Wow Bill! That looks like an excellent unit! Thanks for the mention of it!
Ironically, I traded my Mexican Strat to my friend for the keyboard gear. But, I still have anther Strat so the Vega trem just might have a future.
Wow Bill! That looks like an excellent unit! Thanks for the mention of it!
Ironically, I traded my Mexican Strat to my friend for the keyboard gear. But, I still have anther Strat so the Vega trem just might have a future.
Cool! As I say, they are pricey... about $300, though I got mine on sale for closer to $250. Still pricey, but I was ready to return it if it didn't work as advertised. Honestly, I was blown away by it. It worked better than I could have imagined, and was a piece of cake to set up. It's definitely not going back, and I'm actually looking at another one to replace the two-point bridge on my PT Berger (they make two and six point models). For me, it's a game-changer, so it's worth the price.Originally Posted by Gizmotron
Bill
Is that a Yamaha TX81Z?
I did a serious DeGas in 2015 going abroad to live with only 2 horns and a 12 track mixer.
Came home in 17 and I am up to 5 horns, 2 Geets,.keys blah.Keep eyeing up nylon electros in store Windows
Bought this wee Bluetooth Wind controller beastie towards end October as the user said that he could not get it to work with Windoze. cheap £100 shipped to me.The dev company did a port of the software over to 32 bit windoze for me when I enquired. Huge wow...
Here's Stef Haynes playing on one. He's pretty well as good as it gets. There's more on his channel
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u4yhpZsYVxU
Last edited by clivey; 01-01-2022 at 03:32 PM.
https://cliveymacdougall.bandcamp.com/
Danger! demos, jazz and warts stored here in vast amounts.
https://www.soundclick.com/artist/de...bandID=1241900
Intriguing. I put a block of wood behind the trem on my Strat for years. Playing in a band that tuned down a whole step (and also just wanting to be able to tune my Strat quickly) was the motivator. Now that I'm not in any bands I took the block out and it's now a pain to tune the guitar. Not to mention I realized I have no idea where the original bar is. The only one I could locate was the wrong thread size (I need the metric one). Maybe this could be the solution.
My old band mate sold some guitars in order to get a second Les Paul. He wanted to be able to have a Floyd Rose on it so decided to install it himself. Of course, he quickly decided he didn't like how it felt and set about removing it. He discovered one of the screws holding the locking nut in place had stripped out. In order to get the locking nut off he grabbed the first tool that I'm sure would come to all of our minds: a sawzall. LOL....I guess his headstock doesn't look as nice as it once did.
I just sold one P-bass and a QSC K12.2 speaker. Need to sell a PreSonus mixer and a dbx feedback destroyer as well. Getting rid of things I no longer use and getting ready to buy something else...
Last edited by Plasmatopia; 01-01-2022 at 04:31 PM.
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Some musicians don't deserve nice thingsMy old band mate sold some guitars in order to get a second Les Paul. He wanted to be able to have a Floyd Rose on it so decided to install it himself. Of course, he quickly decided he didn't like how it felt and set about removing it. He discovered one of the screws holding the locking nut in place had stripped out. In order to get the locking nut off he grabbed the first tool that I'm sure would come to all of our minds: a sawzall. LOL....I guess his headstock doesn't look as nice as it once did.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Trems can be really finicky. I always played hard-tails, but I wanted the sound of the Strat, and my 57 reissue came with a trem. Damned if I didn't fall in love with it, warts and all. Now, all my electric guitars have trems. I absolutely LOVE the action on my PT Berger's two-point trem, and wanted something closer to that for the Strat. I hoped the Vega Trem would do it, and it did... in fact it's better than the one on my Berger, which is why I'm considering another one.
I could get my Strat trem to stay in tune by decking it (setting it flush to the body, not floating, so it only had "downward" motion). I was happy with that, but the damned thing was so STIFF! I tried different springs, fewer springs, but nothing worked. I even floated it for a while, but that really is dicey for tuning on these cheap standard Strat bridges. My frustrations led me to the Vega Trem. I researched a lot of them, and I'm sure there are others that may have done the trick for less, but man this thing is SO nice. It "floats," but it is so much easier to set up to float than a traditional bridge... you just set it parallel with the body and the block is designed so it has upward and downward movement. Absolutely brilliant! It returns to tune beautifully, it's upward and downward range is amazing, and it has such a nice feel... loose, but not too loose.
I'm really happy with my purchase, and recommend it, with the caveat that it is expensive, and you might find a perfectly reasonable replacement for far less.
Good grief! Poor guitar.
Bill
I have a friend who is a collector. But NOT a player. He has a blue Les Paul that has a Bigsby vibrato on it. He claims it doesn't put it out of tune but how the hell would he know? I just think it's a beautiful guitar marred by this unnecessary attachment.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
By and large, I agree that Les Paul's don't need trems. That said, it is absolutely possible to set up a Bigsby so it doesn't throw the guitar out of tune, and if you can do this and you use the trem appropriately, it's far from an unnecessary attachment. I have a Bigsby on my Kay 775, and while I don't love it like my other trems, it works quite well and definitely adds a flavor I can't get otherwise. It's not necessarily for everyone, but there are plenty of guitars in the world, probably too many. So I don't see it as any great sin to have a Bigsby on a Les Paul if you use it and enjoy it.
