If you plan on playing acoustic drums I'd recommend getting acoustic drums if you have the place to accommodate playing them as electric drums feel completely different. Especially cheaper electric sets.

The second M+A records release comes from Peng. I play drums in this band and Sam does everything else.

You can listen to it here: http://omgpeng.bandcamp.com/album/before-tomorrows-appointment

Let me know what you think

If you're looking to learn but not too worried about playing in a band I'd try pick up a cheap second hand set. Lots of starter kits go for £100 or less because people buy them and get bored and want to get rid of them for the space.

Once you've got a cheap starter set I'd recommend changing the heads over to a nicer set, something like evans or remo. This will make your cheap kit sound so much better. I really like the sound of the evans G2 so I'd recommend those. Upgrading to a nicer set of cymbals will be beneficial too as the paper thin starter kit ones don't last long and sound terrible. Something like Sabian Solars are a great upgrade and can be picked up for a reasonable price second hand. Then you'll probably want to upgrade a few bits of hardware like the kick pedal and high hat stand.

Once you've done all that you should have a nice kit to play on that doesn't feel and sound as cheap as buying a brand new starter set and costs around the same.

Really like the look of these. Nice work

These look awesome. I'm always amazed to see what people can do with wood, I feel like it's some kind of dark art. I can't get my head around it any time I try it, needs far more patience than I have

Quote from: AtrumKithara on April 23, 2014, 03:31:03 PM
I don't normally listen to a lot of indie music, so my opinion might not mean much, but it sounds good to me.

What are those things on the gutless records site?  I would have to bust out my old four track recorder to play those as all my other tape players (and most of my tapes) died long ago.  Makes me sad because I had some good stuff that will never be available again, but I don't miss having to fast forward and rewind.

Are you going to do affordable vinyl?  I say affordable because I remember punk bands putting out split records into the early 00's that were under $10 (US) but now I see all these bands charging $25 or more per album.  I am not willing to pay that much for any album.

Thanks a lot! To be totally honest I don't even listen to a great deal of indie myself.

I use an old walkman to listen to mine as it's the only decent tape play I have at the moment.

The reason we've been put off doing vinyl is that it's hard to do affordably at a small scale. Tapes are so much cheaper and you can DIY dub them making it cheaper again. I'd love to do a vinyl release as it's my favourite format but we'll need to be able to sell quite a few more copies to make it viable sadly.

There's lots of great labels putting out affordable vinyl releases at the moment. Here's a few that I'm a big fan of:

http://shop.specialistsubjectrecords.co.uk/ - Lots of really good bands. Bangers are possibly my favourite UK band about at the moment. All of their records are amazing, Small Pleasures especially. Definitely worth a listen, I think you can download it for free from their bandcamp too.

http://asianmanrecords.com/ - Lots of ska/punk bands. Andrew Jackson Jihad are probably my favourite band of all time. Funny/depressing/uplifting/morbid all rolled into one song sometimes. I think all their releases are great but if I was going to suggest one to start with I think Can't Maintain would be a good place to jump in.

http://discounthorse.limitedrun.com/categories/discount-horse-releases - Another awesome UK label. ONSIND, Martha and Colour Me Wednesday are all top bands.

Quote from: Scarebear on April 23, 2014, 10:45:40 AM
That is SO cool. That guy must have the coolest looking/sounding pedalboard

Thanks! You'd think so but he keeps them packed away most of the time sadly, but he's moving in with me next month so I might make him a board so he can have them on display and ready to go

Quote from: AtrumKithara on April 23, 2014, 04:29:02 PM
That is very cool.  Thank you for sharing the link to the video.

Thanks and no problem


I have a four oscillator version of the same synth that I have built myself with two of the oscillators modulating the other two for some crazy sounds. I really want to make an 8 voice version, with optional modulating oscillators and with switches to choose between LDR and pots to control the pitch of each oscillator. That way I can have ridiculous on the fly craziness or precise tuneable sounds. Just finding the money and time to build it up is tricky haha

Quote from: AtrumKithara on April 22, 2014, 09:39:10 PM
Cool looking pedal.  Possibly a stupid question, I have never seen a pedal with a light dependent resistor before, is it the thing between the foot switches? How does it work?  Youtube video?

Thank you Not a stupid question at all, they're not commonly used on pedals, partly because most LDRs are not ROHS compliant and partly because not many people have use for them. It is the thing between the footswitches and it works by changing resistance in relation to the amount of light shining on it. So you can change it by moving your hand or foot up and down above it.

Here's a video of a small synthesiser I built that has its pitch controlled with an LDR. The guy in the video happens to be the same guy who owns the pedal above too, as well as the other three matching noise fuzzes I made at the same time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2FE35_tb0U

I think two of my favourite pedals have to be the Big Muff and Deluxe Memory Man. They're just great sounding pedals that can do loads of different things and they look so cool.

Companies wise though there's a lot of smaller builders doing some great stuff as the moment. Devi Ever, Dwarfcraft and Basic Audio being my favourites as they do some really interesting stuff.

I play bass in an lofi indie band called The C90s. FFO Guided By Voices + My Bloody Valentine.
You can listen to our music here: http://thec90s.bandcamp.com/album/modulus-argument-records-present-the-c90s-in-6-songs-possible-careers-for-the-art-school-graduate

Would love to hear what you think.

Modulus and Argument also have two other releases coming out soon, one by Peng, another noisy indie band. The second will be a solo release from me which is untitled at the moment. My release will be a split release with Gutless Records who are well worth checking out if you like melodic punk: http://gutlessrecords1.bigcartel.com/

Quote from: Scarebear on April 22, 2014, 03:14:36 AM
That looks awesome. I love the marbled finish! Plus it's black and white. It's perfect

Quote from: Mick on April 22, 2014, 06:59:30 AM
Hi Mike, you made it over then.    Welcome to Guitarist Guild.

Great service you're offering there, so hopefully some of the members here will take advantage of it.  Must say that pedal looks fab.  So you built this one from scratch, nice job.  Gets a from me for looks alone.

Hope to see more posts from you, and more pics of those lovely pedals.

Like I said, welcome, any problems, ideas and suggestions regarding the site, let me know in the Site Feedback and Suggestions board.

Thanks both. Yeah, that one was built from scratch I designed and etched the PCB and then built it all up. The mods it has are a feedback footswitch with optional loop inserts which is controlled with the light dependant resistor, diode toggle switches for both clipping stages to choose between silicon, germanium and diode lift, a mids knob and finally a tone stack bypass switch for a huge unscooped tone.

Here's a picture of a modified big muff I built a while back:

Hey there! My name is Mike, I've been building pedals for the past few years for various people across the world. I've got lots of good feedback on forums under the same username. I'm basically posting this to offer my services to build modify or repair analog effects units. If you have any pedal ideas you'd like brought into reality get in touch, I've done lots of multi analog units, modified versions of existing pedals and even a few small synthesisers so if you'd like something a bit more esoteric then let me know.

I might also be building for part exchanges if you have something that interests me and cover the parts cost in cash.

Drop me a PM if you're interested

Cheers,
Mike