Guitarists of Singletrack…

Does anyone here have any experience of the little “stero condenser mic” type devices you can get for field recording (e.g Tascam DR-05x)?

I want something to record with at band rehearsal to help with listening back to figure out arrangements, etc. To date we’ve recorded to a phone which is just about useful, but tends to be limited by the “omg we’re recording” effect in addition to the microphone being less than ideal for capturing a live band.

I like the idea of something set-and-forget with better microphones. I’m thinking we could just record the whole 3 hours or whatever and just edit our the “best” bits for later reference.

Anyone done something similar?

Very nice, @metalheart!@tomparkin Re; recording your band with something simple, I’ve got a Zoom H2N, which I also use for interviews etc. It’s super simple to use and the sound quality is excellent, with a handy record level dial and digi VU meters. They still seem to be about £200 each, which’ll be more than you’re keen to spend, but they come up secondhand. There’s a very simple ‘Press one button and you’re recording’ button, and it’ll do stereo. Batteries last months and you can get hours on the SD card.

Can’t see the H2N on the website, but the cheaper H1N is shown next to a drum kit. :-)https://www.zoom-europe.com/en/handy-recorders/zoom-h1n-vp-uk-version-uk-version

@chipps — thanks, that’s the kind of insight I was hoping for!

I’ve been looking on eBay: it seems you can get the simpler models for around £50 for a beat up one.

As ever, with a bit of reading around you can convince yourself that you ideally “need” something like the Zoom H6n which has the stereo condenser pair in addition to four XLR inputs 😮

I might just take a punt on a cheapo/simple device and see how it goes on. It has to be better than a smartphone!

I use a Zoom H4N to record my acoustic guitar. Easy to use and the quality is good. Look to be reasonably priced used.

Talking of gold tops… How about this one?

https://www.instagram.com/p/CyFxP03uYm1/

I’ve developed an inkling to add a nylon string guitar to my collection.

Most weeks I pop down to a local pub where a group of us sit round a table take it in turns to play and sing, and there’s a bit of joining in goes on. Half a dozen acoustics all going chunga-chunga can get a bit much and I want a bit of variety. Mostly I play finger-style (pads of fingers mainly) and I’m torn between a little steel string parlour style and a nylon guitar.
I’ve never tried one though. Is the flat fingerboard a pain for chording? But I’ve heard of crossover/fusion types with a narrower neck and a radius. maybe that’s the way forward.

@BigJohn I’ve a couple of Yamaha nylons; a NTX (which is aimed at steel/electric players) and a sNCX (which is your classic classical type).

Funnily enough the NTX is comfortable, ‘familiar’ and is basically a nylon string that plays very much like you’re used to. Think it has a 48mm fret width I think? Definitely an easier option for trying out/transitioning on.

The NCX is wider (52mm?) and flatter and does feels different (but you can still fret ‘normally’, I can’t do the Hendrix style thumb fretting due to an old finger dislocation injury so can’t say how that compares). I was trying to learn Flamenco, thats’ why ‘ve both…🙃

I like them both. If you want to just play ‘normal’ stuff… but on an acoustic, the NTX ‘fusion’ style definitely would work for you. If you want to be play classical (or flamenco) then the NCX style is probably more appropriate. If you’ve seen proper classical players on YouTube, etc., they manage fine… The Yamaha website has some videos that run through both styles, might be worth a watch?

https://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/musical_instruments/guitars_basses/cl_guitars/nx_2020/index.html

To me its kind of similar to the difference between a Fender and a Gibson…

Time to make a trip to Birmingham and pop into a couple of the larger stores there to try some out then.

Yeah you’ll just have to try some out.. the necks are generally (or at least feel) a lot wider at the nut, but the strings are easier on the fingers, so it’s difficult to quantify.

Maybe one with nylon thicker strings D,A,E and steel thinner E,B,G strings?

Its worth considering if it’s fully nylon strung you may not be able to put all steel strings on it, unless they are super light guage due to the string tension, you may end up warping the neck etc.

You can certainly get some beautiful sounds out of nylon strings though…

Either way, if you do get one, as is the law, it must have a slotted headstock 😀

Ha! Yes, my repertoire includes a few Willie numbers, Always on my Mind (yes I know he didn’t write it, but my interpretation is more his than Elvis or PSB) goes down well.
And even with steel 12 fret models, I’m strangely drawn to the slotted headstock. I wanted to put on on the blue Tele in the picture that I made from scratch but the luthier I had the 1 to 1 guidance from wouldn’t entertain that nonsense.

