The Jam Room Blog Thread.

[Headshrinker]

Our guitarman's amp (a Matchless tube combo, revised a year ago, and outfitted with a new power supply) is causing trouble:

On day one, it functioned normally (for about three hours in a row). On day two, after 40 minutes of playing, it shut itself down. We turned it off, disconnected everything, and replaced the fuse. When we switched it on, it seemed to power up. But when we switched the standby-button to operate, it went down again.

We replaced the fuse, put the amp on 'operate', reconnected the power cable and switched it on. The amp went on, but as soon as we inserted the guitar jack, it autoshut down again.

I realise that this can have many causes, but how would you go about diagnostics?

[Mr. Foxen]

Check valves first. Order of most likely to fail: Rectifier, power, cathode follower (preamp) other preamp.

[Headshrinker]

Cheers, Mr. Foxen. I'll tell GuitarMan to work from there.

[liquidsmoke]

2 minutes into this I can't tell if it's awesome or horrible.

[jibberish]

2 minutes into this I can't tell if it's awesome or horrible.

his little guitar riff at 3:38 is cool.     you actually ask a really solid question.  skill/composition/tone are all most excellent. it seems well rehearsed since it is all over the map.

the question occurs just sitting there wondering what type of music is being played.  I hear basically everything.    it started with jazz infected country or something, then did little progressive and poppy and rock and just weird stuff.  sort of true fusion fusion, but it goes to fusion more than anything else I think  I think it is interesting. would I watch this once a week like king crimson...no. it comes off as a well orchestrated wank. ie novelty song.

there is another band something with McGee or w/e close in its name my son mentioned the other day. I cant remember, I have to call him. they would be the perfect warmup band to KC, and I don't think I have ever said that about any band before.
I really appreciate how nice quality the video part is too. very nice full screen.

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BA check this thread out on some bb. read the whole thing. he was trying to clean out some vocals and was looking for a reverse noise gate. at first no one understood and they first explained a noise gate, then, OH you want serious compression and a super hard cutoff limiter, heh.
the dude was very patient , then it got to those karaoke-izers that are supposed to remove vocals. finally he figured it out himself heh. awesome thread when you follow the thought pattern.

so here is my take:
1)-noise gate everything you want to keep. in other words set the threshold of the noisegate where it cuts the reverbed drums off right after the hit fades. I guess you want as close as that initial transient "tick" as you can get. samples make this possible too I think. a real drummer couldnt hug the threshold without dipping volume and gating one of the attacks.
2)-save this heavily gated track
3) invert this heavily gated track. now your surviving, non-gated(ie audible) drum attacks have their phase reversed
4) combine this phase reversed, gated track with a copy of the original.
5)if it works out, the phase reversed drum hits cancel the original ones. as soon as the phase reversed track hits the gated(silenced) parts, there is no cancellation and only the original track material BELOW the gate threshold is still there.

make sense?  I love when shit works out nice with common stuff. hats off to that rye guy in that thread heh.

edit: oh shit,
[james woods voice]
how about linking the thread there ace.
[/james woods voice]

http://www.studiotrax.net/forums/showthread.php?s=3269a7fa984a2bbc93c3a80bd7795ec3&t=49702&page=2

more edits: whoah whoah WHOAH! you have synth drums. I believe you can drum like drummer and dial up the volume of all hits to always exceed a threshold when it plays a hit sample. I think you actually have the best setup to human drum reverse noise gate drums, is what im saying. nice.

[Lumpy]

2 minutes into this I can't tell if it's awesome or horrible.

After only 4 minutes, I'd say that they are good musicians, with bad taste. Since they call their band The Aristocrats, maybe they know that?

[Lip]

2 minutes into this I can't tell if it's awesome or horrible.

I cant take those effects on the bass....lol

[Chovie D]

reminds me of danny gattons Redneck Jazz Explosion from the 70's and i can tell thse guys have heard that also.

[RacerX]

It reminds me even more of the Dixie Dregs.

[xayk]

I cant take those effects on the bass....lol

If you're curious about what you hate: http://www.metalsucks.net/2013/08/09/rigged-bassist-bryan-beller-the-aristocrats-dethklok-joe-satriani-steve-vai/

Danny Gatton is such a monster. I love that he's so closely associated with the Tele but played just as mean on a Paul.

Why hasn't anyone made a real documentary on Gatton yet? Great player, sad story.

