New Gear Acquisitions

[Corey Y]

Picked up in a trade, I'll see if I can make some noises with it...

[jibberish]

grabbed the cheap large condenser vs another sm57



got the focusrite to focus my stoned rock rite.
2x4. pile of outputs. get to check out ableton lite DAW





I am now ready to record any way possible and from here on out, it is mostly going to be more synths and guitars.

[mortlock]

I picked this up today..sundown tracer 150.

[tombhex]

I spent the weekend helping a friend pack up for a move to San Diego and while going through his closet he stumbled upon a Mexican strat he'd forgot he even owned. It was in pretty bad shape and he said he probably hadn't even taken it out of the case any time in the last 10 years. It's that sweet Lake Placid Blue color, and he gave it to me for helping him all weekend. I've wanted a strat for some time now and this one's got some sentimental value to it, I couldn't be more excited to put some love and work into it and get it back into playable shape. Here it is after lots of fretboard conditioning, cleanup and a new set of strings.



I'm going to change out the tuning machines, nut and pickguard, and I'd like to put a humbucker in the bridge position. Anybody have any ideas what I could do to make this thing really kick ass? I don't know much about strats, letalone the bad things about Mexican strats outside of the tuning machines and nut.

[VOLVO)))]

I'd leave it single coils, TBH...

[The Riffer]

Striking while the Iron is Hot. Picked up these two cabs in the last couple of weeks.
93 Soldano slant cab w v30s ( $250 clams)
NEW ppc412 w v30s ( traded 5 pedals)

Makes this Soldano Avenger sound incredibly alive and responsive. Like a fine Italian Sports car with rich Corinthian Leather.

[Corey Y]

Striking while the Iron is Hot. Picked up these two cabs in the last couple of weeks.
93 Soldano slant cab w v30s ( $250 clams)
NEW ppc412 w v30s ( traded 5 pedals)

Makes this Soldano Avenger sound incredibly alive and responsive. Like a fine Italian Sports car with rich Corinthian Leather.

Nice dude, I've been wanting one of those Avenger 100 heads and a V30 loaded cab most of this year. I need to sell something or pick up some more recording jobs though, ever since the wife took off work to be home with our baby the gear fund is full of cobwebs and dust.

[The Riffer]

Nice dude, I've been wanting one of those Avenger 100 heads and a V30 loaded cab most of this year. I need to sell something or pick up some more recording jobs though, ever since the wife took off work to be home with our baby the gear fund is full of cobwebs and dust.

Thx man, hope you find one, and find a way to get it. Honestly, I bought the amp with a bit of doubt that I would like it. I quickly became a believer, and now that Ive paired it w V30s, its like a little box of majik.

[VOLVO)))]

I love those Soldanos.

[Pissy]

I spent the weekend helping a friend pack up for a move to San Diego and while going through his closet he stumbled upon a Mexican strat he'd forgot he even owned. It was in pretty bad shape and he said he probably hadn't even taken it out of the case any time in the last 10 years. It's that sweet Lake Placid Blue color, and he gave it to me for helping him all weekend. I've wanted a strat for some time now and this one's got some sentimental value to it, I couldn't be more excited to put some love and work into it and get it back into playable shape. Here it is after lots of fretboard conditioning, cleanup and a new set of strings.



I'm going to change out the tuning machines, nut and pickguard, and I'd like to put a humbucker in the bridge position. Anybody have any ideas what I could do to make this thing really kick ass? I don't know much about strats, letalone the bad things about Mexican strats outside of the tuning machines and nut.

Take your time with it and only change one thing at time.  The tuners and nut, yeah go for it, but I'd hold off on pickups and different pots, instead sending it through your effects/amp gauntlet a good amount first.

Also, Spokstrickland posted a link somewhere to a dud that had a tried and true method for "tuning" the tremolo spring tension so that it works well without sending the strings out of tune.  I'll see if I can find it.  It was really cool and added a dimension to a strat.

[tombhex]

Take your time with it and only change one thing at time.  The tuners and nut, yeah go for it, but I'd hold off on pickups and different pots, instead sending it through your effects/amp gauntlet a good amount first.

Also, Spokstrickland posted a link somewhere to a dud that had a tried and true method for "tuning" the tremolo spring tension so that it works well without sending the strings out of tune.  I'll see if I can find it.  It was really cool and added a dimension to a strat.

Thanks a lot, man. I will definitely take my time. It came to me at a time when I've been spending a lot more effort and energy getting to know DAWs and whatnot, so I'm not actively playing in a band or chomping at the bit to get this thing running and slamming at practice. The spring setup info would be SUPER helpful, because I honestly have no idea what the hell to do with a strat's springs/trem in any real way.

[fallen]

I usually first unscrew the pickguard and take a peek at the body. Most of them are routed for S-S-H, some are routed S-S-S, a rare few are routed H-S-H or "swimming pool". Unless you want to do some woodwork the body rout kind of limits what you can do with pickup swaps.

I have one Strat with single coils right now but normally I go two humbuckers or single humbucker. I think my next swap I might try P90 neck and humbucker bridge with an out of phase middle position.

As far as the trem, if you are used to fixed bridges and being able to drop tune I would just load it up with 5 springs and keep the trem slammed against the body. You can even jam a block of wood behind the trem block if you want to totally lock it off.

[Omlet]

I don't have a cab so I'll try it later this week. I have a feeling I'll try to trade it for something...

