Looks sparkly, promises noise:

Ergot v3
https://lurchaudio.bigcartel.com/product/ergot

Fender Player Tele.

Traded an Epiphone LP for it. The Tele does Tele stuff. Internet says the bridge pickup us about 9k, but it seems a bit weak to me. Otherwise, an incredible player. My first proper guitar was a Mexican tele, and I'm glad they're still rad and useable.

TC Viscous Vibe - like it a lot. Thick and chewy sounding.

Rothwell Switchblade - sounds amazing with humbuckers, maybe not quite so much with single coils but I’ve got other pedals for those. Very well built.

GuyLaCroix wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2025 9:27 pm Fender Player Tele.

Traded an Epiphone LP for it. The Tele does Tele stuff. Internet says the bridge pickup us about 9k, but it seems a bit weak to me. Otherwise, an incredible player. My first proper guitar was a Mexican tele, and I'm glad they're still rad and useable.

Are they still omitting the baseplate on the bridge pickup?

WeStartToDrift wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2025 10:27 am

GuyLaCroix wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2025 9:27 pm Fender Player Tele.

Traded an Epiphone LP for it. The Tele does Tele stuff. Internet says the bridge pickup us about 9k, but it seems a bit weak to me. Otherwise, an incredible player. My first proper guitar was a Mexican tele, and I'm glad they're still rad and useable.

Are they still omitting the baseplate on the bridge pickup?

That's what sits under the pickup? Not sure. I haven't ripped it open yet.

Looking for a decent midi foot control, I came across Paint Audio, which is a company that I think came out of the implosion of another company that made a really cool MIDI controller that is no longer in production. I bought the MIDI Captain, which has plenty of foot switches to use. My plan for it is to be able to control VSTs for amp sims and foot pedals within my DAW.

I haven't really played with it much yet, but what I liked about it is that the interface is on the MIDI controller and not a separate piece of software. Watching how-to videos for it, it seems pretty simple to set up with CC commands and the like, plus configurations for popular Midi-controlled interfaces. It's built really solid and has a lot of thoughtful design choices on it. It can work on 2 AA batteries and they also offer a wireless 2.4ghz MIDI converter, which is cool as hell if you hate wires. My only complaint at this point is that I didn't think I was even going to get it shipped to me, because I got no notifications for shipping or anything, even though the company store uses Shopify. I emailed their contact address and got no reply. The package showed up 2 weeks after I ordered it, though. I assume this because it's a small company on the other side of the world, but I digress...

Fender Engine Room Lvl 5 & Gigrig Electroman- needed something to power my delay/reverb board (DD-7, Deluxe Memory Man, Line 6 M9 & Eventide H9).

The Engine Room has 5 outputs at 500mA, so I used 2 with a current doubler & 2.5mm plug to power the M9. The H9 uses a centre-positive 2.5mm plug - Fender include one with the Engine Room, lovely. DD-7, standard 2.1mm centre negative, no problem. The Deluxe Memory Man needs 24v centre positive - this is where the Gigrig Electroman comes in, it’s a 9v to 24v transformer which reverses polarity. Plugged it all in, it all works, I feel like Alessandro Volta. Very satisfying to go from 4 wall warts to 1 supply.

Fender have done a good job in terms of the cables they include with this, pretty much every permutation of pedal power connection is covered. Would recommend, and do.

Mesa Thiele 1x12 Cab
I was going to build an EV cab, but lo and behold when I went to GC to get a couple of MIDI cables they had one for a stupid price. It's punchy and articulate, everything you'd want out of a TL806 (I guess the internal volume is slightly different?). I guess the only gripe is that all of my amps look gigantic when put on top of it, but whatever, it sounds great and I'll use the crap out of it.

I bought this a year ago, but just started using it. An Axe I/O One. Originally purchased as just a simple single preamp with stereo out audio interface. It's got some fancy shit around the input to "color" the signal, if you want. What I actually found is that, first the interface seems to have very little headroom for the output. I had to find the software companion for it to turn the output down about -4db to stop the unnecessary clipping, which I didn't have with another interface. But the worst part is the preamp. It has a gain knob that I just don't understand. At 0, the preamp is full volume, mostly clean. Pushing the gain knob up is just to add more saturation to it, not to set the input db increase. Totally not what I would expect from an audio interface. To make matters worse, no matter the setting, the preamp sucks the life out of the instrument. I have a guitar with a bass reduction knob. On any other interface or amp, it works normal by gradually decreasing the low frequency from the pickups. With this interface, it's a quick shelf to a really thin, disgusting sounding pickup. Totally and utterly useless.

The good? It has 192k sample rate with MIDI through and slots for 2 expression pedals.

I've already gone and ordered a Mackie Onyx 2x2.

Follow up: Got the Mackie Onyx Producer interface. BIG IMPROVEMENT. First and foremost, the preamp is solid and doesn't add extra coloring. Such a huge improvement in sound. Both inputs have Hi-Z options. Highly recommended if you are looking for a simple interface to use with a digital device for performance (or recording, I suppose!). If you are not looking for MIDI I/O, then there's the Onyx Artist, which is just a single preamp instead of two.

The best part? The price is just right. Unless you want extra features like the UAD Volt or whatever, this thing is the best value, since it's only $60-$70, whereas most other interfaces in this class with the same options is at least double the price.