Winston Psmith

@KuruPrionz- The Factory Presets are usually nuts, designed for weekend afternoons at GC, with 5, or 10, or 15 young players all wanking away on Guitars they can't afford, at volume levels approaching the threshold of pain. Of course, that's a highly prejudiced viewpoint, but I say that as one who worked in Music Retail. Feel free to message me with any questions about Boss MFX. Like David Byrne sang, "There's Good Points, And Bad Points." I currently have four different GT-series processors, and an ME-25, and I've dug into other models in both series, so I understand them pretty well. One quick suggestion: IME, you can cut a LOT of noise out of the Factory Presets just by turning Off the Compressor, or at least dialing back the Level on the Compressor.

@KuruPrionz- Good choice. I'll be very curious to hear how you like the various onboard FX. Any thought to combining it with a Katana Amp? The ME-80 has a couple of effects the GT-1 lacks (Ring Mod, Freeze), though with the ME-series, you're unable to move effects around within the signal chain. I may be mistaken about that, but IME the ME-series MFX tended to have fixed signal chains, while the GT-series allowed you to freely move everything expect the Looper and Noise Suppressor(s). Slow Gear is counter-intuitive, even kind of ass-backwards, at least if you're used to using a Slow Gear-style pedal effect. Set the Sensitivity to 100, and Rise Time somewhere between 40 & 65, to get it to behave like the old Boss Pedal. Lower sensitivity settings yield more response to playing dynamics - see which approach works best for you. I'll be interested to see where they place it in the signal chain? Boss' Ring Mod effect bothers me. It always sounds like it's trying to play in tune, at least to my jaded ears. YEMV, of course. I enjoy the Tera Echo, but don't expect it to behave like a stock Delay effect. More of a textured, Filtered Echo effect, good for Ambient sounds, great fun with Synth tones.

FWIW, the Waza Craft CE-2 has a CE-1 setting, which Boss claims will reproduce the sound of the original? Now, if they release a Waza Craft Feedbacker, I'm in . . .

A DS-1 was my first Boss pedal. A buddy who played Keyboards gave it me, when he wasn't thrilled with what it did to the sound of his Electric Piano. I've thought about getting a new one, and might check with my FLMS to see when they come in.

@Anderton- While I never took up the Variax Guitars, I've long been a Hex PU user, with two Godin Synth Access Guitars and an iGuitar 20.13. FWIW, I see that Roland is also abandoning the 13-pin Hex Pickup design, in favor of the new GK-5, which goes with their new GM-800 Guitar Synth. I heard John McLaughlin using one with Shakti recently, and I have to say, the tracking was extraordinary, or else how could it possibly keep up with John McLaughlin? There seems to have always been some general reluctance or resistance to engaging with high-tech Guitars, for whatever reason? I don't know if it was the learning curve, or a misplaced sense that somehow a Modeling Guitar or a MIDI Guitar was "fake"? I do see many more players using MFX for Electronic and Synth-like tones, but even then, there's more emphasis on IR's and Amp Modeling than Synthesis of Guitar Modeling. At a recent Electronic Music gathering, I was the only person with a Guitar, and that's often the case. I hate to see this tech dying out, because it always seemed to me to be a way to finding the fullest level of expression from the Guitar as an Instrument, AND as a Controller. Maybe someone else will take it up, in some form?

To be honest, my plan for the Ambient board is pretty simple; I'm going to place the Looper in line before the EQD Space Spiral Delay and the Boss GT-1 MFX. The main idea is being able to "fade out" the Loop playback by pulling back on the Volume Pedal in the GT-1. Nothing fancy, nothing complicated. The current Ambient board runs - VFE Bumblebee (Compressor/Swell effect) - Walrus Messner (Low-Gain OD) - Hologram Infinite Jets (Sampler/Processor) - EQD Space Spiral (Princeton chip Modulated Delay) - Boss GT-1 MFX*. The GT-1 is mostly for Delay and Reverb effects, some Modulation effects, and, of course, the onboard Volume/EXP Pedal. It's not a particularly impressive MFX, in and of itself, which is why I'm using it as part of a pedalboard signal chain, instead of using it on its own. YEMV, as always. I was originally considering a Stereo Volume Pedal, and placing it after the GT-1, so I could "fade" the Looper that lives in the GT-1, but the Looper within the GT-1 is a PITA to access, with lots of double-tapping on different footswitches to engage it, and to operate it. It also means losing some degree of flexibility within the GT-1, where the onboard CTL1 switch can be assigned to do a number of useful things, but when the Looper is engaged, all CTL switch functions default to the Looper. This way, I have an easy-to-control dedicated Looper, and when I pull back on the GT-1's Volume pedal to fade the Loop playback, I'll still have the Delay and Reverb trails within the GT-1, so the sound will fade away smoothly, instead of cutting off abruptly. The added memory is a real bonus, and I'll probably also use the RC-3 as a sort of Sonic Sketchbook, to capture ideas on the fly, much as I've used the RC-50. In the meantime, it's Ambient board bound . . . *The GT-1 is a real mixed bag of perfectly good effects, and perfectly awful ones. If anyone wants my review of it, lemme know . . .