[lordfinesse]

Danny Gatton is such a monster. I love that he's so closely associated with the Tele but played just as mean on a Paul. Why hasn't anyone made a real documentary on Gatton yet? Great player, sad story.

Agreed.

[Chovie D]

good call on the dreggs...I guess there was this whole kind of country fusion thing going on back then that I was oblivious too.

Ive never read this, but there is this book on gatton. amazing player for sure.
http://www.amazon.com/Unfinished-Business-Times-Danny-Gatton/dp/087930748X

[RacerX]

The Dregs are weird. Some stuff has heavy country/bluegrass influence; other stuff is more rockin'/jazzy/classically influenced. They are definitely one of my favorite fusion bands of all time.

Also, I'd love to have Steve Morse's FrankenTele; that axe sounds BADASS.

[the diddler]

Quit one of my bands today.  It's for the best- the snail's pace progress and general apathy of all the members was driving me insane, because we could be SO good when we'd get our shit together.  At least now I don't have to wonder who's not gonna show up for practice or come up with some lame story about blahblahblahblah.

[Chovie D]

not mico de noche is it? I really like what you guys do.

[the diddler]

yep- putting a fork in at least this version of the band.  We've been through so many different configurations over the past 12 years, it won't surprise me if me & the other main dude get it going again in some fashion at some point, but not likely with the other dudes in the current config.

bummer- i'd like to do a last show with this line up but I doubt that'll happen; if it did, not too many would care anyway

[Chovie D]

Sorry to hear that, 12 years is a long haul, resentments can build. Best of luck with whatever you do next. Sorry I didn't get to see you guys, my own fault tho....cheers

[the diddler]

Thanks man, we'll see what happens next- it's always something.....

[Lumpy]

How to coil cables so they unwind without kinks

[neighbor664]

How to coil cables so they unwind without kinks

Blows my mind how much trouble some people can have with this. I've had the same guitar cables (plus a few new ones) through a few decades. Why? Proper care! Meanwhile I've seen more than a few bandmates and contemporaries wind cables over their forearm and have to replace every few months. They blame shitty cables. Sure!

Shit, it would not surprise me if I have wound more cable than anyone here. Not trying to boast, just acknowledging that winding cable has actually occupied a considerable part of the last 15 years of my life.

[liquidsmoke]

reminds me of danny gattons Redneck Jazz Explosion from the 70's and i can tell thse guys have heard that also.

Whoa, this is turbo '70s country rock. I like it. Never heard these guys before.

[liquidsmoke]

It reminds me even more of the Dixie Dregs.

Countrified Wino sitting in for John McLaughlin 

This is good shit. Too much music!

[RacerX]

Chovie oughtta did this one:

Serious chicken pickin'.

[Lumpy]

Somebody's using my amps at the new practice space, or diddling with them. Controls are not where I leave them (and I cover the front face with lids). Who do I kill?

Almost bought a Fender American Standard PBass on Ebay tonight, but the seller couldn't specify build date ("2008 I think?"). Quick check of serial numbers was inconclusive, between 2007 and 2008. Apparently, quality shot up starting in 2008. So if anybody is looking to buy an American Standard Precision, get one built after 2008.

I've got a Japanese P Bass, it's a nice instrument but to straighten the neck, truss rod access requires removing the neck (or loosening the screws almost all the way). I don't wanna do that twice a year --  to make a long story short the weather fluctuations in NYC mean that a setup is warranted twice a year, I would guess. I would rather sell this bass to somebody who does their own setups, and doesn't mind (or enjoys) working on their own instruments. It's black/black with a maple neck, upgraded pickups, nice neck, classic PBass sound. Strung with flatwounds. Gonna cross-post this in the Sale thread, gotta check my purchase price (I bought it used, myself) but my price will be less.

[spookstrickland]

How to coil cables so they unwind without kinks

Blows my mind how much trouble some people can have with this. I've had the same guitar cables (plus a few new ones) through a few decades. Why? Proper care! Meanwhile I've seen more than a few bandmates and contemporaries wind cables over their forearm and have to replace every few months. They blame shitty cables. Sure!

Shit, it would not surprise me if I have wound more cable than anyone here. Not trying to boast, just acknowledging that winding cable has actually occupied a considerable part of the last 15 years of my life.

I hear ya, most of my cables are over a decade old.  only thing that kills them is when I step on them while I'm playing and it breaks the plug but that's an easy fix with a soldering iron.