I have purchased a used ToneX One pedal. I have seen many convincing videos online and my plan is to try it out and if it works well I will build a mini pedalboard based on it. I have seen that the pedal is small but when I got it I was amazed how small it actually is. And it contains 20 guitar riggs!! But let's see if it delivers the gods in reallity as well.
Since I am playing in many bands I have several rehearsal riggs in the different rehearsal spaces. Right now I own three BOSS GT-100 and if I should continue with this setup I need two more. So I was thinkning that I should try to build a really small rigg that I can easily carry with me instead and sell my GT-100s and maybe my live mini-rigg based on the MOOER GE 300.
Regarding my live mini-rigg. I bought the GE 300 since I've heard so much good about it. But when I first tried it out I could not get a single usable tone out of it. I had bought some cab IRs from Ownhammer which I was going to use in my Axe-FX and as a last attempt I added one to the GE 300 and suddenly it started to sing. Not like the Axe but good enough. I have a couple of other pedals on the board and from start there was an anoying noise which I found out was because I shared the power supply with the pedals. So now I have to use one power supply for the GE 300 and another separate one for the rest of the pedals. That takes up space on the board. Never mind, it is much smaller then my Axe setup that's for sure. But it is not as flexible and does not sound as good but I don't need that in the band that I use it in currently. My hope is that the ToneX One sounds much better and that it will replace the GE 300. We'll see.
I got the strings but I have not been able to try it out. Mostly because I've been busy with recordings with my band The Mörkret. In the recordings I use two 7-strings and my 8-string for the rhythem tracks and my Charvel model 6 for the solo work. I'm not sure that I will change the setup in the middle of the recordings. I have not decided yet, we'll see.
I have now ordered a couple of string sets for the string gauge test. My seven strings are tuned down a whole step so for them I found a 09 set that I think will work fine.
It is 09 to 62. I use 70 for the seventh string today so this will be almost the same.
For the six strings in normal tuning I selected these strings.
08 to 46. I use 46 for the sixth today so this set will only make the top lighter. I will also use this set for the six top strings. For string seven and eight I will use the strings from the eight string sets I use today, 64 and 80. That will work for the test. If I go for this gauges I will buy single strings for the bottom two.
Long time no hear! Sorry but I totally forgot about this blog. I guess blogging is not part of my DNA :-)
I got a problem the other day. I have had my Charvel model 6 tuned down a half step for a project a while ago. Since then I have used it for solos in The Mörkret and to simplify things I decided to take it down to standard D tuning, i.e. the same tuning, down one step, as on my 7-strings I play in The Mörkret. When I set it up I was unable to do it in a good way. The problem was that the distance from the tremolo block to the spring holder became so short with three springs mounted that the Tremmory did not fit. The first attempt to fix it was to remove one of the springs but then I was not able to get it in tune without tilting the Floyd Rose forward way too much. The spring tension was not enough. The only solution I came up with to solve this was to change the string guage from 010-052, which I normally use when downtuning a whole step, to 009-046, which I use for standard tunings. Since this reduces the string tension I was able to use two springs and setup a normal angle for the bridge.
I thought this setup would be very loose to play but it felt supricingly nice. I really liked it so I decided that I should try to go down a step in string gauge on one of my 7-strings, the 8-string and one of my standard tuned 6-string. For the downtuned 7-string that means going down to a 009-set. For the 8-string which is tuned E-B-E-A-D-F#-B-E and the normal tuned 6-string this means to go down to a 008-set. I used an Yngwie Malmsteen 008-set in Dusch once when I tuned the guitar up a whole step, but not in a normal situation. But everything should be tested in the quest for the best guitar experience. Next step is to find suitable strings to order.
Bye for now! I'll be back this time, I promise :-)
I have for a long time now been using EMG pickups in all my guitars. Since my very first test with an 81-85 setup I was totally floored. I just loved the punch and power that they created through a distorted amp. I have during the years replaced all other pickups in my guitar except for a couple of DiMarzio D Activators. I am currently using EMG SA, 81, 85, 81X, 85X, 81/7, 707 and 808 pickups.
During the last couple of years I have begun to hear some things that I do not like in my sound. Small things, but still annoying. And I think my newest pickups, 808, sound a little unclear. It is time to testdrive something else.
I have seen that there has been a lot of very good things said about the Swedish Lundgren pickups everywhere. I visited their web page, https://lundgren.se, and found out that they have many different pickups. I have read a lot about the different pickups they make and listened to a lot of audio clips. For me the audio clips did not tell me much of interest about the different aspects of the pickups. But I know one thing, I like EMG and EMG sounds modern metal. The most modern metal pickup they make is the M-series. But I also like things a little more classic sounding, so something like the new Black Heaven seemed like the perfects choice for me. At least according to the description of the pickup: "The Black Heaven combines the power, aggression and tight response of the legendary M6, but with more refined, organic character that lends itself to more diverse tonal applications".
