jimmarchi1's forum posts 8022

http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/24062-fender-bassbreaker---review

all good things to take care of right away

doomsday rig update... I have now gone to 3 amps always on (traynor 67/68 YVM1, Matchless HC30 w/2x5Y3 rectifiers, Vox AC30HW2X in full power OR 62 AC30B combos) thru six 12" speakers... I have the Brian May treble booster on in al loop almost all the time and achieve clean and dirty by switching pickups while my lead sound and different echoes are part of MIDI patches, so its a mix of new school and old school methods... I dropped the chorus for now and I have the superfuzz as my fuzzy octave lead with a certain echo assigned to it and then the booster hitting the rat side of the Nova Drive for a more modest lead tone with its own distinct echo setting....

not that anyone cares, but I got some jammin' in lately and it helped me really nail down my patches and fully integrate my Gibson-lover pickups/volume/tone manipulation into the footswitch settings to be a little more JIM... I have been tweaking everything to suit the way I found myself playing in real life while the boy is napping this afternoon. It actually has turned out to be a very Jimmy Page sounding rig even though that was not a clear cut goal. Now to start another full time band.

I love Pelham blue

yeah! make me and Lexman mods, we'll save the day!

bcause of our screwey items for the various fender deluxes http://equipboard.com/pros/taylor-goldsmith is all fucked up now... fix it guys, and/or make me and Lex mods so we can throw down

he's really versed in acoustic guitars, and I am the amp and vintage electric king around here, we can do a lot to spruce up EB, especially if you give us the power to merge items and such

what I don't know about amps I can easily fillin just by looking at schematics to identify circuit revisions worthy of separate items, my electrical engineering knowledge should make me the go to 'amplifier moderator'... I am pretty darned authoritative on vintage studio gear too thanks to my years as a pro engineer (and again my ability to read and interpret schematics)

you can trust me with this shit, I doubt any other member has more expertise in these areas than I do, off the top of my head I am a veritable encyclopedia of circuit design (and if I am hazy I know a guy who is even more knowledgeable than myself who I chat with EVERY day)... though I tip the hat in a number of other areas

for the record, I am home today and my son is sitting on my lap while I teach him all about this stuf... one day Lucian will be one of the world's foremost vintage electronics authorities... steeped in capacitors, tubes and great sounds since he was a fetus... at the tender age of 2 he can play G and Em on my adult guitars, he's going to be a god

just screwed up and made the blackface non-reverb deluxe a cabinet and not a combo

http://equipboard.com/items/fender-blackface-deluxe-amp-aa763

also, can we change our brown deluxe to read "Fender 'brownface' Deluxe Amp 6G3"

or make me a moderator this week and I'll go to town on this stuff

YES! this is a great idea, Lex, this recognizes the model as a direct lineage from its inception as well as clearing things up for folks without extensive historical knowledge when it comes to guitar construction and amplifier circuitry.

I too hate the precise dates because there are a lot of goofs from manufacturers (ahem Gibson) with throwback features on a late-period instrument or amp for a short run for no apparent reason.... like non-catalog blonde 335s with wide, mickey-mouse ears loaded with leftover 50s electronics (like spare OAFs with a patent-sticker) built in the mid-60s when blonde was discontinued and the cutaways on 335s were usually skinnier and horn-like. You see stuff like this all the time and it makes the year irrelevant. A player might have one of these and its a total mutant guitar so buying an average '66 335 might not get you what your hero has because he's got one of these short-run factory flukes. This isn't even considering custom order guitars, there was a time when you could call Gibson's original Kalamazoo factory and for a nominal fee they would make you ANYTHING you wanted, send it right to yer door. I've seen vintage 335s with venetian cutaways and/or names inlaid across the fretboard, a mutt of 335/345/355 features.... Gibson would do anything for a loyal customer with a little extra cash and a vision for his next guitar purchase.

