jimmarchi1's Reviews

Here goes.

I don't really like pedal overdrive so I will probably be ridiculously harsh with this one. When I tried the Distortron at a big box guitar store I was stoked about it and bought it immediately. I particularly liked its uncompressed character at pretty high (for me) gain settings. I also loved the 'subs' control. I can guarantee you they change the size of the cap that sets input impedence. The smaller the Capacitor, the less bass. Great call. This allows you to 'tune' the low end countour to suit your amp and still set the tone control where you like it. I need that control when I play through my HC30 clone. I like the EF86 channel and I find that while it loves pedals its also really revealing as to the way they skew your guitar's frequency response,

Now here's what I don't like about this pedal. When I have full subs to kick out the thump thru the aforementioned EF86 preamp I lose all treble cut unless I start goosing the tone control up. As I goose up that tone control the top end loses sparkle and takes on a hard, transistory crunch that doesn't live up to the promise of a neutral tone setting in lower 'subs' settings. Close, but no cigar. This is not a bad pedal and it sounds great through a marshall or even a top boost channel so I keep it, but it lets me down in the application I bought it for, to add some marshalliness to a matchless EF86 channel that's set up at the verge of distortion. The distortron has the frequency bandwidth to please me, but loses its best qualities when you dicker with the voicing that way. Alas.

I regret selling mine.

This is a conservative 15-20 watt, cathode biased, single channel mini-marshall. Some will say its an 80s 18 or 20 watt update, but apart from the bias scheme and volume range the similarities end there. The Studio 15 has two 12ax7es and two 6V6 output tubes, solid state rectified. She was the only 6V6 powered Marshall until their questionable Haze amplifier. At first glance the control panel is like a JCM800 sans-presence, however the implementation of the dual triodes as gain stages in relation to the tonestack placement is more like certain 60s Gibson amps, weird implementation but sweet and easy to dial in.

Mine had a first generation Marshall branded V30 labeled "Vintage Speaker". This is the best sounding V30 I have ever heard (I ran other amps through it). I don't know what Celestion did to this speaker design after releasing it to the general public (for a while it was a marshall exclusive), but they wrecked it.

I liked everything about this amp right down to the very well implemented post phase inverter master volume control. Marshall's PPIMV had some clipping diodes strapped to it that were wired in such a way as to only be in circuit at very low MV settings to help and a little feaux power amp crunch. Speaking of power amp crunch, the Studio 15 has wonderful saturation when turned up. at medium MV settings the Studio 15 can cop some basic JCM800/metal-panel JMP sounds.

The thing I liked best about this amp was that it had the nicest clean tone of any Marshall. It was Marshally clean all right, but it had lots of sparkly top end, not hard, overhyped treble. The clean was great with the amp wide open using your guitar volume to vary gain. Other features included a line out and a headphone out that doubled as a powerful attenuator for late night shredding.

I liked everything about this amp really. My only caveats were...

1) the small cab could sound boxy 2) all the jacks were PCB mounted and JCM800 era jacks are chintzy 3) poor ventilation 4) could have used a smidge more gain on tap, but I don't know how they would have accomplished this with the tube compliment they had to work with... another 12ax7 would've been way more gain then needed even if they had only used 1 of the triodes.

I often regret selling this little beastie, but the values went crazy lately so out she went. I really played her very rarely. She was also intensely reliable as all pre-JCM900 Marshalls are.

Really?

If you need to buy these you're not drinking enough Grolsch beer at rehearsals. Don't be a teetotaling square, folks.

The best of the worst, the rest are just cursed.

I grew up on the old papery neon yellow pack of ernies with non-sealed envelopes filled with wonderful rock 'n roll gauge strings. I always used these bad boys from day one and I always return to them. I am used to the sound and feel, for better or worse... and they're still damned cheap by the case!

Good jazz/rockabilly set.

I got into these d'addario chrome flatwounds when I had a gretsch but I still occasionally put them on a 335 or a tele to be all Orbison or James Burtony. I like that the chromes have a little more top than a traditional all nickel flatwound. In flats I almost exclusively do 12s because there weren't lighter gauges of flats available when I was a kid playing in school jazz band. Flats feel wrong in 10 and 11 even though D'addario now produces those 2 gauges. Maybe I'll try them one day. Oh yeah, on my teles I hate the wound G so I throw an 11 gauge Ernie Ball on there.

