Rich_S

About 15 years ago I was stuck in Cincinnati over a weekend while there on business. I went to see Scotty at some local bar that Saturday night. Hung around to tell him “hi” and “wow” at the end of the night. Nice guy. He’ll play an entire solo of impossibly fast double stops and then end it by doubling the speed for the last line. Left me just shaking my head most of the time.

Several pedals for sale. $10 shipping for individual pedals, I'll combine shipping if you order more than one. Behringer CC300 Space-C: Good-sounding clone on a Boss Dimension in a plastic box. $20 Boss DS-1: Older DS-1 with through-hole PC board, making it a good mod mod platform. Previous owner swapped out the in-line op amp for a socketed DIP package. Other than that, I believe it's stock. $25 Zoom MS-80IR+: Amp models and IRs in a pedal format. Great practice amp or as the "amp" in a all-pedal modeling rig. Like new, includes box. $95 DOD Overdrive Preamp 250: Like new in box. Modern reissue to the DOD classic. As you can see, I ended up with two of them. Whchever one sells, I'll keep the other. Like new with box. $70 Mooer Yellow Comp: Great-sounding clone of the Diamond Compressor. Optical-style compression. $45 DOD Overdrive Preamp 250-X: Like new in box. Modern reissue to the DOD classic, with added 3-way clipping switch. As you can see, I ended up with two of them. Whichever one sells, I'll keep the other. Like new with box. $80 Dean Markley Preamp: Relic from the '80s, preamp/boost with active 3-band EQ. Designed as a preamp for acoustic guitars, but it's a great booster for electrics, too. $30

As an expat Philly boy, Kotzen’s accent is music to my ears.

After 30 years acting like a responsible parent/homeowner/employee, I returned to gigging with an ‘80s new wave cover band, averaging about three gigs per month. Lifting my 42-pound DIY 18 Watter clone (1-12” combo with an unbelievably heavy Classic Lead 80) out of my Camry’s trunk was hurting my back, so I switched to a Quilter Superblock UK and a cab with an Emi neo 12”. That cut the weight of my heaviest piece, but I still have to carry two Teles in gig bags, the cabinet, a toolbox full of the amp and cables, 16” x 11” pedalboard in a hard case, big bag of misc cables and power cords, an amp stand, and a mic stand. I recently discarded a 10” powered monitor in favor of in-ears but it’s still a lot of gear to load in and out. Given all the “other” crap I have to lug, I’m wondering if the 20 pounds I saved switching from the tube combo to the Quilter was actually worth it. I might switch back to the 18 Watter this year.

We’re expecting 5-10” of snow tonight so I’m going to wake up to cold stairs. The band has a great swagger.

Just one new guitar this year. I wanted an all-purpose guitar that I could use for an entire gig, slotted in between my two other two Teles, one normal-ish with two single coils and one 2-humbucker Schecter PT partscaster. My employer has this silly system of brownie points that you get occasionally for going above and beyond, but I got a big slug of points for selling a couple of projects (even though sales is not my job). From the online catalog of quality merchandise, I selected a 3-color sunburst Player II Telecaster. To make my vision a reality, I installed Duncan pickups - a Hot Stack bridge (with series/parallel switch) and an SM-1 neck. Throw in an aged white pickguard from Guitar Fetish, and we have my new #1 gigging guitar. Does a pretty good job of covering all the bases for my '80s mostly-new-wave cover band, including the occasional half-assed foray into hair metal territory. Other than that, my focus in 2025 has been streamlining my pedalboard for the '80s thang. The two Wazas and the OD-3 are new, as well as the HX One "Swiss Army" pedal.

… for example, before I bought an HX One as my Swiss army pedal.

