Hehehe, when I was in the “slow punk for slow punks” band, I used to go through .52 E strings to the point where I’d actually just replace the E when I broke one. I’m usually the guy who will replace all the strings when one finally breaks, because I like dead strings, but I was losing a bass E every other show. I don’t know if it was due to the Dunlop 2MM picks I was using, or the fact that the saddles weren’t really wide enough for the heavy strings. Either the brass saddles were worn out by the nickel/steel strings to the point where they were happy, or I when I went to softer picks (relatively, thumb picks are about 1MM), the problem went away sometime around '98 with that guitar.
Do you guys string all of your guitars with the same gauge? I don’t. About 1/2 of my guitars are strung with D’Addario Jazz Lights, which are .12-52’s. The rest are all strung differently. My wife’s SG Jr is strung with .10-.46 (she decided she didn’t like the Jazz Lights around '98), and I have a couple of guitars that came to me with .9 or .10-something or other, and I haven’t changed the strings. I love the groan of the guitars with the heavier sets, and they’re a lot easier to play slide on. But the ones with the lighter sets scream on bends. Chords can get wonky on the lighter sets if you forget that you need a light touch with them, but since I do chords on things all the way down to the Bass VI and a normal bass, it’s pretty manageable to work the different gauges, I think.
So, are you married to a gauge on your 6-string? I used to be, but now my view has softened.
I have never heard of a Mastery bridge. Looks like I would break it through overuse.
In terms of string gauge - yeah, per upthread, I have moved to .12’s on everything now - my electrics and acoustics - and will be staying hear. On my old Gibson J-45, I use a Bluegrass set - light (.12) Top and medium bottom 3, to get a bit more growl for a Big body guitar. With my little Martins, I get a lot of low-end with the Lights just fine.
Mid gig, I just change 1 string. When I have a minute, I change them all - if my D goes, my A and even maybe my E are not too far behind
I was whomping through LaGrange the other night, just making a bunch of fun noise, when I realized that Billy Gibbons plays with .08’s at times - I just can’t imagine. You have to be a very mindful, precise player to make .08’s work.
Well, you could prove your sincerity by buying him one to try out, and if he doesn’t like it, send it to me.
Strings: I have a variety of gauges on my cut-rate harem, but I’ve always preferred 10’s or heavier - with 9’s my picking wouldn’t even finish a demolition derby. I sound like Gary Moore falling down a flight of stairs.
But the last few years, my left hand starts to ache after like 10 minutes of playing. So I’m learning to play 9’s just to stay active, and trying to adjust my picking technique accordingly: focusing on tiny, precise movements with less force applied, just like Billy Gibbons probably did when he was 7 years old.
Oh, and I bought a gripper. Every 5th day I do a pain-filled high-rep set to build my endurance, and it’s making a difference - I’m up to 165 torturous repetitions, and maybe 11 3/8 minutes of playing each day. Heck, if Jack LaLanne can swim across the Pacific in his 90’s, I can do some damn excruciating hand exercises, right?
Meaning: you dare me to break that bridge? I’m not that kinda guy, all bruised ego “I’ll show you!!!” But I could guarantee that after a few months, with my hand choked down hard on the bridge to get my chunky muted sound, coupled with my sweat and complete lack of guitar cleanliness, you wouldn’t be able to tell that that bridge isn’t one contiguous hunk o’ metal.
ETA: EtFlagon - do you play any acoustic? I have move up to .12’s on electric only because that’s what. Play on acoustic. I get the same feel and I guess get the same finger workout.
I suspect it’s probably up to the task and it has to be better than the stupid setup on my Tele presently. If you have some grime on your axe, you’re doing it right.
Flagon, if yu want a fun workout, buy yourself a 12 string and start learning fingerstyle…
Beefheart For Guitarists
LISTEN TO THE BIRDS That’s where all the music comes from. Birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. And watch hummingbirds. They fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren’t going anywhere.
YOUR GUITAR IS NOT REALLY A GUITAR Your guitar is a divining rod. Use it to find spirits in the other world and bring them over. A guitar is also a fishing rod. If you’re good, you’ll land a big one.
PRACTICE IN FRONT OF A BUSH Wait until the moon is out, then go outside, eat a multi-grained bread and play your guitar to a bush. If the bush doesn’t shake, eat another piece of bread.
