Music, Gear and Gizmos

Digitech PDS 1700 Chrous\Flanger

2011-07-26T17:26:00.001-04:00

One of the oldest pieces of gear I still use is the Digitech PDS 1700 Chrous\Flanger:

This is a two in one unit that sports a very lush, 80's style Chorus and a very flexible Flanger that can be as subtle as a doubler, an almost chorus sound at the lower time settings to total Jet effects with all possible combinations in between. Couple that with a Stereo output (more like Clean & Dirty), and you have a very nice, flexible unit.

The one foot switch is for selecting the mode, the other for enabling the effect. When you are jamming and you do not have time to fool with Rack Effects, this unit cannot be beaten. There is NOTHING like old fashioned knobs when you are on the go and in a rush.

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Roland Micro Cube

2011-07-26T17:04:00.001-04:00

In my quest to find a small and portable practice amp, I ran across the Roland Micro Cube:

This is a really nice practice amp for the price (around $100-125). It runs on AC with an adapter or 6 AA Batteries for when a plug isn't available. It's only 2 Watts, but if you're playing somewhere small enough for this amp, that's plenty loud.

There are plenty of controls to get the sound you're looking for. There are several "Modes" for deciding on the overall shape and structure of your Tone. There's an Acoustic Clean, JC Clean (Like the old JC Amps), Black Panel Overdrive, Brit Combo Distortion, Classic Stack (Think Rush \ Marshall), R-Fier (Very Hot Distortion) & a Mic setting for using it as a PA.

Once you pick what base sound you want to work with, you can fine tune the sound using the Volume, Tone and a Gain controls. There's a Tuning Fork on board that's Touch Sensitive and includes not only the standard "A" tuning, but also 2 chromatic steps down so you can tune to E, Eb & D respectfully.

There are 2 Effects available at one time via 2 separate controls. You have your EFX control with a choice of Chorus, Flanger, Phaser & Tremolo. The Depth of each is adjusted by how much you apply where the further the right you turn it, the "Wetter" the sound. The Delay\Reverb Control works exactly the same as the EFX control and has a nice assortment to choose from.

The back panel has a few goodies as well:

There's a 1/4 Recording out \ head phone output and an Auxiliary in for adding a sound source to practice to like an MP3 player or an iPod. Overall, this little amp is the best thing since sliced bread IMO. I can take it to BBQ's for jams with my friends, stick a mic in front of it for larger venues and still get a huge sound and practice at a volume that doesn't make my neighbors want to kill me. I highly recommend this unit, or one of the other newer versions like the Micro Cube RX, if you want the Feeling of playing loud without the Volume & Hostility associated with it.

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Guitar Strings

2011-07-20T11:02:00.002-04:00

Let's take a few minutes and discuss Guitar Strings. I use two different brands, GHS & D'Addario depending on which guitars they're going on and what type of sound I'm looking for.

On my earlier model Ibanez guitars, I use GHS Boomers (steel wound), 9's over 10's for that old fashioned heavy sound from the 80's. They sing nicely and are fairly bright, so that works out very well with the Maple body of the older guitars. I have a bunch of Destroyer II's and an old Roadstar tuned down to D and these strings seem to work well on them. Plenty of low end with the bite of a steel string for clarity.

My Ibanez JS 1200 has a Floyd Rose licensed tremolo from Ibanez and has a brighter sound. I prefer using a Nickel wound string that can stand up to the punishment for a rounder tone. My strings of choice on this guitar are the D'Addario XL Nickel Wound (EXL 120) in a straight 9 gauge. This cleans up the low end and the higher strings have more body than a normal steel string.

I will point out that when my high "E" breaks on my JS 1200, it usually does it under the nut and I don't know it until I run out of travel on the fine-tuner and unlock the nut, so I'm swearing by the D'Addario's on that guitar. The GHS Boomers always seem to break somewhere down by the Bridge, but usually only after extreme punishment, so they work well on the older style guitars IMO.

I'm not a big fan of too many other stings out there, there's so many of them that it really comes down to personal preference.

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Boss DS-1 Distortion Box and Mods

2011-07-18T16:01:00.009-04:00

Along the way to looking for a signature sound, I ran across a Boss DS-1 Distortion:

This Distortion box was one of Joe Satriani's main sources of his signature sound for a while. This was recently replaced with his Vox Satchurator, but this unit stayed on his pedal board for years. This unit has a nice crunchy sound right out of the box. Couple this with a decent amp\cabinet combo and you have a viable gigging solution for when you don't need a full blown stack.

