Monday, November 12, 2018

***Trashed's Gear*** Splawn Promod KT88 METAL RIG


Thar she be. The freaking beast. Splawn Promod KT-88. The same as a Quickrod, just with KT-88 as opposed to EL34's. It is on top of my general go to metal cab (despite owning mesa, orange and a half dozen others). It is a Randall cab, Celestion T75's on top and a 15" Eminence Legend at the bottom. Massive bass, mids and balanced treble. For the record, my Splawns (this and a Nitro KT88) do not get along with V30's.

Scott Splawn has it going on. He is a brilliant SOB, has all of the features you need nothing more. You have a foot-switchable second master, a foot-switchable extra gain stage (OD1/OD2) and of course a foot-switchable channel switcher. Perfection. There are a couple of qualms about this amp though. It sucks at quiet. PERIOD. loud or louder. I have 23 tube amps at the moment, and this is just loud. I swear this is the loudest 100 watts I have EVER heard, and it cuts like a damn knife. No cutting through the mix issues here.

JJ 12AX7's in V1-V4, JJ KT88's in the power section.

The effects are stupid simple. The fuzz is my newest prototype so that is hush hush for naooo. Then a Korg Pithcblack, Fulltone Fulldrive 2 Mosfet, a Malekko Unity Fuzz, all out front, a Visual Sound H20 Chorus and delay, BBD loaded. The delay is pretty much always on. The chorus is occasionally used on cleans.

My main tone is with the OD2 selected and I use the FD-2 mostly for leads. Cannot comment on the prototype, the Malekko Unity is for the clean channel. Chorus if engaged, is only on the clean channel. Delay is always on. I have master volume 1 on as quiet as I can and the second master for the volume I play at during the day, which is definitely louder than I can play in the middle of the night.

The gain is beastly. The tone is beastly. Splawn has no disappointments.

Sunday, November 4, 2018

RE: My First Post Rambling. BOSS RANT PARTIALLY RETRACTED.

RESPONSE FROM my first post RAMBLING

https://trashedengineering.blogspot.com/2016/08/2016-08-14-volume-myths-and-boss-pedals.html

""The Rambling: 
Boss Pedals. I am a pedal whore, no question about it, last count was in the 30's, most $120-$150+ new. There are a few exceptions though. Now boss, they have their strong suits, they are durable as all hell. i am sure you could run one over with a car and not wreck the damn thing (maybe that wouldn't be such a good thing). They were great in the '80's, Especially the modulation and delay (mainly for me the choruses and delays), then, I don't know what happened. Furthermore, their dirt pedals have never been good (other than the whole HM-2 thing), and  their dirt pedals have gotten progressively worse. Their buffers are mediocre at best. They have been far from innovative in the last decade, and that is why I am not a fan.
Fifteen years ago, it was different. that was before the millions of boutique pedals and builders were out there. At that time it was them, Digitech, EHX, DOD, and MXR. Time went by and Boss got too comfortable, and ceased to innovate. They are behind the times.
Do i hate Boss pedals? No. Do they make some good ones? Yes. I like some of them, but in most cases there are better pedals for just a few bucks more. Boss stopped making my favorites a long time ago, which are the dimension chorus and slow-gear. They are flat out awesome, but now they fetch stupid prices, and I am not willing to spend that much. Other honorable mentions are the NS-2, DD3, DD6, etc, as well as some of the other choruses. The final mention is the HM-2, I have one and it is great for one thing, that grinding shrill noise that is pushed through a Marshall Valvestate or Ampeg VH140c. I don't care for that tone, but i keep it around in case i get bored.""

 THIS SHIT IS BOSS! Maybe in a good way???

Waza Craft! Thanks to the boss for the new BOSS shit. Impressive. Darn, freaking impressive. I have tried three to date. Much applause. Seriously! Now I want them to re-release the Slow Gear and I will be one happy son of a gun. I want to see the buzz (get it???) behind the new Waza Metal-Zone. Sounds cool and usable. I am going to snag an old MT-2 before they go up a few bucks and get more desirable, as it sounds good going into the FX return. NOT OUT FRONT THOUGH. $40 isn't much to drop FFS.

To further delve into my new appreciation to boss is the OC-3 and my MIJ BF-2. The OC-3 is far beyond the OC-2, and kicks ass, but i don't need it on any of my rigs lol. The MIJ Flanger is absolutely out of this world. Damn. However I am not a regular Flanger user, but for $40 hell yeah. I am at slightly over 50 pedals now so many have come and gone.

I just wish Boss would make a better buffer.

Boss are hell-a-frickin' durable. Easily replaceable if it isn't vintage. Which is a plus. You can buy them pretty much anywhere. They are the industry standard for many things. However, I do think that it is waning as other companies are putting out some more mind blowing stuff at a faster rate.

You all know that I generally dislike TCE, but their Sentry gate is fantastic. I don't need one though. More surprising is that even the TCE chorus is pretty good and gaining headway. BUT not there with the Boss' of old. The MXR 10 band has replaced Boss GE-7 as a standard. BOSS has also been nudged out of the tuner TU-3, but there is Waza so who knows.

