Long post to read if youre bored, feel free to add your own discoveries I am no music expert so Im not trying to sound like a theory snob (in fact I am pretty elementary really), I have a TON to learn and Im open to suggestions.

So Im just now spending a lot of time on modes so im somewhat of a noob with them but I gotta say that Phrygian Dominant sounds amazing over major chords. couple different ways to look at it, explicitly I guess its the 5th mode of harmonic minor. Or you can look at it as a major scale with 2b, 6b, 7b. Or you can look at it as the Phrygian mode with a major 3rd instead of a minor third.

I like to think of it as the last one I listed because if you listen to it, it has every indication that you are playing a minor scale(minor 2nd, minor 6th and minor 7th intervals), except for the one interval that actually determines whether a scale is major/minor - the 3rd. I think its because of this that it sounds so great over a major chord...totally different sound than you are used to since you cant normally play a true minor scale over an extended major chord and have it sound that great unless it changes back to a minor chord quickly.

There are only 2 small problems I have found with it. Its extremely hard to work it out over an interesting chord progression since it actually does not sound good over minor chords unless you avoid the 3rd. So the chord "progression" underneath it ends up being completely major chords for the most part...maybe a dominant 7 thrown in. Because of this its more of something to use over a few chords that you hit and let ring out. Although I havent tried switching to an actual Phrygian melody over a minor chord (which might not sound too bad and let me actually have a progression).

The 2nd is similar; because it uses so many minor intervals while being played on top of major chord, I have found myself somewhat limited in trying to stay in a certain key while writing a chord progression to go under it. I guess as an example, when I am in a major key, the I chord and the V chord are both major, but the V chord is built off of the a root(V), major 3rd (VII), and my p5(II). well, the phrygian dominant plays a note a half-step below the VII and the II. So even if I switched to play the scale using the V as the root there is a disconnect. 1) the I and V sound great together of course 2) the individual scales have good harmony over their respected chords but 3) it doesnt sound good when put together/played back to back because the scale for I and the scale for V share so little notes that it is almost a little too jarring.

It almost feels like when using some of these modes, Im going to need a chord progression to fit the lead instead of the way it is done with more diatonic harmonies where a chord progression is written before the lead generally speaking. Its also so strong that its probably something I would only want to use once or twice on an album so that it doesnt seem gimmicky. I have a lot to learn it seems like, but Im up for the challenge.

Anyone else have any insight on the use of modes?

[Edited on June 12, 2008 at 12:05 PM. Reason : ]

6/12/2008 12:00:32 PM

Well, the Danelectro pickup experiment is over...I'm getting a bridge P-90 for my Tele and ripping everything else out. I just learned today that Sylvain Sylvain and Johnny Thunders referred to single pickup/single volume/single tone guitars as "automatics." Badass.

6/13/2008 2:37:36 PM

Holy shit, I've never seen this before:

Quote :

" Introducing the P-Rails, a full-sized humbucker that splits to either a P-90 or a special alnico rail single coil."

6/13/2008 3:18:00 PM

OOOO SNAAAP

6/13/2008 3:50:21 PM

^^ i heard about those the first time a few months ago. the sound guy at the brewery builds some sick guitars and he just built a custom strat with those in there. it sounds sweet.

6/13/2008 4:08:24 PM

And of course it's just as I bought a new P-90 for my Tele. I'd only need one of these (naturally), because I hate to admit that I sometimes use an SG with a Duncan JB in the bridge to record solos and it'd be a nice on-guitar version of a boost switch.

6/13/2008 4:10:16 PM

Quote :

"How do I go about setting a fair value for a 2000-2001 Mexican Stratocaster MZ01999 Artic (I think) finish rosewood fretboard with a maple neck (also, pretty sure here not positive). The only bad thing is a hairline (literal) crack in the body that doesn't affect playability."

sorry dude, I think your post kind of got lost being the last post on that last page. im not quite sure but maybe someone could help you.

