T-Bay

If you get a chance to have a go with the smooth hound wireless system I would give it a try. I am amazed by mine and have shown it to a few people I know who are professional musicians and they have all been very impressed by it's performance.

I have no personal experience of lightweight stuff but at our gig on Thursday a local guy was in the bar and listened to our first set through the door. He came up in the interval and asked what I was playing, turns out he has been messing about with different amps and cabs for years and his present set up is a lightweight rig costing over £1500 he was more than a little surprised when I told him it was an old Marshall combo that weighs about the same as a small car. His opinion was that it had far more oomph and presence than his kit. I did (jokingly) offer to swap but I wouldn't be surprised if a lightweight rig turns up on eBay close to me in the near future. He also couldn't believe the tone I was getting from a cheap 80s Aria but that's another thread entirely.

I had trouble with night cramps a few years ago, two things sorted it - wearing socks in bed (even in summer when it's hot) and a spoon of Andrews liver salts in a pint of water before I went to bed. I used to wake up in the most horrendous pain that was almost unbearable. As soon as I tried that I never had a problem again, stopped the liver salts after a week and the socks after a couple of years and it's never come back for me so may be worth a try.

I have one that I have a love hate relationship with. It's heavy as hell but still manages to have horrendous neck dive. It is not great to play for any length of time but the sound is truly gorgeous. As soon as I plug it in I forgive and love it, then end up hating it again in half an hour when the weight and neck dive shows itself. The one I play the most and always love is a cheap and fairly battered old Aria that sounds good but is just perfect to play for me. It's always the one I reach for if I want a serious session or to learn something tricky on.

Second gig with the new band and found out Wednesday that the second guitarist was injured following a judo match the night before. At 2pm yesterday we found out that we would be a three piece. We looked at rearranging the set but decided just to go for it. It worked very well and a good night was had by all, the extra body fills out the sound but we could do three of us again if we had to.

Being new to this game I could be talking rubbish but to me there is a lot of 'emperors new clothes' about makes and models. I have messed around with a load now and a lot of cheap ones do sound terrible, but so a few costing hundreds. Some of the cheap ones do sound pretty good though and would fill a hole if needed.

Weird to say the least and more than a bit sick really.

Whereabouts in Derbyshire are you?

Ours is a very stable and quiet guy, the opposite of the usual drummer stereotype.

Not surprised, congrats!

Slightly off topic but how old eo depeche mode look! I have never been a fan but their music was usually interesting so I put it in as wallpaper but it was so dreary I gave up. As for all indie being dreary, with such a broad range of bands covered in that group I fail to see how anyone could not find something they liked. Like any sort of music there are some poor bands but there are some amazing ones as well.

Oh well, good luck with the sale

It's an interesting one, I have no idea of maker though unfortunately.

Shame you aren't closer. I don't suppose you ever get up to the midlands?

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1490522987' post='3265626']


It had a richness back then. I think we've got used to a much richer sound and listening back, a lot of Futurist music now sounds quite thin.
[/quote]
I had never thought of it that way, but it does make sense. And quite often nothing sounds or looks more dated than something that was originally intended to be futuristic. If you look back at old sci fi programs they are almost laughable now but seemed amazing at the time.

Hmmm, Eva Cassidy, leaves me cold personally. Just singing a song slowly never improves it to me. If you want goosebumps it would be something like Johnny Cash Hurt for me, an awesome track when NiN did it but taken to another level by Cash.

Nope, I have the smooth hound on its own supply and the same with the Zoom. It's a pain having three plugs in total but a necessary evil. Just got bad white noise when I sue it with the Zoom, it's fine with my other pedals but I use the B3 a lot. Sorted now with a bit of fiddling as mentioned. It does seem that the B3 is a bit dirty in its operation and what you say would bear that out as well.

[quote name='mikel' timestamp='1490470226' post='3265394']
Billie Holiday for me. She had a very narrow vocal range but her delivery and feel can make me cry. I am sorry but Whitney Huston's yodeling just makes me cringe. I can admire the skill involved but you are not required to put every vocal chop you know into every song. Less really is more, sometimes one note at the end of a word will do. Apologies but I had to get that off my chest.
[/quote]
+1 on winey Housedown, awful and very annoying to me. I used to like Kate Bush but she must have been sniffing the Ajax of late as she has completely lost the plot in so many ways. Tracey Chapman takes some beating.........

A lot of it comes down to age. I loved both of them when I was about 10-12 and they were at their height, then I found metal and alternative stuff and never looked at anything with a synth again. I still like it though, nostalgia I guess. If you look through the years there are always a few acts that are 'big', some stand the test of time better than others and even the most popular will split opinion, I still can't see the Beatles as anything better than a pop act with a couple of ok songs, some people would have me hanged for that sentiment.

We have an ashdown at work of indeterminate model (1x12 combo of some sort), it is unreliable, heavy and sounds poor at best and terrible when really pushed. I see people on here with Ashdown rigs who are happy with them so presumably some of their stuff is good.

I sent mine back to Chris on Thursday and it was back by return today, superb service as always. Unfortunately the fix was not a magic bullet as hoped but certainly improved the situation. I have spent an hour messing about with settings, cables, filters etc etc and have sorted it. The length of cable had some effect but very little, the location had no effect at all. Next to it or across the room made no difference. Using the active setting on the zoom made a significant difference and chucking in a filter plus a few settings adjustment on the amp has it back to the close to zero level I wanted down from an annoying buzz. I have worked out why I hadn't noticed it before - I had only used it with the zoom at home so the volume is very low and you just don't notice it. The smooth hound through any of my other pedals is perfect so there is some issue with the zoom. But all sorted now so I am happy. Thanks again to Chris for the quality and speed of his service, a lot of suppliers could learn from him.

I bought a Yamaha lead guitar (just to noodle on a couple of bits) and it was described as needing work as it wouldn't stay in tune so was a price reasonable for its condition. The tuning was simple to fix and turned out to just be loose tremolo springs allowing the bridge to rise as you tuned it. But the fretboard was something else, each fret had six dimples in a sea of grot. It must have been a couple of millimetres thick in places and you could see a line in it where the string touched. It was gross. I used a spray foam cleaner designed for car dashboards. It worked a treat but the first couple of sprays went from white to brown in a quite revolting way! As I said it was cheap so I was happy to do the work and with a quick dress down and a good reoil it is looking as good as new, if not better.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1490387359' post='3264870']

I think he had just a touch of overdrive on it
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I love it, looks superb and has the sound to match. I really do need to save up some cash and talk to you about one.

That sounds fantastic, a lovely tone. Was that clean or any effects on it?

There is no accounting for taste with a lot of people. We play don't look back in anger as it's very popular but we are dropping it when we we overhaul the set after the next round of gigs is done and we have some time. It's is just so dreary. It goes on for 4 1/2 minutes but feels like hours but again everyone in the audience seems to love it.