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wolbai

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Everything posted by wolbai

  1. Thx for your well meaning feedback! We have played this tune quite a few times at rehearsals and on stage over the years ... wolbai
  2. Playing Hotel California in a Live-Duo as the only guitar player can be challenging ... The Rickenbacker 12-string model, together with a capo custom tuning on the 7th fret, works pretty well for some parts of that tune. That enables me to play this part in an open chord position. The other guitar parts are played with the magnetic pickups. The harmony parts are done with pitch block effect of my Fractal FX8 Multi-FX board. It's a bit tricky to switch the custom scales with one of my expression pedals. I have used the clean & crunch channel on my Marshall JVM410 head for the recording in our rehearsal room. Love my JTV69 for those applications where I need an "exotic" guitar model, acoustic parts or special tunings within a tune. After all the years, the JTV69 is still a reliable (modded) workhorse for Live and recordings. All instruments of the playback are completely self made (different guitar tracks, midi-keyboard for bass and keys, Toontrack EZ Drummer 2 for the drum parts). Any feedback is welcome - wolbai
  3. +1 ! Musicians who are gigging, with a need for a variety of sounds / tunings / genres, understand the power and versatility of the JTVs. Modyfing such an instrument for gigging purposes is all worth the money: pickups, neck, etc. Here is another rehearsal recording with my modded JTV69. Wouldn't be able to perform this songs as the only guitar player without my JTV69: wolbai.
  4. Yeah - Live and learn. That is so right saying. But experience may be different to each other. Nice guitars by the way ! The above showed Warmoth neck with a Wizard contour, Stainless steel frets is not my first Warmoth neck similar to that. So I am somewhere already used to it. The only difference is the wood and the Eravana nut. The Earvana nut will show very likely some intonation improvements for the acoustic parts and should be easier to play for me on the lower frets, because the Wizard neck has more width than the original JTV69 neck. I have choosen the Roasted Maple Neck by intension: I was looking for a brighter sounding guitar, because my first Warmoth workhorse is a H-S-H with a Mahogany body, finished Maple Neck with and a Rosewood fingerboard. And this guitar is more darker sounding. My main giging amp is a Marshall JVM410 and this amp is pretty versatile with it's 4 channels and Equing capabilities. Will do some testings tommorow in the rehearsal room. Will see ... wolbai
  5. Well, it's been a while, since I was here ... The past years, I have mainly focused on home recordings. But now I am starting to play Live Music again. And my JTV69 will become my second work horse (again). I am going to play on this guitar, mainly songs with acoustic parts and/or special tunings. If the song needs a Stratocaster sound, I play these with the magnetic Kinman Av69 Single Coil pups. In the Bridge position, there is a Suhr Doug Aldrich humbucker. This pickup combo is soundwise pretty versatile and powerful. Although the JTV69 Neck is ok IMO, I wanted to do a Mod on the neck as well - for several reasons. The neck is pretty important for me. I need to feel "at home". The Neck has a Wizard contour (I am used to play this contour for several years), Stainless Steel frets (SS6150), an Earvana nut and Schaller locking tuners. The baked Maple neck looks pretty cool. Have a look at the attached pictures ... (Don't know, why some pictures went upside down and how to correct it) This is my first unfinished Neck and it feels and plays fantastic! Very smooth sliding! Use Stainless Steel frets for several years on my first work horse: great for bending/vibrato. It is killer! Before the installation, I put a bit of lemon oil on the neck. Will do this further on a few times per year. The Kinman Av69 magnetic neck pickup sounds great on this guitar: together with the neck the tone is woody, airy and has a nice top end tone. All in all it seems to me that the tone a bot brighter than the original JTV69 neck. I also made some testing with the intonation and the Eravana nut: I recorded several notes on different frets on my old neck and the new Warmoth neck with the Earvana nut with the Melodyne software. In summary: The Eravana nut improves the overall guitar intonation. Especially in the first 3 frets (good for open chord/acoustic stuff) and on the higher frets. I know this test is not 100% comparable, because of the two necks. BUT: compared to my older neck it IS an inprovement in intonation, especially when I am playing the acoustic songs Live with my Duo partner. For more details - see attached file. Now: Does everybody need an Earvana neck? No. The extent of intonation improvement heavily depends on your playing style (soft/hard pressure on the neck ?), the musical context (keys ?), the layer where you are normally playing on the neck and how well trained your ear is to realize intonation. The following is a real quick recording with my new Warmoth Roasted Maple Neck on the JTV69. Recorded this "Quicky" with my old Line 6 POD HD500 MultiFX and the PARK-75 amp model (that is my practicing tool at home). Still a good working tool, although the foot switches are not working properly anymore. I love Ritchie Blackmore for the very end of this lead part: This is a huge statement in electric guitar history and his entry card to guitar heaven Have fun while watching / listening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k09m4Dz5Nz0&feature=youtu.be Any feedback is welcome: wolbai Intonation Earvana Sattel - 2.pdf
