It's been a long time since we've talked gear.

Recently got a Wolf Computer. It's insane.

Just got a new guitar today, too. Silver PRS Tremonti SE.

http://i63.tinypic.com/14rwg6.jpg

Not gonna lie, I got it because of the looks (yeah, I know, shallow and objectifying). But since I've only ever owned a Squire Strat and a non-Fender guitar that is essentially identical to a Stratocaster, I thought it'd be cool to go for something a bit different for my next guitar. Humbuckers instead of single-coil pickups. Kinda just looks like a Les Paul, the shape of which I've always found really aesthetically pleasing. Never actually been the biggest fan of the look of the Strat, I just got those guitars because they were inexpensive second-hand and I cared more about just having a guitar than what kind of guitar it was. I've always wanted either a chrome or silver guitar, and the silver color combined with the rounded shape give it a kind of atomic-age feel, IMO. So sexy.

I dunno, some guitars just look cool to me. Like Telecasters. Kinda want one of those in a pastel color, like powder blue, pale pink, mint green, or cream or something. Jazzmasters also look cool as shit, and I like how they don't have that ugly chrome plating that Jaguars have. Gotta get one of those down the line.

Also, am I the only one who really just does not like sunburst guitars, or...? I dunno, it's just an ugly color, IMO.

One thing I don't dig about the guitar is the shape of the headstock, as it really does deserve something round to complete the whole populuxe/space-age look, rather than that pointy shit that looks like it belongs on some edgy ESP guitar.

I think sunburst is ugly as well. My strat is that ugly off-white color of the famous Hendrix guitar, but I feel like it's ugly in a classic way. Sunburst is tacky to me personally. I always LOL when people have sunburst acoustics

Your PRS looks sick. How does it sound/play? They seem to be favored by shred guys, but it's been so long since I played one I can't really remember how they sound or respond.

side note, I lived in the dorm where PRS built his first guitar as part of a self-guided course he did for college credit. wound up dropping out when he realized he had mad luthier skills

noiiiiiiice disco. congrats man.
how much was it?
are you liking the sound? playability?
i always had a distaste for PRS headstocks too.

Assuming you paid full price for yours, this was in the same price range (give or take $75).

http://static.music123.com/derivates...ilverburst.jpg

Epiphone Les Paul Studio Deluxe Electric Guitar Silver Burst. It's been discontinued so you'd have to track one down. Just mentioning it because it seems like you really wanted a Gibson.

Recent purchases:


http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/d/l225...KwHv-KnpUA.jpg


http://files.effectsdatabase.com/gea...fgreen_001.jpg


Pettyjohn Fuze Distortion/Fuzz with a mix knob to blend the two circuits. Amazing pedal.


http://i1077.photobucket.com/albums/...c%202_ed_s.jpg


Neunaber Wet with Expander...the future of pedaling is here. This series is also amazing.

https://reverb-res.cloudinary.com/im...9z7r1tfu7r.jpg

And this: been wanting a Tele for at least a decade now and finally pulled the trigger a couple days ago. Didn't intend on getting it when I walked in the store, and then I sat down to play it. Was a little "errrmmmmm..." on the 'crafted in China' aspect...but, it's a solid guitar that's well built and perfect for modding up the wiring/pickups if so inclined.


https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/11...g?v=1475346637

I really want one of these

ignorance. that guitar is nothing like a les paul. PRS is a whole different animal

I don't think Hendrix's Strat was a bad colour, I think the ugliness came from the clashing of the off-white and the white pickguard. But yeah, it's a cool kinda ugly. It looks really old-school, like a washed-out look old photograph.

Corgan had one of the same colour, didn't he? Except I think his had a black pickguard.

The PRS feels good. I can't shred, so I can't say if it is any better than any other guitar for doing that, but it seems like it'd be, because the neck is wider than the necks of my strats, so the strings are further a part, probably meaning less of hitting the wrong string when playing faster.

Trying them unplugged, it certainly sounds different from my Strat. More resonant and vibrant, but also more biting and metallic. It's different, though I think I prefer the warmer tone of my Strat unplugged (which is weird, because this looks like a Les Paul, and I always thought that Les Pauls were supposed to be warmer than Strats). Although I don't know enough about guitars to know if the differences in tone I'm hearing are due to the guitars themselves, or just the strings.

