Radio Preppers

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: gil on June 28, 2013, 10:14:08 PM

Title: Any guitar players here?
Post by: gil on June 28, 2013, 10:14:08 PM
Here is my new stress relief tool...

Gil.
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: Geek on June 29, 2013, 05:43:33 AM
I thought you weren't supposed to play music on amateur radio.   ;D

My son plays base guitar.  Is that close enough?
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: KC9TNH on June 29, 2013, 08:33:34 AM
Nice Gil.

Don't actually own one currently; at one time the spare BR looked like a store. Back in the day primary work tools were a '62 Strat through (switched) Twin Reverb or a Marshal half-stack depending on sound desired. A Washburn acoustic took care of that things; like radios or guns, that one I wish I had back, sounded as good as any Martin D-series.  For small rooms the Strat and a little Princeton Reverb took care of everything. Small rooms being any little dive just outside of town where you don't work the mic close unless you want to get bit.

Nice LPJ; Glenn Frey would approve.  8)
Is that an old Ampeg behind it?
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: WA4STO on June 29, 2013, 12:29:42 PM
Glenn Frey indeed.

I often think of Joe Walsh, WB6ACU.

Wasn't the guitar that he'd had signed by each member of the Eagles and auctioned off at ARRL HQ, a Strat?

73

Luck, WA4STO

Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: gil on June 29, 2013, 12:36:28 PM
Hello, the amp is a B52, 50W all tubes... I have to stop myself from robbing those two 6L6s for a CW transmitter! Anyway, it's too loud for home, and I'm not good enough to play anywhere else! So, I will be getting a little Blackstar HT-1R 1W combo amp for practice. The solid state ones sound like crap to me..

Gil.
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: KC9TNH on June 29, 2013, 02:34:05 PM
Quote from: gil on June 29, 2013, 12:36:28 PM
Hello, the amp is a B52, 50W all tubes... I have to stop myself from robbing those two 6L6s for a CW transmitter! Anyway, it's too loud for home, and I'm not good enough to play anywhere else! So, I will be getting a little Blackstar HT-1R 1W combo amp for practice. The solid state ones sound like crap to me..

Gil.
Don't rob the 6L6's; warm glass is the thing.  That amp would play any club, and if mic'd, anywhere. The deal with 6L6's is, turning the pre-amp (or even the guitar) up doesn't do for the tone what happens when the final is hot and actually allowed to do its thing. That's why the smaller amps with 6V6's or the old Vox with -84's in 'em are great 'cause you can turn up the final stage without blowing the walls down. Now if you don't have neighbors... alot of early Hendrix stuff (before the official Marshal "deal") was done with a Twin Reverb full of 6L6's. What a classic tube. Very nice combo you have there.
;D

Can't recall if Walsh's auction guitar was a Strat or not. But Frey really made that slimline Les Paul profile with some nasty pickups "his sound" and has played it through all the reunion iterations too. I like 'em 'cause they're much lighter like a Strat or an SG - a real good-wood true Les Paul can be a beast over the course of 4 hours or so.
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: gil on June 29, 2013, 03:34:16 PM
Absolutely Wes! That's why I will be getting a 1W tube amp, so I get get the tone without upsetting the neighbors! The B52 sounds great at high volumes, but pretty bad at barely any volume..

Gil.
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: raybiker73 on July 09, 2013, 12:28:38 AM
I'm a bass player (I currently have Ibanez and Epiphone basses), but I futz around with 6 strings once in a while. I have a Les Paul, and an older Cort acoustic with an electric pickup. Haven't played much the last few years, but I miss it.
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: KC9TNH on July 09, 2013, 06:59:42 AM
Quote from: raybiker73 on July 09, 2013, 12:28:38 AMHaven't played much the last few years, but I miss it.
Likewise. Gil's post makes me think the next electron exciter I get should be another guitar & a baby tube amp; just for my personal enjoyment. Wake-up call of DUI enforcement back in the late-80's (not a bad thing) pretty much put paid to every little dorf up here having a little roadhouse outside town & there went the live-music thing. Now people can go to the corner tavern, do karaoke, and crawl home if they need to.

