The Audio Museum

12.06.2009

You Say It's You're Birthday!

Just felt like posting some cool stuff today since it's my birthday. So here it is, just click the image to enlarge.

8.01.2009

It really comes down to preserving the tone identity of what each pedal can do. Having a not well thought arrangement can choke the life out of your pedals. Here is a guide that seems to be followed commonly by guitar pedal board designers and guitar players:

Guitar Pedal Board Tuner 1. Tuners. Seems logical to place the tuner in the first place in your FX chain since you want unprocessed signal to go in it for correct reading.

Guitar Pedal Board DOD 440 Envelope Filter Guitar Pedal Board Dynamic Wah Guitar Pedal Board Wah

2. Filters. It would make sense to add these (envelope filters, auto wah, wah pedals, etc.) at this spot. Any dynamically controlled filters are triggered by the signal attack so it would make logical sense to add them as early as possible in the chain so they aren’t limited by other effects.

Guitar Pedal Board Compressor 3. Compressors. Notorious for noise level increase, compressors should also go as early as possible in the signal paths.

Guitar Pedal Board Overdrive 4. Overdrive. Since the overdrive pedals are generating overtones (harmonics), they should be placed here. Don’t feed overdrive pedals with modulated signals since they can easily clash with the harmonics. Unless you are in for some really wacky tone.

Guitar Pedal Board Flanger Guitar Pedal Board Chorus Guitar Pedal Board Tremolo 5. Modulation. It is time to add your flangers, phasers, choruses and tremolo pedals here. They breathe the best here in relationship with the overdrives/distortion pedals ahead of them.

Guitar Pedal Board Volume 6. Volume. Again, the logical place for a volume pedal, since it won’t alter the signal level entering the overdrive pedals maintaining this way the fully affected tone. Also will let the delay finish its job (delay-ing) when the volume pedal is minimized.

Guitar Pedal Board Delay Guitar Pedal Board Reverb 7. Reverbs & Delays. They are the last pedals in the chain since they are hard to tame if placed before overdrives – they can produce spikes in the effect level and upset the overdrives.

Following this pedal ordering you can get a decent tone out of your guitar pedal board.

3.18.2009

Mr. Horsepower by Nigel Tufnel (Spinal Tap)

At the January NAMM show in 2001 the Ernie Ball, Music Man company created 25 of these guitars just like Nigel's, with all proceeds going to charity (The Casey Lee Ball Foundation). In October of 2003, one finally came up for sale that I found in time to buy . Each guitar is signed by Nigel and numbered. They went for $5,000 each at the NAMM show when originally offered. Now they are going for a lot more. I heard about one that went for $15K to someone in Japan. The number 11 guitar had a few modifications and sold for $11,000 on eBay in May of 2001. The #11 being a very important number for Nigel and Spinal Tap! On this guitar the "Attackometer" went to 11, the trem handle had an 11 ball instead of an 8 ball and there were dice (5 and a 6) inlayed at the 11th fret. This guitar here is #8. As luck would have it, the attackometer goes to 8 and there is an 8 ball on the trem handle. Everything except the chrome exhaust pipes function. Regarding his one of a kind guitar, Mr. Tufnel said "I wanted something that was flashy and would stand out on stage. But it had to be a working instrument that played well". And so it does. It has the same headstock as the Van Halen Music Man guitars and a very similar neck as well (a little fatter). It uses the Albert Lee body. The guitar is fairly heavy. Here are some of the important features:

- Maple neck; Chrome Yellow body and headstock; Flame paint job on body
- Music Man Albert Lee Guitar body style
- 4 humbucker pickups, sized to match the string width as it travels down the body
- Pickup on/off status lights, colored to match to light signals on a drag strip
- "Hot-fuel proof" rubber selector switches
- Stainless steel exhaust headers, on the side of the body
- Functional tachometer built into the body with adjustable redline that measures the attack on the strings while playing
- Copper heat exchanger access covers on the back
- Key signature Inlays on the fretboard
- Tyre volume knob, which activates the tachometer lighting when pulled out
- Floyd Rose licensed tremolo system, with a gear shifter replacing a tremolo arm. Eight ball on the end of the gear shifter.
- 12v battery powered
- Each model hand autographed and numbered

2.05.2009

EVH Frankenstrat - The Original Frankenstein Guitar

Starting off at Only $25,000.00 you too can have your very own EVH Frankenstein Replica equipped with every scratch, ding, and cigarette burn!

This red, black and white ash-body guitar has been put through an astounding aging process to replicate the original down to every last scratch, ding and cigarette burn. Fender craftsmen even scoured the land for 1971 quarters-just like the original Eddie at one time stuck under the original tremolo bridge-to mount near the Floyd Rose® Original tremolo bridge. The guitar features a Seymour Duncan® Custom Shop EVH® humbucking pickup, a single master volume knob (that says "Tone") mounted on a partial black pickguard identical to the original. Leaving no stone unturned, the guitar is complete with a non-functional three-way switch and single-coil pickup that occupy two of the three pickup routs.

EVH Eddie Van Halen Frankenstein Replica Electric Guitar Features: