The Music Gear and Musicians Thread

That is an...esoteric looking guitar? I mean, yeah, damn, but I'm amazed you'd spend that money on something you've never even held! What kind of music do you play on it?

Says the synth player! ;)


That's a beautiful guitar, Adam. Bet she feels like silk! Are you going to replace the tune-o-matic with a roller or leave it as-is?

Well to be fair, synths are more about sound and programmability than feel.

Guitars are a far more personal musical instrument. Where the knobs are, the height of the action, how the frets feel, nut width, scale length, weight of the body, balance...these are all considerations that just don't factor into keyboards nearly as much (and if they do, you can tell ahead of time, e.g. knob placement, with the exception being keybed feel, which you have to be pretty picky about to notice).

It was a joke, man.

I didn't take it any other way, but that won't stop me from rambling about gear =)

Nice PRS Adam, congrats and enjoy it!
Here's my custom 24

Speaking of PRS, I'm a very shitty guitarist, but I have my one custom build Frankenstrat (Warmoth parts, Kinman noiseless, Lawrence L-500, Sperzels, scalloped neck), but I kind of want a 'beater' guitar I can leave laying around without giving a shit if it gets a nick or scratch.

The PRS SE line supposedly is amazing for the price. They're bargains at new prices ($500-1000) but there's a huge second hand market for them since they're so popular, so it's easy to snag one for $250-400. They're made in Korea and my understanding is that everything is automated there so the consistency is extremely high. They use decent tonewoods but of course you get cheaper tuners/nut/bridge/pups and a veneer instead of a real top.

My other option is trying to hunt down a Heritage LP Special w/ soapbars. Those look fantastic, and Heritage is one of those brands as good as if not superior to Gibson but, due to not having huge endorsements or marketing budget, are available at great prices on the secondary market. But this is significantly more expensive than a $250 beater.

Unrelated to the above....I'm starting to build a modular synth system. This path leads to madness.

I also picked up an ART T8 to balance all the unbalanced outputs from my synths. 60Hz hum was driving nuts.

I'd been wondering whether the less expensive PRS's are worth having, because no way can I afford/do I deserve any of the high-end ones.

I, too, wonder such things. I've been thinking about picking up something more in the Les Paul style for my low-tuned, heavy stuff (I currently just play a fat Strat). A cheap PRS seems like it might fit the bill as well.

Everything I've read indicates that the SEs are fantastic bargains new, but used are just incredible. The only issues I've heard of are the nuts are kinda 'meh' and the bridges aren't intonatable (so if you want to play with .011s you may be out of luck). I see them on CL and eBay go for about $250-400 ,which seems like a killer deal.

This SE Soapbar II is at $175 right now and looks really nice. I'm guessing it'll sell for $275-300 (although the soapbar models are now coveted).

Man, 10 years ago you wouldn't even think of playing a $300 guitar.

They make an SE Mike Mushok Signature Baritone that would be probably be great for low tuned stuff.

I refuse on principal to buy the Staind guy's signature guitar.

Well, Fender also makes a Baritone telecaster (of all things), at about the same price.

Aaron Turner himself uses a Telecaster (although it's hard to tell in that video whether it's a Tele or a custom job).

The Creed guy also has a popular signature PRS SE. ROCK ON!

On another note, guitar players, what does it mean if my open strings is dead-on in tune but notes up the neck are sharp on some strings?

Your intonation is off.
Hit a harmonic on the 12th fret, then fret that note.
If it is sharp or flat you need to adjust the bridge saddle.
I'm sure somebody out there made a youtube video showing how to adjust your intonation, probably in their underwear.

Your intonation is off. Take it to a tech and have them do a 'set up' on it. You can do it yourself, but taking it to a tech is easier.

I don't know if any of you guys are dealing directly with PRS, but if you are, you might well be dealing with my guitar tech, who is something like the VP of sales or something now. I don't know. He's always too busy to work on my guitars and amps, so I leave him harassing messages around holidays asking when my sixty year old Harmony is going to be ready. He's only had it in his possession for five years now. THANKS GUYS. I blame all of you.

