2017-02-03 Tuners, Tuners, and yes, TUNERS!

Hello dear brethren that wield the honorable ax known as a guitar,

Soooo. Tuners. Easy right? Maybe not.

There are three types of common tuners.

1. Clip-on tuners.
2. Pedal Tuners.
3.Shitty plug-in tuners.
4.AND, Don't for get your trusty smart phone!

"So Trashed, I like my tuner and its one of those tuners that are regarded as 'shitty' cheap plug in tuners. It works fine for me, Why do you call it 'shitty'?"

I respond with a simple phrase "I guess you are a little under informed or you aren't the sharpest tool in the shed." Mic drop. OHHH YEAH!

So what do YOU need? Well, you are damn lucky that I am going to take the time out of my busy day and tell you.

1. Clip on tuners. They are very handy to have. You can have it on your headstock and tune without needing to make noise, AND you don't have it in your pedal chain, so less shit you have to hook up. It is handy for every instrument, from ukuleles to cellos, which is very convenient if you play multiple instruments. The short comings? Two main ones, they can fall off and break. I have broken two of three falling onto the tile/stage/etc. The second is if you are trying to tune and there is a lot of bass noise from the bass guitar that is loud, they get all messed up. That only happened to me *once* and then I wised up a bit. The GOOD thing is that they are cheap.

2. Pedal tuners. They are, in my opinion the most flexible. Theyare what any person from a guy jamming at an open-mic to a pro touring the world. They are accurate, easy, fast AND nothing can interrupt them other than a shoddy cable [for the record I use Korg Pitchblacks]. The only downfall is that it needs to be on a pedal board. They are small, so its not a big deal, but it is adding another cable to the chain and you have to power it. That for me is not a big deal for me. I have a [Korg Pitchblack]tuner on each of my three big pedalboards. One thing you don't have to worry about the better ones is they are buffered bypass, so it WILL NOT kill your tone, and may actually help with keeping a true signal to the next pedal. One benefit is that some pedal tuners have is that SOME have a power out. That is nice because you can power a few pedals with it, but the power is different with different tuners. For example I could power my OD, chorus, and delay thorough it, so I didn't even need a second power supply. THAT is handy!

OK. Let us move on to those (to put it nicely) junk plug-in tuners.

3. Plug-in tuners. They can tune AND be accurate, BUT [you knew a but was coming], they have a HUGELY LIMITED range of use. You have to plug the damn thing in every time. If it has an output, it is junk and kills you signal. That is IF you are dumb enough to put it into a chain. MASSIVE tone-suck. They can only tune guitar/bass/acoustic-electrics, which won't help in some situations. AND they break when dropped.

4. Cell phone tuners. DON'T underestimate the convenience, but know the limitations. If I am sitting around my house playing alone, I use it all the time. They are extremely handy to have around. They have HUGE limitation though. If you have other noise, it won't be accurate, etc. I don't use them for recording either. Why? I trust the accuracy of other tuners more when it comes down to cutting a track.

"SO Trashed, what do YOU use?"

EVERYTHING but the shitty plug in tuners. They all have a purpose. Sitting around jamming? Smart phone. Gigging? Pedal. Acoustic instruments and emergency? A clip on tuner. Why? They are cheap and fit in a gig bag easily. I picked up five Snark clip-on tuners for $5 a POP on flash sales, they are nice to have around. I have three Pictchblacks, and they are what I use most. There are some other types of tuners that I did not talk about, rack tuners, strobe tuners, polyphonic tuners, etc. I am keeping this basic and for the common-folk.

Well, Cheers!

Trashed

2016-10-03 Floyd Rose

Greetings to the Troubled Guitarists, and Helpless Gear-Heads of the World,

We are going to talk about Mr. Floyd and his Roses. 

****If you don't know what it is, go down to the bottom.****

ALSO! THIS IS BEING WRITTEN ASSUMING THEY ARE SET UP PROPERLY, THAT IS NOT WHAT THIS BLOG IS FOR!

There are a few breeds of Floyds, most of which belong to two classes: the good; and the pathetically terrible (in other words, shit). Both of which I have experienced.

The "good" ones are known by a few things...

1. OFR - Original Floyd Rose

2. Schaller made -which to a degree is a OFR

3 Gotoh made - yet again an OFR variant.

4. Ibanez EDGE - original deviation under some Floyd Rose Patents, there are several versions.

The "bad" ones are... 

1. Pretty much everything else. SERIOUSLY terrible. Let me say that again, junk.

     a. LFR (licensed floyd rose) which are found on pretty much any and every "brand: X" cheap 

        guitars.
     b. FR1000 etc. they are generally better than most LFR's

     c. Ibanez Edge II, Edge III, and another one or two.

