jimmarchi1's forum posts 8022

It was a limited run! We're all out, but next batch we've got one with your name on it :)

Wait... we're printing "jimmarchi1" on the next batch of shirts? :-P

that's how I took it.... the back could say "jimmarchi1: this is NOT a review!"

Just a bit late. I already got the velcro, cleaned up the steel and arranged it all.

If you're wondering, there's two distortions, one overdrive, one boost, a tremolo/reverb hybrid, a super reverb, and a chorus pedal. Includes tuner and Ernie Ball volume pedal.

you should sell some to add money to your 'new guitar fund'... I see a blackstar tube overdrive? that also does clean boost, right? keep that, ditch the rest other than the trem/verb hybrid or chorus and verb.... you need to choose between 60s and 80s, both are cool.... now get yourself a serious guitar!

Guitarists who spend more time practicing their 'passionate solo faces' and 'manly but sensitive corporate rock backstage nookie pose' than they do practicing the guitar. This goes double for singing guitarists.... most of you guys are guilty of this and you KNOW IT!

here's one more on the flip side... male guitarists who claim they focused on electric guitar out of a love of rock music and NOT because they were too nerdy and awkward to pick up girls without some rock 'n roll street cred... even if you were a crusty-punk in school playing chick-unfriendly hardcore with dense but sophomoric sociopolitical undertones in sludgey drop tunings, just owning a strat was a step up from being a mathlete. And we all knew that when we made the jump to electric... even young men I knew who questioned their sexual identity or orientation before graduation were thinking about being cooler for the purposes of sex when they got into electric guitar and anyone who says otherwise is lying. Maybe they weren't 100% on the girls part of the equation, but a socially acceptable date for jr prom was CERTAINLY a goal, even if they were more into the capt of the football team for drunken shenanigans in the back of the limo later. Man, I coulda stayed a violinist/violist.... well, I did not. Orchestra nerds did not get girls. Well, not attractive ones anyway! Though a stream of hot girlfriends and 1 failed marriage to a retired stripper later I really wonder if I was better off playing classical and being afraid to talk to the pretty girls....

thank you

Kinda reminds me of people who see you trying to set a better tone to your pedal, and when you test it out, they trash it.

I'm moving knobs, quit it, guys. I know the distortion sounds like crap, but that's what happens when knobs get moved. They make different noises, and they won't always appeal, but obviously I'm busy trying to find a good sound and your arse doesn't help.

People who don't have recall sheets drawn up for their gear even though their rig has 8 billion parameters between pedal board and amplifier controls!

Guitar gear with too many pointless parameters and controls.... also recording gear or ANY GEAR for that matter that gives you so many options that there are more ways to make yourself or the project you are recording sound BAD than there are ways to make it sound good. It becomes a bit of a needle/haystack scenario, whereas less options that will always sound pretty decent but are not meant for CORRECTION seem to encourage you to play well or to spend ore time positioning the microphone correctly! Or they do me.

We know.

you are talking to a guy who toured with a wall of marshall cabs and AT LEAST two 100 watt heads, vintage heads w/o MV controls, that needed to be pushed up loud to sound right (and damn right they sounded in a nice big 500+ seat auditorium)... I am good with loud, I like to be loud... master volumes are lame, OD pedals (even the amp-in-a-box designs that turn your fender deluxe reverb reissue into a JCM800 or whatever) sound like an effect (although sometimes you would want that effect, an OD driving the 1st stage of a tube amp is its own tone, just like a fuzz face and a plexi are their own thing) better to pick an amp to fit the space...

you should read David Byrne's "On Music".... he talks about subconsciously writing for specific venues too

also, I made a number of solid pedal suggestions for the OP that included some info about their circuit style as well as my hands-on impressions of the tone before giving my opinion on pushing a tube amp with appropriate wattage for your gig.... its not like I ignored the question, I just offered 1 alternate solution as well... Narcist, I am beginning to think you are just jealous of my guitar and amp collection and wish you were happy enough with your stuff to play a gig with just a guitar, amp and tuner. But that's all practice oriented, even when I had the stacks going every night I woulda been just as happy to play my old Guild thru my 64 Princeton Reverb if it suited the gig and venue. Anyway, your reply just made me wanna bust your balls harder....

