Hi from Joburg

ralley

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.

NorioDS

Hi Rob,

I dig your taste in music. I'm a massive Judas Priest, Whitesnake, Jethro Tull, etc fan. I just love that era of metal music although it's more like rock n roll really ?

Also into Roxette, ABBA and other similar stuff so I know where you're coming from.

Sounds like you know what you're talking about when it comes to the technical stuff, maybe you could start a thread in the technical forum about how to create pedals and post pics of the parts and assembly process? I for one would love to see that!

Good to see you here! Can't wait to hear some of those recordings of yours ?

AlanRatcliffe

Welcome Rob

Good taste in music - add in UFO, DIO, Scorpions and Alice Cooper and you pretty much have what I grew up on. Eclectic is good, but then anyone who listens to Zappa has to have an eclectic taste in music. I'm a huge fan myself along with Floyd, Crimson & Tull.

Nothing wrong with Roxette - good pop is a bit of a rarity, and I take good music where I find it. Hell, I like Talking Heads, Eurythmics, Tears for Fears and an occasional Depeche Mode and Talk Talk track or two. There - my dirty secrets are out (although not as bad as Norio admitting to Liking ABBA - Norio, there are limits ;D )

I also got into the effect building thing years ago (good thing too, as I used to blow up my Fuzz Faces with monotonous regularity, something to do with putting three in series ;D ). I've thought about getting into doing pedal mods for guys - y'know the usual upgrades for the boss and Ibanez pedals - but I don't know if there's enough of a market to sustain it.

ralley

Norio,
Interesting how many guitar players seem to have similer tastes in music, I guess they just don't make as much good guiatr orientated music any more. Wow, Bad Companies "Feel Like Making Love" just came on radio 2000 - that's a riff and a half.

I'm not really that technically savvy with electronics - I can follow a layout and build these things but not really sure on the actual workings. I'm trying to teach myself some more about this side - I work in the military avionics field (on the software side) so I'm exposed to plenty of this. I'll start a thread with a couple of shots of me pedal builds in it when they're done, at the moment I'm battling to get the paintwork finished. At the moment I'm battling to get them completed - every time I get close I make a stuff up and have to partially strip them and start again.

Don't hold your breath on the recordings - I was playing around again yesterday and it sounds bloody awful! At least it's showing my the areas I need to improve on.

Alan - yeah actually forgot UFO and Dio. Also MSG. The Scorpions are great too, love the Accoustica set, best reworking of heavy songs for an accoustic versions I've ever heard.

Never got myself any crimson, something I must check out. I'm also going to track down "Heads, hands and feet" with Albert Lee, pretty unknown but gets rave reviews. I met him in Perth about 15 years ago when he came out with "Biffs Baby Allstars", a pickup band he was in with Sterling Ball and Steve Morse (before he joined Deep Purple). Both he a Steve were absolutely incredible players and fantastic guys to talk to. every one seemed into Steve so I got to talk to Albert for a while, he even signed the cover of an old cassette copy of the Green Bullfrog album I had, I didn't think he'd even remember it but he told me how it was due to come out on CD soon. Thats a pretty wild album, came out in around '72 and features Ritchie Blackmore plus Albert, big Jim Sullivan and a bunch of other big names just absolutely wailing. But they never put their names on it so originally it only sold something like 400 copies!

I see what you mean about pedal modding - I bet the market here is too small for that. I was in a store the other day though when a guy was inquiring about getting a black version of the Russian Big Muff Pi, I'm sure it was going to cost him about R3000. Felt like pulling him aside and telling him to search for a layout and build his own. Parts cost would probably be about R50 with another R150 or so for a case etc. Mind you even parts are expensive here - J201 transistors here are R14 each, in the states they are $0.40!

Rob.

AlanRatcliffe

ralley wrote:Wow, Bad Companies "Feel Like Making Love" just came on radio 2000 - that's a riff and a half.

Isn't it just?

at the moment I'm battling to get the paintwork finished - every time I get close I make a stuff up and have to partially strip them and start again.

I know that one - as you get close to finishing, you start rushing and make mistakes. I'm busy finishing two guitar bodies and two necks at the moment and I have to hold back and take it easy for the same reason.

Never got myself any crimson, something I must check out.

That's King Crimson, BTW. Check out Thrak and Discipline.

I'm also going to track down "Heads, hands and feet" with Albert Lee, pretty unknown but gets rave reviews. I met him in Perth about 15 years ago when he came out with "Biffs Baby Allstars", a pickup band he was in with Sterling Ball and Steve Morse (before he joined Deep Purple). Both he a Steve were absolutely incredible players and fantastic guys to talk to.

That must have been some band! Both Albert Lee and Steve Morse are amazing players - they could teach many of the modern shredders a thing or two about tasteful use of shredding. I've been following Steve since the Dregs and met him when he was here with Purple. An amazing guy to talk to - very shy and humble.

Parts cost would probably be about R50 with another R150 or so for a case etc.

Yeah, the circuit is the least of it, case, knobs, decent pots - it all starts adding up quickly. The little touches like painting and screenprinting also add quite a bit. Then you add on your markup, a retail markup and VAT, and you're well over a thousand.

Mind you even parts are expensive here - J201 transistors here are R14 each, in the states they are $0.40!

Ouch! I didn't know it was that bad. Well, nothing to stop you ordering from the US - especially if you go bulk.