Point being, they are going the right way for the most part. I see my old thoughts and think about my logic schemes and thoughts and some has changed. I will be revisiting old topics from time to time.

In the words of the best front-man to ever live, Phil Anselmo "One, Two, Fuck! You!" on Down's live DVD "Diary of a Mad Band."*

*Of which I highly recommend, its old news though, but great content. REX Brown has some good shit out too now. The NOLA metal scene is budding yet again.

Friday, August 17, 2018

***Trashed Gear*** JSeXy, Pedals, and THE CHANCE to get a fuzz pedal for $10

Alright guys, here are some more pics of my gear.

This is a backup for my backup rig's backup. haha. I would use this if I was actively gigging, which has been a while.

It sits beautifully in the shop in its cozy with a pair of sexy silver guitars (pickups are not stock) which will be the next topic.

If you are the first to guess what the 'sexy silver guitars' are correctly, i will send you one of my new FUZZ prototype pedals for half off. $10 to your door (which pretty much covers shipping and boxing on my end). Again $10 total to you door. Email it to me and i will get one out to you ASAP. It is a prototype, it like most of the others has no switch and is encased in my signature blue boxes. Those two things knock off $12 a pop but its lots of fun and pretty damn cheap. The circuit is very simple, but i have been toying with different values a little bit to see what goes over best.

FOR THE SILVER GUITARS, SEND ANSWER TO TRASHEDENGINEERING@GMAIL.COM. PUT THE NAME IN THE SUBJECT. FIRST THERE WINS.


Soooo... Here is a Peavey JSX. I paid $350 mint for it, including the footswitch. It is a three channel 120 watt all tube head. It is going into my Randall cabinet which is unique because it has a pair of Celestion G12-T75's AND a 15" Eminence Legend. The speaker combination sounds great to me; The T75's get along with the Eminence Legend better than Celestion Vintage 30's do which is what I had in the cabinet first. The bass is certainly controllable and not too 'boomy' or anything like that. For preamp tubes, I am running all JJECC83's (12AX7's) with the exception of the PI which is a JJECC81(12AT7).

PRO TIP: the PI (phase inverter) is not actually a preamp tube, it is technically is in the poweramp, I highly recommend trying a 12AT7 or 5751 in that spot as you will typically notice a positive change.

Power tubes are all JJE34L's. NOTE the spelling, E34L, NOT EL34. E34L's are the perfect rounder and thicker sounding bottom end with the bite of an EL34 in the upper mids still remaining, that we all know and love.


Great cleans for an amp marketed for heavier music, not too bright, not too chimey, Peavey nailed it  on this one. The Crunch channel is freaking awesome, Gain for days; more than you could conceivably need. Tight with the boost. The Ultra channel is just flat out liquid gain. This amp as a ton of gain, keep it pretty low if boosting with an overdrive. There is so much gain though that you could easily wreck the tone with too much gain. The EQ is a little different on the crunch and ultra channels. Past noon the EQ turns into an active EQ. This means that the amp adds more in, not takes less out. There is a built in noise gate, which knocks back the hiss a little bit, but isn't very powerful.



Saturday, August 4, 2018

Multipiece Bodies vs Multipiece Necks... Voodoo? or Haiku

Good Morning, it's Trashed!

Don't worry, no black magic or poetry here. Trashed is no poet.

When you spend a lot of money on a Gibson, a bookmatched maple top and a two piece of body is what you dream of. (Oh. Wait, nevermind Gibson kind of put themselves in the shitter, so lets say a LP-a-like). It has 'da tonez', right?

People tend to think that the lesser the number of pieces that a guitar is made of, the better. Fact or fiction, I indeed do not know... BUT I do know that I wouldn't buy a Gibson with a five piece body.

NOW, most companies are using multi-piece necks. Maple/Walnut/Maple/Walnut/Maple, or whatever-the-hell they feel like. Does a five piece neck have the same effect as a five piece body wood? HONESTLY, I do NOT know. There are indeed obvious benefits as the necks are more stable and less likely to warp, and that it looks pretty, and, yeah it looks pretty. NOW (yet again), if the bridge is attached to the five piece and is a neck through, does that change the game? No idea. NOT to rag on Gibson, BUT why have they yet to use a scarf joint (face palm). Does one more joint make the guitar so different that half the time you drop one the neck breaks? They have done quite a bit of stoopid shit (mini-tune being the most obvious) to make me never buy a newer one, but they can't fix the weakest point of the guitar being the headstock joint... Dumbasses. They have no issue chamber and weight relating, but can't change the neck joint? Bottom line is that "HOW MUCH DOES A WOOD JOINT MATTER"?

I don't really know, let me know if you do.

/Trashed out.

Friday, July 20, 2018

This is the new trend. NEW ACQUISITIONS ***Trashed's Gear***

L

Here is the full rig at the moment. This is used for mainly recording and in the garage lol. There is no way in hell i would carry two 4x12"s to a gig. Orange Rockerverb 50 mk1 for dirt and a Rivera Knucklehead for cleans.