I found that I like this unit set with a pretty high gain, tone around 9 O'clock and volume set to the clean sound. It does well on a 9-volt battery but I recommend an external power supply for your entire pedal board for reliability like the 9 Spot Combo, the top rated Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus or even the original Voodoo Lab Pedal Power ISO-5.

If you find the sound lacking out of the box, there are several mods available for this pedal. The best one out there seems to be the Robert Keeley mod, here's a link to his site: http://www.robertkeeley.com/product.php?id=10. Here's a head to head comparison from Youtube showing the Stock unit vs the Keely mod:

For those that aren't feint of heart, you can actually do this mod yourself. Here's 2 sites that demonstrates what you need as a Do-It-Yourself mod: http://www.instructables.com/id/Modify-Your-Boss-DS-1/ and http://www.erikhansen.net/pedalmods.php. I think the first site gives better instructions and pictures but I'd read both as an FYI on just how to apply this mod and the problems\precautions on working on your own equipment.

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Vox Satchurator

2011-07-14T17:01:00.002-04:00

One of the most interesting stomp boxes I own is the Vox Satchurator:

This unit was designed by Joe Satriani and replaced his Boss DS-1 Distortion box on his pedal board. When I first tried this unit out, I set all the controls to 12 O'clock (as pictured above) and immediately got a very nice and responsive Bluesy tone. With a little tweaking of the controls, Gain almost max, Tone around 9:30, Volume around 10 O'clock, I had nailed Joe's tone. By increasing the gain to max, I got even more sustain and harmonics out of it.

This is the only Distortion box that I ever had that responded extremely well to lowering the volume on the guitar. There's no appreciable drop in Volume when you do this until you get down to around the "8" position on your guitar. Here I found a nice chunky rhythm tone and going to a lead tone was as simple as turning up the Volume again.

There are 2 other controls to explore. There's a Pad switch for when you are running a hotter effect in front of it like a Wah, and then there's the "More" button on the right. The "More" button provides exactly what it sounds like, More Distortion, Sustain and Gain. Here we start to leave the Satriani sound and move on to a heavier and more harmonic driven tone. This is helpful if you want to move away from his signature sound and explore all the various uses of this box.

Overall, I am impressed with this unit and would recommend it to any player looking for a well rounded Distortion box. Thumbs up and thank you Vox for working with Joe to get these out to the general public.

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Rocktron Hush Noise Suppressor, Rack Mount

2011-07-12T02:11:00.006-04:00

After spending who knows how much time getting the Tone and Responses I wanted from my Guitar, I noticed that when I wasn't playing, my rig was Noisy! Keyboardists ignore this post, everyone else listen if you are working from an Analog source (Guitar, Bass, Drums & Vocals). Silence and the Lack of Notes is sometimes more important than any note you play so Silence IS Golden sometimes. So to remedy that problem, I purchased a Rocktron Hush Noise Suppressor, Rack Mount to quiet the system down:

This is one of the hardest pieces to explain what it does unless you are in front of my Rig and can hear what happens when I turn it off and on. There are 2 Controls that need to be explained. The first Control is the Noise Gate. So you can set the minimum amount (Threshold) of Gain Inputted to get the Gate to open before you hear anything. That's the easy part to explain to you...

The hard part is explaining what the other control does... Hiss is a High Frequency (Usually) and attenuates as you increase the high frequencies of your Instrument. This unit has a Backward Expanding Gate that acts as a High End Frequency Filter that pushes your Sound below the Threshold that you set. So if you are using a Distortion Box (Notorious for Hiss), you can dial up the Hush to offset that, eliminate the Hiss, and it adds more Mid-Range to your Source.

This piece would work on Vocals, Bass, etc. and I consider it one of THE most important Gizmos in my Rack! This reduces Ear Fatigue to the Audience as well as making sure that when I'm playing a rest, it truly IS a rest without any unwanted ambient noise from my system. Well worth the small investment!

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Effects in a Loop vs Effects on the Input Jack

2011-07-12T01:47:00.016-04:00

Let's take a moment for a Tips & Tricks on where to put what effects. Don't forget that everything that happens Pre-Amplifier Input Jack makes the basic sound for your Instrument. That works for most any analog Instrument like Guitars, Basses and Keyboards, etc. The most important part of this to remember is the "Gain Structure". It's very easy to overdrive your Input, but that's not always where you want to gain Gain!

