jimmarchi1's forum posts 8022

and blackface fender amps have?

correct on 0A... it wants color or nothing and needs midrange

no to 1, Its been a bit I forget what examples to give you, I regularly mix in unconventional ways when called upon by the material and spirit of the band. I'm getting old and i don't ant to reveal all my personal secrets, its for you to build a style not to borrow mine

yes to 2, extremely

okay, I have piles of gear, just because its on my lsit doesn't mean its great, it means I found a particular application for it and it never became valuable enough to sell.... but I like this box, it sounds good into a vox ac30 for a certain tone, yamaha or roland solid state amps or even a marshall for certain things... I also like this thing in aprallel on a bus for parallel distortion mixing as it has a very specific sound that flatters pad type sounds when you want a cheap sort of skronk on like backing vocals for example but you need to reverse a passive DI to do that

EDIT: the loop preserves the touchy switch by letting you stomp a good switch while only engaging it at the beginning of your set or take.

yes, I know that unit, it was around, I've never used it but yes, nothing looks like it

3 and 4 are worth it, 1 and 2 are not worth a dime unless you have fond memories of them... the fx55 is an excellent dirtbox in a certain way, not as weak as the 250 but not as goofy as the supra distortion... assume you will be replacing the tac switch though and use it in a loop or leave it on all the time once you do

EDIT: the thomas organ fuzz wah in a cocked position will to a certain degreeproduce the lead sounds of sgt pepers and magical mystery tour as the wah circuit was a midrange effect on the thomas organ amps ported onto the conqueror and defiant whichw as the basis of the clyde... and the fuzz was common to both american and british vox solid state amps loosely based on the tonebender ;-)

it occured to me that it was an spx90, we all had them, but they were more money than the delays, especially a used delay

welp, all yamaha rack effects of the era were jet black as far as I know so it would fit in with the wall of black on the right of that one photo with the roland sampler at the top that i mistook for a quadraverb while I was drinking beer the other day

this is an easy one: all wang bars are vibrato systems.... even the fender strat's so-called 'syncronized tremelo' is a vibrato, that's change in pitch over time versus trem which is change in amplitude over time.... fender wasn't a musician and he called the tremelo on his amps vibrato and the vibrato on his guitar tremelo, he didn't know any better.... only the harmonic vibrato on the larger brownface amps approaches true tube vibrato but its not really, the only true vibrato amplifiers I can think of are the magnatones and the vox ac line, the vintage ones like my 62 which has an all tube vibrato design ripped off of the hammond organ design that predated the leslie cab

but ALL whammy bars of any type are a form of mechanically produced vibrato

everyone got the L1 and used it back then, it was the first real look ahead limiter... it was so exciting at first! And then the L2 came out and was the talk around the studio I worked at for like months.... getting thigs loud without having to peak clip the beginning of the transient which is the only way to do it analog unless you print your mix and run it slightly ahead into the sidechain while you print to another machine from your desk.... which is a cool but time consuming trick

anyone with a computer in their studio when L1 and L2 hit used 'em, there's no question in my mind. it seems commonplace now, but man.... its not equipboard proof bu I would be shocked if they didn't use the L1 assuming they had a VST comaptible, fully audio capable version of logic by then.... maybe it was still directX plugins in windows then, its been a long time since I thought about those dark days...

anyone who uses the 3 knob DOD chorus is okay by me....

so, to sum up:

an analog chorus or flanger is needed for sure and the ehx nano small clone is fine here, sounds good, pretty reliable.... and you might as well get a delay either an mxr carbon copy or a used boss digital delay or for a little taste of all delay types of the time buy a flashback... or for your fx loop you could go rack.... there's nothing more 90s than a yamaha spx90 or alesis quadraverb GT... I STILL have an spx90 sitting right upstairs, its great

perhaps a fuzz/distortion or some sort of overdrive/dirtyboost option, something that was actually around in the mid to late 90s will be most authentic....

maybe a wah wah, a morely, vox or crybaby will be right, that's what was around, there weren't a bunch of signature models out so a stock, off the shelf version from one of those 3 companies.

Tom, if he goes new how much has he spent at this point with a nano clone or whatsit, the NEOclone now? and howsabout a TC flashback X4? I don't know what stuff costs these days.

