GibsonSG86

Dude EDIT getting a mixer man. I'd hate to see you pelt out hard earned cash for something you don't need. Be smart like me and use the onboard mixer that comes with Cubase its definitely very versatile for all your mixing needs and you can set up different presets with it so it helps alot when organizing your mix into just drum tracks, vocals, or guitar. If you really want the tactile control of using real knobs and sliders get a MIDI keyboard M-Audio makes great ones and you won't break the bank. I bought a M-Audio Radium 49 key velocity sensitive keyboard with EDIT 8 knobs and 8 sliders. Its awesome dude...you can literally automate any effect you can get your hands on all you need to do is link the controls to whatever parameter it is you want to automate and voila...instant automation! One of the other guys mentioned drum machines and how pointless they are and I couldn't agree any further. With Cubase you get the LM-7 and LM-9 drum plug-ins which have pretty decent drums and effects. If you want your drums to sound even better go with the Drumkit from Hell. I still haven't bought that thing yet but **** do those drums sound realistic...you can listen to samples at their website...Here. For 100 dollars you can't go wrong. When you compare that to alot of the VSTi plugins out there which range anywhere from 200-400 dollars it really is a bargain. I hope this helps. O btw Thomas Haake of Meshuggah who I feel is a very underrated drummer when it comes to Metal did all the drum samples from his Sonor Kit.

Ahh **** I just remembered. I really want some suggestion about installing the pickups. I know I can't do this on my own cause I have no clue when it comes to electronics and wiring so I'd much rather have a professional tech install it. When I went to Guitar Center they said it was 50 dollars to install one pickup and 70 dollars for two, which seems like a decent deal but I was wondering if it was smarter to have the pickups installed in a private store. Im pretty sure its a better idea though to at least buy the pickups at a commercial retail chain such as Guitar Center or Sam Ash cause they do price matching and all that.

Interesting advice there Luke I will definitely look into these alnico pickups your mentioning. If its good enough for EVH then its good enough for me I guess...lol. Keep those replies coming. Thanks!

Thank You for your reply Librero. If there are anymore comments or reccomendations I would love to hear your advice. Sadly after going to Guitar Center a place where you figure someone would have some sort of basic knowledge about this subject, I was dissapointed to find out that none of their sales reps. or employees working in the guitar section had any knowledge about my problem. They couldn't even tell me which guitars had which humbuckers I was interested in so I could hear their sound. I will return there today, hopefully I will be able to get more help this time.

Thats funny I bought Cubase System 04...i too was in the same position u are right now wondering how the hell am i gonna get some good quality recordings on my computer. Cubase System 04 is great man...I still don't know everything about Cubase as its a pretty expansive program but the EDIT VSTi's you get with it are worth the EDIT price of the software. Trust me man...buy a EDIT midi keyboard like I did and you won't regret it. Cubase has some really good recording functions too such as mixing your recording. You can even take different takes and cut them up at differents sections to get that perfect take...Its a really good recording environment...i mean it can be a lil intimidating when you first use it but once you discover how much possibilities there are where you can take your music there really is no turning back...i hope this helps if you have any questions i'll be glad to answer...btw be warned Cubase takes up alot of your CPU power...it has frozen up on me in the past or i've had audio dropouts cause i have a measly 128 MB of RAM...I really should upgrade and put more in but im lazy...other than that I had to upgrade to Windows XP cause Cubase wouldn't work with my previous operating system, Windows 98 SE.

Hi all im a new member to this forum so bear with me here. I want to know a lil bit about the line of available humbucking pickups out there. Currently I have a Gibson SG special w/ wine red mahogany body and stock Alnico Humbucking pickups in the bridge and neck position. However recently I've been having the urge to transform my axe into something a lil bit more of a soloists instrument. I play alot of metal and use various dropped tunings. Right now I have my axe equipped with GHS TNT guitar boomers so I get better definition of notes in these dropped tunings. I play rhythm and lead though and sometimes I have the urge to just shred out every note I can but these pickups don't seem to be cutting it cause I can never get those fast tapping solos to sound like bliztkrieg or whatever. Before I bought my SG I learned about sustainers and after shopping around I bought a Jackson with a duncan designed sustainer unit, I believe the company was called Sustaniac. Well anyway to make a long story short I returned that axe which had everything going for it but it had that stupid floyd rose tremolo unit and I couldn't tune the thing for beans. I traded that in and got my SG special which has a lovely body and a nice low tone when the rhythm pickup is active. Boy do I love this guitar but there are a few major gripes like the fact that it doesn't have that cool tremolo bar like the Jackson had for those amazing EVH dive bombs and also it doesn't have the sustainer... :-( ... How I miss that thing. Ok so if anybody has any idea what pickups i should be looking at im open for suggestions...I heard alotta good things about Seymour Duncan and EMG particulary the Dimebucker and the EMG 81. Well anyway which one has better sustain. I also was hearing good things about the Dimarzio Evolution that Steve Vai uses...hmm...choices, choices, choices. Boy I don't wanna bore you guys, so lastly I'd like some advice on installing a tremolo bar on the Gibson SG. Your comments are greatly appreciated.