Rudi

If posting this is bad etiquette. I appologise unreservedly and will not pursue the question here. For those of us who are not drummers, I'd love to get a drummer's perspective on this. Its a couple of years old now. I was considering it for recording use. https://mybeatbuddy.com/ I add this review, as it was one of the better ones.

One or two of you may know that I’ve spent a deal of time and money on picks. It’s been ongoing for about 2 years now. Changing picks has been of more real benefit than any new guitar or any other piece of kit could’ve been. While renewing the edges & points on favoured worn picks, I have experimented by adding bevels or a modifying the shape using files, emery cloth and whatever has come to hand. Some mods have been successful, others not. I’ve even considered making some, and schemed up a couple of jigs and a list of tools. For now though I’m going to continue to try to perfect the design mods I’ve made to existing picks. To make the alterations I want easier and quicker, I’ve just bought a multi angle vice (modelling type) and an assortment of grinding bits for use in a variable speed drill. I usually try to avoid the ‘white noise’ type sounds that come with coarse textured materials. This is when a rough pick surface scrapes on the string. But a very small amount is nice. I found this when using ‘Chicken Picks’. I never found out what these are made of but they are harder wearing than most synthetics. More importantly they won’t take a high gloss shine, so the texture is always satin-like. It sounds great. Stone is the opposite. It’s a great material for jazz. It’s warm (though not very loud) and suits round wound strings. The only disadvantage is that highly polished stone adds a ‘bottleneck effect’ (extraneous high chirpy sounds). Using the neck pup with reduced EQ highs sorts that out nicely though. These are most of the picks that I’ve used/accumulated so far: Gibson Wedge (triangular) Medium & Heavy Chicken Picks Tritone III 2.1mm (now modified) Chicken Picks Series Bermuda III 2.7mm Blue Chip TAD-40 Timber Tones Gypsy (triangular) Timber Tones Gypsy BUFFALO BONE : Timber Tones Gypsy BLACK (BUFFALO) HORN : (1 now modified) Timber Tones Gypsy AFRICAN EBONY : (3220 hardness Janka scale* ) Timber Tones Gypsy COCONUT HUSK : Timber Tones JAZZY TONES MAX - TURQUOISE BONE Timber Tones Jewel Tones Amethyst Timber Tones Groove Tones jazz pointed WHITE HORN Timber Tones Groove Tones jazz pointed BUFFALO BONE Timber Tones Groove Tones jazz pointed CLEAR HORN Timber Tones Jazzy Tones Max Turquoise Timber Tones Jasper Tones Mookite Jasper 1 V-Pick (Pointed Medium) : 2.75mm V-Pick (Pointed Ultra light Medium Red) : 0.8mm V-Pick (Pointed Large) : 2.75mm V-Pick (Pointed Freakishly Large) : 2.75mm V-Pick Snake : 4.10mm V-Picks Screamer : 2.75mm V-Pick Diamond : 4.10mm V-Pick Colossal : 8.85mm Dunlop Ultex : 0.88 thickness Dunlop Tortex: 0.88 thickness Dunlop Primetone: Jazz-3: 1.4mm Dunlop 473P : 3.0mm Tri Stubby (3 of which now modified) Stagg Elliptic : 0.88mm (1 of which now modified) Fender Classic celluloid medium Fender Heavy Shell Clayton US80 Hawk Picks Tonebird 4 Plectrum 1.2mm Std Bevels Planet Waves Nylpro Jazz Guitar Pick 1.4mm Tusq PQP-0488-G4 .88mm Gravity (Tri-Point orange) Stl-std-3-Pol-NA Stone Picks: Agate jazz pick. Gauge range: 2.5-3.0mm Stone Picks: Agate jazz pick. Gauge range: 1.5-2.0mm Stone Works Guitar Picks (Mike Stone) 1 x GP2174 (bloodstone-triangle-thick) Stone Works Guitar Picks (Mike Stone) 1 x GP2632 (petrified-triangle-thin) Stone Works Guitar Picks (Mike Stone) 1 x GP2485 (mozarkite-triangle-thick) Stone Works Guitar Picks (Mike Stone) 1 x GP2331 (brazilian-jazz-thin) Le Niglo N6 Bronze Le Niglo Titanium (le NiTi-SG Titane pointu - Tour de cou:) Le Niglo N4 Chrome (le tour de cou) (Le Niglo supplied) S16 Indian Horn Picks & Stones: Brasilian Agate 3.5 Jazz Picks & Stones: Bloodstone Ultra Thin 1.5 Picks & Stones: Brasilian Agate 4mm Jazz Style Finger Groove Pick Picks & Stones: Customer Special Order (tri-corner sharp x 4) Malachite Azurite + 3 Stone Guitar Picks (Jerusalem Israel) : Mozarkite (Tri) 2.5mm Stone Guitar Picks (Jerusalem Israel) : Black Jade (Tri) 5.1mm Stone Guitar Picks (Jerusalem Israel) : Snake River Agate (Tri) 2.9mm Stone Guitar Picks (Jerusalem Israel) : Brazilian Agate (jazz) 1.8mm Stone Guitar Picks (Jerusalem Israel) : Bloodstone (jazz) 1.6mm These picks are the ones that I now use live. V-Picks Freakishly Large (Tri-points) 2.75mm for soloing (Timbertone Coconut Gypsy are a close 2nd). Any synthetic (nylon/celluloid etc) for rhythm work (light enough for flexing) Gibson, Dunlop etc. Stone picks (various) for the odd occasions I play jazz. These are usually listed as ‘one-off’ items.

