My Rig 2015 : What and Why

Introduction
There are a lot of new things that I wanted to share with you all but, I'm not having personal free time enough lately. I really wanted to go for an individual pedal by pedal complete review but, I'm running out of time lately so, I had some time to do an overall review of my current rig, which includes all the new incomes.

In that way, instead on focus on every little detail related to every pedal, I can describe why I've choose these and, what I am trying to achieve with the complete rig.

After a bunch of years chasing my tone, I think I've reached the end of the search, with a very satisfactory gear. Unfortunately, there is only one true in Audio: you got what you paid. Audio is expensive as hell but, most of time I regret of spending lot of little money in cheap pedals that never satisfied me. But, even going for the expensive stuff, it's really difficult to get what you really need and, what you need depends only on your own.

The gear I'm introducing here was selected to suit my personal needs. If you have similar needs, this can be a good opportunity to plan your next acquisitions. If you don't have similar needs, to know how each pedal sounds can help you to definitively discard them.


Amp
The amp is a Fender '59 Bassman LTD. I've substituted the stock GT tubes with a set of tubes from Watford Valves, which I find that sound better.

Current production Jensen' speakers lack the magic that original ones had. I am always finding that new Jensen sound really nice alone but, they are lost in the mix, as soon as you play in a band context or with backing tracks.

I wanted to swap the four P10R speakers with four Celestion Gold but, unfortunately, the amp's chassis perfectly fits the carved rectangular shape of the Jensen's cone and, therefore, the round cone of the Celestions doesn't work there. So, I finally ended with a couple of Celestion Gold at the bottom of the cab and, a pair of P10R above.

After trying several amps, of any kind, what I've decided is to go for an amp with exceptional cleans that can take any pedal with ease and that don't mask my guitar's foundational tone.
The Bassman has some magic in its simplicity. Remember that the first Marshall (JMP 45) was based in a Bassman and, that both are mythical because of their tone.

The Bassman gives me one of the best Fender's clean tones and, it's so kind that takes any pedal with ease. This makes it a good platform to build any wanted sound with the help of some pedals.

But, it's an amp that needs some time to get what you wanted.
The normal channel is somewhat fat and a bit blurred, while the Bright channel is excesivelly bright.
I'm using it with both channels linked and, with the volume of bright channel more or less at 3, and the normal channel more or less at 1.

After tweaking a lot its controls, I find that the control that better definition gives to the sound is the Presence control so, I am setting it barelly to max.
For a balanced tone, tone controls (middle, treble and bass) work better for me around 7.
It took me a long while until I went to this recipe!.
Each amp has its sweet spots and, I find the Bassman is perfect with these settings.


Guitar
I've already introduced my new number 1 in previous entries.
My preferred guitar, now, it's my make-to-order custom Southern Belle Guitars Strato.
I've ordered the guitar to satisfy my requirements. I wanted the sound of a pure Strato but, with all the little details that can improve the original model and, it worthed the money!.

If you want to know more about it, just read the previous entry in this blog.


Cables and Patch Cords
I've already discussed about this in previous entries but, not a bad idea to remember it.
I'm using Eminence Audio' stuff, only.
Sound quality is top notch and, they have a for-life-warranty. That means that if your cable breaks, they send to you a brand new cable. So you expend the money just once. And, it works like this (it happened to me)!!!.

For guitar-to-pedalboard or pedalboard-to-amp, I'm using their The Forte MKII.
For Patch cords, I'm using their Monorail, with SIS plugs (very easy to make your own cords!).


Pedalboard
The pedalboard has evolved year by year. I think what I've got right now is the best combination I've ever had and, perfectly combines with my preferred guitar and amp.


Tuner - Peterson Classic Stomp
Not too much to say about the tuner. It's just the most accurated and, it has the possibility to use it as a DI box for Studio Recording.


Wah - Roger Mayer Vision Wah
Not my preferred Wah. I find its rocker's range as a bit short to my taste.
Soundwise, it's a great sounding wah and, highly tweakable.

You can select between 16 different wah voices, you can fine-tune the Q-Filter for each one and, you even have a booster or gain control.

But, what I really like about this wah is that is really quiet, compared to most of Wahs, which tend to introduce floor noise and which tend to introduce unwanted feedback. The RM's is one of the quietests of the market.


Vibe - Dry Bell Machine
My preferred all-the-times Vibe.
It has every original feature and, the original sound and, it goes beyond the original.
It's one of the best vibe sounds of the market and, it offers something that no others offer: a very friendly pedalboard size (except the Lovepedal Pickle Vibe, which doesn't sound as good).
It's easy to control, nice sounding and small enough.
This is a keeper for life.


Buffer / Enhancer - Klon KTR
Well, you know. There is so much hype with the Klon Centaur that, I had to check a Klon pedal.
Honestly, the prices of Centaurs are ridiculous high and, I cannot pay such a money for a single pedal.

But, Ok, I went to the web of his creator and, read about the KTR. According to his creator, he spent lot of years trying massive production components to achieve the same sound with the KTR as the original Centaur units.

Well, I cannot talk about this, because I hadn't the oportunity to check the three pedals in a row so, I can only opine about what the KTR does and, how it fits my needs.

I don't like the KTR used as an Overdrive. Reason is that it introduces a very fat distortion grain, somewhat confussing and compressed, at least with middle amp's volume. Maybe it can make wonderful things with the amp really kranked but, I don't like that way.
In the other side, with the gain at 0, it's an awesome buffer and, helps you to round the sound, making it nicer but, without affecting your instrument's foundational tone.

It remembers me the combination of a Xotic EP Booster and a buffer or, the Wampler's Decibel+.
But, differently to both, the KTR has a tone control that helps to remove excesive highs and, to better round the final result. Used this way, I complete love this pedal and, it's on all the way, being part of my clean foundational tone.

The KTR has a switchable output buffer, which honestly works better switched on. This helps to feed the rest of the chain.


Compressor - Bogner Harlow
This pedal will be loaded out of my pedalboard. It's a mix of overdrive and compressor but, the bad side of all this is that you cannot control each effect separately, which is a mess.

As you add compression with the Bloom control, you are also adding what they called 'grit' but, if you go beyond 12 o'clock in the bloom control, the pedal introduces a very dirty, fat grain distortion that I don't like. Maybe, as in the case of the KTR, this could sound awesome in a really kranked amp but, it doesn't work fine in my case.

I'm planning to load in back the Wampler's EGO, which is an awesome compressor.


Overdrive 1 - Lovepedal Kalamazoo
I wanted to thank you to Rafa, by Auvisa, to introduce me to this pedal.
It's an awesome overdrive, super-versatile.

I think this pedal is on the line of the kind of pedals introduced by Mad Professor, with his Sweet Honey Overdrive. So, this is a warm pedal, with a very bluesy core.
Appart of Gain and Volume, if you play with Tone and Glass controls, you can achieve a wide range of overdrive tones.

It can go really dark and compressed, remembering me most of the Dumble-alike pedals (as the Hermida Audio Zendrive or Weehbo Dumbledore) or, it can go very clean Tweed, as most of Bassman-alike pedals (Wamplers '59 Tweed, etc).
Some people says that it can nails the better tones of a Centaur.
I don't think so, honestly, because what I like from the KTR is the clean tone and, what I love from the Kalamazoo is just the dirty tone.

The pedal alone is gorgeous sounding but, stacked into the Bogner Wessex is pure Hard Rock Heaven.


Overdrive 2 - Bogner Wessex
If the Kalamazoo is needed for bluesy old-school tones, the Wessex is needed for old-school crunchy tones. It's a very marshallish pedal, very crunchy.

The Kalamazoo into the Wessex produces an incredible nice old-school Hard Rock tone that I love.
The Wessex into the Bogner Burnley creates a Marshallish wall of sound, real hi gain tone.

Alone, has its own use but, I love it combined more combined with other pedals.


Hi Gain - Bogner Burnley
It's similar to the Shur Riot in any single sense, even the color but, the Burnley has a more refinated sound to my taste, with a very musical feedback, specially when pushed by some other pedal behind it.

As I've explained in other entries, Bogner's pedals have an OT designed by Neve, which make a great difference in sound and feel. They realy feel like an amp, in the way that the sound manifestates itself.

I've tested really good pedals, as the Wampler's, Mesa Boogie's or the Weehbo's and, all them were sounding awesome, until I've heard and played the Bogner's. End of story.