It was a limited run! We're all out, but next batch we've got one with your name on it :)

Huzzah!

edit: But I don't take my pedal board with the Seymour Duncan to small juke joints. When I want a really good boost to send that tiny amp over the top for some clean OD then I just bring my axe and my Boss feedbacker-booster (I don't remember the model number but it's on my Equipboard).

I could happily play a small stage with my ac4, my SG and a polytune....

Hi all! Wanted to share something super cool I found over the weekend. Mat Zo is one of my favorite DJs/producers. I think I might be responsible for half his SoundCloud plays :-P

wait, you guys released t-shirts? I would take a size small in exchange for an article......

I don't know what most of those pedals are....

Also, did Jimmy quote himself? ;)

He does this a lot, very strange...

actually I was paraphrasing Bertrand Russell, the bit about Plato... oh wait, you mean the Taylor Swift bit.... oh yeah, I did... so what? you can't reply to yourself? Maybe that's why all my employees think I'm crazy, but you get starved for intelligent conversation sometimes and just start discussing things with yourself under your breath....

In the same way that all of western philosophy can be looked at as a response to Plato, all of American music is a response to the blues. My work here is done.

I've used neither of those, but if you want a slight marshally quality that has more grind than crunch but can be set to sound incredibly transparent try a zvex box of rock or distortron. It is a discreet circuit using onlyMOSFETS to amplify and clip your signal, no ICs.

The old Colorsound overdrive is an all discreet transistor circuit that is more of a fuzz, but because of the implementation of the volume and tone controls it behaves like an OD until you gun it. Into a clean amp it can sound a little transistory and masty (in a good way to my ear), but adding its own drive to an amp that's just getting a little hair it will blow (by blow) you away (get the Jeff Beck reference? he favored this particular pedal). I think the best current production version is the Throbak Overdrive/boost though DividedBy13's Joyride is also pretty good.. I have an old one and a copy with a master volume control that a friend built me (I was too busy touring at the time to build my own).

None of the pedals I am about to mention are discreet circuits, but in an overdrive discreet componenents really don't make much of a difference as long as a good IC is selected. We are not talking about a high bandwidth microphone preamp here, the goal is specifically to limit your bandwidth and destroy your slew rate to the point of distortion. Whatever gets the job done will get the job done.

I am quite partial to the EHX soul food as it sounds A LOT like whatever amp I put it through other than a slight bass drop-off just like an original KLON. JHS mods them and one of the things they do (other than adding the KLON secret-sauce germanium clipping diodes) takes care of the low end response. I am too lazy to bother messing with mine. If you want a less compressed tubescreamer with great tone controls try the Timmy or Tim pedals. A lot of people really swear by the mad professor sweet honey overdrive and very similar BJFE/barefoot honeybee but when I tried the SHO I was kinda left flat by it. Try one for yourself though. All of the Catalinbread overdrives are great, both the older models like the SCOD and the newer foundation pedals that are an amp -in-a-box. Can't go wrng with a Way Huge Red Llama either. SImialr topology to the CB SCOD I just mentioned as well as CB's discontinued Hyperpak overdrive (which is killer if a little noisey). All of the CB foundation drives are discreet circuits utilizing different configurations of jFETs and MOSFETS if you really care that much.

That said, the best overdrive ever is an amp that's the right size for your gig cranked up through a quality speaker. I would recommend that if your amp is just a little too loud that you spend money on a well-voiced low-efficiency speaker like Weber's Derek Trucks models. Then go to 11!

Kick-Ass and Super are probably my most favorite of all-time "reality" super hero movies. I loved KA one, and I enjoyed KA2 almost as much. Super, with Rainn Wilson, is amazing if you've never seen it. I almost cried. And I laughed almost the whole time.

Super was the best film I saw the year it came out... when 'God' sends those tentacle to bore into his head.... aww man

what'd you guys think of the American Splendour film with Rainn as Toby?

Predator! Great movie. If we are getting away from DC and Marvel, I must add He-Man, Thundercats, Silverhawks, and TMNT.

remember the ORIGINAL TMNT comics before the cartoons and action figures? With the whole planet of Krangs????

Totally. Most practice amps, in my opinion, fall into that category.

Man, they do not make practice amps like they used to. A tweed champ, 5 watt supro or an AC4 is an awesome 'practice' amp. Even the Gibson GA5 'les paul jr' amp they used to package with the 50s jr guitars and melody makers is a real winner (I do not like the later GA5 skylark that came with the SG jr and melody maker guitars).

