Rudi

Catfish - Taste

Hello Dan You lost me. What does this mean?

I always wondered what is was. I imagined it to be an electrical component of a much smaller scale.

Spanish Boots - Jeff Beck Group

I too have aspirations to produce authentic classical sounding original pieces. I don’t do it because I cant figure out the best approach. Or at least the best affordable approach. Coupled with the fact that much of the keyboard tech utterly bewilders me.

The (.052") low E (which was/is the buzz culprit) is heavier than Hofner anticipated because it doesnt fit into its slot in the nut properly. Its too big. Ideally I need to be able to raise that string independently but that is an impossibility without carving a new custom bridge. On the subject of custom bridges, I have noticed that some are set at angles other than 90%. At first I thought this was sloppy setting up, but then reasoned that it could well be deliberate. Considering the claims for the 'fanned fret' fingerboards, it would make sense to angle (away from perpendicular) the floating bridge to improve intonation.

It does no harm to try something else from time to time. You can transform the sound with different strings. The different feel is something you can adjust to. Sometimes it’s surprising just what you can get used to. I keep a notebook with the strings I use on each guitar. It’s also is a historical record of what strings I’ve used since owning the guitars. For example, when I bought the Soloist 16 years ago, I measured the string gauges. I keep a micrometer at home to check string sizes. That guitar went from strings that were similar in size to EB super slinky (.009”). Almost immediately I added custom sizes into the mix, so I would buy a pack of EB SS and also a couple of heavier Rotosound separates to get the exact sizes I wanted for each string. I was throwing away the redundant strings. After about 5 years of slowly increasing gauge sizes, I re-jigged the setup for EB Regular (.010”) and have used those ever since. Even though this seems perfect, I have idly wondered if I should try yet heavier gauges again. I still use a custom set on the Fylde acoustic with medium bronze wound as the core set (I replace the 3rd with a lighter unwound). I am still experimenting with the Spanish guitar. These sets are not normally sold according to gauge, but by tension. I have been trying different sorts of regular tension though (Aquila at the moment I think). I love the sound of nylon strings. The silent also is nylon strung. The new Hofner archtop has flatwound D’Addario .012” on. These is heavier than suits it really, and it’s a physical experience to play it. The day before yesterday I de-tuned them by a whole tone, which has only slightly affected the sound quality (a bit worse) and only slightly improved the tension. I will likely return it to regular concert tuning again. I have already bought a replacement set of .011” D’Addario for next time. All this reminds me that I need to retire a couple of guitars. This must certainly happen before I get another (and illogically, I do want another).

Match Box Blues - Blind Lemon Jefferson

You already have it? This is the oddly monikered ‘Guitar Research’ model. Looks like a Gibson 175? You don’t hang about Mike. So what’s it like?

I dont know why it is, but lots of bands I like feature two drummers. This is by no means exhaustive… Widespread Panic Little Feat (original) Rusted Root Charlie Daniels Band Los Lobos (intermittently) Grateful Dead Marshall Tucker Band Mother of Invention (Intermittently) Steely Dan (briefly)

Judas !!!

Traynor: Sounds sweet. Update to the Line 6: Yesterday I did indeed copy, paste & re-edit the 4 tones I constructed for use on the Jackson Elite. I had expected to just edit the EQ, but could not get the clarity by that alone. To haul it out of the mud I had to back off the gain. I had not anticipated that. It didnt even sound like it was too gainy, but I did notice the increased sustain. That gave me the clue. Sure enough, after reducing gain by about 30% the definition re-appeared. It doesnt sound as good as the Soloist, but I suppose it never will. It got me wondering whether I should change the pickups on the Elite. On the plus side, I get a beautifully clear signal which is why I favour it for recording. On the negative side, its always a struggle to produce usable sounds from it. It has two Active Seymour Duncan Humbucking PUs. The much nicer sounding Soloist has a bridge humbucker, and two forward single coils. These are passive Jackson PUs. I will try to get some advice.

Curious that I picked up on the 'clinical' sound, I hadn't realised it was a criticism. I may try to edit the chain on a couple & see what happens. Line6 DT50: Yes, its probably the much better way to go but I dont want to trade up to anything heavier either. Thanks for the comments Mike.

Review: Line 6 Pod HD400. For an overall description of the features & overall spec. scroll down to the end of this text. This has been available for over 4 years. Maybe that’s why I got such a heavily discounted price for it? It actually cost me a couple of quid less that the Hughes & Kettner pre-amp. Maybe Line 6 are poised to replace it? Who knows. The original device had 8 amp models. The latest firmware raises this to 16. The salesman at Andertons had no idea what I was talking about when I asked if it could be linked through the effects loop of the amp (via send & return cables). It transpires that it can. Used this way, it can slave your amp using the clean channel & bypass all amp controls. Its also the best option if you want to connect other devices to it too. NOTE: I had 16 years service from the Boss GT-5 and it may be unfair to compare it to these units, but I’m going to anyway. The Pod HD400 is more of a direct replacement for my dead Boss GT-5 than the previously reviewed Hughes & Kettner Tube-Factor (which has still to be gigged at the time of writing). Only when that has been fully road tested will I similarly test the Pod HD400. Line 6 have had a pretty good rep for some time. Maybe this is not the case anymore because the reviews I’ve read are mixed; and I’ve read quite a few now. Both user and press reviews average out at 9/10 positive. I also checked out reviews of the competition’s offerings (Boss and TC Electronics). They are pretty much the same at 9/10 also. It should be pointed out right now that these are not only FX stomp boxes, though they can be used that way. The Line 6 Pods are also amp modelling units. In their manual, Line 6 make it clear that you can incorporate the sound of your own tube amp into the overall sound by one of several options. They have even pre-empted this by defining some amp types you may configure directly with the Pods. You won’t be surprised that these are essentially Line 6’s own amps however. But this is an important acknowledgement that many players will want to use a Pod to enhance their sound rather than relegate their beloved amp to mere slave status. This then, forms part of the design scheme for these units. Interestingly enough, users that give outright negative reviews mostly complain that the amp modelling is still no match for the real thing. All those reviews were by users, not the press. It does make me wonder whether they had read the manual and had properly considered the alternative uses outlined above? That could well be the case because you have to download the proper manual and only a quick-start guide is included in the box. For the tube purists and the sceptical, it is easy to punch the Mode Select button and make the pod to bypass all these amp models and just use the FX as you would with a regular bank of stomp boxes. That’s simple enough. In addition to the manual there are the additional downloads of the Line 6 Monkey and the Pod Editing Software. The Monkey can fetch the latest firmware (and latest suite of tone patches) for the Pod and also backup to your PC any user defined ones you might wish to protect. The Editing software allows you to design or edit your own tones without using the Pod at all. This seems a great idea, because doing it directly on the Pod is awkward and annoying. Try as I might, I couldn’t get the software to ‘use’ the Pod as I was constructing a tone. And so far as I am concerned, if you can’t hear what you are doing then the software is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. So I designed tones using the Pod itself. Why is it awkward and annoying? Read on. I don’t have a tube amp. I use a Fender Stage 112SE on the clean channel, and its clean channel is pretty damned clean. In other words, I enable & use the amp modelling features on the Pod in full. I was expecting the edit functions on the Pod HD400 to be easy. Using the old (16 years) Boss GT5 was quite heavy going and took time to figure out how to produce useful patches. So this newer Line 6 tech was sure to be more user friendly right? Wrong! After downloading the full manual I spent ages just trying to understand some of it. Unless you are a competent sound engineer you will likely need to research some of the tech-terminology as I did. For example, a tube amp simulation parameter is setting the level of ‘bias excursion’ you want. The Advanced Manual does describe this, but it didn’t help me to know where to pitch this setting. To reduce the number of controls on the Pods, the controls are all multifunctional. So for example, The Edit wheel sets up the Pod pre-sets (how you fundamentally choose to use it), the tone editor and all the attendant parameters pertaining to them. So when I choose to construct a new tone patch, I select the amp, the speaker simulation, mic type & placing, signal flow route etc. Then I want to edit the EQ. So I reach for the separate Mids dial. Just by touching this dial, the display changes to Mid – EQ, but it only stays on for a couple of seconds before reverting to whatever was underneath it. So if I am late in dialling in what I want I can inadvertently change a set-up parameter instead. If I don’t notice what I’ve changed it from, I might need to restore the Pod to factory (defaults) settings just to correct it. This time-limit-delay function is used extensively, so care and precision is needed throughout any editing process. Line 6 promotional blurb says of the Pods; “stunning simplicityâ€. Well it isn’t simple. Furthermore, it should be obvious to all that it makes no difference how simple something is, it can’t stun you. Yes I did a Factory Reset early on and also calibrated the expression pedal. This was simple, though not stunningly so. I made more than a few mistakes but succeeded in creating a bank of 4 custom tone patches. It took several hours as the options are extensive and they need to be tried out and compared. Three of the tones I created used the bridge (humbucker) pickup of my Jackson Soloist. But for the really good one I had used the neck (single coil) pickup. Now this ‘good’ one is gorgeous and simply one of the best soloing sounds I have ever used on a solid guitar. The next day I tweaked the remaining 3 tones to also use the bridge pickup. It only took a few minutes and the sound difference was minimal. So with practice, Pod editing can be used with precision and to great effect. So far so good. The only problem of course, is