Month: February 2023

Of past and present guitars

25.02.2023

Well, to cut a long story short, I have a new Jackson (a fast, and modern metal axe) in the Darkwave family. Buying a Jackson finally put an end to a decade-long yearning: the fact that I had to sell my old PS2 Performer approximately 20 years ago always made me somewhat sad. Since then, I’ve been constantly eyeing Jacksons from the corner of my eye, until now… Look at this beauty:

The new Jackson actually put me into a somewhat nostalgic mode: it made me remember not only my old PS2 Performer but also my very first electric guitar, a Jolana Strat. For those who are not familiar with this gem of the former Czechoslovakian music industry, let me show you a couple of pictures of this highly uncomfortable and suboptimal guitar. Still, I’m grateful for this very simple musical instrument, because this gave me the first impetus to become a guitar fanatic.

The long and windy road

17.02.2023

Before I start, let me apologize for my long absence – it’s been a while since I posted anything, and it was with a reason.

First of all, lately I’ve been having health issues. Nothing to worry about, though – it’s just time and energy-consuming to find the time for all those physical examinations, especially that I have a regular 9-5 job and live in the suburbs. So, in the last couple of weeks my energy was mainly dedicated to carry on with the necessary things. Besides, I’ve been constantly struggling to find a good guitar tone – I know that once or twice I showed you interim results of my experimentation in Bias FX2 (or more recently, Neural DSP), but the battle is still raging on. All of my previously used guitar tones sounded suboptimal to me, so I tried to find new ways to achieve a robust, still crispy and clear guitar sound.

Anyway, I think I’m finally on the right track: I experimented a lot with various amp, cab and mic settings, and ended up with a clear, but robust sound.