Post pictures of your next or newest instrument/gear purchase(s).

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No Music Discussion > Musician's Lounge > Post pictures of your next or newest instrument/gear purchase(s).

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Constipated: Nov 25, 2009; Gotta make that money man its still the same now

Ernies are cheap, thats about the only reason why anyone should buy them.

I've always paid a few more bucks for a set of D'Adarrio or Fender strings. I can't say that I've ever had a low E string break on me before.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 21:13

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# ? May 8, 2024 09:34

hexwren: Feb 27, 2008

Alleric posted:

I'm going to speak in a general sense with basic end-user audio in the examples for a bit, but it'll communicate applicable ideas. My apologies, but wall of text ahoy:

...

Holy poo poo, I think I understand now. This is the sort of thing that generally makes my eyes glaze over, but I think I got it. Thanks.

# ? Jul 30, 2014 21:18

XYZAB: Jun 29, 2003; HNNNNNGG!!

I was tasked with putting together a budget to purchase a bunch of XLR cables for live-to-air performances that we have at the radio station where I work, but that poo poo is overpriced as gently caress so instead I bought 500ft of bulk bright orange XLR cable and a shitload of $1 male and female plugs from a Chinese distributor. The markup on that stuff anywhere else is like 400% so I'll make the cables myself and save us a shitload of cash that can go into other gear instead. I love you, eBay. I went with bright orange because theft, or "accidental misreappropriation," is a bit of a problem around here, and since nobody has bright orange XLR cables, if any go missing from the station it'll be pretty drat easy to find out who took them.

Alleric posted:

On the flip side you can get some rather stellar mechanical failures that are actually caused by the enclosure itself. Certain high-power horn loads, especially of subwoofers can create atmospheres of air pressure at the throat of the horn that would crush your lungs. In not-well-thought-out designs said crushing atmospheres can be caused to exist at the surface of the cone. Get it under power and watch the voice coil launch itself out and leave the cone behind, 'cause magnets... they just don't give a gently caress ("The bass sounded good before we cranked it. What happ...." BANG. SLAM. SILENCE. SMOKE.).

I learned this lesson the hard way. I picked up two old 1x15 subwoofer monitors for cheap at a pawnshop thinking I could convert them into speaker cabs for my bassist. I don't know the specific word for it, but they were closed baffle, with ports for air to move through the sides of the front of the chassis. Basically there was a huge panel directly in front of where the speakers are pushing air, and all of that air had to travel around a complex maze inside the cabinet itself before it would emerge from two vertical slits on each side of the front of each cab.

The first thing I did was test them using my friend's bass and head. They had a nice low end, but the high roll-off was at around 80hz, and it was DRAMATIC. At around the 3rd or 4th fret of the A string and upward there was no response at all from the speakers. So I realized I would need to gut the cabs, remove the crossover coil, and wire the jack straight to the speaker. Now, I have no idea if or what the effective low pass frequency of that crossover was. But after I had removed the crossover coil, the speakers could reproduce sounds above 80hz. Neat.

The very next day after I had modified the cabs, my roommate and his band used the jamspace, and their bassist plugged into one of the cabs. (I hadn't even gotten a chance to stress-test them at band volume yet because I was working on them in the middle of the night and would've woken everyone up.) After a few minutes of him playing, the first one stopped working. No sound. Okay, so he plugged into the other cab. After a few minutes, same thing, no sound. It wasn't until the next day that I was told there might be a problem with the speakers. Tested them, yup, no sound. Opened them up and I was amazed. The cones of each of the speakers had shattered into a billion pieces, as though they were made of glass, and smashed with a hammer.

To this day I still can't really wrap my head around exactly what went wrong, but I think in taking out the crossover I opened up a whole can of worms that, in that style of cabinet, lead directly to an atmosphere of crushing pressure that the speakers just couldn't possibly handle. Either that or there was some gross negligence or lack of respect for our gear on the part of their bass player. If I had gotten a chance to stress-test them at high volume and they exploded on me, cool, at least then I would know that the fuckup falls completely on my shoulders, but because it was someone who, upon questioning, doesn't know anything about impedance matching, and had no idea what output impedance jack his head was plugging out from, I can't be so sure that the failure was completely my doing. We've sort of banned them from ever using our jam space again just to be on the safe side.

Alleric posted:

This is why you see the trend "detuned" leading to "baritone" guitars of longer scale. They're trying to stay timbre-true to the guitar sound they're going for, and just detuning is making things sound weak and floppy.