The Orange is being pushed by either a MI Audio Blues Pro or Ibanez Bottom Booster, with the Clyde in front of that. out of the loop is a pair of Malekko delays, one EKKO loFi and the other is the standard EKKO 616.

The Rivera is through a Pigtronix philosopher's king out front, and in the loop a CMATMODS Phaser, a CMATMODS Chorus, and a CMATMODS delay.


New guitar number one: It is a Hofner Verythin. 335 based semi-hollow with a solid center block. The pickups are fantastic, solid German made hardware, so no complaints there, fit and finish flawless, perfect binding details etc. The grain on the wood is freaking sweet, front and back,this is so comfortable to play and I love it.



Rediscovered Guitar #1 I havwe had it for a few years, just didn't use it. This is a  Sublime Chieftain Semi-Hollow, laminated center block. The brand is associated with Crush Drums. A friend of a friend has some part of vested interest. The best thing i have to say is the plays great. The pickups are the downside IMO. Acoustically louder than most semi's. I must say i really like the headstock shape. Sweet guitar.

Saturday, July 14, 2018

Gentlemen and Gentlewomen (?),

OK! A couple of  things that you all deserve to know.

Sorry I have not been posting as regularly as I have been quite busy.

1. Earlier this month my first baby arrived after my wife having a stressful pregnancy. My little girl is sweet and amazes me more and more every day.

2. As far as the blog goes, there are some minor changes. For one, is that I am running out of topics slowly. I will revisit some old topics. There is a lot of material in this from when I started that haven't gotten a lot of views, I would think you all would like it, check it out.

3.I am off of the Squier thing. They are in storage and may be for sale, but i am indefinitely keeping the black HH strat that i put DiMarzios in, it plays fantastically.

Moving Forward.

Starting in the next few weeks, I will be selling fuzz pedals. They are single transistor single knob pedals that are a lot of fun to play with. I will put some videos up soon of them. $20 a pop shipped in the USA. The more I sell the more I will be able to make. THAT is my form of support for the blog and further pedal building and parts AND it keeps the spousal unit (wifey) happy, despite having the laptop open at 3am listening to me type up blogs. There are about ten available. If you want one, reply in this thread to comments, AND EMAIL trashedengineering@gmail.com. Pay Pal is the best way to go but don't send it to this email, contact me and I will send the request to you from my main account.

Moving forward again, there will be more gear pics from my collection and reviews, and updates as I pick up more.

CHEERS ALL!

TLDR; I will have badass fuzzs i have been building available soon for $20 shipped in the USA,

Saturday, June 9, 2018

RANT: Jackson and Friends, and the beloved Compound Radii Fretboards

Sup!

I must say that I love Jackson, but they piss me off a bit too. They make great guitars and I have OWNED three and loved them. I sold the Jackson's for LTD's then sold them for Ibanez Prestige's (all of which I will indefinitely keep and I have five of them bitches).

"Trashed, you ass, I love Jackson, what is wrong?!?!"

"Compound radius fretboard's." I say, waiting to be bitched out...


The logic is fantastic, but not quite so ergonomic in practice. For those of you who are new or don't know much about guitars, the fretboard is curved convexly and compensated for by the saddles being different heights. THAT is why your saddles are different heights and not flat. The radius is the measurement of how curved the fretboard is. 

Fretboard radii can be from 7.25" to 20", both of which I don't care for. My Fender '52' Reissue Tele is 7.25 (original spec) is NOT the funnest guitar to do crazy bends and leads on. You fret out and it stops the note if you bend too far. 20" is way too flat. Cords suck and it's awkward.

What does Jackson do? They have a compound radius. IF I AM correct at the moment it is 12"-20" from nut to the end of the fretboard. Here are some things that you all may not think of. If you are on the first fret its curvy, but how often do you play on the first fret as opposed to other frets? The 24th fret is like flat OMG. I will hit the 24th fret regularly but it doesn't get as much action as say the 12th fret. Two extremes. So between two points is the middle, so it is kind of an average?  Yes. I would dare to say between the 7th to 15th fret which could be a hot spot for playing is not a whole lot of different and that is what have I noticed.

Where is the folly? Strings are only a straight line with tension applied. That is physics. So ACTION  and string HEIGHT can NEVER be as low as a 12" radius or a 14" radius. Why? Strings are closer to the frets in different spots. It can't EVER be that low. 

Is it a big deal? 

Not as big of a deal as I am making out of it. Jackson makes some nice guitars (most people have no qualms with that, nor I). I have owned a DKMG, a DKMGT, and a DK2 [all Made in Japan (mij)]. I dig them, and loved them, and had no major adverse reactions to the compound radius fretboard. There are A LOT of brands doing this. Suhr does this more gracefully on their fine axes. When I played a Suhr Modern, it was royally glorious in every way (Trashed wants). Fender has been doing it too.

Is it wrong? NO.  

/Trashed is out.



Monday, May 28, 2018

A Pessimistic Revelation

Dear Brothers,

Sometimes in life, things swell and fade.

Most of you have heard that I have been modding cheap Squiers quite regularly. $30 here $50 there etc. It is practically pocket change.

