~Tuesday 6th September~

[stagecoach]

Sorry Aussie, got caught on a job and have just gotten to the internet.

I am in an unusually occupation, I work For Nielsen Television Audience Measurement as a field technician. What this means is I install black boxes on TV’s to find out what you watch for the ratings.

BTW my name is Paul

As I was uploading yesterday’s LR and I had a knock at the door by a courier. It has arrived, the 7 string Raines Guitar. I was going to talk about my City, but that can wait when a new guitar arrives. Matt posted it on Thursday afternoon in Austin, TX with FedEx and it tuned up Monday noon, Perth, West Aust time. For what it is, it was better than I expected, but I think it will require a little TLC from my Luthier. It needs some of the Chinese sharp edges taken off; the other thing I noticed is the rear pickup position. Where and how it is positioned sounds more like a middle pickup, but I have a lot more experimenting to do. Being a 7 string the neck is wider and the strings a little closer together. I have a lot of experimenting to do.


I was lucky to have a spare hard case at home as I am not a fan of gig bags.

Lunch – Today is my workday lunch. It is a beef sandwich and 2nd sandwich of Honey (I love honey), home made choc chip biscuits and the muesli bar again. I might have to talk about dinner as that would be more appealing or some of the lunches I had last week while I was home.

G&L Question – Slightly skew-whiff off of G&L but let’s talk about the mother company BBE and their effect pedals. Do you use any BBE effect pedals? The only one I own is the Sonic Stomp. I find this brings out that little bit more in the guitar. I leave this on 100% of the time I am playing my guitar. What do you use and how does it sound?

Non G&L question #1– Have you ever built an instrument? Last week we heard about the parts-caster Baritone and I mentioned I had thought about doing one myself. I have helped my dad make an electric double bass. This is #2 for this instrument and this time we made it to have a removable neck to make it easier to transport?

Front view


Side View


Split view


What have you made that you would like to share?

Non G&L question #2– have you ever had an instrument built for you? I was looking into this before I went to the USA. My brother had a local guy build him a telecaster B-bender with 3 pickups. It is a magical guitar, but as with most boutique guitars the retail is not there as it is a personally built guitar and people are looking for the big name brands. That guitar was an Emons (this is a photo of another model, thought you might like to see what they look like http://www.pksmusic.com.au/showProduct/ETC).

I also looked into the Tompkins guitars (http://www.tomkinsguitars.com/) and Crook Guitars (http://www.crookcustomguitars.com/) but they are all that little too expensive, around the $3000 mark. So what custom made guitars do you have?

[blargfromouterspace]

Hi Paul

That double bass looks nice, and great idea with the removable neck. Once you get a full sized double bass in a car there's never any room for anything else. Both the other guitars you mention - the Raines and the Emons - have names very similar to well known and respected makers of pedal steel guitars. Is that a coincidence?

I looked into a Tomkins, but there's no way I can afford one. I played one, made from the very rare, beautiful and valuable Australian red cedar and it felt really nice. I'd get one of them over a Fender Custom Shop any day of the week.

Just got a BBE Tremor yesterday. I posted a review in the general music section a little while ago. Great pedal! I have my eye on the Mind Bender now. It's been forever since I've used a chorus/vibe pedal...

[Katefan]

Hey Paul - Congrats on the new axe!
Cool upright bass btw...

re BBE pedals -

I've owned Free Fuzz, Opto Stomp, & Green Screamer. The only one I really dug was the Free Fuzz. The GS wasnt bad but seemed to lack the midrange honk that alot of TS-9 pedals have &that I dig. Having said that, I just chose another GS for my recent LR duties. Will see how it does with my 'new' amps here... Almost pulled the trigger on the Sonic Stomp but didnt seem like it would be my cuppa...

I think overall they're good pedals esp for the $ but (so far) to my ears they can't hold a candle to my vintage pedals... but neither can most (non-boutique) modern pedals.

I dig honey too - esp Manuka honey - its my Fave. Been eating heaps of the stuff since moving here...

Cheers,

Kf

[supereiv]

hey,

I own a BBE wah pedal, and I find it really cool, as faithfull to a vintage wah as it can be IMO, and true bypass which has a major impact on the choices I make when shopping for stompboxes. It sounds really good, with no bells and whistles, and do what it's supposed to : "wah"

I never built an instrument, and I think I will never do

[Aussie]

Sorry Aussie, got caught on a job and have just gotten to the internet.

LOL ...and I got half way through reading your report and made the mistake of answering the phone. That was the end of lunch ... and here I am ... reading and replying after dinner again. LOL

I install black boxes on TV’s to find out what you watch for the ratings. Never known anyone who participated in the ratings and often wondered just how representative they are ... particulalry when you see what people are supposedly watching. I guess it would be commercial in confidence to discuss just how big the samples are and how the sample viewers are selected?

Do you use any BBE effect pedals? Technically I own two - a Crusher and a Sonic Stomp. Crusher is a good high gain distortion and ideal for some of the hard rock I play. I picked the Sonic Stomp after my recent stint at LRs. Not sure how to describe what it does but it really can pep up tone - kind of the musical equivalent of what the Unsharp Mask does in photoshop. Unfortunately both pedals seem to have developed a preference for living at my son's house.

Have you ever built an instrument? I assembled a partscaster strat a few years back as a double for a strat that I just wasn't prepared to take to gigs anymore. It was kind of fun putting it togather and I definitely learned more than I thought I would through the process.

The workmanship on that bass looks awesome btw.

have you ever had an instrument built for you? I had an acoustic made by Scott Wise in the late '70s. Wandoo back and sides and spruse top. Quite loud. Mellow yet clear as a bell at the same time. Aged beautifully both in looks and tone. Last time I saw that guitar though was .... well ... umm .... round about the time my son moved out. I do have an ambition to get Andrew Ellis to build me one of these :
[youtube]jhv7-iAzn5g[/youtube]

cheers, Robbie

[darwinohm]

Paul, nice 7 string and let us know how it is to play after you get some time on it.

I have two BBE pedals and they are built like tanks and bullet proof. I use the sonic stomp all the time and it does more or less depending on the quality of the amp you are using. The same is true for 882I but it really cleans up vocals very well and we use that all the time.

I have never had a custom guitar built for me but I have some custom quality guitars and even though many refer to the guitar as a tool, the better the quality is, the better it is as a tool. I have 12 different brands of guitars and it is interesting to see the differences between manufactures, although all of them work very well.

One of my best playing guitars is one that I selected the parts and assembled. It is exactly what I wanted and it certainly didn't save any money but was much more reasonable then going to the Fender Custom Shop. It is mostly an American Deluxe Strat. This one does play well and has very low action.



This is a Montego Black which has a Gold Pearl in the paint and is very noticeable in bright light.
I have Lace Sensor Chrome Domes for pickups.-- Darwin

[yowhatsshakin]

Howdy Paul,

Nice new axe! And beautiful upright with a smart feature. Reminds me of these travel guitars available nowadays with either foldable or removable necks.

G&L Question – Do you use any BBE effect pedals?

I have 4 BBE pedals. The Sonic Stomp is nice but does not seem to add much when using with my Mesa/Boogie. I believe this has been mentioned by other on this forum too. Do not know what it is abut that specific brand but at least that is my finding. The Soul Vibe is an amazing pedal. Very cool sounding with subtle swirls to cool 'Breathe' like tones. The Green Screamer is a very robust distortion pedal which can add some other nuance by overdriving my clean channel. Lastly, my BBE wah pedal was chosen after a long process of trying out a whole slew of them and in the end beat out a Carl martin because it was less noisy. Beautiful sounding wah! But every BBE pedal is built like a tank, reliable, and the addition of a power supply (except with the wah) is greatly appreciated.

Non G&L question #1– Have you ever built an instrument?

Nope.

Non G&L question #2– have you ever had an instrument built for you?

Not yet. Still thinking about it to have a PRS Private Stock build adorned with some symbols that have been relevant through my life. But I have been working on that design for years now and still not pulled the trigger nor the plug. But then again, I have plenty of guitars that were build in limited quantities, sometimes very limited quantities and am very content with that collection.

- Jos

[stagecoach]

Blargfromouterspace – The Emon’s and Raines are the surname of the people who manufacture them so just a coincidence.

I have played 2 Tompkins guitars. The first is Lee Forsters when he use to live in Kalgoorlie and the other was Dale Watson


Aussie – It’s not confidential, a lot of the information is available on our website-
http://www.agbnielsen.net/whereweare/dy ... =Australia
It works out to about 1:2000 people. So I 5 person house would be approx 10000 people in the ratings. And we have to have an accurate cross section, eg (this is pulling figures out of the air to give you an example) if 10% of the population are between 20-30, we have to make sure that is reflected accurately on the panel. We have a full time statistics department to make sure we are within 1% tolerance of all values.

If you see it in person it is much better. Dad has worked all his life with wood. If I get a chance I will take a picture of the case. It took about 3 days to build the body and another 3 to paint. It took over a week to build the case. Dad didn’t want a square case as it took up too much room.

My brother had a bad experience with Scott. He sent a guitar in for a setup and it came out worse. We use Harry Baker in Karragullen (Fret Services). He does a lot of the music stores hard work. Been to Andrew Ellis place a few times and seen his work, but I was never there for music. The first time I went there his wife had a stack of stomp’s she was drilling for the jack. We tried to make one of those stomps but could never get a good sound. If you can find yourself a Dr Pad and use a piezo to trigger it you should get a better sound
http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productView.a ... rm=KEYWORD
http://www.bossarea.com/other/drp1.asp

Darwin – Love those volume/tone knobs

[KenC]

Paul,

That's a really interesting take on an electric upright. I've been kicking around the thought of building one for a while now, partially for the woodworking experience and partially for ease of lugging it to practices (which usually entail hauling my 3/4 upright a quarter mile or more from the nearest parking lot). What did you use for strings and pickups?

BBE stomp boxes - I have two. I was given a sonic maximizer (pre-stomp box version) about ten years ago. It really sounds good when I play through the Jazz Chorus, but doesn't add much with any of my tube amps. I received a Benchpress for doing LR duties this spring, and find it to be a very versatile compressor/limiter. It doesn't quite match my Carl Martin, but it requires much less tweaking and does a good enough job that I reach for it first for living room playing. When the mood for experimentation strikes, I use it as a limiter after a digital delay to let me build layers of chords without gaining volume. It works very well in this context - almost no change to the original signal, and no "squishing" when it kicks in.

Ken

[stagecoach]

Ken - We use normal steel? 3/4 bass strings

from Schaller

here are photo's of the case

Closed (notice the wheels on the bottom, with the lump of rock maple this thing is heavy, but still movable. about the weight, possibly lighter than a single neck pedal steel)


Open 1st section - body


open 2nd section - top=stage stand (used an old mile stand), middle=neck, bottom left=bridge, bottom middle is the tail piece(strings are still attached to the tuners) and the spigot(can just see the line above the tail piece)