The Jam Room Blog Thread.

[Dylan Thomas]

Kurt Cobain used a Crown Power Amp for guitar.

They're loud, though I think people don't prefer them for instruments because they aren't as "colorful", their circuitry doesn't produce a tone that we find as pleasant to our ears...

[MichaelZodiac]

He did use a OG Tech 21 for his tone and the power amp for volume. So that helps.

[liquidsmoke]

I think a lot of it is the preamp you use. I've said this before on here but a friend of mine has a Mesa 'Studio' and it sounds fantastic even into class D power amps. Rich, sweet, and dynamic. Any good tube head signal should sound pretty good into SS power amps and on a real stage you can always mic the cab the tube amp is powering.

[MichaelZodiac]

First rehearsal with my EHX Memory Toy, it's a need little unit. Does what I want it to do but I need to dial in it a bit more. I think I know now why an FX Loop with a delay in it might be useful. It gets noisy and spacey with my fuzzes engaged which I like although a clearer signal would be nice for some other sounds. The rehearsal went smoothly and we got our set pretty tight. One more rehearsal monday evening and tuesday first show. Nervous and excited at the same time.

[Dylan Thomas]

First rehearsal with my EHX Memory Toy, it's a need little unit. Does what I want it to do but I need to dial in it a bit more. I think I know now why an FX Loop with a delay in it might be useful. It gets noisy and spacey with my fuzzes engaged which I like although a clearer signal would be nice for some other sounds. The rehearsal went smoothly and we got our set pretty tight. One more rehearsal monday evening and tuesday first show. Nervous and excited at the same time.

I used one of those for awhile, and it is a neat little pedal.

[jibberish]

guitar center is sort of a doofus operation, but the employees are top notch.   they just helped me score that little fender 2x10 12w tube combo for the sale price of 229 because the flyer said so. the whole world wanted to get me for $400 but they got it for the good price. just have to wait for it to show up from Paramus NJ.
that combo is sick. it has a nice spring reverb and the vaporizer switch that bypasses the volume and tone stack and just goes full out

so I grabbed a malekko 616 delay feeling all cash save-ee and everything.  
so rager, I don't want your malekko anymore...
so send it to danny G instead....
so what...

edit: and I always wear my black arts shirt to GC just to rub it in that they don't have those.

also I played with that ehx B9. pretty cool, but then I remembered that I have synths that do organ sounds and that ehx sound is still a compromised synthesized sound

there is an older reverb called the trinity which I need to play with.  GC doesn't have it.

[liquidsmoke]

Do you folks generally try not to book gigs the same nights as other heavy/metal shows happening locally? How similar do the shows have to be for you to pass on a date? Obviously in big cities with bigger scenes this would be pretty hard to avoid but in a small city splitting the crowd can be very bad for shows. Not that there is one crowd that goes to all stoner/doom/death/heavy/metal/etc shows.

[jibberish]

some day I will get to have booking woes
some day I will have a band
the problem is, I can't lock into a single genre. I want to play all kinds of stuff.
i'm thinking about a concept called "super geezer" and just do shitkicking stuff from any genre I choose...idk..fuck..


gear wisdom story:
a while back I got a beatstep sequencer to get some bleep bloop going. whilst shopping, I saw everyone sold it for $100, but B&H threw in cheap headphones and a MIDI cable, so I got that. I figured then I could give the phones to my nephew since they are better than nothing.

so when the stuff showed up, I audition the phones which feel as cheap as possibly imaginable, but they actually were super comfy. I played a stereo source and about threw away the phones. I have never heard so much inherent distortion in headphone drivers, ever. not even the cheapest earbuds were this fuzzy sounding.

later, I was going to practice keyboards, so I figured that those shit phones were comfy and had a long cord, so wtf.  well to my surprise, these sound super rich and smooth with just synth.  they actually sound better than detailed phones.   I can use them for tracking since you just have to hear enough to stay in time/tune.

before I would have summarily tossed those as trash. but now they actually have value.

[black]

Do you folks generally try not to book gigs the same nights as other heavy/metal shows happening locally? How similar do the shows have to be for you to pass on a date? Obviously in big cities with bigger scenes this would be pretty hard to avoid but in a small city splitting the crowd can be very bad for shows. Not that there is one crowd that goes to all stoner/doom/death/heavy/metal/etc shows.

