MartinB

Cool! Puts me in mind of these:

I once bought a pre-amp from Rob
It did not cost me too many bob
It was quickly despatched
With packaging unmatched
And it worked perfectly - just the job!

I use 5mm graph paper for tabs, as there's no need to even draw any lines. It's easy enough to find spiral-bound books of it.

I bought a Squier neck from Mike. It was a first-class Basschat transaction all round:
✅ Friendly comms
 ✅ Quick despatch
 ✅ Excellent packaging

Thank you very much Mike! 😎👍

It instantly beats the Fender Mod Shop because it lets you have a headstock that matches the body 🤩

The Old Romantics

Spandex Belly
Agadon't

 

Ooh that's gorgeous! Lovely grain on the fingerboard. I've got one of these in burgundy mist.

For the prospective buyer: if you try to fit a new tremolo arm and it turns out that the threads inside the trem block are also chewed (which happened to me), the inexpensive Fender standard series bridge assembly (part # 0071014049) is a drop-in replacement.

GLWTS!

Is that someone who's set their profile picture to be the Reverb logo, and their name as "£1,620 + Local Pickup"?
🤔

Direct from Canada 🍁...

 

Quote

The Resonant Filter Equalizer creates unique tone control by combining a high pass filter, low pass filter, and middle equalizer. Both filters have their own resonance control, allowing a bump at the cutoff frequency, accentuating the effect of the filters. The semi-parametric middle eq includes a variable frequency control.

 

The resonance of the filters ranges from -3dB all the way up to +15dB. The -3dB setting is what you would expect from a standard, non-resonant filter. Adding resonance to the filters boosts the level of the cutoff frequency.

 

The filters have a slope of -12 dB/octave. The filters are the same in performance to the other standard Broughton filters, with the added ability of increasing resonance.

-- https://www.broughtonaudio.com/product-page/resonant-filter-equalizer

So the cool thing this does is let you have a boost in your EQ, immediately followed (or preceded) by a steep cutoff. This can be also be achieved using digital effect like the HX Stomp by combining multiple filters, but to the best of my knowledge the RFE is the only analogue, single-box solution on the market.
 

I couldn't get a head-on photo without shadows or reflections, so here's a bit of the stock one so you can read the labels:

Aaaaaaaand here come the graphs...

First the high pass filter:

Yellow: minimum resonance (-3dB) 7:00 on the dial
Green: medium resonance (6dB ish) 12:00
Purple: maximum resonance (15dB) 5:00

Left trace: minimum frequency (25Hz): 11:00 on the dial
Middle trace: medium frequency (80Hz): 6:00

Right trace: maximum frequency (190Hz): 1:00

 

 

The mid filter:

Yellow: minimum resonance (-15dB) 7:00 on the dial
Purple: maximum resonance (15dB) 5:00

Left trace: minimum frequency (200Hz): 11:00 on the dial
Middle trace: medium frequency (750Hz): 6:00

Right trace: maximum frequency (2kHz): 1:00

 

 

And the low pass filter:

Yellow: minimum resonance (-3dB) 7:00 on the dial
Green: medium resonance (6dB ish) 12:00
Purple: maximum resonance (15dB) 5:00

Left trace: minimum frequency (330Hz): 11:00 on the dial
Middle trace: medium frequency (1.5kHz): 6:00

Right trace: maximum frequency (20kHz): 1:00

 

 

But what does it sound like?

 

Bypassed:

 

 

All controls at "default" (12:00 resonance, 6:00 frequency):

 

So what you're hearing is a small bump around 80Hz, with lows beneath that rolled off. And small bump around 1.5kHz, with highs above that rolled off. The mid filter's not doing anything here.

 

And after some twiddling until it sounded nice:

 
High pass at 1:00 resonance (7dB), 7:30 frequency (60Hz) (all values approximate)
Mid at 10:30 (-5dB), 5:00 (800Hz)
Low pass at 1:00 (7dB), 5:00 (2.5kHz)

 

 

Bypassed with a plectrum:

 

I forgot to write down the settings here, but it's an example of the odd, characterful sounds you can create:

 

 

 

Bypassed with flats, a foam mute, and a Poundland Jamerson impression:

 

 

The RFE can be used to mimic the way old-school speaker cabinets often had a frequency peak right before they started rolling off the lows and highs:

 

High pass at 3:00 resonance, 7:30 frequency
Mid at 1:00, 9:30
Low pass at 12:00, 5:30

Which gives an EQ curve like this:

 

It's pretty cool! As I mentioned, this kind of thing is easy enough to achieve in the digital realm, but there's something very direct and satisfying about having all the physical controls there to be fiddled with. It also works great with guitars, and can be powered with higher voltages in order to take line-level signals - there's probably fun to be had combining this with synths.

A strap doesn't necessarily have to match, but it should co-ordinate 🧐

(Folks who need mega-wide padded straps for health reasons are exempt)

 

A handy tool: https://www.oolimo.com/en/guitar-chords/analyze

The EQ frequencies on the Dirtfixer are really well-chosen - 100Hz, 300Hz, 800Hz, 2.2kHz

That does sound cool! I noticed from the video that JC uses it at minimum gain, but then I guess he's potentially giving it quite a hot input signal.

 

I chuckled when it turned out that the glow-in-the-dark fret markers were just stickers, and not Luminlay or similar

Yeah, the D'Addario ones are Swiss Army bags for Swiss Bank Account prices

Compression's an effect, and if you approach effects from a position of being "needed", it gets a bit silly. Why do I need tremolo, when I could just twiddle my volume control up and down while I'm playing? Why do I need reverb, when I could just perform all my gigs in a cathedral? Why do I need EQ, when I could just throw a blanket over the speaker? And so on

41 minutes ago, floFC said:

I believe that's an early prototype of the EHX Freeze

5 hours ago, fretmeister said:

Is that a readily available clone?

I don't think so - it's one of @disssa's masterpieces

2nd hand Keeley Bassist. Only three controls, and one of them is just output volume. Automated attack and release times. Does everything from the mildest squish to full limiting. Nice and transparent.
If the name bothers you, the Keeley GC-2 is essentially the same thing - it just lets a little more low-end through.

It was a few years back, but we used to use Teamup. Works as an app or in a browser, and you can give people private links if they don't want to create an account.
Of course, technology can't solve the problem of people failing to keep the calendar updated 😉

1 hour ago, Japhet said:

My understanding of 'Hifi' is High Fidelity, as in unaltered. I don't understand why people who seek this don't just use a decent power amp. That's about as hifi as it gets.

 

There are loads of rackmount power amps, but if you want a compact lightweight rig there are fewer options at a decent wattage. They're not significantly cheaper than an equivalent "normal" amp that can be run flat (either via the EQ, or the FX return) either. Also, if you've already done all your tone shaping on the pedalboard and sent your signal to FOH, then having EQ controls on the amp lets you tweak the sound on stage independently - e.g. to compensate for having to using someone else's cab, or being shoved in a corner, a boomy stage, etc.
 

I've got the DemonFX clone - it adds a nice grind to a slightly dirty amp. I've managed to reproduce it fairly well in my HX Stomp though, so I no longer need it on the board: