Winston Psmith
-
Posts
5,074 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Events
Articles
Downloads
Gallery
Store
Posts posted by Winston Psmith
-
-
11 hours ago, Dannyalcatraz said:
My thoughts on mega-pedals:
1) it’s better to have a feature and not need it than need a feature and not have it
2) if you find yourself overusing a particular feature on a mega-pedal, it’s easier to replace that feature with a simpler, dedicated pedal and explore the mega-pedal’s OTHER features than approaching it the other way around.
Yes and no . . .
Most of my mega-pedals, to steal that term, are Delay effects, and in many cases there is no simpler, dedicated pedal that does, well, whatever I'm overindulging.
Anyone looking for a very cool, and compact Phaser effect should really look into Keeley's Bubbletron. 12 flavors of Phaser/Filter/Flanger, either dynamics-driven, or LFO-driven, with Vintage or Modern voicings, AND, you don't have that LFO sound constantly swirling behind quiet passages or moments when your Guitar should be silent. A personal favorite . . .
-
4
-
1
-
-
I finally got Covid a few weeks back, and felt about as bad as a head cold. More annoying than anything else, but I did my part and stayed home, so as not to share it with anyone else.
After that, I was back to work, landscaping during the day, bartending at night, "BOB" knows what else in between? Digging up Boxwoods, buffet dinner for 35, preparing a client's yard for a wedding, making cocktails for 150, that sort of thing . . .
In more fun news, Novparolo got an invitation to perform live Musical accompaniment to a Halloween Night showing of "Nosferatu", the OG of Vampire movies! It's one of my favorite Horror movies of all time, so I'm very excited about the chance to play Music for the film, and a live (one hopes), presumably human audience.
Last, but not least, this Mac is really breaking down, which makes doing anything with it much more effort, and much less fun than it should be. I give it another couple of weeks, maybe, before I really give up on it.
Time to be sort of useful get ready for the week . . .
-
6
-
-
Two words . . . Fretless Guitar.
-
1
-
1
-
-
On 9/6/2024 at 7:28 PM, Dannyalcatraz said:
It obviously needs to be paired with a Korg Miku Stomp, like Winston’s.
ZOMG!
WE SHOULD HAVE A FUNDRAISER AND BUY AN ESP MIKU FOR WINSTON, SO HE CAN COMPLETE THE SET!!!
Much as I appreciate the thought, it seems like the complete set would require a devoted cosplayer to be at all convincing.
Now, if they'd somehow incorporated the MIKU Stomp into the Guitar's circuitry, that would be worth more like $600 . . .
-
1
-
1
-
-
Wasn't sure whether to put this one in "Eyes" or "Ears" thread?
The other day, my wife surprised me by announcing that we had tickets to see Dweezil Zappa, on what he's calling the "Roxpostrophy" Tour.
It turns out, last night was Dweezil's birthday, so it was a very fun, very funny night. The band gave us weird snippets of Bon Jovi, Bee Gees, Guns N' Roses, Jefferson Airplane-meets-theme-song-from-HAIR, all kinds of fun stuff, along with versions of "Inca Roads", "Cheepnis", "Zomby Woof", and other tunes.
For a group of people who were clearly having a lot of fun, Dweezil and his band played like mad. It is no exaggeration to say that this was some of the finest Musicianship I've been lucky enough to witness IRL, period.
Oddly, Dweezil's new Guitar barely got any action, maybe two songs. Most of the night, he played FZ's heavily restored "SG." (There's been a lot of discussion about the provenance of Zappa's "Roxy" and "Baby Snakes" SG's; look it up if you're curious.) Nearly the entire top of the Guitar has a black plastic Pickguard in place, much larger even than the "batwing" Pickguard. I suspect it's there to accommodate some custom electronics, and to cover years/decades of wear.
Dweezil stood on stage for a very long time at the end of the show, shaking hands, taking selfies, and signing just about anything people put in front of him, which was a very generous gesture after an intense 3-hour show. I gave him an elbow bump, figuring his right hand was getting enough attention from everyone else.
