Karaoke Forums

Don,  I was thinking, that with companies such as Gibson, DeArmond, and several other manufacturer's of Guitar PU's also going into/ or having been involved in production of their own guitar lines.  Is there something about a solder joint that's necessary to conduct a good connection for a guitar pickup ?   Why don't a few of these companies have "snap in" pickup systems yet,  enabling the guitarist to interchange, either via clips, or speaker type slides combo's of HB pickups, single coil, higher output, blade type, etc combo's  or config's?  A pickguard can of course be designed to accomodate such aftermarket options.. Body of course properly routed.  Does this exist.  Or can I claim this patent



Anyway,  I need to get a recent clip of the Herman's Hermits.  There's just something interesting, yet also odd about a group of 55-60 year old men singing a couple of those "teen boyish" cutesy songs that Noone sung while pushing his dimpled cheek, and making cute faces as a teenager.  No wonder few know they still tour, as much as I enjoyed them around 1964,    a 60 year old man singing "Mrs. Brown you've got a lovely daughter" might not be Politically Correct today.. .  Especially considering Mrs.  Brown would've likely only been around 30's tops in those days..

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Ian Anderson lives on a farm in the southwest of England where he has a recording studio and office. He has been married for 27 years to Shona who is also an active director of the companies. They have two children - James and Gael - who work in the music and television industries respectively.

His hobbies include the growing of many varieties of hot chile peppers, the study and conservation of the 26 species of small wildcats of the world and collecting and using vintage Leica and other cameras. He reluctantly admits to owning digital cameras and scanners for his work on the photographic promotional images related to Tull as well as his solo career.

Ian owns no fast car, never having taken a driving test, and has a wardrobe of singularly uninspiring and drab leisurewear. He still keeps a couple of off-road competition motorcycles, a few sporting guns and a saxophone which he promises never to play again.

He declares a lifelong commitment to music as a profession, being far too young to hang up his hat or his flute, although the tights and codpiece have long since been consigned to some forgotten bottom drawer.



(I guess the Avid Salmon FIsherman was rumor)

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

No not at all Steve..there was a Documentary in the 80's on the discovery Channel called  "Fish Sheep and Rock and Roll" he rasies sheep as well...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 9131568059


the most suprising thing to me about Tull is that Jeanne Anderson (Ians 1st wife) wrote the lyric's to the most popular song the band did....AQUALUNG





Meanwhile, Anderson's salmon business has emerged as one of Britain's chief suppliers of the finny fellers.

http://www.tullpress.com/crfeb88.htm

Generally speaking a solder joint is superior for the conduction of the signal.  The only other way to do is is to establish contact between metals via some kind of spring that keeps the contact points pushed together.  It's not uncommon for the spring to weaken which affects the quality of the contact.  There are other issues to such as the metal on the two sides of the contact not being the same, like copper and steel for example.  When two dissimilar metals come into contact with each other there is a certain amount of corrosion which also affects the quality of the contact.

Having said all of that, I think the principal reason the guitar/pup makers don't set a common standard is competition.  Gibson doesn't want their customers putting DeArmond pickups on their guitars.  Nor does Fender, Guild, Carvin, PRS, etc.  If you notice, it's not just the contacts but often the sizes of the pup's are different.  Same reason.  There are some manufacturers, Schecter for example, that use other maker's pup's on their guitars.  That generally happens with less expensive models or with companies that don't want to be in the pup business.

Speaking of Ian Anderson.  I'm an old folkie and I think that "Thirsty Boots" especially the version by Judy Collins is a great song.  He could have retired after that one and still know that he made a significant contribution to popular music.

Larry

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"Life is too short for diet soda and lite beer"

Now this makes sense Larry,  I suppose any pulling, or change in surface contact at the connect point would cause scratchiness, or interference, Possibly,,  My idea regarding pU sizes differing such as single coil vs HB would've been compensated for with some aspect of the pickguard feature Larry.  I had an idea as to how to possibly get around that.  While I understand that the Guitar makes themselves would favor their particular brands to not have the capacity for swapping true,  but many would also favor not having MIDI guitar's such as the Brian Moore I-series, Line Six Variax,  Roland synth compatability, or eventually, likely what will be full MIDI making aftermarket pickups obsolete.  Active electronics has been around for ages,  even in the 70's rotary nob controls were used to change phase, split pickups, Fender was fattening up their single coil sound with "stacked" HB'er's such as Texas Specials.

