Greetings and Salutations!!!

rolandson

rolandson

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there they are...three exclamation points...all the way from Portland.

@3bolt79 is my friend from 109 miles south of me. Though we've never met in person, we've developed a kinship that I enjoy. When I learned of his role in this forum I couldn't pass up the chance to ....
No...I won't test him. Not even a little bit.

okay, maybe just a little...
Hey Bolt, place looks good!
 
Nice to see yet another respected Strat-Talk member join with us. We have a nice thing happening here. Stick around with us!
 
3bolt asked me to introduce myself.
I'm a player, not a collector. Though "was" would be more accurate. A classically trained, multi-instrumentalist who has worked on stages, both really big, and really small, studios and orchestra pits, all over the globe. An injury ended my performance career in 2006. Complications and continued deterioration from that injury have pretty much ended playing altogether for me.

For guitars, I gavitated to tube amplifiers and of those I preferred fender blackfaced amps of the early to mid sixties. While I've several "planks" (solid body), my preference was "boxes" (archtops). Professionally, I played whatever was on the music in front of me, usually in one take...but not always....

Personally, I'm a classical guitarist who loves jazz and blues who coined a phrase to describe what I play as Upscale Blues / Low Brow Jazz... (that's mine btw...come up with your own.)

I've been gradually parting company with my instruments which up until recently included a 1964 Strat and a couple of the BF fenders I mentioned. Just this weekend I agreed to sell my last remaining BF; a 67 Super Reverb (it's little sibling, a 67 Deluxe Reverb left home a18 months ago).

Gone too are two cellos, a trumpet, piano, a Taylor and a Godin acoustic. I've kept a couple of little 5 watt amps (a preproduction Jet City PicoValve that my friend, Andy Marshall...the fellow who designed it...recently went over and through, and a bastardization of the PicoValve, a Booger T5 Infium, a ripoff of Andy's design brought to us by Behringer* under the name Bugera). I have also managed to convince myself that I should hang on to my archtop, a Gibson ES175...just in case a miracle should visit me in the form of a magical cockroach or something and kiss my nose thus restoring my dexterity and fluidity. Hey...magic happens.

Music Has Been Very Very Good To Me.


*Behringer has a reputation of reverse engineering other people's stuff and then building inferior near copies and selling them at a low price (I am happy to report that Behringer was successfully sued over this behavior...YAY!). A comment that my dear friend Fezz Parka coined says it all:

"Friends Don't Let Friends Buy Behringer" Fezz Parka, aka El Gobernator...Chris Neel
 
Hey thanks Reed. That ES 175 is definitely one that I wouldn’t part with either.

I’ve been fortunate in that over the last 10 years, I’ve been able to cross off most of the guitars on my bucket list. I still have three or four to go. An ES 175 is on the list, as well as a Gretsch Super Axe, a Ric 4003 bass, and maybe a Jackson RR1.

I know my tastes are diverse. I might even buy a Les Paul if I come across the right one at the right price, but they’ve never been on the list as there are so many out there.
 
rolandson said:
3bolt asked me to introduce myself.
I'm a player, not a collector. Though "was" would be more accurate. A classically trained, multi-instrumentalist who has worked on stages, both really big, and really small, studios and orchestra pits, all over the globe. An injury ended my performance career in 2006. Complications and continued deterioration from that injury have pretty much ended playing altogether for me.

For guitars, I gavitated to tube amplifiers and of those I preferred fender blackfaced amps of the early to mid sixties. While I've several "planks" (solid body), my preference was "boxes" (archtops). Professionally, I played whatever was on the music in front of me, usually in one take...but not always....

Personally, I'm a classical guitarist who loves jazz and blues who coined a phrase to describe what I play as Upscale Blues / Low Brow Jazz... (that's mine btw...come up with your own.)

I've been gradually parting company with my instruments which up until recently included a 1964 Strat and a couple of the BF fenders I mentioned. Just this weekend I agreed to sell my last remaining BF; a 67 Super Reverb (it's little sibling, a 67 Deluxe Reverb left home a18 months ago).