Volume Pedal - Boss
Well, to be honest, I even don't remember the exact model. It's just a passive volume control pedal.
I'm using it after the gain section to control the overall loudness, once the original sound was already processed by the gain pedals.

I want it to match the loudness to the backing tracks o to the particular sound I'm working at a time.
Of course, it can be used for sweelings but, not my case.


Chorus - Strymon Ola
I really need a Chorus in very few songs. The Strymon has a studio quality in all their pedals and, this one isn't different. I'm using a fixed chorus mode, very wide and clean sounding. Nothing special, but really nice.


Reverb - Strymon Bluesky
There are a couple of my amps that doesn't have a built reverb effect and, unfortunatelly, the Bassman is one of them.
I'm running the typical Springs Reverb mode in the Bluesky and, it helps me (together with the delay) to put my guitar in the right depth of the mix.


Delay - Strymon El Capistan
A great sounding Tape Echo pedal. I'm using just a fixed setting and, together with the Strymon Bluesky, its used to put my sound in the right depth of the mix.
The Bluesky, the El Capistan and the KTR are part of my foundational clean sound.
I'm sculpting the rest of sounds over those three pedals, which are active all the time.


Video
This video has two parts.
The first part, I'm talking about my rig and sharing with you same comments you can read above so, you can skip that part, in any case.
Second part, I'm demoing the sounds of the rig, in clean and then, by adding some other pedals. Probably, the most interesting part for you, if you've read what I write above.

Waiting for my Southern Belle Guitar

The story...

David Allen introduced Morgan Mitcham, who runs Southern Belle Guitars and, she only uses David Allen's pickups, what in fact means that Morgan cares about tone.

I don't usually buy luthier's guitars, since they have no value if you think that you could resell them later. But, I am thinking on the specifications of my dreamed guitar since long time ago. After testing several guitars of any kind, now I knew what I wanted and, unfortunately isn't in the market at a reasonable price. Therefore, this was a golden opportunity to have my dreamed guitar at a reasonable price.

Well, I've watched the very few videos where you can hear a Southern Belle Guitar sounding and, I loved the sound and sustain of such guitars, and very specially, the sound of a Tele Cabronita, with a couple of David Allen's Rebels (Fitertones). So, I thought that if she could build my guitar with such a big tone, I would be fully satisfied and, probably the seek for my number one guitar will finish.

I was in contact with Morgan to check if my specifications were feasible and, since they were, I've ordered the guitar. David is providing me a set of Furys (think on Robin Trower) for that axe, which I expect will work for my personal style.


My Specifications

But... what I wanted?.
I wanted, basically a Stratocaster but, with some twists.

The body should have some carving or beveling on the area of the neck's pocket, to allow a better access to lower frets. Morgan show me some body model that had such a beveling but, without altering the classic look of a Strato. First smile.

The neck should have a soft-V profile, with a maple fretboard and compound radius, starting on 9.5", as any regular modern Strato. No issues?. Nice, second smile.

Tuning Keys should be auto-locking staggered ones. No issues?. Awesome, third smile.
This is one of the things I love in the Deluxe Strato.

Bone nut, please. Right.

I want the Deluxe floating bridge and tremolo bar. No problem.
This is the second thing I love in the Deluxe Strato.

I want Pearl pickguard and strings cover. No problem.

I want black knobs and pickups covers. No problem.

I want her painted in Cherry Sunburst. No problem.

I want to wire it following my own Wiring Design. No problem.

Please, I want not the Micro-Tilt system. No problem.
This is one of the two things I hate in Deluxe Strato.


Building process

It took a long while but, the good things take longer times so...
Here you can see some pictures about how she was taking her final look.

First, Morgan was focused on the neck...

Then, it was the turn to paint the body...

Yeeees!. That's the look I wanted. Beautiful!.

Working on the wiring. This is how it would look, more or less...

Aha!. This is exactly the look I wanted. Perfect!.

She's coming and, I am counting the days to put my hands on this beauty.
I will make some demo video of the guitar, once the final setup is made and, everything goes as expected.

Pickups: AUVISA Launches David Allen Pickups in Europe - Demoing DA AlleyCat pickups

Introduction

David Allen is a top notch Boutique Pickups maker. His pickups have a lot of interest for many reasons but, without any doubt, the most I like is that they deliver outstanding tone with an affordable price (if you compare them to other boutiquers).

My contact with DA pickups was just casual, because one of my Wiring Design Service's customer (now a good friend of mine) wanted to pay my work with a set of DA pickups, which I didn't know at that time.

Things went like good things go and, step by step, DA was sending me some pickups to test and, asked me if I knew of a good Music Store in Spain to distribute his pickups. He was really picky and, didn't wanted a store that just distributes (that moves boxes). He wanted a good Store with knowledgeable people that could give support to customers and, to help them to make their best decision.

Thinking on it, there was just one Spanish Music Store that I was 100% sure that would fit the requirements and, that was Auvisa (http://www.auvisa.com). I had a very good friend of mine that lived close to Auvisa and, that had a lot of contact with them so, I was introduced to Auvisa people and, went there with a couple of guitars, loaded with two different Strato single coil sets (StratCats and Dovers).

We did a short demo, with some backing tracks and, leaved to Rafa (awesome player, full of techniques but, also full of feeling) to test the pickups. He instantaneously understood the goodness of such pickups and, wanted to check commercial conditions.

My role there was just to put both parts in contact and, this should be clear from the beginning: WITH NO COMMERCIAL INTEREST FROM MY SIDE. I've received absolutely not a cent!!!.
I'm just a guitar enthusiasts that loves to share with others what I find specially interesting.

It took a while to have everything sorted and, a bit more to have the opportunity to record some demo video but, everything starts at some point and, this is the official kick off for DA Pickups in Europe!.

This blog's entry is just to let you know that DA Pickups are available in Europe. What means for you?: less lead delivery time, less money (you don't need to pay Customs fees), less shipping fees.

A nice friendship was born after all and, we were always willing to record some demo videos to let the people to get the particular tone of each pickups set. To be honest, my impression is that Rafa (your contact in Auvisa for David Allen Pickups and, anything else related to guitar's world) is able to demo anything at anytime, with attitude and that, I cannot add anything else of value but, He insisted in involve me in video demos and, well, I do anything for friends.

To start, you will find here the review and demo video of one of DA's humbuckers sets, the AlleyCats.


Making of's tales

To doesn't interrupt the regular business, we were forced to make the videos during lunch time. Rafa can be free just that time, while not interrupted by store's customers.

Rafa did choose a Victory The Earl (50W EL34) amp to do the demos of DA AlleyCats pickups.
Auvisa prepared three guitars, with three different sets of DA pickups: a Chinese Tokai loaded with AlleyCats (which sounded gorgeous); a Squier Strato with Voodoo Blues and, I honestly doesn't remember the last one, since we didn't tested it.

I also carried on with my American Charvel SoCal Type 1 loaded with HellCats and, my Luthier and Bassist friend Alex came with his American Fender Precision loaded with a P-Bass and a J-Bass pickups.

Even that we were trying everything, just the first hours were productive and, therefore, we are just going to introduce, as the very first video, those AlleyCats in a Tokai.

To record the event, we used two cams. First is a Zoom Q2HD device (because its sound recording) and a Sony HandyCam (to get a different visual point of view).

To edit the video, we used Sony Vegas 12 Pro software and, only two audio plugins were used for the sound, IK Multimedia's Classic Compressor and Brickwall Limiter. The idea was to bring back the loudness heard in the room but, without compressing the original sound and, avoiding overlay audio events, to provide the sound as close as possible to the one you would hear in the room.

There is no further audio post-processing. No EQ, Exciter or any other kind of outboard or in-a-box plugin.

Also no Noise-Gate. If the amp was hissing, the hiss is there. If pickups were hauling, the haul is there.

This is how I approach every video, trying to be accurate to the original sound in the room, with its good and bad things.


David Allen AlleyCats

Well, in this video you will hear AlleyCats under drive situations. You would usually expect to hear them in clean and, to be honest, we missed this important part of the demo but, for you to be quite, every DA Pickup sounds awesome in clean and, AlleyCats aren't an exception. I'm quite sure you will find some other videos that will let you  hear AlleyCats that way.

My personal impression is that AlleyCats can be classified under the title of Vintage-Hot PAF pickups.

