WDEwMjQ=/z/MOQAAOSwvKtY82ly/$_86.JPG

I ran that thing into the ground. Cats peed all over it it till the baffle board came apart. Still kept using it with a series of home made baffle boards and other shit holding it together till the amp started going "wup wup wup wup wup" creating some kind of extreme Tremolo effect.

It also had just an input jack when I was done because I had to cannibalize the CD/AUX in and Headphone jacks for an input jack after awhile because those plastic jacks were just shitty and not up for how much I played. I used to play through that amp for 6-8 hours a night, non-stop. that was my teenage life in a podunk town as the "village outcast".

Well, if I were to go the sub 1K Route, not all the gear would be new...I'd just basically copy what I already have, and I kind of plan to do this sort of thing eventually anyway (except the guitars will be reproductions of my favorites built by me).

But my 1K Rig?

I'd start with a Squier VM Jaguar, most likely a used one, and in Surf Green. String er' up with Ernie Ball Paradigm .009's, and set the tremolo to "dive bomb" (I have a trick for that that costs me nothing). that combo with the 11.8K Ohm stock bridge pickup is exactly what I like, I like my Jags with a lot of hair and teeth. I think I could get one as low as $250ish, maybe even $150 if I get one that's been beat up and modded a little bit.

For amps, probably a used 1st gen Bugera 333XL, the notoriously bad ones with the melting-clip problem (just like what I have) - about $300ish, then solder the leads to the board if not already done, and modify the footswitch jack into another DB-9 setup along with the footswitch, it's about $0.99 for the footswitch cables then (old Serial cables), and the footswitch jacks would be just $1.99 at Vetco. Then an old Peavey 412M with K85s speakers in it (Celestions), I Paid $114 for the one I currently have, they have gone up, but I'm sure I could dig one up for around $200. Those 412M's are diamonds in the rough.

Okay, so now I have about $700-ish spent....the rest is for pedals. That leaves me circa $300 wiggle room. So I'd go get an old Digitech WH-4 Whammy (my favorite) - about $50, EHX Small Clone, seek one out beat up, that would be around $50-80, Behinger PH-9 Phaser, $20, Digitech Turbo Flange $20, then build my own Fuzz for $20.00, and another BYO for a basic delay for around $20.00 using cast off parts from VCRs and whatnot. The rest of the money saved would go to the straplocks, strap, strings, and a few cosmetic tweaks for the Jaguar. If I play my cards right with the pedals though, might have enough for a EHX Synth9 to throw at the front so I can do some synthy goodness as well.

Cheapest rig I coudl do though would be this...

• Memphis 302HB Strat - $50.00
• Digitech RP-200/250 - $50.00
• Old Heathkit 2 Channel Amp - $75.00

Basically put, Memphis would be the Korean plywood version with that really awesome generic Super Distortion clone in the bridge. I'd have to rewire the neck and bridge pickups in reverse (as usual for those guitars, the phase of hte pickups is all wrong on them stock) and relocate the bridge, that would cost me nothing. String it up with .008's, new tuners (Kluson Revolutions that cost as much as the guitar), and Strap Locks. No need to wax pot surprisingly. How do I know all this - I own one. Shockingly good guitar for a Korean made 80's budget model.

Digitech RP-200 or 250 would be used as my clean/distortion switch, and probably have a thick chorus over it most of the time. Just use different patches to add in/remove what is used.

Amp would be one of those silly hobbyist homebrew kits I could easily obtain a schematic for online. Looks like a dorky amp for the bespectacled nerd kid with an accordion - which by default makes it awesome to make some mean sounding noises come out of it.

ah, Jim Kelley Amps, I started looking into those once I learned Steve Farris of Mr. Mister used them. Just not sure what model yet. Once I find out that's going on his Equipboard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1U1Ue_5kq8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vabnZ9-ex7o

Intentional or not, I always liked this one because Nirvana's sound on that record was how I got into Post-Punk and New Wave again after Grunge ran it's course. Plus I always love the abstraction of thinking of music as a mental "place" of sorts.

