Randolf Arriola (embryo) Guitar Gear 101

[embryo]

Tone Eras...
It's interesting to note that it began in the late 70's and into the late 80's that Japanese guitar and gear manufacturers overtook the Americans and British brands by first replicating the original designs and maintaining high manufacturing standards using excellent materials and craftmanship selling 'em at way cheaper prices and then along the way started creating newer and improved versions of the original US/UK designs and went full blitz with global endorsements marketing strategies that succeeded in repositioning their products as way hotter and cooler yet cheaper than the US/UK counterparts.

Today the Japanese having long established their positioning as creating excellent and more than occasionally still producing some of the best are on par with the US. What's interesting is that along the way the smaller independent custom shops began to crop up their own spectacular variations and improvements of the Japanese products and it's only later starting early 90's
that we began to see the established old giants like Fender and Gibson buck up and do something about own products.
Hence the current presence of Custom Shop/Boutique products.

Prices have skyrocketed but the vast options available for everyone is much welcomed.

 

[Weiht]

U missed out on the neon tights and red leather pants, and some torn ripped jeans of the 80s!!! LOL

 

[embryo]

Hehe... I missed out on that onpurpose becos like most folks who lived through the 80's been there done that...well some if not most or all. Hah!

Ok so any other raves and comments whatnots about tone eras?

 

[embryo]

Tube Preamp Rackmounts

It would be interesting to hear from others here who own and use Tube Preamp rackmount units like the ADA MP1, Triaxis, Marshall JMP1 and others along the way.

 

[embryo]

String Pad Efx for guitars

I received yet another enquiry about what is that guitar synth gadget that I use in my Live Looping sets at Harry's. Quite interestingly this sound also evoked alot of curiousty among fellow artists and antendees at the Loopfest in USA.

"How did you do that Dooode?!"

Although I do own and use a Guitar Synthesizer like the Roland GR1 and Roland VG88, I do not use a synth or synth modelling device among my "Oopah Loopah" floor pedals in my acoustic live looping sets. Tadah!

What I do use is a Yamaha Magicstomp. The Magicstomp is like a Yamaha SPX900 together with the technologies of the UD and AG Stomp all under the cheap looking Brinjal Purple coloured plastic chassis of a hood. The current unit is my 4th which says quite abit about it's reliability issues. I would replace it as soon as I find something else that can replicate what the magicstomp does but with more real time controls and options for midi connections. No luck so far tho I'm constantly on a lookout. Hehe Now under the magicstomp's cheap purple hood is some serious cutting edge audio processing power distributed over a few of Yamaha's own propreity DSP chips. The Magicstomp has the ability to chain up to 8 modulation delays and with pitch shift controls even! The cream of the crop among other devices that also have this dsp power and more even to inspire creative individuals who want to go all out sculpting out their own sounds and tones include products from the range of Eventide, TC Eectronic and Lexicon. Very very good stuff but also Very pricey of cos too! Hehehe.

Another great feature of the magicstomp that I dun use as often is what's imho a selection of some of the best amp and speaker emulations today.

I first discovered this dreamy "String Pad" sound by experimenting with the sophisticated almost rocket science vast dsp parameter controls within the fantastic Digitech GSP2101 rackmount multieffect tube preamp device. I also own, use and love the later generation GSP2112 and the GSP2120 considered last of the mohicans in the Digitech line of great rackmounts. This was a sound similar to the soundscapey opening of "Where the Streets Have No Name" off U2's Joshua Tree in 1987. I was all smiles when I learnt later from pages of various interviews with Brian Eno and The Edge when they reavealed and explained that the soundscapes on U2 albums were the result of Eno's studio tweaking (treatments) of the sounds from The Edge's guitar tracks. Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois (also a great musician and sonic tweaker) have a knack for churning out interesting out of this world textures from traditional instrument tracks. I love the fact that these guys use the studio and the processing tools like a musical instrument.

I've never been the same since this discovery. Hats off to Brian Eno! Guitar Soundscapists anyone!?

Btw. I'm looking for a used Lexicon PCM42. Anyone!?

