Winston Psmith
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Posts posted by Winston Psmith
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Sounds like I'm not the only one who's had a roller-coaster ride lately.
The Good -
Back in January, my wife and celebrated - well, sort of - 27 years of marriage, and I turned 68. FWIW, by the time my father was my age, he'd been dead for nearly 10 years, so I guess I win, or something? So far, everyone in our household is in good health, for our respective ages, so . . .
In no particular order otherwise -
Novparolo had some very fun gigs, made some new friends, and kept putting out Music, at our usual rate of about three or four new tracks every time we get together, which is about once a month.
My wife had a very successful gig as the on-site chef for a yoga retreat in Sedona, and the next job is already on the calendar.
Got to see some of my Guitar heroes live, including John McLaughlin with Shakti, Hot Tuna's "Last Run" tour, and Steve Hackett's "Foxtrot At Fifty."
I'm finishing up a fun, if challenging, album project, which will leave me with only two other projects to get back to. I've made some major advances on clearing my Music Room, including stacks of magazines and books, a beat-to-hell computer desk and old but sturdy bookshelf, and so on. Among other good things, that allowed me to start digging into my FX Rack once again!!!
Different friends asked to care for their dogs or cats, or gardens and houseplants, while they were away, so I've had a lot of good animal connections. One hound mix who stayed with us decided that he wanted his bed next to where I sleep, and a neighbor's German Shepherd thinks of me as his "Fun Friend," because I was taking him for walks and sessions of tennis ball, while his person was away. This weekend, I start another week of cat-sitting for my current favorite cat buddy.
I got a few cool toys, mostly Delays, but perhaps the coolest was the Schecter Sustainer Guitar another EM friend gave me a little while back! A Sustainer Guitar had been high on my Holy Grail Gear list for a long time, so having one drop into my lap was a surprise, to say the least!
The Bad - feel free to blow by this part . . .
Around three weeks into January, one of my oldest and dearest friends, brother Musicians, and former housemates died, after surviving a heart attack and several strokes over the last few years. As a morbid bookend to the year, one of my wife's oldest and dearest friends died unexpectedly just over a week ago, leaving a family behind. Doubleplusungood.
Back in the Fall, another old friend mentioned, almost offhandedly, that they had cancer, and were getting ready to undergo a series of radiation treatments. Haven't heard any news yet as to how that's going.
Finally - I hope - just about one week before Christmas, my wife was essentially squeezed out of a regular private chef's job, one that the previous management had asked her to take on as a personal favor!?!? There were (unsubstantiated) rumors concerning the previous chef, and the circumstances under which they left the job, none of them good. To add irony to injury, yesterday, my wife got an automatically-generated "Happy Birthday" message from the same people who'd just let her go from her job!?!?! It's like something out of "The Office."
Still, having said that, let me go back to the beginning - everyone here is in good health, we have other, possibly better work already ongoing, and no real crisis hanging over our heads, at least not as of this morning. Today, I'm going to pick out a nice fat Yule Log to burn this evening, and for the holiday weekend, I'm planning to watch all of my King Crimson DVD's, and dig back into my KC and Mahavishnu transcripts. I'm thinking that Sustainer Guitar might be just thing for some of those tunes. Idle hands, you know?
Wishing all the best to all of you, whatever you celebrate!
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Damn, brother, I'm glad your eye recovered!
Good work on getting the film project to completion!
I'll have my answer for you in a bit, just trying to organize my thoughts, such as they are . . .
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I can't imagine that the photos really do it justice. Wishing you much enjoyment with it, @Larryz!
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Good morning, @JamesInPA . . .
Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but it was the closest thing that came up in my search. Floyd Rose Trem Arm coupler
Depending on the year & model of your particular Tremolo*, you might need to order a complete Trem Arm with the attached coupler, but they seem to run right around, or under $20.
*At one point, Floyd Rose threatened pretty much anyone and everyone who'd designed a similar Tremolo system with lawsuits, such that you'll see a lot of Tremolo rigs that say "Licensed by Floyd Rose . . ." or words to that effect, but that covers a lot of different sources.
