I had a hand injury a few years back (not from playing), and I couldn’t play for a couple of months. But I was able to work on some slide stuff and a little drumming.
What’s your position on fuzz? I like my current fuzz with a plexi clone cranked up (which I haven’t been able to crank for a while). Not a fan of it with a master volume Marshall. The plexi clone compresses a lot more and smooths out the ragged mids of the fuzz.
Fuzz Face seems to be the go to pedal for a lot of people. I was thinking fuzz when I bought my Boss DS-1. Not the same effect, but I’m getting to like it the more I use it.
Speaking of Marshall, I broke out my DSL 40C yesterday. Man I forgot how good that thing sounds. I still can’t crank it full blast here in the house, but at least I can crank it up enough to get the loins tingling a bit.
At my age, that’s saying a lot!!
I still rock my DSL 50. I thought that I wouldn’t so much after getting other amps, but it’s versatile without any pedals and works well at lower volumes that it tends to get more attention. And boosting the clean/crunch channel with an eq and cranking it up really wakes it up into the league of my non-master volume amps.
I am seriously considering whittling things down to a 50 watter 112 that I can drop on top of a 212 cab or a 112 extension cab when needed. I was running my DSL 50 that way a few years back, and I experimented with a drummer friend on volume. At about 5 on the master volume the drummer’s snare would get drowned out pretty easily even though he was beating the piss out of it, so 50 watts is more than enough power.
Speaking of Marshall, they just sold to the Swedish company, Zound. Who knows what that means for the future of Marshall amps.
Yep and although improved, it’s still far from resolved after 4 weeks.
A couple of years ago the missus got a substantial case of bursitis [RSI] in the left shoulder. We were at a bit of a loss to explain it, she’s physically active but doesn’t do a lot of strenuous stuff where an RSI of the shoulder would be expected.
We tracked it down to her routinely reaching from the driver’s seat to the back seat for her bag, which often contained a handbag and other items such as a few groceries, a bit heavy at times to be lifting from a somewhat awkward position. She stopped doing that manoeuvre and the shoulder eventually came good, took several months though.
Just thought I’d mention it as RSI’s can be rather unexpected so it’s worth examining anything even slightly strenuous done routinely esp if from a somewhat awkward posture.
Speedy recovery morgo.
Thanks BW, I’m keen to see it off, to say the least. I’ve stopped drinking so not to provoke inflammation. Also am eating lots of raw vegetable, cabbage, Coleslaw etc. which is reputedly good for lots of reasons inc healing inflammation. Also taking some magnesium, reportedly good for muscle tissue.
Thumbs up on the Caline pedal power supply (CP-206). It seems to work as advertised. The only noise I hear so far is hiss from analog pedals. Even a Monument tremolo (digitally controlled) is quiet, which usually puts out an annoying repeating interference click when not in use. And my fuzz pedal (reverse polarity) sounds fine powered by it.
Now maybe someday I’ll get around to getting everything mounted to a board.
I used my Marshall during our practice today. I didn’t crank it way up, but it sure sounded good.
I dug up my Fender Texas Special pickups the other day. I’m going to put them back in my strat.
I think they’ll work better for what we’re playing. I’ve got Fralin Steel Pole 42 or 43, I forget, in there now. I like the Fralin’s but they’ve got more of a rock tone to them.
I’m gonna channel my inner Stevie Ray!!!
SRV used low output alnico II pickups from a 59 strat. He never used the overwound alnico V Texas Specials. Overwound pickups are dominated by mids, sacrificing lows and highs. And alnico V pickups tend to sound more aggressive with harder mids than mellower and warmer alnico II pickups. It’s no wonder that metal players tend to prefer high output alnico V pickups, because they are dominated by mids, which helps things stay tight when using tons of gain. It’s really the same concept as using a tubescreamer, which pushes the mids. And btw, SRV’s sound wasn’t really dependent on a tubescreamer. He used it as a boost at times during lead playing, but the vast majority of his playing wasn’t happening with a tubescreamer on.
Yes.
But, at least as I understand it, the Texas Specials were Fenders attempt to try to duplicate that tone. Definitely not the same thing, but I’ve always like them.
