jimmarchi1's forum posts 8022

two weeks or thereabouts... post a user pic

EDIT:

I can't believe what a big thing these picks I collected at the troc or electric factory (or was it the TLA?) have become... is it because you two weren't born when Buckley was still alive and touring?

nope, but I'm sure I will... I'm kinda busy right now with a kid on my lap and a remix in another window.

I actually remember about the picks, I just haven't had a day to commit to ripping the attic and walkin apart and reorganizing. I really want to find my dinosaur tooth anyway...

but I am booked solid thru the next 2 weeks Buckley fans, and after that I dunno... I have a real priority on rehearsing and recording a few songs with my friend Bryan whenever I have some free time, soooooooooo

we'll see

yeah, I use mine for the piano too... so you tugged at my heartstrings, I guess I'll just take cash then. When you see the pics you can decide what its worth to you and we can work out some kinda arrangement using paypal so you can get your money back or whatever if they don't show up.... which they will, because I am a righteous dude and trade gear over the web all the time.

its a shame because I really wanted to put a young person's little finger in my curio cabinet in place of those picks.... imagine the stories I could make up about it at dinner parties!

unless you play bad fingerstyle technique you don't need a little finger on your right hand

and 'fanboy' is a gender neutral term where I live (or was, I am really out of the loop! do people still use that term?), but if you prefer to be a fangirl? so be it. Put a picture up and we'll all know you are female. frankly this site (like most gear sites) is a sausage party. Sorry to assume.

seriously, I need to clean out my attic so when I find the time and inclination to get into it out I'll take pics (pun, anybody?) and post them in this thread and you and Whatshisname are welcome to one or two each for whatever they are worth plus a couple bucks postage. They're just ordinary yellow picks, not even particularly nice ones, but they have the buckley graphics and he held them. I had considered giving them away to you guys, but I can't let you appropriate a piece of my childhood for nothing. Its un-American.

Now if I had Jeff's microphone, that would be something. He was a fine guitarist and an interesting songwriter, but without a doubt he was one of the most impressive singers of that era. Just damn!

oh, I forgot about those.... I'll have to look thru my attic.

But year, you can have one in exchange for your right hand little finger plus shipping and handling.

I'm actually starting to feel weird about giving them away to rabid fan boys like you and the other guy, but whenever I get a minute to find them I'll sell them to you two. I'm not using them for anything.

yes you're British, but its not your fault

I think that's the model #, could be wrong. Might be thinking of something else. But if I recall the guy who replaced Howard Leese in Heart uses one atop it's matching ported 2x12 in conjunction with an ac30 combo and it looks a lot like an ac50 top.

EDIT:

I'm thinking of the V125 http://www.voxshowroom.com/ct/amp/uk/v125/head_cab.jpg

that's not what it is though because it has JMI style top vents and the V125 has marshall style cut-out vents with mesh, so nevermind.

The amp pictured looks too tall to be an ac30 head, new or old, but it has ac30 top vents so I doubt its an ac50 mk2 or ac00 mk1. Confusing.

and I said the big ones sound good, same guy's designed them

the big red witch modulation pedals sound universally impressive

Your ellipsis insinuates an undermining of my lack of knowledge of Vox heads. You're correct on that.

What makes you say it's an AC30 head?

could be a vintage, large box ac50, maybe a mk2 or early mk3? or even an ac100, though working examples of the 100 are rare and few have the balls to use them on stage with their reputation for flaming out during prolonged use. The head boox looks a little deep to be a 30, but tis not a great pic.... wish I could see the control panel, then I could tell you. If its candy panelel its a 30 and then we could just count the knobs to determine if its a JMI rectangular box or a modern, korg 90s RI, custom classic or custom... if tis grey panel its probably a 50, though it just might be a 30 in the square box with a grey panel, either middle period JMI or a post-JMI version like the arbiter and rose morris heads

it could also be one of the crazy 120 watt lead amps with the 5 band tonestack.... I forget the name, but they're an early 80s vox and they have been developing a following lately

there's a how-to on changing pickguards? seriously?

http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/24372-scotty-moore-19312016

such a shame, he was still playing

there's a thread for that:

http://equipboard.com/forums/general/topics/identifying-the-gear?page=14#post-8496

those look like some weird custom/boutique dealies, no clue... in the top photo I spy a musicman HD 130 or 150 head in the background though

I know what a fucking plebeian was. Actually, you could be a very rich pleb, and most consoles beyond the earliest days of the roman republic were plebs as at least 1 of the 2 elected each year had to be a plebeian... so common and plebeian? not really. Its a prole you're thinking of, bottom run pleb is a member of the proletariat or capite sensi, lacking the income to afford more than one slave and barred from participation in curule elections due to the lack of emans to belong to the comitia centuriata. I just didn't know you medieval whackos in the UK still used the term peasant in any form. I guess when you're all subjects some of you need to be peasants.... or the Queen might get down in the mouth.

see, I can be condescending right back... just because I said the education system in the USA is crap doesn't mean we're all less educated than a British school kid. Just some of us.

