Two Rock and Zilla cabs, my main amp

I’m using my Two Rock Custom Reverb Signature amp with 2 Zilla custom made 2 x 12 cabs. The cabs are both loaded with Celestion Gold speakers and vintage 1979 Celestion G12-65 speakers, which gives a fantastic sound, super clean and very chiming sound with a very warm bottom end response. When driving the amp the tonal range is superb from being able to keep clarity of the notes through break up to quite a driven sound that is unforgiving as the compression is not there.

I can use one or both of these cabs, the interesting factor is micing them up, they are both open back cabs but with 2 different speakers the possibilities for mic positioning and use is quite big. The volume is also very controllable although driving the speakers at bellow 30watts doesn’t really bring them to life as strong as possible, 30- 50 watts seems to provide a sweet spot.

I’ve also been playing with the idea of a two amp setup, this is more for recording interest than live playing. I’ve been using a Zilla custom built 4 x 10 cab loaded with Celestion golds and a Fender Twin combo.The Fender is configured to have the mid-range quite high with a little trebble while the two rock provides a thick bottom end and a little bit of midrange, the two signals are then mixed.

two rock a twin in perfect harmony

BA002 is my second real home built guitar, there is nothing unique or ground breaking about this one, it was built to test some stuff out and fill a hole in my guitars that was missing. I’ve now sold all my Floyd Rose trem based guitars as they just where not getting used and didn’t really fit my style any more, however I founded I do actually need a Floyd Rose based guitar every now and then, so this guitar got built. The body is a 63 strat replica (I’ve discovered I really like the true vintage style/shape and weight 62/63 strats) made from a medium alder single slab. it’s vintage accurate in spec, however, I had it routed for a Floyd Rose trem system, no cut away under the bridge, just two pivot points. The body had a true vintage sunburst put on (more yellow than orange) which turned out quite well but had a few flaws in it, so I relic’d it it’s easier to gig a guitar once it has that first knock in it, so this has the first knock put in for me. The pickups are a bare knuckle set, not my normal custom winds, but a much rockier, agressive output set.

BA002 up front and finished

The pickup combo is two cream BK Mother Milk pickups in the neck and middle position, with a BK “The Mule” humbucker in cream and black zebra in the bridge position, in a standard 5 way strat setup with CTS pots. As this guitar had a Floyd on and was made for rock, it needed a little more grunt behind it and a humbucker bridge is a good option (a nicer option than the Sambora Strats I got rid of).

The neck is amazing, it’s a flamed maple standard 63 neck profile, drilled out for a Floyd Rose nut. The neck is totally unfinished and is one of the nicest necks I’ve played. As this guitar was a bit of a trial setup, I put an ebony fingerboard on with clay markers. WOW, I’ve  played ebony boards before with various levels of results, but this one is good, it’s smooth and fast and very comfortable but not harsh on the tone, it’s a real change from my prefered Brazilian Rosewood, and not something I’ll be doing again but it is a one off and a great result. The neck has my 2 point truss road design in it as with BA001, but it doesn’t make enough of a difference to warrent the extra work so I’m dumping that from this point on. The neck is really a work of art, thanks to my Guitar tech Andy Manners as I just didn’t do this justice when I tried.

BA002 Back

The tuners are stock Fender USA standard strat, nothing magical there. The bridge is a Floyd Rose original USA trem, nothing special about it, but my setup is a bit odd, well for me. I always use 5 springs on the trem to lock it down, it gives sustain. This one is different, as I need it to float, 5 stprints was too much to make it sit comfortable and was too agressive on the release of a note, so I’ve scaled it back to 3 springs and it works great. This guitar is a real odd ball for me it’s not the sort of thing I like and was built out of need rather than desire with options I normally would not go for, but some how, it works and a fantastic guitar has been made, I’ve found myself playing and jamming with it over my favourite gutiars at time, it will never replace them but it’s a great instrument and end result. My only wish is that I hadn’t put the Floyd Rose on it, as I hate them and I feel this ruins what has ended up as a great guitar, but that said this guitar wouldn’t have come about if I didn’t need a Floyd Rose, and who knows, maybe one of the reasons it just works is down to the Floyd Rose. Either way, I’m really happy with it.

Fingers crossed though.

Tube Amp Book ISBN 978-0-87930-767-7

It’s called the Tube Amp Book,  for someone with an interest in amplifiers, their workings and their history it’s a great read. It’s the size of an A4 folder and contains pretty much every amp builder from Fender through Mesa, to Budda. It even has a great section on the legend that is Dumble.

The book shows Dumble

For the more advanced in the electronic and amplifier world there is also a lot of detailed schematics for pretty much every amp I can think of, a few escape, Two Rock, Dumble, etc the more top secret builds. It’s not the easiest book in the world to get hold of, but it’s worth it. I’ll be using it as a reference on going and with a little luck as a basis to make some changes to amps.

Recording

I’m meeting up with a bass player and drummer this week for our first get together practice for a new band. We’ll jam out some covers to get to known each others playing a little better, but also work on some new songs. This inspired me to get on with some song writing and finishing off some works in progress.