If I’m not mistaken, “Butt” was a bass control and “Face” was a treble control.

ah,that kinda makes sense, then grunge is gain and then I forget what volume was nicknamed, I never had one, after my time....I was old enough to see that marketing gimmick as goofy and I wasn't real sure what grunge actually meant anyway apart from being a perfect descriptor for TAD and maybe kurt and courtney's famous lack of personal hygiene but not nirvana's music so much.... whereas kids a little younger thought it was cool at first.... also I think they sold a lot of the grunge units to confused parents at x-mas time who said 'grunge, I saw that word on 60 minutes'

I guess that's a good mid to late 90s pedal though, you defintiely saw a lot of them on YMCA floors as grunge went out as a thing and green day and korn came bubbling up... they were a big part of the sound of the era.... guys just repurposed them to play pop punk or metal-influenced 'hardcore'

so some examples of stupid dod pedals from the 90s I recommend for THAT 90s sound? the chorus, not the icebox, the older one, its great.... the hard rock distortion (tht's the one with the dellay built right in), american metal or thrash distortion and metal maniac for extra silliness (none of these sound like what you would think of as metal), the fx50 overdrive plus, fx55 distortion or even funnier the fx55b SUPRA distortion... the classic fuzz, big pig, gonkulator and meatbox.... aria branded pedals are a good choice too, they were the other bargain brand that most bands used and a lot of them aren't just nostalgic they sound legitimately good... some of these goofily named DOD pedals are actually superb at doing what they do...

My only DOD from the 90s was actually called "Grunge"...

oh yeah, when the american metal (or one of those 80s metal pedals, the american might be the one that's got a slap back after the distortion all the time LOL) stopped selling they changed it a bit and branded it grunge for the new decade LOL they sold a lot of those.... it had the butt and face controls, what did they even do?

I want to be clear that between like 1985 and 1995 chorus pedals would just turn up with your effects, every guitarist would go to sleep one night with a morely wah wah in their sock drawer and when they woke up there would be an ibanez or dod chorus next to it....

In other words, you’re fine with some form of distortion and a delay. If you’re already content with your amp’s overdrive and you’re not looking for a distortion box or fuzz box, you’re pretty much set. Some kind of modulatory effect is optional

I think its actually mandatory to get chorus or flanging, phasers are less mandatory.... everyone had a chorus at the time or a flanger they set as a chorus and occassionally set to make jet plane noises for one little part of a song which usually met with blank stares at the YMCA where all these bands would inevitably play their first show

so i think he NEEDS a stupidly heavy distortion or fuzz, maybe even a big muff (cringe), a small clone nano or boss bf2, electric mistress, FL9 etc, a basic delay just in case.... maybe, just maybe a wah wah.... and it can't be a fancy one because there were only like 3 or 4 options at the time and the store would only have 2.

optional wild card effect would be any unpopular DOD design with a dumb name....

another cool option would be instead of a chorus get one of the double tracking pedals, I love the one I have, its like a doubled 90s studio guitar sound instantly although it works best with 2 amps

can you even buy a practice amp for that these days? sheesh.... I guess you could get a used pod HD500? So 90s, you probably WANT like an 800 or 900 or a twin.... but you have an amp... you might want a DS1 or a rat or a muff or something truly fuzzy like a tonebender, you'll want a chorus, the small stone's fine...and maybe, just maybe a delay, carbon copy or a TC flashbak maybe.... you have a guitar right? just kidding.... mxr phase 90 and ehxmistress are ine add ons, not the ebst but the standard.... mooer makes clones for cheap, I think they make a good rat too for distortion and faux fuzz.... for your style a compressor's not a must but the dynacomp is fine, it takes flack, its fine.... you don't need anything fancy like the keely or that sldie rig thing that's a fake 1176 studio compressor in a stomp, that's silly, its a guitar

I don't remember the 90s as being entirely effects driven unless you were in my bloody valentine or the smashing pumpkins.... it was mainly ripping amps and dirt boxes....

everyone had a wah wah back then, even me, and I hate wah wah.... we all ahd morely wahs with dirt on them as I recall because they were cheap, hard to break and you got a crappy mxr distortion+ type circuit built in,,,, then alter I got a vox wah, still 90s but later.... grunge era I definitely had a morely wah with a distortion built in and no other effects for a bit until I got like a tubescreamer, Ibanez chorus and DOD distortion. Boss BF2 flanger came right around then, that or an FL9 by ibanez is a good ebet that'll do chorus as well as flange and can go between the police and nirvana easily.... everyone had a chorus pedal back then though, everyone.... only the crustiest punks did not use chorus but they probably HAD a chorus pedal at home

everyone had lots of used DOD pedals then too (because they were under $40 used unlike boss pedals), all sorts, just pick one with a weird name and buy that one on ebay and you're good.... the dumber the name the better. Dumb doesn't have to mean gonkulator, it could also be like 'american metal' that's a dumb name where its dumb because you know the effect will be dumb... or ibanez made an 'industrial distortion' LOL. You want to find something like that for a full flashback!

in the 90s we used whatever cheap shit we found at pawn shops

I think that logic was the jam back then because I used it LOL, welcome aboard

additionally I'm glad I'm not a millennial, you guys have it tough with vintage pricing on junk

what's the budget?

