jimmarchi1's forum posts 8022

sounds close to mahogany, very light, dents and cracks easily, takes finish poorly, weak grain looks unattractive in translucent finishes like sunburst

strat bodies clock in at the low end of the scale for alder

Jeff Beck favors basswood strats but if he dents one the fender custom shop just gives him a couple new ones

it was also very popular in the 80s for shred guitars but the basswood shred guitars of the era have not survived as well as the ones made from more durable and traditional woods

having the longest day EVER, lets talk crusty slabs of distortion!

I'll start. What do you get when you put a Fender Princeton phase inverter on a powerful Hiwatt style british power amp.... an Orange Matamp. I am becoming really fascinated with these amps. The slightly lofi single triode phase inverter (called cathodyne or concertina) is a really weird choice for a big amp like this and I have never seen it in another big amp apart from my traynor (where it is a serious source of skronk as far as I can tell)... anybody got experience with an orange matamp or a pics only? What about the new OR50 head they do? I suspect that's more of a marshall 800 voiced for more bass and with the master volume moved out of the preamp into the phase inverter... but good luck finding a schematic! Anyone open one of those new oranges up? What about the handwired ones like the Retro50 and the CS50?

anyone find any cool old fuzzes at pawn stores or flea markets lately? entertain me, I am bored and I am not free to play guitar

I've never heard a Bowie recording that DIDN'T make me smile. But I am Bowie's most rabbid fan.

yeah, build it... go to small bear electronics first, they may have a pre-drilled MXR sized box for it already powder-coated in a few colors, you will just need to populate it and solder... I would build the stereo cable myself too, but I am like that

I am currently waiting for a bag of caps, resistors and pots to mod my traynor a bit and am chomping at the bit to open her back up (having dissected her to see what version I have, not the version I thought, apparently the 66 schematic carried right into early 68 with only a change in output tubes from 7027a to EL34 making mine a lot like an early Orange PA 120 with 2 fewer power tubes, no solid state input components, and a few component differences -- notlike a bassier Hiwatt/soundcity without a cathode follower before the phase inverter - that explains the surprising lack of headroom... so I am 'oranging' those few components to the original Matamp Orange 50 watter component values other than the interesting bias scheme on the input triodes which I think makes the amp even nastier than a stock orange -- but I digress, I am just excited to get snipping and soldering caps! A little revoicing and she will be a great rock amp and so NOT a marshall, god I am sick of Marshalls after a decade of using them live... right now the traynor is too mch of a doom amp with excessive bass response in the preamp and a treble pot that eats high end sparkle even at 10, resistor values in the tonestack must go up and coupling cap values need to be at least halved globally and possibly tweaked further to suit my style... and if that rocks maybe I'll build another one from scratch in a single channel 100 watt platform if I can find the right old Hammond transformers)... so yeah, that's what I'm like.... DIY everything you can!

I'll decide for you... LOW

I don't really listen to any of this pretentious soundscape/angry-noise music anymore, as I get older I realize I like pop-songs and rock posturing and if I want noise its Neubauten all the way. So I'll agree that Spiderland is an overrated album and that pretty much all of it is overrated. Its still rock n roll no matter how you want to deviate from the pop formula.... I mean, the beatles pioneered all of this pop-rock-meets-musique-concrete stuff 50 years ago. I digress.

maybe, you need to look in the manual to the Boss and see if it uses a momentary or latching switch (probably momentary, but you still need to see if it needs a normally open or normally closed circuit), but there are probably smaller and cheaper ways to go.... is the jack stereo for 2 switches? If so, plugging a sinlge mono switch in it may be finicky with which functions it controls based on how the tip and sleeve of the footswitch make contact with the ring-tip-sleeve of the stereo jack

I would read the manual and build something, its literally just 2 switches of the right type, a box in the size you want and 1 stereo jack. 15 minutes build time, maybe less. But as you may not have a soldering iron or any knowhow talk to loopmaster. One of these will probably work perfectly http://www.loop-master.com/channel-utility-switchers-c-29.html?osCsid=qgj6e0juggi9bjah2kuqs63o37

my #1 would be Johnny Rotten's PiL, I think they really originated the whole anti-rock thing despite what anyone else will tell you

