Gasalcoholics anonymous? whoever said this was a help group?

[dubkitty]

oh, right, the EXH is the thing they based on the glitchiness of the POLY mode of the Attack Decay.

that SMOOTH mode would be wonderful into the endless plate setting on the BlueSky.

[Gone Fission]

After spending a few weeks learning how to wrangle the ZOIA, my attention wandered over to the early-'70s Harmony classical guitar I had picked up at a thrift store for $10 (I'm not sure why they didn't have it priced at $200 like they price every other musical instrument). I had to spend more than $10 to buy a new set of tuners for it, but once that job was done I was off, plunking away on this thing instead of staring at a tiny screen.

harmony.jpg

If I scored that, I’d consider it a candidate for John Pearse Folk Fingerpicking strings, which are relabeled Thomastik Rope Core strings usually for a lot less. This Joe Gore blog entry stuck in my head because they have a sound: https://tonefiend.com/guitar/strange_strings/

[dubkitty]

i’m pleased to note that somebody is doing a reasonably-priced Kalamazoo/Gibson parlor guitar that doesn’t cost a mint. Epiphone brought back the Blues King. if they’re like the ones from the 00s they’ll be wildly variable from unit to unit, but i’m glad someone is making an affordable wide-hipped parlor guitar again.

[Tall Walls]

If I scored that, I’d consider it a candidate for John Pearse Folk Fingerpicking strings, which are relabeled Thomastik Rope Core strings usually for a lot less. This Joe Gore blog entry stuck in my head because they have a sound: https://tonefiend.com/guitar/strange_strings/

Thanks for the tip! I'll keep an eye out for those. Even though Rope Core sounds like an extreme depressive Emo subgenre.

When I was restringing this guitar, at first I just tuned the strings up until they weren't slack, which led to tuning the guitar to C standard. So the sound Gore was getting with his guitar tuned to drop-C D standard was pretty familiar, even though I'm using the cheapest nylon strings I could find. The intonation on the high E (well, high C) string isn't great, but I'll probably just live with it, rather than try to mess with the bridge when I really have no idea what I'm doing.

[dubkitty]

have you checked the nut? if it’s slotted wrong that could screw up the intonation.

[dubkitty]

while plonking around on the internet i discovered that Menatone is making a pico version of the Pleasure Trem 5000, my favorite tremolo of all time. they explicitly say that it's the same circuit. i'm really tempted to get one so i have a spare that's not tied to a board in the same way i needed the Circle looper so i don't have to set up the looper board. they've been rare and hideously overpriced for years now, so it's nice they did something. now if i could just get another Villanova and if Tom would make me a duplicate of the 3-knob Great Wall which is an absolute necessity and apparently the only one with its control set.

[dubkitty]

since i’m on the Catalinbread mailing list i get regular promos, sales, b-stock listings, etc. i’m not that crazy about much of their more modern lines (though SOFT FOCUS 4 LIFE) but the Proto Club stuff is occasionally interesting. i got a PC b-stock email and decided to go ahead on a Filter Verb. yeah, i could probably get 80% of the sounds running a verb through the So High So Low filters and preamp, but that would require pulling stuff from the boards, running the FEB after the main board, or re-routing so one of the FEB ‘verbs runs into the SHSL. none of which i particularly want to deal with. hard to argue with 38% off, either.


https://youtu.be/auiCM59Gxc8?si=TTMpRTqi0H4TJvEM

[Seance]

Fairfield Placeholder bucket brigade reverb looks/sounds fantastic.

These visuals/audio also look/sound fantastic.
((I love the shots of cellular organisms—gives a very Jean Painlevé abstract/nature documentary vibe))
((also the macro focus-breathing shots—gives a very Ken Russell Altered States vibe))

This place is far outside my budget, but not outside my drool radius.

Will it hold a place in my skint heart?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvRiJ45ffLI

[Pepe]

Hiroaki Nishijima, the designer of the legendary KORG MS-20 and of my beloved multi effects system, the KORG PME-40X, has also designed this polyphonic and sophisticated guitar synthesizer, the KORG Z3. It is a 4-OP FM synthesizer and it can be triggered by the dedicated Z3D Driver with the special hex-pickup. A few weeks ago I knew nearly nothing about it, but having read more about it, I took the plunge and bid on an ebay auction - that I won in the end. I had to install a new power cable (the previous owner has shortened it significantly) and I had to order a few black screws, springs and spacers to install the special pickup system in my Dean Vendetta 1.0, my only other electric guitar besides my MIJ Fender Stratocaster.

The pickup system reacts remarkably good to the pitch and the volume of each string. Very precise and dynamic sounding - something that you would rather expect in a modern unit and not in this system that was introduced in 1989! The sound that the rack synthesizer produces is quite similar to what the famous Yamaha DX7 can do. Awesome sounds are possible with the rack already - and since it has MIDI out, I can also trigger any other MIDI-equipped instrument with my guitar now. Such an awesome unit!

[dubkitty]

wow. what's the behavior like, as far as latency and such?

[dubkitty]

i've been looking for years for a pedal that does a half-decent job of making electric guitars sound acoustic, which would be a huge plus for looping in particular. i have a Hotone Acoustic Simulator which was the best thing i could find 2 years ago but is terrible, apparently more intended as a way to make piezo-equipped acoustics sound more lifelike than for actual electrics. i was poking around on Shopify and ran across a store selling various "brand name" cheap clone pedals including the Demonfx Tape Echo that's on the Normie Board. among their many items was the Mooer Acoustikar, yet another electric-to-acoustic offering, and when i checked demos on YouTube it actually works. kind of. but it's better than anything else i've heard, so i snagged a used one off Reverb for 50 bucks. the Boss unit is a non-starter, which was disappointing because their relatively normal pedals are usually good. if it works i'll either have to figure out a way to fit it on the FEB or run it in front. fortunately it's a pico-sized enclosure which will help. a quick look at a photo of the FEB seems to indicate it can barely squeak in, and IIRC i have a two-way DC cable splitter in my bag of power cables so i reckon it could run along with the Hi Five or Octave Multiplexer.

the other thing i'm curious about is that MuTron apparently have not only a smaller-box MuTron III and full-size Bi-Phase (at a rather insane $479 for the latter) but also a whole stable of other effects. the one that caught my eye is the Distor-Tron++ which appears to be their attempt at Chase Bliss-ing out the venerable MXR Distortion+, my favorite dirt pedal of all time. they use the correct LM741 op-amp, but it has both germanium and silicon diodes and a voltage sag control. at a not insane $189 list i'm interested, especially since the diodes in my OG 1978 D+ appear to have bitten the dust...it sounds older than i feel. if it's good i'd have some painful choices in terms of what i'd kick off the big board or Normie Board. i guess i'd A/B the CMC Mk III Tone Bender and Buzzaround and see which stayed because they're fairly close.

https://mu-tron.com/shop/pedals/distor-tron/

[Pepe]

wow. what's the behavior like, as far as latency and such?

20ms latency - NOT recognizable! Most notes are spot-on, without double-triggers or similar annoying quirks. My Dean Vendetta 1.0 has 24 frets and sometimes the highest notes on each string aren't triggered perfectly, but I don't regard that as a problem and I generally stay below the 20th fret anyway.

Of course it cannot react to anything, like hard strumming or dead notes. It isn't capable of mind reading (dang!) and requires articulated playing. But I can let that dreadful '80s FM E. Piano come out of my speakers using this guitar. If I turn "Bend" off, then it sounds like played on a keyboard. But most sounds are great with the "Bend" function, especially all the faux flutes or woodwind programs. They sound very lively with all the vibrato and hard bends.