The Jam Room Blog Thread.

[Submarine]

Looking for a new drummer. Scored a headlining gig on New Years Eve, same place we paid £15 each to get in to year before, so bit of a score, and he took too much drugs to be able to play. Then complained our next gig is a shitty opening slot and we should push for better slots. Explained that you get better slots by not fucking up when you get given a great slot. The suggestion being in a band is not just something to fit around being off your face didn't sit well.

Sorry to hear it, but hopefully you'll get someone who can either hold his drugs or maintain an acceptable level of sobriety.

Maybe an unpopular opinion but, "why be fucked up onstage?"  Isn't playing live a rush in and of itself?  I could understand taking a shot to calm nerves but that is about it.  It would seem that there are only a handful of folks who are truly good enough to play well when fucked up. 

[RacerX]

Looking for a new drummer. Scored a headlining gig on New Years Eve, same place we paid £15 each to get in to year before, so bit of a score, and he took too much drugs to be able to play. Then complained our next gig is a shitty opening slot and we should push for better slots. Explained that you get better slots by not fucking up when you get given a great slot. The suggestion being in a band is not just something to fit around being off your face didn't sit well.

Sorry to hear it, but hopefully you'll get someone who can either hold his drugs or maintain an acceptable level of sobriety.

Maybe an unpopular opinion but, "why be fucked up onstage?"  Isn't playing live a rush in and of itself?  I could understand taking a shot to calm nerves but that is about it.  It would seem that there are only a handful of folks who are truly good enough to play well when fucked up.  

I think that generally you're right.

I would never take the stage too fucked up to play, but I generally have a toke & a beer before going on.

That said, there are definitely people who can hold their shit down while totally schnockered, as you point out.

Examples: pre-dryout Matt Pike, Brent Hinds from Mastodon.

I don't know how they do it, but they do.

[jibberish]

 nurse a beer to dilute the endorphins a bit and that's it. 
I burn with the greatest human chimneys alive, but not before playing.
it seems that every now and then I trip out and get lost as to where I am in the song if I am baked

the one exception is a song that i composed and practiced superbaked. it is a 20+ minute mind-fuck exercise and i get as baked as possible to play it
i have already performed it for people a couple times and i was barely staying in my chair heh.
just climb into the song and leave the realm, like one of the pilots from dune and the mélange.
i just looked, holy crap, my eyes are half blue already...

anyway,
regarding partay boi there... there is a respect issue there as soon as you commit to being involved with other people. so he disrespected the whole rest of the band=not cool.
ask dave mustaine about what being a stu with the substance can cost you in the long run haha

======================================================================

i am becoming more and more of a string-thru guitar fan.     the guitar is more connected to the strings and that little schecter can sustain all day, even with amp quiet.
  whatever passive emg's are on the schecter, they sound beautiful on tube amps plugged straight in

that tele is super rich too (humbuckers on it) and you can really get it singing. 

[Submarine]

That said, there are definitely people who can hold their shit down while totally schnockered, as you point out.
Examples: pre-dryout Matt Pike, Brent Hinds from Mastodon.
I don't know how they do it, but they do.

I've seen Dimebag pull it off but I have never toured with any band that partied before the show.  On one specific tour a rather well known hard partying guitarist made sure we did not stay in hotels anywhere in Holland as he felt the temptation would be too great.  We stayed in Cologne and would drive into Holland, do the show and then drive back to Cologne.   

[Mr. Foxen]

His problem was he can't cope with being sober for any length of time, but also can't hold his drugs in the slightest. Dude could get incomprehensible and starting fights with randoms on 4 beers. Starting fights is really not ideal when he's 5'7" and 8 stone, its basically getting me into a fight. 2 joints and his eyes vanish - -.

Already booted a guitarist who couldn't play drunk, after fucking a couple of gigs, brought in a one before, one after, but he'd do the 'if someone else buys it, it doesn't count' thing and run around tapping people up for beers while I did all the loading. Last straw there was when he flaked on recording because he got drunk while we were putting drums and bass down. On one of the earlier live recordings on youtube you can hear him play a bunch of off key notes and get pulled from the PA.

Guitarist in Caricatures could play fine 6 pints in, but it would go wrong sometimes, if there were super strong ales available.

I just go for not drinking at all before playing, nail a pint of coke for sugar and caffeine before I go on, I got over the nerves thing at this point.

But after my shit's off the stage, I nail 2 pints then deal with load out stuff, then go on the fuck myself up mission. got to damp down the gig buzz as won't sleep.

[Submarine]

I burn with the greatest human chimneys alive

Best thing I've read all day.

[mortlock]

I never get fucked up before I play. I mean I have in the past but as a rule I don't. ill have a beer or 2 but I save it until we are done. I never play stoned, my mind wanders too hard. cant focus.

I posted this in the tech help thread, but ill put it here too..

help needed. as you guys know, im pretty clueless when it comes to electronics/electric stuff, among other things.

heres the issue. i have a stock fender jazz bass with one mod. i had both pick ups wired together so the controls work like a p bass. one tone and one volume. recently ive noticed that at any volume [the louder i turn it up, the more pronounced it gets], the bass has a terrible hum/static issue with the tone setting rolled to the full treble side [which is where i play]. if i roll to the full bass side of the knob the hum/static goes away. i also noticed a lot of static/crackling when i turn the tone knob. is that pot fucked or maybe something else?

thanks in advance.

[jibberish]

hey mortay, sounds like maybe some aftermarket soldering went cold or is falling apart. possibly ground wires soldered to pot cases since those are a harder joint to make than std wiring.

when you turn a pot and it makes noise this means the wiper is not cleanly maintaining contact with the resistance wire windings.
oxidation or maybe micro dust or something.
old stereos always get noisy pots or sections cut out = very irritating
you can try pot cleaner spray and work the knob (l ron can show u if u r not sure how to REALLY work a nob)   (#TEAM*BOLT#)
or if the axe is older, just replace the pot because it may be wearing out and losing tolerance = noisy forevermore

****************************************************************************************************************

so, due to the song I play where I have to get baked into the 6th dimension, I ordered a new "piano bench"
I ordered it from Recaro. it will have side-G force wings and a full racing harness. maybe I can stay in my chair the whole song from now on.

[Mr. Foxen]

heres the issue. i have a stock fender jazz bass with one mod. i had both pick ups wired together so the controls work like a p bass. one tone and one volume. recently ive noticed that at any volume [the louder i turn it up, the more pronounced it gets], the bass has a terrible hum/static issue with the tone setting rolled to the full treble side [which is where i play]. if i roll to the full bass side of the knob the hum/static goes away. i also noticed a lot of static/crackling when i turn the tone knob. is that pot fucked or maybe something else?

thanks in advance.

There are various ways to wire two pickups together, the two should be humbucking if done right, but might not be wired like that, and both on full will always give you a mid scoop somewhere. Whe  you say bass side/treble side, do you mean jsut tone control positions or do you have some sort of fun wiring to mix between pickups?

[mortlock]

no, as far as i know both J pick ups are wired to work together and function as as one pick up, like a P bass. with one volume and one tone knob controlling both pups.

[jibberish]

I got the HM-2 going.  The on-off switch under the stomp plate was sticky from ancient dirt and was stuck off. it is a little latching switch
this thing does not like 9v batteries any longer, but runs fine on the 9v supply, oh well good enough there.
===============================================================================

the next thing I want to do is make a direct "true bypass" device external to the pedal.
since the HM-2 is using a power supply, the input can stay plugged in.

I am imagining the function to be like 2 A-B boxes back-to-back.
let's say have A1 go right over to A2. then have B1 go to the non-true-bypass pedal and back out to  B2

you would have to switch both A-B boxes together from A to B.  

In box form, there would be only 4 1/4" jacks since the A1->A2 connection would be direct wired inside the box. so you would have:

Main In and Main Out, then Pedal In and Pedal Out. there would be 1 DP4T switch to move all 4 lines at once.
seems good on paper. anyone see any obvious traps aside from needing to pay attention to shielding and grounding to keep the signal as clean as possible

or are these for sale for $19.95 somewhere and it isn't even worth dicking around with at that price?

does anyone see the need to be able to switch the A-B AND turn the pedal on/off simultaneously...I kind of do..heh.....

that would require thinking out one further step. this is why all fucking up should be done on paper. get shit ironed out eventually

[Danny G]

Bass is done for the Ocean of Stars single!

Now to finalize the mix and get it mastered. And then get it out there and hopefully generate some booking interests.


Sent from a can on some string using Tapatalk

[bbottom]

Mass Driver did an interview and had a mention about our show on Saturday.

When I saw the A team van I lost my shit

http://www.wbir.com/life/top-5-music-acts-to-see-in-knox-this-weekend/15172946

http://knoxvillemusicwarehouse.com/blog/2016/1/13/mass-driver#.VpfLC5MrIcg=

[liquidsmoke]

Played my friend's Made In Japan floyd equipped Ibanez RG today and it lacks chug and palm muting is harder/weird. Meh.

