(post started on july 17, 2021)

so, what am i doing about this classical guitar?

let me take a step back - i'm deciding to replace gear that was sold before i went to bc or stolen (mostly after i got evicted in 2011), as best i can. that's what i'm doing right now - trying to figure out how to best do this in a way that actually makes sense and gives me what i need. this is the right time to do it, as well, as i'm picking up in mid-2003, right after i sold most of the gear. i don't want to have to say to myself "i used to have a x but..." when i'm sitting down to finish these. 

so, it's a functional step to get back to period 3.

then,what is missing, what can i realistically replace and what can be upgraded or sidegraded to something better? keep in mind that most of this was sold due to defect, and i didn't get a whole lot for the bulk of it, either.

starting at the timeline (which is what set me off...) [https://jessicamurrayreleasestimeline.blogspot.com], and moving up from the bottom,

- i still have the 15 watt solid state cheri tube amp, which has three separate ins and separate eq knobs. it's not that this is a bad amp - i keep saying that - it's that it's rarely the tone i want. i mean, it was 1992. despite the popular lore, this was still very much the era of 80s metal. if i cared about shredding or metal guitar, i'd probably use it all of the time. but, i just don't, and it just doesn't tend to help. i refuse to part with it, though - and i expect i'll eventually use it for something. so, i don't need to replace this, and i don't want to trade it in, but i'm hoping to sidegrade it with a comparable 10-15 watt basic tube amp. i'm not having a lot of luck with that at this time, but maybe there might be more used tube amps out in pawn shops in detroit.

i'm also looking at something called "nutube" technology, and liking the idea of jumping to the frequency range of a keyboard amp, while keeping the warmth of a guitar tube amp:

https://voxamps.com/product/vx50kb/

those are still a little higher than i want to pay, but something i'll keep an eye out for. also, 50 watts is really overkill. like, can i have it in 20 instead? i want it loud enough to record, without being loud enough to get evicted....

i got a cryptic response from korg (which seems to basically own vox nowadays), and they did confirm that the headphone amp is not the same thing as the mini amp modeler, at least. but, it seems like the amplug2 has the same "flavours" as the mv50, and i wonder if it's the same circuit, without the power.:

https://voxamps.com/product/mv50-ac

so, i'm going to keep my little ac30, regardless. but, that kb-50 kind of sounds ideal, to get the most out of a tube amp in 2021. 

so, should i look at the collection of mini amps as side grades to this cheri, and kind of fixing the hole left by never upgrading it? or should i just leave it as it is? i dunno. i know i still have it and don't intend to discard it.

- the next thing in the list is the vaguely strat-like starter 80s ibanez that i sold, which had an unworkable knot in the neck. like, it was a factory defect - the neck had a clumpy knot in it. at the time, the arrogant ass faux guitarist (jon) couldn't believe i sold my ibanez (he was into korn, not vai), but it was an entirely justifiable choice given the knot. i mean, i was 12 when it was gifted to me, and it probably would have been outside my dad's price range had it not had that knot in it, so i absolutely got a better guitar than i should have - i lucked out on it. but, you can't fix a neck that's defective on arrival, like that. you can't sand it down - it's in the neck. you'd have to cut the knot out and fill it in with wood filler, and that's insane. or, you'd have to replace the neck, at the cost of a new guitar. so, it was just not played after i got the three epiphones for that reason, and really the only reason i didn't sell it sooner is that i hate selling gear - and if i miss it, it's emotional, not logical. i don't completely remember the pickup breakdown on it, but i think it was an hsh - that's what's in the picture. i'm sure it had a single coil, because that's the last single coil i had access to - after it was sold in 2003. i had some extremely cheap no-name guitars that i got essentially for free from garage sales that i kept for weird tunings, and some of them had single coils (one was a tele copy), but i don't remember doing any specific recordings with them (but meant to). they disappeared in 2011...i again presume that my hyper-capitalist sister assumed that because they were old, they must be valuable, and i doubt she got anything at all for them, but no doubt didn't really care. i should check kijiji and some local pawn shops for $30 guitars...and just kind of get back in the habit of grabbing them when i see them cheap.

so, the only thing i really want to replace with this guitar is the single coils and, as it would be, i bought a fat strat rx40 for $40 (including the case) a few years ago that worked until i got it home, when i realized it looked like somebody ripped something out of it when i went to buy a vacuum elsewhere. fuckers...

to me, that is a sufficient replacement for the lost ibanez, as it fills the hole of a lost fat strat. but, i need to fix it before i can play it.

(post from july 21st inserted here:

i can't find an exact model of the ibanez, which is annoying to me because i'm trying to determine if the rx40 is really a replacement for it or not.

in terms of guitar hierarchy (that is, marketing bullshit), it isn't - the model i had was entry, but it wasn't bottom of the line.

it looked very similar to this:

...but, the annoying locking bridge was more like this one:

you'll note that the allan keys in the second picture are triangular, and the ibanez' was triangular. the thumbscrews in the second picture are very close to the ones i had.

but, it had a three way selector like the first one, and, yes, it had a whammy that i used twice. it was also hsh, like the first one, i think - not just a fat strat. but, see, the first guitar is basically a strat copy; the second is more like a prs (and more like my weird black epiphone, which thankfully doesn't have the awful locking mechanism). i had a strat copy, with the hardware more like the prs copy. maybe it was an upgrade, even - which is ironic, given that it was defective.

i mentioned that the ibanez had a warp in the neck - a nasty knot. it was a factory defect, and wasn't playable at places. you couldn't bend around the 8th fret. i would have never ended up with it, otherwise. and, i probably wouldn't have sold it otherwise, either. but, i got to the point where i understood it was a bad guitar and traded it in...

so, is the rx40 a replacement for this?

again - i know the roadstar is a more expensive guitar, but the one i had was defective, so keep that in mind. i'm trying to replace what i actually had, not what i might have had, in theory.

the big differences are:

1) the roadstar had far more expensive hardware, but i'd rather not have the locking mechanism, so i'd prefer the rx40 because it doesn't have that feature. i actually just left it perpetually unlocked! i don't use whammy bars, which is the reason you have these locking mechanisms, and not to stay in tune for normal use. and, i needed weird tunings for, like, soundgarden songs...

2) the roadstar was hsh and had a three way selector switch. the rx40 is hss and has a five way selector switch, which is standard for strats. so, the last two selector switches are a little different - the roadstar had a humbucker in the neck position (which gave it a beefier, gibsonier sound for solos), whereas the rx40 will have a thinner, stratier sound for solos. but, what makes more sense, if you think about it?

i remember my guitar teacher (his name was terry, and he worked at an actual music school. he was mostly a progressive rock and jazz fusion guitarist, running the gamut from hackett to santana to di meola) looking at the guitar and not understanding it. he was a japanese fellow, but a jew ought to ask this question:

"why would you put a single coil in between two humbuckers on a three way selector?  if you want to play chords, you do one humbucker; if you want to do leads, you do the other. what do you do with the middle coil?"

if you think about it, what you get with the three way roadstar is:

- the second position combined as a bridge humbucker. sort of.

- the middle position, which nobody uses.

- the fourth position, combined as a neck humbucker. sort of.

so, you're cutting off the first and last positions, really....which means you're eliminating a lot of the point of owning a strat. 

what that means is that the roadstar was really just another prs style guitar, just another sg copy, and the middle pickup is just for show - and just to suck your tone by creating noise on the circuit.

in a useable sense, you can create a humbucker in the fourth position on the rx, without losing the fifth position. and, you still get the humbucker at the bridge, which is where you want it on a strat-style guitar. if you want to play a gibson-style guitar, then get one.

so, the roadstar is maybe an example of a design trying too hard to be comprehensive, and instead just coming off as half-assed. they seem to be expensive nowadays, though - although mostly as hhes or as hsses.

i'd rather have the five-way fat strat than the three way selector.

regarding the neck, the rx is plenty fast - which was part of the logic in getting it. and, the neck on the roadstar was broken...

so, yes - i'd consider this a replacement, and a sidegrade, if not an upgrade due to the fact that the roadstar was a defect. i'd rather do away with the locking mechanism, and i'd rather have a five way hss than a three-way hsh. out of all of the combinations, hsh seems to make the least sense to me. as it is, both of my epis have independent humbuckers (and the sg has independent controls), so i don't have any reason to want a strat-like guitar with a humbucker at the neck. that said, i'll take one with a humbucker at the bridge, and one with out it - and that's enough.

that is the next entry in the mega post, and i need to finally figure that out tonight. )

i'm also considering a mini S-S-S squier, but that would be to finish the thought regarding pickup access, and extra to the lost ibanez, from all those years ago. i've never had an sss...but think it's long overdue, and something i may really need to really get through period 3.

(post from july 19th inserted here:

- i also got a fender mini squire for $200 cdn total (including tax):

(mine is red and doesn't say hello kitty)

now, why would i buy myself a guitar for a child? because i needed some single coils, and i know that a guitar with single coils is never going to become my main guitar. i have two epiphones with humbuckers, and that's my usual sound and i'm actually totally happy with it. but, i'm looking for variation, here - that's what i'm doing this month, filling in tonal options in preparation for a recording stage.

i don't have hundreds or thousands of dollars for something more pro, so the question becomes why you'd spend 2-3x as much on a full range squire, or some other fake strat, and then play it twice a year.

i also have exceedingly small hands, so the things this guy is complaining about aren't relevant to me....

i'm also not intending to play much like he is. as i bought it for the thinner pickups, and i'm more of a blues guitarist than a metal guitarist, it's intended use is more for a jimi hendrix, mark knopfler, srv or early corgan type sound. i'm looking for that "sweet strat tone" - or, at least, for the physical characteristics underlying it, to warp mbv-style. 

remember: jazzmasters had single coils, too.

i bought the guitar used, but the frets make it clear it's never really been played. minus the cosmetic scratch on the backplate, it's really a brand new guitar, for about $80 (cdn) less than retail. so, i didn't just get a cheap guitar, i got a good deal on a cheap guitar.

i've plugged it in and it works...

this item does not replace a previous one, because i've actually never had an s-s-s strat. the ibanez rx40, once fixed, will replace the defective ibanez hss (or hsh? i don't remember|) that i sold in 2003.

now, let me eat...)

so, i have the ibanez fully replaced in theory, as soon as i solder the rx40 back together. and, i have a new guitar on top of it, as well. great. moving on...

- the next thing in the list is an electronic piano that belonged to my sister, which i can get relevant sounds from various midi patches. if there was something replaceable about this item, it would be the feel of a full-sized digital piano, but that's of little concern to me, and had nothing to do with what i used the device for, which was mostly organ tones through a zoom 1010. that said, i have recently purchased a behringer control surface to replace the keys taken out of the jx and that, together with modern vst technology, is enough to recreate the wavetable synthesis in the item, entirely, without a second thought.

- next is a "green bass". this is opposed to a blue bass, of course. one dare not speak of a purple bass. listen - i don't know what it was, i just know it was green.

i play a lot of bass, but i'm not a bassist in any technical sense. the reason i got stuck playing bass is actually that i was the better musician. no, really. nobody else could do it, so i could have been a whiny snob and demand to play guitar or i could have been pragmatic and played bass. i didn't give a fuck about the image.

so, i need a bass around. just one. and, i need an amp. just one...

the green bass became a black bass, until i bought myself a red washburn with a warped neck, and had to trade it in. then, i borrowed various basses until 2007 when i bought a coffeburst ibanez roadstar II, which has been my bass ever since.

i could not find picture of this on the internet, so here we are. this is a real bass, kids. i think it's a 1986 or 1987 model. active pickups - which are good for bass, if bad for guitar.

this is not a small bass, but the neck is quite skinny, which is good for my itty bitty hands - a problem when i was being altruistic in playing bass for the team, kind of thing. you can get a variety of different tones from the pickups, but i compress it so much that i really just want the drive from the pups.

the sticker was there when i bought it, and was no doubt intended to glow in the dark. i like saturn. sure.

it's pretty much the best bass for me, as a person, so i'm glad i found it. 

take that "green" bass. pfft. 

- i still have the zoom 1010 & the 440-IIs.

- i do not have a small bass amp to replace the peavey 40 or 50 any more, although i still have a far-too-big-to-play 160 watt fender m-80, which i may use as a cab for the mini amps when there's nobody home. this amp was used for keyboards and guitar effects during the very early recording period, and i still had it for years after, although it mostly got put aside as i was lining everything in instead. you gotta remember that my dad bought most of this stuff, and he was still in the 70s aor mindset where everything needed an amp - keyboards need an amp, drum machine needs an amp, gotta mic the flute through an amp, etc. i just put headphones on and preferred it. that said, it's a definite hole, but one i've left open because i want a combo amp - like a jazz chorus. i like the idea of those mini voxes. if i can find one....but, for now, i'll put the idea aside and rely on the big fender. and, there's good chance  i could use it, yeah.

- the initial replacement for the drum kit was the ry30, but the kit was the one thing that was also understood as belonging to him, and that i actually had to ask to use, on occasion - even if it ended up banished to my room, on several occasions. his third wife just couldn't deal with it, and he couldn't get the space from her, until he stopped caring. so, there were various kits of various quality around, bought and sold. sarah had a kit, which is what i used for the recording phase in 2004. i ended up getting a dm5 and still have it, although i've always only used played drums sporadically and for specific sounds.

- how did i replace the tape deck? i used it as an instrument for years. i think the answer is that i moved to digital sampling and digital pitch shifting, did i lose anything from that? some people will talk about certain characteristics of tape, but it's not enough to convince me to go out and emulate it. if i wanted that sound nowadays, i could use the portastudio, but i'd probably just use a time stretch effect in cool edit or cubase.

- i still have one of the two dixon mics i had back then. the other was replaced with the altec 683b. i've added a marantz condenser mic, which is an option i never had. i'm still considering adding a sennheiser 609, but i'm going to old off on it for now.

- the acoustic guitar left down there was replaced with the epiphone electric/acoustic, which was a sidegrade. i think the guitar left there had better specs, but it didn't have a pickup in it.

- i still have larry's mxr phase 90 (original script).