Whatever it is, it'll be a Strat. The Japanese did some pretty good ones for Fender and my ex-pat Brit dealer down the road says some of the Mexican ones aren't too bad.
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: gil on July 09, 2013, 01:18:45 PM
Quotemy ex-pat Brit dealer down the road says some of the Mexican ones aren't too bad

I'll vouch for those, that was my first guitar, pretty well built.

For a small practice amp, I will be getting the Blackstar HT-1R.

Gil.
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: raybiker73 on July 09, 2013, 06:09:08 PM
Quote from: KC9TNH on July 09, 2013, 06:59:42 AM
Likewise. Gil's post makes me think the next electron exciter I get should be another guitar & a baby tube amp; just for my personal enjoyment. Wake-up call of DUI enforcement back in the late-80's (not a bad thing) pretty much put paid to every little dorf up here having a little roadhouse outside town & there went the live-music thing. Now people can go to the corner tavern, do karaoke, and crawl home if they need to.

Same thing happened around here. I made money my last year or two of high school and nearly the whole way through college thumping out tunes in a variety of bars, parties, wedding receptions and what have you, but when serious DUI enforcement got REALLY serious, the live music culture around here died. Now, taverns with live music are few and far between, and the few bands you do see are either annoying hipsters playing scene music, or metal bands that just aren't any good (and I've been in a couple really good metal bands). It's a shame.
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: KC9TNH on July 09, 2013, 06:44:39 PM
Quote from: raybiker73 on July 09, 2013, 06:09:08 PMIt's a shame.
OK, here's the deep-dark covert-squirrel secret-ninja KC9TNH lowdown:

I detest karaoke like Gil maybe feels about contesters. Some people should never wear a speed-o or halter-top. Some people should not be let within 50' of a microphone. I promise you; there is not enough liquor to convince me otherwise.
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: gil on July 09, 2013, 10:41:24 PM
QuoteI detest karaoke like Gil maybe feels about contesters. Some people should never wear a speed-o or halter-top. Some people should not be let within 50' of a microphone. I promise you; there is not enough liquor to convince me otherwise.

Couldn't agree more... Same problem here, good venues are few and far between. Noise ordinances took care of the last few good ones. There are good bands around, but they have nowhere to play. That's what happens when you live in a retirement state I guess..

Well, my musical asirations don't go any further than the local open mike, and I am not there yet! First song I'll be learning in it's entirety will be "Down With the Sickness" by Disturbed. I downloaded a backing track on the Net with everything but the guitar.. Also just downloaded the Reaper recording software for Mac at http://reaper.fm (http://reaper.fm).

No worries, I'm not leaving Ham radio, LOL. I actually started listening to the news at 25wpm daily on my iPod with "Ham Morse." I decode maybe one word out of five so far...

Gil.
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: KK0G on July 10, 2013, 12:16:02 AM
Quote from: KC9TNH on July 09, 2013, 06:44:39 PM
OK, here's the deep-dark covert-squirrel secret-ninja KC9TNH lowdown:

I detest karaoke like Gil maybe feels about contesters. Some people should never wear a speed-o or halter-top. Some people should not be let within 50' of a microphone. I promise you; there is not enough liquor to convince me otherwise.


Hey, I resemble that remark (well except for the halter top part, I am pretty sexy in one LOL)

I would never be so rude as to cast my hideous singing upon the ears of others. I have noticed that my singing gets much better after a few beers though 8)
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: gil on July 10, 2013, 12:51:02 AM
QuoteI have noticed that my singing gets much better after a few beers though

The same way heavy-set women get thinner?  :o

Gil.
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: KK0G on July 10, 2013, 08:41:44 AM
Quote from: gil on July 10, 2013, 12:51:02 AM
QuoteI have noticed that my singing gets much better after a few beers though

The same way heavy-set women get thinner?  :o

Gil.