In the mid-range market that we play in. (900,000+) it sometimes makes small difference in attendance, but generally I think the national shows are attended by a lot of underage folks (we mainly play clubs, performance spaces and that ilk) who wouldn't be at a club. It seems the majority of 21 and up people, when given the choice, opt out for a club show. Cheaper, less of a mosh-crowd, easier and cheaper access to booze. Often the national act shows finish up around the time the second band in a club are hitting the boards and folks will migrate to the club for the rest of the night.

As far as competing local shows, try to include a band on your bill that has a "following" (7-13 people that will usually show up for them). That and if possible, appeal to people's wallets and try to have the cover at your show a few bucks lower than the competition. Marketing is key when vying for a few extra bodies and a few extra frogskins at your show.


*edited for current population stats

[liquidsmoke]

As far as competing local shows, try to include a band on your bill that has a "following" (7-13 people that will usually show up for them). That and if possible, appeal to people's wallets and try to have the cover at your show a few bucks lower than the competition. Marketing is key when vying for a few extra bodies and a few extra frogskins at your show.

I'm in agreement here. Most Orogen shows were $5 or maybe $7 even with out of towns bands or underground touring bands.

[jibberish]

it's 1:22 AM. getting the day started. where is liquid? need a liquid post to ponder when I take a break. the brutha knows how to hook a brain up with something to chew on.

ok, so yeah, 1st buzz is the doozy.

I am on a new rant.  this beater schecter I got as a backup is turning out to be a really nice sounding guitar. and I hear more after I play it through something new each time.
this guitar likes tube amps better than any other guitar I have except maybe the blackface tele which also has humbuckers. the other guitars, especially the LP's usually need tweaking or just sounds meh through certain setups.

I hear more of a rich lower range, like if you could imagine what a baritone tele would sort of sound like. anyway, this really offsets the rinky-tink sound you can easily get with little tube amps.  
it is that low end schecter line. it is called a Damien-6.  boring like industrial flat finish. all black with passive EMG's no clue on model, and simple bridge and string-thru. tight tuners, kind of a wider feeling neck than like tele/LP/ultra-swede, but very playable. dense heavy body.  
it was a bitch to play at first because you cant see the fret markers very well. after a while you don't have to look so much, but stillm gets hairy on long jumps.
it has subtle, but really nice flying bat inlays. I wish I could show those off better. I never even noticed the details until I got the thing home from GC. really subtle.

anyway, this thing with its string thru and passive emg's sounds big/forward/rich idk the terms to use. nice is a good one.
oh, yeah it sounds suberb thru the pharaoh with the clip off and the tones all chilled at about 12oclock. I found the fun setup to play my Halloween gadget tune(changed the words of boot scootin boogie to cloven hoof boogie, I hate those 2 bastards for ripping off the stroll, so I am going to fuck them by fucking their song and making it famous. muahahaaa haaa)

anyway so fuzzbox country. no. not country,. they ripped off the stroll. that is more mo-town or soul or whatever category of gadgets like "the twist" are put in
ok ...the stroll. a staple at weddings when I was a little kid. too small to participate so I watched.

this shit:

edit: I should practice my Halloween gadget tune...tis the season. it's fun. I get to make a ton of noises and sounds and different voices and sing like bela Lugosi style, and even stole his famous quote. it is all there. wolf howls, zombie gargles. secret hamina hamina's...all there.

[liquidsmoke]

A liquid post, okay. I don't have the best impression of Carvin bass amps but their prices are really good for being US made. It looks like they've switched entirely to class D and I'm wondering how these units are holding up for people.

[VOLVO)))]

Can you please just buy a massive crown poweramp, put a rack mount sansamp in it, and play that? Sub-400$ rig there.

[liquidsmoke]

Can you please just buy a massive crown poweramp, put a rack mount sansamp in it, and play that? Sub-400$ rig there.

Sounds like Florida used prices. Which Sansamp model? Links?

[Danny G]

Ocean of Stars rehearsal last night. Posted from my laptop, as Tapatalk wants me to upgrade to iOS8 in order to use the latest Tapatalk update. Fuckin fuckers.

[jibberish]

^ there it is in the last pic..theee bass cab.
ps get that iceman off the floor before someone steps on it
/yellingatnephewmode


band name idea:     filthy muslin scumbags

and guest starring:  I slam you slam

Mortay, you up for it? we dress like  jihadji babas and burka boys( and girls if we are lucky enough to recruit wimmens)

we sell little sand bags with our band logo as merch and other very creative merch

IED candy, ..life is like a box of chocolates, you never know which one has the dave's insanity sauce in it.


edit:  I keep hearing that class D amps are stable into low freq reactive loads. they just cant push mega current.
the idea of 1000+watts in a 10 pound package is really nice tho.
I purposely did not buy class d because I don't know how I will load these amps as I use them.
but if I know I was only running 4-8 ohms always, I sure would have had some by now. the amps I have all weigh more like 30-40#. this is a drag at times.

carvin makes nice guitars.  I got to check a high school buddy's carvin out. I liked it.