Trad bridges for the win.

[jibberish]

you mass drivers are pretty fun.  your interviewer is a dweeb, but nice...

ok, so I have been basically describing a "loop effects switcher"
but where and when do you kick in the looper to engage the vintage pedal?
do you just leave the pedal on and use the looper stomp?

I keep thinking about disengaging the true bypass and simultaneously engaging the effect's circuit, but I guess if the effect just stayed on this issue is solved.
I believe the problem is solved: just leave the vintage effect turned on.

ok, off to steal a loop-switcher circuit....

[Submarine]

Trying to build community in an area that just is so resistant.  I hear complaints about not having a more unified artistic scene but it feels like many are content with their ipad/netflix/on demand lifestyle.   I think I live at the consumptive end of the creative process.     I always refer to the phrase "be the change you wish to see".  Some days it feels futile.  I need a new approach.

[jibberish]

^go herd cats, way easier heh.

so, the battery connector in the HM-2 has some of that blue crystally crap on it, so I cleaned that off and it works like a champ now.
that thing is about 30 years old. crazy. and it just needed a good going over.

FWIW, if anyone gets one of these, they are so old school that the AC adapter is really an AC adapter as in 9v AC.
you would have to bypass the rectifier circuitry to use a regular DC supply or maybe splice in to where the battery is...some kind of mod...
I steal one of my old school adapters from another module if I can't find a battery or for testing.

the bonus is that you don't have to worry about whether the center pin is + or - haha.

[Mr. Foxen]

Splicing in to the battery, or jsut putting a socket on a battery snap is probably best way, if its 9v AC in, it gives more than 9v rectified, so have to find where the voltage is stepped down/regulated from there, or possibly have a sound change from running at different voltage.

[jibberish]

Splicing in to the battery, or jsut putting a socket on a battery snap is probably best way,

that's it!  the super clean, super EZ2 use idea.   and for some reason I have a half dozen virgin snappers just waiting for the hot tip heh.
just now scavenged a socket from some old powered PC speaker rig

IOU beers

*****************************************************************************************************

does anyone ever get the suspicion that the metal mic stand is part of midrange mic howling problems when shit gets loud?

also, danny, tree branches, I believe, are the future of ghetto mic stands. heh.

***************************************************************************************************

bet with your brains , not with your heart. thank you tom for making me a nervous wreck at the end there and almost not beating the spot.
fucker. that's ok. Me=me+$200 heh fuckin A. 1/2 of a used synthesizer..combined with the $200 I didn't lose ...wonder which one I should get?

[liquidsmoke]

a black SC-550

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Epiphone-SCROLL-70s-Guitar-Black-Metal-Gibson-/311499952568?hash=item4886d811b8:g:YfYAAOSwHQ9WZEDe

[khoomeizhi]

has black scroll been offered as a potential band name yet?

[liquidsmoke]

I like that. Might be doing a name change on one of my 'projects'.

[jibberish]

especially if you played nothing but scrolls....

.................................................

random band names heh:

killer beat keepers

9mm loogie

.................................................

I am encouraged by the nice cleanup and solid plan to start using my HM-2 again.
use the HM-2 just using the crazy tone section to feed the super pharaoh should give me some unique luscious sounds

the schematic is WAAAAAY too complex for a distortion box.  they tried to use every trick in the book.
take a look at this link to see what those insane roland engineers kludged up. the power section is a nightmare alone. they combine ac with dc from the battery
lots of zener and rectifier diodes all over to deal with that. the tones aren't just old school stacks, they each have their own op amp, and so on.
good luck stealing this circuit.    there is more description at the top of that schematic page

http://www.hobby-hour.com/electronics/s/hm2-heavy-metal.php

anyway I am encouraged to drag the Dunlop wah out and go over it. my son had it forever and I got used to not using it. I think it squeaks and sucks up batteries like a thirsty camel sucks up water. he registered some beef about it, but it's been a while..i will find out heh.

I may actually have a halfway respectable pedal board here when the smoke clears:

some combo of crybaby/HM-2/pharoah supreme-->deja-vibe-->malekko delay

[RacerX]

Was playing through the axes on the holiday & snapped that I didn't have a single guitar in standard tuning.

Now I have retuned my OM and am revisiting the songs of my youth. Think I'm gonna leave it this way for awhile.

Looks like I'm gonna have to tighten the truss rod a bit, though—she's not set up right for that much tension.

[Submarine]

What tunings were you using?