WALK WITH THE DEVIL Old delta blues players referred to amplifiers as the “devil box.” And they were right. You have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you’re bringing over from the other side. Electricity attracts demons and devils. Other instruments attract other spirits. An acoustic guitar attracts Casper. A mandolin attracts Wendy. But an electric guitar attracts Beelzebub.
IF YOU’RE GUILTY OF THINKING, YOU’RE OUT If your brain is part of the process, you’re missing it. You should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. If you can trap that feeling, then you have something that is fur bearing.
NEVER POINT YOUR GUITAR AT ANYONE Your instrument has more power than lightning. Just hit a big chord, then run outside to hear it. But make sure you are not standing in an open field.
ALWAYS CARRY YOUR CHURCH KEY You must carry your key and use it when called upon. That’s your part of the bargain. Like One String Sam. He was a Detroit street musician in the fifties who played a homemade instrument. His song “I Need A Hundred Dollars” is warm pie. Another church key holder is Hubert Sumlin, Howlin’ Wolf’s guitar player. He just stands there like the Statue of Liberty making you want to look up her dress to see how he’s doing it.
DON’T WIPE THE SWEAT OFF YOUR INSTRUMENT You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music.
KEEP YOUR GUITAR IN A DARK PLACE When you’re not playing your guitar, cover it and keep it in a dark place. If you don’t play your guitar for more than a day, be sure to put a saucer of water in with it.
YOU GOTTA HAVE A HOOD FOR YOUR ENGINE Wear a hat when you play and keep that hat on. A hat is a pressure cooker. If you have a roof on your house the hot air can’t escape. Even a lima bean has to have a wet paper towel around it to make it grow.
I must be the only one who likes a clean guitar. I always feel like the grime is gonna get under my frets and, I dunno, cause Zombie Leo Fender to come beat my door down with a Tele neck.
Maybe you guys are aware of the story of how Fender changed their fretboard specs back around '59 or so? Leo was watching a guitarist on TV playing a Fender, and the maple fingerboard was all worn and pitted - none too photogenic, and in front of the whole nation! Next day a thoroughly embarrassed Leo starts shopping for rosewood (and probably sends TVGuitarMan a new neck). Nowadays, seems that a worn maple fretboard is considered a badge of honor.
That’s an excellent idea, and one I hope to pursue eventually. But right now I’m fixated on developing my “David Gilmour meets Roy Buchanan” electric blues identity, and I had dropped out of the race in sight of the finish line. I just need to bear down.
That’s great…
Oh, so I’ve been watching the web for used Blackstones, and the forecast has been cloudy. Not only are these things no longer languishing on eBay, but they’re actually selling for a fair bit more than they did some months ago.
One even recently sold for more than you’d pay for brand new - which may be a sign that there’s a long waiting list for a new one.
I ordered a Casio Px-350 digital piano. I looked at a lot of reviews and this seemed like the best value. There’s a lot of youtube videos reviewing or discussing the Px-350. Some musicians Gig with it because it’s got its own on board sound and speakers. They don’t need to drag a heavy amp to smaller Gigs. Big parties require a big sound and a external amp. But they pay better too. Best of all, the Px-350 only weighs 25 lbs and cost me less than my guitar. (approx $650)
My voice teacher convinced me that I needed a basic digital piano for ear training. The pitch is always consistent. My guitar might be a few semitones off standard pitch from one day to another. Also, the guitar is a “transposing Instrument” it’s an octave lower than a piano.
It took me awhile to wrap my head around the difference in guitar and piano pitches. If I want Middle C on the guitar then that’s played on the A string, third fret. Thats actually a C3 note. Middle C is really a C4. Easy to prove, play the guitar’s B string, first fret C and compare to middle C on the piano. It’s the same pitch. But, obviously the B string, C note on a guitar isn’t a bass note. To get a bass note C it has to be played on the A string.
That plays havoc for a beginning voice student. I need to sing the C scale starting with middle C. But my guitar is an octave lower. Makes ear training and learning note pitches extremely hard using only the guitar. <shrug> So anyhow, I got a piano in my music room now. I already know how to pick out notes and play scales. My friends can come over and play it too and I can strum along on the guitar. Have a few beers too.