- larry's more advanced tascam portastudio was replaced with a portastudio 414 and eventually an alesis multimix 16:

- i don't have a specific replacement for the boss oc-2 that i bought in early 1997 and sold in 2003, and am not particularly keen on replacing it. i bought it during a period where the bass disappeared, naively thinking i could use it to record bass parts with my guitar, and i found the box to be underwhelming, to say the least. i used it as a novelty item - a kind of cheeseball effect, almost as a joke. there's an octave/2-octave down multiplier called "double bass" in the pod that works better, and i'll stick with that. it also has an octavia and a pitch shifter...but it's "double bass" that emulates the oc-2. if you insist...

i'm going to stop there for now, with the sum being that i still need to replace the smaller bass amp as a combo guitar/bass/keyboard amp (which is what i used the peavey for, and sort of can't use the fender for) and i'm still looking at the sennheiser 609 as a mic upgrade.

i should also point out that i spent a little bit of time this morning filling the cracks in on my electro-acoustic with wood filler left over from the book shelf.

i'm not going to sand it down or paint it or anything, i'm not intending to sell it and it just can't be played outside, but i'm hoping it strengthens the problems in the neck a bit.

i've been over this before, but the item came back from storage at my dad's with a snap in the headstock, and an apparent glue job, although i don't think it actually separated. i'm going to guess it was broken on purpose by my retarded stepmother, because that's how she behaved over and over the whole time that i knew her. it's just consistent, and not even really surprising. like, i expected something to end up damaged, and i guess that was what got broken.

i had earlier changed the nut on it, too.

it plays fine and stays in tune fine as well, but it's a worthless guitar due to the damage. so, i'm just trying to save it's lifespan as a recording instrument.

it seems to have set well without expanding too much. but, i have to be extra careful with this instrument.

see, here's where we are with this, now:

main guitars:

- custom built prs style guitar with coronet batwing neck, epiphone branding and two open coil independent humbuckers  <----lead/jazz guitar with heavy strings

- slightly small epiphone sg with two humbuckers  <---rhythm/punk guitar with slightly less heavy strings

side guitars:

- ibanez rx40 fat strat copy. ibanez has been around a long time, and they've built lots of guitars, but i've always seen them as primarily a manufacturer of strat copies - almost all of their guitars are built like strats (and the ones that aren't are built like prses). i have yet to fix the wiring. <-----was intended to be a lead/blues guitar with skinny strings. now, it will probably be used more for rhythm/blues parts.

- mini squier sss strat.  <----- this will become the lead/blues guitar

- mini hohner classical  <--- i've recorded classically stuff on this

- full size epiphone electro-acoustic <------this is my one acoustic

- hannah montana washburn mini telecaster copy <---lead/electro-classical guitar. i will largely use this for finger picking, although you heard the classic blues tone that guy got out of it.

- audio to midi converter to plug into hardware synths + software for polyphonic synth work

what's missing?

guitars to find:

- i'm looking for a basic paul shape, to put p90s in it. must be a super cheap pawn shop purchase. <----amplified rhythm parts

- a jazzmaster or jaguar shaped guitar with jazzmaster pickups. idea probably put aside for now. <---effects work

- a couple of cheap electrics for weird tunings, etc.

- still waiting on an answer for the nylon electro-acoustic, but they've just about run out of time, and i'm just about to order something from china, instead. like, they have to at least respond. simply ignoring me tells me it's a bad seller.

- if i can find a cheap 12-strong acoustic, i'll grab it, too.

- i was looking at an electric mandolin, but it's probably dropped for now.

and, what's the total update?

this is what i've got already:

- one person coffee maker

- backup fan

- big bookcase

- new broom

- new computer keyboard

- 4 gb backup ram for 32-bit pc, 1 gb backup ram for 16-bit pc, 2 gb of ram for 90s laptop

- micro orange crush 3w amp

- vox ac30 headphone plug

- all four tanktops (one blue, two pink, one purple)

- behringer umx61midi controller

- fender squire mini strat

- micro cassette recorder 

- wood flute

- sennheiser replacement headphones

- marantz microphone

- 1 of 3 gig bags

and this is what is coming:

- the bottom of the vox combo + pignose (not now though, later) + soldering iron for strat

- 2 of 3 gig bags

- hannah montana guitar

- audio to midi converter (with extra cord)

- ancestry dna test

i was hoping to get something done today, but i spent much of it on the phone with paypal. goofs.

so, i think i'm a little out of date regarding how i'm imagining guitar to midi conversion.

i tried working with an evaluation copy of midi guitar a few years ago and couldn't get it to work right, but there are now several pieces of software that purport to perform this task, and i'm really better off approaching it from that angle. the idea is you convert the note to midi in real time, and it's fine so long as your computer can keep up. reaper seems to do it natively.

that approach should work for bass, too - meaning i won't need a dedicated plugin.

but, i've always wanted to plug directly into the jx, and may consider converting the dx100 into a guitar processor. the best way to do that is not to get a midi guitar but to get a hardware audio to midi interface.

the downside is that it's monophonic, but i can deal with that if i can get the polyphonic version working in software. 

careful - most of the versions have usb outs instead of midi outs, meaning you'd need a separate converter.

i'm going to get a cheap midi to usb instead for maximum flexibility. and, now i can finally plug right into my synths....

i'm going to go looking through the local pawn shops for a paul copy that doesn't work and buy p90s for it. i don't want to pay shipping for an empty body - i can find something cheap here.

that means i'm getting a soldering iron.

i don't have a good idea for the jazzmaster style at this point, other than to keep an eye out for broken squires to swap the pickups out in.

i have a lead on a 21 fret classical.

and, i have a lead on a midi guitar, but it might have to wait.

so, i just bought one of these.

as mentioned previously, my hands are very small. the 3/4 size is not a big deal for me; i may even prefer it.

this is a washburn telecaster for $200. it wasn't at the top of my list of stuff to get, but it's the best offer on option, that i can find.

this would be a nice idea, as a base for the p90s, but they seem to have cut the guitar in a way that's just barely too small for p90s.

https://www.amazon.ca/Epiphone-ELPSLPACH-Electric-Guitar-Pacific/dp/B075BSVFR2/ref=sr_1_99

i've found a video of somebody that made the mod, and it's pretty small.

shame.

but it can be done. i'm going to look for another idea...

this little mini hohner i have appears to be a fairly rare mid 70s model.

the only information i can find is that the sticker in the soundhole looks like this:

...except the serial number is something like sk67??, it doesn't say "made in japan" and there's no number below it. the number is very, very faded - so faded i can't entirely make it out.

that picture is from a 1978 model, and that label is 70s era, roughly.

i like having weird guitars like this, on top of normal guitars like the gibson/epiphone and the fender/squier. the black epiphone is weird, i'm going to make the rx40 weird and i want my 21 fret classical to be weird, too. i want my p90 and jazzmasters to be weird. weird weird weird...

i found the guitar i want, and paypal won't let me log in to buy it.

fuck.

so, i spent yesterday sorting through kijiji listings and i spent today sleeping. i wonder if i'm reacting to the smoke in the new fridge :\.

that said, the fridge is much, much better...

tonight, i need to sort through ebay and do essentially the same thing i did with kijiji. the idea is to understand what's out there, first - and then go looking for specifics.

the p90s themselves seem relatively affordable...

so, this seems more about finding some kind of paul type affair at a reasonable price and putting them in there.

i can't find an exact model of the ibanez, which is annoying to me because i'm trying to determine if the rx40 is really a replacement for it or not.

in terms of guitar hierarchy (that is, marketing bullshit), it isn't - the model i had was entry, but it wasn't bottom of the line.

it looked very similar to this:

...but, the annoying locking bridge was more like this one:

you'll note that the allan keys in the second picture are triangular, and the ibanez' was triangular. the thumbscrews in the second picture are very close to the ones i had.

