I Forgot My Amp Did That

So all of this early morning guitar recording has been with the guitar plugged directly into my USB audio interface. No microphones are being used because no speakers are being used. It’s a fully headphone setup.

I have been running the guitar through an amplifier though. My little Vox MV50 has a direct output on the back that includes cabinet simulation. Normally when you use a line out of an amplifier it sounds dog-shit awful. Not long ago the idea of digitally simulating a speaker cabinet and sticking it onto your line out signal has become a very helpful thing. There are all sorts of digital modeling amplifiers that do it now. Some are big rack mount devices, some are as small as foot pedals. My little Vox amp is an attempt at a tube amp in a pedal sized box. It uses Nutubes, which is something Korg came up with a few years ago as an alternative to normal vacuum tubes. They work off the same principals but they are extremely low powered. I think they sound okay in the amp’s pre-amp stage, but the power stage is still solid state so it doesn’t really feel like a tube amp. It sounds good enough to use, but it’s not really the same.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have an actual tube amp with a line out that has a cabinet simulation? Wait a second… I think I actually have one of those! My Fender Bassbreaker 15 is a fully tube amp with exactly that kind of output on the back of the box. Why am I using the Nutube thing when I could be using the real sucker instead? Today I plugged it in and took the Fender’s cabinet sim for a spin. I think the Vox might sound better. I want to mess with it some more, but it doesn’t sound terribly good. It’s probably usable, but it’s a lateral move at best, if not a step backward. We’ll see.

I had completely forgotten about this, but when I first got the Bassbreaker amp I used the line out quite a bit for recording. When I got the Vox I used both of the amps in line out mode together for a two amp setup on an RPM Challenge. I think it was 2015 or 2016. It worked okay then. Maybe the thing to do going forward is split the signal to both amps and run with a two amp set up again. That could be fun. I mean, if I am stuck going direct again, maybe that’s something to keep things interesting. We’ll see. Next time I record rhythm guitars (tomorrow, I hope) I’ll use the Fender. Next time after that I might use them both. We’ll see.

The King

It’s here!

Five Years One Month 10 Days

At last! I have cleared the Analog Man King of Tone Waiting list! Huzzah, babie! Five years, one month, and 10 days later I have placed my order!

WOOHOO!!

SQUEE!!!

I added myself to the King of Tone Waiting List on March 4, 2018…

Waiting List – Getting Closer

The guitar gear geek in me is starting to get a little stoked.

On March 9th, eight days ago, I checked the Analog Man King of Tone waiting list. It said as of March 1st they were taking orders from people who added themselves to the list on February 19, 2018.

I added myself to the list on March 4, 2018.

The site now says as of March 15th they are taking orders from people who added themselves to the list on February 25, 2018. In 15 calendar days, the list has moved six waiting list days. I should probably be bummed out by that discrepancy, but it means they are taking orders from people who added themselves just one week before I did.

If they keep progressing consistently (and there is no reason to expect that they will, I understand) I might be hearing from them in a few weeks.

Yeah, I am getting a little gear-nerd excited here.

Waiting List – Getting Close

This post is for guitar players who are in the know about guitar gear.

I added myself to the Analogman King of Tone waiting list on March 4, 2018. Five years and five days ago.

This is what is on the waiting list webpage right now:

Based on that, I should be coming to the top of the list in the next couple of weeks. Assuming they don’t have new supply chain issues or anything. I want to order a new Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal, but if I am going to have a chance to buy a new King of Tone at roughly the same time? I think I’ll hold out for the King of Tone. I mean, I’ve been waiting for five years so… yeah.

Random Photo Thoughts

I haven’t shown Bertha the Houseplant lately. We had to get rid of almost all of the plants because we weren’t sure if they would harm the new cats or not. We had to move Bertha to the top of a cabinet in the dining room. She’s not getting nearly as much sun as she was before but she seems to be hanging in there and staying healthy. I saw evidence of a new branch a week or so ago. I took a picture today that I can reference back to the next time I check on her to see if she’s still growing.

After last night’s post where I spit balled a new guitar pedal chain, I put together as close to that board as I could.

The Bonamassa signature Crybaby is at Mike the Bass Player’s house. This is the Gary Clark, Jr signature Crybaby which is really good, but not quite as good. I looked into ordering a Marshall Bluesbreaker reissue pedal last night. Everywhere I generally shop from is out of stock so I didn’t order one. The Blooze Maker is a copy of the original Bluesbreaker. I used the holy hell out of it on this year’s RPM Challenge. It’s super noisy so I kinda don’t want to keep using it, but until I get a real Bluesbreaker, this will be a thing.

The office has two candles burning again. Just ’cause.

Finally, in closing:

Robin…

…and Lily.

Thoughts on a New Pedal Board

I’ve been looking at the reissued Marshall overdrive pedals. If I were to order one it would either be the Bluesbreaker or the Guv’nor. If I got the Bluesbreaker I might make a new pedal board for low-ish gain stuff. I’m thinking it would be the Bonamassa signature Crybaby into the Bluesbreaker into the Wampler Tumnus and that’s all. Then I thought… what about sticking the Fuzz Face before the Crybaby. That way it’s a low-ish gain board with a blistering inferno of fuzz for luck.

Just a thought.