  6. Hi, I am glad to be beneficial to you! Regarding the whet/dry recording issue: I tend to have distortion pedals, compressors being part of the POD HD-preset for recordings. If you call that dry - that is fine to me. The other mentioned effects should be added via your DAW-software. With a good audio interface and low latency you should have a good monitor signal. I like to play melody oriented solos. That is what great, heartful solos are all about to me (the real reason: the girls like it more ;) ) I just want to spice up around the climax point with some shredding licks or like to set attention-signals in between (for a lack of better words). Ongoing shredding is initially impressive, but boring latest after 1 minute to me. Now I have to watch football: Germany - Portugal - sorry !!! regards, wolbai.
  7. Hi egkor, to question 1: I generally use the pre amp models of the POD HD500 together with my DT-50 Head. Also the Amp Equing might be a bit different but not totally different when recording. This is something I adapt at the rehearsal room. Bare in mind that a playback has different sound characteristic / frequencies than a real band. Therefore some adaption has to be made at rehearsal room compared to studio presets. I somteimes also change the standard Voicing settings on the DT-50. The Marshall amps (default setting is Voicing II) sounds with more balls (if you need some) at Voicing IV. I also mix modulation, reverb and delay effects with my recording software to the recording and NOT with the POD HD500 preset. The reason for that is simpel: once you have recorded a track with mod, reverb, delay effects, it is nearly impossible to change the amount of the mix in that respect later on. This what professional studios normally also do when record guitars. You can mix these effects on the monitor (headphones) so you have a real tone feel during the recording to question 2: I have a fixed Master volume setting on my DT-50 head at 60% (1 o'clock). For all the amps I am using, this is a good overall value where all amps (even for those who getting saturated at higher volume levels. e.g. PARK-75 and Marshall Plexi) come into power section saturation. Very clean amps like the BF Double (Twin reverb) let them stay clean with lots of headroom. I vary the POD HD500 Master volume setting, depending on the gigging location somewhere between 40 - 60%. regards, wolbai
  8. Very true! When I started learning E-guitar several years ago, I didn't really understand these "play slow to get fast"-statements. So I tried to do the natural short cut in playing always fast as possible in the naive hope that I will become faster with good accuracy overtime. Since I have dealt now on a detailed level with the speed picking technique over the past months, I start to understand and see that the swing between slow and fast playing (with a metronome or drum machine) is vital to built up a solid muscle memory and to adapt those minimal finger motions to faster playing. Didn't thought about your point with the tension and its coherence to muscle memory as well. The thing with the tension pops up generally when you start practicing speed picking seriously and IMO, because it usually leads to more practicing time and faster 16th note based runs which brings you very soon to your current existing physical limits as well :D Depending on how long and how good or bad your hand, arm and finger motions are, you will be confrontated with various tension issues: I have now tension to deal with in my fret arm as well, because of more challenging fretting hand exercises where in strengthen my weak ring finger and pinky. Depending how you do your picking motions, you may also be confrontated with picking arm tension when doing the motions out of your arms and not out of your wrist and so on. And there is a real potential problem to get seriously injured with wrong speed picking practice. As this Thread turns more and more to a little "speed picking booklet" I also like to add something which wasn't mentioned so far which I consider as very important too: There are tons of details which may potentially prevent someone to play very fast and with accuracy. And these details can very heavily vary from person to person depending on their experience and current playing style. Therefore everybody needs to carefully analyze his current playing style, before moving into practicing to "right things". Some articles from Tom Hess (an online guitar teacher, which IMO is very knowledgeable and dammed good in marketing; I would not buy expensive lessons from him, but some free of charge stuff can really help to find the right direction) have helped me in the last weeks. He