Musician's thread?

[indecks]

If you blew your sound card up, then you plugged the wrong thing into the wrong thing.

Possibly, yeah. I think that old amp didn't have a headphone jack, but it had a Line Out. So I plugged the Line out into my sound cards Line In, and *poof*.

[SpoonyBard]

Not to mention the Line 6 Spideramps I've worked on sound like dogshit.

Oh god, they're awful. I have no idea why they're so popular. I have people ask for them constantly, yet when I get a used one they sit and sit because no one likes the tone.

Not to mention their stupid footswitch, without it the amp is pretty much garbage. Yet they're practically impossible to find unless you get them with the amp.

[Ziggy]

Man, I just got a set of Dimarzio Area pickups for my Strat... those things sound AMAZING. Maybe it's due to the fact that the stock pups were total ass, and anything would have sounded better, but I'm really digging the tone of them.

Me ranting about my Strat:

I have a Fender MIM Strat. It's a solid guitar, but it needs some help to make it great. Actually, my only complaints with it are the pups and the bridge. The sustain block for the bridge is pathetically small and probably made of cheap pot metal. The guitar would most likely benefit greatly with a "real" bridge. And the stock pups are just total ass. They're just so dull, they have no characteristics at all. Just bland, almost dead sounding. The rest of it is pretty solid though. The tuners work surprisingly well, and the neck actually has some nice features in it. Luck of the draw I guess, but there's some nice flame features on the headstock and the back of the neck.

What I really wanna do is get a Warmoth build, or possibly a body and neck from Stew Mac, but alas, I don't have the money for it. I've thought about just sprucing up my MIM Strat, but I'd rather just build a new one from scratch and then keep the MIM as a spare or something. The MIM is a 21 fret, which annoys me. I've been thinking about adding a 22nd fret to it, but that would just make me wanna add a neck heel contour, and since I'm not crazy about the color anymore, I'd probably end up stripping the body. It's also a maple neck and fretboard, I think I wanna go with a rosewood fretboard. So it'd just be easier to get a new body a new neck... which means building a new guitar instead of sprucing up the MIM one.

I figure when I finally get the money to burn on building a new Strat, I'll just take the Area pickups from the MIM for it. So buying them now is kinda like saving money later. Yeah... that's how I'll justify this purchase!

I don't get why these amp companies bother sticking in a tube preamp with digital modeling. Just model the preamp section too and save the customer some money and the cost of a HT winding in the power transformer.

Because tube = better, so if the amp has one stinking tube it must be better than one with no tubes!

But yeah, I agree, you would be better off without it. It just has one preamp tube, but you still have to wait for it to heat up (as oppose to being able to play instantly upon power on a solid state amp). I had one of those Vox amps come in for repair, it ended up having a bad tube. I find that kinda funny. It didn't sound half bad, though. Not compared to other amps I have heard, at least.

I know I was telling you before, but if I were to buy an amp right now, it'd probably be a Blackstar. Those things wail. Either that or a Peavey. I use to have a ValveKing and kinda miss it.

[fvgazi]

I just built my own rig! Obviously needs a ton of work still. I also need to make a jig to cut perfect circles with my router instead of by hand. The cab still needs a grill cloth / back panel / and a nice stain. It's dovetailed poplar loaded with some paper voice coil Scumbacks. The amp is similar to a 5e9 fender champ. It's a damn loud 8-10watts(remember that watts don't convert to decibals equally!)

[SpoonyBard]

Where do you get your amp parts from? I've been looking at building a tube head as a project. I've got an account with CE but their prices seem kind of high even at wholesale.

[indecks]

ha that is AWESOME!! extremely punk rock.

[Ziggy]

Nice work, fvgazi!

Obviously they're not perfect circles, but I say who cares? I would just spray that front piece black, then once you get the grill cloth over it you wont even see that the circles are perfect anyway.

