Man, I miss NAMM. Always a great time.
 
Well, I think I'm recovered from NAMM...I didn't get sick which is amazing consider the ever present NAMM-thrax that is always there with all the hand shaking and fist bumping...

Pretty great show this year. I played some amazing amps and a few guitars that may get me in trouble. Spent some time with some artists I haven't seen in person since last year and got to catch up a bit. I normally do 3 days of the show, but decided to hit Crystal Cove and Newport Beach for a few days instead. Introduced a friend to Din Tai Fung and he may have broken something internally with all the soup dumplings he ate. Oh yeah, after years of trading DM's about gear, comic books, etc on Twitter, I finally met Vernon Reid (Living Colour) in person.

My buddy who plays for Adelitas Way got to jam with Vernon and he snapped a picture of his pedalboard to show me. I'll see if I can find it and repost. It's a thing of beauty and craziness all-in-one. Great job Shred on not getting the NAMM-Thrax. Somehow my got wife it just from moving this past weekend. She toughed it out and we got moved. :eek:
 
Well, I unofficially joined the Helix club last night. Found a Helix LT used (in "Great" condition) on the Guitar Center website for $799. I've been letting these get by for several months, but now that we're past the holidays ... game on. It's coming from one of the Dallas area stores, and is supposed to be here in 3-5 days. Really looking forward to this piece of gear.
 
Let us know how it works. I've thought about it but that's a little pricey to dip my toes in that pool. They look great pieces of equipment. What no Kemper? :ROFLMAO:
 
Let us know how it works. I've thought about it but that's a little pricey to dip my toes in that pool. They look great pieces of equipment. What no Kemper? :ROFLMAO:
Kemper? Yeah, talk about pricey ...
I've been saving my pennies for awhile to get one of these. I'm also selling a bunch of other gear, partly because this will replace it, and partly to appease The Wife. I have no income from music these days, so it's harder to justify large purchases.

The LT version has fewer I/Os, no scribble strips, and no separate knob for headphone volume. Sonically, though, it's identical to the regular version. I did consider the Headrush unit, but the Helix has really the one thing I want out of a modelling unit; a model of the Pearce BC-1 bass preamp that was the Billy Sheehan sound. My BC-1 crapped out on me a few years ago, and I've been using all kinds of silly workarounds to get a somewhat close approximation of that sound. The Helix model, though, nails it. Plus, I'm hoping to get a reasonably close model of Akira Takasaki's tone form the Loudness albums as well.

There's a lot going on in those things, so I'm sure I'll be playing around in it for awhile. Endless possibilities.
 
My new guitar room is coming along slowly but it's coming along. I started running cables yesterday and setting my amps up where I want them. It's nice to have an entire room to do what you want with. Still have to buy a few more pieces but in another week or so it should be jam ready. Woohoo!!!??:guitar:
 
It does make all the difference in the world. When everything is out and ready to use, you're more likely to use it than if you have to drag everything out, set it up, use it, then tear it down and store it again. Too much hassle. That's why The Wife and I both agreed to have our own spaces when we remodeled the house. She has her sewing room, I have my studio. Everybody wins.

You're going to love it.
 
I've been struggling with picking up the guitar again after a long hiatus. Last time I played regularly was in high school nearly 20 years ago! I have my dexterity back and can play some songs/solos, but I don't have my 'musicianship' back and things sound really off. Things like accents, vibrato, bends, etc. all sound really sloppy and I haven't been able to work through it on my own since I started up again about a year ago. I'm thinking of getting lessons to help me get through this and wanted to know if anyone has any advice for frequency. Is there a benefit to having lessons every week over every other week or every month? I feel like every other week would be a sweet spot, but every instructor I've reached out to has said every week is the only way for it to be impactful. Is there truth to this, assuming I'm getting my practice in?
 
I do lessons weekly for the most part and it helps me. The only time it's not weekly is if my teacher is on tour or one of us is on vacation. Been doing it for a couple of years now. My playing is much better and my theory has gone through the roof. I think after awhile every other would be fine once you reach a point where you think it's more to your liking. I think getting back into it needs a weekly routine. I took 20 years off and needed that extra kick in the junk to get going. Now it's fun again. :ROFLMAO:??
 
Well my guitar room got put on hold until my wife goes back to work. So during my stay home I did buy this. I wanted an inexpensive 2x12" and it fit the bill. I did read some reviews that said you might need to re-brace it but for the price I'm OK with that. So now I'm just waiting for it to arrive and break it in. Anyone have any experience with V30's and how long they take to actually break in? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I also hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. And Vegas is open again baby!!!
 
