Gearhead

[ticky]

Hey Mike??

Umm.. just wondering,, what up with the pentagram and the beer bottles on Mile's easel?? *G* something you wanna share with us?

[MikeA]

Hey Mike??

Umm.. just wondering,, what up with the pentagram and the beer bottles on Mile's easel?? *G* something you wanna share with us?

He's EVIL!!!!

You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you. His dad brews beet as a hobby. Miles fills the bottles with marbles and also, with bead necklesses that are piled up in that tray on the chalkboard.

Miles learned shapes when he was not much over a year old. He knew triangle. He knew circle, square, rectangle, ball, box and star too.

I was showing him he could make a star out of two triangles.

[ticky]

He's EVIL!!!!

You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you. His dad brews beet as a hobby. Miles fills the bottles with marbles and also, with bead necklesses that are piled up in that tray on the chalkboard.

Miles learned shapes when he was not much over a year old. He knew triangle. He knew circle, square, rectangle, ball, box and star too.

I was showing him he could make a star out of two triangles.

"Okay Miles, draw Grandpa a BIG circle! Good.. now put a Star in the middle! GOOD boy! now Call Satan!!"

hehehehehehe

[MikeA]

"Okay Miles, draw Grandpa a BIG circle! Good.. now put a Star in the middle! GOOD boy! now Call Satan!!"

hehehehehehe

Almost....however it should be:

Draw a Big Circle
Put a Star in the Middle
Take a pull off of a Beer
Then call Satan!

Though why he'd want to call Don Felder, I don't know?

[MikeA]

I've been watching eBay like a hawk while trying to convince myself that first, I needed a new amp and secondly, if I got one, what would it be?

I made that final decision last Friday and ordered the Vox AD30VT Valvetronix amp. It's a hybrid that has a Solid State Pre-Amp section and a Tube Power Amp Section. Amazing sound. I'd "auditioned" it at a local guitar shop.

I ordered it from a dealer in San Diego called "Music Power". Gosh, I can hardly help but recommend them if you have any music "hardware" needs. The amp was a full $50 less there than anywhere else I checked. It was packed with air bags and arrived in perfect condition. The box appears to have never been opened and the amp, when removed, shows ZERO signs of wear (like a refurbished one would show).

With ELEVEN different amp models to chose (twelve if you bypass all of them and just use the VOX sound) and with ELEVEN different effects like Chorus, Flange, Reverb and Compression and WAH-WAH....the potential for sound is pretty amazing in an amp this inexpensive.

One of the big problems with Tube amps is that to get the full saturation of sound you really have to crank up the volume to run the tubes at full effectiveness. That's not the case with this particular VOX. It has a little knob in the back called an attentuator that cuts the power down from it's rated 30 watts to as low as like .6 watts so that you can crank the two volume knobs (master and channel) all the way up to saturate the tube. You can get the "sweet sounds" at low volumes!

I have had very little time to play with the amp. Work you know <sigh>. But it's sitting there all pretty and even turned off, it's LOUD. I can hear it hollering at me "COME PLAY ME N O W !!!!"

[ticky]

I wasnt sure where else this might go, so Im putting it here. A friend of mine who teaches guitar, banged out the chords for Comin Down by Joe Walsh for me. It's really simple and SUCH a beautiful song.

She said the strum was off but I just use my own pattern anyway.

Comin’ Down
By: Joe Walsh (Fingerpick chords, thumb (bass note) then 1st, 2nd, 3rd fingers on 1st, 2nd and 3rd strings)

Em D C C
Coming down, coming round to see ya

G G D
To see if maybe you know who I am

Em D C C
Coming down coming round to see ya

G G/D
Me again



Em D C C
I’m coming down, coming round to see ya

G G D
To see if maybe you know who I am

Em D C
Coming down, coming round to see ya

G
Me again

*C chord with 1st finger lifted (fingerpicking) 5th and 2nd strings together, then 3rd, 4th, 3rd, repeat; hold down B note on 5th string (2nd fret) and play 5th and 2nd strings together then 3rd 4th, 3rd (open), repeat, hold down C note on 2nd string (1st fret) E note on 4th string (2nd fret) and play 5th and 2nd strings, 3rd, 4th, 3rd repeat and play same fingerpicking style but include the 6th string (open); and (*)repeat from beginning.

[MikeA]

It's Tricky Ticky, getting those chords lined up over the lyrics.

[MikeA]

Another "gear" conundrum.

I've been recording some guitar stuff through my sound card's "line-in" straight from the amp and also, some mic'd into the microphone input on the sound card.

Neither is at all satisfactory. Not only does it not sound like what was coming out of my amp, but in addition, it is seriously "peaking" over the maximum recording levels causing both clipping and also unwanted distortion. It is heavily balanced to saturating the entire recording with bass.

It's the sound card. This much I know for fact.

The question is, what have any of you done to overcome this? It seems that there are two methods. The first is to get a sound card that really has the design in it to handling recording. Garden Variety sound cards do wonderfully for playback, but simply are not designed for serious recording. The input works fine for speech in audio chats, but definitely not hi-fi enough for musical capture. Do you have a recommendation for any specific sound cards that will not break the bank? I saw one by M-Audio that was around $200.00.

The other option might be a an audio interface device. These are, in effect, devices that handle all of the audio and completely bypass the sound card. The plug into the USB ports typically and some of them have really good reviews. I'm leaning in that direction for two reasons.

First is that some of these interfaces are well below that $200 price tag of the M-Audio card. Yamaha makes a device called Audiogram. They make two of them, a 6-input one and a 3-input one. The three-input device would serve my needs adequately if it really does what it is supposed to do! The bad thing is that I can't find a real "review" on it anywhere. That really surprised me when I couldn't find one on Harmony Central! They review EVERYTHING there. Maybe this device is just too new.

The other reason to give consideration to the Interface device is that it makes portable recording possible. That just means that I can use it on my desktop with my amp or take it along with my notebook computer and just plug straight into it and record "on-the-go".

Any ideas or recommendations? I'm not Joe Walsh and never will be, but I do enjoy playing around with these toys and the ability to "show" someone how to do something on guitar with a recording is a bit of fun too. In addition, a friend of mine is getting "plugged in" and we were talking about exchanging compositions and adding our parts to it. I believe the Eagles did something like that with "The Long Run" when Glenn "mailed" his parts in to have them mixed in with what the others had done in the studio.

[Maleah]

So I've been thinking about getting a new acoustic/electric at some point here. Does anybody know what model of Takamine Don plays? You know....the "who's guitar is this?" guitar. I looked for it on the Takamine website and the only one I can find with the cutaway and color is this one... http://www.takamine.com/?fa=detail&mid=2036&sid=525

However, when I clicked the "buy now" out of curiosity to find the price....the first (and only) site I clicked on had it for $250. Now...there's just no way that Don plays a $250 acoustic/electric! lol ...........right? lol!

[ticky]

OO OOO OOO!! Maleah!!! Don and I play the same guitar!! well except his is proly a lot fancier then mine and I know his is an electric accoustic and his is brown, but it's a Tak G-series concert cut away. It's very pretty and has amazing tone. If you're like me and not a long armed, long fingered person, the smaller concert size is perfect to hold. It fits! Mine has a red finish and Don's had a brown finish and I can tell you I paid about $230.00 for it. The electric acoustic's are a bit more. As far as electric guitars, Im not sure what Don would normally play, but I have seen him play fenders and Gibson Les Paul's, which is also one of the guitars Glenn and Joe play. (Tim usually plays a carvin bass)
this is mine..