I have learned more about making my guitar sound un-shitty from these two guys over the last couple of months than in all the reading and playing and studying and experimenting I’ve done with electric guitars since 1987.
Tag: Guitar Gear
I Need More Fuzz Pedals
It’s not a question of want, it’s need. I need more fuzz pedals.
It’s Done, It’s Done!
I came out of a meeting today and there was a voicemail on my cell phone. It was Guitar Center. My Les Paul is ready to be picked up! WOOOHOOO!
Of course I can’t get up to the store until Friday… Booooo. But it’s all finished so again, WOOHOO!
Come Sunday’s rehearsal I will have a Les Paul with a high output bridge pickup and the ability to use the neck pickup by itself. Next up is bringing the ES-335 into the shop for some routine maintenance. I just need to get the pots cleaned and some of the connections re-soldered. After that… a Floyd Rose tremolo bar on the Stratocaster? Maybe.
The Current State of My Gear Acquisition Syndrome
Now that Lizardfish is again in a lull between gigs I can once more turn my attention to feeding my Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I’ve been researching five items. The first three on the list are necessary replacements for gear that has either been malfunctioning or underperforming. the last two are more of a would-be-nice list rather than must haves. They are replacements for current gear that is actually working just fine.
Gibson Dirty Finger Bridge Pickup — 139.99
Gibson toggle switch — 24.99
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PSTS020
Fulltone Clyde Deluxe Wah — 211.65
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-effects/fulltone-clyde-deluxe-wah-guitar-effects-pedal
— — — — — — — —
Wren and Cuff Tri Pi 70 — 189.99
https://reverb.com/item/2451198-wren-and-cuff-tri-pie-70-triangle-knob-muff-fuzz
JHS Muffuletta — 229
https://reverb.com/item/1044036-jhs-muffuletta-fuzz
I could add a few other items, but I’ll stick with this for now. My Gibson ES-335 Pro has Dirty Finger pickups and they are insane. My Gibson Les Paul has Classic ‘57’s and they are kinda wimpy. I want to put a Dirty Finger into the Les Paul to angry it up a bit. Also, the pickup selector switch on the Les Paul hasn’t worked since the day I bought it. It’s time to fix that. Finally, my Cry Baby that lives on the band pedal board died. I’m using it as an excuse to upgrade rather than just get it fixed.
The two pedals are Big Muff clones and I just want ‘em.
Happy G.A.S. Shopping, everyone!
Guitar Pedal Porn
I had this idea back in the late Spring or so. Rather than truck my guitar gear back and forth between home and rehearsal, I would set things up at the rehearsal space the way I want them for gigs, and then make a back up set up to keep at home for both practicing and recording.
Here is the rehearsal space pedal board as it was used at the last gig, and as it exists now…
The signal path is tuner->Wah->Uni-vibe->Phaser->Overdrive (used almost like a clean boost with just the tiniest bit of gain. I want my amp to sound a little broken up when I play clean, but not really too distorted)->Bass Big Muff (for fuzzy rhythm guitar)->Big Muff with Tone Wicker (for fuzzier leads)->Delay.
Before the next show I want to move the delay to between the Phaser and the Overdrive. I want all the dirt at the end of the chain, just before the amp. That’s contrary to most people’s preference but I don’t care.
Tonight I finally set up the home pedals. I’d been piecing them together a couple at a time while working on recordings and stuff. Tonight was the first time I ran them all together. Of course I took a picture…
I tried to do the signal path from memory and got it wrong, and I also don’t have anything to sit it all on, but whatever. Tuner->Wah->Overdrive->Phaser->Uni-vibe->Delay->Nano Bass Big Muff->Nano Big Muff.
I will move the overdrive to after the delay and switch the phaser and the uni-vibe tomorrow… assuming I’m going to be doing some recording tomorrow.
I’m not really sold on the Nano Big Muffs. They sound… wimpy… I guess that’s the word… wimpy when compared to the band board versions. I have a NYC Big Muff reissue that is awesome. I might replace both of the nanos with it. I’ll give it some recording time and see how I feel later.
The tuner on each board is the same model, same with the cry baby wah. The Joyo Ultimate Drive at home is a clone of the Fulltone OCD at rehearsal. Same deal with the Joyo Vintage Phase, it’s a clone of the MXR Phase 90. I don’t know if the Moen Shaky Jimi Vibe I have at home is an exact clone of the MXR Uni-Vibe I have at the practice space, but it’s damn close. The only major difference between the two setups is the delay. The DoD at home is a digital delay while the Seymour Duncan Vapor Trail at rehearsal is analog and 500,000,000 times better.
I also have a Fuzz Face Mini and an old DoD Flanger that I haven’t decided if they will find a home or not. We’ll see.
I am such a gear glutton. If my 17 year old self could see me now… he’d probably look down at his crappy little DoD overdrive plus and puke with jealousy (although he’d be pleased to see I am still using the same cry baby wah), and that doesn’t even mention the amps or the three (3!) high end electric guitars I’ve snagged since then.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Gear Acquisition Syndrome is a real problem and I hope they never find a cure.
Band Practice
Tonight was our first band practice in something like three weeks. We have a gig in a month but rehearsal time has been hard to come by.
The main focus right now is getting a handful of new songs up to speed. Some of them are songs the band played with their old guitar player, so they are only really new to me.
I expected us to be rusty and sloppy and not very good, but we played surprisingly well. It was pretty intense too and my finger tips are burning. My calluses were not as hard as they should be, and the strings were digging in to my skin something fierce. I need to practice at home more than I do.
We have until Saturday October 8th to get our collective shit together again. We will be ready.
Guitar Gear Shopping
Let’s feed that gear acquisition syndrome by surfing the net for some guitar related things I don’t need but desperately want.
This will be fun (for me, at least)!
JHS MUFFULETTA
I’m torn on this one, but it’s still probably the top of my semi-realistic want list. The Muffuletta is not only a Big Muff fuzz pedal clone, it’s six of them. It clones five of the more noteworthy Muff models and adds an original circuit too. I lust for the original Triangle models. In my listening research they are by far my favorite, but I do love them all. The down side is the company, JHS, has a pretty bad reputation. They allegedly steal other companies designs, and I’ve heard terrible stories (that I don’t know for sure are true) that they’ve had some sort of financial relationship with a pray-away-the-gay organization. If that’s true, then they can rot. On the basis of rumor alone, I would only buy one of these pedals used.
Wren and Cuff Tri-Pie ‘70
Instead of the Muffuletta, I could go with a Tri Pie 70. This is another clone of the original Triangle Big Muff fuzz that I want so bad. The demoes I’ve heard sound amazing. I would love to get my mitts on one of these suckers.
Fulltone Clyde Deluxe Wah
I am a Wah addict going all the way back to my first day wanting to play guitar. I’ve always used Dunlop Cry Baby’s and never wanted anything else. The Clyde Deluxe though sounds like it might be a Cry Baby on steroids. It has features I never realized I wanted until I started reading about Fulltone. Now I know I want them and they will be mine.
Fulltone Deja Vibe 2
I’m not sure they make the model pictured anymore, but there is a Deja Vibe stomp box too that would do fine for me. I’ve had a couple of cheap Uni-Vibe pedals, but this is as close to the real thing as you can get. Being able to adjust the speed on the fly would just be that much more awesome.
Gibson SG
Inside the Red Head's Head 