All great tips, athough the weed doesn’t agree with me.
Neither. Or both. It’s more that I fall into the same patterns. The same old scales, and rhythm patterns. When I play melodies on keys, I’m happy with much simpler lines, and they’re often more interesting.
But they lack the timing and expression I can do on guitar. And my chord game is way ahead on guitar.
One guitarist I really admire is Marc Ribot. His rhythms are hypnotic, and his chord-based melodies are just incredible. But whenever I try to move outside of what I know, it sounds like a mess.
I always put off practicing the Christmas covers that I know on guitar until its too late. Gonna try to start a little earlier. Learning the arrangements taught by Larry Carlton helped open some doors for me on guitar.
The difficulty level was just right for me. Quite a few unfamiliar chord shapes to learn, and some hybrid picking pattern and fingering choices that I wasn’t used to. But not so advanced that I’d feel overwhelmed.
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Just a thought but maybe try to learn the chopped up parts on guitar. Play, sample and chop, then learn the chopped part. Might be a good exercise. If it’s hard that’s probably a good thing. You don’t progress much by doing easy things.
Any time I’m feeling in a rut with my playing I try to learn new techniques or a new genre/ style even if it’s not something I’m particularly interested in. It keeps things fresh and there’s always something that can be taken from it and applied to my regular playing. Sometimes it even sends me down an enjoyable new direction long term.
A couple shots of two new guitars. The first is a Wildwood Spec Gibson Custom Shop '68 LES Paul Custom. The 2nd is a Fender Custom Shop 1966 Stratocaster.
I just took advantage of some trade-in credit that I had at my local shop to order a Squier Bass VI. Looking forward to noodling on that once it finally arrives. Anyone spend much time playing one?
Okay guitar thread, I’m fishing for recommendations.
I’ve been playing more and more surf and surf inspired guitar lately and I’m putting a dedicated pedalboard together for it. I’m on the hunt for the right reverb pedal for this style of playing. I’ve read up online and have watched a bunch of demo and shootout videos on YouTube but I thought I’d see if anyone here had any firsthand experience that would bear recommendations (or cautions).
Basically I need something that does a good job emulating a spring tank and has “the drip” that is such an integral part of the surf sound. The cheaper the better but I don’t want to waste money on something that doesn’t sound good/ right. I’ve been using a home made unit that uses an actual spring tank but it’s huge and I’d like to find something more, well, pedal sized.
I live a days travel from the nearest music store so trying something before purchasing is unlikely.
I’m aware of many of the potential contenders that seem to fit the bill (topanga, oceans 11, etc) but I have content creator demo fatigue.
Interesting. I heard a little bit of drip in there. I’ll investigate it further. Thanks. I have to admit I tend to shy away from gear that requires interfacing with a computer/ phone but it’s not an automatic deal breaker. The core tone seems good.
As cool as the ventris is it’s overall for what I’m after (and more than I’d like to spend too).
Not a cheap option, but the UAD Dream is sort of the ultimate surf in a box pedal (amazing amp sim, drippy reverb, and trem). I love mine. It also will handle a lot of other nice vintage Fender tones. It really does sound amazing, so much so that I bought the Woodrow for tweed tones.
I also have a real Fender tank, and have been through quite a few pedals over the years looking for that sound. This video has some of those tones (although in general I don’t really like his channel).
If you want to go deep on the UAD stuff, watch the section on the reverb here. It’s actually quite fascinating.
Also the shoot out with the real amp here, if you need more.
My other reverb/trem pedal is the Flint, and it’s a great pedal as well. Very versatile and classy.
I’ll second True Spring. I think it’s a little underrated/under-hyped. I love the UA stuff and have the reverb, delay and 2 of the amp pedals, including the Golden, but I still think the True Spring wins for solely spring sounds. There’s just something about it I get lost in. As for the tweaking using the app, I’ve used it once or twice in the 3+ years I’ve had the pedal and that was plenty. I dialed up some good sounds/settings and put it away. Not because it was a pain, but just because the pedal just seems to do what I want it to do all the time. I’ll also note it’s worth buying the package with the small secondary foot-switch that lets you kick on the trem. The trem settings are secondary on the interface, which I’m not a great fan of in any pedal, but again, once I set it up it’s pretty transparent and I don’t mess with it a lot.
If you wanted solid plates and halls in addition to the spring sounds, the UA would be my next recommendation.
Thanks for the links. I’ll check them out later today. I have to admit that UA stuff hasn’t been on my radar since it’s crazy expensive. Unless I happen across an unusually good deal on a used one I probably can’t go that route but I’ll check it out anyway to see what I’m missing. As an aside, I’m about 50/50 on the 60c hum channel.
I was remembering that you had a fender tank as I was writing my original post. Obviously the end all sound wise.
Re flint. I’ve been hearing for years that the spring sounds are the weak point in it. Have you not found that to be the case? I have a few trem pedals that I think are great so it seems redundant for me but I wouldn’t turn something down because it has trem included, it’s just not a selling point for me.
That’s encouraging regarding using the true spring with minimal app interaction. I just can’t be bothered with that sort of thing on an average day and certainly not when I’m playing with other people. Thanks!
And no, no need for plates/ halls/ flerb/ shimmer/ etc. I have reverbs that do cool atmospheric stuff but for this I’m just trying to replace the actual springs I have on my pedalboard to get my surf rig more gigable. Don’t really need another trem either as I like all of the ones I have but as I said above, it’s not a detracting factor.
Yeah, I hear you. Pedals have gotten crazy expensive these days. I’ve always been fascinated by amp sim pedals since there are very few real tube amps that I would be able to play at home here in Tokyo. As I’ve said before, I have a Fender tank and 70s Vibrochamp so the Dream is sort of a luxury item, but to be honest the tones out of it, especially with my Fender single coil guitars, sound straight out of old records. I definitely wouldn’t want to use it with an amp though, so would avoid it for that application. It’s something I would recommend for recording though. It kind of gives you all the elements you need to get a great old school sounds, and not just surf. It sounds equally as good for stuff like old soul and R&B. The one downside is that you don’t have the fine control over the reverb that you would get with a dedicated reverb pedal (or the tremolo).
The Flint is a great pedal. The spring is a bit more subtle than some of the other stuff on the market, but still sounds good to me, and with the tremolo, you can definitely dial in some great spaghetti western vibes. I know you aren’t interested in the other reverbs, but I will say that the hall and plate both sound really good as well. All around just a classy, solid pedal that doesn’t overly color the sound of your guitar.
I haven’t tried the Golden, but it’s definitely something I’d be interested in trying some day if I could get a good deal on one.
Lots of good options these days! I’ll be interested to know what you end up with!
I think it’s more that the pedal market has exploded and broadened to include tons and tons of really expensive pedals. There are still reasonably priced ones and of course there are dirt cheap Chinese clones too (some of which are pretty good). Reverb pedals have always been some of the most expensive offerings from most companies that make them unfortunately.
I’d love to play around with the flint one of these days, I just haven’t had the opportunity. It’s on my radar and if I ever see one for well below the going rate I’ll grab it just to see. Or if I can ever get myself to a city I’ll stop in a music store and try one.
I haven’t looked into the world of amp sims in earnest but I get why so many people do. If I lived in an apartment or with roommates I’d probably be up on them. I have a couple built into older gear but they’re almost unusable (boss se50, adrenalinn). I kinda like micing speakers but I’m lucky enough to have a garage. I’m getting a lot of mileage out of an old silver stripe peavey I modded. Great pedal platform and running it into different cabs gives a big variety of tones.
