jimmarchi1's forum posts 8022

everybody likes Moogs, but only serious synth guys will spring for them (and who can even find a vintage one, even a minimoog) the point of my giant threads is about gear you have owned awhile or borrowed or maybe rented in the studio and really know well.

here's my list:

Ensoniq ESQ1 my favorite digital synth overall HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Yamaha DX7 (all versions, still own a mk2, not for N00Bs)

Roland MKS-50 rack (like a rackmount juno with no knobs, awesome analog DCOs and filters, needs midi control, not for newbies)

Oberheim Matrix1000 (PITA to program, similar to MKS with Oberheim filters, not as fat in the mids as earlier Oberheims)

Yamaha TX81Z (poor man's rackmount DX7, less featured, recently sold, easily replaced with imageline or NI software)

Ensoniq ASR10 sampler (belonged to a friend, awesome sampler with a gritty sound and great filters, awesome for making your own wavetable type sounds by making small samples)

Access Virus 1 (belonged to the same friend, FUN)

Roland Jupiter 8 (belonged to the same friend, always drifting out of tune, HUGE sounding VCOs)

Roland SH101 (borrowed from the same friend, he had the keytar handle, so funny! great little mono synth in the tb303 style with more features and a keyboard, sliders are harder to use for acid basslines than 303 style knobs, but you can actually play her, great portamento)

Roland Juno 106 (a lot like an MKS with a keyboard, thinner sounding, sold)

Korg Poly800 (Korg's Juno106, basically sounds like an 8 voice Polysix that stays in tune and has midi, nice sounding DCOs, mine had patch storage problems, sold but recommended)

Roland Juno6 (owned by friend, unstable VCOs, amazing filters, simple layout great for making fast 80s lead and pad patches, has cool Roland chorus built in too, similar to Jupiter synths with less flexibility, a real player's synthesizer for stage use)

Roland Juno60 (like a more stable Juno6)

Korg Volcabass (recent acquisition, haven't had much time to play with it but it does a convincing 303ish monosynth and was CHEAP, feel chintzy will report back after I use her some)

Korg MS-10 and MS-20 (rented, unique filters, powerful semimodular setup, you can plug your guitar in at a patchpoint after the VCOs and go mad with filters and LFOs on it and for this alone its the bees motherfucking knees, would but one in a heartbeat.... bass is almost TOO fat)

EML Electrocomp modular sound effects synth model 400 (borrowed, I believe this is the synth used to make the sound effects for Star Wars Episode 4 in the 70s, great noise machine, THICK, not good for playing music even with a VC keyboard, must be modded with a MIDI to control voltage setup to be used for western music, FUN FUN FUN, you can treat guitars with it, not worth the buy in unless you are a total collector)

Realistic Concertmate MG-1 (broke and was beyond my ability to fix, sold for parts, alas.... a minimoog by any other name has bass so sweet, getting pricey, but HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

bum bum bum bump.... HAVE AT IT DIRTBOX NERDS!

your wish is my command.... I started a dirt pedal experiences thread:

http://equipboard.com/forums/guitarists-bassists/topics/a-giant-thread-about-od-distortion-and-fuzz

share your dirt pedals here (no boosts unless the can produce their own dirt into a bone clean amp).... I am going to split my list up into good and bad (for my tastes), maybe everyone else do the same and we can get discussing. This is a sensitive topic and one man's trash is another man's treasure so be nice, no flaming. All tones can be legitimate in the right context.