Gone too are two cellos, a trumpet, piano, a Taylor and a Godin acoustic. I've kept a couple of little 5 watt amps (a preproduction Jet City PicoValve that my friend, Andy Marshall...the fellow who designed it...recently went over and through, and a bastardization of the PicoValve, a Booger T5 Infium, a ripoff of Andy's design brought to us by Behringer* under the name Bugera). I have also managed to convince myself that I should hang on to my archtop, a Gibson ES175...just in case a miracle should visit me in the form of a magical cockroach or something and kiss my nose thus restoring my dexterity and fluidity. Hey...magic happens.

Music Has Been Very Very Good To Me.


*Behringer has a reputation of reverse engineering other people's stuff and then building inferior near copies and selling them at a low price (I am happy to report that Behringer was successfully sued over this behavior...YAY!). A comment that my dear friend Fezz Parka coined says it all:

"Friends Don't Let Friends Buy Behringer" Fezz Parka, aka El Gobernator...Chris Neel
Click to expand...
I have one Behringer pedal. It’s a graphic EQ that I got for free from a pay it forward thread at one of the sister sites. I would never buy one of their pedals though because mostly they are junk. The EQ is ok because I always leave it on and don’t have to step on it lol. It is totally plastic. But, it was free.
 
Those Bugera v5 amps were actually pretty good little amps. I had one for awhile and upgraded it with an Eminence 820H speaker. It was such a simple circuit that it was a fun amp to explore tube rolling with. No one loves how Uli Behringer does business least of all me after he bought tc electronic and twisted them into his Music Tribe clan. They offer little to no service whatsoever so essentially all of their products are disposable. If it breaks just buy another. I've since sold all of my tc electronic gear but one very old booster pedal I love.
 
soulman said:
Those Bugera v5 amps were actually pretty good little amps. I had one for awhile and upgraded it with an Eminence 820H speaker. It was such a simple circuit that it was a fun amp to explore tube rolling with. No one loves how Uli Behringer does business least of all me after he bought tc electronic and twisted them into his Music Tribe clan. They offer little to no service whatsoever so essentially all of their products are disposable. If it breaks just buy another. I've since sold all of my tc electronic gear but one very old booster pedal I love.
Click to expand...
That explains a lot. I’ve never come across a TC Electronic product that I liked.
 
soulman said:
tc electronic
Click to expand...
3bolt79 said:
That explains a lot. I’ve never come across a TC Electronic product that I liked.
Click to expand...

Thanks to the both of you.
Hall of Fame keeps showing up in searches as I explore reverb pedals (PicoValve doesn't have it) and .... perhaps a thread is called for...

Anyway, as so eloquently stated in television advert....
My bottom's been saved...! YAY!

I shall not include TC Electric in any further exploration...
 
3bolt79 said:
That explains a lot. I’ve never come across a TC Electronic product that I liked.
Click to expand...
If you go back in time before Behringer bought them they were innovative as all hell and their quality was unsurpassed. The company was based in Denmark and they were well known for their studio gear as well. They still have some very good products that were designed prior to Behringer's involvement but I would avoid any that might eventually need servicing or parts. They make it as difficult as they can.
 
rolandson said:
Thanks to the both of you.
Hall of Fame keeps showing up in searches as I explore reverb pedals (PicoValve doesn't have it) and .... perhaps a thread is called for...

Anyway, as so eloquently stated in television advert....
My bottom's been saved...! YAY!

I shall not include TC Electric in any further exploration...
Click to expand...
I don't mind TC Electronics. Their Spark Booster & Zues Overdrive are killer pedal imo. 🙂👍
 
Stu78 said:
I don't mind TC Electronics. Their Spark Booster & Zues Overdrive are killer pedal imo. 🙂👍
Click to expand...
Yup. By in large their pedals are all pretty good. I've used several in the past and never had an issue with any of them.
 
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