I use several floor effects chained with my Ibanez Ax's before they hit the Amp, let's explore this for a minute. I have a Vocal Harmonizer first in the chain (DigiTech Vocalist Live 4 Harmony-Effects Processor), and then a Digitech Harmony Man for my Guitar:

I have a Morley VAI-2 Steve Vai Bad Horsie 2 Contour Wah after that:

I run this direct to my amp from the floor after the Wa Wa to my ancient Rockman EQ (Posted previously) and then to the input of the Amp. I use a Shure Wireless setup to get the signal, without any wires, to the beginning of my chain so I have no cables holding me back. Yeah, nobody does this. my wireless is on the floor and isn't at the amp, but it's quiet and works well as an alternative to trying to run these type of effects in the Effects Loop. They just really need to be front end to get the performance out of them as they were designed.

This type of thinking works for ANY Instrument where you need to control the Effect vs the Gain to get the right sound post Amp. If you wanted to add distortion to a Keyboard or Bass, this is where you place it in the chain. Adding any sort of Lead Boast here just adds to the Gain Structure and adds no real appreciative value to the volume of the Instrument because you will simply run into the limiting and clipping circuit that protects most Amp's Input Jack. Distortion happens before and through the Pre-Amp, volume happens after, remember that rule!

If you are looking for a Lead Boast, try running an EQ pedal in the effects loop of your amp, it takes a + 3Db before anyone can hear the difference in volume. For each 3 Db you need to DOUBLE the power in the chain. If you want a 6 Db gain on Lead, you need to double the original volume and then double it AGAIN to get any appreciative results. To simplify: For every doubling of Audible volume, the power needs to be increased 2X. The Human ear can't really distinguish less than a 3 Db increase, so it's best to think in Threes when it comes to this sort of application.

The best way to measure Db, or better known as Sound Pressure Level (SPL), is to buy a Digital meter from Radio Shack. The Digital units can do RMS and Peak, were as the Analog units are limited in their response, so you will not get an accurate reading. You can purchase one here for slightly less than $50: Radio Shack Db Meter-Digital or shop around for a better deal. Here's a few links to other Meter Options: Scosche makes one for around $28, American-Recorder-Technologies has one for around $70, Extech offers one for around $90,Galaxy has one for $60, Pyle makes a Mini Meter that fits in your pocket for around $35, Parts Express makes pocket meter too for $30 and the COOLEST one I found is this one that runs on your Android as an Application: Professional dB (SPL) Meter

You do NOT want to add gain in your Effects Loop unless you understand Distortion! It's best to set any unit you have in your Loop to a Unity (0 Db) gain setting. If you are looking for a Lead Boast in the Loop, you might want to run - 3Db or -6 DB so that your "Boast" is really unity gain. You can probably push the Loop +3 Db without too much Distortion, but a +6 DB will affect the sound quality and noise level.

Here's another rule on Effects: Rack equipment will either be switchable +4 Db (Input Level) or -10 Db (Pro gear studio level). So if you have a Guitar floor stomp box EQ in line, make sure the rest of your Effects are set to + 4 Db. If not, -10 Db is cleaner and reduces overall noise\hiss in your Signal Chain. I have some older gear in my Effects Loop, so I had hiss and noise problems, so I bought a Hush noise suppressor, that's next in the Equipment List (And the next review\post).

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ART X-15 Midi Foot Controller with Dual Expression Pedals

2011-07-11T18:32:00.003-04:00

Once I realized that I wanted full time control on my Quadraverb, I started looking for a Midi foot controller that could do Midi mode 1 & 2. The one that I found that could do everything I wanted turned out to be the ART X-15 Midi Foot Controller with Dual Expression Pedals:

Each of the 10 buttons on the right can be programmed for a preset sound setting, there's a bypass, a Mode select and a bank Up\Down feature. The nice thing about this unit is once you choose a sound, if you go into Mode 2, you can turn on and off individual blocks within the saved sound of the Quadraverb. The expression pedals can be assigned to control parameters on the fly, so it saved me a lot of money, time and effort having this all together in a single controller rather than having Gizmos all over the floor.

