Your fiscal 2022 year-in-gear roundup

[oldangelmidnight]

This year was ampquest for me. I sold my Science head because I wanted something I could leave the house with. I settled on two different combos. The Sound City SC20 gets a bright clean present thing that I want when I'm playing angry. The Supro Royale is a bit more laid back but has the most haunting reverb.

Last year I started messing with modular and eurorack but I barely touched it this year. I still ended up buying a couple of drum modules and a Makenoise Strega.
My synthy time has consisted in messing with Elektron Digitakt and Syntakt. I've far from gained any kind of mastery of them but they're fun to poke at.

I've been keeping terrible records of what pedals I've been through. I think the Spaceman Aurora has been the most impactful addition. Set to slow flange or broken-glass comb filter, it's on more often than not.

[oldangelmidnight]

Fiscal, hahahaha. My fiscals have been backwards this year, more out go than in come; but in terms of an off kilter 12 month span...

Last December I bought an Akai DR4d rack mount digital four track recorder on facebook marketplace. It had a 200 MB SCSI hard drive in it that sounded like a small jet engine, allowing a total time (to be shared across the tracks) of around 20 minutes or so. I have since ousted the spinning disc for a totally silent ZuluSCSI SD card based HD emulator turning the Akai into my favorite purchase in a very long time. All of the untethered to a computer immediacy of a 4 track recorder without the cost of tape, and I happen to like the early/mid 1990s Akai A/D D/A conversion sound.

Over the course of this year I have purchased an E-mu ESi 4000 (fully upgraded) in marginal/inoperable condition. That one took me about a month and a half to sort out, being hit with a bunch of false starts that tricked me into thinking it was fixed when it wasn't. (the display PCB had a faulty ground reference that was hanging the boot cycle). I've yet to really dive deep into this machine on the operating front, but it is inspiring me to record more material to chop into bits and hardware mutliate, so I rank this as another good buy.

A JL Cooper MSB+ in untested condition that was damaged in transit turned out to be a somewhat straight forward fix, and is a welcome addition to my MIDI routing woes.

I bought a set of EEPROM flashed with Tauntek firmware for Kawai SX-240, making that synth a thousand times more useful. I have my eyes on more Tauntek firmware (VX90/AX73), but that can wait until 2023.

A Kenetek T4 opto for my old compressor that only proves it is currently in operational disarray and needs some loving.

Finally I impulsively bought a basket case Akai S900 sampler and later a mostly complete front panel switch PCB for the same. This one is still awaiting an uninterrupted block of time to really dig into.

On the trade front I wound up with a pile of karaoke stuff, a broken rack mount CD player, a Roland digital piano (which would be a cool control keyboard if they saw fit to include modulation or bend controls), a Korg KMX-122 (that had some dodgy channels), and some truly Frankensteinian projects/parts piles I have yet to summon the courage to explore (a friend was moving out of state and I was awarded a car-full of cast aways).

In retrospect, I don't think I have purchased a single pedal this year.. no, wait, not true: I bought a broken MXR Carbon Copy from a friend.

This whole thing causes me great envy and terror. Any broken thing I have around is a source of great shame and disappointment. I feel like I should just make the time to fix it and I would probably enjoy the triumph but I just never get around to it.

[D.o.S.]

This year was my boring practical getting back into being in a band that plays live in the same room year.

And by 'boring practical' I mean:
Kick ass amp that works for both bands, is mobile, and falls under 'not afraid to use because it's worth more than a month of rent': GK Legacy 800. Love it.

Dirty bass preamp quest - snagged a Moose Sledgehammer for one band, have a Rusty Box coming as a back up (because because I went to buy one earlier in the year and they were out of stock so I got the fear), and I've wound up using the Fairfield EQ CBS got me last year for the other band as an always on EQ to make everything sound big and dark and ominously rad as fuck whilst taming the:

Fredrick Deeply Unpleasant Companion - which is a Shin-Ei Companion Fuzz... which is the Radiohead National Anthem fuzz if you're a nerd who likes radiohead and the Cosmic Psychos bass fuzz if you're not a nerd that likes radiohead (or both if you're both). Great tone, but quite possibly the least versatile fuzz pedal I've ever used.

