My current rig is much less flexable as well as much less portable. Lets hear some clips Chris!
The good thing about your rig is that it's attached to a set of fingers with some talent in them. :D My fancy rig makes some great sounds, but currently has to put up with being fed by my mediocre digits chicken scratching away at the business end of the deal :roll:
However, I'm determined to improve this year. I'm even working through a couple of books, like David's Rock Guitar one, and actually doing the exercises instead of just reading and noodling. Although I must admit that noodling is where my heart is...
There's already a ton of clips of people getting great results from these racks, around the internet. But I guess that sooner or later I'll have to add my own efforts to the pile. I wrote a song for the SSG last week that I haven't recorded to post there yet, so maybe I'll just do a rough job using the rack. Then I could spend some time later rehearsing, tweaking, improving it via the software etc and see how much better I can make a more polished version.
Chris
like David's Rock Guitar one
Best rock book I've seen. I read it cover to cover and have to re-read a part or two due to forgetting so darned much. Darned medication. Great book though.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
So I rolled back just the volume knob on the guitar a bit. It got a little quieter of course, but also cleaner, which I didn't expect. I quickly found a sweet spot where I could get a clean tone when playing with a gentler touch and a dirtier one if I played harder.
Chris, you really need to make a note of EXACTLY where that "sweet spot" is. I keep the volume knob on my tele just a touch below the sweet spot - great for playing rhythm, which is what I mostly play when I'm jamming with friends....then just a touch on the volume knob with the liitle finger and I'm slightly louder and a LOT more distorted. You need to get a notebook and write down the exact settings for every tone you like - you'd be surprised how much difference just changing one parameter will make!
I'm thinking that maybe it really is time I looked into using pedals - I haven't owned one since I was 17! My very first electric guitar came with a fuzz-box and a wah-wah pedal as freebies....I gave the wah-wah away, kept the fuzz-box for about six months till it broke. It was a freebie, so I wasn't broken-hearted....
I never thought about tone again till I got hooked on playing guitar again in my mid-40's....and since then, all I've used for FX are the built-in FX on the various modelling amps. They sound good enough to me - I've never been a tone purist, endlessly tweaking knobs and trying the tiniest variations, I grew up listening to Radio Luxembourg on the old medium waveband, with all the whistles, squeaks and whines and fading in and fading out - after that, ANYTHING was an improvement!
Now, I've got about 5-6 different tones I use so much I know exactly where the settings are on my amp - I could actually find 'em blindfolded, I'm sure. Each tone gets used for specific songs - that I've written - and each of them is easily obtainable to play a song on the radio. Just a question of turning one, maybe two knobs....
What I would like to do - if and when I can ever afford it again - is buy another Tascam Digital recorder. I did have one, but, stupidly, let it go when I was short of money. Which is pretty much my default state these days. There was a HUGE range of tones and styles on the one I had, but I never had the time or the inclination to explore them fully.
But till then, I'll be perfectly happy with the Cube 30X - I've got all the sounds I need in there. That amp could've been designed for me - "Hey, let's make an idiot-proof, user-friendly rock'n'roll amp you can use at home".....
Keep on rockin', and keep on tweakin' - till you find the sound YOU like!
And good luck with it..................
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
Chris, you really need to make a note of EXACTLY where that "sweet spot" is. I keep the volume knob on my tele just a touch below the sweet spot - great for playing rhythm, which is what I mostly play when I'm jamming with friends....then just a touch on the volume knob with the liitle finger and I'm slightly louder and a LOT more distorted. You need to get a notebook and write down the exact settings for every tone you like - you'd be surprised how much difference just changing one parameter will make!
Good advice. I've started to take a few notes. Fortunately the rack also allows you to save any settings that you like. There's some user presets that you can over-write with your own tweaks, or you can also save them to the computer, along with any you might have downloaded that other owners have made. Making old fashioned notes is good though, because it's easy to forget just which ones of the many on offer that were good, for what reason.
They sound good enough to me - I've never been a tone purist, endlessly tweaking knobs and trying the tiniest variations, I grew up listening to Radio Luxembourg on the old medium waveband, with all the whistles, squeaks and whines and fading in and fading out - after that, ANYTHING was an improvement!
I'm pretty much a match for you there! Radio Lux eh... :) And what was the other one, on the boat - Caroline?
Now, I've got about 5-6 different tones I use so much I know exactly where the settings are on my amp - I could actually find 'em blindfolded, I'm sure. Each tone gets used for specific songs - that I've written - and each of them is easily obtainable to play a song on the radio. Just a question of turning one, maybe two knobs....
Sounds like a very good way to go. When I've had access to amps with multiple built in effects, or software with a heap of stuff modelled I've tended to fiddle aimlessly for a while and then go back to the cleanest setting I can find, or just playing unplugged. Not sure quite why this rack has changed my attitude to it, but it has. Perhaps perhaps because it's easy to follow and works very well.
What I would like to do - if and when I can ever afford it again - is buy another Tascam Digital recorder. I did have one, but, stupidly, let it go when I was short of money. Which is pretty much my default state these days. There was a HUGE range of tones and styles on the one I had, but I never had the time or the inclination to explore them fully.
But would you explore them if you had something like that again though? I've got something a bit similar that I never use now, that could go free to a good home in N le W. But the downside is the eye-wearing manual study that you have to do in order to figure out all the buttons and menus. I can find the time if I really want to, but the inclination is the hard one to summon up. Wading through geeky manuals and reading settings off small screens palls pretty quickly. I'll send you a PM with the details anyway, just in case.
Cheers,
Chris
