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Paul Wesley

Certifiably Surly
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    1993
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Everything posted by Paul Wesley

  1. I think y'all saw it upstream, but here it is again: I think this photo is a couple years old. Y'all have seen it before. There have been some additions and subtractions since then. 80% of these pedals are permanent. The board itself is from custompedalboards.co.uk They make boards that are exactly sized to use with some of the common pedal switchers like gigrig and Boss. I cut and soldered all my own cables. In order of signal path: COMPRESSION/BOOST That Cali76 is an 1176-style compressor. I'm working on a funk project, and using a Strat with bridge pickup into that gets you to Nile Rogers territory. Outside of trying to be Nile, the Sex Drive has all the compression I would otherwise want. So the Cali76 sometimes gets pulled in favor of an Empress parametric EQ (if the EQ on the amp isn't getting me there) or a little EP boost. OVERDRIVE Love the King of Tone. It's perfect for what I want to do... Very natural low and medium gains that can be combined with the amp's overdrive to add just a bit more hair. Thorpy FX Fallout Cloud - My favorite fuzz. It replaced an analogman sun face (for half as much money), and I think it gives you that sound in a slightly more controlled way (less hiss, squealing, chaos). As much as I love it, it doesn't get stepped on all that often, and I might get a little more use out of another dual overdrive like Duellist or Protein. MODULATION That white pedal on the top right is a Walrus Audio octave pedal -- like a POG with a much smaller footprint -- and I think it tracks better and sounds better than a POG. Thorpy FX Deep Oggin - has already been sold. It's cool, but too expensive and rarely got used. It got replaced by a Boss Dimension C. Because the 80's. Empress phaser - Again, I've been working on a funk record, and this one has some settings with envelope filters so it can quack like a meatball. This is the only pedal where I think, "Too many modes, too many knobs, takes too long to dial something in." Mobius - Damn, I'm impressed with this thing. I'll admit that it can't mimic *every* phaser/flanger/chorus pedal ever made, but I think it gets reeeeeeaaal close to almost all of them... without spending hours deep in the menus. It will never come off the board. DELAY/REVERB Strymon Timeline - Seems like it's become ubiquitous. Hall of Fame Reverb - Kind of "meh" on it, but I have a couple amps that don't have reverb, so I need something there at the end of the chain. Sometimes I take off a modulation pedal and add a second delay, and set that one to a short slap. I also have an old TC Electronic Novadelay, that I think sounds fantastic and has a very simple interface and layout, but it's A) a big footprint, and B) it has a weird voltage requirement (requires its own power supply under the board, which is a pain in the ass). Those two factors make it inconvenient. I should probably sell it. POWER SUPPLY Hidden under that middle row of pedals is a Walrus Audio Phoenix. I wish it had a couple more outputs that provide high amps for all the modern digital stuff, because that is often a limiting factor on what can live on the board at the same time. But I ain't starting over again. ----- My skill as a guitarist falls well short of being worthy of this board. I think I'm a decent songwriter and singer, but I am definitely not any sort of guitar wizard. For me, it's a writing tool, and a source of inspiration... certain pedal combinations and sounds lead to riffs and melodies that I would otherwise never come upon.
  2. This is unreal. After our tourney disaster, I was resigned to mass graduation, a depleted roster, and a season (or more) of suffering. Instead, we are fucking loaded.
  3. I'm not one of those guys with tons of guitars or guitar gear. But I devoted a fair amount of budget towards a pedalboard (easily more than my most expensive guitar). And I love it. I am never fishing around for a 9-volt, or the correct power supply, or another cable, or fumbling with all of the above. I have everything right where I want it... a boost, compressor, a couple of overdrives, a Mobius that I think does a great job on all kinds of modulation, and a delay. It definitely fuels creativity. No regrets.
  4. love those, dcbc
  5. You summed it up better than I did. It's a fucking bat-shit-crazy (and wildly incongruent) belief system.
  6. I mean, I can't even follow her "logic." It's like she put on makeup and pearls, had a pre-interview briefing where she got her talking points from Marjorie Taylor Greene, then had a big fucking stroke and just vomited out this word salad of jewish socialist antisemitism socialism hate crimes democratic antisemitism Cuba socialists and communists are anti-jew. Seriously, I'm concluding that her argument boils down to "People think jews are socialists, so when the Democratic Party talks in *favor* of socialist policies, they are actually making everyone say and do anti-semitic things."
  7. I don't care about the hook 'em thing. I'm more worried that they couldn't find a photo of college students who weren't moving appliances around campus.
  8. Yeah, I've stopped on the SEC network this weekend when scrolling around between games, and it's non-stop homer bullshit. And meanwhile on the Longhorn Network, it's endless spin and excuse-making for whoever Texas is playing. Last night when their pitcher struggled, we heard "It's a blister!" and then "It's a tendon injury" and then when the pitcher air mails one and then just stands there while a runner scores, not a single critical word (which was richly deserved) for a pitcher who throws a wild pitch and can't be bothered to cover home. No way Texas would have gotten that non-criticism.
  9. So even members of a dynastic GOP family - with their presidents and governors - are kneeling before the fascist who colludes with America’s enemies in elections, and who continues to try overthrow American democracy? Yeah, that seems normal.
  10. "perfectly done"
  11. So they've decided it's a tendon injury... with pretty much zero information? Yeah, that argues for "he fucking wilted under pressure." Not an injury.
  12. Book learnin’?
  13. I think I have two extra to Todd Snider tomorrow night in Austin (Paramount). Row 5. Face value (I think was right at $45 each with fees). PM me.
  14. Yeah, I understand that developers want land as cheap as possible, but they want all the land (all of downtown anyway). I'm happy to concede that the selection of these particular sites might be based on brother-in-law kind of bullshit... but that could (?will) happen no matter what sites are picked.
  15. I have no doubt that there may be some very dirty shenanigans in choosing the sites. But having said that, what underused properties within a few miles of downtown have developers *not* been wanting to buy for a while?
  16. Paul Wesley

