jimmarchi1's forum posts 8022

I'v never tried a Marshall MG. Only solid state Marshalls I have experience with are the old 80s lead combo amp that sounds shockingly good as an 80s rock sound and some valvestates that belonged to other people. The valvestates are kinda amusing but not particularly great. I think its the preamps that sound shitty. Marshall coulda just given them typical Marshall tube amp pres, but they didn't want to use more than 1 tube in the circuit so the pre is areally hybrid and the tube isn't run at full voltage as I recall so its kinda like putting a tube overdrive in front of a solid state amp or into the PA. Weird sounding. I am sure the MG amps suck a dick. Everyone ahtes on them.

Now get ready for my to drop a major snob-bomb on you and share my real thoughts:

To be honest, I won't plug my own guitar into anything that's not handmade and tube based anymore unless you pay me to. I was even looking askance at the AC30HW I bought until I plugged into it because I wasn't sure I trusted Korg to make a proper sounding AC30 since every so called "handwired' amp they have released to date has been partially PCB, loaded with shoddy components AND HAS NOT SOUNDED VERY CLOSE TO AN OLD VOX (even when they had the sense not to load these amps down with pointless modern features, though many of them were totally bastardized on top of the questionable build quality). I was feeling snobby til I turned the old girl up and heard her great note definition, vox sparkle and felt the touch responsiveness as overdrive sets in.

I am sure there have been huge leaps in solid state technology, but I probably will not give any of these amps more than a few minutes of my attention in a store after trying the orange microterror and the ac30vr. Serviceable stage amps voiced to copy some old sounds, but not much in the way of real tone that makes you play better when you hear and feel it. Even mass produced tube amps leave me so flat I have trouble motivating myself to play through them. I plug into an ac30c2 or a generic channel switching amrshall at a store with nothing else and it feels like my tone got sucked down to a 2d, flat impression of my playing. The good stuff just sounds that much better. I try not to be snobby on this site because everyone has different depth pocketbooks, but that's how I really feel. If you aren't going for the top end products with simple circuits that let your signal breathe then all you can expect are serviceable sounds. Anything is good enough for live work though. Summoning amazing tones every night has never made me a dime, but songwriting has. You do the math. I still can't stand a lot of the stuff I get stuck using to try guitars in stores that don't stock high end and boutique amplifiers. Apparently its mostly just me who finds a lot of this stuff to be ear piercing and less musical than what I have at home.

I am still itching to try helix though sicne you can disable the amp modelling if it elaves you unsatisfied and just use it as an effects unit.... I am really into the TC stuff I've been buying though. I really don't want my dry signal turned into ones and zeroes. Its bad enough recording into a computer. Meh.

But yeah, sometimes I have to plug into a marshall DSL or something like that and I get a passable sound in a few knob turns, but its hard to hold my gorge down. Only the knowledge that if I vomit right on the amp the store might make me buy it helps me keep my lunch inside my stomach when I hear what passes for clean tone in most amps made since the 80s.

Way to throw the gauntlet at the OP. Heh.

Every piece of software or gear is a tool. If its useful in your music, then its good for you. If it makes it hard or impossible to finish a piece the way you envision then you should ditch it. If it doesn't work for anyone then its bad. Lots of people make music with that garageband software. Its onbviously not entirely bad.

I'm going to change the gibsons pickups to Burstbucker 2 and 3, a Duncan custom, a custom hybrid, maybe a Duncan distortion set but I don't think that's too usable to me and finally maybe some custom made ones from a guy on ebay but they take like 2-4 weeks and its risky in that I may hate them. None of those pickups are very similar but they do have a pretty fat tone which I want as I feel the 57 plus gets too shrill for me, could be that I play with the bright switch though but the Laney loses abit of its magic with it off.

I don't find the 57 classic line to be brighter than equivalent output burstbuckers. In fact they are darker.

I'm very tempted to run the Laney through a 212 and swap the v30s for green backs and the orange through a 412 with v30s. Though that will be hassel live to lug down two flights if stairs toss into a car then set it up. Just heavy to move around but would so awesome to me. I'll look into one of those amp switcherrs.

