Guitarists of Singletrack…

Mine is arriving tomorrow, allegedly

I like my high gain one so much that I was thinking of buying the AC version for cleaner sounds.

No one’s got it as cheap as the Kenny’s guitar £79 offer, but I found this deal on dv247…£150 for the amp + a 25w 8″ vox speaker cab (the cab is £70 on its own)

Might buy it for quieter home practice.

https://www.dv247.com/en_GB/GBP/VOX-MV50-AC-BC108-Set/art-GIT0040914-000?campaign=GShopping/GB&ProgramUUID=5G_AqJarZwoAAAFl0FZyjI8V&gclid=CjwKCAjw_JuGBhBkEiwA1xmbRSrWCRPanQZh3pU5I-FkZgCcpxDkoRfBDaTuFGDXsfValz-77GXCUhoCQWYQAvD_BwE

On loopers…

I got a Boss RC-10r for Christmas and it’s a hoot. It’s pretty much a looper and decent drum machine stuck together, but can set so they’re synced. I can spend hours building up layers in songs or just mucking about, pretending to be Mogwai. Would recommend.

“Using bigger speakers is fine, Kayla, as long as the impedence of the new speaker is the same or higher than the old one.”

Actually that’s only true for solidstate power amps – with valve amps (v common on guitar) the impedance needs to be within a 2:1 ratio, so an 8 ohm output will work fine with any speakers from 4 to 16 ohms.

More/bigger speakers usually equals more loudness for a given amount of power into them.

more loudness

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Actually that’s only true for solidstate power amps – with valve amps (v common on guitar) the impedance needs to be within a 2:1 ratio, so an 8 ohm output will work fine with any speakers from 4 to 16 ohms.

Experience says this may work in some cases, but not others. Similarly, it seems safer running into a higher than anticipated impedance (though it will lead to early overdrive). I’d also suggest that older amps tend to be a bit more robust all round, they generally didn’t skimp on the output transformers. Newer amps where every corner is cut to get it down to a price – well, good luck…

All that said… I ran a 70’s Fender Twin Reverb with a pair of 16 ohm Celestion G12H’s in it for several years – it came to me like that, so goodness knows how long those speakers had been fitted. 8ohm effective load vs the 4ohm the amp was expecting. Sounded ace, but it wasn’t a typical silverface Twin noise…

Yup, always set your (valve) amp to 8 ohms when using someone/venue/jamroom’s cab – you can never be sure what’s in there. Though I used to keep a multimeter in my gigbag…

Mine is arriving tomorrow, allegedly

And arrive it did!

I’m well impressed with it, although I’ve only really tried it out through headphones so far.

For me, the gain range is only just usable 🙂 — with gain at about 8’o’clock and volume at 12 I can get nice “clean” sounds by backing the guitar volume off. It is tending to expose how crackly my guitar’s volume knob has become though! The next project may be new electronics for it since the current lot are 20 years old now and were not especially flashy in the first place I imagine.

I wish it had a bit of reverb, although I can see why it doesn’t. At some point I probably will hack in an effects loop so I can add a reverb pedal.

The journey back into electric (and/or addiction) has begun!

I find that these high gain MV50s don’t work that well with rolling the volume knob back. Even with a treble bleed capacitor across the volume pot on the P90 in my Les Paul I wasn’t getting good results. That works well on almost all other amps I try.

Spotted the TC Electronic version of the eBow on sale at Gear4Music for £30: https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/TC-Electronic-AEON-Infinite-Guitar-Sustainer/2G6K

Used to use eBows a lot and can see their use in the upcoming music I’m working on. However the price of eBows (especially used) has gone through the roof!

Can’t really lose with this TC one as they are selling for £45 second hand all day long on eBay.

Don’t get it the Aeon. I had one and it was pants compared with the Heet eBow. You will regret it.

I took the plunge and ordered a Digitech Trio Plus and it should be arriving today- noodles ahoy! 🤘

Well, it’s ordered – if it’s rubbish I can punt it and probably make a tenner!

Just arrived 65 amps Tupelo combo

Pretty awesome and rounds out my collection of Lil Elvis and Ventura

I wonder if you can help me. I have just started learning the guitar and have an Eastman acoustic guitar which I bought following recommendations and happy with it. Its coming up to a significant birthday and my parents are wanting to buy me something so I was thinking of getting an electric guitar and amp. Problem is I am very naive in electric guitars and what to buy. I would ideally wait a year or so and then buy an electric when I know but my parents are wanting to buy it now, so I am wanting some help. Not sure going into a shop and trying a lot will really help to be honest and the embarrassment of not being able to play anything but a few open chords. Musically I like playing anything, from the Beatles, oasis, the killers to pop songs etc. Having looked on youtube, potentially a telecaster seems a good option in terms of simplicity and versatile for a wide range of tones. Or would a strat or les paul be better. Any thoughts and recommendations would be very much appreciated. I would probably try and keep learning on the acoustic and the electric may sit there not being used for a few more months. Thanks for any help, I appreciate I am in a fortunate position.

