The Official Guitar Thread

Yeah I'm generally not a fan of modelling stuff but the Katana is pretty dope. Having access to so many Boss effects is nice for someone that is still finding their sound.

Tried to record a quick cover of "Cody" by Mogwai (from their album Come On, Did Young) this morning. Took quite awhile to get a decent take. This take would have been perfect... Except my cell phone died at the start of the bridge before the last chorus. Got frustrated and gave up til later today / tomorrow, but here's a decent version minus the bridge and final chorus. ^_^ originally a post-rock song but I think it came out a little more shoegazey here

Ichu said:

LTD Eclipse guitars are a popular Les Paul style as well that has some contours that make it more comfortable than a traditional Les Paul. The LTD EC-256 gets recommended constantly on guitar forums.

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I almost got an LTD EC instead of my Kramer Assault until I realized the EC has the same 24.75" neck length that a regular Les Paul has. I like to tune down pretty far (1.5 steps down.... A baritone guitar is normally 2.5 steps below standard, for comparison) so the longer scale neck is what I went with. ECs are still pretty awesome guitars tho, I would like to own a 7 string EC someday. (Which I would keep in standard tuning)

Julian The Apostate said:

Fucking Django Saladfingers over here. Nice playing man, cool song.

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Thanks bruv

I actually had to restrain myself and force myself to play simpler leads lol, my first few takes I was shredding a bit too much and it wrecked the feel.

I should record stuff with improvised solos more often. One of my favorite things in the world is to set up a good loop and just go to town improvising over it til I get bored. Probably drives my neighbor nuts because sometimes I'll solo over the same loop for like 20-30 minutes lol. I always feel like I'm just sort of wanking rather than playing anything that anyone else would be interested in. Maybe that's just in my head tho.

So yeah I don't record solos nearly as often as I play them, but this recording has my favorite improvised soloing that I've put down on a decent recording. Guitar riff I wrote a little over a decade ago, well before I learned to improvise. Recorded this sometime last year. Some harmonica soloing in the middle too.


Whole thing is out of C# minor.

Julian The Apostate also if you like Django you might enjoy this gypsy jazz sorta thing I recently wrote on keyboard. Ignore the lyrics, total work in progress. I want the song to discuss how/why the Greek term "pharmakos" meaning "scapegoat" evolved to "pharmakeus" meaning "sorcerer or potion maker" and then to "pharmakon" which was a general term for any medicine, poison, or cosmetic. Still getting there tho as far as execution.


Chords and main melody were composed ahead of time but all the in-between is improvised in the moment. Goes back and forth between F# Lydian and F Phrygian Dominant... Which are only one note different from each other but it gives it that interesting northeast Mediterranean vibe to it.

I don't generally play very busy / shreddy music, but once in awhile I do. Felt like recording a video of one of my old instrumental pieces for a change. This one is a tribute to King Crimson's Robert Fripp and his music that he wrote in the whole tone scale, like "Fracture." I modernizeit a bit tho, with my use of a delay pedal for complex syncopation.

Most people that use a delay for syncopation use it for dotted eighths/sixteenths. My thought was -- why stop at dotted eighths? If the echo can fall between my second and third beat (1.5 eighths), then I can easily extend the delay time so that the echo falls between beats 3 and 4 -- (2.5 eighths, sometimes called a double dotted eight) or between beats 4 and 5 (3.5 eighths).

This one has my delay set for 3.5 eighths, roughly a second long echo. But I wrangle it by carefully constructing the composition so that the delay pedal isn't just an effect, but a constitutional part of the piece of music.

The riff at the end is pretty wild. I can't even play it as well as I wrote it haha. Gotta practice more. Probably sounds okay to y'all but I really want to tighten it up and get back to where my old chops were (haven't been practicing lately)

Anyway, hope you guys enjoy.

Any of you guys good with electronics? I've got a VFE Merman (built by Sean Romin of the old 90s band Schleprock, recently made some amps for the not-Josh Homme dude from QotSA) that needs a simple solder repair. My hands are too shaky due to my neuropathy, I know how to solder but I don't trust myself to do it on the small electronics like that. One or two solder points for the repair is all that's needed (depending on how you do it). Hoping to just be able to sell for a discount to someone who is willing to repair it.

I bought mine straight from him rather than through Reverb so I can't share the original listing for mine. But here's a listing for an identical pedal from him.


He uses all high quality electronics rather than the cheapo bulk Chinese electronics most "boutique" manufacturers use. Can definitely hear the difference.

Started working on a keyboard cover of "Have You Ever" by Offspring

pharmakos said:

Any of you guys good with electronics? I've got a VFE Merman (built by Sean Romin of the old 90s band Schleprock, recently made some amps for the not-Josh Homme dude from QotSA) that needs a simple solder repair. My hands are too shaky due to my neuropathy, I know how to solder but I don't trust myself to do it on the small electronics like that. One or two solder points for the repair is all that's needed (depending on how you do it). Hoping to just be able to sell for a discount to someone who is willing to repair it.

I bought mine straight from him rather than through Reverb so I can't share the original listing for mine. But here's a listing for an identical pedal from him.

VFE Merman clone | Reverb

Up for sale is a VFE Merman clone. All I can say is wow wow wow. It’s on my board and I’m building more. This pedal is made my hand, by me using only the best components available. To begin with, I use 95% or better carbon composition resistors from the 60’s and 70’s, otherwise I use NOS military...

reverb.com

He uses all high quality electronics rather than the cheapo bulk Chinese electronics most "boutique" manufacturers use. Can definitely hear the difference.

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Furthering this... I had Sean "socket" the clipping diodes on my Merman, so that I could hot swap in any diode I wanted. I have a couple dozen different pairs of diodes I've tried. But after swapping in and out so many diodes, one of the sockets broke off the board. The fix would either be putting a new socket onto the board (one solder point) or soldering diodes straight to the board (2-4 solder points, likely 4 if you go this route). Easy work for someone who doesn't have shitty shaky hands like me, could have done it in 20 minutes in my youth. If anyone wanted to buy it and keep the socket thing going, I'd also include all the diodes I have for it. Ranging from low vF Schottky diodes, to the original geraniums, to high vF silicon, and I'll even throw in some LEDs.