Crappy Cordoba nylon string acoustic.

Sounds good with a Serrano 87 type LDC albeit a bit generic and I wanted a little more color. Fav sound was with a Beyer MC930 sdc off the bridge, but it was way spiky when pointed at the standard 12-14 fret neck position and the low end was wrong. A Russian tube sdc IRPA mic also worked well enough.

Tried a bunch of other mics (except no dynamics yet) and that guitar either sounds great or terrible with them and no in between. I was driving myself crazy trying to get a M160 happening before trying the KU5A with the bass filter on and it was like, there in 2 seconds. Perfect.

I had tried the KU5A earlier and it wasn’t really happening at all. All the weird kind of resonances you get with a steel string acoustic and still there with a nylon string, but there’s not as much happening with the transients and wide natural sound, so its a little more challenging to record, I think. And I spend more time trying to capture on acoustic guitar than anything.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Sat Jul 26, 2025 8:41 pmSony C38b

So, the more I use the Sony C38b, the more I understand the ribbon comparisons. They are dark for a condenser and require a bit more gain than usual. Also can be a little noisy on quieter sources when compared to a modern mic. They sound fuckin great though.

My trick is to run the C38b on a 9v so that you’re not using your pre’s phantom power, and then put a Royer DBooster/Cloudlifter/Soyuz Launcher after it. Worked great. Normally I would be suspicious about running a mic on a battery, but it works well and it seems to help with the noise a bit.

Again, only a real concern for room or acoustic sources. Not a big deal up on an amp or a drum or something.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Sun Sep 07, 2025 4:22 pm Normally I would be suspicious about running a mic on a battery, but it works well and it seems to help with the noise a bit.

was kinda weird to me too, but I have a Sony ECM 44, Some Small Crown Sound Grabber PZMs, and a Audiotechnica AT825 stereo mic that can all run on Batts and seems all good to me. They last forever in there too, but I try to take them out everytime to avoid Batt Barrf. My Shure VP88 can take a weird 6v 28L batt too but they are expensive and I just use phantom with it, never actually tried it. Batts are kinda nice when you are using an old modded Shure M68 preamp, or like an old Tube PA head with no Phantom.

NuX ‘63 Diamond. Their take on a Vox-style overdrive. Controls are Volume/Master/Cut and a Top Boost toggle. I was actually getting this as my low-gainer but for now I’m gonna try it out in stead of my trusty OD-3. Seems to fill out a bit more in the midrange but with that zingy treble I’d expect from something aping a Vox. Really liking it so far and am hoping to try it out next band practice.

Really happy with the used Weber Minimass attenuator I picked up a little while back. Anything past about 1.5 on my Pro Jr. is way too loud for the building I live in and the amp really seems to shine when it's pushed a bit more. With a bit of extra treble added I really don't notice much in the way of diminished tone.

CRW620JA16 Wood Case for ES-125 Hollowbody Archtop Jazz Guitar with 16″ Lower Bout

So I finally got a case for my Harmony Hollywood. It was all a bigger pain in the ass than you'd think. First there was the fact that the thickness of the harmony at the bridge was more than a lot of cases mentioned in their descriptions, and often listings didn't really specify "at the bridge" depth.

Second, I finally decide to buy this model, but I used Amazon and Amazon sucks. When clicking through the color options to see what the different prices were, I managed to get switched from the "16 model to the "17 model and it stayed that way after I switched back to the other color option. Amazon's listings suck ass, and I'm familiar with this sort of thing happening. But I didn't catch it this time and bought the wrong case. Returned it and got the right case.

Case fits great. There's no problem with the lid hitting the bridge. It weighs twice as much as the guitar but seems sturdy. I like that it has these little lengths of cushion just tossed in the case, covered in the same material the case is lined with. That way you can just put them along the parameter of your guitar wherever there's a little slack in the fit. I've got one at the butt and one at the waist.

I'm only using it to prevent cat related mishaps and very occasional relocation, but it seems much more solid for the price range than the Gator case my flattop lives in. The covering seems significantly thicker.

