jimmarchi1's forum posts 8022

I have a riff, I just plugged a battered 80s fender frontman's speaker output into a padded down mic pre with some compression and a lot of gating... boost out front, every knob at 10 of course.... SG

this amusing DI sound inspired my riff.... now to make a song around it that goes with this

but first? my day job :-(

it needs to have like a cheap 909 house rhythm with a huge fuzzy grunge riff over it and lots of kraftwerkian bleeping

I have this sample of a robot arm in a Detroit car factory that's like whirring and pounding out sheet metal.... maybe that too

that animated gif is so awesome that I want to use those words as lyrics! on something super cheesey too

wait, they aren't song lyrics already, are they?

thats why i want one but for now I'm trying to get my own drri so i don't have to barrow one, but i want a hand wired ac30 with greenbacks

I really like the fawn handwired I have, mine has a Blue and an H30 which splits the difference between the greenback sound and the alnico sound but also provides punchier cleans than either... firmer bass response too... I think I use it more than any other ac30 I own and even more than the DC30... I mean, its also very replaceable so I tend to lean on it because you can turn around and buy another one used for around a grand... but it sounds really good and holds its own with every other amp I own and I've never ah a problem with it. Still on the tubes that were in it in the secondhand store when I bought her. I think I would play her every day if I didn't sometimes like to play my pro or a 50 watter. The 50 watters have been getting a lot of love lately, loud though they are.

that said I am kinda excited about the new 4 input reissues with the smooth black tolex and might let go of my 90s RI or 70s arbiter to fund one of those. Maybe the ac15 with the proper EF86 channel since I already have the DC30 which pushes close to 40 watts when used in anger and also has an EF86 channel, though a more modern version of it.... I'm thinking the 90s RI will go, its a PCB amp, it was actually built under contract by marshall with marshall's drake transformers, and its character is pretty much just like the HW2 but with a vib/trem channel. People go gaga for those reissues too. I might be able to dead swap her to a store for that new handwired ac15 reissue. It might be nice to have a 1x12 again, all my combo amps are huge now and I find myself asking to borrow cabs at jam sessions and then just toting a head...

oh man, I am off on a vox tangent

for me it was the Spiders from Mars, but I don't play with a cocked wah thru a marshall major... though I do sometimes put on makeup and platform boots

ah ha, it was this thread http://equipboard.com/forums/guitarists-bassists/topics/jcm-800-vs-jcm-900?page=2#post-11133

where you were looking at 800s or 900s for Matchless tones when your AC30 was fine.... you're really obsessed with muse

I am Mr AC30, own like 5 of them counting my matchless! just stacked up like stale bread. but the thing is the top boost channel is flat mids (or close to it) with both tone controls down and scooped mids with both tone controls maxed

remember, to get fender blackface EQ start with the treble and bass maxed and a smidge of cut knob and tweak from there

an ac30 can do a little bit of everything

if i were you i would get a used Mex Standard Strat, i got mine, a 2004, for $300 from guitar center. You can find 2012's and newer for $350, other than wanting to put vintage voiced pick ups in it i couldnt ask for more, smooth neck, perfect weight not to heavy but not too light, and really resonate body, one of those where when you play it unplugged you can feel it.

AGREEE WITH BLAKE! although I would go $500 and get a non-roadworn classic series strat, a 50s or 60s depending on what fretboard material and neck shape you prefer, both are great... the hardware is decent, the pots are nice CTS dishbacks, the pickups on these strats are quite decent too (the teles in not so much).... a used jimmy Vaughan strat is also a good option, you get a well made body, medium fat V neck, maple fingerboard, very decent texmex pickups, CTS dish pots, carling switch, legit chiclet caps, AVRI hardware, easy top adjust truss rod, matte finish neck that really resists sticking.... anyway, the colors are limited on the jimmy, but I ave ahd one for like 15 years and though tis been modded heavily at this point that's NOT because there was anything wrong with it stock, just wanted to shake it up. I have owned MANY strats and honestly my jimmy Vaughan is my all time fave.

I think most importantly I always have at least 2 pairs of monitors hooked up... I'll have something shitty and something nice, something quiet and something loud, something powered, and something running of a quality amp... lately I always seem to use big passive 3 ways with powered 2 ways and some shit, plastic boombox type speakers so I have options... I mostly work on the big 3way speakers, but not very loud most of the time. But when something is sounding good quiet on those and your other speakers then turning the 3 way yamahas up is usually a very enjoyable listen.

