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polara

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polara last won the day on March 8 2023

polara had the most liked content!

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About polara

Previous Fields

  • guitars
    1982 Prototype, 1999 25th Anniversary
  • amps
    A digital box

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    https://iamarocketship.com

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Atlanta
  • Interests
    My wife and daughter. Music. Cycling.

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polara's Achievements

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  1. The neck pickup being upside-down is odd. I think that guitar has been rode hard 'n' put up wet. Probably good to look it over in person. Carefully.
  2. I don't think you can go wrong with P90s on a sparkly body with F holes and some air under the wood. Rawk!
  3. I have looked at it, and been tempted. Seems great in theory. Anyone here used it? Like this?
  4. The Fly Rigs are really cool and sound good. I could get by with one but again for now I want to switch drive, modulation, and/or delay at once I just like the convenience of big buttons clearly labeled, with those buttons switching multiple parameters at once. I gotta investigate the whole MIDI thing to have the changes triggered by the backing tracks, though. I feel like an audience wants to see performers performing, and the less they have to deal with devices, the better. If I really were sensible we'd just be an acoustic duo, but I'm not really sensible.
  5. It's for the live ease of use. I can get all the sounds I need from an HX Stomp, probably. But on a dark or sunlit stage when I'm singing and playing and trying to look like I'm having fun, I want big buttons, with lights and names, to switch from "Clean with tremolo" to "Octave fuzz" to "Light crunch with delay" instantly. A smaller board would mean scrolling to find those presets. I'd never manage to get the radical changes in sound right without lots of buttons. Also I program in the exact delay and tremolo timing for each song so things sync perfectly, so I build banks each with four snapshots, like "Clean verse", "Bridge w/120bpm tremolo:, "Chorus with OD", and "Fuzz solo w/120bmp delay." The banks are named for the songs, and I build a setlist for each gig so I don't have to think much. I ultimately want to run our tracks with MIDI signals to have the Helix just switch without me even looking at it. We've played a couple times with a band called Olive Dares the Darkness, and their guitarist, Mike, has all his effects changes programmed that way, so all he does and play and sing.
  6. Yeah, I know. Cooking glass, bell-bottom jeans flapping in the wind, real men use big iron transformers. I'm not trying to convert anyone, but if anyone's thinking about getting a modeling-effects-computer-thang for whatever reasons they have, I recently got a Helix and perhaps my experience will help you. Or confuse you. Or do nothing for you. Gonna try to break it down to simple bullet points because I'm a corporate kinda guy. My situation Missus Polara and I make albums that no one buys, and play gigs that a few music snobs and nerds attend. We went through a lot of drummers and bassists and in Atlanta people can live a two-hour drive apart - good luck scheduling rehearsals - so we leaned into the electronic thing and use canned beats and bass. No need to for high stage volume, so I use a floor modeler into the P.A. I've dabbled in them over the years, too. Saturday Missus dropped her iPad squarely on top of my Boss GT-1000, shattering the screen. It still works, but but just has shards of glass over the LCD. For reasons outlined below I was thinking of switching to a Helix, so here is the story. My sounds Cleans are vital for me, in the vaguely Vox-Matchless territory So are light overdives So is a basic power-pop crunch, like a Timmy into a Vox Finally, I occasionally need a fuzz a la Muff No metal sounds or high-gain Early 2000s: the Yamaha DG Stomp Pros: Built very well, and simple to use The sounds seemed great at the time. Perhaps today I'd laugh Gigged it relentlessly as my bass preamp Still kinda want one as a backup Cons: Very limited number of amps and effects Tiny screen Mid-2000s: tried a few Line 6 and Boss products in stores Disappointing 2015-2018: Fractal AX8 Pros: Amp sounds were great Effects were very good Sturdy unit Good user community Lots of flexibility in switching Cons: Volume and controls of amps models varied a lot. You could blow your ears out switching models. Same with the effects On-screen editing was very difficult, small screen Software was functional, but not friendly Fractal seldom updated things and ended up discontinuing the product Summary: I think Fractal has some great models, especially on the high-gain side, and great effects, too. The newer products look like that have an improved interface. They seem to be built for people who want to do some deep tweaking and don't mind spending hours do int it. 2019-2024 Boss GT-1000 Pros: Nice physical package Switching between patches is instant Switching between banks, you can have your previous sound spill over until you