Guitarists of Singletrack…

No pedals eh? Enjoy the lack of noise and tone suck. It’s all downhill from there… 😁

@SammyC – what kits are you building?

I’m quite tempted by the idea

Lockdown 3 is kicking in…

I’ve just been browsing 8 string, multi-scale/fan fret guitars.

What could possibly go wrong 😁

@markwsf currently working on a fuzz face clone from FuzzDog. I’m looking at building a Klon and an Engineer’s Thumb compressor after that.

Just looking at whether it’s better/cheaper to source my own parts and just get the PCB from FuzzDog or just get the complete kits from him.
It’s certainly cheaper, just not sure how much and you run the risk of wrong/missing parts rolling your own.

What could possibly go wrong 😁

You could get one?

You could get one?

True 😆 I’m no metaller!

Also looking at Thomann, so would be braving post-Brexit, EU order fun!

Ben at Crimson Guitars currently has two Multiscale guitars under c0nstruction at the moment.
First one is from the new kit, the second is full custom.

I’ve just been browsing 8 string, multi-scale/fan fret guitars

“Top of the budget would be £400 but something cheaper would be nice.”

If you’re heading into that realm then you’re not far from the best small bass cab you can buy, plus a little head. I may be biased of course! 😉

https://barefacedaudio.com/products/one_10

If you’re heading into that realm then you’re not far from the best small bass cab you can buy, plus a little head

Do you have any preference on bass heads? Are any of them particularly good, or crap, or is it purely personal preference?

There’s millions of the things available and it would cost a small fortune to find your favourite if you had to go through a few models.

Luckily I’m a way off needing one but I’d love a Barefaced cab eventually.

Mark Bass are very good – both bass players I was doing stuff with last year use them.

People may remember the guitar I built last year:

Here’s a couple of demos that I used it on.
We recorded them last September, with the plan of re-recording vox and other parts later on, but lockdown!
So I’ve been fiddling with them, and added a few guitar lines, and our bassist has done a few bits virtually too.

“Do you have any preference on bass heads? Are any of them particularly good, or crap, or is it purely personal preference?”

There are more good ones than bad ones nowadays (like MTBs!) But I’m good at advising for specific needs – it really depends on the player, strings, bass, cab and required loudness and tone. It’s something I’ve tried to solve with handy flow charts or questionnaires but it’s too complex, too much fuzz logic. A few questions back and forth and I don’t often get it wrong!

It’s very much like bikes to be honest – what you love and what you hate are decent guides to what you need. But without fairly solid reference points it takes a lot more narrowing down…

@ajantom Demos are sounding good mate.
Obviously the guitar sounds rubbish. Send it to me and I’ll burn it (honest) to save you the effort. 😀
I’ll have to go and dig the thread out.

@simondbarnes – Pedals went in the post yesterday. Should be with you tomorrow! 🙂

Meanwhile, I’ve made two disparate lockdown/sold my car/had saved enough for my tax bill purchases…

An (NS) electric upright bass… and a Victory Kraken mental/metal amp head… (and no, I’ve not tried one in to the other…)

Which bass @Chipps? I fancy one myself

It’s a secondhand NS WAV four string. I’d been watching it slowly come down in price on basschat.co.uk and after a year, it was close to impulse buy levels, so I did. Luckily my closest riding buddy is a double bass player and teacher, so I’m hoping to cash in those bike favours for lessons…. First off, is Lovecats by The Cure… 😊

How about Roni Size: Brown paper bag, then Portishead: Sour Times…. You probably already have a list??

I have a pedal carpet! Cheers for the loan of the pedals @chipps 🙂

I just blew my monthly toy budget on one of these.

It was this or a Fender Trapper but the Fur Coat sounds immense in all the YouTube demos. Gonna stop mincing around and learn some metal riffs.

There’s also a mini Pedaltrain for sale very close to home so I might grab that at the weekend.

Those ns basses are lovely @chipps! Upright is hard!! One good tip I saw was to clip a clip-on tuner by the fretboard so you can see when your intonation is correct!

