Congratulations!

Quote from: Scarebear on March 02, 2014, 11:44:51 AM
I look forward to the updates! I love a good guitar modification story

I butchered a very cheap Telecaster copy using some Wilkinson parts (the butchering was my doing, not the Wilkinson parts). It was still one of the most rewarding guitar experiences I've had to date. Hopefully yours (second time around it seems) will be as rewarding.

The bits should be here by the end of the week, fingers crossed I'll start next weekend. If all goes well I might buy myself a Thomann SG kit just for the craic.

This will be my first real stab at this. The Prophesy comes with Gibson 490H and 498T pickups as standard. I've had to resolder some dry joints in a couple of cheapies, but this time (in answer to Mick's question) I'll be doing the whole job with components.

Well, you know how it is . .

I've had my stock HSS Affinity Stratocaster for a year now. I still love the way it plays, but . . I'm not so impressed by the electronics. Fine to start with, but now, when up against my Gibson equipped Prophecy, sounding a little lame.

So, after several minutes of deliberation I have decided to give the guitar a couple of little tweaks. The process started today with ordering a set of Wilkinson hot single coils and all the pots, capacitors, switches and knobs to go with a new scratch plate. I intend to keep the original HSS plate ready wired to either go back in if I completely muck up the new set up, or perhaps to sell if it turns out that I am a guitar customising genius.

I have also ordered a set of Elixir strings and, possibly the most important modification, a Wilkinson billet bridge. AFAIK all the Fender and Squier bridges have cast tremolo  blocks; the Wilkinson one is solid steel and shouldâ,,¢ give more sustain.

The stuff should be here in about a week. Updates will be posted (there is no escape!)

Quote from: skyscraper on February 21, 2014, 04:17:59 PM
. . . . there's no need for me to see a fancy fake Mixer...

I'm an old fashioned boy. I did all of my recording (and all my live work) with real mixers. So I am most at home with something that looks and behaves like a 'real' mixing desk.

Horses for courses 

As mentioned above, I have Cubase Elements. It's got some good VST instruments included, it's pretty powerful. There are, however, a shed load of 'buts'. The interface is anything but intuitive, the pdf manuals are really badly laid out (and in the case of the VST instruments so well buried I had to go on the internet to find out where they were) - it took me weeks to get sound in and out of it (still better than Ableton with which I had no success at all), and it doesn't play at all nicely with other people's stuff. For example I can import rx2 files easily, but cannot preview them in the media bay - at least I haven't worked out how to, if it is indeed possible - whereas in Reaper they preview on selection.

That said the library of drum loops that is supplied in Cubase Elements will keep me going for a while yet. And the Groove Agent MPC drum machine means I can cut and slice stuff from other sources too.

I reckon that Reaper is extremely good VFM, but you probably need to know more about DAWs in general to source decent sounds and rhythms. So I'm going to stick with trying to get my head properly around Cubase for the time being. Although I might try to persuade SWMBO to let me upgrade to Artist or get a Reaper licence (the latter being by far the cheaper option).

I've been having a play with my AmpliTube (Fender version), and it sounds quite good. The only issue I've got really is that my floor pedals (Zoom G2 and G3) sound so much better. I like the idea that AmpliTube has got the store where you can buy just a few bits at a time, but to get to the level of versatility that is in even a cheap multi effects pedal will cost a lot. My G2 only cost me â,¬29 from the second hand shop. The G3 has a low latency Asio driver built into it as well, although I usually use it plugged in as a stereo source through my little UR22 interface.

So unless I am lucky enough to win the full version I think I will just stick with my basic AmpliTube. And in Cubase I've got the AmpRack simulator which has loads more stuff in it, compared to the basic AmplpiTube that is.

OK Mick, I've cracked it. I had the wrong location for the AmpliTube dll.

Here's what to do:

1. Open Reaper
2. Shift+F to open the FX browser
3. Click options
4. Select FX plugins settings
5. on the next menu select VST
6. Click add and select the folder from the browser where the AmpliTube dll is found - click apply
7. open and close Reaper to load the VST folders (not sure if this necessary, but did it anyway)

Now you can open AmpliTube as follows:
1. Arm your track- little red toggle to the left of the track panel
2. Far right second line of the panel click the FX and on/off switch icon to make it green (on)
3. That will open the FX panel and you can then add AmpliTube from the drop down menu
4. Make sure that the icon in the far right bottom row of the track panel is also on (green) to be able to hear the effect through the output.

I'll look forward to that, because luckily there is a new release of Reaper which means that I have another trial period. I've installed it, but I can't find Amplitube in the VST list, even when I add the location manually.

In Cubase it's just in inserts and add insert.

Sorry, I don't have any Apple products, I spend my money on instruments and cameras  , so I haven't got any idea about Cubasis.

Sorry Mick, I uninstalled my copy of Reaper when the trial ran out.  There is a setting where you can tell it where to look for VST plugins - I'm sure it's in the help because I had to tell it to look in the right place for the VSTs I had downloaded.

AmpliTube just magically appeared in Cubase after I had run it as a stand alone - I presume it installed itself in the background somehow.

Mine is Cubase. Because in the Elements package you get the Amp Rack, Groove Agent 1.2, Prologue and HaLion SE VSTs. I would like at least the Artist version, but I am still getting to grips with the more limited options in the basic package.

I tried Reaper. It's fast and flexible, but you have to then add in the instruments which are either pretty limited freebies, or lay out an arm and a leg for something decent.

I also tried Ableton - the Lite version came with my Mustang 3. After weeks of trying to get it to reliably record and playback I gave up. Also the pricing structure seems to be designed for Simon Cowell. Hugely expensive software. Pity it's so awkward.

Cubase is not perfect, and has some really annoying omissions in the Elements version (no MP3 encoder, no Beat Designer). The latency with my Steinberg UR22 is negligible, but the fact that it has those basic but very good instruments included was the clincher for me.

I was mucking about with Cubase yesterday afternoon and discovered that the Fender free version of AmpliTube that came with my Mustang 3 is available as a VST. Which was nice, even if it does only have a few bits of kit in it. The tuner bit is useful, because the Amp Rack in Cubase doesn't seem to have one - at least not in my starter version.

1. 31 Amplifiers
2. Modena
3. Warwick and Peavey bass heads, Warwick and Peavey bass cabs (1x15 and 4x10s)

I'd like to buy from the local music shop if their prices weren't so far adrift of online ones.

I get my strings, and most of my music stuff, from Thomann.

Interesting thread.

I've got 10-46s on all of my six strings, all D'Addario. Except the acoustic which has 11s. I started off with 09s on the Squier Strat, but changed them a while back. I don't use the Floyd on that, because it's a low end guitar and I'd rather it stayed in tune.

The Elixir tip is worth a try.  I'll get some next time I send an order off to Thomann.