I don't want to make this a point of contention because, really, it does depend on how each individual player approaches instrumentation, but there have been great "$300 guitars" (using that as a synonym for cheap) for as long as Fender has been in existence and, moreover, for as long as Sears Roebuck and co. have been producing knock-offs. Some of those knock-offs are legendary, being used in tandem with their accompanying sister amps on the historic, landmark records where de facto standards like the far higher priced and infinitely more widely known Les Paul/Twin combo were assumed to be used.

Side note - that's where I got my violin; it's a gorgeous hundred-and-nine-year-old copy of a Czech master's work, that my great-uncle got from a Sears catalog. :)

My comment was more about cheap guitars in the 2000s -- an original Fender Strat was like $125 in the 50s =)

And sure, you could occasionally find gems, but I'd argue that on average the typical cheap guitars of the 80s and later were pretty bad (Corts, etc.), whereas today's SEs and Agiles (and to a lesser extent, Epiphones), are pretty amazing.

There were definitely some gems at the lower price ranges (MIJ Squiers come to mind, and a lot of people like the 'plywood' Danelectros) but the early Chinese and Mexican knock offs were pretty bad.

The thing about "$300 guitars" is that there are some great gems out there but few are useful without putting extra money into it, and the pickups on $300 guitars are gonna be most assuredly terribad. But I have a couple of cheap gems that I'm quite attached to.

I finally picked up an Ibanez SZ320 a couple of years back. They have horrible hardware and unimpressive pickups, but with a few tweaks they're instruments of death with beautiful sustain and lots of lovely harmonics. Put some Duncans in mine, replaced the tuners and nut, and I ended up with something that sounds like the bastard love child of an SG and a PRS.

My favorite recording acoustic has become a cheap 80s Korean Fender with a tone I've never been able to find anywhere else (and a neck that is impossible to play). In fact, my favorite mic in front of it is an equally cheap Chinese Audio-Technica condenser; it's one of the few acoustic setups I've used that sounds great with just one mic. Something about the two just makes this awesome sound that I can fit anywhere in a mix, and sounds great slightly compressed without being a smeary mess.

50s Fender Stratocasters actually cost around $250 new. That was a good price, too. You could find them as high as the $300s.

Again, "gem" is subjective, as is "cheap," as are the needs of each player. You don't take a brand new multi-thousand dollar Gold Top re-issue on stage if all you're going to be doing is ripping it apart with a psychotic Fear-esque performance. For one, you'd look like a ridiculous jerk-off that bought the guitar with your Amex; for two, it's far more guitar than you need. Likewise, rich guys can afford the finest hand-crafted one-of-a-kind instruments made by the best luthiers in the world but will still "settle" for recording, not performing, with the old standbys that they've grown accustomed to over the years. Instrumentation isn't about what you should never or would never do or what the rules dictate is best practice in any given situation, it's about what feels right for the situation, for your hands, for your ears, and for your soul. It's why so often guys GAS for decades, because what they're chasing isn't a sound, especially since they could easily create the sonic landscape with what they've got, it's an image.

"$300" guitars might not have the best hardware or electronics, but outside of Eric Johnson (in joke, sorry), no one really cares or has the right to care except the guy paying retail. It's been "very in" for as long as it has existed to go on the internet and claim that it's important, but it's really not. Making music is important. There are a lot of guys who clean their overpriced American Tele with 50s tailpiece and vintage spec pickups every single day. It's intonation is perfect, the frets perfectly crowned and it's poly wasn't sprayed by idiots. And that's good for them. I bought a lot of gear off the commissions I made selling them the overpriced guitars they'll never actually play while that punk kid down the street that they judge every single day for being a freak plays that greasy piece of fucking shit Stagg Tele rip-off with sub-par Chinese electronics every single day. When his album comes out they'll judge it as having uncomplicated tones, with harsh highs and brill, brassy mids, but he won't give a fuck, because he's playing to clubs full of kids having a good time. His tone will even come to define an entire genre. It will give those old wannabes fits.