I didn't put a whole lot of money into them as everything was just sitting around the shop of a dollar here or there, and didn't pay a whole lot for them in the first place. I had a lot of fun with them. I learned a lot on the way. All could turn into an easy profit- and may well do so.

"Damn Trashed it sounds like you are depressed, 'ya alright?"

"Yeah Yeah. Nothing to worry about guys, already took my happy pills..."

The last few months I was just playing the Squiers, I put up a bunch of the other guitars because i was satisfied with the Squiers for the time being, and didn't need them out..They sounded good, felt great- or so I thought, so I thought. I have had a lot of fun with them, but there was ONE fatal downfall...

Today, I pulled out some of the Gibsons and high dollar USA Fenders. Slick like butter, ssweet like sugar, and singing like the birds. The Squiers don't make the cut amongst this lineup. They really shouldn't either, factoring in price, and components, etc. but I am disappointed. I have the HH strat down and the blue one. the others are heading to storage for a while.

I don't know if I am a pessimistic realist or realiestic pessimist, or if i am pessimistic about my pessimism but life is life/.

Thursday, May 10, 2018

OMG So I got a new toob amp. What should I do now, Trashed?

Hey Trashed! I just bought my first proper tube amp! Whadda I do now?

There are a few things I would look into for most amps and just universally in GENERAL. I can't talk about every amp in all of hell and creation.

The first thing to do is to buy some tubes. I cannot advise on power tubes because that is too broad, simply due to different biasing methods for different amps. I don't want to delve in too deep. 

However, I will say that right now my personal go-to power amp tube is the JJ E34L. Read the last sentence again. E34L, not referring to EL34. E34L's have the British bite with a rounder and fuller bottom end. To illustrate how much I like them, I probably have TEN amps loaded with them. To take that further, I am POSITIVE I have over a dozen brand new ones in my shop.

I LOVE KT88's, but they are expensive as hell. I have them in my Splawn Nitro, Splawn Pro-Mod and Fryette SIG:X. They are quite ballsy. They are not as easily interchangeable as the others, or example with Splawn, it involves removing or adding a resistor (which requires draining filter caps and soldering). 

IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING INSIDE AN AMP, LEAVE IT ALONE, PAY SOMEBODY IF YOU HAVE TO, MUCH BETTER THAN BEING DEAD.

For EL84, go JJ. They are cheap and sound great. Again, I swear by these suckers. I probably have them in every EL84 amp I own. HOWEVER,  I don't have many amps that take EL84's. IMO no competition for JJ here.

Preamp tubes are a bit easier. get how many of 12AX7 you want after some research plus three more, a combination of 12AT7, 5751, AND get a different variety.

"OK Trashed, I done got me some backup tubes. What now?

Clean out the tube sockets, jacks and tube sockets with DeOxit or another quality contact cleaner.

"Got it Trashed, what now?"

Now turn it on.

There is a common misbelief that you need to put the amp on standby and wait. That is not important. Flip the switches however you feel inspired.

Looking for a heavy or metal tone? Nine times out of ten you want an overdrive pedal (Tubescreamer, etc). Lotsa' options.

EQ's are always good to fine tune the tone in the effects loop.

Then just fire it up and raise some hell!

One more thing that is misbelief is that you can't touch tubes with fingers out or the earth explode. Don't worry about it.

Here are another few random thoughts.

Tubes are more sensitive to damage if you move/bump/jostle a hot amp.

NOS tubes can be great, but make sure you get them from a reputable place that tests them.

If you have spring reverb, be careful moving it and if you take it off, they can cause some issues. IF you are getting too much jangle, wrap it carefully in a towel.

Trashed OUT! Cheers to all!

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

The "what-the-hell-o-caster" and everything about it.

So what the hell is a what-the-hell-o-caster?

I am calling it this because it can be a lot of things. Complex, simple, bluesy, quacky, punk rockey, rock, OR country, are just a few things.

I am attempting to open your eyes.

One thing to me that is essential to ME, yes to ME about a stratocaster is the tremolo. BUT I always keep it blocked.

WHAT THE HELL TRASHED!?!?! You don't use it so you block it and YOU think it is essential? You have bloody hell gone mad.

What do I mean? The noise of the spring cavity and where the routed areas make me almost feel a reverberation in  a guitar. Can it be heard through an amp? Probably not. But I don't jazz (or rock) with hard-tail strats. I have played a bunch of them. Mostly mid '70's and a few '80's of what I don't remember, BUT the hard-tail strat killed the vibe for me.

Some people think that Strats are boring. I can reassure you that they are not. I must agree that the bland, boring, black strat,with the rosewood fretboard, white pickguard and chrome hardware is not the most inspiring, eye catching, or jaw dropping guitar ever made.

The good thing however is that YOU make the rules..

Pickguards are easily interchangeable, and the options are endless! Don't think you are stuck with Fender either, http://www. greasygroove. com can make totally custom designs of whatever you can imagine and with any pickup configuration you could dream of!

