Guitar Discussion V10 - February 2013 edition - General

[QUOTE=dcalde78;46380826]Does anyone have any idea what gauge is best for tuning a 4 string bass to B standard? I'm thinking to restring my Kramer like that but I don't know what size of string to go for. In my price range, there's Fender, D'addario, Rotosound and Dunlop that I could go for, all in various gauges. The B comes in a number of sizes including 115, 125, 130 and 135. I don't really want to go for Rotosound again as they disappointed me the last time I got them. My personal preference would take me to Fender or D'Addario. The D'Addario packages list 125 as super light and 135 as medium so I'm not sure where to go.[/QUOTE] Go with 135, you'll be incredibly happy with the tension in B, it also works on a 34 scale bass in A but when tuning to A I would go 145.

Bought myself some D'Addario ProSteel 50-135. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out on the Kramer I'm putting them on. It needed some truss rod work going from 45-105 to 45-100. I know the nut will need doing and everything but I'll just take it to the music shop here and get it set up for B.

Deluxe Reverbs are like 22w, they can't possibly be louder than my Fender Mustang III, yet I hear people saying "not for bedroom playing" Like, has anyone played one? Are they really that loud? [QUOTE=dcalde78;46384536]It's a tube amp so it doesn't do quiet, even though it has a wattage rating way lower than the Mustang. The Mustang is solid state so it can produce quiet volumes a lot better. [/QUOTE] Uh, tube amps do quiet. I'll probably go with the Princeton anyways, despite the fact that I probably won't be able to jam with friends.

[QUOTE=dcalde78;46380826]Does anyone have any idea what gauge is best for tuning a 4 string bass to B standard? I'm thinking to restring my Kramer like that but I don't know what size of string to go for. In my price range, there's Fender, D'addario, Rotosound and Dunlop that I could go for, all in various gauges. The B comes in a number of sizes including 115, 125, 130 and 135.[/QUOTE] Never get anything lower than 130 for a low B, usually it'll end up so loose you won't feel like playing it. Unless super light strings are your thing, of course.

[QUOTE=dcalde78;46383373]Bought myself some D'Addario ProSteel 50-135. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out on the Kramer I'm putting them on. It needed some truss rod work going from 45-105 to 45-100. I know the nut will need doing and everything but I'll just take it to the music shop here and get it set up for B.[/QUOTE] I have those exact same strings on my 5 string yamaha rbx on right now, you gonna love em. Don't let any other guy play your bass tho because my strings went dead in a single hour of 2 of my band members playing on my bass for fun. Acid hands, how do they work.

[QUOTE=VikCreamCake;46383839]Deluxe Reverbs are like 22w, they can't possibly be louder than my Fender Mustang III, yet I hear people saying "not for bedroom playing" Like, has anyone played one? Are they really that loud?[/QUOTE] It's a tube amp so it doesn't do quiet, even though it has a wattage rating way lower than the Mustang. The Mustang is solid state so it can produce quiet volumes a lot better. [editline]1st November 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=Darkslicer;46384186]I have those exact same strings on my 5 string yamaha rbx on right now, you gonna love em. Don't let any other guy play your bass tho because my strings went dead in a single hour of 2 of my band members playing on my bass for fun. Acid hands, how do they work.[/QUOTE] The only other people that play my bass are the guitarists in my band and then it's only for about 10 minutes or so. No one gets to play my gear at a gig other than me. The Ernie Ball strings I have on my P bass still have a bit of zing in them even though it's been a year since I changed them (feels like a lot longer than that with the way this year has gone). The singer in my band is amazed at how bright they still are. I play fairly often at home now, moreso than the past few months anyway, and practice with the band every week. He put similar ones on his Aria SB600 and they're dead as fuck in comparison, and he only got that earlier this year. My hands don't tend to sweat much anyway so I guess that's a big plus for me.

mom went early christmas shopping, got me an old used peavey vtm-60. why does christmas have to be so far away

If I want to record music and turn it into a song, what would the best software for that be? And do I need a microphone, or can I get decent sound quality by hooking my headphone jack to the microphone jack on my laptop (although I doubt that'll sound very good)

i don't even know if doing the latter thing would even work. as far as software goes, audacity just kinda works as a DAW and it's the best thing you'll get for free. a good professional level DAW is going to put you back a couple hundred bucks. cubase 7.5 is 250 bucks right now. the easiest way to record music is to just buy a cheap preamp (cheapest you can get one is likely 50 bucks but if you go to 100 bucks you can get some pretty solid stuff) and a shure sm57 with a mic stand or something. it'll put you back about 200 bucks but it'll sound great. edit: there's tons of videos on youtube about how to mic up a guitar amp, record bass, drums, vocals, ect. here's a p good video on how to record guitars (oriented around metal but the process is very similar for just about anything else) [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfEh79A0b0U[/media]

I think you can get free versions of paid DAW software but they're limited in what they can do, you can only record a certain number of tracks for example. I could be wrong on that though. I'm sure that Reaper is free though, at least I've heard that it is. I kind of want to start recording some bass covers for YouTube to pass the time, but I don't have software, an interface or a camera :v: My laptop has a camera, I'm sure that'd do the job for the most part, but I would need to get myself an interface and recording software that actually tracks properly, compared to when I've recorded before with Audacity on my old laptop. The latency was probably about 2 seconds and made it impossible to record anything properly.

It depends on your definition of bedroom volume. Tube amps feel louder due to different harmonic stuff (you can look up the science if you want to). I can get a usable low volume sound out of a Fender Bassman, which is roughly 50 watts.