Now that you mention it I do see a possible correlation. ;D
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: KC9TNH on October 22, 2013, 09:05:31 PM
Quote from: gil on June 29, 2013, 12:36:28 PMAnyway, it's too loud for home, and I'm not good enough to play anywhere else! So, I will be getting a little Blackstar HT-1R 1W combo amp for practice. The solid state ones sound like crap to me.

Gil.
Necropost, but... in the spirit of life after work, I've acquired another guitar and am enjoying it immensely. Some recessed things are starting to come back. I'll post pic when I've finished my chase for the amp.*  The good news is that there is so much info on the net from which to make a judgement call that I won't have to make some of the buy/sell/trade decisions I made in the day.  And not playing weekend outdoor fests in the field behind the Harley dealer on top of a flatbed trailer.

The little SS cheapo from local shop is just that - and really bad. I plan to give it to some aspiring thrasher who only knows one number on the dial. But the Strat still feels like a Strat.
Livin' large. I'll have to see if I can workup a run with the fingers & tone that would carry-off my call in CW...
  8)

* and, no, you can't have my EL-84's for a CW rig either.  ;D
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: raybiker73 on October 22, 2013, 09:28:39 PM
Quote from: KC9TNH on October 22, 2013, 09:05:31 PM
The little SS cheapo from local shop is just that - and really bad. I plan to give it to some aspiring thrasher who only knows one number on the dial. But the Strat still feels like a Strat.

An amazingly good little SS amp is the Epiphone-branded Studio 15R (I think it's actually made by Peavey). It's the only guitar amp I own right now, and when you pair it up with a Danelectro Daddy-O pedal and some other minimal effects, it has a really rich sound.

(Note: my amp is tethered to a Les Paul rather than a Strat, so YMMV).
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: KC9TNH on October 22, 2013, 10:13:20 PM
I believe you, played a couple of Peavey amps back in the day - they do a pretty good job with their SS stuff although they've made a couple of dynamite little tube rigs too. Amp I have is one of those the local guy had that started life as one of those 'package' deals & someone traded it  back to him for some patch cords or something.
Serving its purpose for the moment; the reverb is so bad I dug up an old analog delay unit I had that provides some good slapback, so it can be made un-painful and get some depth.  But I'm a tube guy. Often as not I'm noodling around unplugged anyway for now.

Your Daddy-O is a classic.  ;)

The guitar here is something I always wanted Fender to do; a Strat with 2 humbuckers and positions 2 & 4 on the switch split the humbuckers. You can get a pretty good "stratty" tone out of one of those and the back one of those two brings in the "bark" of a Tele's bridge pickup.  The humbuckers help to make the pre-amp work for its living when trying to get decent sound at "neighborhood friendly" levels. Other than that it's all Strat; just different pickups and its pretty versatile. 15 minutes setting up the trem & it stays in tune; although I don't dive bomb the thing like alot of the kids nowadays (or Beck).

Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: raybiker73 on October 22, 2013, 10:17:59 PM
Got me to thinking, I need to get a new copy of Craig Anderton's "Electronic Projects for Musicians." It's probably in about the Fiftieth Edition by now. I had a copy when I was a teenager, and it's what got me started on trying to make noisy things.

http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Projects-Musicians-Craig-Anderton/dp/0825695023 (http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Projects-Musicians-Craig-Anderton/dp/0825695023)
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: KC9TNH on October 22, 2013, 10:33:00 PM
Well, I can relate to Craig - I see his hair has been going the same direction as mine from when I read him regularly back in the day. (http://www.gibson.com/absolutenm/templates/FeatureTemplatePressRelease.aspx?articleid=1362&zoneid=6)
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: raybiker73 on October 24, 2013, 01:44:25 AM
Quote from: KC9TNH on October 22, 2013, 10:13:20 PM

Your Daddy-O is a classic.  ;)

I love the Daddy-O. It's a great pedal. I don't really play much anymore, and when I do it's usually on 4 strings rather than six, so I don't have much in the way of guitar effects. I just have 3 Danelectro pedals: the Daddy-O, a Fab Metal and a Fab Chorus. They definitely get the job done.
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: lankford on October 25, 2013, 09:28:08 AM
Just adding myself to the "guitar players" amongst us... I have played for 40 years now... created my own method for teaching ( can be seen at www.TheSpeakingGuitar.com ) ...

