Jeztone.com

Anyone who regulaly reads this blog will know I am a huge critic of the mighty Roland/Boss corporations pricing structure when it comes to established pedals. If a design is decades old why pay premium, especially as a basic Boss DD-3 Digital Delay pedal is still priced at most retailers even now for about £105.00 new. Ive always thought this to be shocking as the DD-3 is now a 28+ year old design and was only about £150 to buy new 20 years ago (Its predessor the Boss DD-2 was the first Boss compact Digital Delay pedal and had the chip out of the legendary SDE 3000 rack unit which were like nearly a grand, but back then it was really expensive cos of the chip price in 1982, so was your ZX81 for the same reason) But in 2010???? No this is taking the piss Roland corp.

This thought came to me again recently when I decide to have a “serious” look at my guitar rig. Although essentially in mothballs for the last 2 years, recently with my intentions to relocate looking likely, my thoughts have turned to perhaps playing again and enjoying the vocation of being a musician.

My rig has been pretty simple this last decade, however the TC Electronics Novadelay was far too fiddly to use live. So was sold on. My secondary delay need was really pretty simple, just a useable simple digital delay, no bells or whistles. Something I could synch up with my primary unit (The legendary Line6 DL-4 Delay modeller) for some rythmic echoey fun.

After toying with the idea of a Boss DD-3 and deciding it was (still) overpriced, I tried out a number of EH’s new compact pedals. Id originally set my sights on a “Memory Boy” based on the EH Memoryman+ analog delay. However, it just sounded too quirky for me, for some people it would be absolutely ideal, but I guess I just wanted something simple with the minimum of fuss. More buttons doesn’t always mean more useable tones.

The #1 Echo certainly is with only 3 controls for blend (fx level) Delay time and feedback. overally its a simple unit, the controls are perhaps not as accurate to set up as a DD-3, but at nearly half the retail price I didn’t mind spending more time on setting it up.

Using the shops test guitar a Yamaha Pacifica Mike Stern signature, I was able to get some lovely rythmic delays and built some pretty impressive lines out of a few simple parts. All those Dave Gilmour/Edge/Alex Lifeson/John McGeoch type delays are here, plus its warm and musical.

After 10 minutes of me grinning like an idiot, it dawned on me that this pedal had inspired me to play new things, which is always a good thing. So out came the plastic and the #1 was mine.

Overall Im pleased, its much warmer sounding than the cold delays of the 80′s….Im old enough to remember…

Twenty years ago I used to use a Yamaha DDS20M pedal as a secondary delay (borrowed off a singer who thought he was Jim Morrison crashing a Sinclair C5 into Simon leBon) with my much missed Boss BE-5 (probably one of the earliest multi FX units from 1988 with compression/overdrive/chorus/delay and a noise gate for £199), the BE-5s own delay was ironically the same basic circuit as the Boss DD-3 and was brilliant. The Yamaha DDS20M was awful, just spikey and harsh sounding. I only used it for a couple of points in the set and when I later upgraded to a Digitech RP-1 multi FX 2 years later (the first high end programmable rackmount quality unit built into a floor FX processor, the RP-1 used to run on AC Power and get incredibly hot on the left hand side live, so mine was built into a wooden board made from a tool drawer. Its reverse LED function made it light up like an Xmas tree, so In 1992 local musicians thought I had skylab on the floor and were quite jealous I recall ha ha!) the Yamaha was returned to its owner.

But back to the #1 Echo If Im being critical, the footswitch is ok but could be a bit tougher, but its true bypass and Ive had no noise issues using it either in an FX loop or direct into an amp. It comes in a sexy orange box and has a 9 volt -DC adaptor included. It was £67.99 and if I’d looked around online some places are doing them for £64.00. It says its made in NYC, which considering the strength of the dollar makes the Boss DD-3 look even more overpriced.

8/10

Im Jez……Im a….. a guitarist.

Ive been playing since I was 11, gigging from 17 onwards and for much of that time, like many guitarists Ive been on a quest for the perfect tone.