    Led Zeppelin

  17. Back to the topic: I took this photo a few years ago when I was putting this one up for sale. Really glad I had second thoughts and took it off Reverb after a few hours. Instead of selling this one (my second-best "Tele"), I had the pickups swapped out for some underwound Fralins, so now it lives sonically somewhere between a Tele and a brighter, surfier Jazzmaster sound.
  18. Pardon the interruption: I am reshuffling gear, and I'm about to take a couple of very lightly used ribbon mics to reverb. One is an Avantone CR-14, and the other is an SE Electronics R-1. Like new, including case, shock mount, etc. They are pretty much made for recording electric guitars. I'll give you the surly discount...i.e. you won't get one cheaper. PM me if interested.
  19. I don't have an opinion on the plural of time out, but I think "We move ahead to further action" is truly awful. It was a terrible phrase the first time it was used, and it gets worse every time I have to hear it from Lowell.
  20. I didn't know those existed. Would be a nice change-of-pace guitar.
  21. Different models shine in different applications... so much so that they're kind of the industry standard when discussing and measuring other manufacturers in the same instance (U47 on vocals, 47fet on kick drum, U87 on modern rap vocals, the KM84 that jimmyjazz mentioned as a small diaphragm condenser). That model is kind of a Swiss army knife. They're not widely discussed or nearly as sought out as other models (not even close). But they sound balanced and detailed on acoustic instruments. They're amazing on piano. As room mics on a string section, they sound big and cinematic.
  22. Deej, thanks for this link - I've done business with that company. I had no idea that Oliver Archut made guitar amps. I knew of him because of his microphones. As I understand, he developed a mod for Neumann UM57 mics... a microphone that was made in East Germany after WW2. His company (Tab Funkenwerk) took these East German UM57's and installed their own proprietary transformer and eliminated the faradaic shield. I'm probably oversimplifying, but the East German "Neumann" still exists as Microtech Gefell, and they make great stuff. In 2003, they made 75 re-creations of the Neumann UM57, and they used Archut's mods in their reproductions and sold them as the Gefell UM75. A few years ago, I took a big chance on ebay and bought a couple of old Neumann UM57 from Bulgaria. They were cheap, and they came with a second-hand power supply that was crap. I then had them rebuilt by Tab Funkenwerk. They went from Bulgaria to Austin, then to Tab Funkenwerk in Washington, then to Thiersch in Germany to be reskinned, then back to Washington to be rebuilt (and they got a new dual power supply), and finally, back to Austin. Took over a year and a half. There were a lot of moments where I thought I might have bought some very expensive doorstops, but TF made them functionally and cosmetically beautiful again. Anyway, Archut died a few years ago, and I'm not sure how much his death affected the value of his creations, but his mics have exploded in value. He had a hand in making some of the Lucas microphones, and there's a pair of those on reverb right now for $20,000 (!!!). They're almost the *only* mic I can think of that was made in the last 30 years that has exploded in value like that. tl;dr : I'll bet you don't lose money on an Archut-designed anything. My Neumanns:
  23. My advice for Strats and Teles - If you think you're looking for a "forever" version of those, think about late 80's-early 90's Custom Shop versions. They're not so old that you pay ridiculous "vintage" prices, but they *do* come from an era where I think the Custom Shop really did better (and more unique) finishes, materials, and set-ups. I have a mid 90's custom shop Strat that I bought new, and a late 80's custom shop Tele that I bought used (which got relic'ed the old fashioned way). I am just totally head-over-heels for each of them, and I would never sell either one. I also think that if you don't bond with it for whatever reason, you can either send it back, or you can sell it for pretty much exactly what you paid (i.e. the financial downside is pretty low). My .02.
  24. Yeah, Reggie definitely popularized it (though he wasn't going to actually tattoo his moneymaker). Telephone area codes are still about the silliest fucking thing I can think of to be tribal about.
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