Great tone and smoooooth feel.

These are pure nickel strings that GHS puts through part of the flat wound smoothing process, which they call burnishing. I find they have the smooth feel of a flat wound with the bright, grindy tone of a roundwound. They wear out fast! I like to record with these sometimes if one of my guitars is sounding a bit harsh on tape. Its like a subtle EQ adjust. They're also great for parts with lots of fatiguing sliding about on E, A and D.

a classic

I occasionally get the urge to show my badassery to other guitarists. When that happens I like to equip a strat with 11 or 12 gauge fender 150 strings, preferably with bullet ends. These already have an interesting tension on a strat that differs fro a set of regular slinkies, so upping gauge makes for some thick twang like y'all ain't never hoid.

pleasantly surprised

I was shocked and pleased to find Ernie's coated nickel-wounds sound and feel 99% the same as the classic nickel wound slinkies I grew up with and always return to. I have corrosive fingers and the coated strings are great for me when I'm not gigging/rehearsing regularly. A little wipe down when I'm done playing and all is well for 6 months or longer. Now with gigging, recording and rehearsing I wear the coating right off and prefer the traditional strings, but usually I find the extra dollar per pack on coated EBs ore than pays for itself now that I am a weekend warrior at best.

see my other ultex review

Check out my other ultex review for their thinner picks. These are the same except stiffer and clickier. Definitely inferior for acoustic strumming, but barely different on electric. The extra few millimeters make them a less effective toothpick for people with overcrowding. Since they aren't an effective dental tool I am docking the 1mm picks 1 star.

Hard to drop and hard to break.

I used this gauge of ultex back when I was a serious pick guy for about 2 years while in a band that lasted for 5 or so. That's a lot of commitment for me. I like that the ultex picks slide off the string but not off your fingers. The sharp point lasts incredibly long and can also be used to fish bad truck stop food out of your teeth when you run out of floss between tour stops. the overall tone is a great compromise between vintage celluloid (fender) and tortex. They don't crack like thinner celluloid picks and they wear a lot slower than tortex.

The .73 gauge was awesome for me at the time. I liked the slight flex they had for circular picking and they added a really nice amount of click to my chugging when playing power chordy rhythms through a raging superlead. I started to get back into heavier picks a few mm at a time and now like genuinely heavy picks because I got a bag of heavies for free from Fender way back when and I'm notoriously cheap about shit like picks... but given my druther in plastic picks I still dig these or the 1mm ultexes a lot. You should try 'em if you haven't.

not bad, not great

This is basically a Yamaha SA1000 (see my other review) from the mid 80s. the model was updated with a nice rosewood fingerboard, all maple plies, a proper ABR1 repro, hotter (harsher) A5 humbuckers, a hideous headstock decal, a thicker, shinier finish that is definitely polyester resin AND (shudder) a slimmer mid 60s neck profile. That's a deal breaker for me so I just sold this guitar on Reverb even though its pretty nicely made. it had one possible factory flaw where one of the fret tangs can be seen through the binding, however, the frets are in awfully new shape so I suspect my specimen was the victim of a amature refret. The problem with that 1 fret does not jive with the rest of the fit and finish of the guitar. Any rate, I could not bond with the slim neck and the pickups were just way inferior to my 70s SA1000. I think I'll replace it with a tobacco burst Greco SA700, 550 or a blonde Yamaha SA700. I still recommend this model of Yamaha to anyone looking for a good 335 alternative. The slim neck will suit many players and the guitar is built at least as well as a 90s epi elitist.

Nice work Marshall.... NOT!

I technically still own this amp but I left it at my buddy's studio for the last 10 years. I never record there anymore, the JTM30's that good.

Features a clean channel, a gain channel, shared TMB cathode-follower tone stack, effects loop (more on that anon) and a solid-state driven spring reverb that's a lot like the 900 series reverb. 3xECC83s and 2 6L6 power tubes. I liked mine biased for KT66s for a thicker midrange.

