Music, Home Studio, Gigs, and Gear. Rockers Unite!

[crgildart]

A little footy from this afternoon. Ya, were not putting in the work to be tribute band good, especially with just two of us playing for an hour most weekends..

But this is hella FUN!

 

[crgildart]

Ran in to another buddy tonight who I was planning to jam with before the world shut down. Dude's a legit touring pro. He was playing in a project with Double Trouble among other sorta famous people projects. Told him about our cheesy old man classic rock cover jam along sessions and he wants to come sit in with us.

Sweet!

 

[crgildart]

Younger daughter moved in to an apartment with her friend across town. I've migrated (most of) the gear from the living room to her room.. for now..

I also took over her desk for WFH.. She painted the flowers on the side of the desk <3

Still got smaller amps 5 guitars, and 4 basses hanging up in the living room and son's room..

And the 56 Ramirez..

 

[Jim Kenney]

Interesting read for audiophiles or wannabe audiophiles
About an obsessive guy who spent a life time creating one of the premier residential stereo systems in the world in a modest home in Richmond, VA: here

 

[Uncle-A]

Interesting read for audiophiles or wannabe audiophiles
About an obsessive guy who spent a life time creating one of the premier residential stereo systems in the world in a modest home in Richmond, VA: here

It seems like a job that never ends, by the time you get what you want, the technology changes and what you have is no longer what you want.

 

[crgildart]

Right now the circles I run in are full of folks wanting the top shelf late 70s - late 80s technology. Spinning wax on BANG & OLUFSENs Sansui and Harmon Kardon receivers, Klipsch and Polk, Cerwin Vega speakers, etc.. The big stack is back.

 

[Uncle-A]

Peavey amps and speakers were big in this area for a while in the 1990's. A friend and I would play some music from albums, tapes and CD's on Friday nights at a club we belonged. Unfortunately the mixer we had was an entire level mixer and it made it a little difficult to transition from one media to another.

 

[Noodler]

A little footy from this afternoon. Ya, were not putting in the work to be tribute band good, especially with just two of us playing for an hour most weekends..

But this is hella FUN!

Loved it! I'm a guitarist (since 16) and a big Rush fan.

Somehow missed this thread started years ago. Alex Lifeson is why I now have a collection of vintage G-K amps and gear. Our drummer was a huge Neil Peart fan with a big Tama kit. We formed a band when I was about half-way through college (Critical Gears). Played out for about 2 years, even left school for a couple semesters, but my then gf convinced me to go back to school. I have to admit, the life of a professional musician wasn't exactly what I was hoping for.

About 15 years ago I landed in a "dads band" and we only played a few times at neighborhood block party events. Most of the time we just got together to jam in a rented storage space one of the guys had. It was just great to get out and play again, but that fell apart about 10 years ago when our drummer died of cancer.

These days I play for my basement walls. I have been through so many evolutions of my gear and setups over the years. I've done the tube amps and big pedalboards. In the '90s I had the massive racks with way too many processors. Now I just use digital modeling most of the time (Axe-FX FM9 and an old DigiTech iPB-10 with an iPad). I did splurge a few years ago on a pair of new EV PXM-12MP stage monitors so that I could do some serious digital stereo effects and just stand in the middle and let the glorious stereo wash over me.

For guitars, from the first time I played a Parker Fly, I never looked back. Got rid of the Fenders/Gibsons/Ibanez guitars and started investing in picking up as many Parkers as I could afford. Just something about super-hardened stainless steel frets on a compositie graphite fretboard with a carbon exoskeleton body. So unbelievably modern, but still with a soul. Ken Parker was a genious and now that Parker guitars have been out of production for years, I'm looking like a genious too for investing in them. They've been rocketing up in price because now they're "vintage" and made out of unobtanium.

Anyhow, cool thread. So now I get to talk about guitars, golf, and skiing all in one place. Nice.

 

[Noodler]

Found a video shot of my setup from the end of 2022. My setup doubles as the Christmas karaoke stage for my wife and my niece...



I still have some vintage rack gear on the left side and some other half-rack old-school '90s processors on the right. They're singing through an old Boss VF-1 effects processor.

 

[crgildart]

^^^Exactly.. And now we get the "Noodler" handle.
I've got a dozen mostly mediocre but cool looking guitars that I can't really play and one really nice vintage drum kit that I can totally play.. As for the living room home audio/theater I waffled on whether or not to spend a dollar on this album at the thrift store this morning. So far, clean with no skips chEASY on a Sunday Morning.

