Guitar Nerds Anonymous

Make a day of it!

Been granted a day off to myself. Been playing guitar all morning. Gonna go out and see what's in the local musical junk shop, eat some lunch and finish off a daft lyric then come home and RECORD. It's like kids never happened! Woooo!*

*Love them obvs.

@>>>>>> I may well. Have to be in York for work quite a bit these days so thinking I could head off from there.

Also, this morning's noodlings have led me to the conclusion that despite trying to convince myself otherwise, I don't really like compression on clean guitar. I just feels wrong. Like socks in the bath. There is now a Barber Tone Press shaped gap on my board.

Casual Duell in the background... i love those

I use a TC Hypergravity compressor which has some trickery that compresses different frequency bands by different amounts, or something. To my cloth ears, it sounds a bit more natural.

Embarrassed to say it remains unbuilt, hoping to get it out on the road before Christmas!

I still don't understand compression and why I might need it...

If in doubt, ask Juan.

It squashes loud things down and then increases the gain of everything, which has the effect of levelling everything out and making quiet stuff louder.
You don’t need it if you’re using any kind of dirt, as increasing the gain then squashing (clipping) the peaks has the same effect.

Edit: I was assuming guitar use - it’s much more useful on bass.

I know what it is, apologies, I was being flippant... I guess because I don't use a totally clean sound it isn't really that useful for me...

Hah! I probably wouldn’t even use it on recorded dirty guitar unless it was particularly uneven playing.
It gives a certain sound on clean guitar - maybe more useful for finger picking?

Yes! I'm an amiable oaf with a load of tattoos and a big quiff and I'll be standing at the back with my arms folded because I'm too old for the pit. Were you there at the last one? They were great. Even played Just Another Victim (though sadly Page did not do the rap)

Missed the last one. I will be in the back with you. I'll come and say hello!

That's the great thing abotu going to gigs for bands who were famous in the 90s - none of us are fit enough for the pit anymore, so everyone's an arms folder. Finally, I get to gig with dignity.

And earplugs. Don't forget to nod along.

No-one ever demanded I pick sides.

Nice!

Apparently I'm having my mid-life crisis at (nearly) 30 cos I've just bought a guitar. Basically I've been listening to too much doom metal and want in. Does anyone know a good forum for getting info from about all the beginner shit? I last touched a guitar in 2005.

Weirdly all my doom pals are moving to old Laneys or solid state type amps after many years of playing 70s Oranges and JCM800s and the like. The 'classic' fuzz for the sludgier end of doom seems to be the Boss FZ2 but Behringer do a surprisingly accurate clone for about twenty quid. I don't really know of any actual forums for doom but I do know some of the guys from the London scene so I could ask what they're using if it'd help.

Btw I'd never been a huge doom fan but then I heard Serpent Venom and I've never looked back. Are they on your radar? Great band.

Ohh nice tip about the Behringer, I've saved some links.
I have vague memories of reading sheet music but need to polish up basically from scratch, I'm hoping to find a forum of guidance on gear as much as resources for practicing and that. I'll keep googling.

Not heard of Serpent Venom before, listening to them now, cheers. My latest favourite is REZN

Gah. Need to dip into that now. I have stuff on my bandcamp you may like. Monolord, Pijn, Horseburner, Elder, etc. My BC name may just be close to my forum one.

Moose Electronics

I know I always recommend this pedal company but if doom/ sludge/ stoner vibes are your jam then these are the best!

Dylan Carlson uses them along with some other mega doomy boiiis.

What guitar did you buy anyway?

Excellent taste! I once saw Conan at the Black Heart, having forgotten my earplugs. That was a mistake.

Ooh nice ,thanks.
I bought a Jackson JS22 , it was between that or an Ibanez grg121. Best bang/buck I could find.