Jump to content

LVJMusic

Members
  • Posts

    4
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About LVJMusic

  • Birthday 10/17/1958

Profile Information

  • Location
    Champaign County, Illinois
  • Interests
    Ummm, music as it relates to the guitar and other fretted stringed instruments: Guitar - electric and acoustic; bass - also acoustic and electric (OK so the G & L is fretless), mandolin, bouzouka, hammered dulcimer, bowed psaltery (I know they don't have frets, but I love the way they sound... LOL): guitar building, recording, and just listening to any music. To clarify what kind of music, I like good music. Bad music stays in the bins in the record/CD section... particulars? Jazz, rock, blues, classical, bluegrass and a couple of other musicians who are hard - if not impossible - to put in a catagory.<br /><br />What do I find disinteresting? Music that doesn't even try to connect to me as a listener. Music that is done for the purpose of being/creating an art form. Art in the sense that "we want to offend you, so we're calling this noise 'art' and hope to get a grant so we can go to parties and be all self important"

LVJMusic's Achievements

Newbie

Newbie (1/14)

  • First Post
  • Week One Done
  • One Month Later
  • One Year In

Recent Badges

0

Reputation

  1. As far as monitors, go with the best that you can afford and that sound good to your ears (as far as a general sound). Then allocate enough money for a cheap boom box or other listening device (I know, there are those who will consider this sacrilidge on this forum... just saying what i know works...) to listen to the tracks as many who download to their iPod or as a file ripped to mp3 format would hear them. This will let you know whet the end user will hear. After all if they don't like the sound, there will be no recommendations to their friends to check out your tracks! After all, we don't all have the luxury of having a pair of $4000 reference monitors sitting out in the back room...
  2. Would love to hear Satch play "Ice 9" on the LP, now that would be cool...
  3. I only told him what I've done and using treble or quad steel wool _with_ a wood oil (lemon, linseed, certainly not a tung or danish oil) has done wonders to bring back a finish - with a light touch (don't go putting it under a 500rpm orbital polisher...) As far a putting oil on the machine parts of an insterument, I did not recommend that he bathe them in it while on guitar. As I mentioned the best option is to disassenble and soak them in a container, ( additional info: for a few hours or overnight) and then remove all excess oil. Using a needle drop applicator (sort of like asyringe but not a medical supply item) I've been able to apply an exacting amount of oil to threaded machine parts and not come close to any wood. A q tip or cotton swab stick is at the ready for any mis-steps. He has already said that he would niot be trying to do much to get all the 'funky character marks" off the instrument. Only pointed out what i would do if it were mine. [sarcasm] I was just putting my $.02 into the replies. Please let me know if there is a harm in that and I'll be glad to moderate the responses of what I've learned and done in 25 years of conditioning players axes to simple yes and no replies. Thought that this was a sensible board but I could be mistaken. After all there are (gasp!) musicians lurking here... [/sarcasm] regards, LV
  4. Good looking instrument you have there. The body work can be left if you want the zing of a reliced axe. But I would not leave the metal pitting on the bridge go. That is never a good thing. As the guitar is played the adjustment screws could rust to the point that they would be nonfunctional and have to be replaced. Their size means that you'd probably have to replace most of the small pieces on the bridge at that point aswell. Several little tricks come to mind; the first item is the rust and pitting on the bridge. I like to disassemble the parts and soak overnight in light machine or penatrating oil then hit with a small wire brush (sold as a welding brush stainless or brass bristles and looks like a woden handled toothbrush) to remove the flecks. Finally, reapplying a couple of drops of oil periodically to all threaded pieces will help to drive the moisture off the base metal and keep them usable. The nickel knobs and back plates of the machine heads can be polished up quite nicely with any number of good metal polishes and should not have to be taken off to do this but take care in not getting it on the finish. One other thing, the swirls or haze appear to be on the top layer of the finish and can usually be cleared up by using "000" or "0000" grade steel wool with a good wood oil for lube and a light touch. Some like the look, some don't. The sunburst will hide most of it when you're playing anyway. regards, LV
  5. Found this board, read a bit and found that it has almost all the comforts of home! Hey gang! LV here from the great state of Illinois that lately has been more of a cesspool of politics than usual. Oh, well like much in life, take the good and the bad. before anyone asks, no, not from Chicago (just outside Chicago is a little place called Illinois) but in the heartland of Chief Illiniwek (it's not a mascot, it's an attitude). I looked at the original link that westhemann asked about and lo and behold, three + years later, it was still a good link and was still a good basic recording setup. Several points that were not mentioned in this thread came to mind as I read and felt that some here might benefit. In all the discussion of what everyone uses, no one mentioned the fact that the system in the link could serve as a basic idea of what all is needed to make a recording. I know that I will miss a few items, but it has a recorder, amp, speakers/headphones, cables, recording media, mics, stands, etc, etc. If I were going to try to explain to someone totally unfamiliar with the recording process, I would pull up this web page and explain what each piece of the puzzle did in relationship to the others. That said, one can also use this (as I did several decades ago) to get a basic recording setup together to make tapes (cassette) for my friends. I started using cassette tape bounced to cassette tape and by the third or fourth bounce, the noise floor was so present, I had to roll off all the highs just to get another pass. Totally unlistenable by today's standards of Mac vs. PC. But I could share my song ideas with my band members and we could get it closer faster that way than any other way that was available to me then. Fast forward - today, I still use some of the same tricks that I used then to capture ideas and flesh them out for others to share and expand upon. Using the ad linked to above as a guide, I would buy the incidentals new and try to find the best used gear for the high ticket items. To explain, I was using a small two track recorder wishing I had an 8 track reel to reel. Boston used only 8. The Beatles only had four after the White album. To have 8 and the ability to bounce down through a good noise reduction unit would be the best I could ever imagine. Fortunately, others had better imaginations… Well, long story short, I did get the 8 track back in 1988 and have not looked back. I now have a second for backup and to use for spare parts. Shortly after the first 8 arrived at my studio, the ads and hype started showing up for the new (then) ADAT and DA series digital. DIGITAL! No loss on bounces! Heaven... <<<SIGH>>> (NOTE: “gear-itis” is _not_ deadly or even fatal – except for the damage to the wallet and for the marital bliss of those with spouses…) Today, I have three TASCAM DA-38's and a fourth for spare parts. All four were purchased for less than the "complete” setup shown on the link above. I also was able to purchase new cable for the rig and a box of new DA tape. OK, when did I buy them? Three years ago. I know, “that’s so old school”. But I have also been able to _afford_ three new axes, a VOX modeling amp and a SRW bass amp (I liked the VOX Valvetronix so much, I bought a new Tonelab to use exclusively at home). plus am still under the costs for a comparable 24 track digital setup… (and the spouse is resting in bed while I write this). The point? Well, we can all wet our pants crying after the latest, greatest, but we cannot forget the first and foremost reason the have a recording setup is to capture those 'magical moments"... the ones that will surely get away into the ether otherwise. The people who are the first to get the "latest, greatest" with every last bell and whistle, IMHO are the beta testers for the music products industry. Let them go and beta test, I'll keep on using what I have to record what I like and not have to spend 75% of my time with my nose in a book/webpage/cheat-sheet trying to figure out how to get it to do what I'm trying to do. Again, the thread covers some really great points and I _have_ favorited several of the product links here for closer study. Thanks for letting me share a few thoughts with you all. Kindest regards, LV
×
×
  • Create New...