 

[crgildart]

Guitar buddy will be here in an hour. Here's what we're hacking through today..

Play List	Song	Artist
1​	I Believe in a Thing Called Love	The Darkness
2​	Back in Black	AC/DC
3​	Enter Sandman	Metallica
4​	AntiSocial	Trust
5​	The Trees	Rush
6​	The Spirit of Radio	Rush
7​	Freewill	Rush
8​	In the Mood	Rush
9​	Finding My way	Rush
10​	Best That I Can	Rush
11​	Anthem	Rush
12​	A Passage to Bangkok	Rush
13​	High Head Blues	Black Crowes
14​	Don't Know Who To Pray To	Bumblefoot
15​	Some Other Guy	Bumblefoot

 

[Noodler]

Found a couple other old pics from before the acquisition of some additional gear:

Cabinets all have some great Celestions in them. They're custom tuned for my rig. I always wanted to be able to quickly flip between cabinets (2x12, 2x10, or 2x8) and I have a high voltage switching system at the bottom of the left rack that allows me to change nothing but the cabinet at a flip of a switch. These days I'm mostly playing through the EV monitors. They're just incredible.

Guitars are relegated to a floor rack and their cases. I only have a 5 spot rack, so most of them are in their cases... including a gorgeous Hofner Jazzica archtop that I have to keep in the case due to the low humidity in CO.

And I do still have one old Ibanez Prestige that I keep tuned a half-step low with thicker strings for when I want to get my SRV mojo going...

 

[Mendieta]

Quick update: I now have the guitars hanging in pairs: One acoustic (Breedlove) next to a Classical by the piano, the Jazz guitars (a hollow and a semi hollow body) together, a give string bass on its own, and the rock and the punk rock guitars together, not shown in this picture.

There is also a Frankestamp made out of one Fender head and one Fender combo, in series -- with a few boxes inbetween to take the load and restore a line level from a speaker output. IT goes to a essentially a 2x12 duo of Emincence amps that I love. I'll share that separately if I ever get the time. ANyways, there is also a fender acoustic behind for vocals and the rare acoustic guitar use. Here are the rock/punk axes, they sit behind the drums

Oh, and the recording gear, last year I got a Behringer rack thingie with 8 inputs, so I have been recording guitar bass and drums live using all mics. LOVE it.

 

[Noodler]

Must be nice to not be shoved down into the basement by your wife...

 

[bbinder]

Interesting read for audiophiles or wannabe audiophiles
About an obsessive guy who spent a life time creating one of the premier residential stereo systems in the world in a modest home in Richmond, VA: here

Great read! I can understand the desire to look for that perfection in a home system but decided long ago that the costs get crazy. I decided that if the system doesn’t make my ears hurt then it is good enough. Having said that, I upgraded my speakers 3years ago and upgraded my subwoofer this year and have no regrets.

 

[crgildart]

Must be nice to not be shoved down into the basement by your wife...

I had my toys all over the LIVING ROOM before the nest started to empty. She dealt with it in the living room for almost 10 years.. It was a deal that we agreed on when we tore own my walled in back porch studio to make room for a new master bed and bath home addition.. My gear went to the living room and each kid got their own room. Mom got to decorate the new addition. Christmas was way easier to fit the tree in now that the drums are moved out of the living room.

 

[Tom K.]

Love this. Not sure how I missed it, but finding it on yet another minus a billion degree day in NW MT was perfect. Thanks for posting, guys!

And @crgildart I love your Zildjian focus. As a teenager, I was a fair-to-middling drummer with a Ludwig kit and Zildjian everywhere. Sold that to buy my first MX race bike, but never lost my focus on good drummers.....

 

[Tominator]

Updated/Current Lineup:

 

[crgildart]

And @crgildart I love your Zildjian focus. As a teenager, I was a fair-to-middling drummer with a Ludwig kit and Zildjian everywhere. Sold that to buy my first MX race bike, but never lost my focus on good drummers.....

Ya all the pies except one Paiste 18" China are vintage 70s-80s Zildjian currently. I just got a crazy idea to try and make a gong from a more recent heavy Planet Z 20" ride. Drilled a couple holes in it and hung it up in the corner. Mostly just a place holder until I find a better gong.. I'm not going to spend stupid money to get a real one though..

 

[crgildart]

Updated/Current Lineup:
View attachment 221661

Dig that Mustang!