Looping pedals and pedalboards & more

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Line 6 variax 300 update
I bought this guitar used and it models all kind s of guitars such as acoustic guitars and banjo (a must have if you want to rock) ,sitar, dobro, etc...(see a previous post on it). Well, this guitar needed a setup badly, the action was super low to the point where not all frets sounded. I fixed a lot of it by adjusting the truss rod a bit and got 5 of the 6 strings working perfectly. but the sixth needed an adjustment and I didn't have an Allen wrench. I took it to a local music store and they were very cool. The guy was really nice to take it to the back and he fixed it in a split second for n0 charge. That was really cool!!! Anyway, I dropped off an amp to be worked on there as well and bought a 12ax7 tube as I plan to attempt to change out one of the preamp tubes of the crate v332x12

Crate v33-212 update
WEll, I do like this tube amp but I get hiss on clean ch and f/x loop to the point of being useless and the reverb is too huge. I read that swapping out one of the preamp tubes makes a huge difference, so we will . I got an electro harmonix 12ax7 tube ironically,but it just has to be better than these cheapo preamp tubes in the crate right now. we will see. Also, i am starting to really like the ballsy sound of the crate more than my solid state amps for regular guitar in my setup, though so far it stinks for f/x sounds. Hmmm, well, we will see....I guess I have a lot of fun trying stuff out and trying to work it into my system which is setup for live & recording at the same time.

I once tried out a $1000+ tube amp, a Genz Ben as I recall, and it sounded good, but I could not for the life of me get it too sound right with my setup?! Go figure. I actually am having better luck with the crates. bottom line for gear for me is very simple, it either works great with my other gear or sounds great and can fulfill one specific purpose or else I just cant use it. I actually have found that certain combination of amps,f/x and other gear works and some just doesn't work at all though each item may be of super high quality/reputation. Also, some of the cheapest gear sometimes works and sounds better than more expensive gear.





Looping pedals and pedalboards
Ok, an update. The two music stores did indeed refund me the total price for both the electro harmonix 2880 and 2880 foot controller. A hefty $500 or so. I just had a bad experience with it as it would not sync to midi very well at all,but may have been a faulty pedal. In any case, I got a chance to try it and I will say that the sound quality is excellent and by itself it could be a decent looper though very sensitive and the foot controller stwitches are way too loud and it takes way too many clicks to loop stuff. anyway, it did work well as a standalone looper (but I have too many that do that already) .it's gone!!!

Boss Rc-50 looper recap
the other looper that claimed to sync to midi was the Boss Rc-50 looper. Funny that both the rc-50 and the electro harmonix both took similar approaches to syncing to midi and both failed miserably in my book. In fact, to date and after a thousand dollars spent and recouped, the only true looper that syncs to midi is the lexicon jamman (the discontinued rackmount unit, not the cheap digitech imitation). Now, I have been harsh on the boss-rc50 and I did keep mine because I did find that by itself it was able to loop in a way that reminds me of old tangerine dream stuff and the sound quality is great. So its not bad, just the sync part is not up to snuff.

Overall, both unit s are good units, but I just dont like the approach they tried to use to sync to midi and if you want a midi looper hat syncs to midi, avoid these two like the plague, but both are decent for stand lone looping.

Akai 42" LCD Flat Panel HDTV Monitor

Ok, what the heck does a 42" LCD flat panel have to with guitar and audio studio gear?! Well, not much really ,but its essential as are lava lamps to provide the rigth atmostphere hahaha. Ok, sriously though, I happen to live in Bloomington, In and most of the broken or discontinued lcd hdtv''s in the country get shipped here to be fixed or liquidated by PTS,corp. Well, lucky for me they have an utlet store in town and they have incredible prices. I have long wanted to replace my 21"crt monitors with an lcd.So, I tried the outlet store and they had tons of 720 p hdtv's but only one size of 1080p and it was the akai for $400.25 which is an amazing price for a full 1080p lcd. In fact, online I have seen them average for $699-1300 plus $199 shipping.

Ok, the ones they had are more of a monitor than a TV as they dont have a built in tuner, but I didnt mind at all. I was going to ue it for my studio PC monitor for audio and video editing. I had read online from do-gooder nerdy wimps that "oh my, you will have to sit ten feet away to use a 42" size TV". YEAH RIGHT!!! I got it home and just plugged in my VGA cable into it and put it right on my desk and the picture came up at 1280x1024 85hz and was jsut simply amazing!!! I mean , it made my 21" monitor look like a puny little monitor, I even got the resolution up to 1600x1200 at 60hz which is nice ,things were a bit smaller ,more on the screen but duller too. And that is without hooking up a true dvi to hdmi which I plan to do to get higher resolution. Anyway, the difference is startling.

In my audio editing plugin's, they have graphics of hardware rackmont equipment and on this tv it is as if they are lifesize!! Crystal clear image and the resolution is high enough that the icons and text dont look stupidly big like old crt monitors when you set them to 800x600 or 640x480 god forbid. I mean I am sitting back in my studio chair about 31/2-4ft away and the picture is great. running multiple apps all on one screen a the same time is just great.Anyway, I highly recommen that you run out and get a 42" lcd and replace your pc monitor!!! MAn, you wont ever go back to puny little monitors ever again!! guitar wise its like playing through a cranked 50wt marshall 1/2 stack for the first time after plucking away on a 15wt practice amp. I also cant imagine anyone complainging abut the resolution at all, nothing looks jagged and the text is crystal clear!!

For sudio applications its great as I often monitor audio levels and use plug in's while also being 1/2 way across the room clicking on pdealbaords etc...so no more sqinting for that. I tell you I thought a 32" would be overkill, how wrong I was, I could even see a 46", but really a 42" is just the perfect size!!! you know those little you tube windows that the video's play in by default well on a 42" they dont look so small anymore. anyway, for the price of $400, I am considering getting another- yeah , dual 42" lcd monitors,thats the ticket hahahahah!!! Thrilled with purchase!!! and healthier for you too as you dont get that crappy radiation from those crt monitors.