You are not logged in. Please login or register.
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Posts by Tenement Funster
As our ever-evolving digital world moves along, stories like this will continue to flow into the wake. Electronic keyboards have covered off the vast majority of the market, so that the demand for true "from scratch" pianos must surely be small. E-readers are replacing books, digital cameras have made film obsolete, the internet has replaced encyclopedias and newspapers, and so on.
Too bad, but it's the inevitable price of development ...
Glad you enjoyed this bit of foolishness ... I obviously left a lot of great members out, for which I apologize.
That's too funny, Beamer!
I've got one son left in his 20's (27 yrs old) and that sounds exactly like something he'd do. Come to think of it, sounds like something I would have done, during those cash-strapped years of raising a young family.
I guess it's called the "Cycle of Life" for good reason, eh?
The NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS in the CHORDIE UNIVERSE
'Twas the night before Christmas, in the Chordie universe,
And the guitarists were dreaming, but none for the worse;
Of hints and whispers for new toys with strings,
'Cause these are the best of our favourite things.
And Santa had checked those naughty & nice,
Those good as can be, or drowning in vice,
To see what guitar would suit each of them best,
With so many choices stretched east and west.
When out on the web there arose a great chatter,
Of opinions and preferences in all of these matters.
One said "Humbucker!", another "Single Coil",
And a few more said "Splittable!", the tempers they boiled.
When Santa stepped in and said, "Stop the noise!
There's lots for all of the grown girls and boys;
Who bring a bit of childhood to grown-up life,
To help them cope with the stress and the strife."
So he spoke to each one of them, even called them by name,
As he divvied up treasures, no two quite the same;
According to everyone's unique music taste,
So that all would be happy, with nothing to waste.
On BadEye, on Russell, on Phill, Zurf and Beamer,
On Roger, on BlueJeep, and the Benson named Peter,
Instruments most glorious and effects most notorious,
And by the way "Thanks!" for the cold milk and Oreos.
We strummed them with joy, and plucked them with mirth,
There's no greater sound around all the whole earth,
Than a guitar played with passion, and some margin of skill,
It's our one thing held in common, and so it always will.
With no way to end this wee portion of prose,
Which is just plain nonsense, one would have to suppose,
I'll simply say to you good friends I've never met,
Merry Christmas to all of you … have the best one yet!
NOTE: No eggnog was consumed in the composition of of this poem ... honest!
Beamer ...
You are correct that the VOX Amp does indeed have a tap/tempo button, both on the amp and the VFS5 footswitch which I have for it. It's a pretty versatile stomp box substitute to use the amp's various effects. I picked mine up last year at Long & McQuade's for about $75, but you can get them in the US a bit cheaper at places like Zzounds (http://www.zzounds.com/item--VOXVFS5). The VFS5 buttons work in the following order:
BANK - accesses the various amp models programmed into the amp (the US 2x12 is supposed to emulate a Fender Twin, and does a pretty fair job actually!)
CH1 - switches on or off whichever pedal effect has been selected on the amp
CH2 - switches on or off whichever modulation effect has been selected
CH3 - is the tap - tempo switch
CH4 - switches the reverb on or off
All this said, the VOX Valvetronix amp doesn't really have "true tube tone" as they advertise. It's better than many of the solid state amps, but one 12AX7 in the preamp stage isn't going to produce what multiple 6L6's or EL84's are going to do in the power amp phase (like a real tube amp).
Great to hear, JJJ ... any time of year is perfect for news like this. Most of the blessings of this life are temporary, so you've taken the right view: enjoy it now, however long it lasts. May every one of your days together be precious, and may there be lots and lots of them to come!
I feel for ya, buddy ...
In a similar vein, I found the ideal tone for "Money for Nothing" (Dire Straits) a while back, and had a "Eureka!" moment while playing it. That cool growl Mark Knopfler has in is Strat is unique, and I was feeling like a genius for having found it. But like an idiot, I never wrote down the amp, pedal, and guitar settings and I haven't been able to find it again.
So I did the mature thing and gave up.
I agree, BlueJeep ... I don't know what it is that makes a person want to try something new once in a while, but it often doesn't work out. I put new Elixir's back on this afternoon, and am glad to have my guitar sounding great again.
For whatever reason, I decided to try a different type of coated string on my Larrivee about a week ago. I usually use the Elixir Nanoweb 80/20 Bronze (12-53's) and have been very happy with them. The ones I tried are the Ernie Ball "Everlast" coated, with the same metallic compound and gauge:
http://www.ernieball.com/products/acous … stic-light
I can't say anything good about them. They sounded dead right out of the package, won't stay in tune, and have no more sustain than a noodle. They act like they've used old spar varnish for the coating. If you're ever tempted to try them, save your dough and leave them in the store. It's cost me a wasted $15 to learn this.
Those are some good choices, Beamer. I'm not familiar with all of them, so that gives me some more music to find on YouTube and check out.