What makes a good one good?

I thought that you would never ask!

You want the base-plate to be hardened steel. Hardened steel is necessary for keeping a good sharp knife edge. If it isn't hardened it will fatigue (rather quickly in some cases), and will be a royal pain in the ass. The knife edge is where the tremolo contacts the posts. (NOTE: the knife edges are the only point of contact on a guitar with a tremolo other than through the tremolo springs on the rear). If it has a good edge it will rest on the same spot during action, and will stay there - and yup! you guessed it, it will stay IN TUNE. If the edge becomes worn and chewed up, the tremolo will won't pivot properly, and every time you use it, it will go sharp or flat, not leveling out. The small blocks are also inferior, but they can be had easily and [relatively] cheap. Brass is a nice upgrade in most cases. HOWEVER a lot of the nicer Floyds have nicer blocks, so it may not be necessary. In addition to that, they are better machined. Period. 

Why do I need a good one?

Damn! You have been on a roll with good questions!

You want one so do you're dive-bombs and pull-ups you stay in tune. A good floyd will be able to dive to the point where the strings are so loose you are literally able to watch them flap, THEN do a pull-up three or more steps up. THEN repeat it fifty times. All of my four Ibanez Prestiges' do just this.

WOAH! these suckers are expensive!

Yeah. You get what you pay for. There are a LOT of guitars that can be swapped from LFR to OFR relatively simply. I did it to an older MIJ Jackson and it was pretty much drop in. That was probably nearly ten years ago, and the guitar is long sold, but it completely remedied the tuning instability. If you have a guitar you like and want to keep, the swap is worth it. If you aren't attached to it, I wouldn't bother.

This is just a simple and very shallow post. At some point in time I will write more of a tech write-up.

**** OK, What the hell is a Floyd Rose?****

Read here if you don't know, then go back to the top. It is a type of bridge found on a lot of guitars. It is "double locking" as the bridge locks the strings in at the bridge, and the locking nut locks the strings at the nut. Why? so you stay [more] in tune and because you eliminate play (for lack of a better term). They are responsible for the things that Eddie Van Halen and Dimebag do in solos.

Cheers Brethren,

Trashed. 

2016-09-25 - Drop Tuning

Greetings to the Cult of the 6 stringers:

Drop tuning. YES we mean tuning your guitar lower.

Is there a point? Yes,
Is it common? Yes.
Is it overused? ohhhhh yeah.

Myths of Drop-Tuning:

"but... but.. but... it sounds better, doesn't it?"

"all the cool metal bands do it, why shouldn't I"

To a degree it is tasteful. I have a hard time justify anything lower than C# standard. That is three semitones lower. For certain types of music (metal, which may be obvious), utilizes it quite often. Then you have the ass-clowns who tune to B standard, A standard, Drop G, etc.

I have an argument on two fronts:

First is that E2 which on a guitar is the low E string 82.41 Hz. What does that mean? Every second 82.41 sound waves pass any point (Hz is cycles per second). Simple.

HOWEVER the frequency scale is NOT LINEAR, it is logarithmic. E2 is 82.41 Hz (as we have already established) one octave lower E1 is 41.20 Hz etc. Which is what a bass is tuned to.

The threshold for the human ear is typically between 20Hz and 20kHz (twenty thousand hertz). So, you can only go so low. The bass typically drops with the guitar.

ARGUMENT 1-

The guitar is definitionally a mid range instrument. SO what does that mean? You are changing the range. What happens if you tune your guitar to B standard? Your whole guitar is five semitones lower. It begins to encroach where the bass guitar is, the bass drop tunes as well. If you tune the guitar lower, where are the mid-range frequencies? Missing in action to a degree. So you have a hole in your mix, not a good thing.

ARGUMENT 2-

The gear side. MOST modern guitar speakers (everything from Celestion Vintage 30's to Celestion Greenbacks, T75's, etc.) start to roll off their low end at around 100 Hz, give or take a bit. What does that mean? the speakers have a harder time producing lower frequencies. So 100Hz is about a G2, (third fret on the low E string if tuned in standard). That isn't a big deal.

Now lets go to the bastard child B standard tuning, ~61Hz. HUGE difference. The lower tuned notes cannot be as efficiently produced by the speakers, so you lose some lower frequencies. Lower, and you aren't fully hearing the fundamental harmonic, you are hearing other harmonics as well.

In summation, think before you drop. If you like it you like it, but now at least you are informed.

Thank you for your ever so valuable time,

Cheers:

Trashed