Welcome back, my 4, 6, 7 and 12-stringed friends! How’s it been? Oh right, cool. Funny, I didn’t get an invite to that party. Never mind, I’m sure you have a perfectly reasonable explanation/excuse. Anyway, this is my second post after finally getting a new laptop sorted, so the arid wasteland in my life that was not-having-a-laptop seems to be fertilised and flowered for the foreseeable future. Touch wood. So, onwards we go!
Ladies/gentlemen/fluids, let’s broaden our minds! Lawrence?!
DOUBLE STOPS
Expressive playing appears to be a key part of being a rock guitarist. The strength in which a player will pluck a note or the intensity, speed and frequency of their vibrato will become their personal musical signature. Heck, a good enough player can noodle around two notes for ten minutes, but still make it sound awesome. A big part of expression seems to be double stops, the use of which I believe is left up to a player’s discretion. I’ve known about double stops for years, either through tuition or just hearing stuff on records, but have always struggled to know when to use them. I’ve never been sure whether to pluck those two notes (on neighbouring strings) at the start of a phrase, the end, or somewhere in between. Well, cracking this skill is now on my to do list. I’m getting slightly better at it, but the experiments continue! How do you use double stops, dear reader?
AMP REPAIR
I finally managed to get my Ibanez TSA5TVR booked in for repair. As mentioned in previous posts, it tends to crackle and pop unpleasantly at even relatively low volume. My local music shop recommended someone as the person they go to for their own repairs, as their in-house technician only does guitars. The amp repair chap works from home, which made him tricky for me to track down. Being visually impaired, I would have obviously preferred a visible shop front on a high street in which to find, rather than a quiet semi-detached house in a leafy middle-class suburb, but thankfully my taxi driver was competent (a rarity) and found it with ease. Booking ahead with instructions seemed to help. Well, my last communique with the repair dude revealed that the problem might be with the tone control, which apparently might be overloading, or something. I don’t know, I’m not very technical. So, fingers-crossed he’ll be able to fix it and it won’t cost too much! If it’s more than the cost of the amp, I guess I’ll just have to tell him to keep it. He doesn’t have my address.
ORANGE CABINET
I’ve owned the Orange Micro Terror mini-amp head for about a year or so now. I bought it because a) it was super-cute b) I’d never owned an amp head before and c) it had a headphone jack, so I didn’t need a speaker cabinet to run it through (back then I was only playing “silent”). Well, since I’ve recently started coming out of the guitar playing closet, I decided to get a cabinet(s) for the Micro Terror and Crate PowerBlock. The Terror actually has a cab designed for it, which came up 2nd hand at my local guitar shop a few weeks ago, so it’s now in my living room sat comfortably under the Terror. Yay! It may be a bit too low powered for the PowerBlock, but my guitar-Yoda friend said that it’ll be fine, just so long as I don’t have the volume up too loud. Which I certainly won’t. The cab for the Terror is passive, so I didn’t need to sort out an extra plug socket for it. It’s also very user friendly, so just one simple lead was required (and included) to get things going. And it all sounds great! I’m so excited, as this is the first head/cab combo I’ve ever owned, or even tried. I usually use practice combos, which are sensible for “bedroom playing” (although my music nook is actually in my lounge). Since the prospects of me ever being in a band are low (apparently, you need to be good at socialising), the chance of me ever owning a proper, giant, scary head/cab stack are unlikely, so my Orange kit will do me just fine. For now.
COMPRESSOR #2 PART 2
I got round to picking up my new Electro Harmonix Soul Preacher compressor, which I wanted to use to compare with my MXR Dyna Comp and hopefully learn more about the “art” of electric guitar compression. So far, I’ve learned that this one is a lot more sensitive than the Dyna Comp, so the volume/sustain hits antisocial levels very quickly. The compression level seems a little more slack, so I’m still playing around with that. I’m still not sold on the whole compression thing, even with two pedals of varying output. I guess I’ll use them only when I’m playing a very cheap guitar with low sustain and high crapiness, which I’m guessing is why they were invented. Onwards!