looke at these oddballs:

http://www.es-335.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/tn_IMG_20150211_094154.jpg

http://www.es-335.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/P1030470-e1454878901451.jpg

http://www.es-335.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/jspeterson.jpg

we need to do something about this:

http://equipboard.com/items/fender-deluxe-amp

there are 7 versions of the non-reverb deluxe through out its history (5 tweeds, the brownface w/bias vary trem and the short lived blackface deluxe w/LDR trem but no 'verb)

we should differentiate them by cosmetics and the official Fender circuit designations... for instance, the tweed pictured for the generic item I referenced is a 'wide panel' deluxe, either a 5C3 or 5D3 circuit (they look essentially the same but fender made a change from octal base 6SC7 preamps for gain and as a driver/phase inverter to noval based tubes, 12AY7 for gain and a 12ax7 as the driver/phase inverter for a decrease in gain at the inputs and an increase in gain from the driver - in ALL tweed deluxe versions the phase inverter style provides unity gain only and will sound pretty similar with any triode) whereas the most popular tweed deluxe is a 'narrow panel' with the 5E3 circuit and actually is a notably different amp with a different sound. Same tubes as the 5D3 but there were a lot of circuit revisions (like the use of negative feedback for tighter power amp response) in addition to the change of cabinet cosmetics.

The 6G3 brownface deluxe changed the cosmetics drastically as well as a HUGE change to the circuit including a switch to fixed bias, more negative feedback, a change from cathodyne phase inverter to long-tailed pair, trading the global tone knob to one for each channel, addition of bias-vary trem, etc... this period also saw a change from Jensen P series alnico speakers to oxford or Utah speakers in ceramic or alnico

The AA763Deluxe changed the gain structure to be the same as all the other new blackface models as well as changing cosmetics to the new blackface look we all love, this also entailed added bass and treble controls to channel 1 as well as a full treble/mid/bass tone section on the trem channel. The trem was changed to the new LDR trem circuit used on the bigger blackface amps. The palte voltages were increased to pump a whopping 25 clean watts from the 2 6V6 power tubes which also entailed an upgrade to the massive GZ34 rectifier to supply the higher voltages. Previously deluxes could pump 12 to 15 watts if you were lucky and were set-up with tiny 5Y3 rectifiers. The speaker was upgraded to an even larger ceramic Utah, oxford or Jensen model in order to take the increased wattage and augment the bigger, punchier power section with a punchier speaker.

I could go on. There's also an AB763 circuit revision, but I've never seen a non-reverb deluxe with that circuit (which is hardly different from the AA designated schematic)... though I rarely see the non-reverb blackface deluxes in-person anyway, they were made in limited quantity and were discontinued by the time of the CBS buyout as far as I know. Oddly, the non-reverb Princeton (the deluxe's 1 channel little brother since the brownface era) carried on into silverface and beyond, right up until Paul Rivera revamped the Fender amp line around 1981. I guess the non-reverb Princeton kept selling, while the non-reverb deluxes sat in stores collecting dust because people either spent less on a princeton reverb or sprung for the fancy deluxe reverb....

Point being, fender reused model names for very different designs and almost every version sounds different than the versions preceeding and following it, some DRASTICALLY different (5E3 to 6G3 to AA763 circuits, total mindfuck of redesign... these 3 versions cannot be set to mimic eachother, they are completely unique amps)

Can we start differentiating deluxes? better yet ANY same-name fenders with completely differing circuits in general? I used the deluxe because I ran into a confusing sighting recently that was technically correct but misleading and also because I am a huge fan of all the deluxes from the TV front tweeds to the reverb model, have played them and studied their electronic idiosyncraxies as part of my personl tone quest.

Its just confusing the way things are organized currently... and we are spreading misinformation when people glance at an equipboard to see what their heroes played through and see a picture of a generic deluxe from the wrong era.... people could buy the wrong vintage amp for a small fortune and come out of it very let down. They are all great, but you aren't using a blackface deluxe to cover "Cinnamon Girl" without a pedal, nor are you going to get your 5C3 wide panel tweed to throw down some spanky, mid-scooped, clean chickin' pickin' at anything approaching band volumes.

