The Guitar Thread

[Tom 14012]

The other guitarist in the band picked up this Epiphone Coronet the other day, it has a P90

from a Gibson 330 VOS in it. 

 

Quality piece of gear.

[Blastronaut 1335]

Just discovered this weird lot, albums are all synth and written by one guy. Live they're a full band and have this kid on lead. I'm really digging not just his amazing hybrid picking technique but just how well the synth only album material translates to two guitar and live drums.

 

 

Not the most high-brow of stuff, just good riffs. Takes some serious chops to pull off some of those synth lines on guitar too.

 

 

That's a hell of a rig @Tom.  Just needs a few CRT telly's playing old Commodore Amiga demoscene videos.

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by Blastronaut

[Andrew 4772]

6 hours ago, Blastronaut said:

Thought we had already done this? Sure I remember mentioning Thorpy here before.

 

 

Looks a pretty classy and top quality build, which Thorpy has a good reputation for.  Could be anything though but looks more distortion pedal than another attempt to emulate the Kraken pre-amp section. Can't find a schematic though so hard to say anything for sure. 

 

Only one thing I'd mention is the handful of components that have been left off the board (C1, C6, R6, R18, C19, C27 etc) would make me suspect this could be a modified version of some other ThorpyFX pedal circuit rather than a completely new design. But that's pure speculation. 

 

 

Ah you might be right, from when it was first announced!

 

Well, it sounds good! I haven't really been using my board much recently so I reset the whole thing today, Precision Drive into Kraken into Keeley Caverns works very nicely. Need to do some dialling in because it is a LOUD pedal, in volume not noise.

 

Think the Caverns will be the next thing I look to replace in that chain, I'd like something a bit simpler to have as "always on" reverb though a bit of messing with the Katana tone studio will probably find that in the amp for me. 

[Blastronaut 1335]

1 hour ago, Andrew said:

 

Ah you might be right, from when it was first announced!

 

Well, it sounds good! I haven't really been using my board much recently so I reset the whole thing today, Precision Drive into Kraken into Keeley Caverns works very nicely. Need to do some dialling in because it is a LOUD pedal, in volume not noise.

 

Think the Caverns will be the next thing I look to replace in that chain, I'd like something a bit simpler to have as "always on" reverb though a bit of messing with the Katana tone studio will probably find that in the amp for me. 

 

I might have misremembered. No affiliation but Thorpy's work is usually completely top drawer. Looking at the internals of this there's no cheaping out at all, but like a say the missing components do make me suspect it's an adaptation of another Thorpy circuit rather than something that Victory and him built from the ground up. Could be a modified thorpy pedal dressed up in Victory marketing wank, but again just speculating and not even a bad thing if that's the case.

 

I haven't used the Keeley Caverns but if memory serves its a delay+reverb and both sides function on the old PT2399 chip which I love for it's simplicity but it has some severe limitations. Long story short: for very short delay times it still works really nicely and has a faux-analogue (almost tape style) warmth but at longer delay times the repeats will suffer severe signal degradation and just sound a bit shit.  The madprofessor "Deep Blue Delay" and Keeley Magnetic Echo/delay half of the caverns are basically lifted from the same circuit. 

 

There's a place for those bbd chips but I couldnt recommended them over digital options in good faith.

 

 

[Andrew 4772]

Just now, Blastronaut said:

 

I might have misremembered. No affiliation but Thorpy's work is usually completely top drawer. Looking at the internals of this there's no cheaping out at all, but like a say the missing components do make me suspect it's an adaptation of another Thorpy circuit rather than something that Victory and him built from the ground up. Could be a modified thorpy pedal dressed up in Victory marketing wank, but again just speculating and not even a bad thing if that's the case.

 

I haven't used the Keeley Caverns but if memory serves its a delay+reverb and both sides function on the old PT2399 chip which I love for it's simplicity but it has some severe limitations. Long story short: for very short delay times it still works really nicely and has a faux-analogue (almost tape style) warmth but at longer delay times the repeats will suffer severe signal degradation and just sound a bit shit.  The madprofessor "Deep Blue Delay" and Keeley Magnetic Echo/delay half of the caverns are basically lifted from the same circuit. 

 

There's a place for those bbd chips but I couldnt recommended them over digital options in good faith.

 

 

 

That appraisal of the caverns is bang on, the delay has a charm but its not versatile enough for me and my ever changing whims. I do like the reverb though.

[Blastronaut 1335]

@Andrew the Boss RE-202 might be worth a look if it's not already on your radar. Bit pricey but should do everything the Caverns does (and more) without any of the limitations. 

 

I've yet to try one but looks like a cracking bit of kit.

 

 

[sammynb 3365]

1 hour ago, Blastronaut said:

@Andrew the Boss RE-202 might be worth a look if it's not already on your radar. Bit pricey but should do everything the Caverns does (and more) without any of the limitations. 

 

I've yet to try one but looks like a cracking bit of kit.

 

 

 

I had one of their original 1970s phasers of the same design and the thing was indestrucible; being drunk and playing live I kicked the shite out of it.