As you'll recall Shecter originally manufactured Bodies. Not sure if they ever actually got into the electronic's market... Many companies still use (as you mentioned) Duncan, or EMG, even Bartolini Pickups.  Similarly, DeArmond originally was a Pickup manufacturer.  Their bodies are likely made in Korea and Japan just like much of the Ibanez line.  Likely Samicks like many of the Name brands people pay under 700 bucks for now-adays..  Even alot more (Such as the Ibanez GB line)


As I stated,  I can understand why certain guitar companies haven't set a standard, however I've surprised SD, Dimarzio, DeArmond, or one of the other companies (or even guitar companies only enabling certain lines of PU's to be easily "swappable" within certain limits hasn't begun,  In time it'll likely be mostly MIDI anyway for electric...

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

I hate sounding like a purist but I hope we never go completely midi with everything, especially guitars.  I've played the Variax and think it's an interesting idea and I know that it will be better with time.  But there is a whole lot that goes into making a particular guitars sound and you can sample until you're blue in the face and never get it exactly right.

A good example might be the work that's being done now with modeling amps and cabinets.  I use a Digitech multi-effects pedal that contains models of both and allows for almost endless mixing and matching.  I used to play through a Peavey Classic 30 amp and I was always disappointed that I never got what I was looking for out of the models.  It wasn't the pedal's fault.  It was the amp.  Regardless of what came out of the pedal, the amp was incapable of amplifying that sound accurately.

Then I bought a Fender Hot Rod DeVille. I loved the Fender sound and the price was right.  I was setting up the pedal to use with the new amp when I suddenly realized I didn't need or want all of those models.  I bought the amp  because it had the sound I wanted.  Why mess with that.  

Midi or modeling will always be a re-creation.  It will never be the real thing.  I would much rather hear Jimmy Smith playing a B-3 through a Leslie tone cabinet than playing a Korg keyboard that emulates the B-3.  And I can tell the difference.  No matter what the engineers do they have not yet been able to factor in every single variable.  

Maybe I'll feel differently some day.  

Larry

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"Life is too short for diet soda and lite beer"

Thats the wrong Dude ...That was eric Andersen     had to google it cause I never heard of "Thirsty Boots"

I'm a traditionalist, and agree with what you say in some ways Larry.  While my studio stopped growing in the analog days, getting multieffects unit's only made me feel that if you want wet mod's, you need to go with individual stomps... I've owned TC Electronics stuff, and to me it was dry compared to MXR, EH, Morley, Ross individual stomp boxes.  However as the owner of a B-3 as well as racks of synths, I can vouch that unless placement of the Leslie cabs are optimized within a room, and the room is setup properly, digital tonewheel, and XB synth patches often sound MUCH better.  Hammond is fine assuming you understand Leslie cab placement. Regarding the Peavey Classic 30.  I liked the Peavey Classic line of tube amps, great bang for the buck... I was never overly fond of the Fender Hot Rod series, Yet as an owner of black and silver-faced Fender's,  I did love the stock 65 Twin Reverb, Pro Reverb, Super Reverb,  Bandmaster, Dual Showman, Vibrolux, Deluxe, series 60's-early 70's sounds...

Of course the person with an ear that knows how to tweak his equipment can get the LP Standard--->Fender Silver-face Twin/Dual Showman sound  by rolling back the tone nob of a stock Telecaster somewhat, and going into a Marshall JCM-800 halfstack and tweaking the head settings a certain way... My buddy L. West is of the school "Tone is in the fingers"... While I'm not someone who has a right to disagree with someone like that,  I will anyway.... Tone is fingers, and equipment of course...

I don't like multiFX units... I have zoom and Korg, and blech....  older MXR, and Ross, as well as EH work well for me,  the did in the old days, so they do today too    :)  The less between a decent guitar, and decent tube amp, the better ~

I'm not overly fond of tranny bass rigs either.  My Ampegs to me are alot more versatile tham Trace or SWR... I did however like GK.. Yet they have pretty lousy track records in terms of durability

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Ian Anderson wasn't just a great musician,  but an amazing innovator.  If not for Ian,  who else would've integrated Renaissance Orthodox Synagogue Cantor vocal style and timbre into Psychedelic Rock Genre ? Not to mention turn the flute into a hard rock instrument  :shock:  Not to mention make "overblowing" on a woodwind instrument acceptable ?