Here's why its good to build and repair your own music gear; this afternoon I busted out my soldering iron and fixed a broken appliance. This is the 3rd or 4th time I've done something like this lately. Instead of dropping hundreds on a new one I just broke her open, found the bad spade connection and hardwired it. Total savings in new washers, dryers, dishwashers and ovens is now well over 2 grand thanks to my music electronics hobby.

almost everything from the original track is downsampled to 12 or 8 bits with varying sample rates and some samples were played back through a guitar amp and downsampled and filtered again... there is ring mod floating around on some synths tuned to third octave E (within a cent or two), yes fuzz... octave fuzz... non-intelligent pitch shift aplenty creating more ringing and beating, lots of high pass filtering to make room in the lower mids for.... something? I dunno yet

only the drums aren't from the original track, that's a 16 bar break I had laying around from some of my own sessions that I completely fucked up... still getting that all together, perfect breakbeat/jungle is an art that is VERY time consuming

maybe I got out of hand and I need to back off a little on any effects that weren't printed yet.... I just wanted to get as far from the original as I could sonically w/o creating any new audio

YMMV, but I find the 15 and 10 not to be loud enough for anything but the smallest clubs or the nice clubs with great monitoring unless you want to eschew your effects completely and be old school... and they are just WAY too loud for home use unless you have a single home with a basement and tolerant housemates...

the ac4tv has the attenuator that sounds really good so its nice for practice, can do quiet rehearsals and can still do the no-effects loud and proud type of stuff on stage, especially in head form through a larger cab than you use at home... it is a practice amp plain and simple and always has been in every version since the 50s when they called it the ac2 (which is actually what all 3 current production 4's are most similar to since like the old ac2 they don't have the trem circuit on the old ac4... the ac4tv even has the ac2 cosmetics with the TV front, but I digress)... ya want a tube practice amp? get a classic tube practice amp... ya want a gig amp? get a gig amp...

I am learning from my toddler.... "PAY ATTENTION TO MEEEEE!"

your school is encouraging you to write and perform your own music, that's a plus... trust me, you brits don't know how good you have it when it comes to education (and I went to a pretty decent, well-funded school)

the American education system is THE PITS

also, check out the remix I'm working on for WHORSE in the electronic forum and tell me what you think, I am really rusty at remixing

you guys have peasants? is that just a farmer? or is there an element of serfdom?

I only spent a few minutes with the ac10 custom when it came out. It was okay. It doesn't sound like an old one and its not laid out like an old one either. I had a lot of trouble bonding with it because I really like the original version which is a rather dark, gainy and chewey affair.

That's not to say there was anything wrong with the 10, just that I was expecting apples and got oranges. Its the same reason I don't like modern ac15s. The old ac15 is its own thing. The earliest ac30 was a double power ac15, but it changed by 60 or 61 and became its own amp with a totally different voicing and gain structure. When the ac15 returned in the 90s it was as a half-power ac30 top boost and that's just no fun, especially once vox started to offer a half-power mode on the ac30.

lets talk practice uses here:

if you get an ac4tv head at 4 to 6 watts RMS and an ac30 head at about 36 watts RMS and run them each trough the same 1x12" cabinet you will find that the ac4 is literally half as loud as the ac30. Get an ac10 or 15 and you will find its much closer to the ac30's volume just less punchy and with a little more dirt creeping into your clean tone when you dig in (the ac10 really isn't 10 watts, an old one runs its tubes a smidge less hard than the 15, but puts out well over 10 watts RMS - it was equipped with two inefficient 10"s versus the ac15s really efficient blue alnico 12" that really accentuated the output differences).

So pretty much know that 5 watts will be too loud for a lot of bedroom uses and you will want to use the attenuator on the ac4tv a lot of the time at home.... the ac10 and 15 will peel the paint off your home's walls though be underpowered for any gig requiring a lot of clean headroom. The ac4 is not going to even try to provide anything resembling clean tone at gig levels, but the drive will be righteous at a volume that won't offend the soundman.... if you want a practice amp, get a practice amp like the ac4, if you want headroom for serious gigs go with the ac30. I have a 4 and a 30 because the 15 is just silly. The 4 is good for the house, recording 'quietly', etc, the 30 can hang with a drummer and cuts the mix like a hot knife through butter on all but the largest stages (which is why I have 3)

as opposed to here in the USA where we're fielding a host of superior candidates like that paragon of intellectual virtue and statesmanship, Donald Trump

its a teisco by the pickups.... reminds me of a hi-flyer, but I didn't know they made it as a 12

English education just doesn't equate to American education, don't even try to sort it out guys....

and American education just doesn't seem to compare to the education people can get in the UK, the UK's biggest problem isn't that the education system is bad, its that everyone quits early and then goes on to become soccer (err, football?) hooligans... whereas in the USA the big problem is that you can actually PAY for a kid to get a shitty education from pre-school to PHD... I dated a rich girl who went to prep-school and an ivy league and she was one of the most ignorant persons I have ever known.

