Your fiscal 2022 year-in-gear roundup

[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

[coldbrightsunlight]

Making stuff is more fun than buying stuff imho

Get off my gear forum.


No it really is though

[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.

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

If yr asking if they play well together, not really but I haven't spent a whole lot time trying to figure that out. I basically use one or the other or if I make something cool in Ableton like a sample/loop I drop it in the 404 with the 404 app and go from there. When I finish I'll pull the "stems" off the 404 and put it back in a DAW for editing or mixing. It's basically just a way for me to step away from the computer and still use some hardware to be creative. Honestly, I should probably go back to the Octatrack for a lot of the outside Ableton stuff but the 404 is way easier and a lot faster to use.

[qersty]

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.

When did sound city get revived? Are they tr00 or like hiwatts were until like last year?

Mmm hiwatt

[Gone Fission]

When did sound city get revived? Are they tr00 or like hiwatts were until like last year?

Mmm hiwatt

Fryette acquired the name and relaunched the brand maybe six years ago? Not a straight DR take—he has stated that it’s a take on the early Dan Reeves Sound City design that survived as the Hiwatt CP-103 “The Who” amps, though extrapolating “the one channel people liked” into a two channel configuration that should be familiar to Hiwatt DR fans and recognizable to Plexi fans. I couldn’t tell you where it landed exactly, since the demo vids I’ve seen comparing to DR-504 and 103 are in the family. Though the big Sound City 100’s output transformer will saturate more easily—the 103s had oversized iron for fidelity and to avoid warranty repairs, so maybe not the best choice depending on the sound you want. Some controlled comparisons of Hiwatt and new Sound City in both 50 and 100 watters: https://youtu.be/I_aRS8MiW6I

These are PCB amps, not turret boardss with the Harry Joyce wiring harness, which will tweak some people who hear with their eyes. But the designer knows the old circuits and had a vision for tuning what he thought was their essence.

The SC20 may not be the same as the big heads, but it definitely isn’t a toy version from all the clips I’ve heard. And it’s much closer to practicality for me.