EliasMooseblaster

I am also very fond of my HT-1, and I I got an opportunity to compare it with the HT-5 in a shop. I was just after something for home practise and recording, as I wasn't gigging on guitar at the time, so I saved my pennies and plumped for the 1W; under different circumstances I might have been more tempted by the 5W. Both are good for doing high gain stuff, but I was mainly looking for something which could do a could "clean-going-into-breakup" tone, and they were good for that. Worth trying the HT-5 before buying if you can - they have "a sound," and it can be a bit divisive. Also worth bearing in mind that they're hybrids - I forget which way round it is, but either the preamp or power stage contains the valve, while the other is solid state.

Is that the feller from King King? I thought he looked fairly hefty even from the back of the Shepherd's Bush Empire. Mind you, if you think a Strat looks small on him, you should look up Buddy Whittington. Go on; I'll wait.

The level of influence you have often depends on the makeup of the band. If it's just three instruments (guitar, bass, drums being the usual example), then as long as you're audible, you have a chance to take control. I've played in bands where everyone's been perfectly good at playing in time with each other, but the drummer's had a tendency to tense up a bit - whether due to stage fright, or "mic fright" in the studio - and they've counted songs in far too fast, or been playing ahead of the beat. In these circumstances, you play a bit harder, maybe simplify the bassline a bit if necessary, and really emphasise where the accents should be. Almost, if you like, play passive-aggressively behind the beat, and if the drummer's actually listening to everyone around them, they will fall in line. It's easy to blame drummers, but they aren't solely responsible for the tempo of a song. Nor should they get the final say over it!

I hear good things about the Hotone. I haven't tried one myself, but I recently got my hands on one of their B Station preamp + DI pedals, and I've been rather impressed by that. The headphone socket was a massive plus for me too! Haven't tried it in a rehearsal or live setting, but for home practise and recording it's been very useful.

That's the point where it becomes a defence mechanism, as you can no longer sit upright, let alone muster the motor skills to type in your card details...

At the risk of sounding unimaginative, I keep finding myself going back to my Schecter. The passive Model T is still one of my all-time favourites. I can't quite work out whether Shecter have discontinued them in favour of the newer active model, but anyway: one of those passive ones, maybe with a second P pickup in the bridge instead of the J. And maybe both pickups reversed. I'm easy to please.

It would rather take the shine off an otherwise enjoyable evening.

I couldn't agree more! Where did the myth come from that one has to do a slew of these kind of gigs to "make it"? I mean, sure, we all end up doing them, it's probably a bit of a rite of passage in learning how to deal with public rejection and soldier on, but I've met far too many people who seem to think there's something noble in playing to the bar staff for no money. There just seems to be a philosophy - not universal, but certainly widespread - that it's part of the long road to success, that driving from London to Leeds and back again, in the pouring rain, to play to an audience that's smaller than the band, will prove to be "worth it", because there will be "more people next time", because if you're really good, that one distinerested punter and his dog will definitely "tell all their mates." No, they bloody won't. One of them is alone in a bar for a reason (grateful as you are for their support), and the other one is a dog. It's part of the very short road to exhaustion and cynicism.

The nuclear option: stop gigging.

Ah, reminds me of the days when active basses were petrol-powered; none of that namby-pamby 9V battery stuff you get these days...

Ah, I thought to mention the other two as I was aware of Gilbert being a (former?) member of Mr. Big, and Vai being a regular member on Joe Satriani's "G3" tours. The preference over which cohort to listen to is, of course, very much down to one's personal taste.

Fixed...

Oh good god, I didn't realise that was put out as an album. I'd stumbled across a handful of tracks from that session on various compilations, and they are...pretty awful. Morrison definitely sounds half-cut. The rambling guitar work on the title track suggests Jimi is on a different planet from the rest of the band.

I can't say I'm a fan of either participating artist, but based on everyone's comments so far, I had to give it a try, out of morbid curiousity. Bugger me. I think the following comment under the Youtube video summed it up nicely: "ST. ANGER: I'm the worst Metallica album ever LULU: HOLD MY BEER"

I've long suspected the problem is that these groups just don't have a great writer among them. Your Billy Sheehans, Paul Gilberts, Steve Vais, etc., are incredibly accomplished instrumentalists, but are they necessarily the people you'd want writing the songs that your supergroup is going to play? The Brian Wilsons, Pete Townshends, Ray Davieseses of the world weren't necessarily the best musicians in their groups, but they knew how to write a good tune and had groups who were prepared to let them lead on the writing. I say this not to suggest that good writing is mutually exclusive from impressive musicianship; more to suggest that a lot of these supergroups overlook what made their original bands worth listening to in the first place.

I think you'll find that the coats, cupboard door, and mat, have been very strategically placed to minimise room reflection and improve the audio capture of his phone camera's tiny microphone.

Do Rainbow count? What with the original lineup featuring Ritchie Blackmore, Cozy Powell, Ronnie James Dio and...erm...the other two.

Quite. The author has completely neglected to highlight the instrument's exceptional natural "heft."

My first thoughts exactly. That chap needs to have one of his colleagues play him something featuring James Jamerson, something featuring Larry Graham's early slap playing, and then either some late '60s Who or some Stranglers. Keep a camera handy in case his head explodes.

The "Felonious Spunk" of guitar manufacture?

I swore by them for a number of years - probably about 13 or 14 years, in fact, after owning a succession of their amps. They were affordable, sturdy, and versatile. If they'd made a smaller and more affordable valve bass head, I'd probably still be using them. They didn't, so I defected to Ashdown, but it's always good to hear that Laney are still turning out decent gear and looking after their customers. (And if I ever find myself playing more lead guitar live, I have their "Cub" series of guitar amps bookmarked in my browser...)

Insufferable and pretentious as he often comes across (especially in more recent years...), you couldn't really accuse him of grinding through the usually cliches: I am the son, and the heir, of a shyness that is criminally vulgar... from the same - at least it's different. No team of nine lyricists trained in manufacturing chart hits is likely to come up with something comparable.

I am utterly convinced of the veracity of this hypothesis. For a brief phase in which one of my old bands started dropping into open mic nights, I saw more than my fair share of aspiring troubadours who'd decided that their "unique selling point" was best built around being an absolute wet blanket. Gingerly strumming through the four chords they'd mastered while shyly and sensitively opining what shy and sensitive souls they were. Just like all the others. By the end of the evening, the only way you could tell these affected termini campanarum apart was by the fret they put their capo behind to play the same four f**king chords as the last one. And oh, how the fashions shifted - the second Pete Doherty's slack-jawed, fat-tongued mockney vocal style was prominent on the radio, every wet blanket at these godforsaken evenings squelched onto the same sodden bandwagon, and supplemented their same set of inane wimperings about how they'd love the object of their desires to bring them Lemsip while they were holed up in their bedrooms with a sniffle, by delivering them in the manner you might expect if (god forbid) Jamie Oliver decided to start a singing career.

Yeah, I went back to the Brick listings after I saw this, and I noticed they offer a choice "at manufacturer's discretion" - so the default option is probably a Warm Stone substitute, but you can have a real 12AX7 if you ask. A bit cheeky, I agree!