ILF Unplugged

[Zork]

I also have a sitar. Never got it repaired and ready to play BUT I took the bridge and did this:

[friendship]

I wonder sometimes about getting a tanpura, miking it up and plugging the mike into a DI box and sending the thru output to a bunch of pedals and droning my afternoons away.

...have you heard about the wonderful Raagini Digital Tanpura? No? Check this out: https://youtu.be/281R0Am_KBE?si=fCshe0rNQj-CFqR6

The thing is all over all the Kula Shaker records. I have one, too. Simply modded to an output jack and a switch to turn the crappy internal speaker on and off. I love this thing.

Oh yeah, I saw one on my local CL a couple years ago and also bought it. There are tabla machines too, right?

I did make a VST patch that gets pretty close to the sound and used the internal 16-step sequencer to play roots and fifths. It's pretty fun to jam modal guitar over.

Tanpura with slide, tho....

[friendship]

I also have a sitar. Never got it repaired and ready to play BUT I took the bridge and did this:

[clip]

Whaaaaat I wanna hear that!

[Zork]

Whaaaaat I wanna hear that!

You can: https://youtu.be/OaYxwu2bHKg?si=ypWBC-FjZcSg_Ice
We also used the Raagini on that one.

(I'm the incredibly young bass player)

[dubkitty]

that sounds a hell of a lot better than the Danelectro electric sitar/guitars. i never really liked those, probably because lipstick pickups aren’t ideal.

[Zork]

I suppose it's also a matter of strings and tuning. I use very thick plain strings with little tension, like real sitar strings.

[dubkitty]

what tuning?

this is reminding me of a column that used to run in Guitar Player in the 70s or 80s where a guy explained how to emulate the sounds of various non-guitar instruments with your guitar and occasionally some simple mods. if you use a slide or something as a secondary bridge that’s raised above normal string height and tune to a pentatonic scale you can get a surprisingly cool koto effect. i tried it and it worked.

[Blackened Soul]

As to danos… I’ve found lipstick pickups to vary a lot.. the Dan Armstrong one are super dull and the 90s Korean reissues are icepicky..
like 25 years ago I got a dano baritone and the wood saddle buzzes if you play hard.. we did a one off where I wrote a song around the instrument and we recorded it the next day.. we both ended up using it for overdubs.. I bet we played through 2 times tops.. and never played it again
The intro is just that.. randomly played a dano and it buzzing really.. I think microphonic pickups is what is important…
https://on.soundcloud.com/k54o70ZqWA0MBcNjj1
I’m going to say.. most of it was through a dod death metal and a ampeg jet 12T

[Zork]

what tuning?

EBEBE or DADAD. I don't remember the string gauges but I have a note somewhere. It takes a bit of experimenting and depends on the guitar. The string should be as thick as possible for good tone but at the same time keep a low tension to do the wide bends and for the vibrating string to rotate a lot for a good buzz. I think the middle e string is a .020" or .022" gauge plain string and sound massive.

[dubkitty]

probably more than "a bit" of experimenting. if i was more dedicated to getting outside of six strings i'd have a strings box like my parts box with a plethora of different gauges, plain and wound. lots of folks have spare strings laying around, but don't usually keep heavy wound unwound strings or the kind of crazy low gauges used for lowered tunings. one thing to be said for the bog-standard acoustic medium .013-.056 is that is supports a lot more tunings than Regular Slinkies. if i was to start playing solo again i'd get a second dreadnought-sized guitar to use just for altered tunings. i don't usually use altered tunings on electric other than DADGAD or the occasional open D/open G when it's Slide/Lapsteel Time because the strings and guitars don't really lend themselves to that.

[friendship]

Whaaaaat I wanna hear that!

You can: https://youtu.be/OaYxwu2bHKg?si=ypWBC-FjZcSg_Ice
We also used the Raagini on that one.

(I'm the incredibly young bass player)

This rules, thank you for sharing!

[Ghost Hip]

Late to the OP, but I recall any Larrivee guitar I picked up sounding and feeling solid. Definitely been tempted by them in passing!

I've been playing the same acoustic since I was a teenager and fortunately had a dad that was susceptible to a respectable sales pitch. (RIP Herb David guitars in Ann Arbor, MI ).

2007ish Taylor 310 with red EMG ACS pickup installed this past year. I like to use nickel bronze strings to get that warm played in sound sooner since taylors can be so stinkin bright, also why I removed the high e string pole piece from the pickup. My teen ears were not attracted to warm sounds back then I guess lol.

I've never had another acoustic though. Definitely played plenty lovely ones when working guitar center in my 20s but I was playing electric in every project so it always felt out of my reach to get another, especially in the good ole days of having access to $40 Digiverbs or $85 Boss PS-3.

Now that I've bastardized this one with a big honkin pickup, it would be good to get a quality simple acoustic. It is really fun shopping and noticing all the subtle differences in tone and feel.

Anywho sorry for big pic but here's my one true boo acoustic.

[alexsga]

my turn-of-the-century Cavallini