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Alesis Quadraverb effects unit

2011-07-11T18:23:00.003-04:00

I did some research and was torn between the Digitech 2112 Studio guitar processor or the Studio Alesis Quadraverb for my Reverb, Delay, Chorus & Flange effects. I bought both, but I got the Quadraverb first:

This is a studio quality piece that you would normally find in a recording studio rack, not in a guitar player's, but it sounds amazingly clean. This is my main effects unit and I run it in stereo for maximum effect. Most sound people don't like a guitar running in stereo because it takes an extra mic and channel on their board, but there's no substitute for when you run a ping pong effect and it bounces back and forth through the venue in stereo.

The interface is setup where you can have up to 8 DSP devices in one saved setting and you use "Virtual Patching" to decide how you want it to chain together. You can add some effect back into any of the previous effects at any point for more "Interesting" effects. Outputs are Stereo, but you can patch left to right, or any number of combinations you could ever possibly want or need.

Once I realized just how complex the programming on this unit could get, I realized I was going to need more than an ordinary Midi Up\Down switch to run it so I bought an ART X-15 Midi controller and started programming everything together to maximize the abilities of both pieces.

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Marshall 2000 TSL 100 watt head

2011-07-11T17:50:00.003-04:00

On considering if I should further modify my old amp or simply look for a new Head, I ran across the Marshall 2000 TSL 100 watt head. I traveled with my Friend and Band Mate Dan to the Sam Ash in White Plains just to demo this Head because the nearest Sam Ash to us didn't have one in their store yet:

Let me tell you, this Head is a Monster! 3 Channels, Clean (REALLY clean), Crunch and Lead. A few various Gizmos on the front of this Head makes it super flexible. Low end Boast, a Mid Cut Scoop, 2 separate effects loops, 2 Reverbs, a Virtual Power mode to reduce output\change tone & a Mute button. An included foot switch controls the channels, reverb and even the effects loop on\off. This was THE Cadillac of Amplifiers back then, so I bought one. In fact, Dan was so impressed, he bought one too. The only modification I made on this Head was to bring the Tube Bias to the back of the Amp for adjustment on the fly. I left the original Svetlana tubes alone, they sound great in this head.

They weakest part of this Amp was the foot controller. I replaced the wire with a heavier gauge & all the LEDs over the years. Aside from that, I have no complaints about it. Marshall had finally created a Head with a beautiful Clean channel, and the other 2 are equally as impressive. This Amp and my 1960A Cabinet became my main stage rig for many years and still roars today.

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Marshall 1960A 4X12, 300 watt Stereo Cabinet

2011-07-11T17:37:00.003-04:00

I decided that I wanted to start working toward portability, so while I considered ripping the guts out of my JCM 800 and putting them in a smaller enclosure, I bought a Marshall 1960A 4X12, 300 watt Stereo Cabinet:

There's nothing bad that can be said about these Cabinets. They're made out of Baltic Birch, so they're somewhat heavy, but the sound is worth it. Loaded with 4 Celestion G12T-75 Speakers Celestion G12T-75 Speakers (16 Ohm), this cabinet runs either Mono @ 4 or 16 Ohms at an RMS of 300 watts or in Stereo (my preferred use) @ 8 Ohms a side and 150 watts RMS.

The only thing I ever didn't like about this cabinet is that when I got my car, I never considered that it wouldn't fit in the trunk or the back seat, so I am at the mercy of other transportation to move it from place to place.

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Marshall JCM 800 4212

2011-07-11T17:29:00.003-04:00

My next Amplifier was the Marshall JCM 800 4212, a 2 channel Amp with 2 G12T-75 Celestion speakers (8 Ohm):

This setup worked well in Theory, but both channels used the same Master Volume control. To get a Clean sound, you needed to turn down the Gain on the Clean channel, but to get Distortion, you had to turn up the Gain in that channel. So you would get an either or situation because the volume disparity made it very difficult to deal with. Both Channels sounded great except for this "Minor" problem.

I got in touch with Korg USA, who carries the schematics for Marshalls, and started discussing the problem with my Bro. We added a new Volume Control for the Clean channel and built a custom switching system inside the beast. We actually had to re-figure out how this amp switched it's Reverb too and control that as well. After a few bugs, glitches and unforeseen issues, we got it working very nicely. I added a Bass Shift Control for low end contouring, brought the Tube Bias to the back for adjustment on the fly and used this amp for many years on and off the road. This Amp loves Sovtek power tubes, the cheaper the better, but they are really hard to get now. You can get Sovtek preamp Tubes too, but I put Grove Tubes Grove Tubes in mine.