 

[sef]

hey randolf. like ur performance. very entertaining \m/ 2 bad i gotta leave early.

btw u mention abt step down transformer might work if i'm buying 110V switchblade from japan. does it mean: buying external transformer to compensate the 110V to our spore's 230V?

tks & rgds
chris

 

[sef]

got another question:

read abt clipping diodes, opamp & mosfets in fulltone webby. how do these electronic components affect the distortion pedal tone?

this look like interesting dist pedal
http://www.fulltone.com/GT500.asp

tks in advance

 

[embryo]

btw u mention abt step down transformer might work if i'm buying 110V switchblade from japan. does it mean: buying external transformer to compensate the 110V to our spore's 230V? tks & rgds
chris

Yes it is better to use a step down transformer to feed your amp. Especially with modern type amps, unless you have the manufacturer's specified specs and tech support I wouldn't recommend swapping the amp's transformer.

 

[embryo]

got another question:
read abt clipping diodes, opamp & mosfets in fulltone webby. how do these electronic components affect the distortion pedal tone?
tks in advance

Saturation generated from drive pedals basically come in 3 forms; FUZZ, Overdrive and Distortion. Modelling is a different beast altogether as it's a digitized emulation of the originl signal. Not good but not bad either, just different.

Fuzz, Overdrive and Distortion from pedals are mostly derived using either Germanium, Silicon, Zeners Diodes, FETs and MOSFETS and or with variations of IC and Transistor Opamps. These all share many similarities in the way they amplify and affect an electrical signal. Some will amplify and some will limit and yes they all compress upon reaching saturation and of course can clip too which technically also means they can create fuzz.overdrive and distortion effects to the original signal. The distortion character is however different from the way tube's saturation sounds.

Germanium diodes for example are very sensitive devices requiring very little voltage to work it's magic which is also why they were used in vintage radio receivers like AM radios. Germanium drive pedals clip easily and early in the drive knob position and pushing these germaniums further will give u not more distortion but compression to the point of inducing cross intermodulation. If you're into the out of control sound of psychedelic noise rock this character would be cool but if you're into a retro chimey sounding "clean but not totally clean" think 12 string Rickenbacker AC30 amp at 12 o clock then you'll get that character...somewhat using a Germanium drive pedal with the drive knob set low into a clean Solid State amp like a JC120 or a Twin Reverb.

Fulltone makes nice drive pedals that mod circles often describe as a modded Boss SD1 type of tone and drive character. We already know that the SD1 and TS9 are kissing cousins so really as long as one is willing to experiment there are many variations within the circuit's design limitations in controlling the amount of bass, mids and trebles against the type and amount of distortion from an overdrive circuit. I've yet to hear for myself but off hand The GT500 looks like an interesting variation of the overdrive circuit packaged to give Visual Sound J&H fans an alternative choice of 2 in 1 pedal.

 

[embryo]

Drive Pedals and how to decide and choose what's best...

In this current day and age of gear option anxiety galore choosing and determining if any pedal (guitar gear)is great or not is mind boggling when one has to navigate through the maze of marketing gimmicks and hypes swamping you with all the information overload out there coming at you left, right center, everyone of them claiming to be the best for everyone! Sounds familar?

Here's a little guide to help you narrow down the options to what's most essential to help you achieve or come closer to your dream tone. Really it depends on a combination of several of the following important pointers;

1. Type and output of Pickups (low,med,hi single.humbkr,active, passive)
2. Type of Amp and the settings of the drive and eq bands
3. The Speaker type, size and qty and output efficiency,
4. Speaker cabinet design (open or closed back)
5. Type of Drive Pedal (Fuzz, OD or Dist)
6. The percentage of saturation deirived from the pedal and the amp. (very important)
7. The musical appication and the player's level of experience in handling the dynamic range from the instrument of choice.

Achieving a careful balance of the above pointers will help you to arrive at that often mentioned but elusive "Sweet Spot" heavenly tone.

I'm sure there are other useful pointers but the above is usually what's come to mind that appiles to 9 out of every 10 players on their own tone quest. Hope this help and lets you breathe a little easier ya.

