jimmarchi1's forum posts 8022

so pretty high self nosie then, but not intolerable if you use higher gain amps then an 800 regualrly... okay, I always ask people about the hiss ebcause thatw as the main delabreaker for me, esecially as a DI option

I thought I sold my OD250 and didn't even know I ahd a dist+ until I went throughsome old junk looking for my ring mod a week or two ago. Iw as like "sheeeit! I done struck gold!"

I'm not a metal guy but I have a secret love of judas priest and some other 80s NWOBM bands as well as ahving been really into KYUSS, Mosnter Magnet, Sleep etc at one time.... my weapon of choice for that stuff was always a Gibson of some kind into a Marshall Superlead turned most of the way up with eitehr a rangemaster or a fuzz to boot (typically a tonebender of some kind or a univox fuzz, occassionally a colorsound overdriver) but when I indulge now I use my Traynor Voicemaster PA ehad which is not much of a PA but is schematically like an early Orange head. Just turn that shit up, maye throw some Rat or OD250 out front if i wanna get silly... tuen to Drop D or lower and have at it. Being a PA Design it has the low chug that the plexis didn't, even through a 2x12 isntead of an oversized 4x12 or two. When i ahd an 800 and 900SLX I could squeeze some of the right stuff out of them through abss cabinets for that sort of thing too.

the ADA preamp is a beast and the chorus is stunning. Is yours noisy?

the boss hyperfuzz that's analog, the FZ2? its just a Univox Superfuzz circuit with cheaper transistors (and I think a an opamp in one area to sub out a transistor stage or two where the discreet transisters aren't overloading, not 100% o all the itnernals). To e hoenst I ahd a vitnage pink superfuzz for ages and even the behringer FZ2 clone soudns damned close. Any alter boss fuzz is either a disguised distortion and not really a fuzz or its a digital modelling pedal. Just saying, not implying that makes them bad effects. but eyah, you can get a million iterations of the old univox circuit or easily make your own with or without the original compliment of rare Panasonic transistors. Simialr circuits include the FY2 companion, Ibanez Standard Fuzz, Foxx Tone Machine (sort of) and if you want a super extreme take on halfwave rectified octave fuzz check out the roland Bee Baa, ampeg scrambler or fender blender.

Oh yeah, the FZ2 also adds active treble and bass controls, the third switch position disables the fuzz section and gives you a clean boost with active treb and bass... the extra controls are useful for taming the wild Univox scooped mids section (position 2 on the original AND the boss/behringer version)

are you a fan of any other 'stoner' bands like sleep or early monster magnet?

Peavey Mark III head if you live in the states. I got mine in 2010 for $100 and it's been my band's main bass head ever since. Taken it all over the country and it's never failed to turn on and be loud. We've used it was 4x10s, 8x10s, 2x15s, 1x15s, 1x18s, 2x18s, Peavey 1810s (two 10s and an 18 with a crossover), Peavey 3620s (two 10s and TWO 18s with a crossover), and even a couple bass 4x12s. We use dirty bass and have sometimes ran the head's pre gain and done just fine, but anymore we use pedals, and anyone who says these amps can't get clean isn't trying hard enough.

Peavey Poverty Cult.

my backup bass/keys amp for eyars was a peavey TNT combo.... after giving it to someone ANOTHER TNT abss combo with the 15" entered my life because it belonged to a rhtyhm guitarist whow easeled his way into one of my bands. Again, used as a keybaord monitor when they signer played piano and also an emergency abckup to the backup bass amp! Indestructible. Loud enough for practice and small shows. Sounded basically like whatever isntrument was plugged in. not exactly flatetering though and unnbelievably ehacy for a solid state 15" combo amp. Weighed mroe then similarly endowed tube combos.

This, Or at least have a non working DI out.

