Gasalcoholics anonymous? whoever said this was a help group?

[dubkitty]

a nice thing about my case/stand, which came from Guitar Fetish, is that the bottom has moveable dividers so you can use it for guitars of varying widths though that means that acoustics will take up 2 spots. single slots are deep enough for the White Falcon which is like half-depth, more than the 335 but less than the flattops. i had 2 acoustics in it as a test when i got it home. the finishing on the edges of the panels could be better, but i can use it. i may glue down the edges if i get sufficiently motivated (ha!). they come in a variety of colors like their guitar cases, but i love Sonic Blue so i was all over that.

[alexsga]

GASing a bit over the DBA Robot. Anyone got any experience with that?

always been curious about this one. does anyone make an economically-priced clone?

[le lambin]

GASing a bit over the DBA Robot. Anyone got any experience with that?

I’ve had it twice- I can say that it is a unique sound amongst pedals. Not really ring mod, not really bit crusher, but could be considered their weird cousin?

What comes out is not exactly tonal- to me it’s the sonic equivalent of something dissolving your guitar sound- what is left is a slurry composed of whatever notes you have put in.

A must try pedal if you are into noise/noisey doom/harsh noise music, I would say.

[John]

I accidentally just won the auction for what most of YouTube calls “the most useless pedal of all time,” aka the Boss EH-2 Enhancer. I am determined to make it do something cool.

More jangle for your jangle. I like it.

It's NOS and I got it for a 41 dollar bid so it was destiny. It's basically an envelope-controlled Presence boost or cut depending on the settings, which is definitely something I can use, plus I love the idea of taking the unpopular chick and making her prom queen. Gimme dat butterface

Good luck! I remember being at a guitar center around 2010 when a rando walked up to me, and told me all about how that pedal was the best thing he ever used. I tried it and could barely hear a difference (which was probably due to trying it out in a guitar center with their terrible boss pedal demo pillar). I wonder if it would do interesting things in a feedback loop or inputless mixer setup?

Not that anyone would want to emulate my sound, but I love the EH-2 on my Clean board, first in the chain, then a bunch of digital delays and tremolos.

I got it and tried it out and I don't understand why so many people are like "it does nothing!" It's a very obvious treble boost/exciter at the right setting (MIX fully CW to "NOR", FREQ fully CCW to "LO", and SENS to taste). I tried it after my gain pedals and it gave good lead tone. I don't think it will live on my main board but that's mostly because it isn't black (I'm racist)

[dubkitty]

I messed with the BlueSky and the Jetstar and found the sound i was looking for. Plate + Mod, Decay and Mix at 3-3:30, High Damp at 11, Low Damp at 1-1:30. it's a delicate balance of decay and mix, but when i hit it the attack is even with the cloud of modulated reverb. not sure why it didn't work well with the bouzouki. could be the doubled/octaved string courses, could be the pickups which are kind of weird for mini-hums. next i need to work with the Vintage Van boost/OD. waiting for the bouzouki stuff to arrive. when i get paid i'm going to order another expansion module or two for the boards so i can power auxiliary stuff. the Normie Board definitely needs surplus capacity since the Cioks PS has 7 outs for 8 pedals (the EF is powered off the tuner output). i think i can get away with the current (heh heh) setup for the big board since there's 9V outs available...i just have to switch something so the Strymon can run off one of the high-current outputs.

[dubkitty]

i found a bearable use for the Shimmer setting, dialing the Mix most of the way out with a short decay so the shimmer kind of hides behind the signal, peeking out as a subtle overtone when you let notes hang. the fact that you can't control the modulation or shimmer on their own is a definite negative. it'd be particularly nice if you could limit the octave doubling so it only does the first shift. oh, well. i have several other pedals that cost about as much which i use for one or two settings so i'm OK with it.

[alexsga]

incoming! was v.cheap

[dubkitty]

had another go with the BlueSky last night...it really doesn't work with the bouzouki at all. as noted above i think it's because all those doubled and unison string courses kind of confuse the modulation since they're seldom perfectly tuned (i need to look into changing the tuners which aren't great...fortunately they appear to be in a bog-standard Gibson mandolin arrangement so it shouldn't be too tough). it's good with guitar, but there's still something not-quite-right about the sound. i'll try running it after one of the boards and see how an effected signal works; so far it's been 100% clean into the 'verb. i downloaded the manual and there's no adjustments possible off the front panel other than Trails on/off, saving a preset (not clear if there's more than one slot), and a +/-3dB output boost/cut, all of which are accomplished via the footswitches. which is to say that it's a lot simpler than i expected. too simple, really.

after spending the last year on the painful processes of pedalboard redevelopment and electric guitar projects i've realized that i'm exhausted with electric guitar for the time being. it's getting to where i don't like the sounds i'm hearing so lately i'm just playing acoustic and working with the bouzouki. i should figure out how to plug a bass into the stereo so i can play along with records, which i used to really enjoy. maybe a couple of weeks off will help.

