MarkScudder

So yeah, I'm not a girl (at least not the last time I checked), but can I weigh in on the shoe thing?

 

No? Okay, here I go :-)

 

Who thought that this whole flip-flop thing was a good idea? Not just the cheap-ass flip-flops both sexes wear in the summer, but these "dress flip-flops" too, shoes that are basically a sole with some stringy bits that go over the foot?

 

Like, I was in a mall a few weeks back (maybe that's my problem right there) and there was like like 70yo woman wearing these dress flip-flops, and it was so gross, because you could see every vericose vein and her toes pointed in all different directions... and it didn't even look comfortable, and it certainly wasn't comfortable for me!

 

Which begs the question... if this is about vanity, or about looking good, when did people's opinion change on feet? I could've sworn the general concensus on feet were that they were gross.

 

NB: I'm not a foot fetishist... in fact a quick scan of foot-fetish sites on the Internet shows me that I couldn't even try to be one... because there are cute feet (just like there are cute anything) but they're few and far between... most of the chicks on foot-fetish sites have feet more like that 70yo woman I saw at the mall. That being said, there's something ultra-sexy about the right shoe on the right foot on the right leg attached to the right woman :-). But anyway...

 

Maybe I'm just getting old, but... I mean... some of these shoes these days can't possibly be comfortable... with all the straps and strings and all that... it seems to me like it would be like Japanese foot binding. What happened to a nice classic, comfortable, good looking shoe that covered the bottom of the foot (and thus if you're looking for people to notice you, actually leaves something to the imagination for the moment)? I don't know, most of this stuff these days is gross... and I only notice it for the same reason you wouldn't want a greasy plumber lounging around your living room with no socks or shoes... a lot of what I see out there is just absolutely gross.

 

And just while I'm on the subject, if it's hard to walk in normal heels (a shoe that actually contains and supports the wearer's foot), how can these things I'm seeing, that are basically a sandal with a freakin' HEEL, be a good idea? What is going on?

 

I hope nobody drags me out back and puts a stake in my heart for being old-fashioned, but that's how I feel... now somebody tell me, who decided that this stuff was cool?

QUOTE (CygnusX-1Bk2 @ Jul 18 2005, 09:27 PM)

I wouldn't call the Hughes and Kettners warm, nor creamy. They are hard and heavy. They definitely don't have that horrible thin sheen from the HYF days. That abomination was caused mostly by those crappy, no-tone Signature pieces of crap and solid state amps. Thank god he's playing Gibsons, Fenders and PRS guitars through tubes. Moving Pictures, now that's warm and creamy.

I've been playing guitar and bass for about 15 years, unfortunately not a lot of live gig experience due to having a totally craptastic music scene where I am, but I guess I learned how to make do... anyway here's what I have been using...

 

Main guitar is a 1998 Ibanez RG470. It's on its second Floyd Rose (because I broke ONE STRING SADDLE and nobody, from Ibanez dealers to eBay to junk shops to everyone in between couldn't sell me ONE STRING SADDLE so I ended up having to buy a whole new trem), and it's been upgraded with locking tuners and I've removed the locking nut. Once it's set up properly it can take being tuned here and there from the tuners (believe it or not) and it doesn't come out of tune. At this point I'd give anything to ditch it and get a Variax 700, but the money isn't happening at the moment.

 

For many years I played through a Korg/ToneWorks AX300G and it did literally everything I ever could've wanted. The unit did so much neat stuff, you just had to know how to program it. It had a truly fat, full, meaty sound to it and the distortions were second-to-none for a floor processor. I even got a lot of good DI tones from it even though this was before amp/cab modelers.

 

Last year I attempted to set up a system with my notebook computer, Native Instruments Guitar Rig, and a Behringer FCB1010 MIDI footcontroller. I really liked the flexibility - WHEN IT WORKED - and all told I spent a lot of money and I wasn't happy at all with the results. I ended up having my father (who likes little projects like this) build me a nice wooden case for the entire thing; mounted the FCB1010 to it, held a small Behinger mixer, a rack space in which I stored a Behringer Composer ProXL Comp/Limiter (oh, the things you'll do when the tone doesn't sit right), but it was about 100 pounds, awkward to carry, and the setup time was a nightmare and nothing ever sounded right anyway. I ran it (and the Korg before it) through a Fender Ultra Chorus 2x65w stereo combo, but recently got rid of the amp because I wasn't playing out much anymore and modeling technology is getting nice these days anyway. I have a Marshall Valvestate 100W mono amp (with a 12AX7 in the preamp stage!) for those few times there's another human around. I still use Guitar Rig a bit just as an effect in a DAW if I really want to futz with tone, but...

 

Two weeks ago I bought a Line6 PODxt Live and I am absolutely infatuated with it. I can't even begin to rave about this thing, I don't know where to start. Nothing is perfect, but this thing is the pinnacle of technology out there right now. In addition to being technically amazing, it's also a very solid floor unit, and one thing I really like about it is, the one expression pedal on it is a switchable wah/volume. Use it as a volume pedal until you need the wah, then put it forward all the way and step hard on it (like you were turning on a traditional wah) and it switches over to the wah mode. Switch it off when you're done and it's back to being a volume pedal. It can also be set up to act as an expression controller for *any* parameter in *any* effect or model on the processor. So, say, you have a Boss DM-2 (delay) set up, you can actually assign the pedal to delay time, and rock it back and forth between 10ms and 2 seconds delay time, and you get all those ultra-fat sweeping tones as the delay time changes. (I use this particular example because it's not something you'd ever do, which is the point about its flexibility.) It's absolutely sick. In fact about the only thing it doesn't emulate is a Digitech Whammy pedal, but that's more of a curiosity with me than a necessity.