I think I can use any tools in any environment as long as I am familiar with the flaws of my control room (or are LOL) and I have a few speakers I really like to monitor on. Really listening to what you're up to is really important, not just the sounds and the mix, but even really listening to the musical details like the timing on an accent kick drum. I really want to know what everything sounds like. No nonsense.

I see a soldano back there too, god knows, guy has a billion amps and a huge pedalboard.... muse has been discussed ad nauseum on this messageboard lately

wait, was it with you?

word of advice? find your own signature guitar sound

okay okay, I am totally going to start a cover today with my music time and not work on finishing any stuff I left off producing or starting to record another original... I am going to find the right key for me, lock down a basic tempo and cut a guitar track to a cover....

I'm going to pass on the whiskey, last time I had bourbon I got really stupid, it was not a good time.... I can't hold my whiskey anymore, I drink it too fast. I'll stick with martinis if we're drinking hard stuff. They go down SLOOOOW so I know when to stop. Which is important because I can be a real dick when I have one too many. I'm fun, I'm fun, ZAP I'm a jerk and should go home and go to bed.

hi, post often

it was weird, the media cultural shift that occurred at the end of the 90s seemed to really hit local music here in the latter half of the 00s, prior to about 2007 there was kind this continuation and expansion of the 90s at least through all the sub-cultures, it evolved a little but I didn't start to feel a real generation gap and whole paradigm shift where 'the kids' had moved on and I was left in the dust until I was getting pretty old there. There was one day when I was on tour where I'm like "I missed a beat somewhere and I'm okay with it because these young bands on the bill suck and this stupid dubstep music they play in clubs sucks.... and now the goth scene sounds like a rave with bad lyrics over the shitty trance music.... I could swear I was still cool a few months ago, WTF?! I guess the world stopped being cool and I just refuse to to go along with it."

the whole change started with nu metal, Britney spears and the sort of hiphop that turned gangsta rap into something safe, catchy and marketable to more than black people and disaffected suburban kids -- but it took awhile tog et past my TV and really effect my life

I just try to deny that popular culture has moved on... other than game of thrones I can't think of much in the media to like for the last 10 or 20 years. Okay okay, westworld was cool.... but notice all the music the player piano played was 90s stuff? Radiohead, NIN.... anyway

fuck, way off on a tangent.... I am soldiering on in the direction I think music shoulda gone and that's that. I think I pretty much decided that was my position a long time ago!

I'm going to say this about your decision to buy this "Vintage V6", the strat is a pretty tried and true formula and its really easy to get mostly right at this kinda price point so I am sure the guitar will make you very happy.... HOWEVER, if you think you will be sweating the details later, make sure that everything is Fender spec in case you wanna replace it.... if its all far-east metric parts then your options on upgrade parts narrow some. Just about anything is available for a strat style guitar in the classic American spacing... and usually as an off-the-shelf upgrade to boot. At some point you will be looking at bridges, blocks, springs, saddles.... just know what you're getting. A used mexi strat is inexpensive, well made and definitely uses the classic screw spacing etc

I don't know too much about this company, but I have seen their sunburst les paul copies hanging on walls in the beginner section of some big box retailers and I am thinking far east factory and cheapo metric parts when I look at them.... and a strat has a lot of moving parts versus a Gibson or even a tele! Metal hardware is not a good place to cut corners on a strat.... overall Vintage's fender styled guitars seem to be a lot like squire 'vintage vibe' strats and teles that are so popular. I suspect they will be VERY comparable in quality and features. It seems like for the look they really went for the 'road worn' fender classics, but these are maybe a little cheaper and they don't look as well made even in the manufacturer's pics (mexi fender classics are pretty fucking well made guitars)... I don't know what any of these guitars really go for. I usually don't look at that section of the store....

on a semi-related note, if I could only have 1 guitar and had to keep it under a grand I think I would buy a Yamaha Revstar. The one that's about $600 is about the best made, most versatile and most attractive offering at that price point. I like it even better than the current crop of reverends which are VERY GOOD. But I keep thinking of buying a revstar. Look them up. If you can only have 1 guitar, I think this guy is a real all arounder at a price that's far lower than you expect with this kinda quality. very one I pick up is great, even the sub $500 models... I wouldn't just say that the $600 rev star is good for the money, its good and the value oriented pricing just makes it better. One of the nicest new guitar lines in years...

yeah, I don't know, when I do drum machine stuff and use loops I tend to shy away from crash and ride... there are crashes in the bridge

I think it's your best work yet. I imagine some high Bono style vocals over it.

aww, thanks Boom, I thought you would hate this and have been bracing myself for your scathing response and hoping I could learn from it

actually as of today it will have female vocals, high, with me doubling an octave down and doing some harmony, but I am waiting for the singer to give 100% go ahead on doing the lead

and yes, aside from The Cure, The Pumpkins etc? there's some U2 Achtung baby in it

In 90's, if you would find a vocal for this, you could've made an absolute hit with that.

I can't let go of the 90s, I was your age in the late 80s and early 90s and though I was too Gen-X to admit it then, it was the time of my life and I wish I could go back and do it again... nothing since has had the same feeling... so I can recapture that amazing time in song, and yes, this is a piece of pure nostalgia from an aging hipster

its also a rough mix, I redo the whole balance once I am comping and mixing the vocal... it till come soon! big drums help a singer be on beat with punchy song like this and I want her to give me

not being defensiv, just saying, rough mix! I said rough mix in the track title! I can't finish witour finished vocals.... its a holistic artform

its a DOD analog chorus pedal to the input, yes, but I actuallry ran my preamp to the computer, recorded, treated with comb filtering and impulse responses and then slammed the processed signal into the power amp and speaker cab and re-recorded with a condenser a foot or 2 off.. or 3 or 4... the electric guitars are mostly my matchless, but I used a tele and 2 difierent Gibson SGs... maybe an old 335 or LP in there too... I have like 20 guitars to select from I also used the power amp input on my traynor and the unmodded channels to add parallel grit tracks for lots of sounds

oh, and my tweed pro makes an appearance on bass with my neighbors old EB3

the rhythm guitar is an SM57 on a classical slammed into a preamp, compressed hard and then whacked into a frequency modulated and tempo opened minimoog filter before I printed it... the bridge is an SG tickling a fuzzface I built into an mxr badass od slamming into the DI and preamp and recorded at low sample rate to increase the grit

my recording golden rule is EXPERIMENT! know the parts but don't be slavish to normal methods BECAUSE if it sounds good it is good so PRINT IT! I treat everything like tape because I grew up on tape.

sufficed to say I made a lot of noise doing this song

you think when the vocal is in I should crank the drum bus down? I like the meachnaical drum machine rhythms where it's all samples and drum machine in the bridge and refrain, so that isn't slamming, but my love of kratwerkian rhythm may have made me crank it up too far! and YES, goal was to combine poppy cure tunes with 1979 and a hint of Missing Persons and/or Simple Minds.... the song dictated it

test those cables before making any decisions, noise suppression and gating is a tone suck, only the ISP decimator gets close to transparent

and ask yourself what can be heard amidst the band.... some noise will just happen, it sounds glaring and overwhelming alone but in a band context? people obsess, it rarely cuts the mix... I record with sensitive and expensive microphones and allow gobs of noise and bleed none of you can hear in the mixed tracks and no attempt was made to reduce the noise... I own synths that hiss like a mopho and no one says my electronic music is noisy... when I am tracking I am worried, later I laugh about it, it just gets absorbed.... have a great sound, a UNIQUELY PERSONAL sound, not a dead quiet one if it get between you and creating your best music

speaking of noise, bleed, his and hum? go listen to my new tune and tell me anything jumps out at you!

http://equipboard.com/forums/general/topics/my-new-song-is-ready-for-vocals-you-need-to-hear-this

there was so much non-musical noise during tracking and I gated none of it out, I just let it all ring and counted on a good mix to negate its impact and the song isn't overtly laden with analog noise as one woulda expected while it was being recorded... and listen to it because its pretty

I wasn't sure where to post this because its not precisely electronic/club music nor is it purely guitar music.... its not electronic, its not acoustic, its not rock its not this its not that but its all of those things at once:

I rarely listen to my stuff once its this far down the pike, but I can't turn this off. I don't feel like its mine.... or something, I dunno

special thanks to Xaqary and Tel_Nobody for all their helpful advice and general supportiveness as I realized this one which I think is completely above and beyond the usual crap I pump out

oh man, that's some 80s cheese! brilliant!!!!!!!!!

never picked up a Vintage, something about the name turns me off, I mean, its a NEW guitar

the amp sounds surprisingly good for the price point (if a little generic), the digital effects didn't impress me too much... they aren't particularly reliable from what I understand which is partially why the resale is so low compared to the MSRP

that noisy? what about with the guitar volume turned down is any of it coming from your guitar? what about your cables? are you certain they're not feeding it interference its amplifying with all that gain?

