Jump to content
Please subscribe to MPN’s YouTube Channel!

Dannyalcatraz

Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    7,058

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Dannyalcatraz

    Strat Pick-up Ideas

    in Guitar Forum

    Posted

    9 hours ago, KuruPrionz said:

    P-90's have a large coil surface area and have more hum than most pickups.

    I am phobic to hum myself, don't want it ever if possible.

    FWIW, if you like the sound but fear the hum, RailHammer (and probably others besides) make noiseless P90s.  (All of theirs are HB-sized, though.

    • Like 3

    Strat Pick-up Ideas

    in Guitar Forum

    Posted

    5 hours ago, Old Music Guy said:

     

    @CEB I went shopping with a buddy of mine who is jonesing for a Reverend. He grabbed one with 2 P90s and plugged it into the newest million dollar MESA with modeling. *mic drop* ridic...

    Anyway, thanks to all again. I really appreciate the input. It ain't making my selection any easier, but it does open another world of possibilities

    FWIW, I may be the resident Reverend guy.  I own 5 (L-R): a Rick Vito signature (hardtail), an original Roundhouse, a Manta Ray 390 LE, a Flatroc 15th Anniversary LE, and a Sensei RA.  The Vito & Manta both have P90s.

     

    mJtNhfI.jpeg

     

     

    So I understand your comment about the P90s.  The ones in the Vito and the Manta spoiled me for most others.  When I subsequently bought a Fret King Esprit, I wound up replacing its stock Wilkinson 90s (which sounded good) with Bareknuckle Stockholms because I wanted a sound more like I was used to.  Reverend’s owner, Joe Naylor,  knows how to make good pickups.*  And his P90s are one of the things I look for on Reverend models.

     

     

    * check out his other company, RailHammer 

    • Like 4

    Strat Pick-up Ideas

    in Guitar Forum

    Posted

    I’m going state an opinion: it seems to me that a lot of Strat players buy gear aiming for a tone that seems to be more in the wheelhouse of P90s*.

     

    With a swimming-pool route and a $250 budget, you could get a pair of P90s, a HB & P90 or something similar.  
     

    Here’s a video of a guy demoing his Vintage Vibe HB-sized P90s:

    Personally, I’ve become a huge fan of the bridge HB paired with a neck P90, and it’s a configuration that’s popping up in the lines of several guitar companies: Reverend, Yamaha, G&L, Huber, and so on.  Godin has a few with paired Seymour Duncan P-Rails, which deliver HB, P90, and singlecoil tones with the flip of a switch.

     

    If it weren’t for your guitar’s FR, I’d even recommend a pair of those SD P-Rails, but you might not have the space for the wiring- I don’t know.🤷🏾‍♂️
     

     

     

     

     

    * which are available from a variety of makers in sizes ranging from standard to HB to singlecoil to whatever.

    • Like 3

    What's in your ears?

    in Guitar Forum

    Posted

    I seem to have forgotten about posting this:


    I’m digging this.  Seriously digging this.

     

    Here’s the thing…

     

    I’ve been SERIOUSLY into New Wave and Alternative music since 1979 or so.  I have definitely heard of Paramore.  So it surprises me that in all that time, I’ve MAYBE heard one other song from Paramore before this newest album…and I didn’t realize it was a Paramore song.  They’ve been in the biz close to 20 years.  How did I miss them?

    • Like 3
    • Love 1

    Name my band!

    in Low Down Lowdown

    Posted

    ACEITIKADETULCHA

     

    (for context, see below)

     


    God bless these kids.  They’re trying to perform Rage Against the Machine’s “ Killing in the name of”, and English is NOT their native language.  And they clearly didn’t have access to the actual lyrics.  
     

    Because “ACEITIKADETULCHA“ is their interpretation of “And you do what they tell ya.”

    • Like 1

    You never stop learning new things on the guitar

    in Guitar Forum

    Posted

    There is a certain joy that you experience when you try/stumble upon an unusual chord voicing or move a finger (or two) just a smidge away from a chord’s standard position and you find it changes the feel of what you’re playing.

     

    One way to enjoy that feeling more often is learning to play a song in a tuning different from the one it was written in.  I learned to play certain classic rock songs in E Standard, but one day, I started trying to figure them out in New Standard Tuning- so far, the only other tuning I use regularly.

     

    In doing so, I found that I often couldn’t use a similar chord voicing as in the originals: I couldn’t reach the notes; too many intervening strings to mute, etc.  So I’d have to invert or even scramble chords, play them at higher or lower pitches, and so forth.  Even staying as close as I could to the original songs, the songs clearly changed.

