Musician's Thread

[Anonymous]

I am wondering if there are any other musicians on these forums - if so what do you play? Do you write / record music? What got you into playing music? What is your gear?

I play bass guitar, guitar,synth and function as the audio engineer for my band.

It was Nirvana and Much Music (Canadian MTV) that got me into music - though I moved on from that influence early on after starting to learn how to play. I started on bass guitar at 13 and playing guitar at around 22 (I am 31 now) - when we play live I function as the bass player and in the studio I remain multi-instrumental focusing on support parts.

My main gear is:

'97 Fender Precision Lyte Deluxe
Ampeg Micro-VR with DI
Ampeg V6B
Presonus Studiolive 16.4.2 running through Logic X

[JohnnyDioxin]

Talking of selling gear - I would like to sell all of my guitars except one, which I would keep to play through my GuitarPort and the PC, seeing as I won't be playing in any more bands.

Trouble is, there's no market for them any more - not in the UK, anyway. If I could sell them at all, (and my amps and effects etc) I would get a fraction of their value. So they will probably hang on the wall until they put me in a box, whenstupon Mrs Brix will probably give them to a charity shop or get royally ripped off by the local guitar store.

Sux.

[Anonymous]

@lord_of_shred

That's awesome - I hope he gets a lot of use out of the new guitar! :smile:

As for setting guitars up - I take mine to a shop that's been operating here since the 70s. Price is fair and the workmanship is top quality - which is great as I don't have the space or tools at the moment to do it myself.

Banjo's are very expensive - one of the 6 string's I played in the store was going for over $3000, and some of the traditional banjo's they have on hand (all vintage) were double that or more. The 6 string I played that costs $750 is something I would be comfortable picking up as a studio instrument.

As for baritone guitars - I love them, especially for surf music. But the Fender Bass VI is an entirely different beast - it is a 6 string bass that is tuned standard one octave lower than a guitar. It is very useful for a trio format as it allows the bass player to comp rhythm while the guitar player wails out solos. I have seen a Squire version that is about $600usd and that is likely what I will end up getting - but I played an actual Fender one and it was very difficult to get me to put it down (even though it was almost 2 grand).

@Brixmis

I know the market is crap here too - I mean I could
probably get a "fair" price for some of my guitars. But amps are a
completely different story - I have a Fender Custom Shop Dual
Professional (Serial# 0018) that if I could find the right buyer should
fetch about $2500 CDN. When I asked the shop I go to if they would
consider using it in a trade against the Fender Bass VI ($1995 CDN) they
told me that they wouldn't even take it on as they haven't been able to
sell most of the vintage amps they have on hand (most of which they
have on sale prices of up to 50% off).

The reason is most guitar players aren't buying amps anymore because most guitar players are hobbyists and amp modeling software is both more cost effective and quieter for home use (especially in big cities where most people live in smaller apartments). Due to the dying live music scene - there is not a lot of call for amps anymore, as most bands that are active in the scene already have their gear and usually aren't looking to change their sound.

The guy I was trying to do the trade with also moved to amp modeling software - which I have nothing against as I use it in the studio too when needed, but I prefer recording our amps and I'd never pump modeling software through a PA when playing live because it just doesn't feel the same a playing through a real amp to me.

It really does suck that the market for music equipment (especially guitars) has been impacted as much as it has due to technology among other things - especially because I love analog effects pedals and amps.

[Anonymous]

Been super busy lately - but I just released this music video for one of our songs off our 3rd album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlJqnrUK5kQ

Some of the footage in that video is almost 20 years old - filmed on late 90s digital camcorders and cameras.

[lord_of_shred]

Your really like filters, don't you? 😉

[Anonymous]

lol, well on the older video files (some were WMV files heavily compressed from like 20 years ago) - definitely yes, otherwise they look rubbish. I used some TV filters to cover the rough compression artifacts - for the newish video files (from about 8 years ago), I used a color balance plugin to darken them a little and hide the compression artifacts as best I could. For the newer video (filmed with a Sony AX53) I darkened the clips a little but not much else.

Some of the video I have was just poorly captured on devices not really capable of high def - some of the videos were so low quality they amounted to 2 to 3 megabytes in size, lol.

For the stuff I am working on with just the new camera right now - no filters outside some added noise, and I like to darken my clips a shade or two with the contrast. But I am also setting up the shots now - so less effort has to be taken to hide compression or whatever post.

[Chump_Change]

Been playing trumpet for 10 years. I got into it by playing in my cadet marching band.

I don't really play much any more but I still sit down every once in awhile hash out some old songs I used to play....

[Anonymous]

Right on - I have always wanted to try and learn a brass instrument (at least to the point of being able to get decent texture work within the studio framework).

I am nearly at a point with my guitar collection where I have most tones that I want accounted for - there are 2 or 3 more types of guitar I want to get, and maybe 2 more bass guitars and then my plan is to start investing in various other instruments including piano, brass and other string instruments.

My goal is to eventually have a jam room fully setup for live performance recording that could handle at least an augmented 5 piece rock band - bass, drums, guitar, piano / rhythm guitar, organ / synth + backup singers and up to 5 piece horn section - and then invite musicians to jam and record music.

[Bagnet]

Been working on this for the last week or so.. thought i would post it here and see what you lot think 🙂
https://soundcloud.com/bagnet-1/mike-oldfield-sentinel

[JohnnyDioxin]

removed

[JohnnyDioxin]

Anyone learning guitar? Give this guy a look up on YT and his website:

https://youtu.be/7AwAQXOyTk0

Been using his lessons (when he worked for/with Charanga) since 1999 and probably would never have learned as well and quickly as I did, without his material.

I removed the post above, because I think I put it in the wrong thread 🙂