Archive for the ‘Music Equipment’ Category

Prepping For Another Pedalboard Revision

September 29, 2010 by John No Comments »

Well, it’s been a few months since I completely reconfigured my guitar pedalboard, which means it must be time to do it again 🙂

I decided to work on downsizing my setup as much as possible and with the acquisition of the Line6 M13, I should be able to get everything on the next smaller size of Pedaltrain board. I’ll be working on this project over the weekend. Always a good exercise to smallify they rig!

 

Line6 M9 vs Line6 M13

July 9, 2010 by John No Comments »

I’ve been going back and forth between the options of a Line6 M9 and a Line6 M13 effect unit. Based on my testing, both seem pretty good, and I’m honestly tempted to add both to my setup.  The M13 would form the backbone of my effects processing, and I’d use the M9 for fly dates. I’ve been using Line6 equipment for a long time, starting with the original Pod, then a Pod Pro, Pod XT Live, and an XDS wireless system.  There are plenty of people out there who really strongly prefer use discrete stompboxes for their effects, and are willing to haul around a lot of pedals on a massive board.

My main interest in putting together a new pedalboard is to get smaller and to increase the flexibility in routing effects for live gigs. Hopefully I’ll be able to put these new units into play before the end of the summer.

 

Gear Hunt

June 16, 2010 by John 1 Comment »

I’m preparing a list of music equipment to sell, and in preparation I’m looking for some gizmos that will become my new rig. If anybody has a PedalTrain PT2 with hard case or a Line6 M9 they like to sell, give me a holler. I’m going to be selling my PedalTrain PT-Pro with hard case (that’s their big pedalboard setup) along with my Line6 Pod XTLive (with all model packs), and going to a smaller setup. Touch base if  you’re selling either of the units in boldface.

 

Gear: Broken and Fixed

June 7, 2010 by John No Comments »

A few weeks ago one of my guitar pedals suffered a sad injury at a gig. My “Way Huge Pork Loin” (which is as much fun to say as it is to stomp on) had one of its adjustment knobs broken. I snapped the shaft off the circuit board-mounted potentiometer, and the knob went with it, skittering across the floor to begin their solo career (and they haven’t been heard from since). The pedal still worked but couldn’t be adjusted since the shaft was broken flush with the top of the pedal. Fortunately, the setting was fairly usable and I managed to get through a couple of gigs including the 80s Prom.

I made a few quick calls to the company who makes these pedals and they agreed to send me the necessary parts to effect a repair. Last Saturday I paid a visit to Jeff Stone at Veltetone Amp Works, and he did the repair for me. By the way, Jeff is a great amp tech and I recommend him. So, I’m all fixed up and ready to hit the stage again. I’ll get a chance to test drive the newly repaired setup tonight at 1 Uppers rehearsal; we’re prepping material for our upcoming gig at the Little Red Hen on June 27.

 

New Amp!

May 20, 2010 by John 1 Comment »

Last weekend marked the debut of my new guitar amp, a 65 reissue Fender Twin. I’ve been using a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe for most shows, but this amp is designed to distort at medium volume. That’s great for the 1 Uppers (my country band), but not ideal for The Dudley Manlove Quartet where I need a loud clean tone. For the past few months I’ve been looking at options for amplifiers and narrowed my search to a Fender Twin. The remaining question was whether to find a vintage silverface or get one of the reissues. After some hunting and a few test drives, I found a 65 reissue in fabulous condition and purchased it. I’ve already noticed how much fuller and warmer the tone is, and onstage it produces a beautiful sound.

So, why a Fender Twin? It’s probably the most common amp in the world, although I’m told the Hot Rod Deluxe has actually surpassed it in terms of total number sold. Still, the Twin has been omnipresent on stages since the mid-sixties, from blues to rock to country and beyond. It has the characteristic “big” Fender tone, can delivery prodigious volume, and has glorious reverb and tremolo. When we play music festivals, the stage is usually populated with “back line” equipment that has been rented by the promoter. You almost always find a Fender twin as the amp option. I’ve had many years of playing through this amp model, but until now have not owned one. Being a confirmed gear tweaker, I’m already considering some possible upgrades to this amp such as Weber speakers and a Mercury magnetics transformer. But my next purchase will be a flight case to protect this amp from the perils of the road. This weekend I’ll be using it at the DMQ “80s Prom” at Neumos. Come on down and join the fun!