Strats allow for a huge variety of pickup selection. Most are SSS, the most flexible is the HSS. HH wired for a 5-way isn't bad either. There is some room in MOST of them. I stick boost circuits in some of my Strats and have room for a battery without any complications. HEADS UP though. There are a lot of different routing patterns, don't assume though that it is a swimming pool. Before you go all hog wild on its ass take a peek, that is all. (If you have a router, Dremel, or whatnot, it is an easy go, just don't go too far on the edge).

Can they get any better !?!?! YES.

EVERYTHING is totally interchangeable of the same model. A neck breaks, (which is a highly unlikely scenario), buy one. If I break the headstock off of one of my Gibsons hellfire would come down to earth. BIG money to get a good repair AND kills the value. Hardware is interchangeable too! (to the similar model).

OK Trashed, you have blabbered and bantered for minutes now, what is this what-the-hell-o-caster? It is a partscaster. I just do whatever the hell I want. You build whatever the hell you want.

COOL SHIT, RIGHT? I think so.

Cheers Brothers!



Saturday, March 17, 2018

Solid State vs Tube and Digital vs Analog: OPENING THE GATES TO HELL.

OH shit! I smell gun powder right now, the interwebz and brains are going to blow!

HOWEVER, I am not arguing which is best... cough all analog all tube is the ONLYYYY wai to go..

But I am going to educate you on the differences that may confuse you.

WTF is solidstate? it is transistor based. Transistors act as amplifiers of the signal shaping the preamp and the actual amplification. Simple right? Probably NOT.

Tubes are those glass really pretty glowing things that look like light-bulbs. BUT light bulbs are NOT a substitute. hahahahahaha. AND they don't screw in, gently pull and wiggle. They also amplify signal, they can be in preamp and poweramp, in most cases both. Tubes clip signal beautifully and soft, and it sounds like angels singing in your head.

"OK Trashed, I think I got it."

Good for you. NOW is the challenging part.

You respond, "Dammit, right, I knew that was coming."

Digital? What does that mean? in literal definition it involves '1's and '0's. Which is what your computer is, your phone, your alarm clock.... OK, Got it?

Momma says that digital is the Devil. lol. OK Momma. there I go throwing my opinion in again. oops. Wait, this is an opinion blog, right? yessir.

Digital is modeling for a large portion. The computer tries to fake you out and think you sound like you have t00bs. Everybody wants tubes, or at least to make it sound like you do, or come close enough to make you feel good about yourself.

Analog = NO DIGITS. PURE. All that is in there is resistors, capacitors, tubes, switches, potentiometers, etc. You get it.


_______________________


Now you have those jackass hybrid stuff and they are bastards. Death to them. Several companies try to be tricky and screw you over in to thinking something is all tube (cough Blackstar). Out weigh the benefits and costs. That is up to you.

Are there good digital amps? Yes. Kemper, AXE, HELIX, etc.
Are there good SS amps? Yes indeed. Roland JC120 always pops up first in my book. Ampeg has some. I should mention that SS is moire common in bass amps.
Are there good hybrid amps? YES. One of my favorites is Vintage Musicman stuff.

______________________

Sorry for a short one , I have been busy. I will be more active.

Cheers Bros, and Hoes.

Monday, March 5, 2018

Troof 'Bout Floatin' Tremolos

Dear Fellow Six String Junkies,

Oh wait... I suppose some of y'all are on seven, eight, and nine stringers though. Thats OK we can still be friends, there is help. haha.

Tremolos are a love/hate relationship for most of us. They are necessary for some, pain in the ass for others. However sometimes, you can't get around them, this may help.

First off is that I am not going to be speaking of Kahlers or Bigsbys, as I have very little experience with them. I want to educate, not discombobulate peoples brains. In addition to that I will not be talking about differences on the variations. If you want to know the difference of a Licensed Floyd or a FR1000, there is Google for that. 

Here are some troofs:

You absolutely CANNOT change the tuning on a floating tremolo and maintain function without setting up the guitar. You can get by with going from E std to Drop D, but you will need to re-tune the guitar, possibly necessitating taking the clamps off with the nut and tune using the tuning keys.

Stringing them and setting them up takes longer. Period. Intonation is even more of a pain in the ass. ALSO, you need to have the string tension removed to raise or lower it without causing damage.

Trashed, Whaddaya do if you need multiple tunings with a floyd? BUY ANOTHER DAMN GUITAR. YES ANOTHER GUITAR. THAT IS A MUST.

I have five Ibanez Prestige with floating tremolos, yes, FIVE, for a damn good reason. Two in C#std, two in Estd, and the fifth is Estd also, but strung with .009"s for some five semitone bending and shredding action. (lol I hate the word 'shred' and 'shredding.' just sounds dumb).

Why get a more expensive floyd than a cheap one?

They are not created equal. On cheaper models the baseplate isn't hardened to the same degree. That is the worst offence, but everything suffers.

Whats wrong with that Trashed?

The knife edges dull and it doesn't stay in tune. YUCK! the whole point is to stay in tune and make crazy noises, right?

Also the size/material of the block on the tremolo is different, HOWEVER, THIS is an easy swap. You can find the blocks for relatively cheap and and in a variety of metals and alloys. The size is variable too. I have seen nice results from a new block.