that these carefully constructed new sounds were made at minimal volume on my Fender amp in the comfort of my sitting room at home. They will sound different in a large venue at gigging volume. In anticipation of this, I have reined back all tonal colouration by about 25% to create a drier sound. If I’ve got it right, it will sound perfect again in action. If not, it may be the lead sounds may not cut through well or seem muddy. Only time will tell. If they work out ok, those 4 new tones will allow me to play an entire two sets without faffing about with controls or selecting different PUs. They were designed as a ‘set’ with correct volume differential between rhythm and lead sounds. So this is with newly constructed tones. What about the pre-set ones then? There are 128 slots for these but not all are populated. All can be overwritten though. I would estimate that about 15% of them sound nice and that about 6% are useful as is. This may sound like a damning condemnation but it’s not really. It’s the cleaner sounds that are useful and most of the rest are simply there to demonstrate the potential of the unit. The Boss GT5 had more slots and I don’t recall any of those being useful at all. Some tone patches may sound ok and ready to gig, but chances are they will be too extreme and produce a hopeless mixture of mud & feedback. Some of the tones sound appealing though and can inspire ideas & food for thought. Generally most of the tones sounded a tad muddy & not bright enough. Some sound a little ‘clinical’ too. They would sound fine on some other guitar I’m sure. Users can upload their custom tones to the Line 6 site and make them available to all. There are a couple of problems with this though. Firstly, when perusing these uploads, you will have no idea what they sound like (and there are thousands of them!). The only clue is usually a one word description like ‘County’ or ‘Metal’. Secondly. What may sound good on a 68 Strat neck pickup may sound pants on a Ibanez S920 bridge pickup. As I said earlier, I devised the tones I wanted using a single coil neck PU on a Jackson Soloist XL. However, if I needed to use another guitar, such as the Jackson Elite, I will need to copy, paste and edit those four sounds to reproduce correctly for that instrument. The Elite uses newer active Seymour Duncan pickups, which are altogether darker & far less bright (yes even the bridge PU). A different guitar with different settings make a vast difference to what you hear. For me it was worth getting the Pod HD400 because I built one great sound with it. To put that in perspective, you could spend a fortune trying different amps, pre-amps, stomp boxes etc. in order to find a sound you really like. On the down side. One of the more informed critics of this kind of technology (amp modelling) complained more about the lack of accurate behaviour of the simulated amps. Its ok getting the sound but it wont behave the same when you employ certain playing techniques or alter the volume output (oddly enough, this is where ‘Bias Excursion’ comes in). I can testify to this. There is one preset called ‘Machine Gun’. It’s a Jimi Hendrix tone. Yes, it sounds unmistakably like Jimi too, but when I indulged myself and played some Jimi lines (as in Band Of Gypsies ‘Machine Gun’) it was ok until I tried to stretch out and indulge in some Jimi like sustain. It wasn’t there. OK, I expect I could tweak a few parameters and guitar settings to get this, but the point is the digital gear wasn’t responding in the same manner as the original gear did. You might end up making 2 or 3 versions of the ‘Machine Gun’ tone just to cover these variations. For me, the bottom line concerning this particular digital amp modelling is this: 1/ No, it still doesn’t work like the old analogue gear. 2/ It may or may not sound identical. I would need to use these old amps to properly compare the sounds. 3/ Fidelity aside, it can sound fantastic. I’m lazy, I didn’t want to study all this stuff and spend hours tweaking EQ, Noise Gate and FX chain parameters, but it was worth it nevertheless. Ok, what follows is an outline description. * (Note: Line 6 also produce two other Pods; the HD300 is the basic model and & the HD500 is advanced . The HD400 sits in the middle and I judged it to be best suited to my needs.) Features: HD amp models x 16 (may be used as Full or just Pre-amp Stages) 128 user Presets (manual states 256 factory Pre-sets. I cant find all these) 90+ FX Four may selected at one time (not including Expression Pedal FX) Expression Pedal may be set to Volume, Wah-Wah, or Pitch Glide Looper 24 seconds max. Play Once, Pre-Post, Record/Dub etc Connections: ¼†Jack, XLR, USB (Midi), FX Loop. Stereo or Mono Output (Balanced or Unbalanced). external pedal input; dedicated L6 link for Line 6 amps (this enables a data share I think). Headphone socket etc. Switches at rear may be set to Live, Studio or Dual (output to both amp +mixer) Tuner with signal mute (Software & Advanced Manual needs to be downloaded) Concerning these amp models in the Pod: This is what Line 6 have to say about them: "Creating these new HD amp models was no small feat. Line 6 mixed 15 years of amp modeling experience with 3 years of new research and development to build an entirely new amp modeling technology from the ground up. During that time, we hunted down 16 incredible amplifiers and—with the help of LA's top tube amp experts—restored each one back to peak condition. The new modeling technology uses 10 times more amplifier information than before, including single-ended class A tube stages, class AB push/pull interactions, power supply behavior, and more." What amps were sourced, restored and modelled then? Here they are: •Fender Twin Reverb •Hiwatt Custom 100 (DR103) •Supro S6616 •Gibson EH-185 •Fender Bassman •Fender Blackface Deluxe Reverb •Divided by 13 JRT 9/15 •Dr. Z Route 66 •Vox AC-15 •Vox AC-30 (Top Boost) •Marshall J-45 MkII •Park 75 •Marshall JCM-800 (2204) •Bogner Uberschall •Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier •ENGL Fireball 100 Line 6 Pod HD400 Build quality: Seems solid enough & looks like it’s designed for road use. The weak point is the PSU. This has a wimpy cable and plug. It is detachable however, so it could be replaced if it did break (It’s going to break. I’d better get a spare). If you read my review of the Hughes & Kettner Tube-Factor I levelled the exact same criticism against that PSU.

