Kiwi

Look at barre chord shapes and use those notes as a guide to what to play, then experiment with different positions up and down the neck. Then, if you're brave, try it with inversions and THEN with modes. See how far you can push things without it sounding irrelevant.

OK I think I've reached the end of the road with this one. Or at least I've gone as far as I can... The Ernie Ball VP Jr arrived and works great although there isn't enough space on the already quite generous pedal board for it. Over the weekend, I also discovered someone selling Eventide Pitchfactor for about 230 quid online and so pulled the trigger because it does Eventide Harmoniser detune. So that has replaced the TC Electronic 3rd Dimension. And a second Pigtronix Echolution arrived as well but I may have actually over cooked it a little because just one can handle stereo AND both the RV500 reverb AND the pitchfactor have delay as well...hmmm. Slight buyers remorse perhaps. The only thing left in the set up is another pair of Loudster power amps which I'm in no hurry to buy right now given the Marshall power amp does the job adequately for practice purposes. I'll post a pic of the actual pedalboard once I've finished the re-wiring. Now I should probably go and learn some songs...

Like countless others outside the UK, I've been drawn to and subsequently obsessing over the clean tones that were achieved by in demand US session guitarists in the eighties and early nineties. While Michael Thompson was perhaps best known for his clean tone, Dann Huff appeared on countless Top 10 recordings that featured his lush stereo swells including tracks by Peter Cetera, Amy Grant and others. Part of that sound was down to his rack of effects often involving a Mesa Studio preamp into a Songbird trichorus, then stereo with one side going through an Eventide Harmoniser and Roland SDE3000 or Lexicon delay, the other side going through a Lexicon reverb and then another delay. However another part of his sound involved a highly modified 64 strat c/- Jim Tyler which featured Seymour Duncan STK2 pickups in middle and neck plus a JB (SH4) humbucker in the bridge AND...a Tyler mid boost circult which also sparkled up the presence a bit as well. So I'm going to recreate his 64 strat, including making the midboost circuit. I've nearly assembled all the parts, however I had to trash the cheap neck that was going to be used after I discovered that it had warped into an S shape and whoever made it cut the fret slots at ninety degrees to one side of the fingerboard...DOH. Luckily it was only 30 quid but still...a replacement, fully painted, is on the way. Also, the pickup seller sent a TB5 custom instead of the TB4 (trem spaced version of the SH4) but the replacement has arrived. And finally, the series parallel pickup switches that arrived were on-off-on when I ordered on-on. So waiting for the replacements to arrive from a different seller.

And...I just tried this set up with pedals and while the reverb before delay goes against all conventional wisdom, it provides the smear that I was after. The set up still needs a direct out from the gain pedal to the mixer though for definition. A Line6 M5 from the bass rig is being used temporarily as the second delay and a TC Electronic Dimension D is providing the detune. It retains more definition than the Zoom MDC70S patch with +/-7 cents. I've also parked the Mosky Silver Horse in front of the Tight Rock for extra mid boost. It appears the Tri Parallel mixer is no longer needed here. So now, just need to find a second MIDI capable delay and a decent volume pedal and we are going to be there more or less, unless I decide the detuning/Dimension D needs to be MIDI capable as well.

Just caught a video follow up specifically on Huff's chorus settings with input from Mason at Vertex. Mason shared this diagram from someone who was involved with Lukathers 1984 rig and it throws everything I had assumed so far, about how the parallel signal processing was set up, out the window. This is after I've already cut the pedal board connections to length..! This shows that the trichorus acts like a sort of signal conditioner, splitting the signal into stereo and sending each side of the stereo output separately to detune and reverb, then to mono delays (presumably to dotted eighth and quarter notes) on left and right. I'm going to have to experiment with this and rerout all the connections. Also, while at least one YTer has stated they think most of the distinctive lushness comes from a Yamaha SPX90 symphonic patch, Lukather (and probably Huff if this latest news is credible) both used an Eventide for the detune. So that puts the Pitchfactor and a whole host of other detune pedals like the GFI Systems Synesthesia into consideration. The Synesthesia does Dimension D, detune and trichorus and two effects at the same time BUT, it's at least the same cost, if not more, of any two of those pedals together. So the extra cost buys versatility (if multiple kinds of modulation are needed) or board real estate but it's a little overkill where trichorus is routed separately to the detune.

Hey, welcome aboard. If you have any questions, feel free to post them.

Sadly the offering isn't quite the same standard as normal. Lots of starter or budget guitars. Last auction saw some Mesa kit sell for VERY reasonable prices but I expect shipping charges dampened the enthusiasm of bidders.

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.