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Fodera Club Part XXVII

#2,942
steubig said:
(and about the eric johnson thing, think back on my discussion about trumpet players and their mainz about valve spring materials.)
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The trumpet valve thing is great! But knowing the difference between an Energizer and a Duracell on a gig is just nutty (IMO).

I once read that Eddie Van Halen used to swap out preamp tubes in his amp heads between songs the odd time for different tones on the fly. This is during large stadium concerts. Not sure if he was just buggered up, but there is a whole other realm of crazy that musicians can take the "tone in my head" thing.

Read some of the audiophile stories. Many of them make our bass conversations seem completely normal.
 
#2,944
Damian Coccio said:
Jason, can you elaborate on a conversation we had a while back about how walnut responds similarly to ash. I assume you meant dynamically, not spectrally. Thanks in advance. I thought it might be helpful for others too since we are on the tone woods subject.
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Yes, I did mean dynamically. Alder and Mahogany have more "bloom" to the notes to my ears. The dynamics are less compact. Walnut and Ash act similarly to one another in that regard with a very percussive attack and relatively rapid decay of the notes (compared to Alder and Mahogany). In drumming terms, Ash and Walnut are more like a snare and Alder and Mahogany like a decent sized tom-tom. Obviously these comparisons are not dead-on, but add a little poetic license and hopefully you get the idea...
 
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#2,945
Just Thumpin' said:
Yes, I did mean dynamically. Alder and Mahogany have more "bloom" to the notes to my ears. The dynamics are less compact. Walnut and Ash act similarly to one another in that regard with a very percussive attack and relatively rapid decay of the notes (compared to Alder and Mahogany).
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Yet I have a fretless with an ash body and it "blooms" its behind off!!
Another thing to consider is that wood as an organic living material has an enormous variation. Certain combinations work better than others and you can somewhat predict or generalize about how a certain wood will respond but at the end of the day every piece is unique. As mentioned here earlier, five different pieces or ebony might have five different characteristics. You can have five instruments with the same body wood and some will sound very "musical" while others might be as dead as a doornail!
 
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#2,946
Baird6869 said:
The trumpet valve thing is great! But knowing the difference between an Energizer and a Duracell on a gig is just nutty (IMO).

I once read that Eddie Van Halen used to swap out preamp tubes in his amp heads between songs the odd time for different tones on the fly. This is during large stadium concerts. Not sure if he was just buggered up, but there is a whole other realm of crazy that musicians can take the "tone in my head" thing.

Read some of the audiophile stories. Many of them make our bass conversations seem completely normal.
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as goofy as it is, i think i might buy some of the battery thing. i only liked my old dod envelope filter when the battery started to die. the lower voltage added some stank on that thing.
 
#2,950
I will challenge anyone to try to hear the difference between two different batteries installed in a instrument preamp of equal voltage. On fresh batteries there is no issue of voltage sag (in terms of reacting to transients and loading) because the current draw is so low. When your batteries start to go dead the voltage drops on the rails of the preamp and you definitely can hear that as distortion. Same thing in pedals, lower voltage will introduce clipping and sometimes other distortion types. The sag on pedal supplies provides the same function, more distortion due to lower voltage.

If Eric Johnson was referring to replacing somewhat dead batteries I'm totally on board, otherwise, no way, it's loco.
 
#2,951
dunno, dude. i can't hear it, but that doesn't mean someone doesn't have better ears than me. hearing could conceivably also mean "pedal response to your playing" . . .

and these guys are not talking instrument preamps, they're talking fuzz/od/wah pedals.

hell, i hear the difference between a bypassed preamp and no preamp.
 
#2,952
Pedals are totally different, they can draw a lot of power comparatively and as batteries age the internal resistance goes up, so that can affect the distortion and dynamic response alot. If two different batteries were used on a high drain pedal and had different source resistances you could hear that.

I thought David's post referred batteries in Eric's guitar (preamp).

I agree that there could be an audible/electrical difference between a bypassed preamp and no preamp. Depends on it's wiring.
 
#2,959
steubig said:
yeah, sorry, i don't think anyone ever said preamp? (i'm pretty sure i didn't.)

the tightening and loosening the screws in the cabinets to get them just right is the one that gets me.
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I just read David's post that way... Thought maybe he had EMGs or a preamp in his guitar or something.

I gotta look up the cabinet screws thing, thats a good one... As a recovering audiophile I remember all the debates about speaker cable, wall power supply stabilizers / filters date codes on transistors, etc. Endless entertainment :) Good stuff though.

I really enjoy the tone wood discussions in this group even when I am not participating.
 
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