Im not sure to be honest how much it cost as I also had a pre amp tube that needed changing, so overall, including the price of the tube it was £45 - but i have no idea how much of that went towards the tube, and how much to biasing the new power tubes i had put in myself.
i havent managed to try it out yet, so i hope i am pleasantly surprised when do :D
"I like to play that guitar. I have to stare at it while I'm playing it because I'm not very good at playing it."
Noel Gallagher (who took the words right out of my mouth)
One preamp tube is pretty inexpensive maybe $20 USD or so. I'm suprised he is only changing one. I have 3 in the Hot Rod and I changed all my tubes 3 preamp and the 2 power amp tubes. the power tubes are the only ones that get biased.
Not sure what the exchange rate is these days but the actual biasing only takes a few minutes, taking the back off and putting it back takes the most time.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
But if nothing else happens, I'd like to finally find a decent tone. I've complained about it for awhile and even though the Jekyl and Hyde pedal was the best sound I found it still wasn't what I was looking for.
You'd think after all these years I'd be able to sit down and just eventually dial in a decent tone but I can't/haven't been able to it and it annoys me.
The distortioon always sounds thin and brittle. I am very hesitant to drop $300 on the ME-70 only to find out I get the same tone.
Most people that follow this procedure find that they were using WAY too much gain, and WAY too little output level.
Playing guitar and never playing for others is like studying medicine and never working in a clinic.
My guitar goals for this year are pretty simple.
1) Improve my lead playing. I've got to the stage now where I'm not scared of, or fazed by, anything to do with playing rhythm guitar....but every solo I play sounds pretty much the same.
2) Get some of my original songs recorded properly. This is going to involve a few necessary purchases - a new bass and bass amp for starters, and some decent recording gear, so that might take a while. Money, as always, is pretty tight.
3) Not so much a guitar goal, but definitely related - to write more songs on a regular basis. I'm in a slump at the moment - haven't written anything new for at least a couple of months, so I guess I'm going to have to make more time for the SSG
4) To play out more. I really miss jamming!
: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.)
Moon, I'll try your suggestions and see what happens I have nothing to lose. As for the OD pedal I really don't have a good one. I have a half of the Jekyl and Hyde pedal that still works and I'm not sure if it was the distortion or the OD, I have a Boss DS-1 and a Guv'nr ( I never liked the Boss or Guv'nr distortion much)
Vic - I hear you on the soloing I pretty much feel the same way, but I'm a believer as you know of learning note for note solos'. If for no other reason that I beleive eventually that will carry over into my own solo's. Just think how we learned to read we kept reading and writing the same sentences (taht someone else wrote)over and over again. We didn't just learn a few words (scales) and then told to make sentences, we repeated the same sentences et nauseum until we got it then after a long time we started writing our own. To me the same thing happens when soloing. My opinion of why all my own solo's sound the same is because I don't have enough knowledge and skills to effectively do much more than rip through scales and that leads to the same old solo's every time.
How can you incorporate new an interesting technique's etc. if you've never done them before? It's unlikely that we are going to have some divine intervention in the middle of improving a solo and start using a bunch of things we have never been exposed to before.
To me that's the value of learning solo's note for note (or very close to)this way you are forced to learn things you probably would never have come up with on your own.
But then again I could be off in left field too, it's not like I'm some killer guitar player. Just my opinion.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
My new years goals??? I realy want to start putting together all I have learned, and realy start progressing a little!!!
Im a long time begener. been messing around with this about 4-5 years now... Ive learned a lot, soaked up some thrary, learned the open cords, and eaven getting some Barr cords down... just cant get it all together!!!! Fretting hand is real slow and wile getting better, I still am a real slow cord changer... so.... This year Im hitting it hard, and going to try to put what I have lerned, and hoping to fill in the blanks, and get to PLAYING!!!!!!!!
I JUST did my first song all the way through.... not real good, and a lot of mastakes.... but I did it!! [with singing also!!!] So hoping to polish that song, and get some more under my belt
Paul B
.....I JUST did my first song all the way through....
That's a big step. I'd just do some more for a while, and then add new skills as they come along in the songs you learn.
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
Clean out "chaos" room and return it to a space where I want to be (at the moment it is a pile of unfinished paperwork and "stuff" that was hidden away while the guests were over for Christmas).
Pick up the guitar every day. Do the homework my guitar teacher gives me. FIND TIME!
Don't feel guilty about taking time out from the Significant Other to play my guitar. Don't feel like I am being too noisy, too hopeless, too selfish.
Take my lovely new(ish) guitar to the chap recommended to have it serviced and set up properly.
Play more!
Follow up on the Weekend Warrior program to force myself to play with other people, regardless of how bad I might think I am! (Already sent an email to enrol... now just have to NOT PIKE OUT.)
I have the guitar beside me and am just taking a break between scales to type this. Oh those aching finger tips :roll:
What I lack in talent and natural ability, I will have to make up with stubborness.
.....I JUST did my first song all the way through....
That's a big step. I'd just do some more for a while, and then add new skills as they come along in the songs you learn.
Yes, thats what Im planning. Ive been kinda stalled becouse my cord changes are so slow... well learning the song got them a bit better... still a LONG way to go to be fluid... but getting there... Im working of polishing that one song, and now also wirking on a simplafide vertion of "crossroads"
Paul B
Just to play SONGS instead of foolin' so much with scales.
Attack this Tony Rice Video.....
Pick up the guitar every day. Do the homework my guitar teacher gives me. FIND TIME!
Don't feel guilty about taking time out from the Significant Other to play my guitar. Don't feel like I am being too noisy, too hopeless, too selfish.
That's a hard one for me too. Yet something that I need to pay attention to.
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
Pick up the guitar every day. Do the homework my guitar teacher gives me. FIND TIME!
Don't feel guilty about taking time out from the Significant Other to play my guitar. Don't feel like I am being too noisy, too hopeless, too selfish.
That's a hard one for me too. Yet something that I need to pay attention to.
I usually practise between 7 and 9pm at night during the week - the Mrs doesn't even notice I'm not there, she's too busy watching the soaps - Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Eastenders. That's her do-not-disturb TV time, so I'll slink off to the box room and get a guitar out. So pick a time when your partner's busy doing something else - and don't feel selfish about spending time with your guitar while he/she is spending time on his/her hobby/obsession!
: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.)
To try harder... :roll:
Gordon Smith GS1.5-40 Marshall VS65R
4) To play out more. I really miss jamming!
:D :D :D
Vic
Once Ray is feeling better, we'll have to organise another get together (and I will ask Alfred not to chew your guitar lead next time)...
My goals.... get better obviously.. and also try and find a better way to balance the "boring stuff" that makes me loose interest, with the stuff I like to play (poor Alfred probabaly thinks Smoke on the Water is his lullaby!).
Master Stairway to Heaven - I'm only upto page 3....
:D
Moon - I gave your suggestion a try with the Jekyl and Hyde just for fun and the pedal seemed to be working so there is definitely something loose in there. Can't say I found a tone I liked but it was an improvement. I'm going to give it a shot with the other two pedals the DS-1 and the Guv'ner to see if I can finding anything good with those.
Haven't attempted to rebias yet since I haven't really been playing much, well I play just not through the amp.
Which leads me to my next goal and that is to try and get something regular going again. Really haven't played on a regular basis since August and I'm starting to miss the Friday night jams. But it's not that easy finding people that want to be serious but don't necessarily want to play out right away.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
