Latest gear you've acquired.....

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MoreSpaceEcho
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Wed Mar 08, 2023 6:34 am

It's just the action of the bar, the way it bends the notes, the way it sits in your hand. You can't do dive bombs on it, it doesn't have that much travel, but that makes it great for doing subtle stuff, gentle vibrato on chords, that sort of thing. And of course, the now-classic Kevin Shields style chord bending can only be done with the JM trem IMO, I could never get it sounding right with any other trem.

No one asked but here's a quick rundown of all the other trems we have in the house:

American strat 2 point: came with the hipshot tremsetter, which is nice, but it makes the action really stiff and clunky. The screw-in bar sucks, there's too much slop to make doing anything subtle any fun, I basically never use it

Gotoh 510 2 point: a zillion times better, slot in arm works great, no slop

Vintage strat 6 screw: i hate the vintage style saddles but this trem on mrs mse's mexi strat works just fine, no complaints

Floyd: only acceptable on shredder style guitars, and I was biased against them, but I've come to love them, they really work great. You can do stupid stuff with them all day long and not go out of tune, it's nice. Setting them up is also much easier than people think, you just need to get used to them.

Had a Gretsch with a Bigsby here for a minute, it looked cool but I didn't get on with it.

Oh and active pickups are just fine so long as it's an EMG 81 *palm mutes crushing power chords*

kslight
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by kslight » Wed Mar 08, 2023 8:40 am

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
Wed Mar 08, 2023 6:34 am
It's just the action of the bar, the way it bends the notes, the way it sits in your hand. You can't do dive bombs on it, it doesn't have that much travel, but that makes it great for doing subtle stuff, gentle vibrato on chords, that sort of thing. And of course, the now-classic Kevin Shields style chord bending can only be done with the JM trem IMO, I could never get it sounding right with any other trem.

No one asked but here's a quick rundown of all the other trems we have in the house:

American strat 2 point: came with the hipshot tremsetter, which is nice, but it makes the action really stiff and clunky. The screw-in bar sucks, there's too much slop to make doing anything subtle any fun, I basically never use it

Gotoh 510 2 point: a zillion times better, slot in arm works great, no slop

Vintage strat 6 screw: i hate the vintage style saddles but this trem on mrs mse's mexi strat works just fine, no complaints

Floyd: only acceptable on shredder style guitars, and I was biased against them, but I've come to love them, they really work great. You can do stupid stuff with them all day long and not go out of tune, it's nice. Setting them up is also much easier than people think, you just need to get used to them.

Had a Gretsch with a Bigsby here for a minute, it looked cool but I didn't get on with it.

Oh and active pickups are just fine so long as it's an EMG 81 *palm mutes crushing power chords*
I have a (factory) bigsby attached to a guitar I love. The look is cool but the functionality seems pointless especially for a non jazz oriented guitar…I don’t need dive bombs but this is just silly subtle. I get much stronger bend just with my fingers. I grab the wiggle stick and I’m just like…is this even doing anything? (That’s what she said…vvv)

I have a mustang rocking bridge on a jagstang…that is quirky and required setup and custom posts my tech fabricates to make the guitar functional without just stopping the whole thing down or replacing with an aftermarket bridge.

A few guitars with different 2 point type trems…these all seem fine for my use without negatively affecting the guitar.

And one jm style trem….it works after setup but for me I couldn’t see the advantage compared to the 2 point setup.

Actives are okay, these are just the Squier brand. They seem fine as a contrast to every guitar I have. I don’t hate them. I don’t know how they compare to EMG as I’ve never had anything but basses with actives.

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Wed Mar 08, 2023 9:44 am

Just want to step in to defend the bigsby. I have one on pretty much every electric that I own. It's the only trem that works for me. I like it so much that I put one in my strat.
You can't dive bomb and the effect might be subtle compared to others but for me it's just right. I have a hard time playing lead lines without one in my hand.

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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Wed Mar 08, 2023 11:10 am

A.David.MacKinnon wrote:
Wed Mar 08, 2023 9:44 am
I have a hard time playing lead lines without one in my hand.
That's how I feel about the JM trem, I have it in my hand even if I'm barely using it. My experience with Bigsbys is really limited but I feel like every one I've encountered, I could never actually get the bar in a position where I could strum/pick with it in my hand, I always had to reach for it. But obviously this must not always be the case, yeah?

It's been fun learning how to be subtle with a Floyd. Def took some practice! But barely breathing on it sounds great for gentle vibrato on chords.

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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by vvv » Wed Mar 08, 2023 4:46 pm

I saw that, kslight, and I'm ... happy for you? Or mebbe sad ...? :lol:

I have a buncha guitars, with a buncha whammy's - I even have a first edition Rose mounted onna Kramer Rhodes V-type - the whammy is worth more than the guitar.

My faves are the Bigsby, for what I appreciate is it's kinda Neil Young sloppiness, and the Mascis Jizzmaster, which feels instinctive to me.

I do like the G&L knife-edges a lot, find 'em almost stable.

I don't often dive-bomb, me.

I will say that other than the two above, all of mine have the locking nut on upside down (if they have one) and none raise up - they basically only go down. What, kslight, is what she said, yep. :twisted:
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Scodiddly
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by Scodiddly » Thu Mar 09, 2023 5:34 am

Last time I owned a guitar with a whammy bar it was a 90's Strat with I guess a Wilkinson thing. Eventually I just left the bar off permanently and would wedge my fingers under the back of the bridge (ala Junior Brown) to get a little movement. I had mine blocked to only go down as well.

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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by drumsound » Mon Mar 13, 2023 7:18 am

You guys are reminding me I can't find the bar for my MIM Strat.