My bedroom/practice amp is a current production AC4HW (review submitted to the EB blog last week, get ready for history and unprecedented detail). Most people would not consider it to be a practice amp, but its really not too far off from the old practice/student amp models unless you are talking price. I got a deal on mine and it was still an arm and a leg. The fender champion600 'reissues' and epi valve juniors are, however, a tonal trainwreck without copious modding. But they hit the 'practice amp' price point -- cheap. Its like when a company makes a budget tube practice amp they have to go out of their way to make it sound shitty. believe it or not the ebst way to improve a champ600 is by taking parts out. It would cut production costs for Fender to make it sound right, but then how would they excuse the mark-up for the Eric Clapton signature champ?!

I don't know how to respond to this without going on a rant.

Jim or Nick, help me out here, I know the answer is "music has evolved", but my head'll explode if I keep typing, and I don't want to be an arse.

I did my best already, man.

For instance I do not care for Taylor Swift, but she comes from serious money and if her music weren't real to her and filled with her own brand of authenticity then I do not think she woulda broken her way into Nashville when she coulda just been a pampered debutante.

You have no idea how much it hurt me to reference Taylor Swift in this context, but there's a principle at play here that I think a lot of young, hot shit blues and rock guitarists need to absorb and it was a striking way to illustrate my point to the OP and anyone else who might need to look at music from another angle. When it comes to guitars and gear I can be the king of pretension, but when it comes to the music (the stuff that REALLY matters) I am the arch-enemy of snobbishness. Its only through a truly open-minded attitude that we can grow as musicians, and more importantly, as PEOPLE.

oh yeah, that guy.... there's also the African American cat from new Orleans, god I can't remember his name....

and when you say 'real' music do you mean music that's real difficult to do well or music that has serious authenticity? Or maybe you mean music that's really American? Tell me, where's the fake music? There's a lot of music I don't like that much, but its very real to the people making and listening to it. For instance I do not care for Taylor Swift, but she comes from serious money and if her music weren't real to her and filled with her own brand of authenticity then I do not think she woulda broken her way into Nashville when she coulda just been a pampered debutante. Her music is very real in the sense that she chooses to ride around in a smelly bus (probably a not-so-smelly jet now, but you get the idea) putting it all out there on the road instead of sitting pool-side with a pitcher of kamikazes and the latest issue of Vogue. She was so interested in doing whatever the hell she is trying to do (I told you, not a fan) that she invested her trust fund into making it a reality when no one would sign her.

There are a few people such as John Mayer and this kid called quinn sullivan.

What about that young cat from New Orleans who always play an Epi Casino? Or Keb'Mo? He's pretty traditional if not exacly a virtuoso of roots music.

I think the critical thing here is that the 3 dudes that were referenced by the OP brought so much style and personality to the blues formula that the only way to be truly like them is to be a true original within those immortal 12 bars by doing your own thing completely. That's a tough proposition at this stage of the American musical experience, but not untenable.

So maybe that guy is out there and maybe he's not. I've heard and played with some seriously heavy cats who maybe fly damn low under the radar but are truly unique without disrespecting the roots (although I would say Muddy deviated pretty far from his Delta roots as his career progressed, he and his band were serious trailblazers if you stop to listen without a modern cultural bias). So is the question why is no one copying this music? Well, lotsa great guys are. Or is your question why no one is innovating with the blues anymore?

If you stare at it long enough, it becomes one of those Magic Eye pictures ...

;)

"It's not a schooner, its a sailboat!" -Mallrats

This is a great topic. I don't know what's better, the fact that it's on EB in the first place ... or the fact that you're taking it so seriously. I'm so happy right now, I have found new friends :) haha

you're in the right place... the EB forum-flies are pretty nerdy

Have you looked at Stewart Macdonald? (stewmac.com, I believe)

I bought a Stew Mac neck for my Fender frankenstrat. Fit like a glove, and I love the feel. It's one of my favorite necks of all my guitars. Headstock came in a rectangle, you shape it however you want. Tuning gear holes were pre-drilled. Includes fret wire (already installed).

