we survived, so now what? GEAR GOALS 2021

[retinal orbita]

I just want that Bill Laswell type sub and rarely get funky.....

[Yadig]

1. Don't kill yourself.
2. PLL and buy some strings for jazzmaster.
3. Another delay? Yea daddy you know

[cosmicevan]

- limit the number of new to me pedals that I bring in (maybe no more than 1 per month of some sort of budget?)

Was doing great with just one purchase in January (an unplanned impulse when I saw a long time want to check it out in brand new shape for rock bottom price)...and then there were 2 limited drops on Friday the 15th that I had to move on...and then got drunk (and other stuff) last night and pre-ordered 2 ezhi & aka pedals.

so...I guess, nothing else new until June?

[dubkitty]

as often happens with me, my priorities have shifted upon deeper analysis. part of the reason i wanted a short-scale bass right away was that my fretless Jazz Bass was fucked up, but i worked on it and it's now reasonably playable...the action is still a little stiff, but that's not necessarily bad for fretless. it even does well played with a pick and gets quite snappy with the neck pickup rolled off. so i'm now thinking more about pedals and amps/speakers. i finished off the main pedalboard, which allows me to get a wild array of sounds from bar-band-friendly to sheer insanity (see "Show Us Your Pedalboard) and have a Dunlop Jerry Cantrell wah incoming which is the only model of wah whose sound i've ever liked. it should be fun feeding bandpass-filtered signal through the modulation array.

since the outlook for random jamming outside the apartment appears dark for several months to come it seems like i should focus on reconstituting my looping setup so i can play with myself (tee hee). the new setup has been heavily revised from the previous looper board. i'm going to get a second Ditto X2 and run the two loopers in parallel summed to a single output, selecting the inputs with an always-on active ABY box and cross-fading the outputs with an Ernie Ball volume/pan pedal. this allows me to do looper performances...before everything blew up in 2010 i had a 45-55 minute set worked up with nine or ten composed pieces. i like the X2 for its simple functionality; i assign the right footswitch to STOP and use the left switch to toggle between PLAYBACK and RECORD. with all the other complex parameters i have to deal with, it's nice to have a part of things that's dummy-proof. i may also get a Ditto+ because it would allow me to store sequences i could overdub on and then play over for the Fripp/Eno effect, but that would require a separate (mini?) volume pedal to fade the 3d looper into a summing ABC box at the output. yeah, i could get a small mixer, but i would prefer not to have to mess with it on top of everything else. fiddling with faders while playing is kind of too octopus for me.

i'm also working on a front-end board comprised of stuff i won't often use for live stuff but which will come in handy for looping or other odder applications. i have a Hotone Acoustic Simulator coming which was by far the best device of this sort in demos. that will run into a EH Octave Multiplexer i use for fake bass and an EH Attack Delay i use for, duur, envelope shit. all of these require a consistent signal to track well, especially the OM which i really should replace with something that tracks better. it can be quite squirrelly depending on the guitar's settings, and doesn't like open strings at all. but i've grown accustomed to its bass. to do convincing reverse lead lines with the AD i'm going to have to use an expression pedal to vary the rate of attack from note to note to reflect different attack rates for notes of different duration. i wish there was a stompbox that had all four ADSR functions in one place, but if it exists it probably costs Chase Bliss money. The AD is pretty good at Slow Gear epic swells and fades, but it's rather fussy...small settings changes can have profoundly weird consequences. after the stuff that has to be at the front of the chain i'll also have a TC Flashback for delays and occasional loops, and use my Mellowtone Hi 5 at the output as a clean boost/cut to compensate for hotter or lower-output pickups. i'd also like some kind of sound degradation device so i could send fucked-up signal into the relatively (hah!) normal main board. something mid-fi-esque perhaps, or that new EQD thing. they want well north of $150 for a Pedaltrain "road case" for the front-end board (Lulu shredded the soft case with her claws), but you can get ABS or aluminum cases meant for camera gear or other sorts of equipment for $20-$50 on eBay which are fine unless you're putting all your stuff on an airliner.

