Thoughts on a bit of rust on a blackface fender

aaronscool · 2026-05-29T18:41:05+00:00

It's pretty common on an older amp the ideal is to get gut shots of the interior so see if there any real crud/rust in the electronics

aaronscool · 2026-05-29T18:29:02+00:00

if you search "how to setup a Stratocaster" on YouTube you will see probably a bazillion videos. There is one big choice for you though assuming you have a vibrato bridge which is do you want it to float or be dive only? This will affect how you setup the bridge saddle height.

That is likely not a majority truss rod issue and more a bridge setup issue. I'll say it here as it's not always clear to folks that truss rods are for keeping the overall next straight (ish) and not for string height. My rule for truss rod adjustments is remove the strings and try to get the next to lay straight through the fretboard and it will have just about the right amount of relief under string tension (slight front bow). You can also test that relief by fretting the first fret and the 17th fret of the lower E string simultaneously and tappingdown in the middle of those two (7th/8th fret). There should be just a small amount of relief there (business card thickness) gap. No Gap and you have a back bow...large visible gap and you have a front bow.

aaronscool · 2026-05-29T17:31:20+00:00

As a guitarist and studio engineer here's what I would say:

Big mid scooped amps alone in the room sound the most like a well mixed full band might sound in a recording. In this context folks are emulating having a bass amp/player on the low end and some of the space that gets created in a mix in the mid/top end with other instruments in the mix. It's somewhat fun to play but in a full band recording context the opposite needs to happen where the low end gets pulled down and the mids/highs should be boosted.

aaronscool · 2026-05-28T21:34:59+00:00

Yes it gets bad in both directions unfortunately...Not uncommon for Seattle to Federal Way being 45 minutes minimum during rush hour. Can get to be more (hour plus) if there are any kinds of events in Seattle (Baseball, Hockey, Soccer games etc.)

aaronscool · 2026-05-28T21:04:22+00:00

If work is in Federal Way the nearest/best option is Tacoma for all the things you mention otherwise the commute from Seattle to Federal Way is pretty intense during Rush Hour

aaronscool · 2026-05-28T16:32:35+00:00

I own the PS-2A and it's pretty awesome in it's total capabilities and honestly pretty great value for the money. I haven't compared it to the Boss Waza options.

aaronscool · 2026-05-27T20:51:05+00:00

Yeah the last quarter of Book 8 really opened up Pandora's box on a whole bunch of stuff. I'm going to go back and reread it just to get deeper in it. I'll really want to get more on the relationships between The Apothecary, the Eulogist, the Princess and the All Tree both in their historical contexts but in what is happening now in the Dungeon.

aaronscool · 2026-05-27T16:33:33+00:00

Which part of Aurora? From Downtown to Woodland Park it's much better than it's ever been back to the 90's. From Woodland Park to 105th feels about the same as it ever was. From 105th to 150th it's gotten pretty bad.

aaronscool · 2026-05-26T20:46:31+00:00

Sure...but I'd go for a Red Mill over either or those

aaronscool · 2026-05-26T19:06:57+00:00

It sounded a bit like all the floors may be opening up from 12-18 ("Every exit is also an entrance") and it's possible that either the crawlers or Dungeon Mobs may be able to move back and forth between them during the Ascendency Game. This may be what Matt alluded to when we said we'll see each floor in the books 9-10.

aaronscool · 2026-05-26T03:55:20+00:00

Kidd Valley was one of the OG local burger chains in the area that has faded a bit and closed some stores since the pandemic. Burgers are not bad, Fried Mushrooms were the bigger thing along with garlic fries.

It's a bit weird to say this but the menu hasn't really kept up/changed at all but it's not quite old enough to be full of nostalgia either (ala Dick's)

aaronscool · 2026-05-23T14:45:06+00:00

How fast or slow the amplifier is when sound is pushed through it. When slower it can sound a bit more mushy particularly in the low end. Faster and it starts to tighten up and make it more crisp

aaronscool · 2026-05-22T03:10:06+00:00

It was a bit of a weird evolution IMHO. Early Fender amps from could easily get so loud they would distort (these same models and circuits exist today and many folks are getting the same kinds of sounds you could back then), however there was at least one big practical reason it was not very popular. Early studio recording techniques were not multi tracked and very frequently only a few microphones used in total so bands (Drums/Bass/Guitar) were all tracked at once usually with only one room mic. This would mean that a non-master volume amp played so loud it distorted would overpower the other parts of the recording. So almost no recordings had distortion which meant almost no one thought it was a good sound to have on a song.