[backwardsvoyager]

nothing too exciting, but I picked up a new EHX Nano Pulsar the other day and am really happy with it.
nice and compact, enough volume adjustment to use as a booster or underdrive, silent footswitch, shape knob makes it do nice throbby stuff... will make do v. nicely (for now... new tremolessence when??).

[alexsga]

new tremolessence when??).

+new chosmichorus when??

[cantremember]

incoming! was v.cheap

Nice! I wanna pick one of these up eventually.

[Deltaphoenix]

I picked up a Tascam Model 12 mixer/audio interface. It will be hooked up to an iPad Pro for recording over the next 8 months while staying in a cabin in the mountains of western NC.

[dubkitty]

i'm thinking about a small mixer again. as i gradually accumulate drum machines and drone devices--i'm really looking forward to the Stylophone drone synth which is supposed to ship any day now--it's only logical to try to run stuff together with the guitar system. i might have to start a series of loops etc. for guitar + other shit, because i've always had a rigorous guitar-only aesthetic for my loops. i plan to unpack my old Mac Mini music computer and use it to work on stuff, but i have to wait because i need a new corner desk to fit 2 workstations and the elevator in my building is out of service until June. as a result i can't order a new desk because i'm not schlepping a 60 or 70-pound package up to the 5th floor. maybe when i was in my 20s/30s, but not a chance today. i have a huge, bulletproof Behringer mixer i bought for DJ/production stuff, but it may be too big for the office and is definitely too big to set up with the gear in the living room.

there's a potential problem in that the more complicated things get, the more time- and space-consuming it is to set everything up. if i added a synth or used my huge Casio keyboard with its 6 or 700 sampled voices i'd have to set things up in a square or circle because the full guitar rig, which i assume i'd also be running the ancillary devices through/into, already is a 3-sided square or polygon. i don't think having keys suspended over the boards would be a good idea.

i'm also thinking about some kind of switching systems for the FEB and main board. it seems like the only way to eliminate the switch pops etc. is to have everything on but run through a silent switcher. it wouldn't have to be that complicated...for example, the main board could have switches for the EF, fuzz section, modulation section, tremolo section, delay section, and reverb section that switch off when i want to change devices in that section. i'm very reluctant to get spendy, though.

[edit: i did some research and it looks like the kind of switcher i need would be at least $400, which puts it firmly in Not Until The Other Shit Gets Paid off status. that’s for each board, FEB and big board, though the FEB could use a smaller/slightly cheaper unit because it only has only 4 modules: octave, dirt, modulation, reverb.]

[dubkitty]

spent some more time working with the Vintage Van Driving Is Very Fun OD. from the Animals product page it would appear to be a take on the Marshall Bluesbreaker. it’s very sensitive and needs careful adjustment of the tone control, but i got some good sounds in Boost and OD modes with the Jetstar. i’m going to use the Les Paul or WF which i’m much more familiar with than the Jetstar—which is still a work in progress and hasn’t gotten played much—to dial it in. i think this will go on the Normie Board; the fuzz section, which currently is Höfner Fuzz->Marshall Guv’nor II->Danelectro 3699, will get changed. it doesn’t do what the Distortion+ does so it can’t go on the main board.

the Guv’nor II is somewhat similar in sound to the Vintage Van…they share a kind of loose, grainy quality to the distortion. IIRC the Guv’nor is quite a bit more gnarly in its high-gain range and doesn’t get nearly as clean when backed down. i’ll have to evaluate whether they’re different enough to go together, and whether the Höfner Fuzz gets mean enough to fill the space between OD and Tone Machine. the 3699 could still get pulled…i love it, but it could be a bit much in Normie World. that’s a later-this-weekend thing, though.

the Strymon seems to really like even a small amount of dirt in the incoming signal, which makes the modulation more interesting and the mix more even. this is unusual with reverbs in my experience; e.g. the Soft Focus modulation and compression don’t really change with added crunch.

[Pepe]

incoming! was v.cheap

One of my favourite BOSS pedals.

If yours happens to be one from the very first production months, it will come with high-pitched noise. That can be removed with a small modification that is shown in the official service manual. Hit me up if you need help. Also calibrating the octave up and down modes could be necessary after so many years.