but, it had a three way selector like the first one, and, yes, it had a whammy that i used twice. it was also hsh, like the first one, i think - not just a fat strat. but, see, the first guitar is basically a strat copy; the second is more like a prs (and more like my weird black epiphone, which thankfully doesn't have the awful locking mechanism). i had a strat copy, with the hardware more like the prs copy. maybe it was an upgrade, even - which is ironic, given that it was defective.

i mentioned that the ibanez had a warp in the neck - a nasty knot. it was a factory defect, and wasn't playable at places. you couldn't bend around the 8th fret. i would have never ended up with it, otherwise. and, i probably wouldn't have sold it otherwise, either. but, i got to the point where i understood it was a bad guitar and traded it in...

so, is the rx40 a replacement for this?

again - i know the roadstar is a more expensive guitar, but the one i had was defective, so keep that in mind. i'm trying to replace what i actually had, not what i might have had, in theory.

the big differences are:

1) the roadstar had far more expensive hardware, but i'd rather not have the locking mechanism, so i'd prefer the rx40 because it doesn't have that feature. i actually just left it perpetually unlocked! i don't use whammy bars, which is the reason you have these locking mechanisms, and not to stay in tune for normal use. and, i needed weird tunings for, like, soundgarden songs...

2) the roadstar was hsh and had a three way selector switch. the rx40 is hss and has a five way selector switch, which is standard for strats. so, the last two selector switches are a little different - the roadstar had a humbucker in the neck position (which gave it a beefier, gibsonier sound for solos), whereas the rx40 will have a thinner, stratier sound for solos. but, what makes more sense, if you think about it?

i remember my guitar teacher (his name was terry, and he worked at an actual music school. he was mostly a progressive rock and jazz fusion guitarist, running the gamut from hackett to santana to di meola) looking at the guitar and not understanding it. he was a japanese fellow, but a jew ought to ask this question:

"why would you put a single coil in between two humbuckers on a three way selector?  if you want to play chords, you do one humbucker; if you want to do leads, you do the other. what do you do with the middle coil?"

if you think about it, what you get with the three way roadstar is:

- the second position combined as a bridge humbucker. sort of.

- the middle position, which nobody uses.

- the fourth position, combined as a neck humbucker. sort of.

so, you're cutting off the first and last positions, really....which means you're eliminating a lot of the point of owning a strat. 

what that means is that the roadstar was really just another prs style guitar, just another sg copy, and the middle pickup is just for show - and just to suck your tone by creating noise on the circuit.

in a useable sense, you can create a humbucker in the fourth position on the rx, without losing the fifth position. and, you still get the humbucker at the bridge, which is where you want it on a strat-style guitar. if you want to play a gibson-style guitar, then get one.

so, the roadstar is maybe an example of a design trying too hard to be comprehensive, and instead just coming off as half-assed. they seem to be expensive nowadays, though - although mostly as hhes or as hsses.

i'd rather have the five-way fat strat than the three way selector.

regarding the neck, the rx is plenty fast - which was part of the logic in getting it. and, the neck on the roadstar was broken...

so, yes - i'd consider this a replacement, and a sidegrade, if not an upgrade due to the fact that the roadstar was a defect. i'd rather do away with the locking mechanism, and i'd rather have a five way hss than a three-way hsh. out of all of the combinations, hsh seems to make the least sense to me. as it is, both of my epis have independent humbuckers (and the sg has independent controls), so i don't have any reason to want a strat-like guitar with a humbucker at the neck. that said, i'll take one with a humbucker at the bridge, and one with out it - and that's enough.

that is the next entry in the mega post, and i need to finally figure that out tonight.

so, i guess the epiphone is really a prs-style guitar, isn't it? it just clicked. i mean, i'd seen a prs before, but i never made the connection. it's the same pickup placement, even. i guess ibanez also did that kind of thing, but it's the shape prs is most known for - ibanez is more known for their weird locking systems and other odd innovations. it might be an ibanez body, but if it is then it's a fairly old one. that's probably what the person that built it was going for.....

so, i've got

main guitars:

- custom built prs style guitar with coronet batwing neck, epiphone branding and two open coil independent humbuckers  <----lead/jazz guitar with heavy strings

- slightly small epiphone sg with two humbuckers  <---rhythm/punk guitar with slightly less heavy strings

side guitars:

- ibanez rx40 fat strat copy. ibanez has been around a long time, and they've built lots of guitars, but i've always seen them as primarily a manufacturer of strat copies - almost all of their guitars are built like strats (and the ones that aren't are built like prses). i have yet to fix the wiring. <-----was intended to be a lead/blues guitar with skinny strings. now, it will probably be used more for rhythm/blues parts.

- mini squier sss strat.  <----- this will become the lead/blues guitar

- mini hohner classical  <--- i've recorded classically stuff on this

- full size epiphone electro-acoustic <------this is my one acoustic

if you look at the discography, you'll note there weren't any tracks recorded in the blues style over period 2, except the ones i used my old ibanez (i now think it was an hsh roadstar II, as they have the thumbscrews i couldn't find elsewhere) for before i sold it before i left. all lead parts since 2003 were recorded with humbuckers, and just eqed if i want it to be sparklier. but, there are points where i struggled, and i hope that fixes it. there will definitely be parts in period 3 that need single coils.

what's missing?

guitars to find:

- if i could find an absolutely bottom of the line telecaster copy, i'd grab it. i had one for years, and i don't think i ever used it (it wasn't wired right). <---lead/electro-classical guitar (i play with my fingers, but i don't play redneck music. this is where a tele is theoretically useful to me.)

- i'm looking for a basic paul shape, to put p90s in it. pre-installed is even better. i picked an sg over a paul because i liked the less chunky sound of the sg, and humbuckers were the right choice. but, a paul works better with p90s (and vice versa) because it cuts out some of the low end. i've never had p90s, and it's not a sound i wrote around much in the past, but i realize it's the sound i want for much of period 3. <----amplified rhythm parts

- a jazzmaster or jaguar shaped guitar with jazzmaster pickups. <---effects work

- can i find an affordable midi guitar?

- a couple of cheap electrics for weird tunings, etc.

and, i'm still trying to find a way to get a 21 fret classical guitar, preferably one with a cutoff and a pickup in it.

so, that's comprehensive. i think. that's what i need to find. and, no, i can't afford all of it - until i get a settlement from sobey's, which may be relatively soon.

today has been frustrating, as i've been unable to differentiate between the smoking coming upstairs and the smoke coming from the fridge, which has allowed them to smoke with impunity. and, i may have to actually reclean this space from top to bottom. we'll see.

but, i'm now familiar with everything up in the region on kijiji, and have put aside things i may want to pursue.

the marantz came in quick. i think the flute cleared customs, too.

as mentioned, i'm going to be mostly focused on cleaning that fridge for the next several days. but, let's see how much of that post i can finish...

so, what's the update for today?

i was up earliesh, actually, and got to finishing the meal that i barely started last night. by the time i finished it, i had to call my doctor - and i got him to do essentially everything i asked for.