Good: DOD OD250 and 1st gen Distortion FX55 (very similar, classic bare bones diode to ground OD, hard to improve on, better dynamics than DS1 and no tone control to fuck your EQ response up), Ibanez TS9 original issue (classic, awesome with Fender amps, hard to improve on, given to a friend for xmas), Boss SD1 original issue (Boss's version of the TS9 with assymetrical clipping diodes, crunchier top, different mid emphasis, similar bass response), Proco Rat 80s, Colorsound Overdrive (a boost, an EQ, an OD, a fuzz, trashy, transistory and pure rock), Boss OS2 Overdrive/Distortion (meaner than an SD1, better voiced than a DS1), MJM Brit Bender Mk3, Univox Superfuzz, custom low gain silicon fuzzface clone, EHX muff fuzz, V8V sweet 'lil '66 tonebender 1.5 clone, mid 60s Vox Tonebender, BYOC Tonebender professional MK2, Burns Buzzaround, Stomp Underfoot Skreddy Mayo clone, Way Huge Red Llama 90s (based on Anderton's tube sound fuzz project using CMOS inverter chip, awesome tweed type sound, great dynamics and bandwidth, a little noisey), MXR Super Badass modified Overdrive (an SD1 with the option of flat or humped mids, a better tone control and a bass gyrator that boosts or cuts 100hz after clipping, easy to tailor to your amp's voicing and to sit well in the mix of your band, a green rhino mk2 with asymmetrical clipping and less mid sculpting), EHX Soul Food (Klon clone, gets close enough for most people including me.... needs a way to bring the bass up for some amps and applications after clipping when used as a dirt machine and not a clean boost, otherwise awesome... fairly transparent, could be more dynamic, I have thoughts on improving the circuit, I might make my own modified Klon soon)

Bad: Ibanez TS5 (sounds like a TS9 for cheap but the plastic tac switch breaks easily), DOD FX55b Supra distortion (awesomely buzzsawy, 90s tones, I actually kinda miss her awful sounds), EHX Russian big muffs Green and 1st gen Black (very similar, both boomy, fun on bass), Ibanez Sonic Distortion SD9 (reminds me of the DOD FX55 but not voiced to my taste, might suit a lot of other people though), Marshall Bluesbreaker silver box 2nd gen (meh, black box 80s ones are supposedly better, whatever, not for me, too bland), MXR distortion+ (like a gainier, less dynamic OD250), Sans Amp 1st gen, DOD YJM250 (brighter, crappier sounding OD250), MXR Distortion II (unique sound, but not particularly useful), Jack Oram Fet Muff (surprisingly abrasive for a FET based design -- not like anything else I've heard but not terribly special either), GGG BSIAB2 (cranked marshall tones from 2 cascaded Oram miniboosters, awful tone control, sounds transistory and almost like a fuzz at high gain settings, basis of many marshall in a box pedals), Boss DS1 (the distortion we all love to hate), 70s EHX Ram's Head Big Muff (big let down), 90s USA Big Muff, BYOC Large Beaver 1st generation with 'triangle muff' specs, Fulltone Fulldrive mosfet (somewhere between a TS9 and SD1, very expensive without much in the way of additional tone shaping, I'll stick with the original Ibanez and Boss units or better still the useful features on the Way Huge and MXR versions), 90s Vox Tonebender RI (small black box, not as good as original in any way, great mod platform), Skreddy Pig Mine (another tweaked muff, supposed to get the David Gilmour Muff sound, fails, more of an unmuffy muff sound LOL, preferred the Mayo circuit, the best Muff style I have ever used but muffs are still overrated), Carl Martin Plexitone (part of a cash plus trade deal for my last ACTUAL Marshall plexi, suffice to say it does not have a plexi tone but did have good resale), Carl Martin Crunch Drive (sounds a lot like Marshall's bluesbreaker pedal with more gain and less dynamics, part of the plexi trade, sold, bad resale), Barber Direct Drive (part of plexi trade, british flavored OD, nothing special, good resale), Catalinbread Hyperpak (great tones in the red llama camp but hissy even at low drive settings, lent to asshole friend of ex-wife, never returned), Mosrite Fuzzrite (great for Iron Butterfly covers and little else), Shine-ei Companion fuzz (make your guitar sound like a musical chainsaw, funny, valuable, sold), MI Audio Crunch Box (popular marshall in a box, sounds a lot like the Marshall bluesbreaker pedal), Xotic BB preamp (not a bad juiced up ts9, but the 2 band tonestack is tuned in such a way that it changes the EQ of your clean guitar tone way too much at ever possible setting), Maestro FZ1, FZ1a and FZ3 (too finicky, only useable for recording retro material, piss weak output, very gimmicky, best to borrow if needed), Blue Silicon BC108 Fuzzface 70s (spitty, harsh, velcroey, fun but too valuable to keep, very gimmicky), BYOC ESV germanium ac128 fuzzface (just meh), Sam Ash fuzz box (okay with humbuckers, awful with fender pickups, not enough output), ZVex Distortron (almost perfect yet not right for me AT ALL, getting so close to a great cranked amp tone is worse than not sounding amp-like at all, but she's good for someone though... very similar in design and tone to BSIAB2 except using mosfet based SHO boosters in series with the big muff inspired tone control instead of 2 dual jfet mini-bosters, different tone and feel, tubier than BSIAB2 but also not as good for heavier music, bass contour switch is handy, tone control STILL holds her back ).

