Netphoria Message Board - Guitar Playing and gear thread

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Run To Me (Post 4266338)

I don't know why u wouldn't pursue other instruments. A dozen or so pages ago didn't we have a novel from u complaining that u didn't know where to start with guitar and you weren't really inspired enough in any event to just pick it up and have fun?

Why not do something for which there's actual demand? Learn the drums for example! I know u live in an apartment but I bet u can find a cheap used electronic kit to start banging on. There's such a glut of guitar players that you're much less likely to get anywhere with it, especially since you don't feel inspired by guitar in the first place. Or has that changed?

Quote:

Originally Posted by slunken (Post 4266355)

I had that 5 slot Boss board for about 2 days before I returned it, as I was tired of using individual power supplies for each pedal. There was a night and day difference. I eventually saved up for an isolated power supply.

Overall, you can do what you want, but in my experience daisy chain power supplies will create a ton of extra noise. Especially if you're using "cheap" clones. I'm still going to stick to the theory that the capacitors in those aren't all that great, and since they're all sharing the same power supply, are just feeding off each other and re-amplifying themselves with every other pedal in the chain, especially if you're using more than one dirt pedal (in your post you only mentioned several different dirt pedals).

I only mentioned the gain pedals because it was only gain pedals that had the noise problem. All my other pedals are fine.

Most of the pedals that have the noise problem are not the cheap clones. One of them is (Metal Muff clone), but the Rat clone and the Fulltone Octave clone are pretty silent. Quieter than my Big Muff and boutique fuzzes, for which the noise problem exists.

I don't know much about electronics, but I don't think there is anything wrong with any of the pedals. Like, if I put my noise gate first in the chain to silence the small hum from my guitar, everything is fine because it's the small noise from the guitar that the high-gain pedals are amplifying into a big noise.

Quote:

Originally Posted by slunken (Post 4266356)

I have a fairly large board and have done plenty of "where the heck is this noise coming from" troubleshooting. I'm just trying to help because I know how frustrating it can be. I even used a DI box before to cut down on the noise.

You might even have a bad cable or a wonky output on a pedal. I have an older overdrive that gets silly once about every 3 times I use it and I have to hit it hard to make the extra hiss/noise stop.

That said, if you're using more than 3 dirt pedals at once, there's some noise to be expected. Probably not the level you're talking about though.

As someone else mentioned maybe your guitar isn't shielded very well. Or you have a ground hum in your home. It could be a lot of things but whatever it is, it isn't natural.

I usually only use one dirt pedal at a time (unless I'm using one with an overdrive), but I do tend to have more than one in the chain at once. When I tested each pedal individually, I removed the rest from the signal chain, rather than just bypassing them (I think they are true bypass anyway, but just in case). Still had the noise for the noisy pedals. However, even though the other pedals weren't in the signal chain, the power jacks were still in them, so since this isn't an isolated supply, maybe that means they can still introduce noise.

I later made sure to test the pedals without any other pedals connected to power, and the noise was lower. I was like "that must be the problem," so I powered the other pedals again just to see if the noise would increase, but it didn't. So, it probably had nothing to do with that. Maybe the only reason the noise was lower was that there happened to be less interference at that time, assuming my original hypothesis is correct and it's noise from a poorly-shielded guitar that's the culprit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poots (Post 4266367)

I guess I still don't understand. The distortion pedals are amplifying the noise even when they are turned off? I have some old vintage pedals that kind of do this (but not as bad as this sounds), but most of the modern pedals and what-have-you have pretty clean circuitry. This shouldn't happen. Again, open the amp up and start poking around with a fork until you locate the source of the problem.

If you find the problem pedal, you could get a little effects loop pedal that you could put that pedal into. I've done that before with a noisy old Big Muff (along with an EQ in that loop) and it worked out well.

No, they only amplify the noise when turned on. Not in bypass mode.

To recap what the problem was:

When I play my guitar clean, there is some hum, but nothing that loud or bad or that I would seek to silence.

