March 2nd, 2008
Mashable! has a great post up today with 11 excellent resources available on the web for learning to play the guitar:
You can learn to do just about anything on the web, and guitar playing is no different. Yeah, I know you’ve mastered the toughest songs on Guitar Hero III, but can you actually play a guitar? We’ve got 11 tools to help you start living out your dreams of being a rock legend… you know, when you’re not coding a new Twitter application.
You can read the article here:
There are some great resources listed there, including lessons, tabs and other goodies. Enjoy!
March 2nd, 2008
With one day to go on this auction, there is an Ibanez Prime Dual Chorus Effects Pedal going for under $20US! Made during the late 80’s, the Prime Dual Chorus is a highly configurable stomp box perfect for rocking out. It also functions as a flanger, with a bit more of a metallic sound than its’ predecessor??? the Ibanez FL-9 flanger. Its a great price for a cracking pedal like this:
You can check out the Ibanez Prime Dual Chorus Effects Pedal auction here to see how high it will (or wont!) go.
The manual for the Ibanez Prime Dual Chorus has this to say:
Features
So, you have been out looking at stereo choruses and flangers and you like the unique quality that each one gives to your instrument, but you are not yet ready to buy two separate pedals. Well, look no farther. For just about the price of either you can have both in the new Ibanez PC10. The PC10 has two completely seperate modulation sections that can be accessed by either the top mounted A/B switch or by plugging in an optional footswitch. In the “A” mode, depressing the unit’s footswitch will give you effect “A” or dry. In the “B” mode, depressing the unit’s footswitch will give you effect “B” or dry. In the A/B mode, depressing the unit’s footswitch will give you effect A or effect B alternately. In addition there is a stereo output jack that when accessed by a 1/4″ stereo plug gives you both normal and inverted effect outputs enabling you to play in true stereo.
Use
Like the TC10, the PC10 is a chorus with 2 modulators (or L.F.O.’s). The same dual chorusing is available with mnay new variations because one of the modulators can also create flanging effects by decreasing delay time and increasing intensity. These are some of the most lush sounds available through processing. Set the flanger intensity on modulator B to “0″ and delay time to “2″ to create identical function of both modulators (like the TC10). Of course different speeds and widths on A and B give best results.
By using the footswitch “toggle” feature described previously, 2 presets can be used for convenience in live performance. Two different chorus sounds or a chorus and flanger are available instantly.
Text copied from: DiscoFreq’s great effects pedal site here.
February 25th, 2008
There are always lots of Boss effects pedals for sale at yahoo auctions and it is really easy to find great pedals like this Boss CE-3 chorus effects pedal:
This pedal is currently selling for 3800 yen. Which is about $45US. Not too bad… depends how far up the bidding goes. It is a made in Taiwan effects pedal, not too bad, but you get what you pay for! You can follow the auction here: Boss CE-3 chorus effects pedal auction.
February 9th, 2008
Just having a surf around on yahoo.jp’s auction site and looking at the electric guitars for sale there. There are so many! Here is a list you can use to navigate into their site, so you can see what brands of guitars they have on offer. The numbers in brackets represent the number of each brand that is up for auction at the date of this post.
- Electric Guitars（12,303)
- Gibson（1,248)
- Fender（2,023)
- FERNANDES（747）
- Epiphone（342）
- YAMAHA（403）
- Ibanez（371）
- ESP（376）
- B.C.Rich（253）
- Other（5,815)
February 2nd, 2008
One of the greatest pedals ever made, the Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer is truly a classic overdrive pedal. Built like a tank, and with most of ‘em still going strong since they were produced in the ’70’s, especially if you are a blues player that cute bartender will love you for the sounds you can get out of one of these!
The Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer pictured above is serial number 127642 (RC4558P JO44 ATJ) and is up for auction over at yahoo auctions Japan. The current asking price is 63,000 yen - a bit over US$600 which is a little on the steep side if you ask me, but it is in great condition. Two days to go on the auction. Which you can check out here - Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer.
December 24th, 2007
Top of the season to you all from us here at aquaeffector. It has been a pretty nutty year, could have blogged a bit more, but heaps of stuff keeping us busy. Anyway wishing you all the very best for 2008 - year of the mouse!
I found this blog - Guitar Made Easy - which I thought might be useful to some of you out there. I liked this post -
That has always been a challenge! And I really respect people who can drink and / or smoke whilst nailing it… Superhuman:)
And there is a really useful article from David Bryne (ex Talking Heads) up at wired.com talking about different ways to approach music distribution. Well worth a read if you don’t want to get ripped off by some suit wearing music company RIAA git.
Rock on!
October 23rd, 2007
If you have bought from us in the past, you will know that we pride ourselves on stocking and selling rocking and rare Japanese effects pedals and stomp boxes.
