The Music Gear and Musicians Thread

I'm still pretty new to guitar, but I've got:

This all mahogany Taylor GC5 which was a wedding gift from my wife. (She's not so bad!)



...and I bought myself this Taylor Solidbody Custom, Egnater Rebel 30 head, and 1x12 cabinet.

That GC5 is gorgeous. IIRC, the body is a poly finish and the neck is a satin finish? With an unsprayed ebony fretboard? (Haven't sold them for a few years, so don't remember.) Your wife got you a wonderful lifetime guitar, man - what a woman! The mahogany tames the natural brightness of most Taylors and gives you superior projection, not to mention it's just plain beautiful - that's exactly what I'd go for if I were buying for myself. I've always wanted a Taylor acoustic, but have had to settle for clones for years. :) Looks like you got mini hums (?) in your solidbody. Bet that sounds great with your Egnater (which looks to be set for HIGH GAIN). Thanks for posting, man!

My only gear update is that I finally tracked down the electrical issue that has been giving me intermittent trouble with my Hiwatt since 2008 or so - which is exciting, especially since these amps are so sturdy and reliable that you can drop them off the back off a pick-up truck and drag them by the power cord a few hundred feet and they won't be any worse for wear (not a personal anecdote, but I know the guy who did it). Weird power on and standby issues, crackling that led me to believe I had a bad tube socket or a failing tube, all sorts of bizarre, unrelated issues, until finally this past weekend it cut out completely on me while recording and forced me to set it up on the bench with the multimeter, soldering iron and pick and see if I could force any bad solder joints to fail. The first thing I poke at, the ground coming off the input power tube, pops out of a weak solder joint. Reheat the joint, pour in some new solder, and the amp works and sounds better than it has in five years - no hum or buzzing or any issues whatsoever. I've been in this amp a hundred times and never stressed that one joint. Head-desk. :(

Yeah, you got it, gloss body and satin neck.

I started playing guitar with a PRS SE Singlecut, and liked it well enough. Eventually I decided I needed to have an electric and an acoustic or it didn't count, so I started looking around. (Being opposed to pick guards made that job a lot harder.) I had played a Martin that I liked a lot, I forget the name and type. It was black, and made out of HPL(?). When I went back a few days later to pick it up, it had been sold. Bummer. Then I remembered that there's a shop right by my house that specializes in nice acoustic guitars, so I stopped in to check it out. (I was afraid to touch anything in there!) Long story short, I saw that GC5 and loved it immediately. A few days later it was suddenly mine.

The downside is, after playing it for a while I began thinking "Hey, I don't like this PRS." Not that it was a bad sounding guitar, my fingers just didn't care for it. I can't explain it any other way. Since I liked the GC5 so much, I started looking for Taylor electrics, but I only found one anywhere near me, and that was sold before I got a chance to play it. Then the Taylor Roadshow came to town, and I went hoping to play a solidbody there, but it just so happened that they sold all the electrics they had the night before. (There's a theme here.) Then one day I was dicking around in Best Buy and figured what the hell, I'll go check out their guitars. They had (and still have) two, a Standard and a Custom. Dude told me they had been there since the music section opened, years ago. I tried them both and liked the sound of the Custom a lot more. The Standard was bright and happy, while the Custom had a dark "I'm pissed I've been sitting on this wall for years." sound to it. I would have bought it right there, but I didn't care for the top one bit. I went home and checked eBay, saw the one above, and managed to get it for a pretty great price. A gamble, yeah, but it really worked out for me. The case is beat to shit, but the guitar itself looks like it has never been played. It does have the mini 3/4 style humbuckers.

I have cheap-o distortion and overdrive pedals, but I never use either. You caught the HIGH GAIN! I had just been screwing around with that before I saw this thread and took the pictures! Next on my list of wants is a nice fuzz pedal, but I've made a deal with myself that I don't get to buy one until l hit my next playing milestone, which is (hopefully) still a few months off. I've been looking at the ZVex Mastotron and the Malekko Plus Ultra 213. I doubt I'm going to be able to find either to play before buying, though.