I toured with 2 to 4 marshall cabs for years and multiple amps and poweramps. 2 words: get roadies.

Wasn't this thread about solid state amps before? I am losing the script.

No screws. Wow. Bummer... I would just pay the oldster even though i could do the work. Anymore i just wanna play. Apart from general stuff like puckups and maintenance work I cannotbe bothered. My free time is too valuable to me. I learned that modding my strat. As a dad and middle management paper pusher it just ate up too much of my valuable time even though it was fun.

accordions have been electrified forever (though mine was a vintage one without a ic or pickup or whatever the ehck accordions use)... most 50s amps other than Fenders had accordion inputs, especially Ampegs! Everett Hull who founded Ampeg was a bassist (obviously) who was mainly into jazz and polka.... Leo Fender on the other hand was strictly a country and western fan. You can look at thir amps and see what kinda music they liked to listen to.

Who made your vintage mandolin?

try to avoid drilling as much as you can

God's bals this thing is fun and from personal experience i can say thate space mode sounds hella close to the old roland chorus echo i borrowed for 5 years...

If you don't ask for what you want the answer is always no. I have iften been surprised how effective it is toask politely be it on ebay, at work.... You get the idea.

I just want to report a really great transaction with Pro Audiostar's E-Bay store. I bought a TC Flashback X4 from them at a low ball offer price expecting a scratch & dent floor sample but received my X4 Wednesday only to discover a brand new one still sealed in the original package when I opened the UPS bag after work. It also came in less than 48 hours and the shipping was FREE. These guys are a really great outfit.

I got some of my toys this week. I was supposed to get a floor model from theis ebay seller's brick and mortar store but he sent me a brand new X4 still sealed in its shrink wrap and everything. What a swell motherfucker.

Now... when do I find the time to play with all of them? I kida want to put every component thru its pases individually and then assemble the system and start storing patches.... I am looking forward to A/Bing the flashback against the Nova delays

have you downloaded any toneprints for your X4 or used the software to create your own???

Oh, I forgot! The Tonepros sealed tuners that look like Klusons are really nice and may be drop in replacements. MEASURE all the holes and use that to decide, there are no bad options really. I like regular vintage Klusons unlike most guys, but the rotomatics on my LP are great, the kluson sized gotohs on my Greco are killer, the schaelers on my carvin are its best feature (I would look at the m1 minis for an LP), and sperzel's locking tuners are the bomb if you find yourself wrenching the G string outta tune a lot while soloing... I would choose based on screw location and post size because EVERYONE's aftermarket tuners are wonderful.

none of the above, get tone pros sealed kluson style... but odds are the stock tuners are fine and the problem is the nut and saddles being burred as well as you not knowing now to get a Gibson to hold tune well because you are new to legit gibsons

I recently sold my accordion.

If I had to guess how orange pulled that trick off it s proly achieved by optimizing the interaction between the output transistors and the speaker to mimic the dynamic dampening effect of a speaker coupled to an output transformer in a tube amp. I don't pretend to understand all the physics behind this type of solid state power amp, but its been around for awhile as a theory and has been employed recently for guitar purposes in the popular Matrix power amps and their hybrid JCM800-based design (which impressed the shit outta me when I tried it). If orange employed discrete FET stages for the preamp using the good old Fetzer Valve formula from runoffgroove.com that's so popular for amp-n-a-box pedal designs, then I expect it could get darned close to the amp they were trying to mimic. Or I could be way off base and Orange used some other solid state voodoo. I have a certain intellectual curiosity about the Orange Crush amps and the similar blackstar solid state designs that are becoming so popular with budget-minded guitarists.

I expect you'll like the rat. Its a good call with an ac30ish amp for full on distortion at friendly volumes. I ordered some tc nova systems (1 turned to 2 somehow, they were cheap used) mainly because the distortion is a midi programmable rat with independent treble and bass controls. I have been missing a rat. Along with the sd1 its one of those all time great ac30 effects to have on hand.

