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Guitar talk: acoustic, bass, classical, twelve string? You name it! Pt III

Indeed it is, if there is anything similar lurking in there please let me know! My knowledge of that math-rock to emo area is pretty limited (Dianogah, Dismemberment Plan, Bedhead etc), but I do very much like it. As ever as a music dealer one never gets a chance to hear everything that comes in with a large collection. There have been many times I’ve later ended up hunting down stuff for myself that I know I’ve already sold through the shop in the past!

I assume you're familiar with Slint's 'Spiderland', the Ur Math-Rock album.

If not, an essential purchase.
 
Indeed it is, if there is anything similar lurking in there please let me know! My knowledge of that math-rock to emo area is pretty limited (Dianogah, Dismemberment Plan, Bedhead etc), but I do very much like it.

I bought so many albums and CDs through that Berwick St. period that I can barely remember half of them and many will only have been played once!

YouTuber Deep Cuts is very good for getting into these obscure genres though, so you might get some good tips from his "5 albums to get you into Math Rock" episode:


There is a whole bunch of these videos although obviously they mostly work for genres you are not already familiar with. He also does Spotify playlists for each set of 5 albums.

Full list here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKRRjKLRXNJly8aNzi2stcFT_CnTSAW0v
 
PS There are probably more post-hardcore albums in there than midwest emo or math rock. This stuff all started with noisey hardcore / punk bands (Fugazi, Big Black, Albini, other Chicago notables) who were playing very aggressive styles of music but with an expanding palette of extended chords and more complicated rhythms. But then it splits into a trillion sub-genres some of which stayed hardcore some of which all bought telecasters, clean amps and delay pedals :)

These two classics of the post-hardcore thing are in there for sure and very interesting to listen to what is going on amidst the noise.

 
What is classic rock? I thought I'd share this nothingy article from the Guardian. To me classic rock is defined by the amount of gain and distortion on the guitars as much as the era, so a band could be equally be a new classic rock band today playing in the same style, e.g. Greta Van Fleet. More gain defines the heavier genres and less gain more American style pop rock and the like. Is this too simplistic?

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2...-rolling-stones-bruce-springsteen-the-killers
 
This is interesting and a very different take. After the pup swap half Mick gets a Mesa dual 50W stereo rack unit, driven wet dry from the Kingsley valve pre-amp pedals on the floor...

 
Another one of your list, Tony, if you haven't watched it already. Rick Beato on Miles Davis and basically how jazz works.

 
Underwound or 50s wound P90 for me. Great vlog, Mick really is remarkably good at this stuff.

PS I watched Rick’s Miles video, it is great! He’s absolutely at his best when he clearly loves what he’s dissecting.
 
Underwound or 50s wound P90 for me. Great vlog, Mick really is remarkably good at this stuff.

PS I watched Rick’s Miles video, it is great! He’s absolutely at his best when he clearly loves what he’s dissecting.

Yes the underwound for me.
 
Underwound or 50s wound P90 for me. Great vlog, Mick really is remarkably good at this stuff.

I agree. And I really liked that Supro harmonic trem pedal. Just looked it up and it's expensive, figures. I'm already trying to talk myself out of splurging for a Strymon Volante, all I need is GAS for another pedal too.
 
My £500 gift voucher has arrived... and it's £1000! Which opens up more possibilities, and top of the list now is the Morgan AC20

https://www.andertons.co.uk/brands/morgan/morgan-ac20-20w-1x12-combo-amp-in-twilight-finish

PR12 vs AC20 demo here. Surprisingly I preferred the AC20!


Interview with Joe Morgan here. Moving past his customer service reputation, I like his philosophy on amps a lot. No reverb but it does have power scaling built-in.


Or stick with the original plan and get the PR5 (no powerscaling but only 5W and has reverb built in).

I think I will have to listen again. Hmmmmm.
 
Cool! I’d go for reverb every time myself. At the AC20 price you really are in spitting distance of a Rift, and that’s made by a thoroughly nice bloke in the UK and comes with a lifetime warranty. Likely a bit of a waiting list though. For some reason Andertons currently have the PR18 cheaper than the PR6 (link). From memory it should be £1999. I suspect the PR6 would suit you better though.
 
If you are considering one it would probably be worth phoning Rift and asking what the wait actually is as I suspect Andertons just make it up on the fly. Certainly when I ordered mine the delivery was way, way later than I was promised, though that was just after Anderton’s video and I’d have expected things to have calmed down by now.
 
The 12 weeks is from Rift's website and has a last update with it as part of the Coronavirus response.
 
Ouch, that is a long time, though I think mine was even longer. To 6 year old me it felt like about a year and a half.

PS The advantage, if there is one, is you can of course get him to build you whatever you like, e.g. brown/black/silver preamp, whatever colour tolex, grille cloth, knobs or whatever you fancy. Mostly at no extra charge too. I just went standard brownface as I like that look, but I’ve seen some nice custom ones, e.g. wine red, cream etc.
 
Reading about reverb, it seems that not having it on the amp is more common than I thought, which at least explains why so many amps don't have one. Certainly if one insists on having a reverb it narrows the choice a surprisingly great deal.

There is also some argument that if you are playing clean then a good tremolo and reverb pedal (and I like the Fender one I already have) is fine and it's only really a problem if you are going to crank the amp. And when I think of reverb I think of clean sounds not cranked sounds. The big advantage of the Morgans seems to be super simple/pure signal path => touch sensitive and dynamic and the power scaling allows you to get real pedal overdrive and compression at flat friendly levels.

Or I could go back to that Morgan PR6 which was my original choice with classic Blackface sound and a pure spring reverb. No built in attenuator though and likely too loud cranked.

Decisions, decicions...
 
As ever there are no ‘right’ answers. I personally like having a really good spring reverb in the amp, trem too, as it basically means just the guitar and amp get all I’d ever want as a clean sound. I only need pedals for really obvious effecting/altering, e.g. I have fuzz, chorus and echo on the floor, everything else I need is just the guitar and the amp. I spend a large amount of time playing just straight into the amp with nothing. I really don’t aspire to a big pedal board at all. I like really simple stuff where I can get the sounds I need really easily. I’m a member of the Facebook TPS Fans group and some of the boards there are just bonkers, so huge and complex! I’d spend all day just playing with the knobs rather than the guitar!
 


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