- virtual scope

- standing order (we'll start for aug 1st)

- all requests for blood work

so, that's about ideal.

my landlord knocked on the door minutes before the scheduled call and asked to replace the fridge, so i had to ask him to come back, and then ended up waiting until after 17:00 - which largely blew the day. then, when he got it down here, i realized it completely reeked of second-hand smoke.

it's easy to get conspiratorial about this, but i think it's more consistent with the guy's lack of general competence. i mean, i've been bitching about this for months - it could be a real dick move. that is, if i thought he was able to really think it through. more likely is that he just bought a cheap fridge and didn't ask. now i'm stuck cleaning the fridge.

that's fine - i'll do it. but, it's going to take some time, and prevent me from setting things back up. fuck...

it's just another thing to take note of, if this ends up in a court room. in the end, it's a large amount of labour and time wasted. but, asking for compensation is difficult, until it becomes necessary - then it becomes overwhelming.

the one other thing i got done today was the purchase of some gig bags. i went looking for a 38" bag for the new mini, expecting to spend around $20. in the process, i found a deal on a fancy out-of-the-house bag ($18) and a decided to get a back-up back ($11), before finally finding a decent 38" bag (for $14). this was all through walmart marketplace, which i'm using instead of amazon because they take paypal and amazon won't.

i'm going to need to stop soon, but let me try another run on the scrubdown for the fridge. it's probably going to take at least a week...

here's where i am with the shipping and stuff:

this is what i've purchased already:

- one person coffee maker

- backup fan

- big bookcase

- new broom

- new computer keyboard

- 4 gb backup ram for 32-bit pc, 1 gb backup ram for 16-bit pc, 2 gb of ram for 90s laptop

- micro orange crush 3w amp

- vox ac30 headphone plug

- all four tanktops (one blue, two pink, one purple)

- behringer umx61midi controller

- fender squire mini strat

and this is what is coming:

- micro cassette recorder <---shipped

- the bottom of the vox combo + pignose + circuit for strat?

- a wood flute to replace the one my aunt bought me in 1998, and since just broke due to being old. that flute was used on several recordings, actually.  <----shipped

- sennheiser replacement headphones  <---stuck in customs

- marantz microphone

- 3 gig bags

wait. no...it shouldn't be that hard to rewire the mini jazzmaster after all...

i'm not going to do this tomorrow, but it's an idea.

i suppose, i could get another cheap strat and put alnicos in it. right?

i used to have a very, very cheap tele copy but it disappeared. it's not a priority.

but, if i could ever find a jazzmaster copy with alnicos...that's the last type of guitar i'd be seriously interested in, but it's not feasible, and i know it.

unfortunately, fender put humbuckers in the jazzmaster minis, which makes it hard to rewire them.

so, i spent the day running around (technically, walking and biking around) and now have the following in my possession:

- the two purple and pink tanktops came in the mail

- i picked up the behringer umx61 this morning. mine is grey, with some mild yellow staining, presumably from being near to an ashtray for an extended period. i had to play through some pops (indicating it hadn't been used in a while), but the keys all work, and, if anything, they're a little hyper-sensitive. that's fine.

it cost me $95 cdn, used.

this device has two major purposes for me:

- it replaces the keys on the jx-8p, which were stuck. it's a common problem with 80s rolands, and i just never fixed it. but, my 49 key dx100 is just a little lacking. i guess i never counted it - i though the jx had 88 keys. it turns out it has 61, too. so, if anything, i'm getting two extra octaves with the behringer...

- it will finally give me access to a control surface, if a minor one. i'm probably not going to go all knob-twiddly, but it is useful for tactical use to be able to physically turn a sweep, and i've really never been able to do that. the jx has a control surface, but i didn't get it in the package, second hand. it's just something i've never had in front of me...and something i've long intended to rectify..

i'll go over this in more detail later in the megapost, but i consider this to be a replacement purchase and a sidegrade.

i'm going to need to spend tonight finding a way to get it to hover over the jx. many years ago, i used to have a sideways bookcase that had the jx on the bottom and the dx100 up top. nowadays, i have them lined up on two tables that adjoin at right angles. the behringer is about 5 kg, which isn't much more than the dx (3  kg), but is roughly twice the length, which distributes the weight differently. i fear a flimsy option may be disastrous. so, the obvious thing to do is get a keyboard rack, but what does that actually cost?

- i also got a fender mini squire for $200 cdn total (including tax):

(mine is red and doesn't say hello kitty)

now, why would i buy myself a guitar for a child? because i needed some single coils, and i know that a guitar with single coils is never going to become my main guitar. i have two epiphones with humbuckers, and that's my usual sound and i'm actually totally happy with it. but, i'm looking for variation, here - that's what i'm doing this month, filling in tonal options in preparation for a recording stage.

i don't have hundreds or thousands of dollars for something more pro, so the question becomes why you'd spend 2-3x as much on a full range squire, or some other fake strat, and then play it twice a year.

i also have exceedingly small hands, so the things this guy is complaining about aren't relevant to me....

i'm also not intending to play much like he is. as i bought it for the thinner pickups, and i'm more of a blues guitarist than a metal guitarist, it's intended use is more for a jimi hendrix, mark knopfler, srv or early corgan type sound. i'm looking for that "sweet strat tone" - or, at least, for the physical characteristics underlying it, to warp mbv-style. 

remember: jazzmasters had single coils, too.

i bought the guitar used, but the frets make it clear it's never really been played. minus the cosmetic scratch on the backplate, it's really a brand new guitar, for about $80 (cdn) less than retail. so, i didn't just get a cheap guitar, i got a good deal on a cheap guitar.

i've plugged it in and it works...

this item does not replace a previous one, because i've actually never had an s-s-s strat. the ibanez rx40, once fixed, will replace the defective ibanez hss (or hsh? i don't remember|) that i sold in 2003.

now, let me eat...

the other thing i have to point out is...

my guitar tone never gets cheesy or cliched. i'm very conscious of this. i just don't do it.

so, this recording combination - an antique altec 683b + a flat marantz condenser mic + tertiary line-ins when possible, all while using mini-amps as a source - should both give me the tones i'm imagining and give me a unique quality, just a je ne sais quoi that i try to integrate into most of what i do.

that is really the reason why i'm more interested in sticking with the altec, at least to start.

i mean, i've been using it for years, and i have no real complaints about it. i'm just trying to make sure i have all of the option, right this minute - these are decisions that will be binding for the next 10 years.

this is the frequency response for the marantz - the mic is totally flat, which is what i'm told i'm supposed to want.

that means you get everything and have to eq it, which is fine - i'm going to do that, anyways. i'm more concerned about the mic missing shit than the mic picking too much shit up. i know how to go in and dial in ranges...

i can't find a similar graph for a dixon md1178, but i suspect it's a more flat response in the high end than the altec, shure or sennheisers - which makes sense, as it's a vocal mic, by design.

as i'm going to usually be recording guitars, the next question is whether a sennheiser e609 is worthwhile, and if i even want to look at a 906, instead.

this is the frequency response of a shure sm57, which i'm going to plug the altec in for instead (because it's less muddy on the bottom end, and brighter on the top):

looking at the graph, it's actually easy enough to understand why these mics sound like shit when recording distorted guitars - they roll-off before the fucking d string. all your power chords are getting attenuated - of course they sound like shit. like, is this a joke? it's not - i know it's not. but, it cuts around 150 hz, stays flat around the rest of the range of the guitar and rolls up after 3 khz (which is strictly the realm of harmonics, distortion, and effects, to a guitarist), then wobbles a little and crashes somewhere well beyond anything you can realistically hear as anything but noise.