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Kap,

I guess I've never heard the set-up you're describing so I'll take your word for it about the B3 emulation.

I wholeheartedly agree with you about multi-effects pedals and that it's better if you have as little as possible between the guitar and the amp.  But I was/am working on a budget so I've always considered my pedal a reasonably adequate cost-effective substitute for what I really would liked to have had in the first place.  Maybe someday.

I've never been too interested in trying to duplicate somebody else's sound.  I like a lot of different stuff for different reasons and I like to pretend that's why I don't try to emulate anyone.  The real reason is that I'm simply not good enough.  So I set things up according to how I want everything to sound rather than with someone else's sound in mind.  So my sound is pretty much in my fingers as well.

Oh man, those Ampeg bass amps!  You can't beat 'em.  

Larry

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"Life is too short for diet soda and lite beer"

Michael,

  I wonder if Thijs van Leer, & Jan Akkerman (FOCUS) have ever gotten together with Ian Anderson.   That would be an amazing concert IMO.


  Larry,  I'm strictly cover, copycat, etc.. Ask me to write a song, and I'll get sued..
I'm just that creative.

   In a past life, I was a tape recorder

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Mroctober,

You are absolutely right.  My mistake and a really dumb one too.

If you've never heard Judy Collins sing "Thirsty Boots" though, I highly recommend it.  She has one of those pure, pure voices that just make you want to curl up and die.

Thanks for correcting me.  In my defense I can only say that the dialog on one of the other threads has grown rather . . . ahhhh . . . suggestive and with all the blood having rushed out of my head on it's way to another destination in my body, I just lost my mind for a few minutes.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Larry

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"Life is too short for diet soda and lite beer"

My threshold for excitement isn't quite as high as yours Larry.  All someone has to do is say "Hawaii", or "Suspension bridge", "Grand Canyon",  Zion, Mesa, Black Canyon, 2nd story balcony, etc and I get anxiety attacks...

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

EDIT TMI

Steven, did you ever get to see Jethro Tull in concert?

Also, Kris Kristopherson turns 70 today!!!  I had know idea he was that old.

Ian looks a little like this

Steven, Larry ~
What company has done a good job at accurately tracking a guitar fingerboard and converting the notes to MIDI?  I haven't kept up on this.  They sure couldn't do it very well back in the '80s.

If you could only have one electric guitar, what model would it be?  What single model gives you the most versatility in tone/style in your opinion?

Is it true that black faced Fender amps (pre-CBS) are alway superior to the silvers All the hot shot guitarists out here have always thought so.

No.  It's a matter of preference. Many will state that the CBS takeover of Fender was responsible for the production of equipment that wasn't of the same quality as  the earlier Blackface specs..That Fender cared more during the Blackface days, yet the 1970 Fender Silveface Twin and Super reverbs were spectacular sounding IMO... Better than blackface days, again IMHO, many also did mod's bringing the Silverface to Blackface specs, as to whether the blackfaces were biased properly, caps clean, etc.. compared to the Silverfaces I heard,  I don't know, that would make a huge difference,  tube conditions, even type tubes, and speakers used....  As with ALL musical stuff, there were also some blackface AND silverface lemons too... Just as there were crappy sounding 60's strat's, tele's, etc..SUbjective

As to the other questions,  I have to do some stuff, and I'll get back to them soon..

The one guitar would be a stock Gibson ES-335. In 1980 when I paid for my choice guitar, the one guitar was a Gibson Les Paul Custom. Today it's heavy, and I hate the way it's balanced..

Guitarnet/ riffinteractive has an interesting program,  I just have it,  not sure what it is
http://www.theguitar.net/live.htm

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

The Gibson 335 makes sense if your main interest is blues/jazz for sure.  Why a 335 though and not a 355?

Now we're getting intricate  

As I recall the difference between the 355 and 335 is just a rotary switch, and stereo option.  More electronics on the 355 but it's not a "better" sounding guitar for standard applications.  I suppose similarly, why wouldn't I want the 345 *thicker body*, Epiphone Casino from the 60's, Guild Starfire 4, Heritage 535, Yamaha S-2000, DeArmond Starfire, etc..


I don't know Don,  Perhaps I would !  All guitars have their individual characteristics... Some 335's might not sound as good as a 355.. But what I do recall is that the 355's I played were gold plated, heavier, and more costly.... possibly superfluous... You bring up a good question... I suppose I don't know.  
Today, I might want a Parker Fly for all I know..

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".