Official Guitar, Amp, Pedals, and Gear Thread

[origenesprit]



I actually don't know who that is, so yes.

The guy who designed the Klon. The originals were handwired, the new KTR is PCB, and according to him he spent a fuckton of time on the PCB so that it sounds just as good as the original.

 

[DerekS]



Is yours PCB or handwired? Does it matter?

HUGE difference.

yes it matters. it not only matters it makes all the difference in the world. it's the electronic equivalent of the difference between laminate wood acoustics and those made of solid wood, or ****** electrics made of whatever kind of godawful wood is underneath all that crappy paint and those made of aged and selected tone woods lacquered and finished with non-restrictive stains.
I am an admitted tone nazi as I was schooled and "shown the light" so to speak in a professional vintage shop and studio... but once you're able to tell the difference there is no going back. circuit boards sound like ****... period.

unfortunately true. although i dont hate the tone i get out of some of mine. but never as good.

 

[Kid Nickels]



I'll tell you, and this is just my personal experience, that as far as true bypass goes, I don't rate its importance. Maybe my ears just aren't snobby enough, but I have no problem loading my pedalboard with Boss pedals (which I do - HM2, DD2, PN2) - I just don't hear the tone suckage. I actually prefer buffers when it comes to overdrive pedals, especially - I can't stand the pop that comes along with True Bypass pedals, and even companies who say they go out of their way to eliminate it are unsuccessful (I'm looking at you, Analogman King of Tone v4).

For a while in college I had a studio and was teaching students... part of my job at this vintage shop was essentially to sit around and experiment with anything and everything we had (sounds rough ya?) From thumping old Fender Jazz and P's thru vintage Ampegs to vamping Triggs arch tops thru some Dr. Z boutiquey **** and everything in between. I would load up a whole string of effects. We had some basic Boss, EH, etc stuff that was more affordable, but also carried ZVex, Fulltone, Geoffrey Teese and stuff like that as well.
I don't know enough about electricity, voltage and all that stuff but I think there must be some tipping point so to speak.... kinda like water pressure maybe? A point at which too many effects linked up in series does inevitably result in massive suckage... not just in the tone or timbre itself but also in the force and energy of the notes... somehow sounding weaker, thinner. It is tricky.
I use a Furman power conditioner into a Voodoo Labs power supply and once properly grounded I could plug in at almost any club with the shittiest current and still sound great. What I didn't realize and remember discovering was that the current in different places is in fact different. Almost like tap water in different towns.
The majority of us have rigs at home and may jam over at a friend's place now and again, but if you are plugging in and playing every day in different cities in different states, there is in fact a big difference. If anyone with better electrical knowledge can explain this I'd love to know!

btw... I think the "pop" depends on the switches used. I never had much of a problem with this.

 

[origenesprit]

For some reason I end up dealing with massive noise problems much more often than I deal with tone suckage, though I think that is the fault of my '68 Casino, which loves to cause problems, and which I'm not really using anymore since I got my late 70's Strat.

In any case, my rig is used live more often than it is used at home. (If anyone is interested in my music, send me a PM, I'd be more than happy to send a bandcamp link). I have gotten the rig down to mostly what I need and what is reliable - and I love Boss pedals. I'm just looking for a nice medium, rhythm overdrive that I can trust - thinking of trying a Boss OD-1 or OD-2r (I'd use my Hotcake but sometimes it likes to make my amp squeal for no reason at all).

My current live board is TU-3 > HM-2 (for lead) > Analogman KOTv4 (which I want to replace) > Ibanez Ad80 (original 18v, for short, spacey delay and for oscillation) > Boss DD2 (Wampler modified) > EHX Holy Grail Nano (all powered by a BBE Supacharger).

 

[Kid Nickels]

^ so do you notice weirdness in the electricity from place to place?

 

[patrickBOOTH]

Power is a big problem everywhere. Sometimes it is the wiring wherever you are playing and sometimes it is frequency issues. In AC systems when more power is being demanded than is being generated (watts) the frequency lags (hertz). Also, the opposite happens, for example in the summer time people are running air conditioning units and using a lot of watts to do this, then at night many people shut off their units, turn them down, or simply the temperature drops so they don't cylce as much. All of this extra load on cables creates a capacitor effect that holds lingering watts, this makes frequency increase. There are also tons of electrical interconnection issues that affect phase angle and reactive power that get complicated. But basically all of this stuff creates havoc on transformers and rectifiers and capacitors in electrical curcuits and does affect sound, and tone. Power conditioners help a bit, but their main duty is by telling you the volts coming out of the wall socket, significantly more or less volts than 120 (in the U.S.) can fry different components in your amplifier. Furman, and other make regulators that level off voltage so you continually get 120 volts, or at least something more constant, but they run into the thousands of dollars.

All in all, on the hottest summer days I try my best not to use electronics that suck a lot of juice (other than the AC, of course). Sometimes utilities will reduce voltage to areas to conserve and not cause a blackout, most likely you would never know it, but reduced voltage means excess current, which makes things run HOT.

 

[origenesprit]

Good post pB - getting good power is impossible and I've given up. My house is particularly bad, and unshielded pickups really, really exacerbate the issue.


On a completely different note, are any of you guys very good at modding pedals or know who I could get to mod an Aqua Puss mkII with MN3005s (this would also require knowing how to tell real from fake MN3005s, which I have no idea how to do) to replace the 3205s? I know I could just get a DM2, but I'd kind of like a Puss.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

It could be a grounding issue with something in your house, rig, or it could be that you play really loud, or high gain too close to the amp. If your pickups aren't wax potted getting them wax potted might be a good idea.

 

[patrickBOOTH]



On a completely different note, are any of you guys very good at modding pedals or know who I could get to mod an Aqua Puss mkII with MN3005s (this would also require knowing how to tell real from fake MN3005s, which I have no idea how to do) to replace the 3205s? I know I could just get a DM2, but I'd kind of like a Puss.

Check with these guys. They know their stuff: http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/pedals/

 

[stickshift]



Circuit boards tend to take up signal path, eliminating that opens up the sound more. Basically the faster and less interupted the signal from the string to the speaker the better.

While I'm not going to deny the sonic superiority of p2p amps, I don't think this is the reason. Pcb circuits use shorter traces overall. I'm in the middle of handwiring a tweed deluxe myself. It may be how the signal paths overlap too much on a circuit board that alters tone, or how two components are directly connected in p2p, but are connected by an intermediate trace on pcb that alters tone.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

That makes sense.

 

[stickshift]

Finished my 5E3 Fender Tweed Deluxe clone. It can switch to a 5F1 circuit as well.

I need a matching speaker cab! V30 doesn't match well with it either

 

[TC (Houston)]

Finally found a multi-guitar rack that I like.

 

[origenesprit]

Looks awesome, TC.

Oh, P.S., as a Mayer fan I recommend picking up the new Klon KTR. I never had a chance to play the original, but the new one really sounds exceptional through my Classic Reverb.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

Sweet bees stickshift.