But some of my gain pedals amplify this noise to bad levels when I play through them.

If I put a noise gate after the gain pedal, I can silence the noise, but the threshold will be at such a level that, if I want to switch from distorted to clean guitar and turn off the gain pedal, the clean signal will be under the threshold, and you won't hear anything.

I fixed this problem by putting the noise gate before any distortion, at the beginning of the chain. When I do this, there is no more annoying noise when I switch on a gain pedal, because the noise from the guitar that was being amplified by the pedals is cut out now.

However, when I do this, I don't get as much sustain, because of the signal from the guitar eventually dropping below the gate threshold.

I mean, it's not a crisis or anything, just wondering what I could do to both get more sustain and not have the noise.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elphenor (Post 4266334)

idk basically popular rock memes make me want to trash my guitar and make music on a computer

Don't be so self-conscious about "looking cool," memes can destroy your life. I would know, my village was destroyed by memes.

So long as you don't play "Wonderwall" at parties, you can safely avoid being "that guitar douche," even if you play popular brand name guitars.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Disco King (Post 4266590)

So long as you don't play "Wonderwall" at parties, you can safely avoid being "that guitar douche," even if you play popular brand name guitars.

"hey do you guys like john fahey?"

I think if I were to commit fully to my ideas I'd have 12 different Japanese Supermarket guitars in a cardboard box instead of investing in the couple of strats I have

I've almost bought one several dozen times but each one had a problem that would be too frustrating to overlook. Mostly jenky electronics with hums and pops and cracks.

I've been practicing a lot of old school funk where it's no more than two chords a song basically but it's all about the discipline you can never miss a single beat or you totally ruin the effect

And it's weird because the moment I think about the beat I lose it, its like you gotta just let it flow

i don't play funk but i feel what you're saying so hard
it's honestly the hardest, most unspoken, most IMPORTANT musical skill there is, really

Probably rhythm and timing.

Rhythm seems to be the most basic element of music. You can have something that can properly be called music with just rhythm, as evidenced be percussion. Tap on your desk in a rhythmic way, and you're making music. I'm not sure that the same can be said of pitch. Pitch with no rhythm would just be perceived as sound or beeping, rather than music.

Of course, I'm speaking in generalities. Pretty much everything exists, so there's probably avant-garde music somewhere that is just pitch with no rhythm, such as tones randomly generated by a computer, or maybe eight minutes of a single tone. Somebody uploads that to Soundcloud under the heading of "music," who am I to be like, "no that doesn't count"? At the end of the day, "music" is more of an honourific title than something with essential qualities. Maybe one day, somebody will paint a song, I dunno.

Rock music syncopates on the beat. R&B (and therefore funk) snakes and weaves behind of and in front of the beat.

Easy peasy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Disco King (Post 4266587)

I've been practicing guitar more than when I wrote that post, but yeah, I'm still not really "inspired." Just continuing to practice some clinical chops and tighten my skills, but not really having a lot of fun or writing anything.

I kinda wrote a song a few weeks back and it came out a lot easier than most times, so I thought it might mean I'm on a roll and I spent the next few days trying to write more, but the tap ran dry after that one, so I was like, "false alarm, I'm still uninspired."

But yeah, maybe I should try a new instrument. I think it's just daunting trying to learn something new and struggling through the rudiments and knowing that it's going to take some time before you can play something that somewhat approximates music, and that it will take even more time before you can actually play with purpose and have something in your head and express it in your instrument instead of just fumbling around until something kinda works (I'm still not even at the point on guitar yet, and I've been playing for longer than I'd like to admit).

I only mentioned the gain pedals because it was only gain pedals that had the noise problem. All my other pedals are fine.

Most of the pedals that have the noise problem are not the cheap clones. One of them is (Metal Muff clone), but the Rat clone and the Fulltone Octave clone are pretty silent. Quieter than my Big Muff and boutique fuzzes, for which the noise problem exists.