this is the e906, which has three presence switches, and is quite similar but doesn't have those cuts at the top, as much:

watching reviews, i noticed that the e906 sounded less muddy and more clear than the sm57 and you can see why - it actually rolls the bass off even more, cutting the mud created by a putting the mic an inch from your amp out (you have to let low frequencies expand first, kids - otherwise you just get mud), and tweaking the presence so it's more relevant for guitar distortion frequencies. it's still flat over most of the spectrum of the guitar (although it starts a little later...), but it hones in the boost where a guitarist really wants it. so, the benefit of the e906 over the sm57 is that the e906 should sound sparklier at the top because it picks up more of the harmonic parts of the distortion - and it does. clearly. sort of. the 906 also has a presence cut that lets you flatten it out almost entirely. but, if you don't want that - if you want your guitar to sound like it's going to kill somebody's mom - then the shure is probably still the meaner, more evil option. you can scare your kids with it...

is that worthwhile to me? well, the 683b likely already does that for me, even if i can't find a frequency response. the mild difference in the 683b v the sm57 sounds like the difference in the above graphs.

so, i should not just stick with the 683b as an improvement over the sm57, but should hold to it as a primitive version of the same improvement made by sennheiser.

now, look at the 606 over the 906, though:

the 609 comes in far earlier - letting you decide if you want more bass or not by eqing it out later. it's more suited for a guitar, in that sense. further, those harmonic distortion frequencies peak high and fade more slowly than the 906, even opening up space for a frequency space that could only be occupied by feedback and hiss. this mic will pick up the good parts of your guitar tone and the bad parts of your guitar tone equally, and force you to deal with it in the mix stage.

i'm going to be recording with small amps that have small speakers and for that reason will produce more usable bass at closer ranges.

i'm going to wait for the marantz to get here and experiment a little, but i've decided that the 609 is the one i want, if i feel i need a better choice.

i'm looking at a shure sm57 for recording mini amps with, an top of the condenser, which...i like bright, sparkly guitars. i like my acoustics bright and sparkly, i like my rhythm parts bright and sparkly and i like my lead parts bright and sparkly, too. i'm really not interested in this dirty, chunky metal sound. gross. give me floaty and airy, not mean and dumb. i don't want my guitar to sound like it's going to steal your lunch money, or something, and i don't really know why so many people do, other than that it's some kind of compensation for being uncomfortable with their masculinity.

.....which is why i want to amp the parts in the first place. if i just wanted that chuggy sound, i could get it from an amp sim and an eq. i want to capture the sound of waves vibrating in space, which is mostly a high end thing. putting a mic a foot from a guitar amp and then cranking the lows doesn't even make any sense, physically - you want to put that mic on the other side of the room, so the bass can expand. and you want a few of them. if you're going to put the mic a foot from the amp, you want to crank the highs, not the lows.

but, the only guitarist i know of with a physics degree is brian may, and i suspect most of the ones responsible for defining famous guitar tones didn't do so well in high school....

so, frankly, i'm finding all of the demos i'm hearing of the shure to sound rather dead - there's no presence. ever. at all. it's easy to grasp when you think it through, as it's probably not what most of these people want, but is definitely not at all what i'm seeking out.

so, should i just put a condenser on there and that's it? should i do away with doubling via dynamic microphone at all? how can i test it?

see, i have a secret weapon, when it comes to mics. i have an altec 683b, which may have been one of the first cardioid mics ever made. i've generally found it sounds pretty good, and used it for micing everything from the time i got it for pennies at a garage sale (2000ish) to when i stopped micing things, up until about 2007. but, i've never actually compared it to other mics - i've never really understood what i'm actually using.

these are the specs, which are....the same as a shure sm57. almost exactly.... 

http://www.lansingheritage.org/html/altec/specs/mics/681a-682b-683b.htm

and, listen to this, which has the shure on the left and the altec on the right:

http://www.preservationsound.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/SM57L_683R.wav

that's about what the altec's always sounded like, and the best shure demo i've heard, yet.

so, if they're the same mic, why have i never found the altec to be bassy or lacking in high-end response? are all these guitarists (some of them fairly pro) on youtube just rolling their treble off, on purpose? are they that clueless about physics? stop doing that - you don't hear that on good recordings, and it doesn't sound good live, at all. the guitar is a mid range instrument and should be miced like one. if you want to play bass, then buy a fucking bass.

so, i don't think i need a shure sm57.

i think i've been using one for years, without realizing it.

so, let's start with that as a double then - marantz condenser + altec 783b dynamic. and, if i think i need something better, i'll take it from there.

i'm still down here, i've just been hacking through the retard upstairs all weekend, and looking at filling out options for recording. 

so, it's been a slow posting weekend, but i've got a stack of gear decisions being made regarding things like amps, mics and extra guitars, and i'm working on a post that walks through that.

i've been looking at alternative mini tube amp options, 21 fret piezo-equipped classical guitar workarounds for cheap, ways to get access to single coil pickups, potential alternative tuning guitars, mics, 12-strings, electric mandolins, mini ukes, replacement organs and even a few drum machine and synthesizer choices.

the decisions i've made are only that 

- i have purchased a second-hand 61-key behringer control surface (which is something i skipped in 2008 because i couldn't find something that made sense to me, for the price), which will be the third keyboard in the apartment (after the dx100 and the broken jx-8p). i'm finally going to need a more tactile synthesis option when going towards the end of period 3, specifically the cycles/second project, and the intended heavy use of programs like audiomulch and reaktor. if this works as intended, it could render the dx100 obsolete, but i don't like to sell gear...

- i have purchased a marantz condenser mic to record acoustic guitar parts with, as i will be recording acoustic guitar parts this month. i've never had one before.

there will be many more decisions coming in the next few days, but i'm still working things out.

so, like, what if i buy a cheap electric/acoustic and put nylon strings on it, then?

so, if i wanted to get a 21-fret classical guitar, how could i do it?

and, the answer appears to be a line of ibanezes, but i don't want to pay $350 for one. or, at least not just right now.

but, they do make them, and i need to keep an eye out for them.

replacing the electric mandolin is likewise of low priority, but i should keep an eye out for sure.

and, i'm also looking for some mini tube amps in pawn shops and haven't found anything yet...

so, i stopped to do this last night and fell asleep halfway through eating. where was i?

  

so, the camera i used to record it with is clipping. lol.

i'm going to upload it, anyways.

i also spent some time tonight trying out my mini amps directly, and i've got some files uploading...

i've had the marshall for years and i know the overdrive is pretty good on it, but i guess i didn't realize that it's probably something like a tube screamer with a speaker - it's less a mini amp and more a stomp box with a speaker. it's actually a relatively decent overdrive sound, but i've never been a big marshall fan, and i probably wouldn't have taken the thing if it wasn't free.

the orange has a much creamier, thicker sound, which is what i bought it for, but i was also able to get some very nice clean blues/jazz tones out of it, which i wasn't expecting from the reviews. the conclusion is that the people doing clean tones through the orange in their reviews largely really didn't know what the fuck they were doing, which is something that was also largely obvious from watching them play. if you set your pickups up properly and you play with a little bit of a soft touch, it actually sounds great.

so, yes, the speaker does clip if you drive it, which...it's a fucking orange. c'mon. but, if you turn the volume on your guitar down a little, it doesn't clip at all. this admittedly required a little more attention than the ms-2, but that's a benefit.

i decided i needed to upload some evidence to counter a lot of the clueless reviews, as people reviewing the device seem to either fall into the category of "looking for overdrive and don't care about clean" or "looking for clean and don't know what they're fucking doing". hopefully, i can help fill the gap of a clean guitarist knowing what they're doing. but there's some dirty chords, too...

so, i'm happy with this, but i'm going to get the pignose anyways because it's not quite giving me that tubey sound, although it got a lot closer than i expected it to.

so, i went to determine if i missed any calls when my box was full, and i realized that 

- the bone place never called back. i left a new message.

