What Seems Like Nothing is Something!

It seems I'm getting into the habit of only posting once a month. Hopefully I can start posting more often again soon. I have not been doing anything new with the guitar. I've been doing my usual routine of rotating my guitars and trying out my new 'toys' on them. Right now, I have my Ibanez Jet King out again. I put away my Strat copy after I finished trying out all of my Vox DA5 settings on it. All of the settings I have from the Vox Tone Room sounded pretty good through my Strat copy (with a little adjustments on some). Now I am going through those same settings using my Jet King. So far, I love everything that is coming out of my DA5!

I've also been playing around with my Tube Driver and my Jet King together. This is the first time I try the Tube Driver with a humbucker-equipped guitar. The Tube Driver works well with both single coils and humbuckers. I have come to the conclusion that my particular Tube Driver works best with my DA5 amp (as opposed to my Champ 600) and it works best at higher gain settings. I have to work at finding the sweet spots on the Tube Driver, but when I do, it's pretty awesome!

Although I haven't been working on anything new, I have discovered one thing: My guitar playing has improved! All of the noodlin' I've been doing with my amps and my pedals through my various guitars has payed off! While I've been experimenting with all of these new tones, I've actually been practicing, but it doesn't feel that way (it feels like I've just been having fun!). My point is that practicing can take on many forms: From a formal practice session where you concentrate on chords and scales, to just having fun experimenting and jamming. The important thing is to pick up your guitar and play. It doesn't have to be something new, just play (something I need to do more of myself!).

My Harmony Electric - Plus: Playing with Pedals!

It's been over a month since my last post! In that time, I've put away my Tradition Tele-style guitar and brought out my Harmony Strat copy. My Harmony Strat copy was my first electric guitar. I bought it in 2007, after years of only having an acoustic guitar. The acoustic guitar that I was playing on and off at the time is also a Harmony. It is one of the last U.S.A. made Harmony guitars (made in 1975). I've always loved my Harmony acoustic, so when I had the chance of buying a Harmony electric at a very reasonable price, I took the chance and ordered it. I had not been playing guitar that often up until that point, so I did not want to buy an expensive guitar. I did not want to buy something expensive, not knowing if I was going to continue playing on a regular basis. There are a lot of people that buy an inexpensive guitar as their first guitar, only to be discouraged because the guitar is poorly made and set up and is hard to play. This was not the case with my Harmony electric. I loved it from the first day I got it! It is made very well, considering the price. It was also set up very well when I got it. I have researched the model number on the internet, and it seems this guitar model was made in 1990 or 1991, but it was brand new when I bought it in 2007 (new old stock).

Now that I am using my Harmony, I have been testing it out on my Vox DA5 amp (as I have been testing all of my guitars since I bought my amp). So far, my Harmony sounds great with all of the different amps settings I have used. I still need a few more settings to try out on my Harmony.

I have also been using my Harmony to test out my two pedals that I bought last month. The RAT 2 pedal was great from the start, so I have not really been testing it all that much. The Tube Driver pedal needed a different tube to make it sound better, so that is what I have been focusing on lately. I was able to get two tubes from a great member of one of the forums I belong to. As soon as I got the tubes, I began experimenting with them. I swapped out the 12AX7A tube in the Tube Driver with one of the 12AU7 tubes I was sent. The first tube I tried was an improvement, but I was not totally satisfied with the sound I was getting out of my pedal. I then tried the second tube with great results! I am now very happy with my Tube Driver pedal! I've been testing it with my Fender Champ 6oo and with my Vox DA5. To my ears, it sounds better through the Vox. I am thinking of putting up a demo recording of both of my pedals in the near future (I just have to get up the courage to record myself again!). As I've been saying lately, "Stay Tuned" to see if I go through with it!

Pedals!

I can't believe it has been a month since I last posted! I have really not been doing anything new on the guitar lately, just my usual routine (when I make time to pick up my guitar). Ever since I got my Vox DA5 amp, I have been trying out all of the settings on each guitar that I have been using. I'm still using my Tradition Tele-style guitar, so I've been putting it through it's paces on the DA5. I have to say, it sounds great! Now I know why they say that Telecasters are probably the most versatile guitars out there!

Now that I have the Vox DA5, I've been using the built in effects a lot in my practicing, but before I acquired it, I hardly ever used effects. I have my DigiTech RP50 processor that I demo in my little audio clip, but I don't use it that often. Early on, I also bought a Danelectro FAB distortion pedal, which I had planned to use with my Fender Champ 600 tube amp when I bought the amp. I ended up giving my son the FAB pedal for his little electric guitar. This brought about a chain of events that led me to obtain two great vintage pedals. When I gave my son the FAB, he needed an extra cable to hook it up, so that left me with no extra cables. I started looking for cables on Craigslist, and I found an old ad advertising cables and pedals. Well, to make a long story short, I ended up bringing home the two pedals in the photo along with some cables!

The black pedal is a RAT 2 distortion pedal. From what I have read on the web, these first came out in 1987. It was made in the USA and is built like a tank! I love the sounds I can get out of this pedal. It is a keeper for sure! The other pedal is a Tube Driver overdrive pedal. This pedal has a tube in it, just like the tubes that are found in tube amplifiers. When I first plugged it in, I didn't like what I heard. It produced a lot of muddy and inconsistent distortion (too much for an overdrive pedal IMHO). I later opened it up and found that the tube in it was not seated properly in the socket. I pushed the tube all the way into the socket and started using it. I used it for about two hours, and it sounded better, but not great. It seems that I am going to have to replace the tube in it. I've already research what kinds of tubes I can use in it, and have contacted a guitar forum member that says he has tubes. Let's see what happens when I put a new tube in it! Stay tuned!

My Guitar: From Problem to Prized.