Edit: Fixed broken link on the Plus Ultra 213

I had no idea Taylor even made electrics. Derp.

That GC5 is gorgeous! I'd keep your wife around for a while, that's worth 3-4 years at least.

All of you guys make me feel so analog. The only electric or electronic instrument I have is an Akai EWI4000, which is cool but mostly a practice tool for my saxophone*. Beyond that, there are a few penny whistles and a hammered dulcimer I really need to 1) tune and 2) get more practice time in on. Every time I pop into this thread, I think to myself, "Man. These guys are serious."

* If Yamaha hadn't inexplicably stopped making the super-awesome VL70, I might have been convinced to do more with the EWI as a controller for that, but alas.

Have you ever posted about your drums/drumming in this thread, jerri blank? If not, you should! Aside from Inigima and I, you're the only other person here that plays drums (that I know of), and I'd wager you and Inigima are both far better than I am.

Thanks for sharing your GAS stories, Adam; I believe every great guitar has an equally great story. Not that there's anything wrong with just buying a guitar off the shelf because it speaks to you, but sometimes being surprised with a guitar you want by your wife or having to chase a specific model down on eBay and risk it being a disappointment is the difference between what would be a player's guitar and something special. (This is my way of urging other people with cool stories to share them!) Sorry, that sort of "guitar forum" wankery is a little pretentious and annoying, I know, but I can't help myself. :) Don't discount your chance of running into a ZVex pedal locally - we had a guy sell us a Fuzz Factory in our first month open for business. You could always try posting on the ZVex owner's forum and see if someone locally would let you jam on theirs for a couple of hours - boutique pedal guys are generally pretty cool.

I've been tossing around this idea in my head for awhile, so I guess I'll go ahead and post it: would any of the musicians in this thread have any interest whatsoever in organizing a Broken Forum recording/jam/whatever? It wouldn't even need to be a public thing, nor would it even need to have a public release, I'd be happy to organize it all privately (as I've done on other forums/venues in the past); it's exactly what it sounds like, someone records an initial part (likely drums or bass), that part gets passed around, someone calls that they'd like to record the next part, they record it, that gets mixed, the file gets forwarded around, someone calls that they'd like to record the next part, and so on (complete with track sheets! or not). If not, that's fine, but there are a lot of musicians here, so I thought it'd be a fun thing to do. All talent levels welcome; I'm certainly not going to be the best guitar player here.

If not that, I know that I (and likely others) would rather enjoy listening to any music any of you might have on your soundcloud/etc pages, so if you've got 'em, link 'em (so says the guy without a soundcloud). :)

I never really have, because I'm not much of a gearhead, and I consider myself a just slightly-above-competent drummer. I've played drums and guitar (and bass) since I was a kid, and I'm a classic jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none when it comes to music. In Nashville, though, drumming situations are a little easier to find than guitaring ones - it seems like everyone here is a fantastic picker, and I'm more of a strummer, although I did buy a used Tele not long ago.

My drums are an older Gretsch Catalina Birch kit I picked up at a pawn shop. Some of the hardware had to be replaced, but it's a really nice-sounding kit. It spends most of its time in padded bags, though. I do my practicing on a Roland electronic kit I cobbled together - it has old rubber pads but a TD-9 brain. Electronic kits are ideal for practicing because they're quiet and because you can plug your Ipod into it and hear everything through the headphones.

I'd play more, but I have learned that the world is not beating a path to the door of a chubby, middle-aged female drummer. :) I participate in open jams when I can, though, and that's fun.

I would jam with you, jerri, if I still lived down in Nashville.

That would rule. I should get back on Craigslist and look for folks to play with. I was playing quite a bit before the holidays, but the holidays derailed me for some reason.

Aww, I don't think you need to be a gearhead to post in this thread! I'd like to think this is a catch-all musicians/gear/music thread where anyone of any skill level or seriousness can post and I'm sure BaconTastesGood and madkevin (two of the other main posters) would agree. RSharp, too!

I'm jealous a lot lately! (You guys have got to stop doing that.) Gretsch kits sure are pretty. :) Those Roland kits are fun! I don't know why electronic kits haven't come down in price/quality ratio over the years like they should have (like most other digital gear) - it's a shame, they're extremely versatile.

