What should I buy from these choices?

[Polytrix]

Hey all! Hope you're well.

 

So I've recently bought my strat and love it and ive been very close to buying a boss katana MK2 amp and a foot controller which is like 400£ or maybe a tad bit more.

I've got an old fender champion 110 but the spring reverb is really noisy which is kind of annoying. But I've sort of decided to delay this until I can get a proper amp used and save my cash.

 

I've been considering the lyra 8 but I think it's out of budget. I've also been considering getting a techno expansion card for my jv 1080 which I adore now I've got the midi editor working and purchased some extra presets. The Don solaris pack. The expansion card is £100 on ebay.

 

Or bass guitar as the girl I'm dating is a singer and wants a new bass. Maybe 80-200£ if a budget guitar.

 

Or, should I get an external reverb pedal to go with the amp I've actually got and add that to the Ts7 tubescreamer and wah I've got in the chain. I've got no external reverb at this point other than the midiverb2 which is somehat occupied as it's only got one set of stereo ins/outs so I use it for ableton stuff.

 

Or should I get a bizarre non rack synth. Like something interesting with wave table maybe.

 

I feel like I'd just like a new toy. I'm being ridiculously productive music wise and I'm working with a drummer now too so I've got tracks being finished sort of weekly for the first time or some jazz. It's going really well and I've got a nice studio space now.

 

All advice appreciated!

 

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[thawkins]

My suggestion is to trawl through some used gear listings and get something that you feel your heart connecting with that you can also use immediately as well.

[Polytrix]

Good advice cheers. Im sort of holding off to an extent now and just digging into the 1080 as much as I can. I'm getting good results. I'll have a browse tho. I was considering a used drum machine actually.

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[chim]

Watch out for the 1080 expansion cards, the older ones have bad caps and will explode on you. 

[Polytrix]

Yeah I did wonder. I was looking at this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403456840464?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D23467bc613ed40a4a218c71728b1ca5a%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D403456840464%26itm%3D403456840464%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057%26brand%3DRoland&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3A4415723c-8a77-11ec-a0a3-6e266b1da216%7Cparentrq%3Ae3ded60c17e0ad333afd6cacffedb438%7Ciid%3A1

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[chim]

Techno is supposed to be part of the old design, but not being able to see the backside makes it hard to tell. The unsafe ones have a single 6v cap, newer ones had three 16v ones. I'd strongly suggest a recap, shouldn't be too hard to find help with that If you really want one. 

[TubularCorporation]

4 hours ago, chim said:

Watch out for the 1080 expansion cards, the older ones have bad caps and will explode on you. 

Yeah, this. It's kind of amazing that Roland issued a memo about it, what, 17 years after the thing was discontinued?  Even if it was only issued in Japanese it's still surprising.

 

I recapped all of mine, it's not too bad but the old ones are kind of fussy to get out without lifting pads.  If I were going to do it again I'd use something like Chip-Quick on them (but also there's plenty of copper around the traces, so despite what the one good video tutorial says, it's actually really easy to repair if you DO lift a pad.  I did four cards, 8 pads total, and lifted two).

 

The thing that makes it touch is the legs of the original caps are almost completely covered by the little plastic spacers they sit on, so it's really hard to keep the solder melted without also melting the plastic onto the tip of your iron, and even harder to keep the solder on both legs melted at the same time.  Safely desoldering the CPU in my Juno was easier.

Edited February 10, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[Polytrix]

Thanks guys. Nah I'm just not going to bother for all that effort then.

Tempted now by a fuzz pedal to be honest. Trying to boost my single coil strat tone to work better with heavier drone stuff.

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[Polytrix]

Any tips on a fuzz pedal peeps? I'm trying to achieve more of a droney metal done ala Godflesh with my strat bridge pick up (single coil). Getting close with a tube screamer and just being loud but desiring something else.

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[zero]

I'd recommend the bass guitar option. I've been playing guitar since '92 and up until last year, had never owned a bass before. I've played on friends basses over the years when jamming, but never owned one. I gotta say, it's really helped make some stuff click in my head when it comes to trying to write new tunes. I've always felt most comfortable on the guitar, and naturally tried to come up with ideas mainly on it. but building a song idea off of a bassline as opposed to rhythmic or lead stuff on guitar, is like an a-ha moment for me. why didn't I think of this years ago? all this time I thought of myself as a guitarist, when maybe I'm actually more of a bassist in disguise lol. now I always go to the bass first when messing around solo. I bought a cheap bass (Ibanez tmb100) because I'm on a budget and wasn't sure how much I'd play the damn thing. and now of course I'm wanting to upgrade to like a music man or p bass...grass is always greener haha. by a loop pedal and compressor if you're wanting to have quick jams by yourself, can jump over to guitar to figure stuff out once the bassline is looping. 

[TubularCorporation]

15 hours ago, Polytrix said:

Any tips on a fuzz pedal peeps? I'm trying to achieve more of a droney metal done ala Godflesh with my strat bridge pick up (single coil). Getting close with a tube screamer and just being loud but desiring something else.

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I am in love with the Mastro Bass Brassmaster these days.  There are some good clones, and the Fuzzdog kit I built also sounds amazing (and costs like 30 pounds, so if you could pay someone to build it you'd still probably end up paying less than half what the clones cost).

https://shop.pedalparts.co.uk/product/brassmaster

 

I don't think it would get you Godflesh but it's a pretty amazing sounding pedal.

 

Also, I second getting a bass.  Bass is great, I regret selling mine.

Edited February 12, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[Polytrix]

Thanks a lot everyone. Yeah probably just gonna go with a fuzz and bass down the line. Hope you're all ace.

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[Polytrix]

I just went with an original large Big Muff. Interestingly I tried a few different electro harmonix things and went with the original US Migmuff. Had a lot more low end!

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