New Gear Acquisitions

[Pissy]

It arrived.  1991 Washburn HB-35 in trans red.  He didn't pack it very well, but I don't see any issues.   Aftermarket pickups, that I hope I can trace to what they are.  There's an issue with a saddle that I think I have a replacement for.  Sperzel locking tuners, with the old holes filled in.   

Looking forward to tinkering with it, setting it up.  

[Pissy]

I dove into the red Washburn.  Turns out tge pickups are SD '59 in the bridge and a SD Jazz in the neck.  Gonna roll with those until I decide to swap to the Seth Lover's.  

That saddle I mentioned, I've had a hell of a time trying to get a saddle that will fit.  I ultimately found a replacement bridge with the correct mounting hole spacing for the posts.  It's 72mm, which is about 3mm narrower than a typical tune-o-matic.   This guitar was made in the Samick factory in Korea, and this was the dimension that was used on the Epiphone semi-holows of the time as well.  So I was able to find a "Samick" bridge that should work.  I think it should show up early to mid next week.  Also picked up some speed knobs, because I don't really care for the stock ones.  

I removed the crappy nut that was on there, cleaned the slot up, put a pre-slotted bone nut in its place.  

[James1214]

Picked up a Tascam DP24sd for $250, about half of what they go for new. The idea is to have the home shop/studio space be mostly plug and play, and be a creative space, as opposed to a more professional recording studio. For me removing the computer from the equation is handy for that, and it takes me back to the feeling of analog recording that made me fall in love with recording music myself.

It's a 24 track standalone digital recorder, it can record 8 tracks simultaneously.

Given the idiotic amount of inputs my band needs I'll run drums into my Mackie 8 track mixer, and run stereo out, Into 2 tracks, so that I can have the 6 remaining tracks open for the 3 guitars, bass, synth, and vocals.

If other bands want to use the space and somehow need more inputs then I'll have to figure some other solution out.

I plan on building a little stand on wheels that'll house all my mics and cables and other helpful stuff, with the mixer and portastusio on top.

I'm feeling too lazy to go take a photo, so I'm just posting one I found online.

[Pissy]

That's way cool.  

Imma look for one of those. 

[Pissy]

So, do you use the 8 mic ins, then dump those to individual tracks, freeing those inputs back up for re-recording?

[James1214]

Pissy, kind of.

You can assign inputs A through H to any of the 24 tracks. So for instance if you know that you want to record two additional guitar tracks, and you want a group all instruments of a similar type together could record guitar on input A on track 1 for your live take, then do your overdubs or additional takes on track 2 and 3. You could also assign a second guitar on input B to track 4 and do overdubs on tracks 5 and 6. Rinse and repeat.

Essentially you have 24 tracks to do whatever you want with them.

You can also mix down multiple tracks into a single track. So you can put all of your guitar overdubs on one track once they are the point you like them and free up more tracks.

With some creativity you could essentially layer hundreds of tracks by strategically mixing things down. The only big issue is that you cannot go back in and edit things after the fact, in fact you can't really edit much on it at all, you can punch in and do that kind of stuff, but editing, like you would on a DAW isn't practical. So while it records digitally it really is similar to using an old analog tape machine. But it does have the advantage of some amp modeling, and effects onboard.

You can also use sends and returns on the back to use any outboard gear that you might want to use, it seems like a pretty capable little machine.

Also, there's a whole mastering suite available as well, so in theory, if you're good.... you could theoretically record, mix, and master an entire album on the thing. All without even touching pro tools or reaper or any other DAW.