Hey all… passing this along for a friend who is selling some gear.
As you can see from the list below, this is all top-shelf equipment and has been treated with care. I’ve included the seller’s email address at the bottom of the list if you’re interested.
- Raven Labs 2 Channel Universal Stereo preamp –mint condition $500—2 individual channels with EQ, or blend both channels into 1 output http://www.raven-labs.com/pages/products/usip/usip.html
- Raven Labs PMB – II Master Blender:, very small two channel, with eq, mixer/pre-amp http://www.raven-labs.com/pages/products/pmb1/pmb1.html $300
- SWR Henry the 8×8 cabinet (w/case) – $550 with flight case
- SWR Triad 15, 10, horn (w/case) – $550 with flight case
- 2(two) Euphonic Audio Cx3-10 Concert – 3×10”, with horn and tweeter. Full range tower design. With flight cases. $650 each, or take them both for $1100.
- 2(two) Euphonic Audio VL-110 – 1×10” plus horn and tweeter. With flight cases. $400 each, or take them both for $700.
- Switchblade 16 SoundSculpture $1000, 16 channel midi-programmable audio matrix with smooth crossfade between patches. precursor to this model:
http://www.soundsculpture.com/products/switchblade_models.htm#GL
- 2(two) Digital Echoplex’s, with one foot controller. Perfect condition. $800 each or $1500 for both.
- Electrix Repeator $600, the classic four channel looping device.
- Lovetone Meatball – amazing envelope filter, $500 http://www.lovetone.com/meatball.html
- TC Electronic Sustain EQ pedal – the classic $200
- Line 6 Bass Pod Pro rack, great condition $250
- Line 6 Filter Pro Studio Modeler rack, mint condition $250
- Roland VG-88 $250 (without GK pickup)
- Radial Tube Drive Classic $125. Nice stomp box driver.
- MXR Phase 100 (orange) $100
- Sans Amp Classic mint condition $125
- Boss WP-20G Wave Processor (GK pickup in, pickup not included) $125
- Boss AW3 Dynamic Wah pedal — $100
- Electro Harmonix Linear Power Booster pedal, vintage box $60
- Line 6 Pod $90
- M-Audio DMP3 2channel mic pre $40
For more information please contact tgweb@quodia.com
The various parts and pieces for my pedalboard project are arriving. The only remaining items are those coming from Keeley and I expect to have them next week. I’ve made a few minor tweaks to my design based on some research:
- The A/B box will be simplified. Rather than shorting the unused inputs to ground I’m just going to leave them as open connections. I don’t have enough data on my wireless receiver to determine whether it would be negatively impacted by shorting its output. I don’t expect any noise to be introduced by this device when it’s not connected so there shouldn’t be any loss here. One of the impacts of this design revision is that I didn’t need to use a 3PDT footswitch and could have gone with a DPDT instead. Oh well. I always have the option to rewire this box in the future.
- After some research, I’ve decided to use my Ernie Ball volume pedal as a second controller for my Pod XT Live. It appears this pedal can be used a substitute for the dedicated Line6 expression pedal, and it’s vastly superior in terms of build quality. I happen to have one and was considering using it in my new pedalboard setup, but was concerned about the loading characteristics of the passive volume potentiometer. I received some good suggestions from my friend Kris, and from pedal customizers. Everyone suggests that a buffer might be a good idea to minimize the sonic impact of the Ernie Ball pedal. But if I use it as a controller rather than as a volume pedal, this isn’t an issue. I will need to experiment with the Pox XT Live to ensure this works as expected.
This weekend I’ll solder up the A/B box and hopefully come up with some kind of crazy paint / decoration job for it. By the middle of next week I should be ready to rock with all my new pedals.
As noted in a previous post, I’m planning to completely redesign and rebuild my guitar pedalboard. Over the past week I’ve placed orders for everything I need, including parts for a true-bypass A/B switch box. The reason for this part of design is to allow me to switch the input from the wireless system to a direct cable connection. I don’t always go wireless and I don’t want to disconnect my input each time I change.
Building the A/B switch box should be pretty simple. I have a basic schematic in hand already, slightly modified from a fairly standard circuit. I wanted to ensure that the unused input would be grounded in order to prevent extraneous noise from entering the circuit, and the LEDs are just for convenience. The 1K resister is basically a guess. Its actual value will be determined by the voltage of the LEDs. Also, I don’t need a battery clip in this circuit since I’ll really be powering the whole pedalboard from a single source. The hardest item to source in this circuit will be the 3PDT footswitch, but I believe Small Bear Electronics stocks them. Once I get the pieces together I’ll document the build process.
