(barely) Functional Friday , LR for July 9th

Howdy folks, barely eking by here, the weather has left me mentally incapacitated. Lunch today is some left over cheese steak pizza from dominos.

It is almost the weekend, and while I am sure many of you have grandiose plans (which we would like to hear about to be envious over), I will be spending most of my weekend in, wrapping up the 3rd report for my 'experimental and classical soils mechanics' course. It involved triaxial and consolidation testing of sands and clays, and comparing it with all those fun classical models, followed by research/literature searches to see what improvements you could find. 3 sets of tests (sand triaxial, clay consolidation, clay triaxial) and 3 reports.

I did a full set up on the blue guitar I showed earlier this week yesterday, as my new strings were in. That said, I was not fond of the pickups or sound when I have it through a modeler. With my Mark V this guitar absolutely screams. Harmonics jump out of the bridge pickup. My only beef with it now is a lack of stainless steel frets. I am looking for luthier, as if I want it to get even close to regular play time, it needs to be a bit smoother in the fret department (probably doesn't help I forgot to polish them in my setup).

What is your favourite pedal?



I have 2, one for each instrument. For the bass guitar I love my EH micro synth, in a band situation, or when I need that extra little something it always comes through. It is easy to use, can be altered on the spot, and sounds great. It can replicate playing with a bow, old moog synth type sounds, weird dirt (as heard in anger and cold logic) octaves, sub octaves, you can have it sweep filters at an adjustable rate, or manually sweep them for a buildup / break part transition. The new version is also only 9V , it is a sweet and versatile beast.

For the guitar, it is currently the only pedal I own, just sold a modeler as even used just for effects in the loop, did not play nice with the Mark. It is a Bad Horsie 2 contour wah from Morley. I am really loving this thing, never played a wah quite like it. It is not your vintage wah people drool over, it is fat, and transparent. It enhances your playing more than over shadows it. It lacks the harshness I have always hated with crybabies, and is extremely vocal. This wah is switchless, and has no pots to wear out, it is all optical and the second the pedal starts to move it comes on. You can easily hold it in place for a filter sweep, and it is great for a quick slam to let that artificial harmonic rip the stratosphere.

I have a poly tune coming in soon too, very interested in this one, not the most accurate tuner available at .5 cents accuracy (strobostomp 2 gets .1 cent) , but it can check all 6 strings at once, on a strum (and has standard tuner too). Been looking at these for a while and managed to lasso one.




Lastly here is a bit more of my tunes, the last 2 I have for you folks (or recorded at the moment) The first one goes way back, it is a remix/restructured, leads added, my take on the last song my band put together. It is the first one I recorded so the mix is a little rough, and it is the only one I have remixed in the last month, when I went back and tackled all the other ones. The End is pretty raw, but I like it that way. The weird sound at the start is an octaved high note on bass, that I then thumb lightly to make an artificial harmonic, it is passing through that EH micro synth with square and octave, no dry, if I recall.

The second one I hesitantly call blues rock, due to some borrowed elements, the song is not a blues however. I was just trying to capture a feeling of despair, I was bored a lot at the time, unemployed and whatnot. (before I got project work and started my masters etc). 2 months is too long not to do anything, albeit I did record a bunch of tunes (flight of the kiwi, cold rain, waylaid by pirates, brittleness). Here is Cold Rain

Thanks for hanging around and replying, this has been entertaining, but very mentally wracking, hard to find 5 things to talk about.

Kyle

Gonna make this quick - gotta airport run to do in a little bit.

I ain't much for pedals - the only ones I own are a Kent Wah (which I bought used in the 1960s and is at the moment not working) and the Green Screamer I got a couple of years back from the very kind folks at BBE for doing LR duties. The Green Screamer works well for me because my amps are old and pretty much one trick ponies.

I ain't real fussy about strings. But the DeArmond pickups on my acoustics read nickel better than anything else and finding those in a round wound medium gauage in this little redneck podunk town ain't as easy as you would hope.

Excellent week - very nice job (although the whole triaxal soil thing is lost on me).

Nice. The pedals I'm working with now are: Heavy Electronics Grind Fuzz, Rodeo Loop, Zoom505Guitar(original black w/ expression pedal), EB VP Jr. The Rodeo Loop allows me to use non-bypass pedals and/or chains; great product. I think the Zoom has been mentioned before. It's the first model and best IMHO. To think it was the cheapest on the market at the time, but created a huge following. I have about 80 custom presets. Otherwise, I don't use pedals. The guitars, amps and playing style cover enough for me.

I like the music today too. Have a great weekend!

Nice. The pedals I'm working with now are: Heavy Electronics Grind Fuzz, Rodeo Loop, Zoom505Guitar(original black w/ expression pedal), EB VP Jr. The Rodeo Loop allows me to use non-bypass pedals and/or chains; great product. I think the Zoom has been mentioned before. It's the first model and best IMHO. To think it was the cheapest on the market at the time, but created a huge following. I have about 80 custom presets. Otherwise, I don't use pedals. The guitars, amps and playing style cover enough for me.

I like the music today too. Have a great weekend!

I have a Zoom 506II for the bass, it never really grew on me though. Thought it would be fun but I was silly and 14. I rarely use the pedals on the bass, but when it came to playing in a 3 piece, the clean boost /dirt of an MXR M-80 was welcome changes, and the synth pedal was really good for mood.

Oh, I forgot to mention: after the Rodeo Loop and alternate pedal(s), I do a double clean through my KOT. The original 505, not 505II has some good stuff in it. Otherwise a double clean ---> amp works for me...

Oh, I forgot to mention: after the Rodeo Loop and alternate pedal(s), I do a double clean through my KOT. The original 505, not 505II has some good stuff in it. Otherwise a double clean ---> amp works for me...

That rodeo loop is a neat little beast. It is like a kick in the nuts to everyone who whines because something isn't true bypass . Still not sure how I will go for ambient and modulation type effects. There is individual pedals which are great, due to changability. There are slightly more complicated pedals like TC nova delay and whatnot, but still can be changed on the fly. Then there is the bigger units like Nova System that get a bit daunting but are extremely powerful. Ideally I would get a g-system, but I don't need all that functionality, and they are freaking expensive. The nova system is interesting, and TC stuff is top notch, and the overall functionality likely makes it 'cheaper' than pedals. Sure it is digital, but I am not one of the analogue only crowd either.

I'm not into a lot of effects for my sound, over time I figured out that my basic needs are a volume boost and an overdrive. For a while I had a BBE Orange Crush and a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 Mosfet but I wanted a bit more flexibility in using the two effects. Some months' ago I found a person who did a custom modified pedal from a Tubescreamer kit which incorporated a boost and an overdrive, these can be engaged independently and a toggle on the left side of the pedal even reverses the order of the chaining of the 2 effects. In addition the overdrive mod has 3 options that selects one of 2 MOSFETs or bypasses the MOSFETs. This pedal is now the only pedal between my guitar and the amp.



Kit

I've wanted a Bass Micro Synth for awhile, but so far other gear has taken priority in the budget. Don't think I'd use it much live, so that doesn't help justify the expense. But I'd love to have one just to dink around on.

Depending on the amp I'm playing through I'll often use the SansAmp Bass Driver for just a touch of fuzz. I've found engineers and sound guys really like the DI on that one too. Other than that I have an Electro-Harmonix Bass Big Muff Pi.

Six string being my secondary instrument, I haven't collected a lot of pedals for my guitar playing (though the Bass Big Muff works great). I do have an older style (clunky chassis) Deluxe Memory Man which is a heck of a lot of fun. Pair a Bass Micro Synth with that and things could get crazy in a hurry. Hmmm ...

Being a CE, I took soils class and lab but only at the undergrad level. Soils was one of my favorite classes but I did not pursue the field.

I'm not sure which of my pedals is my favorite. I do like the Green Screamer that I picked up in Tim's pedal buy. I also like my OCD. I can tell you that I bought a usded Fulltone Fat Boost, version 1, and sold it in a week. I couldn't stand it. My other pedals are an I-5 digital delay (nice but very noisy), Sugar Baby Tremelo (simple and so very sweet) and a Cry Baby Wah (no intro needed). One of the pawnshops nearby has the Wah that you mention They are asking too much but if it doesn't sell soon I'll see if I can get a good price and I'll check it out based on your recomendation

Thanks for thr LR's

Tom

Being a CE, I took soils class and lab but only at the undergrad level. Soils was one of my favorite classes but I did not pursue the field.

One of the pawnshops nearby has the Wah that you mention They are asking too much but if it doesn't sell soon I'll see if I can get a good price and I'll check it out based on your recomendation

I know what you mean about it in undergrad, they don't teach enough of it here I found, I am mostly it in for the analysis methods though, I am working with Material Point Method primarily, kind of like finite element on steroids. I am not quite there yet.

I picked mine up for 110 USD new, on the bay, see em for 120-130 there a lot. No real dealers in Canada so I went that route. To give you an idea what it is 'worth'.

I've wanted a Bass Micro Synth for awhile, but so far other gear has taken priority in the budget. Don't think I'd use it much live, so that doesn't help justify the expense. But I'd love to have one just to dink around on.

Depending on the amp I'm playing through I'll often use the SansAmp Bass Driver for just a touch of fuzz. I've found engineers and sound guys really like the DI on that one too. Other than that I have an Electro-Harmonix Bass Big Muff Pi.

Six string being my secondary instrument, I haven't collected a lot of pedals for my guitar playing (though the Bass Big Muff works great). I do have an older style (clunky chassis) Deluxe Memory Man which is a heck of a lot of fun. Pair a Bass Micro Synth with that and things could get crazy in a hurry. Hmmm ...

We were kind of progressive alternative, so the synth pedal sat quite nicely, 3-4 times in our 6 songs or so. The guitarist was an effects monkey too, we got some very interesting atmospheres going between us. It was much more effects driven than my work. Shamefully those 6 songs (making about 40 minutes) was a year or so work, as we were weekend warriors playing only original. It was fun though.

Some months' ago I found a person who did a custom modified pedal from a Tubescreamer kit which incorporated a boost and an overdrive, these can be engaged independently and a toggle on the left side of the pedal even reverses the order of the chaining of the 2 effects. In addition the overdrive mod has 3 options that selects one of 2 MOSFETs or bypasses the MOSFETs. This pedal is now the only pedal between my guitar and the amp.

That is a neat little pedal. Looks like it has a lot of function. Clean boosts are probably my favourite boost pedals, but that comes with the 3 channel amp I guess. Depending how I set up my channels I can get fuzz, grit, high gain monster, slight breakup, you name it.

Fun week Kyle, thanks.

pizza from dominos.

Haven't had it yet, how is the new Dominos pizza ingredients?

What is your favourite pedal?
Been on a pedal binge the last coupla years, so many to choose from. Favorites have to be my Proco RAT (original) and MXR Carbon Copy with the BBE Green Screamer getting a fair bit of use.

Nice tunes again.

Fun week Kyle, thanks.

pizza from dominos.

Haven't had it yet, how is the new Dominos pizza ingredients?

Pretty good quality in my area, usually quite fresh tasting.