And that's it, other than even more boring stuff like power supply, XLR cables, Speakon cables, a second pitchblack, etc. Pretty well sorted for both bass boards, which has me very happy because it means I have space to dive into my tabletop setup again, which has been neglected as of late.

[Gone Fission]

The Sound City SC20 gets a bright clean present thing that I want when I'm playing angry.

The demos I’ve heard of that one are really good, with what I perceived as more of a big amp feel than the cathode biased SC30. If I were looking for a play-outside-the-house amp, I’d want to try one.

[ognoy]

2022 so far:

Guitars:
Squier FSR Bullet Mustang - Swapped the pups for some GFS Surf 90s and it sounds awesome. Love this guitar!
Harley Benton GuitarBass(Bass VI) - I use mine in standard B-tuning. Great value for the money. Will probably change pups some time.
Morgan Acoustic guitar - was given this by a friend who was moving and getting rid of a lot of stuff. Have it setup with Nashville-tuning and it is a great tool.
Harley Benton Mandolin - Super cheap mandolin. Got it to use on a country record I did this summer. Tuned it to D-G-B-E, so I can play guitar chords on it. Sounds OK.

Amps:
Peavey Studio Chorus 70 - bought this because I guessed it had the same kind of preamp-design as the (much more sought after and now expensive) Peavey Decade(Josh Homme amp), and I think I was right. Paid very little and got a spring reverb and a nice analog chorus/vibrato built in as well.
Tandberg R2R Tape recorder - Old (probably) 50s reel to reel tape recorder with 5 watt tube amp built in. Previous owner had also modded it with a speaker out jack. Sounds super cool. Great studio tool.
Orange Dark Terror - Bought this of a friend of mine who never used it. Had always thought this was a hi-gain only amp, but it has a wast range of sounds. And it sounds good!
Milkman The Amp - Recently got this and still in the honeymoon phase, but I love this amp! Sounds great through a cab, as a preamp into other amps or direct to mixer/interface. Awesome tool!

Pedals:
Line 6 HX Stomp XL - Started the year by selling a lot of pedals and buying this. Sounds awesome, super practical, very boring. Loved the sounds, but missed being able to turn knobs on the fly, so sold it after 7 months.
Fuzzrocious MOTH - Great pedal! My only drive on my noiserock-board.
Keeley Tone Workstation - This one is in the mail, probably here by tomorrow. This is going on my country-board.

Studio gear:
Focusrite Clarett+ 8 pre - Works and sounds great.
Behringer ADA8200 - Use this for adding 8 more inputs to the Focusrite. Does the job. Sounds good.
Behringer Powerplay P16-I - Great piece of kit for the money.
SSL Fusion - Very expensive, sounds very good.
Warm Audio - Bus-Comp(SSL-clone) - Recently hooked this up(as an insert on the Fusion) but it sounded good. Looking forward to playing more with it.
Symetrix 501 compressor - Have not tried this out yet.
Aston Element - Good sounding and fair priced condencer mic.
Beyerdynamic M818 mics - Stereo pair of vintage Beyer M81 mics. Sounds great on guitar amps, vocals, drums and probably other stuff as well.

[retinal orbita]

I bought a Boss RC-500 Looper and a death metal clone from Dunn Electronics. And a set of picks.

I sold A LOT of gear. A ton of pedals (at least 10-12) and my Zoom H4N. Some other stuff. I have 5-6 pedals on Reverb and Kijiji currently and I’ll probably add a few more listings. I have an urge to downsize.

Currently I have a bass, a synth, a couple amps and a bunch of pedals. Everything else went to the thrifty graveyard….

[qersty]

Those old tandbergs do sound really gre,at

[ognoy]

Those old tandbergs do sound really gre,at

They really do! When they're dimed it sounds like a angry fuzz jumping out of the speaker and punching you in the face!

[Dowi]

I bought two pedals this year, BAT Crown of Horns after trying an op amp muff I was muling for an international pal. Turns out the IC muff seems to be the keeper one for me, and now I've resolved to just keep this around forever so I never flip it then need another muff some time

IC muffs ftw! I have been extremely curious in the BSRI variation on this circuit. Never heard of BAT Crown of horns before, but I just checked and it seems to be structured like my ICmuff from Madebymike, with a secondary footswitch for tone bypass, right? Nice feature.

