I Totally Rule (another Variax thread)

  • Thread starter Thread starter chrisharris
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apl said:
Hey, zacanger, when you get a little older, you'll learn valuable lessons.

For example, it might be smarter to buy something that gets you to 95% of a heap of great gear for about 0.5% of the cost of that heap of gear. And that for some people it's better to have an incredibly wide body of usable tones available than a handful of excellent tones.

And here's the big one, silly child. 99.5% of your audience couldn't tell the difference between an RP-50 and a JCM-2000, so the only one who cares all that much about your tone is your own ego.

Sure, that might be true. I went through a phase about four years ago when I wanted a huge range of tones, but lately I've cared more about the actual quality of the tone than the amount of accessible sounds. Yeah, I know most everyone just hears a guitar and says, 'Hey, guitar,' not 'Hey, that's so obviously an $80 Digitech pedal,' but I care, and I make music for me, not for the uncaring audiences. I guess when you get right down to it, that's the problem here. I make music to please myself, not people who don't give a rat's ass about tone.
 
Great guitarists as just that, great guitarists. They need little to sound great.

There is an interesting story about Ted Nugent once getting to play through EVH's rig. He expected to sound like Eddie, instead he sounded like Ted...

Some years ago I saw Danny Gatton in a small club in DC. It was an absolutely amazing night. He had an old Tele and a Fender amp. It was amazing what he did with that.

Ed
 
Ed Dixon said:
Great guitarists as just that, great guitarists. They need little to sound great.

There is an interesting story about Ted Nugent once getting to play through EVH's rig. He expected to sound like Eddie, instead he sounded like Ted...

Some years ago I saw Danny Gatton in a small club in DC. It was an absolutely amazing night. He had an old Tele and a Fender amp. It was amazing what he did with that.

Ed

Well, yes, of course he sounded like the Nuge. Thing is, Ted uses Eddie's sig amp. And Danny Gatton, amazing guitarist BTW yeah, he's got the Tele and the Fender amp, and both are great pieces of gear, and happen to be actual analog instruments. I'm not talking about expensive V. cheap gear necessarily. I get an amazing tone out of my Epiphone Valve Jr. combo (about $100, I think) and a Daisy Rock guitar that I borrow from my fiancee, believe it or not. It's the classic digital v. analog debate, when you get right down to it, that will never be solved because there will always be those loyal few of us who prefer quality over quantity. See my previous post about playing for me.
 
zacanger said:
Well, yes, of course he sounded like the Nuge. Thing is, Ted uses Eddie's sig amp. And Danny Gatton, amazing guitarist BTW yeah, he's got the Tele and the Fender amp, and both are great pieces of gear, and happen to be actual analog instruments. I'm not talking about expensive V. cheap gear necessarily. I get an amazing tone out of my Epiphone Valve Jr. combo (about $100, I think) and a Daisy Rock guitar that I borrow from my fiancee, believe it or not. It's the classic digital v. analog debate, when you get right down to it, that will never be solved because there will always be those loyal few of us who prefer quality over quantity. See my previous post about playing for me.

is it the butterfly Daisy?....my daughter wants the heart shaped one......
 
Gidge said:
is it the butterfly Daisy?....my daughter wants the heart shaped one......

Haha no, it's the Rock Candy series. Les Paul type of shape. Her name is Zoey. My fiancee also has a gorgeous Schecter S-1 whatsit with a pink flame finish named Haruko. She's on semi-permanent loan to me, since I lent out my main electric, smashed another one, and don't have electronics for my third.
 
zacanger said:
I make music to please myself, not people who don't give a rat's ass about tone.

So do I. And if a song needs three guitar parts, like a Strat through a Deluxe, and a Paul through a stack, and a Casino through an old Vox, I don't mind faking it because it's close enough.

Seriously, it's not your opinions that are annoying, it's your condescending tone. It just rubs us lesser mortals the wrong way.
 
Ah, righto, gotcha. I've always had a problem with that, I guess. I think it comes with being a teenager. I'll try to watch that, though.
 
apl said:
Me, too, but I've gotten a lot better.

