jimmarchi1's forum posts 8022

nothing against your bother but computers and tube amps are 2 different worlds.... computers are lots of teensy transistors on ICs packed onto microprocessors at super low voltages.... tube amps are big clunky lightbulb packed 450+ volt execution devices

a computer power supply steps the wall voltage WAY DOWN.... a tube amp steps it up 3 or 4 times. Yeah. Like killing death row inmates voltages in the power section...

have him build you some pedals coming out of the gate.... they're the same technology and operating voltage range as PC components... transistors

if he goes dickering in your amp remind him to probe with a chopstick with one hand and keep the other firmly in his back pocket to avoid brushing anything carrying high voltage

What about build-in speakers? You and I are trained to dismiss anything that can make noises without an amp as non-pro, but if you don't already own a keyboard amp, and don't want to be limited to headphones exclusively, it can be nice...

I mentioned the kawai I bought my kid because it has this cool bose-like speaker array and wave chamber in the back that really projects and diffuses the sound like an actual piano. At max amp volume the on board system is about the loudness of an upright piano across the velocity spectrum... well, that ad the action. Best hammer action out there. Beats the feel of expensive offerings from roland, korg and even clavia's nord piano! Easily as good as dexibell.

My first successful band 'The Reels' (1978-1987) in the early days used Rolands and Korgs. If you check out youtube and search for 'The Reels' Quasimodos Dream Album you can hear the arrangements, quite complex for pop. :) Such a quirky 80s band its a shame the world didn't get to experience them live.

steely dan fans? some of the parts in science is golden are very Fagenish circa Aja

What do you do when you are in between GAS? Come to a forum :)

drink

Okay, I don't think I'll be doing this for Christmas (especially not now) I might do this for his birthday though, so I might bring this back up in Springtime.

and I'll still say Kawai ES110. I have not been this impressed with a sub-$1000 digital piano.... ever

if you turn it down the lower plate voltage should be easier on tubes.... BUT ONLY IF YOU REBIAS at the voltage you intend to run at... Otherwise you'll have problems eventually. Yeah. If you only turn the voltage down it should be easier on the transformers. And since you know not to turn it up we're good.... although I will caution you not to do this when you've been drinking. As a semi-professional binge drinker Ic an tell you that up and down lose meaning long before you notice you're catching a buzz. I don't know how many times I've been turning up the knob for the wrong channel while inebraited over and over or fiddled with speaker cables while the amps in play. Idiot, rookie stuff I would never do sober. No judgement. Put a few strong drinks away and fiddle with the variac and you're proper fucked.

As a tech I'm obligated to give the 'don't blow up your amp' speech. And to recite EVH lore. I am now also required to tell you that I once read Devo also did the variac trick but reduced the power so low without rebiasing that they made the amplifier sound broken... because that's what Devo would do. I have never heard an example of this that jumped out at me in the Devo catalog and do not know how true it is. I did once try plating through an amp I starved really hard but I never found the magic broken tone. It got lousy and quiet and then stopped working as one would expect. No sound at all. I bring this up because while I appreciate Ed if you asked me if I would rather listen to EVH or Devo for the whole day its Devo all day everyday.

If you have a variac or can get one cheap by all emans go for it. You are probably not going to be blown away. Also, don't you play a multichannel gain banger Carvin? Depending on the switching system starving the amp might disable switching. If it has a MIDI style DIN footswitch jack and the switch has lights that light off the amp power get ready to be stuck on one channel. Itf you use a buffered FX loop its probably going to play hell with that too.

Pardon my ignorance, but does MidiPlus make anything that actually makes sounds? Clifford needs something that is a self-contained instrument, AFAIK.

Clifford, if you just wanted something that your brother could plug into his MacBook and trigger sounds from Garageband, my apologies. I assumed you were looking for an instrument that could make sounds on its own, not just a USB controller.