I don't mean this as a slam against either of you; especially not you, BTG, you know how much I respect you and enjoy discussing gear with you. What I don't enjoy is definitive statements made without any weight given to the incredible amount of subjective considerations every player has when purchasing gear.

I agree with you Bryce, in the end the gear doesn't matter as much as the player. I think you misinterpret what I mean by cheap or subpar -- I'm not talking the subjective elements like the tone wood or the electronics, but actual physical problems that would skirt through the QA process regularly. There's nothing wrong with cheap, but I have a problem with bad.

Things like a warped neck, uneven frets, poor intonation that can't be fixed, tuners that slip, etc. Things that, when handed to a beginner, will make them dislike playing the guitar. This was hammered in to me a long time ago when I found so many friends (or their kids) trying guitar and giving up because it was "too hard", and I'd see them trying to play on the cheapest piece of crap their parents would find for them with the rationale "We'll get you a better one if you stick with it". One friend had a guitar that literally wouldn't stay in tune because the tuners would slowly slip; another had the intonation so off that when tuned correctly on open strings it would be off by the 5th fret!

Now, if you feel I'm elitist because I don't think you should play a guitar with loose frets, a bowed neck, microphonic pickups and an inability to stay in tune, I'll just say we should agree to disagree. =)

Anyway...

I'm really starting to GAS for an LP Special style guitar w/ P90s to have as my "grab it and noodle" guitar, so I'll probably root around for a cheap one on eBay. I was thinking of the PRS SEs, but given that I'd swap out the nut/tuners/bridge/pickups almost immediately*, I'm holding off for a used Godin or Heritage P90 based guitar to show up. Better resale on those and they're pretty much ready to roll stock.

* Not because it's absolutely necessary, but because I'm picky about that stuff -- a non-intonatable bridge is a non-starter for me and I can't go back to non-locking tuners

I don't think you are elitist, but I do think that you're biased and also moving the goal posts. Gibson itself has developed a reputation within the last few years of having massive issues with quality control: uncrowned frets, bowed necks, fret ends not filed down, electronics not completely hooked up... and this out of their custom shop! If you can't trust a company proudly hawking the best guitars on the planet at the premium price that commands then who can you trust?

Any guitar shop worth their salt should include a basic setup with any new guitar purchase. That should include making sure every aspect of the guitar is playable and that all of the hardware and electronics are up to snuff. Parents not placing value in a child who wants to pursue guitar as a hobby isn't anything new and neither is unscrupulous retailers trying to make a quick buck off parents just looking to placate their child, but laying the blame on "cheap" guitars for what is essentially either a consumer or retailer problem is one of the greatest issues that honest/good guitar manufacturers face.

A horribly warped neck or broken truss rod should warrant a replacement. Uneven frets on a brand new guitar should either be rectified by the shop or replaced with another guitar. Poor intonation can almost always be fixed unless the guitar was dropped or the neck cracked or some other event befell the poor instrument - if not, it should be replaced. Many of these issues can arise in shipping, thus why the free setup. Bad tuners is such a laughably bad complaint that I'm not even sure how to approach it - they're cheap and should be replaced by the shop for free. But, seriously, bad tuners? Do you know how often tuners go bad?

Cheap does not equal bad. There are many, many bad instruments and they can be of any price. I'm not sure how empirical evidence you collected however many years ago when you yourself likely weren't qualified to pass judgement on the quality of the instrument weighs in on this discussion, but it doesn't weigh in on the side of "cheap = loose frets, bowed neck, microphonic pickups and an inability to stay in tune" like you might think.

I kinda want a hollow-body electric.

