Guitar Playing and gear thread

[slunken]

you're welcome

[bobliefeld]

Originally Posted by Disco King

Has anybody tried the Mooer Lofi Machine?

I asked because I purchased a Tomsline Mario, which appears to be a clone of it. It looks like Tomsline is a new pedal company trying to get in on that cheap clone market that Donner and Joyo are apart of. However, whereas the Donner and Joyo pedals I own have been as reliable as any big-name pedal I've used, it looks like Tomsline really cuts corners, because the Mario is noisy as fuck. You have to dial in some "sweet spots" in order to not get an annoying background sound, and one of its dials is pretty much unusable, because turning it up increases the noise.

The basic effect is cool, the the noise is awful. Thinking I should just return the thing and get the Mooer instead, but I'm wondering if anybody has tried it.

Another bit crusher I was looking at was the Malekko Omicron Bit, but the thing appears to have dropped off the face of the earth. The company probably replaced it with the Scrutator, a bit crusher with more parameters, but I can't even find used Omicron Bits anywhere, which is odd. The Scrutator looks cool, but it's out of my price range.

Another bit crusher I was looking at was a bit-crushed fuzz by Devi Ever (Bit: Legend of Fuzz). She has a lot of cool pedals, but I decided I'd probably end up choosing the Bit, because a lot of her other ones seem like modified Muffs, so I might as well get something weirder. The Rocket, Shoegazer, and Godzilla also look really cool, and the Rocket even does neat oscillations, but considering their prices, I decided I'd save up for a Fuzzhugger Sonic Shroom instead, which is slightly cheaper than a Rocket, but seems to have more controls and controllable oscillation, even if the fuzz sound isn't as "modern" sounding as Devi's.

Speaking of Devi, has anybody seen her new pedal line? It looks like she's using the same circuits as her old line of pedals (hard to tell, because she's fucking recording all the demos with what sounds like a laptop mic right in front of her guitar, and all you can hear is the acoustic vibrations of the strings), but renamed them in order to avoid trademark issues (she sold her company to Dwarfcraft). It seems a little shady that most of these pedals are trying to undercut the Dwarfcraft Devi Ever line's MSRPs by five bucks. Probably regrets selling her company. I hear she's fallen on hard times and was even homeless for a while, probably partly due to pocketing a bunch of Kickstarter money without developing the product she promised and having to pay it back. Even though a lot of this is probably her doing, I feel a little bad for the gal. Hopefully things look up.

Some of the pedals are brand new, though, and look pretty cool. Like that Atomizer pedal. Out of my price range, but the demo videos sound wicked (the ones not recorded by her, at least; some people have recorded them with proper setups).

I got my bassist a Mooer Lofi for his birthday. It is very noisy. I don't think it's very good tbh.

I have a Devi Ever Bit: Legend of Fuzz. I don't think it's really a bit crusher. It's a great sounding pedal though. It sounds kinda "8 bit" and synthy if I really dial back the volume on my guitar. I just play primitive power chord hardcore stuff through it and it sounds great.

[Disco King]

Originally Posted by slunken

http://tapeop.com/articles/26/my-bloody-valentine-2/

http://tapeop.com/interviews/26/my-bloody-valentine-1/

http://www.polymathperspective.com/?p=2997

Reverse reverb

Pretty interesting. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Poots

Disco Kunt, if you're still looking for a distortion, I highly recommend the T-Rex Mudhoney. It's the most versatile I've ever had (and I've had a lot). It does all the low gain stuff really well, then you're like, let's turn it up and see what it can do up here, and it completely blows you away with fuzzed-out majesty. I think they make a double pedal with two Mudhoneys in one housing which sounds like the ultimate.

Checked it out, and it sounds really cool. Kind of reminds me of a Rat, in that it's a distortion that can somewhat border on fuzz. And it sounds like it cleans up nicely, too. Like, overdrive, distortion, and fuzz, all in one pedal, depending on the gain level.

Thanks for the rec!

Originally Posted by bobliefeld

I got my bassist a Mooer Lofi for his birthday. It is very noisy. I don't think it's very good tbh.

I have a Devi Ever Bit: Legend of Fuzz. I don't think it's really a bit crusher. It's a great sounding pedal though. It sounds kinda "8 bit" and synthy if I really dial back the volume on my guitar. I just play primitive power chord hardcore stuff through it and it sounds great.

I see. If the Mooer is also noisy, the pedal I have probably is identical to it, so there's no use returning it to get the Mooer instead (especially because the Mooer is, like, $30 more). Since I paid so little for it, I probably won't return it at all, and will just play around with the non-noisy settings.

Thanks for the info on the Devi pedal, as well! I may end up getting one.

Originally Posted by Poots

I got this thing:



It's one of those "woah that's awesome... what am I going to do with this?" pedals.

Just looked at a YouTube demo, and it sounds cool as fuck.

I just ordered another weird noise box thingy, the Electro Faustus GuitarDämmerung. I was also looking at this other pedal they had with a photo cell, but then I was like, "so, it just makes a differently pitched whine depending on the light it detects? Cool I guess but nah."

[Cool As Ice Cream]

GuitarDämmerung

lol

[teh b0lly!!1]

i thought this was a spoof and realized it's real

not even sure what to think of it

[slunken]

poots that pedal rules. dwarfcraft is amazing. when you decide to sell it - keep me in mind.

[slunken]

That pedal is best suited for everything but a real instrument imo. Dwarfcraft is for noise. Hook a microphone into it. Hook a telephone into it. An answering machine. Etc. Just not a real instrument.