I think that's all the dirt boxes I owned and used for any period of time. Chime in. I know there have been similar thread, but not tackled comprehensively. WHat are your winners and losers?

I am trying to get sharing info with everyone for my own education and benefit as well as guys with less gear experience :-(

and so my work here is done.... back to the Game of Thrones marathon

wow this is going to be another lame fest instead of what I had in mind....

we don't usually use that term, retard? to me its less about being PC and more about not insulting people whoa re legitimately retarded by comparing them to people with the capacity for complex thought who just can't be bothered.... you know, assholes?

share your experience! (bumpity bumpity bump)

it would be way more awesome if the chorus weren't completely lifted, almost note for note, from an STP song, LOL but that's Pete for ya... listening again I am pretty sure I can hear my superlead on this track counterpointing the mesa rectifier sludge but not so sure about my strat

no one needs a flanger and a chorus unless they set their flange really extreme and their chorus really subtley OR if you have them sandwiched before and after a pretty extreme dirt box with the after-dirt one being a stereo effect driving 2 amps (and here is a serious matter of taste since I find the stereo implementation of flange and chorus to have a lot less overlap than in mono)... or maybe (JUST MAYBE) have chorus or flange in your amp's effects loop (if you go in for amps with effects loops) but keep the opposite effect out front of V1 to really separate them even if the settings you like from them are similar... every time I have owned a good analog chorus and a good analog flange (and I always seem to score nice chorus and flanger pedals right around the same times in my life, not by design, but by chance) I wind up commiting to one or the other and shelving or selling the one that I don't take to gigs

there is such a big pile of overlap between the better, warmer flangers and choruses, for example an Ibanez FL9 and CS9 cover a lot of the same ground, but the flanger can get a little jet-planey and metallic whereas the chorus stops short with less controls, but does the whole wet/dry stereo thing that the flanger doesn't... even for fake leslie uses there's a lot of overlap between classic analog flange and chorus tonally.... a great set of fairly common and cheap pedals to use together are the Boss CE3 with its multiple stereo modes and the BF2 which is still a mono flanger that have really different timbrality to them even when doing the same job (the BF2 always manages to be warm and a little wooly sounding in the midrange even when set to be very clangy and metallic, whereas the CE3 has this open JC120 quality in the mids, but is also the 1st of the 'cold and chilly' toned choruses to my ear, especially in true stereo mode feeding 2 very similar amplifiers... I was a BF2 guy for years before I encountered the mu-tron flanger and more recently the old FL9 and I not long ago picked up and then returned an MIJ CE3, though my main complaint with it was the 12 volt operation, totally PITA for a guy who doesn't wanna deal with a big power supply and just wants to daisy chain 1 or 2 effects from a tuner off the single wall wart... anyway, I've got a lot of experience with fangers and I find most of the versatile ones that aren't meant to sound extreme and silly all the time? that you might actually use on more than 1 solo? well, they're glorified choruses with a delay time control and resonance, that's it... best flanger ever for overall tonality and features is the old and rare Mu-Tron Flanger with the expression pedal built in, holy wow, but it still has some faults and is so collectible I will probably never see another one in this lifetime)

http://equipboard.com/pros/black-market-radio

hahahaha, I know these guys.... Pete Cornell recorded that Black Market Radio LP at Slugfest in Spring City PA where my old band did some free demoes and guitar overdubs.... Pete Cornell borrowed my white strat and some 70s modulation pedals for all the clean rhythms on that album.... he may have borrowed one of my superleads and a dual showman too, but I can't remember... dude still owes me a beer! I could somplete Pete's equipboard from memory, no documentation needed. I mean, some of it was MY stuff, at least on the LP and his live rig was like a Gibson LP and a triple rec, LOL!

come on in and share all the different speakers you've had stock in your amps and cabs and also tell us all about speakers you've bought as replacements. The speaker in your amp is a big frickin' deal and doesn't get the respect it deserves. Its not as glamorous as a new overdrive box, but its going to influence your sound and even your playing way more!

here's my current collection:

