Gear chat follow up with manXcat

Originally Posted by: manXcat

Originally Posted by: William MG

You’ve put a lot into this manXcat. I wish I hadn’t removed my post. You see, after reconsidering, I felt there was no gain in being contrarian with a gentleman such as yourself.

[br]But I always appreciate a good talk on gear. I like learning about it, messing with it etc. For me, it’s part of the fun.

[p]

[br]No problem either way William MG. I didn't take what you said negatively. Fortunately we seem to be people who can express views and indulge in discussion enjoyably without egos driving the bus to umbrage at the fact.

[br]You're thoughtful in what you say, clearly love your gear and are enthusiastic about guitar and Guitar Tricks. All good stuff beneficial to our micro community.

[br]I get your fascination with tech and gear. I do too to a point. I think it's a fairly common susceptibility in the world of materialistic temptation today.

[br]I realised pretty quickly when I steered briefly in that direction early on, that that wasn't where I wanted either my energy or primary focus to be right now. I'm usually fairly good with high tech and complex, but in my case, whilst I could comprehend the manuals quickly and easily enough, certainly felt overwhelmed in applying it all practically - understatement. o.O

[br]I'm assimilating it on the journey, gradually, savouring each 'mouthful'. After my initial flurry with 'pedaldom', I think I realised I needed to venture further down the experience first track than end up with lots of stuff I had no immediate need or use for, or might not later.

[br]But, if it brings you pleasure adding to making the guitar journey fun for you as apparently it does, and you can obviously afford it, more power to you I say.

[br]I wasn't aware of the VOX MV50. Just to clarify is yours actually the MV50 Clean version?

[br]VOX head into the Peavy 4x12 cab.That sounds like a very tasty setup. Good neighbours have we?!!

[br]Very fortunately I do too at the moment. I spoke with my nearest this morning just to make sure all was OK with my "Sunshine Of Your Love" & "Cocaine" racket over and over and over of late. He and his wife own and run the local bakery - in a small coastal regional holiday town, so he's up very early AM and comes home to sleep at varying hours mid-morning. I think my expressed concern and offer to shift practise times to accomodate him or compromise if it was in any way a nuisance hit a right note.

[br]And to panu.rantanen. Nice to meet you, but also my apology. Didn't mean to hijack your thread. Forgive me, us if you would please?

[br]

I wanted to answer your question manXcat but felt our conversation was moving Panu's thread away from his original intention.

And yes, we are clearly on the same wave length in terms of social interaction. We seem to live in a time when too many have polarized themselves and forgotten that we can disagree without being "disagreeable".

But on to your question: Yes I have the clean version of the little Vox. It is an amazing little amp. Contains something called a "Nutube", which provides for some level of breakup in the amp. It actually does work. It is rated at 50 watts but this is at 4 ohms. The cab I am running it into is wired at 8 ohms. So I have to move the switch to 8 ohms which gives me an effective 25 watts. The amp itself is switchable between 4,8 and 16 ohms.

But at it's current setting and configuration it is plenty loud. In my home I can only get as high as 1/2 volume at 1/2 gain. I am currently playing with a new to me Epiphone LP Standard I recently purchased off the local swap and these volume/gain settings are with the guitar volumes set to max on either rhythm or lead. Beyond that it really gets silly. So a typical play session would have a jam track running from my phone into another amp - last night I tried running the the jam track through a little Vox VT15, but it proved hopeless. So I had to turn down the MV50. However, if I run the jam track through our Peavey TNT 115 or another big Peavey bass amp (100 watts at 2 ohms) I have no issue. But wow this is getting loud and I cannot do this with anyone in the house wanting to watch tv or just have peace and quite.

My son and his band will hopefully have some outdoor gigs this summer (they usually do) and I would be interested in hearing it out of doors just to hear what it is capable of. It would be an experiment more than a practical application as the band has there own setup and that really cant be messed with.

Same, hence my mention of it too. As GT has no PM feature, good idea to create a new thread here if you wanted to respond.

On the subject of gear, here's a new different more recent review and play demo not previously available you might be interested in I just linked to my Harley Benton SC Custom description section on Flickr. I think it better describes and demonstrates the guitar and tone of the Roswell pickups. On the tablet right now, so can't cut and paste a timed link. Play demo starts at 4min 07sec. I'll edit the above hotlink link from the PC tomorrow to reflect that.

