The Guitar Thread

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  • Weyland1

  • HijoDMaite1

    lol FINGERFRIENDLY GUITAR

    • well, if it helps people who would otherwise be unable to play, I'm for ithereswhatidid
    • Would be good for guitar hero.BK
  • houdou0

    This thread should be alive more! Please help out. Just send my baby for repairs today. Feeling lonely.

    • Think I had this Martin guitar. I ended up selling it and got a Baby Taylor which is so comfy to play.VectorMasked
    • I played the GS mini Mahogany this week in a shop and was really amazed by it's sound. Might get one for myself and my son to play :)houdou
  • Weyland0

    Nice dread indeed, does anyone play slide? what do you prefer? bottle or metal?

    I tried a couple but this one is light and smooth with a nice twang, any better ones or is it really personal?

    • metalApeRobot
    • I'm a glass man mostly. Sound too messy with the brass one I've got.sausages
    • yeah, I still use and like this one the most, I like the messy harmonics actuallyWeyland
    • I really like ceramic slides. Sounds like glass, but they don't glaze the inside so there's raw ceramic...feels a little grippy, you have a little more control.JackRyan
    • https://tinyurl.com/…JackRyan
    • Glass, or socket wrench.boobs
  • sausages0

    Jeff Lang is the man

  • pressplay0

    I bought this monstrosity lately... looks awful but I couldn’t resist since it was super cheap (I think they have a hard time selling these and just wanted to get rid of them) and I wanted a short scale guitar for playing comfort... it really grew on me, it’s super fun to play and sounds good

    • For the looks, just put a 'Dalí clock' sticker on it.uan
  • drgs1

  • sarahfailin1

  • fisheye0

    Just selling this beauty :/

  • scarabin0

  • scarabin2

  • SteveJobs1

    I've always wanted a Martin acoustic. I didn't have this electric-acoustic series in mind until I recently came across these and realized it's perfect for me. Low action and quieter than their higher-end models so good for apartment playing and I really really like the clean, flat black look. I'll get that D-28 one day but for now, really loving this thing.

  • johnny_wobble2

    Anybody good at tabbing out something by ear? I wanna play this intro that was sampled in that dj shadow / run the jewels song but can't find anything on it.

  • bklyndroobeki0

    buy or not to...?

  • fisheye0

    Bought this strap two months ago on my trip to NYC @matt umanov guitars
    https://instagram.com/p/BIJTK6hA…

  • BusterBoy0

    My daughter has asked for a Guitar for Christmas. I know stuff all about them. Have asked a few people what to look for. Probably half have said to get steel strings...the other half say nylon for a beginner.

    Thoughts?

    • what age? if your going acoustic a nylon strung 3/4 is a good starter... very easy to play. if she takes to it (and not to flamenco) be prepared to get her akingsteven
    • fuzz size steel strung acoustic or electric...kingsteven
    • and, if she likes electric guitars... just skip the acoustic altogetherkingsteven
    • Just classic stuff to begin with I guess. Bit of Tears in Heaven etc.BusterBoy
    • I know it takes away the surprise, but an instrument is a very personal thing so I’d say take her to the music shop and try out different models to seepressplay
    • what she feels most comfortable with in terms of handling, playability and sound wisepressplay
    • I might just take her to a store and see what she feels comfortable playing.BusterBoy
    • 3/4 nylon, as Kingsteven suggested. not too expensive, easy to play. Move up if she takes to it.Gnash
    • also the nylon are more forgiving on cheaper guitars. Steel strings really defects a poorly crafted instrumentGnash
    • *accentuates defects inGnash
    • Yes, 3/4 nylon, take care of it. and when she out grows it, it makes an awesome easy travel companion.futurefood
  • mg337

    Just did a DIY project this weekend using an ikea Hejne shelf to build a new pedalboard. Thought you guys would like to see the photos and the walkthrough of everything:


    Fully assembled, wired up, ready to go. Before mounting everything I did some test runs of cable length, and power cable arrangement.


    If you're familiar with these, you know the drill. It's plain, it's cheap, it's 30"x18". Take a slat off the second shelf and attach it to the back.


    After assembling the board, I stained it in the evening, putting an even coat of dark walnut that covered it 100%. I don't do much woodwork and thought I'd like the solid dark walnut, but the next morning it just looked like paint, and the wood had no character it. You couldn't even see the grain... So I took a chance and started sanding, sanding off as much of the stain as I could, and ended with what you see in this photo. Loved seeing the grain come through and was already thinking "not bad for a cheap piece of wood!"


    After the entire thing was sanded, I thought I'd experiment a little and use a rag to rub in some more stain. I used a light amount across the entire surface, and if you compare to the previous photo, it nicely filled in the light spots. At this point I was incredibly pleased with how it was looking. Applied a few coats of satin finish and let it dry.



