Mike Lee

Well, since I have an all-Oppo house, you know where I stand! But a BDP-80 and an outboard streamer is pushing $400 which is more than I think he wanted to spend. You can get a WiFi Netflix 3D capable player for $200 now. The Blu-ray picture quality will be about the same (they all are), but you lose the SACD and DVD-A support. DVD upconversion on the BDP-80 is a toss up since it doesn't have the Anchor Bay processing of the BDP-83. Might be better or worse than another player, but still probably very good. I use Apple Airport Express mini base stations as wireless repeaters in my house. They cost $100 each and extend the wireless range of my main base station, while also providing an ethernet port for non-wireless devices. So I just have one in each room near the Blu-ray player and run a cable to the player, and also to the AVR in my main system. The BDP-80 is now probably the ideal "digital transport" for discs if you have high quality outboard audio/video processing.

I think the 50 Hz frequency refers to PAL encoding common in Europe. The BDP-80 is a good choice, I just got one for my "other" HDTV. I have a BDP-83 in my main system and it's been great. Oppo is a great company and has tremendous support with firmware updates that add features and improve the product. But if you want WiFi, there's all sorts of models out there from the mass market brands. Many have Wi-Fi and Netflix streaming for less than the BDP-80.

Harmonic Design VP-90's. My favorite and extremely versatile. With the volume full up and the tone rolled off a little, you get classic P-90 tone. Tone full up you get a little more brightness and dynamics. Then roll down the volume to clean up the tone and cut the mids. My P90 Special can get all kinds of tones - P90, Stratty, Tele-ish.

There are no multi-region Blu-ray players, not even from Oppo. Doing so violates the license on the technology. There is a hacked firmware for the BDP-83 that you can use at your own risk, and there is a 3rd party hardware mod that makes it region free. The hardware mod works and is actually probably safer than using a hacked firmware. I have an Oppo DV-980H which can be made region free with the factory firmware, there's just a secret code you have to know. So if I really need to watch a DVD from another region I can always use that.

Oppo now has a lower cost Blu-ray player under $300. BDP-80 http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-80/ It's smaller, still supports SACD and DVD-A, but lacks the Anchor Bay VRS video processor. Sounds like an ideal transport for an external video processor, or a great standalone for medium sized HDTV's. The BDP-83 is going to look better on really big screens, especially projectors due to the superior video processor but otherwise the BDP-80 should be fine for most users. I want to get one to go with my "other" HDTV. The BDP-83 will stay where it is on the main system.

And? -Austin Yup, that IS the real P-90 tone! It's A P-90 tone but not necessarily THE P-90 tone. It's the sound of a P-90 (likely rewound hotter) overdriving the hell out of the mic input on a Sun head. The old P-90's where clear and clean, not nearly as hot, but still rich sounding. The SD ceramic P-90's are to vintage P-90's like a Super Distortion is to a PAF. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it results in a one-trick pony of sorts. Whatever you like is cool - I just like a P-90 that isn't so hot and has better versatility.

How do you know FMIC didn't offer Jol a chance to buy Hamer? All we know is that he doesn't work there any more, but we don't even know who made the decision, or how it was made. Those of us with backgrounds in engineering, manufacturing, and management know that Hamer absolutely could not have been a money maker in it's New Hartford incarnation. Probably not even a break even proposition unless overhead was allocated away from Hamer. The import line supports the USA line, with the USA line existing solely to give the imports a reason to exist. Jol was content to make the best guitar he could, at a price that generated enough revenue to keep the corporate guys out of his way. They probably left him alone and he liked it that way. Not so with a company like FMIC. Bill Kaman was very good to Hamer, and to all of us who were able to meet him. But it wasn't just a business to him either. Last I checked, Fender was doing great with their Charvel line, even though Wayne Charvel and Grover Jackson don't work there. I think Grover collaborated a bit so that Fender could use his name, but he doesn't "work" there. And Fender has done OK without Leo. Even G&L has gotten by without him. Frank Untermeyer (sp?) is still there. He's the only one left now that Jol and Frank Rindone are gone. I've spent some time talking to Frank U. and I have a lot of confidence in his operations management expertise. He'll run things well as long as Fender lets him...

My Special and Artist Korina 3 P90 both came with the Hot/Custom setup, and it absolutely SUCKS! The ceramic Duncans are just too hot for anything but Mississippi Queen tone. I use Harmonic Design VP90's instead, but Vintage Duncans (alnico), Fralins, Lollars, etc. are all good and closer to real P90 tone.

Yep, I heard about that too. NAD did it with a Samsung or LG Blu-ray player first, and now Lexicon has done it with the Oppo. Pretty lame IMO. Not to be outdone, Oppo now has the BDP-83 SE for people wanting even higher quality A/D conversion and output stages. It also has separate power supplies for those obsessed with such. My BDP-83 is connected to my A/V receiver over HDMI, so I don't even use the A/D converters in the player. No point in getting the SE for me, but some people with legacy high end analog setups might want it.

