gah, guess i'll hold off for now. i need to go play a lot of different options before i pick out this thing. the one i had came up with was $305 but $75 of it was in the finish so i could probably work on doing something different there.

decisions decisions

10/24/2009 5:14:39 PM

the feel of the road worn series comes from the breakdown of the finish, not the type of wood

no new neck you can buy is going to feel like that unless you get it relic-ed

10/24/2009 5:18:22 PM

yeah i read a few things saying that more or less..which is why i'm holding off until i learn more about what i want.

10/24/2009 5:25:43 PM

it basically comes down to how twangy you want it to be

maple is brighter, rosewood's more mellow

that can be accented in one direction or another by the choice of 24"/24.75"/25.5" scale length and to a lesser extent by pickup choice

10/24/2009 5:29:41 PM

Quote :

"http://www.update.uu.se/~lidbjork/amps/tremolux.html Check that out...what a sweet looking build. (Other than the half-assed carpentry work on the cabinet). I really dig the plexiglass front, though. It would look sweet on a lacquered maple cabinet (without the sloppy joints), and maybe with a cooling fan? Maybe the solution is just to buy or build a cabinet, and then have a couple of head units to put on it? You think you could do a head unit on the order of a classic Fender of some sort, with tremelo and reverb, and 2 channels, with master volume on both? 30w or so? Or am I asking for too much? I don't know much about homebrewed amps, and even less about how much you can tackle. I know you can probably handle, say, an old Champ, but I don't know where the upper limit is. Just send that to my friend. If we take this route, maybe I'll start with an old-skool Fender, then add some sort of Class-A amp (single-ended is the type that doesn't suppress the harmonics, right?)"

so..going back to theduke's post from a few pages back.. anyone else around here built an amp? i'm interested in it..mainly out of boredom

10/28/2009 7:53:14 PM

I'm trying very hard to build an amp, the problem is the simple ones aren't really an amp i'd like to have around.

And i'm about one ECE class away from knowing enough to the point that i'd feel comfortable fucking around it.

Just about a week ago i built:



and even with a detailed instruction set it was a bit of a nightmare to debug, not to mention i blew the two IC's a few days ago so now i have to debug again, hopefully nothing else will have been affected by that.

I'd DEFINITELY suggest going with one of the buildyourownclone things before attempting to build an amp. Much more can go wrong and you'll be out much more $$$. If its tube those trannys can be pretty expensive to replace.




I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

[Edited on October 28, 2009 at 9:12 PM. Reason : ]

10/28/2009 9:09:24 PM

I've built several amps. Mostly variations of old Marshall 18watters. its an excellent poweramp section.

I also built a couple singled ended 8wattish amps sort of like a Fender Champ

10/28/2009 9:15:00 PM

any links to whatever you used to help build them?

i've got parts on the way to build a tube screamer just to mess around with

10/28/2009 9:33:53 PM

i built a bunch of pedals too. i can't remember the site anymore, but one guy who sells premade pedal PCBs is in Cary.

i got started with amps by first fixing and modding them, but then used 18watt.com to get a lot of great info. from there i modded those and designed new preamps for them. then i built the champ sorta amp from scratch.

10/28/2009 9:41:47 PM

word

found some kits available here but haven't done much price shopping yet.. http://www.trinityamps.com/Product_Parts.htm

def going to do the pedal thing first though..i'll do an amp later. i have plenty of soldering experience but want to build something easier/cheaper first

10/28/2009 10:02:21 PM

Think I'm gonna either build a Marshall 18 or some flavor of the 5e3..

http://guitaramplifierpcbs.com/liteiib.aspx has boards for the Marshall 18 and the guy on there made some 5e3 boards but they sold out in like a day.

Think I'd rather just do it the typical turrets wiring though but I dunno yet..still thinking

11/1/2009 4:32:13 PM

I built a hermida audio zendrive that sounds pretty good. freestompboxes.com
I've got a real one as well. it comes close, but just isn't as polished sounding as the actual zen.

11/1/2009 4:36:51 PM

there are a ton of 18-watt clones out there, so i'd go 5e3

not that there aren't a ton of 5e3 clones, but i think it's a much better sounding amp than the marshall

11/1/2009 4:38:01 PM

yeah, i'm leaning towards the 5e3..both are on the simpler end of the options that are out there so that's good. and sticking it in a nice tweed box would be a pretty cool looking/sounding amp to me

now to find some $$

[Edited on November 1, 2009 at 4:50 PM. Reason : need to sell my atomic 112 hmm]

11/1/2009 4:49:51 PM

i LOVE the 18watt'er. unless you want to do real clean stuff that is.

