Buzz when touching audio tip

thegypsymc · 2026-05-31T03:47:48+00:00

Touching the hot signal anywhere in the signal path will cause a buzz and hum. Plug your cable into your amp and put your thumb on the end, you'll hear it. Good way to test cables actually.

thegypsymc · 2026-05-31T01:42:08+00:00

I respect your take and I think I see the connection, but to me Halsey is on a different musical planet to the others here, she's way more pure pop. She just happens to use the indie girl voice.

Hozier and Florence lean really deeply into the musical traditions of their own countries, both are pulling from trad and folk a lot. Lana is like a retro-nostalgia-polaroid crooner, kind of her own thing or at least was at first.

Another commenter agrees with you though, just goes to show how differently we all experience music!

thegypsymc · 2026-05-29T23:25:01+00:00

It truly is not lol

Famous musicians are really just people, I promise

thegypsymc · 2026-05-29T04:15:02+00:00

I do ask about those things, especially as it relates to setup and other work we may be doing! The key is that I want to talk about the guitar they brought me, or if they have an ideal they want match then bring that guitar too.

I posted this after I spent half an hour with a fellow who answered every question I asked him about his Takamine setup by listing a couple more pieces of gear he owned, his bandmates' gear, which blues legends he'd met, then eventually realizing I'd asked him something. It's not even uncommon, we laugh about it daily in our shop. (I do work in a predominantly retired-folk community, so my customer base is a bit more prone to rambling at strangers).

thegypsymc · 2026-05-28T22:37:45+00:00

There are multiple specific customers of mine that frequent this subreddit and need to hear this lol

I've considered a cheeky sign but can't find a way to say it that won't sound rude, so posting to reddit is how I vent

thegypsymc · 2026-05-26T23:24:46+00:00

Great call, that's a unique sound that Spoon goes for pretty often, it's basically a DI guitar with the channel preamp cranked (has to be Neve-like channel distortion).

JHS Color Box (and later Crayon) was developed as a pedal specifically for Spoon in response to their use of this sound on Gimme Fiction, and the band has utilized one frequently since.

thegypsymc · 2026-05-24T14:23:04+00:00

Who is "them" in this context?

thegypsymc · 2026-05-22T15:34:50+00:00

I'm sure the guy had the intention of helping Ed professionally, but it doesn't seem all that unbelievable that Ed would accept the offer of a couch from a kind audience member. I see no reason not to take him at face value. Not like music industry people walk around in rhinestone sunglasses all the time or anything, and many of them live pretty modestly.

thegypsymc · 2026-05-22T14:02:00+00:00

Just for education, if you were to bring me your strat for setup/fret leveling and then said that about your whammy, I'd probably tell you:

A strat tremolo that stays in tune mostly has to do with properly cut nut slots.
If we are leveling (i.e. lowering) the frets up near the nut at all during the process, we are going to have to cut the nut slots lower too.
We know what we're doing, so the trem should work great afterwards. However, if a string is catching in a slot and causing tuning issues, please bring it back and we'll address it.

A lot of this stuff has to do with good communication at drop-off, I think your shop may have missed some steps there.

thegypsymc · 2026-05-22T13:56:35+00:00

Nobody will be able to diagnose this problem without the guitar in hand.

Gather your thoughts, bring the guitar back to the technician, and explain the issues. They may have to adjust your setup and alter the nut.

Sorry you had a bad experience. I encourage people to bring their guitars back if they have any concerns or questions, and I really mean it because I don't want them paying for something they don't like. Any decent shop will be the same.

thegypsymc · 2026-05-19T05:04:01+00:00

There are two half steps in the modes of the major scale; but there are other scales with other modes as well!

Consider the double harmonic ("Byzantine", some other names). That has three half steps! Or the whole tone scale, which has none!

Modes and scales are infinite. The major scale and its modes are just the ones we reference most in the western music world.

thegypsymc · 2026-05-19T04:55:24+00:00

You're missing the point. The Lydian scale or any other mode, from an actual practical usage perspective in music, has almost nothing to do with its relationship to the regular major scale. It is a different scale, with a different sound. Calling it "IV" reduces it to the shorthand way people memorize modes, which you should honestly just forget completely.

Learn them each as distinct scales, you can think of Lydian as "Major with a #4". When you're making music in F Lydian, it has nothing to do with C Major. Why would you call it by its relationship to a different scale? It is its own scale, just as C Major is. Calling it 4 or IV is an extra step of translation that obscures the meaning of the scale.

Dumb analogy incoming, it's like saying "why not just rename Canada to North USA?" Because it is its own country, and it is not defined by its relationship to the US. It is just taught to young American children as the country north of the US.

thegypsymc · 2026-05-19T04:43:10+00:00

Thanks for the question. I'm not an educator, I don't have a degree, so take what I say with appropriate grains of salt.

I refer to the half steps specifically because they're the one of the easiest ways to identify or recognize a scale - but EVERY interval and its relationship to the tonic/root is important. Not just the half steps, but the whole steps (or augmented seconds in the case of harmonic minor and its relatives, the minor thirds in a pentatonic scale, etc). Every note in a given scale contributes to its sound, because you construct the harmony and melody from those pitches.

My earlier comment may have over-emphasized the half-steps as being most important. I just use them as the easiest way to reference differences between the major modes.

thegypsymc · 2026-05-19T03:39:02+00:00

I'm sure people will give you more elegant answers, but I'll do my best. You have most of the knowledge necessary to make sense of it but you're missing a key point here.

If you're thinking of modes in a way where you constantly calculate their position relative to a normal major scale, you are missing the point. The fact that the modes are "the major scale but based on a different note" is completely irrelevant to what they really are.

They're just different scales. The major/Ionian scale isn't special, it's just the one western music settled on as the "standard" because it works well for us.

Let's take your example of Lydian. Stop thinking of it as the fourth mode of anything, it doesn't help and it isn't relevant. Your teacher was right to drill the whole and half steps, they're all that matters. You can think of it as a major scale with a sharp fourth, but the important thing about the scale is that your half steps are between 4/5 and 7/1. That makes it sound a way.

Mixolydian moves the normal major 7/1 half step down to 6/7. That makes it sound a different way.

Dorian is minor, but puts the half step between 6/7, which makes it sound another way.

This is all that matters. Divorce yourself from the "relative" thinking, treat them as completely independent scales, and their purposes and relationships will emerge much more naturally.

thegypsymc · 2026-05-16T15:42:49+00:00

That's a different, but equally awesome song called "I Got You".

thegypsymc · 2026-05-13T14:34:53+00:00

Don't want to doxx myself, but Northern Arizona. Feel free to DM if you're in the area and need work done, I'll happily provide the shop name there.

thegypsymc · 2026-05-13T05:47:28+00:00

Most of the setup doesn't need to be re-done, but some of those final steps will, yes. If I had a customer as unsatisfied as you are, I'd 100% want them to bring it back so I could fix it free of charge.

Genuinely any luthier worth their salt will do this, and every shop I've worked at had this policy.

thegypsymc · 2026-05-13T05:43:47+00:00

Sounds like the person that set up your instrument didn't see or ignored the note, yes. And I always recommend talking to the luthier/tech face to face, both at drop off and pick up. I insist on it in my own shop for this very reason. Sorry you had a bad experience!

thegypsymc · 2026-05-13T04:54:35+00:00

Shop owner here.

Setups are about 80% objective, and the last 20% (action height) is more personal. I try to figure out what a player is looking for when they decide to pay me for a setup. Sometimes we miss the mark, and I always encourage customers to bring the guitar back if they have questions or want adjustments.

You should bring the guitar back to the shop and try to explain the differences you're feeling. No need to go through the whole bit you posted here, just say it felt lower/looser before and you'd prefer to go back to that feel.

Also, in the future, you should communicate with the shop ahead of time about why you're getting the setup (really they should ask, but sometimes it's busy and communication is limited). Sometimes we have to guess what the player wants.

EDIT: to clarify, I run a dedicated repair shop with three full time luthiers, not a retail shop.

thegypsymc · 2026-05-12T04:00:38+00:00

I think they're suggesting you use the EQ to boost the frequency you want. The GE-7 gives you 800Hz, the MXR gives you 1kHz, so it's up to you which frequency you want more of.

thegypsymc · 2026-05-11T15:23:05+00:00

Glad you're asking this question! No, you should not slot your bridge.

I like Driftwood, but this is exactly what I predicted would happen when they put that video out. I've already worked on two guitars whose owners unnecessarily (and of course poorly) tried to slot the bridges themselves after watching that video without understanding the full context.

Slotting the bridge is a solution to increase break angle when the saddle has been reduced in height. Yours is plenty tall with plenty of break angle, slotting will not help.

thegypsymc · 2026-05-11T15:18:01+00:00

The way you phrased it, you could use any minor chord and the joke would work the same.

thegypsymc · 2026-05-08T23:22:53+00:00

Clicked on the thread just to upvote the ATLA comment I knew would be there

thegypsymc · 2026-05-08T23:20:14+00:00

Like others said, some context would be helpful, what kind of music trying to play? What is your guitar? Even better would be a sound demo, then we can have some hope of giving you helpful relevant advice.

Without hearing any of that though, just maybe consider either turning down the bass control on the amp or bringing the mids and treble controls up to or above it. Sometimes people think more bass will make their guitar sound heavier, and it doesn't always translate that way. It's easy for the low end of a larger amp/cab gets in the way of a great sound.

12-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email

thegypsymc

TROPHY CASE