Just trying to get away from the flood of gear and wires for a while.

A black Mexican Strat

It is a step up from my previous black made in china Strat

And a mic and the thing that lets you plug your guitar straight into your computer

I have the problem of hating things that I play in the moment of playing them but I was going through stuff I just recorded on a cell phone and forgot about so it was like listening to someone else playing and it all sounded pretty good

I actually invested in the stuff because I'm looking for musicians online and I gotta send snippets of my playing so I gotta represent

Actually, though I probably hadn't played it since I was a teenager, when I completed building my MXR DII clone, one of the first things I did was play the rat-in-a-cage intro to see if this was the pedal I had been thinking it was. It was: Magic became real, and I was the album.

AFAIK, all Strategy 500s comes with 4x12AX7, 8x6L6, 4x6550. But I've replaced the 6550s on one side of mine with KT88s, after checking with Mesa if the tube values wouldn't harm the amp. They said the values of my KT88s were close enough that they should be compatible without any modification (though the risk was on me), and that's what I've been running. The amp is auto-biasing, so no extra work is needed for newly-installed tubes. I also only use the one side of the amp, and the other side is backup, in case a tube fails on the side I use.

That 3K price is ritzy, though that is a beautiful specimen of a legendary amp. I found mine (many years ago, though, and prices for them obviously have increased) for something like $600 - 800 in a Craigslist listing, that was in Oregon, while I live in BC, Canada. It came with an ADA MP-1, and a sturdy touring case, so it was a super deal. But I lied on the way through customs back into Canada, about picking the amp up from a friend, and the customs people found the phone number for the people I bought it from in my car and called them, and I ended up getting a $250 fine for not declaring the amp for taxes. Bummer way to spoil the great deal I had.

I need to practice playing cleanly and muting the strings I'm not playing. I was screwing around on a bass the other day, and I never play bass, so I was struck by how much more obvious sloppy playing is on a bass guitar than on a guitar guitar, and how muddy and gross it sounds when you don't mute unplayed strings. I have the same sloppy technique on guitar, it's just less obvious, but the muddiness is still there.

It feels like I have to learn how to play the instrument all over again to learn proper string muting. Even when I break shit down really slowly, it's hard to get my hands at the correct angles so that the strings I don't want to sound don't sound.

Ugh why do I suck at everything I wish I had just one thing in the world I could do correctly and admirably actually I give up guitar forever nothing matters

Anyone have a good rec for a bass compressor?

Yeah that's definitely a skill you need to pick up for bass, to pluck a string and then mute it while simultaneously hitting the next string. I've been doing it for so long, it's just second nature. I just started playing bass in a new band, and I actually got called out on it-- "Let those notes ring longer" I didn't even realize I was muting the notes.

There's difference between different brands of the same type of tubes, but if comparing 6550 and KT88 of the same brand, I don't know, because I haven't been able to do that.

I compared JJ 6550s, Groove Tubes 6550s, and Ruby KT88s for the 6550 spots in my S-500, and tried both JJ and GT 6L6s in those spots, and a variety of 12AX7s in those spots. On one side, I ended up going with JJs for the 6L6 spots, and Ruby KT88 for the 6550 spots. And all GT on the other side, and Electro-Harmonix in the 12AX7 spots.

With this setup, the two sides of the amp make different kind of tone, volume levels, and high-gain impressions. I like them both. The GTs that I have on one side make a kind of squishy-mucusy attack that I like, and a crunchier, more rumpled type of gain, and flabbier lower-end, while the attack on the JJ / Ruby side is less pronounced, and the gain is more staticy and open-sounding, and the lower-end is more tightly controlled.

Switching between JJ 6550s and Ruby KT88s for the 6550 spot on the JJ 6L6s side produces a minor difference, but I felt that the gain was more even and broader, and the lower-end larger with the Ruby KT88s.

With enough tube sets to fill one side of this amp 4 times, and with spares tubes to replace any that go bad, I hope I'm set with tubes for this thing for at least the next 20 years. Though, the impression I get from what other people have said on the matter is that JJs aren't the most durable tubes.

well i guess all this terminology might as well literally be about shit:

* squishy-mucusy attack
* crunchier, more rumpled
* flabbier lower-end

related articles:
>>> Why doesn't Corgan ever let it rip anymore?>>>

I like Mexican strats too, they're lighter than the USA and you feel ok about punishing em with sweat and weather and stuff

Elph if it sounds good through your computer can you just find a way to run your computer out to a PA for live stuff? Until you get an amp/pedals you like?

A lot of the lack-of-muddiness in guitar playing is from just playing the right strings and not the wrong ones, so that muting isn't necessary to begin with - but, a seasoned guitarist will be able to mute any bad notes immediately if they do play, and will probably have all not-to-be-played strings muted before there's a chance of them being played.

Even if this sounds tricky at first, it comes down to muscle memorization, and developed-precision. Think of a baby learning to hold a cup, or maneuvering a crayon with their hand. They aren't very graceful or exact with it. But as an adult, you hardly even have to be conscious to do the same things with exactness.

Also, a lot of guitarists hold their guitar's neck in a manner that keeps their thumb draped over the low E-string a lot ( https://youtu.be/wDvlErh5zcc ). This makes it easy to mute the top two strings, if needed, or to play the low E string with the thumb.