The clean channel has a nice tweed-super type clean sound and rolls into gnarly distortion around 5 on the volume that is somewhere between a mid-sized tweed amp and a 50 watt plexi. The gain channel reminds me of the diode-clipped gain channel of a Marshall JCM900. Fun in a comical way. Mine was loaded with two 10" eminence speaker that sounded okay to me.

Now the bad news. The cab is too small and sounds boxy. It is also made from pretty questionable MDF including (get this) the BAFFLE! Not sturdy. The top handle repeatedly ripped outta mine because the screws would chew their way out of the MDF if the amp encountered the least bit of humidity.

Next, these amps always appear to have catastrophic failures because the cheap switching jacks on the solid-state effects loop (effects loops are lame anyway) crap out and stop the preamp signal from reaching the power amp. The bad news is that all the pots, switches and jacks are board mounted and difficult to replace. The good news is that you can put a patch cable between the 2 loop jacks to pass signal for a while until they crap out completely. After that you have to say goodbye to your lame 80s feature set and hardwire a jumper between the 2 jacks on the board or your amp will never make sound again. Be careful though, this board is unusually thin for a Marshall and the traces are not up to snuff.

Did I mention all the parts are board mounted and the board is crap? Oh yeah, the entire amp is oriented horizontally so the tubes stick out the back like glass bullets asking to be smashed. Marhsall saw that this was a questionable arrangement and thoughtfully included a metal cage around the tubes but it doesn't dissipate heat well and its not very sturdy anyway. Mine bent severely in a car taking a kt66 with it.

I never gigged this amp yet I was still constantly repairing it. Do not buy this unless you are a tech-bench masochist. It sounds pretty nice when its working, but doesn't sound THAT good. The 2 star rating is strictly a nod to the lovely crunch available when you start cranking the clean channel.

Recovered from NJ and SOLD! gotta pay those divorce lawyer bills!

Wow.

This is the only software synth I truly love because its not emulating ANYTHING. Oh the amazing sounds I've learned to dial up with this monster. The filters are otherworldly, the wavetable abilities are beyond imagining (or they were in the 90s) and she, well, umm, just WOW man. It took me a sleepless week to be able to start with a blank canvas and create cool sounds and another month to imagine a sound and figure out how to make it happen in Absynth, but hell if it wasn't worth overcoming the learning curve. You can wrap your head around this monster if you really understand how to program patches from scratch on a dx7 or an esq1.

Look, this synth is basically a ROMpler for people who don't have a professional studio recording background and thoroughly understand synthesis, general audio electronics and acoustics. If you can't program an FM synth, adjust an EMT plate (delay and gate that plate in time with your groove too), route surround through an SSLG or a million other tasks that require knowledge and attention to detail? DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME. Absynth is not for you. Even if you managed to learn it passably well you will not like it.

PS: the manual and online literature is utterly worthless because huge chunks of this synth's feature set are indescribable via technical jargon and have to be experienced to be properly learned. But, as I said, If you have a really well-rounded music electronics background you will "get it" in no time and start making really ethereal (or nasty) sounds rich with harmonic info that will sound to many ears like samples you made while sneaking around a DARPA facility!

arcane user interface? GET OVER IT

The thing I love about the ESQ-1 is that its a traditional subtractive synth hiding in 80s digital wavetable skin, a wolf in sheep's clothing, that REALLY takes advantages of its digital 'brain'. Once you wrap your head around the user interface you can assign ANY parameter to MIDI note velocity. WHAT?! Yeah. I wish it had a better keyboard, but I tend to use it as a module. I like to play a line into Fruity Loops on a nice weighted key controller being sure to really syncopate my attack and then assign that sequence to a MIDI channel that's commanding the ESQ-1 and dial up a patch where filter cutoff or resonance is controlled by velocity. For extra fun I like to crank the audio out thru an ac30, mic her up and hit record. I really enjoy some of the interesting wavetable snippets that the DCOs on this bad boy generate. Blending, say, the piano snippet with a straditional sine or square is really neat. There's a lot of cool percussive sounds in the liabrary. This thing is capable of a lot, but it just doesn't have the kind of hands on control dance musicians expect, however, once you realize its a PERFORMANCE synth designed for guys who play piano and organ and that the ability to create motion and vary texture in your sounds can be PERFORMANCE DRIVEN you will unlock the keys to the kingdom so to speak. These synths aren't worth spit anymore, I don't know why. Buy one and get playing. Even if you're a mediocre pianist like I am you can always record MIDI data and lock to grid to create insane sounding lines. Also, the DCFs are harsh and squelchy in a totally un-vintage (as in un-moogish) way that reacts really great to analog distortion both tube and solid state. Get over the learning curve and you will be able to make really amazing music with this diamond in the rough. This is another highly underrated synthesizer from the good folks at ensoniq.