    • Like 1

    What's in your ears?

    in Guitar Forum

    Posted

    I didn’t get to know Hedges’ work until his final album, Torched.  But I’ve been working my way backwards through his catalog ever since.

     


     

    You know someone’s a badass guitar player if Andy McKee covers their stuff:

     

     

    • Like 3
    • Love 1

    Tonight’s dinner was shrimp over cavitappi with a modified creamy scampi sauce.

    in Now We’re Cooking…

    Posted


    9lEMXHe.jpeg

     

    I sautéed a large yellow onion, one bunch of green onion, a head of garlic (minced) in butter and EVOO.  The rest of the sauce was a mix of chardonnay, lemon juice, clam juice, a little of the pasta water and shredded parrano cheese. 
     

    Seasonings were salt, white pepper, parsley and chive.

     

    The pasta was folded into the sauce while it was boiling.  The last step: the raw, peeled shrimp were tossed in the pot with everything else & mixed in thoroughly. The pot was turned off and covered; the shrimp poached in that heat.

     

    Results were very good, but there was still room for improvement.  I used parrano out of necessity- a good parmesan replacing 50-100% if it would have been better.  The dish could have supported more garlic, and I’m leaning towards at least SOME of it being roasted whole cloves the next time.   Mom- not usually a fan of mushrooms- also agreed that some slivered, sautéed white or portobellos would also make a good addition.  Finally, adding some lightly sautéed or roasted broccoli florets would have been a nice addition for flavor, color, texture, nutrition…and sauce absorption.

    • Like 2

    Off-topic PSA: Dying intestate is a P.I.T.A.- take care of your “final arrangements”.

    in Guitar Forum

    Posted

    While we’re talking about this stuff, there’s another estate planning tool I am a big fan of that people should know about.  When I was starting out, they were called Health Education and Welfare (HEW) Trusts, but they’re more commonly known under a different name these days- HEMS Trusts.  HEMS = Health, Education, Maintenance & Support.  Their design purpose is simple: a HEW/HEMS trust’s assets can only be disbursed to pay for a beneficiary’s needs in one of the categories covered.  Any other expense making a claim against the trust assets- a loss in a lawsuit, an investment scam or even a wild shopping spree- will be denied.

     

    Here’s an excerpt from a little guide I found.

    Quote

     


    Examples of HEMS 

    Health, Education, Maintenance and Support are rather broad categories, but what do they include, exactly? The exact items included can vary by state, but here are examples of HEMS that are commonly included.

    Examples of Health 

    Some basic examples in the Health category include:

    Routine health care
    Hospital care
    Emergency medical treatment
    Psychiatric or psychological care
    Prescription drugs
    Dental
    Vision
    The following may also be considered included in this category:

    Elective procedures like LASIK or cosmetic surgery
    Alternative medicine treatments
    Gym, sports club, or spa memberships
    Health supplements
    Examples of Education 

    This category commonly includes:

    Tuition for all levels of schooling from grammar to graduate, professional, or technical school or training
    Continuing education expenses
    Expenses for school-related programs, such as Study Abroad in college
    Support during schooling years, even during summers and other breaks
    Examples of Maintenance and Support 

    “Maintenance” and “support” are one and the same. Commonly included in this category:

    Mortgage or rent payments
    Property taxes
    Premiums for health, life, and property insurance
    Travel and vacation expenses
    Charitable giving
    This category is the least clearly defined. It’s typically interpreted to include distributions that help maintain the beneficiary’s standard of living. Distributions to cover expenses that are solely for the beneficiary’s happiness rather than support do not fall under this category.

     


    Tangent:  I’ve been a proponent of including HEW/HEMS Trusts in a variety of contracts & other agreements that could result in windfalls, especially when the benefits could fall to minors.  My primary area of advocating them was in sports and entertainment contracts, where youths can often become millionaires years before the age of majority.  My pitch was along the lines of it meaning you may not have a mansion  and a supercar next year, but you and your family will ALWAYS have a house and vehicles for the rest of your lives.

     

    My secondary area of advocacy was for lottery winners.

    • Like 2

    Did a biggish rib roast & veggies for dinner the other day

    in Now We’re Cooking…

    Posted

    https://imgur.com/gallery/QtmYcqJ

     

    We’ve been enjoying it for a couple days ago.  (I reheat the meat in a pie pan in our toaster oven so it doesn’t overcook.)

     

    The big surprise of the meal, though, was the cauliflower.  Mom declared it her favorite way I’ve prepared cauliflower.   Ever.  And the main difference was how I cut it for baking.  I used slab style cuts because I wanted to make “steaks”. But the heads were too small for what I intended…but I still used that prep technique.  Those shabby cuts gave it a good surface area to coat with butter and seasoning.  And the texture was slightly crunchy around the edges, the middle remained almost creamy. 

