HamerHokie

This unit is three months old, has been on my pedalboard the entire time. It is in perfect condition except for one tiny scuff on the back. It has an amazing drive channel and an extremely useful clean/low gain channel. I used it as a true preamp to drive the power amp in my combo directly (via effects return) and it worked perfectly. Description MAGNEZIUM™ is a two-channel preamp inspired by the sound of the "Magna" Super 59 amp. MAGNEZIUM™ features two fully independent channels - for low and high gain - and has an option of external switching between them via the 1/8" side-mounted jack. It combines Fender and Marshall overdrive tones in one pedal, giving you the best of both worlds. The low-gain channel delivers a Bassman-style overdrive, while the high-gain channel adds a Marshall-style gain stage at the front of the circuit. Cranking the gain past noon will take you firmly into harmonically rich ZZ Top-riffing territory. The MAGNEZIUM™ has an all-tube signal path and true-bypass switching. It's equipped with a pair of 12X7 tubes operating at full 250VDC - all converted from a standard 12VDC input. A toggle switch on the side of the preamp offers two output modes: a higher output for direct connection to a power amp or a cab sim and an attenuated mode with a treble cut for connection to the front of an amp. Product Features Inspired by the sound of the "Magna" Super 59 amp Fender and Marshall tones in one pedal Low gain channel - Bassman style overdrive High gain channel - Marshall style overdrive Two 12AX7 tubes Attributes Color: Silver Technical Specifications: Inputs: 1 x 1/4" Outputs: 1 x 1/4" Power Source: 12V DC power supply (included) Dimensions: 2.75" H x 4.7" W x 5.7" D Weight: 1.5 lbs Power Usage: 500mA EQ: 3-Band EQ Features: Power Supply Included

Tone King joins Friedman and others. The appeal of these seem to be centered around the IR features - I keep looking for demos of these as live preamps feeding the return of an effects loop but little is out there. I have considered getting the Friedman IR-D but it is pretty big for my pedalboard.

Update - I played two gigs last weekend with this setup. The Magnezium is truly a beast and complements the Roy nicely. The low gain channel of the Magnezium is perfect for Stones-like edge and crunch. The drive channel is pure Billy Gibbons. I found the drive channel can get out of hand if the gain is set past around 1 pm - becomes pretty noisy after that point. But both channels cut through the mix really well, much better in fact than the Roy, which lacks the upper midrange. I tend to keep the gain settings on both preamps lower, then punch them up with an overdrive when needed. For what I'm doing, these two preamps cover most if not all of my needs. I might replace the overdrive pedal with a treble booster and see if the system works better that way.

I've been gigging with a THD Type O (50 watt plexi) that I bought from someone on this board years ago. It does one thing very well, but I need it to do more than one thing. Right now I have set up my pedalboard with two preamp pedals to alleviate this. The preamps and other effects go straight into the effects return, bypassing the amp's preamp altogether. Both are Tubesteader preamps, meaning they are tube based. Both are dual channel. The Roy is designed to be the front end of a Vox AC30, and the Magnezium is designed to be the front end of a Magnatone Super 59, as used by Billy Gibbons. I've had the Roy for a few gigs now, I just got the Magnezium this week. The Roy is exceptional. It's definitely a keeper. Will know more about the Magnezium after this weekend but I'm not sure it's Plexi-enough for me. It has an excellent clean channel though.

It has a treble boost channel, so yeah. I will research the Dat Pedal. Which of the overdrives would you be interested in?

I just acquired a Tubesteader Roy (Vox style) preamp to replace my Victory Copper. The Roy is pretty awesome. Problem is, the Copper has a built in treble booster so I need to add one to my board. I have a number of overdrives I can trade for it: Lovepedal Zen Drive LPD Sixty8 (plexi voiced overdrive) Boss Power Stack Let me know what treble booster you have and I will research - I've found that they can sound pretty different. I really like the Mad Professor Ruby and there's a few others I've heard that I like. The ones that I can't live with functionally are the always-on types, like the kind Brian May used (Fryer).

People are using the Tonex modeling box to model their own boutique amps and sell the captures.

I got a couple of Guitar Center gift cards for Christmas so I decided to spend them on the Tonex One. Conceptually it's pretty cool - you get to pick either two amp models or two pedal models from the vast Tonex library to load in the pedal, then use them on your pedalboard. On Youtube there are a lot of videos of people cycling through the amp models and they all sound really good. I have not been able to get mine to work well, though, because it's clearly designed to be used as a direct-to-PA box with both amp and cabinet sims active. I am trying it out as a replacement front end to my amp, so it goes directly into the effects return jack. For this you turn the cabinet sims off so it's just using the amp models. And so far I can't really get a good sound out of it. I've cycled lots of amp sims - Orange OR120, Vox AC30, Marshall Plexi, Matchless Independence, and others. Maybe the tube power amp is coloring the amp sim, not sure. It might work better with a flat class D style power amp. Anyone else trying this out?

Hamer cherrybursts are all over the map. I like the ones that go from red to orange to yellow, but a bunch of the older ones go from red to yellow with little transition. Darkbursts that start in brown aren't my thing. Amberburst has been the most consistent color scheme of the three, and on a high grade top it looks stunning.

I would never filter responses based on gear. However, I have gotten really anal about specifying EXACTLY what we're looking for musically, since I've had sooooo much experience auditioning guys who didn't know what they were doing and had no clue how to play our styles.

Hee hee

Overdrive - amp. Distortion - pedal. Actually, I removed the Double Drive from my pedalboard altogether last month. The green and red channels on my JVM sound great as is. Maybe I'll put a boost in the chain someday.

I love playing in C#m, as it works really nicely with bluesier stuff.

BCR Greg recently replaced the Switchcraft jacks on two of my Hamers that failed at nearly the same time. Both over 10 years old. It involved minor cosmetic surgery but it was worth it.

In your band, you have very specific requirements for the keyboard player. Sounds like this metal band is the same, and they are probably doing the right thing. In the mid 2000s my then-band was looking for a keyboard player like you describe. We went through about 15 before we found the right one. We advertised EXACTLY what we were looking for and auditioned 14 who read that description, knew they didn't meet it, but auditioned away, 'just because.' We wasted so much time on that experience we almost gave up before No. 15 vindicated our efforts. It was especially burdensome on me, since I wasted a 2-hour round trip every time we auditioned the wrong guy. This metal band has very specific needs and in their ad they hope to weed out those who they pretty much know won't make the cut. They might annoy a few who might otherwise be good candidates, but I wouldn't fault them for their approach. The more general description they provide, the more likely they'll waste their time on the wrong guys.

I started when I was 11 learning folk songs from a guy at my church. Strictly learning chords and songs. When I was 13 I switched to a classical teacher, who taught me a bit about improvisation and more complex chords. We learned chord progressions. I was playing stuff like Classical Gas. Each of those stints lasted less than a year, and they were the only formal instruction I ever had. From then on it was listening to records and copying solos. From that I learned technique and tone. I would also pick up pointers from Guitar Player magazine interviews. One that stuck with me was how Al DiMeola practiced speed and dexterity. I used his advice liberally. Also in junior high and high school I played in stage band, which exposed me to jazz progressions. I never bought an instructional tape or DVD, I never bought a book on tab, I never learned to read music - although I have an intuitive grasp on theory. I follow chord charts well.

'Improving' isn't the right word for me. 'Refining' is more like it. I don't practice. The only time I play is when I perform. I have no desire to play incredibly fast. To me, better means literally sounding better. And for that reason, my musical values over the last decade or so have been distilled to: "Make every note count." I want every note to reach down and grab you in the soul or the nethers or whatever. So my focus has been on expressiveness, spontenaity, and awareness of what the rest of the band is doing. So yeah, I think I sound better because I'm achieving that more and more. And because BCR Greg recently told me he liked my hand vibrato .

For the first time in my life, I'm using a pedalboard. I'm running a tuner, wah, compressor, distortion/boost, and delay (in that order) and when I figure out how to make it tidy I will add my H&K Rotosphere. Problem is, it creates a major level suck. Any ideas on how to restore the gain?

Don't know. I guess I just assumed the value and the price were both in the same range. Wrong assumption, now I see. A casual check on Ebay would quell that assumption! I am guessing I could get $1500 for my best Hamer but that's up for debate. It looks like Studio Customs are selling for below that consistently.

While I'm thinking about it - last night I saw that 'Runaways' movie with Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart and it wasn't half bad. Kinda heavy handed at first, but the sight of Fanning dressed as a stripper singing 'Cherry Bomb' to a Japanese audience is too good to pass up. Fanning all growed up now, and Stewart wasn't nearly as annoying as she has been in her mainstream stuff.

I gotta disagree here. MS Office wasn't just bundled - it was integrated. A huge benefit for corporations was the fact that you could easily link live data from one application to another. Your word processing reports could have data linked from spreadsheets and databases. Update the spreadsheet and the report updates as well. I used to use it all the time. I was a Wordperfect user for years, but Wordperfect definitely played catchup when the PC world jumped to MS Windows. Wordperfect 6.0 was their first real attempt at WYSIWIG but by then Word and Office had too strong a foothold. I remember Wordpress being bundled with Quattropro at one point, too little too late.

Here is one I'm interested in now, not so much due to her singing but because of her attitude towards fans and the biz in general: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMj_P_6H69g

At VT I was on the concert committee and once we got to hang out with the guys from Husker Du and Soul Asylum after a show. Took 'em to a local party and drank alot. Had a great time. During their show, both bass players broke a string. A local private club hired Pat Travers to do a show a few years back and afterwards I was invited backstage to socialize. A local photographer passed around a portfolio of 70s era arena show pics, including a bunch of really good PT pics. He was impressed. At one point we exchanged pleasantries and I told him he was one of my first guitar influences. He didn't seem to like that.

I don't get star struck either, but I have no idea what I'd say to Jeff Beck or Jimmy Page.