I had plans to put them in another strat when I got the Fralins, but that was a while back and I don’t have that strat anymore.
I’ve also got this set of Tonerider Classic Blues pickups. I got those years ago when I was messing around with refinishing old strats. I’m not even sure if the company is around anymore, they were out of England I believe, but those had a nice bluesy tone to them as well.
While I’m in guitar mode here, maybe I’ll put those Toneriders in my partscaster.
Fender has been pushing pokey mids pickups for a long time. I bet they were doing the same back then when trying to cash in on doing a sig guitar for SRV. Every strat I have owned came with that sort of pickups stock instead of classic lo output strat pickups. It’s no wonder so many strat players go looking for different pickups.
I think that has a lot to do with us guitar players being gear heads and tone chasers. I think the same can be said for Gibson and other manufacturers.
It stands to reason that a company dedicated to making just pickups would come up with something better than a company that makes guitars.
All a matter of personal taste I suppose.
Like I said, I like the Texas Specials, and I’ve got a set of Fender Hot Noiseless pickups that I like as well.
Anyone here know of a better deal than the following for Boss stompbox adapters? In the following link it works out to about $16 AU after shipping.
My old Behringer stompbox powerboard worked ok until it kinda fell apart so I ditched it. For now I only need to run two stompboxes from adapters.
Maybe you can get a daisy chain supply like this one?
https://www.amazon.com/Keyboard-Instruments-Distortion-PSA-120S-PW-CT-9V/dp/B0BHVMZYBF/I wouldn’t use one with digital pedals involved though.
Cheers, that does seem the best option. I’m running the aforesaid fx on the vocal chain, and there’s no digital fx there.
The only digital fx I’m using is for guitar and has it’s own charging device and is independent of power supply for several hours.
Well crap!!!
Got the new pots and 5 way switch yesterday so I installed what I thought were my Texas Specials, and the neck and bridge pups were dead. Guess I didn’t store them very securely.
So I installed what I thought were my Tonerider Classic blues pups, and something about them didn’t sound right.
I went to Toneriders site, they’re still in business, and the stagger on the magnet poles looked right, but the wires were wrong. The Toneriders use the fabric insulator and the ones I had were just the plastic insulator. Guess they must have been a set I took out of an old Mex strat sometime in the past.
Anyway, I ordered another set of the Toneriders, 105 bucks US which includes shipping. The Fender Texas Specials are going for over 250 bucks now so I’ll give the Toneriders a shot first.
Have you checked the resistance on the Texas Specials to make sure that they don’t have breaks or shorts in the windings? A break would show zero resistance. A short would show a resistance lower than the pickup spec resistance. Be careful on heating time when soldering. Heat can easily kill pots and other components. If your iron isn’t temp controlled, I wouldn’t even use it for soldering guitar things. And I would check your pots for resistance (according to their values) as well as your switch and pickups (according to their resistance values). And when soldering pots, always wind them all the way down before soldering to prevent causing dead spots.
I have a Squier (classic vibe) that came with Tone Rider pickups. I’m not a fan of them. They have that hard pokey mids things going on that I don’t like to hear from pickups. A set of Smooth Velvets sounds much better in that guitar. Classic strat pickups have a bell like sound, as in round lows, airy highs, and not too much going on in the mids.
Just in case you’re looking to try some good low output pickups. There is a guy on Ebay and Reverb by the name guitarmadness. He sells some nice sounding pickups for very little money. I have a set of the Smooth Velvet single coils that sound nice and a set of the 57 Special humbucker pickups that sound nice. Both use alnico II magnets, are low output, and the price is shockingly low. What I have gathered from reading on them is that they are Chinese made pickups. But they really do sound good. Search his name, and I’m sure you’ll find good things about the pickups that he sells.
Didn’t bother checking resistance. Just tapped on the poles with a screwdriver.
At first I thought the 5 way was messed up or I wired it wrong, so I took the pickups out and connected them one by one to the output jack.
Same result.
No worries though, the Toneriders will be here in a few days. If I don’t like them I’ll try something else.