Neck pickup is wooffier than a Vintage PAF. It sounds very guttural and vocalish. with a darker nature than the bridge pickup. Basses are fat and rich but, well defined.

Bridge pickup has an awesome bite, with well represented middle and high frequencies but, never going harsh or ice-picky, a very fair bridge pickup.

Both pickups complement really good and, you don't need to alter your amp's EQ to prioritize one over the other. Both take gain with ease and have a nice sustain,while maintaining note-to-note definition. But, the amount of gain they can take is limited. Beginning at certain spot of gain, they can start to squeal.

I don't see these pickups ready for Hi Gain territory, because of the squealing issues but, those completely cover anything, from Vintage to Medium Gain and, sound awesome in Blues, Rock and Hard Rock applications. In LPs they are just perfect.

Well. Stop talking. Just hear the video below and judge by yourself. Enjoy it (well, what Rafa does, forget myself).

Where am I?

Where am I?

Long time I am not posting in my blog. It could seem I am not interested in guitarist stuff anymore but, nothing farest of real thing.

I had some personal troubling waters, specially related to my job. I'm just one more of the employees, resulting of this deep crisis. So, excuse me if I am kissing the sky.
Holidays took their time, also.

But, parallely to that bad stuff, I had great things in my guitarist's life.

I'm actively collaborating with David Allen. He was so kind to send me several sets of his pickups to test and, I have to admit that those are the best pickups I've ever tested and, I would recommend it to every tone-lover, with the eyes closed.
I'm doing wiring designs for his own customers and, this is something I love to do.

I've put in contact a Spanish store (Auvisa) with DA, to create the first store in Europe that is allowd to sell David Allen' stuff (pickups and pedals). Don't miss Auvisa offer. Get your DA pickups there, if you are in Europe!!!.
I'm doing this for love to DA' stuff. I'm not receiving a single cent. But, I love to push what really surprises me.

Thru David Allen, I knew about Southern Bell Guitars and, I had to order my dreamed customized guitar, which I hope will become my number one. But, this will come in around 3 months so, I have to wait for a while.

I'm also in the project of doing some demo videos about David Allen pickups, at Auvisa. Something that should happen very soon.

In the meanwhile, I bought a Fender Bassman LTD (for which I will open a new post) and, I am still dealing with it. I would probably swap the Jensen P10R speakers. I'm sorry but, new Jensen's never cut the mix. They sound awesome alone but, they simply don't cut the mix. I've got 4 Celestion Gold ready to mount in that Bassman.
I've already bought a re-tubing set from Watford Valves, with NOS JAN/Philips 6L6WGB tubes and, tested several alternatives for V1 (12AX7, 5751 and 12AY7).
So, I've got a lot to talk about this amp, also but, I still need some time to get the whole picture.

Finally, I've got two new pedals from Strymon, the BlueSky (Reverb) and the Ola (chorus and vibrato). I've found the Möbius too complex and, I prefer the more user-friendly formats of the El Capistan, BlueSky and Ola, instead.
Something that will need one or two more entries in my blog.

Well, that's a short note to let you know that I'm still active and testing stuff and, that I will post something else when I am more familiar with all these new stuff so, keep in tune!.
Rock in!.

Pedals: testing Mesa Boogie Grid Slammer and Flux Drive at home

Introduction

In my previous entry, I've explained that I was in a Store to intensively check three Mesa Boogie pedals and, that I went home with two of them: Grid Slammer and Flux Drive.

Being my amp a Fender Hot Rod III Deville and, being tested those pedal with a fair Fender Bassman reissue, I just wanted to confirm today that those pedals would work as good with my Deville.


Close to the end of my tone quest

Lots of pedals sleep on my shelves and, I am crazy trying to decide my final pedalboard to sell everything there. Mesa Boogie pedals deliver everything I've always wanted in drive tones and, this time I'm 100% sure.

I was playing at home today, with some backing tracks and, felt really inspired with the sound of my rig. Even my arm's hairs where reacting to my own playing and, this means a lot to me.

Taking into account that I will get some extra payment at the end of this month, I was unable to wait. I had to order the two other Mesa Boogie's pedals: the Tone Burster and the Throttle (which I've already tested in the store). Still not clear about the Tone Burster, since I didn't tested it in the store but, reading its description, it could be a good-to-have, to give a more vintage color to the rest of the rig, when needed.

I'm waiting also my David Allen's Bazooka overdrive and, maybe only one of those or, maybe both will survive on my pedalboard.

But, to me, the tail of the pedalboard is very clear: Mesa Boogie's pedals for drive, Strymon Mobius for modulation effects and Strymon El Capistan for Tape Echo delays.

On pedalboard's head, just the Wampler Decibel+ is a keeper.
I am still looking for a wah that can work really fine with the "fixed" pedals and, the Dunlop Bonamassa definitively doesn't does the job. It has a very narrow sweep and, doesn't seem to interact efficiently with the rest of my pedalboard.

Other pedal that I want to swap is the TC Electronics Polytune, since I am suspecting that is a Tone sucker and, that the True Bypass isn't that true. I want to throw there a Peterson strobo box.

I am considering to unload the Dry Bell Machine Vibe, since the Mobius can do very decent Vibe tones (among a ton of other great modulation effects).

Also, I will check if the compressor (Wampler Ego) works fine with the new pedalboard.

The only I have clear today is that Mesa Boogie's pedals where made for me and I was made for those pedals. And, that they work flawless with my two Strymon and the Decibel+ and, those are my pedalboard's foundational pedals.

Once I've got the four Mesa Boogie pedals at home and, I am familiarized with them, I will do a video review.

I want to death to sell the rest of my pedals, once the pedalboard is well established. But, even without the vibe, compressor, wah and the remaining MB's pedals, I have enough tone to enjoy playing, something that didn't happened to me for a long time. I am considering also to sell the rest of my amps, since I'm really happy with the tones I can get out of the retubed Deville.

One more day in guitarists heaven - intensive pedal, pickups and amp testing

Introduction

It seems that we, guitarists, are always in the market for a more exciting gain pedal, a better overdrive, a better distortion, a better fuzz, a better compressor...
In early days there was really few choices so, the search could end really fast.

Nowadays, among the very well established pedal companies, there is an explosion of boutique pedal makers and, everybody seems to sell the ultimate gain unit, to discover that most of them are just tweaking a bit very well known pedals, being the Tube Screamer the king of the modified pedals.

This is not good or bad, as it seems that every pedal has a legion of followers and buyers and, since tone is a very particular matter, what works for ones will not necessarily work for others. We are all ok, we are all happy.

Well, I was really happy with two Jetter pedals: the Gold 45/100 and the Jetdrive and, until now, none of the pedals I already own was able to dethrone those two kings of my tone. I did my tests with all my gain pedals and, this includes most of Weehbo's, Wampler's, Mad Professor's, Fulltone's, among many other boutique pedals.

Jetters were my to-go pedals but, still not fully satisfied. An awesome tone but, not exactly MY tone. Some day, I've seen that Mesa Boogie was releasing a line of pedals. I'm not a huge fan of MB amps, since they all have very complex front-end designs and, I am more in the line of having a clean and fair channel to build my tone over with some good pedals. Anyway, I was curious about those and watched and heard some Youtube videos. I thought they sounded really good but, you know, I needed to test them with the rest of my gear, to be sure they will perfectly interact with my "definitively keeper" pedals.

So, I went with my couple of fellow friends to Auvisa store, to check those pedals.


Mesa Boogie pedals time

As always, I've selected a Fender Bassman reissue to run my tests, since I consider it a fair amp, that reveals everything about any gear, the good and the bad. Tweaked the controls to get the foundational clean tone and, started to check Mesa Boogie pedals.

I've decided to insert 3 MB pedals in my pedalboard. First one was the GridSlammer, second the Flux Drive and, third the Throttle. In principle, I wasn't interested on their Booster, since this function is already well covered by my Wampler Decibel+ (buffer and booster).

So, the pedalboard was formed by the following pedals:

• TC Electronics Polytune (which I am still suspecting is a tone sucker)
• Dunlop Joe Bonamassa's Wah (which disapointed me)
• Wampler EGO Compressor
• Dry Bell Vibe Machine
• Wampler Decibel+
• Mesa Boogie GridSlammer
• Mesa Boogie Flux Drive
• Mesa Boogie Throttle
• Strymon Mobius
• Strymon El Capistan

I've started with MY clean tone, that is, with the Decibel+ correcting signal level and, the El Capistan for a nice Tape Echo delay. Then, first pedal tested was the GridSlammer.