HA! the DI would go right after purchase if it was a new one or it would be shot when it was bought used! and every single one thats backline at a venue has a shitty passive DI on the speaker out because the built in DI is broken LOL. Never again. GK stuff is junk now.

but man, this one bassist could blow up any GK head and most solid state ampeg heads... the only amps that stood up to him were an SVT and my Dual Showman from 63 (which he now owns, better off with him). Before the SVT we gave up on bass amps and drove his cab with one of my robust solid state power amps designed for sound reinforcement nd he used a sans amp pedal as a preamp with a little 3630 compression to evne things out, shit you not. That didn't blow up, but it didn't sound fantastic. Just adequate and loud.

I adore the Distortion + and I'm probably buying another one tomorrow. Lots of classic and also incredibly dense tones to be had from those.

DOD 250... way more dynamic and muscular. YMMV though. Depends on the kidna amps you're into. Same epdal except the DOD swaps in some pretty typical silicon clipping diodes for the MXR/Ross germanium ones. I'm not really that big of a fan of germanium diodes as back to back, symmetrical clipping to ground. Awesome Boss/Fulltone style to added to 1 side of a pair for assymetrical waveform clipping to ground or in the feedback loop. But for symmetrical clipping a pair of germaniums just has too much forward voltage drop for my taste even at very low gains ettings and it neuters the output. Germanium ahs a nice built in high and low shelving effect as you slam it, but I prefer the wide open blizzard of nails sound of silicon diodes in the DOD version anyway.

Seriously, whyhave another distortion+ when you could get a 250 instead. having both is great. or ditch the one you have and just make one with a switch between all different clipping arrangements. A one-armed toddler with brain damage could probably make a distortion+.

While I definitely think that we're living in the golden age of affordable import guitars of very high quality, I just love old instruments and amps. My main guitar is a 1973 Guild S-100C (the one with oak leaf and acorn relief carved from the body), and every time I pick it up, I'm amazed by it.

represent brother, I have an S300, the crazy-shape that's like the abstard child of an explorer and an SG or soemthing. Love 60s and 70s Guild.

I ahd this problem for awhile guys and so did Xaqary, then it went away.... now its back. Soemthing's wrong with the inboxes. Its been a week. It didn't go away. Tried every browser this morning to make sure its not me.

so this thread DOES answer every question I've ever hd including "where do babies come from."

you didn't get anything out of that long series of isntructions.... deburr the saddles with a rat tail file, wet sand the nut grooves, take it from there.... hip shot tuners are nothing special in ym experience though there's nothignw rong with them. unlikely they are an upgrade if your guitar ahs stock rotomatics. Hasten slowly. Don't do more then you need to. Youc an spend money on new tuners and actually make things worse when there are already great tuners on the guitar and the problem is shoddy handwork at the nut and saddles. See what you can get out of what's there before you do anything.

mmm, not that square headstock gibsons don't have a tendency to slip, the reputation that LPs and SGs are a tuning hassle is welld eserved (and is true of knockoffs too), but its a product of the string angle above the nut, just like a V and a well cut nut and saddles should alleviate this. Straight pull would be I deal, but the fact of the matter is the strings have a downward pull anyway so the potential for catching is always there on an angled Gibson headstock. The alternatives are straight headstock angles which require fussy staggered tuners or string trees and string trees can be a tuning hassle of their own. Ask any Fender Fucker!

now here's my real answer, sorry if my 1st answer was dismissive:

I would look to aleviate issues in the nut and saddles straight off. De-burr all the saddle grooves so the strings don't catch (this is super important for the wound strings) and then i would carefully sand with some very light wet sandpaper in all the string grooves of the nut. Smooth 'em out and then load 'em up with graphite so the strings move smoothly through them. Smooth and easy tuning is a sign of tuning stability. If you're tuning and you hear little pings the strings are still catching and your guitar will not be stable once tuned. If you're tuning and it feels like there's a big jump between cents on the tuner as you tune up then your strings are catching and your guitar will not hold tune. The burrs on the saddles will not always be visible but you will feel them when tuning once you know what you're looking for. A badly cut nut will be TOTALLY invisible unless the grooves aren't straight, you can see that usually. You will hear and feel the nut issues when tuning. Like I said, those pings some guitars make while tuning and the abrupt jumps up or down when tuning? Those are often nut problems. You need t smooth that shit out like you're Michelangelo polishing th David. Also look and see how low the strings sit in the nut. They should sit just deep enough that they can't pop out. The deeper they sit the more surface area there is contacting the bridge amterial upping the chances of binding. This is true of the saddles too. Deep is BAD.

