The Musical Instrument Thread

Casual Fan

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i didnt want to get too graphic but after seeing that dried blister thing ive never been harder.

im glad to see after 72 pages the guitar thread is finally discussing important issues.

Well, it is "SEX, drugs and rock and roll." We should talk about drugs, too. You using that Chinese Viagra to get that stiffy?
 

Casual Fan

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Well, it's a guitar again! Everything is back together and works great. The new pick ups sound really good, everything is dead quiet and of course the new pots aren't scratchy. The best way I could describe the tone of the new pick ups is much more three-dimensional than the old pick ups. Without doing an A/B test I couldn't tell you more than that but they definitely sound more expansive from the lows to the highs.

I learned a lot but I really have no desire to be one of those people who constantly mods his guitar. But I can fix my gear now and have a much better understanding of how everything works.
 
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HecticArt

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Welcome to the DRC Carnival Fan! Make yourself at home.

That's a pretty funny video. I'd be pissed if he was my guitar guy and posting videos mocking what I was paying him to work on for me. Granted, he isn't wrong about anything.....
 
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HecticArt

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Drunk as hell.
I'm going to have to watch more of these.

Back in the real world - I finally mustered up the bowls yesterday to cut into my new Reverend Reeves to install the internal midi pickup. I carved cavities for the controller chip pcb, input jack, and whatnots. All in all its coming along quite nicely. I'm almost done. I need a 15mm drill bit for two switches that go in the pickguard, and I messed up the volume pot. Other than that I've only got to write and reassemble it. It looks like it was meant to look. I'll post a pic when I finish.

How's the band going CF?
 
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Casual Fan

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Our mostly deaf and one-eyed bass player finally got the best of us so our leader, Steve, got rid of him. We played a little charity gig in June and the bass player didn't have his stuff together and that was the final straw. SO...Steve and I have gotten together twice with another guy named Chad, who is banjo player. Steve says he's tired of I-IV-V blues and wants to go eclectic, which is fine. I also met another guy with the Forest Service whose band just split up, and he's looking to play. Also a banjo player. What the heck.
 
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HecticArt

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Ahhhh, band drama. You're arrived!

My bass player and I are tired of the same old tired classic tunes, and a couple of the guys that don't practice.
We've been looking for some new players that are interested in newer songs. I've been programming new stuff into the sequencer to keep things interesting.
 

HecticArt

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My bass player hooked me up with a late birthday gift yesterday.
An autographed Steve Stevens Zapper Ray Gun.
Guess I have to learn the solo for Rebel Yell now. \m/
 

Casual Fan

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Update: We didn't hear from the fired bass player for months. Our "leader" Steve went by his house to check on him, and he found the dude's niece there with a moving truck, moving all his shit to Ohio. Turns out our ex-bass player had dementia and that was the cause of his shenanigans. So he's with a relative in Ohio now, with all his bass gear. We have two other guys with us now, the aforementioned "Chad" (actually Chris) who is the banjo player, and a really good guitarist named Brian, aka Ducky. I think I probably have us headed for some open mics this spring.

The firing of our demented bass player left us without a bassist (not a huge deal, most of us can play enough bass to get by), but more importantly, without a bass rig. Steve and I were talking about what gear we'd need to play some gigs, and I said I'd be willing to get a bass amp, since all I had was a little 15w practice amp. A few days later, Steve texts me and tells me there's a 160w Crate bass amp on craigslist for $50. So I text and e-mail the seller, and after about 36 hours we set up a time to meet--at his apartment over a church in a shady part of town. See below:

548007_283417868403394_16998980_n.jpg

I think the guy is a recovering heroin addict or something. The apartment was a wreck--complete squalor. I felt bad for the guy. Here's a picture of him from the church's Facebook page:

12182427_989105921167915_9157529771531243931_o.jpg

He didn't have anything to plug into the amp, and I hadn't brought my bass, but the power came on and nothing smoked, so I bought for the $50 and took it to band practice that night. Of course, it worked like shit. Intermittent sound, all the pots and sliders were scratchy. Today I got some Deoxit contact cleaner and compressed air and cleaned everything out. Works great now. Plenty loud, and it'll drive an additional 1 x 15 cabinet in addition to the 1 x 15 in the unit for 220 watts total. It's big and heavy (60-70 pounds).

ojkz04.jpg
 

HecticArt

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Nice!

We're in the process of firing the guy that got us all together again. (Firing is a strong word, ditching is better.)
He's doing what he used to do in the old days. Makes it to half of the practices, doesn't know the material once he's there, and still can't sing very well. Unfortunately, our best guitar player hasn't been able to make many practices either because he owns a small business and has a bunch of kids. So we're sort of starting over as a 4 piece. It puts a lot more pressure on me, especially having to do more backup vocals.

The guy we're ditching had the PA. It was pretty small, but worked OK for our bass players basement. So I bought one that's a bit bigger. It should be OK for parties or small bars. We've got a lot of work to do, so we're not planning on playing out very soon, but the bass player wants us to do an open mic in a few months.
 
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Casual Fan

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Oct 14, 2008
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Nice!

We're in the process of firing the guy that got us all together again. (Firing is a strong word, ditching is better.)
He's doing what he used to do in the old days. Makes it to half of the practices, doesn't know the material once he's there, and still can't sing very well. Unfortunately, our best guitar player hasn't been able to make many practices either because he owns a small business and has a bunch of kids. So we're sort of starting over as a 4 piece. It puts a lot more pressure on me, especially having to do more backup vocals.

The guy we're ditching had the PA. It was pretty small, but worked OK for our bass players basement. So I bought one that's a bit bigger. It should be OK for parties or small bars. We've got a lot of work to do, so we're not planning on playing out very soon, but the bass player wants us to do an open mic in a few months.

There is a great post on Talkbass.com right now: "I'm this close to having sex w the drummers GF." :clap2:

That's the problem with ditching band members. They take their toys with them. I think all we need at this point is to fix Steve's Carvin PA and get some stage monitors. But that could be $1,000 bucks...

I've put my foot down and told everyone to bring one song they want to do to practice Wednesday. That'll be our set list for the next open mic. It's poop or get off the pot time.
 
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HecticArt

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It was one of those odd brand complete PA systems from the evil guitar center.
800 watt, 2 channel, a pair of 15" mains, a pair of 10 or 12" monitors, stands, and a pair of mics. It was a bit of a fiasco, getting it ordered, but it was about $800. It's decent enough for the price, and for how well and where we play. If we were good or played out a lot, I'd want something better. I'd call it somewhere between a starter pa and a working bands set up.
I was going to buy a multi channel keyboard amp to run my guitar synth thru, but when we decided to part ways with the guy that owns our old pa, I decided to throw a few more bucks at it to get a pa instead. It snowballed a bit. I've been making a few bucks doing some photography gigs, and I use the cash for toys. I just run the synth through the board now. I want to get a Line 6 Helix effects pedal, but after the pa, I'm going have to find some more photo shoots.