To add to this, you can get around the perceived need to have a longer scale by just using higher gauge strings. I use DR .13s on my Westbury Deluxe in C-Standard. Go down to .12s and it's still alright, but at .11s you start to notice the strings aren't keeping tension at such a low tuning. That's what I call the sloppy floppies. Go down to 0.9s and the strings just stick to the humbucker. It's not even playable at that point. Basically the spectrum of effective string gauge frequency output goes: lower gauge for higher tuning, higher gauge for lower tuning.

XYZAB fucked around with this message at 02:18 on Jul 31, 2014

# ? Jul 31, 2014 01:12

muike: Mar 16, 2011; ガチムチ　セブン

umalt posted:

Whelp, I'm never going to buy Ernie Ball's again.

I just bought a set of .08's Cobalts; and after I got all of the strings on and was tuning up to pitch a string broke.

An E string broke.

A loving low E string broke.

Not even at the ball-end, it was at the goddamn tuner, well before proper pitch. The cherry on top is that the only shop in town that sells .08's is on the other side of town.

gently caress.

That sounds a lot more like a burr on your tuner than a flaw in the string, to be honest.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 03:02

Alleric: Dec 10, 2002; Rambly Bastard...

Handen posted:

I was tasked with putting together a budget to purchase a bunch of XLR cables for live-to-air performances that we have at the radio station where I work, but that poo poo is overpriced as gently caress so instead I bought 500ft of bulk bright orange XLR cable and a shitload of $1 male and female plugs from a Chinese distributor. The markup on that stuff anywhere else is like 400% so I'll make the cables myself and save us a shitload of cash that can go into other gear instead. I love you, eBay. I went with bright orange because theft, or "accidental misreappropriation," is a bit of a problem around here, and since nobody has bright orange XLR cables, if any go missing from the station it'll be pretty drat easy to find out who took them.

I learned this lesson the hard way. I picked up two old 1x15 subwoofer monitors for cheap at a pawnshop thinking I could convert them into speaker cabs for my bassist. I don't know the specific word for it, but they were closed baffle, with ports for air to move through the sides of the front of the chassis. Basically there was a huge panel directly in front of where the speakers are pushing air, and all of that air had to travel around a complex maze inside the cabinet itself before it would emerge from two vertical slits on each side of the front of each cab.

The first thing I did was test them using my friend's bass and head. They had a nice low end, but the high roll-off was at around 80hz, and it was DRAMATIC. At around the 3rd or 4th fret of the A string and upward there was no response at all from the speakers. So I realized I would need to gut the cabs, remove the crossover coil, and wire the jack straight to the speaker. Now, I have no idea if or what the effective low pass frequency of that crossover was. But after I had removed the crossover coil, the speakers could reproduce sounds above 80hz. Neat.

The very next day after I had modified the cabs, my roommate and his band used the jamspace, and their bassist plugged into one of the cabs. (I hadn't even gotten a chance to stress-test them at band volume yet because I was working on them in the middle of the night and would've woken everyone up.) After a few minutes of him playing, the first one stopped working. No sound. Okay, so he plugged into the other cab. After a few minutes, same thing, no sound. It wasn't until the next day that I was told there might be a problem with the speakers. Tested them, yup, no sound. Opened them up and I was amazed. The cones of each of the speakers had shattered into a billion pieces, as though they were made of glass, and smashed with a hammer.

To this day I still can't really wrap my head around exactly what went wrong, but I think in taking out the crossover I opened up a whole can of worms that, in that style of cabinet, lead directly to an atmosphere of crushing pressure that the speakers just couldn't possibly handle. Either that or there was some gross negligence or lack of respect for our gear on the part of their bass player. If I had gotten a chance to stress-test them at high volume and they exploded on me, cool, at least then I would know that the fuckup falls completely on my shoulders, but because it was someone who, upon questioning, doesn't know anything about impedance matching, and had no idea what output impedance jack his head was plugging out from, I can't be so sure that the failure was completely my doing. We've sort of banned them from ever using our jam space again just to be on the safe side.

To add to this, you can get around the perceived need to have a longer scale by just using higher gauge strings. I use DR .13s on my Westbury Deluxe in C-Standard. Go down to .12s and it's still alright, but at .11s you start to notice the strings aren't keeping tension at such a low tuning. That's what I call the sloppy floppies. Go down to 0.9s and the strings just stick to the humbucker. It's not even playable at that point. Basically the spectrum of effective string gauge frequency output goes: lower gauge for higher tuning, higher gauge for lower tuning.

