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/.

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!

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!

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.

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.

***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.