Grumpyrocker

A few folks have asked for a demo of my amp, so here it is. This was just something I knocked together in ten minutes this morning - first a quick improv over a looped chord progression, then some dirty blues. My apologies in advance for the terrible playing.

I've never actually recorded an amp with a mic before - so it was a learning experience. The mic was a Behringer XM8500 (at the edge of the speaker cone), recorded straight into a Line6 UX1 and onwards to Cubase Essential. The clean demo has no layering, just one track in realtime. The second demo has three unedited tracks played over a drum sequence.

Clean Demo
A short clean demo of the Bugera V22 amp. The guitar is a PRS SE Custom Trem played through a Line6 M13 effects unit. The Line6 unit was only used for the looper facility. The reverb is from the V22 itself.

Dirty Blues
Just a quick improvised noodle to demo more rhythmic type work on the dirt channel. Gain is set just under halfway for the two rhythm tracks panned left (bridge pickup) and right (neck pickup). The lead track in the middle has the gain all the way up. No post- recording fiddling was done, the delay on the lead track came via the Line6 M13 which was set up on the amp using the four cable method. So this particular delay ran through the amp's fx loop. Drums by EZDrummer.

Heavy
Does the Bugera like pedals? Here's a very quick demo of a heavy patch from the Line6 M13. This is the Line6 Distortion model no other effects in use. The amp EQ is pretty flat, just tweaked on the effect itself and the guitar tone rolled off a little. There's a brief widdle with the Throaty Wah patch at the end. The recording came out a little bassier than it was in person. Clearly I'm not quite ready to produce a multi-platinum album.

A couple of weeks ago Line 6 finally released Windows 7 drivers for its audio interfaces. The fact that it has taken this long is completely ridiculous - but at least we now have drivers that work.

I've been using my UX1 interface for the past couple of weeks without incident, I've certainly had none of the white noise bursts that were plaguing use of the device before a proper driver emerged.

However while I do like a lot of Line 6 gear - the M13 in particular is brilliant - this whole experience has made me wary of trusting any of its hardware that would require good software support.

I doubt I'm the only one.

I've just completed my little Squier Bullet project. I've used this cheapo Strat to learn the basics of guitar modification as it's not something I've really done before. I'm quite happy with the resulting cheap yet good sounding guitar.

It was a regular SSS guitar when I bought it. I replaced with the pickguard with one that's cut for a humbucker and the bridge. The pickups are all from IronGear - two single coil Pig Iron models with a Rolling Mill humbucker.

The trem is a Wilkinson model with the solid steel block - this along with the addition of a graphite nut have worked wonders for tone and tuning.

So that's that done. No really major work - I've not had to modify the wood as thankfully Squier had already routed the body for a HSS pickup layout already. I'm not going to go further with a new neck or tuners of anything like that. But I'm very happy with the result.

For the guitarist keen on replacing pickups on their electric guitar there are a wealth of choices. Well known names such as Seymour Duncan and EMG are hugely popular with musicians looking to improve their instruments.

However many of this pickups can be very expensive and if you're working on a budget, or trying to improve a cheap stock guitar these pups can seem like overkill. Is it really worth putting £200 of active pickups in a £100 guitar?

What's needed in cases such as these is a range of pickups that vastly improve on the tone of cheap stock pickups yet at the same time doesn't break the bank. Such pickups do exist and some of the best are made by IronGear.

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Well I finally decided on - and bought - a new amp.

For a while despite the "cheap and cheerful" nature of this purchase - to get it passed the wifey - I did toy with going for something more expensive such as the new 20W Blackstar.

I also toyed with getting a custom build. But the builder I approached didn't seem interested in fitting a feature pictured in nearly every photo on his bloody website, or that interested in my custom at all. You'd think folks would be more friendly when they would be making over £400 wouldn't you?

So spurned by the rude custom amp bloke I returned to the idea of cheap and cheerful. And a larger retail company was much more polite and even price matched for me. So I've taken the controversial move of buying a Bugera V22.

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Here's a bit of advice if you want to get in business selling customised valve guitar amps.

When someone emails with the intention of spending several hundred pounds on your products don't react as though they have pissed on your chips.

Nor tell them that you can't be bothered to do "feature x" even though your bloody website is covered top to tail with pictures of amps you've built with the self same "feature x" installed.

Nor perhaps should you send a prospective customer a photo of their current amp to prove why it's shit, but at the same time show no interest in offering anything better.

Instead why not try to write emails with something other than a "stop bothering me and sod off somewhere else" tone, act pleased someone is interested in your work, or show some comprehension of customer service. Don't just act like a rat.

Thanks for nothing. You've just lost £400+.

Meanwhile I want to say well done to Roy at DV247. After my poor experience with the amp builder mentioned above DV247 was completely the opposite; excellent customer service and even price-matched a rival online store. That's how you do business and retain customers.

Hi folks and welcome to this new blog. Things aren't up and running completely yet and there are still some changes coming before regular updates begin.

The content that already exists on the site is from my previous sites. Once we're going properly there will be music gear news, reviews, guides and all manner of other rock music related nonsense.

Reflected Floyd, originally uploaded by Cartmel Veteran.

Twenty years ago my late mother bought me an electric guitar - a relatively cheap Epiphone HSS Strat. I was always rubbish at keeping up hobbies, but I really took to the guitar rather late and I've played ever since.

I've owned other (and better) guitars but I've always treasured this one that mum bought for me. Alas time hasn't been kind to it - it was used hard before and during my university years and it hasn't really been playable for the last few years.

The Floyd Rose bridge was rusted and had a screw missing. The locking nut was threaded and had a lock missing. The tone pot doesn't work. The volume pot hardly works. The bridge pickup is falling apart and out of its mounting.

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Just a quick update on the Line6 driver issue I posted about recently. I have now got the system working without those white noise spikes.

I found that if I removed my other sound card from the third PCI-E slot the problems disappear. Previously I'd also found disabling the two graphics cards in the other PCI-E worked too.

Obviously removing my other sound card is not a permanent solution - the hardware configuration worked fine in Windows Vista x64, but at least I can now record with my Line6 UX1 until Line6 actually releases some proper Windows 7 drivers.

If you're struggling to get your Line6 recording device to work feel free to leave a comment and I'll see if I can help.

2009 has been a really strong year for rock music, with several big names such as Megadeth and Paradise lost releasing new albums. My favourite album by far this year was Heaven & Hell's The Devil You Know.

The Black Sabbath Mk II line-up of Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinnie Apicce are getting on a bit - but really who the young guns how to create a classic crunch metal album this year. The highlight of the album is the epic Bible Black, you can see the video for this song below. And you can listen to samples of all the songs on record and download it via Amazon MP3.

Here's my selection of the ten best hard rock/heavy metal albums of 2009.

1. The Devil You Know by Heaven & Hell
2. Design Your Universe by Epica
3. Endgame by Megadeth
4. Night is the New Day by Katatonia
5. April Rain by Delain
6. All Shall Fall by Immortal
7. Faith Divides Us by Paradise Lost
8. Black Clouds & Silver Linings by Dream Theater
9. Cheat the Gallows by Bigelf
10. The 13th Floor by Sirena

Honourable mention for The Gathering's The West Pole, very good, but the band isn't really metal anymore. I loved Iron Maiden's Flight 666 but didn't include that as it's a live album rather than new material. Leaves Eyes' Njord might have made the list if it hadn't been mixed by a deaf person.