When my son was learning I bought him a Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster as his first electric guitar for the reasons you state. There’s a good music shop locally, they tolerated him and his band mates trying just about everything in the shop. You don’t sound keen on doing that but guitars are tactile things and trying means you’ll buy one that feels and sounds right to you.

Coming from an acoustic a Telecaster or Strat is an easy transition but there are still choices to be made – maple or rosewood neck, which neck shape, single coil or humbucker pickups. Some things just feel instantly right and others don’t. Les Pauls are really popular so there must be something to like about them but I don’t. I don’t like the neck shape, I don’t like the way they hang and the weight, I don’t like the domed body – you might love all those things.

Arghhhh! Saturday chores nearly done, just starting to oil a set of teak chairs and I knock a bag of shopping over, hear a hissing sound and pick up a ruptured tinny. Sadly by the jagged torn edge. Goodbye to any guitar playing later…
It was Tesco ginger beer for the full rock’n’roll lifestyle details.

Oh, and what I was going to be playing along to was going to be some of the tracks from this guy on ouTube.
A reasonable range of styles on there so you don’t getbored/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqAZJmEC2-C9roOB4vgzROA

I DON’T need one of these, right?

https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/epiphone-jared-james-nichols-gold-glory-les-paul-custom

Keep seeing them, and the gold one loses the silly ‘Blues Power’ plaque of the black one. Never had a gold guitar either 🙂
MInd you, for the cash, you can get a secondhand USA Gibson ‘CM’ – which is a single humbucker jobber…

Anyway, that was today’s distraction for me. Back to work!

Well if you like a P90 in a well-made Les Paul you DO NEED it. That Epi and their all solid wood J45 are the two most appealing guitars to come out this year IMO.

How are the bassists getting on?

Things I’ve learned over the past couple of weeks:
1. I much prefer my MIM jazz bass to my swanky US P Bass – it may be getting sold.
2. An Aguilar AG500 amp head driven through a TC Electronics 4 x 10 cab makes a glorious sound, but is too ridiculously loud even for me.
3. The Trinity Rock & College (Grade 3) version of Come Together is almost nailed including the alternating staccato and legato notes and the funky slides.
4. I need another Yamaha bass in my life – possibly a TRBX 604.
5. There’s a new edition of Anderton’s All about the bass 🙂

Anyone go any opinions about the HX Stomp? I’ve been offered a mint S/H example with the latest software for under £300. I liked the Helix I tried a couple of years back and this has all the same modules/blocks available even if it is only 8 at a time…
Would be great into the Mac.

I’ve been using HX stomp and Helix floor since they came out – for what they are with the latest software (software is free of course) pretty incredible

I’ve used the stomp as the only pedal into a FRFR speaker for gigging – on synths and now part of my pedalboard

All around useful, sometimes wish I has 2

as for 8 effects at one time – thats a maximum – there are some new effects that you can only fit one before maxing out the DSP

Good to know. I am only planning to use it in the house into the Mac at the moment. But I do have a Flashback 2 and a Hall of Fame 2 to take a bit of stress of the Stomp processing via the loop.

1. I much prefer my MIM jazz bass to my swanky US P Bass – it may be getting sold.

I love my Mexican Vintera J bass but I don’t have much to compare it to.

What’s wrong with the US model compared to the MIM?

I would like a P bass to play with but it’ll probably be a Squier 70’s style.

@jlc

embarrassment of not being able to play anything but a few open chords

Doesn’t matter, everybody starts at the beginning and when I bought my first guitar in 1990-something from Sound Control in Newcastle (90s Korean Squier Strat, sold and now regretted, obvs) I could barely fret a chord (some might argue that’s still the case 🤣 ) and was as nervous as hell going in on my own to buy it!

For what it’s worth I don’t think I’d have stuck with the guitar if I’d learned on an acoustic so good skills and humongous admiration for sticking with it 😎

edit – whatever you end up getting it’s worth having it set up by someone who knows vaguely what they’re doing cos it makes a world of difference to how much you’ll enjoy playing it. Also a decent (doesn’t have to be massively loud or monumentally expensive) amp helps loads with motivation to play more.