But Im also a pragmatist. Ive not lived the life of a Rock Star, there are no roadies or private jets for me. My equipment has to work and work hard. Ive always demanded maximum versatility from my set ups and also reliability. The kit I buy has to work…..RELIABILITY!!!!!

In the last studio project I worked on (the Heroes of Switzerland album), Ian and myself used the following amps we collectively owned

Marshall JMP 100 head
Marshall TSL100 head
Marshall DSL100 head
Sansamp Tri AC preamp
Plus Ians sizeable collection of boutique pedals and his Boss ME-10

We also borrowed…

Vox AC30
Mesa Studio 22 combo
Mesa DC-5 Combo
Coopersonics Audio Distortions

Now thats a lot of tones available to use.

Live however, we both used Marshalls. Ian started off with a JMP100 and a 2 x 12, running the ME10 in the front, but as he decided to move towards a more natrualistic guitar tone he later switched to a JVM410 head and 4 x 12, resigning the ME-10 for modulation and delay effects duties in the loop.

Live my rig changed during my time in the band. I’d started off with a TSL60 head and 4 x 12 and bought a TSL 100 on a whim, While the TSL100 had a slightly better clean tone and a brilliant crunch channel, I found the lead channel somewhat overgained and fizzy. But the big issue was the FX loop, it put a film around the tone as soon as it was engaged, even with no devices in the loop. Live it was noticable as soon as it was engaged. Wheras the 60′s seemed perfectly crystaline no matter if it was on or off.

After an experiment with using a DSL in rehersal led to much frustration. I went back to what Id owned previously.

By 2008 my rig was as follows

Guitar—–Cry Baby Wah Wah—–TU2 tuner—-RAT 2 (for solo’s)—–TSL60 (2 delays on the FX loop, my trusty green Line 6 Delay modeller and the brilliant, but badly laid out TC Electronics Novadelay) then out of the power stage into a Marshall 4 x 12

After I’d exited the band in Dec 2008 I decided to have some time away from the guitar. Now in Oct 10, Im starting to feel an itch to try and maybe play again.

One of the big plus’s of having time away from the guitar is that when you return it makes you come back to things with fresh ears. My early 20′s rig evolved out of my teenage set-up. Basically a multi fx pedal into a combo, with a secondary delay on the back end and a good quality Distortion pedal and my trusty 20 year old cry Baby Wah wah on the front end. Ive always found the distortions in Multi FX’s to be useless for a solid rock tone. So I would use them for either warm overdrive tones or special FX, feedback type things etc. The primary distortion device would usually be either a original Mark 1 Marshall Guv’nor, Marshall Drivemaster or Pro Co RAT 2. Every band I played in from 19-24 had a keyboard player and I found this to be a useful way to be versatile and it fitted nicely on compact stages. I build the whole rig into a board and it was quick and easy to set up.

Coming back to my 2008 rig, there were issues

1: Its big, a head and a 4 x 12 take up space and unless your standing 15 feet away from it you never get near the sweet spot. Wheras the sweet spot on a 2 x 12 combo is about 9 feet from the amp.

1a: Its difficult to store especially in a small flat.

2: FX loop and cables, theres lots with the amp footswitch and FX loop, more cables means more shit to go wrong.

3: Its not easily adaptable for others. At the very least Im playing a 3 band bill, sometimes 5-6 bands on and off one after another with no soundcheck, your tripping over each other, shit gets damaged and or broken.

4: Sharing gear, Ive lost count of the number of times Ive had to lend my gear to some pasty faced indiekid, they are always ungrateful and surely, but if you don’t you’ll get slagged off and people will think you are difficult. This is compounded by them trying to negotiate a 3 channel amp with several ways of controlling gain and volume. Sometimes I had to help them with getting a basic clean and dirty tone, showing them how the footswitch worked and perhaps adjusting their guitar strap.

This last issue has put me off gigging the indie circuit quite frankly. Im a rock guitarist, not a special needs teacher. I find this amateurism quite an English affliction. A hangover from Punk and the wanker journalists of whats left of the weekly press.

So my feelings are now that I want to work towards a simpler rig.