beyond that i'm looking at a Board Of Doom that would patch into the main board after the tremolo but before the reverb at the end of the chain, which would consist of signal manglers including a Keeley Loomer, a Fabrikat, a Bitquest, and perhaps a Feber and/or Delay Llama. the idea of having a smallish, easily abscondable case with $1500 in pedals is a bit worrisome outside of controlled environments, though. with the wah and volume pedals this could potentially be a small guerilla board for improv situations and other weirder applications. with that combination of boxes you'd have fuzz, kinky reverbs (think of this in Bob Marley's voice and it will never go away), multiple flavors of delay, and more peculiar modulations than Heinz has varieties. it wouldn't be particularly "nice" but would still be beautiful.

i'm good for guitars at present. the Lead II has become a staple, and since i did some simple mods the Squier Classic Vibe Jazzmaster is just brilliant. i put a Fender American Pro II tremolo in which is a AVRI trem with a screw-in arm. the arm sits higher when screwed all the way in than the Squier arm when fully inserted and there's a hex screw at the bottom of the collet which i believe allows you to raise the extent of the threaded part of the collet. both of these make the new trem much better for Kevin Shields strumming with the bar in your hand. the trem is so much better than the Squier. it's far smoother and more adjustable, and has that delicious liquid Marquee Moon thing happening bigtime. i also swapped the .022 cap on the rhythm circuit for a Jaguar .01 cap which makes the rhythm circuit actually useful. the neck pickup is just beautiful.

i'll also need to get a reasonably-sized bass amp. i realized that when i loop the Jazz Bass it won't come over in a room run through a guitar amp with 12s because 12" guitar speakers crap out at about 70 Hz. nothing too elaborate, probably a Hartke head and 15" cabinet because Jaco...not that i'm emulating him or his style in any way, just that i really liked his clean tone on the Joni Mitchell records. i'll likely need a crossover to send the low notes to the bass amp.

to expand my speaker options for multiple amps, i'm going to swap the Greenback in my AC15 for an Alnico Blue and put the Greenback in a 1x12 or 2x12 cabinet which i can use with the Hammond head, the Vox, and the Electar Tube 10 as well as having the speaker-swap option to get both flavors of AC15. i also want a 2x12 with Fane-esque speakers--either the Eminence or the Reeves--and a Jensen cab. that will let me swap the Weber D120, Greenback, "Fane," and Jensen for a broad variety of voicings. amp-wise, i want a EL34 Marshall head. the Origin series looks good, and i had a blast with the 50W combo at Sam Ash. you can get the 50W heads used for $400. i would also like a silverface Princeton Reverb with a Jensen in which would probably sound glorious run through the D120.

so new year, new me, new priorities. trying to find ways to progress without getting all obsessive about it or selling the farm, and to expand the boundaries of what i can do in new and different ways. i really have to get the laptop revived so i can start recording...even if i only do simple stuff or use it as a note pad it will help save the ideas i continually come up with and then forget the next day. and obviously i need Logic Pro to do my odd melange of material which i like to think of as "My Bloody Crazy Radio Tuna Dü."

the good part of the obscure noodling is that i'll be able to integrate a lot of the off-board stuff into live jamming. i believe i'm thinking too much about it, though.

[dubkitty]

proofreading a giant post like that is really a pain in the ass.

just to remind you: "kinky reverb...kinky reverb, mon..."

[Chankgeez]

I just want that Bill Laswell type sub and rarely get funky.....

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5bNGSkHUNE[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5bNGSkHUNE

I don't think Laswell even used a 440, I think it was a different model DOD.

[coupleonapkins]

I don't think Laswell even used a 440, I think it was a different model DOD.

From another prescient thread:

Embrace Bill Laswell: DOD FX25. Sensitivity all the way down, play it softly so the filter never opens.

His was probably the Kermit-correct color tho?