If I got a Guv’nor I would stick it onto the existing stay at home pedal board after the Klon KTR and use it as the paint peeling distortion sound.

Bluesbreaker into Tumnus though… that could be fun.

Oh woah is my gear acquisition syndrome.

Catching Up After a Couple of Off Days

The last couple of days have been weird, health-wise. First it was the headache issue on Tuesday, then it was stomach issues on Wednesday. Now here we are on Thursday and I am feeling a little like a wrung out face cloth. Here’s hoping today will be a quiet day.

We’re having some HVAC folks come and tell us what they need to do to replace the mini-split in the bedroom. We’ve had it serviced a couple of times this winter, but it’s just not working and we’re more or less unable to heat the bedroom without using a space heater as a supplement. They won’t actually replace it for another week or two, but they are coming for a fact finding mission.

So, television. Yesterday was the premier or season three of The Mandalorian and I could not be at a higher hype level. The first episode was excellent but… I think today’s third episode of season three of Picard might have been better. I did not see that coming, kids. I was just glued to the screen as I was getting this morning’s jogging (yogging) in. The captain vs admiral conflict seemed a little forced and out of character, but everything else? Fan-freakin-tastic. The bad guys behind the bad guy? Fan-freakin-tastic! I can’t wait for episode four. I also can’t wait for episode two of The Mandalorian, but that’s a given. In the Star Wars vs Star Trek debate, I come down on the Star Wars side, generally, but only by a little bit. Regardless of which franchise you prefer, it’s a pretty good time to be a space opera fan, am I right?

For the first time in a year, I am suffering from guitar gear acquisition syndrome. There are two overdrive pedals that I really want to buy, and I also really want to buy an amplifier simulator that I can use as a plug in through GarageBand. Last year I finished the RPM Challenge with a plan to do their Record Every Month challenge throughout the rest of the year. I had a goal of two songs each month that I could pretend were a single. I failed completely. I didn’t write a single song over the 11 months between the 2022 RPM and the 2023 RPM (with the exception of a few failed attempts in November). I am going to try again, but I am probably not going to record guitars through my amplifier on a regular basis. I am thinking I can do direct input more often and I want a good amp sim that I can use consistently. The one I am looking at is only $40, but I just don’t want to spend any money. We have a mini-split to buy after all.

Speaking of gear acquisition syndrome, I also really want to buy a new lens for my new camera. I adore the 40mm lens we bought for Disney, but I’d like a little zoom option. Possibly because the cats are suffering from The Zoomies every night and it just sort of inspired me, you know? I also really really want to buy a 35mm film point and shoot and I don’t know why. I want to buy a 35mm film camera with autofocus functionality too, but that’s going to cost some dough, and I think I can get a point and shoot for pennies. I want to go Nikon, as usual, but decent Nikon point and shoots are stupidly expensive on ebay. I looked for Pentax options yesterday and saw some with the starting bid of $1.00… so yeah, that could be a better option. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll hit the thrift stores more often.

Okay, time to get breakfast and get my day started. I have a lot of meetings today and need to be ready for a long day at the home office. Wish me luck.

The Pain The Pain

I told my beloved wife Jen that I was going to take a page out of the Brian Adams playbook today and play it ’till my fingers bled. I didn’t go quite that far, but I am in so much finger tip pain that I had to stop a little early. I put lead guitar parts onto five of the remaining seven songs. My playing on the fifth song was atrocious, not because I suck (though, naturally) but because my finger tips hurt so much I couldn’t make them do anything. Ouch town, population me.

I will finish the last two songs, but it won’t be for a while. I might try again after dinner. I might wait until tomorrow. I can’t say yet. What I do know is that I have finished tracking a total of 12 songs so I am at the point where I could stop, apart from mixing, and call this year a win. I am pleased.

As always, I went into this year’s RPM Challenge with a specific gear setup in mind. Pedal-wise I was going to use my Klon KTR to push my Keeley Super Phat Mod. I never got on with that Keeley pedal and I was going to force it this month. Then the Marshall Bluesbreaker hype hit. Marshall released a pedal called the Bluesbreaker, which was supposed to make your amp sound like the amp Clapton used on the Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton record from 1966 but doesn’t, in the early 90’s and discontinued it after a couple of years. Fast forward to the 21st century and John Mayer uses the pedal on one of his records and suddenly the used market prices are through the roof and every boutique pedal manufacturer on Earth is either making a direct copy of it, or cloning it and modding it. I own a direct copy.

There was a rumor a year ago that Marshall was going to reissue the pedal. That rumor appeared to come true last week though it wasn’t until a day or so ago that Marshall actually verified the rumor was true. All the talk made me want to use my copy. I put it on the board and used the shit out of it. Today I was using it like crazy. Sometimes with the Klon KTR pushing it and sometimes just by itself. It’s not the kind of sound I usually get up for, but I have been seriously digging it the last few days, and for some reason using it with the neck pickup on my Les Paul today was a little slice of bliss.

What does that mean? Nothing. I just thought I’d share, that’s all.

I used my Les Paul on four of today’s five songs, and my SG on one. I was planning on using the SG for the two I didn’t get to as well, but now that I need some time to heal I have no idea what I’ll actually use on the last two. Probably the Les Paul. Either way, I took some obligatory pics.