actually overs a 14 days free of charge mini-course on speed picking. I recommend this one. Especially that you start to examine where your current speed is AND most of all to carefully look what prevents you from getting faster. Here is the link to his first lesson of the 14 days mini course: http://tomhess.net/HowToIncreaseGuitarSpeed1.aspx Once you have registered (remember - he is good marketing guy !) you will get a free lesson every days. In MY case it turns out that my fretting ring finger and pinky is too weak to have a 100% fretting hand and picking hand synchronization. I therefore have add some special exercises to strengthen them. Another option I also would recommend to have some dedicated speed picking lessons with a good local guitar teacher. This teacher can help to identify the most critical points in the current playing style which prevent you being fast with great accuracy. And he can more objectively monitor your progress along this process.
  9. Thanks for your ideas to speed me up :D I appreciate that! Yes, pentatonic scale runs are less challenging as 3 note per string runs IMO too. Played in all its positions they generate versatile licks. Some famous players (if I remember correctly Zakk Wilde and even Jazz oriented players like Mike Stern) have mainly based their fret hand fingering on it. They often go along with hammer-ons and pull-offs. But the licks are different and sound different, because of the limited scale notes and the different fret hand technique (mainly 2 notes per strings and alternate picking), compared to 3 notes per string licks played with economy picking. Currently I am after these 3 note per string runs, which leads automatically to major scales and their appropriate modes. So I will put the pentatonic scales on my list of techniques, I need to work on. There is also already a very demanding one, which I like to improve and that is my vibrato. :(
  10. Hi billorentzen, lots of good stuff to me in your post :) There is in general not a right or wrong what picks to use as long as you do not have any speed or accuracy problem. The same applies how to angle your pick. But for beginners or any player which run into a serious speed or accuracy problem with their current playing technique, it is widely accepted to point to the overall widely accepted standards. I belong the this second group and I had to heavily reinvent my playing technique in the last months, affecting the picks I use and the complete fret and picking hand motions. And I am still at the beginning I feel so ... I angle my pick therefore standard (down to the floor) and I use stiffer and smaller picks. I have tested some new ones the last days. And my current favorite pick (JP Jazz III) has got a serious competition: the Jazz III Ultex, 1.38 mmm. In short: the tone is the same due to the identical material and similar shape. But the Ultex Jazz III which is smaller (same shape as the standard Jazz III) fits even better to my fingers. It forces me even more to grip very close to the tip. That helps me to be more fluent without getting caught on the strings. The tip gluides even more fluently over the strings to me. I always wanted to play solos like a singer. That is how I try to phrase my lines. The shredding technique, which is very popular under younger players, is just a tool, like a good vibrato, bending or slides. I pretty much agree, that shredding by itself has no substantial musical content. The art is to mix it up with all the other tools in the right amount. Then it can shine, otherwise it can soon gets boring (or lame as you say). As far as practicing, I am with you: I practice scales, scale patterns, spider figures, 3 notes per string fingering in an intensity I never did before. And there are nearly no short cuts to improve with the exception of longer practicing, the right things over and over again. The right picks help, but this is not 50% of the game. It is more 5% IMO. The most frustrating thing is the time I need to bring it to a satisfying level when gigging. I remember another technique I learned in the past. It took me 1 year from the rehearsal room to the stage to perform it in a good way :D
  11. Hi, I am glad that the Marshall Plexi Lead amp settings are beneficial to you :) If I remember correctly, these are pretty much the recommended settings of the original amp. Especially the Mids turned up very high (to cut through) and the Bass turned down very low (to get rid of a muddy tone playing lower strings and powerchords) is important to me. The Marshall Plexi is REALLY shining when played with a DT-50 / DT-25 IMO. The original amp (100 watts) starts to break up only at very high volume levels. With the POD HD Master volume control on FW 2.20 this could be done on pretty much lower volume levels without too much negative impact on the tone. I play a wide range of songs in my Cover Band with this amp. It sounds fantastic on Stratocaster type songs from SRV / Pink Floyd / Eric Clapton to Gibson / Humbucker type songs from ZZ Top / Gary Moore. It is always worthwhile to Google the manuals and reviews for the ORIGINAL amps for recommended amp EQ-settings. Doing so, I have discovered some good starting points for amp EQ-settings.