I don't know much about electronics, but I don't think there is anything wrong with any of the pedals. Like, if I put my noise gate first in the chain to silence the small hum from my guitar, everything is fine because it's the small noise from the guitar that the high-gain pedals are amplifying into a big noise.

I usually only use one dirt pedal at a time (unless I'm using one with an overdrive), but I do tend to have more than one in the chain at once. When I tested each pedal individually, I removed the rest from the signal chain, rather than just bypassing them (I think they are true bypass anyway, but just in case). Still had the noise for the noisy pedals. However, even though the other pedals weren't in the signal chain, the power jacks were still in them, so since this isn't an isolated supply, maybe that means they can still introduce noise.

I later made sure to test the pedals without any other pedals connected to power, and the noise was lower. I was like "that must be the problem," so I powered the other pedals again just to see if the noise would increase, but it didn't. So, it probably had nothing to do with that. Maybe the only reason the noise was lower was that there happened to be less interference at that time, assuming my original hypothesis is correct and it's noise from a poorly-shielded guitar that's the culprit.

No, they only amplify the noise when turned on. Not in bypass mode.

To recap what the problem was:

When I play my guitar clean, there is some hum, but nothing that loud or bad or that I would seek to silence.

But some of my gain pedals amplify this noise to bad levels when I play through them.

If I put a noise gate after the gain pedal, I can silence the noise, but the threshold will be at such a level that, if I want to switch from distorted to clean guitar and turn off the gain pedal, the clean signal will be under the threshold, and you won't hear anything.

I fixed this problem by putting the noise gate before any distortion, at the beginning of the chain. When I do this, there is no more annoying noise when I switch on a gain pedal, because the noise from the guitar that was being amplified by the pedals is cut out now.

However, when I do this, I don't get as much sustain, because of the signal from the guitar eventually dropping below the gate threshold.

I mean, it's not a crisis or anything, just wondering what I could do to both get more sustain and not have the noise.

http://www.morethanturquoise.com/wp-...ploads/mtm.gif

Noodling around with some familiar tones. This is a custom neck I put onto my strat, and now I'm looking into selling it because it's a little bright for my liking. I still have the original neck, and I want to have stainless steel frets installed onto it.

Playing pretty clumsily, was really lethargic but wanted to get a demo made to help sell the neck.

There's something just a little depressing about this, I feel.

http://i.imgur.com/h1oFJDn.png

Q: who has time for that when you're touring the world?

A: when you're not touring the world and you're hawking shit on facebook

haha

a serious case of old man rage from ol' slunk on netpho tonight

is there a thread for non-guitar audio gear? new-ish headphones:

http://i.imgur.com/a6GVWJd.jpg

Do you use those to listen to records? I need to find a good extension cable. The one I have I never use because there's a noticable decibal loss (like a lot) because of the length.

Quote:

Originally Posted by slunken (Post 4269583)

Do you use those to listen to records? I need to find a good extension cable. The one I have I never use because there's a noticable decibal loss (like a lot) because of the length.

i don't often listen to records with headphones. more often than not records are a social thing when i have people over. can't you just bump up the volume a bit to counter the voltage drop, or is it uneven across frequencies?

i can bump the volume but i don't like doing that. i figured i could get a better cable.

sometimes i like to fall asleep on the couch feeling immersed like those 70s kids in the movies.

Quote:

Originally Posted by slunken (Post 4269597)

i can bump the volume but i don't like doing that. i figured i could get a better cable.

sometimes i like to fall asleep on the couch feeling immersed like those 70s kids in the movies.

get a cable with larger gauge wire. its the resistance of the wire per foot that would cause a voltage drop across the cable reducing your output. larger wire, less reistance. that said, i'm surprised it makes a big difference.