Of course buying things like these vintage effects pedals on line can be a bit daunting as you don’t really know who you are dealing with and you can only judge the pedals from a couple of photos.
Pretty daunting really considering effects pedals and musical instruments are made to be played, and made to make sound!
If you are in the Tokyo / Kanto region then one shop were you can go in and judge the real thing with your own eyes is Shibuya Gakki. Like many music gear shops in Japan their business combines recording studios, practice rooms, equipment repair and modification services with sales of both new and used gear. They also do PA rentals.
They have a wide range of guitars and basses for sale, but I thought here I would list some of the vintage effects pedals they have on sale at the moment:
Pedals they have sold recently include:
They get stock in pretty regularly so you can check the pedals they have listed here: Shibuya Gakki Effects Pedal listings. You can buy stomp boxes online from them, it doesn’t look very English friendly though - but I am sure they will do their best to help you if you send them an email.
Shibuya Gakki is located near Oimachi Station on the JR Line from Shinagawa. There is a map here - it is only in Japanese but I am sure if you ask at your local station they will be more than happy to help you get on your way.
October 22nd, 2007
Q. Why did the guitarist cross the road?
A. Because he was stapled to the punks ear.
No, because he wanted a Boss pedal. Boss is our most popular brand, and pedals like the one pictured above are surely the reason why. An original silver screw Made in Japan Boss Phaser PH-1 Effects Pedal. As warm an analog phaser as one could want.
Released in 1977, the Boss PH-1 Phaser has warm swirling phaser sounds that conjure up images of Led Zeppelin, but also rocks for post-punk and anything beginning with the letters alt… Has two knobs. Very easy to use. But you can also open it up and there is a trimpot you can adjust with a screwdriver to get an even more you kind of sound. If you are getting together a Milli Vanilli reunion band this pedal probably ain’t for you, hell not much is, but for most other folks plugging this in will make you a happy camper.
Some people say it sounds a bit mild, but that really depends on where in your chain you choose to abuse this green machine. These are becoming harder to find, but we have one in stock at the moment. The current asking price is US$129.99 - and you can check it out on ebay at this page: Boss MIJ Silver Screw Phaser PH-1 Effects Pedal.
October 22nd, 2007
So you wanna get revenge on your neighbors for playing their Lionel Ritchie records way too loud and at 45rpms at 8 in the morning? Wanna give grannie the fright of her life as you vibrate her false teeth the whole way across the mosh pit? Think you can achieve world peace as you bring down CNN with some ballistic six-string action?
Well the Sobbat DB-1 Drive Breaker effects pedal just might be the monster to make your dreams come true. This pedal rocks - especially for single coil pickups, and its’ four knobs make it as easy as something really easy to deal out a range of sounds as wide as Britney Spears. We really love the way this pedal splits out control of the bass and treble frequencies. It sounds better than my dogs dinner!
I wrote a bit about Sobbat in the last post. If you can’t be bothered reading that, Sobbat is a little company based in Kyoto, Japan who have been making spanking effects pedals since 1995. They rock. If you want to hear some sound samples of the Sobbat DB-1 Drive Breaker in action check out the DB-1 page at the Sobbat website. Or, I found this video of the DR-1 in action on youtube: Sobbat Drive Breaker DB-1 Test.
We have one up for sale on ebay if you are interested. The current price is US$129 and the page is here: Sobbat DB-1 Drive Breaker Stomp Box. Enjoy!
October 18th, 2007
Sobbat is a small boutique style Japanese manufacturer of high quality stomp boxes and effects pedals. Founded in the former Japanese capital of Kyoto in 1995, Sobbat has built a reputation for making some really fine pedals that are being used by some of the big names in the guitar world today for both live performance and in the studio. Satisfied Sobbat shredders include Richie Kotzen, Steve Vai, John Jorgenson and if you listen to their live performances or their recorded music you should be able to discern their Sobbat sound.
The Sobbat website - www.sobbat.com is in both English and Japanese. It is pretty rough but has lots of sound samples that are well worth checking out. I guess it is a good thing they make effects pedals rather than websites!
Here are a couple of links to videos for your viewing pleasure from the Sobbat website:
DB-1.ST Clean with Strat 1
DB-1.ST Clean with Strat 2
Sobbat make the following pedals and the following links will take you to the pages for each effects pedal:
Drive Breaker 1
Drive Breaker 2
Drive Breaker 3
Drive Breaker 4
Drive Breaker Bass
Fuzz Breaker 1
Fuzz Breaker 2R
Fuzz Breaker 3
Fuzz Breaker 4
Phase Breaker 1
Phase Breaker 2
A/B Breaker 1
Glow-Vibe
Sobbat is well worth checking out if you are looking for professional sound quality at reasonable prices. Their web site has details on how to buy their effects pedals and prices range from around US$140 to US$210. Nice!