small and even more inconvenient

Is anything harder to program than a Yamaha DX7? Sure! the TX-81z. This is a less fully featured digital FM synth. You would think less operators means its easier to wrap your head around, but the user interface is not up to any tasks you set out to accomplish. These units are a glorified ROMpler without a dedicated PC program to navigate the terrifying FM synthesis landscape. That said, once you grok FM synthesis and your 3rd party software the TX is a pretty decent device and its quicker to program than a DX. And its small and easy to slave to your DAW. It records really well. Really fun for making nasty percussion noises and Depeche Mode Violator-era FM bass stabs. I think this odule sounds better than a dx7 through a guitar amp and/or distortion pedal. I've never had any issues with the buttons or jacks on this unit but she's been mostly babied (as in not taken anywhere and barely used).

small and inconvenient

These little 1RU beasties are a total PITA to program but are capable of generating some cool 80s analog sounds like the Juno series. Not great for acid-house tweakin', but nice for when you want to get all Depeche Mode and throw down some thick subtractive leads but only have a DX7 and a midi controller. I've never had any reliability issues with this synthesizer and its been dropped a few times. If you can score one for under $200 its a great investment to integrate a little real analog into a software based turnkey setup like Fruity Loops...

I don't care about acoustic guitars.

My dad gave me this guitar when I graduated highschool. I've had it ever since. Its the only steel stringed acoustic I've ever owned. It has a solid, unfinished Sitka Spruce top that has aged in nicely. Laminate rosewood sides, martin-style x-bracing, bound rosewood fingerboard in what feels like 24.75" scale (but I'm not sure really). I think it was made in japan. It plays very well and continues to sound nicer every year despite my neglect and abuse. Coated strings were the best thing that ever happened to this poor little acoustic because I never feel like changing them. Every couple years I deign to clean her and condition the fingerboard under duress when one of my friends sees the state she's in. I figure when my son's old enough I'll break down and buy myself a fancy Taylor or a player-grade prewar Gibson and give him the epi. Acoustics are not a priority to me. This one has done its job well for years and I think it deserves heirloom status despite the reasonable buy in at the music store way back when.

Good concept

Someone in a band gave me this strap. I use it with my SG and strat a lot. The locking mechanism is very effective. The reason I use it with my SG and strat is that, like all nylon straps, its a complete POS that digs into your shoulder and my SG and strat are both really light. I need a leather strap to play a full set with a 335 or lester. I wish Planet Waves would get a clue and put these locky doohickies on a leather strap that's nice and wide at the shoulder. Like I said, they work really well, require no mods to your favorite axe and therefore I give this crappy nylon guitar strap 4 stars for innovation.

x-mas gift

My grandmom gave me this strap for x-mas like 15 or 20 years ago. Still going strong. It is equal parts tacky and lame... and I love it. "Don't mock me, friend. No one likes to be laughed at."

Great home/stage piano.

You can play keyboard parts on this if you don't have space for a real piano, Rhodes or Wurli. It makes a fine midi controller too. The action is very good and fairly realistic. The key weight is a tad too heavy, but it keeps my hands strong if I practice. Otherwise its fatiguing, but that's my fault for slacking off on piano, now isn't it? Stock Piano sounds are reasonable, electric piano 1 sounds like my DX7 (ugh), but electric piano 2 sounds a lot like a Wurlitzer or Hohner and I find myself writing a lot of music with that sound late at night. The organ sounds are hideous, strings are comical, harpsichords are fun as is the sampled vibraphone. I wish one of the harpsichord sounds was a sampled Baldwin electric so I could pound out "for your love" by the yard birds late at night after I've had one too many.