If you go for an orange Crush head, consider investing in a Radial Headbone head-switcher so you can A/B into one cab. Less to lug. I personally use the weber, but I already have the routing gear out front. The radial takes care of the input switching as well as the output switching whereas the weber only flips the amps outputs between the dummy load and the cab and wants you to have a good signal distribution method out front already. Also, Radial makes 3 versions of the Headbone (optimized for dual tube amps, a tube and a solid state amp OR dual solid state amps) and the weber is optimized for tube amps, so there's some extra circuitry if one of your amps is SS that's used for flipping the dummy load back and forth as opposed to the Radial that has an SS input and Tube input on the model you would want and if you can plug those in alright you are worry free and there are less relays that can fail.

But you know I'm suspicious of most really high gain circuits.

There's a lot of older indie scenesters turned smalls tudio owners who's income is mainly derived from fleecing local bands who want some of their street cred to rub off on them when they record, mix or (ugh) "master"at this local Muckity-muck-producer's hipster-studio in the cool neighborhood of YourCity USA.... I am not saying these guys aren't experienced, knowledgeable and talented. I just hate them for purely personal and often ethical reasons. The same attitude that makes them jerks in real life also makes them jerks on forums! And I am a pretty big jerk myself. with a high threshold for other people's jerkiness since I have so much of my own However, I am an affable jerk with a heart of gold who knows how to apologize when he mouthed off too loudly. I also give lots of stuff away free to people, like guitars, amps, effects and speakers, etc. You will enver catch a Gearslutz member to give you a pair of studio monitors.

mope, but now I am going to. I am always curious to see how I feel about solid state amps purported to sound close to their all tube bretheren.

Today was presents day, my TC Flashback X4 showed up today (wow that was fast) and Lucian got Diesel 10 and Emily for his wooden railway collection. We are both stoked about our toys.

the trails mode is some kinda menu diving, set and forget thing.... but I am pretty sure it has the buffered, trails bypass.... I know the Nova stuff does.... I'm just trying to decide hw to route all this gadgetry, maybe ABY box, left output to Left in of X4, right output to drive input of Nova, Left output of X4 to Matchless, left output of Nova to Traynor, right output of nova to right input of X4, right output of Nova to AC30...

whoa

this is why I never do a lot of effects, even using MIDI routing is confusing... I am going to have to get graph paper and make a diagram

that said, my rig is getting silly.... I am set up for 3 to 4 amps now thru 2 to 3 cabs, midi controlled with a Nova system commanding a flashback X4... I know most of the time I will just be using presets that bypass effects and go straight thru to a nice blend of 2 amps with different vibes and different settings, but its nice to know I can detune, modulate, distort and simulate every delay and verb known to mankind now if the mood strikes me. Now, do I want pristine tone or to have my delay and verb trails linger? I don't need buffering as the input of the system is my radial ABY with a class A discrete buffer and the drag control that simulates the dynamic impedance loading of the 1st stage of a tube amp..... hmmmm

how does the Flashback's buffer sound in trails mode? and how are the stereo delays? the stereo is weak on the Nova for anything buy ping ponging and some modulation, I am thnking of running the X4 mono, should I maybe use it stereo?

everyone loves it so I bought one to try, got it for just over 100 bucks too, floor model, scratch and dent but with warranty.... plus it has midi in so I can just set it aside and command it with another pedal. If I am having effects I want compelte preset functionality down to amp switching from a tiny little floot unit with maybe 4 or 5 presets, I am bare bones after all!

aww heck, I just got a TC Flashback X4 too... not sure I wanted that, I have a use for it, but this is getting excessive

that'll teach me to make lowball "best offers" on ebay assuming they will be rejected when I am bidding on similar stuff at the same time... aww well

now I have piles of echo options....

the 2 pieces should talk to eachother with the joyo looper acting as the brain of the setup, but how easy they will be to program the way you want is anyone's guess... once you get your patches setup though you are set