After plugging it in, the I realized how versatile the guitar is. The tone knobs on these seem to do a lot more work than the tone knobs on the Strat, and then of course you have a volume knob for each pickup, while the Strat only has a master-volume knob. I can get anything from warm and round to bright and sharp, though I don't think it reaches all the way to the Strat end of things. Which is good, because it means I have two guitars that are good for different sounds now.

But I've never been a tone connoisseur. I'm laid back, so my attitude has always kinda been that I don't go out looking for particular tones, but rather the gear I get is just kinda out of circumstance and whimsy, and whatever it ends up sounding like together is my tone. I like what I get, rather than getting what I like. My main reason for picking up this guitar was that it looks fucking dope.

Gonna post some pics of my own, because it's slightly different from the picture I already posted, and actually cooler looking than that one, IMO. Has chrome knobs rather than just black ones, reinforcing the silvery look even better.

http://i63.tinypic.com/2ylqwcp.jpghttp://i64.tinypic.com/15nowg5.jpg

I paid $450 CAD for it. It's used. Looking online, full price for a new one is, like, $1000 CAD.

Thanks for letting me know about the Epiphone. It probably has more of that actual Les Paul sound than this one, and would sound more different from what I already have than this one (I've heard somebody say PRS was meant to sound like a cross between a Strat and a Les Paul). But I also think this PRS looks cooler. I don't think I will be trading it for anything else anytime soon.

Slightly embarrassing that it turns out that Tremonti is the guy from Creed, but whatever. It's just a name they slapped on there. So long as I don't play Creed covers, I'll be fine. But I guess it's just another reason to not dig the headstock.

I've always been interested in the Fuzz Factory. Though now that I have the Wolf Computer, even though it's different from a Fuzz Factory (seems to be more based on the zippy Fuzz Face circuit, rather than the woolly Fuzz Factory one), I feel like I don't need a Fuzz Factory any longer. I dunno, I'm a fuzz freak, so I have enough that most of my bases are covered and there are only one or two more that I'm looking at.

That Diamond compressor... it seems like almost every band I see one opts for this brand of compressor, especially the bassists. I've always wondered why, because it's expensive as hell, IMO. Is it significantly different from other cheaper compressors? Why does it seem like this one is the standard one?

i always wanted a PRS. congrats man

Wolf Computer? have to check that out...


I had a hand-painted Zvex FF a while back and let it go, with some regrets. Once I got rid of my strat though, I kept struggling to find use for it with the Gibson humbuckers (though no longer). Saw a used vexter box at Starving Musician in Santa Clara (same Fuzz factory circuit, sans the paint job) for just over half the new rate. Easy buy there and its just so damn powerful and fun once you dial it in.


Had the Xotic SP comp and it was just fine, a bit more of a utility comp than the Diamond, which optical style emphasis tone over squishyness, simply put. Be careful if you have too many tone boost pedals, if so, you may want to look at the Diamond SE, its even more transparent. Saw the Diamond green (rare color for it) at GC in San Fran for a bargain and threw a gift card at it and walked out with it for under 60$. That freed up my Xotic SP comp which I swapped out full price towards the Telecaster at Banana's in San Rafael. 9 times out of a 10 I walk into music stores, I don't wheel and deal like this, but last few days was some fun serendipity riding along a couple good deals.

This is the go to guy for compression reviews. I don't take his word as complete gospel, but his opinion weighs heaviest when regarding such pedals. The website is an awesome resource.


http://www.ovnilab.com/index.shtml


My best picks so far

I use a nano big muff because i like to minimize my love for the 90s.

lol. same here. Great pedal, just saw one used at a GC for $44. Almost wished I hadn't gotten one new for like 30 bucks more. I like the user friendliness of it compared to the FF.

I've had mine for a few years and have only jiggled the settings a couple of times. I feel like most fuzz pedals in the years to come have only tried to build upon the original muff (but adding little features).

Yeah, so many boutique fuzz builders just make Big Muffs with some extra knobs or less scooped midrange or something. For me, my Tone Wicker Muff is enough for the Muff sound, so I tend to go for fuzzes that are really different from the Muff instead of "Devi Ever's Muff variation #26102."

Interesting simple designs by Devi. I don't think I've heard a demo of any of those pedals as yet. The Brown/LP one looks interesting.


http://fuzzmonster.dk/en/product-cat.../devi-ever-en/

I hear Dwarfcraft sold Devi Ever's brand back to her. There was a while where she was essentially making the exact same pedals under the name "Fuzz Goddess," anyway.

