Kiwi

Update: The JMP-1 sounds a little harsh compared to the Amptweaker so it's a pedal only gain section and I'm probably going to put the JMP-1 up for sale. As it stands, some fine tuning between the 3 signal paths on the mix can get me about 60-70% of the way there depending on how the mix is controlled with the mixer levels AND the mix settings in each pedal. I'm not getting a lot of smear yet though so the Boss RV500 settings suggested by Deep Seek aren't quite delivering yet. Maybe the pre delay needs increasing. In any case it would be a fragile balance to maintain if I were to ever gig with this set up. Over the weekend I caught a Dann Huff video where he revealed he used tri chorus into a Dimension D in his rack for the modulation stages if applying in post. Skip to 55:40 for the good good. He says most of the sound is in how the top end is handled so the Effectrode Parametric Eq is going to be pressed into service and inserted in the side chain of the Amptweaker for eq fine tuning. This revelation about the Dimension D was welcome news as it offers a potential alternative to the SPX90 symphonic patch but with no MIDI control or requirement for AC power. If I'm honest, Huff's tone sounds less cheesy too so a TC Electronic Dimension pedal is on the way to try out. The Line 6 M5 also has a Dimension patch if MIDI control is needed. However one of mine went phut last night after I fired it up for the first time in three years and now the screen just strobes when powered up. Another component replacement job for my tech...sigh. The Hot Cake has replaced the Big Muff for the time being in the Schmooboard, the Muff is great for singing solos and brutal power chords but it can lose definition with anything more complex. The Hot Cake doesn't sound quite as intense for solos but chords have more articulation so is probably a better match for my playing style.

Mine have to be big, triangular and 0.50mm. Nothing else works.

Steady on, it's not like some of them need extra reasons to slap a premium on a five quid set of parts.

Well, due to underwhelming demand, this is the finished pedalboard, got my schmo-jo working at last. I dialled in a Lexicon style reverb on the Boss RV500 this evening and the Pigtronix already has a factory patch that emulates a Lexicon PCM so I'm riding with that for the time being. Signal goes into a Big Muff which is a guest pedal and takes turns with a Hot Cake but I'll probably put the Mosky Silver Horse in most of the time for boosting the Tight Rock. The muff goes into an Amptweaker which has a side chain which I use for the Empress Para Eq to make the cleans a little cleaner. The Tight Rock goes into a Keeley C4 comp and that then goes into a TC Mimiq which does a doubling effect. The one gripe I have with it is that it drops the level when turned on. The Tri parallel mixer is being used as a splitter, on the left are the time based effects in a loop and on the right is the modulation. I was going to get a Yamaha Magicstomp and then discovered they only run off AC which is a PITA for a pedalboard. So I pressed into service the Zoom MS70CDR and set up a detune patch using three of the four slots. Two for micropitch detune (+/-) and one for ambient chorus. The Free The Tone Tri Avatar is a stunning pedal, studio quality sound and really easy to use. There's also a dry signal going straight to the mixer from the gain block of pedals to preseve some definition. At some point this week I will replace the whole gain section with a Marshall JMP-1 preamp and see which I prefer. The Marshall should be more authentic but the Tightrock is my fave gain pedal.

I can believe it. It gets just as hot as Saudi where I live although perhaps not as often. Any guitar left outside either direct in blazing sun or inside a container or case in direct sun is going to heat up to 40-50 degrees easily.

I don't want to piss on your fire but many have tried and failed. They're very niche instruments and invariably there is some compromise between convenience and adaptability. I would suggest taking a look at Michael Spalt's designs, they're beautiful in their own way and their construction was a little ahead of its time with the collapsable body bouts. In your position, and as someone with a career in design, I would probably use his ideas as an aesthetic inspiration and make them collapsible on both sides AND headless. I would also investigate whether pickup swapping was an idea as well, this has been done by other makers. You would need to design a cradle to allow standard pickups to be used. I guess you could also look at a bayonet style or latching neck attachment, especially if it was an aluminium (or carbon composite) frame dampened by wooden inserts.

Alan Murphy's legato phrasing (inspired by Holdsworth) and his Beck inspired pitch bends up to notes. Nile Rodgers for his three note chords and chord progressions based around a tonal centre.

I bought my nephew one a few years back for his birthday. Solid guitar, nothing wrong with it. The necks on Ibanezes are generally pretty good.

They don't really unless they're just playing one bands songs e.g ACDC. Nothing wrong with SS amps though, the Peavey Bandit 112 has been a long held secret find and they're still available for peanuts. The Yamaha G series designed by Paul Rivera was one attempt at including a parametric eq on a guitar amp to help emulate different responses. But perhaps something ahead of it's time as well. The UK's own Session amps were well regarded even if the owner did occasionally go on anti-valve rants. Plus...with modellers or profilers becoming more popular, pedal board amps are experiencing some popularity now with any players who want to stay with traditional cabs.

I have the Silver Horse and would recommend it for anyone wanting an alternative boost to a TS. However I'm using an old Xotic AC Booster for that function these days, there's slightly more harmonic saturation available.

