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My guitar teacher has told me not to use a metronome, I do trust his judgement, but realise it’s not the majority opinion.
I use mine as a training tool. If there is something I can't play I go super slow with the metronome and gradually speed it up. I'd never play with one otherwise unless I'm creating a longish loop, Id rather find a backing track or just get a Garageband loop going.
effects is all you need
Well I'm not going to disagree am I? 🙂
I've never played a gig with a PA for anything other than vocals so stereo doesn't seems to work in my head. Great for recording but personally speaking I've never heard a live band in a small pub sized venue do anything worthwhile with stereo in the backline.
Cheers for that @theotherjonv any tips for what would make a good second hand buy in the £200-£300 range ?
I don’t know if this is peak lazy or awesome.
Roadie3 guitar tuner.
Most bar/small club PAs are dual mono anyway
"Perfect tune", but that Gibson sounds out of tune after she's tuned it. I think a couple of her strings are a tad flat. And even if you don't think it's out it will be the first time she does a bend. Tune your guitar and see how it compares to hers.
I tried an SG with auto tuning, it just didn't work, you needed to finish manually with another tuner.
Fair dos, there is a ‘tune up’ mode that detunes first then tunes up.
Well I’m not going to disagree am I? 🙂
I’ve never played a gig with a PA for anything other than vocals so stereo doesn’t seems to work in my head. Great for recording but personally speaking I’ve never heard a live band in a small pub sized venue do anything worthwhile with stereo in the backline
Most bar/small club PAs are dual mono anyway
Yes understood, my point is this is not for the punters its for me. I can get glorious stereo with tiny speakers and take a feed from that to the larger FRFR that people would take for a guitar amp
Years ago I found an alex lifeson stage recording of what he heard and it was a mile away from what comes out of the PA - If we ever get to play live again it all stereo for me
@plumber The guys on That Pedal Show discuss this a lot when they are on the minutiae of guitar tone.
Will the audience hear the difference? Probably not, but Dan and Mick can and they say they play far better when inspired by great tone/sounds, and that the audience will certainly pick up on.
Yep I follow TPS of course
The majority of time I've play live I am positive that no one is listening to my 'tone' or even the fact I play solos a semitone flat quite often on purpose
I play solos a semitone flat quite often on purpose
No good tuning like Hendrix if you don’t tell the rest of the band... 🤫
I knew a live sound engineer who had a "you suck" program built into his PA.
Essentially it was a TC multi-effects unit with a semitone up pitchshifter programmed in and run on the vocal monitor bus.
So, if a band were arsey to him, he would sound check them, then activate this effects loop so the singer heard themselves in key, but the audience heard them half a tone flat...
Yep, never piss off the sound guys.
Hi electrical folks.
I have one of those 5 pin MIDI to 1/4" TRS adapters for my Iridium.
If I need to control a second or third TRS device should I be able to just make a simple box paralleling one TRS in to three outs and then just use TRS cables? 'Cos it's all digital innit?
A bit left field, but here's my son's answer to feeling a bit peckish when playing...
Love it!
Nice. If he starts playing Texas blues he change the carrot for a Jalapeño. 👍🏼
The best live performance looping video ever.
If you like the sound of Rusty’s Strat (and who wouldn’t?) the Guitar Maketplace have one in their current raffle.
https://theguitarmarketplace.com/current-competitions/
Also: Time for a proper pedalboard and PSU now I think. Things are getting silly.
https://flic.kr/p/2jCVdQq
Yes, yes it is!!! Feel free to DM/get in touch if you want any guidance....I may even have a few bits going cheap depending on what you need.

The thread on the fine adjuster for the g-string on my Fender Strat System 1 bridge has stripped.
Anyone know anyone who could fix it? Assuming it could be filled, re-drilled and tapped?
Not something I have the fine motor skills for!
Aren’t they a generic base metal? Not sure it would work. Maybe over drill it, bond in a brass tube and then drill and tap that?
Yes, yes it is!!!
Thanks Tom. I know what in Need in the way of a power supply from GigRig! Just thinking about what cheap board. I need the Looper and Plethro at the front as I’m always hitting them buttons, so it needs to be 600mm wide.
Any decent luthier should have a helicoil kit for that size thread. They must strip fairly regularly. Should be an easy fix.
I needed (ha, n+1!) a guitar for playing with my new(ish) band, but as I'm mostly playing keys I wanted something that packed down small to reduce the amount I'm lugging around.
I'm also DIing my Tech21 FlyRig pedal, so no amp 😉
After a bit of research I ended up buying an ALP AD-80. Not a brand I'd come across before, but there are some good reviews, and it's really well made.
Plays very nicely, nice neck and well balanced. Liking the SC/SC/HB pickup layout too.
Active pickups with a built-in usb rechargeable li-po battery.