SPRING TENSION = STRING TENSION. That is the unwritten law of a tremolos. If you change strings to a different gauge or change the tuning, OR both, you are going to need to to mess with the tension on the claw AND possibly the number of springs.

For example I use .011"s in standard on nearly EVERY guitar. I use five springs in every one of them. You can only get so tight on the claw with the three springs that typically come with. For my C# guitars i use .012"s with five springs as well, same deal.


This topic will be revisited at some point in the near future.

CHEERS! Trashed.

Friday, February 23, 2018

***TRASHED DID IT AGAIN!*** $50 Squier Blues Shredder

OK guys we all need that a shredder needs 24 frets, but the way that this fine bitch plays so sweet it makes up for it in spades. 

I got this Squier Affinity Strat brand new from a guy on CL. The plastic wrap still on the stock pick guard. $50. It literally hadn't been played. Freaking cool, isn't it?

I got the GFS pick guard for $20-ish.

I used pickups out of an Ibanez Prestige. $0.00

Total investment $70.

I rolled the edges of the fretboard, which really makes it more comfortable to play. I dyed the fretboard with leather dye, and cleaned the inlays. I prefer that look more ebony-esque and classy.
This is standard procedure on cheap guitars with rosewood fretboards. I did do a little filing on the ends of the frets with a needle file, nice and smooth, which we all want. Neck feels great.

The pickups came from a RG-2570EVSL that I pulled out (in favor of a Dimarzio Crunch Lab and Liquifire configuration for Petrucci tones). These pickups are the Dimarzio/IBZ pick ups, NOT to be confused with the "V" or"INF" as found in other Ibanez guitars.

The Dimarzio/IBZ  are still made in the USA as all of Dimarzio's pickups, and are pretty damn nice overall. The bridge slightly reminds me of the Super Distortion in the bridge and similar bite in the neck. The neck pickup is not low output wimpy shit here, it is full of sweet screaming leads.

I used the switch, jack, and pot from the Squier and rigged it up. Two things to note is that the five-position switch works fine. The only thing is that it is silent in positions 3 and 4. I don't mind that.. not to mention that it saved me $10. The pot was a CTS which was kind of odd to find in a bottom of the barrel guitar.

I set it up and put it with some D'addario .11's and HOT DAMN was it something sweet. I tweaked it a little bit, and it plays insanely well. Freakishly low action, great sound, I found a sweet guitar here.

*PSA* How Not to be a Packing Jackass

OK so recently I heard of somebody receiving a damaged BOSS pedal.

How the HELL do you break a BOSS pedal? I have absolutely NO idea. I have dropped them in puddles and used them five minutes later. They are rugged.

I don't care what method you use in the US. Some swear USPS, some UPS and some FED-EX, there are always horror stories. I have had bad experiences with every one of them at one time or another. If  I am shipping something small, like a pedal, USPS is cheap. ESPECIALLY  it fits in a flat rate box. Guitars and amps are cheapest UPS. I don't use fed-ex often, just because they are a little bit farther away from my shop.

How much do you charge? If it's something big, for example, an amp or guitar I charge cost plus 10% roughly. If it is small or USPS post office flat rate.

THE BIGGEST RULE

For the sake of whatever deity you believe in, don't be a cheap-ass and skimp on packing materials to save your self $5. Nobody likes waiting for the mail for days, eager to get their gear, and seeing their new toy DOA.

Pack something the way you would want a person to pack something for you. Simple isn't it?

This is a bonus public service announcement post due to frustration.

Friday, February 16, 2018

ARE you READY for a BUZZ?

Feel the burn.


Power. It's a good thing, isn't it? Yeah. Us guitar junkies really need it.


Pedals. Also a great thing, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah (bla bla bla) but they
need power, don't they?


Trashed says: "Yuppers!"


Soooo, Trashed knower of all, "Where does power from your pedals
come from?"
Either the wall or the bastard battery.
If you have read many of my blogs you know that I am not exactly
a fan of 9V batteries. Here is a 9V batteries are from HELL which
     is another blog that displays my hatred for the stupid 9V money suckers.

Ok. So power supplies, whatcha' got to say about that Trashed?
There are two: isolated (ISO) and non-isolated (AKA daisy chain)
There is a price gap difference between the two. Unfortunately, with
bigger investment comes the bigger reward in terms of performance.
What is better? Isolated. Isolated means that each pedal gets its own
filtered power. ISO blocks (or bricks for another name) are quieter
and are easily dealt with center positive supplies and varied voltages.
An example of these are the ISO boxes. For example, Voodoo Labs Pedal
Power 2 or Cloiks, but there are dozens with all kinds of different features.

Lotsa' shit 'bout this huh?

So everybody in unison so "TRASHED, WHAT DO YOU DO ???"


The non-isolated are much cheaper, often in the form of the a 1spot.
They are great and I love them. At the moment three out of my four rigs
(yeah four pedal boards, I know) are powered by 1spots. I have had no
real issues with 1spots as long as you have good power.

The fourth board is a general all purpose board and frequently get swapped
around for recording or whatever I may need it for. Powering that is a BBE
Supa-Charger which is cheaper when it comes to isolated power supplies,
but it has done the job well for quite a while and I am sure it will
continue to do so.