 

[sef]

hey randolf. i was lookin sum reviews on H&K switchblade in harmony central. saw sum bad reviews on the issue abt lack of preamp tubes dat makes switchblade less "organic". i know switchblade comes with two 12AX7.

my question is: does the numbers of poweramp or preamp tubes affects the tone?

cos i know the standard tube marshalls have 4 preamp & 4 poweramp. some others have total of 9, 10 or even 11 tubes.

tks & rgds
chris

 

[embryo]

Does the quantity of poweramp or preamp tubes affect the tone?

hey randolf. i was lookin sum reviews on H&K switchblade in harmony central. saw sum bad reviews on the issue abt lack of preamp tubes dat makes switchblade less "organic". i know switchblade comes with two 12AX7. my question is: does the numbers of poweramp or preamp tubes affects the tone? cos i know the standard tube marshalls have 4 preamp & 4 poweramp. some others have total of 9, 10 or even 11 tubes.
tks & rgds
chris

Chris, good one there. My take is reviews are reviews and should only be taken in bite sized pieces here and there now and then but never be taken as gospel truths about anything these days especially online. Some of the best musicians, music and gear that others and myself discovered along the way were never mentioned, publicized or reviewed even.

Well without getting into design specifics my short answer is the number of tubes in an amp can affect the tone but it is not the way to gauge the tone of any amp. Take for example, A 50's era Fender Tweed Champ uses only 1 x 5Y3 rectifier tube, 1 x 12ax7 preamp tube and 1 x 6V6 Power Tube. Altho rated at 5 watts when this amp's cranked up with the single knob which controls the volume, the overall tone gets fatter, more saturated and spongy. Pull back the volume knob and you'll get a more dynamic character but of course also with slightly less volume. Dialling in the various sweetspots on a tube amp is almost like a see saw effect.

With some mods to various stages of the amp you can (within circuit design limitations of course) customize the degree of volume, dynamics, saturation and also the bass, mids and trebles. There's only so much one can go with extreme saturation because the overall tone gets compromised as one goes deeper into distortion. You can try experiencing this to a certain extent by using 2 or 3 drive eg. Fuzz, OD, Dist, Modelling pedals and do the tone/saturation stack and max out both pedals' distortion to experience the mush. This is the sound of extreme preamp distortion. You will notice that the resulting sound is the "over the cliff" (not cliffs of dover ya hehehe) type of non dynamic compression that leaves no room for pick or volume knob dynamics. This of course also means there's less if no room for tonal and volume variations. Now if this sound works for your intended music then great but I dun see how this is gonna be the way to work towards achieving the intended SRV like overdrive character. Heh.

When tube amp designs went into the 30, 50 and 100watts range (and above even) we see amps from Fender, Marshall and Vox usually configured with pairs or quads of either British styled EL34, EL84 or American styled 6V6 or 6L6 power tubes with at least 3 preamp tubes of the 12AX7 variety. Rectifiers which are usually the first to blow under oprational stress got replaced by Silicon Diodes which yielded more stable voltage outputs at a much faster recovery rate to the rest of the amp circuits. This helped to eliminate if not minimize the spongy effect and made the amp more transient and punchy sounding. I like the spongy rectifier effect but I do find myself preffering less amp distortion when I'm trying to incorporate the rectifier's charcter into the intended sound. This is also one of several reasons why I do love Mesa Boogie's Dual Rectifier amps.

I don't speak officially for H&K but from my observation the Switchblade uses 2 preamp tubes instead of 3 because it doesn't require a tube to drive a spring reverb unit. There's no need for the spring reverb tank unit because the Switchblade was designed for players who want to use , store and recall the various settings of the built in DSP EFX. The H&K Triamp Mk II also has no reverb tank. The older Triamp MkI has the reverb tank but doesn't seem to be of much use to me imho. The Triamp MKI uses a total of 13 tubes, The modern Triamp MKII uses 11 tubes. As much as I love the tonal versatility of the MKI I wouldn't sa the MKII with less tubes is any lesser when comparing the generations of H&K Triamps.