Big Black, Shellac, Slint, Scratch Acid, Jesus Lizard, Mogwai

I don't know if they are technically post-rock according to Wikipedia, but when I was a kid they were called post-punk or post-rock in the music press as well as being called 'noise rock' I think.... as a rule, if Steve Abini recorded it and was really proud of it, then its probably some sort of post-rock

forerunners of the genre are definitely suicide, neu! and to a certain extent joydivision and a few other factory bands like a certain ratio (though ACR is kinda poppy, but hey, it ain't 70s radio rock and 'post-rock' is a pretty broad term that can encompass like anything that eschews rock posturing and sounds)

Sorry to sound super negative, I have a thing against china, not only in terms of quality, but also for economic and geo-political reasons. Human rights anyone?

nah Japanese guitars are good and WERE great... some are better than great today if you go to japan to find them

Korean guitars in the late 80s and early 90s, especially from the Peerless factory were pretty decent as are a few of the Korean factories today as long as you SPEND

I have never heard of a decent Chinese guitar.... people talk a lot about stuff they got from sara lee and other online Gibson/martin cloners being pretty solid, but I have seen these instruments and they have a lot of small flaws that cumulatively make them mediocre players and they seldom are made of the materials promised if you know what you're looking at... if it seems like a deal that's too good to be true, well, you an interpret the rest

as for your guitar, maybe I am off-base, but I am probably not... Eastman is the one exception to the Chinese-guitars-are-junk rule I know of (though their isntruments have a distinct feel and sound that will not to be everyone's liking), but maybe there are 2 exceptions.... I don't think so though. Research the company's history, its part of a massive Chinese manufacturing conglomerate versus Eastman which is more a small family business.

like what info? Its a Chinese martin dreadnought copy, probably all laminate even places where the martin is solid and I'll bet only the top laminate layer is legit tone wood... looks nice, maybe it plays okay, probably not built right or to last

yeah, that's 90% amp... I could get that sound out of either of my ac30s or my matchless maybe with no pedals at all, thogh that tone is a little woolly compared to my stuff and may be the orange ad30 or vintage selmer.... a twin or magnatone it ain't, but any decent cathode biased 30 watter will do that if you turn it up and maybe drive the front end with your tuebscreamer

your little hiwatt might do it if you play loud enough, don't know much about the modern hiwatt models... shouldn't that amp rightly be called a low-watt?

I have said this to many people many times on EB, but again, dude, just walk in the store and buy a current production AC30HW2... problem solved, great stock amp, hyper-reliable, easy to work on, good mix of legit 60s vox tone and modern conveniences.... I play the shit outta mine and I own a real 1962 ac30

yes there's a thread for this, also that video gives me an error when I try to watch it... who is Alex Turner? What band is he in so I can search youtube myself?

EDIT:

nevermind, I just plugged him into EB's search and looked at his board... arctic monkey's guy? His amps are doing the heavy lifting a lot of the time, if you look at what he uses for effects its mainly delay and modulation, hardly any drive apart from a RAT and ts808 (pretty standard fare). If you look at his amps though you see a lot of ac30 type amps with cathode biased el84 tubes in open backed combos, only his twin and magnatone deviate from the vox platform. I suspect the amps are shaping this dude's sound rather than acting as a blank canvas for a load of talent boxes and that his effects are just seasoning that distinctive el84 sound, even the dirt boxes.

that said it would be great if you posted a working video link in the thread Dukeuke referenced

I think the Kruse is a modified plexi RI chassis in their headshell with a custom silver faceplate