I hear Nashville is a pretty good town for jamming/playing - a ton of competition, but for the most part, the non-professionals (e.g., the people playing just to have fun, some of them professionals, and there are a lot of them) are pretty friendly. At least, that's what my cousin tells me - does that jibe with your experience? He only gets up there a couple of times a month for shows/jams so his view might be off.

Nashville is a weird town for jamming. Someone will set up a jam that they claim is "open," but in reality it's mostly for networking, and if a pro musician on his night off walks in (and that happens WAY more often than you'd think), you will get bumped and might not ever get to play. Those of us with day jobs have a hard time hanging around a smoky bar until after midnight just to play Mustang Sally and two other songs.

But I've gotten lucky and found a couple of jams that are really well-run and strictly first come, first served. For a while I played at a blues jam pretty regularly, but it fell apart (which is just as well, because I got tired of playing shuffles). I've been going to a rock/country jam run by a guy who owns a bar, but those jams have been interrupted by his bar closing and relocating a few times. I played this past Wednesday, and that was literally the first time I'd sat behind a kit since before Christmas.

EDIT: The other weird thing about Nashville jams is that it doesn't matter what kind of jam it is - blues covers, rock covers, whatever - some dude will cooperate and do two cover songs and then say, "If you don't mind, I'd like to play you a song I wrote with (name of well-known country songwriter here) about my mama. Guys, key of E." And then he'll get mad because the other jammers don't know his unreleased original well enough to play it perfectly the first time.

Pics of the kit, from when I first got it:





And the Tele:

I do agree. I am a terrible, terrible musician, especially considering how much time and effort and money I've spent at it since I was a child. But I don't care, because I grew up with punk fucking rock and I like making noise. Cram it up your f-hole, Malmsteens of the world!

So there is no barrier for entry for this thread, as far as I'm concerned.

Oops, I meant to post this earlier, when I was writing about how the story behind a guitar can make it special, but forgot to, but I know a guy whose wife bought him a vintage '56 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop for their 10th wedding anniversary. This was in the early 2000s, when vintage prices weren't insane, but still... holy shit, what an anniversary gift.

Shh, dude, I hear if you mention his name derogatorily three times in a thread he'll magically show up like Judge Floro and unleash the fury and nobody wants that.

That's more in line with what I expected with such a large professional scene.

It's also not worth it unless it's with a horn section anyway!

Ha, sounds like you've really run the gamut, jerri - I'm glad you got behind the kit again, though. The natural progression from here is, of course, forming your own open jam night!

Hahaha. On behalf of the entirety of Texas I'd like to apologize for sending more than our fair share of those wannabes your way.

Yep, definitely jealous of the kit and Tele! Man, I've been looking for a good Nashville Tele or a regular Tele that's ripe for a middle p/u for my wife for years but they just don't pop up around these parts - maybe once we move we'll have better luck. I'll have to show her yours, she'll just love it.

I can't remember which model Tele I have - I'll have to run that serial number again when I get home. I've barely played it. I'm gonna pick up Rocksmith and start re-developing my electric chops, not that I ever had many to start with.

When I was trying to get back into composition (I don't really play, my musicianship blows) I just set up a soundcloud and forced myself to vomit something on there every night, no matter how bad. My goal was 30 seconds of material as quickly as possible.

The goal I was aiming for was just forcing myself to get through the process of learning instruments, software, etc. I wouldn't spend _any_ time on mastering, mixing (short of REAL basic level adjustment and pan), etc. Just "throw some tracks that sort of work together, post, and done". I would often hear something and go "I want to make a rip off of that".

For example, "If someone who liked Nine Inch Nails made menu music for a game":



Or "Whoa, that music to Luther was neat, what the hell instrument is that?"



After watching Monsters and really liking the soundtrack:



After watching Tron:Legacy I wanted to do something like it:


Anyway, the goal of each one wasn't to write a masterpiece or even a whole song, but just to force myself to learn something like "This is how analog synths are used in soundtracks".