Recording with Protools

In days gone by you’d have to play bits to other people and try to describe what you wanted, however using my home setup I can record some rough tracks to get the idea across, even better I can give it to them before we turn up to pllay so they can not only get an idea of the song, learn it and work out their parts and contributions better. I finished off two songs tonight and started a porition of one. They are all rough recording and not very polished however it’s enough to the idea across. Once I have the right people and the parts arranged I’ll record them properly (I’m terrible with digital drums so a good live drummer is key.) I’ll hopefully have a positive post on this next week saying “all’s well, we’re recording next week”.

BA003

BA003 Work In Progress

Work on BA003 is progressing nicley, I’ve got the bare componets ready for the next stage. I’ve got a dark alder body routed for 2 TV jones pickups (I made a little nic by the bridge pickup) and a hard tail strat bridge. The neck is birdseye maple with a Brazilian rosewood board. I’ve made a mistake in drilling the tuner holes too small, but that’s easy corrected. I’ve put together a wiring diagram based on the Fender custom shop’s S1 switching concept. I’ll try to start on finishing the bodywork this week and get a solid paint job on it. The TV Jones’s are stil a few weeks away so it should all tie in nice. I also need to hunt for the parts for the electronics. I also want to try to get some different saddles made for the bridge, but I’ve not found anyone who can do this yet and it’s way outside my skillset.

More updates to come

I’ve really noticed the difference between a vintage Boss CE2 chorus – which at the time was mass produced and todays CE2 and CE3 pedals. Then we up the game to the more boutique market. I’m finding I’m turning into a real brand snob, depending on the likes of Robert Keeley, Analogman, Klon, Bob Sweet, Rogery Mayer and Mad Professor. That’s not to say others are not good, but I’m just really starting to appreciate the quality put into the higher priced kit.

I’m trying to find a smokey tubeless overdrive pedal at the moment and I’m on the waiting list for an Analogman king of tone version 4.

If you think I’m a gear snob, that’s fine, there is an element of truth in that, however if you read what I’m saying I think it’s worth trying a few of the higherend pedals and see if it makes a difference to your sound and the way you play. It certainly has done for me.

As a result my pedal board has really stripped back to a few drive pedals and a boost pedal which is great for plugin and go type approach. I get the variations I want, however the sound is still the same root sound. This works well for me, but I’m also looking to vary things up sometimes. I’d like to have a more full sound option at my disposal, sometimes adding a little delay, univibe, chorus, tremolo, octavia style effects, would really work well. When recording this is fine as you can setup the pedals in the chain you want and record. When playing live this is a problem as you’ll either end up with a huge pedal board, with a controller like the gigrig device or doing a crazy tap dance with looper pedals. It’s also limiting as once you’ve used a pedal once, you can’t use it again on your board. I’m looking into building a midi-switched pedal based effects setup. This involves back lining all my pedals into a case by the amp, passing each pedal through a relay based switcher, programming the switcher with “patches” which can be a one pedal patch, or a combination of multiple pedals. The control of the signal chain through the switcher is done by a midi based foot controller.

Not my pedal board, thank God. This is how it can get though

Daniel and Sarah at The Gig Rig have been exceptionally helpful in providing information of how the Gig Rig pro 14 can be used as a midi controller. This is now allowing me to look for programmable relay based switching units. It has to be a programmable unit as the gig rig is a dumb controller, and it has to be relay based as this will keep the signal path clean. This is my first toe in the water for midi based pedal switching, the last midi unit I used was a rack based effects unit and it was poor, it put me off midi units for a long time. I’m also looking at a Custom Audio Electronics RS10 midi foot controller. This is pretty much the top end industry foot controller, with a little more brains under the hood, however it does come with a price tag to match another gig rig pro 14 controller, so if possible I’d like to not spend that money again. I’ll keep this blog updated with my midi back line pedal setup as it progresses. Input and comments welcome on this.