I’ve enjoyed playing some bits and bobs this week. Have been fairly downbeat about it all of late with no idea when I’ll be gigging again etc. Even had a browse on Ebay for a Strat Plus….think I’m going to treat myself later in the year.

@simondbarnes I’ve got a hefty flightcased pedalboard going spare if you want. Not been used in a while as the flight case just takes up too much room in the car, the board itself isn’t too big though. It’s yours if you can collect from Congleton.

How big is it @Tom-B ? Congleton is just down the road although not an essential journey so would have to wait for a bit!

Put it this way, that little collection above wont really fill it 😂

I’ll measure it tomorrow and let you know. I can’t find a link online to it now….I think that it’s been discontinued.

No worries, cheers 🙂

The little ditto looper is cool and I like the chorus. Hopefully I’ll have some time at the weekend for a proper play.

my pedalboard

I give up, one day i’ll post a pic!

Here’s mine

This may be of interest to Yamaha THR owners.
A guide to the amps therein and what they are ‘based’ on.
Not seen it collated in one place before.
It explains why the Variax Acoustics sound better through flat than acoustic as it already has the mike modelling included in the modelling process.

What’s the best way of jamming with a mate, remotely? A riding buddy asked me this today; he’s in the UK (excellent broadband) and his mate is in Portugal. They’ve tried it on Zoom but the lag is making it horrible.

I’d just send files to and fro over a backing track.
I can’t get low latency round here.

I think I posted on here before, but jamtaba/ninjam can be good for online jamming. You don’t need a low latency connection as you’re essentially playing against a track that’s delayed by a number of bars. I’m not doing a good job of explaining it, but it works pretty well.

Anyone have, or have thoughts about a Fender Mustang GTX100 modelling amp?
OTS junior is looking for one for his birthday. It would be an upgrade from a Mustang GT40.

@chipps

I played double bass at school for years. Some of us had bluetac dots for fingering positions when learning.

In anticipation of the arrival of my 8 string guitar (oops!) I’m thinking some finger exercises might be in order.
My left little finger especially always seems very weak in comparison to my other fingers when playing runs and scales.
Any good links to exercises for strength and/or speed?

Stop it @ajantom. I’m bored, but I do not need an 8string guitar. (Please post pics) 😉. I know it sounds funny, but playing a bass helps with reach and finger strength. Maybe you don’t have one… Perhaps consider getting one? (See what I did there?) 😀🤙

I do have a bass (2 actually), but haven’t played it for a while, so that’s a good idea.

I’ve been watching Djent videos in preparation 😂
I might just have to start a progressive metal band.

If I need to build up hand strength I just play my 12 string acoustic. Barre chords involve a g-clamp…

In anticipation of the arrival of my 8 string guitar

How many strings before it stops being a guitar and becomes a harp? 🤪😅

I’m currently fighting GAS for a Les Paul special in TV yellow (probably started off by this thread a month or two back…) 🤷🏼‍♀️

I do have a bass (2 actually), but haven’t played it for a while, so that’s a good idea.

I’ve been watching Djent videos in preparation 😂
I might just have to start a progressive metal band.

Over the years I have played more bass than guitar as never enjoyed the higher register twiddly stuff on guitar. I have now found my perfect place with a guitar tuned to C sharp standard and playing black/death metal which is rhythmic in line with bass but on guitar and faster.
I still don’t want more than 6 strings though and was same on bass where I didn’t want more than 4 for some reason.

@ajantom, can’t find the link but a good one I tried was: Assuming your 1st finger is your strongest so skip that one. Ascend the strings, say on frets 2 & 3 using fingers 2 and 3 then descend at frets 4 & 3 with the same fingers. keep going till you get as far up the neck as you can keeping a consistent tempo. Repeat using fingers 2 & 4 at frets 2 & 4 going up and 5 & 3 going down, etc. then use fingers 3 & 4 (the real killer). I feel I’m quite strong with my pinky but this has me on my knees.

Vid
My pinky was pretty spent after a few attempts at getting this right so just using it is the best way to get it stronger though