-
3
-
2
-
-
11 hours ago, surfergirl said:
That would be cool. It will be awhile before we can afford it. We'll want do everything on one trip, because we'll never get back again. We've got 6 place we want to visit, starting and ending in DC.
@surfergirl - Get in touch if you come to D.C.!
-
2
-
-
The EQD Terminal Fuzz was a clone-of-a-clone of a Shin-Ei Fuzz, but since EQD discontinued them, they're going for a $200+/- on Reverb.
-
On 9/2/2024 at 10:21 PM, Scott Fraser said:
I have a set of exposed springs I pulled from an old Standel amp many decades ago, mounted on a wood frame (nice lacquered oak,) & wired to a 1/4" jack. I used it a lot in the early aughts, into my multiple loops & FX.
I have an old Autoharp, with the Chord Bars removed, so it's essentially a sort of Zither. Sometimes I use an E-Bow on it, sometimes I use chopsticks as hammers, and sometimes I lean it in front of the Speaker on one of my Amps, and mic the resonant tones that come out of it. @Craig Andertonlong ago had a description of what he called an "Aeolian Reverb" designed around the same basic idea. Don't recall if I saw it in GP or EM, but the idea appealed to me. Now, play a Sustainer Guitar through the Aeolian Reverb, and you've got some otherworldly sounds . . .
-
2
-
1
-
-
Cataract surgery is the closest thing to a medical miracle I have personally experienced. Despite any other, ongoing issues with your sight, you should very definitely notice some improvement afterwards.
-
4
-
1
-
-
I want to like it, but one odd thing I took away from the video . . . at around the 1:20 mark, and again around the 4:20 mark, when we're hearing what's supposed to be the "clean" unaffected signal from the Guitar, it seems to my ear that I'm hearing some Wah or Filter effect in with the Guitar tone. Does anyone else notice this?
I wonder how much that sound is influencing what we hear from the pedal itself?
-
4
-
-
Don't forget that almost any decent MFX will have have Amp+Speaker Modeling, if not deep IR algorithms. How convincing they sound is relative, but if you're using them live, you don't need a pristine, studio-quality sound, you need something that will sound good going out over a crowd of people in a small club, or an outdoor venue.
Also remember that you're subject to the quality of the main FOH sound system, whatever it may be where you're playing, so yes, the better you sound, the better chance you have of sounding good to the audience, but . . . even the most expensive & expansive MFX/IR rig can only do so much if you're plugged into a Mixer with staticky sliders, or a PA with a blown tweeter.
Hope for the ideal, plan for the real.
-
6
-
-
For years, I dressed like a laborer, because, for the most part, I AM a laborer. There's no sense wearing an Armani suit to do landscaping work, unless you're making a video?
However, when I started going out to perform, I started looking for nicer, more interesting clothes to perform in. I don't sing or dance, so there's not much to look at when I play. The least I can do is to dress up, so I don't look like I just crawled in from a garage or basement at the last minute.
One fellow Musician's favorite child described a recent Music gathering as " . . . a bunch of old guys in black t-shirts." Considering that person being quoted is VERY young, their idea of "old" may be subject to question; their sartorial observation, however, was largely correct.
-
6
-
1
-
-
The Onward is like a more advanced version of the Infinite Jets. It's the same starting concept, a Sampler+DSP, with many of the same features, and an expanded set of parameters. I like it, and I think you all know that I would seriously use it, but at $400US, not this week . . .
Some reviewers have compared it to the Red Panda Particle V2, but I'm not entirely in agreement. Some of the functions and features are similar, but the Particle is primarily a Granular Delay, while the Onward is a Sampler/Signal Processor.
OTOH, I love it when a video of a new product makes me think of something I should try, using something I already have. I'm stuck at home today, with no Jeep (don't ask), and what's left of Debby pouring rain , outdoors, so maybe I'll connect the MIKU Stomp to the Infinite Jets, and see what happens?
-
5
-
-
Somewhere I have a real-world address, let me look . . .
-
3
-
1
-
-
My approach to any MFX that I've just bought is to listen through the Factory Presets, to get an idea of what it can do, then I create a "BLANK" or "Winston Psmith" Preset and copy it 100, or 128, or even 200 times, to completely overwrite the Factory Presets.
