Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving 2012

GSP2101 now with Sovtek 12AX7LPS Tubes

I've updated the tubes in my Digitech GSP2101.   I went with Sovtek 12AX7LPS, as they are reported to have a darker high-gain sound.   Which they do indeed.   They sound really great on the GSP2101's "Saturated Tube" setting.   I wish I had done this years ago.  My 2101 came with Penta's.

2x10 Speaker Cabinet Project

I'm getting new drivers for my pair of 1x10 guitar speakers.  I thought it might be a good idea to make a similar 2x10 cabinet for Matti to play bass though using the old drivers.   Rather than the floor-monitor shape of my 1x10's, I thought I'd go with a more normal stackable box shape.

I started by calculating the volume of my old speakers.   I got 1.4 cubic feet for each speaker.   I like the sound of the old speakers, so it seems the best plan is to use the same volume for the 2x10.

Next, I picked the width and height of the cabinet for a convenient size, and used the volume of 2.8 to get the depth of the cabinet.

I plan to use the same construction technique for the new cabinet: 3/4 plywood case with 1/4 plywood glued on as a veneer, then dress up the edges with 1/4 round.    Matti can then stain it, paint it and/or polyurethane it.

The parts easily fit on a 4x8' sheet of plywood.  I hope to get the store to make the major lengthwise cuts since I don't have a table saw, and it's hard to make those cuts even if I did.  Otherwise I'll lay out the parts across the 4' dimension and use a straightedge and a circular saw.

Picks

I've used the Fender 351 medium picks since forever.   I dimly recall trying heavy Fenders for a while years ago.  

Last week I decided to experiment with some different ones, thicker, nylon or hard plastic.  The winner is this Dunlop Big Stubby (2mm), a thick, hard plastic pick with a bit of an indentation for holding it.   It seems the key is that harder, thicker picks need to be pointy.   In comparison the Fender mediums feel floppy and tentative.  The sound coming from the guitar isn't much different.

New Amp!

My new amp came this week.  It's a Ibanez TSA15H, a 15-watt tube amp with a "tube screamer" distortion circuit built-in.   Wired up to my speakers it sounds really great, particularly the clean sounds - lots of dynamics.  With the tube screamer section on, it also sounds pretty nice, perhaps a bit better than the GSP2101.

The bad news is that the effects loop isn't what I expected.   In most amps, the effects loop is at line level, between the pre-amp and the power amp.   In the TSA15H, it's between the tube screamer section (which is actually has no tubes), and the tube pre-amp, so it's at the low-level of the instrument.  This means I can't really use the digital section of my GSP2010 in the Ibanez's effects loop.   Since the Send of the Ibanez is at instrument level (and/or impedance?) I have to plug it into the pre-amp section of the GSP2101 (AKA the instrument input).   The line-level output of the GSP2101 goes the the Return on the Ibanez, and seems ok if I turn the output level of the 2101 way down.   In theory, I could set up some GSP2101 patches with a flat EQ, no distortion, etc.

But really, the whole idea of getting the Ibanez was to have a simpler, less technical setup that sounds like a more typical guitar amp.   Probably just a simple delay or reverb stomp box will fill it out.

Sparkles is a big tube amp fan.  He loves the warm sound.  Well, really he just likes the warm spot.

Guitar Gear

I've started to get back into guitar playing, and like most guitarists, there's a certain level of obsession with gear.   I'm looking at some revisions to my old set-up.   Some things are getting old, some things were never quite right, and some of it I'm just tired-of.

This is my guitar set-up.   I built the speakers back in 1993 or so.   They're made of 3/4 and 1/4 plywood laminated together for a total thickness of almost an inch.   The drivers are Celestion 10", and the enclosures have no porting (infinite baffle).   They sound great for both guitar and bass at low to medium volumes.

The amp is an Alesis 50W/channel stereo, solid state.   Clean, sounds OK.   I've never run it beyond 3/4 volume.

The pre-amp/effects is a GSP2101, again from around 1993.   It's nearly 20 years old, but people still use them.   I've upgraded the hardware and firmware to the "Artist" level - it's got 2 cpus (actually, Z80's that I had coded for in college).   The front section is analog, with a tube preamp and analog EQ, which feeds the digital processing section.   It came with lots of presets that I'm sick of, but it's super-programmable.

I've also got the floor pedal controller (Control-One) that goes with it.  It's still functional, but a bit glitchy.   The footswitches are kind of weak - membrane switches with plastic buttons.  


So to start, some things I'd like to change/improve:

1) A better power amp, preferably a tube amp. I may have to give up stereo.

2) A better pre-amp, again, preferably a tube amp.

3) A simpler, more subtle effects processor, mostly just chorus, delay, reverb - not on the floor.

4) foot-switching that's solid, dependable - controlling both pre-amp (distortion, boost) and effects.

5) a looper - preferably part of the effects unit.

Oh, and I'd like to avoid spending a zillion dollars on all this.   This means that I'm likely to stick with the effects section of the 2101 - it has "effects loop" connections between the pre-amp and the digital section.   I may also try replacing the tubes in the preamp.

I play a Fender Stratocaster with Lace pickups - it's bright and clear, but difficult to get current metal sounds out of.  I may also shop for another guitar to complement this - a darker, fixed-bridge guitar with more standard double-coil pickups.