Honestly... depending on where you live, and how old those drivers were, and how they may have been used/abused by previous owners... if they were paper, it could've just been their time. Uncorking the low-pass on them would've allowed in higher frequencies with less energy. I mean, it could've been the horn design, but usually it's the lower-frequency stuff that starts causing the massive compression zones. At first thought, based on what you describe, I expect the cones themselves were just totally dried/worn out. You can see similar behavior out of old in-dash speakers in older cars. The sun absolutely trashes them.

Anyway, I'll shut up now about this little derail.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 04:03

iostream.h: Mar 14, 2006; I want your happy place to slap you as it flies by.

Handen posted:

I was tasked with putting together a budget to purchase a bunch of XLR cables for live-to-air performances that we have at the radio station where I work, but that poo poo is overpriced as gently caress so instead I bought 500ft of bulk bright orange XLR cable and a shitload of $1 male and female plugs from a Chinese distributor. The markup on that stuff anywhere else is like 400% so I'll make the cables myself and save us a shitload of cash that can go into other gear instead. I love you, eBay. I went with bright orange because theft, or "accidental misreappropriation," is a bit of a problem around here, and since nobody has bright orange XLR cables, if any go missing from the station it'll be pretty drat easy to find out who took them.

Some of the easiest money to make is hawking XLR/Instrument cables on Craigslist.
I've even branched into making snakes and holy Christ the money just rolls in. I'm at the point where I've thought about just hiring an EE student to solder poo poo for me a couple days a week.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 04:28

InFlames235: Jan 13, 2004; LIKE THE WAVES IN THE OCEAN I WILL DIG IN YOUR FAT AND SEARCH FOR YOUR CLITORIS, BUT I WON'T SLAM WHALE

I might get the new Mesa CabClone. Looks bad rear end for late night playing or direct recording in my apartment.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 04:42

iostream.h: Mar 14, 2006; I want your happy place to slap you as it flies by.

InFlames235 posted:

I might get the new Mesa CabClone. Looks bad rear end for late night playing or direct recording in my apartment.

poo poo, and I JUST ordered a Weber Mass.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 04:58

Adeline Weishaupt: Oct 16, 2013; by Lowtax

muike posted:

That sounds a lot more like a burr on your tuner than a flaw in the string, to be honest.

Nah, the windings of the string were still strong and it broke at a part that was wrapped around the peg and not the 'peg-hole'.

I'm just going to sick with D'addarios and Rotosounds from now on anyways.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 05:24

InFlames235: Jan 13, 2004; LIKE THE WAVES IN THE OCEAN I WILL DIG IN YOUR FAT AND SEARCH FOR YOUR CLITORIS, BUT I WON'T SLAM WHALE

iostream.h posted:

poo poo, and I JUST ordered a Weber Mass.

Well that just depends on what you're looking for because the CabClone isn't an attenuator like the Weber Mass. It's more like the Torpedo Live in that it has a loadbox of 100W and you can plug headphones into it for silent playing as well as directly to a recording interface.

It's resistive load vs reactive which some people don't like but on hearing the demos, it sounds really great and it's $700 cheaper than a torpedo live, way smaller, and is passive so you don't need to plug into the wall or anything.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 05:28

Professor Science: Mar 8, 2006; diplodocus + mortarboard = party

Apparently I decided I needed a new fuzz pedal over the weekend while I had a fever.

Oh well, it's loving awesome. (right side: a fuzz with a master volume. left side: another fuzz without any knobs. combined: jesus that's a lot of fuzz)

# ? Jul 31, 2014 06:43

Alec Bald Snatch: Sep 12, 2012; by exmarx

InFlames235 posted:

I might get the new Mesa CabClone. Looks bad rear end for late night playing or direct recording in my apartment.

Maybe it just needs extra eq, but the demos all sound like every other direct box.

e: I'm probably gonna buy one too

Alec Bald Snatch fucked around with this message at 08:40 on Jul 31, 2014

# ? Jul 31, 2014 08:27

Alleric: Dec 10, 2002; Rambly Bastard...

Professor Science posted:

Apparently I decided I needed a new fuzz pedal over the weekend while I had a fever.

Oh well, it's loving awesome. (right side: a fuzz with a master volume. left side: another fuzz without any knobs. combined: jesus that's a lot of fuzz)

I just checked out some demos of this on youtube. Fuzz isn't necessarily my thing, but man I like the sounds of that pedal. Congrats.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 18:15

InFlames235: Jan 13, 2004; LIKE THE WAVES IN THE OCEAN I WILL DIG IN YOUR FAT AND SEARCH FOR YOUR CLITORIS, BUT I WON'T SLAM WHALE

comes along bort posted:

Maybe it just needs extra eq, but the demos all sound like every other direct box.

e: I'm probably gonna buy one too

Ya that's fine with me since at least with it being direct I can turn the volume up on my amp head to hit the sweet spot. If I were to record in my apartment with a mic it would sound pretty bad since I'd need to keep it low. I just can't hear the difference between this box and the supposedly "waaaay better" torpedo live for that price difference.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 18:41

Alec Bald Snatch: Sep 12, 2012; by exmarx

InFlames235 posted:

I just can't hear the difference between this box and the supposedly "waaaay better" torpedo live for that price difference.