One final note is that I DO NOT and WILL NOT record with a daisy chain, I will
use the BBE and take that route

What does it all boil down to? $100 difference in general.

You want the good juice. Go ISO, but I would NOT rule out 1spots, they can
be really handy.

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

$30 Squier Stratocaster Ball Busting Beast. **TRASHED'S GEAR**

So on my quest for hoarding my Squier Stratocasters, I picked up this ugly hoe (not Santa's kind of greeting) for $30. Hell yeah!

There are quite a few good deals i have picked up. from this one at $30, another at $40 and another for $50 NIB with plastic on it still. lolzzzz.

This ugly duckling  was covered in stickers and gunk, not a big deal, cleaned it up. I rolled the edges of the fretboard and I touched the fret ends a bit with a needle file. It came equipped with gold Ibanez tuners, they work fine. I pulled the jack plate off and sprayed it gold, I don't totally know why but it looked good.

I have too many SSS strats. Way too many. So I went into my shop and found a Bill Lawrence humbucker. Stuck it in there. I decided that the empty single coil routes were a little boring, so I grabbed my wonderful dremel and cut the pickguard. There are no knobs on this guitar, just one on/off switch. bare bones.

whatch'y'all think?




Friday, February 2, 2018

BONUS RANT! Fairy Picks

Bonus RANT!!!

Now this is something that I do not want to say by name, but most of you can name a company or two that sells $3-$6+ picks. YES guys, $3-$6+ for ONE pick, NOT a pack of twelve or six, etc. And they only go higher!!!
I recently acquired a few. BUMMED. PERIOD. Thank god they were free.

Now let me elaborate. Out of the half dozen I got were any bad? No. I don't see anything wrong with them. Did they do the job? Yeah, they did... AT DAMN NEAR TEN FOLD the price of the typical Dunlop or whateveryawannacallit pick. The picks feel nice, I got a few nice different sizes. They had a little bit of grip on them, that was nice. The edges were sharp and smooth on the strings. They are not a bad product.

Want to know what I use and LOVE at a much lower price? Dunlop Carbon Fiber Jazz III's. There is so much grip they are hard to lose, even if you were to try. I have yet to have one of mine wear even visible. They are more expensive than the typical Dunlop pick but damn, I dig them and they are affordable.
I recently got a sample pack of Dunlop Jazz III's. There are a lot of varieties of materials. I really liked the yellow tinted one and the others are great too. The seven variety pack is $7 from major dealers. That is a good price to find what works for you. Some of the fairy pick places charge $20 to $30 for a variety pack not so cheap to get your toes wet.

That's where I stand.

The retort (for all of you political bitches):
I always say to use what fits you best in general. That has been since day one. I use what works for me. You should use what works for you. I try to gently, and if needed, coarsely guide you but I have a hard time justifying that amount of cash on a damn pick, especially since those picks don't even have any freaking fairy dust on them. Call them, maybe they can tack another $5 for ones with fairy dust. IDFK. I just don't see how it is practical. I think I may stretch it out to the term gimmick. $5 for a pick is a gimmick. DAMN! Did I actually say this? Gimmick, gimmick, gimmick.







I have a feeling that I am going to get some hate mail on this. Guess what? I DON'T CARE, bring it.

Friday, January 26, 2018

MOD it or KEEP it.

Sometimes in life comes the question: "should I shine up the old Camaro and sell it to fund the new Challanger Hellcat? Or, should I go with the Challanger SRT-8 AND keep the Camaro and rebuild the engine?"

That is a rough time. For us, it could be selling the Mexican Fender Strat funding the USA Deluxe, or just keeping the Mexican and buying a USA Standard and throwing some new pickups in the Mexi?

While there are options, some are far better than others, but ALL are PERSONAL decisions. 

Personally I would keep the Mexi and get the standard and do some work. Let's get out of the world of Strats. This can be anything.

My opinon begins here. MY opinion, thats why y'all read my blog, right??? haha.

If the existing cheap guitar IS decent enough to stay in tune and feels good for you, and you don't have a standing aresonal like I do, keep it.

The number ONE reason for keeping it is if you don't have a backup guitar. There are a few reasons that you would want to have a second/third etc, guitar. For example,  different tunings is primary reason. If you are gigging you NEED, NEED and I repeat NEED a backup.

If the guitar isn't worth keeping, YOU will know. If it is a hindrance or bad omen, for the sake of whatever, get rid or it. I am talking in this scenario as like a Walmart guitar, or too beat up, or flat-out nonfunctional. Nonfunctional guitars will NEVER make things easier for your. Trash is trash.


__________

Here is the bomb going off in here. I recently traded one of the pedals I just built and a twenty dollar bill for a... Squier, yes, a SQUIER strat. how is it? It does the job as shocked as I am. It is like a 2009 or something like that and hasn't been used much at all. Even the origional bullet end strings that he said he hadn't ever changed. At that point all I knew is it was functional, and the truss rod was functional and it made noise in is Frontman 15g (faceplam) combo.