6/13/2008 9:56:32 PM

i'm working with that pedal, i'll record something eventually but i've pretty much dialed in a few sounds that i like, a rhythm sound, solo sound and a few clean sounds and don't really see myself getting anything else out of the given options. If you can't get something out of the general default sounds then its probably not for you.

6/13/2008 10:15:18 PM

im not that worried about getting the perfect sound because I know ill never find the true "recording" tone im looking for in a pod, but that being said im sure I can find a sound that is plenty good enough for what im wanting to do which is just be able to record riffs and add a track or two of leading guitar on top of them.

some of it would be for practice for lessons and others to write and remember ideas for the band. but right now its a pain. if you record something id love to hear it, and let me know how easy this thing was to set up.

PS i like the mode stuff in the video you posted. i wish there was more ABOUT whats on the video besides just listening to it because I have a bad ear haha. hes always fun to watch play though. pretty sure ill never get half as good as someone like him because I dont have enough time to play haha

[Edited on June 14, 2008 at 6:45 PM. Reason : ]

6/14/2008 6:38:27 PM

http://www.myblogband.com/bands?id=52

um K/S is with that pedal. Chords sound like ass, as with any other pedal i've ever touched. A large portion of the ass sound could be contributed to the fake drums, the fact that my bass was plugged directly into my computer and the fact that i don't know how to mix properly.

6/15/2008 12:24:29 AM

sounds great man. love the guitarwork. kicks my butt the tone is actually pretty decent. that would be more than enough for me to mess with. are you running your guitar straight into that unit, then running out through midi into your computer or what?

[Edited on June 15, 2008 at 1:34 AM. Reason : ]

6/15/2008 1:33:25 AM

no. 1/4" cable into the pod, then 1/8th into computer. the midi is just for like the editing software (i think?) but this can operate just like any regular pod/pedal.

6/15/2008 1:37:22 AM

oh ok sweet. the site kind of confused me. did you get one new or used?

6/15/2008 1:56:44 AM

used on craigslist.

6/15/2008 2:04:01 AM

Some of the songs from Rolling Stone's "Top 100 Guitar Songs" are being played on the Chop Shop Guitar Show on 96 Rock right now--the show started at 9 p.m. FYI.

6/15/2008 9:22:29 PM

pretty good stuff man

6/15/2008 9:34:43 PM

Unfortunately, the list is fucking terrible.

6/15/2008 9:37:11 PM

I meant the music that Walls posted

6/15/2008 9:40:00 PM

i think the best tone that i ever had outside of an actual amp, was with the Boss GT-8 i had, but i decided that it wasn't worth $300 since i only ever used one of the distortion settings and like 1 delay setting so i sold that shit and got a 360. They're great if you use many different sounds / effects though.

6/15/2008 11:22:54 PM

Anyone tried the empress superdelay? It was just released less than a month ago.



It looks really amazing from the videos I've seen of it on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/user/empresseffects

6/16/2008 1:48:44 PM

boo digital

yay memory man

6/16/2008 1:55:44 PM

So what is yalls opinion on the GNX4? I've been using it for several years now so it's hard to even remember what anything else sounds like.

6/16/2008 8:06:33 PM

boo digital

yay el84s

lol

6/17/2008 3:50:34 AM

hehe

so that's a "not so good" eh?

it's awesome for practice.. I just load up a backing track that I download off of youtube on to the memory card and hit play..or you can write any midi drum track you want. also great for recording on the fly..pretty much just pick a drum track, tempo and hit record and you're off which is great for when you're just messing around and play something that you really want to remember but know you want unless you record it within about 30 seconds (or maybe my memory just sucks worse than average..)

i'm guessing for all out studio recording something else would be better

6/17/2008 8:06:32 AM

yeah, i was just fucking around

i've got an old boss br-8 digital 8-track that i use for the same purpose, plug in and record riffs

6/17/2008 1:15:53 PM

yea our other guitar player has something similar. its very handy. im planning to pick up one of those jstations and plug it into my laptop and then I can have stuff on my laptop to carry around.

6/17/2008 1:18:07 PM

just picked up a jstation. i think ill get a lot of use out of it. ill let you know how I like it once I actually get to use it.

