Lumberjack’s Blood Moon

[RonMay]

11 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

No...

Is that a sign that you've met someone in the moonlight at crossroads?

Zule  ( Ghostbusters)

 

Ron

[ScottR]

18 minutes ago, Bizman62 said:

No...

Is that a sign that you've met someone in the moonlight at crossroads?

If I did, I want my money back.

I didn't come away with any lights out guitar playing skills.

SR

[Lumberjack]

Quick bit of noodlin' to test it out.  Cheers!
 

 

[Prostheta]

Hahaha! Wonderfully fun demo man, and some great tone coming out of her. Hell, we've got to do something rather than being outside where the other people are, am I right?

[ScottR]

Good stuff! And no there is no doubt from whence comes your avatar.

SR

[mistermikev]

19 hours ago, Lumberjack said:

Quick bit of noodlin' to test it out.  Cheers!
 

 

wow dude... some fantastic playing there and sounds great.  what u using for amp?

[komodo]

Killer! I know we are talking about the guitar, but maybe a brief thing of your signal path?
This is the final straw - I'm vowing to come out of COVID being able to do rudimentary sweep picking. It eludes me so.

[Prostheta]

Still ruling that Mk III Mesa?

[Lumberjack]

4 hours ago, mistermikev said:

wow dude... some fantastic playing there and sounds great.  what u using for amp?

 

4 hours ago, komodo said:

Killer! I know we are talking about the guitar, but maybe a brief thing of your signal path?

 

3 hours ago, Prostheta said:

Still ruling that Mk III Mesa?

Trust me when I say it doesn't take much encouragement to get me talking about gear 

This was tracked with a red stripe 1987 Mesa Mark III, recapped and modified at the Mesa factory by Mike Bendinelli with the "III+" mod, which is supposed to get the III sounding more like the IIC+.  I used the lead channel with moderate gain, boosted by a Maxon 808, then running into a Torpedo Captor load box which takes the dry signal into my interface, into the DAW, where I used the free York Audio Impulse IR loader to slap an Ownhammer IR on there. It was a Mesa traditional 4x12 cab blended with an Orange 4x12, and reverb/delay were added in the DAW.  

I've been experimenting with all kinds of recording methods over the last couple years because I don't have the luxury of cranking up a loud amp and micing it properly; this video was actually my first time using the Captor, as I just got it a few days ago.  I've tried a bunch of modelers and plugins for at-home recording and have been somewhat disappointed. Neural DSP plugins, Line 6 Helix, and the Fractal Axe Fx III all sounded very good, but never felt or sounded quite as convincing as a real amp to me.  So I'm trying out the Captor as of a couple days ago, and am really enjoying it so far; something about playing through a molten hot amp sizzling with 1900's radio technology just feels *awesome*.  Like I said I used a 3rd party IR here, but the Two Notes Wall of Sound VST that comes with the Captor seems extremely robust, and just goofing around with it over the last day or two I've already been able to get significantly better sounds than I got here using a 3rd party IR loader.  

Listening back to this, if I recorded it again I'd back the gain down a bit and try to tame the high end a little more; it sounds a smidge harsh to me.  I prefer warmer, darker, chewier sounds for leads; this is close, but a bit too aggressive in the high end for my taste.  I like that high end bite for rhythm, but prefer creamy/smooth leads.  I'm not a good mixer, but so far playing the live amp, even with a digital IR, is sounding and feeling much more convincing than the modelers/sims/plugins I've tried. 

[komodo]

And here I was feeling good about picking up a used iRig HD2 today. ahahahahahahahhaa

So, I was just eating my lunch scrolling through Instagram and was fed a #guitarbuilding post that was your vid you just shared here. I was all 'wha?!' and checked out your feed. Super great stuff! You are the shredder I want to be but don't have the theory. I;m going to dig into some of your teachings and see if I can;t pick something up.

[mistermikev]

3 minutes ago, Lumberjack said:

 

 

Trust me when I say it doesn't take much encouragement to get me talking about gear 

This was tracked with a red stripe 1987 Mesa Mark III, recapped and modified at the Mesa factory by Mike Bendinelli with the "III+" mod, which is supposed to get the III sounding more like the IIC+.  I used the lead channel with moderate gain, boosted by a Maxon 808, then running into a Torpedo Captor load box which takes the dry signal into my interface, into the DAW, where I used the free York Audio Impulse IR loaded to slap an Ownhammer IR on there. If I recall correctly it was a Mesa traditional 4x12 cab blended with an Orange 4x12.   A reverb and a slight delay were added in the DAW.  

