Electric Guitar

My Xmas present to myself!

tada.jpg


I'd been going back and forth for weeks about getting a Jaguar. Kept trying to convince myself I didn't need it, I already have the Jazzmaster, don't have the space for another guitar, etc etc. But it just wouldn't get out of my head. Then after seeing the insane price it was going for from Derringer's, I had to do it!

It arrived yesterday. I've given it a basic setup, new strings, lemon oil on the fretboard (Indian Laurel is DRY!), etc etc. Just been getting to know it.

I was so wrong about it being too similar to the Jazzmaster! It definitely has a character all its own. The Jag pickups are a bit more well-mannered, if that makes sense. The sound is slightly more defined, apparently it's to do with them cages they're in. The JM pickups colour outside the lines a lot more, and generally have a darker sound.

It does this thing where if you briefly palm mute a chord, it'll resonate the strings between the bridge and the trem. That would shit a lot of folks, but I reckon if I can learn to harness it it'll be a really cool thing.

The neck profile is juuuuust right. Not too skinny, not too chunky. The scale length is still throwing me off a bit. It's even shorter than a Les Paul. That'll just be a matter of getting used to it, though.

My plan is to just fook around playing it for a couple of weeks, then give it a more thorough setup once it's settled in a bit ("It's starting to realize it's a guitar," as master luthier Johnny Kinkead puts it).
 
We were out for dinner the other night and on the way home, there was this 4x10 cabinet on the nature strip. I thought, why not, it's worth a shot. Circled back, and took it home. Weighs a ton. It has done the hard yards, with plenty of road worn scars and bar gig beer stains. At home, tested it with a multimeter, all speakers are working and overall impedance good at 8 ohms. Plugged it in and it sounds great. As good, or better than the 15" Seager bin I've been using, maybe a bit tighter and less whoolly, but not much in it.

Had a bit more of a go with it tonight. Really cranked the Warwick, and the new (to me) 4x10 definitely handled the maxed volume better than the Seager bin. No flubbing out, just tight really loud bass. The Seager struggled with the Warwick on 10, but nature strip 4x10 sounded clear, tight and smooth.

The back is sealed, so, when I can be bothered, I'll pull the grill and one speaker to see what drivers they are.

I’m very pleased. I had been planning to build a 1x12 cab using a locally produced Lorantz speaker. I have them in some homemade PA speaker bins and they are awesome. But hey, even though I like building stuff for the satisfaction of the finished product, I’m more than happy to not bother, and go with the freebie 4x10 cab, that may be physically bigger than I wanted, but it has the headroom to accommodate my Warwick bass amp when it’s on 10… so, win win.

Anyway, I'll be able to give my mate back his Seager bin.

Bass Cab 4x10.jpeg
 
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Recently I bought a Zoom R20 16 track recorder, and I am very happy with it... unlike a DAW, I can sit on the couch or back deck, late at night and record guitar, bass and keys, to my hearts content. But its pristine recordings unfortunately showed up the deficiencies of my trusty Zoom G2 guitar multifx. I can't complain about my G2... it has served me well, for home use, recording and live work, but nearly 15 years had passed, and things have improved ... A LOT.

Having researched the crap out of it all... plenty of dudes pointed to the Nux MG30, as the biggest bang for your multifx buck. Artist Guitars have them for $425, so trigger pulled.

I've only had it a few days, so hardly a decent time to evaluate it, but PHARK... it is good. A/B'ed with the G2, it is night and day... like a blanket was lifted off. Look, I'm old and so my go to amps are pretty much the Bassman and Plexi, which are very realistically captured. I had a real Bassman in my music room for over ten years, so I really do know the tone, and the Nux is very authentic... the Plexi is too.

I haven't had a chance yet to tweak my own patches, but have had a minor tweak of some of the excellent default patches, which unlike most multifx of old, are in the main, quite good, and very useable.

Anyway, a new toy... so much to learn, but I think when I get my head around it, it is going to be, very good.




Nux MG30.jpeg
 
NAD … New Amp Day … Artist TweedTone20R

About a month ago, after reading endless countless good reviews about the Artist TweedTone20R 20 watt tube guitar combo amp, I caved and ordered one. It’s not that I don’t already have nice amps, but you know…

It is a 20 watt tube amp, with 3 x 12AX7 preamp tubes and 2 x EL84 output tubes. It has a clean channel and a “drive” channel going into a very effective TMB tone stack, with a shared reverb and a master volume, all feeding into a 12” Celestion Seventy 80 speaker.

Although branded as a Tweedtone, to me the sound is more British, as in Vox, Laney or Marshall. I have a Vox P15R and a Laney VC15 and the Tweedtone sounds similar, but with more bottom end, a bigger presence in the room, is much more tweakable and louder. The 12” speaker and the larger cabinet may contribute to this.

The TMB tone stack which does not seem to be passive to me but appears to be an active stage with high pass, band pass and low pass filters… as in, if all tone controls are set to 0, there is no sound at all, but set to 10, there is a ton of gain for each control. With all tone controls set to 5, the amp has a nice (slightly woolly) full range clean sound, but because the tone controls are so active, it is very easy to tailor your sound to suit the volume you are playing, or the tone you are after, or the room.

The ”drive” channel, does sound quite good… but there is plenty of internet chit chat that claims it is really just the clean channel with a TS or BluesBreaker overdrive circuit built in. I don’t know, as I haven’t seen the schematic or pulled the amp apart to know. But I can get a very similar tone with one of my OD pedals (Dumbler) so, I’m mainly playing it through the clean channel., which also means my looper functions properly.

There is a digital reverb, which is OK if set very low, but it gets way too much if set higher. I’m not a reverb guy anyway, so I just leave it off.

But the thing that sets this amp apart from my Vox or Laney (and a few Blues Juniors and other small amps) that I have played… is the Master Volume. For bedroom playing putting the Master on 5 and the Clean Volume on 1 and the tone is really nice and full. This is a very loud 20 watt amp and to play at drummer levels, just crank the Master Volume to 10, add some Treble & Middle at a bit over 6 so it doesn’t flub out, and set the Clean Volume at 4, and it is loud and still mostly clean. If you dig in really hard it will break up, but I cheat a little and use one of my trusty Boss CS2 Compressors to maintain the clean. Any more on the Clean Volume and the amp is in full on tube overdrive mode, and that is nice too, but that’s not how I use it… preferring the versatility of using pedals to be able to get clean and various levels of overdrives.

Tonight, I A/B’ed the new amp with my Nux MG30 modeller going through my PA. It’s funny, but I must just tweak things the same same… as my tweaked TweedTone sounds very similar to the clean Plexi patch (my favourite) on the MG30. I was well pleased.

I only have two electrics… an LP and a Strat, and they both shine through this amp.

Anyway, I am aware that the honeymoon phase is in full swing, but I think I’ll sell my Laney, keep the Vox as a backup and use the new amp as my main amp. The thing sounds great now, and I imagine the speaker is nowhere near broken in, so it should only get better.

Artist TweedTone 20R.jpeg


Artist TweedTone 20R controls.jpeg
 
Lazmo said:
NAD … New Amp Day … Artist TweedTone20R

About a month ago, after reading endless countless good reviews about the Artist TweedTone20R 20 watt tube guitar combo amp, I caved and ordered one. It’s not that I don’t already have nice amps, but you know…

It is a 20 watt tube amp, with 3 x 12AX7 preamp tubes and 2 x EL84 output tubes. It has a clean channel and a “drive” channel going into a very effective TMB tone stack, with a shared reverb and a master volume, all feeding into a 12” Celestion Seventy 80 speaker.

Although branded as a Tweedtone, to me the sound is more British, as in Vox, Laney or Marshall. I have a Vox P15R and a Laney VC15 and the Tweedtone sounds similar, but with more bottom end, a bigger presence in the room, is much more tweakable and louder. The 12” speaker and the larger cabinet may contribute to this.

The TMB tone stack which does not seem to be passive to me but appears to be an active stage with high pass, band pass and low pass filters… as in, if all tone controls are set to 0, there is no sound at all, but set to 10, there is a ton of gain for each control. With all tone controls set to 5, the amp has a nice (slightly woolly) full range clean sound, but because the tone controls are so active, it is very easy to tailor your sound to suit the volume you are playing, or the tone you are after, or the room.

The ”drive” channel, does sound quite good… but there is plenty of internet chit chat that claims it is really just the clean channel with a TS or BluesBreaker overdrive circuit built in. I don’t know, as I haven’t seen the schematic or pulled the amp apart to know. But I can get a very similar tone with one of my OD pedals (Dumbler) so, I’m mainly playing it through the clean channel., which also means my looper functions properly.

There is a digital reverb, which is OK if set very low, but it gets way too much if set higher. I’m not a reverb guy anyway, so I just leave it off.