[Edited on June 17, 2008 at 2:29 PM. Reason : ]

6/17/2008 2:29:41 PM

snagged one of these on sunday:

6/17/2008 10:34:24 PM

You're such a bastard.


Since the new empress effects delay was posted, what's everyone's favorite delay pedal?

No tape delays!



Rich bastards...

6/17/2008 10:39:20 PM

i prefer boss, or berhinger makes a good one, the case is just plastic instead of metal like boss.

6/17/2008 11:30:42 PM

ain't nothin' rich about it (fortunately or unfortunately, you decide)...i sold an epiphone and bought that gibby for the same price

as for delay, i really liked the dan-echo, but that wasn't true bypass and i played so loud you could hear it all the time. i've had this for almost ten years and never wanted for a different delay:

6/17/2008 11:48:59 PM

you guys know anything about the shure sm57? I've had one stashed for a while and it was working perfectly at one point. Now I can tap on the capsule and get a response, but anything other than this direct force will not register.

6/18/2008 7:17:08 PM

dunno what it could be, but it's probably not worth fixing if it's something inside

the labor alone would cost you half of what a new 57 would

6/18/2008 7:19:18 PM

i was going to go to the guitar place off of capital, but i guess i'll just ask you guys.

ever since we got guitar hero, my 5year old son has been obsessed with the guitar. all he could talk about was how he loved the guitar, so i started letting him watch videos on youtube of people playing the guitar. it was probably the longest time i've seen him sit and watch something. then, i got him an ipod shuffle and d/l all kinds of music for him like jimi hendrix, cream, led zeppelin, guns n' roses, velvet revolver (his favorite), foo fighters...even threw in a little slayer. every morning he would eat breakfast, then listen to his ipod and stare out the window and jam to his music (i would even sneak a peek at him pretending to play the guitar). i thought it was pretty cool to see him take such a genuine interest in something.

well, in the last couple of weeks he's been asking us to buy him a real guitar. i told him playing that is nothing like the game, but he still insists on us getting him one. my question is, is he too young to start playing and taking lessons? do they even make child size guitars? if he is too young to take lessons or have his own real guitar, is there anything i can do to keep him into it? i know zero about guitars. i would normally get him some cheap baby guitar, but he would absolutely know the difference and would be disappointed.

thanks for any help on this.

6/18/2008 9:09:03 PM

Is he opposed to learning on an acoustic?

If not, you may want to look into a travel acoustic.

6/18/2008 9:23:48 PM

its a tough call for a 5yr old. a cheap acoustic is going to be really hard for him to play. on cheaper guitars, its usually a pretty big space between the fretboard and strings. (this is known as high action. the closer the strings, the lower the action). i would guess he'd need a lower action setup because he's got small hands and won't have the finger strength, and will likely get frustrated quickly when he's only able to plunk out a dull thud. for this reason, i would recommend an electric guitar and cheap practice amp. he'll be able to have fun with it pretty quickly.

you can get junior size electric guitars. they will have a shorter scale length too (shorter scale means the neck isn't as long). this will help again with his small hands, as there's less space between frets. you may want to think about getting him lessons. if so, he'll be much more likely to stay with it if you can find a "fun" teacher. ie someone who will teach him how to play some basic "grown up" songs.

pm if you'd like more details.

6/18/2008 9:48:23 PM

Quote :

"dunno what it could be, but it's probably not worth fixing if it's something inside the labor alone would cost you half of what a new 57 would"

well, Shure will repair them for $55 but if it was something relatively simple...

6/19/2008 12:48:59 AM

i suppose you could pop it open and look for a loose solder joint, but anything else would be worthy of a real repair

and all i'm thinking about is $55 repair plus shipping each way and a new one is $85

6/19/2008 3:23:34 PM

yeah for some reason I thought 55 included s/h and that a new one was 100.

I don't do much home recording, but my old boss gave me the mic a couple of years ago and I just ordered an XLR to USB cable. It was going to be the start to one baller ass rock band setup. I guess I'll make do with the piece of shit dynamic they included in the podcasting kit.