So I take it home and take everything off and clean and polish and buff everything and touch up some frets, outfit it with a carbon fiber pickguard that I had laying around, and bang, I have a brand new beater. As far as mods go, it will see a preamp I will be building in the future, and a new nut and saddles. That is a whopping $30 and it will be great to throw around any shitty local dive bar, and not have anything to fuss over.

__________

Does this mean bullshit statement that everybody belts out, "my $2XX guitar is better than that $2XXX guitar in the store" has any authenticity? Nope. If you like your guitar, good, just don't get too eager to boast it's better than something that is so valuable. To a degree, you DO get what you pay for.

__________

Cheers from Trashed!

Monday, January 8, 2018

How to EQ dat bitch. and a HUGE rant. About Mr. Bastard

So, you have got a rig setup. You love most of it, nice guitar and amp [and hopefully you ended up with an Ibanez Prestige and an Orange or Mesa] that makes Trashed nice and happy, but there is a twinkle missing to what you thought. Just that little thing that you want to just fine tune. A little fizz here, fuzz there, or a really small spike somewhere that makes you want to vomit. Don't Worry I am going to make this a little less painful for you. You need an EQ. It's the EQ or Equalizer. They are friends. They are not food... but try one, and it may just give you a sweet kiss in the ass. Here 'Ya Go! 1. DON'T SCOOP YOUR MIDS. That is the worst offense by far. Don't jack up your bass. Big mistake. Watch your presence and resonance controls too while you are at it..
2. As a general rule across the board: nothing should be pushed past lets say 2 and 8 (if we are talking out of 10). BUT as any rule, some exclusions apply.
3. There is no rule saying that something isn't dialed in right if all controls are under half or over half.
4. Sometimes if you have a really trebley amp, you can turn the treble extremely low and compensate with a little more presence (I figured this out on my Splawn KT-88 Pro-Mod).
5. Vintage amps can be a little funny sometimes. One of my old Musicman amps I use all the time, all the EQ is dimed. It sounds better that way than any other way. Just don't doubt it until you try it. Although, I have tried it on a dozen other amps I own with less success.
6. Boosting an amp with an OD. EVEN the HIGHEST gain of amps CAN still benefit with a boost in front. Give it a shot.
7. EQ pedals. They are great, and sometimes you may even use two on one rig. I only get them that have a volume and gain slider for the OD effect, and the EQ part sculpts it in to where you want it. So you could use it with or without a boost in volume or gain. They can be placed in the FX loop where it makes momre of a difference, or out front to EQ your guitar tone. That is just EQ'ing for the guitar and the amps. The mixing and mastering is a totally different level. Which at this point is beyond my understanding to teach it all to you confidently at the moment.
Lets go for a rant:
Dear Bastard whom owns the shop near me,
I come in to check what you have once in a while. You are right up in my ass, mistake number one. Then I ask if you have an Ibanez Prestige.
Mr. Bastard said "I can order one for you."
I come back with a "No thanks, but if you ever have one in give me a call."
"Well... we don't stock them." that idiot says.
I kindly reply, "Well if you DO happen to get one in, can you call me?"
Mr. Bastard says, "We don't. but I will order one for you"
I didn't care for the tone. I said that if i wanted to order one i would myself through other resources. He gets pissy and I get crabby.
I say "I can order whatever I want right now I can order online, get a 15% off, 8% in rewards (i heart musiciansfriend dot com) and NOT pay taxes.
I didn't expect him to take that overly well... and he didn't. He gets all angry. I give him a sarcastic smile and walk out the door.
NOW... If he had a guitar I WANTED and if he would have been willing to take 15% off, I would have bought it IF HE WASN'T A JACKASS. Yes I would pay more to a local store. Part of that is that I would get to play it and know everything is good, and its less of a hassle.
Soooooo... what did he lose? a customer. He lost somebody who would run in there if they needed something. I am his best [maybe only] tremolo spring purchaser. Them bitches are $2 a pop.
I like heavy strings, and have a lot of guitars with tremolos so I have bought a lot of springs.
I dropped in for a slide emergency after my glass slide met concrete and broke.
I lost a bridge pin on an acoustic, so i bought some fancyass brass ones from him.
Those items are much more profitable for him over time then him getting pissy with me over the guitar.
Mr. Bastard, shove it.
_____
There ya go!
Trashed.


Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Happy NEW YEAR! I Am Still Here and Still Trashed.

Its a new year and i am still Trashed. Hopefully you are too.

Most of you bastards are probably still hung over. I have had MORE than a few years with a fuzzy night, or maybe day? or two. However I choose not too any more, but that's my choice, I am not damning any of you for your decisions. Bottoms up!

WELL lets get down to 'da bidnazz.


  • You will get WEEKLY posts, I have more time and will commit.



  • Pics of my gear will regularly pop up now.



  • One of these days I will figure out how to change the page layout [yawn].


the FUN SHIZZZ! 

Pedlulz are still being built, more to come, I will be clearing out some stuff from the shop. I need to sell some gear too, I will post on here.

If you want a fuzz, shoot me an email [or reply here] I promise it will cost you less than a $20 bill to your door.

CHEERS!