fretmeister

they are all different amps. All for guitar.

For some reason the octave effects (and other pitches) seem very difficult to get right in modellers. Helix has only just cracked it after 5 years. They seem to be very DSP heavy.

Tom Quayle's guitar demo (Ye gods that guy picks cleaner than Paul Gilbert does!)

I'd just insure them properly. No point in owning lovely things and then not using them fully. Proper insurance through Allianz or New Moon isn't expensive and is designed for gigging musicians with theft from cars and venues included.

Guitar to start. Pete Thorn's vid is expected later today as well. I'll keep updating this post as they appear on youtube. Hopefully be some bass ones soon. Sounding very good though! EDIT:

Brilliant things! Love mine.

I've been looking at vids of pick players and I was surprised to discover that several of the metal guys who use a pick didn't seem to bother with palm muting. Jason Newsted for example - his hand is hardly ever near the bridge even for parts where I would expect there to be lots of muting to go with the guitars. I don't know if that was just because of him inheriting Cliff Burton's bass parts and trying to keep the fingerstyle influence a little. There does seem to be a difference between live and studio though. When recording he's sitting and seems to be far closer to the bridge or actively muting. I'm currently trying to record a tune that I used to play finger style only and I keep changing my mind about not using palm muting at all or just sticking a little bit in. Ah well - keeps me busy I suppose!

I just had a quick look at the weights too. When the Specials came out a big thing was the new lightweight-ness. And yet a quick look at the few shops that show weights, they seem to be as heavy as the old ones now. Have they run out of lightweight wood? If the 4 strings are hitting 9-10lb with the lightweight approach then the wood must be heavier than before. There seemed to be plenty of 8lb ones when they launched and a few 7.5lb ones. More money and more weight. No thanks.

I will do that! I bought all 3 KXM albums, and the first Pinnick / Gales / Pridgen album. Only listened to the first KXM one so far.

To be fair it's not as frustrating as having to wipe my derrière with my left hand. That's just wrong! Annoyingly the volume control on my Sandberg gets in the way now - the splint knocks against it. I never use the mid control so I might remove that completely and move the vol, leaving the first hole empty, then have Vol / Bal / stacked treble and bass. I've also just discovered Dug's KXM side project. Very nice, haven't heard George Lynch for years!

I used to do a big band version of that. It was great fun.

Amazon are often cheaper than most. Not always so it pays to check each time. As long as they are purchased from Amazon themselves and not a reseller there is no trouble with fakes. No delivery fee if you have Prime.

Ibanez sell the 32 scale Mezzo 5 string with D'addarios.... and D'addario won't sell the medium scale B string to the public. Have to get a different brand even if you like what it came with. So yes, there is precedent for idiotic decisions by the makers.

Newtone will make any scale length you want. Great strings!

Something interesting I have discovered. Muscle memory is disrupted for my left hand when I use a pick in the right hand. The left hand isn't doing anything new at all, but it seems the right hand doing new stuff affects the left. I'm making mistakes with the left hand, sometimes even when the right hand has played without a mistake. Very odd!

Yes. I've made a YT playlist so I can play along to try and keep them in my head. I just need to start using it!

Many Fender Strats. And a couple of Status Energy’s with graphite necks.

It's more that the overheads are lower when running the identical CNC machines that they use everywhere.

The Ibanez Premium line are Indonesian made too. I've had a couple and they've been excellent.

When you forget the difference between "you're" and "your"? Sorry. I'm not normally a grammar nazi but that was too easy. Right in the title as well.

A little bit ancient Greek.

I got a new splint made after the last one was a bit tight and squeezing the finger too much. I've been playing a bit with a plectrum. I bought about 30 different ones to see what I liked including some non-trad ones to try and get a fingertyle tone. Leather ones were promising but the suede side is very 'grabby' on roundwounds. So I got a felt ukulele one and that is better. Main issue really is that to my ears it doesn't sound like me playing it now. "My" sound has always been fingers with a touch of thumb here and there. I have another month before the next assessment. Apparently that will involve gently removing the splint to see if the finger will stay straight (good sign for healing) or whether it curls up again. Then a decison on further splinting or supporting tape use if it's good news, or more splint time (starting again) or surgery if it's not healing. Fingers crossed (ahem).

Heretic alert. I haven't tried the TX version, but I have tried the regular one and the CB (and a boat load of others). I take the Boss BC-1X over the lot of them. [running for cover]

Office chair for writing and noodling. Easy to have a pen and pad ready for notes. Standing for reading practice though. I like to have the page at the same level all the time as if it was a big band gig. I do have my bass reasonably high though so it's in the same position whether I'm standing or sitting.

I'm wondering if Westside are now doing the distribution....