Celestion G12 Blue Alnico RI w/WGS Reaper 30 55hz bass cone, wired series for 16 ohms in a Vox ac30HW2 combo (plus a spare of each in my closet)

60s Celestion G12S w/pulsonic lead cones X2, wired parallel for 8 ohms in a Vox ac30b combo (I am toying with the idea of putting my spare blue and reaper in this amp to make it more homogenous with my fawn ac30, but it sounds so nice the way I got it that I have been afraid to change ANYTHING.... even when it was overheating all the time 11 years ago I couldn't bring myself to service her until she blew up completely, dumb, I know, but sometimes with amps and guitars I can be like a football player who won't wash his winning jersey)

Celestion G12M Greenback, current production X2 in an 80s sealed 2x12 enclosure wired in 16 ohms series or 4 ohms parallel via 2 different jacks on the back of the cab, plus a single 16 ohm current G12M stock in my ac4HW (I've thrown a number of speakers in this 2x12 over the years and I think I am happiest with the recent production Chinese G12Ms even though I am not usually a big fan of them... they make the cab really rockin' and after all, rockin' is what sealed cabs are all about)

70s Celestion G12M 16 ohm w/pulsonic lead cones X2, in storage, pulled from my Marshall 1960TV cab and replaced with 2 current production V30s before selling it (I wish I had pulled all 4 speakers and kept the old Marshall branded V30s I had in that cab too... that cab configuration recorded REALLY well, but was surprisingly mellow in person... LOUD, but mellow with a nice presence lift from the V30s)

I have also owned some JBL D and K series alnicos in 10" and 15", celestion's 80s 10" speakers, vintage AND reissue Jensen P10R and P12R all ribbed cones, vintage Jensen C12PS (supro branded) and C12Q, Celestion V30s from every era of production, Celestion G1265 pair with the large H dust caps in an 800 combo, Celestion Modern Leads in various Marshall and Laney 4x12 cabs, CTS 10" and 15" speakers from the 70s, 60s ceramic Oxford 10" and Utah 12" both ceramic and alnico, and some Eminence Legend 10" speakers in a cheap Marshall combo, WGS green Berets, Weber silver bell, 90s G12M greenback RIs, 70s blackbacked G12M and G12H speakers

All VERY different speakers, what's your speaker experience? I wanna know more, especially if you've been heavy into eminence's new stuff or you've owned some Webers

heh heh, I wanted the homage to the myths of my childhood I got, for sure.... would not have settled for anything else (okay, maybe I would have)... it was done with the right mix of reverence and humor... the film was very meta-aware of what it was doing

good ears with the music, I wasn't sure anyone else noticed the element from the prequels

Belgian beer? usually great, Czech beer? 180 degrees different than Belgium's, also GREAT, but most of their beers are in a really similar style whereas Belgium, France and Holland have more diversity than even Germany

all amps pick up radio stations, some fitter it out better.... there are thigns you could do to modify the radio out of your little fender, but they will change the sound and/or feel

2 dual gain stage distortions ins series gives you 4 stages with 2 levels of diode clipping and the ability to clip the input of the 2nd pedal by overloading the IC.... a big muff has 4 stages of gain and 3 stages of clipping diodes, do the math

no, I chose to sell it because she needed dental work desperately that was going to eat up my entire checking and savings account, I had already done the last batch of dental by selling my bandmaster rig and it was sell something else, late pay the rent and utilities, or let her cavities abscess worse.... decisions decisions.... she actually told me not to sell her, ut in a tone that said "god I really need the dentist now, dude, its only a guitar!"

to quote Jaimie Lannister "The things I do for love."

Yea, taking your advice on the distortion pedals though, going to have 2 distortions and a overdrive but the over drive I use for a slight crunch for doing open chords but it also doubles up as a awesome boost pedal which I'm happy about. Just want to replace the small clone and get a few modulation pedals which I'll do when I get the new amp in February then all I need will be a mic and I'm gig ready haha.