This is a repost of a topic that was lost as a result of the server melt down last month. Only this time I'm going to add to it. Schmoo was the name Mike Landau had on his pedalboard for the chorusy, reverby delay clean sound he, Dann Huff and Michael Thompson made so popular in the eighties and early nineties. Landau apparently had a series of cute nicknames for his patches on his Bradshaw switching unit instead of conventional terms like distortion or delay. According to Dann Huff, Lukather had pornographic names for his patches...but anyway. The Schmoo sound is basically a series of effects that begins with compression, tri or stereo chorus from Dyatronics unit, then dual micropitch detune from the SPX90 (symphony patch), a Lexicon based delay (PCM 70 - Lukather had dual ping pongs going on) and finally reverb (also Lexicon based) The delays and modulation were parallel processed to avoid too much loss in definition and mixed at the end with a dry signal straight from the gain stages. The result is well defined stabs of plucked notes in a broad, stereo field followed by an immersive stereo wash of moderated ping pong repeats and soft reverb tails. In the case of Huff and Thompson, well timed, ambient volume swells that envelope the listener. I've also investigated pedal equivalents of rack units that Huff, Landau and Lukather were using and listed below along with some general settings that can be applied to rack or pedals. Firstly, the signal from the gain section goes into a compressor and is then split three ways. Yes compression after gain, rather than before to preserve how the guitar interacts with the amp (aye, no worthy gain pedals in them days). The first line is dry straight from the gain section. A second line is modulation only so trichorus then micropitch shift. The other line is time effects so delay followed by reverb. To recombine the three signal chains, some form of mini pedal board will be required, Chorus/trichorus - Free The Tone Tri Avatar is probably closest to the original Dytronics rack units but there are a few to choose from by Eventide and TC Electronic. Landau used a slightly defective Arion SCH1 chorus unit which has been replicated by Vertex and can be had for fairly reasonable money. General settings: Rate: 0.3 - 0.6 Hz (slow, subtle movement) Depth: 20-40% Width: 70-100% (wide stereo image) Pre-Delay: 5-15ms (helps clarity) Mix: 25-35% (Alternative pedals: Strymon Ola, TC Electronic Stereo Chorus, TC Electronic Corona, Boss CE-2W, Vertex Landau Stereo Chorus, Free The Tone Tri Avatar, Eventide Tricerasaurus) Micropitch - This is pretty much key to getting the right colouring. The SPX90 symphonic patch was used exclusively and has a distinctive yet essential colouring. The only true SPX90 equivalent is the Yamaha Magic Stomp UB99 BUT...it runs off AC only making it less than ideal for pedalboard applications. Other alternatives are available from Eventide (Micropitch and Pitchfactor pedals) and Zoom. The Zoom MS70CDR can be programmed with four effects to replicate the entire modulation signal path but I've found it can tone suck a little if the tone settings in each patch are not carefully managed. Dimension D and the TC Mimiq double tracking effect are also worth exploring for the same potential. None of the micro pitch effects are directly controllable via MIDI apart from the Pitchfactor. General settings: Detune 1: +5 to +12 cents Detune 2: -5 to -12 cents Mix: 20-30% Pre-Delay: 10-20ms (to avoid phase issues) Feedback: 0% (unless going for a thicker sound) Delay - Much like the SPX90, the Lexicon PCM delays are essential for their algorithms and distinctively nuanced modulation on the repeats. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot out there which is a direct emulation due to IP. However, Eventide offer close approximations in the Timefactor and the Pigtronix Echolution 2 can achieve similar levels of stereo immersion with some tweaking. The pedal now favoured by Lukather is the Digitech DL8 Looper/delay which supposedly has Lexicon algorithms but it's not MIDI controllable like the Time Factor. General settings: Time: 80-120ms (short, for thickening) Feedback: 1-2 repeats Mix: 10-20% High-Cut Filter: ~5kHz (to darken repeats slightly) Pre-Delay: 0-10ms Alternative pedals: Boss DD-500, Strymon El Capistan, TC Flashback, Pigtronix Echolution 2/3 Reverb - Again Lexicon provided the goods. It's rumoured that the Line 6 Verbzilla is based on a Lexicon algorithm but I can't confirm it. Next best alternative is the Boss RV500 which has a dedicated 294 patch but the Timefactor and Strymon Big Sky may offer some suitable alternatives if you want to keep MIDI implementation. General settings: Type: Plate or Hall (smooth decay) Decay Time: 1.8 - 2.5s Pre-Delay: 30-50ms (keeps clarity) Mix: 15-25% High Damping: Slightly rolled off (~8kHz) Early Reflections: Low (if adjustable) (Alternative pedals: Strymon BlueSky, Neunaber Immerse, UA Golden Reverberator) Finally, if you're recording some Post-Processing eq may add a final touch. High-Pass Filter: 80-100Hz (remove mud) Low-Pass Filter: 8-10kHz (smooth highs) Small Mid Dip: -1dB around 800Hz (if needed)

He built me a 6-string bass back in 2009 which I sold last year and two years ago I built a custom guitar body under his supervision. He works at his own pace, he prioritises quality and believes his reputation is based on the quality of his workmanship and I've generally observed that he doesn't respond to pressure. He's also been overwhelmed by orders since COVID. You could talk to Oz who runs the Owl Sanctuary guitar workshop from the floor upstairs at Jon's premises. https://ozzyowl.co.uk/ He could build you a custom guitar and he would probably go to Jon with any questions about your build. So you might end up with something not far off what Jon might have built himself

Just go for a used Boss Katana 50W, it's the do-everything amp and would be great for a beginner if the preamp out/power amp in sockets aren't needed. The 100W version is scary loud on stage as well.

They've had great reviews online so far.

Generally because either 1) You're playing too hard or; 2) There is a sharp edge somewhere on the hardware, depending on where the string is breaking.