gear addiction.

 We musicians all do it. We get the latest  issue of a music magazine in the mail such as "musicians friend" or "amercian musical supply" and we lust after everything we see in it. I am guilty of this as well as the next musician. Yeah it is great to have good reliable equipment but do you really need 50 guitar's? Do you really need to try out every new gadgit that they come up with . It seems like after the "new" wears off of our equipment we want to change it up and once again waste hundreds of our hard to make money on new stuff. This money we are wasting would be much better spent going toward other things that could enhance and maybe even ignite our career. How about spending some money on advertising and promoting your music? This would do much more for your musical career than that new guitar or that funky effect pedal.
     Take Jimi Hendrix for example , back in his day there was no whammy pedals,loopers, ebows, ect..... yet his audience did'nt care. That liked him for his playing, not his equipment. Sure fancy equipment that todays greats all have is nice but guess what ? They get it free through endorsments. Yeah i know it isn't fair that the only  ones that can afford it get it free. If you would trace their career's back to the early days you will see that most of them did'nt have all that . They focused on their songs. This is what gives you a career ,not your equipment. The equipment will come if your career takes off. I guess the point im trying to make here is to not waste so much of your time and money on gear addiction and spend more time learning about the music business and getting a career going.

guitar addiction !

  We have all been there . We all want to start out playing the guitar with the greatest guitar on earth. However our parents think we will abuse it and give up trying to learn so they do not want to spend alot of money on it. So they usually buy us some cheap piece of crap that the guitar salesman talked them into. Don't blame your parents ,they simply don't know any better. A cheap guitar to learn on is o.k. and recommendable if........It is comfortable enough to play properly.To many times people's first guitar is so cheap that it wont hold itself in tune. Other times the action(space between the neck and strings) is so high away from the neck that you can't comfortable hold the strings down without cramping your fingers. This is not only discouraging to the kid tryin to learn but by pushing the string so far to get to the neck you actually stretch the string resulting in a pitch higher than the desired note.  So your guitar's intonation (ability to stay in tune all over the fret board) is way off. This is enough to discourage any kid from sticking with it.
  I had a similar story but i got smart. I saved up some money and went to the pawn shop and traded in my guitar with the added money and got another piece of junk a step up from my last one. I saved some more money and did the same resulting in a little better guitar everytime. After going through 5 or 6 cheap guitars i was able to score a pro guitar within three years of playing. However on the flip side all that bad action did help me to build up strength in my fingers...lol

guitar strings does it matter?

I have used many different brand of guitar strings through the years. I have not been ablt to tell much difference in the feel or sound of them. Of course new strings sound different than old strings. But i can not tell a difference in brand. I have however thought from time to time that different brands lasted longer without breaking . I have used fender strings, slinky,blue steel , and i am currently using XL's . I have stayed with XL's for some time now becouse they are not easily broken. Maybe this is just a coincidence and a testiment to my playing being less aggressive as in my younger days ,who knows. But anyway i have found them to  a good string and hey if its not broke don't fix it. So that is what i plan to continue to use.

my guitar signal chain

The way that i run my equipment is as follows- Guitar straight into wah pedal. From there it goes into a noise reduction pedal with a loop in it. The loop has all of my other pre-amp effect pedal such as compression and e.q.in it from there it goes back into the noise reduction pedal. From there it goes straight into my pre-amp section of my mesa boogie rectoverb then it goes out my effects loop send into another e.q. then into a bbe maximizer and back into the return of the effects loop.  Of course from there it goes to the power amp section of my rectoverb. The signal then comes out of the amp into a THD hotplate(with two e.q. switches) and from there into the speaker. From there it goes into a sm58 microphone and into a mixing console of some kind where the time based effects of added.
 I hope this helps anyone that is trying to figure out a signal  path that works. There is really no rules and you can run things the way you want. However i have found that this approach is the best for me and my equipment.

guitar equipment i soon hope to get.

If you read my post you will know already that my guitar equipment is as follows. Ibanez and jackson guitar morley (steve vai) wah pedal ,boss compressor,e.q.noise reduction pedals mxr e.q. and a bbe maximizer pedal. My amp is a mesa boogie rectoverb and it is used with a THD Hotplate. What i don't yet have but would like to have are, a decemator g-string noise redcution pedal to replace the boss NR-1. The decimator has two independant noise reduction circuits, one to put in front of the amp and one to put in the effects loop.....very nice. I would also like to have a whammy pedal just for those really creative moments. I would also like to have the new joe satriani time machine delay pedal. Yes i know i recommended running time based effects seperate from the amp however this is not always the ideal situation and sometimes convenience can be the winner of the debate....lol

a good guitar mic

There are many things on the market for micing a guitar amp. None used more often than the trusty sm57 shure microphone. It has been used practicaly ever since the electric guitar has been used. It has been on more guitar recordings than any other mic and has become the standard on which all other guitar mics are compared. It is made like a tank ,last forever and allows very large volumes such as a loud guitar cabinet to be used without harming the mic.
  I use one of these mics with my amp. Some people use these mics in combination with other mics. But i have found that it does a good enough job by itself.  Mic placemnet can make a big impact on what the mic picks up. In my mesa boogie rectoverb, it only has one 12 inch speaker so getting the mic placed correctly is important.  If you put the mic in the middle of the speaker you will get a very shrill high cold buzzy type sound -not recommended. If you put it at the edge of the speaker you will have warmth but will be too muddy. I recommend starting with it at the edge of the speaker but then angling it at a 90 degree angle to where it is pointing half way between the edgeand the middle of the speaker this will give you the best representation of what you hear with your ear.

the rectoverb sounds great with any guitar.

If you have read my other blogs you are aware that i own a mesa boogie  rectoverb 50 watt combo amp. This blog is for telling you about the guitars that i use with it. My main guitar is a ibanez prestege rg series from the 1999 ithink. It is maple top rosewood fretboard double locking low profile floating bridge with dimarzio pickups. This guitar is very comfortable and fast with a wizard 2 neck.
  I also have a jackson guitar with a reverse headstock and stop tail piece. with emg pickups. Both guitars sound great with the rectoverb ! I hope to get some vintage instruments in the future to see what they will sound like through it.