I already checked for loose solder points. I'm thinking it could possibly be the diaphragm, but I cannot find any replacement info on that part.

6/20/2008 1:27:48 AM

Somebody's got a 57 on craigslist for like $50...or you could use this opportunity to get a 58, which I think sounds better even on an amp.

6/20/2008 11:20:20 AM

fuck i really want the kind of tone he's able to get out of the slower chord driven section of the middle of this song its rare to hear that kind of quality live.

6/22/2008 12:51:14 PM

1. Buy Marshall 2203/2204.
2. Turn up.
3. Record.

6/22/2008 1:02:30 PM

alright so I got a J Station. I picked up a plain 1/4" jack (M) that has a 1/8" opening (F) on the end from a friend at work today:

Quote :

"http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:fqfIDZWN7I7OqM:http://www.cablesforless.com/ProductImages/a-v/ADP-35F14M.jpg"

I still might pick up the opposite of that as well for like .99 online.

My plan is to hook that up into an output slot on the jstation and then run a 1/8" cable from that jack into the microphone input on my laptop. n00b question here but, it doesnt make a difference if I use a "headphone extension cable" that has a 1/8" on each side versus a 1/8" "microphone cable" right? A 1/8" audio cable is a 1/8" audio cable I would assume.

Also, for jstation purposes, are you running it in mono mode and then running the cabling out from either the right or left output in the back to your computer?

7/1/2008 8:30:50 AM

running it out of the headphones jack with an 1/8th cable that game with a set of computer speakers i had a long time ago. i just have one of those 1/4 to 1/8th converters.


i believe the headphones jack is stereo. i can double check after work.

7/1/2008 1:04:46 PM

Yeah, that would be the only thing that might give you trouble once you play it back...a mono input going through a stereo cable and then back to a mono plug but into a stereo jack. I'm not really clear on how all of that works (other than which piece of the plug is for which channel), but it could be something.

7/1/2008 4:43:31 PM

most recording programs give you the option to record a mono or stereo track. If it is mono and you try to record a stereo track you will just get playback from one side. On the otherhand, your input jack might only be mono in which case it won't matter because when you record the .wav it will only play in mono or jointstereo.

7/1/2008 11:17:24 PM

as far as i know i have every effect turned off and every effect knob turned totally to bypass but im still getting obvious reverb out of the unit for some reason. its not tons but more than I would want for just riffing.

Im also getting a decent amount of white noise in the recording even with the in unit noise gate and running a boss noise supressor after the output and before my computer. the noise suppressor made a huge difference. once again its not tons but more than I was hoping, im surprised its not cleaner. I'll have to mess around with stuff a lot more I guess this weekend maybe.

maybe its my crappy sound card though

[Edited on July 1, 2008 at 11:42 PM. Reason : ]

7/1/2008 11:30:39 PM

If you can play the pedal through an amp with no noise then its your sound card or a possibly grounding issue, if you're playing on a laptop. Try turning the recording volume in the sound manager waaaayyy down and the volume of the pedal waaaaayyy up.

7/2/2008 12:42:25 AM

I'll have to try it that way tonight. Im sure its my sound card. It definitely sounds exponentially better than the crappy built in mic coupled with a bad sound card though (which was almost indistinguishable with gain on).

I think I may also need to get into the "deep editing" settings to mess with some things as far as the effects go.

7/2/2008 11:26:01 AM

Hey guys,

I've been out of the music scene for about a year now, I've played guitar for about 2-3 years and I'm looking to buy a bass guitar. I'm on a $300 budget though, and I'd like some recommendations from any bass players. Looking for something quality, not cheap, that I can use to play just general rock music.

I've had pretty good luck with Epiphone in the past, after replacing the strings and the pickups my old G-400 put out some great tone. I'm considering the Epiphone Les Paul Limited
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Epiphone-Limited-Edition-Les-Paul-Special-Bass-with-Flame-Maple-Top?sku=516092

Next time I'm near capital I'll drop by Guitar Center and check it out, but what would you guys recommend?

7/2/2008 3:54:16 PM