Rudi

Hesitation Blues - Rev Gary Davis

Big Eyes Beans From Venus - Capt Beefheart & the Magic Band I had to add this quote from the YouTube comments "When I saw them play the long lunar note in the Tower Theater a fuse must have blown out cause everything on stage went dead-for about 15 minutes. When they got the electric back on and began again, they picked it up precisely at the long lunar note. And the whole place went wild. " Richard Wohl What's the long lunar note? You have to listen to the song.

Hi Teek, twitter = babble, prattle, or otherwise talk ceaselessly and without good cause. The Albums were CDs from Amazon Uk.

On Tuesday, I went to Mazak in Worcester in the West Midlands on a work trip. My friend and colleague Danny drove. In the back were the the office interns; three young ladies (girlies to us) who witter & giggle constantly. We felt lucky to be going in a Merc S series hire car for the 280 mile round trip. The radio was on most of the time. On the return journey a pop-rock tune was being played at one point. Towards the end of the tune, an unusual change occurred. It sounded as if two chords were overlaid. In addition to that, the phrasing was dramatic. It sounded great. The girls had noticed this also, and commented on it immediately (yes they were listening passively despite the chatter). Except to them this was not good. They thought it was horrible. Its good that this piece of music was noticed and commented on at all of course. It kind of 'did its job' IMO. This couple of seconds of remarkable music was the only interesting thing I heard during the entire trip. The girlies are in their early twenties and find acceptable what I regard as bland. I suppose that you have to hear this sort of music for many years before it seems bland to you. I recently bought some albums. All of them old. A Blossom Toes one, four Dr John ones and four Jimmy Giuffre ones. I recall hearing Dr John's 'Gris-Gris' when I was 16. I couldn't handle it. The voice was weird. The music was odd. Now it sounds refreshing and it makes me smile. Even music that I was beginning to appreciate at age 16, I knew would make more sense over time. JS Bach did and Charles Ives did. I know most people dont want to challenge themselves at all musically, but to me its an ongoing process and part of getting older.

I will Take You Home - Ed Sheeran

Mike, I knew about the volume disparity (perhaps from you?). The volume normalization seems like a sensible move. You probably have realised that I will get a Variax soon. I finally got the refund on the Flaxwood. I want to try out the remaining JT models, but will almost certainly get a Standard, based on the one I used at PMT a short while back. Designing a new tone is certainly appealing. I doubt I would try to do as you have and try to recreate an existing sound. I'm not sure what you mean about the volume of your amp. Maybe you dont have the opportunity to use the volume levels to make the simulation complete. Or maybe you literally dont have a powerful enough amp?

Safe in New York City - AC/DC to Hammer & a Spike - God Street Wine

Hammer & a Spike - God St Wine

Moby Grape is low hanging fruit. Better band than the jets though

Yes Tonight Josephine- The Jets

Jammin - Bob Marley

Lyin' Eyes - Eagles

Even a clown knows when to strike Elvis Costello - Clown Strike

Rob... just wonderful! Your Majesty is Like a Cream Doughnut - Hatfield & the North The band name comes from this road sign (the A1 - the old Great North Road leaving London)

I've had 'Famous Blue Raincoat' echoing through my head today...

The amount of knobs I’d want on my ideal guitar would be none at all. I only need one pickup; a single coil in the neck position. I don’t need a tone knob because I leave them on max treble (the one exception being the Hofner Archtop, but that’s not a gigging guitar). Volume? Don’t need it. The expression pedal on the signal processor is always set to ‘volume’, so I use that. It’s also much easier to control volume that way. Once the soundcheck is done, the max volume doesn’t need altering either. When I got my latest signal processor (a Line 6 POD HD400), I spent a long while constructing the ‘perfect’ tone for my Soloist XL guitar. It turned out beautifully. This tone has been copied & adapted to suit other gigging guitars. TBH, the small tweaks are minimal and are mostly just EQ levels. When I get a new guitar, I select the neck pickup (I don’t use anything else) and turn the tone to full on treble. Then I allocate a new bank for it on the signal processor, I clone the ‘master’ tone patch and tailor all the EQ settings right there. If I get it right, I never touch it again. So depending on what guitar I use, I just select it’s custom tone patch bank. There are 4 slots in a bank. I only really need one, but I clone it and add some tremolo to suit ‘Mama Told Me Not To Come’ on one. So it’s only used on this song. For the 650C and the Deuce I have added a second clone. That second clone has a tad more gain (about 6%) and perhaps a smidgeon more treble (3%). This is used as a ‘boost’. The 650C needs this past the 12th fret on solos. The Deuce needs it on a couple of songs that benefit from a little punch at the last bars of some solos. The 3rd position in the bank is pure guitar with no amp modelling or FX at all. This ultra clean setting is for ska rhythm. I don’t need the 4th patch slot. I know what sound I want. (except that Fender one :)) I have the sound I want. Therefore I don’t need to faff about with it.