I'd recommend a single channel using the "normal" (non trem) channel. it uses the both preamp triods in parallel (the tremolo takes one of these on the trem chan). You can also put a TMB tone stack in it, but it takes a little gain. I'm perfectly happy with a single volume, single tone, normal channel, gain on 8, and my modd'ed tubescreamer out front.

I've played a good number of amps, but i keep coming back to the 18watt'er. Its just the right size for 90% of overdriven to gainy uses. Its not enough power to play clean loud. I like my amps to be working hard. a 50watt half stack on 2 sounds like shit.

11/1/2009 5:38:24 PM

agreed on pushing amps

my main stage amp is an AC30 set to 1:00 (which is a good amount of gain for a vox) and then i back off the guitar to 5 to get cleanish sounds

11/1/2009 5:41:29 PM

So my buffered Deluxe Memory Man sounds amazing, but the tone suckage is noticeable. My solution was to try out a Memory Boy and Memory Toy and see if I could replace the DMM sounds with one or the other, then sell the DMM and make a little profit off the deal.

Well, they all sound different...so now I own the entire Memory line.

D'oh.

BTW, the Memory Toy is essentially a Carbon Copy that sounds better to me at half the price. If you're considering a CC, make sure to also try the Memory Toy.

11/3/2009 11:41:51 PM

wellll, my pcb from tonepad.com finally came in. took like two weeks..

i apparently ordered a few wrong components though and forgot one of the capacitors bbbut here is what i have so far. need to go pick up an enclosure, jacks, switch & led to finish it up







[Edited on November 10, 2009 at 9:20 PM. Reason : J]

11/10/2009 9:20:22 PM

my new toy.
After using a cs-3, then modding it. Then modding it again, I went ahead and got this.
Still getting used to it, but it really does compress without loosing the pick attack.

11/14/2009 10:51:35 AM

http://cgi.ebay.com/9-11-tribute-guitar_W0QQitemZ320449629768QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item4a9c494e48


I'm AstralAdvent and i think its time for a smiley change

11/15/2009 11:57:32 PM

^WOW

11/16/2009 12:58:14 AM

I have a picture of my friend holding one of those at a music store.

11/16/2009 3:06:42 AM

might be taking my amp to the shop

i tried to find the plate voltages to see whats fucked up but i really don't know what i'm doing.

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

11/20/2009 11:50:23 AM

I want to get a basic home recording setup. Nothing extravagant, not looking to record and produce my own albums or anything. Most of the recording I've done was on a 4-track (which, I guess, was good enough for the Beatles, but obviously it's not exactly state of the art anymore).

I want to be able to record my own guitar tracks, as well as vocals and mic'd up drums/guitars/sax/whatever else. I also want some drum machine software to work with when I can't get a friend to play drums for me.

What all do you guys recommend?

11/25/2009 7:15:32 PM

mbox

comes with pro tools which is pretty much the standard for the industry..do a little reading on it. i picked up an mbox pro for 200'ish on ebay after looking and made some money selling it a few weeks later. i'll own another one when i have some extra $$

[Edited on November 25, 2009 at 8:18 PM. Reason : a]

11/25/2009 8:17:26 PM

I also recommend the mbox for its all-in-one solution.

If you find you need to expand you can always sell it and in that case I could offer more advice.

Reaper is a DAW (recording software) that I always advocate
http://www.reaper.fm/

11/26/2009 12:16:17 AM

i'm looking at getting a echo audiofire 4. i want to be able to do 2 simultaneous tracks i think you need an Mbox2 for that which is like 400 or something i haven't looked at it in a while though

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

11/26/2009 12:21:43 AM

nah the one i got could do 2 simultaneous tracks and had 4 inputs total. i'll look up the models later..it was the highest end one that was still USB. there are some problems with the firewire ones working with certain fireware cards built in on some laptops soo check that first if you get one of those.

[Edited on November 26, 2009 at 8:28 AM. Reason : it was prolly 400 new, 200ish ebaytho]

11/26/2009 8:27:59 AM

also

wish you had posted that about a week ago. i woulda cut you a hell of a deal on my mbox..sold it to some dude on craigslist though. sold a few hours after i put it up so i guess i should have asked for more $$

11/26/2009 11:54:34 AM

holy shit

Probably the most impressive jazz guitar i've ever seen. That shit is beyond my ability to figure out on piano forget trying to learn it on guitar [then again 99.99% of people who would want to learn that can read music]. Original one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbynfCYDfuI

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

[Edited on November 26, 2009 at 11:46 PM. Reason : ]

11/26/2009 11:42:02 PM

god damn.