But you (double checks) yes, you yourself said it’s a simple circuit (and almost no distortion is really that hard). Build one! Or get someone else to do it. You and I both know that if it’s that good and simple, copies are going to abound.
In the world of “simple, great, and copied”, and “touch sensitive” in that it makes a different gigantically huge sound when you touch the strings, I get my first distortion pedal back tomorrow. I’ve had the Super Fuzz since I traded a chorus pedal for it when I was 19, and I still feel a little bit guilty for how well I made out.
It stopped working after heavy use several years ago. At the time actual replacements were $300-$400 at guitar shows, I knew no reputable effects repairman, I didn’t know the circuit had been widely copied yet (damn infant internet!), and I needed other equipment wayyy more than a specific fuzz pedal; so I made do until now. According to the amp/pedal guy, it was in pretty good shape for a 40 year old pedal. He replaced a transistor that had been replaced with the incorrect type, but that won’t matter as far as it sounds (more on that in a sec). The electrolytic caps had leaked dry, though, and they had to be replaced. I also doubt that will change the sound because: it’s an early diode distortion, and the diodes are where the real action is with this pedal. It’s an octave distortion, and the diodes distort the signal after it’s been through full-wave rectification by the transistors, which puts seriously weird harmonics above and below the fundamental. AFAICT this pedal generates octaves above and below the fundamental and a lot of other weird, mathematical/not necessarily musical information in the process, which then gets clipped to hell and back by the diodes, and it’s brutal. The different clones/contemporaries all sound a little different in the diode selection (mine are germanium, silicon sounds different, values affect it more than either), but the transistors don’t do a whole lot other than affect what weird overtones might be smashed into strange sine waves by the diodes.
How brutal? It almost makes guitar and amp selections, knob settings on both guitar and amp, string gauges, and what state you are in geographically or psychologically completely irrelevant. If you have a high gain amp, you might want to back off on the gain. Your preamp really isn’t prepared for this signal if it’s overdriving. A mess often ensues. Even with clean-ish amp settings, anything beyond a fifth and a third beyond the fundamental is going to just create interesting noises. To the listener, it might be a seventh, might be a ninth, might be a flattened 49th for all they know; but it did make a different, interesting noise. Solo notes can sound like you’re running a ring modulator, which I don’t think you technically are. With the “Expander” (gain) high, any input goes straight into “I WILL DESTROY YOU” territory. You’ve got to have faith in your fundamentals when you step on this pedal. They’re the only thing you can really count on when it is on. It has no subtlety.
What’s it sound like? Probably the most famous use of this pedal at one time was Townsend using this pedal on Live at Leeds. You can see it in the photos from the show, but I really don’t hear it much. He seems to hit it when he wants to make atrocious noise as a climax or finale. It’d be a challenge to play the recorded set using this thing as the only distortion sound. When I think of the sound of this circuit, the earliest time I was consciously aware that someone was using the same pedal was when I saw Poison Ivy play with the Cramps. I can’t describe the joy in my heart when I saw that one of my heroes had the same damn orange/blue monster that I had, and wasn’t afraid to use it. The Jesus and Mary Chain used the same circuit manufactured by a contemporary, mated with a wah pedal. They rarely turned the fuzz off, even if they didn’t always run it wide open like Mme. Ivy. But Jack White made them even more expensive than when I was shopping for a replacement for mine.
I’m going to use it for bass these days. I kind of pity my speakers/cabs, because I am willfully going to be sending them some signals that they weren’t designed to handle. Good luck, everybody! I’ll be so happy to have my old friend back, I won’t care if I go through a few bouts of replacing speakers. Screw those guys, they were weak!
Yeah, Jack White uses it as part of sounding like he’s wrestling with an out-of-control tone. Works for him. Feels pretty special-use to me. Jack White is an excellent pedal guy, as are many of the others. A man’s got to know his limitations ;).
I like a great overdriven tone, but don’t take it to fuzzy outofcontrol, just a mileage variance thing for me. . I was just listening to AC/DC’s What’s Next to the Moon. Like that. I don’t see the studio version on YT, but like that. Thorogood’s Who Do You Love.
Yeah, but I also said that Jack Lalanne swam across the Pacific Ocean in his 90’s.
You’re right, of course. And I don’t mind copying somebody else’s design if it’s only for my personal use, so I probably will get around to it.