I've got a gigrig distributor going spare if you want a cheap one!
Check out the pedaltrain boards....still the best all round option if you're not touring imo.
Any decent luthier should have a helicoil kit for that size thread.
D’Oh! I don’t know why I never think of helicoils.
After a bit of research I ended up buying an ALP AD-80.
Looks interesting. Still miss my Horner Steinberger clone. Was a great travel guitar.
I’ve got a gigrig distributor going spare if you want a cheap one!
Thanks Tom! I’ll be in touch when I work out what I need.
OK, I didn't realise they made helicoils so small... Always just thought of them as larger ones, for spark plugs etc
Have ordered some digital vernier calipers then will get the right helicoil for it.
I don’t know if any of you are looking at the Great Guitar Build off but there some serious toys built on there. https://www.greatguitarbuildoff.com/
All made using a Crimson Guitars kit as a starter and I have to say the the Texas Toast guitar is a beast.

More simple stuff too

Check out the website for links to the build videos.
Helicoil-ing my Strat bridge did the job nicely!
Now considering flogging it (they go for £200-£1000! on eBay) and getting a £75 Floyd off of Guitar Fetish in the states that will fit the weird post mounts. As well as some more of their HB sized P90s which are wonderful - and very cheap (£25 each)
It didn't hold its tune that well anyway.
Adding a neck pickup to my Gibson DC Junior Tribute and purchasing a new scratchplate to make my life easier. Which would you go for? Votes for boring black will be disregarded 😉

I’ve always liked the idea of abalone, and it looks like it might actually suit the blue. So that gets my vote.
Abalone 👍
I'd go for white pearl even though that doesn't appear to be one of your options 🙂
Helicoil-ing my Strat bridge did the job nicely!
Brilliant! As I said I only ever think about helicoils for car engine sized bites, good result.
If any of you want to nerd out over serious vintage Gibsons and Fenders Joe Bonamassa is your guy. Here's a video from his condo/ultimate man-cave in Nashville called Nerdville East. Do a search for Nerdville West for even more vintage goodness. This is a guy that can tell the difference between Sunburst 58 and 59 Les Paul Standards blindfolded.
If you want to feel inadequate on the guitar have a look at Nashville session guy Tom Bukovac's Home Skoolin vids he started due to lock down. Recorded on his phone in his garage. He recommends listening to music which is "harmonically nutritious" and is a big Yes and Genesis fan
Tom Bukovac is a beast, definitely one to watch and do his lessons
He recommends listening to music which is “harmonically nutritious” and is a big Yes and Genesis fan
Oh I really didn’t want to like that video ((Yes? Genesis?)?).
But I enjoyed that, guy definitely knows his shit! And, damn, I’m going to go watch some more of his videos...
You don't have to like Yes and Genesis to enjoy Tom Bukovac. He got a lot of his knowledge of unusual chords and harmony from Yes, Genesis and The Beatles which I thought was quite unusual for a guy from Cleveland who usually plays Country/Country Rawk.
Having recently un'blocked' my Floyd I found retuning could enter that stupid cylcle of "tune up one string and magically detune the rest" so I needed a quick instant block to set the trem level.
I thought about chopping a bit of wood down but good old Shimano brake bleed block save the day.
I may even consider making a small cut out in the trem cav cover so I don't have to remove it. Little things.
And I LIKE having only 2 springs. Don't judge me, I prefer it to the feel of three springs at lower tension. 🙂
Bother!!
To hot to work in the house so took the pedalboard and amp to the cool, shaded garage and found that the Ditto X4 looper is bricked. 4 LEDs on all the time. Won't even hard reset.
A quick check shows this is a known problem with the device.
Fingers crossed Andertons warranty department matches the quality of their sales team.