Vintage 30s are my favorite in a sealed cabinet. Amazing you can get a new cab with V30s at that price.

I don't know that there really is a break-in period for them. I put some in a Crate compact 412 cab back in the '90s, and they sounded fantastic.

I see they also have a 112 at an incredible price, actually lower than the cost of the speaker itself. Shipping is a little steep, but still a great deal. That might end up being my studio cab.
 
Been a pretty rough quarantine, so I found some projects to keep me occupied, specifically this lovely Sherwood green lady. I still need to work out some electronics issues and some minor fret-smoothing, but it's a great partscaster.
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Vintage 30s are my favorite in a sealed cabinet. Amazing you can get a new cab with V30s at that price.

I don't know that there really is a break-in period for them. I put some in a Crate compact 412 cab back in the '90s, and they sounded fantastic.

I see they also have a 112 at an incredible price, actually lower than the cost of the speaker itself. Shipping is a little steep, but still a great deal. That might end up being my studio cab.

The 2x12" finally came in and it sounds amazing. Warm with bite. Exactly what I was looking for. The gain on my PRS head never sounded so good. I need to dial in the tone just a little but it's pretty damn close right out of the box. If you're looking at the 1x12" I'd buy it. I also believe it's a flat rate shipping charge (up to a certain weight) so if you add a few other things it makes the shipping more palatable. Great excuse to buy a couple things you probably don't need but always wanted. :unsure:
 
I played trumpet, cornet, and flugelhorn in r&b bands around Boston, but that was many years ago. My chops are long gone and hard to find, I'm afraid.
I'm guessing that half of us will need to google "cornet!"
I started my musical journey in 1975 playing cornet in grade school band. Played it through junior high, quit in high school, then played trumpet in university band.

I've always wanted a flugelhorn.

The one I like to use to get (non-brass player) people scurrying for Google is "emboucher."

Professional trumpeter here. 👋

Went to school for music - majored in jazz studies.
Spent 14 years in NYC playing jazz music and got funneled into doing some touring with soul bands with horn sections.
Been doing that since 2010.
I currently tour with a singer named JJ Grey and hope we'll be back on the road this winter. 🤞

On the embouchure topic:
Keeping my embouchure intact and thriving means not going more than 2 days away from the horn unless I'm prepared to spend 3 days rebuilding my chops and endurance. Crazy how fast those muscles in your face lose what you've built up over a much longer span of time.
 
The 2x12" finally came in and it sounds amazing. Warm with bite. Exactly what I was looking for. The gain on my PRS head never sounded so good. I need to dial in the tone just a little but it's pretty damn close right out of the box. If you're looking at the 1x12" I'd buy it. I also believe it's a flat rate shipping charge (up to a certain weight) so if you add a few other things it makes the shipping more palatable. Great excuse to buy a couple things you probably don't need but always wanted. :unsure:
Good to read that you're happy with it. I may end up just getting the 2x12. What I really want to do is build a powered cab to use as a monitor for my Helix. 15 watts would be perfect, but no one makes a 15w plate amplifier, so I'll probably just use a 60w I found from Seismic Audio and just turn it down. The HB 1x12 is an open back, and I'd really prefer a sealed cabinet, so the 2x12 might be the better option. I admit that I was a bit shocked at the cost of shipping to the US. So it goes with bulky stuff I guess.

I looked at the Marshall Code212 as well. Way less than what I can get it locally, even with shipping. However, HB won't ship it to the US (distribution rights, I assume).

I'm also planning on building a couple of powered bass cabinets, also for the Helix. I can't really find anything I want already made, so I'll just build those myself. One will be a 2x12 with a 300w plate amplifier (for the clean sound), and a 1x10 with the aforementioned 60w plate (for the distortion sound).
 
Professional trumpeter here. 👋

Went to school for music - majored in jazz studies.
Spent 14 years in NYC playing jazz music and got funneled into doing some touring with soul bands with horn sections.
Been doing that since 2010.
I currently tour with a singer named JJ Grey and hope we'll be back on the road this winter. 🤞

On the embouchure topic:
Keeping my embouchure intact and thriving means not going more than 2 days away from the horn unless I'm prepared to spend 3 days rebuilding my chops and endurance. Crazy how fast those muscles in your face lose what you've built up over a much longer span of time.
I go years in-between playing any brass instruments these days, and I'm always disappointed when I do. No lip at all, much less anything resembling decent tone. It's definitely a use-it-or-lose-it thing. And yeah, the loss is almost immediate.