Haha yeah that's what's got me hooked too. It sounds like a sansamp, but it's like a third the price of the torpedo and half that of a Palmer load box. Plus bypass out to run into IR sims, that's where the magic is.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 20:09

Ghost of Reagan Past: Oct 7, 2003; rock and roll fun

Cat approved.

(Epiphone Nighthawk Custom Reissue)

# ? Jul 31, 2014 21:13

Dewgy: Nov 10, 2005; ~🚚special delivery~📦

Yesssss you got the Nighthawk. :flashfap:

Also I'm stealing your cat.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 21:20

Remulak: Jun 8, 2001; I can't count to four.; Yams Fan

Nighthawks are cool. Thanks to my Venus I'm really enjoying the HS thing lately, so much so that I want to put a WRHB in the bridge of my JM. I usually only use the neck pickup so this might work nicely.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 21:42

Ghost of Reagan Past: Oct 7, 2003; rock and roll fun

Dewgy posted:

Yesssss you got the Nighthawk.

Also I'm stealing your cat.

I'd even misread the sale price tag originally, so it was $270! A loving steal since online it's $330, and they were originally selling it for $400. The other guitar I was eyeing was a Fender Lonestar Stratocaster, which was twice the price. I preferred that a little bit more, but for the price it couldn't be beat.

It's nice to have a guitar that I can crank the gain on and not have squealing feedback or garbage shitsounds come out.

Ghost of Reagan Past fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Jul 31, 2014

# ? Jul 31, 2014 22:01

JohnnySmitch: Oct 20, 2004; Don't touch me there - Noone has that right.

So... What ever happened to that pick megathread that was gonna happen?

# ? Jul 31, 2014 23:45

Agreed: Dec 30, 2003; The price of meat has just gone up, and your old lady has just gone down

JohnnySmitch posted:

So... What ever happened to that pick megathread that was gonna happen?

Had a big move, shitload of hassle, still gonna do it though.

# ? Jul 31, 2014 23:47

Schpyder: Jun 13, 2002; Attackle Grackle

Nighthawks own

now you own because you have a Nighthawk

# ? Aug 1, 2014 00:22

Sockington: Jul 26, 2003

Traded off an old 1x12 Crate cabinet for a Metal Muff and Dynacomp.

And also tossed a grill I had lying around on the JC to make tube change easy for V1/2 instead of reaching over the transformer. Finally got around to changing the Chinese tubes out of those two spots.

# ? Aug 1, 2014 00:50

Declan MacManus: Sep 1, 2011; damn i'm really in this bitch

I bought this thing

It is very rad

# ? Aug 1, 2014 01:12

Ghost of Reagan Past: Oct 7, 2003; rock and roll fun

Declan MacManus posted:

I bought this thing

It is very rad

Is your guitar a harpoon?

# ? Aug 1, 2014 01:15

Kilometers Davis: Jul 9, 2007; They begin again

Declan MacManus posted:

I bought this thing

It is very rad

Here's why I'm a bad guitarist. I need this because BIG KNOBS.

# ? Aug 1, 2014 01:37

Warcabbit: Apr 26, 2008; Wedge Regret

Ghost of Reagan Past posted:

Cat approved.

(Epiphone Nighthawk Custom Reissue)

Welp, settle in with it a bit and then tell us how it howls.

# ? Aug 1, 2014 01:56

iostream.h: Mar 14, 2006; I want your happy place to slap you as it flies by.

Tired of playing 'catch the hum' with lovely power outlets.

Edit: Jesus Christ these are loving amazing!

iostream.h fucked around with this message at 07:04 on Aug 1, 2014

# ? Aug 1, 2014 02:00

Declan MacManus: Sep 1, 2011; damn i'm really in this bitch

Kilometers Davis posted:

Here's why I'm a bad guitarist. I need this because BIG KNOBS.

They are super cool also it came with a sticker

# ? Aug 1, 2014 06:22

Jeff Goldblum: Dec 3, 2009

Declan MacManus posted:

I bought this thing

It is very rad

But, is it suitable for Mastodon covers?