I've been experimenting with all kinds of recording methods over the last couple years because I don't have the luxury of cranking up a loud amp and micing it properly; this video was actually my first time using the Captor, as I just got it a few days ago.  I've tried a bunch of modelers and plugins for at-home recording and have been somewhat disappointed. Neural DSP plugins, Line 6 Helix, and the Fractal Axe Fx III all sounded quite good, but never felt or sounded quite as convincing as a real amp to me.  So I'm trying out the Captor as of a couple days ago, and am really enjoying it so far; something about playing through a molten hot brick of an amp sizzling with 1900's radio technology just feels *awesome*.  Like I said I used a 3rd party IR this time, but the Two Notes Wall of Sound VST that comes with the Captor seems extremely robust, and just goofing around with it over the last day or two I've already been able to get significantly better sounds than I got in this video with the 3rd party IR I tried.  

Listening back to this, if I recorded it again I'd back the gain down a bit and try to tame the high end a little more; it sounds a smidge harsh to me.  I prefer warmer, darker, chewier sounds for leads; this is close, but a bit too aggressive in the high end for my taste.  I like that high end bite for rhythm, but prefer creamy/smooth leads.  I'm not a good mixer, but so far playing the live amp, even with a digital IR, is sounding and feeling much more convincing than the modelers/sims/plugins I've tried. 

right on.  that's a sweet amp.  add a tubescreamer to just about any mesa (barring subway and roadstar) and bliss.  I have a triaxis and the iic+ is def my fav.  have an axe fx iii too and freq turn on a patch using the mesa and think "oh, yup... that's what I was missing!"  ownhammer, york, ml... all favs for sure.  have not had the luxury of trying anything two notes. 

tone sounded great to me.  fantastic work!

[Prostheta]

Totally. The Mark amps were/are a real tone enthusiasts line on the ticksheet. I'm so bummed that I didn't know what I know now when I passed over a plain brown on brown Mark combo back in the 90s when I bought my first (pretty screwy) ESP Explorer. Man, it hurts even thinking about it but not as much as selling my ESP The Mirage Custom. I digress.

We're really living in a golden age of accessible high-end recording gear and knowledge available to get some really cool sounds down. I've got admit though, I do prefer to live with a more pared-back setup these days so I can pick up and play. I neglected my practice and progression in favour of digging too deeply into the gear whore hole. I'm of the opinion that if you can work with a heavier setup and still be productive and creative, all power man. I can't switch that part of me on and off though, so I really need to have stuff ready to make noise right there and then.

I bet you that having a Mark combo would fit that bill SOOOO nicely, but it's not a fair bet....because you know this. 

[Lumberjack]

4 minutes ago, komodo said:

And here I was feeling good about picking up a used iRig HD2 today. ahahahahahahahhaa

So, I was just eating my lunch scrolling through Instagram and was fed a #guitarbuilding post that was your vid you just shared here. I was all 'wha?!' and checked out your feed. Super great stuff! You are the shredder I want to be but don't have the theory. I;m going to dig into some of your teachings and see if I can;t pick something up.

Thanks for the kind words!  I just started posting "guitar stuff" on there during the covid-19 lockdown as a way to stay sane, thinking I'd stop once life got back to normal.  But it's been fun, and well received, so I'll be keeping it up when I can.  I enjoy the instructional stuff and writing tabs isn't nearly as torturous as I thought it might be, so there's definitely going to be more of that.  
 

16 minutes ago, komodo said:

And here I was feeling good about picking up a used iRig HD2 today. ahahahahahahahhaa

I definitely don't have all that gear now!  I'm thrilled for everyone that can afford to keep 15k+ in amps and studio gear around, but for now that's not me.  I use the Mesa at home and a dinky Pod Go for live gigs cause all my live sounds are super simple.   