What’s wrong with the US model compared to the MIM?

Nothing really wrong with it. The fretboard on the Jazz is rounder, the neck is more tapered, typical of a Jazz compared to the chunkier P, and the Jazz has more tone options due to the 2 pickups.
The P also seems to be more sensitive to changes in atmospheric conditions, going in and out of tune and having to tweak the saddle heights to avoid fret buzz as the temp goes up and down. It is a lovely thing though.

Just bought another Yamaha (TRBX604) to satisfy my active pickup itch, without having to go down the Stingray route 😱

oldtennisshoes

How are the bassists getting on?

Well, a week gone saturday we had our first gig in eighteen months, on the specially built for covid outdoor stage at Tan Hill. It was good to get out playing again at last. We haden’t even practised in all that time apart from the week before the gig where we went through the sets once and it all seemed to fall together nicely. A few bumb notes on the night from me, especially at the start of the second set after it had got dark and a spot light was shining straight in my eyes. I’m not talented enough to change position up the neck without being able to see where I’m going. After the second or third song I had to take a bit of time to get the light shifted before carrying on.

Generally good fun but a strange one with covid restrictions. We generaly have a fairly boisterous crowd and a few of our regulars came up on a bus and managed to make them selves unpopular with the staff for trying to dance/jump around. Made worse the next day by the venue complaining on social media that their staff had been abused by some of our crowd and apeared to be blaming us for bringing them. From what I could see, most of the abuse seemed to be coming from the staff.

How are the bassists getting on?

Late and slightly out of tune?

Late and slightly out of tune?

Always 🤣

Late and slightly out of tune?

Baa-tish dum?

Spotlight? Just wait until the guy on the lighting desk decides to play with his strobe. Completely disorientating. Went for a 7th fret Bminor and missed by a semitone….sounded lovely…

Just bought another Yamaha (TRBX604) to satisfy my active pickup itch, without having to go down the Stingray route 😱

Yamaha make some great basses. I recently picked up a used BB735, my first 5 string and it sounds and plays better than my US Pbass. Not sure about the 5 string thing, so thinking of getting the BB734 too. They do both active and passive and the tone is a bit meatier than the TRBX series from the clips I heard on YouTube.

PlaN change. I’m getting a fill blown helix. I needed a few bits to go with the Stomp and wanted a Variax in so it just made sense to go down that route.

Now I’ve changed the saddles on all my acoustics to steel G-string compatible I’m experimenting with different string gauges. I use 14 or 15 on my electrics but that doesn’t work when strumming hard enough to make volume. 16 is nearly there and 17 the heaviest I can still bend three frets. Now I’m wondering why acoustics normally have wound G-strings that are really hard to bend and go out of tune or snap if you succeed.

Had a play with the TC Aeon eBow.
I quite like it. The field isn’t as strong as the eBow’s so it takes a little more time to get the string vibrating at the right amplitude, but it’s quite controllable when you’ve got it.
Though I think I just need to update my technique a little and get right in there with it!

Been working on my mini-rig:

It’s almost everything I need, and is easy to carry. Band practice on Monday evening so will see how it handles it.

I normally use a TC Nova system for all the modulation/delay FX loop style effects.
However, have got a £17 Behringer analogue delay pedal getting delivered today which I’ll put on the board. Turns out delay is pretty much the only time based/modulation effect I use a lot.

I’m getting a fill blown helix.

Thats a smart decision

My mid year “summer” resolution this year is to spend more time playing, and doing justice to my Taylor 400 series:

I’ve owned it, nearly 4 years now (i think) and it’s got even better sounding than when it was new, with a slightly fuller note, and i still absolutely love the quality of the laquer on it. Compared to the mexican Taylors, which are great guitars, the workmanship and build quality of this US model is really noticably better, particularly the laquer and fret board

Without a doubt, i am, by far, the weakest link, lol……

That Taylor is beautiful!

I’ve been having Saturday evening lessons with Angela Petrilli on YouTube ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo4y0xwkXDL2ZgZbGoIHG0g ). I think they’re great and I feel that I’m learning lots.
This evening’s lesson was Thank You, Led Zep. This is my attempt straight after the lesson, just need lots of practice now 🙂

I will not click the Youtube. I will not click the Youtube. I will not click the Youtube. I will not click the Youtube… . I already play two Zep songs I can’t sing, if I click your Youtube it risks becoming three, Simon. 😉

I bet you’re trying to learn it now 🙂

Had a play with the TC Aeon eBow.
I quite like it.

Glad you like it. I found the string skipping and the volume swells less usable than the eBow, but I was probably too used to that.