Post: #101

Have a luthier related question here for any of you folks who work on guitars or build them.

Are guitar necks standardized? I have an ESP LTD MH-100QMNT that I love and a couple years ago it fell and and the headstock broke. I was able to find a replacement neck on ebay and just tranferred the tuning pegs over and bolted it on good to go. I noticed the first fret on the bottom two strings twangs really bad - brought it to a luthier and her discovered the neck is slightly twisted and the only way to fix it is to pull the frets out and plane the neck true again. At least $300 worth of work when I can buy a replacement neck for like $50.

Now, here's my conundrum: I can't find a replacement neck for this guitar like I could last time. I was able to find one on ebay fortunately when it broke before but I cannot find a neck for the ESP LTD MH-100QMNT nowadays. So, my question is will any ESP/LTD variant 24-fret 6-string neck work on this guitar or do the model numbers have to match?

Post: #102

The neck pocket, screw holes in the pocket/neck and the neck heel only need to match/fit. Everything else is up to taste.

Post: #103

I got one of these for Christmas after having my eye on it for a long time:



I've played with it about 30m-1hr every day ever since, I haven't really done anything musical since I was a teenager. It has been fun, but not many other people have them so there is not a lot of instructional material. I can do a few simple melodies on it but I'm nowhere near being able to take things from my imagination and play them in real time, that is where I want to be eventually.

Post: #104

(01-09-2017 03:00 PM)Silver_Tube Wrote:  I got one of these for Christmas after having my eye on it for a long time:



I've played with it about 30m-1hr every day ever since, I haven't really done anything musical since I was a teenager. It has been fun, but not many other people have them so there is not a lot of instructional material. I can do a few simple melodies on it but I'm nowhere near being able to take things from my imagination and play them in real time, that is where I want to be eventually.

I still don't "get" Roger's Linnstrument.

It's a glorified and un-intuitive keyboard midi controller yes?

Does it also function as a step sequencer or anything?

Post: #105

(12-23-2016 07:06 AM)AnonymousBosch Wrote:  ^ Roberto:

I've changed the strings a few times, but the bottom string of my mandolin - the G - always ends up on 'dead' on the first two frets. Any suggestions, or is a neck problem?

This thread has slipped right under my radar, but has been recently been brought back to my attention.

I've got two vids for you AB. Watch them both and then I'm pretty sure you will be able to figure it out yourself:









The theory should apply as much to guitar as anything else.

I've got a boatload of these setup videos, but these two are ESSENCE.

HTH.

Basically you need to use the TrANI system: [Truss rod. Action. Nut. Intonation.] Then re-iterate if necessary. All the great guitar setup gurus and practical Luthiers will give a variation of this. I've distilled it down.

More on this later. Check those vids. Willseasyguitar explains better than anyone else. Ex Marine and Master Luthier!

Post: #106

(01-10-2017 03:26 AM)JackinMelbourne Wrote:  

(01-09-2017 03:00 PM)Silver_Tube Wrote:  I got one of these for Christmas after having my eye on it for a long time:



I've played with it about 30m-1hr every day ever since, I haven't really done anything musical since I was a teenager. It has been fun, but not many other people have them so there is not a lot of instructional material. I can do a few simple melodies on it but I'm nowhere near being able to take things from my imagination and play them in real time, that is where I want to be eventually.

I still don't "get" Roger's Linnstrument.

It's a glorified and un-intuitive keyboard midi controller yes?

Does it also function as a step sequencer or anything?

Just to give you a rough feel:

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic...3&t=447618

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic...3&t=452674

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic...3&t=420796

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic...3&t=456128

Post: #107

Just bought a M-Audio 49 key MIDI controller keyboard for my studio and can't get it to work and forums aren't helping. Not sure if any of you guys have a MIDI controller and use reaper but maybe someone can offer some assistance:

The device is installed and Reaper reads signal from it when I press keys. Shows MIDI signal on the monitoring bar(s) when I press keys. When I load a synth virtual instrument into the track and play keys, it does not make any sounds even though the MIDI editor window shows that the keys are being being pressed. If I press on the notes with the mouse left-click then it makes sounds, but will not make sounds when I press the keyboard keys even though visually Reaper is telling me the keyboard is supposed to working and is sending MIDI note data to the DAW.