[Andrew 4772]

Bloody hell its $900!

 

[Blastronaut 1335]

13 minutes ago, Andrew said:

Bloody hell its $900!

 

 

Christ on a bike. It's £300 here which should be about NZ$600.  Well out of my current budget but honestly looks like boss have really nailed the old Space Echo with DSP.  End game delay pedal for tape-delay fanatics. Looks a little bit more user-friendly for knuckleheads like me compared to the Hazarai Memory Man too.  

 

Maybe in time most of it will appear as a Helix patch (if it hasn't already).

 

Shame they never incorporated a "random failure/disaster" button that emulates the tape slipping or one of the motors burning out and catching fire. On paper seems the only trick they missed.

[Gemmill 44992]

HX Stomp lads. It's the answer to every question.

[Blastronaut 1335]

4 minutes ago, Gemmill said:

HX Stomp lads. It's the answer to every question.

 

I want to agree man, but after a shot of the vst version of the Helix (think they call it Helix Native) and I'm not completely sold. Mainly due to the interface but a few of the old fuzz patches were a bit iffy. Admittedly they were patches of the pedals I'd expect to be a bit iffy. Interface aside, most of it was absolutely bang on the money though. 

 

Is there a Space Echo patch? I went into it with pitchforks looking for faults in the old Ge fuzz stuff and overlooked a lot of the modulation stuff. 

[Andrew 4772]

20 minutes ago, Gemmill said:

HX Stomp lads. It's the answer to every question.

 

 

 

[Blastronaut 1335]

1 hour ago, Andrew said:

 

 

 

 

Fair. Anyone seen the recent Josh Scott fallout over the Digitech Bad Monkey? 

 

His shithousery really adds to the charm. Proper good egg is Josh.

 

 

[Andrew 4772]

Aye its quite funny, I liked Josh anyway but when he revealed that he'd been using a Kemper rather than a "real" amp for about a year on his videos and no one had noticed my respect for the trolling he is capable of skyrocketed

 

 

[Blastronaut 1335]

Aye, either he's played a really long epic troll with that Kemper thing or he's just woke up one morning and felt the overwhelming urge to fuck with the cork sniffing gear snobs that follow him. Either way, great patter.

 

I'll need to confess when I first heard of JHS pedals I just assumed it was the John Hornby Skewes branding again, so my first impression of Josh was "who the fuck is this guy?". Really quite impressive how he's made such a success of his pedal company and channel while his main message has always basically been "you really don't need any of this. It's all in the hands. Practice more". 

[sammynb 3365]

22 hours ago, Andrew said:

Bloody hell its $900!

 

 

About 600 Australian pesos if that's any better.

https://www.worldofmusic.com.au/effects/boss-re-202-space-echo/

Edited March 23, 2023 by sammynb

[Blastronaut 1335]

Sorry @Tom. Hate to admit it but some pedals might be worth £300 after all (ah fuck, I don't even recognise myself here).

 

Not that I'm ever paying that like, I'm still being a miserly prick and dragging the arse out of looking for a new cab. The locally listed1912 has had no takers and the asking price has dropped but I'm still preferring the look of the  HB V30. Only thing stopping me is the thought I could save £40 by holding off another week or so (there we go, Im back to myself again).

[spongebob toonpants 3997]

 

[sammynb 3365]

One less acoustic guitar makes the world a better place.

[Tom 14012]

On 23/03/2023 at 00:34, Andrew said:

Aye its quite funny, I liked Josh anyway but when he revealed that he'd been using a Kemper rather than a "real" amp for about a year on his videos and no one had noticed my respect for the trolling he is capable of skyrocketed

 

 

My band mate recommended the JHS Milkman as a pedal to get that suits I style. 
 

JHS have a helix/Kemper  patch of it on their website for free & it’s bang on  

[Blastronaut 1335]

@Tom £150 including shipping (from the other side of the world) for a Dr Robert clone if yer other guitar player is still looking at them.

 

https://reverb.com/item/65865711?utm_source=android-app&utm_medium=android-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=65865711

[Tom 14012]

He bought one of these in the end and it sounds comically good.  

 

Pretty much nails the revolver sound, I’m not sure what he paid for it like but it’s pretty much exactly what he was after.

 

 

 

[Blastronaut 1335]

I wouldn't be surprised if that's actually exactly the same circuit just from looking at the controls. Just with smd components to get it to fit in the small enclosure.

[Tom 14012]

Yeh I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a clone of some kind. It’s pretty much spot on.

 

Personally I’m not wanting to bother with any further pedals at least for the time being.

 

Ive completely reset the Helix and will be using patches out of necessity going forward, so when I need a specific chorus/delay/FX I can get it no bother 

[Blastronaut 1335]

Yeah I get it. Since I'm currently without a speaker cabinet I've found myself mostly just plugging into my laptop and using vst amps when I'm messing about. Pedalboard is only get used when I'm testing stuff I've built. 

 

On a sidenote, I just discovered how easy it to use an android device as a midi controller. Feel like an absolute moron to have only just thought about it now.