The short version - Had a day off, $$$ in pocket, went up to my FLMS, where one of my gear guys mentioned a stash of open-box pedals at blow-out prices, stuff they couldn't advertise at those prices. I asked what he had on hand, and got an RC-3 Looper for $79.50US; that's with tax included. Nice, simple compact Looper at a good price. I'm happy with it. The longer version . . . While most of my Delay effects and MFX have some form of onboard Looping, the only device I had that stores and saves my Loops is my old RC-50. I love it, and I've gotten a lot of use out of it, but it's too large to be pedalboard-friendly. I'd been thinking about getting a newer, compact Loop pedal, but hadn't really dedicated any time or effort to finding one. I had a day off, and among other fun things, like a very long walk with my dogs, I thought I'd go look at my FLMS, see if there was anything that called to me. One of the gear guys I always go to told me about the stash of open-box and demo gear. Just offhand, I asked if he had any Loopers, and sure enough, there was the RC-3. It was originally a demo/display unit in one of those oversized Boss pedal displays you'll see in many Music stores. (BTW, the stores have to BUY those things, and ALL the demo pedals that go with them.) They'd pulled it off the display when the RC-5 came out to replace it, so it's not exactly "new", but it's not exactly "used", either. So, what's it do? It claims 3 hours of Stereo recording time, which I haven't tested out, as yet. By comparison, my old RC-50 has 45 minutes of recording time available, BUT that time gets cut back to 23 minutes if you're Looping in Stereo. You get 99 Memory slots in which to store your Loops, and a USB connection so you can save Loops to, or copy Loops from your computer. There are also TRS MIDI I/O's for connection to other devices, mostly for triggering and MIDI Clock. You can also set a Loop for One-Shot Playback, which allows you to use the RC-3 almost like a Sampler with a Trigger control. The controls are sparse, and the few control buttons are very small. There are two small oval buttons for Memory Up/Down, two small round buttons for Rhythm On/Off and Tap Tempo, and a slightly larger WRITE button. There's a dual-concentric knob for Loop Volume (outer) and Rhythm Volume (inner). Holding and pressing the Rhythm On/Off for 2 seconds lets you select between 3/4 and 4/4 Time, while holding and pressing the Write button for 2 seconds will Delete the stored Loop. That's all, folks. Like almost all the Boss Loopers except the RC-1, it comes with a handful of Rhythm backing tracks available, which I've never investigated. You can switch between 3/4 Time and 4/4 Time, and there's a very small Tap Tempo button, but that's all, folks. Starting a Loop is easy. Dial up an empty Memory, tap the pedal to start recording. All good, so far, right? However, the RC-3 has a bit of a quirk in its workflow. Most Loopers are set up so you tap the pedal once to record, again to stop recording and start playback, then if you want to overdub your Loop, you tap the pedal again: Record-Playback-Overdub, in that order. As it comes from the factory, the RC-3 is set up so that when you tap the pedal to stop recording and start playback, it goes right into overdub mode: Record-Overdub-Playback. It's a bit of a PITA if you want to record a Loop, then play over it without overdubbing. However, there's a simple fix to switch the order, which I did right away. Stopping your Loop requires you to tap the pedal twice, in very quick succession. Clearing your Loop requires you to Press & Hold the pedal for 2 seconds, but you also risk re-triggering the Loop you just stopped. Helps to be fast on your feet. If you want to store your Loop, you'll need to WRITE it. Like so many, perhaps too many Boss/Roland products, the RC-3 benefits from having yet another footswitch added, either an FS-5U, or an FS-6/7 Dual Footswitch. Adding even one FS-5U gives you a dedicated Stop switch, while adding a Dual Footswitch also lets you scroll through the Loops stored in Memory, if you wanted to have backing tracks for an entire live set stored in the RC-3. There's definitely some lag time involved in switching between stored Loops, so don't expect to easily set up a Verse-Chorus-Verse chain, and switch among them without some latency. It's pretty minimalist, in terms of other features. There are no onboard effects, there's no LCD display for naming your Loops, no Fade-In/Fade-Out function, and no Reverse Playback. You can only record, overdub, store and play back one Loop at a time, but the Stereo I/O's allow for at least one workaround. The respective A & B I/O's are discrete, which means if you're playing a Synth with L/R Outs, or a Stereo FX processor, your signal won't get collapsed to Mono within the RC-3. It also means that you can, in theory (and with a good bit of practice), have two different Instrument sounds Looped together. I ran a small MonoSynth playing a Sequence into Input B, and a Guitar to Input A, then sent the Outs to 2 Channels of a compact Mixer, with A panned hard Left, and B panned hard Right. I started Looping, just enough to record something, then listened to the playback. I could isolate the Synth and Guitar Loops by dialing back the Volume on their assigned Channels, with no bleed-through. I'm not sure how useful that trick will prove for most players, but WTH, I had fun experimenting with it, and I'll probably find a way to use that as a form of double-tracking without overdubbing. In terms of overkill, it also means that I can store a Loop with two discrete sounds, and then send each Out to a different external processor, or another Looper, or maybe a different Space/Time Continuum altogether. Why not? Last word, this was definitely an impulse buy, but at just under $80, no buyer's remorse. The newer RC-5 has more features, but they're also just under $200US; maybe some other time, if I decide I really need one.