Kicks - Paul Revere & the Raiders

Powder Rag - Marc Friedlander Mr Friedlander slows up here and there (tempo). I first thought it was during the 'hard' bits. But then noticed he does it during some easy bits too. Maybe he slows up during the easy bits to make out its all done for artistic reasons? Powder Rag is one one my favourites. It was composed by Aurora Block.

Dry Bones - The Four Lads (from The Prisoner TV show)

Hey Tom, superb choice! Room Full Of Mirrors - Jimi Hendrix https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aAAZasftQA

It is just as I remember it. Absolutely burning hot. So Avit Hammer

Well I was only hoping for a link or two maybe. Dont let this weigh heavy on you Mike! And I was thinking of patches for the Jacksons not the archtop. I will only use minimal FX on that. In fact Ive only ever plugged it in twice, and one of those was in the shop. Its lovely as an acoustic.

OI JOHN, MANY HAPPY RETURNS OF 10-JANUARY

Well that would certainly explain a lot. And very compressed sound also? I would like to go a bit deeper with this. If it can help me design better sound modeling tone/patches. I know enough to amend 'attack' directly, but if there are other factors such as compression to consider, I need to understand this. I'm very glad you have pointed this out Mike. It has been bugging me. Thanks

Hey DM. Is this the new 24 fret version with the wider fretboard? And have you come to terms with the sound yet or made a decision?