SLIDE GUITAR PROGRESS
I love slide guitar. It’s just the coolest sound ever, and makes my soul weep. Well, my tutor ran me through the basics last year, and what I gleamed from him is that you really just need to play it intuitively by ear. Since then, I’ve not really followed up on it much, so last week I decided to pick it up and attempt to master it, once and for all. What I’ve learned very quickly is that I need to adapt one of my guitars especially for slide playing, as I require much, much heavier strings (almost bass guitar-heavy) and a higher action/nut height. There’s a special detachable nut you can buy to put over your guitar’s default nut, so there’s no need for me to pay for the nut to be raised at the guitar shop, but stringing heavy strings doesn’t sound fun, so I might just pay to get that and the nut done, and set aside that guitar for permanent slide use. It’ll be fine, as it’s just a cheap Vintage-brand Strat that’s kinda surplus in my collection anyway. Sounds great with the slide I’ve done so far, too!
Nut.
LEARNING SONGS
I personally come at guitar playing from a writing perspective, so my main enjoyment comes from developing chord progressions to be sung over, or jamming with myself using a looper. However, that’s all getting a little old, and I really want to start playing the odd cover. Most importantly, I want to learn the blues. You can be taught all the basic musical theory you like, but playing the blues seems to be something you need to figure out yourself, much like slide playing. Makes sense, since slide playing is often a key part of the blues genre. I prefer southern Delta and hill country blues, that often have simple, metronomic rhythms, rather than northern Chicago blues, which is when saxophones and fedoras usually get involved… *shudder*. Although I do enjoy Texas blues too, which is faster and more upbeat. What I plan to do, is just sit down in front of my laptop with a guitar and play along to a song each day until I get the essence of it. I’m going to learn by ear, rather than looking up guitar tabs on the internet, which I find very frustrating indeed. While he wasn’t technically a roots blues artist (although when he did dabble in it, it was incredible, of course), I’ve decided to begin learning-by-ear Jimi Hendrix’s debut Are You Experienced album. I’ve already cracked the basics of Foxy Lady and Manic Depression, so fingers crossed, when I come to more traditional styles, I’ll have honed my skills. Hendrix is somewhat tricky due to his unique guitar setup (that right-handed Strat slung over for his left-hand playing created sounds you can’t recreate on an un-customised instrument), so I’m just trying to get as close as possible and assume it’s the best I can do. His expressive playing I can’t reproduce, either. Few can, I guess.
Right, that’s all for now, lovers. See you at the after party!
Tuesday, 22 January 2019
Saturday, 5 January 2019
Jim's Analogue Noise Bunker - Report 6
It feels like, every time I broadcast from the Analogue
Noise Bunker, I’m making excuses as to why I haven’t done so in a while. Well,
hold on to your hats, because this time I have a doozy!
I didn’t have a computer to write on.
Ha! Take THAT!
But, yes, sadly my last laptop finally gave up the ghost and refused to ignite its operating system anymore. I nearly took it to a tech person, but reasoned that it was about five years old anyway and was very slow, so I may as well just buy a new one. Which is what I’m typing on now!
So, what’s been going on with my musical life? Not a great deal, to be honest, as being without a laptop and coincidentally experiencing a major low mood slump at the same time meant I was essentially living one day at a time. Just… surviving. The phrase “squalor” is the best way to describe my living conditions around that time. I made sure I practiced every day, though, and am very grateful to my friends for persevering with me while my behaviour became somewhat… erratic.