- my doctor called. i called them back, and they couldn't tell me why. i think it was about the amino acids.

- my bank called

my bank called? when?

right when i was supposed to get the security transfer last week when i was trying to do an e-transfer.\

so, i tested it and it worked. great. now, i have a micro cassette recorder coming, too.

so, to recap, this is what i've got already:

- one person coffee maker

- backup fan

- big bookcase

- new broom

- new computer keyboard

- 4 gb backup ram for 32-bit pc, 1 gb backup ram for 16-bit pc, 2 gb of ram for 90s laptop

- micro orange crush 3w amp

- vox ac30 headphone plug

- two tanktops (one blue, one pink)

and this is what is coming:

- micro cassette recorder

- the bottom of the vox combo + pignose + circuit for strat?

- a wood flute to replace the one my aunt bought me in 1998, and since just broke due to being old. that flute was used on several recordings, actually.

- the two tank tops  <---shipped

- sennheiser replacement headphones  <---stuck in customes

inri088 & inr092

i've uploaded a series of snapshots of xenophanes from 2004 to 2007, which is the last mix as of now.

http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/xenophanes

i've also got a cleaner mix of the interplanetary isomorphism up, that i believe is the base of the 2011 mix.

i want to sort through some alt mixes of the front part of the track before i upload them.

jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/interplanetary-isomorphism

so, first of all, i've got a very temporary mix of the last section of the trivial group lp up, which fills in a gap hat's been gaping for far too long - and is hopefully very temporary.

but, i expect this to take some time to fix, still.

what i've done is cut the first three or so minutes off of the 2007 version of the lost symphony, because that three minutes represents the sprawling half hour epic, xenophanes, which took me from late 2004 to early 2007 to mostly finish and put aside - and is really just the first three minutes of the basic version of the track

that twenty minutes is composed of multiple sections, and each one could very well end up dramatically expanded when properly recorded, which is imminent.

hopefully, it will be obvious why i needed to buy some amps when you listen to the track in sequence. i'm hoping that the little ac30 really opens up the sound in the jangly parts of the track, and that the orange really crunches out the rest of it. this was not recorded using a pod - it's an american big muff driving a 15 watt solid state amp, and sent in sequence to a zoom 1010 for chorus effects. it doesn't sound very good, but it's enough to get the idea across.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/e

so, i was offline all day today and i got a very large amount of filing done in the process, which was a bit out of order but a productive act, nonetheless.

so, i'm going to try to upload some temp mixes of the interplanetary isomorphism, as well as some temp mixes of xenophanes tonight.

so, i unexpectedly got the ac30 plug in the mail today.

i was expecting to get a "searing lead" plug in the mail yesterday, which doesn't seem to have shown up. i was only expecting to get the ac30 plug some time next week. but, they only seem to have billed me for it once, so maybe they caught the problem.

great...

i'm going to wait until i get a response from vox before i open it, though. and, the bottom part of it should be at long & mcquade, soon. i am going to get a pignose when i go down there and grab it, and i'll see tonight if i want to ask them to look at the board in the strat or not, too.

i have received two of the three clothing orders i purchased - a blue tank top that's a little shorter than i hoped (and not quite as sparkly blue) and a pink cami that's about what i expected it to be. there's two more tanks coming, in the same style as the light pink tank in many of my videos, but purple and a darker pink. that pink tank is almost done, and the company is apparently out of business, so that's some replacement items.

i need new stretchy jeans, but i'm going to wait until the second hand stores reopen, if they haven't already. i have to try jeans on. but, i have no interest in shopping in a face mask, and buying groceries isn't the same thing as buying clothes. i'l wait the stupidity out.

i also bought another usb keyboard yesterday...

so, that means the following is left on the way here, for now:

- the bottom of the vox combo

- a wood flute to replace the one my aunt bought me in 1998, and since just broke due to being old. that flute was used on several recordings, actually.

- the two tank tops

- sennheiser replacement headphones

when i was in yesterday, the long & mcquade guy suggested $30 as a minimum base rate to fix some wiring.

i can get a soldering iron - which i should have, anyways - for about that amount. 

but, i haven't soldered anything since....grade 12? really? i'm trying to remember what the last thing i soldered was...

my dad had a soldering iron, so what basement is the last basement i can remember soldering in? it was a blue soldering iron, i can remember that. and, i remember making somewhat of a mess, but i don't remember what it was.

let me look at it a second time and determine if i'm confident about wiring it myself or not.

ok.

logically, i need to  fix my strat before i can look at cheap tube amps.

right?

yeah, it's just a smidgeon too much for me unless i need it right now, and i don't.

this is my wish list, though - somebody find me a little tube amp for $150. i don't need a lot out of it, i just need the warmth of it. and, i just need it loud enough to mic it, too.

ok, let's get back to the next thing, then, which was making some phone calls....but it's the end of the day. ugh. tomorrow...

sorry, i forgot the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUMYgohG-KA

well.

instead of the pignose, i could get this. it's relatively cheap - much cheaper than anything by any of the more well known brands. 

this is actually behringer, though, which isn't an unknown manufacturer, by any means.

it's not that i'm changing my approach, here - i'm still going to record most of my parts direct. but, i need that bright tube sound, and i'm not convinced i'm going to get it...

hrmmn.

let's put these ideas aside, rather than buy it all right away. i've got two new micro amps already, and i need to finish the filing first, as well. let's see what the vox sounds like, first - and then let's see if i can get the sound i want from some combination of these items.

and, if i can't, i can take a look at some combination of these other choices.

one way to guess if we're dealing with a model or not is to see how close the controls are. models are notorious for making knobs up.

the thing has three controls: volume, one, gain.

the original model had two controls, plus a number of separate tremolo channels:

https://www.stevesamps.co.uk/?page_id=287

further, the item has tremolo switches.

i have to ask. i wish i didn't, but i do - so i have to wait. i hate that...

i keep talking about the pod..

of course i have modellers in guitar rig, too. i really don't need more modellers, i need a couple of little speakers with real hardware to mic.

so, i think there's probably two good guesses on what the amplug2 actually is:

- it could be the same chip as in the modelling amp or

- it could basically be a rebranded version of one of their stomp boxes

The amPlug 2 AC30 amp features 100 percent analog circuitry. Thus, if you do not like digital modeling technology, the Vox amPlug AC30 might suit you.

that was my logic, here - not because i don't like the modeling, but because i realize it's limitations.

but i sent them an email...

actually, let me think this through more carefully.

the amplug2 is marketed as having "analog circuitry". that would suggest it's not a modeler.

but, if it is a modeler, and i'm buying one model, i'd be better off getting the amp, obviously. 

it's less that i'm worried that i bought one setting on the amp and should have bought the amp and more that i'm concerned that i bought a setting on a modelling amp and wanted a dedicated circuit.

if it's just a setting, i don't want it at all...

so, i do really wish i could get a little mini fender tube amp for $100, but the only options are modelling amps, and what's the point of that? i have enough models, in the pod. likewise, i could get a vox pathfinder mini3 g2 for a bit more than the same price as i paid for the mini ac30, and that would probably be a better choice for most, but it's not going to get me the sound i actually want the way the mini will, i don't think.

