The Jam Room Blog Thread.

[RacerX]

For you, a Silverface. Brutally loud: 100 or 135 watts, with only the slightest breakup when dimed. Low end should be tight as fuck.

Keep the master on 10 & don't use the push/pull distortion (if it has it).

So just any era Silverface 'Twin Reverb' head? How cheap do they come?

The Blackface was the one with the farty low end right?

It would be more accurate to say the Blackface era Twins are generally coveted b/c they break up a bit more. A good part of that is that they're "only" 80 watts. The rest is mostly "Pre-CBS" snobbiness.

EDIT: The Twin doesn't come as a head. The Dual Showman head from the same era is pretty close.

[liquidsmoke]

They don't seem to go for cheap cheap but I think 240 watts of tube amp might offer enough tight headroom for me: I have been told of the Peavey Classic 120/120 power amp. Also very curious about the Rock Master preamp.

Stereo power amps means needing two cabs or stereo cab. Although fair chance you can turn one side off, that's half power.

Headroom comes from amount/sensitivity of speakers you are running.

I'm running two cabs with loud speakers although if I could do it over I probably would have gotten small 4x12s instead of 2x12s despite how fun they are to lug around.

[liquidsmoke]

For you, a Silverface. Brutally loud: 100 or 135 watts, with only the slightest breakup when dimed. Low end should be tight as fuck.

Keep the master on 10 & don't use the push/pull distortion (if it has it).

So just any era Silverface 'Twin Reverb' head? How cheap do they come?

The Blackface was the one with the farty low end right?

It would be more accurate to say the Blackface era Twins are generally coveted b/c they break up a bit more. A good part of that is that they're "only" 80 watts. The rest is mostly "Pre-CBS" snobbiness.

Ah. Do you know when Fender made the head versions of the Silverface twins? I mainly see combos while searching on Google and ebay.


edit: from another forum- "They called them Bandmaster/Vibrolux and Showman/Dual Showman"

[mutantcolors]

My good friend uses, and has let me use his 1980something Fender Bassman which is 300 tube watts, through a 4x12 and his Ampeg fridge (not at the same time) and while it was retardedly powerful, it aint no double volume or whatever.

Volume is logarithmic, this has been covered ad nausea.

[Lumpy]

Whatchoo lookin' for, pedal wise?  I should put a buncha shit in the buy/sell thread but am lacking motivation.

Flanger Hoax, Boss Space Echo, Ditto Looper, delays in general (not sure what I want, but Digilog and Electroman seem good), weird stuff. Tiny pedals maybe (mooer etc). A fuzz or distortion that creates an absurd amount of feedback.

[MichaelZodiac]

I went to a releaseshow from a band that I'm good friends with. They've been at it for 5-6 years now, starting slow and playing shows. The last year however their progression has skyrocketed. New bassist, new releases, getting interviewed and played on national radio. All very pro. Last releases they did themselves but they have a record deal now for their upcoming album at the end of the year. Anyway, you get the idea. For the releaseshow, again they did it very pro. Lots of people, great show if you're the headliner and there's 300 people paying to see your band.

But when I was watching their show I couldn't help but think: "This is great but I would never want my band to sound like this." They just sounded too pro imo, I was missing some grittiness. It's not like their music is missing that but the whole sound was just so pro that it put me off.

Anybody else has that before?

[VOLVO)))]

All the time. I prefer to play/see shows at houses over venues because of that factor.

[RacerX]

Yeah, good sound sucks. 

[AgentofOblivion]

I often have a long list of complaints about live sound, but never that it's too good or pro. 

[VOLVO)))]

Yeah, good sound sucks. 

It does when the music doesn't sound good.

[MichaelZodiac]

I've seen that band play at so many places: my old apartment for my birthday, army tents, small metalshows without a stage, etc and imo they just sounded better there. I mean the show was ace, just too pro. I dunno, I usually complain about bad sound but this sounded just too good.

[Instant Dan]

I'm trying to find bro prices on used pedals, the universe is not cooperating. Everybody thinks their stuff is worth more than it is. IMO, try starting your prices at 50% of retail new and adjust upward from there, if you are not the first owner. I also see people charging 90% of a new pedal, for like-new pedals... why wouldn't I just pay the extra 20 dollars for a warranty and a return policy? And why do people put velcro on pedals, before they are certain they'll be keeping them? That one always surprises me. "I bought this a week ago, but I'm not bonding with it" (but I already put velcro on it, so I hope you like velcro).

Also, what's up with airplane food?

After X-Mas seems like the worst time to buy. People are trying to recoup money from the Holiday season.

[Lumpy]

^^^ Aha, thanks.

I've seen that band play at so many places: my old apartment for my birthday, army tents, small metalshows without a stage, etc and imo they just sounded better there. I mean the show was ace, just too pro. I dunno, I usually complain about bad sound but this sounded just too good.