Anyone every have this sort of issue or any ideas?

Post: #108

(01-11-2017 12:26 AM)General Stalin Wrote:  Just bought a M-Audio 49 key MIDI controller keyboard for my studio and can't get it to work and forums aren't helping. Not sure if any of you guys have a MIDI controller and use reaper but maybe someone can offer some assistance:

The device is installed and Reaper reads signal from it when I press keys. Shows MIDI signal on the monitoring bar(s) when I press keys. When I load a synth virtual instrument into the track and play keys, it does not make any sounds even though the MIDI editor window shows that the keys are being being pressed. If I press on the notes with the mouse left-click then it makes sounds, but will not make sounds when I press the keyboard keys even though visually Reaper is telling me the keyboard is supposed to working and is sending MIDI note data to the DAW.

Anyone every have this sort of issue or any ideas?

The Reaper Forums have been good to me.

Here's a thread that might help you out.

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=158563

Post: #109

^fucking awesome find...

That is the exact keyboard I bought too. I will mess with this once I'm off the shitter and report my results.

Post: #110

That link didn't do anything for me and also the keymap is for version 4.77 and I'm on 5.311. The instructions do not quite carry over. Would be nice to be able to use the full functionality of all the buttons on the board but not totally necessary.

Regardless I figured out he problem by reading this:

http://community.airmusictech.com/airmus...ing-xpand2

Pieter Hounslow Wrote:I have solved the problem - using Reaper there is sub-menu under choice of input . Opening the input dropdown I could see that the last option under input:MIDI is "map input to channel" - and of course the default is set to send the info back to the source. Changing this to the MIDI channel of the plugin solved the issue immediately!

I am using Xpand!2 and it wants the input to be mapped to channel 1 as opposed to the default (source). Works now.

Post: #111

(01-11-2017 02:32 AM)General Stalin Wrote:  That link didn't do anything for me and also the keymap is for version 4.77 and I'm on 5.311. The instructions do not quite carry over. Would be nice to be able to use the full functionality of all the buttons on the board but not totally necessary.

Regardless I figured out he problem by reading this:

http://community.airmusictech.com/airmus...ing-xpand2

Pieter Hounslow Wrote:I have solved the problem - using Reaper there is sub-menu under choice of input . Opening the input dropdown I could see that the last option under input:MIDI is "map input to channel" - and of course the default is set to send the info back to the source. Changing this to the MIDI channel of the plugin solved the issue immediately!

I am using Xpand!2 and it wants the input to be mapped to channel 1 as opposed to the default (source). Works now.

Congrats! my first response was going to be that your keyboard is talking to Reaper, but not talking to the Vsti. Welcome to the world of midi ... pain in the ass, but ultimately quite powerful.

Post: #112

I had that problem recently with Reaper. I have an old mk.1 Axiom 25.

It took me about 6 hours to figure it out and get it working. Forget now what the problem was! :-)

The Axiom is a nice little keyboard. The drum pads on my mk.1 are a bit insensitive, but when you learn how to assign the midi controller knobs via the keyboard and the small screen, it's a pretty quick and powerful setup. You can save what you do anyway. But I'm lazy and just keep it for the one thing.

I have mine set up so the six (out of 8) controller knobs it has, interact with the six controllers on Steinberg's Hypersonic VST. Does anyone else use that? It's got to be the most lightweight and versatile and powerful VST known to man. It barely touches the CPU at all.

It's a hassle running it on an x64 system, but there are workarounds, though to be honest, I never bothered with those as FLStudio has internal bridging (make sure to set that in the prefs) and so does Reaper. I'll get JBridge soon just for the sandboxing feature that bridging provides - if a plugin crashes, it does not take down your whole host (DAW) and everything else with it.

I like Reaper a lot. I also like FLStudio a lot. Then again, I'm a massive Ableton fan, and probably my main weapon would be Studio One (v2 - not upgraded yet, don't like the vector graphics in v3).

Sorry, rambling, like I do.

Glad you got the Axiom/Reaper problem sorted - it's a pretty common problem as the dozen's of threads on it show. And there's a dozen different reasons why it happens. But yeah, I love that Axiom controller with the soft-knobs assigned to Hypersonic's dials. And the drums are just out of this world too. If you do Hip-Hop, it's like a whole workstation in itself.