given that i now know that the fender mini is a tubescreamer with an amp, this isn't that different than it, but it's also a more usable, distinct sound. i mean, it'd be great to get that late 50s fender tweed sound - really. i'm better off with a modeller, though, this, on the other hand is more real, and i'm going to grab it as the last purchase, to replace the fenders i was thinking about.

i'm not going to bite on this myself, but the ts7 does have a slightly different chip in it than the vintage ts808s and ts9s, and if you really want the original chip, those fender minis might actually be the cheapest way to get one.

you won't find a vintage tube screamer for $70, canadian.

i had to run out to get the mini orange yesterday, and spent the evening grocery shopping and fighting with the rain. by the time i got to bed, it was actually a relatively long day, so i slept in a little bit. i'm now superstocked for months, and stocked on fruit & veggies until at least the 20th, probably longer.

it's useful to be able to get out once a week and get a few things, rather than do everything all at once on the first of the month.

the ram for the laptop also came in, and it's definitely not giving it the boost i hoped for, but i can continue to experiment with that and hopefully get something a bit better.

so, we were talking about the fender mini and i found this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GuitarAmps/comments/g3j43g/fender_57_mini_twinamp/

it seems like the devices are actually little mini tubescreamers, but with an apparently poor design, according to this guy. i'd guess the twin is essentially the same thing, even if the wiring and/or chip is slightly different.

so, this is a better representation of what you're actually buying (excluding the fact that he's playing though a vox amp, and you're not getting a vox amp with your fender tube screamer copy)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSCNxCj_V0c

i have a ts7 already and don't see the value in getting another one wired to a 1" speaker.

ok.

so, that's decided upon.

when i was kid, i frequently watched a film called the princess bride, mostly because it was a favourite of my stepmother's. within the film, there is a stereotyped spanish character that was in search of the one-armed six-fingered man (a crude fugitive parody), and who repeatedly stated the following line:

my name is inigo montaya. you have killed my father. prepare to die.

while the film presents this man's plight in a romanticized sense, he is truly the most contemptible sort of barbarian, carrying out the most barbaric type of blood feud; this man has dedicated his life to the death of another, and has no apparent purpose or aim to his life, no goals, no other reason to exist. one presumes that he could happily expire upon enacting his revenge, with no other thought in his head at all. and, he travels the world seeking the opportunity to actualize it.

it is no doubt some kind of warped concept of "justice" in this man's mind, but that is a thought process that must be alien to any civilized creature. that's an utterly barbaric concept of justice.

the united states has created an entire generation of inigo montoyas in afghanistan, and that is what the song was about. these inigo montoyas will not give up upon american withdrawal, as they have no other reason to exist. they are operating under a code of honour that can only be abrogated in their own suicide. there is no other option for them.

so, we can kill them now, or we can wait for them to try to kill us later.  and, the more inigo montoyas we kill, the more inigo montoyas we create.

there is little chance they will succeed, but withdrawal is not a solution - it is an escalation in total violence.

the only way forward is to wipe them out before they can create further generations. and, that is a harsh lesson, but one we must learn.

a society rooted in the pashtunwali should not exist in the modern era. so, call it genocide if you want, and offer it as an example of one that is justified in the name of the broader expansion of peace and human rights.

at the end of 2003, i wrote a song called like divine amoebas that warned that the result of the occupation of afghanistan would be the creation of a generation of radical islamists bent on enacting their revenge against the west.

that song may have been misunderstood.

badal is the word for revenge in the pashtunwali, the pashtun code of honour, which is what orders the tribal society in the region, more so than any concept of islam. nonetheless, it is the vicious application of the horrors of islamic law that await the society on the resumption of taliban rule. and, our solidarity should be with the people fighting against the barbarism of sharia law.

here we are, almost 20 years later, and those children have grown strong and want to fight.

we must take no pleasure in it, and we must realize that it is a consequence of our own mistakes. but, we need to annihilate them - without mercy, and without shame.

regarding the mini-fenders...

i'm totally tempted, still, and i'll pick up the orange tomorrow, so i could still bite. but, the fact is that the pod is probably good enough for most of what i need to do, and i'm totally wary about these noisy twins and thin little tweeds....

the mini twins are suppose to be 65s, but they don't have reverb. the pod emulation has reverb. the 57 tweed may be more real, in that sense. but, they're both solid state, and i'm trying to get a tube sound. the vox actually has a tube in it!

and, what about the jazz chorus? when i got the fender twin, i really wanted a jazz chorus, it just wasn't financially possible, even with the microsoft money. i should point out that the twin was a new reissue, and i've never seen a real 60s twin. nowadays, i run almost every patch i build in the pod through the jazz chorus emulation - it's what i really wanted. i've got a little art tube that i use to warm it up, and then i can put whatever else in between, but almost everything recorded since 2009 has that roland jazz chorus emulator at the end, on the way into the mixer. i have no complaints about it, either. so, there's a kind of counter-intuitive answer with this - you'd think if you love it, you should get a real one, right? but, i don't need it. and, it makes sense that the emulator works best on the solid state sounds, too.

what i need is better ways to get live tube amp sounds, and the vox should hopefully mostly fix that, at least for clean sounds. i'll have to chew on the little 57, but i'll probably pass.

so, as i'm about to get back to period 3, i need some more live amp options for recording. the pod is great for cleaning up signal chains at the end, but it's not the bestest for direct live amps, and i'm going to need that, now.

i don't have a real guitar amp, and really never have; i've spent my whole life playing through headphones or into recording interfaces. really. i still have the little cheri practice amp i got with my first hondo when i was 12, and i have this old fender bass amp that was purchased for use with synthesizers (and i find is too bassy, oddly enough). that peavey i used to have has been gone for years; i think my sister decided it was hers.

i had a medium-sized marshall for a short amount of time, but i actually ditched it because i didn't like the sound of it (i exchanged it for an electric mandolin that disappeared years later). i bought a fender twin years ago with microsoft money and brought it back a few days later because it was so dirty sounding (it may have had a blown speaker, but i couldn't convince the snobs at steve's of it, they just claimed the line was dirty and "it's supposed to sound like that"). i never replaced it...

it could be that my preference for clean signal chains in recording studios has simply predisposed me to levels of amp quality that i just can't afford. but, i need a way around it..

i have a little ms-2, though, and i actually like it better than either the twin or the marshall. and, it got me to wondering about it....

....i can't afford a pile of old amps, and i need something better than emulation. can i get some mini amps? what's out there?

what i wanted to look at was the following:

- i have an ms-2, and a jmp-1 drp-1 as well. this is a good mid level overdrive sound.

- can i get a great clean amp, like a vox or a jazz chorus?

yes -  i just bought one of these:

- can i get something a little chunkier, like a jcm or maybe an orange?

yes - i just bought one of these:

i was also looking at a mini fender twin, but...i just expect to get the same result.

these three classics, along with the pod, should get me all the tones i need, i think.

so, i'm up to 777 posts and still have hundreds (thousands.) left to go, bhut i got the heavy lifting done for the part of the discography which was redone the most number of times, which is the part from 1996 to early 1999 (the first two demos and subsequent first two lps).

https://jessicamurrayreleasestimeline.blogspot.com/

that means you can do things like search for i did your mom on the side panel and get all versions of it, now:

https://jessicamurrayreleasestimeline.blogspot.com/search?q=i+did+your+mom&max-results=20&by-date=true

it's time to stop to eat last night's supper.