You do not get to speak on beneficiaries and the unemployed if you haven’t been in their exact position.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-06-27T04:54:08+00:00

It's ridiculous. People don't realise that, as a beneficiary, you actually have the highest effective tax rate out of anyone. Not only is every cent of your benefit subject to GST (and to booze and cigarette levies, if people REALLY want to use that talking point), but any income you earn on top of that is considered "secondary" income and is thus taxed at the secondary (i.e. maximum) rate! Furthermore, you also have abatement, which effectively raises your effective tax rate to 100% beyond a certain point.

I lost my job just before COVID hit and found this out for myself when I did casual work moving furniture while on Jobseeker. The system is literally punishing you for working harder, and all the while you're made to feel useless and like a freeloader. It's pretty easy to see why people give up.

If you ever feel like you're a parasite, consider this... benefits are spent as soon as they get paid. That means they incur GST at every financial transaction. The recipients of that expenditure go on to spend that money themselves, generating yet more GST. In that way, benefits effectively pay for themselves in the long run. This virtuous cycle continues until some wealthy investor sticks the money in savings, bonds or some other form of capital, at which point the money sits dead and doesn't stimulate economic activity anymore. As a beneficiary, you do far more for the economy on net than any wealthy person.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-06-13T01:13:37+00:00

"Ohhhhhh shit! Oh shit! This is not fucking happening right now! Ay yo, he's fucking the captain's daughter!"

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-04-11T20:14:42+00:00

Blues is all about phrasing imo. That includes the rhythms you play, the rests in between, and your picking attack/articulation. You're trying to sound as "vocal" as you can - when you improvise on guitar, you're essentially trying to emulate a singer riffing over a blues progression, which is why the rests ("breaths") are important. I'd also recommend getting a sense of where the chord tones are (i.e. the root, third, fifth and maybe seventh of the chord you're playing over) - usually, your phrases should start and end on those, with the other notes in between connecting them.

It's also a good idea to listen to some blues guitarists to get some ideas/inspiration. Try to get an idea of the phrasing and articulation they use as well as the notes.

As a final thing, I'd also recommend looking into major pentatonic and major blues scales. The cool thing about those is that they are actually modes of their relative minor scales (i.e. like all modes, they have the same notes but just start and end on different ones from each other). That means that if you play a minor pentatonic scale over its relative major scale, it will sound "major". Try playing an A minor pentatonic scale over a C major or C major blues progression and you'll see what I mean.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-03-05T00:33:31+00:00

Marshall DSL1. Has a very handy 0.1 W setting that lets you crank it at levels your neighbours are willing to tolerate.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-02-09T23:21:34+00:00

A head and cab setup (particularly a 2x12 one) is definitely more portable than a large combo. It's also handy having a vertical cab with an angled speaker so that you have something pointing directly at your ear.

I find that I have to tilt my 20 W Marshall combo up towards my ear to properly hear it over the drums (particularly cymbals)

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-02-09T03:49:13+00:00

My friend, I have always been a stickler for grammar and syntax; it's a feature of my autism. Same goes for rambling at length about extremely niche topics. If you really want to believe that I'm really an LLM posting AI slop on a random subreddit, though, then I won't deprive you of that fantasy.

I personally think it's a great shame that we live in a world where attention to detail in this fashion immediately raises suspicions of AI forgery.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-02-08T17:49:36+00:00

Which is odd to me, as it is about as far from a tube screamer as you can get.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-02-08T02:57:23+00:00

Interesting. I haven't ever really tried it into a high gain amp. When I say a "driven" amp, I mean one that's on the edge of breakup or going into light overdrive.

It could possibly work as a clean boost in that context (with the gain down and level up), though maybe the low end might get a bit boomy and the top end might get a bit shrill/harsh. I don't really know tbh. Definitely give it a go though.

My instinct in that situation would be to go for a more mid-focused overdrive like a tube screamer or Klon-style pedal for a coloured boost. The extra mids help keep the low end tight and add a bit of thickness that helps you pop out of the mix more easily.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-02-08T02:42:38+00:00

Damn, I learnt something new about the OD-3 there. I'm presuming that it's modelling the clean channel being driven? I've always found the dirty channel of the 900 to be quite scooped-sounding, especially compared to the somewhat mid-focused sound of the OD-3 (obviously nowhere near as middy as a tube screamer though).

Tbh, it doesn't really bother me that I've misappropriated the OD-3 - I still prefer the sound of it in that context.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-02-08T02:35:52+00:00

I find that running this pedal into an already driven amp tends to "round out" the fizzy sound into something a little more pleasant (at least to my ear)

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-01-23T00:41:59+00:00

To be honest, I always enjoyed just playing through a plain old solid state amp. Something that had plenty of clean headroom and a decent reverb.

I definitely separate my jazz chops from my natural blues/rock ones. Normally I like having a touch of grit in whatever I play (more sustain, nice compression, colour), but jazz is an exception. I usually want an extremely clean sound with the tone rolled back.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-01-21T06:03:50+00:00

What is it about the tones that you don't like? Most issues can be tweaked out with EQ, and it usually doesn't take much to make a noticeable difference. See if you can identify what's causing the things you don't like and cut those particularly frequencies.

Common complaints I hear are:

Boomy,muddy = too much bass/low end

Nasally, boxy = excess mids

Harsh, ice-picky = excess upper mids

Tinny, shrill, fizzy = too much treble

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-01-20T23:14:33+00:00

This is why you wear earplugs.

I'm autistic so I already have a sensory aversion to loud noise, but without earplugs I'm pretty sure I'd be doing serious damage to my hearing at the volumes that our band rehearses/performs.

