yeah… my guitar sound is changing slowly… its halfway of being transformed into something that i seldom play before. i will not sound like i used to, which i am going to miss terribly. i am also afraid that the change will NOT suite me/band. there’s no choice for me but to go ahead with my new sound because my taste has changed. our music style is still the same… just the sound will be a bit different. i hope it can blend well with the other instruments.
last few weeks have been exhausting for me… i was spending about several hours a day researching my new sound and i have ventured into unknown territories. during weekends, i spent about 6 hours a day to look for new sound. its getting there bit by bit… but it comes with a price of not spending time doing other things…
i’m also changing my playing style. i’m revamping it. i dont want to redo what i did previously because i think my sound was lacking.
24 responses so far ↓
Rossie // May 1, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Good to hear!
BTW, when you say researching for new sound, you’re tweaking or looking at new gears?
taisuan // May 1, 2008 at 5:39 pm
tweaking — changing pickups from stacked single coils to TRUE single coils (noisy for sure), i *may* change string gauge from .009 to .010. but i need to play and feel .009 again to see if i can be ready for .010.
i’m getting new gears — guitar effectors. individual handbuild gadgets. will move away slowly from high distortion to soft distortion/overdrive.
like i said… i’m not sure if the new sound will help the band. i’m more concern with our band than making myself sound good. hopefully the band sounds great.
michael // May 1, 2008 at 6:10 pm
i oso changed my sound, i try to play piano using a pick rather than finger..
¿KÆVIN™¿ // May 2, 2008 at 10:38 pm
wei…..
sd-1 oso can play metal ok??
it sounded great for me…XD
¿KÆVIN™¿ // May 2, 2008 at 10:38 pm
u wan sell ur pickups??
michael // May 2, 2008 at 10:55 pm
the pickups already sold
Rossie // May 3, 2008 at 12:42 am
Nice nice nice!
Care to share what pedals you have on your mind?
Mind looking into the ToneCzar Open Haus? You’ve gotta check out their site for samples…
taisuan // May 3, 2008 at 1:47 am
kaevin, SD-1 may not have the amount of distortion that u need to create metal sound unless your amp is already overdrive a little bit.
my pickups of kinman woodstock plus is already sold.
jonathan,
since you are the first to ask, i’m going to let out a little bit of what i’m getting into lately. i’m getting a ParaDrive pedal from homebrew electronics http://www.homebrewelectronics.com/products.htm this is a dual INDEPENDENT channel of booster and overdrive based on the Power Screamer pedal. The ParaDrive pedal is their latest pedal which is based on the Power Screamer design. Power Screamer has an overdrive and a booster for the overdrive. you cannot engage the booster alone without the overdrive. with ParaDrive, you can switch on just the booster for clean solo. so, i’m getting a 2-in-1 pedal. this pedal is NOT available on the market YET. the ParaDrive that i’m getting here is one of the few prototypes which the designer Joel Weaver is designing. the prototypes are going to be the blueprint for his upcoming ParaDrive pedal soon. hand build and expensive. i got a great price for the prototype.
next, i’m getting a custom order pedal consisting of a delay and phaser. http://leilavintageelectronics.blogspot.com/ and http://leilavintageelectronics.webs.com/softdelay.htm the custom pedal is not build yet. i’m negotiating on the pedal with the designer to build the circuits based on his best selling analog sounding delay (softdelay) and phaser pedal called subphase. i’m going to have 2 independent channels of 600ms delay on the left channel and classic MXR 90 phaser on the right channel.
i’m also *thinking* of getting the world best CHORUS. but i’m still planning on my budget because if i’m going to get this pedal, my current BCB-6 pedalboard will not be big enough to store all of them. i’m no longer going to use my BOSS pedals (mostly japan) for my live performances. if i were to get the CHORUS pedal, i’ll probably get some George L’s cables for the interconnects of pedals. if i happen to purchase this pedal, i’ll write it here… now can’t confirm yet.
if my ParaDrive is not able to give me a heavy marshall type distortion, i’ll probably get another original custom pedal from another builder. he is a wellknown pedal modder. you can turn a decent amp (average amp) into a marshall. that’s the cheapest investment for poor guys like us to get a marshall. the pedal is based on JCM800 sound. he has another pedal emulating the earlier classic marshall JTM45. and another pedal based on the bogner ecstasy amp sound.
so…. you can guess how much time i spent on the internet to research all these so-called boutique pedal builders.
i’m changing my pickups to lollar vintage blackface stratocaster pickups. (pre-CBS sounding stratocaster). its a set of true single coils with noise. i haven’t played a noisy single coil pickups for at least 8 to 9 years.