haha, my advice was 1 each OD and distortion if you just CANNOT make do with 1 or the other, but whatever, its your sound, go to town... Christmas pedals are the bomb, you should wire all your stuff up and go batshit crazy today.... I remember getting my 1st tubescreamer for Christmas in maybe 1994? 1993? God I was excited until I plugged her in, set her for a dirty boost, opened my fender Princeton up til she drove on her own and engaged the pedal. I let loose a screamin' blues lick on my old Carvin semihollow only for my dad to tell me that the point of the gift was to get me to turn the fuck down in the house and just get my rock tones from the pedal, LOL

obviously that was not the point of the tubescreamer to me... I am pretty sure my dad was missing the point and still is.... classical guitarists, meh, they just don't get it

then there was the year where I got a vox wah wah and my 1st big muff, gosh was that an exciting Christmas for a 15 year-old boy! "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!" or in this case you'll destroy your hearing....

then I reached adulthood and the party was over...

except for when my band was starting to get hot regionally, that year my parents bought me a tv yellow Gibson LP special. I was hanging out in a music store right before the holiday with my dad and I fell in love with her, I was ready to wlk out empty handed but he fronted me the money to buy her that day and I was supposed to pay him back in installments. Yet come Christmas day I just got a card from him and my mom that said not to worry about paying them and not to throw this one at shows. I was really sad when I got stuck selling that guitar for my ex wife's benefit. How often do you get a Gibson from your father for Christmas as a grownup? Once apparently. I will never forgive her for that one, that guitar had huge amounts of sentimental value even if she was no longer a favorite for actual playing... I have owned lots of great guitars since, but even with my current collection I feel like there's a hole where that guitar oughta be and nothing will ever fill it :-( I loved that special so much that the finish wore off in huge chunks on the upper bout and the neck and she was covered in my blood. I cried a little when I sold her, fucking store insisted on having the case which was a gift from my bassist and had our band logo painted on it too.

Other all time great xmas gifts included a vintage FZ1 fuzz from my best friend a few years ago. Just a cool thing to be handed with a bow on it! Another year when I was working as a paid sideman I had recently picked up an unloaded 2x12 to scale down my rig from two Marshall 4x10 cabs in stereo and my parents gave me the one gift that has gotten better every year, a Celestion G12 blue alnico speaker! It currently resides in my fawn ac30. I like to rub the bell cover affectionately every couple days.

or you could just play a song without all the fuss and bother, but that's not very christmasy. So you got money and the Laney for xmas and you're going gear shopping after the holiday with the leftover cash?

PS, a compressor will make the feedback worse.... there are dedicated feedback surpressors that work pretty good, if its a consistent note that feeds back you can notch it out with an EQ pedal too, or a noise gate might help a bit.... are you getting a musical howl or a microphonic squeal from your guitar?

Marshall can really handle tube amps, the simpler the better. Start adding too many features and they get it wrong. When they do solid state every once in awhile they get lucky. But really Marshall's strength is simple tube amps. The guys at Marshall can be putting out mediocre 900s and 2000s and then they whip out something simpler and better sounding like the Vintage Modern or the new Astoria. It used to be that Marshall was also awesome about building roadworthy amps, but that's not the case anymore. They don't know how to make a feature-laden amp that's roadworthy like their classics were.

badassery, right there! you're almost gig ready

actually nothing, I'm not married anymore and me and my parents decided not to exchange gifts and just showered my son with awesome presents.... not that my wife had gotten me much in the way of presents I actually would want before the split! a year before we married she got me my Polytune, but that was about it. I feel like she was more likely to buy me a gift at all before the marriage and that after she just collected gifts. I could be forgetting the odd pair of gloves or something.

what about everyone else? anyone get a new synth or guitar amp?

If your family celebrates this holiday, what pieces of gear were under your tree?

Marshall is not overrated. I f they had stopped designing amps with the late period plexis and early JMP metalfaceced superleads? IMPORTANT and worthy of the rep right there, but Marshall kept going with solid designs for 2 more decades... the JCM2000 series is kinda questionable, but its a logical evolution in a way. Marshall doesn't do a spectacular job of doing classic Marshall anymore, but they still do future Marshall better than anyone else, like it or lump it.

no, its x-mas eve, but traditionally my aunt throws an adults-only party at her place tonight and this year is no different.... I made my famous cranberry chutney, bought a Malbec, fresh baguette and some camenbert and I am off to get 'festive' like Rudolph, red nose style!