My new tube array

This little bundle included a 6L6WGC-STR GE-Style black-plate premium matched pair and TAD 7025 highgrade selected valve pack from Tube Amp Doctor, some gold series 12AV7′s from Groove Tubes, and gold and black model 12AY7′s from Electro Harmonix, as well as the Fender branded (Groove Tubes I believe) Red valves. I first put the Fender Red’s in as a straight swap out, the volume came back and all was well, however I wanted to experiment. I normally do a slight mod swapping out the first pre-amp tube from a Electro Hamronix 12AY7, this really cleans up the clean sound and gives a lot more head room, it also warms up the sound a little for me. Instead of the 12AY7, I tried the groove tubes 12AV7, this warmed the amp sound up compared to the Fender tubes, and certainly gave more headroom, but the clipping it gave was a little harsher than the 12AV7′s. My next plan was to remove the second pre-amp tube and again replace it with a groove tube. This was done and it really made a positive different, cleaned up the sound massivly, and removed the clipping almost totally, but then when I drove the amp harder I got the clipping back, but it was much better much more full, but also still a little mid/tinny, almost like a cheap distortion pedal for the mid’s sound. Groove tubes to one side, I dumped in the Electro Harmonix black 12AY7′s in place of the two groove tubes, ahhh that’s more like it much much nicer, fuller sound, much deeper clean, warmer, and the clipping is very natural, I really had to drive the amp to get it to break up too. Very pleased with this, on my Blues Deluxe I use the Electro Harmonix gold 12AY7′s, as I’ve said on this blog before, I think I can hear a difference in them, slightly smoother, dropping out the mid and high end a little, and softening the bass side a bit, now that said I only think I can hear that, in that I’m looking for something different becaue thse are supposed to be different. I dumped the golds in and was happier with them, either because I’m nuts, or there is a slightly different sound to them. Now for more experimentation, for the phase valve I dropped the Fender out and put in the TAD 7025 not much different in terms of tone, but it really opened up the sound, made it sound a little louder and the speakers rang out so happy with that too. Now the big boys, the plan is to give myself so much clean head room that the pre-amp valves don’t muddy the sound, the power amp tubes do, so I dumped the Fenders again, and used the TAD 6L6WGC-STR’s. Perfect, it’s like a new amp, I’ve got a great clean Fender sounding amp, that I can drive really hard, and when it dirtys I’ve got a really natural and full driven sound that’s pretty much all created from the power amp, rather than pre amp. I’ve still got a few glitches with this amp which will require amp tech touches, such as the drive channel is slightly louder than the clean (never use the drive channel so it’s not a big deal, but I’d like to know if there is a problem) and as I’ve not used this amp for a while I want it to have a good good service

Reminder for myself what valves go where

001BA was a telecater project I wanted to build, initially I wanted it to come direct from Fender, or even the custom shop, but from what I wanted (telecater with a minibucker neck pickup and rosewood board) didn’t exist from Fender, and the custom shop price for these minor alternations was crazy high.   002BA is another telecater project in the same style, I wanted a slightly different sounding telecater and found the La Cabronita telecaster from the Fender custom shop, however this is £5000, and for what it is, well, it’s a lot of money. Plus I wanted a two pickup version rather than their standard one, so 002BA will be my own take on a custom shop telecaster and it certainly won’t cost £5000. Wroking with a luthier we’ve selected body wood (alder) and working out some template patterns for shape and layout. It’s very early yet, but it is moving.

I had a Les Paul moment this year and actually swapped my double neck and Sambora strats for a Gibson VOS series Les Paul Jnr in TV yellow. If I was going to dip a toe back into the Gibson water it wasn’t going to be for another Les Paul standard, despite how good they are. I always liked the Les Paul Jnr’s and loved the TV yellow colour but never managed to get them to work for me due to the type of music I was playing at the time. So this time it’s time to try something new.

Gibson Les Paul Jnr

I’m loving it, it’s got a fat neck and really works well with melody driven lines, the P90 brings out that classic 60′s/70′s sound. So far I’ve not written anything on it, but that’s down to a lack of sitting down with it, rather than not being able to use it.

I’ve also dipped back into pedals, I picked up a reasonably hard to find Frantone Cream Puff pedal. This gives a really really rich fuzz / light driven sound, a sound that in my teenage years I would have laughed at however now I like. I don’t think it’s a sound that you could write an album for, but for a riff, solo or song it works well. If I use this with my Fender Blues Deville amp and a Strat I get the exact sound John Mayer uses on the Crossroads track on Battle Studies. As I say, a core sound it’s too much, but I’ve used it for a solo on a song idea and love it.

I'm man enough to play a pink pedal

I also picked up an Ibanez 70′s Flanger, it’s battered to high hell and it sounds fantastic but in the off position it’s a complete tone sucker so has to be used with a looper, it’s battery connection is knackered due to it’s age so it’s quite badly behaved and I can’t find an adaptor to fit with with my Diago Power chain. That said it’s ace, I do love vintage pedals. Not really used it yet though in song writing or live (due to it being so hammered).

Work in progress is the Bogner Alchemist head This is essentially a clean fender with a vintage marshall dirty amp in a modern day packaging. It’s got a good reverb and delay effect in built. I’m trying to get a dealer to get one of these in stock so I can actually sit down and play it.

Affordable Two Rock ?

Then there is the holy grail…..the Two Rock custom reverb amp, this is the beast, the best clean sound I’ve ever heard, bar none. It’s price tag is something that’s quite restrictive to mortals. This year could be the year I find enough non-allocated cash.

Good news on the pedal front, the Way Huge Aqua Puss analog delay pedal, the one that stopped production many many years ago and can change hands for as much as £500+ due to their quality and rarity, are being re-released for what appears to be a pretty reasonable price tag of approx £140. They are expected to be re-released in early Feb 2010, in which case in February, if you check this very site you’ should hopefully see a post saying “I’ve got my Aqua Puss pedal”

The search for tone and sounds continues…..not bad for a guy who only every used a driven sound and no pedals.