release the button for your next sound in the next bank. This is wonderful. You can make any footswitch do anything you like Their X-series amps and effects, which are not designed to emulate any particular amp, are wonderful. Best modeled sounds I've tried. Lots of deep editing possible Software is pretty good, and the Bluetooth version is handy Cons: Software is very slow to save or update anything. As in 11 seconds to save a preset. On-screen editing is barely better than the old Fractal GT-1000 doesn't have as active an online user community as Fractal or Line 6 Boss doesn't update things often, and I wonder if they'll abandon the GT-1000 owners when the GTX-1,000,000 or something comes out Summary: If you "get" the Boss mindset of making a signal chain, it's pretty easy to understand, and very powerful. The sounds are great. But it's not really intuitive, and you really need to focus to make changes on the fly in a gig situation. As of a week ago: Line 6 Helix Pros: Cool colors light up and the scribble strips are great Main screen is easy to read Software is straightforward, for the most part Quite a lot of flexibility in routing and in assigning switches Active user community, reputation for support, frequent updates Most amp sounds and effects are very good Cons: It's really big and heavy Not as much flexibility for assigns as the Boss: for instance, I used to have a setting for the expression pedal to do a 50% mix of whammy and 50% mix of wah. Can't seem to do that now. Expression pedal seldom reaches full 0% setting, and I have heard this is common Like the Fractal, the amps and effects can have wildly varying volumes A lot of the amps and effects seem to be there just to boost the number of models Reverbs and delays don't seem great, but I'm still learning Summary: Easy to program, easy to make setlists, easy to use in performance, easy to tweak on the fly. I'm finding it harder to get really great amp sounds than with the GT-1000, but I think by playing with mic placement and sag I'll get there, or close enough. Very practical solution. I'm looking for a way to get the Boss fixed, and have contacted Roland and talked to an authorized service center. I'm on the fence about GT-1000 vs Helix, but leaning toward Helix. The user community and service reputation are great and it's faster to edit, even if - for now - I prefer the smaller size and the sounds of the Boss unit.
  7. I've sold almost all of my odds and ends in preparation for our move to Sweden in 2025, so now, alas, I need to re-home some guitars. Here is a Reverb link. Each is listed at $1350 including shipping. For HFCers I'll do $1200 PayPal's or Venmo'd including shipping to the lower 48. Both are in excellent shape and play great, low action and just super guitars. Hurts to sell the, but it'll hurt more if I need a damn shipping container to take my music toys across the Atlantic. https://reverb.com/item/78676981-fender-american-professional-jaguar-with-rosewood-fretboard-2017-2019-olympic-white https://reverb.com/item/78553790-g-l-fullerton-deluxe-doheny-hh-2021-with-suhr-thornbuckers More to come...
  8. Wow. That's crazy cheap. I have one and it's a really good guitar, lively and nice neck. Buy this!
  9. I'm in. 1982, sham-pain frost something-something finish 'n' gold hardware.
  10. That LP copy is stunning! I got an Oopegg. It's a Japanese boo-teek guitar that has sort of the body of an Ibanez Talman, the headstock of a Gretsch Corvette, a big ol' Gibson-scale neck, and P90, Tele, and Humbucker pickups. Here's a link to the dealer. It's this exact guitar. https://eddiesguitars.com/product/electric/electric-guitar-categories/solid-body-electric-guitars/oopegg-supreme-collection-trailbreaker-mark-i-maui-blue/ A Paul Reed Smith Custom 22. It had a few dings and some corrosion, and was clearly played a lot so I threw a lowball offer on Reverb and he shocked me by accepting it. It buffed up and cleaned up real nice. Ten top, vibrato. It is a stunningly great instrument. Missus Polara says to never sell it, and wants me to play it exclusively with our band.
  11. I've got an '82 Prototype, too... the prob'ly unique one with gold hardware and sort of a champagne frost finish. Mine is pretty unreal, and I suspect whoever owns this one will be very satisfied. Just feels good, and sound is surprisingly versatile.
  12. I'm way too old to have illusions of impacting anything anywhere, but it's gotta be weird for the young players moving up. In my "heyday" of the late 80s to 2000, the goal of most bands was to do your own thing, and do it so well it turned into something big. And it worked: even I was technically with a signed act. But with collapse of the label system and the Boomers refusing to be proper old people and stay on the shuffleboard courts and 5pm buffets... well. If ya want to get booked, pick an act past their prime, learn to play the material they did when they were hot, and you'll gig every weekend. Want to do your own music? Prepare to play house parties and damp basements in challenging neighborhoods. Reality. But I'm sure it's a blast to be in one, and I'd be down for doing a Killing Joke tribute band now that Kevin (Geordie) has left this temporal plane.
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