For the testdrive I got hold of a used M6. Now I needed to select a guitar. I decided to use my old trusted workhorse, my Charvel Model 6. The pickup combination in this guitar is H-S-S. Since I never use the middle pickup I decided to leave that empty and try to find a single coil for the neck position. So what model to choose? The problem with the EMG 81 and SA combination is that the output from the 81 is much higher that from the SA. Since the M6 is a high output metal pickup I wanted to have a really high output single coil pickup as the neck pickup. I emailed Lundgren pickups and got a suggestion from Johan Lundgren himself to go for the Strat-90. Luckily I ended up finding a used Strat-90 neck pickup. So time for testing :-D
To be able to compare the pickups I did some recordings with the old and the new setup. Excuse me for the casual dressing and sloppy playing :-P
Charvel mod 6 with EMGs:
Charvel mod 6 with EMGs, solo:
Unfortunately the Strat-90 did not fit into the whole of the Charvel. So I skipped mounting that.
Charvel mod 6 with Lundgren M6 in brigde.
Charvel mod 6 with Lundgren M6 in bridge, solo:
As I mentioned before I like the power in the EMGs. This is the first time I have tried something else that gives me the same power. The M6 has more bottom end. Normally I would have rolled it back on the amp a bit, but now I wanted everything to be the same to show off the differences of the pickups. The bottom end is nice a tight though, so it does not disturb me. The high end of the M6 is warmer and it is a much warmer sounding the the EMG 81 when used clean.
Verdict:
I really like the sound of the Lundgren M6. It has a much warmer and nicer tone than the EMG 81 with almost the same power. I can't wait to have the Strat-90 put in so I can do the full comparison. There will be more Lundgren pickups in my guitars, that's for sure!!
I have used the new picks for a while now. I like the grip of The Dunlop Flow 3.0 but somehow I do not feel 100% comfortable with it. I have not figured out what the problem is yet, but I have to struggle with the playing position of it. I have therefore started to use the Gravity 4 mm more and more again. It might be the thickness, I don't know but it just feels more natural and it disturbs me less. We'll see what happens in the future. The struggle goes on...
Back in history I did not really care what guitar picks I used. I started with really thin Sharkfins and Dunlop picks just because I thought that was the way to go. I read somewhere in Guitar Player or so that it was better with thicker picks so I tried it but it really felt awkward. But somehow I continued trying with thicker picks. I don't recall any dimensions or so, but it was more normal picks for rock guitar. During those days I was navigating towards the unobtainable perfect sound by the help of pedals and amplifiers.
In the modern age I stumbled on some guy on YouTube doing a review of an frightful guitar pick. It was big in size and was 1 cm thick!!! Unbelievable, who would even think about playing with such a monster. The guy meant that after just playing some weeks with this pick the right hand technique would really improve. The pick was the Insanity pick from V-Pick. After looking at several other YouTube-videos reviewing the V-Picks which came in many different sizes and thicknesses i got really curious. The reviews mentioned that the V-picks was made of a special glass material that reacted with the heat of the fingers and thus stayed firmly between the fingers without twisting. That alone sounded really good since I sometimes had really big problems with twisting picks. They also talked about a much more distinct sound that with regular picks. So I had to try it out. I bought a set of different picks and to my surprise they were right. They stayed in place between the fingers much better than any other picks I have tried and the they also produced a louder pick sound. I ended up using the Dimension V-pick as a standard pick for all my guitar playing for years. It is about 4 mm thick so I though playing funky rhythm stuff would be hard, but to my surprise it was not at all.
The only thing that was disturbing was that playing without distortion produced a clicking sound that I did not like. Since I do not play that much without distortion I lived with that problem. I tried normal Dunlop picks every now and then and now I really did not like the feel of them.
I read on internet that someone compared V-Picks with Gravity Picks and he thought that the Gravity Picks was almost the same as V-Picks, with the difference that the Gravity Picks did not create the clicking sound. I bought a couple of different picks to try them out. The clicking was not there, but they did not stick to the fingers as good as the V-picks. After playing a while they did, but not in the beginning of playing sessions so that was not really a problem. I have now used Gravity Picks for about a year. I tend to change between a 4 mm and a 3 mm thick pick.
I saw that John Petrucci had discoverd the power of the thicker pic and released a signature pick with Dunlop. It is a special version of the Flow Picks from Dunlop. I ordered a set of John's picks (2 mm) and also a thicker Flow Pick (3 mm) since 2 mm sounded really thin with my standards ;-)
The Petrucci pick was really too thin for me and it was too slippery. I cannot play with it at all.
But the Dunlop Flow 3.00 pick was really amazing. The grip was just amazing. The logo is 3D and that makes the grip really good. It has no clicking either. This pick became my default just after playing 10 minutes with it. Let's see if I still have the same opinion after a year.