So Chris, even with 2 preamp tubes the amp can be designed for up to 3 stages of stacked gain and that's alot!
The bold modern sound of Blues and Rock and Shred these days seems more towards dialling in variations of pre and power tube saturation for different genres. The rest is really the speaker and cab type.

Hope this has been helpful for you and others as well ya.

 

[sef]

hey randolf tks for the enlightenin. u juz make me wanna buy switchblade even more

recently i came across these orange drop tone capacitors & no load tone pot. i was looking for cheaper alternatives w/o changin my squier jaguar's dimarzio x2n. its a very high o/p pup but its kinda muffed & loose. i've tried adjustin the amp's tone to get clearer sound.

i know the higher resistance value of tone pot, more treble the tone gets.

wat's ur view on the orange drop & no load tone pot? or gettin rid of tone pot will be better? cos all my guitar's tone always on 10.

tks

 

[embryo]

Chris, send me a foto of the position of the X2N pickups from the strings. You may be experiencing what's called internodulation distortion where the tone and saturation levels have gone way past extreme and the circuits in either or comibined between ur drive pedals and ur amp are spilling over to create what I think is already mushy which is a loss of transient (tightness) and flabby low end (low mids intermodulation distortion).

Either you back off in slight increments on the distortion levels and tone setting s on your pedals or you'll also have to retweak ur amp's settings.

The next thing to tweak is your X2N pickup's height or closeness to the strings. You'll get more clarity (or bite)and less low end flab when u start distancing the X2N pole pieces from the strings. You'll also get more sustain. All the drive that yo want you can get from the combination of the drive pedals and the amp's settings. You don't really need to have high output pups so close that they'r almost kissing the strings.

 

[HarrisonYeo]

Hey Randolf !
Got a question to ask u too! Have u tried out the newer DiMarzio's single coil pickup for example the Tone Zone S or the Super Distortion S? How are those pickups on par compared to the full orginal humbucker version.Thanks!

 

[embryo]

Harrison, tanx for bringing this one up. This has been a regular enquiry but I always seem to forget to get round to it. Well here it... my point of view.

In my collective experience in pickup installation and custom pup switching mods for myself and others I've had the chance to observe and document the character and tone changes to the standard and classic Fenders and FrankenStrats. It's quite common among players seeking more versatility from their strats requesting for the original single coils to be swapped out with variations of "Humbucker in a Single Coil Package". The Tone Zone S, Super Distortion and Hotrails seem to be the most popular of late.

So how do they sound when compared to the original full humbucker design? Well based on my experience they do sound different. Not good not bad but different. Good in the sense that if you are intending to move away from the "hummy noisey" low output traditional twangy Strat sound then these pickups will help u to achieve that humbucker vibe w/o carving a swimming pool pickup route on the body and pickguard especially on a classic Strat (No No!). Not so good if you think that using these pickups is gonna instantly transform the strat to give you all that much desired fat middish high output Tone Zone humbucker vibe and a classic SRV type Strat Twang in one guitar.

As for direct comparison with the full humbucker models the biggest difference that one will notice is that the single coil package version of the original humbucker design will sound just as hot but tonewise will still sound kinda narrower especially on the low mids. This is both good and not so good and really depends very much on the player to try and decide if this works for the intended musical application.

I think it is very difficult to fully replicate a full humbucker's character into a single coil package largely because it's a physics thingy where the sensing window width of a single coil is narrower compared to a full humbucker. As I said before there is both good and bad just like what you'll find when you do direct comparisons between a PAF Humbucker and a true single coil pickup ya.

 

[embryo]

Pickups

I often get asked by my clients to replace their stock pickups with their newly acquired much raved about hotter and way hot replacements. The end result immediately is usually "Wow! These pups rock man!" The guys (and some gals too of late) will go home and a coupla days or within a week or 2 call me and say they are finding their guitar sounding much hotter, there's more distortion now then they ever tot was possible but gettin kinda mushy, muddy, boomy and lacking clarity. Why lidat?!

I'd like to discuss and share further and hopefully establish some useful tips for one and all here who'r or have been through this dilemma.