yeah, no, definitely neither of those... you really go in for that primitive hillbilly stuff, don't you? I actually remember the basic chords to Crazy and even though its a Willie tune its was made famous by Patsy.... and its got proper songwriting... I am not a good enough signer to put over some of this folksy, bluegrassy kinda mine-worker stuff you seem to get all excited about... and its been done to death since our civil war, the people who originated it might have 1 instrument for every 5 to 10 people in town, but they all ahd voices and sang in church every weekend and at the revivals so its really vocal music, fun to listen to but not to perform as a player... I kinda feel the same way about delta blues and Chicago electric blues....e ven jump blues.... good too know about, fun sometimes, but these are horses that are flogged to death for 100 years or more... its nice when someone like an Alison Krause shakes up one of thes tired old genres with something that nods to the past but still looks forward in some ways

the country music I like to play just isn't so white bread either, its a bias, but I'm not ashamed of it.... other than the man in black the stuff that turns me on Isn't so churchy/folky but is rather a little more African American.... you know, for country music.... or its a little more western and a little less appalachian

Poncho and Lefty? Crazy? Wichita Lineman? so many classics

when I get done the original tune I'm laboring on I'll whip up a cover I guess... but somehow I don't think I'm going to do Airborne Toxic Event

somehow I am hearing a country and western tune... just to piss off the headbangerz

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bkcf2WGCEAIS5iX.jpg

Ty for directing me to the right classroom and yes Shera - I Am Shera, princess trying to do the right and good things!! Me & Spirit or Swiftwind!! And as for HeMan. To the powers of gray skull!

fuck skeletor and hordak!

that's a classic song you picked, like your vocal

I don't usually do covers anymore, but if someone names me a tune I will learn it from memory on camera and fudge my way through LOL

but seriously, what's the idea here, is it anything goes? like I could take an old torch song and make it an acoustic ballad live on camera or maybe turn a jangly acoustic number into a synthpop production? Its not really fun to me to cover songs the same way as the classic versions were recorded. But if that's what you have in mind I'll do something folksy I guess...

maybe of the melodramatic lullabies I sing to my ACTUAL child

I'm assuming anything goes since you did yours on a uke....

well, Zach, I find myself scratching my head at all that modernity! Maybe its just because I don't like his music to begin with, it feels more generous to blame the tools.

I mean, look its all rather Kraftwerkian without actually sounding like techno, like a real life "We Are the Robots" -- and yet....

I'm just getting old I think. I like the way things were when I was a young hot shot and I m suspicious of change...

but there's something too my nostalgic taste, because my son has a real preference for the music of the 60s thru the mid 90s over anything done since.... I try to be balanced but he's got a real preference for the past and a 3-year-old cannot be a navel gazing, musical curmudgeon like his dad!

now if Ed Sheeran's fans will just refrain from crashing the servers again.... chewie, WTF? whatever guys!

says it al, doesn't it?

if I get another gretsch it'll be a 60s/70s double cut sparkle jet or one of the early 90s single cut sparkle jets like the ones Chris Cornell and the lead guy from Spacehog used to play.... I already have a silver LP and SG, so my goal is to get every stock silver guitar I can find by the time I die! Inca silver strat is coming soon, maybe a hardtail Robert cray sig model....

anyway, back on topic, if you are buying a non Gibson 335 type guitar site unseen and want the cost low look for a 70s Yamaha SA700 or SA1000, some of the 80s ones are okay too, had an 80s SA1100 that suffered from a headstock crack I lovingly repaired and it sounded and played great, but the slender neck wasn't for me, prefer my SA1000's deep roundback neck shape... also, the later ones have inferior fretwork.... I think its around 1982 that the model #s and specs change, the pickups get better and they switch to a legit TOM type bridge but the old ones for all their odd details are better guitars. Anything abovean SA1000 tends to be expensive and you could be looking at Burnys, Grecos and maybe even Tokais.... the SA700 has a rosewood fretboard and very mellow AlnicoIII PAF copies whereas the SA1000 has ebony and AlnicoII buckers. They both sound good. They are on the dark side of the 335 spectrum but no darker than a lot of Gibson examples.... the later ones are ifnerious but are brighter and janglier, probably because of the change in bridge, finish etc, but they also switched to AlnicoV buckers that are more in your face

I think these Yamahas are the best deal going in nice 335 style guitars.... followed by eastman