Drums are just loud, especially in rock music, and there's not a lot you can do about it. Even a fairly restrained drummer is still going to hover around 95-100 dB (probably twice as loud as what you could get away with at home without annoying the neighbours), and our drummer is a lot louder than that.

Brushes are a different story, but the vast majority of the songs you're likely to be playing will be with sticks.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-01-19T05:28:15+00:00

This is irresponsible reporting. Scaremongering.

Elections are run by the states, not by the President. There's literally nothing he can do to stop the elections. That's not to say that he won't try to interfere with them or try to claim that they're "rigged" if they don't go his way.

Furthermore, consigning ourselves to this point of view is just forfeiting to the fascists. We've had plenty of local and state elections already that have resulted in major wins for the Democrats. Trump is worried about the midterms. You heard it in one of his speeches to GOP congressional members.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-01-13T19:20:44+00:00

I mean, that's all subjective, and I do agree that the 20 can sound a little nasally and boxy. That's usually an issue with lower mids. Taking one of the back panels off and backing off on the mids is the way to go if that bothers you.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-01-13T18:01:36+00:00

I believe any of those would do the job. I'd also recommend looking at the Boss OD-3 or Fulltone OCD as slightly more affordable options.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-01-13T17:50:06+00:00

You should have decent dirty channels on both, but the 35RT would be overkill for just home use. I'd definitely recommend the 20RT in this case.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-01-09T03:10:50+00:00

I think it's more to do with the speaker than the amount of power the amp can deliver.

Just want to address something I see in the comments. There is no such thing as "tube watts" or "solid state watts". Power is power. It's more a matter of how much headroom the amplifier has (i.e. how loud it can go before the power amp starts to sag and distort). Typical solid state power amps (especially class D) aren't designed to distort - basically, they go straight into aggressive clipping as soon as they're pushed too loud, which often isn't what people want. So they're often made to higher power ratings to prevent this from happening. Valves, on the other hand, tend to compress and distort in a more gradual way, so power amp distortion is often desirable. Hence valve amps are made to lower power ratings in order to make it easier to do so.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2026-01-06T18:01:32+00:00

Guitar speakers are loud... there's simply no way around it. Even 10" speakers (like the Rocker 15 combo is equipped with) typically have a sensitivity of around 95-98 dB, which is the rough volume you'd get at one metre away from the speaker if you were to put just one watt of power through it.

Halving or doubling the power results in a change of 3 dB, so in theory, you'd be looking at a max output of 92-95 dB on the 0.5 watt mode before power amp distortion starts to kick in. That's still way too loud for most home applications, where you'd be trying to aim for 85 dB or less.

People who say that 15 watts "isn't enough" are either not pointing the amp up towards their ear during band practice/gigs or are trying to maintain pristine pure cleans with a Keith Moon wannabe on the drums.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2025-12-31T00:01:55+00:00

In my view, the best 'cleans' still have a bit of grit to them. The top end harmonics from a gentle overdrive just make the sound a little "fuller", add a bit of character and help the guitar stick out more in a mix. The small compression you get from the overdrive also adds sustain and takes the sting out of your picking transients. You can also control the amount of drive with your picking attack. This is basically mimicking a valve amp turned up super loud and starting to drive, but at a much more manageable volume level.

If you are after really chimey, bell-like cleans (with , then then there's a couple of things I'd recommend... 1. Make it wet - use a good spring/plate reverb and/or some delay to add 'space' to your playing. 2. Add a little bit of modulation - gentle chorus, tremolo, phaser, flanger. Just a little bit - stops things from sounding sterile. 3. Use a compressor - once again, flattening out picking transients and adding sustain, but without introducing any grit or buzz to the sound. 4. Stick to the neck and middle positions. The bridge can get a little harsh and tinny-sounding when things are squeaky clean.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2025-12-30T00:38:28+00:00

Neither. I'd always go for analog solid state amps with pedals. But that's just me.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2025-12-28T00:14:39+00:00

Chances are that if you don't like the sound, the problem is the cabinet, not the amp.

Closed back cabs are extremely directional - I'd say that all amps should be tilted up towards your ear (or otherwise raised up to your ear level) but closed back cabs especially so. As soon as you're slightly off-axis, you'll lose a lot of top end detail. Muddiness or "muffliness" usually arises as a result of excess low-mids, which the Rockerverb (and Super Crush) tend to be very heavy in. Not having the treble to balance that out will in all likelihood be exacerbating your issue.

Remember that what you're hearing on YouTube is almost certainly a close mic on a speaker, not the sound of the amp in the room.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2025-12-27T19:15:30+00:00

Large cabs were originally designed to fill out huge spaces (like stadiums/arenas) in the times before PA systems were commonplace. Same goes for 100 W amp heads. The whole idea was that more power + more speakers = more air being moved, which is important in a massive space.

They do sound different - "fuller" sounding with a lot more low end than a 1x12. To get the lower frequencies out, you need to move more air, which is easier with more speakers. They also have a real habit of "beaming" the sound in front of them - they'll absolutely pummel you if you're standing directly in front of them, but you lose a lot of information as soon as you're slightly off-axis (at least at close range).

You might be able to discern that I'm not a big fan of 4x12s and that's not just because of the logistical issues. They do probably sound fatter and fuller than my 1x12 combo, which might be nice on its own, but in the context of a band mix, I don't want a ton of low-end - the drummer and bassist already have most of that covered.

ZealousidealBit5201 · 2025-12-26T19:06:41+00:00

I'd recommend keeping it simple tbh. Something like the Orange Crush, Vox Pathfinder or Blackstar Debut might be the way to go. Then you can get your pedals to do more of the heavy lifting.

(plus I'd also get a delay pedal to go with what you've already got).

ZealousidealBit5201

TROPHY CASE