I have a template for FLStudio that has taken weeks of work to get going and it is super fast. 16 midi channels all mapped to Hypersonic. All one VST instance remember, and bridged and sandboxed. I only recently realised I had not turned this feature on and when I did, FLS stopped crashing! Doh.

Midi is so much quicker and more fun that Reaper, but the Audio stuff Reaper provides can't be beat. Learning new stuff all the time about them. Timestretching shit and all (manipulating long samples).

What a time to be alive!

Post: #113

So i've been checking out those Chinese knock-offs Rigsby posted in the guitar question thread and thinking about getting one. Those Yngwie strats look really cool but i've never played on a scalloped neck. Anyone here have experience with those Yngwie Strats, how do you feel about the scalloped fingerboard?

Post: #114

Made my first short little demo track using my keyboard last night. Love this thing! Also figured out how to map my MIDI controller buttons to actions in Reaper so I can use the transport buttons, faders, and dials to control the mixer, plugins, and other software functions.

Time to start making some sweet piano and synth productions.

Post: #115

I have an update on the "kicking a band member out" situation. So we had scheduled a meeting in which we were going to just explain to him that it wasn't working out. So in the meantime we posted an ad looking for a new drummer.

He found the ad. He was pissed, but we just explained it on the phone when he called. I guess we kind of look like assholes now but whatever. It's an issue of overall perspective...he was not a good communicator nor was he a very good drummer. He was inconsistent which I can't stand. For example when we'd be talking about plans for the future, and possible obstacles, and how to overcome them (you know, like fucking adults) his only contributions would be something like "yeah but we're gonna be rockstars so who cares". I would have appreciated the sentiment, were it not so transparently childish. So his contributions to discussion usually caused me to roll my eyes.

That's what irrational confidence sounds like. Fake confidence. If you were to ask him, he would say he was "very confident" but it was obvious to anyone with ears that his skill level was not anywhere near that level he thought he was at. I'm not a chick, I don't get wet for people that have irrational confidence just for the sake of it. Men expect results. To put your $ where your moth is. I'm all for people having a positive attitude and "fuck the world, I'm gonna do what I want" but if you don't have it where it counts, all that amounts to a hill of beans.

Finding drummers is tough in this area, though. They are in extremely high demand. The good ones usually get snatched up pretty quickly. A few people are interested in trying out. One of them is a chick, if shes hot and talented it could be a big boost to us.

Post: #116

That's always the problem. Everyone wants to be a guitar player, up in front and headbanging like a lunatic.

Of course, the demand for good guitarists is always there, but the demand for good drummers is even higher because the pool of drummers is so much smaller.

Post: #117

(01-12-2017 10:23 PM)Frank Underwood Wrote:  That's always the problem. Everyone wants to be a guitar player, up in front and headbanging like a lunatic.

Of course, the demand for good guitarists is always there, but the demand for good drummers is even higher because the pool of drummers is so much smaller.

I think there is more than a few reasons for this:

-to become a skilled drummer takes, on average, more coordination and time spent playing

-costs more money ( a kit is more expensive than a starter guitar)
-need a place to actually be able to bang on a kit, and lets be honest, what dad in their right mind wants to buy his 8 year old son a drumkit only to listen to him bang on it for 10 years before he can hold a beat? as opposed to a guitar which you can bang on in your room until you get good

-when you're an adult, as per the above point, even if you have a full kit you need a lockout / garage in which to play for EXTENSIVE HOURS in order to develop the level of skill to be a good drummer

-it's a lot more hauling to do for a drummer who's in a band that gigs

-it's not a "front and center" type of instrument that doesn't have immediate payoff in terms of snatch / social validation. (not without said extensive hours put in in order to become an exceptionally great drummer)

-the advent of the home studio, in which one guy can "do it all" track guitars, use midi drums, ect...why would you spend the time learning something as complex as drums when you can use a MIDI controller and move the MIDI notes around as needed?

and let's not forget the more than a decade long and continually rising trend of EDM music. It basically dominates the culture now in terms of what music genre's are popular...less motivation to be a drummer of all things when rock as a whole is a dying genre and has been for some time. Playing drums? Pfftt. Why wouldn't some kid pick up turntables instead?