11/27/2009 10:49:30 AM

you guys have any advice or recommendations on a guitar related gift for my dad? He doesn't need strings, or straps. He has strat, and two telecasters and two taylor acoustics. He's fine on stands and picks and things of that nature as well. Is there a big book like a guitar encylclopedia or something like that that every guitar player would enjoy?

He mainly plays blues rock

12/21/2009 10:10:19 AM

there's a book of standards that has a version of just about everything you could think of in it although i dont really like the copy i have. it's really watered down versions unfortunately.

i have a torrent of like 12K+ songs..could get him those + copy of guitar pro if he's computer literate

[Edited on December 21, 2009 at 10:49 AM. Reason : asdf]

12/21/2009 10:46:58 AM

Who are his "guitar gods"?
Get a DVD of them in concert if available.

12/21/2009 10:49:26 AM

OK, who got what for christmas (either gift or self treat)?

No guitar gifts for me, but I did take the time off to:

rewire my cheapo tele like a jazz base (two volume controls and added a tone control)
mod a boss dd-3 (jigh bleed caps)
and un-claptonize my cheapo strat (removed trem block and installed trem arm)
to satisfy my recent jeff beck obsession.

1/2/2010 1:39:22 PM

i ALMOST bought a custom amp but decided to get tires for my car instead

amp sounded good, but the tremelo was god-like and i couldn't justify a 50-watt head just to use the tremelo

1/2/2010 1:51:40 PM

^you should look into a standard Marshall 18watt clone. one normal channel and a really nice trem channel.

1/2/2010 1:56:58 PM

not a fan of marshalls

this was a modified (and really it was almost redone from scratch) univox 1011, tremelo was throbbier than any stock amp i've ever used

1/2/2010 2:16:59 PM

finally took the time to level all the frets on my guitar and polish them earlier.. butchered a fret job a year or so ago and never bothered to get rid of a lot of the buzzing bc i havent been playing much

sooooo much better now..forgot how smooth frets were suppose to be

ps sorry about the fingernail file i destroyed, gf

1/2/2010 2:29:22 PM

so i bought a new acoustic amp yesterday. i wanted something small that i could play in my apartment and not get kicked out, but also somethign that packed good power and versatility.

i ended up buying the Acoustic AG60 yesterday.

it has 2 independent channels, with channel equalization on each, DSP for each channel, as well as 2 additional inputs per channel.




this means i can run guitar through one input, vocals in another, and a sampler or loop through one of the other 2. its pretty sweet. perfect for playing small gigs if i ever wanted to.

1/6/2010 9:17:46 AM

i think i wanna learn to play electric guitar. I have no idea what I should get, I don't wanna put too much money into it until I know this is something I could do.

1/9/2010 1:06:37 PM

unless that amp is specifically designed to handle vocals, DO NOT run vocals through it. or plug a bass into it. at low volumes in your apartment it should be fine, but if you ever turn it up in a live setting you're going to fuck it up

1/9/2010 1:15:55 PM

^^I've got a Squier Strat (Affinity Series) I'll let go for $50 if you're interested. Has some nicks and dings, but plays fine.

1/9/2010 2:12:01 PM

^
best bang for the buck.

1/9/2010 2:14:32 PM

you got pics?

1/9/2010 5:15:32 PM

agreed that something like that is your best bet to get started for < $100

1/9/2010 5:18:14 PM

^^I'll take some later this evening

1/10/2010 5:43:28 PM

I have two projects going on atm:

1) adding an effects loop to my dd-3. i may add the analog (hi-cut) mod later
2) building a shin-ei companion fuzz clone

also i'm considering making a cheap DBA total sonic annihilation clone

pics to come when im done.

1/11/2010 9:22:08 AM

^
I've done the high cut mod. No switch and I can't remember the cap value I used, but I like the result.
Sounds a lot less brittle.

1/11/2010 10:27:59 AM

Is there room to add a pot for hi-cut on the DD-3, or at least a trim pot? The only decent-sounding digital delay I've ever used is a Dan-Echo, which has a hi-cut knob that sounds good in a number of positions.

1/11/2010 12:36:15 PM