  12. This article is a good one ... although I agree with others that if you do not hit the string in the position where you normally pick the strings and if you do not hit as heavy as you "usually" do, you risk to go more sharp and noticeably out of tune than before. Playing live and in a studio is a different animal ... and therefore the solutions how to fix the always existing tuning problem with guitars might be different. When I did some studio recordings early this year, I discovered one of these nightmare issues as well: -------------------------------------------------------------- -_--------------------------------------------------------------- I had a hard time to tune a guitar when playing some riffs / chords in the first and second fret. Even with very less finger pressures I wasn't able to get the guitar in tune. I tuned the guitar with the POD HD500 and a very good tuner from the studio. On both tuners the guitar was in tune. It ended up just to use another guitar which was less sensitive. I was not really clear what the root cause really was. . In general the the first frets are the most critical ones. There is one notes, the G#, which is a critical note, because the first fret is a worse approximation to the real G# note. Things turn even more into a tuning problem, if the nut (as mentioned in the article) is just a bit too high (I mean 0.1 mm levels) AND the finger pressure on your strings is pretty strong AND you have tall frets on your guitar. Later on I partially fixed with a good luthier which slightly reduces the nut height by 0.1 mm. With that article in mind, I will tune the guitar such a specific song part in the future in a different way to be in tune and retune later on. When playing gigs, I figured out that in one song (and again: the guitar is well tuned with the POD HD500) I have from time to time the tendency to sound sharp. It is a part with heavy 8th note palm muting and riffing in the first and second fret. With that article in mind I now understand that hitting those notes heavily, the strings always remain in the "sharp" phase (I have seen that when the tuner is on). In the future I therefore play this passage very VERY soft finger pressure AND less attack as a compromise. One thing, what I haven't thought before, makes me concerned, because I am out of any ideas how to fix it for the moment, is the issue, when I lay my wrist on my Floyd rose tremolo to get a fixed anchor point: You can see on the tuner how the notes go sharp depending on the pressure you put on with your wrist. How do you deal with that - any ideas ???
  13. These (boutique) picks look promising to me. But the price and the shipment costs are too high just to do a blind order. Would be great, if you can come up with a feedback once you have tested it. Based on the higher price of approx. 5£ I also would be interested in the durability.
  14. Thanks for your encouraging feedback! I cannot get enough positive energy on my speed picking guitar journey :D As funny as it is: Those little details you mention seems to me one of the most important angles to look at, when it comes to speed picking, because it's all about optimizing lots of little details. Coming from the pick you choose, the angle of the pick to strike the strings, how close you grip the pick to the tip, whether your picking motion comes from the wrist or your arm, how to minimize fretting hand and picking hand motions, whether to use economic picking for 3 notes per string licks or alternate picking, ... and whether to grip the pick hard or loose. As I am somewhere in the middle of that guitar journey, I am currently not 100% clear how hard I should grip the pick. At the moment I tend to grip somewhere "in between", so that the pick is in a fixed position, but not too firm to get tension in my fingers. Although I am sold for the last months to the Dunlop John Petrucci Jazz iii, I am continuing this work on the little details with the picks. And the good thing when it comes to picks: they are so cheap compared to amps :P I have therefore yesterday ordered a few different Dunlop picks to check how they behave compared to the JP Jazz III which is currently my favorite pick. I am going to test the Dunlop ULTEEX 427 JAZZ III, the JAZZ III STIFFO BK and the BIG STUBBY 2.00 mm. They all are small picks, stiff and thicker than normal picks. I will see what happens.
