When I'm not writing, playing or recording music, I like to pretend I'm a luthier. This was a recent kit build (not really a luthier) of a Thoman Jazzmaster guitar. Plays and sounds better than I ever expected.
Quick introduction now that I've moved to Mastodon Music.
Swiss-based musician - bass, guitar, key, vocals of varying competencies. Played in Sydney in the 80s, Brisbane in the 90s, Myspace in the 00s + a rogue folk-acoustic set somewhere in there, nothing at all in the 10s!, and now active again. Several solo, collaborative and band activities locally and in Australia.
Also trying to recover all my old friends after the unexpected move, so boosts appreciated.
Hey #guitarist s, has anyone had any dealings with Fulltone lately?
Yes, I'm aware that the founder has some odious political leanings, but the reason I ask is because I'm trying to sell this OCD pedal which lacks 2 of 4 thumbscrews. Last Friday I saw that they sell em on the Fulltone site, so I ordered a set. I got an automated "thank you, we'll let you know when we ship", and then...
nothing.
In my tea business, I never let 48 hours go by w/o shipping, so...idk. Ghost site?
If anyone is curious about how I made my latest EP entirely on the Novation Circuit Rhythm, here's a deep dive on that unit and some of the my favourite features (along with a few gripes)
Godsdamn it, Pittsburgh Modular, if you could stop making badass synths that I feel like I can't live without for a while, that'd be great!
(This is in reference to the new Voltage Lab 2, as well as last year's Taiga, to a lesser degree.)
Especially since they're not cheap 😅
(No shade intended, I KNOW they're actually very cheap for what all they can do, but the raw cost is eye-watering to a indie artist who doesn't make $10's of thousands a year from music making.)
Latest pedalboard. Apart from the tuner, these are all Jeds Peds DIY kits with custom (if plagiarised) designs. Can you guess what they are all clones of? I’ve re-housed a few and built a couple of new ones since last time, making sure they are all in 125B enclosures with top-mounted jacks for maximum space utilisation.
Chord chart for new track ‘1986’.
Inspired by the All In setting on my UA 1176 compressor, this riff has full chord strumming that needs a thinner pick. This might be the track that requires me to mic the Half Pint. As good as my other amp is into my audio interface, the Half Pint sounds better, even recorded on my iPhone. #guitar#gearsquad
Long shot but my DIY analogue chorus pedal (clone of the Julia) makes clicking sounds in time with the chorus rate. I am pretty sure it originates in the TL072 op-amp used for oscillation. What I can’t work out is how to stop it. Others have built the same kit and not had the same issue. Power is clean (battery), have tried a different chip. Going slightly mad with it.
#NPD Cusack Music Project 34 Selenium pre/drive.
It's kind-of like a klon: vol, tone, gain, can boost and/or add dirt.
Has a switch to add bass.
I'd say it's more creamy than fizzy in character.
I don't know where to put it yet... which pedal to take off the board, where to put it in the chain. #GearSquad#guitar#GuitarPedals#GAS
It’s full. I mean, totally. But I need One More Pedal - a TC Electronics Ditto+ mini looper. I really don’t want to buy an even bigger board. I want to find some kind of “add-on” solution where I could clip or bolt on a small extension. I don’t mind drilling holes, but I probably wouldn’t be able to make something out of wood or metal. Needs to be stury enough to be stomped on. Any ideas?
I got my old acoustic professionally set up in the fall and now that it's spring it's time to do it again myself. Action and neck relief seem fine but I have a little buzz on the D and G strings from frets 3-7. I haven't measured the relief but when I test it it clears the frets with a small gap, so it's not bad. I'm trying to figure out what to adjust. Does that sound like a neck relief issue, an action issue, or a fret issue? Or an "acoustics can have a little buzz as a treat" issue. #guitar
Pedal idea: Trouble Boost, featuring intermittent signal failure, loss of frequency response and volume, enhanced capacitance, impedance mismatching, randomly shifting bandpass filters, and no user manipulable controls. #gearsquad
Well, my attempt to switch to being a lefty guitar player isn’t going to work. I just can’t get my fingers to work the right way on the fretboard without them getting in the way of each other. And forget about strumming or picking, that’s a total disaster. So I’m just going to have to keep taking the anti inflammatories and limbering my fingers up as best I can before playing. #guitar#gearsquad
So thankfully the strange 3-way pickup selector switch anomaly on the Danelectro 59M is covered under warranty. Taking it in this week to be shipped to the service department in Vancouver for a new switch. #guitars#gearsquad#repair
Studio Update: A few weeks ago I was soliciting opinions about whether or not to get a Mac Mini to replace my ailing, nearly decade-old PC.
Opinions differed, leaning toward "yes but get more RAM than base model" and I had just about decided not to do it when I stumbled on a good video from a music tech vlogger I really like (video here: https://youtu.be/obkCMxaIIFM) who did exactly what I was thinking and had great results.
Well, I’m now beyond frustrated with Apple. Was working with Apple Loops in Logic this morning, went to use the search feature, picked a filter and now all the loops are totally gone. I reindexed them, nothing; reinstalled & reindexed them, nothing. Deleted the preference file, rebooted, nothing. Lost all my settings when I deleted the preferences too. So looking like I need to delete anything Logic related for preferences & logs the reinstall Logic. 🤬 #apple#logic#recording#gearsquad
Alright, Fediverse, let's talk Tubescreamers. I got asked a question regarding the famous FS "hump" which got sent down a rabbit hole of measurements and guess what, YOU get to benefit from my hyperfixation. "tbg," you ask, "how do you have time for this with your job, and kid, and touring?" I FUCKING DON'T, SHUT UP AND READ THE THREAD AND DON'T TELL MY BOSS
(Also, apologies, no alt text, but I describe each pic in the post)