Over the next week or so I’ll be receiving all my modified pedals from Keeley, and then I can begin the fun process of assembling my toys on the new board.
Update: I decided the previous schematic had a minor flaw: I was making the assumption that the two LEDs would have the same forward votage requirement. I’m intending to use different colored LEDs and it’s possible they’ll have different voltages, so splitting the 9v+ feed seems like a better approach.
Over the years of working as professional musician my equipment setup has undergone numerous modifications and updates. I’ve always had a few effect pedals in my setup and this introduces a logistics challenge for setup. Back in the early 1980s I started to build my own pedalboards in order to manage my effects. One of my favorite pedalbards was a beautiful mahogany plank that I stained and carefully covered with multiple coats of spar sealer. Gorgeous, but a little heavy. As my setup evolved to include the Pod XT Live, I got away from using most of my individual effect pedals, thus a pedalboard seemed unnecessary. But slowly I started to add some pedals to my setup again… I carry a Crybaby wah pedal that I use in The Dudley Manlove Quartet, and of course I have my wireless receiver… oh, and a couple of other fancy pedals that I occasionally bring to gigs… and my strobo-stomp tuner… which brings me to the realization that I actually do need a slightly more organized pedalboard. Everybody says the 80s are back, and so is my need for a pedalboard!
I’ve started to put together a plan for the 2010 version of my pedalboard. The physical setup is something I’ve already started to lay out in Visio. I have exact dimensions of every item I intend to use on the pedalboard including the clearance necessary for the right-angle plugs. Geeky, yes. But by carefully laying it out in advance I was able to determine the ideal layout for the pedals. I’ve already ordered the pedalboard – a PedalTrain PT Pro – and will begin to assemble my new rig during December. This time I’ll be using some very specific items:
- Line6 Pod XT Live
- Line6 XDS Digital Wireless
- Crybaby Wah
- Keeley Compressor
- Way Huge Pork Loin “Soft Clip Injector”
- Peterson Strobo Stomp Tuner
- VoodooLab Pedal Power 2+
There is actually one somewhat “weak link” in my signal chain, and that is my Crybaby wah pedal. It’s a stock unit and has an unbuffered signal path, so even when it’s off the guitar is actually going through part of the circuitry. Given then work I’ve put into everything else in my signal chain, this is not acceptable. So what’s the solution? I’m going to send it to Robert Keeley for modification. When I get it back, the pedal will have a switchable second inductor, jack for external power, switchable bass response, external volume control and true bypass. I look forward to getting it back and putting it to work. In a few weeks I should have all the pieces of my system and as the official assembly begins I’ll be taking pictures to document the entire project.
Last night The Dudley Manlove Quartet performed at the Tulalip Casino in Marysville. This was our second mid-week appearance at the casino; it made for a bit of a sleepy Thursday and I hope any future shows there will be on weekend rather than during the week. In order to simplify logistics I carpooled to the show with Jeff, which gave us an opportunity to discuss business strategy and music on the road. Once we arrived at the casino we did the customary check-in with security and were issued badges.
The stage at the casino is very spacious and the room has a great sound and light system. One of my favorite things about this room is that their stage monitors are fabulous-sounding EAW wedges. This means I can have a good guitar mix up front without having to run my amplifier very loud. One characteristic about the Hot Rod Deluxe is that it gets gritty when turned up to its louder settings; it’s a great blues sound when driven hard, and I do take advantage of that when playing with The 1 Uppers. But I prefer a mostly clean tone when playing with DMQ and it’s always nice to have a lower stage volume. A good microphone on this amp provides a lovely tone with rich harmonics, and this means easily controllable feedback.
We performed a number of guitar-centric hits last night including “The Final Countdown”, “Don’t Stop Believing” and “Sunglasses At Night”. I’ve been experimenting with different settings on the Pod XT Live and I’m getting a much more satisfactory tone from the unit, especially at lower stage volumes. Again, this is partially due to the gain stage characteristics of the amp and my usual instinct is to lower the volume and go for a more controlled stage sound. At last night’s gig I was able to verify something that I have been suspecting, but unable to test until now. There have been many times when I’ve thought my amp was distorting or losing clean head room at gigs. I find turn down the gain, lower the volume output from the Pod and yet it still sounds distorted. In our third set last night I began to hear that slight distortion from the amp and I wandered over to it to listen to it clearly. I was unable to verify it was distorting, but from my playing position several feet in front of it I would have sworn it was. The sound was unfocused, slightly dirty and over-driven. However, listening to the monitor feed proved this wasn’t actually happening! The guitar tone from the monitor was clean and sounded great. Apparently what I’m experiencing is some kind of psycho-acoustic phenomenon. I have a fairly high degree of faith in the validity of last night’s experiment since the monitor feed’s source is a microphone directly in front of my amp. If the amp was actually distorting it would have been present in the monitor. So, what does this mean? It’s got to be something that I’m “hearing” on stage that isn’t actually part of my amp signal. Very strange indeed. This might be a question for the band’s patron alien: Dudley, help me with your interstellar wisdom!