Looks like a Deluxe Nashville Tele to me, jerri. (My lady thought it was gorgeous, BTW! She loves two tone bursts.) They're a major step up from every other Made in Mexico Tele on the market. You got a steal, dude. :)

I rather like the NIN menu music and Tron: Legacy styled tracks, BTG, though my favorite of the four is probably the Luther-inspired track. How are you doing your drum programming? Are you doing it purely ITB/mouse or by hand via keyboards/pads or a mixture? They sound really good. (Don't know if you've ever heard it before or have any interest in such a thing, but BFD (Big Fucking Drums) is an insane set of (mostly) analog drum libraries. Not suggesting you use them; they're just fun to listen to or have from a "WTF is this? How does this even exist?" perspective.) That sort of completionist "work ethic", working to produce something instead of just practicing a song or writing a composition to the 25% mark and calling it a day, never to return to that mark and carry on and never to move past that mark in any one session, is something that a lot of musicians/composers need to learn - it took me a couple of years to.

This also reinforces my belief that we should have a Broken Forum recording! Or, at the very least, a Broken Forum "mix party", where we share our raw work and let each other add/subtract/mix/master it. I'm probably barking up the wrong tree, but I just think it'd be fun. :)

Thanks Bryce!

So, to preface my tracks, I treat them like an artist treats a sketch book. This is stuff I just throw together to force myself to learn new things. None of them are actually indicative of what 'my' music would sound like if I wrote it -- I just know that I'm not going to be making dubstep, trance, industrial, blues, rock, metal, etc. tracks in earnest since I'd rather explore new ground, but at the same time I know that in order to innovate you have to at least understand what is out there originally.

Many of these tracks I may not even have the original sound files for. I'm a big fan (now) of "no recall" recording. Throw down tracks, don't worry about loading them back in a year because, hey, they're not that precious.

Totally unrelated: the "Classic Albums" documentaries on Netflix are a must-watch for any musicians.

As for my earlier tracks:

NIN Menu - all in Reason 6, don't remember how I did the drums, but the distorted guitar is actually piano run through the Line 6 modeler I think
Luthery - all in Reason 6 using stock drum loops
Tron:Legacy-ish - all in Reason 6, piano roll drums
Monsters - all in Reason 6, a totally 100% unabashed attempt to mimic Jon Hopkins "Monsters" work like "Candles"

All the sounds and stuff are typically preset surfing because I didn't want to rabbit hole on sound design. In fact, there's a very high chance that all tracks are either 100 bpm or 120 bpm since I wouldn't bother even changing the tempo =)

I'm familiar with BFD and the like, and I'd probably consider using the variants that allow me to program inside them and export loops, but until I get around to writing more music I can't justify the investment (studio pictures be damned =) ).

i guess I'll throw up a couple more tracks:

This was a quick sketch for "what would industrial music sound like if you could dance do it?". 100% Reason 6, no loops.



Here was my first "I want to be like Jon Hopkins" Monsters influenced track. It's a lot more like a real track than the other sketches. 100% Reason 6.



This was me in an Atticus Ross/Trent mood and wanting to figure out how to use my Nord Lead 2, Kurzweil PC361 (piano) and Reaper. This is my only track that is 100% audio (no MIDI, all audio multitracked). No effects/mastering/mixing attempts.



I love Trent's soundtrack work, but I feel like he has the "drone synth + out of tune piano playing sparse chords" market pretty well cornered, but man, I really want to just keep writing stuff like that. Mostly because it's pretty easy =)

Oh, and this was my "I want to sound like the Dust Bros. off the Fight Club soundtrack" sketch:



I'm always willing to remix stems provided to me!

I think that's right, and it's a 2004 model. The tuners are upgraded as well.

I'd be up for adding drums to something, if I can figure out how to operate the little bit of recording equipment I have...

I love seeing all you guys' gear and reading your stories, and I think it'd be super cool to record / edit / collage some stuff together. For you to do so, I mean. I'd like to hear it - you have to post results publicly. That's the rules.