My first step was to remove the TC Delay, which thanks to a uk price hike meant I sold it on without losing money and I’ll probably replace that with either a Boss DD-3 or a MXR Carbon Copy, the TC was just too fiddly to use live, whoever designed the user interface has never gigged, every time I tried to change the presets I changed the tempo and viz a viz.

Ive used my Sansamp TRI AC as a backup rig with the TSL and its programmed up with a similar set of tones. So my simple live rig would have been

Electric Guitar—Cry baby Wah—TU-2 tuner–RAT2—Sansamp TRI AC—-Line6 DL-4—-simple delay——–into a single channel 2 x 12 combo running loud and clean.

With a decent pedalboard, this would be a simple and highly effective rig. Also if I had to borrow an amp, it would mean consistancy. If someone needed to borrow mine, it would be simple for them and me.

My basic idea was to use my Sansamp and RAT pedals for distortion and then direct into the 2 delays then into the amp.

So far so good.

In terms of a shopping list. My thoughts were in Staying with Marshall. I love VOX AC30′s I really do, but in terms of consistancy and reliability they have a long way to go, Ive not tried a chinese made one. But I prefer the devil you know. So that really means a Marshall, I loathe Fender amps tonally and didn’t fancy spanking £600 on a beat up Fender Twin.

JCM 800 combos are becoming pricey now, as are bluesbreaker reissues so its either a 900 or a more recent Vintage Modern combo.

So today I tried a VM2266C combo out and…

To say I was underwhelmed is something of an understatement. It sounded ok in terms of being a clean amp, the mid boost just muddied the sound. When I switched to the higher dynamic range though…..It just sounded awful. I know Marshall amps were based on Fender designs and they didnt switch over to EL-34 tubes til 66, but….

I just thought it was unuseable for me. I think that people will buy them and its a good concept, but not for me.

So this leaves me back at square 1 again……

Perhaps the TSL60 is just the devil I know, it has its shortcomings, I need more gain on the crunch channel and a mid boost on that would be handy too to make the crunch more useable…. but on a loud stage it does deliver. Id like to mod it, but here in the UK most people only mod older simpler designs, so my dream TSL is unlikely.

One interesting aspect of this is that the JCM2000 series is still on sale, yet the JVM and Vintage Modern are well established amps now. The JCM900 was out of production quite quickly after the 2000 series introduction. Yet here we are several years later and the 2000 series shows no sign of being discontinued. Perhaps that answers my question regarding the success of both the VM and JVM.

I think I first came across a Floyd Rose guitar in 2005. Mr Rose has been developing his “speedloader” tremelo system since the early 90′s and as this new system with double ball end strings makes the headstock redundant. Mr Rose decided to launch his own brand of guitars to show off the new tremelo system.The strings were pre-cut to a very precise length (to sound very close to the right pitch when installed) and had special ends which snap into the bridge and nut. Once the replacement string is in place, fine-tuning is performed in a fashion similar to the Floyd Rose Original bridge. The process for changing strings is simpler and faster; the idea being that you able to change all 6 strings in under a minute. Clever huh???

Basically what we have here is a high end US made Superstrat with a “decorative” headstock. Think Anderson/Suhr/Charvel maybe? Swamp Ash body, Rock Maple neck, 22 Jumbo frets etc etc

I remember a positive write up in Guitarist magazine, innovative tremelo and excellent build quality and then………………..nothing.

The only time Ive seen one of these used was at Live8 in 2005 by Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi ( who was briefly an endorser). Beyond that I dont know. They did try a chinese made one, but it didnt take off. A few US dealers have them, but as far as I know production has ceased.

But since then Ive seen the odd one coming up used and they are…………..incredibly fucking cheap!!!!! So much so that Im starting to consider looking out for one. Face it these babys were high end US made rock guitars. They were on sale 5 years ago at £1300 and that was when the exchange rate was much nicer…now it’d be nearer 2 grand for sure.