yeah, I thought it needed to be self contained and feel like a traditional piano

do not put your amp on a variac unless you have a multimeter and you know how to read it.... a variac is a variable voltage transformer.... if you give the amp too much voltage it will blow. Dead power transformer and god knows what else. Ed used a variac to brown out his marshalls. Hence the brownsound. He had the idea because he got his first superlead and set it UK voltage and it was quiet and distorted because it was getting half voltage from an american outlet. It was too much but he decided there was probably a happy medium so he set it to 110v and tried putting it on a light dimmer to adjustthe voltage down a little. He's luck he wasn't electrocuted because this is massively unsafe. He then got a variac. A variac is generally used to 'form' new electrolytic fitler caps in an amp by bringing the voltage up slowly. Well Ed ran his down at like 80 to 100v. Now to do this correctly you have to know how much wall voltage you have, then dial back with the amp in standby, then turn it on and see if you like it. If you accidentally turn it UP, you're fucked. Also, in a master volume amp with ltos of gain stages its kinda pointless as the tone isn't coming from the pwoer section. But in a superlead you turn the thing all the way up for the crunch and the variac can provide a different sound with more distortion at a more modest volume. I used to have a few superleads. I tried it. Meh. Ed's tone was really in his hands. They were HUGE.

there used to be a company who made picks like that in I guess the 90s.... they were tortexish picks but not as good... I just bought a star shaped hole punch at a craft store.... somepick materials and ticknesses will shatter though while others you can't even punch through without power tools

we merge these as we go, its so out of hand its taking awhile

the older I get the more I use my fingers or whatever's laying around.... which is usually a tortoise fender heavy since I still have a sack of them fender gave me one time. Its finally dwindling...

EDIT: when I was touring around I think I mainly used dunlop ultexes at like 1mm or less. I also had tortexes with band name but I guess I preferred the ultexes. I usually used to punch a star shaped hole in them to get them to suction to my thumb so I wouldn't drop them on stage. I thought the utexes had a better balance of kachunk and flex than a tortex through an old marshall for some reason. I really have no clue why I was worried about it.

I'll drink to that

I always get them mixed up because they were both pretty hot and completely awesome... but Nancy, that was my original childhood crush. Most people its actresses but mine was Nancy Wilson

I personally still own a mid 80s Falcon and had a Hawk or an Eagle or something from the late 70s at one point, the Nancy Wilson model.... or is Anne the hot one? I always forget

If you're in Heart, you're hot. End of story. ;)

no but the one who married Cameron Crowe, the guitarist, I had such a huge crush on her in the 80s

about time

Washburn Vulture

or maybe it's a Vulture II, IDK, it's late.

that's it probably, although those washburn bird series guitars and basses are MIJ and there are very similar Japanese branded models around... I personally still own a mid 80s Falcon and had a Hawk or an Eagle or something from the late 70s at one point, the Nancy Wilson model.... or is Anne the hot one? I always forget

there's a solid state SVT.... the bass looks like an older MIJ bass done in the alembic style maybe... but I could be wrong abut the bass

for this budget? Stock 800 and a good marshall cab like a 1960B or a 1960TV but be prepared to hate any of the 1960 speakers but the basketweave ones and the TV.... orange makes a great 4x12 cab if you buy the top of the line one that's not chipboard and mesas recto cabs are very good though YMMV with the stock speakers (ugh). I prefer the 2204 to 2203 not just for smaller room but because it sounds different... so that's vintage, and if you're doing the vintage 50 watt thing get a vertical input model, its one less spot the PCB can go south. Well 2 less spots, but no one uses the low gain input but Billy Corgan. If you must have channel switching get a silver jubilee of some sort (the smaller RI sounds fine) and you might as well get a matching jubilee 4x12 for it though you may wanna change the speakers. But when you wanna plug straight in and rock, the 2204 JCM800 is a do all that's not too loud even when opening the master for a little power tube grunt.... if you wanna use a pedalboard, go pumpkins and try that low gain input. It inhales a lot of effects and is an unsung part of the 800 legacy. Although setting the gain low and using the high gain input sounds sweet. I think you play a strat so that siamese dream thing is right there with a few pedals.

If you want a better than marshall cab, get a Hiwatt. Or if you wanna save some dough look at Stage Craft cabinets for marshall replicas.

In 2x12s? Dr Z zee best is nice if you want a 4x12ish sound... otherwise apples and apples.

niiiiiice

welcome.... good choice of a interface

if you want realistic piano action Kawai make the closest thig going.... its pricey though. Other factors besides playability may outweigh that. If you really want your brother to have a good piano experience though i recommend the digital piano I bought my son. Kawai ES110.... their entry level hammer action model. it plays beautifully nd sounds pretty damned good for basics like piano (concert grands, baby grands, uprights) and wurli student electric, rhodes etc. It beats the hell out of my yamaha. I believe it was around $700 on sale FROM SWEETWATER. Not sure what your budget is.