It was sort of like that riff was a room that was wild, crazy, full of action in the eighties, and then the 1990's come around and Kurt, Dave, and Krist are going Urban Exploring in the eighties rotten carcass. Kurt just flips the switch on the old rusty machine of Killing Joke and it whirs to life creaking, and whining at a slow, tired pace like some kind of abandoned piece of factory equiptment.

It's been different in every project I've been in, but most of the time it's been pretty positive. I can only recall 2 times the sound of things was an issue, one time it took the ear of a major Sub Pop producer (a very very well known one - X-eyed smiley hint hint) - to get them to clean some of that crap up.

Most of the time I hang around during mixing and I only say to change something if I feel it's either hiding someone too much in the background, or putting someone too much out front. More often than not we all listen to each other, and most of the tiem the producer gets it and it sounds great if I make a change.

One of the best and most democratic experiences I had with recording was working with Jerimiah Whitehall on the Smokin' 66' EP in 2008-2009. Jerimiah would send out the mixes on a hidden forum just for our band and we would review them and make suggestions. I LOVE how that EP turned out. All of us were showcased on that recording perfectly, and in that band it was very important because we had a lot of great stuff going on from all the musicians involved. I recall my focus when we were mixing down was to make sure none of us were too high or too low, that guitar solos did not mask out the orchestration, or that the bass guitar did not overshadow everything else. It was always some really tiny tweak, never anything major. None of us in that band stepped on each other's toes, such a shame it did not last longer.

Just been very busy.

Working on a 90's cover band currently, we got a bit too excited and now have something like 45 songs we want to do.

Working on writing and recording some new original music of my own as well as starting 2 youtube channels and working on 3 websites - one guitar/music centric.

Have some various dramas also going on in the background that I've been having to take care of.

Dream pedalboard is a dangerous question with me, the last thing I need to do is accumulate more gear. Honestly, the board I have now is sort of my dream (it's on my gear photos page I believe), but I'm wanting to add a few things to it - like a decent fuzz (thinking BOSS FZ-2 HyperFuzz) and a Reverb (one of those new ones like the TC Electronics or anything else with a good plate reverb emulation since that's my favorite type to use). Mebbe a bitcrusher like a WMD Geiger Counter or a Bugbrand Bugcrusher.

Knob's Youtube channel is not helping my sickess with pedals much with all that weird stuff he has like the Rainbow Machine and the Big Sky pedals and whatnot. One of my favorites I had to sell off was an EHX Stereo PolyChorus - I loved that thing, but aside from chorus, It never really got used to it's fullest extent, and that's why I sold it. I'm also kind of lusting after the current EHX key-instrument-emulation pedals (Organs, Pianos, and Synths and whatnot) especially since they can handle polyphony properly, which is kind of surprising considering no MIDI pickup is needed.

On my current board I'm using a Digitech WH4 Whammy, into a BOSS PS-5 Super Shifter, into a Crybaby GCB95 Wah, Behringer PH-9 phaser, EHX Small Clone, Digitech Turbo Flange, then a BOSS DD-7 Digital Delay/Sampler.