I actually just bought a TC nova system that's not here yet to be the brain of my live rig. I still have the 3 button preset controller from my old G minor that will work as 3 additional presets on the G system and sicne it has midi out and thru it can be a controller for other midi devices or a midi to relay box that will send latching or pulsing signals to analog switching inputs like an amp channel switch or the nobels effects with remote switching... I might get 1 more midi friendly delay pedal for amp #3 and then bolt everything down to a small pedalboard. Nice thng about nova system is its got a modified TS9 and Rat midi controlled inside and only the wet part of the other effects is run thru AD/DA conversion, the dry component is fully analog straight to the amp... I am all stoked about having effects again without a "tonne" of hassle.... and with the ability to run completely dry patches for my classic effects free sounds without having anything but a little buffering out front clouding my tone up

or I might hate it and dump the whole thing, who knows?

shrug make sure you buy the EXACT one you liked or you may be disappointed

I will say this for mexi fender, while they are variable in tone and feel they are pretty consistently okay guitars while the squiers are all over the map

they may be the same specis of wood but they are 2 different pieces of wood, probably from 2 different tress that might not even have grown in the same soil or part of the earth... they were probably kiln dried by the supplier and they may have dried differently (different amounts of time in the kiln)depending on how many orders the lumber company was filling that day not to mention they were all probably shipped across the sea to be built and then back across the sea as finished guitars again changing the moisture content for each body... the sanding process during finishing will have an effect too... not t mention cheap isntruments with solid finishes are often lots of scraps glued together. Different size chunks glued in different places in relation to the sound board will change the body's tone filtering properties.... that's if the Chinese jerks who manufactured your bass even use the woods they claim... 2 squiers made on different weeks could use different wood and just both claim to be, say, alder

does the joyo have midi out?

any unit that can send program change data can do this

Yeah I know the sliding pickup isn't anything new. I'd never heard of that westone, but I knew that I think Gibson put adjustable pickups on the grabber series? good

it is the grabber series you are thinking of and Gibson has owned Orange since the 90s (acquired in the same deal that scored Gibson the trace Elliott company).... do the math.

YES TO MESA BASS AMPS...

if you want the best sounding loudass tube bass amp, the discontinued mesa all-tube bass head (forget the model name) will blow your mind. Its rackmount only and has like 8 or more 6L6 power tubes if I recall. Total beast, but it has real TONE and not just powerful tube volume. The mesa 4x10/1x15 fridge-sized ported cabs sound amazing too. So fucking sweet in a room that can handle the efficiency. I honestly prefer mesa's loud bass amp to the coveted 300 watt SVT circuit with 6 6550 output tubes. I am not inlove with the 70s ampeg sound versus the 60s ampeg bass designs that were really toneful but not stage worthy when it comes to volume and headroom. I am secretly partial to fender bass amps of the 70s. I also mentioned the Sunn 2000S. WOW what a loud 200 watts (especially if you can get the dual 2x15" cabs it was speced to run thru). The 2000S sounds really good through a 2x15 and 8x10 laid on their sides and stacked up OR a 4x10/horn over a 1x18. The SVT only does its thing thru the matching 8x10. Sounds weird thru anything else to me. Fender amps seem to excel thru any speaker rig, but I always thought the crème de la crème rock loud bass tone was a fender bassman100 or 60s dual showman driving an oversized old marshall bass cab with the 55hz celestions. Whenever I took a bass gig I used to like to do a couple 4x12s one driven by a 70s bassman100 and the other the ancient dual showman I owned for decades. Oddly, I enver got a lot of grief from soundmen about running 200 watts into 8x12" speakers. It was loud in a really good way.

Any 200 watt Sound City head makes a phenomenal bass amp ragrdless of what it was designed to do. Loud tube PA heads make great bass amps as well, particularly if you are a bassist who uses a few stompboxes. The inputs on old tube PA gear generally make stompboxes including sansamp stuff sound REALLY good.

Jesus never had to contend with the perils of the music biz... A&R reps make Pilate look like a teddy bear.

