BigWheeledWagon

Great job -- not many 17-year-olds out there have the wherewithall to arrange a song for horns. It's nice to see that there are kids out there who can read and transcribe music and have some knowledge of music theory. Most guys at that age just want to learn a few popular songs on guitar so they can impress girls (you couldn't walk down the hall in my dorm freshman year of college without some dude playing "Wonderwall" or some Dave Matthews song with his door open in hopes that a easily impressed co-ed might walk by). Anyway, keep up the good work -- I loved how the horns recreated som

I also have noticed a real Austin focus. I seem to recall them showcasing a Daniel Johnston song as well last season, but I believe it was performed by Bright Eyes -- Devil Town, I think.

Say what you will about Pitchfork, but I really appreciate that they have decided to hold out on offering a review until next week when they've had time to live with the album a bit. The out-of-the-blue surprise release has really thrown off most reviewers who are used to receiving advance copies months before the official release date, yet they feel obliged to have a review out at the same time as the album. I'm still getting a feel for the new album, but I have found myself listening to it a lot.

America's best band on America's best show. Not bad. Muzzle of Bees worked well in the scene. I think Wilco was used in an episode last season, too. The show has made some good musical choices -- Spoon for example.

As with so many things in purchasing musical equipment (quite sadly), I guess it must just be luck of the draw when dealing with Ruby tubes. Mine sound great, but I don't doubt that had I gotten some from a different shipment they could have sucked. This seems especially true of equipment made in China.

I've brought this up before, but this gives me another opportunity to voice my opinion that UT broke up an album too early. I would have loved to hear an album comprised of UT playing the best songs from "AM" and "Trace" (I suppose there would be more Farrar songs than Tweedy songs, as I think "Trace" was the stronger album). I guess, though, you can pretty much make that happen by making your own mix of those two albums. I think Jeff wasn't quite ready to go it alone when he made "AM." "Being There" would have been one hell of a debut album following on the heels of a fantastic UT farewel

Love 'em.

I recently put in Ruby tubes, and I've been happy with the difference. I don't know about general reputation, but I have not been happy with Groove Tubes either. Glad to hear you've got your amp sounding good with no more burning odor.

Sorry -- I wasn't trying to steal your thunder. I saw that you mentoned the dust theory amongst several of your suggestions -- I was just chiming in on what I thought was most likely based on my experience (as opposed to the dying tubes option -- I've never gotten a burning smell from dying tubes, just poor performance). Let the record show that you did indeed suggest the possibility first. Consider my post a concurring opinion. Speaking of concurring opinions -- In a Little Rowboat's advice on using a chopstick or other non-conductive item when prodding around in your amp is crucial.

Could be my bad laptop speakers, but I'm not sure that was "Someone Else's Song." It starts off identical, but seems to diverge later on. As somone mentioned earlier, the song has some pretty standard country patterns and walk-ups, it would be pretty easy for someone trying to play a stereotypical county patter to accidentally replicate a but of the song. As, I said though, bad laptop speakers, so I might not have heard it well.

I'm going to venture a guess at what's going on -- just a hypothesis here (hopefully not a preposterous one). Perhaps your tubes had gotten dusty, and since your amp was on for a while, they had time to heat up a bit more than usual and caused the dust to burn a little. I've had this happen to me when I've gotten a little negligent about dusting (which is more often than I'd care to admit). Is the odor the same as when you turn on the heat for the first time in the fall/winter? That's also caused by dust burning, and it's the same odor I get from my dusty tubes (in my defense, my old Fende

I think most people around here are happy to answer questions -- they just would like to avoid answering the same questions over and over whenever someone new joins (I'm not insinuating you're a newbie -- I understand you may have had to get a new username or something. I say this because I once had someone get upset and call me names for insinuating they were new to the forum b/c they had all of 3 posts, a recent sign-up date, and were asking questions in the wrong forum). Don't take it personally. I know it seems like a bit of rebuke, but remember that you are asking someone for informati

Add yet another vote for the Ryman as the best.

