The ENWorld Electric Bard Gear (Etc) Thread

[R_J_K75]

I'm a huge fan of the Mars Volta. Not a bad album or song in their catalog IMO. I was just listening to "Tetragrammaton" off of Amputecture, well it so long Im still listening to it. But the guitar in that song is amazing. I don't even try and figure out those songs or what he's doing. I think he's trolling here

Some local news, the drummer of the band is now on our local rock stations morning show. The band was supposed to play here in the TC but somebody got sick.

Scott Gorman is his name I think, the OG Crowes drummer. Wrote a nasty "Tell All" book to go along with that.

The Black Crowes were absolutely a talented enough band to play the songs on that album. And Jimmy Page needs no introduction. But they screwed it up.

Black Crowes are playing East Aurora NY, it's about 15 minutes from my house. Thyre closing out opening night, a Friday Sept 12 of a 3-day festival; it's in a park somewhere. East Aurora isn't bit so I can't think the park would be. My brother got tickets so I'm going with him

MF'er "Funeral For a Friend" just came on, Im in it for the long haul...OUT!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I don’t remember if I mentioned it, but earlier this year, I bought my first piece of guitar gear in a while:

Soft Focus Reverb

The Soft Focus patch on the Yamaha FX500 was widely used in the ‘90s by early shoegaze bands, most notably Slowdive on Souvlaki. With its roots in that patch, the Catalinbread Soft Focus is intended to be an instant shoegaze button, while addressing the most glaring issues of the original unit...

catalinbread.com

I bought it because shoegaze is one of my favorite sonic landscapes to explore. I have enough pedals in my arsenal that I can get there with the right combination, but there’s something to be said for a specialized pedal.

Today, I bought my second:

PACKRAT WHITE

NOW AVAILABLE IN WHITE COLORWAY! In 1978, one of the most versatile distortion pedals of all time was invented in Kalamazoo–the ProCo RAT. Scott Burnham and Steve Kiraly had the idea after playing, repairing, and modifying all distortion pedals on the market. They wanted something that didn’t...

jhspedals.info

In the context of my gear collection, this purchase is the polar opposite of the Soft Focus. This will be my FIRST pedal based on the ProCo Rat. If this pedal is as advertised, I’ll basically have a pedal that covers 9 different versions of the Rat.

And with that logic in mind, I also pulled the trigger on an If 6 Was 9:

IF 6 WAS 9 - BC183 MKII FUZZ

If there’s one pedal that captures the history of sonic rebellion and the soul of classic rock, then the Fuzz Face is it. Bold and raunchy when fed power chords, velvety smooth and angelically soaring when presented with lead lines and with an almost too-good-to-be-true volume knob cleanup...

solidgoldfx.com

Again, it’s a pedal that fills a conspicuous gap- my lack of a Fuzz Face style pedal.

 

[R_J_K75]

I can get there with the right combination, but there’s something to be said for a specialized pedal.

You are correct. I have a flanger/chorus pedal that the name escapes me that falls into that same category. I go back and forth between pedals and multi-effect units. Pedals have gotten somewhat complicated these days. I bought a TCE Brainwaves pedal (pitch shifter) that I couldn't figure out how to shut it off, it stayed latched. It may have been broken out of the box. I pulled the cover off and changed the settings inside, so I know it wasn't that. I ended up trading in an Epiphone ES-335 Pro and that for a Boss ME-90 multi-effect unit. I'm waiting on a new USB-C chord that data transfers from Amazon before I fire it up. I made sure to read the instructions this time. I just fried a Boss DD3T pedal because I grabbed the wrong voltage power chord. But yeah, I have a ton of pedals, and I am so amazed sometimes at how little pedals a lot of famous guitarists use...except the Edge. His pedal board looks like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"

This will be my FIRST pedal based on the ProCo Rat.

The Rat was a pretty prolific pedal, Kurt Cobain used one IIRC. I tend to just swap out pickups for hotter ones and turn up the gain on my amp rather than use distortion pedals anymore, unless I'm looking for a heavier sound like Megadeth. For that I have an EHX Metal Muff. EVH/Tom Morello, no distortion on their pedal boards. The term overdrive came from guitarists in the 60's pushing their tube amps past points they were designed for.

I bought it because shoegaze is one of my favorite sonic landscapes

Not sure if this is the same genre because I've become old, but I like Cage the Elephant a lot. Although their new CD isn't that great. They are coming here in a week or two and me and my girlfriend have been threatening to go for a while, but the venue kind of blows. Parking is terrible, and it's a long walk to standing room, finally, the sound isn't that good there. Last I checked tickets are $200+, so I'm not going.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

But yeah, I have a ton of pedals, and I am so amazed sometimes at how little pedals a lot of famous guitarists use...except the Edge. His pedal board looks like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"

Some players plug straight into their amps, some require a more sophisticated rig than NASA used to get us to the moon.

Two of the most complicated systems I’ve learned about belonged to Steve Stevens and Helios Creed.

On one tour, Stevens not only had an array of pedalboards at his feet with a mix of MFX units and discrete pedals, but also a bunch of rack mounted stuff as well. I’m sure some of it was redundancy to help ensure a glitch-free performance, but I have no idea how much.

And Helios Creed is infamous for having numerous large pedalboards and ridiculously long signal chains. Definitely a “more is better” kind of guy.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Not sure if this is the same genre because I've become old, but I like Cage the Elephant a lot. Although their new CD isn't that great.

I like them, too, but I wouldn’t call them shoegaze. All I’ve heard from the new album is “Neon Pill”.

But there ARE modern bands from the middling aggressive side of the shoegaze genre. Softcult showed up on my radar a while back, and I was instantly flashing back to the 1990s and Lush or My Bloody Valentine.

 

[R_J_K75]

 

[R_J_K75]

I like them, too, but I wouldn’t call them shoegaze. All I’ve heard from the new album is “Neon Pill”.

But there ARE modern bands from the middling aggressive side of the shoegaze genre. Softcult showed up on my radar a while back, and I was instantly flashing back to the 1990s and Lush or My Bloody Valentine.

Thats all I got is

 

[R_J_K75]

I think thats the original shoegaze.

 

[R_J_K75]

Steve Stevens

Played with Billy Idol I believe if were talking about the same Billy Idol.

I had a friend in 1990 whose mother went to LA, dated Billy Idol, stole 2 books of acid from him and mailed it back to Buffalo. We did $0.25 hits for months. Its was really creepy though, not bad, but not good trips either, it was called "World Peace", far from it. I miss those days.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I think thats the original shoegaze.

Funny thing- shoegaze’s genre name came from the stage presence (or lack thereof) of many of the genre’s early guitarists. There was a real tendency for them to keep looking at their pedalboards as opposed to making eye contact with their audiences.