GRcade

Victor Mildew wrote:Pics please from both of you.

Once I have the new kit I'll post a pic. Bare chested Manowar stylee?

Gemini73 wrote:

Victor Mildew wrote:Pics please from both of you.

Once I have the new kit I'll post a pic. Bare chested Manowar stylee?

Your guitar wet, like a young girl in her prime

Haven't had much of a chance to really sit down and play the guitar. Got it on Tuesday, been busy. Gonna restring it tomorrow and strawberry float around on it for a bit. Setup seems good on it, although those factory strings lack tension and I prefer a slightly higher action. Bridge pickup seems slightly muddy (might be the strings tbf).

Gemini73 wrote:My nephew had an electronic drum kit for his birthday and needed an amp so I let him have my Fender. Going to pop to Soundhouse in Gloucester some time and buy myself a new amp. Might look at a new electric guitar as well.

How does it sound through a guitar amp? I only ask as someone who plays e-drums professionally and am aware that typically they sound rough through anything other than full-range loudspeakers (like a PA) or possibly keyboard amps. I'm sure that your nephew's needs are far more basic than my own and it may only be needed to be a bit more fun than headphones, just curious.

Heskimo wrote:

Gemini73 wrote:My nephew had an electronic drum kit for his birthday and needed an amp so I let him have my Fender. Going to pop to Soundhouse in Gloucester some time and buy myself a new amp. Might look at a new electric guitar as well.

How does it sound through a guitar amp? I only ask as someone who plays e-drums professionally and am aware that typically they sound rough through anything other than full-range loudspeakers (like a PA) or possibly keyboard amps. I'm sure that your nephew's needs are far more basic than my own and it may only be needed to be a bit more fun than headphones, just curious.

It sounds absolutely fine, but remember to put the kit via input not output when connecting. Logic says otherwise but as we discovered logic took a walk in this instance.

Does anyone have any experience with acoustic pickups?

I'm thinking it might be easier to record than microphone and headphones (I struggle to hear a clicktrack via this method, turning it up, it bleeds into the mic).

Is there any (cheap!) ones that would do the job?

I've never used on myself, my accoustics all have them built in.

I have a concert acoustic, doesn't have a built in system. I should have thought about this

Might just buy a transducer pickup, and see how that goes.

Edit - That's the PRS I just got. Yeah, gonna change the bridge humbucker, probably get an Irongear Hot Slag for it (I love that pickup in my Schecter). Will likely get that sorted next year. It's a nice guitar to play, string tension is weird at the moment, I haven't got around to changing the strings yet. I think they're 9's on top, I keep overbending

Pictures broken now, but I saw it the other day. Looks great.

Thinking of getting a cheapish bass very soon for recording, nothing too fancy as I won't be playing it as a day to day thing.

Looking to buy a Bass Ukulele.

Any one got one?

I've started trying to record with my new acoustic and I've come to the conclusion that I really don't like the pickups it has. No matter how I try and balance it, it either captures too much of the deep end, or far too much treble, with the mid range burried somwhere in between. It just sounds nothing like the instrument unplugged.

Frustrated, I then got my SM57 out and tried recording it that way. *chef's kiss* It sounds beautiful

Squinty wrote:I have a concert acoustic, doesn't have a built in system. I should have thought about this

Might just buy a transducer pickup, and see how that goes.

Edit - That's the PRS I just got. Yeah, gonna change the bridge humbucker, probably get an Irongear Hot Slag for it (I love that pickup in my Schecter). Will likely get that sorted next year. It's a nice guitar to play, string tension is weird at the moment, I haven't got around to changing the strings yet. I think they're 9's on top, I keep overbending

My brother is a steel string luthier and he would probably recommend a fisherman pickup that attaches under the strings in the sound hole. However I do think you need to drill a hole and fix the input jack, which might not be up your street.

Edit: if by concert you mean nylon then yes you would need a piezo transducer. I had one, as usual same brother nicked it.

