***The Official Guitar Thread***

Well we are home, he ended up buying an American professional 2 “Dark Night” with a maple board. Guess I’m now the second….or third favourite son now.

He used to be a gigging musician so his other guitars have seen some action, he is in his 70’s now but still loves it all, loves a bit of tech too although to be honest I’m not sure he even knows how to turn those pedals he has on.

Can’t praise the guys in the shop enough, very patient with him and very helpful.

Yeah I guess my mum is a bit worn down because he usually gets his own way, not easily justified as unlike you he doesn’t gig at all now.
 
My Dad was 86 when he died a few weeks ago and he was still recording songs in his studio on multi-instruments.
I've now inherited lots of gear but I can't get a single bit of interest in it to sell on.
 
Really chuffed with this after looking up official Helix cases and bags.
The bag cost me £12 from China, I had 1.5" foam lying around, a pillow case and fabric glue.
It feels very protected but I obviously wouldn't put it on a plane.

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New Order's my most favourite band ever, and Peter Hook used a Yamaha bb1200s for virtually all their albums. I had been checking various guitar forum classifieds daily for literally 3-4 years, and I must have seen maybe 2 or 3 for sale that entire time. The other week another showed up and I couldn't help myself.

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Smeghead said:
New Order's my most favourite band ever, and Peter Hook used a Yamaha bb1200s for virtually all their albums. I had been checking various guitar forum classifieds daily for literally 3-4 years, and I must have seen maybe 2 or 3 for sale that entire time. The other week another showed up and I couldn't help myself.
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Good for you! It's an incredible feeling when you manage to get an instrument that you've wanted for an age - how are you finding it?
 
easyrider said:
Took me a while…..

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This is my lead guitarists board but I'll bet anything at least 5 of those are now changed.
He's just put a special PSU on his £199 because at a lot of gigs he hums a bit - Fender Engine Room LVL 12.
Oh yes, this has been added, after watching the demo I thought it would cost a fortune but he paid £80 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8tnzEqwt5M&t=1s

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Bill Turnip said:
They all look so much fun... I've switched over to full modelling, so just a photo of a Helix doesn't look anywhere near as cool as the above two photos.
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I’m done with amp sims and modelling….I tried to embrace amplitube and countless digital options.Using a mouse and surfing through countless options is not for me. So decided to build a board instead. Love the tactile feel of knobs and the tone is the best I’ve had…so I’m a happy camper.

Bought the ThorpyFX The Boneyard Fuzz for £299….when I posted this board on GS a guy messsged me and offered me $2500 Canadian for it! Crazy!
 
Modelling is the only way I can get sounds I like in the space I have, at the volume I'm able to play at at home unfortunately - A fully loaded pedal board is always a thing of beauty.

Never come across the Boneyard Fuzz before and gave it a cursory glance on Reverb. I hope it sounds that price!
 
Bill Turnip said:
Modelling is the only way I can get sounds I like in the space I have, at the volume I'm able to play at at home unfortunately - A fully loaded pedal board is always a thing of beauty.
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Playing in working bands for the last 52 years I need a different sound for every song I play and using separates is virtually impossible to dial a tone in while the rest of the band are waiting for you so I'm done and dusted with them.
The Helix is just like messing with separate pedals and adjusting them on the fly. Yesterday I discovered I could put two effects (or more) on one stomp so for example playing a song then going into a solo where I need to go up 5db with delay, easy for the Helix, pain in the ass with separate pedals because I'd need to press the Boost then press the delay and then turn them back off after the solo.
My Helix now has presets for all my songs with a completely different sound on 90% of them and they sound awesome.

A fully loaded pedalboard is a thing of beauty but my lead guitarist has now altered the two sets so he can bend down and quickly dial in his tone with the least faffing about.
 
