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aberdeen-music

New gear 2010


Old Gold

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  • 2 weeks later...

Unless you count strings and picks I am still to buy any gear this year.

Going to be getting a few pedals in the near future.

Still deciding whether it's worth spending the extra on a Keeley modded Blues Driver vs the original Boss BD-2. I'm slightly leaning towards the standard Boss pedal at the moment.

I also plan to get another electric guitar this year but not yet sure what I'll end up getting.

I've got a Budda Wah on order also.

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Guitar product companies always have the wussiest rivalries imaginable for some reason. It's a bit like the wrestling, except with barely distinguishable mp3s of shit guitar solos.

I read one where a Fender guy on their board went raj, cos someone said they were going to put a Callaham bridge on a CS relic, funnily enough they don't say anything about sub-CS bridges vs Callaham, just the 2 grand stuff.

Didn't Wizard used to be based near the Broch or something, I might have bought something on a local connection at some point, but they are in Wales now.

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Well, it's taken me THREE YEARS (!), but I've finally finished my project guitar.

It started off as a a blonde Squier 51, like this one, although this is not my actual guitar:

bs51a.jpg

I bought it just before the birth of my son on the flimsy premise that I couldn't risk leaving any of my good guitars around the house with a kid on the go, so I needed a cheap one. I also thought it would be good to mod it and fix it up and then give it to him once he was old enough to play.

And now it's done. The Fender Mattocaster.

20344_293646242363_573972363_3299767_4643157_n.jpg

My memory's a bit hazy on some of these, but I'll do my best. One of the first things I did was get a custom decal made:

20344_293646272363_573972363_3299768_2510757_n.jpg

I'm not a brand snob and it still says Squier on the neckplate so I'm not trying to fool anybody, but I just thought it would be funny to call it a Fender Mattocaster. Squier Mattocaster doesn't have the same ring to it somehow.

Next was the control panel. The original 51 has two rotary knobs, one for volume and one to select the pickup. The pickup selection knob was particularly retarded, as it meant you couldn't look to see what pickup was selected. So that got ditched and replaced with a Les Paul style toggle, placed horizontally so you can't knock it accidentally while playing. The volume knob got replaced with a Gretsch style knob. This was a practical point, although I like the Gretsch aesthetics too. The volume knob has a coil split in it, and the stock knob kept coming off in my hand (oo-er). Gretsch knobs have a screw to attach them on, so they are perfect for this application.

20344_293646312363_573972363_3299769_1366735_n.jpg

Next up was the pickups. I initially bought a used Seymour Duncan JB Jr cheap off ebay for the neck. When it arrived I realised it was actually a bridge pickup, but thought I would give it a go anyway.

I got lucky with this pickup. My preference on guitars is for twangy bridge pickups and darker neck pickups. As this was designed for a bridge it is generally less bright. It has a high output too, meaning that I still got a very good conventional Strat style neck tone when split.

Bridge pickup was more problematic. I initially tried a passive EMG but wasn't pleased with that at all. At this point the guitar went into one of it's many periods in my cupboard due to frustration, boredom or lack of funds, and during the intervening period, technology overtook me, and Seymour Duncan released the P-Rails pickup and the Triple Shot mounting ring.

The P-Rails pickup combines 4 tones in one pickup:

P90

Rail (a strat type tone)

Humbucker serial

Humbucker parallel

The Triple Shot mounting ring is a very clever device that incorporates mini switches into an ordinary humbucker mounting ring, meaning that if you have any humbucker with four wires connected to it you can get 4 tones out it without doing any drilling or installing switches to your guitar. Brilliant. So I went for both of them.

20344_293646322363_573972363_3299770_3739964_n.jpg

This setup gives me 14 different tones out of the two pickups, namely

1) JB Jr

2) JB Jr split

3) JB Jr and series humbucker

4) JB Jr and parallel humbucker

5) JB Jrand P90 coil

6) Little '59 and rail coil

7) JB Jr split and series humbucker

8) JB Jr split and parallel humbucker

9) JB Jr split and P90 coil

10)JB Jr split and rail coil

11) Series humbucker

12) Parallel humbucker

13) P90 coil

14) Rail coil

20344_293640962363_573972363_3299764_2858247_n.jpg

Finally, the bridge and I went for, you guessed it, a Bigsby, specifically a B50. My old man helped me install it. Bridge wise I love the simplicity of a "bar" style bridge so I bought one off an old 60s Japanese guitar on ebay.

20344_293653702363_573972363_3299773_4085825_n.jpg

So all in all it's been tougher than I expected but rewarding and good fun for sure. Still playing about with the tones and stuff and I'll need to get it cranked up with a band to find out what it's really made off but I did some recording with it this week and it sounded good. :)

20344_293653747363_573972363_3299774_4236855_n.jpg

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Oh, and I meant to say, the Triple Shot Mounting Ring came in a two pack, but I only used one, so I have a spare for sale at 20. If you have any 4 wire humbucker, this will get you 4 tones without requiring any modification to your guitar. :)

Hey bigsby, I will take this if its still available.PM me please with your details and I can arrange to meet you. Cheers

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  • 3 weeks later...
I really hope you aren't actually bad at guitar, because playing this might prove difficult.

It's just a mess around and experiment thing really, maybe record when I get some gear for doing so. I've got a 6 string that will probably still be most commonly played, cos I love the neck so much. The biggest problem is the scale length (28.625") cos I don't have massive hands so it's a bit of a stretch for chords, but should get used to it.

Even if I actually was amazing at guitar, I wouldn't say it :p I'm not stupid enough to think I am though. I've always assumed the word 'talent' meant some form of exceptional ability that few possess, and that's not the case. It's just a hobby!

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Don't really understand the point in 8 string guitars really. Just take a 7 string and tune it down.

Assuming you want to tune ridiculously low (let's say F standard, which is) your high E string is still going to be an Bb, which isn't really that low.

And I'm yet to see or hear ANYONE play super-low tuned djent music do anything constructive with the high strings at all, never mind the high strings beyond the 18th fret.

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Got myself some new mics. An Audio Technica AT4033a, a Sennheiser MD421. Antares Autotune Evo, Pace iLok. Steven Slate Drums with 3 packs. Korg tuner

Sounds good man... did you get your 421 for cheap? Those things are wicked but very pricey for essentially a slightly different SM57!

I'd highly recommend Massey Tapehead plug-in for vocals (and other things). High-end plug-ins for Pro Tools

Awesome plug-in and super cheap.

The Massey L2007 limiter and CT4 compressor is also very highly rated.

You can demo them all for free, but you'll want to buy them in the end because they are very good but the fact that you can't use them in bypass mode on the demo versions is annoying (and fair enough seeing they are free!)

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