the guitar players megathread

Lazyscience said:
thanks for your concern about my fingers.

the daisy chain thing isnt very good from my experience. a proper power brick thing is way more reliable and makes sure all your pedals get adequate power.
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the daisy chain thing is probably fine as long as you make sure its got enough wattage
 
i think you can get into problems with the daisy because different pedals have different polarities and theres something else i cant remember. i had lots of problems with noise and stuff. it might be alright though but i think, if youre going to build a pedal board, you want to do it properly.

hey change-jug, can we see some pictures of your pedalboard?
 
I`ll try and post some pics once I actually put the thing together. I finally got around to cutting some slats down to the proper length. So I`ll have 5 or 6 1.5 inch planks going across. I`ll be laying velcro to those so my pedals stay put.
I`m still thinking if I want to make the side supports lay flat or cut them at an angle so that I can reach all my effects easily.
 
^Hey, if you're doing some DIY it'd be awesome if you posted in the guitar mod megathread. I tried to get it off the ground a while ago, but there wasn't many replies. And since this thread has been doing so well, perhaps that'll be successful and useful to many of us who post in here now. :)
 
I was really up in the air about which power supply to buy(1 Spot daisy chain or a isolated power brick). So after reading a bunch on the interwebz and getting really high I ended up buying a T Rex fuel tank Jr. along with an adapter that will work on my old delay pedal bequeathed to me by my dear old dad.
It has 5 isolated power outs to cut down on hum and ground loops and it has a daisy chain as well so that you can use more than just 5 effects. It was more than the 1 Spot but cheaper than most of the power brick options.
Now I just have to nag my friend so that we can finish building our boards.
 
^Yeah the iso brick is totally better. Take it from me.
The one spot is good for people with no money, but if you want THE SOLUTION, it's gotta be the brick power supply.
 
I just got my T Rex jr in the mail today along with some patch cables and the Mars Volta`s last record(on vinyl). Yay!
It`s way smaller than I though it would be,so that`s a bonus!
 
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Hi, just thought that I would post some songs that a friend wrote, these videos were from his first show so he did screw up a bit. Anyways let me know what you think, I'd be greatful. Listen to song 7 and 4 they are the songs that I am most proud of.

link
 
recorded a couple new tracks

http://escapegoat.bandcamp.com/track/traversing
http://escapegoat.bandcamp.com/track...ly-introverted
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i really enjoy your delay pedal work. i like the bit in traversing where it all flies apart. your music is verging on the math rock genre i think. it would be cool if you were my neighbour and i could jam along on the drums.

anyway, here is my latest idea im working on.
http://soundcloud.com/ultra-sound-1/11-07-08-mellow

hows the pedal board coming along changejug?
 
i forgot to bring my headphones to the library with me today, but i promise that i'll listen to that track tomorrow :)

thanks for listening compadre. idk if its readily apparent but in traversing i only pluck three notes for each chord :) so, for instance, the first 10 seconds or so of sound started with me playing an arpeggiated d minor chord (xxx765), and then just letting the delay do all the work. the entire track only has 96 plucks in it!

here's my old myspace, with a few songs i recorded from back when i never used delay. a couple of these songs have a backing drum track that i made in fruity loops.

http://www.myspace.com/thenightwatchx

oh since you're interested in math rock, i'll tell you ahead of time that YHHWBDDB from that myspace page has a pretty long section in it that is in 15/4 ;)
 
Lazyscience said:
hows the pedal board coming along changejug?
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Well I`m at a bit of a stand still.

I have pretty much all that I need,with the exception of velcro. BUT the main reason for making a pedal board(and not just buying one) was so that my best friend and I had a excuse to hang out, play with power tools and drink some beers. You know,guy time.:)

But a few days after we went to the hard ware store and bought the stuff his girlfriend had their first baby together. As you can imagine a screaming new born is about as opposite as "free time" as possible.

About 6 weeks have gone by and all we`ve manage to do is cut long 2 inch planks in half(with a power saw!) and draw mock ups of our designs. It`s going painfully slow.

Now that I`ve got my power brick(sitting in front of me mockingly) I`m one step closer to having a nice,tidy pedal board.....and it`s bothering the hell out of me that I`m waiting on my friend to have a spare moment so that we can work on our stuff together! I found out that he`s had the past 2 days off from work but wasn`t able to do anything cause he was watching his baby.
Which is totally fine. I get that having a kid is a big deal but in the mean time I`m left with my thumb up my ass. So now I`m debating whether I should just finish it on my own(and hurt his feelings in the process) or be stuck in limbo while waiting on my boy to have some free time:p.

I`m really leaning toward finishing it on my own. The majority of the time when we get together we end up goofing around anyways.
I`m thinking that I should just put it together and rock out. Then when he finally has a free day(which according to our last phone call might not be till late next week) just take it apart and put it together in front of him for the "first time". I think I`m over thinking this whole thing way,way too much.
 
A buddy and I are making a concerted effort to start trying to write music together, and it's going pretty good so far. I don't have much experience co-operatively writing music, since I figured it would just end up with me punching the other guy, but we've almost finished three songs in the past two days, which is more than I can do in two weeks. Hopefully we can keep it up and make the songs performance-worthy, since live performance is something we both really want to experience.

To those of you in a band: Once you have the members and the music, how do you go about getting gigs?
 
Pester bars, clubs and agents with demo in hand and/or organise your own gig(s).