Transparency is which would better describe the tone of the GridSlammer. Is a really good overdrive that pushes the tubes with ease. Sound is crystalline clear, with a British crunch flavor and, sets you in SRV tones and alike.

I said transparency is the key word for this pedal, because it just enhances the natural tone of your guitar and amp. With the tone control at 12:00 (middle position), the pedal straight cuts the mix. The guitar sound was perfectly distinguishable in its right presence range of frequencies. This pedal loves to push the other two MB pedals, also.

Then, it was the turn for the Flux Drive. Once again, the Flux Drive with its tone controls at 12:00, was straight cutting the mix. Not so transparent as the GridSlammer, the Flux Drive is more oriented to get medium distortion sounds in the ballpark of the old MB Mark amp series. 

I have to confirm this by reading the user's manual but, I had the sensation that tone controls were active, instead of passive and, any slight touch had a clear impact in tone. Middle position (which is a detent-stop position) worked flawless with my rig.

Probably, the Flux Drive is deceptively the more anodyne pedal of those three but, once you push it with the GridSlammer stacked before, you are in Hard Rock's heaven. Once I've switched on both pedals in a row, I wasn't able to stop playing.

Since results were so exciting, I've decided to complete the test using backing tracks. I've asked Auvisa's responsible (Rafa) to prepare me some PA system to run my MP3 backing tracks, to check how the pedals will work in real application. Rafa came back with a Yamaha StagePass 200 PA system (just a single speaker) and, the show begun.

Started the test playing over "Smoke on the Water" and, the compulsive dancing of a chinese little girl in front the room's window confirmed that the tone was perfect. While childs are natural, mature people seemed suddenly highly interested on the anodyne content of the shelves that were in front of the window. That confirmed me again that the sound was good enough.

Time to check the GridSlammer alone, while playing "Cocaine". Awesome tone, also.

Time to check first the GridSlammer alone and then, pushing the distortion levels with the Flux Drive, while playing "Old Love" and "Since I've been Loving You".

I had a man entering inside the room and, alternatively looking to the amp, pedals, my guitar and my fingers, while I was performing "Since I've been Loving You" and a "Blues in G". He gave me his "thumb up" before leaving the room. My friends told me that he was a very well known blues-man of this area.

I was funny thinking that maybe people thought that I was there demoing or promoting a particular product, instead of being a mediocre player carefully testing some pedals in a store.
Well, those were just people's reaction that just confirmed what my ears said: these pedals are a perfect marriage for my gear and personal style!!!.

Both pedals had a fair sound representation, with total definition note to note, even in unharmonic chords. They both sounded very open, without killing the attack, while delivering a nice sustain that made solos really easy to perform.

Tested those two from 11:30 to 13:30h and, went satisfied to lunch with my fellow friends.
We were discussing about the sound and, we all agreed they were perfectly fitting my gear and style.

We took a long while to lunch, drink, small talk and laugh then, we went back to the store, around 18:00h.
After our ears were cleaned and not biased, I did a quick test again with a few more backing tracks and, satisfied with the sound, I've decided to check the Throttle.

The Throttle is a Recto-in-a-box. Er... not... let me to reword this... is THE Recto-in-a-box pedal. Not a surprise, being MB the father of Rectifier amps.

While I also love that dense wall of sound of the red channel of a recto, this is not the sound that I will use the most of time but, I wanted to give a chance to this pedal. The "Mids cut" knob is somewhat the Contour control you usually find in MB amps and, completely re-equalizes the tone stack going from clear and bumped-mids settings to dark and deep with recessed mids.

So, it clearly covers lot of ground in High Gain distortion. I liked it more with the Mids-cut control around 7:00 (practically off). Tone, once more was left in the middle position.

Wow, wow, wow, wow!.
With this setting, I was achieving a very polished high gain distortion that clearly cut the mix, with that tasty controllable feedback on sound tails. This setting remembered me more to the sound of a Peavey 5150 or a Diezel Einstein but, you could achieve anything just rotating the Mids-cut control.

Even better, you could even switch on the three pedals and the sound remains well defined and, every single note is clearly recognized!!!.

Decision was clear: I want all them!. Let see how much they cost and, let see how many can I get today.
I've decided to end my pedals tests and, go to check some acoustic guitars, before the store closed.

As I left the guitar, my fellow friend asked me: "Can I..?". "Sure, bro, rock on!".
I left my friend preparing himself  and, went to test some acoustic guitars.

I had two deceptions in this pedalboard: the Bonamassa's wah and the Badgerplex Trilogy.

Bonamassa's wah lacked some sweep range, which made the EQ very narrowed.

The Badgerplex Trilogy is just a tone sucker. It was recommended to me in a forum, selling it as a way better sounding pedal than the good Xotic EP Booster and, since I've sold my EP Booster (and regretted every day), I've decide to try it.

Well, while the Xotic EP Booster just enhances your sound in a way that nobody is able to describe. The Trilogy kills your tone in a way that I can clearly describe.
The Trilogy rolls off high end frequencies, slightly compresses the attack and, kills the natural sustain of your sound. Instead of giving just an enhanced louder sound, it tends to easily force your tubes to break, which wasn't the goal for this kind of pedal.

Definitively, both were a waste of money.


Acoustic Guitars time

I was really interested on to test a couple of Martin's, the D28HD and D35HD but, they had the D28 and the D45, only.

I have to say that I was highly disappointed with both Martins, that sounded very dull in basses and string-to-string unbalanced. My other fellow friend (the luthier) was selecting more other guitars that seemed to have a good look. Tested lots of models of well known US brands, except for Gibson acoustics (the store doesn't work with Gibson anymore). I was highly disappointed with all them, including Martin, Taylor and, other brands.

The  only guitar that sounded with piano like basses, an open voice and a nice balance string-to-string, was a model by Alhambra. We were both surprised. Alhambra is a well known Spanish company that had a good name building Spanish and flamenco guitars but, I didn't know they were in the acoustic market, also.

My friend explained me that the key for tone is the way the air is being conducted inside the body and, this is something Spanish makers were mastered several centuries ago. So, not surprise that a Flamenco Guitar maker could apply its knowledge to build a great acoustic guitar.

Well, I cannot go so deep in luthier' stuff but, I had to agree that the Alhambra was the best sounding acoustic guitar of the around 25 guitars we've tested, hands down.

By the way, while I was testing the acoustics, I was clearly hearing my other friend performing "Hey Joe" and "Whola Lotta Love" and, I thougth: "Man, this is like to be hearing Hendrix and Page in a festival. Yes, I want those pedals to death".


Amp and David Allen's Dover pickups time

We've already tested the brand new Deluxe Stratocaster of my friend, loaded with David Allen Dovers pickups set and, the wiring design I did specially for my friend and those pickups but, from that early time, my amp was improved with a retubing kit from Watford Valves for this Fender Hot Rod III Deville amp.

Since my  #1 strat (also loaded with David Allen's pickups) is on hands of my friend luthier (Alex Tirado, look for that man!), for a complete refretting work and a nut substitution (remove the LRS nut and put a bone nut there), I was crazy to test how the enhanced amp would sound with those Dovers.

While my other friend was playing (Robert Tirado), I was tweaking the controls of its pedals, to adapt the EQ to the amp. Once established, the show begun.

Robert was along any kind of style you can imagine, playing from country to shredding. Backing tracks of Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Clapton, Prince... anything...

We selected sounds to check every of the 10 pickups combinations of his axe, getting great strato tones and good tele and lp alike tones.

It was a PERFECT marriage. Same as if you'd found the right wine for the right food, same as to play a LP in a old Marshall. We were shocked with the sound. It was professional studio quality.

Alex and I agreed: "Man, you need to buy exactly this amp and re-tube it with exactly this kit. You owe it!".

David Allen's Dovers are, in my honest opinion, the best strato set I've ever tested up to now (I am waiting an Echoes set). Dovers are just PERFECTION. They get anything and deliver with ease.
We tried combinations like a virtual LP Neck, Bridge and Middle positions (combining in series pickups) and, virtual Tele middle positions (both single coils and a virtual humbucker and a single coil).
They covered every style with ease, from sweet silky bells to rough but perfectly defined hi gain sounds.

If you still are in doubts whether to get a David Allen' set or, specially which one to get, I would say, try those Dovers first.