You say you cut them "by hand." Do you mean that literally, like with a hand saw? If so, you did a better job than I could have. I would probably use a jigsaw to cut out those holes, you'd be able to get it close to perfect if you follow a circle that you traced.

Jigsaws are cheap, you could get a Black & Decker in WalMart or on Amazon for only $20-30. Of course, if you're gonna be using it often, you'd probably want something a little better like a Dewalt, Ryobi or Skill or something like that.

So you're gonna stain the cab? Interesting. I don't believe I've ever seen a stained cab before. Either tolex or ratfur. I love wood (yeah, yeah yeah, hahaha, shut up) and I love staining wood, but I don't think I'd stain a cab if I ever built one. Of course, that's just me personally, but I like black cabs. Ratfur and tolex is what I'd go for, or if the wood has a nice grain maybe a black stain with a thick clear coat.


So, any chance of getting an audio clip of the amp?

[AppleQueso]

So, any chance of getting an audio clip of the amp?

This is what I'm most curious about.

[fvgazi]

So, any chance of getting an audio clip of the amp?

This is what I'm most curious about.

If I can get a decent recording (which my buddy who lives upstairs from me can help with). I will tell you that it's been a while since I heard a small amp sound this good besides a vintage tremolux or something of that nature. My SG actually sounds amazingly bright and clean, which I can't get with any other amp.

This is what gave me the inspiration. I love wood grain amps - especially those rare Trainwrecks!


@Ziggy - as far as the circles; I used a router and guided it by hand. I just got a new heavy duty one with tons of attachments. I used a dovetail jig + router for all the joints. I just need to make or buy a circle jig to cut out perfect speaker holes. When I do, I'll be officially starting my amp company.

For amp parts I've always ordered form http://www.tubesandmore.com They are fair priced, and extremely fast with shipping. For regular usps I get all the parts from the other side of the country in about 3-4 days. They have a ton of stuff too. I've ordered from other places, but I really trust TaM (plus they sent me a mouse-pad for the holidays!).

I need to start making posts about video games again! I've been to busy with this amp stuff.

[Ziggy]

I need to start making posts about video games again! I've been to busy with this amp stuff.

LOL, yeah, I hear ya. I haven't touched a video game in a few weeks now, maybe even a few months. I've been concentrating more on guitars and whatnot.

I finally started learning fretwork. After getting Stew Mac's essential fret kit as a Christmas present, I realized there were more fret tools I would want before even attempting my first refret. Problem is, luthier tools are expensive! I got a couple good deals off eBay as an alternative to Stew Mac, but I still spent a decent amount... and that's just fret tools! Eventually I would like to get Stew Mac's Essential Nut Making Kit, but that's another $200. I think my goal is to become a professional luthier. Even if not, at least I'll have the tools of the trade and can always do guitar tech work as a side gig, so I see it only as an investment.

And then there's always my own guitars that I'm never happy with. Guitars can be such a money pit. Out of the 5 or 6 electric guitars that I own, there's only one that I like as is. The rest I'm either unhappy with the pickups or the guitar needs work (two refrets) to be right again. Take the Dimarzio Area pickups I just got, I'm thinking about sending one back for another model (Dimarzio actually lets you do that!) but I have to play around with them more before I decide (you have 30 days from the date of purchase). It can be so time consuming... but at least I'm practicing!

I actually just gave a resume to a Guitar/instrument shop. It's about 30 minutes from my house, but it's really close to the other shop I work in (since they moved) so it could work out. The guy there said he does setups but doesn't know how to solder... my specialty! And in addition to that, I have a friend that's friends with an employee in Family Melody (in Patchogue). The guy is apparently in charge of hiring people, and said once a guitar tech spot opens up he'll give me a call. Apparently their techs never stick around long. I just gotta get a resume to him.

I've been meaning to find a good guitar forum to start posting on, since my old one went defunct a few years back. Although ranting in this thread helps a little.

/rant