Anyway, misery aside, I’m back on form now and DOING STUFF! Let’s see what that is…
VERYTHIN PROBLEMS
I’ve just not been getting decent clean tones out of my Hofner Verythin semi-hollow. Every time I play it, it’s been a battle to get something crisp and punchy from it, particularly out of the neck pickup. I do prefer playing through neck pickups, so this is obviously something I had to sort out. I tried raising and lowering the pickup’s height (using the screws at each length-way side), but that didn’t seem to make much of a difference. I have been browsing for better pickups, as I’m guessing these are the stock Hofner ones and possibly low/medium quality, and was fancying investing in some retro PAF-style humbuckers. These cost a lot of money, however, so I’ve kept up with my signal chain experimentations as a backup. What seems to work best is playing through my Old Blood Noise Endeavours Fault OD pedal, both as a clean boost and an overdrive. I’ve also rolled the tone down on my MXR compressor, but upped its volume. This, combined with using the gain channel on my Blackstar amp (with the level turned up oh-so-slightly, so it acts as just a dirty clean channel), seems to now create the tones I want. Yay! This will all save me about £300+ in a posh set of new pickups and their installation.
PRS 245 SE
I’ve been on the lookout for a Les Paul-style guitar ever since starting playing again after my 2010-2013 hiatus (after having to sell all my equipment due to financial problems). The closest I’ve gotten is my Epiphone SG Custom, which is lovely, but has some fret-buzz issues that I need to have looked at. Anyway, not having the money for (or actually being prepared to pay for) a real Gibson, I’ve been checking out more modestly priced alternatives. Through my own research, I’d narrowed it down to an Ibanez 420 double-cut and a Schecter E-1. The Schecter is really an Explorer, but I’ve been told you get pretty much the same tones as you would with a Les Paul, so hey-ho. A friend, however, recommended the PRS 245, one of which recently came up for sale 2nd hand locally. It’s in a rather unpleasant platinum finish, but beggar’s can’t be choosy, as they say. I’m paying half price for this mother. Anyway, as of writing (Saturday 05 January 2019) I’ve still only put the reserve down for the PRS but, hopefully, after the weekend, I’ll find the time to pop down to the shop and try it out. I’ve never owned or even tried-out a PRS before, which makes the 245 even more tempting. Apparently, they shouldn’t sound as good as they do for the prices they ask, which is totally counter to the Gibson ethos. I shall report back!
COMPRESSOR #2
I’ve also put the reserve down for a new compressor. As mentioned in previous posts, I’m very new to the whole compression thing and still feel like I’m in the experimentation stage. Buying a second compressor to act as a comparison was something I’d casually decided to do straight after buying my MXR Dyna Comp. Since it wasn’t a priority, I’ve been happy to wait till a decent one turned up 2nd hand, so along came the Electro Harmonix Soul Preacher Compressor/Sustainer. I’ve checked some reviews and it seems like a good one. Hopefully, after comparing it to my MXR, I’ll be in a better position to understand compression and tell you whether either pedal is good or bad.
That’s all for now, rock gods!
Peace out.
I didn’t have a computer to write on.
Ha! Take THAT!
But, yes, sadly my last laptop finally gave up the ghost and refused to ignite its operating system anymore. I nearly took it to a tech person, but reasoned that it was about five years old anyway and was very slow, so I may as well just buy a new one. Which is what I’m typing on now!
So, what’s been going on with my musical life? Not a great deal, to be honest, as being without a laptop and coincidentally experiencing a major low mood slump at the same time meant I was essentially living one day at a time. Just… surviving. The phrase “squalor” is the best way to describe my living conditions around that time. I made sure I practiced every day, though, and am very grateful to my friends for persevering with me while my behaviour became somewhat… erratic.
Anyway, misery aside, I’m back on form now and DOING STUFF! Let’s see what that is…
IBANEZ TSA5TVR
I’m finally taking action on this amplifier, which I bought early last year. It’s an awesome sounding piece of kit when it works but, sadly, it has a habit of popping and crackling unpleasantly when its pushed sonically. This seems unnatural. Things improved slightly when I played directly into it from my guitar, but I do like my signal chain, and don’t believe I should have to dispense with it JUST because this amp doesn’t play nice with others. I’ve been recommended an audio servicing company locally so, fingers crosses, this month (after the Christmas madness/shutdown) I’ll haul it down and get them to take a look at it. I partially believe I am to blame for the amp’s problems, as I disconnected the speaker so I could play quietly through the headphone jack (for some bizarre reason, the headphone jack doesn’t mute the speaker), but a few hours later, my friend messaged me (having read the manual that I should have read) and told me to reconnect it straight away. I’m not one of the world’s great engineers, you may have noticed.
