ilovefuzz.com

Honestly, I'm having the opposite problem. My gear sounds great, it's my writing that I can't stand or get satisfied with. It's at the point where I'm taking my annual "fuck writing music" break, to pursue something else artistically.

This time it's film.

Sometimes I get the urge to sell everything and not buy new shit, though. Just sell it all and be done with it.

I'm kind of doing that right now, in part due to financial reasons but also because I feel like I pushed myself to be more creative with what I had back when my pedalboard was less populated. Some of the most fun I had making music was at a point when I was just using a TGD and a Superdelay, nothing else.

MUST RECAPTURE AND PROFIT OFF OF PEDAL YOUTH.

Mudfuzz wrote:

gunslinger_burrito wrote:Yeah, the tone search isn't stopping. It's just a pain in the ass when I want to have one basic guitar tone for an EP or something, and I can't make up my damn mind. Having a crazy rig is awesome, and super fun for noise and experimentation, but I still want my "holy grail" you know?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWS8Mg-JWSg[/youtube]

"What....is your favorite fuzz?!"

"Big Muff. NO WAIT-"

I traded off all of my pedals a while back for all new pedals. It was fun.

But, I did that because I get bored easily, and my band that I used most of them in broke up, so like, fuck it. Not because of any musical frustration or anything like that. Just, cuz, like, fuck it.

I was talking to a friend the other day, and he was telling about a book called "Fuck It," by John Parkin. This guy's idea is that "fuck it" is the western world's equivalent of the eastern idea of "letting go."

Similarly, I think that the musician who smashes his guitar on stage is having some weird kind of zen freak out. "THIS IS THE IMPERMANENCE OF THE MOMEEEEEENNNNNNT!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I love the feeling of a "reset." No one wants any of the stuff I try to get rid of though. Guess I'm stuck with it

gunslinger_burrito wrote:This guy's idea is that "fuck it" is the western world's equivalent of the eastern idea of "letting go."

one of my favorite quotes from Stephen Gaskin is the question of differentiating "between compassionate detachment and just not giving a shit."

but on topic, i don't so much want to flip my whole rig as to refine it and add certain other capabilities i don't have at present. i've got at least one or two fuzz/boost pedals that i never use, need a Randy's Revenge like a tiger needs meat, and would be delighted to dump my entire looping setup in favor of an affordable dual-looper with at least 45 seconds of loop time. but what i'd really like to do is shitcan my amp setup and go to a pair of Marshall 18W amps for quieter stuff and a pair of half-stacks for absurdly loud. i'm thinking about doing a me+drums shoegaze duo when i get to Chicago, and will need "YOU CAN"T PLAY THAT LOUD IN HERE" SPLs.

Every once in a while I think it'd be fun to just go fuck it and sell everything except my guitar and buy a new amp and a few pedals and then seriously consider it for a bit. But then I remember I quite like my amp and there are some pedals I'd like to keep too and...

I think one of these days I'll fucking do it, just for the hell of it, then I'll get most of the same pedals back some time later.

Yup, a while back I was trying to make a huge pedalboard, because I love that feeling of discovery when you find a cool combination of pedals or settings. But I found out the most fun I have when I'm playing is when I focus just on my playing.

I've settled on a pedalboard with 5 pedals: fuzz>octave>fuzz/phaser>delay>overdrive and that's all I really need to make my sounds. For everything else I have a great synthesizer. Why should I get fancy filters, fancy octave pedals, and pedals that make my guitar sound like synthesizer/organ when I have a synthesizer.

I also have way too many instruments: danelectro dead-on, telecaster, jazzmaster, beatle bass clone, violin, mandolin, reed organ, blofeld, and the mpc 1000. I really only play the jazzmaster and the blofeld with any kind of regularity. I've thought about selling the dead-on and using the proceeds to buy a baritone conversion neck for the tele. But that still leaves me with a violin, mandolin and a reed organ that really don't get any use. I'd really like to cut it down just to what I actually play, but I get way too sentimental about gear.

No, not really -- but there are times when all I want to do is sit in the dark with my acoustic. Sometimes having all that stuff between me and the sound makes me lose focus on the fact that a good song should be able to stand alone.

spacelordmother wrote:there are times when all I want to do is sit in the dark with my acoustic.

That's very Daltonesque...

I really think I could be happy with so many different rigs that it's hard to say.
I don't really have the cash to revamp everything, and sort of like the sound at this point.

Every once and a while I get the itch to start over though... I wonder what would happen?

Yeah, I might need to sell a considerable amount of stuff to make tuition. So I'm thinking about what I could strip everything down to:

Guitar > Fuck > Muff > Boost > Flanger > Tuner > Noise Gate > Amp

Even that would be painful to strip down to but I could sell:
Ibanez DE7
Rat
Velcroar
Supermoon
MXR 10-band EQ
Pulsar

Of course I'd hate to get rid of any of this stuff. And I don't know if I could just have one fuzz/distortion, but I'd feel guilty opting for the Rat over the Velcroar even though I just don't get enough use out of the Velcroar.

Gah, indecision.

I've never had a very big setup so I don't really find my pedals a distraction.

I think the unfortunate reality is that some of us are just tweakers. When I plug right into the amp I still fuck with the amp's controls for a long ass time until I find the sound I want.

yup.