WHITE WHALE
+
HOLY GRAIL
:black101:

# ? Aug 1, 2014 07:31

The Bunk: Sep 15, 2007; Oh, I just don't know
where to begin.; Fun Shoe

Just got this in a trade for my 62 Precision RI. It's an AVRI 69 Thinline RI, which apparently they only made for a couple of years. The semi-hollow body is really cool, and I may try flatwounds on it eventually. The only things I don't like about it are easily changed, and parts are already in the mail:

-The F tuners are not great, which seems to be a common complaint. They feel way less solid than the ones on my MIJ tele. They aren't bad enough to justify drilling, but Kluson makes drop-in replacements so it was a no-brainer.
-Who thought putting 1 meg pots in a Tele was a good idea? Holy cow. I wanted a 4 way switch anyway, so 250k will be installed ASAP.

# ? Aug 1, 2014 14:13

Otis Reddit: Nov 14, 2006

Why'd you get two noise reducer pedals? See you saying that pedal will cure the hum from lovely bar outlets? No effect to my sound when I'm playing?

# ? Aug 1, 2014 14:36

Declan MacManus: Sep 1, 2011; damn i'm really in this bitch

Jeff Goldblum posted:

But, is it suitable for Mastodon covers?

WHITE WHALE
+
HOLY GRAIL

It is very suitable. I think it's a modified Wooly Mammoth circuit (which in itself is a modified fuzz face) and also it sounds evil. It's made by a company called Full Nelson Effects and it's super dope

# ? Aug 1, 2014 16:42

DrChu: May 14, 2002

The Bunk posted:

-Who thought putting 1 meg pots in a Tele was a good idea? Holy cow. I wanted a 4 way switch anyway, so 250k will be installed ASAP.

Probably the same person who thought the 250k pots in the 72 Deluxe Reissue was a good idea. I'm ordering a set of 500ks so it doesn't sound like I constantly have my tone set at 50%

# ? Aug 1, 2014 17:18

The Bunk: Sep 15, 2007; Oh, I just don't know
where to begin.; Fun Shoe

DrChu posted:

Probably the same person who thought the 250k pots in the 72 Deluxe Reissue was a good idea. I'm ordering a set of 500ks so it doesn't sound like I constantly have my tone set at 50%

Yeah, the sweet-spot with 1 meg is somewhere between 2-4. I guess people would complain if they didn't stick as close to original specs as possible, but I don't know who really wanted that dumb wiring or mediocre 'authentic' tuners. Then they gave it a nitro finish when the originals had switched to poly at that point (not that I'm complaining). It really is a great guitar, though, and I'm glad they reissued the Thinlines, Deluxes, and Customs.

# ? Aug 1, 2014 17:40

uncle spero: Nov 18, 2011; Bobby couldn't make it...
'till he went fun-truckin'!

DrChu posted:

Probably the same person who thought the 250k pots in the 72 Deluxe Reissue was a good idea. I'm ordering a set of 500ks so it doesn't sound like I constantly have my tone set at 50%

Fender.

My pawn shop mustang special with the fake wide range humbuckers had the same issue as the 72 deluxe.

# ? Aug 1, 2014 18:39

Cojawfee: May 31, 2006; I think the US is dumb for not using Celsius

What do you do with a four way switch on a Tele? There's only three combinations you can do with two pickups.

# ? Aug 1, 2014 19:29

uncle spero: Nov 18, 2011; Bobby couldn't make it...
'till he went fun-truckin'!

Cojawfee posted:

What do you do with a four way switch on a Tele? There's only three combinations you can do with two pickups.

Use your imagination. My esquire has a 3 pos switch and one pickup. 1 pos for normal with tone pot, I bypassed tone pot and one for a completely different tone cap with no tone pot.

I could happily use 5 positions on a tele thinline.

# ? Aug 1, 2014 19:35

The Bunk: Sep 15, 2007; Oh, I just don't know
where to begin.; Fun Shoe

Cojawfee posted:

What do you do with a four way switch on a Tele? There's only three combinations you can do with two pickups.

Standard middle position is both pickups in parallel, and the 4th is usually both in series. It's a higher output, less treble-y sound that I actually used more than I thought I would after I put one in my old Tele. There are plenty of demos on Youtube if you're curious.

# ? Aug 1, 2014 19:43

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# ? May 8, 2024 09:34

The Gasmask: Nov 30, 2006; _{Breaking fingers like fractals}

Cojawfee posted:

What do you do with a four way switch on a Tele? There's only three combinations you can do with two pickups.

Series and parallel would add a few more switching options.

E: totally beaten on that.

# ? Aug 1, 2014 20:04

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > No Music Discussion > Musician's Lounge > Post pictures of your next or newest instrument/gear purchase(s).

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