I was mostly just making an observation for the benefit of the guys here who might be interested in buying one. You can still get a new one for just $225, which isn’t an outrageous sum for one of those Lifetime Pedals. And hopefully the waiting list isn’t as long as the one for the Ethos overdrive I tried to buy a few years back.
Huh, wow, I never heard one before, that I knew of. Kinda reminds me of my old Big Muff Pi, which you could dial up for Out Of Control, walk away for lunch, and it’d still be soloing when you got back, in a way that’d set your Grandma’s blue wig on fire.
Ohhhh, I do not relish replacing speakers, but I know this thing puts out noises that will rumble below 30Hz. It’s cooked speakers before, but then again, I was an idiot in my youth. ( Watts rating, what’s that?..that sounded really good…until it didn’t.)
Plus, the fiberglass insulation on the inside of a lot of sealed speaker cabs bugs the hell out of me. I hate touching that stuff. I hope the modern speakers I have can take it. I’m knowingly going over the watts rating of my 15" cab by 60% already, but the master never gets above 2. That said, there seems to be nice 15"s out there that will only be over rated by %25 or so by Tone Tubby. If I happen to slaughter that poor lamb, then I won’t have much choice than to get something that can dissipate more heat.
Thank you for the Beefheart list. I’ve read it before, but it never really hurts to read it again. If humanity ever artistically catches up with him, we might understand him fully. As it is, I love him, and his work makes me feel like I’m taking a nap on the most comfortable couch of itchy weeds, ever. He always provides good advice.
Hmm, whether an item is special-use or not seems like a matter of perspective and purpose to me. I used the Super Fuzz as my only distortion in a band for half a decade, in a band that used distortion on every song. Other people, such as William Reid made a career out of never switching it off, and messing with the knobs. I’ve never used an acoustic guitar with a band, ever. Other people make careers of only acoustics.
Yes, it is a MPG issue. I kind of think of there being three types of guitar, due to my model of an electric guitar as an “instrument” being the strings influencing the circuit from the pickups to the first preamp that the signal hits. Everything else after that seems to be in the realm of “effects”, and is out of a direct relationship to your hands. A fuzz circuit is different from an overdrive. They both contain preamps, but vastly different sounds to someone who thinks about their distortion, as you obviously do.
The fuzz circuits change things, and you’re not playing that sweet overdriven guitar anymore. The attack, sustain and decay of a fuzz is very weird compared to overdrive. It’s not smooth. The Super Fuzz effectively generates a sub-millisecond of silence on extremely heavy pick attacks. Even when you compare it to a high gain tube circuit, It’s effectively become a different category of playing guitar.
So electric (overdrive included), electric fuzz, and acoustic are the three main monoguitaric religions, in my world. As you’ve described elegantly, there are several flavors within each electric guitar design. I’d kind of think of it as of like how protestantism has Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans and Episcopalians, and Monotheism has it’s three branches. You look like you’re doing something relatively similar to the outsider, but you know there’s something almost wrong with the other folks you’re grouped with. Not enough to necessarily create a schism, but you think they’re not quite right. Most people actually stand somewhere on the border (or between several) of them, but when you fully cross into their world, the rules have subtly changed.
Ok, fine. You have to prepare a little before you embark on your journey.
Absolutely true. I do wonder how long it’ll take one of the larger mfrs of pedals to figure out how to package it in a $150 pedal, though. The Super Fuzz/Shin-ei circuit clones can be had for a song, there’s no reason to search for an actual one.
I don’t really think that I have a problem with mfrs making clones of non-patentable circuits. A great deal of our best amps were copies of the Fender Bassman, substituting local components. The Blackstone itself is a modification of the EHX pedal’s circuit, anyway. Clone that puppy and sell it online for the price of parts if you don’t like it. If you do like it. set up a cottage industry.
I didn’t know half of the people in my record collection that used this pedal until mine stopped working, and I’d played through it for at least 18 years before I started to look for replacements. To be honest, I didn’t know William Reid used a copy of the circuit until recently, and I’ve wanted to make love to Psychocandy almost as long as I’ve had perverted guitar/sexual feelings about Poison Ivy.
