FOR STEREO PLAYBACK: add &fmt=18 to the end of the URL (web address) and hit enter.
Musical equipment demonstration. I have no connection with these companies, I just love these particular products. The only clip I could find of the discontinued Electro-Harmonix Freedom Amp when I was shopping for one was Yngwie Malmsteen busking on an Amsterdam street, and that disappeared from youtube shortly thereafter. Great little portable rechargeable amp…this demo may drive up the used price, possibly to my own detriment if it ever craps out and I have to find another one, but it’s just too good for there not to be a demo of it somewhere.
You can hear me play actual songs on my record–visit my youtube page for details.
Guitars:
1991 Fender USA Strat Plus
Fender-Lace Sensor pickups: neck/middle: gold
bridge: silver
2001 Gibson Les Paul Studio Plus
neck pickup: Gibson ‘57 Classic
bridge: ‘57 Classic Plus
Bass:
1977 Fender Precision with active Alembic pickup.
Guitar amps:
Electro-Harmonix Freedom Amp
15 watt 1×8 closed back combo
In production starting 2000; discontinued around ‘06. This is nothing like the larger black 1×10 open back Mike Matthews Freedom Amp of the ’70’s that ran on either A/C or FORTY D-cell batteries. This one has a rechargeable 12-volt battery inside, and does not run on A/C.
Vol is on 1, a good strong living room volume…say loud enough to jam with a stand-up bass and piano. This amp is just stupid loud for its size. At about 0.5 it’s conversation volume. Apparent volume about doubles from 1-7, gets as loud as most 30w solid state amps I’ve heard. Around 8 it starts distorting in that fizzy solid state way, but up to there it just goes from loud to louder. Tone on about 4, Bite (presence or high treble) about 4.
In the blues backing track on the left side is a clean rhythm guitar…it’s the same Strat (neck pickup) and Freedom Amp; but instead of Holy Grail reverb, I recorded dry and added reverb with Cool Edit Pro plugin.
Vox Cambridge 30
1990s 30 watt 1×10 open back solid state combo
On the blues backing track on the right side you hear a muddy warbly-sounding thing playing chords and bits of chords mostly in upper registers, which I intended to function like an organ part. It’s the Strat bridge pickup with the tone turned all the way down, running into a Morley Bad Horsie wah pedal, then into the Vox clean channel, with the treble turned all the way down on the amp, and all remaining high end rolled off at mixdown. I jiggled my foot on the wah pedal to phony up a rotating leslie speaker. The commenter on my ‘07 gear demo who thinks I wah on too many notes should really hate this one. I also used a big hall reverb plugin to push this part further into its strange place. So not at all a fair/straight demo of this very good amp. Incidentally it’s a great living room bass amp too believe it or not.
Effects:
Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb pedal, ’spring’ setting, on about 4.
Danelectro Fab Distortion pedal: for blues track, tone about 4, distortion about 3-4; for the hard rock bits I just turned the distortion up to 10.
Morley Bad Horsie wah pedal:
see “Vox Cambridge 30″ above for description.
Bass amps:
For the blues backing track I’m using an SWR Interstellar Overdrive as a stand alone 5 watt EL84 tube amp, into an Aguilar GS112 1×12 bass cabinet with the piezo tweeter turned all the way down. Simultaneously tracked the bass DI .
For the hard rock moments at the end, I ran the bass into a Line 6 Bass PODxt then straight to sound card—behind the Strat hard rock part I used the “Huge 360″ preset (models the ’70’s era Acoustic Control Corporation 360 with 1×18); with the Les Paul part I used the “Eden 112″ preset.
Drums:
The snare, cymbals, and toms are single hit samples from the Bun E. In A Box sample/loop collection. I don’t use loops, I manually copy and string together dozens of single-hit samples—e.g. a snare drum being hit once—to create my own beats/fills. The kick drum is a secret found sound I recorded at home which I will reveal to the world someday, can you guess what it is?
Recording chain:
Guitar: Shure SM57 dynamic mic to M-Audio DMP-3 dual channel mic preamp, to M-Audio Audiophile 2496 sound card to PC hard drive.
Bass: For the blues track I mic’d the Aguilar cabinet with a Studio Projects C1 large diaphragm condenser mic, about 10″ out from the speaker and closer to the edge of the speaker than the middle; tracked DI simultaneously and mixed the two later. For the hard rock bits at the end I recorded direct using Bass PODxt, see above.
Tracked/mixed with Cool Edit Pro 2.0.
Event ASP8 Studio Precision monitors.
Duration : 0:5:57
Read the rest of this entry »
Improvisation on minor blues. Backing track used without permission from great website onlinejam.org, but you wouldn’t tell them, would ya? 
Some Nirvana songs on my 65 Mustang with a Seymour Duncan JB and 10-52 strings. Trying to get Kurdt’s (In Utero period) sound.
My attempt at a “demo” video for this guitar which is for sale. Pickups are Lance Sensor Red Silver Blue . Here is my Signal path:
effects/ ZOOM G2
Here’s a clip of the MXR Distortion + effects pedal in all of its ugly yellow glory. I recorded this when I was 16 with a ‘93 Stratocaster and a Behringer GM110.
How to use built-in distortion on your guitar amp in this free online instructional video.
DIGITECH RP50
Photo Genic Les Paul Guitar×2(pu Dimarzio PAF and Super Distortion)
This is a variation of the other video I uploaded a minute ago. As I am asked quite a few times per week if the RPs can produce some heavy distortions or sweet long sustaining solo tones I thought I make a video for you guys and girls that features a few of those presets. Again I didnt change a single parameter on none of the examples what you hear is what you get. I also used the poweramp in of an amplifier called “The Valve” which is a italian made 2×12 combo. But since I use the poweramp in the amps preamp is not in the signal chain…the RP is the preamp for all the the examples.