Bought some new equipment with recording music in mind. Got a small midi keyboard, a posh new Mic stand (my old cheap one broke recently) and some expensive strings for my accoustic.

I intend to record about 10 of my own songs, should be a nice project as Christmas novelty stuff aside, I've not recorded music properly for about 10 years.

Victor Mistletoe wrote:Bought some new equipment with recording music in mind. Got a small midi keyboard, a posh new Mic stand (my old cheap one broke recently) and some expensive strings for my accoustic.

I intend to record about 10 of my own songs, should be a nice project as Christmas novelty stuff aside, I've not recorded music properly for about 10 years.

Would love to hear what you get done from this. The Christmas songs were great.

Got a cheap Fishman single coil pickup for my acoustic. I haven't tested it yet.

Squinty wrote:

Victor Mistletoe wrote:Bought some new equipment with recording music in mind. Got a small midi keyboard, a posh new Mic stand (my old cheap one broke recently) and some expensive strings for my accoustic.

I intend to record about 10 of my own songs, should be a nice project as Christmas novelty stuff aside, I've not recorded music properly for about 10 years.

Would love to hear what you get done from this. The Christmas songs were great.

Got a cheap Fishman single coil pickup for my acoustic. I haven't tested it yet.

Thank you. I'm so excited to do it, I feel I've got a great bunch of songs now, and even if nobody really hears them, it's an accomplishment to do it.

I've restrung the acoustic and it sounds incredible with these new strings, almost like a 12 string.

I got my fender Princeton amp out of the loft, as I've not used it for about 5 years. Gave it a good clean, and then played my Riviera through it.

It's insane how much better I've got at guitar by just playing that accoustic every day since I got it. My fretting is really fast, but also precise now, whereas I used to hide a lot of my sloppy playing with double stops and open string clangs. I'm zipping up and down the neck playing things I used to struggle with, making few mistakes now.

Oh and while I've written a lot more songs, I've only recorded 1 and a half

I'm hoping this stay-at-home time could be quite a creative patch - I'm aiming to get back to my piano compositions and finish off a set of preludes I've been writing for years. If I can get them finished I'll get the rest of them transcribed and published. A goal like that should help keep my mind off all the other crap.

Uploaded a bunch of wonky rock fusion / experimental / no wave jam stuff over at https://soundcloud.com/tbsbrighton/sets ... x-sessions from last Summer (all one session). Takes me forever to catch up with these things.

Pretty deep into "art rock" territory now I.e. You can play your instruments but half the time are trying to strawberry float around with stuff so much it sounds terrible or you're doing that on purpose to get weird sounds and effects. Or maybe kraut rock. Some of its funk. Some of it's psychedelic. Who cares.

Tl;dr it's jazz rock, listen at your peril. Some of it I'm pretty happy listening to though, it's so cathartic, there's no therapy like zero rules rock drums/bass/guitar/synth.

Kinda sounds like Primus (who I only listened to last year) in places but since not trying to ape another band like 90% of people out there who play in a group there's like 100 influences I can't be arsed to list.

Or, it's what happens when you stop caring or trying to hard. I have the rest of my life do that stuff and it's challenging enough trying to keep my classical repertoire up to par without repeating the same gooseberry fool 1000 times in a limited timeframe after getting people together.

That band has produced hundreds of unique pieces of music over about 13 years now, I like it that way, I can't even remember half of my own material and old riffs/segments/phrases genuinely surprise me years later. Sure, it's only about 10% "good", but it so unusual to listen to it genuinely sends me to sleep some days with laugh out loud moments at just how strawberry floated up and weird stuff gets.

Check it out if you're into weird music. Fwiw I exceeded grade 8 when I was about 16, after a while there's not much left to do than to start breaking down music completely. Reciting and learning songs has never ever interested me on electric.

Anyone have experience buying a digital piano?