[Danny G]

get that iceman off the floor before someone steps on it
/yellingatnephewmode

Yes sir. Had a guitar stand in my cord box, was too lazy to set it up...

[liquidsmoke]

^ there it is in the last pic..theee bass cab.
ps get that iceman off the floor before someone steps on it
/yellingatnephewmode


band name idea:     filthy muslin scumbags

and guest starring:  I slam you slam

Mortay, you up for it? we dress like  jihadji babas and burka boys( and girls if we are lucky enough to recruit wimmens)

we sell little sand bags with our band logo as merch and other very creative merch

IED candy, ..life is like a box of chocolates, you never know which one has the dave's insanity sauce in it.

Please don't?

edit:  I keep hearing that class D amps are stable into low freq reactive loads. they just cant push mega current.
the idea of 1000+watts in a 10 pound package is really nice tho.
I purposely did not buy class d because I don't know how I will load these amps as I use them.
but if I know I was only running 4-8 ohms always, I sure would have had some by now. the amps I have all weigh more like 30-40#. this is a drag at times.

I'm not sure what you mean by they can't push mega current. 1000 watts is 1000 watts right? The weight is very nice. My 100 watt Fender tube head weighs 60 pounds. My 350 watt Fender SS head is about 7. This talk probably annoys people though, sorry big strong dudes.

[RacerX]

heh. It's like the blind leading typing at the blind...

[liquidsmoke]

I'm generally happy to amuse.

[jibberish]

1000 volts pushing 1 amp=1000watts
1 volt pushing 1000 amps = 1000watts

so no, watts aren't just watts.  let's see that class d amp run car subs. it will melt.

transformers are what make amps heavy.  tube amps have 2 so they can be extra heavy
class d uses some magnetic HF voodoo to get the power into the circuit thus eliminating the big toroidal power transformer.


these are not stable into 2 ohms because they cant put out the current. 100watts into 2 ohms needs I*I*R or about 7 amps.
into 8 ohms it only needs 3 ish amps to get that same 100watts output.

btw, ignore the static. you are learning things.
ps, I type all kinds of fun/fantastic/ridiculous ideas all the time.   it's what I do heh.  however, I am way too lazy to do 99% of what I talk about.
slinging ideas is free, so wtf, sling away, that's what I say.

[VOLVO)))]

Eh, I've been over responding to technical questions from dude for like two years now. It isn't even fun anymore.

[jibberish]

well, evidently you are too good for everyone else, so you have to just live with the curse of having everyone beneath you.
if I were you, I would immediately quit associating with anyone here, permanently. ruin your image.
---------------------------------------------------------------
so I started a small riot in GC today. grabbed the single coil tele and fired up that vaporizer right on the floor. I had everyone in the store over there. that thing is so fucking loud for 12 watts. unreal. the bite and snap of that tele was nice and that old school spring tank is great.

so now I guess I have to go back and get that tele.

[liquidsmoke]

Eh, I've been over responding to technical questions from dude for like two years now. It isn't even fun anymore.

"No don't get that $500 all in one head, get a massive Crown power amp and Tascam rack preamp, sigh, no I'm not going to tell you where you can get a $300-400 rack pre for a hundred bucks, you never learn anything and ignore everything we tell you to do"

[VOLVO)))]

well, evidently you are too good for everyone else, so you have to just live with the curse of having everyone beneath you.
if I were you, I would immediately quit associating with anyone here, permanently. ruin your image.
---------------------------------------------------------------
so I started a small riot in GC today. grabbed the single coil tele and fired up that vaporizer right on the floor. I had everyone in the store over there. that thing is so fucking loud for 12 watts. unreal. the bite and snap of that tele was nice and that old school spring tank is great.

so now I guess I have to go back and get that tele.

K, blow me.

Hartkes are commonly horse shit.

Would you like me to google, ebay, Craigslist fucking thing for you? Seriously? Sansamp bass DI used as a preamp for your bass side, and a big power amp. Who cares what kind, for fucks sake.


If you can't find the fucking rack version, get the pedal. Jesus christ.