Let's see your guitar and bass gear!

Local retailer has this unit gathering dust. She's offered it to me for cost, and the timing couldn't be worse. 
 

Time will tell. 

Over the past few weeks, I noticed that my kick drum on my OG Yamaha Stage Custom kit has both started to sound and play like hot garbage. That got me thinking, when was the last time I actually replaced the batter head? I know I replaced the resonant head at least twice since I brought home the kit in late 1995: First with an OEM solid Yamaha head with a muffling ring, and second with an Aquarian muffled resonant head with the porthole while my band was recording its last EP back in 2005. But the batter head? It's an Aquarian Super Kick hat had been on there since around 1998! Maybe it was time to change it. 





Yeah, I'd say this one is cooked. Back when I bought it, Aquarian made only one Super Kick head: a single ply with a muffling ring. Fast forward to today, and they make about 10 different variations, from single ply clear to extra thick 2-ply coated with a variety of muffling ring sizes. I've had it on there so long that the center pad I used was for a single pedal. I've been playing with a double pedal since before the turn of the millennium. This time around, I opted to try a Super Kick II. 



This one is a hydraulic-filled 2-ply with a muffling ring. I added the double kick pad to save the head a bit; always a good choice. I used one of these on my old Sonor practice kit I used to have when they came out with the Super Kick II, and it worked wonders. The best part: I can finally for the first time in all the years I've had this kit play the drum wide open. I would have to stuff towels and blankets in there to achieve a halfway-decent sound. Now, it just does the thing. I still need to swap out my beaters for some new ones, but this is a big improvement. I played for 2+hrs over the weekend and it felt and sounded fantastic. 

Does anyone have and recommendations for guitar hangers? I tend to keep my non-daily guitars in the basement due to constant-ish temperature down there and all that, and I probably want to take them out of their cases and hang them up on the wall for both aesthetic reasons and just in case we have another flooding incident.

The good news is that the water from the plumbing leak didn't get to where I stored the guitars, but it still got within 1-2 feet of them. Fortunately they all seem to have escaped unscathed, especially the three I care most about.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

I've been using these. No issues. They do what they're supposed to. There are cheaper Chinese ones that look like they'd be just as good, but it's worth a couple extra bucks to me to have the comfort of USA made ones.

I also have them screwed into wall studs. Would probably be fine to use drywall mounts, but I'd rather not take the chance with nice guitars.

In reply to Beer Baron 🍺 :

Thanks, I'll get one or two of them to try them out. And yes, I'll make sure to screw them into the studs, at least for the guitars I like having.

Finally got my hands on one of these, they are pretty hard to find in the USA. Cool as hell fuzz with a great gate on it. Looks pretty cool too

Not really a gear post, but I got around to hanging up a sign I got for Xmas:



I'm really digging it! Really feel lucky to have this space, and I need to spend more time up there. 

Once I get some more time, I need to reconfigure my music space a bit and decorate the space more. I have some more artwork/photos to hang on the stairs and a bunch of old skateboard stuff that doubles as art to hang in the space. 

I also need to get a new portable AC unit before it gets hot. The one I have for up there is dead, unfortunately. One of the last things we did to the house was install a proper water drain and exhaust pipe for the portable AC, which is going to help with that. Temps have been in the low 50's up there all winter, but it hit triple digits during the hotter summer days last year. I don't mind playing in the heat, but I want to keep the instruments from getting ruined. 

Another thing I've been waffling back and forth on: I have most of my old Gibraltar drum rack system (as seen on the stairs). It's nothing major: just a straight front bar with two cymbal arms. Since I'm not gigging anymore, I may utilize that again and possibly expand it with a side rack for my floating "floor" toms. I did clean it up last year when I pulled it from storage, but I may need to get some hardware for it to be functional again. 

BoxheadTim said:

Does anyone have and recommendations for guitar hangers? I tend to keep my non-daily guitars in the basement due to constant-ish temperature down there and all that, and I probably want to take them out of their cases and hang them up on the wall for both aesthetic reasons and just in case we have another flooding incident.

The good news is that the water from the plumbing leak didn't get to where I stored the guitars, but it still got within 1-2 feet of them. Fortunately they all seem to have escaped unscathed, especially the three I care most about.