I swear by Fender branded necks sold on ebay.com by Stratosphere (AKA reliable Fender) and Warmoth. I have also been thinking about buying one of Lindy Fralin's modified Allparts licensed necks. He buys their biggest strat and tele necks in bulk and then reshapes the back to a unique assymetrical profile of his own devising. I don't know if its good, I just keep meaning to try it. They aren't expensive.

So, my general opinion about this topic is that you have to match or "pair" your guitar with pedals and amps that complement it well. Not unlike pairing wine with your meal. You choose the meal first, then pair the wine. You choose your guitar first, then pair it with pedals and amps (or just amps) that complement. Then you pair speakers with your amp (unless you bought a combo). So to tell someone they need to buy a better amp ... not quite. There isn't anything wrong with his/her amps in terms of quality, not necessarily. What you meant to say was "get an amp that better complements your guitar of choice."

Well that's my 2¢

No, you're right as usual Nick, but I think there are some circuits that just don't compliment anything you put through them. They might sound OKAY, but never outstanding. Not flattering would be my term.

Because DD-20.

Anyone heard of those Red Witch pedals? Violetta seems really appealing.

So what is the Hold function for? and does anyone use it?

By appealing, do you mean sexy artwork? or sounds like a decent pedal? Because all the Red Witch pedals have attractive lady artwork ...

I knew a guy in a Bauhaus/Neubauten influenced noise band who played more music manipulating the parameters on his Boss delay in hold mode than he actually ever made plucking strings and fretting! Its good for making ambient textures out of tiny audio loops. I have little interest in those kind of techniques, why not just play a synthesizer then? But to each his own. I am not sure if that's what Boss intended the hold feature on those small format delays to be used for, but its the way I've seen it used by the one guy I've seen use it.

This will be my first time making a guitar. Will it be easy ...?

No. > So how "from scratch" are you thinking of going? Like starting with a rectangular block of wood? or getting a kit?

I assumed we were talking about a parts-caster. Its kinda pointless to make a stock fender shape like a strat from scratch unless you MUST have exotic woods, and even then the resources are endless if you know who to call. That said, Bandsawing, routing and sanding are fun and easy. There are many wipe on finishes that can look outstanding. You can do it yourself, just take your time, pay attention to the details and try to have a good time with it.

Sting, Stevie Wonder, Buddy Guy ... there are VERY FEW musicians who have managed to "age well." And it's not because of talent. It's because of work ethic and maintenance.

HUZZAH

AMEN! Preach it brutha.

I try Nick, I surely try, but I am preaching to the converted in a world where tone has become a commodity and not a product of technique that is built with a relentless will to kill it every single night regardless if your audience consists of 2 people or 2 thousand! Did Scotty More rely on pedals? HELL FUCING NO, there weren't any. He and Elvis relied on eachother and the driving might of their rhythm section. Maybe a little master bus tape delay from the other 2 track at Sun dumped into a killer mono radio mix! But they just ripped it with passion and authority singlehandedly defining the voice of rock n roll. Anyone who denies is too young to appreciate their roots and needs to go back and learn the truth, shed and then return to shredding or downtuned metal madness. I am not saying these are invalid idioms, I m saying you can't take our music where its going until you are versed in where its ben from chamber music to delta blues! Do the fucking math, kids. Connect the dots and fade away only to return stronger and more individualistic. Please, AMAZE ME!

My advice is to buy an aftermarket neck through a company that can do customs like Halo or Warmoth. They sale necks that fit to those bodies and you can have a custom made to your specifications.

agreed, warmoth, halo or USA customs will hook you up

I prefer SGs to Les Pauls but I do like the les paul juniors

I am an SG man after years if resisting.... can I hear a w00t w00t for the SG posy?

Yes. can't get simpler. Focus on getting a neck you love with a perfect profile and nice finish texture and go to town. Also, Blink182 is a totally lame band, man. But whatever. I applaud their business acumen during a rough patch for rock music. We used to all mock them as LA scenesters when they blew through Philly in the mid 90s, but they are rich and I am poor, so who is right? But hey! Go ape shit.

Can we all just stop and ask why we're doing this? OP obviously hasn't said anything about the subject, it kind of bothers me.

grow up narcisitillo!

Unfortunately, I'll do it myself, Jim. My dad has plenty of tools for the job, and I'd rather do something myself if I know I have the ability and tools to do so rather than spending money and taking the easy route.