I wanted to like Audioslave... I was thinking RATM+Soundarden=AWESOME... but actually it just adds up to a poor man's zeppelin

https://youtu.be/7vyANa71gvU

not sure about the mic but it looks like an AKG stand, I used to have a bunch of them until someone stole them (I'm talking to you, Acey, ya fucker)

on the mic, the red base should be the tipoff, pretty unique... but there are so many companies making condensers at every price point now its hard to know what to search for on google

also, this is a music video, its just a prop! the guy is miming to his pre-recorded track and most likely used completely different gear to record it

also, this guy is the biggest tool I've seen sit behind a keyboard in some time... I am thinking about stalking him and beating his ass right now, and I usually abhor violence, but someone should stomp the guy with a paira doc matens or put a j toe cowboy boot up his @$$ so he'll stop whining

yes.... although you can keep Cypress Hill, but Chuck D with Rage? oh yeah.

and a petty one at that

Your mantis is showing...

I was just kidding

okay, white flag, captain flame war

Looks like an acoustic, lol

Need s mo' power

Butthe point is that they are all named super or supa fuzz and some areexactly the same under the hood

Jyst saying that i think that's what gchiaren meant.

howsabout all the different superfuzzes

univox super fuzz

black cat super fuzz (clone of the univox)

voodoo lab super fuzz (clone of the jordan bosstone)

behringer super fuzz (clone of the boss hyper fuzz fz-2 which in turn was a univox superfuzz with dedicated treble and bass controls and a 3rd mode for high gain boost)

Marshal Supa Fuzz (tonebender mk2 professional built by sola sound for Marshall with a proprietry fixed treble roll off)

there are probably more super fuzzes, that's just off the top of my head

the 'vintage' rat and regular rat are a bit different internally, I don't hear a significant difference, but Rat enthusiasts will call me a fool... different items

despite Klon enthusiasts' claims that the gold centaurs sound better, it has been confirmed by DIY stombox folks (with the patience to scrape away all the epoxy and trace the circuit) that there are NO internal differences between Centaur versions... while the case and graphics changed, the guts have remained the same since the 1st gold horsie units hit the streets when I still had acne

my experience with the Chinese celestions is that they handle way less than their rated wattage whereas even the cheap UK made celestions from the 90s and earlier actually could be pushed a little past their rating....

if you liked the 70/80 you might want to look at an older UK made low efficiency celestion like the G12L50 or G12S50 or one of the lower cost, lower efficiency versions of the V30 from the 90s like the speakers guitar center used to blow out occasionally stateside (forget the model number, but they sound spectacular)... I have mixed feelings towards V30s as they like to be slammed with a good 30 or 40 watts before they deliver the goods and given their 100dB efficiency rating that's a lot of sound pressure... the 80s "Marshall Vintage" labeled V30s sound better at lower levels

you may want to check out the WGS Veteran30 and Retro30 speakers thata re based on the V30 but are said to have more range... I've not tried them but if my WGS Reaper 30/55 is any indication I would expect them to outperform current production Vintage 30s by most people's estimation... but YMMV, I still don't have a great read on what the Liam sound is

no prob, I've owned, played and fixed a lot of amps... a lot! I really love tube amps.

I forgot to address the 'vintage' amps you are looking at... always remember that vintage is a term from wine that is less about age and more about quality and desireability (although every wine from a specific vintner and year is a 'vintage' in the broad sense, vintage wines are good batches that are aging well)... so just because a piece of gear is old doesn't make it vintage though the seller will toss the term arund to try to jack the price up.... some of these no-name amps aren't REALLY worth as much whole as they would be parted out (something you used tos ee happen all the time before the 'vintge' amps thing happened), these cheapies will only become vintage if people make them valuable by overpaying for them

I've just been looking around for current offers, there isn't much in the vintage range but it's tasty:
* Carvin XV 212 ; early 80s for 450€
* Fender PA 100 ; 1971 PA amp but usable with a little EQ? Looks so cool. - for 150€
* Super Symponic (unknown brand) ; 1950s, looks deliciously like an old Gibby EH clone, the red one if you google 'super symphonic ampli' - 250€

stay away from carvin, the fender PA will require a lot of modification to work for guitar... find out what the tube lineup is for the old symphonic before you assume its an EH, I can't find a schematic for it online, who knows what it is (I gotta tell you the Gibson BR and EH series amps don't sound that good... the leatherette, 2 tone and tweed amps sound a lot better)

that's what I got thru some google searching, but I don't read Japanese so I was really relying on google to translate.... I think they improve the buffers... not so sure... either that or they remove them

seems to be a buffer modification

I didn't say it was BAD, just that he shouldn't be trying to hype his average working band with a pro page.

