Refinished (stained) Drum Kit

 Pulled the Jack Kirby art off of my kit--here are some photos:

 To do this:
1) Sanded down shells.
2) Mixed wood stains; applied with rags.
3) Let dry for a couple hours.
4) Clear coat 4-5 times.
5) Reassemble.

Telecasters...

 I've owned teles before, and never really bonded with any of them. I realized that I'd traded one with a maple neck years ago to pay for groceries or some stupid thing and always wanted it back. So I loaded up the car with stuff to trade and headed to the local shop. They had this maple-necked beauty. I was looking for a classic tele, or maybe a thinline, but they didn't have anything like that, so I sprung for this Modern Player version. Wasn't crazy about the humbucker at the bridge (humbuckers on a tele? Come on), but it was in my price range. Then I got home, set it up, and enjoyed myself.

Later that day, this tele comes up on CL--from the same shop, no less:

I traded the Modern player in for this Nashville tele. Very close to a traditional setup, but the middle strat pickup gives me some options. Also, this came in used, so I got more bang for my buck. I think the Modern player was $400, this was $369. The shop also posted a DD-5, so I traded my guitar for a better guitar and a delay pedal. It was a good day.

As for this lovely creature--plays great, sounds excellent, and looks magnificent. Matches my bass, too. I really like the brightness of the maple neck, and the tones that are possible with the 5-way selector make this a lot of fun to play. The big issue is noise, as the bridge is insanely microphonic. Need to get some shielding in there.

Pedalboard Mk. II

So I sold my hockey gear and bought a Pedal Train  PT-3. I picked up a used Voodoo Labs PP2+ off of CL, and here I am. This is so much cleaner, better looking, and easy to use than my homemade board. That was a good learning experience; now I'm playing a lot more and needed something a little more cohesive.

I have (or will) review the pedals individually, but, as for the board, let me say a little about how it is routed.

The signal chain: Fuzz Factory>>>Rainbow Machine>>>Morley Dual Bass wah>>>true bypass looper (which loops through the Dyna Comp>>>rehoused Big Muff>>>Micro Synth) >>>POG2>>>TU-2>>>Holy Grail>>>TS9>>>Shape Shifter>>>Memory Boy Deluxe>>>Memory Man.

I tried to keep my "pitch" pedals as early in the chain as I could, but, between the POG, synth and Rainbow Machine there's a lot of work to do there. Also, I like having my wah with some dirt both before and after it, which is why it's situation kind of strangely.

The Big Muff is susceptible to volume drops, and, though it is true bypass, I like to be able to use it with a line driver for leads. That's why it is in a loop with the Dyna Comp--I can crank the compressor (while keeping the sensitivity pretty low) and run them in sequence with only one stomp. The Micro Synth finishes up that loop because it is one of the worst-bypassed pedals of all time. I kind of like what it does to my tele, frankly, but now that I'm running in stereo, the tone loss is simply too much to bear.

Most other stuff is pretty straightforward, with a couple exceptions: I like my tuner late in the chain (after dirt) because I can use it as a kill switch. When things get ugly with fuzz pedals, I like to have a mute switch. This happens before reverb and delay so that I can still get trails, however. And what people say about your tuner needing a "pure" signal to tune--I've never had any trouble with this arrangement.

I have the Holy Grail feeding a TS9 (which will probably be gone soon) because I like overdriven reverb. Most people put 'verb last in the chain; I say there's a lot of fun to be had putting it earlier. I can also chop up a reverberated signal with the Shape Shifter, which is pretty durn fun.

Finally, the Stereo Memory Man with Hazarai is stereo I/O, so I run that to two amps. Ping-ponged delays=very tasty.

This board is a beast to put together. I've rebuilt it a couple times, but everything just barely fits in the case. I'm sure I'll change some stuff next week, so it won't matter. I'm pretty happy with this for right now.

EHX Ring Thing

What a strange piece of equipment. Found a cheap one used, and, with my propensity for EHX gear, thought I'd try out one of their newer offerings.

The Ring Thing has some cool sounds hiding inside of it--it is essentially a 'roided out modulation pedal that pushes things further than most mod pedals. This can run the gamut from tremolo effects that have a super slow Leslie vibe to a more rhythmic, pulsating throb. The use of the fine/coarse knobs lets you dial it a lot of these different textures.

Of course, the heart of the pedal is its ring modulator function, which does some things that I haven't seen done elsewhere. The tuning function is an attentuator that senses the pitch of the input signal when the left footswitch is held down; you'll hear the LFO "tune" itself to the note you're playing. Pretty cool! I still couldn't figure out a way to make this musical, sadly. Since ring mods use a kind of algorithm to determine which secondary pitch is played against the note you're playing, the "tuned" ring mod effect really only sounds good against the original note you've tuned to or very specific intervals of that note. In other words--this is a very cool effect, but, even with my love of noise making, not one I could see myself using regularly enough to keep. Ultimately, I was hoping for more of a bit-crusher effect that would have some interesting harmonic overtones. I think I could have gotten it to where I wanted it, but I ran out of patience. This is the most "difficult" pedal I have ever owned, and I wish I'd spent more time on it.

The last thing that intrigued me about this pedal were the pitch-shifting capabilities. It can do just about everything a Whammy pedal can do, though the interface for it is a little more difficult to use (again, the coarse/fine knobs dial in intervals from--I believe--2 octaves down to 2 octaves up). I have an expression pedal that I plugged in; sounded pretty solid, though I detected a hint of latency. Could just be my rig. I love whammy-type effects, but, ultimately, I was looking for things to trade in for a new guitar, and I sold this pedal. Kind of regret it a little...I wish I had every piece of gear I'd ever sold back! Even the crappy ones. They're all beautiful children, and I miss them. Hope they're doing well.