***The Official Guitar Thread***
- Thread starter Nitefly
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You are better off keeping it, Washburn isn't really the marque it deserves to be, and by now most youngsters consider it to be one of those old US names sold to Samick in Korea, plus Nuno is not really "oldschool A list brand" (like Slash or Vai) that can sell fast roadster guitars - which is to say that resell values of US Washburns are just shocking.
Similar unsuccessful guitar marriages that produced fantastic guitars almost nobody bought and can be bought for pennies on eBay every now and then:
Ibanez Roadstar Steve Lukather - made in Japan, incredibly fantastic instrument, if you ever doubted where Paul Reed Smith got his ideas from - that's the guitar. Steve what, Steve who? How does that song go "I left my brains down in Africa tadamdam"
Fender MIM Richie Sambora - mostly made in Corona, California, assembled in Mexico, no embarrassing stars on the fretboard, but boy, what a sound, what an instrument. Richie who? You know - that old Keith Richards lookalike git behind Jon Bon Jovi in videos.
Schecter PT - Pete Townshend's take on telecaster made by Schecter. Best. Thing. Ever. It's like 500 quid new, maple neck like a dream, proper body, proper shape, none of that gonopodium shape headstocks Fender does on tele's - everyone should get one now. Pete who? Precisely. The guy who wrote CSI opening theme.
Charvel San Dimas - perfection in every aspect, ready for you to mod. Only branded hardware, only branded pickups, pick one from before 2014 and it will be made in Japan. They were like 650 quid new couple of years ago. Seriously. What Japanese hand made guitar with Seymour Duncan pickups and original FR cost 650 quid? Who played them? Dude. Who didn't. If they had long hair, skinny jeans and white basketball shoes on stage - they had one of these at some point during concert.
Where were we? Oh yeah - Rihanna's guitarist and his Washburn. Yeah, you are looking at about 700-800 max on eBay...
Associate
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Best to keep it then.I was looking for a bit more than that. Just checked the back of the neck it was made in 2005. I think I've had it maybe 10 years. Looking on ebay there's quite a few and really nice ones. I've got 2 Jems but I've had them even longer than the Washburn. I don't think I could ever sell them, even if I stopped playing the guitar altogether(I hardly play now)
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Man of Honour
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Associate
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I had the mirror one on pre order when it first came out, but heard stories of the finish cracking, so I cancelled. The 2 I have one is a late 90s one black with bright green pickups and the green life inlay. The others an early 2000s model sparkle blue one. They are literally the only guitars I have played for over 20 years so I'm really used to em. Probably why I don't get on as well with the Washburn the necks fatter. The necks flat at the moment on the Washburn as well and the truss rods hard to get to, and I've never had to mess with one before. Looking online doesn't seem to bad, it's just on this guitar I might had to take the pick up cover off to get to it.
Yep not clear, the presumption the notion that actual synth sounds on a guitar are in anyway 'wedding band' etc or not desirable. I think my point was that it's not a problem playing synth style sounds (eg brass or strings) on a guitar if it's done well. You don't just have to use the synth to recreate a 'normal' guitar sound. If such a sound is poorly applied and comes across badly then that is the player not the instrument. Pat Metheny has always used synths doing synth sounds and whilst most people may not find his playing to their taste there is not denying there is no better player than him alive at the moment (he is at that level where people are never better just different) - you don't get that expression, tonality, melodic phrasing, intrinsic harmony, and a professorship at the best music school in the world at the age of 19 by being crap! If you go back the sounds made by synth keyboards were denounced by pianists for years but where would we be without them now. Matt Bellamy is also using those ideas and shaping them in different ways. Guitar playing needs new and exciting ways to play - you fiddle around long enough and you'll start to notice some of the best things you find are already famous so you need to push out a bit more to find new ground.
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I just came in here to ask about this. I have spent hours trying to get a decent setup using a Rocksmith USB cable to either my wife's Macbook or my own Windows laptop and it's rubbish! There is either far too much latency/weird noises/sound is too low to hear. I've tried Ampllitube, S-Gear, Bias FX, Guitar Rig and even just Reaper but I can't get anything to work properly.
I just recently sold my Fender Mustang 3 amp since it was too big for our flat and I thought I could just use Garageband on my wife's Mac but I get too much weird distortion and it doesn't sound good, or the latency is too high.
I've been looking into buying some external box to plug into the laptop. Is this what you use?
Alternatively I'll buy a Digitech pedal again, which is what I used when I first bought my guitar. It has all the effects and I can use it as a foot pedal, which I can't do with software.
I just came in here to ask about this. I have spent hours trying to get a decent setup using a Rocksmith USB cable to either my wife's Macbook or my own Windows laptop and it's rubbish! There is either far too much latency/weird noises/sound is too low to hear. I've tried Ampllitube, S-Gear, Bias FX, Guitar Rig and even just Reaper but I can't get anything to work properly.
I just recently sold my Fender Mustang 3 amp since it was too big for our flat and I thought I could just use Garageband on my wife's Mac but I get too much weird distortion and it doesn't sound good, or the latency is too high.
I've been looking into buying some external box to plug into the laptop. Is this what you use?
Alternatively I'll buy a Digitech pedal again, which is what I used when I first bought my guitar. It has all the effects and I can use it as a foot pedal, which I can't do with software.
The problem you have is not the software, its the hardware you are using to interface with your computer. You need a good quality and fast audio interface. I use a RME Babyface Pro. (I assume its OK linking that? OCUK don't sell them. Please remove if not.)
Its excellent, buss powered and has extremely high quality converters. The drivers are the best in the business and will achieve a stable 5ms round trip latency - that means you cannot even notice it - but its not cheap.
As an alternative, you should look at a Focusrite Scarlett 2nd generation product, starting with the 2i2. I would recommend the Scarlett 6i6 as a minimum however. Make sure you get the second generation Scarlett and it will have relatively fast drivers.
In the mean time, have a look at this video and you may be able to get better performance from the Rocksmith USB by following the tutoral and selecting the correct driver and buffer size.
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Associate
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Yeah it's definitely the cable so I was trying to reduce the latency but it seems they removed that functionality in the new Garageband. I I tried to get it working properly in ASIO4All but it was either really low volume or I was getting hissing so I started looking at those boxes like you suggested. Don't think I can justify £600 though, I'm rubbish!
I'm leaning towards the Digitech Element pedal since I miss being able to change settings with my foot - with the laptop I can't go from clean to distorted while playing.
My "wedding band" comment was not targeting technology (as you mentioned we have ample examples of guitarists using midi for the greater good) or player, I'm commenting purely on tonal quality of Roland's guitar tech, from the very first guitar synth they made to the current patches. On technological level their stuff is great - I use Fender VG with Roland's tech myself - but their patches/tone banks always sound like very cheap imitation - like wedding band, the tones always have that inherent and unmistakable Argos' CASIO keyboard quality (or lack thereof).
Don't think I can justify £600 though, I'm rubbish!
The Focusrite 2nd gen's start at 120 quid.
For that you need a MIDI controller. I use a USB FBV shortboard mk2.
That Digitech pedal looks OK for the price to be honest. I see the XT has an expression pedal also.
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but sounds I used in one of my bands were all tweaked like I do with every preset on every effects/samples I've ever used.
If you use the presets I agree you can sound like a wedding band because presets are normally made with famous sounds in mind. The problems are that if you are eg recording the main melody for The Final Countdown it will probably sound amazing in a studio situation but use that same sound on stage and it's bloody awful. For many years I had known this to be true with taking keyboard presets out onto the road but I learnt the guitar/amp lesson back in 2000 when one of my guitarists had the very first Line 6 amp/combo.
In our practise room/studio the presets were faultless - Iommi, Blackmore, Gibbons etc so I told him to jot down his presets for live use. We did our first gig with it and his sound was bloody awful, the presets didn't work in a live situation so I cut the set short, worked on a one Gibson/Marshall sound for him and played an extended second half.
I said in a former post that I've been asked to do an harpsichord bit so the keyboard player can do other bits but try as I might I can't make a decent sound so I'll substitute for acoustic.
My drummer is buying a top of the range Roland V-Drum kit and I've told him the presets won't work live on stage so we'll have to do a lot of tweaking, personally I want him to use his Ludwig but he's adamant.
That's the Roland sounds though go in any music shop play a Clavinova and you get that authentic sounds go and play the Roland next to it and you sound like Elton John on speed.
As for the USB Rocksmith cable you should not be getting those problems tbh you need to look into the set up as suggested I've used one as a push before when I've been travelling with work and whilst it's not the greatest solution I've never found it to be as bad as that.
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Associate
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Yeah I'm thinking of stretching for the pedal version just in case I want to play with some wah sounds. Trying not to spend too much since I hardly have any time to play these days (have 2 kids and a 2 hour commute to work), so whatever I buy will be gathering dust for a lot of the time.
Man of Honour
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Got to get them bits into my Yamaha and then I can get it to sound like anything I want on stage
