2016-11-13 *BONUS RANT* Mic your Shit!

I am sick of going on Youtube and seeing video after video of absolutely shit tone. Yes, some of them are 'deplorable idiots' who do indeed use junk and sound like it and are in denial. Maybe some just really don't know.

If you are demoing a decent amp or pedal or guitar, and use a damn mic! You can't make even the nicest of amps will not sound good with a shitty phone recording or a shitty point and shoot camera with the mic on there. Period.

Mic'ing an amp is not hard to do, nor is it necessarily expensive.

"So Trashed why use a mic?"

Here are just a couple of reasons. Hearing the noise from you banging your strings blended with the noise from the amp is flat nauseating. Also, you pick up room noises from some (the real idiots) that have a TV on in the background or their mom yelling out of them telling them to get out of their basement (an unforgivable sin in my opinion). Do you have no pride in your craft? Also if you are recording, the STANDARD is the mic'd tone, that is what you hear on most recordings (especially small time), so don't you want to sound 'professional'?

Why record your amp without a proper mic? There are VERY few decent reasons. NONE of which I can think of at the moment.

Also, it is NOT nearly EXPENSIVE as people think. Even an outdated computer can reasonably hold it's own to a few tracks. $80 on an SM-57, a $100 interface, free DAW (Audacity), at a minimum headphones, and let it rip. The quality is immensely better than whatever you are using.

Video is a different animal, not nearly expensive as it seems as well, especially with how good some cell phones can record video (my cell will record in HD and do well). 

The biggest factor is lighting. You may need to spend a few buck on that. The cheap-ass way? take some umbrellas, spray the inside with a metallic paint, and shine a desk light in and arrange them to light the room.

So don't be an idiot, don't be lazy, do it right.

Here is what I use (and I am fairly new to it to be honest). I use SM57 for a mic for the most part, I use a Focusirte Scarlet 2i4 for an interface, Reaper for a DAW, and some higher end Sennheiser headphones and some KRK rockitt 6" monitors (they are my weak point at the moment, but i got them cheap). For Video I use a Nikon DSLR (1080p) and a Rode Video Mic for speaking parts. I use Adobe Premier Elements and go from there. It works great, I will be posting more videos in the near future when i have some more time to make them and get more familiar with the rig.

So if you do it, DO IT RIGHT.

That is it for now bitches.

Cheers, Trashed

2016-10-17 Speakers: Part 2

Fellow Audiophiles,

So we are talking about speakers. Again? Yeah.

"Say what?"

Yeah, we need it loud. LOUDER!

I covered speakers in layman's terms last week, now I am going to give you my experience on what I have/use/hate/throw in the trash.

First off, for the most part, EVERY amp that comes with an unknown speaker, likely sucks. Hard fucking truth, even the Celestion and Eminence 'designed' speakers suck 99% of the time. Also, there are very few speakers that are smaller than 10" that are halfway decent, the exception is in some vintage low watt vintage amps (5F1 for example). 10" speakers can be great, but not the piece of junk sitting in your practice amp though.

"OK, so Trashed, you seem to like 12" speakers?"

Yeah. I do.

I have (literally) more than 30 speakers around my house/studio when you add up all of the cabs and combos.

I am mainly going to cover newer production speakers, I am not well versed on the vintage speakers.

Celestion Vintage 30's - Rightfully (or wrongfully) the most iconic go-to speaker for a lot of things. Tight bass, huge upper mids, decent power rating (60w). Some complain about 'honk' and that does happen with some amps, however, they are well received. Orange, Mesa, Engl, etc. all use them. The sound good with anything from Fenders Blues Jr.s to Peavey Wolfgangs, to Mesa's, Oranges, Marshalls, 5150's, etc. The only amps I have that totally disagreed with the V30 are my Splawn Promod and Splawn Nitro. I have no idea why, they just don't get along. One last thing is that V30's take a long time to break in. If you just got some new ones, give them a month with medium volume playing, they really open up.

Celestion T75's - Infamous thanks to Marshall. They are the standard in the 1960a cabs, and are overall an industry standard for 80's JCM's through today. Not much to be said, a little smoother on the top end and a little less mids, they are pretty friendly overall. I sometimes find them a little 'bland' with some amps, I LOVE mixing them with V30's (and it is relatively common).

