HamerHokie

Update - I played two gigs last weekend with this setup. The Magnezium is truly a beast and complements the Roy nicely. The low gain channel of the Magnezium is perfect for Stones-like edge and crunch. The drive channel is pure Billy Gibbons. I found the drive channel can get out of hand if the gain is set past around 1 pm - becomes pretty noisy after that point. But both channels cut through the mix really well, much better in fact than the Roy, which lacks the upper midrange. I tend to keep the gain settings on both preamps lower, then punch them up with an overdrive when needed. For what I'm doing, these two preamps cover most if not all of my needs. I might replace the overdrive pedal with a treble booster and see if the system works better that way.

I've been gigging with a THD Type O (50 watt plexi) that I bought from someone on this board years ago. It does one thing very well, but I need it to do more than one thing. Right now I have set up my pedalboard with two preamp pedals to alleviate this. The preamps and other effects go straight into the effects return, bypassing the amp's preamp altogether. Both are Tubesteader preamps, meaning they are tube based. Both are dual channel. The Roy is designed to be the front end of a Vox AC30, and the Magnezium is designed to be the front end of a Magnatone Super 59, as used by Billy Gibbons. I've had the Roy for a few gigs now, I just got the Magnezium this week. The Roy is exceptional. It's definitely a keeper. Will know more about the Magnezium after this weekend but I'm not sure it's Plexi-enough for me. It has an excellent clean channel though.

It has a treble boost channel, so yeah. I will research the Dat Pedal. Which of the overdrives would you be interested in?

I just acquired a Tubesteader Roy (Vox style) preamp to replace my Victory Copper. The Roy is pretty awesome. Problem is, the Copper has a built in treble booster so I need to add one to my board. I have a number of overdrives I can trade for it: Lovepedal Zen Drive LPD Sixty8 (plexi voiced overdrive) Boss Power Stack Let me know what treble booster you have and I will research - I've found that they can sound pretty different. I really like the Mad Professor Ruby and there's a few others I've heard that I like. The ones that I can't live with functionally are the always-on types, like the kind Brian May used (Fryer).

People are using the Tonex modeling box to model their own boutique amps and sell the captures.

I got a couple of Guitar Center gift cards for Christmas so I decided to spend them on the Tonex One. Conceptually it's pretty cool - you get to pick either two amp models or two pedal models from the vast Tonex library to load in the pedal, then use them on your pedalboard. On Youtube there are a lot of videos of people cycling through the amp models and they all sound really good. I have not been able to get mine to work well, though, because it's clearly designed to be used as a direct-to-PA box with both amp and cabinet sims active. I am trying it out as a replacement front end to my amp, so it goes directly into the effects return jack. For this you turn the cabinet sims off so it's just using the amp models. And so far I can't really get a good sound out of it. I've cycled lots of amp sims - Orange OR120, Vox AC30, Marshall Plexi, Matchless Independence, and others. Maybe the tube power amp is coloring the amp sim, not sure. It might work better with a flat class D style power amp. Anyone else trying this out?

Hamer cherrybursts are all over the map. I like the ones that go from red to orange to yellow, but a bunch of the older ones go from red to yellow with little transition. Darkbursts that start in brown aren't my thing. Amberburst has been the most consistent color scheme of the three, and on a high grade top it looks stunning.

I would never filter responses based on gear. However, I have gotten really anal about specifying EXACTLY what we're looking for musically, since I've had sooooo much experience auditioning guys who didn't know what they were doing and had no clue how to play our styles.

Hee hee

Overdrive - amp. Distortion - pedal. Actually, I removed the Double Drive from my pedalboard altogether last month. The green and red channels on my JVM sound great as is. Maybe I'll put a boost in the chain someday.

I love playing in C#m, as it works really nicely with bluesier stuff.

BCR Greg recently replaced the Switchcraft jacks on two of my Hamers that failed at nearly the same time. Both over 10 years old. It involved minor cosmetic surgery but it was worth it.

In your band, you have very specific requirements for the keyboard player. Sounds like this metal band is the same, and they are probably doing the right thing. In the mid 2000s my then-band was looking for a keyboard player like you describe. We went through about 15 before we found the right one. We advertised EXACTLY what we were looking for and auditioned 14 who read that description, knew they didn't meet it, but auditioned away, 'just because.' We wasted so much time on that experience we almost gave up before No. 15 vindicated our efforts. It was especially burdensome on me, since I wasted a 2-hour round trip every time we auditioned the wrong guy. This metal band has very specific needs and in their ad they hope to weed out those who they pretty much know won't make the cut. They might annoy a few who might otherwise be good candidates, but I wouldn't fault them for their approach. The more general description they provide, the more likely they'll waste their time on the wrong guys.

I started when I was 11 learning folk songs from a guy at my church. Strictly learning chords and songs. When I was 13 I switched to a classical teacher, who taught me a bit about improvisation and more complex chords. We learned chord progressions. I was playing stuff like Classical Gas. Each of those stints lasted less than a year, and they were the only formal instruction I ever had. From then on it was listening to records and copying solos. From that I learned technique and tone. I would also pick up pointers from Guitar Player magazine interviews. One that stuck with me was how Al DiMeola practiced speed and dexterity. I used his advice liberally. Also in junior high and high school I played in stage band, which exposed me to jazz progressions. I never bought an instructional tape or DVD, I never bought a book on tab, I never learned to read music - although I have an intuitive grasp on theory. I follow chord charts well.