But the thing that sets this amp apart from my Vox or Laney (and a few Blues Juniors and other small amps) that I have played… is the Master Volume. For bedroom playing putting the Master on 5 and the Clean Volume on 1 and the tone is really nice and full. This is a very loud 20 watt amp and to play at drummer levels, just crank the Master Volume to 10, add some Treble & Middle at a bit over 6 so it doesn’t flub out, and set the Clean Volume at 4, and it is loud and still mostly clean. If you dig in really hard it will break up, but I cheat a little and use one of my trusty Boss CS2 Compressors to maintain the clean. Any more on the Clean Volume and the amp is in full on tube overdrive mode, and that is nice too, but that’s not how I use it… preferring the versatility of using pedals to be able to get clean and various levels of overdrives.

Tonight, I A/B’ed the new amp with my Nux MG30 modeller going through my PA. It’s funny, but I must just tweak things the same same… as my tweaked TweedTone sounds very similar to the clean Plexi patch (my favourite) on the MG30. I was well pleased.

I only have two electrics… an LP and a Strat, and they both shine through this amp.

Anyway, I am aware that the honeymoon phase is in full swing, but I think I’ll sell my Laney, keep the Vox as a backup and use the new amp as my main amp. The thing sounds great now, and I imagine the speaker is nowhere near broken in, so it should only get better.

View attachment 413638

View attachment 413639
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Still blown away by what you can get for your money from Artist these days. Love my Tele.
 
ashes_mtb said:
Still blown away by what you can get for your money from Artist these days. Love my Tele.
Click to expand...

Yep, Artist Guitars are fantastic.

I put a few mates onto them and they have their Tele's and they are great.

I have an Artist LP59TRB that is amazing (fricken heavy though) and an Artist MiniP 3/4 bass that rocks, and some of their Rough Light cymbals, the hats and an 18" crash ride (used as a ride) that sound every bit as good as my vintage Zildjian A's. I had a few clangers, but their friendly service and 100 day return fixed that.

Artist LP59TRB.JPG
 
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Lazmo said:
Yep, Artist Guitars are fantastic.

I put a few mates onto them and they have their Tele's and they are great.

I have an LP59TRB that is amazing (fricken heavy though) and a MiniP 3/4 bass that rocks, and some of their Rough Light cymbals, the hats and an 18" crash ride (used as a ride) that sound every bit as good as my vintage Zildjian A's. I had a few clangers, but their friendly service and 100 day return fixed that.

View attachment 413641
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That's some nice figuring in the wood.
 
ForkinGreat said:
That's some nice figuring in the wood.
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Yes, in real life it looks amazing.

The Artist LP59TRB guitars are supposed to be black, but I think some of the first batch came as blue... I'm super glad that mine is very blue.

The other plus is the splitable humbuckers actually sound great, and I pretty much always have the neck pickup split as a single coil, and the bridge pickup in humbucker mode. The split neck pickup doesn't get anywhere near strat neck pickup territory, but certainly makes the guitar way more versatile.
 
Both will serve you well. I have a Katana amp and the Boss Waza Air, both are great so the Go should be too. Pacifica guitars have a good reputation. I have a 112j, but I haven't played it yet, still restoring it after finding it at the tip shop.
Go for it. Don't get too bogged down in gear choices yet.
 
Cyclomaniac said:
Go for it. Don't get too bogged down in gear choices yet.
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100%. Focus more on the playing and having fun with it.

One gear thing worth considering though, before you start, is getting the guitar setup. This will often make your guitar journey much more comfortable and easier. The vast bulk of factory produced guitars are setup quite poorly. Even expensive guitars are often terrible. They are made so that they are all sort of playable straight out of the box. So at the shop there are no buzzes, no rattles... but that is at the expense of nut slot height, neck relief, string action saddle adjustment and intonation.

The guitar setup is super critical for a beginning guitarist, as you will be mainly be playing in first position, and a poorly cut nut (nut slots cut too high) will make playing really difficult with the standard open chords. I do my own setups, so not sure of the going rate but I think it is like only a $100 - $150 or so. Totally worth it.

I recently did a setup on a friends sons first guitar, a quite nice looking PRS. It was near impossible to play and sounded choked. The nut slots were over 35 thou, the neck relief was about 15 thou, the 12th fret action was atrociously high and the intonation obviously was way off because of all of those things. It was so bad the top was beginning to arch. I spent a few hours on it, and it now plays like a dream and sounds quite good. He was over the moon.
 
Great advice. Learning the skill is the point

I figured 112 is like my Trek, not fancy but solid and better than me for many years. The Go means no other fandangled doohickeys needed. Only early mod might be Tusq nut.

100% on setup, have been deep-diving on that (the need and the how) and seems pretty straightforward/logical, but makes sense to get it done pro first time (Have repadded/fettled my old tenor sax)
ETA=April unless find used earlier. 🤔

🤣
 
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