I think Kruse is just a mod company like voodoo. This amp is a superlead with some component upgrades, internally jumpered channels and a switchable high gain circuit (the gain and level/trim knobs for the extra triodes are probably the new knobs added to the normal channel's high and low inputs and I suspect the bright channel low gain input is a footswitch jack for that extra gain. In the 70s and 80s everyone hot rodded superleads in similar ways much to the chagrin of collectors like myself... to this day I am always finding great JMPs hacked into 2203/2204 circuits or even more modern variations... Marshall pretty much based the single channel 800s on the most popular cascaded gain mod. The 1981 2204 I owned was built on a late JMP 4 input 50 watt lead PCB just like the 70s JMPs in the plexi headshell that I have seen, I suspect the 2203 and 2204 didn't even get a dedicated PCB until the change to horizontal board-mounted inputs around the time the split channels came out and marshall still offered their classic non-master amps with JCM cosmetics right up until then, though I haven't been inside enough 80s single channels to be sure)

argh, that was a lot of rambling, sorry

I would list the amp in the picture as a Kruse modified Marshall 1959SLP-RI

I wasn't actually referring to playing with swervedriver on the same bill though in 1999 (?) I was the 1st act on a multi-band bill with swervedriver as headliners. 99th dream era when they had ac30s and JCM800s which was hugely influential on my future amp purchases (not that the early tour I attended didn't fuel my love of hiwatts).

I am a huge fan of husker du and sugar. I imitated Mould's amp switching rig in my best/biggest band, though instead of JC120s my clean amp was typically a blackface fender showman.

here's the earliest version of my Mould rig, strat and all: https://youtu.be/EXszFV4EadM

but swervedriver and mould taught me my sound was at least 2 amps

off the top of my head I have opened/closed for or played withthe following name acts playing guitar or bass in various bands:

swervedriver

the white stripes

Peter Murphy

porno for pyros

the birthday massacre

silversun pickups

shiny toy guns

halestorm

Normally I would be right u on a question like this with solid advice, but in this instance I can't help you because my religion forbids me to listen to coldplay.

yeah, for a great new one... flea markets are a good place to find old, well-made uprights that need a little love for under the $1k mark, a buddy of mine has restored a couple fantastic 60s stand up basses he got at flea markets and estate sales... people don't try to sell old basse o ebay or they are listed for local pickup only, their huge size means there are deals to be had if you know what you are looking at

I don't know what I'm looking at and can't give advice, but I don't want an acoustic bass sound and don't even own an electric right now, I just borrow from one of my favorite bass buddies if I need to play bass for some reason... with a kid, space is at a premium so I like to have all my clutter come from electric guitars, tube amps and speaker cabinets (even then I have paired down substantially, there was a time when I had at least this many guitars, a bass, an ampeg tube head, 2 or 3 guitar heads, a 1x10, 1x12 and ac30 combo, my 2x12 cab, a couple of 4x10s and an oversized marshall cab just layin' around as well as 2 drawers of old fuzz pedals before I got practical about things and dumped stuff I don't play regularly)

but yeah, if you have space and about a grand or so to play with in initial purchase price andrestoration costs then an upright of quality is in reach for those who are patient and knowledgeable

upright? that's the real acoustic bas

I think Nick Farr is on tour with one of his bands.

had a pretty nice Japanese hofner copy given to me, sold it for all the reasons previously mentioned, kinda miss it when I am doing british invasion type stuff that calls for the early Paul sound that doesn't have the 60s American deep lows he got with the Ric and fender/selmer amps a lil later, not good for much else, very short scale is uncomfortable for a lot of bass styles

unless its your 3rd bass or something then skip it... acoustic projection is negligible, less volume than an unplugges 335 or casino

I feel neutral about it... for some reason it reminds me of post-Eno Roxy Music even though there's nothing overtly Roxy about it.

The video is really tickling me though....

screw around with the double B tuning

as for swervedriver's US fan base, its pretty small here, it just seems big because there are a lot more yanks in my age bracket than there are British subjects, its a question of population density

swervedriver has always played pretty small venues in the states, I've seen them at places my bands have played and I have never been in a band that was bigger than a regional phenomenon (and even then not a particularly popular regional act), but my biggest band and swervedriver played a lot of the same venues and neither of us managed to sell them out on a regular basis (in my hometown there was a time when my band could sell out the Troc but swervedriver never has)

I give Adam props for keeping it going so long and also for having the balls to reunite recently. I am not sure why wervedriver's career has had more downs than ups as they are a talented and original sounding band with a great pop aesthetic under the blistering rock and trippy psychadelia... the song "Last Train to Satansville" should have been a hit allover the world in 1994, but I guess A&M was only shelling out serious promotional bucks for Soundgarden that year :-(