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digitaldrummer
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by digitaldrummer » Mon Mar 13, 2023 11:06 am

it was a Stratocaster with a whammy bar...
(Turn it down!)
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by drumsound » Tue Mar 14, 2023 9:58 am

digitaldrummer wrote:
Mon Mar 13, 2023 11:06 am
it was a Stratocaster with a whammy bar...
(Turn it down!)
Niiiiiiiice

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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by vvv » Tue Mar 14, 2023 2:52 pm

In wang-bar speak (a/k/a, "wankage") that would be, N^i^i^i^i^ce~~~
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A.David.MacKinnon
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:31 am

A.David.MacKinnon wrote:
Thu Feb 16, 2023 12:03 pm
As per my other post, I just picked up a pair of the Monoprice active ribbon mics. I resisted as long as I could but at $49 each I finally caved. My first impressions are really good. The come in a nice steel suitcase virtualy identical to the one the my 414s came with. There's a pop filter and a shock mount. The shock mount is the terrible one that comes with every off shore condenser mic but I'm hard pressed to complain given the price. The build quality feels solid.
So far I've tried it out as a front of kit mic and on classical guitar. The output is plenty hot and it sounds good. Maybe not as good as my more expensive ribbons but still really good. There's a ton of lows but the highs aren't as rolled off as I might have expected. It's fairly even sounding. On classical I had to engage the high pass filter but that might come down to placement.
I bought these imagining they'd get used as permanently installed room mics (right now I have a pair of oktava mk219s doing that). Now I'm not so sure. I'm going to leave them on stands for a few weeks and see if I change my mind.
I just wanted to update this post now that I've had some time with these. The verdict is that these things are pretty damn decent. I just did an acoustic session (6 string, 12 string and a singer) and ended up using it an a slightly thin sounding 12 string. I boosted the highs a bit and it sounded great. It added tons of body to a not so great sounding guitar. I also used it on my classical on the EP I posted about in the RPM Challenge thread. Great results there too. Both of those are reasonably quiet sources and any self noise from the mic was negligible (don't let the tape hiss on the classical EP fool you).

For anyone interested Monoprice is blowing these out at $27 a piece. If you use the code march15 you save $4. They keep swinging between being out of stock/discontinued and available so it's worth checking again if you don't succeed.

kslight
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by kslight » Mon Mar 20, 2023 11:13 am

A.David.MacKinnon wrote:
Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:31 am
A.David.MacKinnon wrote:
Thu Feb 16, 2023 12:03 pm
As per my other post, I just picked up a pair of the Monoprice active ribbon mics. I resisted as long as I could but at $49 each I finally caved. My first impressions are really good. The come in a nice steel suitcase virtualy identical to the one the my 414s came with. There's a pop filter and a shock mount. The shock mount is the terrible one that comes with every off shore condenser mic but I'm hard pressed to complain given the price. The build quality feels solid.
So far I've tried it out as a front of kit mic and on classical guitar. The output is plenty hot and it sounds good. Maybe not as good as my more expensive ribbons but still really good. There's a ton of lows but the highs aren't as rolled off as I might have expected. It's fairly even sounding. On classical I had to engage the high pass filter but that might come down to placement.
I bought these imagining they'd get used as permanently installed room mics (right now I have a pair of oktava mk219s doing that). Now I'm not so sure. I'm going to leave them on stands for a few weeks and see if I change my mind.
I just wanted to update this post now that I've had some time with these. The verdict is that these things are pretty damn decent. I just did an acoustic session (6 string, 12 string and a singer) and ended up using it an a slightly thin sounding 12 string. I boosted the highs a bit and it sounded great. It added tons of body to a not so great sounding guitar. I also used it on my classical on the EP I posted about in the RPM Challenge thread. Great results there too. Both of those are reasonably quiet sources and any self noise from the mic was negligible (don't let the tape hiss on the classical EP fool you).

For anyone interested Monoprice is blowing these out at $27 a piece. If you use the code march15 you save $4. They keep swinging between being out of stock/discontinued and available so it's worth checking again if you don't succeed.

I do think these are gone now, you can’t even search for the item on monoprice anymore.

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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by KermitPickle » Thu Mar 23, 2023 1:27 pm

kslight wrote:
Mon Mar 20, 2023 11:13 am
I do think these are gone now, you can’t even search for the item on monoprice anymore.
They seem to be sold out everywhere except Amazon which has them at $88 apiece. Guess I missed the boat on these.

There are a number of complaints in the amazon reviews about QC problems & noisy electronics, did anyone here get a bad one?

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Thu Mar 23, 2023 6:03 pm

KermitPickle wrote:
Thu Mar 23, 2023 1:27 pm
kslight wrote:
Mon Mar 20, 2023 11:13 am
I do think these are gone now, you can’t even search for the item on monoprice anymore.
They seem to be sold out everywhere except Amazon which has them at $88 apiece. Guess I missed the boat on these.

There are a number of complaints in the amazon reviews about QC problems & noisy electronics, did anyone here get a bad one?
Mine are fine. No noise or build issues. I got them when they were $50 each and even at that my expectations where low. I've been pleasantly surprised

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Scodiddly
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Re: Latest gear you've acquired.....

Post by Scodiddly » Sat Apr 01, 2023 8:40 am

Freebie from a live sound company garage sale, a pair of old BSS Soundweb 9088ii units. Meant for clean audio processing, speaker management, etc. Drag & drop modular audio!

The question is, can I use them for creative purposes? First challenge, guitar effects. Even something as simple as tremolo will be a challenge.
Soundweb.jpg
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