I'm not sure there's anything new in these photos but the patchbay, which is not a tascam on closer inspect

unit on top of that rack with the green display is the Roland S-760 Sampler.

I have no idea what the other units below it are.

wow, I am dead wrong, it looked like a quadraverb to me at that angle with the blue writing and shit

they could be a wall of 3630s for all we know!

whew, that is blurry as hell when I blow it up... I feel like there's another piece of alesis gear to the left on top sort of with a display so I think that's a quadraverb we're seeing , the rack on the right is maybe the one we already saw with the patchbay and dynamite at the bottom?

https://reverb.com/item/38571283-behringer-5-band-parametric-equalizer-peq-305-vintage-2-pieces

this thing looks like it predates the composers and the move to China in 92, behringer wasn't making a whole lot of stuff prior to this, I would be really surprised f this wasn't the jawn.... although the PEQ2000 probably came out with the MDX2000 in 92, it stands to reason they woulda done that at the same time. The compsoer caught on and the PEQ didn't because they probably made it even more cheaply than the 305.... I was hoping that the west germany thing would eb helpful but my memory of the wall coming down when I was in grade school is erroneous and I was finishing jr high, turns out '94, wow

after a lot of digging I've discovered that no one, anywhere knows of a behringer parametric before the 305 and that some say its an okay piece of gear if a little low on headroom for extreme boosting.... pretty transparent if not abused.... the 2000 and 2200 are universally reviled and came later. Apparently the 305 had an option for an output transformer like the dbx160x... so tis an okay piece and I really don't think there was anything before it despite whatever is in the manual to that effect. They may be asserting that a later chinese manufactured version is superior to the german one.... both versions would be dead similar and still use through hole components. If one of you guys can do some more digging that would be great. I'm terrible at this, but I just can't find anything to suggest that there was a parametric Eq predating the 305 and the 2000 is too late leaving this sole contendor.

it couldn't have been that important because it was abandoned by the time the dynamite showed up and it wasn't replaced with another EQ... this will be really really hard to track down, tis only on that one gear list and not pictured anywhere

if I were in your shoes I would invest in the amp first and see what it can do with my current axe, get to know it, then you'll have an idea what yuour pickup needs may be to get to the sound you have in your head.... the amp is a much bigger factor as are speakers.... your speaker cabinet will be the ultimate shaper.... that's the last transducer the signal sees and the cab itself is a tone filter...

edit: the texas special is not one of my favorite pickups personally, I ahd htem, just meh.... you will find them to be a giant midrange, brassy mess under more than moderate gain. I've had good expereinces with Fralin's overwound strat with the baseplate and recommend it as a better overwound alternative to a texas special. I personally use angeltone strat pickups these daysbut fralin was my bridge pickup when iw as still in an active pro band. You may want to consider a noiseless option if you're doing this sort of music as the hum gets pretty loud on singles in the age of smart phones and high gain. I hear great things about dimarzios noiseless strat pickups and they're quite popular in the metal world.

big differences, the soldano has everything off board, all the tubes, as they should be because PCBs hate heat and tubes get hot, the leads are all well dressed on the soldano with good quality wire run neatly... the other 2 have on board tube sockets and multi-lead ribbon connectors in places.... the soldano ahs lots of space whereas the mesa and diezel are very crowded in places.... the layout of the diezel is really weird ebcause there was space in the chassis to avoid the build they settled on, its very odd.... the emsa is multiple PCB even the knobs, its a emss.... I've worked on them, they are a nightmare when they go down and they ALWAYS go down

if you know what you're looking at you can see the soldano is worth every penny in buld quality and the other 2 examples are mainly trading for big money based on the feature set.... you seldom get both.... between the mesa and the VH4 I would take the VH4 but really it looks like a nightmare of eventual service problems to me... I'm sure its a fine amp if you can afford a backup.

maybe they weren't using the make up gain on their compressors? maybe its just enhancing and not limiting? I love how when i read one of those composer manuals it had a huge section trying to make excuses for the high degree of self noise as if its unavoidable which is clearly not true...

for all I know that parametric EQ is great though, I've seen them but I have no personal experience with them... its hard to want to plug that in at a studio that has cooler stuff and decent desk EQ available for the common tasks, it always seemed like a potential time suck to fiddle with a behringer.

It was the '90s, saying misleading things to the press re: production or outright-fabricating crazy lies to add to the mystery (and show off your rockstar-like distain for interviews in general) was SOP for more than a few "electronica" artists. So I agree you can't always assume what is being said re: methods in this era is entirely factual... but if what the artist says is generally consistent with what they're saying across multiple interviews, we should go with it until proven false.