I used to sometimes gang the stereo channels of my SPX90 in series to create insane feedback loops and nasty digital clipping on recordings hahahaha

Welcome Chad! I apologize but I no longer remember the oddball tuning for Never Lose that Feeling even though I covered it in one of my bands as a kid. I want to say its close to DADGAD, maybe DADGBB (Adam does a lot of stuff with doubled notes in his alternate tunings to get a mechanical chorus sound from the top strings by working the vibrato on his Jazzies). Another common swervie tuning is GCDGCD, but there are dozens more if I recall. I have a good friend who is also a swervedriver fan who knew all the tunings back int eh day because he bouht every guitar rag that Adam was interviewed in. I could text him and see what he remembers for you (or try a google search for "swervedriver tunings guitar world" someone is bound to have a scan of one of these 90s articles I remember ;-)

with all these tunings I found they worked best if I blayed around mixing strings from different sets to make custom gauges for each tuning... after awhile I was like "why bother?" unless you are doing a cover all these crazy tunings can be more trouble than they are worth as you destroy hundreds of dollars worth of string setstrying to get the tension right. Plus the trouble of reintonating for every tuning, argh! I ahd less guitar back in the day though, these days I could probably get away with keeping a guitar or two in a wonky tunng.

anyway, try the double B tuning and let me know if you figure it out.

I actually never bothered to learn a lot of swervedriver songs. One of the things I like about them is that they make music I would never write myself so I don't pick it apart so much when I listen to it, I just enjoy the ride like a non-musician. For instance I am an accomplished home cook who attended a lot of culinary school classes and there are aren't a lot of meals I can't make perfectly myself right down to decorative plating if called for, so when I go out to eat I like to find resturants who specialize in cuisine I don't know how to make or places that do fusion dishes that I would never THINK of making. In a musical sense swervedriver falls into both categories, I don't know the ingredients and techniques because of the tunings and I would never even think to write that way ;-) Its a big part of their appeal.

then hit ebay, there's tons of 8 track portastudios in great shape at low prices if you are good with lofi

free advice, take it or leave it:

don't neglect that education, friend! odds are your love of music and gear won't meet your financial needs after 30 unless you get very lucky.... if you have another career or are studying for another career path keep the music stuff, even EB, hobby level...

A grownup, for ALL THAT I POST HERE, its from my phone while on the train, taking a break at work or EBs shrunk in another window next to the learning game my son is playing on my lap, although I just got him a leapfrog tablet so I foresee les PC time and less EB posting)

I meant DJs are more used to listening critically on headphones already for their live performances than people who, say, perform on stage in a rock band, whoa re used to a blast of stage volume, monitors and cymbal wash....

I'll elaborate and answer your question in detail when I have a sec, got more parenting to do tonight.

I am not knocking headphones or mixing, I just don't know anyone who relies on them for much, but I pretty much know all pop/rock/jazz/classical engineers. I have used my favorite AKG cans to get sounds and check phase on all my mics when doing location gigs, but it was mainly out of nescesity.

I loathe headphones for mixing and you're the only professional I talk to who uses them for anything but a check of special stereo effects. Then again you're the only electronic musician I talk to, everyone else I know is recording live music which is what I learned on. Is it that headphones are a DJ tthing?

'proper monitoring equipment'

unless you are mixing in a purpose built room or one that has been carefully treated with corner traps, diffusers and maybe auralex on the ceiling if the ceiling is low then even the same pair of monitors Whorse is using will present differently in his room then in yours.... too much emphasis is placed on speaker selection by young guys, scientifically your mix environment is way more important than your playback system, even something as simple as speaker positioning has a more drastic effect on how you mix then choosing NS10s over some 3 way Ureis

in short, we're never going to hear the exact same things unless we all get together in the same room to listen together, plus we have different ears and brains so who knows what will poke out at each of us

I had some revelatory experiences as a young buck watching some really amazing engineers dial up incredible sounding mixes on some ghetto speakers in untreated home studios that translated incredibly well to EVERY system I checked them on... since then I've had a real 'it just doesn't matter' mentality and have striven to be able to give a track a good balance whether I have a fancy control room with lots of monitoring options, an SSL and tons of great outboard gear or I am listening quietly on some prosumer direct fieldsand just using the native plugins that come with fruityloops.