    Pedals mounted, essential delay and reverb pedals towards the bottom.


    New Empress Reverb

    New Pedal - Empress Reverb:
    I’ve never had a reverb pedal and have always used the spring reverb on my amps. Needed something that would be consistent between playing through amps, and direct recording. I’ve obsessed over reverb reviews on here and on YouTube and thought I was going to get a JHS Alpine until I decided to go a bit beyond that and get something with tons of versatility. Came down to, you guessed it: Strymon Big Sky vs. Empress Reverb, and got a chance to test out the Empress on Saturday at Chicago Music Exchange. Loved it immediately, and the few hours I’ve spent with it at home have been fun. It’s exactly what I wanted/needed.

    Making the pedalboard:
    Started and finished a weekend project to build a new pedalboard after outgrowing my previous one that I’d used since about 2004, in various configurations, in the band I was in through 2010. I’d been wanting a Pedaltrain board, but also wanted new gear, and then started considering a custom wood build or a Gorm / Hejne board to save some money. I didn’t have access to decent saws and woodworking tools for a few weeks, so decided to take the Hejne route.

    I won’t bore you all too much with the process, but here are a few key takeaways. I knew I wanted to stain it, but honestly hadn’t done much woodworking in my life. The assembly was incredibly easy, and I applied a coat of dark walnut stain to it after sanding it some. It ended up looking like I had just painted it... Maybe I wasn’t thinking I should stain it and then said it, or, maybe I didn’t realize I should have put a much lighter coat on. Did all this on Saturday night, and Sunday morning it was complete dry but just looked sloppy - practically solid brown, with no grain showing.
    Took a chance and started sanding, and immediately loved the results. Realized that probably should have been my original intention. Long story short... sanded the whole thing, then took a cloth and rubbed in a light coat of walnut stain to fill in the light spots. It was looking great. Applied 2-3 coats of satin spray finish, and let it dry.

    Pedal attachment:
    I intended to do full velcro strips from left to right across each piece of wood, but liked the wood so much I ended up cutting pieces to fit each pedal, using 2” wide Velcro. Most of these pedals will stay put for a long time; I fortunately have space for a couple additional pedals if I pick up anything new.

    Power Supply:
    There’s a surge protector mounted on the underside with screws and Velcro, and I’m still using a Godlyke PowerAll Daisy Chain configuration. It’s what I used in my band for years and though I’ve been planning on something like an ISO brick, I’m going to stick with this because there’s really no noise at all. It’s nice and quiet, everything is 9 volts and I don’t yet see a reason to spend $ on something with nominal improvement.

    Signal Chain:
    I’ve played with a stereo setup for years and continue to play and record that way at home, whether through amps (Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, VOX VR30 or Crate VC30 (all tube amps)) or direct into an Apogee Duet. So, still have a stereo setup and it’s now as follows:
    Line In > Boss Tuner > Volume Pedal > MXR Dyna Comp (80’s) > MXR Distortion + (80’s) > MXR Micro Amp > Earthquaker Afterneath > EHX Stereo Pulsar > Boss Flanger > Boss Phaser > Boss Chorus (stereo split starts here) >>>> Boss DD-20 Delay > Empress Reverb >>>> Stereo Left: Boss DD-3 Delay > EHX Nano Looper 360 > EHX Big Muff (Russian, 90’s) > Out to Hot Rod Deluxe - Stereo Right: EHX Little Big Muff > Out to VOX VR30

    • Looks great!
      Nice one
      set
    • real nice, was checking out that empress recently too. using a stereo pedalboard myself with my JC40 and loving it.kingsteven
    • ^ Nice! I first debated the Foxpedal Magnifica and the JHS Alpine. $200-$250 range. Kept researching and decided to choose betweenmg33
    • The Strymon Big Sky and the Empress. Seemed like a decent amount of people had better things to say about the Empress over at r/guitarpedals on Reddit.mg33
    • How high is that? My pedals are taking over my synth desk, and I want to move them a level down (but not on the floor).section_014
    • Kingsteven - do you like Slowdive? I think they use JC40's. Regardless, go get mind blown at this live song: https://www.youtube.…mg33
    • The girl in the blue hair though... she needs to get it together.mg33
    • section_014 - It's angled downward from front to back, maybe 3" down to 1" ?mg33
    • Mmm, dark walnut stain - my standard go-to for making cheap shitty plywood look a bit swag :) I just used some yesterday!detritus
    • hah, yeah man just saw them live a few months back! HOF is my go to atm, but shrunk my live pedal board down for touring so it's not even on there!kingsteven
    • I want that Empress reverb!ok_not_ok
    • Nice detritus! I don't do much woodworking; I was totally pleased with how this turned out.mg33
    • ok_not_ok - I really didn't think I'd spend that much but what the hell. My main goal was to ensure I had same reverb through amps as I do for direct recording.mg33
    • Sweet board. Nice mix of pedals indeed, what kinda vibe do you play?smellvetica
    • I just stained a piece of pine but didn't take it anywhere near as nice as yoursset
    • smellvetica - Was in a band from 2004 - 2010 and now do more home recording, ambient, instrumental stuff. Here are a few links:mg33
    • Nice! has the palette look to itdbloc
    • Head just exploded. This is so goodbklyndroobeki
    • Thanks dbloc and bklyn!mg33
    • smellvetica, here are a few things I've recorded: http://mg33.net/musi…mg33
    • http://mg33.net/musi…mg33
    • http://mg33.net/musi…mg33
    • I don't know how to write upbeat music. :(mg33
    • Nice man! I have two Blue Sky's...one for the large rig, and one for a smaller one. I couldn't be happier with the Strymon stuff.JackRyan
    • I'll have to check out the Empress though, seems sweet. Can you call up presets with midi on that thing?JackRyan
  • kingsteven3