I am continuing to plan my new pedalboard, which should take shape in the next few weeks. I’d like to put the Pod XT Live, my wah, wireless receiver, a few select pedals, and pedal power unit all together on a single pedalboard. In addition, I’d like to have a good case for the whole thing. The current top contender for the project platform is the PedalTrain Pro, and I’m beginning to look around for a deal on this system.
This weekend I spent a few hours in the recording studio putting down additional tracks for the 1 Uppers CD project. It’s an interesting process to work on this recording, and one that began with a simple notion. The band was originally started as a project to play classic country songs from the 1950s and 1960s; my good friend Jon Hyde is a wonderful pedal steel player (among his myriad musical talents) and we thought it would be fun to work on this together. We called in some members of his band, and a friend who happens to be phenomenal country guitarist. Harnessing the limitless power of the Internet, we found a local singer interested in the style. Then we put together a list of favorite songs and worked up a few sets of material we could play live. After only a few months the band began to write original music, and our sets rapidly shifted in favor of our own songs. Early this summer we began to record a demo CD of “just a rough recordings of a few tunes”. In classic 1 Upper fashion this blossomed into a full-length multi-track CD project.
The band continues to be a tremendous amount of fun. Playing with the 1 Uppers and The Dudley Manlove Quartet has stimulated a bit of guitar renaissance in my world. I’ve been practicing more styles of music in the last year, and finding new ways to link my guitar playing ideas together. In both bands I’m fortunate to be surrounded by amazing musicians. Every time we get together for practice I find myself bringing home ideas for things to work on. In fact, another great outcome from the 1 Uppers has been all the upgrades on my Telecaster, courtesy of Kris. It’ll be a lot of fun to get this CD completed and pressed. Hopefully we’ll be close to mixdown before the end of the year.
Posted in:
Music,
My Bands
I happen to really enjoy what I do for a living, both behind the desk and behind the guitar. My day job rocks because
- It’s stimulating
- I’m regularly challenged by new projects, many of which require novel solutions
- I work with smart, funny people
- My boss is awesomeness embodied
Oh, and playing music rocks too. No further explanation necessary.
Halloween is my favorite day of the year. The crisp air, the smell of fall, and lots of creepy spooky stuff to enjoy. It’s a double bonus for me when I play music with friends on that night, and this year was one of my favorite Halloween gigs ever. The Dudley Manlove Quartet performed at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard. We had a sold out room full of costumed friends, and it was a wild and crazy event all around.
We kicked off the night with “Ghostbusters” and sailed into a bunch of fun hits. The band has a tradition of performing part of the night as another band. This year we were the B52s. Mack and I portrayed the two female members of the band, which meant shopping for wigs and dresses. We spent over a month working on song arrangements for the night, including the “top 10” worst songs as voted by fans. I was especially surprised by the strong positive reactions to “I Was Made For Loving You Baby” and “The Final Countdown”. The balance of our set was composed of favorites from our regular list.
Setting up the wireless rig on such a small stage seems silly, but it did afford me the freedom to run over to Mack’s side of the stage. And it facilitated a dramatic entrance for our B52s intro. I discovered early in our set that something is strange between the gain structure in my Line6 POD XT Live and my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I just had the amp in the shop for a full checkup, which included new tubes and re-soldering the tube sockets. I don’t know whether the issue is with the amp or the pedal, and I can’t seem to get anyone at Line 6 to respond to my email. I’m generally fairly happy with the POD XT Live, but this is frustrating. I dialed back the gain on my amp and made a few on-the-fly (actually, on-the-floor) adjustments during the set. I’ll set up my rig in the music room at home and work on this over the next few days to see if I can determine what’s going on.
The Sunset is the kind of bar that bands and customers LOVE. It’s owned and run by cool, hip people who love music and are in the business for all the right reasons. They provide the perfect setting for a great party. Many thanks to the awesome staff for such a fun night. Seeing friends at these gigs is a real treat. A big thank you to Teri, Wally, Bill, Edgars, Celeste, Kristi and Alma, for their enthusiastic participation in the night’s festivities.
