I did it. I bit the bullet and decided to trade my LP for the Paul Reed Smith. It’s a goldtop PRS DGT and you can read about it here. I showed Jack a picture of it and he asked “so how is that different from your old one?” I’m gonna have to work on that boy. [Side note: Jack and I had a guitar lesson this evening and he's actually starting to catch on a little bit. We're working on a simplified version of the main riff to Smoke on the Water and he's making some progress. Pretty awesome.]

This is the exact guitar that I’m getting – you can check out some more pics here if you’re interested, and I know that you are.

This was a somewhat painful decision to make. I loved the tone of my Les Paul, but I didn’t love playing it. Keeping it wasn’t really an option because of the fat neck. I may (and probably will) get another Lester in the future, but it will be one with a modern neck carve.

I had a lot of options on the table, but I decided on the PRS in spite of the fact that I’ve never played this exact model. I kinda took a leap of faith, knowing that I can easily trade or resell it if I decide that I don’t like it. Remember that I paid $1450 for my LP 3 years ago, and this guitar usually sells on the used market for ~$2000 ($2500 new). Not a bad deal.

I really think that this guitar is going to work for me. At least for a while. It should be here by Friday. Once I’ve had a chance to play with it, I’ll post some kind of review.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have decided to sell my Les Paul. My main issue with it is the neck. I am primarily a lead guitarist, and the neck on the LP is so fat that it makes soloing fairly difficult. It’s great for rhythm and some minimalist lead stuff, but anything too fancy just becomes pretty tough.

Anyway, I’m currently toying with these choices (among others):

1) PRS DGT

First of all let me say that I am not a PRS fan. I think that most of them look extremely gaudy with all the highly figured maple tops and extreme bursts. I would much rather see a natural-looking woodgrain or a solid color paint job. Anyway, the DGT is a signature model (another thing I try to avoid). This guitar is the product of a collaboration between PRS and David Grissom, a long time user of the PRS McCarty model. Grissom added a lot of tweaks to the basic McCarty such as a trem, modified pickups, a coil tap (to switch between humbucking and single coil modes), separate volume controls for the neck and bridge pickups, a thinner neck, and fatter frets.

I think that this guitar would be like a Swiss Army knife. On paper, it looks like if should be able to cover all kinds of tones. I have been talking to a guy on TGP for the last couple of days about a potential trade. The values of these two guitars are pretty similar, so it’d be an even swap.

2) Gibson ES-339

You are probably familiar with the ES-335. Well, the 339 is a slightly smaller version of the 335. This guitar is about the same size as a Les Paul. Obviously (maybe), this is a semi-hollowbody guitar, so it’s very lively and resonant. I like the looks of these guitars, and they have really good access to the upper frets. I would choose the 30/60 neck option, which is basically the modern/slim neck profile. I think I would like these guitars, but I really need to play one before I make a decision.

Again, several guys on TGP have inquired about trades involving this guitar. One guy even offered to throw in a WCR pickup of my choice. That’s a pretty attractive trade. Most of those trades have been for the cherry finish. I’d prefer the tobacco burst, but I guess it’s not that big of a deal.

I guess I need to plan a trip out to Guitar Center to take a few out for a spin. I hate going to that store, though. It’s so hard to hear anything with all the Hendrix/SRV/Creed/Metallica wannabes wanking away.

I’m afraid that I may be falling out of love with my Les Paul. There. I’ve said it.

There are many great qualities to this instrument. It has really great sustain, it sounds really nice into a dirty amp, and it’s pretty much perfect for chunky rhythm guitar parts. Unfortunately, it has it’s share of issues that I can’t really come to terms with.

Number one with a bullet is that it just won’t stay in tune. I have to retune after every solo, and that just shouldn’t happen. There’s not much worse than playing a solo, then going back to the rhythm part only to realize that your B string is about 1/4 step flat because of that big bend that you ended the solo on.

