The Musical Instrument Thread

Jimmie Vaughn was in the nearby local guitar store, the Fret Mill, yesterday. It's about a half mile from my office downtown. Apparently he was passing through town on the way to New Orleans. (Who the hell passes through Roanoke on the way to New Orleans?)

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Joe Bonamassa was in there a couple of months ago and picked up an old Fender tweed amp.

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Joe's actually been in a couple of times in recent years. Pat Matheny was there in the last couple of years too.
 
HecticArt said:
That's pretty cool.
Too bad you weren't there.
It would be fun to run into those dudes.
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I've put out a general tweet to all rock stars to notify me when they're in town. Jimmie and Joe were probably just busy fighting traffic in Virginia's fourth largest metro area and forgot to hit me up.
 
You shouldn't have posted your picture with the tweet.
That, and you shouldn't have used the word groupie.....I don't think it means what you think it means.
 
HecticArt said:
You shouldn't have posted your picture with the tweet.
That, and you shouldn't have used the word groupie.....I don't think it means what you think it means.
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But it's my assless chaps picture that I use on my Christmas cards. :dunno1

Groupie isn't a fish?

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I've been wanting to learn some soldering and wiring skills, so I just sunk some money into some Strat upgrades:

New pickups: The Rose Robusta neck and middle/Buff Beauty bridge pickup set
New pickguard (mine is warped): Fender white 3-ply
New wiring: Stewmac premium strat wiring kit. (Some joker did a terrible job of "soldering" a STEREO output jack in my strat before I owned it. He/she also for some reason added an extra 2" or so of wire that's not needed. And the pots are scratchy, and the shaft on one is bent a little, I think.)

Also got a soldering stand, wire cutters and some 60/40 solder. (Already have a 40w soldering iron)

So, in about a month I may be deep in surgery! Wish me luck!
 
That's certainly a groper.
:love2:

The pups look good. I'm not familiar with that brand.

Just take your time with the wiring. Practice soldering on your old parts first, so you get used to heat and time it takes to get a clean bond. It's best to avoid overheating your components. Do you have shielding for the wires and cavities? It can't hurt to add some if there isn't.

Try to test it before you assemble the whole thing. It's frustrating having gone through the effort of tucking everything into the cavity, screwing down the pick guard, adjusting, stringing, and tuning, only to find out something wasn't wired right and you have to take it all apart again.

Have fun with it.
 
Yeah, may as well add some copper shielding while I'm in there.

Rose Pickups is a San Francisco company that winds their own pickups on a machine they invented with a retired Navy electrical engineer named Dave Rose. They don't try to get rich, and one of the two owners (they're brothers), Ken, participates on Strat-talk.com and elsewhere. So they're real people, just two dudes winding pickups.

From a tone standpoint, the n/m pickup (Robusta--all the pickups are named after roses) is similar to a Fender Fat 50, while the bridge (Buff Beauty) is overwound (11k) and really crunchy right out of the guitar. Everybody online that has tried their pickups has loved them, and what I've heard online sounds good. So for $69 for the set I thought I'd give the a try.
 
$70 for the set is good. I think I paid about $90 for each of the Duncan pups I put in the Toothpick.

At that price, you can't really go wrong. If you decide you don't like them, you aren't out much.

We just got the photography side project that I'm doing approved by our client, so I know I'm going to get paid for it. That clears the way for the blue Reverend I mentioned. I'm going to install an internal synth pup, so I don't have the ugly switch thing hanging off the guitar. I'm pretty psyched.
 
What will you do with the synth pickup? And why would there be a switch? I don't know much about this MIDI stuff and whatnot. I assume this is MIDI stuff and whatnot.
 
Casual Fan said:
What will you do with the synth pickup? And why would there be a switch? I don't know much about this MIDI stuff and whatnot. I assume this is MIDI stuff and whatnot.
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Technically, more whatnot than midi.
The synth pup sends independent signals from each string to the pedalboard that has the synth engines and modeling and guitar effects. The switch lets you select the synth pup, the guitar's regular pups, or a combination. It also lets you select sounds from the guitar.

The basic version if the switch(interface) clamps on to the tail pin of the guitar and has the pup, and jacks for pluggin in the special cable.
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It's cumbersome and not very good looking, but you can easily move it to another guitar without messing up your finish.

There's an internal version of the pickup kit that looks much better, but you have to drill holes in the guitar. So you better be sure you want to use the thing.
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You can do all kinds of crazy stuff with it.
 
Excellent. I think "MIDI" is my total newb way of describing stuff I don't understand. Like, I don't even know what questions to ask. I know MIDI is just the interface. But still.

You should write a theme song for DRC. Call it "Koopman's Theme." Part I would be called "Tragedy." Part II would be called "Redemption." Part III would be called, "Fuck. Tragedy Again. Really?"
 
MIDI is what most of the dudes call it. They usually get technical about it when......well, I don't know what makes em decide when they want to get technical about it.
I just know it does some really cool shiz for a 6 string.
 
I've learned some of the theory stuff, but not knowing it well holds me back.
I've thought about going back for lessons again, but haven't had enough of a regular schedule to commit to it.
When I was a kid, I took lessons for a long time.
 
Just e-mailed with Ken from Rose pickups--he said mine are being wound today (Monday) or tomorrow and then will be shipped! Thing is, I really don't have time to dive into this for another month. I'll have all these parts staring at me...build me...you want to build me...you're getting very sleepy...
 
Jon said:
Found this article interesting

Are You Learning to Play Songs or Learning to Play Guitar? | Guitar World
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I definitely started out "learning to play guitar," which I really enjoyed and still do. I like theory and technique and the mechanics of it. But I also have enjoyed playing with a band. My actual contribution is usually quite simple, but the band producing a listenable song is a pretty cool thing. It's like, if we all do our thing, we can create something that doesn't suck!
 
Casual Fan said:
Just e-mailed with Ken from Rose pickups--he said mine are being wound today (Monday) or tomorrow and then will be shipped! Thing is, I really don't have time to dive into this for another month. I'll have all these parts staring at me...build me...you want to build me...you're getting very sleepy...
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Who needs sleep? You've got work to do.

Casual Fan said:
I definitely started out "learning to play guitar," which I really enjoyed and still do. I like theory and technique and the mechanics of it. But I also have enjoyed playing with a band. My actual contribution is usually quite simple, but the band producing a listenable song is a pretty cool thing. It's like, if we all do our thing, we can create something that doesn't suck!
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That's the truth. It's so easy to get hooked on the rush of playing tunes and having them sound good. It's easy to take the shortcuts for granted when you're getting good results. I have a really hard time putting the songs down to go back to learning the theory. I know it will pay off and get me to the next level, but man, it looks like a lot of work to go from passable, to decent.

We haven't been playing much with the whole band lately. Two of the guys have been working irregular shifts, and another has been working crazy hours while he tries to hire a couple of new employees. We're hoping to get everyone in the same room again soon, but are also starting to see what other players there out there to make some racket with.
 
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