Having done a lot of research, I've been suckered in to the Yamaha hype and at the moment I feel like I have to get the YDP-164 Arius.

I would really love something from the Clavinova range, but I simply can't justify the price hike. I can justify the 164 over the 144 because of the enhanced hammer action (I was raised on an acoustic piano).

However, I'm concerned that I'm simply falling for a brand name.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:Anyone have experience buying a digital piano?

Having done a lot of research, I've been suckered in to the Yamaha hype and at the moment I feel like I have to get the YDP-164 Arius.

I would really love something from the Clavinova range, but I simply can't justify the price hike. I can justify the 164 over the 144 because of the enhanced hammer action (I was raised on an acoustic piano).

However, I'm concerned that I'm simply falling for a brand name.

I've been playing digital pianos for years, but more stage pianos than at-home type, and mainly on headphones when not playing for others.

I've played many over the years but I always come back to Roland, but it's got to be down to what feels and sounds good to you.

Currently I have a Roland Fantom X8 (workstation with 88-note proper weighted action), and over the years added expansion cards for better piano/electric piano sounds. But as of November last year, rather than use the Roland sounds I bought the Ravenscroft 275 ios for my ipad, and use the Fantom as just a MIDI controller - the piano sound is so good on the Ravenscroft I can't stop playing it.

For me, the Yamaha action on the pianos I've tried haven't worked for me- I don't seem to be able to control dynamics on it very well- but it really is each to their own and it might suit your playing 'weight' better. From the youtube video review I just looked at it does sound nice!

The difficulty right now is trying them out, and it's a lot of money for taking a 'punt' on one, unless you've already fallen in love with it.

Good luck! If you have any questions I'll try to answer if I can.

Lime wrote:

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:Anyone have experience buying a digital piano?

Having done a lot of research, I've been suckered in to the Yamaha hype and at the moment I feel like I have to get the YDP-164 Arius.

I would really love something from the Clavinova range, but I simply can't justify the price hike. I can justify the 164 over the 144 because of the enhanced hammer action (I was raised on an acoustic piano).

However, I'm concerned that I'm simply falling for a brand name.

I've been playing digital pianos for years, but more stage pianos than at-home type, and mainly on headphones when not playing for others.

I've played many over the years but I always come back to Roland, but it's got to be down to what feels and sounds good to you.

Currently I have a Roland Fantom X8 (workstation with 88-note proper weighted action), and over the years added expansion cards for better piano/electric piano sounds. But as of November last year, rather than use the Roland sounds I bought the Ravenscroft 275 ios for my ipad, and use the Fantom as just a MIDI controller - the piano sound is so good on the Ravenscroft I can't stop playing it.

For me, the Yamaha action on the pianos I've tried haven't worked for me- I don't seem to be able to control dynamics on it very well- but it really is each to their own and it might suit your playing 'weight' better. From the youtube video review I just looked at it does sound nice!

The difficulty right now is trying them out, and it's a lot of money for taking a 'punt' on one, unless you've already fallen in love with it.

Good luck! If you have any questions I'll try to answer if I can.

Thanks Lime – I must be quite an impatient person because in the time since I posted I have actually ordered a piano .

I did a lot more research and I actually ended up going for the Casio PX-870 BK Privia. I really get the impression that it is technically a superior device when compared with the YDP-164 and that the additional cost is brand tax, with Yamaha obviously being one of if not the most premium name in the market.

I'm also telling myself that it'll sort me out for a few years, while I save for a flagship Clavinova .

I did look at Roland briefly – for some reason they just didn't seem to pull me in, which is ridiculous really because everything is marketed in a very similar way and I'm mostly judging off fancy-looking websites and YouTube demonstrations .

I've always had this impression that Casio is a bit cheap and nasty, but from reading up it seems they've done a lot to move on from that image and (hopefully) deservedly so.

Should arrive in a few days! I've not played for about a decade, so it's going to be interesting to see how I get back into it.