Old Guy

Enjoy!!

I'm a huge fan of his and have been listening to him since his Racer X days. New record incoming in May. Here's one of the tracks.

I just learned of this as well. RIP to the King of Surf Guitar. ☹️

Best of health, brother!!

As promised...the staining video!

If you want a Looper with a dedicated stop button, then yes the Ditto X2 is an excellent unit. You are only paying for that one button if you don't use the other things that it offers. It's main attraction is that you can upload your Loops via USB to your DAW. Loopers can be had for $50 with infinite loops and up to 10 minutes of looping time if you can get by using one button. Check Reverb. YMMV.

Wow...that '64 Strat, though...

It's a very thin veneer. 2mm at most. That's what the kits are like. They are only $180 so I didn't expect much.

Another gear question for Robben. Does he still have the Fender Esprits and if so, why does not favor them anymore. Thx! If Steve could tell him hello from me that would be amazing! I met Robben when he was in Montreal many, many years ago one his tour backing the 1st "Blue Mile" record. We had a drink together at the club where his concert was, "Club Soda". Never forget it. He was so cool to chat with and is such a humble guy. I've been a fan since his Minor Elegance days!

Some pics on the staining process. Putting a full video together soon. Beginning stain is Brown (although it looks Black). Sand it off as much as the thin veneer would allow. Then Yellow base, and Orange on edge. Let dry, build up some more. Will sand it one more time and then repeat Yellow and Orange, so not quite done yet.

Reverb is an excellent resource for new and used stuff. I've bought a few things on there and had no problems at all. Mostly pedals and accessories. But never had any issues.

This is my favorite stuff to jam to. Enjoy!

Welcome and congratulations!!! Being a Dad ROCKS. They grow so fast, so enjoy every moment you can with the little dude/dudette!

Beautiful Tele!! Enjoy it, brother!!

Thanks for the feedback! Compression pedal goes first in my chain to front of amp. I don't put it in the FX Loop. So basically in my chain it's Compression --> Wah --> OD/Distortion. I put all my modulation effects like delay and chorus in the FX Loop. I struggle with how to demo pedals. Mostly because I don't get them from the manufacturer first so there are usually other YouTubes out there that demo them like you recommend. If you want to see what the knobs do, I'd highly recommend looking for Pete Thorn's vid on this pedal on YouTube. He does exactly what you're looking for and I don't want to copy what other people do. And Pete Thorn is a MONSTER player, so I don't want to compete with that, LOL! Thanks for watching!!

Enjoy!!

You are very kind, sir. I still have a lot to learn! Not quite at pro level, but having a blast with it. You are doing very well, as well. Loved the jam you just put on. Some real classic blues licks in there that you pull off very smoothly. Well done!

This is the opening jam for my next YouTube video. I called it Rick's Blues because I learning the chord progression from a good friend on YouTube, Rick Romanelli. A good story too was that I recorded the rhythm backing track, which I will release separately on my YouTube Channel, with my amp, and thought I had recorded the lead as well, but found out I hadn't. Well, I had already sold the amp and didn't have my new one yet! So the lead was done on Garageband with the Jazz amp in there. I think it sounds quite good. Anyhow, silly me. Enjoy!!

Wow dude, congrats!! That is a stunning instrument. Enjoy it, brother!

Thanks! Oh I sold the Axe Fx last year and went back to amps and pedals. I had a Blackstar, and enjoy it, but it ended up just having too dark of a tone for me. It was also rather heavy and loud. I sold the Blackstar to get the Fender. All these years, and I had never had an all tube Fender amp. This little amp is just my flavor.

Starting tweaking it today after getting it last night but not having time to do much yesterday. It's a lot smaller than I thought and seems quite light compared to my Blackstar. Very easily carried around. I played through with my American Standard Fender Strat with stock bridge, locking tuners and noiseless DiMarzio SCs. Keep in mind, everything is brand new, so I'm curious how the tone will change as it breaks in. I also don't have the ideal set up just yet, but was jut moving knobs around. Clean channel: It's not Vintage Fender, but it is very fendery. Clear and sparkly and VERY articulate. Much more so than the Blackstar. I like my tone rather trebly and have the treble set to about 2 O'clock and it's not ice picky at all. It seems like every tone control makes things more articulate in that EQ setting. So mess with the Bass, and it doesn't get spongy and boom, but the notes just seem to articulate more to the Bass tones. Very happy with the clean sound, as that can be the basis for any kind of pedal shenanigans. Dirty channel: The way I can describe stage one is smooooth. Almost Mesa/Boogie-ish in it's milder gain settings. I hear an early, thicker Santana-ish gain, but I set the gain kinda high just to see what it can do. I'll have to mess with that a bit. It's a tad squishy for me, but I also need to see what it sounds like on the middle and bridge pick ups, as I tend to live on the Neck and neck/middle positions. The Dirty channel has a boost/second gain stage and it SCREAMS. Very edgy with just the right amount of volume boost. When I hit it and starting playing, I literally said "WOW", out loud. Love it. Can't wait to put my analog delay through it to see how it sounds. I can say that this little guy is LOUD. I have the volume at about 10 O'clock and it was easily as loud as the Blackstar 40W at that same volume, but the Bassbreaker doesn't have an MV knob. Lastly, was the reverb. I traditionally don't dial in a lot of reverb, so for me it sounded really good at a low setting, and fit my room very well. I know people will balk because it's not a spring reverb, but I really couldn't care less. The fact that it is digital is not a factor for me. I'd been using digital reverb through the Axe Fx for a decade so it's nothing I really nit pick about. Sounds good. Does its job. I personally love the sounds I got quickly from the amp. I think if you are looking for "vintage" Fender sounds, this really isn't it. It seems like a testosterone fueled Blues DeVille that I remember a friend had, that I borrowed. If you played through the Bassbreaker 15, you will be very familiar with how the 30R sounds. Just louder, and the dirty channel is meaner, LOL. Eventually will put a full video demo and review on my YouTube channel.

Can't go wrong with just about any Telecaster really. For me, the deal is sealed if the neck is comfy. I bought a Player Series Telecaster because the neck fit me as if it was made for me. I had enough money left over from the purchase, that now I'm modding the crap out of it.

Ohhhhh that's purty!!! Enjoy it, brother!!

Just a quick tip with the 2i2. When you are setting your input levels when you record with mics, don't dial it up too much. When I record, the signal barely reads within the DAW and sometimes the green around the knob doesn't register. And that's okay. If you record the signal too hot, especially with higher gain signals, it will clip and sound terrible. You are better off increasing the signal within your DAW than recording a hotter signal coming in. I learned this the hard way. If you want to hear what I mean, check out my video on the Blackstar Amp. There is clipping all over the place. I'm still learning and recording a micced amp is as much an art as it is a science. I didn't take it down to remind me what NOT to do! And yes, version 2 of the 2i2 virtually eliminated the latency issues. It's a must upgrade if you have the older version.

Ohhhhh that sounds superb! If you want to try something neat, increase your delay time to about 400ms and do 2 to 3 repeats and when you hit the last note of your run, slide the note either up or down the fretboard and let the note go. Then listen to the delay and repeats. If anyone does not know who Robben Ford is, or they don't have his stuff, please pick up "Talk To Your Daughter", and his frist record with the Blue Line "Robben Ford and the Blue Line". They are blues classics and are chock full of why Robben is so incredible. I got to meet him many, many years ago. I had a drink with him after his set where I saw him for the first time. Over and above his immense talent, he's an incredible human being.