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  1. I think the solo sounds a lot better than the backing track. Pretty nice melody line, too. Congrats.

    Regarding your Strat: Of course we all love to have expensive quality instruments. But if you compare today's beginner instruments with those from 1980 you can notice the incredible rise in quality. So if you play a "shitty strat copy" it'll still be much better than a "shitty strat copy" from 1980. I've seen nobodies with no name instruments really rock out, and only true snobs would have dared to mock them. After all, the tone comes still from the fingers - that's why we keep practicing. And our daily improvement is not only technical but also feeling- wise. So your tone gets better every year, even with the same old "shitty strat copy".

    Alex
  2. Originally posted by Alex:I think the solo sounds a lot better than the backing track. Pretty nice melody line, too. Congrats.

    Regarding your Strat: Of course we all love to have expensive quality instruments. But if you compare today's beginner instruments with those from 1980 you can notice the incredible rise in quality. So if you play a "shitty strat copy" it'll still be much better than a "shitty strat copy" from 1980. I've seen nobodies with no name instruments really rock out, and only true snobs would have dared to mock them. After all, the tone comes still from the fingers - that's why we keep practicing. And our daily improvement is not only technical but also feeling- wise. So your tone gets better every year, even with the same old "shitty strat copy".

    Alex

    Cheers Alex - regarding the backing track, so to speak, my friend is definitely a competent guitarist but he does tend to over-attack the strings...what you say about instruments as a whole is very true. Even though I notice the difference in quality between say, my Strat. copy and my Epi. Les Paul (and not just because of the basic differences between single-coils and humbuckers), I still love my Strat. copy, firstly for sentimental reasons because a) it was my first ever guitar and b) I played my first gig with it, and also as you say, the quality of play isn't purely down to the instrument and as I said, I think there was a point where I could get some pretty nice tones coming from it before I got a new FX pedal and the Les Paul (which, for the moment, is my primary guitar). Since we recorded that little jam I do think I've got a lot better, and I think we'd all agree that as musicians we're always learning.

  3. There's a lovely used Taylor dreadnought guitar in my local music store--great feel and sound, superb fit and finish. Seems to be a fine instrument, and perhaps a steal at $450. The grandparents gave me some cash for a Christmas present, as much as I want to stick it in the bank I would also love to spend it! Any thoughts?

    I believe it's this model, the 110:



    Or should I hold out a bit longer to save up for the $600 114? I do like the sound of jumbo body style.

  5. Originally posted by Alex:[..]
    Yes, I wrote that piece of music. Thanks for the compliments.

    It's meant as an intro for a quite heavy song, so the heavy distortion makes some sense. Right now my wife and kids are away, and I have a few days off. So I'm working on a few new pieces of music. Let's see what I can finish until Thursday.

    Alex


    You are welcome. I love heavy music and heavy distorion, what I was saying is that I didn't like your distortion on that part. It sounds a bit artificial. It's a matter of taste obviously. I happen to be old school.
  6. Originally posted by thechicken:[..]

    You are welcome. I love heavy music and heavy distorion, what I was saying is that I didn't like your distortion on that part. It sounds a bit artificial. It's a matter of taste obviously. I happen to be old school.

    Okay - I understand. No offense taken.

    For your info: I played through the Lead channel of my Hughes & Kettner Tubeman direct recording workstation. Gain at 11 o'clock, Voicing at 1 o'clock, bass eq at max, mid and treble at 2 o'clock. So even it sounds artificial to your ears it's still full tube preamp saturation. The other guitars were recorded through the clean and crunch channels of the same unit. I also used a Promeek recording compressor on every track and finally some master compression (actually too much but I didn't want to redo it considering it's only a demo).

    As you said - it's a matter of taste. I can make the Tubeman sound completely different if I want to. The Voicing control gives it a great versatility. I even use it live - I bypass the speaker emulation and plug it into a small 18 Watt Class A power amp head, so I have a three channel full tube amp. I haven't used distortion stomp boxes in ages.

    Alex
  7. Here's a little piece of a song that I've been recording today. Still a rough mix, no reverb / delay and no vocals. I'll probably add a little keys, too. This is all my blue strat. The bass is a Korean Rickenbacker copy.

    www.freak-alex-band.com/DemoDez2008.mp3

    I noticed a small background hiss at the beginning that I still have to eliminate. And too heavy master compression again...

    Enjoy

    Alex
  8. Originally posted by Alex:Here's a little piece of a song that I've been recording today. Still a rough mix, no reverb / delay and no vocals. I'll probably add a little keys, too. This is all my blue strat. The bass is a Korean Rickenbacker copy.

    www.freak-alex-band.com/DemoDez2008.mp3

    I noticed a small background hiss at the beginning that I still have to eliminate. And too heavy master compression again...

    Enjoy

    Alex


    Awesome... Nice bass playing! You should put an album out.
  10. That's pretty impressive man. Good for you.

  11. Actually it's not too impressive to record an album. Anyone with a computer can do it, and when he's done it a few times he can call himself a semi- professional. Even if I'm really proud of my own CD I still have to admit that I can't beat a proper professional production with the limitations of my home equipment and my self- taught know- how.

    And it's not too good for me - at least not in a financial way. The physical CD production costs money. I gave away a lot of free and promotional copies. In the end I never made any money with it, I ended up getting the cost back in and was happy. It was a little bit better in the days when we played live on a regular basis, but we mostly played for free, so our CD sales had to pay also for our car's gasoline. But now there just aren't enough people knowing my music and visiting my site. So thanks for giving me the opportunity for a post of shameless self- advertising.



    Alex
  12. Right, the Explorer is officially on its way! Should have it by Saturday with any luck, maybe even Friday if extremely lucky, and if not Monday lol. Either way, I'm absolutely buzzing! lol.
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Contribute to the U2 community with uploading photos or by telling us which shows you have visited.
Contribute to the U2 community with uploading photos or by telling us which shows you have visited.
Contribute to the U2 community with uploading photos or by telling us which shows you have visited.