Found some stuff that I thought others might like :)

Anyone who knows me and has talked music, knows that I love Grandaddy.

I was trawling YouTube for video demos of the Yamaha Electone B-35n as I am soon to receive one to add to my collection.

I did'd find any good demos of that one specifically, but what I did come across was a channel that had some really nice songs that feature the Yamaha Electone C-35.

What's this go to do with Grandaddy you might ask?

Synth Arpeggios, I am a sucker for them.
Grandaddy uses them to great effect and so does the guy in the videos below.
Simple, beautiful.

Anyway if you're up for some nice instrumental tunes, then I suggest you head on over and checkout
Bagatellamusic also, do yourselves a favour and check out ( and by check out I mean throw your money at) Grandaddy and Jason Lytle 

Here are some videos that I quite liked. Enjoy!

Please note, I am not affiliated with any of the above.

I'm Just a fan.

Cheers

T.A.P.O.R.

Found Sound

I haven't been doing much music related stuff of late, so the posts have been few & far between.

Yesterday I was on the other side of town, near where I used to live & spend my money old music stuff. I decided to pop into the Swoppy, but didn't make it, as I saw that Found Sound was open for business (previously it was by appointment only).

I had a bit of a chat to the proprietor whom I have been acquainted with for a number of years.

Found Sound is a bit like the Swoppy, but the stock is a little bit fancier and they only sell items that they would like to own themselves (I'm paraphrasing).

Anyway, if you're in Melbourne you should definitely pop in and see what they've got.

Slow as a....

I sure do take my sweet time to finish stuff.

This time its an old junker guitar that I've had for a long, long time.

It has featured in a couple of posts already:

Scratch plate templates and Summer Projects

During one summer storm after painting the body, somehow water managed to get into the guitar's storage container and soaked it for a couple of weeks before I noticed.

The paint was pretty messed up, but the body was as good as before (eg: fairly rubbish).

Anyway a couple of weeks ago I felt the need to do something with my hands and slapped it back together in an afternoon.

Its not setup, but plays fairly well and stays in tune.

I'm using it to trigger a midi pickup and it is performing quite well.

ZVex Distortron

Last year I built a tagboard ZVex SHO clone.

It was nice.

Clean to very nasty and pretty cheap to build.
It also sounded really good.


Then one day it stopped working.

I tried debugging it, but the  accursed thing would not come back to life (even with a new transistor).

The accursed circuit went back into a box for another day.

I decided that I'd try to find a real one online for cheap (I'm not super cashed up).
Unfortunately that didn't pan out, but something else did.

I'd just finished an exam (which was conveniently located a short walk from my favourite shop) and had a few dollars in my pocket that I had been saving up for such a conjunction in locality & circumstance.

They didn't have any SHO's in store, but they did have a ZVex Distortron.

From what I can tell of the online reviews, this pedal doesn't really get the love that it deserves.

I imagine that has something to do with that its named fairly conventionally and isn't particularly eye catching. People are fickle and these things do count for many of them. I say they're missing out for being snobby.

This pedal is well made, has a small footprint and most importantly sounds good at any volume or setting.

It can clean up fairly well, though it always has a little bit of menace around the edges.
That my friends, is exactly what I was looking for in a dirt box.

It gives a massive amount of boost and a huge amount of dirt if you want.

The subs make my Princeton rumble something fierce but the 3 way switch takes care of that.
There is a lot of tonal variety and sounds great through an amp and equally good driving a series of pedals into a DI rig.

I didn't have a JTM45 to play into as recommended on the ZVex site, but I do have an Epiphone Valve Jr and a Fender Princeton. It sounds great in both amps and I imagine that it would sound great in any amp that you care to use.

Anyway, my advice is go try one out and judge for yourself, other people's opinions will only get you so far.

Cheers
T.A.P.O.R.