I personally prefer the European reviewers, but the American guitarists. I have a long overdue youtube vid to post on the best demoists which I'll post at some point, on here. I love Jared Dines, Rob Scallon, Erock 331 Stevie T, though he can be very weird, and annoying, etc, but I love Rob, and Lee, Dan, and Mick, Henning, JJ, Denniss...Geez, I'm wasting my life.

yeah, guys like the captain and Chappers are not terribly good players compared to Americans like Pete Thorn... but in general Americans are more versatile musicians than English guitar players. I would never take on Eric Clapton in a blues-off but if the contest required us to play some jazz, country and even a little chugga-chugga metal? I would feel confident of winning the battle by accumulating points for versatility. Anyway, I don't feel like most of us Americans really showcase all of products strnegths and weaknesses effectively, we mostly just make them sound badassed with our badassed chops.

I'm with you on that, personally I love Fender amps (Well soundwise, because, from what I can gather from personal experience, and horror stories, they're unreliable, and injury prone). If I could go with one amp, I remember thinking it would these blackface Fender actually, but I can remember which one it is, and it's gonna bug me so much, dammit.

Merry Christmas y'all!

All the Fenders I have owned were indestructible, but I've never had one built after '75. The Tremolux I might buy is obviously an old one as the blackface Tremolux head has never been reissued. I can't speak for or against modern Fenders other than to say that even the reissue amps have cabinet rattling at volume from the factory and need to be taken apart, tightened up and padded out with weatherstripping before you can record with them. I have heard some horror stories about fender's new stuff second hand, but I've seen lots of guys gig the shit out of their hot rod and blues branded amps with no difficulties. By the same token I have heard a lot of guys make those models sound really good, but when I plug into one I think I sound like dog's ass no matter what I do with the controls. I guess they just don't suit my playing style. I feel all muffled and boomy or thing and harsh, whereasthrough an old fender I can sound like myself wthout any fussing around. I just stay away from new Fender because of the cabinet rattling, the fact that the reissues don't quite act like a real deal old one (which throws off my playing) and the fact that I can't figure out how to get good sounds form the modern designs even though I KNOW they are very capable amps.

Happy Jingley to you too.... off to a family affair shortly to drink wine I didn't pay for and stuff my face with camembert.

Thats awesome, I'm just English and Irish haha, Irish on my mums side and English on my dads side. Bet you're really cultured then? Immigration is pretty damn cool though when you go through your family time line if you ask me!

being an amature historian I've tried to do my family tree, its pretty hazy for the Smiths, Jollies and Flaccos, but the Marchione male lineage I traced back to the end of the dark ages (it was easier since there aren't a lot of Marchiones, one family from Venice who do not look like my family -until my dad's generation we were all blue eyed like I am- and then there's my family who settled in Tuscany in the middle ages, there's one other James Marchione on earth and he's a film composer wholives in LA, but is from the Venetian family, no relation but still really funny we are both classicaly trained musicians), I have an ancestor who sacked Rome and held the pope for ransom a few years after the Norman Conquest... turns out my late grandfather was right, we're a family of axe murdering barbarians with cultural pretensions... there's a lot of Marchione family myths from the middle ages that I was raised with and they are actually not too far off base as it turns out

Is it me or do all ''metal'' distortions just sound shit! seeing as this is about amps what do you think of the Marshall DSL range of combos, perticularly the DSL15 and 40

I have extensive experience with the DSL50 and TSL100, in a word; unreliable

as far as 'heavy metal' distortion pedals? it depends on what you are looking at, metal guys I know are raving about DOD's new boneshaker distortion and there's a discontinued Subdecay distortion that always struck me as being unbelievably metal in its mid-to-upper gain range but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called... with any pedal designed for metal players a lot will depend on the amp you put it through because a modern metal tone is really about a power amp with tons of clean headroom and a snappy attack like an old hiwatt or sunn amp (which is exactly the sort of low gain amp I would be looking at if I wanted a head that had great cleans but would also make my metal-flavored pedal produce a modern sound). For vintage metal? Can't go wrong with a JCM800 2204 or 2203, the 3 is more thrash metal while the 4 has half the headroom (duh, its half the wattage) and is better suited to that post-van-halen zone on the edge of metal and 70s corporate rock... when Iw as a kid we called that sound metal, but in these times of brutal Norwegian bands its debateable

If I seem cultured its more my unusual educational background than my lineage, though there a lot of smart,cultured folks on my Dad's side. Oddballs, misfits, weirdos... but brilliant. I wouldn't say Christmas with the Marchiones is like the school of Athens, but the conversations may have a tinge of Lorenzo the Magnificent's dinner parties.

