BluesKing777

A shop near Melbourne city has this: Gibson - Sheryl Crow Signature Model Made in USA. 2005. Signature Artist series. A painstaking recreation of Crow's Gibson Country Western. Production number 1099. Fitted with an L.R. Baggs Element Active Acoustic Pickup System. w/ OHSC More from Gibson $3,500.00 Enquire They also have a 1960 Hummingbird! (Bit pricey but...) Gibson - Hummingbird Made in Kalamazoo USA1960 in the first year of production. Incredible mellow sound. Incredible low action. A very smooth instrument. Excellent condition for age. Some cosmetic wear from use but no damage. Original adjustable ceramic saddle. Non destructive Schatten pickup installed. Gold Gibson Kluson tuners. w/ hard case More from Gibson $12,500.00 Enquire BluesKing777.

No pain! Here is the preamp: https://www.fishman.com/products/series/platinum/platinum-pro-eq-analog-preamp/ (I have the previous model, not made any more, but pretty much the same thing). BluesKing777.

I think I have bought and tried just about all the pickups you can get since then! And guitars with pickup systems. And gadgetry. I wouldn’t buy it again - it was probably the first pickup I bought. At the risk of repeating myself, I will tell the same story a different way. I will tell you my order of preference for hitting the road tomorrow... OK, not true, but say I have a gig interstate tomorrow night. What do I take currently? One of my 3 Matons with their Hiscox case. Need to check to see if the guitar is inside the case, it feels so light. 00 deep body guitar with the best pickup system you can currently get, in the best custom size case protection. The case has provision for the Hiscox carry strap for slinging the thing over shoulder or back if it is starting to get heavy hoofing down the airport terminal. Guitar lead, tuner, strings in the glove box. Everything I need. ‘Don’t go on after the Maton player!’ A distant second to take at the moment would be my new Taylor 717e with the ES2 pickup system, but I would need to take my Tonedexter to get it to sound how I like. If someone said something like: ‘You are playing at the Gibson Acoustic Guitar Club lunch and you have to play a Gibson!’, I would grab the Gibson Blues King and put the Baggs M1A in it, chuck it in a Hiscox, pack my Fishman Pro EQ preamp and my Tonedexter, 3 guitar leads, tuner, strings. And somewhere long down the list that will never make it, is the Fishman REB. BluesKing777.

Best thing is to avoid dishwashing!😄 Wear gloves if toughing it (dishwashing, washing car, hacking and sawing). BluesKing777.

I suggested the Baggs M1A because it is easy for guitarists new to pickups. Place in soundhole, tighten screws, dangle lead out the front, plug in, ready to go! You can wrap the lead around the bottom of the guitar, put a small piece of tape to hold it, and run it around to wrap around the endpin to keep it to the side of your feet a bit. To alter the tone, it is best to have a compatible preamp with EQ, extra controls are always helpful. About 44 million guitarists just use the pickup direct to amp. But I like to carve out the low bass, squawky mids and brittle highs.....and the more you spend, the better the result normally. Each guitar is different, but I generally only adjust the polepieces once. BluesKing777.

Done! What about the sending me the Moon too, Billroy? And a fatter neck! BluesKing777.

Yeah, I suppose it won’t be very ‘vintagey’ if it has volume and tone controls sticking out the side.... But, you know, that is the marketing angle, vintage made in 2019? They could change it to ‘vintage inspired but with modern conveniences’ or some shxxxxxxte. Even the marketing on the 717e in my recording above is something silly like ‘has a torrefied top to sound like a vintage Taylor’ or something senseless. The guitar was only just invented, how can it be vintage anything? The Standard series are probably the likely recipients of the newly to be invented Gibson Acoustic Blastmaster, ha, dual source pickup with volume control and tone controls...shattering. Anything but the poor old Element, please. And you know, the Vintage models by request could get that new fangled..ha...discreet soundhole controls. ...ha ha..the Gibson Invisible Blastmaster Pickup System.🥶😨 And I want the Gibson Custom BK777 Invisible Blastmaster Deluxe! Where do I sign? BluesKing777.

Hey, I know one thing...I am really enjoying playing a guitar that comes with a decent pickup system. I have said a few times that Gibson need to get a proprietry pickup system of their own instead of this hoiky Element stuff. Everyone here hangs it on them, but this Taylor is a guitar ready to play anywhere, anytime. Well done! BluesKing777.

Here is another recording I made for the "Everyone is Mowing Their Lawns And I Can't Hear Anything Without Plugging In" Series..... So, I bought my Taylor 717e a couple of months back and it is preloaded with a pickup system _Taylor ES2. It is very similar to a K&K pickup, I have been told, but has a preamp and vol/tone controls. I like it plugged direct, could do it...but I have Tonedexter!😠 So the file I am using in Tonedexter for the 717e is one I made using a plain (cheap?) old Shure SM57, which has its own tonal character I know and like...: BluesKing777.

Thanks! I usually cut at least a 1/4 turn on my mixer for bass, treble and swept mids for soundhole type pickups. Savage! The M1A suits the LG3, trial and error! BluesKing777.

No mic anywhere, BBG I cut a lot of bass, a lot of middle and a lot of treble....to smooth the sound out. It is the same eq setting I use with my Sunrise and Seymour Duncan Mag Mic pickups. (Plus the 1 and 2 poles are removed plus the others down very low. The 3 pole seems to pickup enough of 1 and 2......some people like those strings louder, depends on the music I guess.) BluesKing777.