BUMP! no one wants to talk speakers?

here's some of my previous favorites:

60s and 70s pre-rola Celestion greenback G12M (pulsonic cones, not sure if the carious ones I ahd were ll 25s or if some were 20s with the paper voice coil former, but they all took a good pounding coupled with some G12H30s in various 4x12s and sounded fantastic, particularly close-miced for recording... one of my tall 4x12s got used for 90% of the tracks on the UYB record and we miced the best sounding G12M, and it sounded)

70s Rola Celestion blackback G12H30 (kurt Mueller all-paper lead cones, LOUD, well balanced and MEAN)

80s Fane Classic 50 (I have a Laney OEM version with a large dustcap like the Clestion G12-65s and one that was Vox OEM with a small aluminum dustcap that's chimier and tighter, but both have the ebst lower midrange of any speaker I've ever played, full but not muddy)

70s JBL E120

70s JBL K110

80s Celestion G10L35

80s Celestion G12-65 (large dustcap JCM800 series classics, fabuloud overdrive with gooey lower mids, rounded but chimey treble... played clean they are a lot like the Fane Classic 50 models fo the same era, but muddy, presented with drive they evelo and upper midrange spike the Fanes don't exhibit that helps the Celestions cut thru the mix at higher gain settings)

80s Celestion Vintage 30 (branded Marshall Vintage and way better sounding then even a well worn in late 80s or 90s Vintage 30... cuts the mix w/o modern V30 harshness, but can sound pretty moor if hit with less than 15 watts and by 15 watts I mean a cranked 15 watt amp or a 30 watt amp set right to the edge of distortion)

60s Jensen C12PS bass cone speaker from Supro cab

Jensen P10R reissue (surprisingly great, though nothing like an old one)

70s CTS Anico (OEM speaker for Kustom, some CBS fender and various organ cabs, handles 35 to 40 clean watts but has very early breakup, great with <30 watt amps needing extra treble and an extra layer of distortion)

some bad experiences have been:

recent Chinese made Celestion G12M35s

WGS Green Beret (these sound more vintage than any celestion G12M since the 70s, but they have TERRIBLE come cry when you use fuzz or distortion pedals even at low volume and their lows are can get farty like an old Jensen rather than fat and compressed when the speaker is hit with 20+ watts)

60s Jensen C12Q, (sounds great when only getting 5 watts, otherwise not so good)

50s Rola 'Heppner' Alnico (doesn't handle its rated 15 watts... or even 5 watts... sounds amazing while dying... my speaker was not just tired out, I've bought a number of these as they can be had for 5 to 20 USD... I will probably buy more as its fun to record with speakers you are destroying, sessin ends and you throw them out)

Dude, your country's info/entertainment is killer. Your TV stations produce some exceptional historical documentaries with a slightly different slant than American and British docs on similar subject matter. I wish I spoke your language so I didn't have to search for dubbed or subtitled versions, but I can only follow romance languages and then not very well since my 2nd language is Latin.

Like Scandinavian film, German TV is always blowing my American mind. What you guys class as mainstream media is of such a higher quality than American network TV and studio filmmaking

there's something really creepy about that guy... in the USA these days they would never let a guy that skeevey host a TV special. But its super cool that they let this creepy mofo on TV in Europe. You guys have way more style than we do...

"When your uncle Lester wears Polyester, he looks like a dirty child molester... BURN THAT SHIRT MOTHERUCKER!"

-from one of my first punk songs in the 90s

many, many years ago I was on gearslutz, thegearpage and moderated prosoundweb

cool

hey, sorry I went all over-the-top saying nasty stuff I didn't actually mean in that previous post, dude... my son went to bed early that night and I had a couple beers with/after dinner and my tolerance is so low from not getting out on Fridays anymore that I totally got tipsy and mouthy

sorry about that, I apparently can't drink more than 1 IPA anymore without getting stupid... how embarassing

thread hijack over because I just glanced at this:

http://equipboard.com/pros/esteban-caceres

here we go again

there is now way this Spanish guy's youtube noodling and poorly shot bar gig can constitute a professional music career

why does every yob with a local band have to try to make themselves look bigger than they are with artist pages on EB? either that or this guy's a legend in his own mind already, singlehandedly popularizing the Epi LP special II with his blazin' riffs... DUDE!