[Dowi]

I managed to keep this year's gear acquisitions under 10 units, which is great.

Starting with a Zoia got in a trade just out of curiosity, then i stopped buying anything for a while and dug deep into that. The endless possibilities make it a useful tool to sketch ideas, weird effect combinations, synth usage, ore standalone miniboard , but it's not immediate and needs some dedication initially. I strongly resonate with what ognoy says about the Line6 HX: the inability of tweaking things on the fly is the worst thing in the Zoia too, and that's the reason why it gets used a lot less than a few months back, and more in a set and forget kind of way.

Then Digitakt finally came after about 2 years of wanting one, and it's really an awesome thing. My only complaint is that i still haven't used it as much as i initially wanted, because this year i have been quite busy with work and also my interests have gravitated almost only towards playing guitar.

Somewhere along the way i went the opposite way - i guess it was a reaction to the programming thing of both Zoia and DT - and acquired the simplest pedal, a Boss DM-2W. It sounds awesome, lives on my board ever since, and i couldn't be happier of having a delay pedal without tap tempo (which tbh was a fundamental thing for me until a while ago).

Got the new Willowisp from Jero and I absolutely love it, never left the board since it came: a review is coming, and a demo too, i just have to find the time. It's becoming my favorite pedal from the Stomping Stones catalog, which is a lot to say since they're all pretty sick.

Gifted me a MAE Civil Math too for no particular reason other than seeing it popping up in BST, and it sounds great, especially when paired with something else, which is not always the case for muffs.

I also scored a cheap Boss RC5 for simple live sample launch. It does what it does, but rn lives at a friend's house and i don't have shows coming up (since ages, sigh..).

Got a DBA Reverberation Machine for the second time, always for the sake of simplicity and reduce the options on board, but in the end i always prefer the Atmosphere because i can integrate it effortlessly in any setup, so i am getting rid of the dba again.

I guess that's it.

[Blackened Soul]

Looking back…
Bunch of random guitar parts/pickups/bridges..
only 4 pedals: wren and kuff phatphuk b, earthquaker devices tentacle, maxon rtc600 and a Mxr poly blue octave.
Also got built a Flying V kit from precision guitar kits, an older carvin 6 string bass and a Ibanez sr496 which I’ve already harvested for parts

[coldbrightsunlight]

I bought two pedals this year, BAT Crown of Horns after trying an op amp muff I was muling for an international pal. Turns out the IC muff seems to be the keeper one for me, and now I've resolved to just keep this around forever so I never flip it then need another muff some time

IC muffs ftw! I have been extremely curious in the BSRI variation on this circuit. Never heard of BAT Crown of horns before, but I just checked and it seems to be structured like my ICmuff from Madebymike, with a secondary footswitch for tone bypass, right? Nice feature.

Yeah the footswitch is cool, though I find there aren't a lot of settings where it isn't a giant volume boost

[oldangelmidnight]

The Sound City SC20 gets a bright clean present thing that I want when I'm playing angry.

The demos I’ve heard of that one are really good, with what I perceived as more of a big amp feel than the cathode biased SC30. If I were looking for a play-outside-the-house amp, I’d want to try one.

This is not in any way a good demo but I made a recording when I was first trying it out:


I was definitely abusive of Guitar Center's return policy when I was shopping around and this ended up the keeper for me.
It's lighter weight than most things I tried but it doesn't feel cheap.

[cantremember]

This year has been stupid busy with working full time and going to school full time so it's pretty slow as far as new gear acquisitions. I think the only pedal I got was a Strymon Blue Sky and I bought an Apollo interface and a new computer. I think I've played guitar like once maybe twice this year? For whatever reason my skills have greatly diminished and I feel like I really suck at it now and that is no fun. The only real music things I do now are play with my 404 and Ableton.

[friendship]

This year has been stupid busy with working full time and going to school full time so it's pretty slow as far as new gear acquisitions. I think the only pedal I got was a Strymon Blue Sky and I bought an Apollo interface and a new computer. I think I've played guitar like once maybe twice this year? For whatever reason my skills have greatly diminished and I feel like I really suck at it now and that is no fun. The only real music things I do now are play with my 404 and Ableton.

Tell me more about the 404 and Ableton action. Making stuff is more fun than buying stuff imho