But the ones Ive seen were cheap cheap cheap. £400-£500 for a guitar no more than 5 years old. Made in tiny numbers, I bet theres more custom shop reissues on the planet from Jan 10 than there is for these babys. My local guitar shop had one for about £700 end of line a while ago. I know if you went to audition for Interpol they’d laugh at you, but image aside, thats a lot of high end guitar for very little bread.

Your big issue froma player perspective with this is Spares and strings. Floyd Rose made their own brand strings and Dean Markley do as well. But there are horror stories on the net about string quality and also cost.

But in terms of exclusivity….these are only going to go up. The internet was awash with Kahler trem parts long before they started up production again. So I reckon these are a top tip for an affordable, playable, but quirky shred guitar.

The Ebay hunt starts here

” Is your amp still for sale?”

I got this text on Sunday morning, I was bleary eyed as CJ my girlfriend made me a delicious breakfast, we had croissants, cereals, fruit, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, sausages…..oooooh and wine gums.

Having left Heroes of Switzerland in Dec 2008, I’ve found myself in the position of not gigging and quite frankly not missing gigging. The experiences of the last 4 years had made me think that a 2 x 12 combo might well be a better proposition as despite the TSL60 being the quietist amp Marshall make, all sound engineers just see its gleaming logo and imagine Motorhead and then treat it like a plexi and try to turn you down before you’ve even played a note.

In addition I figured that with modern drumming styles using a lot of ride cymbals, I’d be better off with a crisper midrange to cut through rather than turn up. So on my watch list among others such as Vox and Orange was a used Boogie Lonestar. As they seem to go for around a grand and have the parrallel FX loop like the TSL. But as I’ve been really getting into photography recently. I was in no real hurry to try these theories out. If a band or project appears in the future I’ll make my choices then and not before.

So the Marshall JCM2000 TSL60 and its 1960A 4 x 12 have been sitting in my room for the last 18 months not really doing much. I’ve not fired up the amp for at least 3 months and with the possibility of relocating down to the smoke still a long term goal, as well as CJ’s flat having limited storage (after her Imelda Marcos style shoe collection is in place), I’d put the amp up for sale rather tentitavely on Guitarmarts website. I wasn’t desperate for a buyer, but if one came around I’d be happy to sell, maybe buy a mac laptop or something.

“Err Yes”

“Great” came the reply. “I’ll give you £500″

H’mm

I didn’t advertise my rig at that price

The going rate for a used Marshall TSL60 (and as I write the worlds 107th best guitarblog according to what some website recently said, I ought to fucking know) is around £380-£425 depending on condition, mines had a service from Hotrox and new JJ Tesla tubes, and has a newish footswitch, the 1960A 4 x 12 is clean apart from a small tear in the levant on the back, they go for around £200-250 used depending on cosmetic condition.

Bearing these factors in mind, I’d advertised the whole rig for £625 and figured I’d drop to £600 if I could smell the money. Mine is not immaculate, but y’know its not trashed either and has been on the whole looked after well.

After explaining that wasn’t really an acceptable price and I found the texters manner quite rude another text arrived

“I’m sorry Im only 16 and don’t have any more money”

“Well, start saving then”

“I’ve seen them elsewhere for £500″

“Really so go buy that one then” I replied

“they are too far away, the head is in Belfast and the cab is in Plymouth”

So after explaining the going rate of said items, this whippersnapper informs me of the fact he’s seen a TSL60 head on ebay for £300. He’s right there is one, but its a brochure photo and the seller has a rating of Zero, all the other TSL 60 heads for sale are £400 upwards as they are on Gumtree……….Hmmmm. If its too good to be true, it usually is as my mother used to say. I’d say its a scam, but my young friend is having none of it and chooses to look elsewhere.

I don’t know whether its the decline of educational standards or to blame the parents, but i’ve found that a lot of potential buyers and sellers on the used guitarkit market to not only be abrasive, but profoundly stupid to boot.

Accordsing to GAK and Coda (2 of the biggest dealers in the UK)

A new Marshall TSL60 is £741
A new Marshall 1960A 4 x 12 is £469

Thats £1210! so even though mines a decade old, Im not likely to let it go for nearly a third of its retail am I. Well not unless I need to buy crack rocks urgently…..and I don’t.