Tascam deck? one of the little reel to reels or a cassette based one? I think they still make the little reel to reel, or they did... I ahd one and I also had an early 90s cassette based rackmount model. I think the motors died on my reel to reel and a buddy of mine still uses the cassette one to cut crunchy, lofi drums on some of his projects as sort of a front end to his computer-based system... I guess its his now

fyi

reels of tape have gotten kinda expensive now that no one is manufacturing 1" and 2" in large quantities anymore

are you trying to transfer old tapes or are you looking to work on new stuff using a mix of tape and DAW?

in English the equivalent idiom would be "not my cup of tea", but I followed the Deutchland version just fine.... see, flattop acoustics are not my pair of shoes or cup of tea unless they're 60s or older, amps are way more interesting, expecially weirdies like vintage orange heads (trust me, while modern oranges are pretty stereotypical vox/tweeds on steroids the old ones/90s OD heads I mentioned and the custom shop head referenced by AWalrus are REALLY unique designs from input to speaker jack)

I'll take your word for it on the fuchs, I know nothing about his amps... seen em, heard em, not my thing, moved on.

The Orange could be a lot of things, many pre-millennial orange models have the graphics for control labeling and that knob layout. Its probably not a new 15 watter as you say. Thinking back to when I played one I seem to recall the headbox was really small on that. This one just looks kinda small. Maybe it is a custom shop one, are those smaller headboxes than the 70s and 90s matamp models? I've never played one of the new handwired oranges, just old ones and a few of the new, un-matampy PCB models like the rockers and the AD series.

I guess it is 1 line of text, god bless you that you can see that clearly on such a tiny photo. again, looks like a small headbox, and the tremolux has its own extra small head shell so that cooberates your eagle vision, whereas I think my bandmaster had the same size headshell as a bassman of the same era.

in my opinion

u need to invest in some headphones or monitors, trying to do music without proper monitoring equipment is like selling drugs with a broken scale. there are some great headphones for monitoring tht only cost around 50-200 if u want links....... hell even some 12 dollar pairs from behringer

its pointless for anyone to give you mixing advice at the moment, we can only appreciate the concepts of your work.

I have never understood how people mix on headphones. Even good ones

there's lots of cheap, passable speaker options out there that will work fine for low volume if you listen carefully and occasionally take a look at the shape of your mix on a spectrograph plugin

that 'broken scale' analogy really amused me given who we are trying to advise

anyway, I started leaning to mix on cheap compter speakers and some old hifi speakers as a kid, go to a yardsale and buy a pair of old, beatup jbls and a stereo receiver (the UK has yardsales/flea markets right?)... you don't need to get fancy, just don't mix on earbuds

off the top of my head

EVERY BEATLES RECORDING

kinda blue - miles davis quintet

black album - metallica

gaucho - steely dan

music from big pink - the band

AARON fucking COPELAND

dummy - Portishead

august and everything after - counting crows

Ziggy stardust - david bowie

time out - dave Brubeck

green onions - booker t and the mgs

killer queen - queen

unknown pleasures - joy division

beethoven piano sonatas - Wilhelm kempf

let it bleed - rolling stones

odyssey and oracle - the zombies

silence is sexy - einsturzende neubauten

truth - jeff beck

for your pleasure - roxy music

eponymous (1st 1965 album) - paul butterfield blues band

best of - Django Reinhardt and Stephan grappeli

the capitol years - frank sinatra

violator - Depeche mode

pretzel logic - steely dan

mellon collie - smashing pumpkins

best of - the rascals

axis - Hendrix

live at leeds - the who

marquee moon - television

mezcal head - swervedriver

can't buy a thrill - steely dan

8 way santa - tad

meat is murder - the smiths

head on the door - the cure

young loud and snotty - the dead boys

new rose/damned damned damned - the damned

October - U2

a night at the opera - queen

in utero - nirvana

dark side of the moon - pink floyd

aja - steely dan

the process - skinny puppy

I get accused (I think people mean it to be a compliment) of having 'slow hand's touch,' but I rarely listen to Clapton other than unplugged, from the cradle, derek and the dominoes, disrealie gear and the beano album (hardly ever for anything but beano)

there's actually 2 guyanas too... I forget which one harbored Jonestown... but whichever one you're in, don't try to swipe a watermelon, a farmer straight up shot some kids a few years ago

