Tilted fisH

glub glub, AaCK!

Sound Treatment

I’ve had these foam sound blocks sitting around forever. I never hung them because it would have left several holes in the wall after removing them for cleaning a few times. So I finally had the idea to mount them on removable frames. It was a self-proclaimed moment of brilliance because not only does the foam work to tame the high frequencies, an air-pocket is created that is good for trapping bass frequencies.

I A/B’d them by putting up just the right side. Huge difference. After getting both up, I discovered that the bass was being swallowed, which is the exact opposite I expected. Bass is super clear and I can easily hear adjustments on the lower end.

Materials
Frames
Hanging wires, picture style
Strategic placement

New Chair

It’s a gaming chair which doubles as a mixing chair. Therefore, it’s music related.
It’s awesome!

Thank you over-hyped-stolen-holiday-capitalistic-first-world-privileged-frenzied-consumer-conditioned-impulse for the great price reduction. Otherwise known as cyber…black…some day of the week? Isn’t there a green something or other now? I forget. Or maybe I just don’t care. Yeah, that.

I’m in a mood

The SG is Back

You know how your car drives better after you wash it? Well, that’s exactly what happens when you replace the tuners, electrical, pickup, and knobs on your guitar. This thing has never felt so good. I went from a Seymour Duncan Fat Cat true P90 to a DiMarzio Tone Zone humbucker. To give you an idea of the Tone Zones tone, it’s listed as 8.5 bass, 8.5 mid, 5 highs, and 17.31 K on the windings. That’s one fat pickup, and it sounds exactly like I want. I installed it with the intention of upgrading someday, but I’m not so sure now. It makes a bridge pickup sound like a neck pickup, but retain the bite. Fuck yeah! The switch toggles between traditional series wiring and parallel. The parallel has a thinner, more single coil sound while still bucking the hum. It’ll be good for the whaca whaca funky parts.

I did try a linear pot on the tone knob. Mistake. Someday I’ll change it to a logarithmic pot.

Dropping the tone all the way back and pumping through a fuzz is sweetly brutal. It warms all my fuzzies.

Removing the machine heads
Before.. after! Notice the locking mechanism on the shiny one.
New guts. All solid wire, no stranded here. So much easier to work with.
What a presentation. I should organize… or not.
The P90. It’s perty, but noisy.
The original guts. Pots were going.
No guts.

The Amp Is Down, and Cool Bass Stuff

In my quest for the ultimate chunky tone for the guitar, I got greedy and over did it. I bought these power tubes that were rated for a lower volume so I could pump more signal into them, and in result, drive them guys into breakup. One day, while fearlessly turning that volume knob up and loving the grunt of it all, the amp dropped its volume for a second, then came back up. Now whenever I turn up the volume with the gain all the way down, it produces a terrible noise. I await a pair of power tubes that are rated for longevity and have good tone. I will be taking it into the pros for a repair.

I put my valve boost back on the bass and during my knob fiddling, I found a great sound. Just as an overdrive works, when I dig in, breakup happens. This being a bass, the breakup scared me. It sounded just like my speaker was blown out. So much so, I ran it through the trouble shooting paces. Nope, speaker is fine. This is the sound I want. It also supports my idea that bass should be played without compression. It’s not a tool anymore, it’s an instrument. However, I may put a transparent compressor with a very high threshold to keep them crazy woofs from dominating too much.

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