I see a lot of guys who play Gibsons for metal using aftermarket EMGs (especially in Explorers for some reason) here in the states, otherwise the dimarzio super distortion & d-activators, Duncan custom, Duncan distortion, Duncan invader and the dimebag model rule the roost amongst metal guys who don't play more traditional humbuckers. A lot of metal guys in my part of the USA play whatever is stock in their guitars but have fancy high gain amps or rack systems with high gain midi pres, TC G series processors plus a pedal switching system for adding mainly boost and OD out front of the amp for solos. I see a lot of guys with stock guitars using mesa mark or rectifier heads set up for bone clean, gain and MORE gain usually with the mids scooped out pretty seriously, TC G majors in the loop and maybe a tubescreamer out front for solos driving a mesa or orange 4x12 atop a15" or 18" bass cab. These guys are usually not as loud as I would expect. Their master volumes are set nice and low and the speakers are barely getting tickled. I mean its loud, but well managed as opposed to how unruly my method of getting a thick sound is.

at the risk of being an internet trope.... LMFAO

Green screens rule... later on though you just cannot go wrong with a silverface fender bassman 100 or ampeg V4B (though the V series can be maintenance whores and they use a few oddball preamp tubes just like vintage SVTs)... and if 100 watts won't cut it, the Sunn 2000S is a really loud-assed mofo.

If you can find one, Marshall's 100 watt JCM800 bass amp is an awesome rock amp. They weren't made in large quantities and unlike earlier marshall bass amps they are NOT just a guitar amp with deep caps instead of bright caps. The whole tonestack is designed for bass and they are a gainy bass-beast that should get more respect. If you set the sweepable mids right they can still do an okay 2203 impression with a guitar too. I think my buddy Lenny at Atomic Music in MD has a JCM800 bass head in stock now, but I could be wrong. I haven't checked his inventory or chatted with him in a while.

you never run into any Bareknuckles but the mules here in the USA. Everyone who springs the ridiculous BK prices gets mules here. Go figure. All our heavy guys seem to go with various duncans and dimarzios.

I mean, if its not working out you don't want to keep any of their ideas, right?

Obviously you are the one with the bass expertise,

Boom is actually a bassist whereas I am at best a guy who has played bass for money and probably not up to boom's standards (though I am aa very tight, rhythmic and dynamic bassist, I am NOT creative or interesting, I just get my Motown on with everything). I don't even own a bass anymore and when I do need to play bass I just always buy a mexi p or j bass and upgrade the bridge. Boom has a pile of basses that are all interesting and probably all better instruments than I have ever owned. If you wanna talk bass AMPLIFICATION I feel qualified to talk as I have owned and used LOTS of bass amps, tube, solid state and hybrid on lotsa different projects and have recorded literally hundreds of different bass rigs and miced up and DIed countless more in an FOH role. Otherwise I defer to Boom's wisdom as should anyone on this site who is just starting out.

Boom is right, the moving pickup is nothing new. There have even been guitars that have a similar setup. On bass particularly I like the pickups to be bolted right to the body. Especially if they are passive. Pickups floating on the pickguard is one of the flaws of the 2 big vintage Fender designs as well as the junk stock bridges that definitely encourage dead spots on the neck. That is all. Boom, continue on, you are the master.

maybe the school server thinks Petrucci's playing is masturbatory

old skool reprazent

I swear I will listen to it when I get a sec. Feel free to promote more of your stuff on the forum. I always feel guilty about posting my own music too, but I don't know why. As long as people are regulars on here it shouldn't be bad form.

I would disagree with the 2nd chance. Music is one of those rare tines in life where you don't have to compromise if it makes you uncomfortable. What gives a band its sound is lots of lttle compromises that add up to be so much more interesting than just one musician's vision for the songs. On the other hand, when its not working its just not working. Trying to shoe horn the odd man out into a unit thats otherwise on the same page is always an epic fail. And as my buddy Phil says all the time, "if I don't wanna work with you anymore I'm not gonna work with you. No piece of paper can make me if it doesn't feel right." and hes got a Grammy, so....

an original band is a remarkable enterprise where you choose your coworkers. Being all budfy buddy blows the whole beauty of that arrangement and compromises the quality and sense of purpose of your band. Members, like inappropriate gear for the project,are disposable. You can keep them around outside the band context, but the wrong raw material makes the wrong sound. Dropit fast and move on.