You can get IR adapters that plug into the PS3's front USB port to work around this, but it's not an ideal solution. The big shortcoming of the PS3 is the fan noise. Mine is pretty bad, though I've heard there is some variability between units. Once mine hits the high fan speed, it never slows back down until you turn it off. It usually hits hi speed about 20 minutes into a Blu-ray. The new PS3 slim is supposed to be more quiet, but I haven't tried one.

I'd go for the Sony S360 at current prices. I have a Sony S350 (previous version) in the MBR on a 40" XBR4 LCD and it's fine. Since Sony is the developer of the Blu-ray format, they seem to do better at disc compatibility. I've never had a Blu-ray disc not work on a Sony player, as long as you keep up with the firmware updates. My Oppo has had some disc compatibility issues, but most seem to be resolved now with the latest firmware. The Sony S560 with WiFi is a great choice if you want the connectivity and you have a WiFi network in your house. I added a wireless network extender with an ethernet output (Apple Airport Express) near my S350 to get it networked, but the extender also improves the overall wireless signal around that part of the house, so it's not completely dedicated to the player. Realistically, check the reviews and find the one with the fastest boot up and load times. You will get more frustrated with long load times than with any of the slight differences in picture quality between players. On a 42" screen you're not likely to see the differences very much, except on test patterns and benchmark discs. If you were using a 55" panel, or a projector onto a 10 foot screen, then picture quality differences between players would be more of an issue.

That is truly amazing. They actually got it right for once.

I've got an Oppo BDP-83 and a Sony PS-3 in my main HDTV setup, and a Sony BDP-350 on a smaller HDTV. The Sony PS-3 is a great do-it-all product. If you could only have one device, this would be it - Blu-ray, DVD, gaming, movie rental downloads, streaming Netflix (announced but not available yet), streaming media from your PC, fast loading, and more powerful processing than any standalone player. It's also the most compatible unit I've found - never had any disc fail to load or play, or have a non-working feature. But you get only optical and HDMI outputs - no analog audio if you need it. But HDMI capable AVR's are getting so inexpensive that it's worth it to upgrade that as well. The Oppo BDP-83 really is in a class of its own. Best DVD upconversion on the market at anywhere near the price, SACD, DVD-Audio, and loads almost as fast as the PS3. My main complaint is that it responds slowly to commands, while the PS-3 responds instantly. Also, Oppo updates it's firmware a lot, and even offers unsupported beta updates. But even so I've had more compatibility issues with pre-recorded Blu-rays, and there are various reports of problems with DVD-A's. But Oppo will actually listen to feedback and address specific issues with specific discs. You can actually email them and they respond, unlike Sony or any other big A/V company. But here's the kicker - if you are playing 1080p Blu-ray material to a 1080p HDTV with zero scaling (full-pixel mode in Sony's vernacular), most Blu-ray players perform very similarly. That's because they are just transferring the data and doing nothing to it. Just about any major brand player will be fine with Blu-rays. What separates one player from another is feature set, and processing of non 1080p material. Like de-interlacing 1080i video to 1080p, upconverting 480i DVD's to 1080p, etc. JohnnyB - did you get an Oppo yet?

Never mind.

Johnny, I merely pointed at that Mogami cables have higher capacitance than the long-recognized leader in low capacitance high fidelity guitar cables - George L's. That means they are LESS transparent and attenuate MORE high end than George L's. That is an absolute fact. Now, if you LIKE the attenuation and frequency response shift that Mogami cables provide that's great. Hendrix liked coiled cords because the poor fidelity actually warmed up his Strat tone. But Mogami's superiority, other than construction quality, is purely in the ear of the beholder. I never said anything about the placebo effect - quite the contrary. Doubling the capacitance of a cable by going from George L's to Mogami will most certainly affect the tone of a guitar into a tube amp. Now, as for recording studios, that is an apples-and-oranges comparison. Most any connection in a recording studio (EXCEPT for a guitar with passive pickups into a tube input stage) is guaranteed to be a low impedance output into a very high impedance input. That means the effects of cable capacitance and resistance are significantly reduced because the buffering effect results in virtually no current flow. So the most likely reason for selecting Mogami cables for a studio is for the quality of construction, mechanical reliability, connectors, resistance to shorting out, etc. You don't want to waste valuable studio time tracking down a bad cable somewhere in the signal chain. Such advantages of Mogami cables are not in dispute here. Poe - this is a perfectly justifiable reason for paying more for a cable, as long as the claims prove to be true over time. For the record, I use a Planet Waves Circuit Breaker 15 ft. cable that has shown similar or lower capacitance to George L's in 3rd party tests. It sounds fine and the cut-out switch comes in very handy. I have also started using George L's thin cable and solderless connectors for pedals.