On a guitar with the flying V's type of string pull above the nut the culprits are always the nut, saddles or tuners. If its going sharp its DEFINTIELY the nutor saddles thata re cut badly and catching. If it goes flat it could also be cheap tuners slipping. That's uncommon these days though. Upgraded tuners always help any guitar if its worth money and hassle to you. Grover, Sperzel and Schaeller used to be the top dogs and are still great aftermarket replacements but tonepros also makes straight drop in gibson replacements for every one of their tuner types that won't require drilling. You will want to get the spec of your grovers and see if their professional grade of course, but odds are you have the best tuners money can buy right now unless you wanna try locking ones. One of my LPs has stock Grover Rotomatics and I can't really fault them. They are great tuners. That said I've had other Grovers on guitars that weren't as good (either because they were cheaper models or because they were sketchy tuner designs of the 50s)

Get your files and sandpaper out first. If you're positive you've fixed the poor workmanship on the saddles and nut then you can think about tuners. We went through this process ona bandmate's recent les paul standard a while back and it needed verything just to be as stable as the standard Iw as playingat the time. Gibson did a bad job on that nut, the guy's heavy handed playing and strign gauge experiemnts wore out the saddle grooves making them too deep and jagged and the tuner gars weren't grabbing well anymore. I feel like I probably had him get tonepros keystones that dropped in and the guitar ebcame as stable as any Les Paul is going to be. Eventually we even ditched the stock nut with something self-lubricating, probably Tusq which is a great space-age material with the density of bone but none of drawbacks. Every bit of that guitar got addressed in order to make it more road worthy. Some of it was sloppy work from the Nashville shop but much of it was balancing out the design flaws and his lack of maintenance up to that point. Little bits of wear and tear are cumulative and will eventually get the isntruments tuning all wonky, just like over the years you will need to make a neck adjust every so often and reset your intonations and action a smidge.

While you're working on your V you might as well adjust the truss if needed and dial in the action and intonation. Make sure your pickups aren't too high that they're exerting magnetic pull on the strings, killing sustain and throwing off the pitch as the note decays making your tuner get all wonky. Go voer the whole thing. I find that Gibson designs with the SG/V butt joint at the neck, while theyc an be dialed in for very low action most of the time, benefits from somewhat higher action to really sing. There will be a string ehight where the whole guitar vibrates acoustically when you're playing and your unplugged volume wills tart to be much louder. You wanna find that if possible. That's where thelongest sustain and ebst tone is on that guitar and unless its unplayable like that you will wanna adjust to the higher action. I find that this sweet spot usually involves raising the plain string action a smidge higher then the wound strings. I happen to like this setup, but it also seems to be the optimal tension to get the guitar to ring out like a champ. Start with your heights at Nashville factory spec and work up, not down like most guys who want a 'fast' guitar would tell you. Factory spec is generally the lowest you can go without choking the guitar's natural tone even if she doesn't fret out anywhere.

Anyway, I keep adding advice to this and I need to stop and do someother things today. I think you need to get teching. Get your tools out and squeeze everything you can from that far east V copy. I feel confident with a little time and attention you can get the tuning issues resolved and make it sound better to boot.

