Confessions of a gear noob

[waltdogg]

well this is very amusing.

definitely guilty of plugging in pedals backwards though i've never sold off or traded away anything i loved and regretted it. i learned early on to keep anything that felt or sounded nice.

i can also admit that i'm a sound engineer but i barely understand busing and auxes and shit in pro tools. i can kinda do it, but sometimes it just ends in horrible feedback and screeching.

oh and here's a good one, for years i just used short instrument cables instead of speaker cables. that was great. i blew up a sunn concert bass doing that once.

[ognoy]

First(not counting a Zoom multi FX) stompbox I bought was a compressor(Marshall), cause I thought it was the same as a boost, needed it for solos.

Even though it could boost the signal a little bit, but just a nudge.

[waltdogg]

oh yeah, my first "dirt" pedal was a compressor too. boss cs-3.

[lost in music]

To get extra high gain I would crank my little practice amp, then run the headphone output into the input of my bigger amp.

I also did this with two solid-state amps. I also stabbed holes in the practice amp speaker with a pencil because I had heard that was how Link Wray invented distortion.

In early gear days, I asked my parents for a Boss Noise Suppressor pedal for xmas because I thought it would fix the noise from my shitty amp.

Another xmas I asked them for a mixer, when what I really meant was a 4-track. They were gear noobs too and they bought me a DJ mixer (from Radio Shack). I never ended up using it for recording anything and it sat in a box for a couple years, but then I got some use out of it by doing cool crossfades on mixtapes.

I'm still very much a gear noob. So much shit I don't know shit about. Recording anything? Midi? Tube amps? Head/cabs? I try to be more cautious about my buying habits these days and research stuff extensively online.

Actually though, about 2 years ago I bought a cheap-ass Lexicon audio interface and something went wrong. I can't even remember what it was but I think it came down to a Mac/PC issue with the included software or something? So that's been sitting on a shelf for a while, but I've since switched from MAC to PC. But the computer I've got now doesn't even have a disc drive though, so I don't know what the hell I'm going to do. Great, thanks ILF. Now I'm feeling like a noob again!

[odontophobia]

Sold my first guitar, Lake Placid Blue Telecaster for $100 and a Futon because I wasn't playing guitar seriously enough.

Then sold a bunch of awesome synth gear for. Of nearly enough money.

Also, my first band used use a Lowry organ. It was s pain to drag around but sounded great with the built in tube amp mic'd up. For portability we decided to hack it up. Then we just bought synths and emulated the sounds. Fucking stupid.

[Ghost Hip]

When I got my first half stack my friends and I did not realize there was a difference between speaker and instrument cables.

I used to record by plugging into a behringer mixer which I then plugged into my laptop's microphone input, onto Adobe Audition software. I did this way longer than I want to admit. Then I found out about usb interfaces.

Before I learned how to play guitar I thought in order to play notes you had to press notes onto the fret wire, not in between them. It baffled me how people could get so good at it, made more sense when I learned you pressed in between.

[dminner]

I still have no idea how to use MIDI.

I also still have no clue how to use MIDI.

Fun fact, my second guitar pedal purchased ever was actually midi controller of some sort (first pedal was the DS1). Anyway, as I said I have no idea how to use MIDI, and really even what it is. I didn't know I was buying a midi controller. I was at a pawn shop that had this: https://reverb.com/item/1226253-art-x-1 ... -box-power

I was like, "yeah, let me just get this and have all the effects," plus its pink, bonus right? In my defense, it was confusing because all the buttons still have specific labels like delay, phaser, etc. However, I got home and soon realized that it was just a controller and had no real effects Actually, that isn't completely true, I thought maybe it is just broken and that is why it wasn't working, took it to the local guitar store that did repairs and explained what was happening. WOW, that was embarrassing...

I guess in retrospect its lack of knobs and controls should have been a clue.

[hbombgraphics]

this thread has inspired me to download the software to update my pitchfactor (AFTER 4 years!!)

and I have no idea how midi works

[odontophobia]

this thread has inspired me to download the software to update my pitchfactor (AFTER 4 years!!)

and I have no idea how midi works

Proud of you, boy.

[Benn Roe]

I'm sure I did a ton of stupid stuff, but I'm having a hard time thinking of much of it. I definitely bought a sustain pedal (like you'd use for a keyboard), thinking I could somehow use it to get more sustain out of my guitar. I'm not sure what I thought I was supposed to be plugging it into.

[lost in music]

Ha ha ha! Nice.

[resincum]

but that's what I thought sustain pedals are for

[insubordination]

When I got my first half stack my friends and I did not realize there was a difference between speaker and instrument cables.

I used to record by plugging into a behringer mixer which I then plugged into my laptop's microphone input, onto Adobe Audition software. I did this way longer than I want to admit. Then I found out about usb interfaces.

Re: speaker cables, I was the same way, no one ever told me! I also thought that since the amp head had two speaker outs and the cab had two inputs you needed to plug both in. Definitely fucked up two, if not three amps this way. Also didn't know the difference between tube and solid state for about 7 years, and was mystified by my DD-5 for about a decade. I just turned knobs until it sounded right.

Re: recording, the first " band" I did with my friend did some of our best recording into a Shure Vocal Master PA straight into a tape deck, live. Killer tape deck overdrive tones with an MXR Dist+ (from the Commander series, the weird black enclosure) straight in.

[Invisible Man]

how to imbed youtubes on ILF

remove the "s"


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1Ds9CeG-VY[/youtube]

OK, it's called Youtube, how does that help?

lol

Remove the "s" from "https"

Hahahahahaha

[Invisible Man]

I'm sure I did a ton of stupid stuff, but I'm having a hard time thinking of much of it. I definitely bought a sustain pedal (like you'd use for a keyboard), thinking I could somehow use it to get more sustain out of my guitar. I'm not sure what I thought I was supposed to be plugging it into.

I think this wins/loses the thread. Wish it worked that way.