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?