This. I can't tell you how many times I've heard it from dealers. And aside from the glaring QC issues, out of twenty new Gibsons I can pull off the rack at your average shop I'm lucky to find ten that sound and feel like a AAA instrument worth what they're charging. If you're set on a new Les Paul these days, you're usually better off with a good copy.

This is aside from their questionable (and illegal) business practices and the fact that Gibson's run by a raving nut job who likes to publicly complain about The Man. The whole recent debacle about tonewood sourcing was a giant mess.

Got a Line 6 Pod Studio GX computer interface for Christmas. I'm so happy with this it's ridiculous. It came bundled with their PodFarm (of course) and a limited version of Reason. Now that I've figured out some stuff with Reason, I'm recording multi-track stuff complete with drums and the best sounding tone I've ever gotten out of my guitar. I seriously don't know why I ever need a real amp again - the sound coming out of my computer is THAT much better.

Only downer is that I have to spend another $100 to unlock all of the various models for this hardware. (Line 6 has a Power pack, Metal pack, etc that adds more virtual devices).

Hey Adam A, how are you liking that Taylor? I'm strongly considering one for my alternate guitar (I have a superstrat which covers most of my bases), specifically something mahogany, set neck, minihbs or P90s, and 24 3/4" scale. The Taylors seem very reasonably priced and people rave about the build quality (only complaints I see are the rather unorthodox hardtail bridge adjustments). I'm trying to decide between a used Taylor solidbody -- unfortunately the entry level one, which is ash with a bolt on neck -- or either an entry level Godin or a used Godin Core.

Buy used on eBay and just be patient, you won't take a huge loss that way. Also, CraigsList is your friend, especially for pedals.

Delta broke a '65 ES-335. The picture of the trapped, mangled case is almost too much to look at. I can't believe it only caused two grand in damage and wasn't a total loss.

Also, I must investigate further the indie band whose sole existence is to play songs about Hanukkah, because that is just about the most amazing thing I've ever heard of.

Just spent most of the evening trying to find a ground loop. Surprised that in 20 years of musical dawdling that this is the first time that a ground loops has reared its head. Will retry tomorrow...but man, fuck ground loops.

I'm lucky and careful with my home studio gear; I tend to try to tap as much power from the same place as I can and get pretty anal-retentive about balanced connections, so I've survived fine so far without resorting to power conditioning. But the minute I have to set up somewhere else, it usually ends in tears. Fuck ground loops.

Here's the ironic thing -- the ground loop was introduced because I added an ART T8 transformer to convert my unbalanced outputs to balanced so I could make sure that everything in my TRS patchbay was balanced. I didn't have any real problems prior to this, it was more of a general principle thing and I figured I'd do it at the same time I started building my modular since I had to add a new rack anyway.

Everything is on the same circuit already, my gut instinct is that since the T8 is passive that that is creating issues with respect to a common ground. The ground loop is only present on a couple of my synths, and only when they're plugged into power (but they don't even have to be powered on).

Well, I double insulated the mounting screws on the T8 with nylon washers and the hum is just as bad. I swear you need an EE sometimes to sort through this stuff.

I originally thought I had isolated this to the Furman and T8, but it looks like it involves the patchbay as well.

Synth powered by Furman
Synth (unbalanced) => T8 => (balanced) TRS patchbay

The ground loop goes away if the synth is unplugged from the Furman (whether the synth is on or not) or if the synth's audio is unplugged from the T8.

Patchbay is normalled and in a separate rack, but all rack power supplies are on a common circuit (20A).

I have a feeling I know what I'm spending my day doing...

BaconTastesGood: I'm sure you've figured this out by now, but are all of your rack units isolated? That's a quick way to ensure a massive grounding issue when you introduce an ungrounded unit into the mix like the T8 or even a patchbay.

There are a lot of old corksniffers out there who would recoil in horror at this. It's an amusing sight! In a way, sure, they're right, sound modelling won't ever equal the sound of a dimed Hiwatt through WEM cabinets into a Trident console at Abbey Road, but then, it isn't meant to, it's a completely different beast, and I doubt you have access to any of that anyway. I'm really excited you dig the sound so much as I'm sure that'll entice you into playing and creating all that much more, and that's really what's important anyway.