michael // May 3, 2008 at 2:39 am
ah suan is very rich lately…
hey suan, when u no want use your paradrive if not heavy enuf, u can lend me, i help you use yeah…
Rossie // May 3, 2008 at 9:39 am
Hmmm… Can I make a guess on the pedals that you didn’t disclose? heehee…
The chorus should be a TC Electronic SCF, since you said that your BCB can’t accommodate it due to its size. Btw it needs an extra adapter coz it’s powered with 120/230v rather than the conventional 9vdc… The other two drive pedals are alittle hard to guess… But I’ll take a stab in the dark… My guess is the MI-Audio Crunch Box and the MI-Audio Tube Zone…
The MXR Phase 90 is a really nice phaser, I’ve got the EVH one… Super warm sound… I don’t really like analogue delays, any digital delays that can switch between settings is good for me!
BTW, have you thought of your power supply yet? The last thing you want during a performance is HUM! Sorry for bothering you about this, and I guess you had already know… But isolated individual outputs are the best for power supplies… Not many brand offers this option, the mass produced one currently on the market is the Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus… It’s around RM800 iirc… The custom made ones by boutique power supply builders can cost up to RM2k… So the VL PP2+ seems to be quite a steal actually… Plus you can daisy chain it, provided that the pedals are within the mA of that particular output…
Don’t you just love researching for gears?!? Especially when you can buy them! lol
¿KÆVIN™¿ // May 3, 2008 at 9:17 pm
god of technical and guitar come back liao…
dun go back and play drums again yea….XD
taisuan // May 3, 2008 at 10:06 pm
michael… kaneh… i not the richest lah… but i’m like you liao… buy buy and sell sell… kekeke… else how can i upgrade them? hehehe the ParaDrive is like an upgrade version of ibanez TS808 tube screamer, but the ParaDrive is more transparent, dynamic, no mid-hump and has more gain.
rossie, ah… u pique my interest. i dont have anyone to discuss or talk about boutique pedals. i see that you also into this high end gear stuff.
the ToneCzar Open Haus is one high end pedal. i always play digital delay pedals (BOSS DD-3, japan). i’m not sure if i’ll like the analog delay…
yes, u r right-on on the MI-Audio crunch box. it’s a marshall in a box with lots of gain. this is one of my many pedals wish list. a lot of guitarists use this pedal. actually, i’m kinda bit anti-social… i dont want to get things/pedal/sounds that are easily available on the market. i like to get my hands on strange/unknown pedals/sounds. that’s me. if i see that certain pedals are so popular in the malaysian market, i try to avoid it having in my pedalboards. that’s me. i just dont want to sound like others.
having said that, the quest for a good sound (for guitarist) is kinda pricey if u were to ask me. an imported pedal is easily RM600 + shipping to malaysia. and THAT doesn’t include custom tax yet.
the boss pedals are pricey now… i use to remember that BOSS distortion DS-1 is selling like RM150. now, u only can get that price for a 2nd hand DS-1. the pedals to me are tools for me to express my sound/music. some people’s guitar tone are quite “fixed” throughout their careers. i think these people are smart and are able to find their identity when they are still young: malmsteen, eric johnson, eric clapton, jimi hendrix, stevie ray vaughan established their sound early in their career. people like me takes years. the sound that i’m leaning towards now is so so so “classic rock” — i hate that term because it usually refers to old folks rocking out. i’ll use the so call “classic rock” sound to play hard rock and metal.
the problem with me is that… the sound in my head is always evolving, depending on my mood. but one thing for sure, i only like and play single coil pickups. either they are TRUE single coils or stacked single coils(humbucking). i played stacked single coils about 80% of my guitar life. i’m trying to get a balanced and nice sound: transparent, dynamic, no mid-dump (flat EQ) and not so much gain as distortion. my tone quest has changed over the years. and my ONLY worry is that i’m afraid that my sound won’t fit INTO the band OR sounding TOO outstanding/standout that it will overshadow the band. when i play with uglymen previously a few years back, i always like to stay behind with the drummer and bassist. michael will wail and solo in front. i love the back… kekeke… i “tried” to like the humbucker pickups sound but i can’t get used to it.
i tried many times and went back to single coils all the time. i’m fine with others playing humbucker pickups as long as they are nice to the years. to me, i can’t even play one.
having said that… my distortion of choice is the marshall JCM800 in a box call PlexTortion: http://www.wamplerpedals.com/plextortion.htm — its a pedal by pedal modder IndyGuitarist. he has a few DS-1 mods and the soundclips from his website are awesome. this pedal virtually takes any decent amp and make it sounding marshally. to have an idea of what this pedal sounds like, take a listen to our song SI AI BIN. i was using POD’s Marshall JCM800 sound.