here's my ppol-side, rambling .02, guys

I feel like the guitar is also suffering from being heavily adopted by rock music fans, replacing air guitar in the 80s as a form of hero worship.... there are a lot of guys imitating their idols, often badly ons tage who are not that itnerested in the isntrument as anything but a conenction to their favorite artists...they don't really care aout music and aren't interested in the history of popular songwriting. This site actually trives on those people and so does the entry-level guitar market and most of all the pedal market. I think that's why pedals have exploded to a certaine xtent and this site's existence lends credence to my theory. Some of us ae just into talking gear in a friendy environment than gear-page, but the majority of members are fixated on certain items sed by a handful of bands they love rather than guitar, recording, synths and music in general. this kidna hero worship and specialization defintiely hurts music and with guitar it is the ruling apradigm. its been building up sicne the 70s and its hurting the whole reputation of the isntrument. When iw as a kid people were impressed if you were the one kid ins chool elrning guitar because it was still cool and special. There was an assumption that if you weren't good yet that you would be good eventually ebcause everyone else wuit after a week! Now people stick with it more, maybe ebcause of the itnernet, but they don't always come out with great chops or an original voice. Everybody and their brother plays and they all do a convincing kings of leon impression.... its not impressive anymore. On the other hand the synth is still a little baffling to most kids. Although the avialability of soft synths that make it asy to crank out EDM bangers certainly is democritizing, degrading and demysifying the synth too... rather than say electric guitar is dying I would rather say that a culture of amateurism is desensitizing the audience to everything. They just don't care about the same things they sued to because no one is terribly good at it anymore. The real virtuosos are the protools master and great mix engineers, you know? And half the time those folks are uncredited so the signer, like Timberlake or Gaga gets the adulation. I don't think teh audience pays attention to whats going on in tehse songs. They don't worry about whether they have a guitar or a weird sequence of samples or maybe some moog plucks holding down the hook. They lsiten to teh whole production and then amdire the vocalist or trash them regardless of what the vocal actually sounds like.

I just don't elt this stuff worry me though and neither should you. I sued to be bothered but I no longer make a living through music and I have just elt it go. I am going tow rite the sort of music I want, play with who I want, record what I want and I'll keep loving my guitars and amps. I learned tos top worrying and love the bomb. The folks at the Post should too... they ahve enough to worry about inS utheast where I used to work! Their whole region is so fucked up.

This is an excellent point.

TBH, you talk about demystifying things, I think that's not a guitar thing so much as everything these days. I think the needless application of science is a big reason people have lots a lot of wonder and interest in things in recent years - and that extends beyond guitar. It's like there's nothing to figure out anymore to some people.

As for the Post, the same guy that wrote it had a second article talking about how the article cost him like $2,400 or something like that - total baloney if you ask me because the whole thing is about restoring his dad's Silvertone or something.

I mostly posted to get some fresh perspectives on this because I kind of thought the whole article was a little one-sided, albeit still a bit correct. That plust all the non-guitar-players around me have been pestering me with it this week.

I'm glad to see some replies because I agree with most of them. That's what kind of interests me in the article. I don't see guitar as dying, I go to music shops on the weekends and I always see at least some younger person swing by and play some rock.

I don't think it's going to go the way of the sax. It'll probably be back in a few years. I think what needs to happen is we need to break free of the Les Paul/strat/Tele thing and start pushing the technology further.

And yes, we have a overpopulation of guitars - get your strats spayed or neutered. Case in point - I bought an Ibanez RG last weekend for $20.00 at a thrift shob because the output jack was broken and mismatched tuners. It was marked at $125 till I pointed that out! And the guitar was like new otherwise. I go to the pawn shops, they are always wanting to cut me a deal, one local pawn shop has more guitars on it's walls than the local Guitar Center does, and the guy there I swear I could probably talk him down to $200 for 17 of them (before my wife promptly beats me to death with one of them). More than 1/3rd of those guitars were under $100, some as low as $35-$45, and they played better than the $99.99 Harmony H-804 many of my school day classmates started off on.

MEanwhile, because of this huge pile of inexpensive and usable guitars, plus the internet's wealth of information on guitar modification, repair, and customization, there's almost no point in buying anything expensive anymore, and almost no point to even buying period. My last build - the Mosrite copy on my Equipboard - was a coffee can of parts and about $65 worth of new parts including tools, sandpaper, and glue. I think some of this has killed the mystique of the instrument, as well as the long standing legends surrounding what makes a guitar great like it's old wood or aged pickups.