 

Oh also, for you computer-recording freaks out there, the unit has a USB2 connector which not only lets you edit patches (in real time - try it while someone else is playing through the unit, you'll freak them out!), but functions as a low-latency, ASIO-2-compliant, full-duplex 48k/24bit freakin' SOUND CARD. You can record straight from it, or the trick I like is, load up some practice mp3s in Winamp and set the sound card to the POD and it sends music through it, and you can play along and it all comes through the POD's headphone jack. Asbolutely amazing. Full MIDI in/out, though I can't imagine ever using it with all the other options available to me.

 

I play some bass too; I have a Fender Bassman 100 combo but I think I'm going to ditch it and start going through the PA if I ever play out with it, after I adapt some presets on the PODxt Live for bass. My one and only bass is a '94 Ibanez SR506 6-string bass... it was black with gold hardware, but the original owner got brave one day, stripped the paint, and put a nice dark finish on it... and this was all a few years before Ibanez started making natural-finish basses. I always get compliments on it. Now if people only concentrated on the playing we'd be getting somewhere :-).

 

I don't have a particular affinity to Ibanez products; I got the bass second hand and I started playing Ibanez guitars because there was a point where I thought I was John Petrucci (guess what? I was wrong!). They do offer fair quality at a fair price, but God help you if you ever need parts for one of their Korean-made products. I'd like to own a Floyd Rose Fat Strat but most strats without a Floyd go out of tune when you look at them. (Maybe not the American Strats but I can't afford a $1500 guitar right now.) I'd also love to get some hands-on time with a Floyd Rose Discovery, because it seems like a really neat concept but I don't think I'd order one without getting my hands on one first.

 

Honestly, my next guitar will very likely be a Schechter. I have a friend who has two S1+'s and he's very happy with them. They finally offer a Schechter with a non-fixed bridge (can you tell I play a lot of Rush in my spare time?) which was the reason I hadn't gotten one yet. Good, solid guitars with great sound and what seems like a good, American-based company behind them.

 

Of course, doing more recording than playing out, I am absolutely drooling over the Line6 Variax guitars (especially the acoustic one... jesus what technology!). I may have to start playing the Lottery because even if I could free up maybe 5 grand I'm telling you, it would all go to Variaxes.

Sick... absolutely sick.. sending that to everyone I know... there's a little Portnoy in it here and there... that's one video I'd like to see... Portnoy watching this.

Oh and the Rush tab site is great; one thing though, have the guy that runs your server change the MIME type for .tab files (he'll know what I'm talking about) to a plain-text type format... that way the tabs will open in my browser window instead of prompting me to open them in a program. You can always right-click and "Save As..." if you're going to keep them, but just browsing is a pain having to deal with extra dialogs (and for some reason Firefox won't remember that I want to open them in Notepad).

QUOTE (pete @ the old guy,Jun 16 2005, 11:12 PM)

QUOTE (invisibleairwaves @ Jun 14 2005, 07:12 PM) QUOTE Speaking of which, every tab site has told me that the opening chord of The Big Money is an E chord, but it doesn't sound right. I may be playing it wrong though. Any suggestions? The Big Money is tuned up a full step to F#-B-E-A-C#-F#. That's only half of it. Big Money is in the key of B, not E, but the first chord you'd play on an appropriately-tuned guitar (that is, one step up, or Capo 2) is A (which sounds as B because you're tuned a whole step up). And you can't just transpose it on a standard-tuned guitar, because Alex is making liberal use of harmonics, which will only sound right if the guitar is tuned up or you have a capo on.   I used to play it with a capo sometimes, or a pitch-shifter on my old processor if i could stand it... becuase the less I have to tune my guitar (which has a crappy korean Ibanez Floyd Rose knockoff), the better :-).   I remember showing a guitar-playing friend of mine the Big Money solo on the ASOH video when we were both, like, 17. I'll never forget the look on his face, it was like, "you can DO that??" and he immediately ran downstairs and got his guitar and it was like, he finally knew what a whammy bar was for.

QUOTE (Riv @ May 30 2005, 12:02 AM)

QUOTE (Drumnut @ May 29 2005, 08:23 PM) For that kind of money check these out:www.musiciansfriend.com That's a good deal, maybe! But, I know you get what you pay for, however, I just really want something to keep my chops up other than my legs and a practice pad. I saw some sick Hart kits on musiciansfriend....the one that was $2500 with the realistic looking Cymbals. Mmm. I just don't know. I guess I could just spend the $500 and use the rest on the Ukranian hookers. Forget electronic drums... if anything's going to give you a repetitive stress injury it's going to be those Ukranian hookers!

QUOTE (CaptainG @ Jul 6 2005, 04:40 AM)

I think the hardest song on Guitar is Working Man. Mainly because I've never been able to get the solo . Then again, cats probably play better guitar than I do.

QUOTE

Lately he's been using the Hughes and Kettner tube amp heads and TC Electronic G-Force multi-effects. I'm not sure if he just pushes his heads to get the drive out of them or uses the distortion from his multi effects. He's changed his rig a few times over the years but as far as I know this is what he uses now to get his distortion. My guess is he gets his Overdrive through his amps by driving the tubes. I found that to be the best way to get good raw distortion, but he may use his effects processor to get the distortion he likes, I seriously doubt it.