My definition of bedroom volume is "walls shaking without hearing loss". I'd need to be able to run the amp at like 7 with single coils to actually make it break up. That's probably pushing my ears to the bleeding point considering I currently play my Mustang with the volume at 2. I'll go with the Princeton :v:

I jumper the Bassman and then turn both channels up to about six, where it starts getting angry and hella loud.

I caved and bought a Mustang 1 :v: Loving it so far, it was either this or the line-6 equivalent model but I'm loving all the effects, great little practice amp, plus the small headphone jack is nice and convenient. Don't think i'd use the larger watt Mustang 2 or 3 for gigging though, the sound just seems slightly digital. Great for practising and messing around with anyhow.

Guitar player and singer Wayne Static died today :(

[QUOTE=NorthernFall;46390665]I caved and bought a Mustang 1 :v: Loving it so far, it was either this or the line-6 equivalent model but I'm loving all the effects, great little practice amp, plus the small headphone jack is nice and convenient. Don't think i'd use the larger watt Mustang 2 or 3 for gigging though, the sound just seems slightly digital. Great for practising and messing around with anyhow.[/QUOTE] idk after playing around with it enough you can get a decent punk rock tone and some good cleans (at least on the mustang IV). it's got tons of power and unless you're playing metal, most of the time the audience won't be able to tell the difference between if you were using a solid state or a tube. that being said, for jamming in my bedroom it sounds pretty okay. also don't use the metal tone presets, they're all garbage minus maybe this one 80s metal tone they got. [editline]2nd November 2014[/editline] i also like the run my DS-1 into it with the gain almost all the way off just to kinda tighten up the sound a bit when playing metal. if you put an overdrive on the amp then set the gain to the amp around 7ish and keep the OD kinda low it works fine. i imagine if you had a proper OD you could just scrap the DS-1 and overdrive button on the amp and put the gain to 10 and that'd work too.

Well I would be getting those D'Addario strings if Amazon didn't have such a hard time taking payment from a prepaid Visa card. Every site I've tried seems to just not accept them. It's within date and everything and I've not used it before so there's enough money on it. So much for being able to use it anywhere online.

Possibly picked up a Morley Power Wah for 35 quid.

[QUOTE=DesumThePanda;46392566]idk after playing around with it enough you can get a decent punk rock tone and some good cleans (at least on the mustang IV). it's got tons of power and unless you're playing metal, most of the time the audience won't be able to tell the difference between if you were using a solid state or a tube. that being said, for jamming in my bedroom it sounds pretty okay. also don't use the metal tone presets, they're all garbage minus maybe this one 80s metal tone they got. [editline]2nd November 2014[/editline] i also like the run my DS-1 into it with the gain almost all the way off just to kinda tighten up the sound a bit when playing metal. if you put an overdrive on the amp then set the gain to the amp around 7ish and keep the OD kinda low it works fine. i imagine if you had a proper OD you could just scrap the DS-1 and overdrive button on the amp and put the gain to 10 and that'd work too.[/QUOTE] Yeah finally got it home after a 4 hour drive back from my folks house, SO MANY EFFECTS. I love the space echo/ tape delay, they sound great. Mostly been playing around with the Reverb/ Modulation but I'm going to try the tone presets in more depth once I get rid of this dodgy guitar cable and have some more time. It's amazing how much you can get for your £ these days, I would have probably thought this was witchcraft when I got my squire combo pack for my 11th birthday :v:.

So I've had a bit of a budget change. Instead of a $300 Wilshire, I can get one of these: [IMG]http://media.musiciansfriend.com/is/image/MMGS7/Mockingbird-STC-Trans-Red/J03370000001000-00-750x750.jpg[/IMG]

Looks exotic as fuck, what is it exactly?

[QUOTE=Fussy!;46397742]Looks exotic as fuck, what is it exactly?[/QUOTE] BC Rich Mockingbird ST, apparently.

i hope you're prepared for some real awful neckdive my mate has that exact guitar and i have an older and a bit cheaper Mockingbird, their headstocks go down like the Titanic the first chance they get

For self-tuition online, I've been using [URL="www.justinguitar.com"]www.justinguitar.com[/URL]. Has anyone else used his stuff? It seems pretty well done, i'm saving up for some face to face lessons though cause I don't think you can really top contact tuition.

i remember using the site for something years ago but i can't remember what

Justin Guitars is really good, Marty Schwartz too. I think the biggest thing when you're first learning guitar is to constantly be bouncing between every open chord you can figure out. Master that shit.

So it turns out that £3 had been taken off of that card, I must have bought something and forgotten about it, so I just bought some new strings for my P bass. Speaking of P basses, I've been listening to Pantera's first album, and Rex has a pretty decent tone on it. I'm sure he uses a P bass, and the tone on the Metal Magic album has good low end but still has that distinct Precision clank to it. I think the best example is Tell Me If You Want It, in the chorus in particular. Latest Lover is pretty good too. Sure, the first few albums aren't really what you expect considering how they turned out but they're all solid albums, the first 3 are decent glam albums and Power Metal is some good old school thrash. Shame they touched any of the material again once Cowboys came out. [video=youtube;y_x5YR3x3IE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_x5YR3x3IE[/video] [video=youtube;nM80-ylHpSs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM80-ylHpSs[/video] The album art for Metal Magic is fucking awful though.

Wasn't there some other track that came out with some version of Cowboys that they did around 88-89? I think it was called The Will to Survive or something like that. I may be wrong about all this but fuck it [editline]4th November 2014[/editline] btw Rex uses a pick doesn't he?

[QUOTE=dcalde78;46409503]The album art for Metal Magic is fucking glorious[/QUOTE] fixed

what are some nice acoustic songs, I just put new strings in my old piece of shit and want to learn a few acoustic songs since I haven't touched this thing in about 8 months.