I know a lot of players who would give up at certain points in their lives. Maybe when they got frustrated they couldn't get a certain tone, or when they had kids, or when lugging around amps became too much of a chore or physically difficult, and sound modelling brought them back to playing almost daily.

No, rack units have not been isolated.

But I think have the problem 'solved'. The ART T8 has an exposed ground lug. By tying that to the rack rails, the bulk of my noise disappeared. Note: this lug is not on their drawings and it's not in their documentation at all, I literally ran into it while pulling the T8 out of the rack to examine it.

The problem was then that everything was fine as long as some stuff was powered on. But if my two main synths were powered off, the noise returned. And only on their channels. So I spent a few hours googling, and ran into a single post on a forum where someone ran into this issue and he solved it by tying the grounds together between the channels on the T8.

Um, ok.

On a lark, I used some wire to tie together two of noisy channels together -- and the noise vanished. WTF. So I've now tied (via totally horrible undersized wire and alligator clips daisy chained to the rack rail) the inputs together, and my noise is mostly okay. The 60Hz hum is still there but way below the reasonable noise floor (I haven't measured, but it's got to be down around -70db because I have to crank my mixer gain to max in order to hear it).

This, of course, begs the question -- why the shit do I have analog outputs on my digital synths? GRRR. Give me digital outputs that I can then run into a multichannel DAC and be done with it, it's 2013 for crying out loud.

I am with you 100% on this. Do whatever it takes to enjoy what you're doing. Funny enough, for me it was going the opposite direction -- after 10 years of Reason I realized that I just wasn't into making music anymore, but then when I was playing an analog synth I was like "Whoa, this is FUN!" The important thing is figure out what actually makes you enjoy playing (or what's actually making you not play) and go with that, vs. some idealized sense of perfection.

OUCH!
I would not check a '65 ES335 like common luggage.

Last year while picking up the mother in law at the Philly airport, I saw one of those '60's brown Gibson cases going round and round a baggage pick up, all by it's lonesome....nobody or other luggage around.
I was incredibly tempted to save it from going round and round endlessly.....but couldn't bring myself to stoop that low.

When it comes to guitars, I'm one of those people that doesn't care about the price, the name on the headstock or the country it's made in. When I was younger I did, but I probably stopped caring about 20 years ago when I started getting picky about necks. The body needs to be comfortable, obviously, but the most important thing to me is the neck. I change the pickups on every guitar unless it's a JS Series. I put locking tuners on them and change the nut if they don't have a locking trem. I change/modify trems. I change pots and capacitors. I used to replace the frets with Dunlop 6105s but now I will only do it if it needs a re-fret. It doesn't matter if it's a $300 or $3000 guitar, if I like the neck, I'll buy it and change the rest to suit.

This is why I don't have a PRS or an LP. They're great guitars, but I've yet to play one that felt right in my hands. It's also why I can never buy a guitar without playing it first unless it's the same model as one I already own. And even then, I would rather try it first just to make sure there aren't any problems because there's no guarantee it will be the same. I've played some very expensive guitars that had me shaking my head at the fit and finish problems and I've tried some cheapies that made me wonder how they managed to do it at such a low price. My Ibanez SA is a perfect example. I didn't think much of them after trying one, but when I picked up another later on, it was great. I use it more than any other guitar. It's no longer a cheap guitar after everything I've done to it, but that was purely due to my personal preferences, not because it needed fixing. When Ibanez made the AT300 model for Andy Timmons, it was based off the SA120, the cheapest model in the SA range. They just changed the hardware, pickups and put in custom inlays. He told me that it was because he picked one up and it just felt right. The hardware wasn't very good, but the neck and body were, and that was what was important to him.