I was just trying to paraphrase the princess bride.

ya got me guys... it was just a suspicion.... you can see better gear coming in is all, like that dynamite which is a thoroughly pro piece

it also occurs to me that guys who went out of their way to be anonymous may not be entirely forthcoming about everything... masked men aren't usually known for their honesty

a lot of the amplifiers listed in your amp posts have more than enough input gain to turn an underwound pickup into a snarling beast.... if you decide to get soemthing vintage like a sunn or hiwatt you would want overwound pickups but once you go high end high gain the guitar's output becomes academic, even the slo100 which is not THAT high gain by today's standards has more than you probably need for a humbucker to obtain br00tality... as a recording engineer I have found that the more blown out a guitar sound the less loud it actually seems, both on the floor and in the control room... I know that more is more, but there's a point where more becomes less even if less is not actually more... a lot of the bands who have made a good go of the styles you're into no exactly when enough is enough and they just stp turning it up at the point of wrecking their sound.

also, DCR is not a great measure of output, its a rough guideline... the magnet plays a really big role. A very powerful magnet is a good way tog et high output and full bandwidth with a more moderate number of turns...

this is what an amp with PCB should look like inside:

https://www.musiker-board.de/attachments/soldano-jpg.739504/

here's some other examples of soldano-like circuits on your list

VH4: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fspinoo.free.fr%2FprojetG5%2FImages%2520Amplis%2FDiezel%2FVH4%2Fvh4_pcb5.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mylespaul.com%2Fthreads%2Ftubes-attached-to-circuit-board-vs-tubes-not-attached-to-circuit-board.122368%2Fpage-2&tbnid=xrIV-vUQ7NDLiM&vet=12ahUKEwij-ffhgMfvAhUHMN8KHbd9C5wQMygIegQIARB5..i&docid=lDjm7Rda4pGGHM&w=1024&h=768&q=diezel%20vh4%20guts&ved=2ahUKEwij-ffhgMfvAhUHMN8KHbd9C5wQMygIegQIARB5

mesa rectifier: https://captainbob.de/publicuse/mesa_dualrectifier.jpg

see a difference yet?

the slo and deizel have a lot in common in gain levels and the way the distortion is produced, the deizel is defintiely a descendant of the slo100 via the dual rec and 5150 etc. All these amps are basically tweaked soldanos with ineferior components and more features. If you don't need the 4 channels get the soldano. There's less that can go wrong with their switching due to it only switching between 2 channels and also the leegance of the design and quality of components chosen...

and I'm telling you the slo100 has the best transformer set in a current production amp and the build quality is second to none. The deizel ahs more features and versatiliy, the slo is a better product though. The SLO has giant iron in there and has more capability to pass extreme low to your speakers. A big, high quality OT is key for this, the amp can always be modded for more bass.... there are a few coupling caps hereand there that could be increased a bit without flubbing out, there's a rbight cap that you may not need on the input.... and some of them have depth controls and turning that up and the keeping the presence low will let a lot of low pass the power amp by lowering the local negative feedback in lower frequencies although you will also be sacrificing punch and clarity at those frequencies.... for djent maybe not good, for drone it will be fine

I really don't think there's a finer high gain head than the slo100. The inside of this amp is a night and day difference from a mesa for instance which looks like an overcrowded mess with lots of ribbon connectors etc that are better suited to a desktop PC than an amplifier that will be gigged and toured. THe only other option is the meatsmoke, whichas far as I know is a hot rodded sunn.... sort of a 2000S with a high gain channel. it will deafen you and everyone you know. Another option is a hiwatt 200 which is probably the loudest 4 pwoer tube amp I've ever heard, they're indestructible but you'll need to add gaina s they don't break up at all and the master has nothing to do with producing distotion.... 200 watt vintage oranges are pretty decent but mainly have inferior parmeko transformers.... anyway

slo100

every extra wind of wire increases midrange at the expense of bass and treble, remember this

iommi was dark and doomy, he invented it.... he used off the shelf laney supergroups and a modded treble booster. I think anything on your list will do doomy, heck, a pinned fender into a 4x12 can get there. but the ridiculous requirements viz a viz sub-bass reproduction in bizzare drop tunings that are lower than low were getting quite comical and I had to say something

just get a slo100, its good enough for matt pike these days

read the handbook of acoustics

look, that is true, it was a cottage industry at first but it doesn't change the fact that its noisy prosumer gear.... the china stuff like my neutrons, infinitely better. Daft Punk used a lot of noisy garbage for sure. I'm beginning to suspect that this stuff was what they took out live and that they went to a real studio after their initial demo recording.

guys, behringer should never make an EQ, never.... their graphics and knock off mackie mixer EQs are so hissy on boost, its not a good thing, there is no way this parametric should be disseminated to the masses