i’m putting this pedal purchase on hold — until i see where i can go with the ParaDrive. i will be using the ParaDrive pedal to play si ai bin. which means, my guitar sound will be a lot cleaner and clearer with lots of transparency. i hope the band will like the sound or else i may need to change again…
TC electronics is high end and always come up with great sounding pedals. they are pricey too. the chorus that i’m targetting at now is the MINI CHORUS by analogman (another pedal modder): http://www.analogman.com/clone.htm — i got his boss DS-1 pro mod pedal and it was an INCREDIBLE pedal. very marshally type of distortion. michael is using this pedal now.
i haven’t thought of the power supply yet. thanks for reminding me… i’m clueless when it comes with power. i don’t know and i dont have any idea on how to do it. i guess i need to research that as well.
rossie, perhaps you can advise me what is an affordable way to get a regular power supply and stuff to power my pedals. is the behringer pedalboards and power supply sufficient for my needs to power all those pedals? the paradrive is on the way. the delay + phaser is being built and needs 4 weeks to build. i’ll put up the CHORUS pedal order soon and also some george L’s cables.
you know something? its nice to play things u like rather than trying to make a living out of it. if i were to cari makan using music, i probably stick to my current boss pedals: digital metalizer, digital delay, flanger and equalizer. that’s cari makan, man.
taisuan // May 3, 2008 at 10:08 pm
kaevin, i love playing drums. i love “practising” the drums more than the guitar. i try not so play technical because i can’t play technical. too stressing and too much time spent on practising day in day out.
i hope i dont change to other instruments anymore… very tired changing instruments. not forgetting the time and financial investment that i need put in.
Rossie // May 3, 2008 at 10:35 pm
If you just want a simple delay that can go through presets for your different delay times, the DD20 gets the job done pretty well… But then you said you’re anti-social… Many are using this pedal… So… How about the TCE Nova Delay? Or the Eventide Time Factor? Both of these need their own power supply… I’ll get to that later…
If you want Marshall, and want something not widely available, you can try Carl Martin’s Plexi-something-something… Forget d… lol… It’s based on the Marshall Plexi, obviously… But I’m not inte EL tubes kinda distortion… But seriously lar, the MIA CB is really really good! Just buy one try lar… Not nice gimme! But I really think you’ll love it… It’s now around SGD220 plus shipping. Still cheaper than the other pedals you and I had mentioned…
I’m beginning to dig single coil sounds too… Looking into my next guitar now… Most likely getting an SSS guitar! Woot!
Alright, about the power supplies, I’m not very well-versed in electronics and stuff, so I base my decision on various reviews and experience on my own… Like I said previously in my post, it’s super important to get a power supply that has isolated outputs, the VL PP2+ is one… The DC Brick is not, it only has regulated outputs, which can still cause HUM… Other than that, you’ll need to look into how many outputs there is, the PP2+ has 8, and you can switch polarity too… Coz all of its outputs are 9vdc, you can wire two outputs into one for powering an 18vdc pedal, like the MXR EVH Flanger… If you’re getting any BOSS twin pedals like the DD20, you’ll need to use their special adapter to power it, although its 9vdc… But the PP2+ can power BOSS twin pedals… As for AC powered pedals, you can either get another VL AC power supply, or just use the pedal’s own adapter, I don’t really think that there are many pedals that are ac-powered…
If you want to use a ONEspot adapter and daisy-chain all your pedals, you will most likely get HUM! The difference between the onespot and pp2+ is the onespot is like a big tube in the middle, and when you daisy chain your pedals, it is something like branching out from the main tube… Whereas the pp2+ has individual tubes just for each output… I hope I got the analogy correct?
Oh, and for a pedalboard… Please get a nice one! You have some pretty neat pedals line-up there… Get one board that’s worthy to put them on! Try out Pedaltrain, I love the looks of them… You can order one with either a hardcase of a gigbag with every size, and rest assure that although the board itself LOOKS heavy, it’s not… It’s actually pretty light, but the flightcase is heavy though…
Rossie // May 3, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Oh yeah… One more thing…
If you eventually didn’t manage to get your Marshall sound with your OD pedal, why don’t you try some preamp pedals? You can get more consistent tone wherever you go, you can choose to drop it infront of your amp, or use the power section only, or direct to house mixer…
Of course it will be much more expensive than a normal pedal… Hughes and Kettner Tubeman is nice, it’s around SGD600… Mesa Boogie’s V-Twin is discontinued already though, but if you can find one, the price should be around SGD800…
fleaman // May 3, 2008 at 10:52 pm
whoa…..! so techie!
