Tag: practice

Small Amps for Small Spaces?

Post author By joe
Post date October 25, 2012
53 Comments on Small Amps for Small Spaces?

I've got a Tweed Champ kit, and I'm not afraid to use it. Or at least not VERY afraid.

I’ve got a Tweed Champ kit, and I’m not afraid to use it. Or at least not VERY afraid.

Why do they make amps so damn loud?

It’s not just a cranky question from a guitarist who’s drawing depressingly close to the “Get off my lawn!” years. I ask sincerely: Why?

Big amps make total sense — but only if a) it’s 1969, b) you’re playing venues with Jurassic sound reinforcement, and c) you’re a guitarist in danger of being drowned out by Keith Moon or John Bonham.

Okay, end of harangue — I’ll have time for that when I’m chasing kids off my lawn (after I move to the suburbs and GET a lawn). But as I get psyched up to build this review model of Tube Depot’s Tweed Champ kit in the coming days, I figured I’d ask what folks are using these days to get cool amp tones in their bedrooms and basements. Not dedicated practice amps, necessarily, but great-sounding stuff that happens to be ultra-low-wattage? Name your petite-amp poison!

Anyway, I’m stoked about this kit. I’ve already completed a few amp clones from Ceriatone. They were fun to build and sounded great. But I can tell right off the bat that this Tube Depot kit has at least one major advantage over its Malaysian cousins: This one comes with a fabulous 40-page instruction manual. (Most clone vendors simply link you to a schematic.) Having created a few step-by-step instruction manuals myself, I can testify how much painstaking work these entail. Hats off to Tube Depot’s Rob Hull for doing it right!

Details and build report to follow. But now, let’s talk tiny-amp tone!

Tags amp, class A, DIY, fender, home, kit, low, practice, project, quiet, recording, small, tube, Tube Depot, volume

guitar

Do You Ever Give It a Rest?

Post author By joe
Post date September 10, 2012
32 Comments on Do You Ever Give It a Rest?

I managed to get out of the studio for a few days...WAY out.

I got out of the studio for a few days…WAY out.
Welcome to Metropolis, Nevada, population zero.

Do you ever find it beneficial to put down the damn guitar and get out of the house?

Usually, my answer is “no” — I like hanging out in the studio, and am immensely grateful that I get to do something I love most days. But after a long stretch of over-work, I was hankering for a nice, long road trip, and decided to go on a photo safari of remote ghost town sites in Northern Nevada — something I’ve never done, and a serious change of venue for an effete urbanite like me.

The plan: explore by day and play with my mobile recording rig in the evening. Crank out a few posts on small audio interfaces and recording via GarageBand for iPad. So I tossed my Hello Kitty guitar into the back of my rented 4×4, figuring I could prop it in front of disintegrating shacks and abandoned mine shafts for maximum photo fun.

And then right before departure, I unpacked all the music stuff and left it behind in San Francisco.

I just had a last-minute hunch that it might be beneficial to not play music, or even think about it, for a few days. I didn’t even listen to the radio much — just a couple of audiobooks. (Holy cow, I forgot how amazing Heart of Darkness is — and I only just realized that title of that great Gang of Four song “We Live As We Dream, Alone” is pilfered from Joseph Conrad.)

Abandoned mining equipment, Hamilton, Nevada.
No Hello Kitty guitars here!

So now I’m back home — and while I can’t claim I’m bursting with magical inspiration, the guitar necks feel fresh in my hands, and think I’m a little more mindful about choosing and shaping notes — or at least more relaxed about the process.

Anyone have similar experiences? Instances when temporarily fleeing your musicianship improves, or at least refreshes, it?

Tags bass, break, guitar, joe gore, practice, rest, vacation

DIY Music Tonefiend DIY Club

The Workbench & Rehearsal Room iPad:
My Top 10 Apps

Post author By joe
Post date April 6, 2012
21 Comments on The Workbench & Rehearsal Room iPad:
My Top 10 Apps

iPad: Your pathway to a more productive and better organized workspace!

organization — iPad: Your pathway to a more productive and better organized workspace!

It’s not as if Apple needs more free publicity, but IMHO, the iPad is the greatest workbench and rehearsal room innovation since the Mesopotamians perfected beer.*

Seriously — I find myself reaching for the thing as often as I reach for the soldering iron. In fact, I sometimes confuse the two, which probably explains the sketchy wiring in my pedals and the mysterious burns on my fingertips.

Marketing hype notwithstanding, there’s isn’t always “an app for that.” (In particular, I eagerly await the “Why Doesn’t This $^%&Y# Thing Work?” app.)

But I would like to share a few tools that proven consistenly useful in the two years since the iPad’s debut. Prices range from free to a whopping $5.99 for Electronic Toolbox Pro.

Play Prev|Next

Electronic Toolbox Pro

Cleartune Chromatic Tuner

Safari Web Browser

Dropbox

Metronome™

Camera

Kindle and/or iBooks

StreamToMe

Voice Memos

iCircuit

Plants vs. Zombies

Is anyone else foolhardy enough to expose their expensive mobile devices to hazardous workbench and rehearsal room environments? What are your observations? Recommendations? Bitter regrets? Do tell.

* Just kidding. Kids, don’t drink and solder.

Tags app, Apple, application, best apps, DIY, iPad, music, practice, rehearse, top 10 apps, workbench