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@Scott Fraser- Mine was the EHX Frequency Analyzer, back in '73 or '74?
I have to agree, a Ring Mod is capable of some truly beautiful, otherworldly tones. Very often, I will get sounds resembling a Steel Drum, or textures reminiscent of Gamelan ensembles.
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Homeowner's insurance is the short answer, in my case.
In terms of performance/recording, I also tend to have backups for anything I regularly depend on. You don't want to pass on a gig because your main, or ONLY Guitar needs work.
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@KuruPrionz- Glad you're having fun with that!
Ring Mod into Phaser is a lot of fun. Try it with extreme settings on the Tera Echo, as well.
At risk of repeating myself, or telling you something you've already figured out, it's possible to "tune" the Ring Mod, sort of. Play a note, and turn the Frequency control until the Ring Mod effect is more or less in tune with the note you're playing. Adjust the Mix to taste. Much of your scale will still be mutated Ring Mod tones, but every time you hit your Root, an maybe your Fifth, it'll fall into line.
If you want a truly anarchic sound, turn the Mix 100% Wet, then play the 11th fret on your 1st string, turning the Frequency knob until you get nearly sub-harmonic "steel drum" tones out of it. Now, go ahead and play yer Guitar, see what happens. What I call the "52 Pick-Up" approach. You're welcome.
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"Geordie" Walker, Guitarist for Killing Joke, died Sunday of a stroke, at the age of 64.
Rest in power, sir!
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Old-school "Black Cat" brand non-Alkaline batteries are still available, just forget where I last saw them? Give me a moment . . . Ah, there we are, from AnalogMan, of course.
"Black Cat" non-alkaline batteries
Like @Caevan O’Shite, I'm unsure about the likelihood of the battery causing the RFI interference. When you plug an AC adapter into the power jack, that generally bypasses the battery power? OTOH, I haven't tried one of the Waza Craft DS-1's for comparison.
One thing worth noting; by its very nature a battery is an isolated power supply. Your DS-1 can't borrow, or steal power from the next pedal in line, if all of them are running on batteries. With a daisy-chain, the most power-hungry pedals can draw down the available power for everyone else, and affect your overall sound. Even using just three low current-draw pedals in my live Novparolo rig, I was able to hear a difference in sound between an isolated power supply (Voodoo Lab PP2+) and a 1 Spot driving a daisy-chain.
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Be aware that plugging into the Headphone Jack engages the onboard (and largely hidden) Speaker Sim. There's definitely some signal contouring and tone coloration involved, so your Headphone tones may sound somewhat different than the tones you'll get going into a real-world Amp.
I recalled you mentioning the Katana series Amps, which is why I asked about that. I've been curious about combining a Katana with my Boss MFX, most likely my GT-10. My current Guitar Amp is a U.S.-made Peavey "Red Stripe" Studio Pro 112, so I get what you're saying about those.
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Another video that's going to have me diving into some of my stranger toys to see how close I can get to those sounds.
If it were more like $250-275, Could really see blending it with the Infinite Jets . . .
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@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.
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@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.
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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 . . .
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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.
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@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?
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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 . . .
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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.
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@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.
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18 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:
And who doesn't? 😉 That's a cool pedal, though its sounds and strengths are not a priority for me, so I hadn't bought one or planned on doing so...@Caevan O’Shite- It's almost impossible to get a conventional Delay sound out of it. Another oddball Delay built around a Princeton chip.
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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 . . .
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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.
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Honestly, my first thought was that someone tried to re-invent the Hurdy-Gurdy?!? My second thought was "WHY?"
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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.
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Finger-Ease, Talcum Powder, or...
in Guitar Forum
Posted
I have some vague, not especially pleasant memories of Finger Ease from long ago, like early 1970's? The phrase "Greasy Kid's Stuff . . ." comes to mind.
I try not to put anything on my fretboards except a good lemon oil conditioner, not those myriad petroleum-based "lemon oils." For finger noise, especially on my Hex PU-equipped Guitars, I use flat wounds.