January 2008 Archives

I'm going to attempt to write up a few "new gear reviews" in the near future. There are 3 new items i'm going to be checking out: 1) George L's pedalboard cable kit; i liked the idea of being able to customize the connections on my board. I'll be shooting pics of the installation as well. 2) Morley's Mark Tremonti Power Wah; haven't had the need for a wah in quite a while, so now it's time to break one out again. This unit got overall good reviews; let's see how i like it! 3) X-Case rolling road case for Framus 2x12 cab; i already own a road case made by these guys and it's great. My poor 2x12 cab has been getting the crap beat out of it in our trailer; so i figured it was time to get a case for it. stay tuned!!

2) Boss NS-2 Noise Supressor: Don't think i would play without this thing. I like to play with a goodly amount of gain; couple that with the fact that i like to boost the signal in front and you've got a recipe for alot of unwanted noise. It's a well known fact high gain heads make a little noise. I must say this pedal really works wonders. I will admit i have the threshold turned up to the max and the decay to the minimum. I hear alot of guys whine about noise supression because it takes away from their sustain and what not; this could be true to an extent. I'm no shredder or virtuoso soloist. My main riffs/chops are chordal based so i don't find the minimal loss of sustain to be a problem. It doesn't affect your tonality in my opinon, if anything it might compress the signal slightly...nothing big. I'd much rather have a quieter rig; and this pedal definitely quiets things down. Make sure you run all your effects through the loop of the NS-2, i think that's how it works the best. I would like to test drive an ISP Decimator someday though....  : )

Hey guys, i'm going to attempt to describe/explain the pedals i chosen to use (check out the post with the pic so you can relate). Get some coffee...here we go with pedal #1:  1) Boss TU-2: As far as pedal tuners go, i'd say this must be one of the best. They are a little pricey, but if you think about how many times you'll be tuning up, it's well worth it. More importantly i've found that every guitarist/bassist in your band should be using the same tuner (whatever make or model you decide to go with). I've noticed differences in the overall tonality of a band when cats are using different tuners; let's face it; you have a much better chance of everyone hitting the same "D" if they've all tuned up using the same device. I've owned a rack tuner before, but due to the fact that all of us in BXN use the TU-2, there wasn't much sense keeping it around.

BXN rocked the Pennant East last Saturday night. Helluva show with great bands and great people as well. The sound at that venue is amazing should you ever get the chance to play there, it's well worth it. We had a great performance; probably our best. Our set ran around 40 minutes but it felt like 5! Matt and Ray did an excellent job amping up the crowd and getting them involved with the music. I ran both my favorite cabs for that event (Mesa 4x12 on the bottom and Framus 2x12 on the top). That's a great combination for those that feel like trying it out. The 2x12 on the top cuts through really well and gives us tall guitarists nice monitor ; )  Rig sounded great as did all the effects i either stomped or punched on LOL. Overall kick ass experience. Thanks to all that attended. JD

We’ve got two shows this weekend. Tonight we are doing two sets with Showintell @ the Bridgewater Pub in Bridgeton. Should be interesting as we’ve never broken our stuff up into 2 sets. Given the current shitty weather, it’s gonna be a tough night to get peeps out for local original music. Tomorrow night is a big night for BXN. We booked a show at the Pennant East in Bellmawr NJ. This is a huge venue and it’s not easy to get into; so we really need a great turnout and blow the roof off the joint. More details can be found on our myspace (see band links). I’m gonna be going with my usual rig so nothing really new; I’ll most likely run wireless saturday night (so long as i don’t trip over anything) and blow the dust off my Mesa 4×12 for some extra “ass” ; )  Everyone have a great weekend; get out there and support local live original music. JD

I recently acquired a great deal on a Bogner Uberschall (i belive it's rev.1) head and 4x12 Ubercab from guitarist Tony of Stage 3. I've always wanted one, but as most know, the price tag on Bogner stuff new is quite high. It's got an unmistakeable, organic-EL34 sound that i'm partial to. I'm not planning on gigging with it anytime soon as i've got alot of time to spend playing/eq'ing it to get acquainted. So should you catch me playing out, it will most likely be my Triple Recto. I'll post new blogs as i figure this monster out. JD

I will admit; I love cruising forums like Harmony Central for info/new gear reviews etc. You can learn alot if you read carefully. The problem is that alot of forumites are douchebags and ruin it for everyone. Let me explain. Guitarists can be very opinionated in their choice of gear and what they think works best, this is no suprise. My bandmate Matt and I are constantly busting each other chops about gear because we come from totally different sides of the field when it comes to that stuff; but we keep it fun. I notice there are new guitarists/forum members that really try to post questions or topics for help on forums like HC, only to get "e-bashed" by the veteran forumites with a million posts that think they need to ridicule new forum members....douchery, plain and simple. You often see a new guitarist asking an honest question about a piece of gear they own (maybe not the best, but it's what they can afford) just to have some elitist musician with "keyboard balls" totally grind them by saying things like; "uh...line 6 sucks". Stop the madness. The forums are great; give up the keyboard balls cause everyone's a tough guy sitting in their computer room typing away. Help out the new guys instead of treating them like "noobs". You might just see one of those "noobs" one day playing a packed stadium. : ) just my 2 cents.

Here is a picture of my current pedalboard. No; it's not fancy, nor does it have alot of effects on it. Other than tweaking the settings of these pedals, the layout hasn't changed that much over time. It's an SKB pedalboard which has served me well. In the future i may move to a larger board simply to accomodate my size 15s (always an issue when tap dancing through effects and channels). The next pic i post of this pedalboard will be after i furnish it with patch cables from George L. I will do my best to explain each labeled stomp box in the following comments. JD

Aiiight. This is the cherry poppin' first post for my new blog. I want to make this a forum for local guitarists/friends/musicians that love to BS about gear. New gear reviews, questions, problems & ideas involving guitars & rigs are all welcome. No douchebags please. I'm going to be putting the word out to guitarists in bands that cahoot around with BXN first. So be on the lookout for new posts. ; )