Ain't a Zucchini a Aubergine? Yea, the tv in Britain tends to make Americans look like idiots to be honest which isn't really the case.

no, an aubergine's what we americans call an eggplant

yeah, the English like to mock us in their media, but if Americans are so stupid how is it that we oversaw the collapse of the British empire and took your place on the world stage while maintaining a much better public image up until the fall of communist Russia? There's an element of put-on in American culture that even a lot of Americans don't understand on an intellectual level (so how could an Englishman?)... Its frowned on to look like an intellectual in most circles, but we also hate a real life Homer Simpson as well. The American Ideal is still to be a Ben Franklin or Thomas Edison and most of us are educated to admire people like that. Raw brain power, Wisdom and Scientific Inquiry over book learning. sadly most of us aren't smart enough to live up to the American auto-didactic ideal. That's not an American thing, no country has a whole population of Franklin's. If anyone did the world would look a lot different.

Look at the guitar, you guys are on my amps thread here. We INVENTED that and most of what your manufacturers have done with it squarely copied from our innovators. We didn't invent the guitar, but we made this obscure instrument into something that has consumed the hearts and minds of all the red blooded males with a little creativity on your whole island. We infused the image of the electric guitar with our whole cultural attitude of virtuosity and badassery.

I'm a classic mutt, northern Italian/roman/Swiss/French/Austrian on my dad's side, scots/French/german on my mom's. Pretty much all of western Europe apart from Scandinavia... my son is all that plus English/scots/Prussian on his mom's

man, I just thought about it and you English guys REALLY hijackd my amp thread

okay, maybe its not a direct correlary

I don't get this... a cucumber is a cucumber, a zucchini is a different vegetable entirely...you cook a zucchini, its awful raw, cucumber is good raw but usually weird if cooked. They look a bit similar on the outside (at least some of the fatter species of cucmber, the skinny ones are their own thing), but they are totally different. We call it a tap here as well as fawcet, its a matter of preference but where I am from its usually called the tap... and water from the 'fawcet' is always called 'tap water'. I don't know where you got this stuff.

one thing I've noticed about British TV is that when your shows have American characters the Americanism of the dialect tends to be WAY overdone, not to mention the way British small-screenwriters will mutt together a ton of American regional slang for one American's dialogue putting terms together that would never be used by the same person except in jest. American characters in British film do not suffer from these authorial malaproprisms though. Odd.

Most Americans are NOTHING like people from other countries think. That is apart from the average American's crypto-imperialist sense of entitlement. That's real.

this going to sound crazy because I have had mainly voxy stuff for the last decade, but I am seriously thinking of buying my friend's blackface tremolux head that he never uses... I kinda miss my bandmaster rig, but it was a little too loud and punchy, the tremolux is like a slightly lower power bandmaster with a tube rectifier so it has a little sag when turned up, very much in the super-reverb camp of fender amps for power stage feel... so if I can budget the cost into my world I think that tremolux is coming into the stable

SPOILER!

either that or Luke's daughter... she's clearly more powerful than the Solo boy, she gave him an ass whoopin' without ANY jedi training... Obi Wan chose to train Luke even though he knew Leia was Luke's sister, clearly the force is stronger in Luke and Leia takes after her mom more, if Luke was gettin' it on with one of his Jedi students and their child is Rey then that would explain why she is such an uber-badass... but she definitely must be a Skywalker, she has Vader's piloting and engineering talent for instance

a guitarist walks into a bar and orders a drink.... don't tell his AA sponsor though

wait, this:

NOW my work here is done

then my work here is done... literally, because I write music to be thought provoking and a bit of an emotional journey if possible, set the mood, see where you can take it and hopefully make the listener think in some abstract way rather than zone out a bob their head, and most of all make it so they have to listen again, even if they don't like the song

easier said than done though, I can't claim to have achieved my goals ever, so I have to keep on writing

now back onto the thread, what guitars, amps and effects got used on that solo? how do you get those sounds?

I am not saying ANYTHING, though the surprises were all predictable.... but so were the surprises in Empire Strikes Back, that's part of the Star Wars ethos. This was a worthy successor to the first trilogy I grew up with.