So, er, I think this is the best thread for it, since I'm not sure it warrants creating a new thread, but it's a cool read:

Dissonant Music Brings out the Animal in Listeners:

In the article the researchers mention that they believes this is the first study of its kind; I've read nearly every academic study I can find, sadly there are surprisingly few, on how the human brain processes music (not sure if requesting access to these would be an appropriate use of the Zotero group!) and I've never seen anything exactly like it.

And here's the best part of the whole article:

There have been studies conducted on the human absorption of music that include our ability to fantasize and/or daydream (and the studies make a distinction between the two) to better facilitate the absorption of music. In many ways we have only begun to scratch the surface of a better understanding of the psychological/physiological responses that form our interactions with and our love of and hatred for certain types of music.

That's a great article, really interesting stuff. I'm fascinated by how we process and respond to music mentally, emotionally, and psychologically.

If you're at all interested in a neurological examination of music, I'd recommend Dr. Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia. I read it last year and found it fascinating.

Okay, more gear updating.

I ended up selling the MKS-50. It sounded fine, but I originally thought I wanted analog for the tone, but what I really wanted was responsiveness. So I'm doing a 180 and avoiding rack gear (that require external controllers) and going back to keyboards. The MKS-50 was a bitch to tweak.

I got an obscure as shit MIDI step sequencer:


Even better, my Cirklon finally showed up! Holy crap, only took 7 months. Ridiculously expensive, boutique hardware sequencer with MIDI and CVIO.

I'm slowly converting one hobby (RPGs) into another hobby (music), and this is the first rack of gear I've put together from some of the 'earnings'.

Manikin Schrittmacher analog style MIDI sequencer, Sequentix Cirklon sequencer w/ analog CVIO BOB, Moog Minitaur, and Vermona DRM1 Mk3 analog drum synth (with analog trigger inputs).

...and this is what it looks like with more shit hooked up. And with my Leipzig-K monosynth on top.

...and now I I think I'm nearing in on my final configuration. I just have to hook up some cables and...I'll have no more excuses not to use this shit =|

So the band I'm in at the moment is sort of a sister band to a "real" group - real in the sense that they've played shows. It's a 70s punk cover band, with no pretense of being anything other than a good time. They're loads of fun.

They have a gig in a couple of weeks that their rhythm guitarist can't make, so I'll be filling in for him. Which will mark my first time on a stage in almost two decades.

So pray for me, BFers. Or, more specifically, pray for the audience.

...and I just got this.

Holy shit, Bacon. That is awesome.

Been playing steady for the past 20 years I guess.Guitar mainly, but I can play bass, drums, some keys, mandolin.
Over a dozen amps, electrics and maybe half dozen 'cuestics.

Mostly older stuff, vintage they call it I got cheap back in the day.

I repair stuff for a couple music stores as a side job, so if you need tech help, don't be afraid to ask.
Built lots of amps too. Fun hobby.

If you had a used Tele that had a lot of wear on the fingerboard from the previous owner (the wear isn't affecting playability), would you:

1) Refinish the neck
2) Replace the neck
3) Leave it alone and let everyone think you put it there

?

Seriously, people pay extra for 'relic' faux vintage guitars!

Yep, and I do NOT understand why. Wearing out a guitar yourself makes you kinda cool. Buying a guitar that was worn out at the factory makes you a poser.

I'd leave the neck alone if it didn't affect playability, like a '73 Strat I have. It looks like the previous owner was a mechanic or something and only played the thing with oily hands.

You should see what some people I know have done "relic-ing" guitars....dragging them by motorcycles, lighting them on fire...all the "scars" on mine have been earned the hard way.

Like smacking your JS10th Chromeboy against the corner of the coffee table. I almost cried.

so, I'd be interested in doing a podcast segment over this thread. Any victims? BaconTastesGood ? Bryce? madkevin? jerri blank?

That's a gread topic idea, Astromarine. I would love to help, but I may be the most unqualified person IN this thread. :) I'm not a big gearhead. I hope some others will step up. RSharp is a musician too.

Ouch. Did the chrome dent or chip off or what?

What podcast? What's involved? Is it like call in thing with Skype or something?