There is a volume control and the battery is little 2032 type watch battery slipped in to the underside of the pickup. I have taken the 1 and 2 poles out and wound the others down for a more ‘woody’ sound - the higher the poles and closer to the stringd, the more ‘electric’ it sounds. The problem, to me, of the Fishman Rare Earth mentioned above by QM is that it has no adjustable pole pieces. While I love my Sunrise sound, it needs a few extras, and the Seymour D Mag Mic has a battery bag and 9 volter attached....a bit weird if you don’t install it all (Me!) But they both have adjustable PPs. No, all in all, the Baggs M1A or their M80 are pretty easy. BluesKing777.

I recorded a quick track of the Baggs M1A in my 1959 Gibson LG3 to give you an idea of the sound: BluesKing777.

I put my Baggs M1A soundhole pickup in the LG3 to demo the sound - I have taken the 1 and 2 pole pieces out totally, and I have eq'd quite heavily to 'smooth' the sound. BluesKing777.

I have a Baggs M1A in my floating arsenal of many pickups, adjustable pole pieces all adjusted and the included preamp makes it louder than the passive and ready to plug into a PA or mixer or acoustic amp. A lot of other pickups need extra ‘stuff’. So I would recommend a simple install of the M1A to leave your vintage guitar....vintage. Your endpin has already been drilled, just attach the pickup in the soundhole, after putting in the little battery, run the lead out the endpin hole, attach the plug end, insert guitar lead and Bob is you Uncle! BluesKing777.

While they may sound a bit electric, the big advantage of that is - no mic to record the guy doing his lawn out back, another giving his outboard motor a burst, kids screaming blue murder on a trampoline, and the guy next door using his dreadful multi- tool that sounds like he is giving his kiddies some home dental! Plugged in, oblivious! The way the Neumann works, they would all sound louder in my music room than out there! BluesKing777.

Carrying on further from my other thread of the 1959 Gibson LG3 in Tonedexter, I recorded a different track and style of music but this time with 3 different 00 size guitars I mentioned in the previous thread..... So I recorded a loose version based on the 'Rolling Stone' riffs by Robert Wilkins. There are 3 tracks after each other - the first is my Maton EBG808 plugged direct to Tonedexter but with NO FILE and running on BYPASS. It still gets the volume, levels and tone etc from TD controls. Second is the 1959 Gibson LG3 (again) but with a higher percentage of sound image in Tonedexter (75%). Third is my Cargill custom with a K&K installed and run through the same Tonedexter settings as the LG3 (except I didn't turn up the mixer master quite enough - too late to notice now!): BluesKing777.

I meant to reply the other day, KB....before you record with TD, read up the part in the manual about the different slots - slot 22 is for recording 'straight', while all the others 1 -21 get an algorithm that eliminates certain frequencies to prevent feedback in live situations, like having a notch filter on the highs and lows... (You can record the wave on 22 and save it to another slot...). My track above is recorded to slot 7, so it has the filter applied, but generally it is better to use slot 22 for a fuller sound for recording. I was also having fun with some guitars using a plain old Shure SM57 to record the waves, might try the LG3 next. ( I did use my trusty Neumann KM184). But you can really hear the different mics - I suppose a recording engineer or soundman would select mics like they do for a job...."Hmm, I think I will use the SM57 for that... and "😎 But for certain guitars like my resonators, the SM57 and its narrower sound is the BOMB. BluesKing777.

Can I have some of what you are on? Please? Of course, happiness is relative - the 59 is joyful to play unplugged. BluesKing777.

That is great news that you are getting out and about with the Tonedexter, KB! These things sound better in a nice PA, more so outside. Recording the sound is a bit iffy. (I got a great sound with a guitar with just a Baggs M1A and EQ box at a friend’s house experimenting with his new PA....) BluesKing777.

Dog would go ballistic! BluesKing777.

A show? First, where would I find 200 people? Free admittance and free beer? But...... if I had a residency, every Friday night for a few months.......first 2 weeks are usually bundles of nerves and I would take the generally unflappable Maton 808s plugged direct to a PA using soundhole feedback eliminating plugs. One Maton for standard tune, one for slide Open G. By the 3rd week, I would be bored with myself and start thinking about playing guitars with bigger V necks and different sounds.....best sound I have in Tonedexter is currently using my new Taylor 717e with ES2 through Tonedexter, followed by my Cargill with K&K through Tonedexter. The only Gibson I have had any luck getting a good sound is my 1935 Gibson Black Special L50 and I would need to be careful where I take that! BluesKing777.

I think it is at least 400 quid better because I fully paid for it a year and a half ago! The Aura system has nothing for LG3s, Blues Kings, Cargills, Matons, Waterloos, new Taylors.... so Tonedexter is the one to make your own thing. But the Fishman pickup in the LG3 is really quacky rubbish and the sound above is what we got. It is a bit electric guitar sounding, isn’t it? I have got some great sounds with the guitars mentioned but if I post them, everyone *****es and some even froth at the mouth. So I posted the LG3. Which is a pickup hater and only wants to stay home to play, I have come to the conclusion.... BluesKing777.

Here is a track I recorded of my 1959 Gibson LG3 through Tonedexter. The guitar has a Fishman undersaddle pickup which sounds horrid on its own. But this is what we have by using Tonedexter....some may recognise the tune.... BluesKing777.

My buzz is fixed! I went in with torch and mirror and saw the 1 and 2 string were both hung up on the string join under the pins. The guitar is just back from getting refretted, so the tech must have been rushing to put the strings on. Anyway, I put a capo on the 2, loosened 1 and 2 string, lifted the pins and yanked on the strings, replaced pins, grabbed torch and mirror to check...all good. Tightened the strings, tuned and played the guitar for about an hour. Hooray! So check your bridge pins/ball ends. BluesKing777.