New Gear Acquisitions

[Dylan Thomas]

Did I tell you all that I had one of the those Chicago Iron replicas of the classic Tychobrahe Parawah made for me?

It's badass, and an amazing recreation of the original.  Apparently Tony Iommi has one of these as well, and he likes it better than the original he was using in the 70's.

[RAGER]

That's awesome. One of their Octavia's would be cool too.

Got a new guitar. Actually 2. Ha!  Stumbled on some YouTube videos of these Kramer Baretta Specials. For under $200!?!?  All of the videos are people raving about how good they are for the money and a great platform for mods. So I bought one. It came. I set it up quickly and agreed that yes it's a great guitar. So I bought another.

Total 80's shredder. One p/u one knob. I think I'll hard tail one and Floyd the other. There's a treble bleed cap on the volume for some dumb reason so there's no sweep at all. Just on off pretty much. Snip that off. Set it up and work the nut a bit or replace it with a Graph Tech. Change out the tremolo block with a beefier one and you're good.

Lot of people are changing out the bridge, pickup,tuners, volume pot, nut....  Even the frets?!?  Well there goes the cheap guitar. I'm not doing all that. Gonna try and work with what I have for the most part.




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[RAGER]

The other will be hot pink with maple neck too.


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[Danny G]

Bad ass.

Swapping the volume pots for better ones is a good idea if you use the volume knob at all. Cheap too. $12-15 for a good pot.


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[RAGER]

I've got some CTS 250k in stock.

[Danny G]

Sweet!


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[RAGER]

My other Baretta came today.

Here's both.


It's really hot pink.


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[RAGER]

All three of my cheap shredders.




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[Muffin Man]

very nice! Cool to see the reverse Washburn but those new ones have some serious paint colors. That red/pink one really pops. Good stuff.

[RAGER]

Yeah they're kinda silly but they were cheap and a good base. And it's fun to guys like us.
Got new trem blocks in the mail yesterday so I'll be doing those and pots today.
While I've got them apart I'll do some nut work and other stuff. Time for more coffee.

[mortlock]

rager i just watched the vid you did on the kramers. really cool.

[RAGER]

Oh rad!!  Thanks dude.

[RAGER]

Aaaaand don't forget to like,subscribe, and mash that notification button for all my latest bullshit.

[mortlock]

i was hoping you would play the blue one. im assuming they must sound different considering the body weight difference you mentioned.

[RAGER]

With that hot of pickup they don't sound much different but I like to play the pink one more cuz it's got some heft and density since I've been a Les Paul guy for so long.

[Pissy]

Cool rundown. 

Liked, subscribed, mashed, scattered, smothered, and covered. 

[Stonergrunge]

This is the Little Acid Fuzz, a clone of the 70's Little Big Muff...



It's not that different compared to my MJM London Fuzz but it's nice to have a slightly different flavor of fuzz.

[Pissy]

Bought a cheapo electronic drum kit for my kid  to learn on. Simmons SD600. 

It was an open box at GC. They had 4 of those boxes.  The brain module won't turn
on.   Took it back, dude there grabbed another, tried it in the store, same thing. 
The manual says to hook it up to all the pads to power it on, so he told me to take
it back and try doing that.  Fairly confident it wouldn't do the trick, I did and it still
doesn't work.  It's a soft switch that powers it on, and it turns off after 5 min of nothing happening.  I can't help but think there's something I'm missing.  But the manual isn't any help, and the internet I can't find anything either. 

Anyone run in to this?

[Muffin Man]

Looks like thier latest firmware is Aug 2020. https://simmonsdrums.net/downloads/
Might try a factory reset and/or re-install the firmware?

" * You can also reset the module to factory settings by holding + and – while turning the power on "

another thought - maybe it has a watch/button battery inside that went dead. I've got some gizmo around here where if the batt goes the circuit wont work.

[Pissy]

Not sure how I could load the firmware without power to the unit.  Perhaps phantom power on the usb port.  I'll check into that.


Tried the reset, no dice.  Not going to crack the case open to look for a button battery while I can still return it. 


Thanks though, those are good ideas. 

[Muffin Man]

ok well, here's hoping for a new solution.

[Pissy]

Little 9v power supply was tge issue. 

Last night dude tried a one spot in its place, didn't work.  Today, different dude tried an oem power supply.  Did the trick.

[Muffin Man]

Good deal.
A synthesizer module or two I've bought lately came with the bog standard wall wart, OEM, and noise was an issue. Common issue with cheapo units. Calling the builder/designer resulted in recommendation for upgraded part number. Meanwell brand is often mentioned as an upgrade - $25 wall wart or line-lump but quieter/better audio. A thread I've been following has guys chasing medical grade supplies for the black backround etc.

[RAGER]

Wrong polarity? 

[Pissy]

I wouldn't think the bad OEM, but perhaps that one spot was the other way from the OEM.