Mogami lists it's cable specs here follows: http://www.mogamicable.com/Bulk/micr_cable...les/guitar.html George L's has a lower capacitance - measured in 3rd party tests at 21 pf/ft which is about HALF the level of the better Mogami cable. If you want the highest fidelity get George L's or similar. But it will sound brighter edgier, and to some ears "harsh". I played through someone else's 10 ft George L's cable once and found it too bright for my pickups. If you prefer the sound of Mogami, that's fine. But it is NOT due to higher fidelity or better electrical properties. The higher capacitance combined with your high impedance pickups simply creates a low pass filter that bleeds off some of the highs, making it sound "richer", "fuller", "more harmonic", "less harsh", etc. But this filtering is also why we like broken in speakers over new ones, and tube amps over solid state amps. Buy what you like the sound of at a price you are willing to pay, but don't try to claim that there is something special about the cables that cannot be measured or tested.

The original PRS bridges were made of cast bronze, and few years into production they switched to brass. Along the way they parted ways with Mil-Com and John Mann and started making them somewhere else. I have a Mann Made bridge I used on a Mirage, and it's about the same as a PRS bridge. As the lone dissenter in this thread, the problem with both PRS and Mann bridges is that they are made of brass and the knife edges can thus wear out rather easily. They have to be set up perfectly - every screw in perfect alignment with each other with respect to location and height. My Mirage didn't have the holes perfectly aligned from the factory - the VSV didn't need it because of the hardened steel base plate - so after I installed the Mann bridge the knife edges getting the most pressure wore out and started preventing the pitch from returning to zero. I had made sure the screw heights were aligned, though. Anyway, if it works for you, great. It didn't work for me, and the PRS trem on my old EG didn't work very well either. The saddles on the factory Wilkinson VSV kept making kazoo sounds, so that's not a better solution either.

I have a Teese Picture Wah from a couple years ago. It made my Vox RI sound thin and boring in comparison. It's doesn't have the "fuzz friendly" circuitry, but I wouldn't worry about getting a Teese wah with that feature - it can be turned off if you don't like it. Basically, a stock wah circuit is very simple and doesn't have a proper output stage buffer, resulting in a rather high output impedance. Hooking it up to a pedal with a low input impedance (especially a Fuzz Face) will cause the wah effect to lose its sweep and create oscillation squeals. The Fuzz Friendly circuit design is licensed from Dave Fox at Foxrox electronics, and can be purchased from Dave as a retrofit to any wah pedal. In addition to helping the Wah work better with fuzz, it will also help prevent your signal from degrading as it goes through the rest of your chain. I thought about getting an RMC 3 when I got the Picture Wah, but I figured with all of those trimpots and adjustments in there I 'd spend more time tweaking it than using it!

HBD!

PM sent.

Pizzeria Pomodoro on Mulberry Street just north of what's left of Little Italy is some of the best Pizza I've ever had. NYC has a million things to do. You may just want to go to the Soho area and wander around a bit, then to to the Village. Lots of cool stuff in both areas there to see, and less commercial than midtown.

Don't order a replacement plate, just fix the one you have. All you need to do is buy a thread repair kit from an industrial tool supply house. You can get either threaded inserts, or heli-coil inserts. I used heli-coils on mine and it's doing fine. Heli-coils are coiled pieces of steel thread that look like little springs. You drill out the stripped hole, tap it with a special tap, turn in the heli-coil, and then break off the driver tab on the heli-coil with a special tool. Then you just reinstall the intonation screw and tighten it snug. This expands the heli-coil into the new threads and locks it into place. You can just repair the stripped holes, or get enough inserts to do the whole bridge (12 holes). I did all of the intonation holes on my Floyd and it's doing fine almost a year later. I found this solution on a website after giving up searching for a left-handed Schaller base plate. I wish I'd thought of it earlier, because my tradesmen at work do these kinds of repairs on industrial equipment all the time.

I think Stike said it best - it's a factory, not a luthier shop. Armitage - I've met more than enough pinheads who could NOT run the high volume automated CNC machines I've worked with in the past no matter how much we trained them. Same goes for complex automated assembly machinery as well. Maybe it's just the places I've worked, or the particular equipment, but it takes more than a wrench turner or button presser to keep the stuff running well. But I do agree that programming said machines takes a lot of skill.

PRS has proven it is able to produce high quality guitars using their established manufacturing practices. And they are able to sell those guitars at a price that allows them to remain profitable. So who are we to criticize their methods or pay rates? Granted, PRS guitars aren't my thing because they stopped making left-handed guitars. I also think they are overpriced for what you get and their maple figure is often lacking even on 10-tops. But the woodworking, assembly, fretwork, and finish quality are still great. Equal to Hamer at the very least - and the neck carves are more consistent. Hamer takes a craftsman/luthier approach which is appropriate for their production rate - around a dozen guitars a week. PRS takes a higher volume manufacturing approach because they have significantly higher volumes that would make Hamer's methods cost prohibitive. And pinhead can run a CNC? Try it. It takes a lot more ability and training than many people realize, depending on the manufacturing process of course.