Systematic Overview of my gear . . .

louwd123

I don't think that I've posted anything since last year and have had some additions to my rig and some drastic guitar changes. So I actually need to correct my sig at the bottom still, but I thought I need to make a start at least because I'm uber excited about an upgrade that I can't wait to get sorted. I want to document the process of the upgrade on my new guitar properly with audio samples of the before and after.

So to give a quick teazer I thought I'll show these crappy cellphone pics of what I received in the mail today. These two pups will be the basis of my complete rig overhaul. Will hopefully be able to do the upgrade this coming weekend as our band is playing at a local youth week every night until thursday night and all my gear is set up there at the moment.

PostScript: I'll be posting on seperate threads as this will only become the overview of my gear and the upgrade process I'll document on the mods thread for those who are interested to see if you can make a cheap guitar sound good.

louwd123

As I mentioned on the previous post I have developed my own kind of challenge as I replaced my Gibson LP Studio with a guitar that cost less than half the price I sold the Gibson for. Obviously it doesn't sound anyware close to the Gibson, but that is where the Duncan pups are coming in. But since this is the "Your Gear" section I thought of just dropping a picture of my new guitar, even though it is just a online pic, but it resembles the guitar very closely.

The main reason why I got rid of the Gibson was due to the fat 50's style neck. It didn't work well with my hands and whenever I play another guitar with a thinner neck I would always think, darn, can't I bolt this on to the Studio? But not willing to saw off the set neck I decided to just flog it after much thought. I really love the LP style guitar and what can I buy again that would fit that bill? Well the answer to that question was a copy done in 2010 by Cort, called the TS series. In my case I got the TS250, which is the one with the flamed maple veneer over the mahogony body. The strange thing was that it didn't feature even on their website. Now they have updated their site for 2011 and there is a new series called the CR, or classic rock, series. Hmmmm, strange. So I guess the TS was just a kind of a demo bunch. But man I am enjoying this guitar immensely with a neck that works for me as it is much thinner at the heel, but the rest of the guitar and configuration is as exact of a copy as you can get. It just feels so at home. I'll take some pictures of the guitar and case this weekend, but here are the online pic of the guitar.

guidothepimmp

looks good that... nice one

louwd123

thanks for the remarks, but yes I suppose the yellow, or amber as cort call it, is one of those love/hate colours. I personally loved it when I saw it and my wife likes the case, but hates the colour. I know it has the wrong name on the headstock according to many, but when it comes down to finish and playability I reckon Cort has been making great strides and are moving ahead of it's rivals. The finish really is immaculate. The binding is beautifully done, no overpaints, glue botch-jobs, half sanded patches, uneven frets, none of that. This guitar is smooth to the touch!

Being a relatively cheap guitar, even for Cort, the pickups suck. Better than the motherbuckers of a Cort electric I hadsome time ago, but still it's just hasn't any presence. The pickups have no headroom for clarity which makes the neck pretty useless for anything with some drive to it. But that's why I'll be upgrading it with the Alnico V set from SD.

In terms of setup out of the box it's very playable. I got it the day before our first band practice. Had 2 practices with it, one practice/soundcheck at the current venue where we are playing and three back to back nights of pure joy together with a bunch of +/- 400 highschool boys singing along and doing fist pumps, hopping, clapping all just having a great time, but I'm soooooo happy with the feel of this guitar. *sigh* sorry for my subjective, ranting, but it's almost a let down as tomorrow night would be our last for the week. Anyway, I took some pics tonight with a nice camera to try and capture the beauty of this "cheapy".

To show the livelyness of the maple veneer, the first is with just the room's light and the second with the same angle and flash. Will be posting pics of the rest of my gear over the weekend. Peace!

Charlie4

There are so many very decent copies of Gibson these days that it's not necessary to fork out 24k+ for a gibby.
Not saying you shouldn't, I just think for us folk that don't have that kind of cash a Tokai, Edwards, Epiphone Elitist etc. is just as adequate for half the price.
(I'm probably just jealous)

Either way, enjoy the git and keep on rockin' :bopping:

louwd123

Okay,

Now I've babbled enough about my new cheap guitar that sounds like a 5 billion Simolian(Any simcity players?), imagenary guitar. So the next part I figured I need to show you guys my home made pedal board and effects chain. There might be some who is asking why do I have a LS-2 over the amp's preamp section, thus in other words, patching the amp's preamp in or out. I am a bit cautious to say why, but I suppose I'll need to get out of the closet one or another time. hehehe. I patch the amp out with the LS-2 and a Boss A/B pedal shortly after the Jamman, which isn't displayed in any picture, to send the signal either to the amp or to the mixing console. This allows me to remove the amp completely from the chain and use all my effects when I plug in my acoustic. There it is. I confess, I use an acoustic on my electric pedalboard and it doesn't sound bad at all to my inexperienced ears. But I would like to hear what you guys are saying about that and the rest, so let's take it from the top.

The complete Board, please excuse the uneven spacing, as I need to make some new cables as the latest addition caused some length issues between the TR-2 and the DD-20:

The chain starts with the Boss TU-2 and moves from there to 2 drive pedals. The Boss OD-1 and the Marshall JH-1.

From there it moves to a Boss LS-2 which sends the signal to the amp's preamp section. The signal returns to the LS-2 from the amp's FX Send.

Now that the signal has been saturated with either nothing(the clean channel not doing anything to it) or the drive from the Drive 1 / 2 valve preamp section, it comes back to the LS-2 and continues onward towards my modulation section of the board which consists of a Boss CH-1, Boss BF-3, Boss TR-2. From the TR-2 it goes to my favourite pedal in all the world. The Boss DD-20 digital delay. Next to it I have a control pedal which simply allows me to tap in a tempo. From there it goes to the Digitech Jamman looper. And finally from the looper back to the amps FX Loop Return via the A/B switch.

mikeyb

That is a great idea for the Cort TS250. I have been a cort fan and owner many times over. Most recently though I have had the same issue with fat necks on les paul copies and I managed to pick up a Tanglewood TSB 58 hb, which is almost exactly the same finish as yours.

It also has the slimmer neck though which helps with my "stubbier" fingers. Good luck Hot rodding with the seymour duncans.
Like the effects too man.

louwd123

Dang, that light "honey" burst looks sooooo sweet. And I like the bound headstock on the tanglewood. Headstocks either make or break a guitar in my opinion. I just would've liked mine to have the trapezoid inlays and not the blocks, but on the other hand it makes it look a bit less of a copy of the standard, but I like the trap's.

I managed to get the SD's in there and I was obviously blown away with a few extra surprises concerning the excellent build quility and specs of the guitar. I doc'ed the whole process under the Mods section and have audio samples in video format. here the link if you're interested to have a look.

Happy six string howling ?

http://www.guitarforum.co.za/setup-mods-and-repair/surprised-cort-owner/

josh

Nice BOARD & I LOVE YOUR AMP!!! ?

singemonkey

Nice rig. I dig how it's all planned out. Clearly a lot of thought went into it. Should be sounding great.

louwd123

thanks for the positive responses guys. I suppose as all pedal boards are always a work in progress i still just want a nice wah. Will need to mod my homemade board a bit, but it would be my grand finale, hehe, as i promised the wife.
About it being planned out, i actually got all the pedals' dimensions on the web. drawn a 3d version of each pedal in google sketchup as well as the board. only when i new i had enough space i started building. Hehe. I like that kind of stuff. Still just need to figure out how the lid is going to lock in place. Then once the lid is in place, i need to figure out how pick it up as it is way to heavy. *sigh*