Oh yeah… it’s new guitar week here!

Yeah I’ve always kinda lusted after a 12 fret slot head type thing with steel and nylon strings.

Oh yeah… it’s new guitar week here!

I don’t know whether I love it or hate it!…. It’s a guitar all right! 😀

I don’t know whether I love it or hate it!…. It’s a guitar all right! 😀

Well, I figured I have, or have had, nearly every sort of guitar over the years, so why not go a bit weird? I mostly justified it for its size, as it’s compact enough to play in my office chair (with armrests) while noodling along to Youtube jam tracks…

Any resonator players on here? I have a new set of Micheal Messer Newton phosphor bronze strings .013-.056. If anyone wants them message me your address and I’ll post them to you.

Very pretty Chipps.

Does it have the trapezoid neck carve or is it conventional?

Old Guitar Day!

I dragged my first electric out of the loft and re strung it.

A Jedson bought from a gift shop in Blackpool from summer job earnings working at the Pleasure Beach in 1972.

I remember it was hung on the wall behind the counter and going in to look at it on my lunch breaks working out how long it would be until I could afford it. I think it was £27!

It still works and plays surprisingly well but the switches are a bit hit and miss, which pretty much matches my playing style.

It does bring home though how much better I perhaps could be playing now if I’d practiced consistently over those years rather than intermittent aimless noodling 🤔

Nice bit of relicing there!

Andertons will probably buy the rights to the name and reissue them like they did with Burns.

Nice guitar!

My mate persuaded me not to sell my first bass when I got fed up of its quirks.

1978 music master short scale bass. My bass teacher looked at it’s totally gouged frets, massively reliced finish and said with a strained voice, “that’s lovely” lies!

Looks like this with a black pickguard and a home made respray by me that is fine at a meter, but imperfect closer up

https://thebassgallery.com/cdn/shop/products/BB3EE012-98E9-4A15-99CB-E91FB0C358B8_1600x.jpg?v=1648735410

Its sounds ace ( with super fat strings) and is surprisingly light weight for a bass.

Picked up a guitar for the first time in a few months. Really need to start playing regularly again, my fingertips hurt now!

That picking sounds nice and fluid Simon!

I always found that song tricky to keep dialled in terms of timing when shifting the chord shapes around, it’s too easy to trip over the strings.

Cheers Tom. Wanted something to make me work. I should probably try and learn the other 3 chord changes but might take a while as I have to concentrate super hard on the picking!

Does it have the trapezoid neck carve or is it conventional?

It has the weirdy trapezoid neck. It’s less obvious than I thought it might be when playing, and for soloing, my thumb completely ignores the ‘correct’ place on the back of the neck and goes thumb-over just like my other guitars. For barre chords, I’m thumb-behind, though.

The best bit about it is that it’s sooo light! And tiny.

Just like to say that the PRS Singlecut McCarty (from previous page) played straight through my re-issue Vibró Champ is currently hitting the spot nicely. Only slightly spoiled by the fact that guitarguitar are currently flogging it for only £799 in their autumn sale… Still think it was worth the £949 I paid for mine…

Also; I bought my first proper pedal: a Fender Shields Blender – which is mental. It will take a while to work out how it works (4 foot buttons, 8 knobs and a couple of other localised push buttons). Yes. It has a manual, but ****, its mental 🙃

Here is a taster:

Thanks to the fabulous Mr RustySpanners my daughter has a rather nice Bullet Mustang.

My son has a Washburn Win14 which barely saw the light of day until the Mustang arrived, but it has now made a reappearance. He plays his acoustic a lot and is Grade 4 or 5, so he’s quite good.

We have two amps in the house. One is a Marshall MG50FX which I am 100% sure could do structural damage and the other is something crap bought from a charity shop in a moment of desperation as the Marshall was doing structural damage.

So, in a roundabout way, what amps should I be looking at that won’t break the bank, or any windows?

Budget is a constraint because, if current levels of enthusiasm continue, I may need two of them.