hahaha, wait, there's my bitter has-been streak showing again... shit

in the USA there's this thing where once a middle-aged adult is down on their luck, employers start not wanting to touch this person even for very menial jobs, hell, especially for menial jobs.... they will hire people your age and tell the old, experienced guy who just needs to make his rent that he is overqualified or whatever... I actually had this happen to me a little while ago after I got laid off a few years ago, I wanted to take a low-stress nursing home receptionist job because there weren't a lot, or really any, openings at my pay grade where Iw as living then and I needed some income but since I was going to take a pay hit I also wanted to have a really stress free job with limited responsibilities as I was leanring to be a dad then... every easy job I applied for I was "overqualified for" and they hired really young kids or stay at home mom's with no work experience... but for a while I was unemployed and treated like a lepper by every employer with a job at my pay grade and I ahd to break bAck in by doing some consulting via an agency (who properly screwed me too, LOTS OF STRESS, EXTRA HOURS WITHOUT OVERTIME, THEY TOOK HALF MY PAY, OFFERED HEALTH BENEFITS THAT TOOK FOREVER TO ENROLL IN, argh, their client used me and discarded me, but t did make it look like my job skills weren't out of date.... just AH!)... and my story is a pleasant one, lots of people haven't gotten so lucky here, I know a lot of people from my parent's generation who 'retired' early to get some partial-income via their social security as well as selling their homes if they owned a home because they couldn't get a break even from places like Walmart stocking shelves (and these are skilled workers I am talking about)... there are people a decade or so odler than me who got edged out jobs in the new economy here and eventually I stopped hearing from them anymore. I wanna think they moved somewhere else and found work, but they could be homeless or they maybe killed themselves. I dunno

in the USA the younger you are and the less experience you have the better your chances of getting into a menial job... I thought that might be the case in Croatia... plus I kinda suggested you look for occasional 'creative' gigs doing grunt work and learning the ropes of some less conventional fields

oh my god, I want to enter this with some gibberish lyrics over drop-tuned sludge and claim to be a Latverian VonDoom-Metal band

aww man, good thoughts and very uplifting... anymore I feel like David Byrne,

"And you may ask yourself, How do I work this? And you may ask yourself, Where is that large automobile? And you may tell yourself, This is not my beautiful house! And you may tell yourself, This is not my beautiful wife!"

just how DID I get here? I am seriously uncertain...

and at what point will I be able to get away with wearing a pink Mohawk again? 'cuz I am a Bowie fan and totally get 'image' as a huge, component of popular music (because, lets face it, for a long time music has had a huge theatrical component that shouldn't be overlooked, though nor should the music)

Even within the European Union there are huge differences.

having been allover the USA I have to make this aside.... the states/regions of our country are a lot like what you describe in the EU... standard of living is far from uniform here despite the image we project through our media. I have been places where the homes still don't have indoor plumbing and NOT by the choice of the residents. Even if you have visited our country, if you just hit the obvious places like the eastern seaboard, southern claifornia and boom towns scattered from texas to Arizona, you don't have a complete picture of the USA. Its a crazy place here, and its HUGE. Unless you literally drive around it on a tour bus or in a van its ahrd to really understand how diverse it is economically. My 20s were a real eye opener! Talk to Boom about Texas some time.

just an aside, no bearing on the discussion at hand

you're very right about everything you've said, I was mostly trying to be helpful and encouraging... though I grew up pretty poor by American standards, that's still wealthy in a good portion of the world

however, the OP clearly has a computer and internet connection of his own and Croatia is still part of the 'developed' world as they sometimes call it... I am sure they are suffering, but as far as his needs go a little creativity may go a long way... not all gear (or any) need sto be purchased new (I've only ever bought 2 new guitars and have enver owned a brand new amplifier)... there is a thriving global market for used music stuff thanks to the internet, and doing deals with private sellers over stores tends to helps one avoid import duties and such (by the way, german and british gear costs a fortune here new)... further to the point he wasn't looking to get a new Gibson, just some fresh effects boxes and maybe an entry level tube amp... if there are not opportunities to be had to generate his own income that really sucks, but it cannot hurt to try harder to find or even create some opportunities to get some cash flow as his short term gear desires are very modest

but overall I agree with you and I apologize to TheAbsentWalrus if the tone of my comments has insulted you, reading back I can see how my despicably 'can-do' attitude could be read as an undeserved admonishment