Welp, the Grass Roots Tetsuya Bass IV I bought became an albatross after a shipping snafu cost me hundreds in fees. Because it was dead to me. I had it for sale, priced to try to cover some of the money I'd lost, but it was hard to shift.
Last week someone local listed a Squier VI and I floated the Grass Roots as a trade - a loss in value terms, but he made up some of the difference and now I am rid of the bad feeling.
But now I have two VIs and one on the workbench. The problem is the neck on the Squier suits me better than the 2012 Fender Japan. I had a black pickguard kicking around so I've put the tort aside, but I might even bring it back since it looked pretty good. The guy who traded it was pretty buzzed about the Grass Roots - when I got the VI the high two strings were somehow reversed on the tuners so it can't have been a lot of fun to play!
This is my fourth Indonesian made Classic Vibe and they have all been amazing. Hard to believe they are the budget line these days.

Nux ‘63 Diamond overdrive pedal.

Got it to try out in my low-gain OD slot but ended up really impressing me enough to replace my trusty OD-3. It’s their “Vox in a Box”-style OD. I have limited experience with Vox-style amps but it sounds like a platonic ideal-version of a goosed AC30 to my ears. While I miss the slight hump in the bass frequencies of the OD-3, I think the boost in the highs and high-mids I get is a fair tradeoff. It has a Top Boost switch which really boosts the gain and those high frequencies, though I’m sure my bandmates will probably ask me to go a bit more on the Cut knob. Nevertheless even between 9:00 and 12:00 it still sounds pretty chimey to me. For $40-50 it’s pretty great value for a great-sounding OD.

Carl Martin AC Tone Single.

TL;DR it sounded worse than the pedal that is aping it.

I did get a little concerned about the build quality of the Nux, so I did find an AC Tone single for relatively cheap. I found it to underperform against the budget pedal. Seems to be much gainier (I had gain set on it at 9:00 whereas I had it on about 1-2:00 on the Nux and still sounded more saturated) and doesn’t have as much highs and high-mids even at higher Cut levels (which works backwards of how it does on the Nux). In fact it seems to have a bit more grunt in the lows.

So much for that. Guess I’ll probably get triples of the ‘63 Diamond if I really want to cover my bases. Triples is safe. Triples is best.

MXR Timmy

I can see why people like it. Very wide range of usable overdrive. Low gain is my interest. Does that nicely on up to medium gain. Doesn't shift the eq very much at all. Well earned reputation there. Unfortunately, regardless of toggle switch setting it still has this compression to it that I just don't like. It is subtle, but my intended use of the thing is for subtle stuff where this shift is not subtle enough. Just kinda squishes where I wish it did not. That is my only complaint.

I like the itty bitty form factor. I really wanted to like it more. I'm probably going to sell if it doesn't do something useful after giving it a few more shots. Sticking with the Barbershop, which is less consistent from guitar to guitar, but is the shit paired with my les paul.

Edit: Update. Spent a good hour with this one last night and I've come around. The bass and treble knobs are sensitive and it took some tweaking to dial out what I was hearing as compression. I like it much better now. While the Barbershop is more "amp-like" the Timmy is a lot more tweakable and has the ability to evenly dial in the same response and character across the volume sweep.

EQD Easy Listening

Meh. Got it like new condition for a good price. There's no EQD magic that changes the fact that it is an analog guitar to headphone amp with an analog "cab sim." Straight guitar sound sounds like a clear, flat eq solid state amp. Nothing special, but also fairly pleasant. It sounds not as good as I had hoped with my rat. It sounds rather nice using my Model FET as a preamp, however--nice enough to keep it for the utility of silent practice. A little reverb or analog delay gives it a little space. I should also try it with something other than my old ass $20 Sennheiser over ear headphones. Also looking to try it with my EQD Monarch.

I like it better than the Mooer Radar for this use, despite the latter being more flexible and probably nicer all around. The Mooer is just too fiddly for what I want out of this utility.

matttkkkk wrote: Sat Sep 13, 2025 4:26 am

PUT 9's ON IT