jazzyvee

i had a Cimar version of that guitar in the late 70's. So maybe the copies were made by the same company and badged according to the client. I really loved the sound and look of it.

I have more basses than guitars.

Having not gigged on guitar much for a good few years, I bought one of these a few months back when i suddenly found myself with a number of guitar dep gigs and didn't want to haul out my JC120 or Fender Twin which love to be played loud. I love it. The effects are a bit OTT for my taste but the reverb is fine and it is great for playing music through from an ipod or mp3 player.

i've started gigging on guitar again and having to relearn all my good habits from when it was my first instrument. In the past when I was gigging on guitar I only used overdrive/distortion for a few solos so i set the volume from my pedal so that it was loud enough to match the music when kicked in. At the time I was using only a Pro-Co Rat distortion pedal. So, here is what I'm trying to do now. I have a couple of gigs coming up covering tracks by The Wailers where there is a lot of bluesy type guitar fills going on in and around the vocals, some with a wah pedal too and others with a creamy overdrive sound but still behind the vocals in volume and not like solo volume. I am using a Radial Tonebone Trimode pedal which actually sounds better than the Rat with an active guitar. It has a great sound and allows me two channels of overdrive so one can be for lead and the other for lines when not soloing. However when I set the individual balance between channels 1 and 2 and the clean sound they only seem to stay that way for the current volume of my guitar. If I increase the volume of the guitar, then when I kick in either channel of the pedal, the volume is too loud relative to the clean sound and if I reduce the volume of my guitar then they are too low when kicked in. (sort of seems to be exponential) I do have an MXR compressor at the end of my board and was hoping that would help but at the moment i'm finding it hard to get that set right too without things sounding squashed or having little effect. My Q-tron mini is another one that misbehaves with volume changes, but i kind of understand that because it works on the attack of the input and behaves more aggressively with an active guitar than a passive one which is why i bought the compressor in the first place. For reference i'm planning to use my Strat Ultra and USA Strat with alembic pickups and active electronics, oh and the both behave differently to the above scenarios. Does anyone have a rule of thumb i can refer to for setting these things up so that the relative loudness stays consistent with guitar volume? Thanks

wow Burton-on-Trent. i went to college there in the late 70's and there wasn't much of a live music scene there to my recollection. What was the live scene like pre Covid?

A great project. i went on a similar quest a few years back, though i replaced the innards of my USA Strat for Alembic pickups and alembic bass and treble control. I found the guts on ebay fitted in a Jackson/Charvel guitar. The pickups were fine but i had to send the filter electronics back to alembic for repair and upgrade to 3 Position Q switch. I put those in my alembic guitar and moved the bass/treble into the strat. Fantastic sounding guitar for sparklingly clean sounds.

My USA strat which i had the Wailers "Burnin'" album laser etched on the body then refinished by John Diggins of Jaydee Custom Guitars in Birmingham. I replaced the innards with alembic low impedance activator pickups and electronics. Since this photo was taken it has some new wooden knobs and a switch to put the outer two pickups on in 'telecaster' mode.

Looks interesting. I might pop into Guitar Guitar and have a look although my first choice would be a two independent channel amp if possible. I'm open to options. Thanks for your input.

I started out playing guitar and now have more basses than guitars but then I do more bass gigs than guitar gigs, probably done about 1/2 dozen guitar gigs in the last 4 years.

Coronavirus aside, i have been doing a lot less gigs on guitar in the last 10yrs or so and more on bass and have thought about selling off some of my guitar gear. The small stuff is no problem but I have a dilemma. I have a mid 90's Fender Twin Amp 100W (The Evil Twin) and a Vintage Roland JC120 and I can't decide which if any to let go. Although older the JC120 was a more recent purchase maybe 8yrs ago when I bought a guitar with separate pickup outs. But I've used it mostly for gigs because it's lighter to carry. They both are incredible sounding amps. The only thing I am not enthused about the JC120 is ironically the chorus, which always sounds slightly out of tune. There is nothing I dislike about the Fender Twin except the weight. Both are in my view incredible sounding and. performing amps. Any suggestions based on your experience with both amps. I don't have to sell them for financial reasons it's more that they are not being used much and it may be better to let one of them go to someone who gigs more on guitar than I do. But I know that whichever I let go of will be regretted. If I was to sell both I would want to replace them with a more compact setup that allows me to use a stereo pre amp and power amp and hopefully a lightweight 2x12 stereo cab so suggestions for those would be welcome. For the preamp I'd prefer one that has a lot of clean headroom so I can play loud and clean and add the dirt with pedals.

I took it on holiday with me in November and have friends there and asked them to give it away to a young local musician who is learning to play but does not have an electric guitar.

I actually don't really think that much about where I play as after all these years my hand just goes to were it the sound needs to come from. When playing fast funk style rhythms or chopping reggae I tend to play over the last few frets at the end of the neck so that I can't dig in too hard and get a more even sound.

Hey Kiwi, i'm an alembic lover and would love to see a pic of that graphite series bass if possible. If it's out of place here then maybe drop a pic in the alembic group on basschat?

When I was primarily a guitarist, i had a bass around for the odd time I did a gig or recording demos. These days I do both so have a few of each and double the fun.

I'm bamboozled by it al...… I'll get my coat.