Generally, I find that the Factory Presets are focussed on features or effects that aren't the ones I'm most interested in, so I really need to dig in and craft my own sounds. Otherwise, I'd have a generic Pedalboard, with some variation on the Big Three (OD-Mod-Dly/Rev.), and be done with it.
OTOH, a couple of my Synths came with 500-1000+ Presets onboard, and it struck me that the time, and button-pushing involved, to overwrite that many Presets would be better spent just creating new sounds. There are limits . . .
-
6
-
-
Ah, man, several of those are within driving distance, but still, it would be an all-day trek back and forth. Nonetheless, thanks for sharing this, maybe someone else here in the Forums will get a chance to see them.
-
3
-
1
-
-
@Caevan O’Shite - Thank you for the clarification.
Maybe it was the way the guy presented the products that turned me off? In fairness, I should say that I'm one of those players who avoids Tremolo systems, whenever possible, so this kind of product isn't aimed at people like me.
-
3
-
-
The Tap Snare is a variation on an old Flamenco technique of using the Guitar body itself as Percussion Instrument.
Tap plates for Flamenco Guitar
As mods go, Tap Plates are pretty cheap, but most of us will never need or want them.
The sound of the Snare didn't grab me at all - neither did the "Spring Reverb." I can easily see someone losing the little magnets and some kid or dog swallowing them. No thanks.
The other gadgets made me think "A Floyd Rose rig for Acoustic." It was not a happy thought.
Then, there's always THIS . . .
-
3
-
-
I've been clearing out decades of Guitar Player and Electronic Musician magazines, myself. It's been quite a project, going back through old issues, looking to see if there's anything I want to hang on to?
Best of luck, @Eric Lee Iverson! I'm right there with you!
-
3
-
-
Boss has a function much like this, or arguably two of them, built into most of their GT-series MFX, the Internal Pedal, and the Wave Pedal.
The Internal Pedal is what's called a "Triggered Event Generator," (say that three times fast); it's essentially a One-Shot control, activate it, and something happens, depending on what Parameters you've assigned it to control, and the range of control.
The Wave Pedal is essentially another internal LFO, with a Rate setting, and a choice of Saw, Triangle, or Sine Waves.
Of course, this video now has me curious about using the Wave Pedal as a MIDI CC for other MIDI addressable FX? Thanks for giving me something to try today!
-
5
-
-
On 7/6/2024 at 7:08 PM, Mark Schmieder said:
My luthier was unable to fix the basic flaws of this instrument. I lived with its limitations for a while, then gave up and sold it. I also got rid of my Airline Electric Mandola from Eastman around the same time. Ultimately, I concluded that Electric Mandolins are a poor idea, especially if single course, but I think I had the Epi 8-string version. Warren Ellis will of course disagree with my assessment of the relevance of electric members of the mando family.
@Mark Schmieder -- It seems that the players who were most disappointed with the original 'Bird had the 8-string model.
I would have to have to say again, if someone were looking for a good Mandolin, the 'Bird isn't that. They'd be much better off with a good quality A/E Mandolin, in every regard. OTOH, I'm not sure that the 'Bird was really made for Mandolin players, so much as to appeal to Guitarists looking for something slightly different, but easily approachable.
-
2
-
-
Dragging myself out of a few perfectly lousy days, so I honestly appreciate this discussion as a distraction. Moving on . . .
I only have 2 pieces of Behringer gear, one of which is a UB-1002 Mixer I bought back in 2005, for $68US, plus tax. I just pulled out the original receipt to double-check. I've used it extensively on my recordings, and for all of Novparolo's live shows, as well. That's nearly 20 years of solid use, with no failures, no hiccups. At the time, Mackie had already moved their production to China, so it didn't seem quite worth paying the difference for the Mackie name, and, AFAIK, this was before the series of Behringer Mixers (was it the Xenyx series?) that had deliberately ripped off some aspect of Mackie's design.