Anyways, all I'm saying is that you don't need a bunch of stuff to record a good sound.  You could get a entry level interface, a couple plugins, and whatever headphones you already have and off you go for a couple hundred bucks.  I'm still using a stupidly cheap Pre Sonus interface, and I got the Captor for $170 on eBay.  

 

30 minutes ago, mistermikev said:

right on.  that's a sweet amp.  add a tubescreamer to just about any mesa (barring subway and roadstar) and bliss.

I've gotta admit that I've drunk deeply of the Mesa coolaid.  I'm notorious amongst my "guitar buddies" for constantly buying and selling used gear.  But after so many years of hunting through everything from Marshall to Peavey to Splawn to Orange to Blackstar and on and on, the Mesa Mark series just really does it for me.  Absolutely loved the Mark IV I used to have, had a Mark V for a bit, and they were both absolutely stellar.   The Axe Fx III honestly did suuuuch a good job with those Mesa models I thought, they were some of my favorites on that unit.  

[Lumberjack]

13 minutes ago, Prostheta said:

Totally. The Mark amps were/are a real tone enthusiasts line on the ticksheet. I'm so bummed that I didn't know what I know now when I passed over a plain brown on brown Mark combo back in the 90s when I bought my first (pretty screwy) ESP Explorer. Man, it hurts even thinking about it but not as much as selling my ESP The Mirage Custom. I digress.

We're really living in a golden age of accessible high-end recording gear and knowledge available to get some really cool sounds down. I've got admit though, I do prefer to live with a more pared-back setup these days so I can pick up and play. I neglected my practice and progression in favour of digging too deeply into the gear whore hole. I'm of the opinion that if you can work with a heavier setup and still be productive and creative, all power man. I can't switch that part of me on and off though, so I really need to have stuff ready to make noise right there and then.

I bet you that having a Mark combo would fit that bill SOOOO nicely, but it's not a fair bet....because you know this. 

Absolutely, that's partly why I got rid of the Axe Fx III; there was soooo much stuff in there I always felt like I was underutilizing it's potential, always wondering if a slight adjustment to the deeper parameters would improve the tone, wondering whether I had blended the IRs "correctly", or was I using the right IRs at all, should I be pre-filtering with an EQ or using a clean boost, and on and on.  That's part of the charm of plugging into an amp: turn it on, that's your sound.  The end.   

That's why I'm experimenting with the Captor.  I'm really just looking for the easiest and most honest way to get that plug n' play experience recorded, so that I don't have to worry about if my preamps are good enough, if I have the mics placed just right, etc.  If I could get a whole set up and sound hooked into a single on-off switch, I would.  So far, a live amp with the load box is the closest I've gotten.    

[mistermikev]

41 minutes ago, Lumberjack said:

Thanks for the kind words!  I just started posting "guitar stuff" on there during the covid-19 lockdown as a way to stay sane, thinking I'd stop once life got back to normal.  But it's been fun, and well received, so I'll be keeping it up when I can.  I enjoy the instructional stuff and writing tabs isn't nearly as torturous as I thought it might be, so there's definitely going to be more of that.  
 

I definitely don't have all that gear now!  I'm thrilled for everyone that can afford to keep 15k+ in amps and studio gear around, but for now that's not me.  I use the Mesa at home and a dinky Pod Go for live gigs cause all my live sounds are super simple.   

Anyways, all I'm saying is that you don't need a bunch of stuff to record a good sound.  You could get a entry level interface, a couple plugins, and whatever headphones you already have and off you go for a couple hundred bucks.  I'm still using a stupidly cheap Pre Sonus interface, and I got the Captor for $170 on eBay.  

 

I've gotta admit that I've drunk deeply of the Mesa coolaid.  I'm notorious amongst my "guitar buddies" for constantly buying and selling used gear.  But after so many years of hunting through everything from Marshall to Peavey to Splawn to Orange to Blackstar and on and on, the Mesa Mark series just really does it for me.  Absolutely loved the Mark IV I used to have, had a Mark V for a bit, and they were both absolutely stellar.   The Axe Fx III honestly did suuuuch a good job with those Mesa models I thought, they were some of my favorites on that unit.  

those models do sound good but my favs on the axe are the engl, cornford and soldano.  no idea how accurate those models are but sounded good to me!  that said, comparing the triaxis in axefx to my triaxis... there is certainly similarity there... and the axefx red chnl is much better... but always find the real triaxis just has that extra .002%.  (perhaps placebo but I consistently go "ooh" as I'm not paying attention and happen across a patch that employs the real triaxis).  really, mesa is just great stuff.  hard to go wrong there.