I don't own a V because they're silly (okay okay, I briefly owned a Jackson V during my hard rockin' youth), but have played them and never had a tuning issue... I've never played anything but gibson USA ones though

my epi firebird I is tuning challenged versus my real gibsons but I haven't gotten around to setting her up and correcting the factory errors.... epis suck stock

is this meant to be a virtua had-job?

oooh baby

at one time I had a very pro touring group where the bass player eschewed dedicated bass amps (he blew up every solid state option, only an ashdown Mag300 survived his onslaught but it was a trade and the guy missed it sow e gave it back) for a sans amp RBI pedal into a HUGE solid state PA poweramp I still own with a DI run to the board and he sounded great every night. He went SVT classic evetuallly and then like me with my plexis and showmans only sounded good in the big theaters. the record is dual showman bass sound though, through an SVT 8x10 and occcassionally one of my old marshall 4x12s with bass cone 30 watters and its amazing. But not a reliable sound for the road. Dude actually bought my first year dual showman ( I have compared serials with Dick Dale) eventually and I way undercharged him as t turns out and he still uses it for guitar or bass and it sounds incredible still. But its jot '500 seats loud... he woulda been fine if I had gone matchless sooner, but I was a 60s marshall stack guy for awhile.. sansamp makes a killer bass product.

welcome.... post more of your insights on tribute bands to the forum

I don't think tehre is, but you know what? THERE SHOULD BE

I hesitated to say Lloyd because he's pretty well regarded even by non-musicians.

here's Lloyd and Quine in the 90s: https://youtu.be/ELwRW_2cdBE

tone for days on this one.

and quine on lead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-U2X2yHpOo

you could just ignore matthew sweet

on top of the music he's got some really entertaining titles here and there...

Robert Quine of the Voidoids... maybe not underrated by fans of that music, but relatively unknown to the world. And great.

Cheetah Chrome too... dead boys, rocket from the tombs

Oh wow, that's really "90s IDM"! I dig it, good job... cool musical ideas, excellent programming... decent mixing.... I would get a little more low end and true high end and shoot for more depth of field but that's me, there's nothing wrong with the mixes. It definitely soudns like the stuff that influenced you. Good job. I hope there's an audience for it.

not these days, but when I picked up the guitar as a kid he was esteemed with EVH amongst shred lovers.. his washburn signature guitar of the era was a really nice axe for the money

I'll give it a listen by Monday. You're into all the right stuff from my era...

a better search! oen that does the foruma s well as the rest of the site?

y'know what? I haven't actually talked to Michael or Chiaren for ages... with x-mas and all this other stuff in my life I haven't even had time to do another gear review. Or i haven't ahd the atttention span. So maybe you cats have a point. 2 years just doesn't feel like a long time to me, but my brain is warped by parenting.

don't laugh...

Under Your Bed

singer named us

I'm from philly, we were contemporaries of Haelstorm, theys tarted a little earlier and we popped up when they got silent for 5 or 6 years... they survived their contract issues and we didn't... although our goofy name and the often weak lyrics on a lot of that album really didn't help. But it was a fun learning experience because I ahd enver done the overblown rock n roll band thing before. I dreamed of it as a teenager but then i outgrew it and was playing jazz and fuckign with synthesizers, writing TV music and engineering records for other acts.

this is all ancient history of course and no one cares.... otherwise I woulds tart a apge for that band on EB here because I ahd a pretty bitchin' stage rig LOL

best of luck

I guess he's not well known like Clapton, but elts be hoenst, that guitar god thing is dead otuside of the EVH/Yngwie world of mind numbing shred. Amongst musos be they guitarists or just fans, Ribot is very well known and very much beloved.

in that case I always preferred .010 ernies (slinkies) but more recently I went over to .010 elixir optiwebs and probably won't return to slinkies, not even the coated oens so i guess go with that... elixir optiweb 10 to 42

if other types of guitars or playing fit into this survey ehre you go:

on acoustic I usually use elixir nanowebs in .011 or .012 but its less of a rule. I gennerally just bash aorund the hosue on acosutic to entertain me son and consider myself to be mainly an electric guitarist (when my band got booked for an unplugged gig I used a hollowbody and a tiny 50s practice amp, fuck acoustic) but when i'm recording acoustic I will alot of times try different strings as well as different guitars because different gauges, materials and brands come up on the mics really differently. The right guitar,s trings and mic setup is the best way to get the response you want rather than resorting to corrective EQ.

in flat wounds I prefer pyramids in .011 if I need a wound G for jazz but when i'ms tringing up a tele or gretsch to do early rock n roll, rockabilly or country tones I use d'addario flats in .011 and sub the wound G with a d'addario unwound .011 so I can bend properly. I also use this mixed set for bottleneck usually. I think my esquire is strung this way right now... haven't played that one in a while though, I forget. I think I have the pyramids on a 335 right now. I've been mostly playing my SGs and LPs lately though.