the ac4tv sounds really good for such a cheap amp.... REALLY good, especially if you get the head, then you an shape it with different size cabs for different applications

you can also mod the shit out of it to be even better:

http://www.mercurymagnetics.com/pages/mainframe.htm

2 words: bandit mask

ask this guy too, I'll bet he knows all about the best nuts:

http://rlv.zcache.com/a_squirrel_playing_guitar_postcard-r39c332bd94a646e2887cf534ba5bbbe6_vgbaq_8byvr_512.jpg

it was just a thought, squint if you prefer

is not 100% done so I just posted the first 1/3 of it.... needs to be mixed mostly and I might add a crazy octave fuzz guitar hook to the sections I am thinking of as 'the choruses"

I haven't set levels much, EQed anything but the kick and bass sounds or set up sends to gel it all together, I think it sounds scrappy as hell right now but I am rather proud of it... I'll probably be done by next weekend but I am in the hectic part of my week right now so who knows

EDIT:

you shuld pluck someone's 20/20 eyes outta their skulls and try putting 'em in your head, evil sorcerer style... then you won't need glasses

speaking of your boring 20s and my mis-spent 20s, check out the remix I'm doing for WHORSE on the electronic board.... its like my friend Alyssa's notorious birthday bashes have reared their ugly hea din my DJ music.... ah, those were the days:

http://equipboard.com/forums/dj-electronic-music/topics/everything-i-had

hey, I would trade with you... I would love to relive my early 20s....

no, you're young, the middle is like 25... I mean, you're not old enough to drink yet, are you?

Brass is best.

the Boom special! "I like brass on my bass so its best for all stringed instruments."

brass is good, steel is too, slightly different, very durable, hard to shape, easy to slot, both a good choice if you have the tools and patience

so wait, you were born after I graduated highschool? I guess so was Dukeuke and the AbsentWalrus... you little dudes are proliferating

For the money, you could get a Majesty MusicMan.

http://www.music-man.com/instruments/guitars/the-majesty

only if you grow out that facial hair though...

EDIT: I am getting a lot of mileage out of whisker wars thanks to the giant beard trend in metal.

Jack Passion:

I can never here Jim Root's playing over his facial hair...

any gretsch that doesn't have a model # starting with a 6 these days is an entry level to intermediate guitars.... within each electromatic rangethere is a lot of quality fluctuation whereas ever since gretsch merged with fenders the 'pro' guitars (models G6XXX) are insanely consistent. The difference between a pro gretsch and the lower ones is more substantial than the difference between a mexi standard fender and American standard. There's not a ton of inbetween. Not to say the cheaper grtsches are bad guitars (some are bad, most are at least decent, many are downright good especially when comparing them to the comparable Epiphones), just that the serious gretsches are FANTASTIC guitars if you like the gretsch thing.

gettin' there... I used to be so much faster when I did this for part of my living, its taking me forever just to get something going. At the rate I'm going just warping your sounds and building up my structure I'll probably be balancing the levels for the rest of my adult life!

well no, the marshalls JaMC used were the real deal big tube heads, but I think the early stuff had a lot of roland jc120 too and that's the broken chainsaw sound I was referring to

just make a companion, vintage units and clones cost a fortune and for such an awful sounding one trick pony I would not spring for a commercial available unit

then experiment... you may want to invest in a legit marshall like a 2204 or something if that's your bag, the solid state gear isn't the same thing (other than the good old lead 12 practice amp, that's got a pretty 80s marshall sound for a box of transistors)

there is no 'best' and as far as functionality a lot of it is up to how well you cut and polish the slots.... tone is so subjective

make sure you get a good set of diamond coated fies for this type of work. You can buy special guitar fles but they are basically the same as good jewler's files and the jeewlery gear is generally cheaper for the same basic product.

most people like bone on vintage style fenders, they feel it sounds best and bone lasts a long time as long as the piece you get is void free... Tusq gets very close in sound, is always void free and it self-lubricates, but it will wear more quickly like other plastics. Depending on how heavy handed you are bone or metal may give you a lot more life. Bone lasts a long ass time, but its kinda hard to work with and the dust is very fine and kinda toxic. It just gets everywhere.

I do fine with plastics (though my best friend swears by bone and metal). Tusq is the best I've tried. I like the sound, its easy to work with and like I said above, it self lubricates. Vintage Gibson (original goldtop/burst les paul era) used nylon, which has a distinct sound, especially with a bridge humbucker. Its VERY easy to work on but as a result is the least durable material for a nut. You have to try it to get it. It has a sound. It binds and wears down easily though. Corian and a lot of other plastics just stink. They are harder to work with than Tusq and Nylon, they're not much more durable and they sound kinda blah.

Metals have a distinct sound especially on a strat. Brass adds a smidge of tele-ness (go the whole 9 yards with brass saddles and a brass sustain block if you want the fullest effect), They are harder to work on than Tusq but easier than bone (hard to believe, but its true, they're so dense that it feel easier to cut the grooves, though shaping them to fit your guitar can be a pain compared to bone and plastic).

All the tone differences, even the metals, are pretty subtle and no one but you will notice.

Cutting a new nut is a lot of work, even with a pre-shaped blank. Its rewarding but a pain in the balls.