I am currently teaching advanced guitar along with algebra at my girls home school co-op ...

I have not played in a band since I was in my late teens... we were pretty good and played some pretty big gigs with a little radio play here in atlanta... but alas... the singer hated the drummer... the drummer hated the bass players girlfriend... <sigh>

SO

I learned to play without band members... so much less drama but I do miss writing with other people...

I have 3 main guitars now...

1) a small ibanez that a friend gave me... sounds terrible... plays great... I don't have to plug it in, just pull it off the wall and play... that is what I play most...

2) an epiphone humming bird knockoff I bought off ebay in 2 pieces... ( headstock broken off ) .. I fixed it and that is my main acoustic... ( I sold my taylor because it was too nice and I was paranoid it would get scratched... this I don't worry about... if it needs a case... it is too nice for me ;)

3) a variax 700 for recording... this was another reason to sell the taylor... when recording straight into the board... this guitar sounds even better than the taylor did...

matt

Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: Archangel320420 on October 25, 2013, 12:47:58 PM
I play piano. No amps needed. I am musically QRP.
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: KC9TNH on October 25, 2013, 03:19:13 PM
Quote from: Archangel320420 on October 25, 2013, 12:47:58 PM
I am musically QRP.
OK, you said the magic word. Not for me but here is a demo of a little Vox bedroom amp that will run at 4w, 1w, and 1/4w. Note: The guy that does the video makes his own OD pedal, and probably produces the best demo vids around, because you don't have to watch him play, or look at his art collection or dirty laundry.  The camera is on the amp controls, so you can correlate potential amp settings to what you're hearing.

(DISCLAIMER:  I do have one of his pedals, smoothest OD I've ever played.)
No.  He is NOT Jack Black incognito.

Enjoy the little Vox AC4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6wcP6q71J8)
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: KC9TNH on October 25, 2013, 03:36:53 PM
Quote from: raybiker73 on October 24, 2013, 01:44:25 AMI don't really play much anymore, and when I do it's usually on 4 strings rather than six,...
Bass, straight banjo, uke...?
:)
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: raybiker73 on October 25, 2013, 06:56:18 PM
Quote from: KC9TNH on October 25, 2013, 03:36:53 PM
Quote from: raybiker73 on October 24, 2013, 01:44:25 AMI don't really play much anymore, and when I do it's usually on 4 strings rather than six,...
Bass, straight banjo, uke...?
:)

Bass. I have a few pics somewhere of bands I was in during high school and college. It's fun to look back on those days when I had things like big 80's hair and muscle tone and reasonable hope for the future.  ::)
Title: Re: Any guitar players here?
Post by: KC9TNH on October 28, 2013, 06:11:27 PM
Quote from: raybiker73 on October 25, 2013, 06:56:18 PM
Bass.
Salud. As Lowell George said once in the liner credits for an old Little Feat album, "do not take lightly this instrument known simply as 'bass'."  I've been in plenty of bands where, if there was a competent bass player, the drummer could take a powder & not be missed.

And so Gil's LP Jr. isn't alone, finally got a pic of the Blacktop series Strat with a Fender Blues Jr. amp.
Edit: bad lighting. It's called Sonic Blue (after the '56 Caddy factory color) with a light minty pickguard.  Fender picked alot of their colors bag in the day from the factory Detroit color palette. (I love Sea Foam Green, which came on a Buick of the same year.)
Anyway, back to making noise. As JJ Cale said, "They Call Me the Breeze"
8)