1221 saves, 0 replies to this thread... just sayin'...

worth a shot... I was kinda curious what we're all doing about maintenance. I know yourjp6 needs love and despite its mint appearance my ju6 needs some looking over. It did something really weird the other day. Tuning just went completely out. Whole thing jumped a quarter tone out of nowhere. Turned it off, turned it back on 5 minutes later.... totally fine.

System 80 Jove filter (inspired by the Jupiter 6 filter

I think I need one of those.

this was a noble quest to embiggen a picture of a classic

my love of the MKS50 is illogical but insurmountable... we go way back... we were together longer than me and my wife and I adore her....

My vintage roland brothers unite.... I recently acquired a 1 owner juno6 as pkennethk knows, also have an mks30 and 50.... he's got a 60, a jp6, a jx3p and sh101 to boot...

If you own and love an 80s jupiter, juno or jx series synthesizer lets talk here! I love my other polies... prophet, yes.... polysix yesyes.... but juno? mmhmmm

you're an impressive researcher.... when do you find time to play?! I think we need a sub-specialty for musicology.... GEAROLOGY

And you're mad! Mad I say! But we're all mad here, so it's OK.

apparently I'm mad as Max because I can't find the right Lanois interview to save my life.... now I did once chat with him at AES and he mentioned it, but thts not documentary evidence, its part of a larger anecdote that was more about that badass record he made with EmmyLou Harris and how we're ac30 brothers both owning haddon equipped coppertops that date code to 62 or early 63... the delay was an aside anyway.

EDIT: I'ma look some more while I take down a couple room temp Yards Jefferson Lagers in the rec room, or better yet I'll retreat to my bedroom studio... I need to hide anyway, my son is watching power rangers and its eroding my will to live....

and cheers to another successful thread hijack!

email? people still use email for things other than work and managing their iLok etc?

Performance note: when I select the Electronic tag, and hit Filter the results take upwards of 20 seconds, in both Chrome and Firefox... No such delay if i choose Guitarist and then hit Filter.

I just tried it and had a similar experience. While it appeared to filter them right way my browser was just sitting there thinking so I couldn't do anything with the list.... tried it in chrome and edge. Only on electronic artists.

I haven't tried this myself, but some people drill shallow holes under the pickguard. The change in density might affect tone, though, plus you risk putting a hole through the body.

to start a 'bathtub' or universal pickup route will be lighter, alder is a pretty light wood, tends to be a bit lighter than poplar in my experience but it varies.... swamp ash tends to be quite light. and yes, you can route out weight relief under the pickguard, there are spots....

i"ll see what i can do, the first time I read this was in tape op, but I doubt the article is available for free and my copy is in hard copy because they weren't digital yet... I'll check out his rig rundown on PG when I have some time, so be patient because it is now monday. I have literally zero time until wednesday starting in about 10 minutes...

I'm also not too worried about the burden of proof because this is a forum and if people think I'm wrong it wouldn't be the first time.... its not like yo'll fire me as your engineer because you think I'm nuts. In fact you likely KNOW I'm nuts. But not on this topic.

they're not all on at once, ask Lanois.... or find some video of him explaining his delay setup for pedal steel and who he learned it from.

EDIT: I don't know about recent stuff, but my era, Boy to Joshua Tree I'm pretty sure the delay units evolved from a memory man to the SDD topossibly a 2290, at the end there...

actually the U2/lanois delay sound really isn't 2 delays or multitap... tis just the dotted eight and great picking patterns against it that make it feel like more.... Iw as somewhat disappointed to learn that from lanois.... it means the edge really is awesome and we all need to practice making a single delay sound awesome

I think he needs a few more stompboxes...

wtf, I should make herthe next ex-mrs marchione.... "Charlotte de Witte She plays techno and loves food." I love engineering and patching and stuff and live to cook.

In Void Acoustic's defense, they do, apparently, make boat speakers, lots of them. These may actually be boat speakers cross-marketed as DJ monitors.

https://voidacoustics.com/boat-speakers/

weeeeiiird

I don't feel like I was much help, I mean BOAT SPEAKERS? that clever I am NOT.... but cheers

come to think of it, if you do like 2 analog octaves, one up and one down, lets say the 1st one is high octave.... so you'll be sending a note and its video-game 8 bit octave to the next one which in theory will then give you the clean note and octave plus each of those an octave down so you'll have a clean note, an octave up, an octave down and then a weird fundamental that;s been shifted back down by the second effect... assuming it tracks, which an analog octave effect probably wont when its fed octaves from another octave pedal. Why not just get a POG?

I would make sure my 2nd octave was digital