Hi all,
Discovered this forum a few days ago and thought I'd introduce myself.
I've been playing on and off for around 15 years - more off than on until lately when the urge hit again and I started driving the wife and neighbors mad, having a ball though and progressed more in a short time than I ever had. That said I'm still pretty rubbish!
I play a MIM Strat through a Mesa Boogie Studio 22 with an Alesis Quadarverb, cry baby wah and Boss OD-2 Overdrive. Recently got a full setup and graphtec nut fitted. Unfortunately the nut slots are cut too deep and they didn't trim my pickguard which still fouls the tremolo. I'm going to shim the nut and trim the pickguard and hopefully the trem will be mildly useful.
I've just got into building my own effects pedals which is a blast as well. Built myself a buffer/splitter (from www.muzique.com) that I modified to add a bypass switch LED indicators. Made a big improvement to my tone as it means my signal is no longer routed through my tuner. Also built a Fuzz Face clone which is insane, incredibly simple as well, makes the price of the commercial units all the more shocking when you realise it's just a handful of cheap components. I'm now in the process of building a tube screamer clone, again pretty simple and certainly a lot cheaper than any commercial units, more fun too. Next up I want to build some sort of treble booster.
Also recently bought myself a Line 6 Toneport UX-2 to interface to the PC. Having great fun playing with all the different sounds and recording myself - which bought home how, umm creative, my sense of rhythm is!
Music I like listening too and playing is primarily early 70's British hard rock - huge Deep Purple and Rainbow fan, love virtually everything Ritchie Blackmore has ever recorded, including the newer acoustic stuff. Other bands I like: Lizzy, Sabbath, Free, Uriah Heep, AC/DC, Gillan, Whitesnake, Led Zep, Gary Moore, Robin Trower, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, The Offspring, Nightwish. Pretty esoteric tastes as I also really enjoy Warren Zevon, Zappa, Roxette and lots of stuff from the lighter side - I'm a sucker for great melody.
Interested in getting together with other guitar players, bassists, drummers etc. in Joburg (I'm in Vorna Valley, near Kyalami but will travel) - I'll stick a post in the jam forum.
Also interested in getting lessons again, anyone know of a teacher around the Kyalami/Midrand area with slots available on weekday evenings?
Cheers for now, Rob.
Discovered this forum a few days ago and thought I'd introduce myself.
I've been playing on and off for around 15 years - more off than on until lately when the urge hit again and I started driving the wife and neighbors mad, having a ball though and progressed more in a short time than I ever had. That said I'm still pretty rubbish!
I play a MIM Strat through a Mesa Boogie Studio 22 with an Alesis Quadarverb, cry baby wah and Boss OD-2 Overdrive. Recently got a full setup and graphtec nut fitted. Unfortunately the nut slots are cut too deep and they didn't trim my pickguard which still fouls the tremolo. I'm going to shim the nut and trim the pickguard and hopefully the trem will be mildly useful.
I've just got into building my own effects pedals which is a blast as well. Built myself a buffer/splitter (from www.muzique.com) that I modified to add a bypass switch LED indicators. Made a big improvement to my tone as it means my signal is no longer routed through my tuner. Also built a Fuzz Face clone which is insane, incredibly simple as well, makes the price of the commercial units all the more shocking when you realise it's just a handful of cheap components. I'm now in the process of building a tube screamer clone, again pretty simple and certainly a lot cheaper than any commercial units, more fun too. Next up I want to build some sort of treble booster.
Also recently bought myself a Line 6 Toneport UX-2 to interface to the PC. Having great fun playing with all the different sounds and recording myself - which bought home how, umm creative, my sense of rhythm is!
Music I like listening too and playing is primarily early 70's British hard rock - huge Deep Purple and Rainbow fan, love virtually everything Ritchie Blackmore has ever recorded, including the newer acoustic stuff. Other bands I like: Lizzy, Sabbath, Free, Uriah Heep, AC/DC, Gillan, Whitesnake, Led Zep, Gary Moore, Robin Trower, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, The Offspring, Nightwish. Pretty esoteric tastes as I also really enjoy Warren Zevon, Zappa, Roxette and lots of stuff from the lighter side - I'm a sucker for great melody.
Interested in getting together with other guitar players, bassists, drummers etc. in Joburg (I'm in Vorna Valley, near Kyalami but will travel) - I'll stick a post in the jam forum.
Also interested in getting lessons again, anyone know of a teacher around the Kyalami/Midrand area with slots available on weekday evenings?
Cheers for now, Rob.