Yes. Already doing this. I plugged in the Deuce last night, and it still has my favourite tone. Those are alnico 5 HBs, and I use it with the coil split. It's a dark sound but balanced. At gigging volume the highs appear (they're mostly obscured at room volume). Its not dissimilar to a Gretch Filtertron sound. I've just e-mailed Jaime, the Creamery guy, and asked it was advisable/easy to change out the magnets to compare. You've taken on a student? Guitar?

Well the Creamery Domino Split Coils were fitted into the Elite last month. I also replaced the bridge and stopbar because I couldn't use the thumbwheel to adjust the bridge. The new one has screw threads at the poles. Its a little beefier too. The good; The pups sound great. Plenty of definition and fine tone. A distinct improvement over the originals. The not so good: However they still don't sound the way I had hoped. I may have needed alnico 5 instead of alnico 2 in there. Its also just as likely that the guitar build just isn't suitable for the Fender tones I'm hungry for. I tried them clean through the Fishman. The Elite could be used for jazz now. I constructed a new tone on the Line 6 POD for it. I gigged it weekend before last. It didnt work out. The mids were muddy. I rejigged POD and tried again on last Friday's gig. Result: rubbish! That tone will have to go. The Elite sounds pretty good with the set I made for the Ric though. Surprisingly, pretty much every guitar sounds great using the Ric set! Back to the drawing board with the POD tone, and complete rethink as to the quest for a Fender sound. I'm wondering now whether to replace the 2 single coils in the HSS Jackson Soloist with Fender specced pups.

Jack of All Trades - Heads, Hands & Feet

Some nice ideas fellers. Thanks. We did get paid the agreed amount. So he didn't get his way. Oddly enough, another guitarist in another band told me of a similar tactic at pub only about a mile away last month. His band was completely peed off about it as well. That pub was The Dolphin in Osborne Rd South. Ours was the South Western Arms in Adalaide Rd, both in Southampton. That's the thing about it. The bad feeling overcoming what should be (and was) a good feeling. I don't think their takings at the bar were suffering at all. The Landlord is a brash in-your-face type who is full of his own self importance. I am convinced he tried this on as an exercise to prove/demonstrate his force of will. T-Shirts & hats? Us? ....no! We have nothing like that.

Well TBH, money has never been an issue with us. We have played a lot of charities; sometimes without expenses. A 7 piece outfit is never going to make money locally. We play because we want to play. As a 7 piece band we would fit the club scene better than pubs. They would have a proper stage and pay better. But we gave up clubs because they are less fun. We didnt all agree about that in the early days. We were an 8 piece then; and the fellow who wanted the higher paying gigs quit. So the issue for us is not the money itself, but the fact that the landlord made an issue of it at all. We went down well, the place was packed and yet he tried to stint on the fee.

At the close of Friday's gig at a Southampton pub. I played two poor (clumsy frankly!) solos. Felt embarrassed about it. Before leaving I got 2 complements about my playing. Someone wanted my phone number to give to another band who need a guitarist. What were they hearing? We did however have a great final set. Pub was full, lots of enthusiasm, lots of dancing. Our singer in particular worked his *ss off and put on a real 'show'. Then the landlord tried to talk us down on the agreed fee, because we weren't as good as last time. That's not the way to handle things. If he is unhappy in any way, he can cancel further engagements. After we first played there, he was insistent we do 3 further gigs before the end of the year. We recommended we just did one, so-as not to 'wear out' in front of the locals. We only reluctantly agreed. As a result of this, some of us don't want to return there. It left a nasty taste and spoiled an otherwise good evening. Should we carry on even though the Landlord is a jerk? At the present moment I don't think so.

Hammer and a Spike - God Street Wine. (a favourite band of mine)

Pleasant Valley Sunday - The Monkeys Beats me! I looked twice. Still dont see it

If only one is a volume control, then the other two are probably tone controls. It seems odd that you have no pickup selector switch (or do you?). If correct it means that the volume knob is a 'master' control, meaning that it works for both pickups together. The other two would almost certainly be independent tone controls; one for each pickup. The bridge pickup (angled one close to the bridge) will have a brighter tone, whilst the neck pickup will have a lower 'bass-like' tone. If you have no pickup selector switch, that means that both pickups are always on together. Try out the other two knobs to see what tone changes you can get.

Long Grey Mare - Fleetwood Mac

Mercury Blues - Ry Cooder and David Lindley Live 1990.

Bend It - Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich

Father O'Blivion - Frank Zappa

So Many Roads - Grateful Dead

never take my advice

Greyhound Bus - Mick Abrahams Band

Is there no way you could become an independent support guy?

Run Paint, Run Run - Capt. Beefheart & Magic Band

update your e-mail addy to a dummy one

SHOUT SISTER SHOUT - The Blue Flames

Shining Light - Annie Lennox

Moonshine - Bert Janch

All We Are - Jonah