I'll have to go with "Breathe" by Pink Floyd as my favorite phased / flanged song. It's easy to play, and has lots of silky textures. Their songs "Us and Them", "Shine on You Crazy Diamond", and "Time" also use this effect a lot, and are fun to play with copious amounts of reverb. And the final section of Yes's "Starship Trooper" (Wurm) is also cool with a small amount of flanger switched on. And I can't imagine anyone can give Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" or "Hey Joe" a proper treatment without phaser in them.
It's a cool effect that doesn't work for lots of music styles, but when it works it really adds a lot.
Don't know how old your youngster is, but IBANEZ makes some decent quality basses at budget prices, and are known for their smaller tapered neck ... easy to play. Another combo to consider might be:
Ibanez Gio4 bass (approx. $350)
Fender Rumble 75 amp (approx. $250)
The warning about headphones is a good one. Compressed low-frequency sound can do damage to the inner ear.
Have fun putting it all together with him!
Never heard of Parker's until I looked at their website ... seems like a well-built machine with cool lines. Having the Piezo transducer along with the humbuckers should give you a lot of tonal variety.
Thanks for this, Russell ...
I really enjoyed your creativity to bring it all together, and you've got a nice smooth / relaxed touch on your guitar. And especially liked your comment about having freshness in each day ... well done, man!
Jerome & Russell ...
Thanks for those 2 very helpful charts. I often wondered how key was determined from sheet music as well ... appreciate the answers!
I bought a Boss ME-70 about six months ago, but returned it within the 30-day return window. Being non-tech savvy, I just wasn't able to get comfortable with it. So now I'm using a 5-button foot switch for the Vox VT80+ amp which is loaded with effects and modeling parameters, and back to my old favorite Morley distortion-wah-volume combo pedal. Because I enjoy playing a lot of progressive rock, using phaser & flanger effects are pretty much "soup of the day" staples. The Vox amp also a several different delay effects, which are good for playing a lot of U2's material.
If there's one more stompbox on the "wanted list" it would be an Electro Harmonix POG2. I just love some of the organ and symphonic sounds these can produce, but they're priced way out of reason for what they are (well over $300).
I've always had misunderstandings about what some of the various electric guitar effects pedals & stompboxes actually do. Some are rather obvious, but others not so much. This is a pretty good article, that even us "non-techie" types can get some grip on:
http://www.gmarts.org/index.php?go=221#Flg
I particularly like phaser & flanger effects, as long as they're done with subtlety. The two of them sound almost identical to my ear, but it's good to understand the differences.
Enjoy!
Since your new acquisition is an acoustic guitar w/ Fishman electronics, it might make sense to look at amps designed for acoustic guitars first. They are typically wired and configured to produce a more realistic acoustic tone, than the usual electric guitar amps are. Here are a couple more to investigate:
Behringer AT108 (about $100 new)
Fender Acoustasonic 15 (about $100 new)
Beamer's suggestions are all good ones as well, especially the one about taking your instrument to your local music store and trying them out. You've got yourself a higher end instrument there, so the natural sound for at-home-practice may be sufficient without an amp. The combo of your solid sitka spruce top and solid mahogany sides & back typically creates a guitar with lots of sound, all on it's own.
Enjoy!
Yup, that bites all the way around, JJJ. We live in a heartless bureaucracy in Canada also, and it really reduces the value of "citizenship" IMHO.
Good news, NELA ...
As another resident of West Monroe would say, you must be "Happy, happy, happy!".
Awesome ""staircase" exercise!
I just ran through it a few times, and can really see the benefit of warming up with this. It's amazing how these structural exercises (like practicing scales) really benefit a person's overall playing ability, almost without noticing it. I wish I'd learned some of these terrific habits when I started playing years ago.
Thanks, Beamer!
Welcome Dean!
I'll chuck another endorsement along for www.justinguitar.com. My daughter-in-law began playing earlier this year, and has been using this system with great success. Best of all, it's self-paced (unlike scheduled guitar lessons) so you can move along as your time and interest allows.
The best of success to you!
It's pretty clear that the majority of Forum contributors on Chordie have a lot of experience and knowledge behind them. That (for me) is what makes this such a valuable site.
Hope your procedure went okay, Nela ... best wishes go your way.
BGD ....
That's an interesting article on 7ths from Wikipedia, even though I won't pretend for a moment to understand it all. I never realized that true "Barbershop Quartet" music had the requirement for 7ths in the way they're written / sung.
Someone who I believe knows about music once told me that 7ths are "unresolved". They draw the mind to thinking "there's something else", and often make excellent connectors from one note to the next. A lot of hymns (which are message-oriented) use them, as well as ballads which have a story progression to convey. David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) and Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) often wrote using 7ths, with great results.
The final movement of Camille Saint-Saens 3rd symphony has a pipe organ segment with a lot of 7ths, and it adds a LOT of tension that draws it along in a very majestic way, which will often move me to tears when listening!
Isn't music amazing!
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Posts by Tenement Funster