I don't have a 12 string right now, but when i do 12 string I always use this one particular Rickenbacker set. I would know it if Iw as shopping...

My classical guitar is strung with Savarez high tensions. the lazer cut oens in the blue pack.

If you wanna do a vacuum tube survey I use JJ output tubes except for 6L6es, in those I use the Groove Tubes made in the USA GE reissues, they're the ebst current production tube for a fender amp and they last almost as long as the JJs... I use JJ rectifiers, NOS are scarce and every other new brand fails in 3 months of heavy use... and for preamp tubes I use Tung Sol reissue 12ax7s, NOS Mullard EF86es, NOS Mullard 12AT7s (the mil spec ones with the CV designation, not the ECC81s), Some NOS RCA and GE 12ax7s here and there where the large bodies Tung Sol RIs won't fit or where they sound too gainy and tubby, and I also use NOS GE 12AY7s when I want stock gain in my tweeds. All long grey plates, halo getters. Which is not often. I am pretty sure that my fawn ac30 has the stock Chinese tubes in it but they're still going strong so I don't wanna tamper with it until they sound dull. You should totally do a tube survey. Tubes are way more glamorous then strings...

I'm into the nanoweb 80/20s too, I was suspicious at first but theyrule... 11 or 12 depending on teh sound I want

last year equipboard had me check out the optiweb electrics and they really kick ass, check 'em out. I keep telling everyone but no one listens LOL

like many guitar sligners I went through an SRV informed "heavier strings have better tone phase"... I was straining ym hands and I ruined my fretting technique for a while grippping them down, not to mention cosntant enck adjustments on my strat. Then I realized one of my eheroes, Brian May, played his whole career on .008s and 10 gauge all teh sudden seemed heavy.... Billy Gibbons plays like .007 and no one accuses him of having a small sound. After much research I learned that ehavier strings of the same metal formulation just have a different balance of fundamental and harmonic. The added mass of ehavy gauges produces more fudnamental versus the harmonics of each note. The harmnics will also be 'shorter' in that their volume envelope has a faster decay, much faster in the case f the really high voertones. They might all but disappear depending on your amplification or pedal chain. I realized this as not to my liking, but I can see the appeal for certain guitar/amp combinations and certains tyles of music. Having a big wollop of fundamental they will sound like the bass is fuller with a strong attack and less presence, but the sustain, while you may eb able tos et it up to ring out well, will be less 'lively' due to being msotly fundamental. Under gain you're nt like to be able to bend the note until the harmonic cotnent rolls up into ghost ntoe feedback... anyway. There's my aquired wisdom on string gauges.

I've ahd good luck with chmicals, but I've only stripped poly once

a hot rod... wow, I ahd been playing for eyars when the I came out. LOL

since when is Ribot underrated? he's much esteemed!

without even playing it I have to say this... nice guitar face! hahahaha

if its a poly you'll spend forever with sandpaper, better to get boat or aircraft stripper from the ahrdware store.... and a gas mask! I hear a ehat gun can ork if you're careful not to scorch the wood, but yeah...

welcome

probably none of your fans has made a page for you... the site is user-maintained so perhaps no one in your following is into equipboard? the pro pages are user generated, the staff doesn't just troll around looking for bands to add. We just correct msitakes, elete inappropriate content and in the case of the Admins write the code that implements upgrades.