Yeah, there are a few Devi pedals I am interested in. The Brown LP is one of them. Also, the Bit: Legend of Fuzz pedal. The Rocket and Truly Beautiful Disaster also look cool.

while i agree some PRS's are definitely high end guitars, don't be quick to knock epiphone. i have a es-335 by them (i think it's called Sheraton II) and it really is a fucking great sounding instrument. it definitely isn't built to perfection like high end guitars (frets aren't perfect, general construction and materials aren't as high end), but if you play to get around those limitations, the sound is just as good as any gibson.

i posted a jazzy instrumental guitar track i made with it in my few miserable months in israel. if anybody cares i can reup the link.

I'm no guitar expert, but my understanding is that stuff like Epiphone and Mexican Fenders are perfectly fine instruments, and while Gibsons and American Fenders may be better, they probably aren't better enough to justify the thousands of dollars, and it's just rich dads who buy them.

But I don't even have the money for that stuff. Other than the PRS, my only electric guitars were a Fender Squier and a Jay Turser. I've had no problems with either of these, other than the high-e string sometimes getting caught under the fret on the Squier (probably needed to be sanded down or something).

Near as I can tell, the Turser I have is a complete imitation of a Strat, probably a Squier Strat. But I've never had both at the same time so that I could do a side-by-side comparison. Looks like Jay Turser is a budget-guitar company that mostly makes copies of popular Fender and Gibson/Epiphone guitars (I guess you can't patent or trademark the designs?)

George Lynch's main guitar is one he paid $20 for the body of it.

Geddy Lee's #1 bass is a Fender Jazz he got at a pawn shop for $200.

Dave Shramm (yo la tengo) studio and gig stick is a $300 Japanese Tele.


So yah. Tone is in the fingers and there are many overpriced guitars a budget model can get close to with a $14.00 set of Sprague Orange Drop tone capacitors. That fix will get a 3 figure Les Paul Studio much closer to the $5000 reissue of the model.

Well, I really like this guitar and may be getting one later and mod it up a bit, but it's more of a want than a need at this time.


http://www.guitarfella.com/wp-conten...5922898631.jpg


So I doubled down and followed through on what was needed and swapped it out for this:


http://www.jbsmusic.co.uk/image/data...ss/ES8-0_2.jpg



I'd been researching pedal looper/switchers for a couple months now and was driving myself crazy not pulling the trigger on one of several that were interesting. A lot of nice loopers are built by a company where one main guy was the maker of it and then leaves that co. to start his own, but doesn't have a web-site and you have no idea how to buy his product.

Anyway, I took the plunge on the holy-grail of loopers because Boss's rep for quality builds; they ain't going anywhere as a company and there's a solid warranty attached.

This thing can do anything and turn on/off your kitchen sink faucet if it has midi.

Does anybody know of the smallest, cheapest thing that sends OUT a midi signal that could be hooked into a pedal that accepts midi

This one is in the $120 range


http://visionguitar.com/new/wp-conte...00-300x300.jpe

Sorry I was not perfectly clear - i meant something that also generates a midi signal. what are my options? A cheap drum machine?

i use a delay that lets you dial BPM and i use it with another pedal (a tremolo effect) that accepts midi but you have to tap tempo it. would be nice to have a little box that let's me digitally dial that pedal in as well.

i have some shit keyboards but none do midi.

would rather have something with a super small footprint.

I think this might work for ya...$60'ish range


https://reverb-res.cloudinary.com/im...obx24cjn7v.jpg

i see what you're getting at but that doesn't let me dial in an exact tempo. the pedal i want to control already has a tap feature. it just gets tricky sometimes using it in conjunction with a digital delay that lets you dial in the exact BPM/ms.

i'm mujst not be explaining myself well.

I'm now using the Fuzz Factory as my main dirt pedal in my band. Really love it.

ahhh...i get it now. not sure if anyone makes a small footprint standalone type though. I presume it would need some type of interface to control and see the exact bpm's?

midi is tricky but worth it if you can get it going.

for sure. always looking for something that might do it.

Here ya go, but not exactly cheap.


http://visionguitar.com/new/wp-conte...nl-300x300.jpg

$209



http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/y2wAAO...LuM/s-l300.jpg

$220

yea for that kind of money i could buy a real thing

zactly...that's where I was at the last two months with the loopers.