Prior to going out, rehearse, rehearse and rehearse again, so when you do get heard you're firing on all cylinders - first impressions count :)
 
To get gigs someone on your behalf must work the phones and network like a madman. That's why an agent is useful, so you don't have to do that yourself, and you can just focus on what you want to focus on, but as you're starting out it's obviously not worth it to have an agent if you are just playing bar gigs and stuff.
And also once you get the gig make sure to try and get as many people as possible to come to the show. That will make it so the venue is happy and will take your call again.

Also have a kick ass live show: Engage with the crowd, know the material inside and out, don't anyone look lost or like you're admitting a mistake, make eye contact with the audience, don't just look at your instrument or shoes or whatever the whole time, be relaxed and look like you're having fun, smile when you think it's going well, like if you nailed a song or you get decent applause, etc.
Working on your live show is just like working on your instrument and music, it's a never ending process. Always try to improve it and have fun with it.

BTW I got a new acoustic. I'm so pumped about it, it's fucking awesome! My job at Guitar Center finally payed off cuz I got a 1100 dollar hand crafted, all solid wood, for 288 bucks! It's a parkwood pw-510. Parkwood is a lesser known brand so customers just walked past this guitar in the store for at least a year and a half, no one seemed to want it, but one day I randomly decide to pick it up and pay it, and I was blown away at how clean and powerful the tone was, how easily the neck played, the overall feel of it, and the volume was great. There's just nothing lacking about this instrument whatsoever. It's far better than ANYTHING you could get for 300 or less, it's even better than some 2000 dollar Taylors or Gibsons. I'm so ridiculously stoked about this thing!
I have to take good care of it though, with a humidipak, because solid would you need to keep humid or it will distort over time. Solid wood as opposed to laminate wood, which is more durable, but the tone is less quality overall.
 
Photo-0768.jpg



Finally got around to doing the saw work and trimming the vertical pieces of wood down to the right size. I think I`m going to slim down the two end boards by an inch or 2. They`re a bit too wide and will most likely end up getting in the way of a cord or power wire. Plus by thinning them down I`ll save on the overall weight of the board.
The horizontal slats are uneven and I took one slat out for the pic so that you could see the placement of the Fuel Tank jr. a little bit better. Also,the top most slat looks thin because its resting on it`s edge. When I screw it all together that one slat will be forming a front edge to the pedal board to both make it look more complete and to hide/protect the power supply and the wires. I have 2 right angle brackets that I`m using to attach that slat to the body of the pedal board.
I stopped by my local mega store and picked up 2 boxes of industrial strength Velcro and some zip ties. The only problem is that the velcro is white and not the standard black that I thought it would be. How totally unbadass(not to mention unmetal) is that? Naw,it`s not really a problem.
I`m still up in the air over staining it,painting it or leaving it be.
 
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Can't believe I'd never seen this thread before...

Anyhow, I've been playing since I was 7 (twenty fuckin' years! damn, time flies). My grandfather started teaching me the basic cowboy chords when I was just a youngin' and I was lying about my age to play at local bars by the time I was twelve. Played and taught professionally from 17-22 (best times of my life, without doubt) or so, have only played live sporadically since, unfortunately, but I'm really trying to rectify that.

As far as gear goes, the rig I had developed by the time my last major band was performing is what I'm still playing...

Modulus Genesis G3CT (5A quilt top beauty!) into
Teese RMC3 Wah>
Burris Boostier (20dB clean boost)>
Fulltone Full Drive 2>
Radial Tonebone Classic (5AX7 powered drive box)>
Red Witch Medusa Chorus/Trem>
Redwitch Moon Phaser>
Maxon AD-80 Delay>
Fender Custom Shop Bass Breaker

I can cover pretty much any sound desirable, from thick jazz comping, to over the top Jimmy Herring-esque driven tones and everything in between. Real happy with that set up. Wish I had more chances to use it these days.

I was going through some old CDs and whatnot about a week or so ago and came across some old material from bands past that uploaded to mediafire/megaupload and sent to a couple former bandmates in case they had misplaced their copies over the years. Figured I may as well share a bit here, since they're already uploaded....

Here is a segue of (mainly) three songs... It was recorded live at Cervantes in Denver in 2004. Unfortunately, our drummer had left the band unexpectedly shortly before this gig, so our trombone/aux percussionist played kit for a while-- did a VERY good job for a non-kit player, but its definitely a weak link, so, uh overlook that little flaw... alas... anyhow, the first, aggressive part I helped to write but is not really my tune; the second, more laid back, jazz-influenced tune (which I called Opie Ate It... someone here may appreciate that title more than most of my bandmates did, ha) is an original of mine; then there's a little medley of cover material (2001, and an SCI/Karl Denson segment) that segues into in Memory of Elizabeth Reed (Allman Brothers). Here it is in 2 parts:

http://www.mediafire.com/?own223u744ljarx (original tunes, 2001/SCI/Karl D segments)
http://www.mediafire.com/?lctu1dem9rnrw0f (Liz Reed)

And here's a pair of songs from a 9 piece funk/rock band I was in during college almost a decade ago. I learned how to be a member of a band with this group (The kit player and I were the only two who were not music majors, who didn't do marching band all through high school, etc); very professional but loads of fun too. Some of the most fun I've had.

Band: Vuja De
Song: Get Down (original composition)
Recorded: The Dame, Lexington, KY, (May 2002)
Link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JLWAKYZL I helped arrange/compose this, but the guitar solo is not mine. Mainly included this one b/c the keyboardist/vocalist/trumpet guy and I wrote/arranged the music together. I'm particularly proud of the breakdown section in the middle.

Band: Vuja De
Song: Superstitous (Steve Wonder)
Recorded: The Dame, Lexington, KY (May 2002)
Link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FNUU2N8G I do play the guitar parts on this one

Anyhow... hope y'all enjoy...
 
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