@ihasakeyboard- Using a Compressor in front of a Dirt box, particularly Overdrives, is a very common practice. I know several players for whom a Compressor/OD combo is their basic Dirt tone. OTOH, placing a Compressor after any Distortion or Overdrive can wind up clamping down on your Dirt tone, while potentially boosting any noise from your OD/Distortion pedal; the worst of both worlds. And yes, a Parallel Compressor like the Barber Tone Press, or Compact Tone Press, essentially blends a slightly boosted Guitar signal with the compressed signal, so it sounds, and arguably "feels" less compressed, more open.

@Caevan O’Shite- It's almost impossible to get a conventional Delay sound out of it. Another oddball Delay built around a Princeton chip.

I have a Bicycle Delay, although the graphics aren't nearly as interesting. It's a pretty weird Delay. Good luck getting a simple Echo effect out of it. I think I even shared an early demo video at one point? If you like trippy, pitch-bent Echo effects, the Bicycle Delay is your friend . . .

This past Sun Day evening, Steve Hackett and his band, performing "Foxtrot at Fifty." It's not just that they're playing great Music, and playing it well; it's clear that they're enjoying themselves, too, and that enthusiasm reaches into the audience.

Honestly, my first thought was that someone tried to re-invent the Hurdy-Gurdy?!? My second thought was "WHY?"

Play it with a Slide on your Left hand, and a Bow in your Right hand. Tune it to an open chord, and let it spin.

@hurricane hugo- nice photo, and nice board. I have to second @Caevan O’Shite's question, is it yours? Sorry to say, but the plodding, Sludge-Rock Guitar riff in the OBNE video was too much to take. Where is King Buzzo when we need him? OTOH, like so many of these demo videos, it got me thinking as to how to reproduce, or even expand on that sound, using gear we might already have. My first thought was to send a Stereo Modulated Delay, maybe a Panning Delay w/Modulation, out through 2 different OD/Distortion pedals. A slow, deep Sine Wave Mod on the Delay could even get you some of that De-tuning sound, with the Distortion effects smearing the Modulated Delay.

If the FOH sound engineer is experiencing ear-fatigue, I could see how they would slowly be notching up the levels through the show. OTOH, if you were experiencing ear-fatigue, you would likely be turning up, or signaling for more volume as the night went on. Highs tend to go first with ear-fatigue, so you would probably hear your Amp as sounding "wooly", but not necessarily louder. I definitely agree with @Caevan O’Shiteabout how the room, and the people or materials in it can influence the sound, but again, that tends to be more perceptible within the room, rather than on stage. If the space is slowly filling up during the course of the night, that could seriously influence how the FOH is hearing you, and cause them to turn up. Hard to know, and even harder to test out from the front of the stage. It might be worth taking some time with the Boogie, in your practice space, or wherever, and do a timed experiment. Turn it On, wait however long you usually wait for it to warm up, play through it for a little while, then wait. Give it 10 minutes, play a little more, take a break, repeat, to listen for any increase in output. If you don't notice any appreciable change in output, it's probably not your Amp.