The other one is a Behringer Neutron, which is not a copy or clone of some Classic/Vintage design. I got it for myself, for my 65th birthday because it was my only affordable pathway into Modular Synthesis, and because my FLMS gave me an even better deal on the price. It does exactly what I wanted from it, and as I said, having looked extensively into the Modular world at the time, it was the only complete, entirely self-contained desktop system for under $300US.
You may notice that I make no defense of the company itself. My first notice of Behringer was back in late 80's/early 90's?, when a Music store buddy came back from NAMM with a bunch of promo literature from a new company. Every page showed a clone of some easily recognizable Boss pedal, down to the color scheme, with "This is a direct replacement for the Boss XX-yy pedal." or a wording close enough to bring down a very quick Cease-&-Desist order from Boss. At the time, my buddy and I thought it was just plain dumb, less of a marketing strategy than maybe laziness.
As it turns out, it really was a marketing strategy. See above to all the previous discussion of lawsuits past. IMHO, Behringer is the logical, if unfortunate extension of the way much of the Music Manufacturing Industry has functioned for quite some time. Any of us who remember seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan - there are a few of us here, right? - have lived through a whole succession of large companies gobbling up smaller companies, even claiming the rights to the use of individuals' names!?!?!
We've all seen the line questionably attributed to Hunter S. Thompson - "The Music Business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." It doesn't just apply to the Recording Industry.
-
4
-
2
-
-
Looking at the Finish options for that model, on the Shabat website, it seems that there's no "Clean" option, as in "No Antiquing." You get to choose among degrees of "Antiquing," with the highest priced option being what I would think of as the "beat-to-hell" look!?!?! No, thanks . . .
Otherwise, the Guitar is so different from anything I would design for myself, I don't feel like I'm one to really critique it. I've seen Dweezil perform, so I have no question regarding his skills, and his dedication to his craft. If he feels this is the Guitar for him, I've got no argument with that.
-
5
-
1
-
-
I have to say, if I'd been shipped a brand-new Instrument with a chip like that out of the fretboard, that would be the entire demo video, period. Of course, I never buy a Guitar, or any Stringed Instrument that I haven't already held in my hands, so . . .
He's right, it's not a Tone Machine, by any measure. It takes a bit of tweaking to get quite one right, depending on the feel you're looking for. You'll definitely spend some time adjusting the intonation, and probably the string height. IDK if Epiphone has a pre-packaged string set for these, as yet, but if not, GHS should have a set for the Eastwood Mandocaster, which will give you two sets of strings for a Mandobird IV.
I can't see the point of trying to tune it like a Guitar? That's just lazy, sorry. I tune mine G-D-A-D, low to high; it's a common "alternate" tuning for a Mandolin. If you're used to playing in DADGAD, it's not a difficult transition, particularly if you're playing single-note lines. Mandolin chords are challenging for the thick-fingered, to say the least. However, if you've ever been curious about Robert Fripp's New Standard Tuning for Guitar, a book of Mandolin chords will get you started.
I'm not sure if they'll reissue the 8-string model without some serious thought, and possibly a re-design. The biggest advantage of the 4-string model over the 8-string is that the 4-string has individual bridge saddles, while the 8-string had a single bar-style saddle, which made it impossible to intonate each course of strings.
Mine has a neck plate, no binding, dot inlays, and a PU that resembles a Fender Bass PU. There's no truss rod in the originals, so that may be the only significant upgrade to the newer model. FWIW, the neck on mine is nice and straight, no warping, no bowing. Can't speak to any difference in the PU's without sitting down to A/B mine against a newer model, but I might do that later this month and report back.
It's definitely more fun run through effects, no surprise, and a decent MFX with Amp Modeling is your friend, although some players have been very happy running them conventional Guitar Combo Amps. IME, the more tone-shaping options, the better.
Would I seriously recommend one? Like I already said, at $400+/-, it's not an impulse item, but it might be different enough, and entertaining enough, to be worth having. I would strongly recommend playing one, before buying it, as much to look for QC issues as for feel. If you were dedicated to finding a Mandolin, I'd say keep looking, see if you can find a decent A/E Mandolin, instead.