Another issue is that the neck is just too big. I liked it at first, but it has started to get on my nerves lately. It’s really hard to play fast on this guitar. It’s one of those guitars that fights you tooth and nail. There’s something inherently rock and roll about that, but I’m just tired of fighting it.

The last thing that I’m going to mention is that the cleans are weak. This is a pretty common complaint about Les Pauls in general. I guess the mahogany body paired with the humbucking pickups makes the guitar really dark-natured.

Ugh, I don’t know. I feel like I have been making excuses for this guitar for a long time because I have always wanted a Les Paul.

I’m not really sure what I would replace it with. The main contender is an ES-339 with the 30/60 neck. This would pretty much be an even trade, but I’m unsure about doing modern rock with a semihollow.

I have heard a lot of great things about the Hamer Studio, but it seems kinda generic. A lot of people have suggested a PRS Singlecut, but I have always been leery of those. I do not like those highly figured maple tops – they just look gaudy. Maybe a Gretsch Duo Jet? I want something kinda classic, but with a modern sensibility. Does that make sense?

I anyone could give me any leads or anything about this, I would greatly appreciate it.

I think I am becoming a “guitar – cord – amp” kind of guy. Of course, my amp has three channels with switchable boost and effects loop, so it’s not like I’m plugging into a vintage Marshall or anything.

Lately I have been using kind of a complicated setup with my effects. I have been connecting my M13 to my amp through the amp effects loop using the 4 cable method. This allows you to put certain effects (filters, compressors) in front of the preamp and other effects (delay, modulation, EQ) in between the pre and power amp. Some effects work better before distortion, and others work better afterwards. It’s a cool setup and it works exactly like it’s supposed to.

If you sensed a big “but” coming, here it is: I don’t really use that many effects, so all the extra cable coming to and from the amp is kind of unnecessary. I use a lot of delay and stuff when I play at church, but I don’t use much of anything with TLP. I use a phaser on one song, and that’s it. Everything else is just the amp. Of course, we’re playing loud stripped-down modernish rock rather than trippy outer space music.

I’ll probably stick with the M13 because when I do use effects it’s just so easy to operate. Besides, the delays sound really great on this thing. I don’t know – maybe I’ll just skip the pedalboard at the next TLP practice and see what happens. Maybe that one song doesn’t *really* need a phaser.

I tried to not have a wah pedal on my board, but I couldn’t do it. I need wah. Maybe not in the way that I need air, but still. I traded one of my FV-500H pedals for an original crybaby. I wasn’t using the expression pedal enough to justify keeping it. I don’t use loops or pitch shifting or anything, so it’s kinda unnecessary.

The Crybaby is not a great wah, but I’m going to pull the guts out of it and drop in an Area 51 replacement board.

Several months ago, Maury bought a bunch of PA equipment for our band to use for shows. It’s good stuff – Crown power amps, JBL speakers and subs, etc. Anyway, our drummer at the time left before we could play a show, so all this stuff just sat unused for months. FYI: our band is once again fully staffed (welcome Doug!), so we should be getting back into the swing of things very soon.

Anyway, our church band was asked to play for an event this evening, so we’re going to use Maury’s PA setup rather than disassemble the church stuff and then have to reassemble it before Sunday. We’re also going to bring our personal amps (Maury’s Triple Rectifier and my Sig:X) rather than bring the church stuff.

It’s going to be a lot of work, but it should be fun. I’m excited to hear how the PA sounds, and I’m really looking forward to using our amps on stage in a big room. I’m afraid that it might be really loud in there, but hopefully it’ll sound good. I also hope that it doesn’t rain on us while we’re loading/unloading stuff.

My new speaker cab showed up yesterday via FedEx, and they didn’t even wait until 9:30 pm to deliver it this time. Anyway, the box was huge and it took me about 30 minutes to unpack it. It was very carefully packed, and I didn’t want to get styrofoam peanuts everywhere. I really hate those little things.

