Kompressor and Day 39

That is what is known as a Ross Compressor, and it is probably the most copied pedal of modern time.  Ross was a company owned by Kustom.  The company MXR had come out with a Dynacomp based on an earlier design, so Ross decided to try their hand at that as well.  Because of this, the two most common compressors are very closely related, but since Ross went out of business, it is the most copied.

From Chinese makers like Biyang, to big name makers like Wampler, the design pervades the market.  Guyatone, BBE, Behringer, Modtone, even MXR(their Super Comp) does a copy of it.  I have read on so many pedal review blogs that when the reviewer gets a new compressor, they check to see if its just a Ross clone, and then chunk the thing.  Frequently I see "Ross clone, refer to this link for a review of another Ross clone", because they pretty much all do the same thing, but may add dry blend, tone shift, etc.

Compression is a subtle effect, and the differences between them are largely based on their circuit design.  There's a lot of "if you can't hear it, then you just need to train your ear" kind of stuff going on with compressor voodoo.  Essentially it makes the sound more even, your subtle sounds come up in volume, and your loud peaks go down in volume so that everything is evened out.  It is very easy to pull the wool over the eyes of people with a compressor.

Just do yourself a favor, and before you go out and spend 250 bucks on a boutique compressor, find out if its a Ross clone.  Ross' have 2 knobs and the circuit.  If you're paying 180 bucks extra, find out WHY its 180 bucks extra.  is it the fancy paint job?  The clever pedal name?  Or have they added things like blend knobs so they are usable with bass guitar, or done things like double the circuit, or add muliple types of compression.  There is no reason you can't get a studio quality Ross clone for 70 bucks.

*bonus

Other compressor designs include optical that uses photo sensors and light pulses to create compression.  Some, like Electro Harmonix, make designs that use pre-amp tubes to compress the sound.  Both of these types can be more expensive, not because of the fancy name, paint job, and pedal maker pedigree, but because the components are complex and expensive.  Many bassists like the optical compressors because they are "transparent" meaning you do not lose a lot of bass, unlike the Ross clones.  If you want a Ross clone that works for bass and guitar(to simplify your life), get one with a dry signal blend so you can blend your bass back into the signal.

Day 39

Early morning and late night practicing.  My Sunday practices just don't settle on a regular course.  This was mainly due to the fact I got my practice area set up.  I also pulled the bass guitar out and took my old friend for spin.  Poor thing was feeling neglected.  I've got my bass and guitar amp in an easy to use and operate area now, so they'll both get a work out.  I'll try not to talk so much about the bass stuff during this Rocksmith thing.  I am thinking of taking the 60 day challenge for bass later this year, after I get on my feet with guitar.  It will be interesting as I find most rock bass to be boring, and I'm no where near the noob I was with guitar.

Funk funk funk.  I am wearing out my wrist with these funk strumming patterns.  To try and put it in perspective, count to 4.  Now in the same amount of time as you just counted to for, count to 8.  Yep, twice as fast.  Now, in the same space that you counted to 4, count to 16.  There ya go.  Funk is a lot of 16th notes, which means compared to many blues-rock bar room songs, you're doing 4x the amount of notes.  Well, that's technically right, but not 100% right.  Anyway, that's some muscles to get conditioned.

The "most accurate" way of playing Simple Man is to have a walk up to the C chord in it.  Listen to the real song and you can hear the "walk up" to it.  This really sucks for me.  See, I realized that an A minor chord only needs one finger to move to become a C major chord.  I have gotten use to starting off in that A minor shape and moving that finger instead of stuff making a C major.  This has screwed me for doing that walk up in the song.  So time to re-learn C major from scratch and get out of that habit.

The Wall... and Day 38

The legendary Wall of Marshalls.

You know, there was a time where lots of speaker cabs were a necessary thing.  The old amps in the old days were not 100 watt, the speakers were not very efficient, and bassists especially needed more.  The Who famously got in battles over who could have more on the stage, as Entwhistle tried very hard to be heard over Towsend.  It takes many many more watts and speakers to be heard at the equal level on bass than on guitar.

The truth is, and its been the truth for a long time, any gig that needs this many speakers usually has a house sound system.  At Woodstock, Hendrix didn't need a ton of amps on stage.  Modern venues typically have a house PA system, and bringing a loud ass amp is usually frowned upon by the establishment.  I know that if you have not experienced what a 100 watt amp and a 2x12, much less a 4x12 can do, then you probably do not understand that it is insane to bring more to a gathering of a couple hundred, maybe even a thousand or two people in the crowd.

This is a famous picture making the rounds on the net, and it really does hit this point home.  There are so many bands that use these configurations.  Two sets of 4x12's and a 100 watt tube between them and you're good for like a mile radius to need earplugs.  I watch a lot of "when I first new I made it big" interviews, and more than one story is buying their first 100 watt marshall and setting off parking lots full of car alarms by cranking it and seeing how far it will go.  I don't own a tube amp, but I have a 550 watt bass amp with super efficient designs(makes an ampeg SVT4's 900 watts sound like a toy), and I've yet to be brave enough to go past 1/4 turn on the volume.  I even sat it up outside the garage once and my windows were still rattling, and the amp was set up blasting away from the house.  This is nothing compared to tube wattage.  Marshall and Trace Elliott have both made 300 to 400 watt tube amps for bass, probably the equal of a 2-3,000 watts of solid state.  Some of these Metal guitarists are diming 200 watt guitar tube amps on stage.  Wall of Marshalls or not, that's some loud shiz.

What I'm basically saying is, use ear protection

Day 38

Looking at funk, there's a couple of things I'm going to find difficult.  The first is going to be getting used to keeping the timing.  I'm actually really good at keeping timing when it comes to rock, and if I have a backing track I'm good at it with blues as well.  I've never had to do the foot counting while playing thing.  In fact, much of my playing settles around keeping complex patterns in my timings and "bring it all back" together while I improv.  Funk though is using much more hard structure than I'm used to, especially when the basics is wrapped in 16th notes.

I know from funk base that you play on the one "and have fun".  What that means is you always play on the first beat, its funk 101.  Bootsy taught me this, and also Larry Grahm, both videos from youtube that I used to watch a lot for playing bass.  Bass funk is less restricted than guitar funk, at least from what I'm seeing in the lessons.

I am going to have to break out the metronome built into Rocksmith for practicing the strumming.  That "funk" guitar sound in most people's head(when they're not actually thinking about the bass, which is 90% of what people think of from my experience talking about funk songs) is a 16th note, 90ish bpm high twang strum.  I'm finding most of it is in E.  I've also found that there is a Hendrix chord that they used a lot, E7#9 and I see myself playing around with that chord outside of funk as well.

Anyways, I'm only here for the basics.  I'm not devoting my time to getting deep in the funk as of yet.  I just want to be able to do the strum pattern with a chord or two, so I can do basic funk rhythm when I'm asked to.  I can do a blues improv around this strumming and get by sounding funky.  I'm broadening my horizons, not switching my specialties.