And oooh, the Big Muff. I own a NYC reissue, and used with my bass on the last record. An online review of it stated something along the lines of: Volume? Yes, you want more volume, turn that up all the way. Tone? Who doesn’t want more tone? Turn it up all the way. Sustain? Yes, turn it up all the way, you want more sustain. I actually scoffed at that review a little, because the pedal can do more than that.
When the engineer and producer asked me to play the distortion* sound to get a level and work out “the sound”, they both walked out to adjust the pedal. In the end, all three knobs were at 100%. They thought it just sounded better that way, and I really couldn’t argue.
The Big Muff is the other half of SuperFuzz/BigMuff by Mudhoney, I actually wasn’t aware of that record when I got the Super Fuzz, but it was released about six weeks before I got it. When I did become aware of it, I thought: Yeah, that’s how heavy rock records should sound.
*Actually, they asked if I was going to play with the distortion on every track, and I replied, “I haven’t turned the distortion on yet. That’s just the amp overdriving”. Amps have gain settings between 0-9, but I don’t usually see the purpose in that.
Yes, you are pointing out a key difference: some effects require that you play the effect more than you are playing the guitar or the amp.
Acoustics, or electrics with very clean settings: play the guitar
Electrics with a love of gain, overdrive, perhaps a bit into distortion: play the guitar and the amp. More so with a tube amp. Up to Eddie Van Halen or so, it was still basically a micro jabbed into a plank of wood and run through overdriven tubes. A dirtbox just goosed that along.
Electrics with metal-level distortion, or effects that take over the tone - you play the effect (with metal you are playing the distortion and the effect of the guitar on tone is really reduced).
I am a mic-in-a-plank kinda guy. I love someone who can play the pedal, but I am not that guy. As you say, it really depends on the person - if you can own that tone, and you can get a lot of use from that pedal, that’s a very cool thing. All that matters.
Hi, everyone - long time, no see! I have a question for y’all about amps; some quick background, though…
70% of what I play is on a classical guitar, with about 25% on a steel-string acoustic, and maybe 5% on an electric. Those numbers may be about to change around a lot, but for the moment, that’s where we’re at. My current amp is a Crate Taxi 15, which I bought 12 years ago when I was a subway musician on the side. It has worked out okay, though it has always been noisy. I need to take it in and see if it can be repaired - either the battery has packed it in (distinctly possible after ~12 years), or it is suffering from being dropped when the strap on its case broke. At any rate, it may be time to replace it.
My number one concern for a (potential) new amp is noise. I don’t want any hum, buzz, 60-cycle signal, (whatever you want to call it) coming from the amp. If I’m not playing a note, I want to hear absolute silence; if I’m playing in the softest register possible, I want to hear nothing but the notes I’m playing. I also want the tone to come from my hands and the guitar, with the amp faithfully reproducing the tone of the instrument without adding any colour on its own. Even for the electric, if I want effects, I have a pedal board for that.
So, my teacher has a lovely amp that astonished me - everything I’ve played through has some kind of buzz or hum to it; this thing didn’t! It was incredibly quiet - the Traynor Acoustic Master Studio. I’ve used Traynor amps before, mostly keyboard based amps (which have seemed better in terms of ‘neutrality’) like the K2or the K4. Both have been good, but noisy.
And finally, here is my question (and please don’t make fun of me for it!) - my big concern about the Traynor Acoustic Master is what will happen to its tone quality over time if I play electric through it? Is an amp like a stereo, which is geared toward high fidelity reproduction of sound regardless of what music you play through it? Or is it more like an instrument, where the wood will change based on what you play? I particularly worry about the fact that I wouldn’t be using it exclusively for the clean sound that it was designed for in the first place - would playing the Tele with a distortion patch cause the sound to become distorted over time?
Hey Le Ministre! Nice to see you back for a check-in. Hope your musical life is well! I am checking in for an SDMB run on this fine Thursday morning
That’s a thread on the Acoustic Guitar Forum about acoustic players using their acoustic-specific amp for electric. Doesn’t seem to be a problem. The amp isn’t designed to add the color/overdrive that you might look for in an electric amp, but you can add that with an effects box as needed.
I don’t know that Traynor model, nor acoustic amps in general, but if you love how it sounds for your main use, it should be fine for occasional electric use.
Amps are not going to change based on what music you play through it unless you over-do it and damage the amp or its speaker. If the sound of your amp changes, take it to a repairman.