I know. It's surprisingly difficult to find a high-quality 1/8" femal to 1/4" male. Especially in anything over 10 feet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by slunken (Post 4269610)

I know. It's surprisingly difficult to find a high-quality 1/8" femal to 1/4" male. Especially in anything over 10 feet.

i had similar issue finding a 1/4" M to 3.5mm M so i just made my own.

sounds too much like work though

tbh i haven't soldiered a cable of my own in a long ass time. but it's a great skill. it's kind of annoying to do but fairly easy all in all. the freedom of being able to make whatever cable you need, when you need it, is worth it

Anybody have tips for building a pedal board? I am not a handy person at all. I feel a sense of masculine accomplishment when I replace a light bulb.

Am I going to need a saw of any sort for this? Or will I just be able to get planks of wood already cut into the sizes I need from a hardware store?

I don't really have a consistent chain, I change pedals around depending on what I think will sound cool. I'm kinda afraid that if I arrange everything on a pedal board, cut all the cables and cords so that they fit perfectly with the set up, and then one day decide to change my chain, things won't fit because everything was made with a single pedal order in mind. Does that sort of thing happen, or will I be fine?

I need to stop spending all my time thinking about pedals, anyway. I just need to practice and write. I spend hours browsing and listening to demos, thinking about how cool things these tones and textures will add to my sound, and then I don't actually create with them.

Maybe I gotta get away from all the effects-heavy psych/shoegaze/doom stuff and just take out my acoustic or play clean or with some overdrive and see if that inspires any ideas.

figured it was time to start contributing to this thread

http://i.imgur.com/EjvNfBK.jpg

me with my axe

Quote:

Originally Posted by redbreegull (Post 4270132)

female to male

i clicked on this thread after a while, and seeing this post i was like "wait is this the sad sex thread?"

I know I said the whole "no more pedal wanking" thing, but I just received my Malekko 616 Lo-Fi Ekko and it's pretty cool. It's my first analog delay, so I don't know what is supposed to be typical of them. The mix doesn't go very high, and it already starts oscillating at 9 o'clock, making it a bit difficult to get a lot of repeats without crazy noises.

That said, I love crazy noises.

The modulation is crazy, it sounds like it's legit detuning rather than just phasing or flanging if the speed is set low and the depth set high. Settings like that aren't that musical, but are great for the, y'know, crazy noises. If it turns out to not be too versatile, I probably won't mind, because I already have a couple digital delays that cover a lot of ground and probably have me covered for most of my conventional delay needs.

Now to actually write a song or something.

HAHA NOT

Quote:

Originally Posted by Disco King (Post 4270756)

It's my first analog delay, so I don't know what is supposed to be typical of them.

The repeats decay while volume decreases.

I know that frequencies roll off with each repeat (my digital delays have analog-voiced settings), but what I mean is that I don't know if it's normal for the wet signal to not be very loud even with the mix set at its highest, or for oscillation to start happening at only 9 o'clock (I pretty much have to set the feedback to near max to get it on my digitals), or for the modulation to be that crazy.

Like, I don't know what aspects of this pedal are just typical of analog delays, and which are idiosyncrasies of the Lo-fi Ekko.

Also, my chorus came in today, as well. I never thought of myself as much of a chorus guy (sounds a little dated to me), but it was on sale and the pedal is like two stacked choruses in one, so I thought, why not.

Chorus on clean sounds okay, not really my style though (though I don't really believe in having a "tone"... I make my tone what suits me at the moment, and if something I'm doing sounds cool with clean chorus, there's no reason not to go for it), but I've just discovered chorus + fuzz, and it's crazy. I was thinking, "since chorus kind of makes things sound a bit bigger, instead of driving a fuzz with an overdrive, why not try chorusing it?" It sounds really cool, and if you turn the mix up high so that it's pretty much a vibrato, you're in Hendrix territory (minus the skill of course).

Then I tried using chorus and driving the fuzz with an overdrive.

I was just noodling for probably a couple hours.

Now to, uh, write a song.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Disco King (Post 4270846)

9 oclock? Are you sure you don't mean 3? 9 seems like a pretty low setting (25%) for the delay to be going into hold.

Wet signal isn't generally as loud on an analog delay as with a digital. Don't wanna be a dick but did you research this pedal before you bought it?