 

Finishing Up That Remodel… And Thinning The Herd…

April 29, 2010 by John No Comments »

As we continue to remodel our house in a sort of room-by-room fashion, we’ve been going through an interesting process of reduction. In order to make space for the demolition and reconstruction, we clear the room of everything. Then we strip away the floor, walls, ceiling, and sometimes the walls! Then we begin to rebuild. Once the room is finished we begin to put items back into it, and we usually wind up getting rid  of about half of what was formerly inside that room. Every time we do this I’m amazed at how much stuff we don’t put back… these items get donated to charity, given away, or jettisoned to recycling / trash. The result is a much cleaner and more streamlined room.

The room currently undergoing remodeling is my tiny music room. We’re in the home stretch, with just finish work remaining. It’s going to be nice to have that space completed and ready for use. The big question for me is… will I get rid of some “excess stuff” (tough to use that word when talking about musical gear!) as part of the process? The answer is yes. I’m going to make a list of all that extra equipment and put it up on Craigs List / eBay. Let the winnowing process begin…

 

Thoughts On The 3/19 Dudley Manlove Quartet Performance

March 23, 2010 by John No Comments »

On Friday 3/19 Dudley Manlove Quartet celebrated our 15th anniversary at the Nectar Lounge in Fremont. This was also the night we debuted the shiny new Plan 9 horns. Also joining us for the anniversary celebration were Matt and Joe, original members of the band who both happen to play a pretty mean sax. At a few points during the night we had ten musicians onstage, rocking the hits. Opening the night were our friends The Hemingway Reference, who played a fabulous first set. I’m sure we’ll work together again.

I arrived early enough to get loaded in and generally situated. The house sound operator is a longtime friend who used to run sound for us in Jumbalassy, and he’s also worked with The Preons. Great to catch up with him as we finished wiring the stage for soundcheck. We started the night with some great standards and the room’s energy was a great source of inspiration for us. At a few points during the night I found myself tempted to turn my guitar amp up, which means the stage volume was a bit louder than usual. My amp is only 40 watts, and when turned up tends to begin introducing some distortion; this is a deliberate characteristic of the amp’s design and not simply clipping due to excessive gain. In order to minimize logistic challenges at this show, Steve borrowed the opening band’s Epifani bass amp. He usually uses an SWR combo for our shows, and it sounds great. I was really impressed at the power and tone of the Epifani setup. It’s pretty tempting as a potential upgrade to my Ashdown bass / Warr guitar amp.

Overall, the gig was a blast and one that I’ll remember as a highlight of my first year with the band.

 

A New Guitar Amp?

March 11, 2010 by John No Comments »

I have been hearing some buzz about Jet City Amplifiers lately and have started to look around for more information on them. I know they’re located in Woodinville, WA, which makes them local to me. I have been using a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe for years, and it is a pretty good workhorse guitar amp. I’m interested in taking a look at the 50 watt combo Jet City is making. Not certain this is a perfect fit for my needs until I’ve tried one at a gig, but it’s interesting enough that I’m beginning to do some research.

The trusty black strat continues to be my primary guitar, although I may take the plunge and custom-build a new guitar at some point. My pedalboard project has been an important effort in cleaning up and improving my signal path, and now I’m beginning to explore the other end of the system. Another small step in the relentless pursuit of awesome tone…

 

Gearing up for some Dudley Manlove Quartet shows

March 4, 2010 by John No Comments »

The Dudley Manlove Quartet is playing a few great shows this month. In preparation I’ve been working on my parts and gear. One of the interesting discoveries of recent weeks is that my wireless system seems to be very particular about its power supply. According to the manufacturer it runs on 9VDC at less than 800 mA, but it doesn’t operate correctly when connected to my pedalboard’s buffered power supply. So I have installed the original power adaptor for the wireless receiver and plugged it into the power strip under the board.

The band is doing a few new songs at the 3/13 show, and the 3/19 show will mark the debut of the Plan 9 horns. We’ll be rehearsing material with the horn section for the next couple of weeks. Mark you calendars for these gigs, It’s going to be a fun month!