I finally got around to posting again. August has been a very busy month for me and I have not played as much as I would want. I kept my Epi Les Paul Custom out longer than I usually do, wanting to record with it, but I ran into problems. When I record, I use Audacity. I currently have Audacity installed in my secondary PC, which I use mainly for the disk space. It's an older PC with Windows 98 installed in it. I tried recording my Les Paul on it, and every time I would start recording, the PC would freeze up! I would end up cutting the power to the PC just to be able to reboot! Anyway, I will have to install Audacity on this laptop that I am using now in order to record anything.

Since I was not able to record, I put my Les Paul away and brought out my tele-style Tradition CAB10T. The Tradition is the last guitar I bought. I bought it last December at my local music store. It is the only electric guitar that I have bought at a music store. All of my other electrics have been bought either through on-line retailers or through Craigslist. I was disappointed after I bought it because, even though it was my first "music store" electric, it had some problems.

When I went in to buy the guitar, the owner of the store was giving a guitar lesson, so I tried out the guitar at the lowest volume possible so as not to disturb the lesson going on. I really liked the guitar because it was very well made and it felt great in my hands, so I bought it. When I got it home and played it at regular volume, I noticed that the volume control was not as effective as it should be. I also noticed that the neck pickup sounded weak. I found some information on the internet that suggested that the volume control problem was due to a stock capacitor that should be replaced with a lower rated capacitor. Since I don't know anything about modding guitars, I decided to leave it be and just learn to live with this little imperfection. I was able to resolve the neck pickup problem by adjusting the pickup height and getting the pickup closer to the strings. This little adjustment made a big difference! Now, I consider my CAB10T to be one of my prized guitars! It is a beautiful guitar, very well made, and it has a great tone! I can't believe I considered selling it at one point! I have been testing it out with my Vox DA5 modeling amp, and so far the settings I have tried sound great on this guitar.

I guess the moral of this story is: If you are going to buy a used guitar (or even a new one), check it out completely. Don't assume everything works as it should, because chances are, you will find something wrong later on. I was lucky that the problems with my guitar were with the electronics, because those can be fixed rather easily. I still wish I knew how to mod...

Tones, Tones, and More Tones!

I have been preoccupied with other stuff these past two weeks, hence the late and unusual time of this post. When I have had time to noodle around with my guitar, I have been working with my Vox DA5. Thanks to a post in one of the forums I belong to, I discovered the 'VOX Tone Room' http://www.voxamps.com/toneroom/. This is a site where users of Vox amps post settings they have come up with. The site has settings for all sorts of Vox amps, including the DA5. I found all sorts of settings that I really liked: Everything from AC/DC and Guns N Roses to SRV and John Lee Hooker. I was able to find settings that use almost every amp style and effect available on the DA5. I tried out the settings I was interested in, and if I liked them, I wrote them down for future reference. When I was done, I found that only a few amp styles and effects had not been used. I was able to create settings for those myself very easily. So far, I have 24 settings that I can use. Most from the 'Tone Room' and some that I created myself. For users of Vox amps, the 'Tone Room' is a great resource. I encourage Vox users to check it out.

My Epiphone Les Paul Custom

The lazy days of summer still have a hold on me! Since my last post, I haven't done anything new on the guitar, except rotate guitars again. This time, I am using my Epiphone Les Paul Custom. It is a 1995 made in Korea model that I bought almost a year ago through Craigslist. It is everything a Les Paul should be: a true Rock machine in every way!

I have been practicing my usual routine with my LP, just like I was practicing with my Epi Dot before I put it away. The main differences between the Dot and the LP physically are the size and weight. The Dot is a bigger bodied guitar, but because the Dot is semi-hollow, the LP is a lot heavier. The weight does not bother me because I usually play sitting down, but I do have to re-adjust to having a regular-sized guitar body on my lap as opposed to the bigger body of the Dot. As for the sound, I have always considered the LP to be on one end of the extreme in tone (with the Telecaster being at the other end). I consider all of my guitars to have what I call a 'middle of the road' tone, except for my LP and my Tele-style guitar. Because of this, I always end up tinkering with my effects devices more when I use my LP than when I use my other guitars (I haven't used effects with my Tele-style guitar yet).

Last night I spent some time playing my LP through my new Vox DA5 for the first time. I found that the DA5 settings I was using with my Jet King and my Dot had to be adjusted to work well with my LP, but that was to be expected. One thing for sure: The LP sounded great after I got everything adjusted! Now it's time to go play some more!

Playing with my toys and the need to catch up!

I have to admit, I haven't played my guitar in about five days! I think the lazy days of summer are getting to me. This is also the reason I had not posted anything here sooner. The last time I played, I was trying to reproduce some of my favorite settings from my DigiTech RP50 modeling guitar processor on my new Vox DA5 amp. So far, I have been able to reproduce all of my favorites on my DA5. The only real difference is that I can save settings on the RP50. It has 40 user preset locations where I can save settings. The DA5 doesn't have the capability to save settings, but it is easy enough to dial in my settings, so it is really not a problem. I use a pre-printed form that came in the DA5 manual to record my various settings. Once on paper, all I have to do is dial in any setting I want. It may seem easier to have a setting saved and just go to it instead of having to dial it in every time, but I see benefits in both methods. On the RP50, once a setting is saved in a specific location, I have to know where that particular setting is, so I have to use a chart for reference. On the DA5, I use the pre-printed form I mentioned above. I don't mind dialing in a setting because it gives me a chance to experiment with that setting whenever I dial it in. On an RP50 setting, I tend to just go to it and use it as it was originally saved. It comes down to convenience versus creativity for me when using my RP50 and my DA5 to get a desired sound, but I love both of these devices.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have some guitar practicing and playing to catch up with!