Hope you can get back to gigging soon. I have a lot of friends who play for a living, and they're all hurting right now.
 
Got the guitar room mostly done. Plus it's the memorabilia room so I put some other stuff up. A PRS Archon or Marshall JCM would look good in there but no need for that much power. :p I finally got my DAW and USB interface to start talking so now that they're on speaking terms I'm going to see if I can't get something recorded.
Guitar Room.jpg

And I'm not a Cowboys fan. That's the misses. :mad:
 
I've always meant to pick up one of those Crate Powerblock amps. Such a cool idea, even if just as a backup amp. They came out with that after I left, so I never got to build one for myself. :guitar:

Room looks great.
 
Just came across this thread...I used to play around on the bass a lot but got bored a few weeks ago with still being in a sort of quarantine and bought a ukulele for the heck of it. Been enjoying it actually. Just learning some simple chords (I used to pluck around on a friends guitar back in the day but don't remember much) and strumming some songs. It's fun for my daughter to be able to pick out the songs (more than she can from just a bass line). Anyway...just taking it slow and kind of re-learning how to chord and strum versus pluck the bass....learning some basic song structures here and there (what's the point of learning chords if you're not gonna try to play some stuff....)

Right now a couple of easy Beatles songs, Riptide (which seems to be a uke "standard" I guess - and a song my daughter likes) and learning some other songs as I think of them....gonna try to learn some easy Dylan songs and maybe some Avett Brothers.

Mostly I'm just trying to avoid frustration and taking my time going through some youtube tutorials on the basics, taking 30+ minutes per day. Just like learning the bass...the more of a basic foundation I had, the less frustrated I'd get later.

If I stick with this longer term, may snag an acoustic guitar at some point down the road. Anyway - with the cool weather setting in a bit earlier than usual in KC...doing some little fire pits on the weekends and strumming around while I sip a little bourbon...there are worse ways to spend a couple hours :)
 
Sax player here...Soprano through Baritone. Until Covid hit, I played in 3 bands; two big bands and a Sax quartet. My musical "claim to fame" is that in 2003 our rock band from work won Fortune Magazine's "Battle of the Corporate Bands" at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
 
Sax player here...Soprano through Baritone. Until Covid hit, I played in 3 bands; two big bands and a Sax quartet. My musical "claim to fame" is that in 2003 our rock band from work won Fortune Magazine's "Battle of the Corporate Bands" at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

Man we're closing in on having our own THP sax choir!
 
Eddie Van Halen Died. Oh ****!!!!
 
Not a musician myself but when I was a young man I had a friend that started a rock band in Youngstown Ohio called the Glass Harp. Phil Keaggy was the lead guitar player and would have become a rock legend had it not been for his mother passing away suddenly. Phil dropped out of rock but couldn't give up the guitar and as a result of personal tragedy and support he got from Christian friends he got deeply into Christian music and was inducted into the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2007
I'm including a link for you guitar players and other appreciators of talent. I feel privileged to have know and gone to school with these guys in the 60's.



A little background on Keaggy

 
Not a musician myself but when I was a young man I had a friend that started a rock band in Youngstown Ohio called the Glass Harp. Phil Keaggy was the lead guitar player and would have become a rock legend had it not been for his mother passing away suddenly. Phil dropped out of rock but couldn't give up the guitar and as a result of personal tragedy and support he got from Christian friends he got deeply into Christian music and was inducted into the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2007
I'm including a link for you guitar players and other appreciators of talent. I feel privileged to have know and gone to school with these guys in the 60's.
I've had the privilege of meeting Phil. When I worked for St. Louis Music, we had him play one year at our annual sales meeting / Xmas party. He was a Crate endorser back then. In addition to just being a great guy, he's a phenomenal guitar player. One of the coolest things he did was told us story about how much he loved the Beatles growing up, and what an influence they were on him. While he was telling us the story, he was playing several weird melody lines into a multi-sampler foot pedal, as well as some muted string noises and pick clicks. When he finished and played it back, it sounded oddly familiar. Then, he reversed the playback ... and it was an entire Beatles song. He'd played the whole thing part by part backwards, even the drum parts, while he was talking to us. We had a lot of really cool artists play for us over the years, but Phil Keaggy stands out the most to me.

And just so you know, Phil is a legend among all the guitar players I know, rock or otherwise.
 
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