Back in spring of ‘24 I started gigging regularly with a band after a 40-year layoff. I quickly decided that lugging my 40-pound DIY 18 Watter clone (combo with a Celestion Classic Lead 80) was too much for my 65-year-old back. After consulting a couple of forums, I bought an Emi Texas Heat Neo, put it in a DIY 1-12 cabinet and powered it with a Quilter Superblock UK. I use the “plexi” voicing, run the line out to PA with the built-in cab sim, and get more stage volume than I’ll ever need through the 1-12 cabinet. I couldn’t be happier with the sound and the new rig weighs 1/2 what the old one did.

I’m not usually a PRS guy, but that’s a very pretty guitar.

Justin Hawkins did a piece on these (non-) guys and showed a lot of their band “photos”. They’re far less convincing than the music. One of the guys has too many knuckles. AI doesn’t know how to string a 3-on-a-side headstock, but there are plenty IRL who don’t, either.

I can’t tell from the photos. Is that tone wood?

I vote for two more strings.

If the mudflap girl farts, will it damage a lacquer finish? What about poly?

Keep it away from John Elder Robison.

The best thing, gear-wise, was finally getting my Sunburst the way I want it just before the holidays. Also, my mother-in-law gave me some cash with instructions to spend it on myself, so I ordered an EH Soul Food from MF. Ship date isn't until 1/14, but I'll finally be able to see what all the Klon buzz is about. Non-gear, I got a pair of lambskin moccasins for around the house. Comfy. Also, in tune with the "keeping warm" theme, a pair of flannel-lined jeans. Why have I never head of these before!?! I'll be wearing them all next week, when it's supposed to be 0-15 F the whole time.

YOU! Will never own as many Hamers as I do!

I just want to make it clear that I NEVER owned, or wore, parachute pants.

I just received a two Switchcraft 151 jacks in the mail yesterday. I got them from Markertek on a recommendation I received in my own similar thread a couple week ago. Here's a link: http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/topic/62125-flush-mount-jacks/?hl=jack Markertek were great. The jacks were $4.79 apiece, shipping was reasonable, and they threw in a free catalog AND a T-shirt, even though my order was under ten bucks.

Watched twice. Impressive.

This was mine up until about a year ago. I came up with this idea back around 1982 - inspired by Pete Cornish's monolithic pedalboards, but using the pedals' original cases instead of re-packaging their guts. The top is 1/8" aluminum and is the shield/ground connection for all pedals. There are grommeted holes up through the deck under the pedals, so the input, output, and 9-volt wires can exit into the space below where all the connections are made. Power is supplied by a homemade 9-volt supply. The interconnecting wires were soldered onto the tabs on the jacks, inside the pedals. This design was super-reliable and easy to set up. The whole thing could be in place, hooked up, and powered before the lid was removed, protecting it from beer and errant beer-consuming lifeforms right up to the last second before the set began. Once I got into playing for fun rather than gigging, and the Internet inspired GAS and the resulting, incessant pedal-swapping, this old design got to be more of a pain in the ass than it was worth. Also, the common-ground design worked fine in the old days with 4 or 5 pedals, but it got noisy and ground-loopy when loaded up with pedals as shown. So, about a year ago, I caved in, bought a Voodoo PP2+, and designed to go with normal patch cords. I'll reuse the same case, but replace the deck with a non-conductive, two-tiered masonite top. I got as far as pulling the old board apart, then ran out of time, and haven't gotten it back together in nearly a year. I miss my pedalboard. Far a little historical perspective, here is Ver. 0, from about 1982.

Speaking of guitar builders who's names we're never quite sure should be pronounced with a short or a long "a"... Dennis Fano's making waves with these right now: Fender probably think they can win back a piece of their pie. (Not)

I noticed those, too. Dude probably can't bent his neck far enough to see the fretboard markers when he's in that costume. That is a costume, isn't it? I wonder if Drooper used tape markers on the back of his teardrop's neck?

I couldn't stop watching them. Interesting how some people do fairly faithful covers, whether their bands are similar or not (Punch Brothers doing Just What I Needed). Other people take a song and make it their own (Gwar's Carry On...). I love how They Might Be Giants bent the rules and crammed the entire office staff into the room for backup vocals on Tubthumping. I liked this one: