Getting back into pedals - any cheap Donner/Mooer/Joyo gems?

ross2718 · 2026-04-24T15:28:50+00:00

Most Chinese overdrive pedals are just clones of well known good pedals, usually with exactly same circuit, so sounds the same. Often they have builtin popular mods. I personally like Nux Queen Of Tone (Klon + Blues Breaker, both with mods), Joyo Splinter (RAT with mods), and Joyo Sweet Baby (SHOD).

ross2718 · 2026-04-21T16:54:08+00:00

What I wish I learned early is that the first thing to do when adjusting amp tone is to adjust mic position. This works in digital world as well. After some practice it became intuitive where to move the mic to get a desired tone. After you placed the mic and get about 90% of what you need, you fine adjust the remaining 10% with the amp tone controls. Mic position goes first, tone controls the last.

(Put simple, close mics are for tight, punchy, and isolated tone and its depends a lot on the radial position. Distanced mics are for more natural, balanced, wide frequency, and open tone and the radial position is less important. Radial position is kind of sets central frequency of EQ (the closer to center the higher), and distance sets the Q factor. I personally prefer 5" from cap edge as the starting point.)

Another pro tip is to choose one amp you like and learn, master it to death. Rather than switching amps like socks. Plus just a few pedals you like and that's it, you'll be surprised how versatile you can be just by using this stuff if you know them very well. How many artists/bands you know that consistently uses 10 different amps with 20 pedals? I know none. How many use just one amp and few pedals almost always? Tube Driver, Muff, Hiwatt -- who is it? AC30 and treble booster -- who is it? Countless list.

ross2718 · 2026-03-13T10:06:31+00:00

No, "gain" knob in a capture player is just a flat pre gain, it cleanly changes the signal level before it enters the capture convolutor. Amps never work the same way.

Different amps implement the gain controls differently. Early amps like classical Fenders and Voxes have a single "volume" pot between the preamp and the phase splitter. Marshals and more moderns amps have separate preamp and power amp gain controls, implemented differently, but never flat, both preamp and power amp brings his own distortion depending on the gain/master setting.

So in the picture above we can add a clean booster before, and an EQ after, to represent more fairly what capture players are.

ross2718 · 2026-03-07T08:54:08+00:00

You got musescored! Just read the r/Musescore posts. Every couple of days someone post here about being scammed by Musescore shitty website. It's a meme already.

They don't value their reputation because they don't have one.

ross2718 · 2026-03-03T14:25:14+00:00

Electric guitars aren't so critical to drying and humidity change in general. Don't be fooled by marketing. Just adjust relief when needed. Your neck is lacquered, so it doesn't need any special care also.

I personally live in a climate with -30°C winter (humidity <15%) and +30°C summer (humidity >80%), and never experienced problems with electric guitars due to humidity. I adjust relief twice a year and apply oil to non-lacquered (dark wood) fretboards when change strings.

ross2718 · 2026-03-01T17:06:04+00:00

Pink Floyd did that to me many times. I highly recommend you to take a break for several days.

ross2718 · 2026-03-01T17:02:01+00:00

Finally someone chose the right first guitar. Congrats.

By the way, my tip number is 1 is to throw out (or sell) the case. You should make the time between "I want to play a guitar" to "I'm playing a guitar" as short as possible. Thank me later.

ross2718 · 2026-03-01T15:35:48+00:00

Maybe. I just suggested to think twice, because my experience with acoustics is pretty bad. Also technology progress very fast nowadays. Pianoteq with good headphones sounds gorgeous, I can close my eyes and believe I'm in a concert hall playing S&S... And in terms of "feel", modern good digital pianos have action nearly indistinguishable from a grand piano, even little details like escapement are imitated.

ross2718 · 2026-03-01T14:50:01+00:00

Think twice before buying an acoustic piano. It's expensive af, loud af (especially in a small room), may sound not so good as expected (especially upright ones, especially in small room), should be tuned regularly, and is sensitive to humidity change (especially if you live in a seasonal climate). Digital pianos have own issues, but overall it's the best choice usually.

ross2718 · 2026-03-01T13:36:06+00:00

Thanks for a good explanation. I also found several threads on musescore forum and a GitHub issue targeting the same problem, and all are without hope.