[Pissy]

Take your time with it and only change one thing at time.  The tuners and nut, yeah go for it, but I'd hold off on pickups and different pots, instead sending it through your effects/amp gauntlet a good amount first.

Also, Spokstrickland posted a link somewhere to a dud that had a tried and true method for "tuning" the tremolo spring tension so that it works well without sending the strings out of tune.  I'll see if I can find it.  It was really cool and added a dimension to a strat.

Thanks a lot, man. I will definitely take my time. It came to me at a time when I've been spending a lot more effort and energy getting to know DAWs and whatnot, so I'm not actively playing in a band or chomping at the bit to get this thing running and slamming at practice. The spring setup info would be SUPER helpful, because I honestly have no idea what the hell to do with a strat's springs/trem in any real way.

This was it.  Spook hooked me up over in the other thread.  Hope it helps.

[tombhex]

I usually first unscrew the pickguard and take a peek at the body. Most of them are routed for S-S-H, some are routed S-S-S, a rare few are routed H-S-H or "swimming pool". Unless you want to do some woodwork the body rout kind of limits what you can do with pickup swaps.

I have one Strat with single coils right now but normally I go two humbuckers or single humbucker. I think my next swap I might try P90 neck and humbucker bridge with an out of phase middle position.

As far as the trem, if you are used to fixed bridges and being able to drop tune I would just load it up with 5 springs and keep the trem slammed against the body. You can even jam a block of wood behind the trem block if you want to totally lock it off.

Thanks for the input. I haven't had time to fuck around with it just yet to see what it looks like under the pickguard, but I'm guessing it's swimming pool based on the year and the model. If it's not that's fine, I'll just toss some of the GFS active singles in there and let it do what a SSS strat does. In that case I'll definitely leave the trem and have some fun with that, but ideally I'd like to make it HSS and maybe block the trem. I don't know, I feel like I'd miss it if I threw 5 springs in and locked it down since I've already got a fixed bridge superstrat set up for B.

Pissy, I saw that thread (and Spook's comments about the fracture in the Strat - yikes) and I appreciate you linking me. I'm going to talk about it all with my tech when I visit him next weekend.

[fallen]

Yeah trems are fun but can be a bitch. Of the two guitars I have now with trems one of them works and stays in tune but that guitar is in standard tuning, the other guitar is in drop tuning so I just locked off the trem and don't worry about trying to fight with it.

[jibberish]

 springs. the first guitars I had almost were the Ibanez twins and their whammy spring silliness.  I ended up putting 2 springs by the low end and one 2nd over from the top to keep it from pulling the high strings too sharp all the time.  plus if you keep tightening, eventually the whole fucking trem piece lifts up = too weak of springs. I also learned that they relax over time, so I ended up buying a whole new set of springs. between new and old springs I got those fuckers perfect, but it will never last heh. fuckin whammies...
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here is a 1 minute demo of a random trance thing i am working on which is not why i linked this. I linked it to show how nice that lexicon reverb and focusrite A/D sound(i posted pictures of the scarlett 2x4 and the lexicon mpx500 above somewhere) the fadeout of the reverb at the end is awesome.
It's just a patch on korg that i souped up the arp a little on it to help me play it live with complexity, this is just 1 practice track live. but the reverb yummy.

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/doktordeath/astrosambaidea[/soundcloud]

[The Riffer]

Maybe a sign of old age...Scratching a mic fetish. New Senneheiser md421.

[RAGER]

^^Nice one.

I picked up a Nova Modulator.  Needed a decent phaser and I was trying not to buy a Mobius.

[RAGER]

I ordered this last week and picked it up today.

[jibberish]

cool. what made you choose that over let's say the aira tr-808 redo or the volca beats?
now that I looked at it a bit, it is set up like the rolands.

[Corey Y]

Maybe a sign of old age...Scratching a mic fetish. New Senneheiser md421.

Solid recording gear purchase, I've got 3 

[The Riffer]

Corey, Any tips on sweet spots for that mic on a guitar cab?

[RAGER]

cool. what made you choose that over let's say the aira tr-808 redo or the volca beats?
now that I looked at it a bit, it is set up like the rolands.

1.) I wanted to try something Akai which I have none of.  2.) There was much anticipation for an cheap analog drum synth of this ilk.  3.)  I also wanted something very simple with tactile controls and virtually no menu diving.  4.) It's priced at $199 but I worked a deal with dude and got it for $169.  it was supposed to be a display model from another store but he neglected to tell me it was without the box, manual, and power supply so I declined it and waited for a new in box unit.  I had already paid so.... $169 it was.  5.)  It seems to be built really solid.

Here is a scathing review of the thing which did not deter me.

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2014/11/akai-rhythm-wolf-review-analog-doesnt-always-mean-better/


Like I said, I am not deterred.  It is what it is.  It's under 200 bux.  It's not a Vermona or a MFB or an Elektron.  And it's built way more solid than the Korg stuff.  By itself it seems a bit wimpy.  But like a lot of gear it will come alive when run through the right filters/effects.  I don't really care for the 808 sounds so much.  It's not my thing.  I like either minimal or ambient percussion and sometimes just mangled crushed stuff.  So even if I had something that did the 808 stuff it would get lost in my translation.  So this will work just fine.  Eventually I will own a Vermona Drm 1 mkIII............because.

[The Riffer]

Fuckers...all of the synth talk and porn, youre fueling synth gas and I have 0.0 idea how to do any of it. I just know I want to..Thanks assholes.