Very nice guitar there.
As to the amp I got lucky and bought a Yamaha THR10ii not knowing how good they are. Sadly pricey.
I played one of these during the week at a mate’s place and he’d just bought it for his son, Sounded good enough to me. 
BLACKSTAR ID:CORE V3 20W 2X5″ STEREO. Even had headphones out.
https://www.andertons.co.uk/blackstar-id-core-v3-20w-stereo-digital-amp-combo

I have a couple of vox 50 watt amps.

Fine for gigs, both have headphone outs and they have an attenuator at the back. This lets me play at reasonable volumes while they sound excellent.

One of these that I probably should sell- if you are near Nottingham
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175956839525?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=mzpeiaowsfo&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=a9M6NJdMTVq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

And one of these that sounds almost exactly the same, with a line in and less effects.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266334927481?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=4XTWMoQWTQK&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=a9M6NJdMTVq&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Neither are particular expensive second hand. The first one I’ve had since 2009 with no problems.

The Marshall is 50W. It sounds great, but is too loud and physically too big to be moved about in the house. Was thinking of something in the 10W – 15W range that is smaller than a fridge.

Something like this, but I’ve no idea if it is any good.

https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/15W-Electric-Guitar-Amp-by-Gear4music/2K4?origin=product-ads&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpYiH5MqdggMV84tQBh0Nuw8jEAYYASABEgK7UfD_BwE

what amps should I be looking at that won’t break the bank, or any windows?

Boss katanas are great. 50w ones are plenty cheap, especially used mk1 models.

They’re capable of sounding good at almost silent volumes, and have many, many pedals built in so are capable of doing everything from quiet home practice to actual gigging use.

Needs to be physically quite small as it will live in a bedroom.

I have one of these – an Orange Crush 20 (in black).  To my ear it sounds more ‘mellow’ than the Blackstar (my daughter used to have one). Has Aux in and headphone jack and looks quite good. Very compact and nicely made.

I think it was just over £100

Crush 20

I have one of these – an Orange Crush 20

I was going to recommend the Orange Crush 20RT – which is like the above but with reverb and a (not great) tuner.

I play my Squier CV Tele through it, always on the dirty channel, gain turned up enough just to break up a bit, some reverb and no pedals, and I think it sounds great for both kinds of music (country and western).

Looks good in orange too. £136 at PMT.

Big fan of the Orange Crush combos.
I had the 35RT before trading it in for a Rocker 15.
The basic tone is soooo nice, the 35 is fine at small gig/practice volumes too…..

eddiebaby
Free Member
Very nice guitar there.

That particular one is really nice…..smoothed, sanded and waxed neck, shorter saddle screws so they don’t touch the strings on the E,A, G and B along with some brass saddles from NorthWest Guitars.
Really enjoyed getting it to it’s full potential.

It’s a delightful instrument, so much fun to play, great distorted tone as well.

The only reason I let it go is because I fancy the new pink one with the maple neck!
Really chuffed it’s found a good home where it will be loved.

You are not wrong. She has been walking around with it since she got it.

Going to hook it up to the Marshall tonight and see what happens. Apologies in advance if you live in North Manchester.

Well, in a strange twist of fate I was at my In Law’s on the way home from work last night to not sort out their Wi-Fi connection, and mentioned to my FiL that my daughter had a new guitar and we were looking for an amp. His response was “I’ve got one that you can have. And a guitar too”.

So, in the space of 48 hours we have added a Squire Bullet Mustang and a Stratocaster to the house.

Funny how life turns out…

Suppose I’d better have a go at learning to play it!

Remember, you only need three chords to play all the blues/rock songs ever, and add a fourth chord for every song ever… 🙂

You just need another kidster to play bass, HtS, and get the mrs on drums, and you’ll be sorted 🙂

I might just take a punt on a cheapo/simple device and see how it goes on. It has to be better than a smartphone!

For those following along at home, I got a Zoom H4n Pro on ebay and it does indeed do a better job than a smartphone, highly recommended.

Taking the simplest possible setup of sticking the device in the middle of the room, and using the built-in condenser mic pair worked out pretty well. Drums and guitar are very clear. Bass is a little more varied, but vocals were more or less lost. I think we probably just need to turn the vocals up, but we could maybe DI the bass for more consistent results.

Or run the bass and vocals through the PA and put the mic a little closer to a PA speaker 🙂

That’s probably worth a shot too. I was kind of working on the basis that the little mics on the Zoom probably weren’t doing a great job with the bass frequencies, but that might not be entirely true.