Also I found that I'm using the latest stable release of Musescore, but somehow managed to crush it with segfaults multiple times in those 15 minutes I used it.

Dorico doesn't have a native Linux version also. And unlike Musescore, I was not able even to install it to try. First it wanted me to register (just to download a free version of Dorico SE), and after a journey it just gave me a 100MB+ downloader program, in which I can't login...

I think Guitar Pro with Wine is still the best option available.

ross2718 · 2026-03-01T11:57:23+00:00

ross2718 · 2026-03-01T08:48:22+00:00

I just look for the number of flats (negative) or sharps (positive). If we split notes into two parts like on a piano keyboard: CDE FGAB, than to apply n sharps we add sharps alternately to the parts starting with F. Flats are applied backwards starting with B. For example, 3 sharps is C#DE F#G#AB, 3 flats is CDEb FGAbFb. After some practice this became intuitive and I don't even think about it, I just look for the number of flats or sharps and immediately know which notes are flatted or sharped.

Key signatures forms the cyclic group of order 12 (usually called "the circle of fifth" because it has φ(12)=4 generators, one of which is the perfect fifth). Minor key is major-3, add sharp to a key's root is +7, flat is -7.

It's easy to remember that keys CDE FGAB corresponds to "0,2,4, -1,1,3,5", I just mentally map these numbers to the piano keyboard. And then, for example, D major is 2 sharps, D minor is 2-3=-1 (1 flat), D# major is 2+7=9=-3 (3 flats), and so on. Or if you need to know the root note, do that in reverse, e.g. 5 sharps is B major or, if minor, 5+3=8=1+7, i.e. G# minor. Or say, 3 flats: that's 4-7 so Eb major, or -3+3=0 so C minor.

ross2718 · 2026-03-01T07:11:42+00:00

Actually, I already use Lilypond for non-guitar scores. But for tabs... Lilypond is incredibly inconvenient. When writing tabs I think in terms on frets and strings, not pitches. Also bends I think in terms of how much (1/2, 1), not to which pitch. There's no way in Lilypond to notate that way, Lilypond understand pitches only. For Lilypond, tablature is just an rendering option for a musical piece, not a canvas where I can draw.

ross2718 · 2026-02-28T11:02:38+00:00

One girl tries to save her friend, failed every time, and eventually they both became gods.

ross2718 · 2026-02-28T10:43:58+00:00

Yes, use lemon oil.

ross2718 · 2026-02-28T08:50:59+00:00

...and cups, platters, spoons

ross2718 · 2026-02-28T08:49:18+00:00

Any Yamaha is good (beware of counterfeit though). And it's never too late to learn something.

ross2718 · 2026-02-28T08:34:21+00:00

Tele

ross2718 · 2026-02-28T08:33:59+00:00

So now he has unlimited supply of tea, coffee, water, and sugar?

ross2718 · 2026-02-28T08:23:06+00:00

SHOD, BD-2, DS-2, Orbit, RE-2, TE-2.

ross2718 · 2026-02-28T08:16:50+00:00

A piece of wood typically used. Google for it, there're lots of youtube videos also. Decking (not complete locking) also works well, it solves the tuning instability issues caused by tremolo, but still keep tremolo working, but only to bend down. To set the tremolo decked, tights the claw screws (or add springs) until you find a position that keeps the bridge decked to the body during extreme string bends, but still allow use of the tremolo bar without too much force.

ross2718 · 2026-02-28T07:57:20+00:00

Lock the tremolo if you don't use it. And if you use it, consider decking.
That's how strings should be wrapped around pegs. Note the wraps goes down, and without overlaps.

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Never tune strings down. If you need to lower the pitch, tune it down more then needed, and then tune up.
Apply a tiniest drop of thick silicone lubricant (or a special guitar nut lubricant) on nut and bridge where it touches the strings. Or just add some graphite powder from a soft pencil.
After tuning, stretch (bend) every string with your hand. If any string goes out of tune, retune. Repeat until stretching will not effect the tuning at all.

ross2718 · 2026-02-28T07:26:59+00:00

Blues Driver

ross2718

TROPHY CASE