I spent about 3 minutes playing it and I don't like it. It only took 30 seconds to decide that really. The neck feels tighter than the stated 12" rad. Maybe its the roll off at the edges? But the e strings are too close to the edges. I didn't push them off, but it would have been inevitable if I'd kept playing. I've put it straight back in the box and have advised Thomann. I have no idea how much it will cost to return, but it will still have been worth the opportunity to try it out. So it doesn't handle well. The neck material is fine. The fingerboard forms part of the neck. It feels ok and I'd have no problem with the neck had it been shaped to my liking. The hardware seems of very good quality, I expected the pickups to be poor, and they certainly are. Seymour Duncan consistently make nasty sounding pups. That's not intended as a challenge to you SD fans. It is of course totally subjective. So waiting to hear something from Thomann right now. Never mind. I have been extremely lucky with mail order guitars up on the whole, so I was overdue for a disappointment. I sent it back after getting the returns label from Thomann. Today (9-Nov-16) they acknowledged receipt of the guitar. Now to wait & see when the refund is made.

Sorry teek, I never noticed this question until now! Ok, for decades I used Gibson triangular picks. Cheap bendy black things with three playing edges. I still essentially like this design. I am unusual in the regard that I use different picks. It comes from the ongoing quest for improvement (mine). I have collected a lot of very different picks in a 2 year period. I now only use 3 basic types. 1/ The triangular old Gibson ones. Heavy or Medium (depending on string tension) for rhythm playing. The 'give' is helpful. 2/ Thicker (1.8mm or more) triangular pick with 'sharp points'. These are plastic (perspex etc) and used for soloing. My favourite is V-Picks 'Freakishly Large'. They are solid. 3/ For jazz I use stone. And that is mainly on my big box Archtop with heavier roundwound strings. Either triangles again or the regular 'jazz picks' which are much smaller. Jazz picks have the advantage of being pointier by design. The stone sound is warmer and a bit quieter. For regular playing they have an unfortunate high 'chirp' when they touch the strings, but if you use a neck pickup and a bass biased EQ, this copes pretty well with the chirps. The advantage of stone is that it doesnt wear out. Yes its me that unusual. Most players dont pay much attention to the picks they use. They would rather spent $4,000 on a boutique amp to improve their tone . The pick making punch is great for regular picks. I would use these for rhythm playing.

Based on what you've said here. I suggest that you don't bother.

Devil's work? Sorry man, that's just not admissible. Personal definitions are strictly the province of the clergy. I hope you realise that you're gonna have to do penance for this? You must choose 1 or 2 1/ Hang around a local school at home time dressed as Michael Jackson, or... 2/ Listen to Slim Whitman's "Indian Love Call" on repeat for a 24 hour period (yes at night too). It was nice to hear Hocus Pocus again though.

I'm not understanding the link ? PS My last attempted post here failed

Did this happen Mike? Since there was no update, I imagined that it didn't. Even so, just the preparation must have sharpened your skills somewhat?

Variax makes a lot of sense, especially for recording. Apart from the versatility, a silent signal can be so important. It is a shame that you cant easily transplant the variax innards. Not only to ad it to an existing guitar but also to replace the variax circuit when its replaced by a newer version. On the subject of replacements, its amazing how many guitars have such a short manufacturing life. I had a Musicman Sillouette on my shortlist, but it seems out of production now.

Living In The Past - Jethro Tull