I guess I just feel like a blowhard. The washed up musician bit really hit close to home since that is how I see myself, LOL

Firstly, I'm an inveterate multitasker. I always like to feel busy. I am divorced (with no plans to date again for a while) so my obligations to other adults are limited ins cope and I have a very flexible work situation at the moment. My presence is constantly required as a dad, but there are large blocks of time where a toddler doesn't need or want anything from you other than for you to be in his line of sight (mine can be very resistant to constant structured activity). EB has become my recreation on days that I don't make plans for the boy (and while I am working, my work doesn't even require a quarter of my attention and I find myself on hold a lot getting put on hold by the representatives of alrger companies). I seldom have time to get involved in anything that doesn't involve earning money or being a dad but I can dick around on EB throughout my dad and it keeps my spirits up when there are a lot of cool spottings/reviews or lively banter in the forum.

this is a real pet peeve of mine on EB and it didn't start with you... whether it is fair or not, I don't think its right to add gear that you borrowed or rented unless MAYBE you sued it to record an album that you actually released, and even then I dunno... by all means write a review (I do for everything I've ever owned, borrowed or rented assuming I got a good feel for it and can give a solid opinion), but if you don't currently own it I think it should be left off your equipboard.... god, if I listed every amp I have ever used on my equipboard it would be SOOOO huge... I just list the stuff I currently own and use all the time... heck, if I put just the amplifiers I've used on legit albums, wheeew

in response to your amp list, stay away from modern traynor, those amps are not like the old ones, they are clones of very recent marshall and fender models and not very good clones at that.... I don't know a ot about post-mts randall tube amps and brunette I have never heard of. I suspect all of these amps are made in chinese factories with all PCB mounted components and lots ofl multiconnectors like inside a computer, not ideal for audio, but tis the norm anymore and you can pay a lot more for amps by marshall that are made in the UK but with the same shoddy modern construction

On your list I would probably stick to the tiny terrors as they are quite good sounding (being gained up, punchier ac15s) , easy to take on the train, and rarely seen broken despite the questionable construction (they are so simple inside that there's not much to go wrong)... if you want more modern gain and a bit more headroom/tightness the jet city might work, I don't know about reliability, but people seem to gig them hard without backups, so.... its funny, the more vintage, mid-gain preamp section of the orange is Josh Homme-ish, while the fixed bias output tubes, full tone stack, negative feedback loop, 70s marshall master volume implementation and staunch power supply of the jet city is also Josh Homme-ish... I'm bot sure which will get you closer to your target tone, probably either with the right speakers or neither with the wrong speakers! Your hands and your guitar may be the deciding factor. If you actually own the soldano OD pedal I would err on the side of a slightly bigger amp that just has a great 70s clean to slightly dirty tone and add the soldano tube-OD in as well as something like a tubescreamer and maybe a fuzz (josh uses a lot of univox superfuzz and the $30 behringer ultrafuzz willg et you in the ballpark, I am shocked at how good that little plastic piece of junk sounds)

I think there are other threads about 1st tube amps, go through the guitar forums old threads, lots of suggestions you may want to try out at the store if you are buying new....

personally I don't think I have ever bought a new amp, always secondhand even if its modern production... I like my tube amps to be pre-disastered! there's no way you got a fluke bad output transformer if the amp's been played in for a year or more (in the case of 2 of my amps for 50 or 60 years)... think about a sued tiny terror, see if you can get a 1st gen, pre-Chinese production unit, theya re cheap

I just meant formal training like a general music course in your school where you would elarn to read, get chord theory and an introduction to syncopation, y'know? all the basics that can be applied to any instrument.... I've never taken a formal guitar lesson, but I studied music in school from the age of 7 or 8 until adulthood and apart from my early crack at the classical strings, everything I learned can be applied to any instrument and any type of music.... that and physics class really helped me get the science and mathematics behind the sounds that we find to be musical (and those that most of us don't)