Dude, I have nothing but respect for that! That's how I got so good at the things I do that run tangential to being a musician. A mixture of cheapness and the punk rock, DIY ethic of my youth. As a young buck I looked at guys I knew making records, building effects and god knows what else and said "I've seen Bob Punkrocksmith so drunk he can't stand and he can't even pass the test to drive a fucking car. I'm a reasonably intelligent guy, let me get a book and do this myself!"

I am not going out of my way to find some esoteric cable that will do a certain thing attenuating some high and accentuating some mids. ...

Oh man, I am sorry dude but I am only interested in cables that will make me play better ... ;)

AWW SHANAP! wait, I have some cable that will TOTALLY make you play better, its the same stuff I always use LOL

cool Nick, lets work something out in the next few weeks! I would be happy to meet all your needs from stocking stuffers to pro level routing work if its within my skill set.

my #1 thing with an equipboard-based part-time gear business is that I am actually a 35 year-old father and healthcare professional who loves his son and loves helping sick people get the financing they need to get well, so those 2 things are my priority over everything. I love music and at one time it was my career, but my socialist leanings have drawn me down this other path. If you want work done I may turn you down or put you off for a bit based on my schedule as a parent and healthcare administrator. Cool?

I am excited about all this customization talk. I am DEFINITELY buying some cables. Since there are no private messages on Equipboard, I don't see a conflict of interest providing my email address ... nick [at] nickedelstein [dot] com. Jacks in the pedaltrain is a brilliant idea BTW but since I don't have that kind of a board, I'm sticking to cables for now.

listen, I am happy to do mail order work from pedal board and cables to custom bolt-on guitars on a case per case basis within reason. If you want a killer from-scratch tele, for instance, you will buy the componenents with my input and when I get them I will build it, set it up, and then invoice you for my labor and giving you AN ACTUAL SHIPPING charge and when your payment clears I will send you your axe and you will hopefully be so floored you will want to TIP me! Be specific about what you need from me. Drawings for more complex stuff are a must, OK? But listen, I do NOT mod PCB pedals or amps. I WILL make custom effects as long as they are simple, discreet circuits like boost, buffer, discreet transistor with diode clipping OD/dist, or fuzz effects. I will sell custom cables down to the inch, but you are stuck with my preference in cable. I am not going out of my way to find some esoteric cable that will do a certain thing attenuating some high and accentuating some mids. I know what I like and get a good price on and that's what you are going to get. I will set your guitar up, modify its wiring. Pick a job and I will tell you if I will do it for you via mail.

Also, for anything more complicated than a cable, I will want materials costs to be covered up front when you are arranging shipping of the gear you want modified. If you need pickups, tubes, bridge, or anything my shop is out of stock on (its personal shop for me and close friends, mind you) you will purchase said item and have it sent to me and at that time I will provide you with a labor and return shipping estimate and you can pay me for my time and the ACTUAL postage when the work is complete and I am arranging to get the finished product to you.

Jacks, eh?

Could one possibly drill a hole into a particular used Pedaltrain-1 and install four of those for input, output, send, and return whil still making it look extremely clean and OCD friendly?

sure, if you showed me what you wanted it to look like I could do whatever you are imagining for a price.... drilling through steel is arduous and expensive though. Wrecks drill bits and is kinda dangerous without a very high quality drill press. The wiring is the easy part.

I can build you a quality 20' guitar cable for about 5$ leaving $4 profit for me at that price.

Sounds like you have just discovered your next business venture, buddy. I would buy a ton of cables from you at that price ... and resell them to other people for $7 :P

haha, I make a good living usually and have about zero hours of free time to make patch cables, but at the moment I have been between jobs consulting and have some free time every week, so if anyone wants cables we could talk! I have a sack of 1/4" jacks and a small spool of high quality shielded coax with spectacular capacitance and resistance specs.... postage from Phillly to Atlanta is actual coast though!

Haha, damn right about that. Still, a cable for $9 just seems a bit iffy. I guess all that used gear has been getting to me. You expect something after watching videos and reviews, you get it, and suddenly you realise the speed of the spring is too slow and you can't do crap because you bought it used.

Thank you, VHT Amps, your tremolo on your Melo-Verb pedal is pretty good, but your 'verb is too slow. Sounds nothing like a good Fender reverb.

I can build you a quality 20' guitar cable for about 5$ leaving $4 profit for me at that price.