When I'm playing live and plugged into my Plexi through vintage Celestions, I have a smile on my face because I love the sound. It has presence and you can feel it. When I'm doing the instrumental guitar stuff I've had others compliment it as well. When I'm doing the blues/folk/jazz stuff I usually use the Music Man and I've had people tell me it sounded just like the record and they love the tones on that. But here's the thing... I recorded all of that through a Pod X3 Pro going in clean with everything added in post. We've recorded both miked up and direct-in through the modeller and after listening back through speakers, it can be really hard to tell them apart. When you're in front of the amp you can both hear it and feel it, but as soon as that's on a disc, you lose most of that.

I'm very much an analogue guy. There's nothing better than analogue pedals into a Plexi, tubes cranked and out through a nice warm sounding cabinet. But I also love modellers. So many tones and effects in a single unit that can sound great, especially when recording. I love recording direct through my Pod X3 and I'm currently looking at buying an Eleven Rack and if I can get one at the right price, an Axe-FX.

Ever since Joe Satriani's Engines of Creation album came out and I heard that it was recorded direct-in to Pro-Tools with no mikes and speakers, I've been convinced there is room for both. You can't listen to that album and say that his guitar doesn't sound like him. Of course, I also believe that it's the player, not the gear, but that's another discussion entirely.

tl;dr version: Play what you like through whatever you like and let the brand/gear snobs worry about pointless shit on their own. Eric Johnson stopped worrying about what batteries he used in his pedals because he realised it was taking away from what was important: the enjoyment of just playing.

I won't even take my '62 ES-125 to a gig. It hasn't left the house in years.

Though in my case, even the house can be dangerous.

That's the thing. The guy usually buys a seat, but Delta wouldn't let him.

Anyway, the biggest problem with a lot of digital modeling is that developers spend all of their time trying to make their gear/plugins sound like something else, they miss the mark, and people are inevitably disappointed. Modeling tubes is tricky stuff, but it's much improved. Compressors are a mixed bag, but there are a couple of plugs I really like.

The only thing that my guitars and basses hit these days before my DAW is sometimes a stomp compressor or a channel strip. I've gone almost exclusively over to cabinet sims; I can't really pass up the flexibility anymore.

FWIW, I only use modelling when I'm sans amps, which I am right now. I only record direct when I have a specific sound in mind, and that's direct into a console, not a computer. Otherwise, it's all amp, all the time. But I had a pod once, too. And I know a lot of guys who can't play guitar with an amplifier. Like everything, it's useless and counterintuitive to progress to dismiss out of hand, and I find it wholly amusing to see guys in their 50s and 60s dismissing it as easily as their parents, who probably played gunfighter country on acoustic Martins, dismissed their kids' amplifiers.

On the flipside, EJ still whines like a child about stuff like 5th order harmonics due to bad power distribution at festivals, using bad cables, etc. That was the in-joke I was referring to in the above post. That's not to knock the rest of your excellent post, but as much as the man has changed (and I love all of music, regardless!), he still has these amusing little quirks, and it's so much fun to post about them. :)

Are these noisy units being powered by IEC cables or wallwarts? If both IEC: lift them one at a time using the 2 prong adapters and see if the noise goes away. If yes, you can use safer, in-line methods to reduce or eliminate the ground loop. If not, two at a time, three at a time, etc, until yes. If it is the wallwarts, then you can wrap the, umm, negative cable (iirc) around a ferrite ring. Or buy a class b regulated wallwart, because the one supplied with your synth isn't and is allowing unregulated leakage into the signal. That's probably what the problem is (at least in that respect) and not a true ground loop (which is the catch-all for audio electronic problems).

As for tying the two channels together: IEC powered units or wallwarts? Did you notice a resultant drop in the sound level of the synths themselves or just the noise?

Hyperbole ahead: as much of a problem as it is basing an analog audio standard on a hundred+ year old electrical standard that only ever seems to get updated to prevent house fires, I have one phrase for you in regards to the supposed "digital audio standard": word clock. Even professional equipment doesn't play nice.