I got a used VHT Deliverance 412 from a guy on The Gear Page. I initially wanted a 2×12, but they never show up on the used market and a new 2×12 costs more than a used 4×12. This one is loaded with the stock Fryette-designed Eminence P50E speakers, and they are intended to be played with VHT/Fryette amps.

Anyway, I got the cab set up and played through it for about 5 minutes. That’s not really enough time to make much of a first impression, but I can at least say that it doesn’t seem to be louder than my old 2×12, which is a good thing. It definitely has more oomph, though.

This cab is built like a tank, and it is completely sealed. A lot of closed-back cabs are rear loaded with a removable back panel. This amp is front-loaded, and there is no back panel, which means that no air can accidentally escape through the cracks. The result of this is a very tight low end response.

I will certainly have more to say about the cab over the next few weeks as I have more opportunities to use it. For now, I’ll just share this pic of the new happy family.

First of all, I have not lost my job. As far as I know, I am in no danger of losing my position. I didn’t want anyone to get wrong ideas about my occupational situation based upon the title of this post. No, I received my new, smaller, lighter pedalboard this week and it is now fully assembled and ready to go. It is pretty much a perfect fit for my M13 and 2 FV-500H pedals. I’m not using the MXR EQ anymore – I’m only using the EQs in the M13.

Before:

After:

Over the last few months, I have made some major changes to my guitar setup, and there are more changes coming. I think that it will be simpler to operate when I’m done, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be simple to look at.

For one, I have gone through quite a few amps. I started out with a Stulce – a relatively simple ~8 watt tube amp. It was designed to get maximum tube saturation without getting unbearably loud. It was nice, but it didn’t have enough clean headroom. I traded that for a Genz-Benz Black Pearl, which is a 30 watt amp similar in nature to a VOX AC30. It was really jangly and chimey, and it got pretty rude when you cranked the gains, but it never really got seriously crunchy. I also acquired a 1970 Fender Bassman. It had great cleans and it was really loud, but it needed some work (new filter caps, pots, etc) and I didn’t really want to drop any more cash into it. I decided to sell both of them and buy a VHT Sig:X. The Sig:X is a monstrous 100 watt 3-channel amp that can do pretty much everything. I have talked about this amp ad nauseum here, so I won’t continue to do so.

My pedalboard used to be 36″ wide with a wah, a volume pedal, a bunch of analog overdrive/distortion/boost pedals, and a giant green delay pedal with a huge midi controller. It is now 24″ wide with one of these and two of these. I’m still figuring out some of the intricacies of the M13, but I’m really liking it so far.

The next change is going to be my speaker cabinet. I had an Avatar Vintage 2×12, but it was kinda cheaply made, and it didn’t have a very tight sound. I sold it, and I will soon be the proud owner of  a Fryette Deliverance 4×12 that will match my Sig:X. A 4×12 is a really big speaker cab, and it’s going to be awesome. I have never had a half stack before, but I have a feeling that it’s gonna be pretty rock and roll. I was initially planning to buy the 2×12 version, but I happened to find a really good deal on the bigger one. The used 4×12 ended up being significantly less expensive than a new 2×12 so I decided to go for it.

The other little gadget that I’m planning to add to my setup in the near future is the RJM Mini Amp Gizmo. This thing looks pretty awesome. It allows you to control a modern multi-channel amp (including models by VHT/Fryette, Mesa, Bogner, Egnater, etc) with a MIDI device like the Line 6 M13. Basically, I can run a MIDI cable from the M13 to the Amp Gizmo to my amp. The M13 will send information to the Amp Gizmo, allowing me to use the M13 as my amp’s footswitch. I can assign a different amp setting (channel/boost/effects loop) to each scene on the M13. Rather than using distortion patches on the M13, I can use the clean/rhythm/lead channels on the amp. Here’s a little video that demonstrates how it works.

It’s going to be kind of a pain to get it all set up, but it will be super easy to operate once it’s done. I really don’t want to have to stomp all the time – I would much rather just focus on playing.