    Off-topic PSA: Dying intestate is a P.I.T.A.- take care of your “final arrangements”.

    in Guitar Forum

    Posted

    In my life, I’ve had to deal with the estates of several people, in both a personal and professional capacity.  Of all the several passings, few of the people had a will.  And that’s a problem.

     

    Wills are not the only end-of-life document out there, nor is one the solution for all potential issues that may arise during an estate administration.  If people want to fight, they’ll fight.  But it’s a starting point; a cornerstone of even the most basic estate plan.  Everyone should have one.

     

    TO BE CLEAR: I’m an attorney in Texas, and I don’t have one.  I don’t have kids, and none of my legal heirs shares my interests- IOW, nobody really wants most of my stuff.  Texas’ intestacy laws would generally satisfy my testamentary intent.  But I’m still working on drafting one.  Why?

     

    [QUOTE]1. Depending on where you live, intestacy can actually create expenses for your estate.  In Texas (and other states), the executor of an intestate estate is legally required to prove the decedent had no unknown children, and that means hiring a private investigator.

     

    2. Wills clarify issues.  They’re no panacea- people challenge will provisions all of the time or outright ignore them- but the will has legal force behind it and is admissible in court.  Even before landing in court, knowing “Aunt Alice” wanted to donate her car to the Lighthouse for the Blind could prevent bickering over which of her nieces and nephews should have it.

     

    3. One of the first tasks in drafting wills is usually appointing an executor.  Sometimes multiple contingent or co-executors.  The executor performs several vital functions in managing the probate process.  Estates without executors raise all kinds of problems in probate, and often, the court will appoint someone.  Who this will be can become yet another source of friction between presumptive heirs.

     

    4. Even if you’re like me and you’re certain nobody wants most of your stuff, odds are good SOMEONE wants SOMETHING you own, even if it’s just a memento.  They just may not have told you.   

     

    5. Disinheriting someone is surprising popular.  A lot of people have relatives they absolutely do not want to inherit any of their stuff.  Intestacy laws don’t care.  Your Dad left your Mom and had a 2nd family with the Homewrecker Hussy?  Your half-siblings are potentially your heirs in the eyes of the law.  Got a kid who is 1 felony away from going to jail for life, but you love your nieces & nephews?  A will can cut him out of your estate while gifting something to his offspring.  Same goes for skipping a generation for inheritance tax purposes (not a common problem, but…. ).

     

    6. Leaving things to charities is something a lot of us think about, but intestacy laws don’t address that option at all.  So if you’re a charitably minded person, you absolutely should use a will to ensure your faves get taken care of.

     

    [/QUOTE]

     

    The death of someone close can be an emotional time, and can bring out the good or bad in people.  And unfortunately, the bad can be awful.  I’ve seen some cases where certain relatives looted a deceased person’s house while everyone else was at the ceremony.  I’ve seen siblings jeopardizing their inheritance by round-robin squabbles over opinions that are actually not supported by law.  

     

    Wildcard: the states involved have laws that state partial owners can force sale without the consent of other owners.  All they have to do is give the other owners their legal share of the proceeds of the sale.  Imagine an intestacy where people are fighting over a house, and one of the heirs is contemplating initiating a forced sale so they don’t have to deal with the other heirs because they’re “sick of the BS”.  I don’t have to imagine it- I’m looking at 3 of those right now in my own family.  Some of the battles have been going on for decades.

     

    Finally, another viewpoint from my old Wills & Estates professor, a spritely human being named Stanley M. Johanson.  He advocated that, while wills were good, it was better to “remember” people when you’re alive.  If/when you can, he advised, give them something you know they’d want you to leave them in your will.  That way, you get the joy of seeing their expression.  My Mom has been on both sides of that.

     

    And of course, check out the laws in your own state or country for the info that applies to your specific situation.  Ideally, with someone who deals with wills & estates regularly.

    • Like 7

    cool new effects

    in Guitar Forum

    Posted

    I just have to tangentially comment that I have I don’t know how many dozen stompboxes, and an appreciable number of them work with expression pedals.  I do not own a single expression pedal.  
     

    I’m certain that I’d have even more fun using an ExPed with many of them, but there’s a certain contrarian streak in my mind that keeps me from even SHOPPING for one.  I don’t have a clue as to who makes them- regardless of quality- or what features (if any) are key.  It’s not the only void in my gear arsenal, but it may be one of the odder ones, all things considered.

    • Like 2
    • Haha 1
×
×
  • Create New...