I'm just spitballin' from a low volume listen on really mediocre monitors, but I have ears and I know what these cheap little speakers sound like, I've owned them for over 20 years

or don't, I am talking about really subtle, non-corrective EQ to maximize your dynamic range and get all the sounds to cut w/o tampering with your overall levels too much

the orange, with that knob layout it could be a 70s or 90s OD80 or 120, or the custom shop 50.... or maybe even that lil 15 watt one they have out now (headbox looks small for a 50 watter)

looks like it says tremolux on the fender, but I am not sure.... I want one of those, underrated, but still rather rare for a blackface... it could also be the bandmaster with that control layout, had one of those, just a tighter and slightly louder tremolux circuit, for real

I think the black amp at the bottom looks like a Fuchs, but I'm unfamiliar with his model lineup apart from the big dumble clones

You can adjust levels in ignite I was just looking at screenshots and thts one of the core elements of mixing...

THIS

the main job of a mixer is to balance those gain levels into the mix buss, everything else is window dressing

rather than take the level down you could also do some gentle EQ cuts to pull it back a little... removing a little extreme top end detail above 10khz will always pull a sound into the background, then again its a dark piano sound already. hmmm

also if you listen to your mix a lot of the sounds are fighting in the mid range and there's a lot of low mid which is the 'mud' area for a lot of sounds

use your ears, or here is detailed (but rambling) advice:

did you program the piano via MIDI/piano roll? rather than compress I would even out the levels by adjusting velocity and volume note by note til its balanced as well as dynamic and emotional.... on virtual sounds that are programmed I tend to think compression should be heavy handedly used as an effect since its easy to even out peaks and valleys with your mouse. This doesn't need to be compressed unless you want to add more color to the sound, but frankly the color its lacking is more due to frequency response. What it needs is a better sense of key attack, maybe a small steep boost around 5 or 6khz so we can hear the 'hammer' sound? If it were a higher part I would suggest a higher boost. The low notes are a little round and woolly as well which fights the synth and kick. Your synth is both a high treble sound and a bass sound, I would give it a smile curve EQ to make midrange space, give it some additional boost at 80hz or lower, move the fundamental thump of your kick up to make space, a nice boost at about 125hz will help given that its an old school roland type sound and you want that roland roundness (kick roundness is generally perceived between 100hz and 400hz, the higher you go the more of a 'bouncing ball' quality you will hear). If you boost between 100 and 200 and cut in the muck range between 300 and 800hz you will get a nice roundness and a better feeling of 'power. Be judicious, move in 3dB incremements to start, keep boosts wide in low freqnecies to prevent phasiness, cuts should be narrow, for cuts try moving in 5dB increments and fuck with center frequency til your ear gets happy. On the synth sound I would fill in the lower mids a little for warmth, maybe a wide boost between 200 and 400hz or between 400hz and 1k. I might also put a steep cut around 100hz to cut a hole for the kick to really punch thru. I would give the clap more force too. try an 800hz boost and give it a little more sizzle in the detail range at 10khz or higher. Either that or add reverb and roll a little top off and boost the upper mids for more snap, try 3k. It'll have good attack then and also pull back a little in the mix with no level change....

try running some sidechain compression in parallel across the mix buss too, about 50/50 wet to dry. Set your sidechain EQ to be all about the mids so the big bass and treble transients from the percussion aren't driving the detector crazy. Set your compression for about 2:1, set the threshold super low and make your attack and release really long, this should help get the sounds together better.

k?

I've known a few people from Guyana. If you plan to pick a random watermelon make sure you're not on private property before you do it, those watermelon farmers are violently defensive of their produce.

and yeah, I know I have an outsized personality, but I don't think that's atypical of creative types from my generation... younger people have a whole different creative culture then what I grew up with