[slunken]

Yea man, go nuts. I imagine a contact mic would be super fun with this.

[Disco King]

Originally Posted by Poots

I was thinking about picking up one of these the next time I'm at guitar center. I think I've got space on my pedal board and it's only $7,500. Candle-powered too, so fuck off batteries.

Candle-powered effects don't have that transparency that true steam-powered units do. I dunno, it always feels like they are cutting some of the life out of the toanz.

Also, didn't Corgan tour with this during that TheFutureEmbrace tour?

[Disco King]

True. Horse-drawn delays give you that nice offset galloping effect.

I've been trying to decide which sort of self-oscillating fuzz I should get. One I have in mind is the Sonic Shroom. But then I saw a Devi Ever Truly Beautiful Disaster for a lower-than-normal price. It would usually be something I'd consider out of my range.

Also saw an offer for a Mellowtone Wolf Computer within my range.

Then there's stuff like the Fuzz-E Cat and the Catalinbread Antichthon.

At first, I was just planning on getting one oscillator (probably the Shroom), but I've noticed that whereas the Shroom seems to be on the more wooly, Muffy side of things, the others seem to be more zippy, like a Fuzz Face. Might get both a Shroom and either a TBD or Wolf Computer. Problem is, I can't decide which. With the TBD, I may never see a price like this again, and while the controls seem neat, I've heard some people say the tone isn't the best (demos sound fine to me). With the Fox Computer, they don't make them anymore, so that one is also time-sensitive.

And on top of that, I was going to get a Cry Baby Mini anyway. I obviously can't just buy all these things, so I have to make some tough choices.

[teh b0lly!!1]

disco stu didn't you recently post about how you're not getting pedals anymore in order to focus on your playing

[slunken]

Did you pay full retail for that Dwarfcraft pedal? They do great work but the prices are insane. I guess if you're into collecting pedals its ok, because the price will probably go up in the future. Like that boris pedal is up for pre-sale and doesn't even have a clip to go along with it. They just know people will buy it for collectability/brand.

[Disco King]

Originally Posted by teh b0lly!!1

disco stu didn't you recently post about how you're not getting pedals anymore in order to focus on your playing

Haha, yeah, that's what I keep telling myself.

I dunno, the wah is a staple and something I was planning on for a long time anyway. But with the TBD and the Fox Computer, I feel like I have to make a decision right away, because they don't make the FC anymore, but somebody is selling one on another forum for $140

And the TBD is on eBay for $150 USD as a BIN price (it's usually sold around $225), but the starting bid price is $100. $150 is still pretty cheap, but add in shipping and the fact that I'm paying in Canadian pesos, and I'm wondering if I should try to bid instead of buying it now, in hopes that the final bid will be lower than the BIN. But while I'm deciding, anybody could just buy it now. But then again, I might not want it and might want to go with the Fox Computer instead.

Ah fuck capitalism and unlimited choice why can't Stalin just give us all the same government oscillating fuzz pedal

[Disco King]

Somebody on that other forum said I should just get the Fuzzhugger guy to make a custom Shroom that also has a Velcrobot in it, which would get me similar tones to the Fox Computer, I guess.

I've never ordered a custom pedal before and I dunno why but I'm kind of reticent to do it.

Also, wouldn't it be more expensive than non-customs of a similar make, because the maker can't split development costs across a bunch of buyers? Like, I'd be eating that all by myself.

[Elphenor]

I got some more stuff but I was just end up unplugging it all and running a clean tone with that sexy Chorus

Always reverb as well

[slunken]

your tone is muddy and needs more bite. might be your attack. or your tone.

not trying to be a jerk for the sake of being a jerk.

[slunken]

maybe not muddy but washy

[slunken]

I would blame the amp

[slunken]

What's your EQ like? and what kind of amp are you using?

[Elphenor]

Yeah, I hear that.

I have a different amp now and I've moved the dials all around on everything and I'm not gonna record through my computer again I hated playing like that it was just to get something uploaded

[slunken]

what amp and what eq settings? the computer should record cleanly whatever is coming out of the amp so don't go blaming the computer.

[slunken]

I'm saying you want a whole lot of treble and not much else. That's what I'm getting at.

[Elphenor]

Oh I wasn't playing through my amp at all that's the thing

It's literally my guitar plugged into the computer

[slunken]

wow, why?

[Elphenor]

On my amp I have bass set to literally 1 and treble set to 10

The gain is on 5 haven't really decided where I want it

Then I have some built in reverb on the amp.

[Elphenor]

Originally Posted by slunken

wow, why?

the thingy I bought wouldnt work when hooked up to my amp

Was only for demo purposes anyway, when I record more seriously I want to do it live from the amp

[Disco King]

I dunno, pedals seem to be durable things. It's rare that I have problems with used ones.

Except for my Ibanez PM7 Phaser. Stomp the footswitch and it doesn't always actually click, and will only be engaged if you hold it down. I think I've read other people with these ToneLok pedals have the same problem, so it may have more to do with a shitty design than wear and tear.

[Disco King]

I hear you on the price. People pretty much sell their old pedals for the same as you can get them brand new.

[teh b0lly!!1]

the guitar market is horrific. so many dumb douchebags insanely jacking up the prices of guitars (specifically gibsons) and gear that should be 50% price used. people buy guitars, use them for a couple of years, and then post them up for sale at the same price they paid, or marginally less. ridiculous. why do people willfully pay these motherfuckers? i certainly don't

[Disco King]

The oils of my finger tips dulled the strings just enough to decrease the value of the guitar by 4%. The extra percent is a discount. I've had a finger-grease specialist appraise it.