Update 0849K 29052019: Hotlink edited to timed.

haha you jumped in ahead of me as I was editing. I have to learn to create my post on a word document first and then post when I am happy with it. I can tend to run on when I get interested in something and my posts can become novels and i have to go back and remove too much information. I think this is typical for an INTJ, we love detail.

Will check out your link when able.

Originally Posted by:

On the subject of gear, here's a new different more recent review and play demo not previously available you might be interested in I just linked to my Harley Benton SC Custom description section on Flickr. I think it better describes and demonstrates the guitar and tone of the Roswell pickups. On the tablet right now, so can't cut and paste a timed link. Play demo starts at 4min 07sec. I'll edit the above hotlink link from the PC tomorrow to reflect that.

Update 0849K 29052019: Hotlink edited to timed.

Oh my gosh that man can play! I did look online, seems the only way a Canadian can make a purchase is through eBay and the pricing is high, no doubt middle man upon middle man. However, if the brand does make it reasonable (in my mind Epiphone or Squire priced) I would be happy to make a purchase.

I am watching with interest, the transition of Gibson. Not quite sure yet based on Troglodytes reviews. I have no problem buying a “name”. But I do have a problem buying a name that is priced many multiples of an off shore and having quality issues.

Yes, he sure can.

Jonathon is a professional studio musician, and has also worked in stage bands and as a stand in supporting them stage when he was younger AFAIK. Intelligent, mature with a pleasant demeanour. Very active of recent, his channel is always interesting. His and Jack Thammarat's are my two favourite You Tube guitarist channels.

I really appreciate my Harley Benton SC Custom. I'm definitely an early adopter, interminably inquisitive, and no label snob. You might have noted the B stock Lemon Flame one Jonathon demoed was Made in China with an ROHS decal attached to the back of the headstock, and had a Jatoba fingerboard. These indicate it to me to be more recent production than mine. The pickups were the identical Roswell LAFs though. All the Roswells are made in China TMK.

Re the origin. I suspect either the Chinese manufaturer has come back with an offer, or perhaps the volume now demanded required an additional supply source. Either way, we're the winners. The production quality of mine Made in Vietnam was better than the previous Chinese origin ones. Stunning build quality and finish. I hope Harley Benton are going over to Jatoba on all models now instead of Blackwood and 'Roseacer' where they were using them after the CITES edict shut down practical mass export of instruments with Rosewood fingerboards.

I did it again :) lol

Got talking to my son in the middle of an edit!

INTJ

Ahhh, interesting. I now use a reasonably priced service “16 Personalities” for prospective employees. It’s been very good. Everyone gets tested, I need to know deep rooted motivation.

Intetested in the change or cross over between introversion and extroversion. It may have been misread. I really don’t think it possible to change, however INTJs are very good at adapting.

Typically an INTJ (such as yours truly) has little interest, therefore energy, in anything outside the individuals scope of interest. Interest can be and should be interpreted as personal gain (edit gain, maybe be structured). It is this aspect that can be interpreted incorrectly by some, as a good INTJ will manipulate circumstances to their advantage whenever possible.

Too bad you're a pond away William MG.

Originally Posted by: William MGseems the only way a Canadian can make a purchase is through eBay and the pricing is high, no doubt middle man upon middle man.

I sourced mine directly from Thomann DE. CA is a pond or two closer to DE than AU, and Americans have no problem importing from them. Is there some kind of CA import restriction you're aware of I'm not?

Thomann DE (CA configured locale and currency link) are great to deal with. They do all the paperwork. Three or four days from time of order due time zone differential and including a couple of inexpensive phone calls to sort other questions re some other stuff I was importing with the guitar to maximize amortization of shipping, process and pack. Once shipped the [u]large[/u] bundle took about ten days in transit to me AFAIR. And it had to process through an AU capital city entry port first, SYD or might even have been MEL, about 1400km and 2100km south of me, considerably more in road miles. I live regional beside the Coral Sea these days.

Copy your points on Gibson/Epiphone and kinda' concur. Though still overpriced IMV, their product prices in the US are far more amenable than here. I don't even bother to look at those brands in AU. Their ridiculous regionalised pricing is loaded to max grudge buy resistance by the respective single importation channel distros. Fender do the same here with Fender and Squier brands, so I treat them with the same contempt. Both brands block direct access to buying through retail internationally.