At smaller shows, big amps usually drown out everything. Maybe now you're hearing a different mix. Maybe the vocals were too loud compared to what you remembered, because they were going through a real PA. Drums too. At a small show the guitars can seem even more massive, because they are crushing the rest of the band.

[RAGER]

Some people have to have pro lights, pro sound, and pro hair.

[liquidsmoke]

My good friend uses, and has let me use his 1980something Fender Bassman which is 300 tube watts, through a 4x12 and his Ampeg fridge (not at the same time) and while it was retardedly powerful, it aint no double volume or whatever.

Volume is logarithmic, this has been covered ad nausea.

Yes of course. I'd be willing to sell my 2x12s to fund 4x12s if they weren't basically worthless because they don't say Marshall or Orange on them. Custom made smaller than normal 4x12s that will fit in my car upright that is, not $100 used from GC 4x12s.

[liquidsmoke]

Sometimes I forget about this place- http://www.musicgoround.com/search

[Corey Y]

Sometimes I forget about this place- http://www.musicgoround.com/search

I've bought so much budget gear from MGR online. I've put together entire rigs for people on there. I'm a great poor band personal gear shopper 

They really do have great deals, if you know what you're looking for and/or have some decent rudimentary tech skills.

[liquidsmoke]

I've bought so much budget gear from MGR online. I've put together entire rigs for people on there. I'm a great poor band personal gear shopper 

Dude that is awesome. Between them, GC, eBay, and Craigslist one can find a huge variety of gear. Credit Card Christmas all year round.

[showdown]

Got one of our songs played on national radio last night!

Cool! What's the name of your band?

That's Norwegian national radio, but still...   

My band's name is Kal-El, we also got a short but favorable review on Heavy Planet: http://www.heavyplanet.net/2014/02/new-band-to-burn-one-to-kal-el.html

[Lumpy]

Very cool!

[RacerX]

So goddam cold & dry that my fingertips are splitting, esp. on my fretting hand.

Quite painful, but I have applied a coat of liquid bandage and am soldiering on.

[liquidsmoke]

So goddam cold & dry that my fingertips are splitting, esp. on my fretting hand.

Quite painful, but I have applied a coat of liquid bandage and am soldiering on.

I have to use hand lotion after washing my hands or this happens to me every winter. Fun shit huh?

[liquidsmoke]

My tone search is basically over for my main band now. Got a switch for the Rock Master preamp and the clean channel takes pedals well. Loud and tight when SS powered but with tube pre dimension. This unit is pretty wild. The knobs are extremely sensitive. If it's on it's loud, at 3 it's loud as fuck.. course I'm going into 350 watts. Each channel has an effects loop and there is also a main one, if I want to get into rack gear. Will probably try to find a single rack space power amp for it as I have other plans for my bass amp..

The Douglas Shadow baritone is really impressing me so far down in F#. It sounds half way between a guitar and a bass and you must turn the distortion down on pedals to get usable sounds. The output is tremendous with the low string vibrating so wide and I don't think the pups are all that hot. Might try a thicker string to see how it sounds tightened up. Going to jam with a drummer friend soon and am hoping to get a 2 piece going on the side. I'm slightly concerned about blowing my Swamp Thangs but am hoping that if I was pushing too much low end through them they would fart and I could adjust the tone.

[Lumpy]

I hate super-bright LED's, and pedal knobs with no indicator line (or a line that's hard to see) ESPECIALLY on a "tweakable" pedal.

On another forum (yes, I date other forums) I complained about super-bright LEDs (they hurt my eyes and make the pedal hard to look at/hard to adjust the knobs) another dude said "well they are really useful for playing outdoor shows in the sunlight". HOW MANY OUTDOOR DAYTIME SHOWS WILL YOU PLAY IN YOUR ENTIRE LIFETIME? ONE? TWO? (now compare that to how many times you use that pedal in a dim practice space or dark stage. Super-bright LED's are fucking stupid, and they suck. They serve no purpose at all, it's a stupid fad with a fake "added value" feature that actually makes pedals worse. "This LED isn't bright enough" said no one, ever.

For knobs, is it too much to ask that I could look at my pedal and immediately know that it's currently at "7:00" with a quick glance? Are your fancy knobs and design aesthetics more important than usability? Again, this is a fucking stupid fad driven by pedal builders who think they are adding value to a pedal, but actually making it harder to use, and therefore worse.

/hate

[Jake]

Hmmm. Seems easy enough to take something semi-opaque, like masking tape and put it over a bright LED. And a single dab of white out on a knob will give you an instant visual reference. I know, I know. You feel as though you shouldn't have to do that, it should be done already. But welcome to DIY.

And those fixes would probably take 1/4 of the time as it took you to type that out (on each forum). Ha!