The FX25 is the preferred bass go-to, and the 440 is more of a guitar-type dealie IMHO

I'm sad the DOD: America's Pedal site has been down for awhile now, but nerd search identifies the 440 as using a LM13600 OTA (Operational Transconductance Amplifier) chip for the envelope, whereas the 440 uses a dual Vactrol (LED/dual LDR) (and the FX25B has a Blend knob, in case you need that sort of thing)

[The Eristic]

If I can get some breathing room $-wise, I badly need a quality power supply. After that, a mandolin and parts to fix shit, I have years worth of gear that would be like new purchases once repaired/restored/modded. As just pedals go, I'd like a "regular" looper, a Draume and a nice ring mod.

[retinal orbita]

440 arrived today - it’s exactly what I wanted! Very pleased by the hot bargain, the sparkle green colour.... but very bad for my board layout, usually my ring mod goes first but somehow with the Moogerfooger in front of it it barely registers unless I crank the gain, so it’s gotta be first in the chain, screwing up my perfectly laid out board! I just spent an hour fucking with it, and it’s great though! Simple and easy, exactly what I wanted. More than a couple of knobs on a filter and I get scared....

[Chankgeez]

[JTurbide]

Sell a combo amp or two and build a new setup based around the Hilbish preamp I've just ordered. Since the clean tones are likely to let me wanting another amp I plan on getting an SMS classic tube preamp (or maybe revelation preamp), a good power amp, either 2 channel or with some kind of amp switcher in front of it (I have a mooer babybomb for now) and finally getting a good cab. Most likely a 2x12. That way I can switch between a fantastic clean amp to a fantastic dirty/heavy amp on the spot

I also have a Xylem custom guitar on order but will likely not get it in 2021... Waiting list is pretty long

Well that's done...but with quilter interblock for power amp (does the job at least for now) and a vintage hiwatt 4x12 cab

[chromandre]

one of the projects on my list is putting real Fender WRHBs and a Bigsby on a Squier Starcaster. it's a ways down the list though since the new WRHBs are $200 apiece.

went with the porter WRHBs and it sounds fantastic!

[Blackened Soul]

I don't think Laswell even used a 440, I think it was a different model DOD.

From another prescient thread:

Embrace Bill Laswell: DOD FX25. Sensitivity all the way down, play it softly so the filter never opens.

His was probably the Kermit-correct color tho?



The FX25 is the preferred bass go-to, and the 440 is more of a guitar-type dealie IMHO

I'm sad the DOD: America's Pedal site has been down for awhile now, but nerd search identifies the 440 as using a LM13600 OTA (Operational Transconductance Amplifier) chip for the envelope, whereas the 440 uses a dual Vactrol (LED/dual LDR) (and the FX25B has a Blend knob, in case you need that sort of thing)

I’ve had both, they both do the dubby sound but the sparkly ones do weird stuff better.

[goroth]

440 arrived today - it’s exactly what I wanted! Very pleased by the hot bargain, the sparkle green colour.... but very bad for my board layout, usually my ring mod goes first but somehow with the Moogerfooger in front of it it barely registers unless I crank the gain, so it’s gotta be first in the chain, screwing up my perfectly laid out board! I just spent an hour fucking with it, and it’s great though! Simple and easy, exactly what I wanted. More than a couple of knobs on a filter and I get scared....

Lay it out how you want then get funky with the wiring. I've had some weeeeeiiiirrrrdddd cable runs in my life to get my pedalboards to make sense layout wise and signal chain wise.

[Dowi]

440 arrived today - it’s exactly what I wanted! Very pleased by the hot bargain, the sparkle green colour.... but very bad for my board layout, usually my ring mod goes first but somehow with the Moogerfooger in front of it it barely registers unless I crank the gain, so it’s gotta be first in the chain, screwing up my perfectly laid out board! I just spent an hour fucking with it, and it’s great though! Simple and easy, exactly what I wanted. More than a couple of knobs on a filter and I get scared....

Lay it out how you want then get funky with the wiring. I've had some weeeeeiiiirrrrdddd cable runs in my life to get my pedalboards to make sense layout wise and signal chain wise.

+1 on this: ease of use (feet-wise) has priority, signal chain order can be done if you have enough cables and don't mind about ridicolous cable lengths. Signal loss my a$$$$