No one really minds a minor fair impost, but gouging doesn't fly with me. I'm fair minded and understand they're running a business, but business is business, so so am I. The 'business' of looking after my interest not theirs. Yamaha also region block, but with a major difference. Their prices here are commensurate with prices everywhere else in the world. Similarly with Cort who manufacture for Epiphone and almost everyone else anyway. In my book, both Yamaha and Cort make a superior product at any price point in any case if one examines the evidence without brand bias. Fender and Gibson both trade on past laurels of the name and the perception tradition somehow infuses the brand with an elusive je ne sais quoi which I suppose works for them appealing to emotive driven right brainers.

I had a Japanese made Ibanez SG clone back in '74. Built and finished with the typical Japanese penchant for perfection in all they do. Still happy to break with tradition.

Here's a pic my latest electric axe. There's a saga attached to it, although I'll save that for another time ...perhaps.

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Originally Posted by: manXcat

Too bad you're a pond away William MG.

Im with you!

Not sure what happened to my earlier response but it seems not to have taken.

I know of no restrictions to the import of the Thomann product to Canada. Might be just market interest type thing right now.

The Coral Sea sounds like a wonderful place to live, I am on the East Coast on the Atlantic. It aint so nice!

Re GIbson and Fender, yup, the market determines price and these makes seem to have a demand for the branding. I would like to have either name on a head stock but not right now. Maybe some day.

That Pacifica is a black beauty! I have a Pacifica in Seafoam and also a Yamaha BB series bass. Pretty hard to beat them for the price. Both have been on stage with my son's band and the kids don't have a problem with the name on the headstock. The kids live in Epi and Squire land like most kids and actually if a young person shows up at a gig with a name brand it kind of looks out of place. But there is a turning point, seems when the musicians get past the teen years they are more aware of the headstock. And that's cool with me, whatever puts gas in tank.

Been to CA a number of times and seen a lot of it from the air. What seems an aeon ago now, I did oceanic (air) ferrying for a time. Based out of the US, and we used to use either St John's in Newfoundland or Halifax if the weather was unsuitable in St John's as jumping off points for staging through either the Azores or Reykjavik. But got to see other places in CA too as we would have to stop in Moncton to see the Canadian TCAA for permits or paperwork if /as required (civil aviation bureacracies in every country except perhaps the USA forever changing their names, I can't for the life of me remember the Canadian one back then) or other places due either horrendous weather or for refuelling. Not so much the cold I recall as that biting Newfoundland Atlantic Coast gale on an open tarmac, even in July! The coast adjacent the Coral Sea here is a mite milder.

Yamaha don't do Seafoam any more TMK (?), although I am given to understand they did many years ago on early model Pacificas. I like it. Cort do a similar shade they label Carribean Green, presumably to avoid risk of Fender contesting them over the nomenclature I suspect. I like it. People often mistake/mislabel Yamaha's current Sonic Blue Pacifica for Seafoam. I also have a Pacifica in Sonic Blue with Rosewood fingerboard and satin Maple headstock. A very vintage colour, now vogue again. Drop dead gorgeous colour.

I laboured over the decision as the 612VII is the flagship of their HSS + vibrato bridge Pacifica range. An all black guitar -dark- is quite a departure for me, but in translucent gloss finish over the flame maple veneer on the body and headstock top surfaces it's tastefully done by Yamaha. I think of it as my musical masculine equivalent of the timeless classic Chanel little black dress. As I've discovered though, the negative with the colour is that like an all black car, it highlights every fingermark or smudge and shows up every speck of dust. From hereon in, any more Pacificas will be on the basis of one in, one out.

Do you play the bass? Like most playing electric guitar I suspect, I have toyed with the idea of buying and trying a bass, and if I am to confess, the curiosity driven inclination is still subliminally resident. A decent tool to learn with from all the manufacturers is so affordable, albeit requiring the addition of a dedicated base amp. In the end, I decided that I didn't want the distraction whilst learning guitar. So far discipline has prevailed on the numerous occasions when, seduced by their cool colours, sleek styling and affordability with money burning a hole in my pocket like a kid in a candy store wanting to try everything he sees, that greedy gremlin hops on my shoulder and whispers temptation in my ear. I sense discipline will prevail for a time to come yet. I see the parallel between guitar vs bass in the same light as mountain biking vs road cycling, or ag flying vs instrument flying or flying a heli vs jet. Common origins, but vastly different disciplines requiring skillsets in their own right. They sure look 'purty' though.

Moncton is just north of my by an hour.

No I don't play bass but as my son was growing and had an interest in music we supported him. He actually began as a drummer at the age of 6 and began getting involved in music groups as he entered middle school. He can play bass or guitar to a limit but really only enough to play the band's material. He also no longer plays drums as he fronts but can still hit the skins pretty good when he wants to.