The only issue I ever had with this amp after we corrected some of the "Issues" (They fixed the same problem in the JCM 900, but it didn't sound as good as this amp), was the weight... This thing is HEAVY! By the time we added circuit boards, power supplies, fan, etc. it really took 2 people to move it comfortably. It was pretty heavy to begin with so that's when I decided it was time to go Head & Cabinet instead of a Combo Amp.

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Peavey Bandit 65 amp

2011-07-11T14:13:00.003-04:00

Back in the day, not everyone could afford Marshalls, so you would look for an amp that you could work with to get a decent sound. That amp, for me, was the Peavey Bandit 65:

This amp still sits in my living room after years of abuse on the road and being dropped down several staircases. I picked up mine for $100 used and I've never regretted it. This is one of the toughest bad a$$ amps I have ever seen.

Peavey came up with a Saturation sound, using MOSFET technology, in an attempt to replicate a tube amp. It didn't work out so well, but having 2 channels meant you could have a rhythm & lead channel with different gain settings. I've coupled it with a few different distortion devices and have always been pleased by it's tone.

I've used a Rockman (mentioned in previous post), a Boss Heavy Metal Pedal, a Boss DS-1 (Satriani's original stomp distortion) & recently a Vox Sachurator. The amp has handled these all extremely well without coloring the sound of the source too much and it's LOUD... Loud enough for a small club with no mics on the amps. Thank you Peavey for creating this little monster, I probably would have given up on guitar a long time ago without this decent amp.

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Alesis MEQ 230

2011-07-11T13:39:00.003-04:00

In my previous post I mentioned the Alesis MEQ 230 (Discontinued, replaced with this: Alesis DEQ-830 Digital Graphic EQ), so let's take a minute to discuss this unit (pictured below).

This unit is a stereo 30 band Equalizer that can run at guitar or line level. I run in stereo, so I use this unit between the 2 power amps as the last piece in my chain. One of the handiest uses for this EQ to reside there is that if you want one side of your Stereo field to be brighter than the other one or to balance the output gain going into your power amps. What's not to love about the flexibility of this unit? I have no complaints.

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The Tom Schultz Rockman Equalizer

2011-07-11T13:18:00.002-04:00

Most Musicians understand the need for an out-board EQ to "Dial in" their sound and nobody to date has come up with a better solution than the Tom Schultz Rockman Equalizer (pictured below).

The bands on this unit were tailored to the response frequencies of a guitar that even a 31-band EQ doesn't cover adequately. Once I acquired my Distortion\Sustainer, I purchased one of these EQ's and the rack mount for these to go side by side in my rack. I've since separated them, but for many years I've had this working team in my rig.

Not only does this unit work well with the other Rockman gear, it does one heck of a job when plugged in to the front of your chain after all your floor effects. This is the one EQ I would never recommend putting in your effects loop because of it's tremendous amount of gain that it can achieve. It's far better suited to getting your guitar's output and frequency response the way you like it because of it's unique frequency slots. If you still needed an overall EQ on your rig, I'd put one at the end of the effect chain in the loop right before the return like I do. I use an Alesis MEQ 230 as the last effect in my loop to clean up my sound and overall EQ for the room I'm playing in.

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The Tom Schultz Rockman Distortion\Sustainer

2011-07-11T13:02:00.002-04:00

One of my earliest pieces of gear was the Tom Schultz Rockman Distortion\Sustainer (Pictured below).

What I liked about this unit was that it not only captured the Boston sound, but with some minor tweaking, could emulate several different "Marshall on Eleven" sounds that were popular in the late 70's to early 80's. At the time I couldn't afford a real Marshall, so this was as close as I could come through my Peavy Bandit 65 (I'll post on that amp later).

Having a built in Noise Gate, 2 different clean and dirty sounds, totally foot switchable, made this one of my all time favorite pieces of equipment. I still have one of these along with it's matching Rockman EQ (I'll post on that one later as well).

I eventually moved up to real Marshalls, but in a pinch for recording, grabbing this half-rack unit and plugging it into a board has been a real time saver. Kudos to Tom Schultz for packing his sound into such a tiny package!

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