I have a Hercules that hasn't dropped a guitar yet in the last 7 or 8 years it has been in use. I remember looking at all of them and trying to find the best value before deciding that getting what appeared to be the best/safest option was the best value when I'd have $3,000 hanging off of it. 

Got a new Korg keyboard. It was deeply discounted as open box. Listed as having scratches and dents, but appears to be completely brand new condition. Just the box it came in got beat up.

Beer Baron 🍺 said:

Got a new Korg keyboard. It was deeply discounted as open box. Listed as having scratches and dents, but appears to be completely brand new condition. Just the box it came in got beat up.

Good deals on gear are always a good idea!

I have been pondering a ES330 for quite some time.   Then I saw that the gibson store has a ebony one that is a gibson store exclusive.   So much want. . . .   Maybe a 60th b day present to my self?  We will see.  My wife said ok when I mentioned it.  Maybe because it is not a car???  LOL

This is the 330 I am eyeing.  
 

In reply to dean1484 :

Pretty!

In reply to dean1484 :

Nice! P90s are best too 

Do I just need different pickups?

Been playing with a band again and seeing some limitations in my se245 singlecut. Its all stock humbucker electronics other than a string change to 1042s. I've always played various lps before I sold them all off about 10yrs ago and have a very specific sound I like (and have enough recordings to be able to double check memory!)

The neck pickup sounds perfect and warm, if a little bassy but that seems normal. Switch to the bridge and it just seems dark. Darker than the neck maybe a little lower output.  This seems odd. I want it brighter and a little hotter. It seems less hot than the neck even w same pot settings. Nothing seems off with the wiring, all pots seem to check out. Next step was to direct wire the bridge and see if another 500k or a 1M pot swap will do it. Though that seems weird to do as well. 
 

Likely asking too much of a fairly cheap guitar, but sure beats the buckets of money on recreating my lp collection to play in basements. 
 

help

In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :

Pickups can be a real rabbit hole depending on the sound you're going after.

Maybe try setting the amp a bit brighter and with more gain to get the tone you want out of the bridge pickup, then turn the volume and tone knobs of the neck pickup down a bit to get the previous tone. 

In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :

How's the pickup height looking? Depending on how much hotter and brighter you might get away with just that 

My BFG was like that too weirdly, the p90 in the neck was perfect, but the bridge pickup was quieter and much thinner. Replaced it with a Bareknuckle P90 Warpig

Messed my modeling amp and the borrowed twin reverb, neither with good luck. Pickup height is a good call, definitely have not checked  

In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :

It can do a lot , and I have yet to run into a cheaper guitar that had them adjusted properly, or at least properly for me.

Also don't look down on it too hard for not being a Gibby, nowadays pretty much anything over $250 is a gigable guitar. My main guitar for Interstellar Sledgehammer is a $175 guitar with badass features ( it's basically an LP style, p-90 in the neck, HB in the bridge and it's a semi hollow without f holes so it weighs a little over 5lbs. Insanely hard to get another or I'd have several)

Thanks. My 2nd fav lp was an Epi amazingly. Was just one of the good ones. 

In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :

Epi absolutely makes some great ones.

I have a Epi Standard just like that, apparently it was made in the Edwards factory because they needed more than they could make in their other factories.

I once had another guitarist offer me his white actual Gibby LP Custom and he added 1k cash to the offer for it when I said no. Still said no because I love that guitar.

The sound was pretty distinctive and I used it for that previous band almost exclusively, so I purposely didn't use it for the Sledgehammer. I haven't played it in awhile too, I really should bring it out again ....

My dad is coming down this weekend, he's bringing me a Vox Kensington bass amp. I told him to bring me a bass guitar as well since I only have guitars. 

In reply to z31maniac :

You can play guitar through a bass amp, just not vice versa.

But you should have a bass, anyway.

Beer Baron 🍺 said:

In reply to z31maniac :

You can play guitar through a bass amp, just not vice versa.

But you should have a bass, anyway.

One of the best bass amps in the world is a JCM800. See also: any Mesa Rectifier. 

Beer Baron 🍺 said:

In reply to z31maniac :

You can play guitar through a bass amp, just not vice versa.

But you should have a bass, anyway.

You can play thru a guitar amp, but your speakers should be bass speakers if you don't want to blow them up.

The guitar amp itself will pass signal totally fine, but the eq will be set not ideally for bass, it'll usually roll off after about 100hz