Pussy to effort ratio determines ALL

Post: #118

(01-12-2017 03:54 PM)Rhyme or Reason Wrote:  That's what irrational confidence sounds like. Fake confidence. If you were to ask him, he would say he was "very confident" but it was obvious to anyone with ears that his skill level was not anywhere near that level he thought he was at. I'm not a chick, I don't get wet for people that have irrational confidence just for the sake of it. Men expect results. To put your $ where your moth is. I'm all for people having a positive attitude and "fuck the world, I'm gonna do what I want" but if you don't have it where it counts, all that amounts to a hill of beans.

There is no greater example of the Dunning-Kruger effect then among bad musicians. There is this weird inverse corollary between how good you are and how good you think are. I've met some very talented people that were quite humble about their talents and I've met some real hacks who thought they were the greatest thing that ever lived. Unfortunately the hacks can talk a good game and sucker a lot of people in before they figure out how detrimental they really are to the band.

Most people have no idea how difficult it is to get four or five people on the same page and in some sort of agreement about what direction to take. Fortunately in both of my main gigs everybody for the most part is a great guy and no one is dragging the ship down.

Post: #119

(01-12-2017 12:24 PM)DamienCasanova Wrote:  So i've been checking out those Chinese knock-offs Rigsby posted in the guitar question thread and thinking about getting one. Those Yngwie strats look really cool but i've never played on a scalloped neck. Anyone here have experience with those Yngwie Strats, how do you feel about the scalloped fingerboard?

The whole point of a scalloped fingerboard is to play close to the metal and have a very light touch.

I want to get one, coz it's the opposite playing style I have: Hit hard and dig deep - not good for a scalloped board.

I can only think of two major players off the top of my head that use these boards and that is obviously Yngwie and Ritchie Blackmore who he was inspired by.

I'm thinking of getting one just to learn scales on and to be able to jump up and down the fretboard more freely. If you hit to hard or use a lot of natural vibrato you would probably sound a bit out of tune straight away.

But I'm talking out of my hat. I'm curious to try one too. I think there is a good reason that shredders and scale freaks prefer these types of neck though, compared to us chancers that just hit it to see 'what does this do'.

Every guitarist should have a scalloped board in his collection.

If nothing else, you can replace it for a few bucks, if you don't like it. Or if you do like it, put it on that expensive Fender you have, that Fender quoted you a thousand bucks to replace (for scalloped version).

You are getting a guitar body and a neck for this price - less than 200 bucks. Hopefully that factory that Johnny A used is still going to knock out these little beauties.

Post: #120

(01-12-2017 12:24 PM)DamienCasanova Wrote:  So i've been checking out those Chinese knock-offs Rigsby posted in the guitar question thread and thinking about getting one. Those Yngwie strats look really cool but i've never played on a scalloped neck. Anyone here have experience with those Yngwie Strats, how do you feel about the scalloped fingerboard?

I tried an Yngwie strat a while ago, it felt weird at first. And Rigsby's right, a scalloped board needs a featherlight touch. Damn thing actually made me notice how much excessive force I'm using when pressing strings...

Post: #121

(01-16-2017 08:41 PM)Rigsby Wrote:  

(01-12-2017 12:24 PM)DamienCasanova Wrote:  So i've been checking out those Chinese knock-offs Rigsby posted in the guitar question thread and thinking about getting one. Those Yngwie strats look really cool but i've never played on a scalloped neck. Anyone here have experience with those Yngwie Strats, how do you feel about the scalloped fingerboard?

The whole point of a scalloped fingerboard is to play close to the metal and have a very light touch.

I want to get one, coz it's the opposite playing style I have: Hit hard and dig deep - not good for a scalloped board.

I can only think of two major players off the top of my head that use these boards and that is obviously Yngwie and Ritchie Blackmore who he was inspired by.

I'm thinking of getting one just to learn scales on and to be able to jump up and down the fretboard more freely. If you hit to hard or use a lot of natural vibrato you would probably sound a bit out of tune straight away.

But I'm talking out of my hat. I'm curious to try one too. I think there is a good reason that shredders and scale freaks prefer these types of neck though, compared to us chancers that just hit it to see 'what does this do'.

Every guitarist should have a scalloped board in his collection.

If nothing else, you can replace it for a few bucks, if you don't like it. Or if you do like it, put it on that expensive Fender you have, that Fender quoted you a thousand bucks to replace (for scalloped version).

You are getting a guitar body and a neck for this price - less than 200 bucks. Hopefully that factory that Johnny A used is still going to knock out these little beauties.

Yeah for such a low price it seems worthwhile just to have the different option for something to practice with. You're right, like most guitar players i'm so used to just gripping and ripping on the neck that it would probably benefit me greatly to learn a lighter touch and try to play on the metal more. I'm afraid i'd bend the strings too deep and snap a couple most likely, but I'm also curious what kind of crazy sounds and bends you could get out of it. Definitely let us know if you do get one.


Here's the other thread for reference
/thread-60286.html

Top Star factory
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1796319

And it's pretty crazy they could be making these for $150-180 bucks, while they sell here for 10x that. Even with a 35% tariff these Chinese guitars would still be extremely cheap under $250, compared to the Fenders and such. Like you say, there is definitely a lot of room for startup companies offering guitars in this price range to make some cash.

Also, how do you feel about the Floyd Rose tremolo bridge, compared to the regular bridges they offer? Any experience with those? Seems like the biggest downside is it's a bitch to string and tune, but performance wise it seems a net positive. Do you think it's definitely worth it for only $20-30 more?

Post: #122

(01-17-2017 02:37 PM)DamienCasanova Wrote:  Here's the other thread for reference
/thread-60286.html

Top Star factory
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1796319

And it's pretty crazy they could be making these for $150-180 bucks, while they sell here for 10x that. Even with a 35% tariff these Chinese guitars would still be extremely cheap under $250, compared to the Fenders and such. Like you say, there is definitely a lot of room for startup companies offering guitars in this price range to make some cash.

Also, how do you feel about the Floyd Rose tremolo bridge, compared to the regular bridges they offer? Any experience with those? Seems like the biggest downside is it's a bitch to string and tune, but performance wise it seems a net positive. Do you think it's definitely worth it for only $20-30 more?

I can't speak about the quality of the hardware like a (probably) knocked-off Floyd Rose tremolo. The Chinese can do some amazing quality stuff, but they also seem to specialise in 'just-good-enough' kind of stuff. I doubt it would be so bad it was unplayable. I doubt it would be as good as an original though. But maybe I am wrong.

If you are talking about the Floyd-Rose tremolo thing in general then I have to say two things: 1: I am not qualified to answer that question. 2: I can answer that question but I'm extremely prejudiced.

1: Lots of guitarists out there love/hate the Floyd-Rose system. Some thrive on it, others (like me) can not even begin to comprehend it. It's not that far out, but it's pretty too far out for a lot of guitarists, like me.

2: I once had a couple of Floyd-Rose systems on the go. Just gave up. Nightmare system. For someone else. Not me.

I would avoid getting a FR on that guitar. Just because the 30 bucks you are paying will not buy you anything good. If you want to take this root, then do it after playing and owning/borrowing a FR equipped guitar for a few days. Restring it. Hell, try to retune it!

But for 50 bucks or so, well, I would not take the chance. FR are not for beginners anyway. Pick another trem to start with, unless you like it coz you tried it. Even people that use them will tell you they are a pain. But it does have advantages, to the patient, and the on-the-ball types.

Trems are funny. Lots of people don't like Bigsby (not me). Some love Kahlers (me). You need to spend a day or two at least, I think.

As for your first point: yeah, if you can make guitars that cheap once you own the tooling, and your manual workers aren't asking for an arm and a leg, just a fair shake at earning a living to be able to afford to live in a house, and maybe drive a car?

Things are starting up in America for jobs like these. They don't pay much. The question is, do you have a government that will allow you to work in this way and still be able to feed/house yourself independently.

Say what you like but for too long this type of employment was stulted and still-born. If you do what we do in EU - we just tax any profit you make to take it back off you anyway - then it can be a hard game to win.

So many people will just moan and explain and rationalise why they did not succeed in life. But there are others with legitimate grievancies as to how the whole system runs.

