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 some of the cool synth parts from the original. Also, you really stayed true to the feel of the original without giving it that marching band feeling that you often hear when brass sections adapt rock songs not originally meant for horns (you know, at pretty much any college football game).

Someone there has good taste, they've featured Austin scene stuff before e.g. Townes Van Zandt.

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.

That's why most reviews aren't worth the paper they're written on. So many times I've had the impression that the reviewer only listened once to a record before writing their review. I know they have deadlines and may be rushed, but this of course doesn't lend itself to a proper review. You really need to listen to a record many times over the course of a week to have a somewhat informed opinion for a review.

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.

bob at eurotubes knows his stuff. he's a nice guy and a good resource. 10 years ago he used to post on the peavey forums all the time, then his business started to take off. he's a good one.

 

that said, i personally HATE ruby tubes. they're made in china and have some really wide variations in the quality control dept. MESA and GT are remarkers. they rematch other brand tubes and print their label on them. I tended to go with the svetlana tubes (i think they're made in Finland or Russia) in all my old amps. i haven't had to retube my carvin, but since it's a "vintage style" amp, i might spring for some NOS telefunkens or something. i really don't know.

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 farewell (not that "Anodyne" wasn't a fantastic goodbye -- in fact, one could argue that a combinations of "AM" and "Trace" would sound a lot like "Anodyne").

Love 'em.

Well, I put new tubes in last night and double-checked the board again. No burns, nothing. I actually have a good friend who works doing amp setups for studios, but he is in another state, so I couldn't solicit much advice from him. Anyway, he gave me 3 sets of power tubes. One AVS, one Mesa, and one Soldano (Ruby). I can't believe the difference in sound between them. Also, in doing research on this problem, I learned that Groove Tubes aren't really well respected.

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.

j

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. Even when the amp has been unplugged a while, you can still get a serious shock from stored charge. Thankfully, I am not speaking from personal experience here, but I have seen it happen to someone else. Come to think of it, that also resulted in a burning smell.

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 Fender Bassman has an open back and thus easily acquires dust). Anyway, I could be way off base but I thought I'd give it a shot since I've had this happen to me.

Oh Christ, can't anyone just answer a question without having to throw in some kind of self righteous statement? I Love Wilco. Thank You for the info.

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 information. Lashing out at them when they correct you isn't likely to make them want to provide you with more information. In the same way you seem taken aback that no one can "answer a question without getting self[-]righteous," many are amazed at how many people don't acquaint themselves with the etiquette for ViaChicago and thus end up posting in the wrong forums and asking questions without first doing a quick search. Most folks around here are happy to help so long as people are willing to do a little research on their own first. That being said, some people can be a little harsh about this stuff.

Add yet another vote for the Ryman as the best.

I saw Fred Savage rocking out to Too Far Apart at the Greek Theatre Wednesday night. Did anybody spot any other celebs scattered thru the Greek Theatre Wednesday?

 

I also think Tanner from the original Bad News Bears was smoking a J behind me, but I'm not 100% on that one.

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 suggestions?

Thanks, I'll have to check that out.. It definitely needs some kind of coat now that I have a square on the top where I made my little repair. Maybe something dark that would hide it.. Like a dark orange or something.. That would probably look pretty darn cool! Why am I so obsessed with the way my amp looks? Once I laguer it, maybe I'll post a pic or something.. If you guys care..

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

If you can play the keys,you got an upper hand on any musician out there.

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 piano lessons my mom forced me to take. When I think about it, most multi-instrumentalists I know started out on the piano. When I have a kid, perhaps I'll force the little one to take piano lessons. He or she will thank me later.

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 for the guys in the band. They were kind enough to share it with us.

As I mentioned in my post above, stay far away from the distortions.. I have played hundreds of digital processors from the cheapest to the most expensive and I've never found a descent distortion sound.. BUT, if you run the processor through your effects loop, you can still preserve your amp tone.. For example, if you have a nice fender tube amp (which you shouldn't be using digital effects with anyway.. that's blasphemy), if you run the pedal straight through, you will find that it completely cancels the tube sound.. But if you run it through the effects loop, you still get the amp tone.. So you can use the digital chorus, tremelo, what have you and they sound halfway descent, but still nothing compared to analog..

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 heavier distortion in my home studio, I turn to the Line 6, because in my current set-up, I can't get that kind of distortion out of my amp using only analog without pissing off the neighbors by cranking the amp to seriously high volumes (I guess could get an attenuator). Also, the DM4 offers a fairly nice selection of various distortion/overdrive pedals. It's also more cost effective than collecting all the various pedals it models and then only using some of them sporadically on a song or two. Still, I'm about to move, and volume won't be an issue in my new studio, so the DM4 will probably get less use.

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