And the most neglected part of that is they are forgetting the pedals and amps. I remember starting out, a "practice amp" was a 2 channel 15 watt combo with an 8 inch speaker, all you had was a volume knob, a switch for the channels, pre-gain (distortion leevel), post-gain (distortion channel volume), a 3 knob EQ (low/mid/high), and a power switch. Now for less than THAT amp cost, I see what kids start with today and I'm jealous. We did not have built-in stereo effects, reverb, custom ported and tuned cabinets (I'm looking at you Blackstar), and then the darn thing probalby has USB at least or even Bluetooth on top of that making it even more editable than anything even in the $1100 price range (I'm talking stuff like the Line6 AX2 212, which I have owned, and the Johnson Millennium amps). Kids don't have to struggle for years with a shitty one channel combo that sounds like an ice cream truck and a box of hornets for a distortion pedal, and some "SG" that has fake humbuckers that are really mostly empty chrome covers with Jaguar pickups underneath, and action so high you can use it as a handy dandy kitchen tool as well as a musical instrument.

And on the subject of music tastes, you can't be a rebellious rocker anymore. For starters, society is so restricted, so watchful, so P.C., you cannot be a cranky asshole anymore without someone arresting you, putting you in a tight white coat, or somehow getting mad. And the record companies don't want to invest in interesting yet unstable rock stars anymore - because they are a liability in the shaky industry as it is now - much easier to bring in an impressionable, good looking young person and give them auto-tune and singing lessons, because as long as they feel better earlier, the less likely they blow their brains out on heroin in a handful of years than the angry guy with the electric guitar and high aggression levels (like me).

Also, guitar was, to the majority, a tool to get laid, get popular, and possibly become a rich rock star. Girls know the truth now - us guitarists are mostly sleazebags. Sleaze bags don't get popular anymore, they are uninteresting to a populace that is no longer somewhat scared of them, especially as much as the edge has been taking off things in society over the years. And popularity is a niche thing now instead of a unified youth subculture that required a monolithic industry or to support it. Honestly, I'm happy that crap is over - means those of us who play for the love of the instrument and the sounds it makes, and those of us who see something more to it that we can add - will be the ones who continue to stick around and play.

Just figured I'd post this because I've seen it showing up all over the place.....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/lifestyle/the-slow-secret-death-of-the-electric-guitar/?utm_term=.0d1a48aa2212

Yeah, the Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic (the early non-offset versions) came out in 1956 so it would have been their first year. Prior to that a Tele really would have been the base level, well that or an Esquire.

I'm kind of an obsessee of cheap student models, including Fenders (I made a whole website on the old Harmony guitars you could get in the J.C. Penney catalog for example), it's kind of a "Sickness" I have. Some of the weirdness in those guitars gives them a certain "Charm".

The Mustang was added in 64', was the first one with a Vibrato and an offset body, and the longer 24" Scale of the Fender Jaguar (before that the student models were 22.5" Scale, which was offered as an option on all three until the late sixties due to lack of sales of the 22.5" neck models) - the Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic were redesigned to use Mustang offset bodies in 65', and in 67' CBS introduced the Fender Bronco (different vibrato from the Mustang and a single bridge pickup).

The Musicmaster, Bronco, and Mustang lasted till 1981

The Mustang was so popular in Japan due to Char that Fender did a special run called "Mustang 84'" in 1984 that was sent to Japan, non-serialized vintage-white Mustangs made in the Fullerton plant with maple boards and black pickup covers, or rosewood boards and white pickup covers.

The Duo-Sonic lasted till 1970.

There was also a short-run model with 3 different names (Musiclander/Swinger/Arrow) that was basically a shopped down 5-string Bass body (Bass V) shaped like a metal-version of a Mustang body setup as a 22.5" Music Master to use up parts. That ran from about 1969-1971.

Nah, if it were the lowest beginner, it'd still have the Champ but have a single pickup Fender 22.5" Scale MusicMaster guitar with it instead as those were new in 1956. The original Squier Bullet ;)

A tele like that in 1956 was more like buying a Fender Mexican Telecaster today. A good solid workhorse that gets the job done for students and professionals alike.