Comes with the hair loss :p

Did you see my birthday present? Did you like it? It really is work safe . . . :o
 
Speaking of ways to capture an acoustic guitar, has anyone here ever tried using "quartz"? In theory, it would seem that a small amount of quartz--attached to say the peghead post of the 3d string--would quite accurately respond to whatever vibrations the guitar can make. Wouldn't it? Then it would be a simple matter of wiring the quartz onto your out-jack. Wouldn't it?
 
toyL said:
Speaking of ways to capture an acoustic guitar, has anyone here ever tried using "quartz"? In theory, it would seem that a small amount of quartz--attached to say the peghead post of the 3d string--would quite accurately respond to whatever vibrations the guitar can make. Wouldn't it? Then it would be a simple matter of wiring the quartz onto your out-jack. Wouldn't it?

Doesn't sound much different than a piezo. The key is the sound of an acoustic guitar can't be reduced to a measurement of vibration at a single point on the soundboard. So if you want to design a really good transducer, you have to take that into account.
 
mshilarious said:
Doesn't sound much different than a piezo. The key is the sound of an acoustic guitar can't be reduced to a measurement of vibration at a single point on the soundboard.
Yeh, it would be a piezo (transducer circuit?). I guess the only difference I was getting at is to build it onto a "clip" of sorts that would allow you to find a "sweet-spot" somewhere on the guitar--not necessarily a single point on the soundboard.

mshilarious said:
So if you want to design a really good transducer, you have to take that into account.
 
chrisharris said:
Hi there, horsefucker.

Hi there, guy whose opinion I could suddenly care less about, due to his vulgar intoleance of differing opinions.
 
toyL said:
a piezo... I guess the only difference I was getting at is to build it onto a "clip" of sorts that would allow you to find a "sweet-spot" somewhere on the guitar--not necessarily a single point on the soundboard.
putty works for that. The irony with the common under-saddle piezos is that the sweet spot IME is never under the saddle.

Tim
 
Timothy Lawler said:
putty works for that. The irony with the common under-saddle piezos is that the sweet spot IME is never under the saddle.

Tim

Yeah, it's just that the saddle is convenient for a manufacturer. And the saddle does allow you to do some fun things with individual strings. I recommend at least one element elsewhere though.
 
tc4b said:
Hi there, guy whose opinion I could suddenly care less about, due to his vulgar intoleance of differing opinions.

meh...we're getting closer to a flame, I guess...but it's still pretty lame in here. The dude's name was "MuleFan," c'mon..."horsefucker" was funny.

Don't get me wrong, guys...74 is a decent amount of posts, but I know we can do better.

Hey, here's some kindling for the fire: Last night, I spent :30 minutes recording this:


Supposed to sound like (in order):
1. 12 string
2. dreadnaught
3. banjo
4. mando
5. dobro/slide something hell who knows

THE ONLY effect I used was some verb on the slide...my timing sucks, and I don't even OWN a slide (it's a pocketknife). Anyway, my personal opinion is that each of the sounds by itself is pretty lame and I'd prefer the real deal for recording. But for live stuff, I'd be thrilled with each and every one of these tones. They're all straight from the output jack of the guitar, and I need some of you to upload clips of how your acoustic guitars sound straight from the output jack. Maybe you'll change my mind.
 
tc4b said:
Hi there, guy whose opinion I could suddenly care less about, due to his vulgar intoleance of differing opinions.

By the by...it's "couldn't care less about," not "could care less about." Think about it for a minute...don't just copy what you've heard your whole life...think.
 
SHEPPARDB. said:
Chris,I also rule.My opinion of the line 6 stuff is that it sux.No way would
I spend 1200 on that guitar.

I actually do respect your opinion a ton, and I think you're the real deal. That's why I know you'd change your mind if you played a few shows with this guitar. It's not about "gadgetry" man...it's about reproducing a decent acoustic tone live, which you just cannot do (ironically) with an acoustic guitar.

The arguments against Variax electrics make more sense to me, I guess, from a purist standpoint. I mean, if you cherish the sound of a 1952 Tele through a tube amp, then I can see how you might take offense at some gadget claiming to mimic the sound, but missing... But dude, you cannot tell me that you prefer the sound of a fucking piezo coming out of a really nice acoustic/electric guitar to ANYTHING. Output jacks on acoustic guitars are good for things like tuners and not much else. Don't confuse the instrument with the sound it's SUPPOSED to produce. I prefer the sounds of my acoustic guitars to anything my Vax 700 will ever produce...but I cannot REPRODUCE the sounds of my acoustic guitars live, and you can't either.
 
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