Also, your telling yourself crap about not being able to do things when you can't play harms your ability to learn. Your brain has a certain consideration equity, and if it adds up to 100, and you're giving yourself crap for not learning, then it could be, say 40 % of that equity is working against the 60% that is trying to move forward. Considerations are directional, and every thing you tell yourself will be re-considered back through your brain, and its value will either compliment, support, or offset, or antagonize the other consideration value that you're sending through your brain. So, your self-deriding expressions of how you think are also your future platform that you will make your next move from.

don't rely on your thumb to mute strings. it can work here and there, but your technique should be a mix between using your fretting hand index finger to sort of lay over the strings your not playing to mute them, using your right hand to block out strings that shouldn't be ringing, and maybe using your thumb here and there to drop the top strings from vibrating.

It depends on how a person plays guitar, but I'd say the thumb has to be as useful as using the fretting-hand's index finger, if a player uses their thumb to fret the top string, like Jimi Hendrix, or Billy Corgan, or any of many other guitarists do - because the index finger can't reach the top string when other fingers are fretting some notes, while the thumb is still positioned for action.

Some players aren't thumb-fretters, but that play-style looks awkward, less maneuverable, and less fun, to me.

Actually, I'm going to try this out, and see how I do it. I don't usually think about it, so I'm unsure.

I just tried it, and the thumb is a muting mainstay, which I use all over the place. As far as I can tell, the top E string can't be muted while playing the likes of an open C-chord, or the top two string in the case of an open D-chord, apart from thumb-muting action. I also use the thumb all up and down the neck, both for string-fretting, and for string-muting. I'm going to suggest that if a person plays with their thumb, like in the Jimi Hendrix style, then their thumb is probably their most frequently-engaged string-muting tool.

Or wimps who are afraid to show the guitar who is boss

Using the thumb all over the board is interesting

I only use it to mute the low E which I find mostly useless

OK so I just bought an Aural Exciter, which allegedly used to belong to Billy Corgan and was used on the pre-Gish demos.

That's cool. What's the story on it belonging to BC, and you learning about it?

I was in a guitar shop near Boca Raton, FL about a decade ago and the owner was falling over himself trying to sell me this old practice amp he swore was unloaded to him by Billy Corgan, Sr. and was b0lly's childhood possession. He kept offering to pull out the bill of sale but I was a super awkward teenager at the time and really wanted him to leave me alone since he also wouldn't let me touch the guitars without standing over me.

It was apparently bought from The Corgan Camp when he was unloading gear on ebay a few years ago.

lol i don't even bother stringing the D what are you a n00b or something lol

I looked up the old SP ebay listings Twitter posts to see if I could find that Aural Exciter, but there wasn't mention of everything there, and I didn't see that one. Some of the signal processors mentioned in the SP ebay Twitter account, used by Billy:


DigiTech DHP-55 Preset Sound Demo (MCIS album & tour):
there's no youtube vid for DHP-55, but here's one for the DHP-33 - https://youtu.be/-l3Dqz_-PI4

BBE 462 Sonic Maximizer (MCIS, Adore albums, and looks like it's in a picture of his Siamese Dream live rig):
https://youtu.be/59nIe5qf2Ao
https://youtu.be/dXUpG9s8oyM

Digitech Valve FX (Mellon Collie, Adore, and Machina - presumably albums?):
https://youtu.be/tgtsJZNUD5Y

Line 6 Filter Pro (dunno where used):
https://youtu.be/ibYqGIL6Bl4

Yeah I know, i checked that too earlier this week, also could not find it--hence my use of the word "allegedly" instead of "definitely" or whathaveyou. ;) The guy is still tracking down the certificate of authenticity. No idea if I'll ever get it, and I'm fine with that. But I've always wanted an Aural Exciter, so this was my chance and it's a bonus that it might have been Corgan's.

Although, if it was an invited story, why say it was used on the pre-Gish demos instead of something more exciting like Adore or Siamese Dream? It's a really random factoid to make up that only a very specific and small demographic would care about. And who I got this from, that scene certainly doesn't care about Smashing Pumpkins at all.

aural exciters are usually used in the studio to "magic up" some vocals, or thinking out of the box - maybe even guitars or drums. they basically boost a certain range of frequencies anywhere from 2khz-10khz, which on vocals is the sibilance and air.

i find it unlikely corgan owned an aural exciter when he was 19 or whatever, it's too obscure a piece of gear. but all that doesn't matter at all - if you like the way it sounds, that's your money's worth. do you use it on your guitar?

I mean I already have an E string with the same notes why do I need another one

I could easily replace it with a C string or something I don't have. Anybody have a C string they're not using? Damn those things are hard to find.

Does anybody have any experience with power attenuators and words of wisdom to share?

never get involved with a puerto rican. she will destroy your soul

The idea behind dropping the low E from the majority of chords is mostly to put more space between myself and the bassist

Like, I want to actually hear it

I mean in funk you pretty much NEVER would play that string

Edit: An exception would be like the "Hendrix" chord which is a standard funk chord on the 5th fret where you let the open E ring

You can still use the notes from the low E though, just roll off the bass on your amp or your strat's tone knobs, or use a pickup closer to the bridge. Do that and it's never gonna clash with the bass, I promise u.

Personally I would never stop playing the low E (frequently tuned to D) it's too important for the numbskull riff rock I like to play

I use an all of the above approach even use a capo

Gotta get that twinkle twinkle sound

You might have been better served by a Rickenbacker.