I could write a book on my development. I"m all over the darn place.

I started playing guitar seriously at age 12, picked up keyboard and bass 2 years after that, around the same time I started fixing up, building, and modifying guitars.

A lot of artists and bands inspired me along the way, the top most noticeable being Nirvana, The Cars, Loverboy, ZZ Top, Van-Halen, the B-52's, and Metallica.

I started writing songs and music six months after starting guitar lessons, I think I'm a shit singer, others tell me I'm good, whatever, I have a small phobia of singing to overcome (I can't do Karaoke sober for instance). But I guess I write good lyrics or so the few people whove seen them tell me. I mostly come from an angry/humorous/disturbed/sad/meloncholly angle musically all around. I would put vocals up if I did not have the connundrum of recording in a apartment with thin walls. I do most of my recording direct. Music, guitar especially, is an outlet of my aggression.

I kind of came up with my own sound over the years by mixing up 80's rock, metal, and pop with the ethos, feel, looseness, and anger of the early 1990's grunge rock and late 1990's Nu-Metal - creating sort of a heavily chorused, angry, but very melodic sort of thing of my own. This is both as a guitarist, a musician, and a composer.

I've played in little local acts few have heard about over the years...Lithium, Smokin' 66', and Zombie Jihad being the most successful of them. I'm currently building a 90's cover band with some pals and working on an idea of going commercial (ie pro) with my own compositions either solo or with some kind of hand made band.

I actually like tubes for both because, well, I like some overdrive on my bass, and nothing beats tubes on guitar sound-wise for me, and it's dynamics. Also, is it just me, or are overdriven tube amps less hum-crazy with single coils?

Yesterday I was at Guitar Center and was playing a Squier VM Jaguar and 2 different J.Mascius Jazzmasters through an Orange OR15 and a Bugera V22, and I noticed NEITHER had any real noticeable hum or "artifacts" that every solid-state amp I've played has. Same experience with my 333XL, bassist's Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, and the ol' Mesa Stilletto I played through a lot years ago.

I like tubes for Bass (bassman head or 4X10 especially) because I like a little overdrive to my bass sound - like Bucky Ballard from Billy Squier's "Tale of the Tape" album ("Rich Kid" in particular).

The only reason I use transistors is because they come in smaller packages.

Just wondering if there are any other ways to add gear to artist's equipboards without video/photo. I've got a piece of gear Paul Dean used in the early days of Loverboy called the Loft 450G DelayLine Flanger that a fan of his e-mailed me about after speaking with him after a show (I run a Facebook page and specialty site on the early guitars the guy designed, that's why people e-mail me that stuff, and have quite a few youtube videos of me getting close to the unique Flanger sound he got, the contact wanted to know how I pulled that off). Considering what I know of other bands and what they use, this might be something I might run against here and there.

Would a forum post from someone who worked with said artist be enough?

The American Pro Jaguars should work with the AVRI 62/65/Johnny Marr pickguards. Now, if you want the 60's style controls, that's a huge can of worms because it will need to be routed as the routing on the American Pro IIRC is actually different from a standard 60's style Jaguar.

I still own my first and only tube amp, a first generation Bugera 333XL - one of the early ones with the infamous burning input transformer clip problem (fixed myself). I bought that amp because I could afford it and it fit what I wanted to sound like perfectly (prior to that I was looking at the Marshal TSL JCM2000 and trying to figure out how to afford $3000+ for a full stack). It is quite modded though, once the FS104B Footswitches stopped being availible new for example, I just cut the cord, wired it up with DB-9 Serial connectors (I'm a vintage computer enthusiast too XD) and use thrift shop serial cables for my footswitch! 5 pins + 4 for redundancy. Still using the stock tubes too. I use a VTM (late 80's) Peavey 4X12 with that thing most of the time and it sounds like god to my ears, very Van-Haleny yet in-yo-face with a sparkly Fender-like high end. I might be experimenting with Tubes a bit later though because just like the footswitch, those original Bugera graded tubes are not availible much anymore.

My transistor beasts are a Blackstar IDCORE 10 that I bought because it emulates the Bugera pretty well using the Crunch and 2 O.D. channels, and a Fender MiniTone Master that sounds pretty good for a little plastic box. The only thing I DON'T like about transistors is dynamics and how well the guitar's volume and tone modification controls alter the sound (the alteration is less extreme on solid state for some reason, and I don't like that because it limits my tonal options a bit more).

For exmaple, if I use the Strangle Switch on my Jaguar, the tonal change is negotiable on the Blackstar, but on that Bugera it REALLY changes things. Also the Bugera is much more dynamic.

I use multiple methods for storage/display.....I've been building/buying/collecting/modding for over 20 years.

Below is a good general example of what most of my guitars live http://images.equipboard.com/uploads/gear_photo/image/4852/xl_IMG_20170603_183444597.jpg

My main method is whatever I'm using the most at the moment gets it's own 2 stands in front of the big rack, the other most used guitars go into the multi-guitar racks behind them. The guitars I use the most often live here in my man cave.

In the livingroom, where my live rig lives, I have 2 more guitar stands for display/decoration, usually some of the secondaries go out there and get changed every month, sort of to fit a theme of sorts (ie like X-Mas color guitars for X-mas, summery colors for Summer, whatever).

I also have another 3 guitar rack in another room where my Dean ML-X, Acoustic, and my wife's Strat live. One special guitar from our wedding gets hung on teh wall, and comes down occasionally so I can get some "white background" pictures for websites/posting whatever.

And all stay perfectly setup, in tune, and ready for action at a moment's notice save for a small handful at the back of the main rack where I have my next-in-line project guitars sitting (barely visible way far in the back of the photo).

I own roughly 30 guitars. Some I built, some I bought, some I modded, some I just assembled. My board only has some of them on there as I'm deciding weather to add the homebrews and whatnot.

I started my colletion by learning to FIX guitars in high school circa age 13 or so. So when my classmates would get that new Fender or Gibson, their old Harmony, Hondo, Crate, or whatever, was on the sale block to me for like, $50. So I'd buy them up, hop them up with decent quality cheap parts, and make rat-rod-casters out of them to get a different sound than the stuff I already have.

Then in my 20's I got into my chosen profession and started making a good sum of money, so I started getting the bucketlist guitars off my list, got a good live setup as well, and started collecting more after downsizing in my late teens a bit, next thing I know I passed the 30 guitars mark and never went back, I sell some, I always get some new ones either from building them, or I get some lucky deal on something I really like, or someone just gifts me some clunker from their basement or attic and I wind up fixing it up and falling for it.

My technical oldest is a 1971 Fender Music Master body and neck that I have that is really otherwise a parts mongrel. Wacky thing that thing is, not even sure how to add it to my board because it's technically a vintage body and neck that's also part 80's/90's parts mutt with a brand new one-piece acrylic orange pickguard on it.

The actual oldest, still in original, intact guitar though is my 1983 Hondo Paul Dean II, it's a rare guitar designed by Loverboy's lead guitarist. All I did was changed out the pickups with the more high-end pickups they were availible with when new - a pair of DiMarzio DP104 Super II's in the full cover variant.

We had one as our "old class bass" in high school (we had a vintage white Fender Mexican Jazz Bass we used). I got to take the T-40 home, clean it up, restring it, and set it up. The T-40 is one of my favorite basses.

Neck is on the thin side width wize but has a neck shape similar to a Epiphone Special II in thickness. The pickups in it are considered humbuckers by Peavey, and the tone controls are unique in that they are not the regular treble-cut like most basses, they are coil-splits - gradual coil splits. I loved that bass but it had to go back to school. Have not seen one since.