  15. Hi cruisinon2, thanks for your nice feedback and I am glad that I have given you some tweaking inspiration! Looking back to my POD HD usage over the last 3 years, I have remarkably reduced my tweaking time and the pure amount of amp models and effects I am using today. Simplicity is more important to me than ever. All the Line6 gear has the tendency to get lost in endless choices and tweakings. The Marshall Plexi Lead is one of 3-4 amps I am really using for recording and (most of all) gigging. Having that said, I still find myself finding some amazing new features. The last one, which came along with FW 2.2, was the Master Volume control when connected to a DT-50 via the L6-Link. I am also glad that you like the backing track. I think it's a cool groove, where I instantly can lock into the Rhythm. The chord progression itself gives lots of freedom for scales to choose on. And the 2 bar chord changes are ideal to switch between scales. I guess the challenging thing is to leave the right amount of breaks between the licks, so the groove really can breath. Have fun - Thanks!
  16. +1. Changing the pick has helped me to improve speed picking technique. Before I never really thought that much about pick size, stiffness, material and their impact in the tone and speed. I have choosen the Dunlop John Petrucci Jazz iii. The size is in between a standard red Jazz III and the XL Jazz III. The material is Ultex, 1.5 mm size which lasts for me around 3-4 weeks. This pick is great for me. For more funky / strumming Rhythm parts I changed the pick to a sharkfin which is bigger and has less stiffness (around 0.75 mm) The small picks naturally bring you to grip the pick very close to the tip. That helps not to dive into deep between the strings and supports pinch harmonics very well too. I would not say that bigger picks and picks with less stiffness wouldn't work for speed picking. At the end everybody should choose upon their preference. And there are some famous players which do not use small and stiff picks for speed picking like Paul Gilbert. But I guess the speed picking technique is pretty much worth a new Thread - very likely in another forum :D
  17. Hi, thanks for your friendly feedback! The Warmoth guitar with the Suhr Doug Aldrich (Neck+Bridge)-pickups contributes with a clear notes separation to the tone as well.
  18. The speed picking technique is a challenging one, because it massively impacts the fret and picking hand motions. I even have changed my guitar picks (stiff and small). And there are unfortunately nearly no short cuts to speed up with the exception of constant, longer and correct practicing. I have already gone through some frustration along this process. But I do see some progress in my playing style over the past months (could be more). I think it just needs the right amount of dedication, the knowledge of the right things to practice, time and patience. Some lessons from a good local teacher can give some guidance. I don't think this a question of being talented or not. Guthrie Govan is a bright guy and great guitarist. I am highly impressed about his phrasing and vibrato technique. And I love his Suhr guitars :D The Marshall Plexi Lead amp model works great for a lot of styles. The EQ-settings in the amp model needs to be tweaked to get a nice crunch / leadtone. For the recording (and for gigging as well) I have the following setting: Drive: 90%, Bass: 15%, Mid: 95%, Treble: 62%, Pres: 72%, Vol: 56%. For gigging I use the POD HD500 together with a DT50-head. Sounds even better to me.