[komodo]

This is funny. We clearly need a "What's your signal chain?" thread.
I'm on a Steinberg UR22 > puter, but mostly it's just guitar > one million pedals > EVH 5150 III >Thiele cab with Creamback. The 5150 was tube rolled to high heaven until I found the sweet spot and now it's beautiful.

None of this does any good to relieve the pain of me selling my 72 Marshall Superlead back in the day, not having any idea what I had.

 

[Lumberjack]

18 hours ago, komodo said:

This is funny. We clearly need a "What's your signal chain?" thread.
I'm on a Steinberg UR22 > puter, but mostly it's just guitar > one million pedals > EVH 5150 III >Thiele cab with Creamback. The 5150 was tube rolled to high heaven until I found the sweet spot and now it's beautiful.

None of this does any good to relieve the pain of me selling my 72 Marshall Superlead back in the day, not having any idea what I had.

 

Is the 5150 III what you used to demo the Black Queen?  It sounded awesome!  And yeah I've definitely regretted selling some amps/gear over the years.  Wish I would have just slowed down and thought things through before letting go of some of those keepers.  

I know the thumbnail looks spammy in this context, but for anyone curious I tracked a short solo yesterday to see how the guitar would sound in a full mix: 

 

[ADFinlayson]

21 minutes ago, Lumberjack said:

Is the 5150 III what you used to demo the Black Queen?  It sounded awesome!  And yeah I've definitely regretted selling some amps/gear over the years.  Wish I would have just slowed down and thought things through before letting go of some of those keepers.  

I know the thumbnail looks spammy in this context, but for anyone curious I tracked a short solo yesterday to see how the guitar would sound in a full mix: 

 

Shredding sounds great in those vids, you clearly know your modes. I like that axe almost as much as I like the beard 

[komodo]

1 hour ago, Lumberjack said:

Is the 5150 III what you used to demo the Black Queen?

Yes sir it is. You are hearing a lot of the Trisonics there, they impart a vocal tone more than any other pickup I've ever used. Also, I may have been using a Catalinbread Galileo clone I built which also has a boost. I can get similar tones with clean channel and Galileo, or blue channel (med gain) and the boost. The red channel is full balls to the wall high gain, which I actually pulled back by using lower gain tubes.

[Lumberjack]

1 hour ago, ADFinlayson said:

 I like that axe almost as much as I like the beard 

The beard is where the shred comes from.  Petrucci doesn't have that thing for nothing 
 

46 minutes ago, komodo said:

Yes sir it is. You are hearing a lot of the Trisonics there, they impart a vocal tone more than any other pickup I've ever used. Also, I may have been using a Catalinbread Galileo clone I built which also has a boost. I can get similar tones with clean channel and Galileo, or blue channel (med gain) and the boost. The red channel is full balls to the wall high gain, which I actually pulled back by using lower gain tubes.

Ah that makes sense, I was wondering where that Queenish-mid-range was coming from in your demo.  Have you ever had a chance to play the EL34 version of the 5150 III?  I definitely don't "need" another amp, but the 5150 III's sound so good for modern stuff, and as much as I love the Mesa, it's 30 years old and isn't quite voiced for anything too modern.  The 5150 iii is starting to temp me.... can't afford it right now, but....

[komodo]

Yeah the Galileo certainly puts that mid in there, but I;d say most of that was the pups. They also spit out harmonics all over the place.

Never tried an EL34 version. I get really great cleans and pedals work great before or in the loop. Not sure what I did for tube rolling but I tried a ton of combos, and pretty sure I swapped the phase inverter too. The red channel can be a wall of insanity, but pulling the gain back some tightened it up. It also made the blue channel a little more ACDC like  tight. One of the best things about it is the knob on the back, resonance I think? It's basically like a 4x12 thump control. I play at really low volumes, and can adjust that to make it sound way bigger.

[mistermikev]

congratulations!!

[Prostheta]

Set phasers to stun!

[Bizman62]

Congrats!

[Gogzs]

Well deserved, congrats man!