Gear Purchases

The Xotics are good for folks ike that who might adjust their tone every song etc

Unlikely.

Lowest I'm seeing is $100. Guess I'll have to wait it out for a few months (or until I have to play again).

oh man, I was looking at ebay and put a feeler bid ona beat up Arbiter-made AC30 from the 70s and I think I am going to win it for peanuts... shoot, I didn't REALLY want another amp

How much?

just under a grand shipped (its really beat and has probably never been properly serviced despite being someone's road amp until it wound up on the bay)... I guess if I don't love it I can service her, retube, clean the tolex and resell her for a tidy profit... the speakers look like 70s vox branded greenbacks with Kurt Mueller cones, though maybe I'll get lucky and they're late Pulsonic coned greenbacks, the Arbiter run of 30s with greenbacks instead of blues overlapped a number of G12M formula changes that you can usually tell by the labels on the back even in crap ebay shots but that vox's label and vlue frame paint obscures without cone codes....

the upshot for me is that the arbiter version of the ac30 is one of the 2 versions Brian May favored in the studio during Queen's glory years and I already have an early 60s copper panel ac30B, so I can get both shades of May (spongey or cutting) when I have a day to myself to be a total fanboy

I'm not sure I can afford to keep this amp w/o selling something else though... hrrm

In an effort to realise that what I have is pointless and what I need is actually quite inexpensive, I've decided to sell more pedals than previously expected. I don't even need the Boss looper... what the hell was I thinking!? I'll sell that off and get a little Ditto Looper for much less that basically has what I need, and it's tiny! Perfect because the Supa-Trem looks kinda big. Still working on all other stuff, and limited to six pedals.

Oh, and the Swede's causing me troubles. One volume knob popped off, turns out it wasn't tightened enough. The washer nut on the pickup selector tightens at times, but it's much worse for the output jack. It seems that the jack may actually be damaged because now I need to hold the cable at a certain angle for the signal to reach the amp.

I'm kind of disappointed by this. Hopefully, the problem isn't something I can't fix right here with some solder or a replacement.

just gut the swede and rebuild her with quality parts. Make sure to take care of your fretboard too, when you go Chinese your major concerns are the electronics dying in the 1st year and the frets coming up or the fretboard getting cracks in the 2nd or 3rd year.

Re: the Ditto Looper... I just received one last night. I knew they were small, but was actually surprised at how small. They are miniscule! I haven't had time to work with it yet. ~m

I've seen TC's mini pedals and it's so odd how tiny they are. I'll await your review, then.

I've been putting that off, Jim, and I thin I'm paying the price for it... Once I get the time, I'll start taking stock of all the necessary parts to repace, but I'm sure it shouldn't take too long.

I'm kind of disappointed by this. Hopefully, the problem isn't something I can't fix right here with some solder or a replacement.

So I told my dad about this, and he told me that most problems like what I described occur in the cable rather than output jack. So, we tried a different cable, and what do you know? It worked. I feel kind of stupid for not checking this first. At least my Swede is good, but that means I need a new cable...

you didn't test your cables before assuming your guitar electronics were shot? seriously?

As you can see, I can be very oblivious to the obvious :/

Just ordered my first pedal board! I'm starting small with the Chemistry Design Werks Holeyboard M3 AmpTop. I figured it would give me a chance to wrap my head around the in's & out's of setup with a small cadre of my go-to FX (Aetos, Tuner, Ditto, Hotcake, Cult & CE-3). I'm stoked at finally being able to get a stable setup and not having to futz with hookup every time I play. ~m

that's a great mix of FX, Raucus, I would just stick with that setup!

What do you think of the Hotcake? Its the one dirtbox style I've never tried. Which is weird given that its one of the most popular pedals amongst ac30 guys....

The Hotcake is my favorite OD hands down. In a words: luscious.

I'm running through a solid state Blues Cube and it really responds well to this OD. Being a big fan of Mark Knopfler, this pedal unlocked a sweet spot with something akin to the "Sultins" sound in tandem with my Tele.

In comparing with the Cult Germanium which is ultra responsive to pick attack & volume, the Hotcake holds its own but the Cult response is mystical. The Hotcake wins for clean where the Cult adds some noise when 'silent'.

I'm not including the Lex in the M3 AmpTop rig, but the Hotcake in tandem with Lex and its OD at about 2:00 is really incredible. I love it!

Cheers! ~m

interesting... I just noticed how many effects you own, hot damn. I've ownED a lot but usually not so many at once

wow

Yeah, it's a sickness. I've got my mind set on an envelope filter and an eq after that. Then I should be be able to shed some baggage and settle in for some serious woodshedding for quite some time. ~m

my 70s ac30 needs a lot of love but it works and definitely has its own sound.... its a lot harder sounding than either of my other ones but it has less headroom than the modern fawn one... its also got a lot of background noise apart from the stereotypical vintage vox mains hum

the speakers are vox branded 'blackback' type G12ms with early kurt Mueller cones, a good speaker but they probably are eating some chime and making the amp sound a little more marshall than it would with a blue or two in it.... I might swap one of them for my late 70s Fane to flatten the response and give the sound a little more 2D swirl.... but first I need to really assess the guts and put together a parts order. I suspect she will need electrolytic caps and that some of the old carbon comp resistors are not so hot. I am hoping her coupling caps are okay as they are the coveted 'mustard' caps. As long as they are remotely in spec I won't change them. I don't know that I believe in the mojo of vintage capacitors, but lots of other people do so I ahte to change them on an amp I might resell unless they are way of spec of failing...

if I keep her I might have the box retolexed in fawn and while I'm at it I could do my '62 since that's not original smooth black covering anyway... it would be cool to have all 3 match.

Either of you have any experience with Ibanez acoustics? I have my eyes on a parlor model with a solid sitka spruce top and mahogany sides and back. AVN6 model. Keeping an eye out for the next few years. My Yamaha is tired as it is.

Not I. I've been considering a semi-holo in Ibanez' line but that's about as close as I've com to Ivanez guitars. Black Friday deal? ~m

Nah, a bit short on money at the moment. Just visited Guitar Center and found a few things about myself. I love smaller guitars. Martin 000-15m isn't the sound I seek. The Gibson L-00 sounds amazing but costs and costs a lung and a heart.

Anyways, I just remembered Ibanez and I check their site. They make these beautiful parlor guitars in a vintage tobacco burst with the same woods as a the L-00 I saw. I wanted to go to the Hollywood Guitar Center today, but they're closed for Thanksgiving. Maybe tomorrow.