The only I regret is not being so smart to record his performance, because the sound was killer. But, we will do, for sure. This should be heard and spread to the whole World.


Side thoughts

While my friend was playing, achieving such an inspirational tone, I thought that when your gear has the right marriage, the only that you can do is just to create and enjoy. There is no need to think on... this doesn't sound, what's wrong?. Your mind isn't hijacked by negative thoughts and, you just play and enjoy and, if you enjoy, you transmit your feelings to the audience.

The Rock's dinosaurs had that kind of gear. They had the best tubes ever made, they had the pickups that current makers are trying to reproduce. They had the pedal effects that current makers are trying to reproduce or enhance. They had the gear so, they just focused on to enjoy it and be creative.

Watford's retubing kit included a NOS Philips 6L6 matched pair of tubes and, this is a clear enhancement over the stock Groove Tubes. The killer sounding Dovers in a relatively cheap amp retubed with great tubes made a huge difference.

I recall that my Fender Princeton Reverb reissue costed me exactly 1000 Euros, stock. I had to enhance it with a Weber speaker and, new tubes. For slightly less than 1000 Euros, I bought the Hot Rod III Deville and retubed it with a great Watford's kit. This amp has some cheap details, as the power cord in white (while the rest of amp is black) directly soldered to the PCB but, for that price you get a killer machine.

Another thing that surprised me is that I was a Marshall's and EL34s guy, to lately discover that I love Fender's and 6L6s !!!. It's crazy how our "pre-conceptions" go against our real needs.

It doesn't matter which style fits you, the most important thing is to find the right marriage, the one where all the components of your rig complete the full puzzle of your sound. And, it doesn't matter if you achieve it with the cheapest gear on the world (which usually doesn't happen). Forums create trends and overhypen (in both sides, as good or bad) certain products, most of times people that even didn't tried them in person.

To go to the store with your complete rig (if they doesn't have your components) to test a new component that should fit your rig is a great idea. Sometimes, to test a certain device alone gives us good sensations but, when it has to be inserted in your sound chain, the drawbacks suddenly explode in your face.

Amps: Watford Valves, yes Sir.

Introduction

This is just a short note related to my recent experience with Watford Valves.

I have a drawer full of spare tubes, that correspond to all the tubes I was purchasing trying to bring some life to my amps. Most of my purchases were made to the Tube Amp Doctor (T.A.D.) but, once I've started to be disappointed with their tubes, I went to other European tube dealers, to get even worst results.

I knew about Watford Valves and, I knew they had a strong name but, the expensive exchange rate Euro / Pound, were keeping me out of their online store. This and the fact that the five times I tried to get some guidance from them ended in nothing. Nobody seems to answer you back. This is still my main concern related to Watford Valves. Nobody seems to care about emails.

But, since Watford has some re-tubing kits, specific for some brand and model of amps and, I was in the need to re-tube a couple of amps (Vox Night Train and Fender Hot Rod III Deville) and, my spare stock contained just those tubes I had rejected, I've decided to give a try to one of those kits.

Already mentioned in a previous blog entry, I've successfully re-tubed my Fender Hot Rod III Deville with one of Watford's re-tubing kits and, as soon as those tubes were at home, I did my own tests, with the help of the Orange Divo VT-1000 tester and, I was gratefully surprised with all them being really close to specifications.

Because of that, I wanted to check again  with a couple more amps: the Vox Night Train (complete re-tubing) and the Marshall 1923C 85th Anniversary Combo (just pre-amp tubes, because power tubes are already SED Winged-C EL34s).


Retubing the Vox Night Train

As I did with the tubes for the Deville, I've tested the new tubes as soon as they came from Watford and, before installing them in both amps.

The kit I've used for the Night Train is the kit that's being sold for a Vox AC15, since they have exactly same tube topology and, very similar overall character.

Watford relabels all the tubes that are passing their exhaustive Drive Test with the Harma name.
TAD relabels also the tube that passed their own tests with the TAD name but, I have the impression that TAD tubes have a tolerance range higher than Harma tubes and, therefore, they don't bring the same life to the amp.

The kit for the Vox AC15 comes with a couple of Harma ECC83-RET (retro) pre-amp tubes and a couple of Harma EL84-RET (retro) tubes. Watford doesn't identifies which brand/model is re-labeling but, I had the impression that all them where Mullard reissue (Red Sensor).
Since I had a Mullard 12AX7 in Night Train's preamp and a couple of Mullard EL84 in power amp, comparing my tubes with tubes from Watford, gave me the impression that they were all Mullard reissue.

This is not an issue, because those were exactly the tubes I've chosen time ago for that amp. But, since I remember how they sounded after re-tubing the Night Train, this would be a fire test to see if the relabeled Harma tubes could work the same or better.

Wow!.
I remember that my Night Train was sounding really good (before some tube worn) but, man, now it sounds really stellar.

The Orange Divo doesn't tells me all the history. The readings for the pre-amp tubes where the same I usually get for Mullard reissue 12AX7 tubes: one triode reads 10, the other 11. The readings for both EL84 were 10, while I'm getting readings of 10 (most of times) and 11 for Mullard EL84 reissue tubes.

So, in principle, I was throwing there same tubes, with same readings. So, how that kit from Watford can sound better?.
My suspect is that the difference can be related to other variables and, very specially, to transconductance.

I made a short test, with guitar and some backing tracks and, I was fully satisfied with the sound of the Night Train. Indeed, one more score!.


Retubing the Marshall 1923C 85th Anniversary Combo

I've chosen a Classic / Hi Gain kit for this amp, because I want an early breakup, to be able to cook the tubes at lower volumes.

This time the Harma ECC83-Ret tubes seemed to me JJ ECC83S tubes but, readings where a digit over my usual readings with TAD 12AX7-Cz (JJ ECC83S) tubes. While TAD tubes usually read 8 / 9 (triode A / triode B), Harma tubes read 9 / 10 (V1 and V3), 8 / 10 (V2) and, the balanced one 10 / 11 (PI).

This is the second balance tube from Watford and, both have unbalanced triodes but, both have at least one reading 10 (on specs) and, the unbalanced is just a digit more or less.

Long time ago, I did a lot of swaps to this Marshall, and my conclusion was that there is no other tube that works better in this particular amp than the JJ ECC83S. My suspect is that those ECC83-Ret are effectively JJ ECC83S tubes. If the history repeats, as with the Deville and the Night Train, my favourite amp will come back to life very soon.

I have to re-bias the EL34 to Marshall' specs (45mv). Then, I will be able to evaluate the real impact of those pre-amp tubes, which I hope to test by tomorrow.


Conclusion

It seems that Watford Valves do the best tests on tubes, at least in Europe.
I've wasted a lot of money before, trying to get more affordable tubes, which leaded me to unsatisfactory results and a ton of spare tubes that I will probably have to throw to the trash can.

They won a new customer, indeed. But, I would suggest to Watford to have someone taking care of the email, because not everybody can make an international call that could cost even more than a single tube.

Evidence Audio: Pay once, enjoy your whole life

Introduction

You know, from time to time, you get some (nice) surprises, when you less weren't expecting it.
By a casual, I have answered back to a post (in Seymour Duncan's forum), where the Original Poster was asking "which is the best cable for you and why".

My answer was that "After testing a bunch of cables, from the cheapest Chinese to the expensive ones, I went to Mogami 2524 bulk cables" and that "While Vovox (Sonorus) and Evidence Audio (The Lyric HG) where in the top of the pyramid, Mogami's was just slighly under those in tone but, way lower in price" and that "while My Lyric HG broke, my Mogami's last still".

Well, you never know which eyes are reading you.
I've received a mail from Toni Marinello (Evidence Audio), same day, few hours later.


An Unique and Exemplar Customer Service

Toni's mail was short, barely a telegram but, with just what matters. He said he read in SD forum that my Lyric HG broke and, asked me if he could do something to help me.

My fault. I remember I read a nice interview to Toni Marinello in The Tone Quest digital fanzine, long time ago. I remember very clearly the key figures of such an interview but, I completely forgot the name of da man to be honest.

So, I was thinking that Toni was some kind of Customer Service Representative that was interested on washing Brand Image or, that maybe, Evidence Audio had a nice post-sale service, at the end.

In that scenario, my answer was something like: "hi Toni, thank you. Well, I don't know if you can do something for me. I bought the cable in that online store some time ago and, it broke just playing. You know, you move while you perform, and the cable breaks".