"So Trashed, you like Celestions?"

That sounds like a dumb question, YES.

Lets continue!

Celestion K85/K100. These are my FAVORITE speakers. Period. They are 100% identical other than country of origion. K85's were British (confirmed with Celestion's representative), they changed the wattage rating. I have mostly K85's, A LOT of them. They are more low mid focused, and have a nice smooth range, and a lot of bass. I buy up every K85 I find locally. I have around a dozen. They thunder, they get along well with anything high gain, and to be honest i haven't tried them with any of my more vintage amps, but I am sure they will do fine. My Splawns and Peavey 5150, and Orange Rockerverb LOVE them. 

I... need... more. I like to use them with V30's, but not always.

and.. last for the day, the speaker that started it all...

Celestion G12m Greenback - Vintage Marshall and Vox's favorite speakers for the most part.* They seem to 'compress' (if that is the right term) as they get pushed harder, which is one of their well known traits. They are picky about how hard they are pushed. They need to be pushed, but only to a degree, they are OK quiet too. They have a low sensitivity, so they are noticeably quieter than other speakers when pushed, for example the V30. I don't really know what to say, but they are just legendary. The only downfall is that they are 20-25W. That limits their use in a lot of scenarios. With a 2x12 cab, you can't run a lot of amps, as it is <50W. So if you want to run a high wattage amp, you need a 4x12". Kinda sucks. To be completely honest, that limits my use of them. 

I think this will turn into a part three for next week.

Cheers! 

You keep playing I keep bitchin',

Trashed.

*i must note that Vox are also known for Alnico Blues

2016-09-06 Guitar Strings

To the Guitarophiles, and the Fellow Chasers of the Purple Tone Dragon!

Guitar strings. The topic alone strikes emotions and uneasiness. So what do I have to say? Strings are cheap, and strings are cheap. Wait... did I say that twice? It would appear that I did. So lets say it one more time, Strings are cheap.

Now that we have established that strings are cheap (I usually purchase mine online in bulk), the discussion can commence.

When somebody asks me what strings I use, I tell them.

When somebody asks what strings I recommend, I ask them this: "What strings are you using now? What do you like/dislike about them?" That is all I can say. Strings are a personal item that is largely preference.

The most common issue is NOT breakage, but we will cover breakage first. Seemingly like the string is bad, right? Not all the time!

I say this because if you keep breaking strings in the same spot, you probably have a burr. Not to worry though, they are easy to smooth out a little bit with a little bit of sandpaper (very fine). Once you get that spot fixed, you shouldn't have a problem area any more.

Typically strings break at the bridge/saddle, nut, or tuning keys. Unknown to you, what is happening is that a burr is developing in a problem area. Your string is slowly getting weaker and weaker as the burr is cutting deeper and deeper into the string. You will be innocently strumming (we all know YOU don't do that, so) beating the hell out of your guitar with earth shaking power chords, then SNAP! a string pops. Hopefully it didn't go flying and scratch your cornea, as then you wouldn't be able to read this blog!!! I cannot imagine a worse fate.

[Actually I most commonly break strings bending, but that is a personal thing.]

The most common issue that strings come up 'short' on is the aging (oxidation?). New strings sound jangley and bright and lively, after a little while they lose their luster. Then they start to sound muddy and dark and DULL sounding. No bueno in my book. String life has a million variables, from the sweat and acidity of your sweat on the strings, to the climate. Some people have much better experience with certain string brands than others, largely due to the different metals/coatings interacting with their body.

You can research the different features gimmicks on the packages yourself. They have all sorts of fancy words, that likely don't mean a whole lot. Coatings can be a good thing, on some brands of strings, but may or may not be worth the hike in price for you. The metal alloys are probably the only thing other than round-wound flat-wound half-wound that matter from a tonal (and feel) perspective.

There are products that claim to enhance string life, I call it snake-oil. Some swear by it, I don't. You can decide for yourself.

In summation: Strings are cheap, play the field.

Keep on reading, and I will keep on bitching.

Cheers, Trashed.