 

[Jay_Clones]

Pickups

I often get asked by my clients to replace their stock pickups with their newly acquired much raved about hotter and way hot replacements. The end result immediately is usually "Wow! These pups rock man!" The guys (and some gals too of late) will go home and a coupla days or within a week or 2 call me and say they are finding their guitar sounding much hotter, there's more distortion now then they ever tot was possible but gettin kinda mushy, muddy, boomy and lacking clarity. Why lidat?!

I'd like to discuss and share further and hopefully establish some useful tips for one and all here who'r or have been through this dilemma.

Hi Randolf,

Sori if a bit off-topic. Ok my problem is the other way round. I have a 70s Morris strat with original pick ups..which I found a bit noisy when played on my workplace amp ( working in a power station..lots of emf I think)
So I changed to Lace Holy Grails..got rid of the 'noise' but what I got is an irritatingly low output pickup. Using an OCD/DS1 now but I need to add additional gain (from amp) when doing fast licks.

But clean tone wise, I got no problem...really like the clean bell-like tone sound.

My 2 cents..

 

[embryo]

Hi Jay, the Lace Holy Grails are actually a pretty spot on choice for resolving the hum issue without dramatic changes to the tone and output which helps to retain most of the original single coil vibe..and then some. The Laces Holy Grail and Gold do a pretty good job of achieving a good compromise of less noise with slight rolling off of the natural highs from a true single coil. The Lace Red and Blues are for hotter almost humbucker like output and tonalities.

I find that for Strat players who want to convert to a decent humbucker character that Seymour Duncan's Hotrails and JB Jnr do a more than decent job. For Strat players who want to tame the hum and with option for hotter output without too much loss of the upper high end shimmer I recommend getting Dimarazio's HS2 which are stacked humbuckers. If you ae willing to invest more time with your amp choice and tweakin the the tones and drive you can actually get great strat tones with much hotter outputs with Dimarzio's HS3 the one Yngwie uses.

Lots of folks shun away from the EMGs and active pups but mostly based on hear says but I do have a different opinion about them as they can work magic too especially in the hands of tone and gear experienced players.

 

[embryo]

Orange Drop Caps and No Load Pots

"Sef said; i know the higher resistance value of tone pot, more treble the tone gets. wat's ur view on the orange drop & no load tone pot? or gettin rid of tone pot will be better? cos all my guitar's tone always on 10."

The pot's value in either or both the volume and tone will affect the output tone. The common description is that there seems to be more treble when changing a 250k pot to a 500k or a 500k to a 1meg one but the treble is usually what we immediately detect when in fact the bass, mids and treble frequency balances as we commonly are familiar with also get shifted. Doing this the whole sweetspot range of the guitar's tonal balance with the amp's settings also get changed.

I believe it was Eddie Van Halen who 1st started out the idea of eliminating the need for a second pickup in the neck position and also bypassed the pickup selector and a tone pot. His configuration was quite an accidental discovery born out of Eddie's bare necessities to control his Marshall stacks' volume, tone and saturation with a single guitar volume knob and also with his great dynamics control from his incredible right hand's picking and muting techniques. I have also found desirable results converting 500k pots to 250k.

So perhaps you might want to experiment with simple mods to your guitar to;

1. Push Pull pot to bypass the tone pot
2. Push Pull Pot to bypass the Volume pot straight to the output jack.

Try the reversible push pull pot mods over a period of time to decide if this is for you.

As for the Orange drop caps, because they were originally manufactured with such wide tolerences unless u are going to invest in buying a 1000 pieces or more to individually test and pick out the good from the bad you will either get something that sounds heavenly fantastic or "Duh!" No gurantees that you won't get a batch of "Duhs" too by the way.

The No Load Pots are actually pretty cool. What's happenin on these pre modded pots is that the last bit of pot travel before you hit the maximum point has within the pot the carbon conductor strip scrapped away. So basically when your pot is fully clockwise it acts like a complete bypass of the entire pot circuit. In other words "No Load Pot". This simple but very effective mod has actually been circulating for years among guitar techs serving the arena league guitar players.