tai suan is filthy rich.. kanneh!
custome this , custome that…..!
michael // May 4, 2008 at 7:15 am
yaya…
taisuan // May 5, 2008 at 11:56 am
rossie, the delay pedals you mentioned are totally high end. sometimes, being anti-social has its price, a high one. sometimes, i just use a regular boss pedal and try hard to get something different out of it. half the time, i failed miserably because the stock sound sucks. having a good pedal and still sound sucks means something is wrong with my playing — no excuse to blame anything.
yes, the MIA CB is indeed a good pedal. but i try to stay away lah… anti-social kan saya? kekeke…. but if a pedal is good, i’ll give it a try. but i dont like to buy, try and sell cause its very tiring… and to tell honestly, i didn’t practise right the past 2 weeks because of the researching. but a good side of me is: once my gear is enough, i won’t even bother what’s outside, don’t even want to know if there’s a magic pedal that can make the amp like a marshall or sound like eric johnson. when i had the modded boss pedals, i stopped looking around.
but after 2 years stopping guitar and come back, my ears changed. my taste changed. and coincidently michael took my main distortion pedal which is the analogman mod DS-1 pro. that pedal sounded incredible. so now… i got a good excuse to find a new sound. the change is drastic. my previous sound was ok — fit the band, gave me a sound which is versatile for me to play most style of music.
its good that u dig single coil sound. u will need to take some time to get used to the sound… especially in a band where u may feel that the single coils are a bit weak.
thanks for the power supply advice. i still blur… bwahahaha… i’m not smart u see…
i will remember the pedalboard. where is pedaltrain told? is it in singapore?
yes, i have thhought of preamps, in fact i went to look for xotic bb preamp, it sounds like marshall in a box - http://www.prosoundcommunications.com/english/xotic/effects/bb_preamp/ — i went to ebay to bid for it but didn’t manage to get it cause i was slow. someone was faster than me in buying it first.
it seems like u know a lot of pedal effects stuff. i hope that once i get to all my effects, i dont want to look into it anymore cause it took too much of my time already… 
thanks for the heads up. i’ll keep in mind those pedals.
Rossie // May 5, 2008 at 3:48 pm
The TCE Nova Delay is actually the pedal version of their famed 2290 rack delay… Same rack quality in a pedal! SGD450? It’s a steal! The cool thing about this is that there’s this auto tap-tempo thingy… Where you just hold the tap button, and the pedal will sense your tempo/beat and adjust its timing accordingly… How cool is that?!?!
TBH, the recent Fall Out Boy + John Mayer track really got me into single coil… I really dig the tone that JM is getting on his solo… Will research more on that first!
If you REALLY don’t want to let others know about what “normal” pedals you’re using… just spray every pedal black when you get it? lol… And say that you had your pedals custom build by xxx… lol…
On the power supply thingy, I think I didn’t write it very clearly… Was like half asleep when I typed that… Start again ya:
When you’re using an adapter like the One Spot, it’s like running a main water pipe through your house, and sub-ing it out to your bathroom, kitchen, garden etc. The more “branches” you have, the weaker the water pressure.
Whereas if you’re using a power supply with regulated and isolated individual outputs (ie Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2+), you’re running individual water pipes into your bathroom, kitchen, and garden etc. Therefore you’ll always have the same amount of water pressure.
Oh ya… One more question… Do you have any Wahs in mind? I have one in mind that I dare say NO ONE in Malaysia have yet… I’m prepared to order mine from SG when I get the chance to drop by…
The construction of this wah is incredible, and it suits single coil beautifully…
I hate wahs that have this very metal sound to it, as in the wah sweep is too wide and stuff… I really like the original Crybaby sound, just has the beautiful character of what a wah should have…
What about your tuner pedal? Do you run it at the beginning of your chain or the “tuner out” of a volume pedal?
sHaOwEiz // May 5, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Wah. So Deep @.@ . Big Boy’s Toys. wahaha.
taisuan // May 6, 2008 at 1:09 pm
rossie, thanks for the water pipe explanation. now i understand a bit better.
i used to play wah but gave up on it cause the damn thing is heavy. too inconvenient.
i lost my tuner… i’m not sure who i lent it to. can’t recall…
Rossie // May 6, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Whoa… No need tune one ar? O.o
michael // May 7, 2008 at 1:27 am
my tuner is with ah hooi… wahaha….
sHaOwEiz // May 8, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Michael , can help me find a affordable ( cheap chea p LAR. haha ) 2nd hand GoOD distortion pedal ah? haha.
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