We really appreciate you not just jumping in and creating your own artist page(s). As far as ASCAP and BMI? We don't really consider that as criteria. For istnance, I've been with BMI since the late 90s... I wouldn't call myself a pro anymore though. I'm not colelcting regualr royalty checks nor am I deriving a alrge portion of my income from performance. In the professional sense I've been inactive since my most succesful band brke up. But I'm with BMI and until recently I kept up my membership and NARAS and all that... so you see what i'm saying. I'm not sure if we consider soundcloud followers. The admins would have to tell you.

Now for the kicker... we don't stop people from creating vanity pages for themselves or their musical friends regardless of professional or amateur status... we do periodically police them and dump the bogus ones that slipped by whatever little app the admins have that auto-polices. Typically there's a lot of conversation in the secret moderator forum between the Admins and Mods to decide which middling acts with a mainly internet following should stay or go because the criteria can feel a little grey sometimes and we all have different opinions on how to interpret that term 'professional'... but if you really want to, please go ahead and create some pro pages for yourself and populate them with the gear you use to record and perform live in Sway. If you're thinking it'll be soemthing good for your EPK, I wouldn't count on that, but if you just want to be preresented because you have some bitchin' stage rigs then sure! It soudsn like you're at that regional radio level my old band was at for a little while10 years ago (on the local clearchannel stations during drive time, college radio, big on the web, getting a little press in the local paper and magazines, small tours, opening for major acts from time to time, fanclub) and I would've had no qualms about calling that band 'pro' in the equipboard sense and I think your band sounds pro. I wish you luck maitnaining that success and climbing to the next level. It gets really hard from where you're at. Read everything twice and be nice toe veryone, even the A&R guys who try to grope you and the creepy college radio DJ stalkers who get your cell # from management and won't stop calling. Its like running for office... and if you do clear the hurdles and reach the enxt elvel I hope you enjoy yourself. Its not for everyone. Personally I burned out but god bless you if you don't... or someone bless you, I don't really believe in god.

but what does that have to do with school?

ignoring your suggestion for the moment until you get a response from Michael or Gchiaren I do wish to point out that we all have day jobs and many of us have spouses and/or kids, so we cna be a bit sluggish. I don't think anyone should be ciritical of that sicne this is, in essence, a labor of love. I think they have it breaking even so they're not spending on server space at this point but tis not liekt eh ads and the links to amazon are generating a pile of profit for anyone. No one is paying off their car loan or mortgage here.

why, do you want to track down my friends and threaten them at gun point to get a move on? The admins founded the site and write the code, the specific upgrade guy is GChiarren. look, the coding takes time... bug detectiont akes time... and we all have day jobs and kids. This is an unpaid labor of love that fortunately breaks even.

I gotta tell ya, the seymour phat cat is a pitiful immiatation of a regular sized P90, lots of better options... never tried the bare knuckle but it has to be better. Pretty much the duncan and gibson bucker-sized 90s are the original and worst of this type of pickup. One pickup that really shocked me was Fralin split coil, hum cancelling P90 in a humbucker case. it sounds really close and its noise free. Something you will experience with P90s and Dearmonds (and any other big coil, bar magnet single) is that even if you shield the guitar cavities thoroughly and shield the pickup covers (a humbucker sized P90 is already shielded if the case is metal) you will STILL eperience ridiculously high nosie levels on a modern stage thanks to all the smrt phones in the audience. You can control shit when you're recording and get the hum down to sane, 90s elvels by turning off phones and wireless routers, but you can't do that ons tage. I toured with P90s in my arsenal for eyars and they slowly beame intolerably noisy when everyone started buying iPhones and Androids. I took soem time off and then after moving to DC I joined a local band. I did the first show with my SG, it was great. The next show I took my 50s RI gretsch with dearmonds and a vitnage wired tele where there's no hum cancelling position... big sitake. The tele barely got me through teh show, but the gretsch was unusable thanks to all the RFI. So that's my .02 on overwound single coils in general. they're a liability for stage work because we've reached an era where the interference is as loud as the guitar signal the minute you start adding enough gain to compress or distort yor signal. Unless you're playing dead clean that P90 guitar will be very difficult when it coems tos tage work.