They've been playing "Too Far Apart" lately? Nice.

Jimmy Jimmy!: thanks for the advice on shielding -- I hadn't thought about it, but it's a great idea and the perfect time to do it. Rileykill: do you know of any online retailers who sell Van Zandts? I was thinking of putting in Texas specials, but I'm intrigued by the Van Zandts.

Thanks for all the advice so far -- I think this project is going to be lots of fun. I neglected to say in the original post that I've already modded the guitar somewhat (I've changed out the pickups before, changed out the string trees, and removed the original trem set-up and hard-tailed it), so it's not like I'm modding a guitar that's all original.

So, I've got an early 80's Japanese strat. I now have several guitars that outclass the thing, but it has sentimental value, and I just can't seem to part with it. My wife and I just bought a new house, and there's room for a workshop (in addition to my studio above the garage), so I'm thinking about undertaking a project. I'm going to put some new pickups in the strat and install a new tremelo (I hard-tailed it years ago) and pickguard. I was also considering taking the paint off and refinishing the body with some kind of wood stain. Has anyone here ever done something like this? Any su

I totally understand the obsession. There's just something about that Fender tweed.

Good point. When I was kid, my mom forced me to take piano lessons, and I hated it. In hindsight, it has helped me more than I ever could have anticipated. In middle school I went on to play saxophone, and the lessons learned from piano made it quite easy to pick up. Around that time I started picking up my dad's guitar, and it wasn't too difficult to teach myself the basics (though I did go on to take lessons). After that, I've been able to pick up the basics of mandolin, lap steel, banjo, and a few other instruments, and I never would have been able to do it if it weren't for those pian

I play both mandolin and banjo (not well, but well enough for adding parts to my home recording stuff), and I found that coming from guitar, mandolin was easier to pick up than banjo, if that helps inform your decision. Of course, if you're already playing some slide, non-pedal lap steel shouldn't be a big adjustment. Pedal steel on the other hand . . .

I agree -- it appears you are stuck with a battle scar unless you feel up to a little reupholstering. You can purchase Fender tweed material online and replace the stained cloth, but that would be quite a project to undertake on a year-old amp. Personally, I think a few stains and tattered spots give an amp character. Still, that first stain, scratch, dent, etc. on a guitar or amp is the toughest to handle -- especially on a nice tweed-covered amp like yours. Condolences.

The Wilco/Spoon comparison really resonates with me. I'm a Sky Blue Sky defender, but when Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga came out, I got into it in a way that reminded me of first experiencing Being There, Summerteeth, or YHF (in fairness to Spoon, I have almost equally warm regards for pretty much all of their albums). This also made me realize that while I do enjoy Sky Blue Sky, it's not one of those essential albums for me. I don't think, however, that it signals some sort of decline for Wilco. It's a transitional album of a new line-up just enjoying playing together. It strikes me as an album made f

I had the same feeling about digital distortion effects for a long time, but recently I've found that a few of the Line 6 distortion sounds do pretty well when pushed through a good fender tube amp (I guess there is a technical difference between an effects processor and a digital pedal modeler, though). In a perfect world, I would have an amazing collection of vintage analog pedals and have no limits on how loud I could play. I don't often use very heavy distortion and generally just use a tube screamer and some compression to get a little bit of crunch. On the occasion that I do need heav

The pinned thread that is at the top of the "Just a Fan" page has the EP (and just about anything else Wilco-related you could ever want) available: http://forums.viachicago.org/index.php?showtopic=26738

I don't know a great deal about Macs or what kind of sound cards they come equipped with, but I would consider looking into a firewire input device of some sort with an XLR input or two. A good microphone will connect via an XLR connection, so the quarter-inch input won't be of much use to you (though there are convertors, they will probably hurt your signal). This website may be of some help to you: http://www.wikirecording.org/index.php/Main_Page