I don't know. I just feel like the ground is fertile if the upper tier decisions are made to let us start playing as a race in the garden of eden we are all in.

Then again, those Indonesians are kicking it right out of the park price/quality wise. Even better than the japs. You can't go wrong with Aria at the moment. Part Indonesian/Japanese/Malaysian/Korean - who knows what they are. But just pull one down off a wall and play one if you get a chance.

Machines can wind pick-up bobbins, they can place them in the CNC drilled cavity in the body of the already machined guitar. A separate machine cuts the wood, inserts the frets, levels them, checks them, after it has been painted, by machine of course. Why would humans feel so insecure?

We can't match machines for most things, but a lot of things we can do - like tuning and fine adjustments, well, let's just say we can do them better for now. Automation is set to take over in a paradigm shift to rival the computer paradigm shift, in a few years. But still, we will need to differentiate between what can and can not be done by a human. It will find its own level, like water.

Finding the water line is where the smart money is.

You are pretty much always going to need a fella to polish the frets down though, after the wood of the neck has shrunk a bit in transit/storage. About a Millimeter - not much.

Or maybe you could set up another machine to check, to dismantle the neck, strip the strings, smooth it down, check it, put the strings back on, put the whole guitar back together, tune it. You see where I'm going with this?

We are on the cusp of something for sure. If I figure out what it is, you will be the last to know - I'll be running in the other direction buying stocks and shares. :-)

Post: #123

For any DIY musicians on here, I highly reccomend reading Ari Herstand's book, and reading his blog "Ari's take".

Tons of great information on how to get the most out of the business side of the industry, in these times when the music biz is being turned upside down. He takes a surprisingly optimistic view for the indie musician unlike most publications which only talk about the 'doom and gloom' of being a DIY artist. Very informative, fresh, and interesting perspective.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-New-Musi...1631491504

Post: #124

I'm travelling out in the middle of nowhere but I've come across the opportunity to buy a cheap 3/4 size Cello. I tend to buy instruments assuming I can figure them out myself later, but I'm wondering if it'll be a lot harder to figure out than, say, guitar, bass, mandolin or lap steel was.

Anyone have any experience with them? Is it much different to a fretless bass? Would a 3/4 size realistically be too small for me, given that I'm a big guy... (for you)?

I'll be moving on here tomorrow, so any advice before then would be appreciated.

Post: #125

(02-01-2017 08:15 PM)AnonymousBosch Wrote:  I'm travelling out in the middle of nowhere but I've come across the opportunity to buy a cheap 3/4 size Cello.

..snip...

I'll be moving on here tomorrow, so any advice before then would be appreciated.

I don't have any experience at all with this instrument.

But I'll say this:

It's cheap. So that's good. You may be able to easily make your money back later as long as transport/shipping costs aren't too prohibitive (should you realise it is not for you).

I'm pretty sure as a stringed instrument, it plays by the same principles, and if you could figure out that other stuff, you'll be fine. You might even find a new use for it.

I would say if you can get your hands on the thing, feel it, smell it, check it's condition, maybe even just pluck a note and see how it resonates, well, you may be able to make your own mind up pretty quick.

I'm not sure where you are or where you need it to get back to, but of course you will make sure all provisions are met for a safe journey.

I say go for it! But then again I'm a massive John Cale fan.

I love 3/4 instruments - lot of fun. I just got a 3/4 P Bass last year, and it sounds superb and is actually very easy to play. I would say a 3/4 version of a big instrument like a Cello would be ideal to learn on.

But as I said I'm no expert. A Cello is a big commitment either way, so I understand you asking for advice. As long as the price is right and logistics are sorted, I say do it. I have no doubt you will be able to 'make some noise' with the mofo, even if in a decade or two's time, while supping your pipe on your porch.

Electronics, mixers, triggers - everything is so cheap now, you will be able to come up with a use for it. Then again, it's a Cello, and even cheap Cellos don't come 'cheap' so don't listen to me.

I'll say this though, as a long time bass player and guitarist: if there was one instrument from that category that I wanted to get, it would be a Cello. Not a violin or a double bass.

Pro-tip: If you do end up getting it, you need those John Cale shades too.

Sorry I wan't much help, maybe someone that knows something about the subject can help you out. Big decision I know. Best of luck.