draelyc

That is awesome! I only know the big hit singles, but I LOVE those songs ~ and as much as I dig Billy Idol, I'd argue that the original of Mony Mony rocks harder than the cover. Yeah, I said it. I don't know any of their deep cuts, though, so I'd have had no idea what to expect from their live show. IME, these cats who've made their bones in the '60s & '70s and been consistently touring since back then really know a thing or two about a thing or two when it comes to, as you say, working a room. Things that I'm not sure many younger bands are picking up. Seems like, for one thing, they never put everything on the studio records, always saving a little something extra for the live show. (Case in point, I'd never have known that Dylan is a pretty good lead player if I hadn't seen him live in the late '90s). The other thing for me is that there's something deeply … satisfying … about experiencing a stage full of real pros coming out and putting on a real show, where the musicianship is spot on and the stage presence just jumps out. There's a work ethic there that *always* feels great to me whenever I see/hear it. I saw the current incarnation of Styx several years ago, and while that's a band that was never going to win too many points for game-changing originality (I say that as a fan!), to see Tommy and JY just laying it down with such professionalism ~ and the rest of the band working at that same level ~ was just very gratifying. Thanks for a great review, man! Sounds like I'd love to see these guys if I ever get the chance! Chris

My first Hamer ~ and still my #1 axe ~ is a Mirage I. I did end up having mine modded for a full sized humbucker in the bridge after a few years, and while I don't regret that decision and still love the guitar dearly, I do sometimes wonder "what if" I'd gone in the other direction and put three traditional single coils in there. And I do remember, probably ten years ago now, going down an internet rabbit hole and discovering this company that (allegedly) made single-coil sized P-90s, and I really wondered what my Mirage would have sounded like with those. Will be very curious to see ~ and hear ~ what y'all end up doing with this one!

Not really practical but my oldest pedal ~ and the first "boooteek" thing I ever bought ~ is a Fulltone Choralflange. Really hard to beat for rich, warm, analog goodness with a nice throb if that's your pleasure . Not practical because I believe they're out of production and could be pricey. But IIRC (big if!), the CF-1 was Fulltone's take on the old Boss chorus, anyway, and you've already got lots of recommendations in that direction, so I'll throw in with them and say find a good used Boss.

Looks sweet! Clispeses?

I'm a big fan of Ernie Balls, fwiw. Grew up playing 9-42, switched to 10-46 for a few years in my mid-late 30s (I'm now 48), but developed some wrist problems (not from the 10s) and have been using Hybrid Slinky 9-46s on all my electrics (Fender and Gibson scale lengths) for many years now. Tried some other brands & gauges here and there over the years, but I always end up back at EB Hybrids. They're cheap, they feel great, and those gauges seem to work well for my hands. That said, I have a Studio but not a Sunburst, so I don't know what the differences might be. But my Mirage is 25.5" scale and my Studio is 24.75", but I've found that they both like the same gauges at the same tuning, and I set them up to feel pretty similar in terms of tension & action. Fwiw, and ymmv, of course.

Thanks, Travis! 👍

So I’ve had my Shiva for like six years, got it used, but had never put new glass in it till now. Don’t know why I waited so long — I guess it sounded so good (compared to amps I’d owned before) that I didn’t think about re-tubing. But I recently got a wild hair. So a fresh pair of Ruby EL34BHTs and a quick lesson in Biasing Without Killing Oneself from a friend, and I had her re-tubed, biased up, and ready to rock. Between the new tubes and a proper bias, it almost sounds like a brand new amp! I’ve always struggled with the clean channel for being *too* clean and not having a Mid eq knob. Well, now my cleans are THICK and the clean channel actually growls! But I’ve still got great warmth and responsiveness on the od ... which ROARS now, btw. Here’s a quick tone test vid I shot on my iPhone. It’s choppy because there was a weird warble at the beginning and end, so I chopped those off, lol. It at least gives y’all a good idea of how my baby sounds now...

The sound quality is terrible, but here are a couple from an early performance of my last cover band, like six years ago ~ both with my USA Studio. Again, quality sux, but I post them FWIW: I do miss my hair, though... *sniff*

Boy, I look away for a minute and WHATTHEHELLHAPPENEDTOMYTHREAD??? 😧🤣

Fer serial? 😛 But srs, that's pretty cool! Lol! 😛

😲

Great idea! Will check all these links tomorrow when I can listen @ the office. Meanwhile, here’s me: https://www.facebook.com/ChristopherTWilkersonMusic/

Went down a YouTube rabbit hole earlier and came across this gem. Skip to 3:23:

Thanks, mang! I've watched YouTube clips of the old Twinmasters & Verbmasters, but I've never had the chance to check one out in person. I bet it was loud & glorious!

Been messing around trying to program a few patches on the Boss MS-3 to work as a “fly rig” for running just the Boss into a (clean) back line, such as at an open mic. In this first clip, I think I got pretty close to matching the Budda’s celebrated drive channel. Second clip happened on a whim. I’d been listening to a bunch of YouTube clips of Fender Tweed Deluxe (5e3 circui) amps, so I got a wild hair about just diming the Budda’s clean channel and running it as a vintage one channel rig. I cheated and used the master volume to avoid damaging the structural foundations of this rental house, but this may be the best the Budda’s ever sounded! All in all, a pretty kinda day for tone!