Typical, right?.
How many cables have broken due to the messes that occur while you move while playing?.
What do you do, then?.
You usually buy (or craft) one more and, maybe a new brand/model, with the secret expectation that, this time, it will last longer.

Ok. I have sent back my answer to Tony expecting to receive something like "We are very sorry. This is cable broken by a bad use, etc., etc.". But, what I received back was an answer llike "My cables are warranted for life. I've already talked to store X and I will make a replacement cable for you. The store will place soon an order for me and, I will include such a cable for you". I wanted to send me the Forte (more indicated for guitar to pedal board applications, because it's more flexible), instead of the Lyric HG.

I wrote back a mail saying how gratefully surprised me and thank you him for his interest and kind offer.
I've explained my experience with several of his products: Monorail (with George's L connectors), The Siren II, The Lyric HG and The Forte.

I've explained to him that I gave up trying to mount patch cables with Monorail using George's L connectors (as he suggested, originally), because it was a waste of time with very low success ratio.

Also, that I loved the Siren but, that it would be a nice thing if he was preparing some cables with an extreme with those metallic clamp connectors often seen in combo speakers. In that way I could upgrade my 3 combos.

And, also that being the Forte a great cable, in my honest opinion, it hasn't the same tone (or lack of tone, as per himself words) than the Lyric HG, that the Forte sounded warmer, not so EQ evenly sounding and slightly less defined and chiming as the Lyric HG. For this, I wanted him to send me a Lyric HG replacement that I would use for the run pedal board to amp or just for recording.

He answered me back that, even being a single-man company, he cares about all his customers the same and, he loves to do it that way. That he was glad to have to opportunity to update me with its upgrades and enhancements.

He understood my issues with Monorail / George's L connectors and, explained me that, after some time (I bet that based on customers feedback), he developed a perfect connectors system to work with his Monorail system (SIS) and linked me to his page, which has an impressive video showing how one of his Monorail cables mounted with the SIS system, was supporting the weight of a combo amp!!!.
Watch this video!.




He also pointed me to a page where I could buy the Siren with such a clamp connectors and, that this was released some time ago.

Finally, he understood my point with the Forte but, let me know that the Forte was re-engineered and that now sound exactly the same as the Lyric HG and, it's more expensive, because each thread of the double multi-thread core wires were insulated with Enamel (as big part of pickups' coil wires!!!).

So, I've thanked them again for the great update and, sent the original purchasing info for him to discuss the way with the store. I am waiting that replacement cable.


Pay it once, enjoy it your whole life

As already mentioned above, there are few cables that I will put on the top of the pyramid and, in my personal tests, tone-wise, the best sounding cables where Vovox Sonorus and Evidence Audio The Lyric HG, in every single variable: punch, loudness, definition, low microphonics, tone preservation, plain frequential response, etc. But both presented same issues: they were so thick and rigid that weren't unsuitable for real performance (at least that you stand up quiet as a mummy).

The Mogami 2524 sounded to me slightly better than the Forte and slightly worst that those two heavy weights but, price-wise, the Mogami was way more affordable than any of those and, I could buy the bulk cable to make my patch, cords and cables to the lengths I needed. That's why I went for Mogami 2524, without any doubt.

To be honest, I didn't know that Evidence Audio offered a "for life warranty" and, if I knew that in some point of time, I would probably though that this was just "snake oil".
But, evidently, Evidence Audio is taking really seriously his compromise and, this completely changes my perception of what is really expensive or affordable.

How many cables have broken due to the messes that occur while you move while playing, in your life?.

Evidence Audio cables are the hell expensive, indeed. If you think you should buy again a replacement cable, then you end searching for a more reasonable alternative, as I did.
But understand this key point: you buy once, enjoy the whole life.

I don't know of any other product in musical world (honestly, even out of the musical environment) offered with such a level of warranty and compromise!. Only this subject sets completely apart Evidence Audio from other cable makers / assemblers.

I know that there are many people that think that cables make no difference and, this is just snake oil. And, to be honest, I was in the same position long time ago.
But, instead of discussing about something I had never experienced, I bought several cables, of variate prices and design to demonstrate to myself that I was right.
The surprise was to discover that I was wrong and, that cables make real difference, specially in long runs and when your pedalboard has some respectable number of pedals (12 in my tests).

For those that thing this is just snake oil, please, do your own tests (with significative lengths and number of pedals). This is the only way you will be in a real position to discuss about the subject.
For those that already know cables make a difference and, that were thinking on to go for Evidence Audio but, ended with a more affordable and reasonably well sounding cable (as myself), just consider that to buy an Evidence Audio cable is a one-time expense for your whole life.
Can it be considered as expensive from that point of view?.

Unfortunately, the news about the upgrades and enhancements that EA did, aren't easily seen in his own page. Tony has a presence in Thegearpage and, will probably provide right feedback in some social networks tools (facebook, twitter, etc.) but, since I'm not using those, I didn't new about what he enhanced.

Myself, once I can save the money, I will go back to EA stuff, this time knowing that I am getting the best sounding cables for my whole life, paying just once!.


More readings

The Tone Quest Report published a nice report The Truth about Audio Cables, where the interview with Toni Marinella will bring you a lot of interesting technical information about cables and cable makers.

In my own blog, I was discussing about the qualities that a good guitar cable should have, in my entry what is a good guitar cable? (including a video comparing several cables) and, a comparison Mogami vs Evidence Audio.

Auvisa: a day on Guitarists' Heaven

Yesterday was a great day for some friends of mine and me.
One of my friends was in the market for a new brand Fender Stratocaster and, I was there also searching some amp with a solid clean channel that could take pedals with ease and cover a wide range of loudness.

We went to Auvisa, a nice music store here in Spain.
We were received by Auvisa staff, which seemed to me very knowledgable, kind and friendly.
They were able to answer any technical question we did, with full sense and, they've helped us to narrow our search to just an small number of items to be tested in depth, as per our description of what we were after.

The store has a very classy but modern look. Spaces are well illuminated and, everything seems sorted and well classified, in separated sections (Guitars, guitar parts, technical support, drums, keyboards, studio and gig gear, bass guitars, etc...).

The Store runs a lot of guitar brands like Fender, Ibanez, Tokai, Jackson, Martin, Vigier, LTD, Shur, Vox, etc. And an impresive number of amp brands as well, as: Marshall, Fender, Vox, Mesa Boogie, Yamaha, Line6, George, Victoria, Ampeg, Custom Audio, TC Electronics, Mark Bass, Shur, Engl, etc.

There is at least a representation of each guitar and amp lines, so we were able to test a broad range of stratos, from the cheapest (but good sounding) Mexican ones to Eric Johnson's model.

Auvisa people had everything ready for our tests. We were lead to the testing room. An impressive room full of nice guitars (Fender, Tokai, Taylor, ...) and full of amps, regular production and more arcane boutique ones and, of any size, from lunchboxes to the half-stacks.

We spent the whole morning just to narrow the set of stratos to just three models, the ones that impressed we all the most. So, before lunch, we narrowed the search to a Vintage Strato with Ash body, an American Deluxe and Eric Johnson's model.

To be fair, Eric Johnson's model was the one sounding the best. That model had a binding around the fretboard (often seen in Gibson's guitars and rarely in Fender's), which is just anecdotic but, the sound was incredible good and resonant.

But, my friend was more concerned about ergonomical aspects of the axe and, in that area, the American Deluxe wins hands down. Features of the Deluxe are very wellcome: two posts blade floating bridge, compound radius, staggered locking tunners and, alternate wiring (with the S-1 switch).

My friend felt at home with the Deluxe so, that was his finally election, during the afternoon.

Not sounding bad at all, the Noiseless Samarian-Cobalt 3 pickups that these axes mount stock, aren't so organic as other strato replacement pickups.
But, we weren't worried about it, because we had already a set of David Allen's Dovers (that David sent very kindly to me, to test) and we were already planning to swap the stock pickups with that great sounding set, who should let us close to (or surpass) the sound of EJ's model.

We are planning go back to Auvisa, once the guitar is being setup by my other fellow friend (the luthier) and, those David Allen are in place, to demo the enhancement to Auvisa's people.

To test those stratos, I've initialy selected the Fender Bassman LTD (4 x 10" speakers), because is a fair sounding amp that helps to reveal everything you want to hear in wood and pickups.
Unfortunately, the Bassman had some kind of tube hiss that was a tad uncomfortable and, it doesn't sounds very well at low volume levels. You need to push that baby to get the very well known organic sound.
But, it was ok to select the guitar, anyway.

Then, it was the time to select my amp. This time I went with open mind and not particular prejudices, not positive or negative about brands or models. I've clearly explained what I wanted and, which other amps I've already tested and what I didn't liked. Even that the Bassmann is an awesome amp, it wasn't what I was actually after.

I've bring with myself the whole rig, guitar, pedalboard and cables, to be sure that the amps that I was going to check will deliver with my gear.

This was also a good oportunity to demo to Auvisa people the sets of David Allen Stratcats pickups that I've got actually mounted in my American Deluxe Strato (the old one, without the compound radius).

It seems that a collaboration between David Allen and Auvisa can be possible and, if it works, I will feel really proud of have being the nexus between both parts, without any economical reward.
I believe on David Allen' stuff and, I love how Auvisa run their musical store, how they care about music, tone and people. So, I only wish good luck for both, if there is some agreement.

Well, going back to the amps.
Auvisa's people bring me a George boutique amp. I think it was the Tornado Duo model but, with a snake-skin tolex. I had good expectations with George's amps, after reading a bunch of reviews in guitarists forums.

To be honest, that amp wasn't my cup of tea. To me, it lacked loudness, body and, it was breaking up in a wrong way when pushed hard. It seemed to be as the speaker was farting under high preassure. Probably is a good amp but, it didn't worked fine with my gear so, it was quickly discarded.

Thinking on next one, I was very curious about the Hot Rod series of Fender, that seemed to me (on the paper) good candidates. So I've asked to test some Hot Rod and, a Hot Rod III Deville was already there, in the testing room.
So, I've plugged my gear to that Hot Rod III Deville and, tone was instantaneus. We all smiled and, nodded our heads.

I wasn't really interested on the gain channel, since I wanted to build my own gain textures with my pedals. I just wanted a nice clean channel that could take pedals with ease and that can sound good a lower levels and impressive a gig levels.

In the meanwhile, Auvisa people made me interested into test a Bogner distortion pedal (Ecstasy, the blue one) but, even having a good tone, I prefer myself how the Jetter Gear JetDrive pushed the amp and made those 6L6 tubes to sing. Wah, modulation, vibe, overdrive, distortion, delay, everything worked to my taste. The sound clean was really good and, rock stadium with my gain pedals.

I've jumped out my chair to check where the volume knob was dialed, because I thought the volume should be at 3/4 of its range and, I was concerned about headroom.
My surprise was huge. I was scared seeing that the volume was just at 2.5 !!!.
Mother of God!. What a big sound!.

I thought: "man, this seems the definitive amp, at least for my #1, the strato". But, while I was thinking that way, my friends were saying: "bro, get that one home and sell your rest of amps!. This will be the best amp in your collection. Forget the rest. Even that Marshall cannot be compared to this one".
Unfortunatelly for my pocket, I had to agree with all them so... I did it!!!.

Scared about price, I was greatefully surprised with the deal. Around 900 Eur, with VAT included. This is less than I had to pay for my Princeton Reverb reissue and, the sound has no comparison.

Since I had negative experience with Jensen' speakers, that usually sound beautiful, detailed and silky when playing alone but, that tend to be lost in the mix, I've talked about my concerns with this amp and, wanted to test the rig with some backing tracks, to check if the amp was able to cut the mix with authority.

But then, Auvisa's people told me that starting on series III (or maybe II) of Hot Rods, Fender started to mount Celestion speakers. This one had a couple of 2 x 12 G12P-80 celestions, that are very commonly used in modeling amps, that need to represent a broad range of frequencies and, therefore, every ecualization is able to work with such a speakers.
After this clarification, I was satisfied and finished the economical transaction, to bring that monster home.

Well, probably the speaker isn't the best around there but, to me, it did a nice job in this particular amp.
In any case, this is the only amp I've got loading 6L6s.
I never liked an amp loading 6V6GT tubes. Those sound really nice and sweet alone but, the tend to be lost in the mix and, they have some kind of sag and compression that tames the attack too much for my own taste. 6L6s are other kind of beast, very powerfull and big sounding.

At such a price, it seems to me difficult to get so much tone.

Well, I have a queue of gear to review / demo and, not so much free time.
Will try to post about all this in further entries.

But, yes, we felt ourselves as in guitarists' heaven, yesterday.
A big musical experience in an awesome store.
Thanks to Auvisa' staff!!!.

General: comming soon

Comming soon

There are four gain pedals I REALLY NEED to test and, they will come very soon.
As soon, as I can put my hands on, I will create some review/demo video with all them alone and combined together.

Pedals to come are:

Jetter Jetdrive (which will take a bit longer to be delivered)
Suhr Shiba Drive Reloaded
Xotic SL Drive
Suhr Riot Reloaded

I am hopping to cover my gain needs with those and, if I like the Jetter, I am planning to get some more.
While I love Weehbo pedals, I am finding they are awesome alone but, hard to stack together and, I love to have gain pedals that work as pieces of a puzzle that I can redefine by combining several pedals together.
Also, Weehbo doesn't have a particular take of a TS alike overdrive neither a light all-purpose overdrive to enhance other overdrives or distortions.
I am missing that flexibility and, I hope the Jetdrive can fill that hole.

The Shiba seems also a good take of a TS and, lots of people talks about its goodness so, why don't try it.

The Xotic SL Drive seems to cover those Super Lead tones that I love so much, in a very practical and slim pedal. I was a bit disapointed with the amount of gain in the JCM Drive but, it seems that the JVM hasn't the same outstanding sound of the JCM Drive.
In my book, that SL seems to cover that intermediate gain I am missing between the JCM and the JVM drives.

The Suhr Riot is one of the most sought-after hi-gain distortion pedals but, the hearings I did of their first version, sounded to me a tad dark, noisy and compressed.
Suhr is now offering the Reloaded version of both, the Shiba Drive and the Riot.
I've seen the videos of Pete Thorn and, liked!.
Most of videos are focusing on D-tunning which is a bit deceptive to me, since I am usually working with standard tuning. But Pete's videos give me a closer approach to my applications.
So, I am expecting the Riot can do a better job than the Bastard, which still sounds to me as having a blanket on the cab (like an small Mesa combo).

Will I ever end my quest for tone?.
I dunno, but the trip is always exciting!.
I love (good) pedals so, I am waiting those with open arms.

Stay tuned

Guitars: Magnet swapping and wax potting a pickup

Introduction

When I was working on the Epiphone Firebird of a good friend of mine, I decided to go with a couple of Seymour Duncan's SM-1 (Firebird mini-humbuckers) for Neck and Middle positions and, I (wrongly) bought a Seymour Duncan's SH-55b (Seth Lovers) for Bridge.

I've found two issues with Seth Lovers. First, those mini-humbuckers have a hot output and, far away of the weak output of the Seth Lovers. Second, that Seth Lovers comes unpotted (to be period-correct), which results in an awful feedback, as soon as the slightly amount of gain is added (even with a light overdrive).

Issue with feedback is usually fixed by wax potting (or re-potting) the pickups, but output can be changed  well re-winding coils (more turns and/or thicker wire), which would dramatically change the foundational tone of such a pickup or, well swapping its magnet, which could eventually modify the tone, as well but, not so dramatically as re-widing it.

Well, I am not an expert (by now!, he he he) on which effect in tone has a certain magnet in a certain pickup so, I went to Seymour Duncan's forum and asked there to the experts. My forum mate LtKojak was so kind to send me one of the series of A8 magnet bars that he makes / sells for this mod.
If you are in Europe area and your are in the market after some good magnets for guitar applications, don't hesitate to contact that guy. He knows his stuff and will guide you about the right magnet for your needs.

This blog's article is all about how to swap a magnet and, even how to wax potting your pickup, with some guidance and the help of some pictures.

I will add some "magnet tonal guide", as ellaborated by people that knows that stuff really good.
This should help you to choose which magnet can bring you what you are a missing in your current pickup.

As a side note, I would say that A8 was selected in this case because, it clearly increases de output, respect of stock magnet and, because it does it in a very transparent way (without re-equing the pickup).


Magnet Swapping

To me, the really hard part of Magnet swapping is just the difficulty to remove pickup's cover.
For this, be sure to have on hand a soldering iron of 80W or higher!.
Pickup cover and plate have a big surface to disipate the heat so, you will need there a powerful iron that could instantaneusly heat the area were cover and plate were soldered together in factory.

Here we have the Seth Lover, a manual unsoldering pump and a 80W soldering iron (click on the picture for full size):

Focusing on pickup, highlighted in red we can see the two soldering spots that link together the cover to the plate and, in green the four screws that retain the coils against the plate.

Our first task is to heat those two soldering spots with the iron and, to remove the solder with the help of the pump. On the picture below, you can see the cover already removed and, the two coils lifted from the plate (once the four screws were unscrewed).

That little black bar you can see on the plate up, is just a spacer.
Coil screws are inserted thru a drilled metallic bar. Between that bar and the poles of the slug coil you can see the magnet bar.
I've used a mark pen to write the down face, left and right sides, to be sure I am mounting the new magnet in exactly the same position.

Notice that highlighted with a red square there is one more soldering spot. This one corresponds to plate ground and, the bare wire of that 4-conductors humbucker is soldered there.

Now, we can pull that magnet out and get the new one.
We need to check up / down, right/left and lateral up / lateral down.

Move the new magnet over the old magnet, if their faces attract, they have same polarity so, you should use the reverse face to have the magnet in same position. So, the down face of the old magnet will attract the up face of the new magnet.
Mark the new magnet upper and bottom faces with some pen.

Now check left an right sides. The right side of old magnet should attract left side of new magnet.
Identify sides (left and right).

Now check the lateral sides (height of the magnet). The upper lateral face of the old magnet should attract the bottom latteral face of the new magent.
Identify positions.

Now, you should install the new magnet in the exact same position your old one was. This is necessary to maintain the right magnetic polarity and hum cancelling properties of your pickups. Also, this ensures your pickup will not enter in out-of-phase mode when combined in (a natural way) parallel with the other pickup.

Just mount everything again, as it was before.
Be sure screws are in the right place thru the cover holes.
Press the cover against the plate and be sure everything is ok.
Then, apply some solder to same stock spots and, you are done!.


Wax Potting

Once the cover is removed. There is still one more solder spot to unsolder, as shown in the previous picture above. This corresponds to the plate ground (linked to the bare wire).
You should unsolder the plate ground to completely free the two coils of the pickup.
Pull up that black cable that holds the 4 conductors, to remove it from the pickup's plate.

Ok. We have the two coils ready for a warm wax bath.
You could even remove the black tape around coils but then, be very careful handling coils, because wires are so thin that you can easily break them.

To prepare the wax bath, you will need wax bee (20%) and parafine (80%).
In my case, I've just used some cheap candles (mostly parafine) but, a correct bath should have mentioned composition.

If you use candles, cut them in half (at least) to remove those parts that aren't wax.
Be sure you get a cheap pot that you will never use to cook.

Prepare a wider pot with watter inside, for a "bath Maria" operation and, insert your wax pot inside.

I had to wrap some thermal tape to lock the pot's handle and to avoid the inner pot to touch the walls of the outter pot.

Once the wax was melt and, it isn't smoking (careful!, really hot then!), you can throw some clean pebbles over the bottom of the pot, to avoid the coils to directly touch the metallic bottom.

Just be sure the wax isn't so hot. The outter watter shouldn't be hardly boiling, you wax neither and, wax shouldn't be smoking. Those pebbles should cold a bit the wax for a while and, that's ok.

Gently, leave the coils over the pebbles and, wait for between 15 to 20 minutes, when you cannot see more bubbles being generated.

Now, you can pull out those coils and, with the help of some fabric or cooking paper, you should gently remove the excess of wax, specially on metallic parts (poles and screw heads).

Those coils have both very short wires, black (negative or start) and white (positive or finish) and, each of those was soldered to one of the 4 colored conductors (red of screw finish, green for screw start, black for slug finish and white for slug start).
Those twisted and soldered wires had some isolant tape wrapped around and, a couple were lost in the bathing.
So, I had to wrap some new isolant tape around those, to avoid shortcuts.

Wrapped some isolant tape aroung both pickups, to stick them together and to maintain controlled the 4 conductor junctions inside the wrap.

Once done, I've mounted everything back (includeing that new A8 magnet bar!), soldered the cover to the plate and, installed back the pickup on the axe.

Well, that Firebird has the two SM-1 and that SH-55 (potted and with an A8 magnet) back.
I will test if there was some improvement in a new blog entry.


Magnets Tonal Guide

As you know, every pickup is a compromised solution of the several constitutive parts to achieve some determined goals (EQ, output, resonance, etc.).
If we preserved rest of components always the same and, we did just a magnet swap, these are the effects that the different magnet types do in pickup's tone.

Some overall considerations

Magnets are made of different compositions but, they are usually of AlNiCo (Alluminium, Niquel and Copper) or Ceramic, even that there are more types (neodynium, samarian cobalt, etc.).

From those, AlNiCo, that presents several different formulations, are considered as more organic, less defined note by note but with a complexer voice while, ceramics are considered as more defined note by note but, somewhat plain sounding.

For sure, a good pickup maker can do a good job with either but, some seem to fit better certain styles than others and, remember, we are considering here what a magnet swap can do to the exactly same pickup, in any case.

Also, AlNiCo magnets are less powerful than ceramics, that tend to be used in high-output applications.
Some other magnets seem so be so expensive than aren't usually seen in pickups and, more specially, as spare parts.

To describe tone is always hard to do with words so, get everything with a pinch of salt.
We are just going to discuss the several AlNiCo magnets available in the market and, even being just a handful of types (formulations), they can be finished in very different ways, what opens the possibilities and considerations about tone.

By example, some magnets can be oriented or unoriented. This refers to the arrangement of its particles. Oriented magnets have their particles aligned in a certain direction, while unoriented ones have each particle randomly oriented.

It seems that, as happens with regular and scatter winding of coils, unoriented magnets have slightly more complex tones and, sound more musical to the hearing, while oriented ones are more accurate reproducing the note.

They can be polished or roughcast. Polished has slightly more output and more trebles.

And to make things even more complex, they can be fully charged or aged or degaussed (de-magnetized).

Ceramic ones, overall, have more present mids than A5 (AlNiCo 5) magnets, more output, controlled basses and a bit piercing trebles.


AlNiCo Magnets

Take into account that even that there are AlNiCo Magnets formuled from A1 to A12, we are going to describe the more usual in guitar pickups.
(this info was compiled from comments of some serious users).

A2
Overall, good cleans on neck position. For chords and melodies.
They overdrive the amp really nice, a tad darker but liquid solos (think on Slash).
A tad weak on bridge position, a tad piercing on highs.
Works for old-school riffs but not enough power to deal with AC/DC stuff, by example.

A3
Really great cleans on neck position. Belly highs, full mids, few basses. Awesome for clean stuff.
Under overdrive, similar to A2 but, less basses and more highs so, it sounds clearer but, without any special character. You miss something.
Slightly less output than A2.
In Bridge pickup, very bright but not piercing, tight drived sound but overall weaker than A2.
Good for Jazz, Funky, etc.

A4
Probably, the most EQ balanced magnet.
In Neck, delivers sweet sounds and, under overdrive, stays clean and defined.
Bridge delivers what you have in your head respect of vintage PAF pickups.
I personally love PAF necks with A4 magnets.

UOA5 (UnOriented A5)
Jimmy Page's tone there.
Like a succesfull mix of A2 and A5 magnets. The mids from A2 and, adds a bit more basses, trebles and tightness.

A5
Scooped mids, slightly boomy basses and slightly piercing highs.
This a very often seen magnet in production pickups and, very specially, in bridge positions.
It cuts as a razor under overdriven situations and, has a lot of presence.

A8
More output than A5 (practically the same as ceramic) and, EQ-wise similar to A4 and, therefore, very even balanced.
Maybe because of that extra output, not so sweet as the A2 or A4 and, a tad more plain on harmonical content.

I hope this little guide can be of your help.
Anyway, contact one of those magnet wizards (as LtKojak in Seymour Duncan for more accurate guidance).

In a new article, I will comment about my impressions after swapping the original A2 magnet with a Roughcast A8 magnet that LtKojak sent to me, to increase the output of that Seth Lover Bridge, to better balance its output with the output level of the SM-1s, without loosing too much of their original character.