    Some recent additions to the family

    Recording King ROS-616 (12th fret OOO)

    Epiphone Rivoli (fitted with a curtis novak mudbucker sized bisonic PU)

    Danelectro Baby Sitar

    Also been getting really in to autoharps/ zithers... accumulated this one and 3 others in various states of disrepair!

    • How's that a sitar? Shape only? Looks like a 6 string with a lipstick pickup to me.section_014
    • yeah, not far off... it's just the resonating bridge that gives it the sound.... https://www.youtube.…kingsteven
    • picked it up for 200 quid on a local classified ad. how could i resist :-Dkingsteven
  • kingsteven3

    This is my live pedalboard (actually it's down at the rehearsal room so the photos about 6 months old - before i rigged it up for stereo). My previous was about twice this size but had to downsize for touring... I added a patch bay on the back that gives me a loop after the distortions so I can patch in more mods/ reverbs if needed so have managed to stick to the PT2 for a while... (that's just my old bass pedal board below btw.)

    The Zoom pedals aren't the best but serviceable for live... all the patches are blatant rip offs of hi-end stuff.. one (on a parallel looper) is taking the place of my Eventide Pitchfactor and HOF, the other mimics 3 pedals previously in the Super Ego FX loop.

    The signal splits on input through a JHS splitter (on the bottom of the board) and one side goes through - clean boost -> super ego -> volume -> zoom mfx...

    The other side is a bit more traditional - tuner -> octaver -> distortions -> zoom (on fx loop)...

    Both channels then go in to a Palmer mixer (also mounted on the bottom) and out in to the Space Echo

    Keely TS and Muff on there but currently running a Brassmaster clone, EH Soul Food and always the Recovery FX Bad Comrade...

    When it works it sounds like this:

    • Nice. I'm growing more and more curious about the Superego; I see it mentioned often for ambient guitar stuff.mg33
    • it is great, but the auto mode needs a booster before to track well with p90s. i run it 100% wet and use the vp jr as fx send volume for a bit more control.kingsteven
    • it then bypasses all the distortion so i have a nice clean drone behind whatever else i'm doing.kingsteven
    • do you play bass or guitar or both?mg33
    • currently playing bass in two groups guitar in one. prefer bass but will willingly strum chord inversions through fx all day long :)kingsteven
    • i do a lot of recording up here so like to have a good selection of guitars around but it's often someone else playing them.kingsteven
  • kingsteven4

    New guitar day! 1990s SG special converted to P90s, just slapped the Bigsby on and playing and sounding real sweet.

    • Paging SetGnash
    • What P90's did you put in?section_014
    • P90s added by the previous owner, they're made in england, custom wound but he couldnt remember the guys name. Its been totally rewired and a few other upgradeskingsteven
    • all really good stuff and a great fret job. really chuffed with how its sounding.kingsteven
    • SG - so good. Nice man!stoplying
    • looks smalloey
    • I love it!fisheye
    • Niiiiiiiiiicepango
    • So nice!set
    • what are ya gonna do to it?Gnash
    • like in a sexual way?set
    • ^ ya. I thought that was obviousGnash
    • Just making sureset
    • p90ssssssss! YAAAAASSSSSfuturefood
    • I have to admit, I really dislike the colour/finish on this modelGnash
    • i far prefer it over the new faded t paint job. but the lightest part of the grain runs under the bigsby it comes off quite solid in photos.kingsteven
    • getting as close to a walnut finish as i could :-D still not used to the finish on the neck, it kinda creeps me out. may sand/ oil it this year.kingsteven
    • Agree about the faded paint job, tooGnash
    • Yea I bet it's nicer in person. Will be even better in 40 years... =Pset
    • played a bunch of shows and recorded a load with it over the last few months and i'm blown away. only regretting not getting one 20 years ago.kingsteven