Obligatory I’m-in-the-office-today-so-I’d-best-snap-some-photos-before-I-leave-the-house pics, which are by definition either cat pictures or guitar rig pictures. This time around it’s guitar rig pictures. Variety is the spice of life and shit.
Still very pleased with my cheap-o third party lens, but I really need to go outside and do a photo-takin’ walk around somewhere to really put it through its paces to know if I got a really good deal or just a regular good deal. Next week we are on vacation but are just staying home (a staycation, as it were) so I hope to have a few opportunities for photo walks. I’ll let you know.
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 morning routine today was a little upended. Usually I have some water with my morning vitamins, then yog in the cellar and have some more water. I stop drinking after about 15 minutes of exercise so that my 15 minute pause between drinking and eating will be up when I finish exercising and I can just have breakfast right away. for the last couple of weeks I’ve been playing guitar after I finish breakfast.
Today I had some water while walking and running outside, but I didn’t have my pills until I got back inside. I took a shower during my 15 minute pause and then had breakfast while watching Spaced. When breakfast was done I played guitar and then punched into work immediately after I finished.
I put rhythm guitars onto a May song, and lead guitars onto a June song. The streak is at 13 days and I am 90% sure it ends today. Tomorrow is an in the office day and I really don’t expect to be able to get any playing in before I have to start getting ready. The whole morning routine goes right down the crapper on commuting days. We’ll see what happens. I pulled it off last week, but with a new Marvel show kicking off tomorrow, Secret Invasion, I don’t know how things will go. Fingers crossed, right?
Pictures. This was focused on the pick up.
This was focused on the poker chip/pick up switch.
This was focused on the truss rod cover (aka the word “Standard”).
This was focused on the treble knob.
This was focused on BABY YODA, BABIE!
This was focused on the left food switch, I think. I don’t quite remember.
Crazy morning. I normally set my alarm for 5:00am on weekdays and then hit snooze a few times but still get out of bed well before 6:00. Today I didn’t get up until almost 7:00. I assumed my whole morning routine was going to get flushed.
Nope. I got everything I wanted to get done, done.
I fed and watered the cats. I emptied the dishwasher and put the dirty dishes in and cleaned them. I did a load of laundry. I watched Dead City (but not Fear the Walking Dead, thankfully). I ran in place for 32 minutes and closed my exercise ring. I ate breakfast. I drank 16 ounces of water and took my morning vitamins. I took a shower and got dressed and punched in to work with 10 minutes to spare.
I also extended the guitar playing streak to 12 days. I put lead guitars onto one of the songs I put vocals on yesterday. It wasn’t good, but it was a lot better than the last few leads I recorded. Nice.
I also used guitar as an excuse to take today’s photo a day challenge picture. I got everything I wanted to get to this morning done. Good job, Roberto.
292/365
Nutube
Will the guitar playing streak end tomorrow? It probably depends on the weather, I think. If the weather is okay then I might go to the movie theater parking lot shortly after the sun comes up and start the couch to 5k thing. If I do that, I probably won’t have time for guitar before work. I could always try to get it in after work, but that is a lot harder to do.
I just checked the hourly forecast. It’s going to be chilly, but the 6:00am hour is currently looking like it will be rain free. We might be doing this thing, kids. We just might be doing it.
Yesterday’s music output was decent. I put guitars on two songs in the morning. Later I wrote lyrics for two songs and mixed another song. Before bed I started a new song idea and that makes 10 for the month of June. I’m not saying I will finish my album in a month goal for June, but it’s a whole lot easier to reach it when you actually have the correct number of songs in progress. Now, having said that, I had 10 songs in progress in May as well and I didn’t finish any of them so… yeah.
The guitar playing streak is up to 11 days. I think today might be the last day though. I think I want to do car vocals tomorrow instead. We’ll see. I also might want to start the couch to 5k stuff tomorrow. I am still undecided. Again, we’ll see. I did spend about 20 minutes playing today though. I put rhythm guitars on the new song idea from last night. That means all 10 June songs have rhythm guitars now. Good stuff!
I kept the streak alive by playing some guitar today! Last night I cooked up a song idea in 5/8 time. I thought that rhythmically it was going to be tough to track the guitars today but I finished the whole thing, double tracking too, in about 15 minutes. That’s good for three reasons. One, it kept the streak going. Two, I have a bunch of stuff to do this morning and now have a little more time to do it. Three, I overslept quite a bit today and thought I was going to screw everything up but now I might not have.
Eight days in a row babie, the guitar has been played for eight days in a row. I suck more today than I did on day one but who cares, it’s eight days in a row, babie!
I did the same thing as yesterday. The night before I threw together a new song idea and then put two tracks of rhythm guitar on it in the morning. The difference here is that yesterday’s song was super easy yet fun and might actually turn out to be a good song. Today’s song was super easy but not fun, instead it is boring and dumb and will likely turn into a terrible, awful song.
Who cares!
288/365
Nutubes totally aren’t a gimmick, right? All the dust is totally a gimmick though, but not the Nutube… right?
Focus was on the pedal. The King of Tone pedal I waited over five years for but am now totally loving
Whoops! This is what happens when you accidentally tap the touch screen on the Nikon Z5 while you’re rolling across the floor on your office chair. Whoops, indeed.
Okay, time to go get ready for work. Happy Thursday, kids!
See that black thing with the word, “Fender” on it?
Know what that is?
That’s my favorite amplifier. That’s my Fender ‘65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue. It’s been at Mike’s house since late January 2020 and it’s finally back home where it belongs.
Kevin, Mike, and I were pretty terrible tonight but not nearly as terrible as I expected. We took turns throwing out song titles and then hoping muscle memory would kick in so we would remember how to play them. For the most part we did.
For most of the night my signal chain was 100% things that had never been to a Lizardfish practice before. My new Les Paul into the Ryra The Klone into the Malaise Forever Black Lives Matter into the Vox AC15. I sounded okay. A little too toppy but okay. I mostly did the Clapton Les Paul thing (not “Woman Tone”, the other thing) where you run both pick ups but lower the volume on the neck a little. It sounded pretty good.
I was pleased with the AC15. I had been a little concerned that the little 15 watt guy would struggle to keep up with the bass and drums. I need not have worried. It cooked right along with lots of headroom to spare.
As well as the Vox preformed tonight, the biggest take away is still the Deluxe Reverb coming home. At last.
I played a little today. Nothing serious. I just plugged straight into an amp and noodled. I did do a small experiment. I am thinking of taking my Vox AC15 to the next Lizardfish practice (whenever that might be) but I have never really pushed the volume. Is it loud enough to compete with the rest of the band? More importantly, if I get it up to band practice volume, is the tone still clean?
I dimed the master volume and then brought the channel volume up a little at a time. I got up to 92 decibels (according to my AppleWatch) and it was still clean as a bell. The band does get louder than that, but my channel volume (I was using the amp’s Normal channel, not the Top Boost) was only on about four, so there is still some room available. I don’t know when that channel starts breaking up, but I wasn’t even close. I think my band practice plans are good to go.
The question then is, do I use the Normal channel or the Top Boost channel? That’s still undecided.
Inside the Red Head's Head 