  19. Thanks for your kind feedback!
  20. In the past months I have worked on my speed picking technique to increase my soloing tool box and to spice up my lead parts with some faster runs. But there is still a long way to go for me until I will be satisfied with the level and to execute it adequate on gigs . I therefore have programmed a Jazz-Rock Fusion type backing track with my “band-in-the-box†software to practice 3-notes per string speed picking licks. I am by far more a Blues Rock player rather than a shredder. But it generates an additional level of dynamic when throwing in some faster licks in between. With the exception of the melody line, the guitar recording is completely improvised and recorded in one take and therefore “spiced up†with some minor errors :-) I have recorded the guitar part with my Warmoth (H-S-H) build. This is by far the most versatile and best sounding guitar I have ever owned. I have used my POD HD500 with the Marshall Plexi Lead Full Amp model. In front of the amp model I have included the Blue Comp Treble compressor and the Jumbo Fuzz distortion pedal in the signal chain. I love this amp model: very versatile and it reacts nicely on picking dynamics. I consider this as one of the best amps models in the POD HD. After the amp model I have used the Dimension chorus to get a nice and smooth guitar tone. Reverb and Stereo Delay was mixed with the Cubase Artist 7.0 recording software. The POD HD500 modeler was connected via XLRs to a TASCAM audio interface. In the YouTube info section you can find the chord progression and some scale suggestions for improvisation. For those who like the backing track to play along: there is also a link to download it in the YouTube info section. Let me know what you think about it.
  21. I am using the Master volume of the POD HD500 together with my DT50-Head to balance / adapt my volume level to different gig locations with great success since several months (say 20 gigs). I therefore have thrown out my power attenuator in the signal chain. My master volume on the DT50 is fixed at 1 o' clock (60 %). The master volume on the POD HD500 varies between 40 - 60% depending on the gig location. In addition to lower the overall volume level, I have muted on specific amps (for example the JCM800 or the Treadplate) one channel in the mixer completely. I hear a tonal loss under 50%. But this is very acceptable to me. I consider the POD HD500 Master volume feature as very powerful and has helped me to eliminate the serious and challenging volume level problem with a DR when using a DT25/50.
  22. Hey bjnette, thanks for your great feedback! I consider this Warmoth-guitar as an awesome enhancement of my existing guitar rig. But it is just one part of it. The other parts - DT50-Head and the POD HD 500 - are still in the important in the same way for Live-events and recordings (home and studio). wolbai
  23. Hi radatats, thanks for your kind feedback :) Here is another (high quality studio) recording I have made in January with my Cover Rock Band for marketing purposes. I have arranged this Doobie Brothers-song for our Band line up. I recorded this song in the studio with: - this Warmoth-built guitar in position 5 + 2, but in parallel wiring of the Bridge and Neck humbucker (instead of coil splitting). Also pretty Stratocaster-like IMO. (The Suhr Doug Aldrich pickups have great coil splitting AND parallel wiring capabilities as well.) - a POD HD 500 with: - BF Double Normal channel (Fender Twin Reverb) Pre amp model (my favourite amp model for clean tones) - Wheeper Wah-Wah (Mix = 60%, POS: 5 - 70 %) - a DT50 Head with: - Marshall JVMC212 cab - Radial JDX Reactor DI-Box (not the Direct Out of the DT50-Head) It grooves like hell to me (who are Doobie Brothers ??? ;) ). Pretty long - some patience needed: http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=12677468&q=hi&newref=1 wolbai
  24. Hi all, After playing my first Warmoth (H-S-H) guitar for two months and gaining some experience now (rehearsals, gigs, 3 days studio recording, nuddle around etc.), I have made a demo-review on it. All-in-all: I am very impressed about the quality, its awesome tonal variety and stellar beauty of this guitar. I recorded the three audio examples I have used in the demo-review with my POD HD 500. Here are some infos on the presets. Emotive Ballad (Guthri Govan): - Fender Twin Reverb Full amp model and church reverb (1st part) - Marshall Plexi Lead Full amp model, church reverb and different amp drive and tube compressor levels controlled with an expression pedal (2nd part) Power Of Love (Huey Lewis & The News): - JCM800 Full amp model with a screamer for the distorted Rhythm guitar part - Fender Twin Reverb Full amp model for the clean Rhythm guitar part - Soldano Lead Full amp model with a screamer for the Lead parts Tush (ZZ Top): - Marshall Plexi Lead Full amp model and the blue comp treble boost for the distorted Rhythm part - Marshall Plexi Lead Full amp model, the blue comp treble boost and a Jumbo Fuzz for the Lead parts Hope you like it: Any thoughts ??? wolbai
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