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.

Self indulgence and Day 27

Warning: this is purely a post about gear.  It is a What If scenario of if I had all my money from my bass rig in my hand and went to buy guitar stuff instead, what would I have.  Some people are turned off about this sort of pie in the sky dreaming.  I won't be selling my bass gear, EVER.  Its just that its day 27 and I need topics to go in between my other topics.  So excuse me if I get self indulgent for a while, feel free to scroll down to the Day 27 memoir.

Well first I have to decide what to do about the money in my cabs.  Guitar cabs have the same advantage as sub-500 dollar guitars, they sell really well.  So the markup on them are less than bass cabs.  Also, they are smaller and lighter by their very nature compared to bass speakers.  Much of the money in my bass cabs are features that you just do not get in guitar cabs to amplify the price.  So, I am going to allocate my speaker costs 50% into the amp and 50% into the guitar.

The Guitar

Wait a minute, you may say, I thought you were into SG's?  Well I am, but fortunately SG Standards with the options I want are doable under $1000.  Plus, the last few years Gibson has been futzing with the pickguard, and I like the 70's "batwing" pickguards.  So used is where I'd go these days.  Also I have an SG already, so to get the most bang for my buck, I'm looking at Les Pauls.   I change which bursts I like all the time, currently I'm on a Caramel-burst or Tea Burst phase.  These Standard Premiums are being liquidated for a huge mark down as of this writing.  Flame top?  Check.  Binding? Check.  Pickup covers? check.  Trap inlays? Check.  No pre-installed pickguard, meaning I don't have "worm holes" in the top?  Check.  This is the picture of a Les paul that people have in their minds when they think Les Paul.

The amp

Blackstar HT20

For what I do, I think 20 all tube watts is what I need.  I would go with the 5 watt version, but I plan on using the clean channel for any heavy metal pedals I want to change the sound with.  I keep switching between wanting Egnator and Blackstar, but currently I hear so much good stuff about Blackstar.  Also, they were once employees of Marshall, so I'm not too far from my old fanboy self when I go for Blackstar.  An effects loop is a must, so the Marshalls of this price range are out.  I would get two of the 1x12 cabs they have for their HT5 series.  Each is rated at 50 watts, so I'm still safe.  I like having 2 1x12's for the same reason I did that with my bass, its just more versatile of a set up.  I enjoy being able to keep one at home, and keep one at a practice spot if I wanted, and use them both if playing outside.

And... I have a ton left over. There are more expensive Les Pauls, but what's the point?  That's my dream Les Paul right there.  There are 40, 50 and 100 watt version of that amp, but that means I'd go deaf before I have the natural tube overdrive I like.  Sticking with the premise, all being spent on music gear, I guess I'd go looking for my dream SG, which would be used and I'd still have money left over.  I'd have a "beater" SG and a fancy SG, I would have enough left over for a les paul studio.  Maybe a caramel burst Les Paul Studio pro so I'm not too scared to take a Les Paul to friend's homes for jam sessions.

And there's a lesson to be learned in that last sentence.  Well, that'll be another post for another day.



Day 27

I did lots of stuff today.

Aside from my warm up in Guitarcade, I'm adding the Chord 101 and Chord 102 practice tracks to the warm up.  I have a solid 45 minutes of "warm up" time in Rocksmith now.  I know as I type these up it might seem like I do less and less Rocksmith, but its not true, its just that its kind of routine at the moment while I work on chords.

I'm ending up with 2 separate journals. One is for theory notes, scale shapes, chord charts etc.  One journal is my song notation book.  Each song I put in here will have its chords, its key, and whatever information I need to memorize.  I will have different versions and strum patterns for them, and then set up my personal arrangement.  Why have a personal arrangement?  Well if someone asks you to play a song while they're just hanging out, they aren't looking for 5 minutes of lone guitar and no vocals.  They want the high points of the song that are recognizable, so this is the kind of "1 minute arrangement" that I want to come up with for requested songs.

I am practicing a very versatile song that I feel is going to help me with lots of my chord playing.  It is "Simple Kind of Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the lyrics just rub the the wrong way.  I've grew up hearing this song and I know a lot of people that know the song.  The song is 3 chords, and you can do a very simple version, a version with advanced strumming patterns, and even a power chord arrangement over it.  There's also the version that most resembles what you hear on the radio, with lots of embellishments.  I am very good at going from C Major to A Minor thanks to Rocksmith, both of those chords are taught by the Chord lesson tracks, and also used fairly early in Return to Castle Chordead.  I'm needing to work the most on the G chord, which is new to me.

Guitarcade Spotlight:Scale Warriors and Day 26

Guitarcade Spotlight: Scale Warriors

Scale Warriors is a scale practice game that focuses on you playing the notes in different orders and different amounts.  Every enemy of a type has the same patterns to them, so eventually you can combo kill them without even needing to see where they are standing.  Each successful note has your character jumping to the enemy and punching or kicking them to the next note.

The game takes its inspiration from the old 8 bit era beat'em ups like Double Dragon and River City Ransom.  The bad guys are a gang that has wronged the players, and you must proceed through "stages" where you fight regular bad guys and eventually special "boss" fights that have extended scale sequences.

I really wanted to like Scale Warriors, it was probably my most looked forward to game in the Guitarcade.  I am a scale playing nut, so I thought I'd play the hell out of it.  The reality is that I have not, as of yet, played a lot of it.  The Scale Racer game, to be spotlighted later, is better at teaching scale shapes IMO, while Scale Warriors is made for improving your general note playing abilities, and developing muscle memory patterns.  I think they have the games listed backwards when it comes to recommendations, I think Scale Racer should be first, and then you do Scale Warriors after.  As I learn new scales, I will use this game more, I think.

Day 26

I did quite a few things outside of Rocksmith today.  Last week Rocksmith got a lot of new Oasis songs to play, and there's one included with the game already.  I've seen that Wonderwall is made much easier by having a Capo, so I went today and bought a Capo.  It is really weird for me to own a capo.  Growing up, the Capo was this thing you got in your "starter" kits, but never knew exactly why to use it.  I don't remember a single friend ever using a capo.  So the fact that I know why to use a capo makes me a bit happy.  Also, if you have read this, I bitched about a lot of songs I want to play are in E Flat.  My brain actually lit a few sparks, and I had this question: If I tune E Flat, and use a capo on the first fret, isn't that being in E now?  So I shot the question to Google, and I was correct! You can, indeed, do that.  All the more reason for me to own a capo.

I'm working on going backwards through my scales in a musical way.  I can walk up and down my scales pretty easily, and I can make music with them and all that, but going from the B string to the G is just not as smooth as when I go the reverse way, or when I do E to A in the Pentatonic minor.  So I don't really need Rocksmith for that practice, I watch Yogscast videos on youtube and just absent mindedly practice this, committing it to muscle memory.

I also bought a 70's tastic looking journal and some colored pencils.  My brain works better when I write things down.  You can tell me a whole list of groceries 5 times in a row, and ask me to repeat it once, and I'll probably get 2 or 3 right.  My brain just doesn't store info like that.  I write the list down, and I'll be able to tell you, probably in order, 3 weeks from now, the entire list.  So that's what my journal is going to be, Skypp-notation on chords and scales.  Oh I have books, especially bass books, that talk about all this too.  But writing it down will help me out immensely.  Maybe it would help you too?  Try it out.

I did get some session play in at the end of the night.  Probably about 30 minutes?  I don't know, time flies when I'm in session mode.  Still, well over an hour of practice and guitar-study today.

The Teacher's Warning and Day 25

There is a warning that I hear a lot from videos on youtube and from teachers giving free advice to players in general.  The warning is "if you focus so much on learning 2 or 3 songs, then all you're learn is 2 or 3 songs".  This does speak to me.  I have a few songs I obsessed over on guitar as a teenager, thinking "if I learned to play this, I'd know I'm a guitarist".  It is dangerous because if you devote months of time to such a small set of skills, you will absolutely learn those 2 or 3 songs, but the risk is that you have left yourself with no new goals.

Well, I feel that I am past that point of danger, but my songs are still there.  I still have that list of "I want to break this out in case I'm playing in front of Cousin A" or "I want to play this one for my sister because she and I enjoyed listening to this song when I was little".  The warning still creeps in, and I'm worried I'm not advanced enough to do them without getting caught up in them.  But I think acknowledging the risk will help get over and past the risk.

So what's my list?  Here's a few.  I may add others to other posts later.

ACDC Highway to Hell.  I've mentioned before that this song shaped my music tastes, forever putting me on the path of pure Rock and Roll.  Plus all my cousins will love the hell out of hearing it.  All my cousins come over on Easter, so I can tell anyone thinking its inappropriate, "Catholic dogma says that Jesus descended into hell to rescue the righteous of the past".  So there.  Highway to Hell is appropriate for Easter and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Sweet Child O' Mine is a song I used to ask my cousin to play all the time.  The beginning just seemed so amazing to me as a young kid.  I hear that it is not all that hard to play the whole song.  I do have to contend with the whole E flat tuning though.

Yellow Ledbetter is a song that got me back into wanting to play guitar after learning bass.  I've learned that this song is basically a love letter from Pearl Jam's guitarist to Jimi Hendrix.  This got me back to listening to Hendrix and several songs of his that I had never heard before.  After Angus Young's style of playing, Jimi's bluesy stuff is the 2nd style to have the most influence on me.



Day 25

It was a Sunday, so it was a late practice.  In Rocksmith I did the guitarcade, and for a second time went completely through Return to Castle Chordead.  This game really does help.  In fact, I was going through the chords I had in my memory today and wow, I have actually learned quite a few that I can name while changing between them.  They aren't the super useful ones, but they are chords and I am able to practice with them.

I practiced tuning to drop D without a tuner.  I'm making headway.  I know there is a way to make a harmonic of a note and tune correctly using that by using your ears, but I need an example of that with some lessons.  There is a "special" lesson section in Rocksmith, and one of them is "Tuning by Ear" so I need to mark that for watching tomorrow.  I'll let you know how the video is.  Its rather unfortunate that its at the bottom when you sort by "recommended".

Impulse Buy and Day 24

Impulse buying is practically what Internet retail is based on.

I would not have gotten Rocksmith 2014 if it did not have a lot of songs that I personally like.and would not mind learning.  I like that there is some basic rock like Sixteen Saltines by Jack White, but also some metal like Blood and Thunder by Mastodon.

The classic rock offerings of Rocksmith 2013, 2014 and DLC is actually really really great.  The staples of the classic rock station are there: Dream On by Aerosmith, American Woman by The Guess Who, Carry on my Wayward Son by Kansas.  Drift Away by Dobie Grey.  All of that is DLC.

Pretty much any genre of Rock has some great DLC support.  I got Rocksmith with a PSN card and almost immediately went to buying songs I want to learn to play.  At $3 a pop, I was only going to be able to get a handful.  I easily got $60 in my cart and decided I should probably wait and see.  I think this is the best of advice, because I would have doubled my investment in the game, and I don't think I'd be playing most of those songs yet.

You might end up being like me.  I know there are people that are "learn the songs, and you'll learn the skills as you do the songs".  I've met them in real life, they exist.  I am just not one of them.  I am more academic.  It is not enough to know something is a chord, I want to know why its a chord.  I don't want to just know that these notes are played in a song, I want to know why these same notes are used in other songs too.  If I had a huge curriculum style book with quizzes and lesson reading, I'd have all the theory done in a heartbeat, I've always been very successful with "book learning".  I've got a mind for it.

So, so far, I do not rely on learning songs so much.

I'd do this: pick your 5 favorite songs from the original list and wait till you get them to 75% or so.  All five of them.  When you do that, then DLC may be a smart purchase.  Oh and for the record.... I'm 2 of 5 so far.


Day 24

I skipped ahead a few "recommended" lessons and went into some more chord lessons.  I do not think they emphasize the fact that your fingers will eventually stretch and learn to play these chords with time.  At least, that's what I've always been told and even people with small hands like me will be able to do them...

I realized I had not beat the first level of Return to Castle Chordead, so I devoted time to doing that.  I had to do a couple of "continues" during it, but less than I thought I would.  This game actually is pretty good at helping me memorize shapes and names of the chords they use, but I can't help but feel like they should let me customize what chords are used in stages.  I would like a sort of customized setting.  I am memorizing a handful of chords from the practice tracks and Chordead, but I do not think all but Em are recommended as frequently used in songs.  I guess time will tell.

I did some more session work with the Pent Major shape.  I really like the sound this scale is, it is very different than my blues and rock playing I've been doing since day 1.  It feels "pop" styled, and I'm pretty sure I've heard it as the basis of a lot of alternative acoustic songs.

Outside of Rocksmith... I almost broke down and ordered a 2nd guitar today.  I think I"ve said before that I would like a 2nd guitar I can take to places and practice with when I'm away from my PS3.  Today though, I found out that several of my most "want to learn" bands use Eb tuning.  I have put effort(and sucked at) tuning back and forth from Drop D without a tuner(I'm making progress though).  I accepted Drop D, I don't mind it.  The Eb tuning is every string being tuned down a half step.  This includes Jimi Hendrix, Guns N Roses, and Alice in Chains.  What a colossal pain in the ass.  Its like my Lead practice wants me to be in Eb, but all the chord songs I want to practice is in E standard.  I guess I'll need to come up with a list instead of just practicing what I feel like playing.