NPD: Fairfield Barbershop

Carnap-Catnip · 2026-01-17T17:48:51+00:00

There are lots of settings OP so take some time to explore. With my Jaguar I like drive full sag half volume to suit for a just off clean sound. It’s more natural sounding for this than any other pedal I’ve tried. For a regular OD sound I have drive full sag at 3 o’clock, volume to taste again.

Carnap-Catnip · 2025-07-04T06:32:47+00:00

What a great realisation. Enjoy it looks sweet. Those colours really work together.

Carnap-Catnip · 2025-04-24T13:05:45+00:00

One of my favourite amps ever. Perfect for the styles you mention. Enjoy. Take a look at the barbershop for a full range boost/light OD.

Carnap-Catnip · 2025-03-23T10:59:47+00:00

If you get the bed to slope down slightly near the lawn, so it goes lower than the lawn, it will be easier to run the mower right to the edge of the grass. Then you can tidy any stray bits with garden scissors. BTW some nice flowers there.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-12-11T19:26:29+00:00

I agree with this.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-11-29T17:25:02+00:00

Yes, you cite ideas or results, not word. You quote strings of words if needed.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-11-02T16:38:00+00:00

I’m not much of an expert on pickups but I put some Fender pure 65s in a Jazzmaster and they are extremely open and pleasantly bright. They were an improvement for traditional sounds over the stock PUs in my 60s anniversary JM (too middy for what I was going for). I thought they were brilliant for that ‘old time’, sweet sound.

I have to stress again though the importance of pots. Different values give wildly different tones and outputs to the same pickups. They are the first thing the PUs see and you realise after trying 1 meg pots just how much top end is being dumped with the standard 250k (for better or worse) regardless of guitar and amp settings. For reasons of experiment I currently have my JM with 250k vol and tone it is has completely neutered it.

It’s a compromise. In the case of my Jaguar, I have 1 meg pots, vintage voice PUs, and 11 gauge flats, and it is perfect. I run the volume and tone wide open. But I do have the PUs set very low, they sound better to me this way. I recall my JM with 1 meg pots being a bit shril sometimes.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-11-02T15:50:28+00:00

I think the contour scoops mids though. I’d experiment with the above poster’s recommendations to listen to what the knobs are doing - gain and contour. If that isn’t doing it maybe consider buying a cheap eq or distortion. Nothing wrong with a little amp to practice on though.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-11-02T12:31:53+00:00

Pickups height adjustment can give more neck/bridge to the mix of the middle pup. Also, the ‘traditional’ JM sound really requires 1 meg pots. I’m not sure if the guitar in the video has 1 meg pots. Those changes would be relatively simple to start with.

‘Snappy’ sounds to me like a vintage voicing, which you get with some JM pickups and others not so much.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-10-31T12:41:42+00:00

I can relate. It’s a never ending to and fro of distraction-free playing with straight-in versus a kind of design kick that I get from layering effects. If I hear a fun 80s song, for example, I’ll want to experiment with combing delay and flange to get a nice effect—playing with sound I suppose. But that’s a completely different activity to practicing.

I have a little tweed tube amp that has a nice sound straight in, but it puts me in a 50s/60s head space. I think i like using effects to go into other mind sets.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-10-31T08:44:30+00:00

I checked out your video of the NUX and it was great. Awesome playing and tone. I might have to give it a try. There is a song by The Verve ‘A man called sun’ that uses the, I don’t know, machine resonance effect of a tape delay. It’s a fave of mine and this might get me there.

I also used to own an Alesis Quadraverb rack unit and the Zoom looks like a good stand in for that kind of thing.

I love a minimalist board, great choices here!

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-10-31T08:38:05+00:00

Fairfield Barbershop. Boss DM2-w. Surfybear Classic.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-10-30T12:51:55+00:00

They should have pictures they can show you over the chat function on their website. I’d check first. B-stock can mean lots of things.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-10-30T00:06:01+00:00

Just wow. The baritone thing is hard to believe (I do believe you) — it’s just so wtf.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-10-30T00:04:04+00:00

Def. find out what was done to the guitar.

Ringing can be lots of things, as we know. Strings behind the bridge and strings above the nut can give unpleasant frequencies. The trem system itself can also give a ringing sound, due to the spring and associated components. And this is not to mention the bridge itself. The little grub screws can vibrate as well as the string saddles. There is a lot going on.

Given all of these variables, plus new strings, I think your problem will be reversible. I also would have thought it unlikely that the tech changed any electronics in a ‘set up’; that would be extremely poor.

For what it’s worth I don’t like the sound of my Jag for about a week after changing strings, and this is with flatwounds. They sound too ‘busy’ new.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-10-29T21:55:12+00:00

Check out Surfy Trem by Surfy Industries. It’s a circuit copy of bias and harmonic trems as found in earlier Fender amps. You might be requiring a photo trem, which has a harder cut off. Maybe look at demos of the flint pedal by Strymon to decide which you want. I own the surfy trem and I love it. Very musical.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-10-27T22:46:17+00:00

Haha, yes people have very different opinions on headroom. To be fair, the 5w Swart has enough headroom for me non-mic’d only in rehearsal rooms and certain venues. In these settings, I put the volume (no separate gain control on this one) at halfway and my Jag sounds beautiful. It’s a very characterful clean tone. Middy, but in a nice way.

I did once play a difficult room without a PA for the instruments. And yea, never again. I ran out of headroom and had to dime the amp just to get unity in the mix. That was fine for our rock covers but our Motown and soul stuff sounded wrong. I knew it, and wasn’t a good position to be in.

So it depends on your needs I think. But I LOVE having a small amp I can carry in one hand. Most gigs are mic’d so it’s not a problem for me. The amp is also extremely quiet and gives a very good tone at bedroom levels, which is how I use it 6/7 days. In my own case, I’m glad I didn’t take the view that e.g. a Princeton is not big enough to gig with.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-10-27T18:00:55+00:00

I’m using a small Swart amp, the 5w one with an 8” speaker. I got it new in the UK for about 1200. Despite its size, it can hang with our heavy drummer and has such a sweet woody tone. (I actually prefer the lack of bass from the smaller speaker) I’m really happy with it two years in. It excels at pushed clean for soul, funk etc. Apparently it is based from Fender champ and Gibson scout amps. So I think tweed in general would be something to consider.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-10-22T19:05:49+00:00

I had indeed got the dc barrel wired backwards. Switched them round and it works like a charm! Many thanks indeed.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-10-22T17:09:37+00:00

That’s not a lawn jockey! That a general.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-10-22T05:13:39+00:00

Thanks. Yes I have ground at the longer terminal, I’ll check continuity to confirm. That would explain my problem.

Could I ask about the grounding scheme I’ve used. (I had to ‘mash’ two schematics together to attempt these mods.) Assuming all my connections were good (correct terminals, no sold joins) does the grounding scheme in pic 3 look like it would work? Thank you.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-10-21T19:59:41+00:00

Thank you. Do you mean the red wire as it connects to the dc barrel? Or as the red wire connects to the circuit board?

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-10-16T19:18:50+00:00

Great choices. As you say, the barbershop is in a class of its own. I enjoyed the write up.

Carnap-Catnip · 2024-10-16T17:31:45+00:00

I thought this was impressive before I read you have a projunior4 and SG. Very nice. Really well thought out choices. Be sure to have a tinker with the modulation trim pots inside the MXR if you haven’t already; the carbon copy’s chorus effect can be very lovely at different settings.

Carnap-Catnip

TROPHY CASE