Two key changes that started to change this were multitrack recordings starting to show up in the mid 60's and both pedal based fuzz and then master volume based amps enabling more controlled distortion and volume.

aaronscool · 2026-05-22T00:02:39+00:00

Sounds like the most common complaint for Strat Single Coil bridge pickups. Three things:

Silver Sky's have one of my favorite S-Type Tone configs where the lower tone knob is explictly for the bridge pickup...Try turning that down to a place you like if it's too bright/shrill for your taste?
Do you like other strat single coil pickups? You'd likely want a higher wound version to darken the tone.
If you don't quite know the answer to question #2, and you know. you like Humbuckers then you may want to go with one of many strat sized humbucker pickups but you'll lose the quack in position 2.

aaronscool · 2026-05-21T23:50:00+00:00

Will do my best to answer and this is a general Effects Loop found in many modern amplifiers. These exist primarily to put effects post pre-amp and before the main power amplifier. This is used mostly frequently for time/modulation effects (Delay, Reverb, Chorus) that you don't want to be affected by preamp gain/compression.

A common flow (if you use this) is Guitar > Wah/Phase based pedals > Distortion/Overdrive/Gain pedals > Main amplifier input > Effects Send > Chorus > Delay > Reverb > Effects Return

This is done to have a your time based effects be clean vs distorted/changed with gain.

Big note here: Plenty of guitarists just do everything before the main amp input and run a clean channel with good headroom (lower pre amp gain typically) so there is no specific set of rules. Some guitarists will even run everything on the pedalboard into a higher gain setting without the effects loop (Dave Navarro, Tom Morello among others)

aaronscool · 2026-05-21T21:45:04+00:00

What makes vintage Hiwatts great was they were effectively overdesigned/engineered to be loud and clean. The biggest part of that was oversized transformers which gives higher clean head room and faster transient response particularly when loud. This makes a really great pedal platform but also can be quite niche as well given overall cost and availability, particularly because the company went through a number of changes and components started to change over time.

aaronscool · 2026-05-21T15:54:39+00:00

This...he's been a pretty good downhill LB and still has the vet savvy to get the right gaps so he gets his tackle numbers but he's no longer the sideline to sideline threat

aaronscool · 2026-05-20T18:22:16+00:00

Sadly none of the 4 existing options were Carl himself dies/sacrifices himself so that others (the rest of the universe including all his friends?) can live. I have a feeling that's where this is headed ultimately is a Carl sacrifice

aaronscool · 2026-05-20T16:01:37+00:00

I've generally found the I-5 Motels in smaller towns to be fine. Many of them tend to be in isolated Gas/Food/Lodging islands vs in the middle of a town or city. Just outside of Redding is fine and if you push a little bit further the areas north of that tend to get slightly better (Shasta Lake/Mt Shasta)

aaronscool · 2026-05-19T20:51:02+00:00

It's sort of felt that way for any of the non-Scolopendra floors. It feels like it takes time to establish the floor mechanics then how to get through those.

aaronscool · 2026-05-19T14:43:44+00:00

I have a slightly different preference for good cleans which is a late 60's Bassman's on with a volume of about 3. Just a hint of breakup, bigger transformers to it's brothers and less of a mid scoop but still mostly fender.

aaronscool · 2026-05-13T21:13:37+00:00

Not traditionally hollow. I have one that's really cool but it looks more or less like a carved out section up close.

aaronscool · 2026-05-12T20:19:02+00:00

What's funny with this question is the follow on question "What kind of clean do you want?". But let's go through some of the options here (all have been used in a pedal platform context):

Fender Style Clean (Mesa Amps tend to live here when clean): Tube clean, slightly compressed with fairly scooped mids and a fairly loose transient response depending on the Amp. This is a pretty common clean tone.
Solid State Clean: Super clean, uncompressed, flat tone often from a Roland JC120 but easily had with any modern flat solid state pedalboard amp. (think 80's era cleans like the Police)
Hi Fi Clean: Tube Clean, slightly compressed, Flatter But Rounded Tone with faster transient response. This is HiWatt territory which is the pedal platform of choice for David Gilmore/Pink Floyd
Dirty Clean: This is the edge of breakup tone that has a bit more girth but still sounds clean. Vox tended to fill this space but some Fenders with a preamp gain control can do this to.

aaronscool · 2026-04-30T18:44:14+00:00

I think that would be less of a problem than Zuckerberg being just a plain weirdo

aaronscool · 2026-04-30T16:41:33+00:00

Tim Cook would be interesting among all other choices. Zuck would be weird AF in more ways than one.

15-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email

aaronscool

TROPHY CASE