I’m finally taking action on this amplifier, which I bought early last year. It’s an awesome sounding piece of kit when it works but, sadly, it has a habit of popping and crackling unpleasantly when its pushed sonically. This seems unnatural. Things improved slightly when I played directly into it from my guitar, but I do like my signal chain, and don’t believe I should have to dispense with it JUST because this amp doesn’t play nice with others. I’ve been recommended an audio servicing company locally so, fingers crosses, this month (after the Christmas madness/shutdown) I’ll haul it down and get them to take a look at it. I partially believe I am to blame for the amp’s problems, as I disconnected the speaker so I could play quietly through the headphone jack (for some bizarre reason, the headphone jack doesn’t mute the speaker), but a few hours later, my friend messaged me (having read the manual that I should have read) and told me to reconnect it straight away. I’m not one of the world’s great engineers, you may have noticed.
VERYTHIN PROBLEMS
I’ve just not been getting decent clean tones out of my Hofner Verythin semi-hollow. Every time I play it, it’s been a battle to get something crisp and punchy from it, particularly out of the neck pickup. I do prefer playing through neck pickups, so this is obviously something I had to sort out. I tried raising and lowering the pickup’s height (using the screws at each length-way side), but that didn’t seem to make much of a difference. I have been browsing for better pickups, as I’m guessing these are the stock Hofner ones and possibly low/medium quality, and was fancying investing in some retro PAF-style humbuckers. These cost a lot of money, however, so I’ve kept up with my signal chain experimentations as a backup. What seems to work best is playing through my Old Blood Noise Endeavours Fault OD pedal, both as a clean boost and an overdrive. I’ve also rolled the tone down on my MXR compressor, but upped its volume. This, combined with using the gain channel on my Blackstar amp (with the level turned up oh-so-slightly, so it acts as just a dirty clean channel), seems to now create the tones I want. Yay! This will all save me about £300+ in a posh set of new pickups and their installation.
PRS 245 SE
I’ve been on the lookout for a Les Paul-style guitar ever since starting playing again after my 2010-2013 hiatus (after having to sell all my equipment due to financial problems). The closest I’ve gotten is my Epiphone SG Custom, which is lovely, but has some fret-buzz issues that I need to have looked at. Anyway, not having the money for (or actually being prepared to pay for) a real Gibson, I’ve been checking out more modestly priced alternatives. Through my own research, I’d narrowed it down to an Ibanez 420 double-cut and a Schecter E-1. The Schecter is really an Explorer, but I’ve been told you get pretty much the same tones as you would with a Les Paul, so hey-ho. A friend, however, recommended the PRS 245, one of which recently came up for sale 2nd hand locally. It’s in a rather unpleasant platinum finish, but beggar’s can’t be choosy, as they say. I’m paying half price for this mother. Anyway, as of writing (Saturday 05 January 2019) I’ve still only put the reserve down for the PRS but, hopefully, after the weekend, I’ll find the time to pop down to the shop and try it out. I’ve never owned or even tried-out a PRS before, which makes the 245 even more tempting. Apparently, they shouldn’t sound as good as they do for the prices they ask, which is totally counter to the Gibson ethos. I shall report back!
COMPRESSOR #2
I’ve also put the reserve down for a new compressor. As mentioned in previous posts, I’m very new to the whole compression thing and still feel like I’m in the experimentation stage. Buying a second compressor to act as a comparison was something I’d casually decided to do straight after buying my MXR Dyna Comp. Since it wasn’t a priority, I’ve been happy to wait till a decent one turned up 2nd hand, so along came the Electro Harmonix Soul Preacher Compressor/Sustainer. I’ve checked some reviews and it seems like a good one. Hopefully, after comparing it to my MXR, I’ll be in a better position to understand compression and tell you whether either pedal is good or bad.
That’s all for now, rock gods!
Peace out.
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