Add to this that VAT is rising to 20% in January, that ‘ll bump it up another £30, plus Marshall usually have a January price rise and I reckon you could see the new retail of said kit go to £1300.

So I’m staying put. I don’t need the cash, and to be frank I’d rather it sits there and rots away than be used by some ill mannered imbecile with no concept of politeness or even decency. If your gonna hagggle don’t take the piss. If this lad had gone up a bit, maybe we could have done a deal, but no he wanted to dictate terms and nothing could have fucked me off more.

I’ve been buying a lot of camera kit recently, most of it at a very reduced price, but when dealing with potential sellers, I’m always polite and never try to dictate terms. I’ve gotten some great bargains, but I’ve never taken the piss and considering i’ve paid about £900 less for my complete EOS system (2 lenses, DSLR Body, Speedlight & Transmitter) than the systems current retail prices. Manners do go a long way.

Ive been watching the TV series on BBC 2 “Im in a Rock and Roll band”.
It was entertaining fluff for a saturday night and I suppose if your
12 or an elderly person on the edge of death an insightful look at the
workings of a rock and roll band.

However as per the usual BBC/Guardian reading leftie peace and
vegetable rights left wing bias, the Guitarist episode was the kind of
cultural reworking chairman Mao would have been proud of.

From Hendrix to Blackmore to Lynrd Skynrd, the 70’s were lumped into
one big pot, no mention of fusion or the 70’s Jazz rock boom that
predated punk. No mention of Grunge either.

The entire school of Classic rock guitar post 1978 was referred to as
“American”. Of course guitar solo’s were seen as bad and male and
homoerotic in a wrong sinister kind of way by the BBC. Something male
and primal and… wrong…. but the best selling guitars of the 1980’s
world wide were Superstrat types beloved of guitarists who played
solo’s

Then theres the music, after punk lots of 80′s hit singles had guitar
solo’s on. Punk didn’t kill that as Mark Radcliffes salty voiceover seems to imply.

Michael Jacksons biggest records “Beat It” and “Dirty Diana” had
guitar work by Steve Lukather, Edward Van Halen, Steve Stevens etc. No
mention of the guitar solo’s popularity in 80’s music, long after punk
had died. Lionel Richies two biggest 80’s hits have guitar solo’s too.

The sole champion and arbiter of taste in all this anti guitar soloing
propoganda is yet again Johnny Marr!!!! No mention of other creative
guitarists of the time such as John McGeoch or Lu Edmonds or Jamie
West-Oram (who Johnny Marr rips of big style on the Modest Mouse
album), or even Billy Duffy, who started off as a post punk hero and
then went into the rock & roll cliche and enjoyed every minute of it.
How dare he, I imagine for the controller of the BBC it would be like
watching a gay man turn straight!

Perhaps the most sinister element of this programme is that you can
vote for your favourite musician as selected by the usual suspects. So
in effect, if you think your favourite guitar player is James from the
Manics, or favourite bass player is Bernard Edwards from Chic…..errr
Im sorry your not allowed to have a voice. Your allowed to vote for
Alex James from Blur (even though he stole his bass playing style from
John Taylor of Duran Duran who stole it from Bernard Edwards) and now
makes er cheese.

The biggest problem with British music and its lack of ambition in
recent years is the London centric cultural dominance of a few
journalists and DJ’s who have tightened the reign of what is
“acceptable” to be included in British music to such an extent, they
have strangled it. Thrown out the baby with the bathwater. Thats why
we ended up with the noughties genre of “landfill indie” and thats why
aside from heavy metal, the average british indie band guitarist plays
with the skill of a parapeliegic in a coma. These “industry experts”,
know nothing of passion, nothing of joy and the sooner this country
has a cultural purge of these individuals the better. I don’t need
Stuart Maconie or Mark Radcliffe to tell me about Rock guitar, the
fact that the BBC want them to tell me speaks volumes about its
agenda to close down debate on what is good, what is bad and what is
music. That for me is deeply sinister.