Bill
TX-81Z. Correct!
They are not as “full sounding” as the DX-7/TX-7/802 family, but having two or three 81Zs allows some nice stacking so that some nice, complex sounds can be achieved.
I have just one and it's my oldest synthesizer-module that is still functioning. My Proteus/1 has some issues and I don't really know if my Kawai K1rII is functioning well. Problem with that one is the sound-banks. I created soundbanks with an old version of Cubase, which had a kind of editing and soundstoring function for several synthesizers I own, including the Kawai K1rII. But that function doesn't come with more recent versions of Cubase. Yes, there is some simular function, but not for my synthesizers. One might be able to create something, but the program doesn't recognise the soundbanks on the computer.
Keeping older electronic gear functioning can be a challenge. Things like librarian software get confusing with newer operating systems. I hate to say it but the most foolproof thing I have found is using only cassettes to swap out patches. It is very low tech, but it insulates one from computer issues.
Finding people that can troubleshoot the hardware of synths is getting tougher and tougher. I had a bad experience trying to get an old string machine repaired here in town from an organ tech, despite the good reviews she got from the best shop in town.
Cassettes would be nice, though most of my synthesizers don't support that. I had a Bit99, which worked with cassettes and that wasn't a great solution. It was terrible to get the right volumesetting of my cassette-player.
I, Shirley, did. A Yamaha P-71 Portable Grand Piano. Very nice piano action, but it's light as a feather.
I essentially disable the trem on all my Strats by installing all 5 springs, and tightening the hell out of the screws mounting the spring anchor.
Bigsbys were designed for moderate vibrato only. Not Hendrix/Van Halen style dive bombing.
For old gear like my TX-81z, a digital recorder like the Tascam DR-05 makes a very nice replacement for a cassette recorder. When loading previously saved settings, I don't have to go through the entire tape looking for the specific settings. I simply browse for the file, and play it back into the module.
Last edited by progmatist; 01-02-2022 at 03:26 PM.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
One of our cats starting gnawing on the plastic end of the trem so I unscrewed it. It makes a nice effect but nothing that's helping me advance on my journey. I am keeping it off until I develop enough technique to make it necessary which, at my rate of progress, is painstakingly slow. If I want something rude to annoy my wife I can just do a high volume pick scrape.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
I think that the Alex Lifeson Custom LP was quite a nice innovation with a Floyd Rose trem and Piezo bridge. Really tailored for doing-it-all for Rush live (doing the acoustic guitar parts and the 80's tremolo heavy songs). However I like the flexibie thinking.
I've been a keen Variax and Roland Hex PU user (previously VG99, now a Boss GP-10) and love the versatility it gives in one instrument. I modified my Strandberg Prog 7-string - my current main axe - with active Fishman Fluence Javier Reyes Signature PU's to get the most tonal variety (and really good tones they are). Never been keen on keeping a plethora of guitars just to achieve a specific tone. Even when I did have Fenders and Gibsons I modified them by exchanging PU's and electronics, putting in additional switches and even knobs.
As for tremolos, I've never liked the "classic" simple Strat designs or the clumsy Bigsby's. The Variax got a Floyd Rose-compatible Graphtech bridge and the Strandberg got their proprietary Fender-like tremolo design, simple but very stable, that I keep floating. I've been curious about Khaler but never got down to trying them out.
My Progressive Workshop at http://soundcloud.com/hfxx
My friend had an entire stable of Carvin guitars for a long time. Some of them were fixed-bridge types and others had Floyd Roses. At some point he got a Les Paul and decided he liked the tone of that guitar better than the Carvins (personally, I think the difference was marginal, especially with all the processing he uses). So of course he figured if he had one LP with a Floyd Rose he'd have all his bases covered. Not sure if that constitutes "need", but it was all intended to serve a purpose.
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Steve Hackett's main guitar is a Les Paul style guitar with a Floyd Rose style trem system.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
Best new gear story of the year:
https://www.facebook.com/jbhartmusic...60220315792608
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Heartwarming.
Yes, his Fernandez LP with Floyd Rose and a sustainer!
My Progressive Workshop at http://soundcloud.com/hfxx
Wow.
Here I was still feeling very sad over the loss of my dog (a month ago), and then I saw your link. Two minutes later after the story I feel better.
So much in this world just doesn’t “compute,” but this story of pure kindness makes me remember that there are still good people out there.
Thank you, Jerjo !!
Sorry to hear about the loss of your friend(dog). Our animal friends love us so unconditionally and give us so much joy, it's hard to fill that empty space.
I've grieved over a year after losing one of my furry kids.
But time has a way of allowing us to begin to remember the fun times we had, and even when we adopt a new one, we find room in our heart to accept their love too.
I hope your grief heals soon, and a new dog finds you!
Soundcloud page: Richard Hermans, musical meanderings https://soundcloud.com/precipice YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/@richardhermans4457
That is awesome!
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Thank you very much! Your post helps.
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