-
4
-
NPD: Red Panda Raster 2
in Guitar Forum
Posted
I really felt the need to indulge myself recently - not sure if I deserved it, but I needed it - and I'd been looking for a Pitch Shift pedal for a while, but not really liking any of the more-or-less conventional Pitch Shift pedals available. Nothing really grabbed my attention, nor inspired my imagination, which meant I needed to reconsider what I was looking for. Somehow, the Raster 2 came to my attention, and it seemed much more like what I had in mind.
The fun stuff first, before I geek out. The Raster 2 isn't really a dedicated Pitch Shifter; it's a Delay pedal, with Pitch Shifting, Detuning, and Frequency Shifting inserted into the Delay's Feedback loop. Think "Bell Tree" sounds and Barber-Pole Flanging, among much crazier sounds.With some careful and deliberate editing, the Raster 2 could augment or replace various Delay, Modulation, and Pitch shift pedals. Add an Expression pedal, and you have even more control options. I've gotten simple Delay effects, Pitch Shifted Intervals, Reverse Delay, Chorus & Flanger effects, even some very nice (to my ears, at least) Ring Mod effects. Still, I can't really imagine anyone buying it strictly for conventional Delay or Modulation effects?
Recalling @surfergirl's "3-knob" limit - this thing has 6 control knobs, 5 mini-toggle switches, 2 very small buttons, and 2 Footswitches, one just for the Shift function. Beyond that, most of the knobs, and buttons, control more than one set of parameters, which you access by pushing and holding the Wave/ALT button. There's also an Editor/Librarian for diving into function that are readily available from the front panel alone. It's more like a piece of complex rack gear than a Delay pedal, which seems to be the point.
The Delay part is fairly straight-forward, to begin with. You have typical Delay (Time), FDBK (Feedback), and Blend (Mix) controls, a small 3-position toggle switch for Short/400ms, Medium/800ms, and Long/1600ms Delay Time ranges. With the Editor you can dial in 3200ms of Delay, or 1600ms in Reverse, but you can't access that Delay Time range from the front panel of the Pedal.
The Shift function switches among Pitch-Shifting, with +/-1 Ocatve of Pitch Shift, Up/Down Detuning, and Frequency Shifting, which can emulate Ring Modulation. There's a dedicated switch for the Shift function, so you can have it On or Off, as you prefer, without interfering with the Delay effect. You can also use the Raster as a simple Pitch Shift effect by turning Delay and FDBK to Zero, and dialing Blend to your preference.
There's an LFO, with Rate and Depth controls, and 9 different Waveforms to choose among!?!?! You can assign the LFO to control the Effect Level, Shift, or Delay time. think Chorusing, Pitch Bending, Time-Synced Frequency Shifting via MIDI, Ring Mod sounds that drift in and out.
Remember that the Feedback from the Delay effect is ALWAYS going through the Shift function, not the other way around, so let's say you've dialed in a nice Fourth Above with the Shift On, and the FDBK & Delay knobs zeroed out. All good, right? Now, let's say you want to add some Delay, so you start turning the Delay and FDBK knobs, and suddenly you're getting cascades of ascending Fourths, going up-up-up-up, in time with the Delay. WTF just happened?
Every successive repeat of your Delayed signal is being Pitch-Shifted by a Fourth, every time it goes back through the Feedback loop, so your first repeat is up-shifted by a Fourth, the next one up-shifted by another Fourth, and so on. Now, turn the FDBK knob past the Infinity symbol, and see what happens . . .
Sounds like fun, doesn't it? There's a whole Universe of sound design potential in this thing that I haven't even begun to describe here, and that I'm only just beginning to explore. Spending a few days here at home, dog-sitting, so I'll have time to dig in.
Not-exactly-final word; this is NOT a pedal for anyone seeking instant gratification, more the reverse. The Manual itself is 43 pages, and there's an online Editor/Librarian to dig into features and parameters that aren't available from the front panel. Just twirling knobs will only get you so far, and might even just get you lost. It's DEEP, and complex, and even requires a certain amount of homework, in order to really use it, but I haven't heard anything else quite like it. It definitely gives me the sounds that I was looking for, and much more, besides. I'm liking it . . .