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SexyGreyFox said:
Playing in working bands for the last 52 years I need a different sound for every song I play and using separates is virtually impossible to dial a tone in while the rest of the band are waiting for you so I'm done and dusted with them.
The Helix is just like messing with separate pedals and adjusting them on the fly. Yesterday I discovered I could put two effects (or more) on one stomp so for example playing a song then going into a solo where I need to go up 5db with delay, easy for the Helix, pain in the ass with separate pedals because I'd need to press the Boost then press the delay and then turn them back off after the solo.
My Helix now has presets for all my songs with a completely different sound on 90% of them and they sound awesome.
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I have it set up in snapshots, and generally one stomp for each section, something like 1 - Acoustic intro 2 - Added grit for body of song 3 - Boost, delay (and whatever else) for lead then back to 2.

I find it hard enough co-ordination wise to play, let alone start tap dancing as well, so modelling does suit me in this respect. But I still enjoy looking and playing through a separates rig on occasion.
 
Bill Turnip said:
I have it set up in snapshots, and generally one stomp for each section, something like 1 - Acoustic intro 2 - Added grit for body of song 3 - Boost, delay (and whatever else) for lead then back to 2.

I find it hard enough co-ordination wise to play, let alone start tap dancing as well, so modelling does suit me in this respect. But I still enjoy looking and playing through a separates rig on occasion.
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Modeling has come on in leaps and bounds and this Helix is one of the best things to happen to me.
I went to watch a local band a couple of weeks ago and Kev's sounds were to die for, I actually thought he'd got a Helix Rack and was going to offer money for his sounds.
Once again his band play a variety of sounds that can't be done on a separates pedal board with only 20 pedals, on one song Owner Of The Lonely Heart there must be 7 or 8 classic studio made guitar sounds and he'd nailed every one.
At the end of the gig I realised he was using a Fractal FX3 and he says since he's retired he'll spend hours refining his sounds so they're bang on to the record.
After a few weeks of having the Helix my lead guitarist keeps looking over when I break into chords of a famous song and I'm using the exact sound, I don't think he will turn though.
I said that about my best mate though who has played guitar in Hendrix, Stevie ray Vaughan, Doors, Purple & Rainbow tribute bands and when I went down his house the other week he was playing a Charvel through a Fender electronic amp that could emulate anything and he'd now sold on all his tube amps.
 
Half considering my next project to take a Marshall lead 12 amp (solid state) off ebay and convert it to a tube amp :) just got to workout which marshall amp is best for metal.
 
Raymond Lin said:
JCM800?
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12ax7 triodes preamp -> 12ax7 triodes amp -> 12ax7 phase splitter/driver -> EL34 pentodes in push pull. Solid state rectifier. Relatively straight forward from a tube perspective. That could work - would need to check the sizes of the transformer and how they build it (transformers give a lot to the sound) rather than just pick any old EL34 PP output transformer.

I can tell that has but loads of gain (ax7 being high gain and there's 4 gain stages before the cathodyne phase splitter (no gain) then the EL34s.

TAD have Marshall EL34 output transformers, Marshall mains transformers and chokes. Not cheap but possible :D

Seems people have made a 1 watt version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkEMcKkiVK4 not sure you'd get the same sound out the triodes rather than pentodes. Interesting to note that people say you need more gain for a true metal sound..
 
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NickK said:
Seems people have made a 1 watt version
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Glad you found that, I was reading through and waiting to chime in :)

I had basically this idea - "Can I just take a JCM800 and cut it off at the phase splitter". Did my reading, found it's basically been done either as a preamp or as a low power amp (various configs: 1W or 2W noval output, but also people feeding it to EL84s or 6V6s). IMO the person who has developed this idea the most and done the best job of documenting it is Rob Robinette. He's also got a good little community around him building his designs. Check him out! He has a Facebook group but also posts a lot on TDPRI.

As it turns out my idea progressed into comparing the original 2203 circuit, his circuit, and the Sovtek MIG50 circuit to try and familiarise myself with the design and the decisions made. Then I laid out Rob's JCM800 Micro design with some tweaks, onto my own circuit placement. I just need to digitise it (up to version 8 of paper drawings :o) and offer it for feedback on some groups. That's on hold while I move house though so probably a winter project once I've got a new bench set up :)
 
Ooh I like that, nice justification of the power valves.

The weirdest thing about these is they have the same valve count as a full 50W Marshall amp, pull the same crazy amount of heater current, same bulk/weight, but then have 2W output :D
 
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