My sincere respect on the restoration work! Some things simply can't be restored to vintage specs, so re-working them into something new is much better than trashing good, old woods. And yes, that gold Pickguard is fugly, indeed . . .

Craig Anderson recommended the MXR Micro Amp as a clean Boost/Buffer long ago, and the Micro Amp was my go-to One-Knob Boost Pedal for along time. I retired it only because it's an original, now "vintage" Rochester MXR pedal, with no LED and no AC adapter jack. I'd dial it just past Noon, to where I could just tell that it was On, and leave it there. The main thing I noticed was that my Dynamics--driven Pedals, Envelope Filter Effects in particular, were more responsive with the Micro Amp On. Not using a dedicated Boost pedal at present, but if I were trying out Boost Pedals in a store, I'd probably set up a Micro Amp to A/B against the others.

@Caevan O’Shite- I haven't tried the current EHX Attack-Decay RI, so I can't say how it behaves, but I have the Malekko Sneak Attack, which is an Attack/Decay Envelope Generator, much like you'd find in some Analog Synths. VERY different from the Slow Volume or Bumblebee, and much trickier to dial in. The Decay settings are critical. Took me several sessions with the Sneak Attack to get anywhere near the sound I wanted from it, while the 'Bee was no problem to set up.

The Deep Freeze and Pico Attack Decay look like two I would use.

Another thought is using effects to fill out the sound of the Rhythm Guitar, anything from a simple Mod effect, to one of EHX' 9-series pedals. Use the effect sparingly, so it stands out when it's On. Fingerpicking also adds a world of texture and harmony to otherwise simple Chord structures.

I probably would have bought the Assassin just for the name, myself, especially for $20+/-. Have to agree on hanging on to that Dyna Comp for now. If it doesn't have an AC adapter jack, it's an original Rochester MXR pedal, not a Dunlop RI! I recently saw an original Micro Amp in rough shape going for $165 on Reverb, through my FLUMS. That Dyna Comp could wind up being worth a stack of $20 Guitars. Regarding "Script" vs. "Block" logo vintage MXR pedals - the logo only tells you so much. Somewhere in my stack of Guitar ephemera, I have some promo material from MXR, where, among other things, they talk about having changed the internal circuit of the Phase 90 four times within a very short production period. I'll try to dig it out at some point, but it raises the question of "Which one is the real Vintage circuit?" The answer is, pretty much any of them, at this point.

Installing P90's does nothing to address the issue raised by the OP, sorry. Quick search doesn't really bring up anything helpful. Much discussion of the Guitar model itself, various issues regarding the Electronics, etc., but no "Guide TO Chet's Settings", or anything so obvious. Couple of not-altogether-helpful thoughts - I'd start out by putting on a new set of Strings, then let the strings stretch out and set up overnight. Next, I'd install a fresh battery, check the tuning, and plug into a Mixer or MFX with a good, easily readable Level Meter, and set the balance of the individual Piezos using the meter, and my ears, as a guide. Given that the overall tone of any Electric Guitar is going to be influenced by a legion of factors, it may not be possible to emulate the Chet Atkins tone you're after, even having adjusted the Piezo PU's. I would go for the best overall tone and level you can achieve with whatever Amp, PA or FRFR System you're using, while continuing the search for more information. In desperation, you might try contacting Gibson directly, but I don't know if they would have that information, if they didn't set the PU balance at the factory, and even if they had the info, somewhere, there's still the issue of whether they can find it, and if they'd be inclined to share it. Good luck, and good hunting . . .

You can still get the DanElectro Spring King, which has a Tap Plate for that classic 'Verb Splash sound. I saw Elvis Costello with one up on a Music stand some years back, so he could hit the Tap Plate and get that sound.

@KuruPrionz- No disagreement, there's nothing magical about the Guitars, nor their components. Still can't help imagining the rant that would follow any outreach from someone with a used Kiesel.

IDK - Given the way he treats customers who've ordered, and paid for, brand-new Guitars - $200 re-stocking fees, being banned from ever ordering another Kiesel Guitar - I can't imagine how he'd respond to anyone asking for help or repair work on a USED Guitar! The video response might be interesting, however . . .