Obsolete guitar gear: Alesis Quadraverb GT
The Alesis Quadraverb GT effects processor is something I owned myself for a long time. I bought it new originally in the mid-1990s (1994 if I remember correctly) and the price tag was $500 for it. At the time, this was one of the best guitar effects units you could buy. It was also priced right because its nearest competition was the Rocktron Chameleon, which cost more than the Quadraverb GT did.
The main difference between the Quadraverb and the Quadraverb GT is that the GT model had basic amp modeling and distortion/overdrive effects whereas the non-GT version did not. In other words, the GT was the "guitar player's version" of the Quad.
The 1990s for the most part was an "anti-pedal" time for guitar players where everyone wanted all their effects in a rack unit with preset switching ability on the floor via a MIDI controller such as the ART X-15. While pedals were still available and always were, guitar stores had mountains of rack unit stuff available for everything you could possibly think of.
The Quad GT does reverb, delay, phaser and flanger very well. It has a crisp, clean sound to it and its digital processing, while primitive today, still holds up quite nicely. The only time the Quad "sounds old" is if you use really washy reverb. But other than that, the GT could still be used in stage or studio to this day.
Where the GT fails is with its overdrive and distortion as it is awful. All you hear is digital nastiness from that - even with cabinet simulation enabled.
The best way to use the GT as far as guitar is concerned is to not use the distortion or overdrive at all. The cabinet simulation is okay, but for dist/od effect you should use a distortion pedal for that directly in the signal. And what I mean by that is guitar to dist pedal to GT and not use the effects loop.
As far as hardware problems go with the GT, there are a few.
The 1/4-inch jacks on the back have plastic nuts holding them in, and they sometimes work their way loose; this inevitably leads to the jacks breaking their connections on the inside where the signal will cut right out. Using plastic instead of steel nuts was a poor decision by Alesis just to cut cost. If you are a GT owner, the first thing you should do is junk those plastic nuts, replace with steel, and use a socket wrench to get a good, snug connection.
The power button has a nasty habit of losing its connection as well after being used for years.
A very common problem is that the backlight on the LCD screen stops working completely, where you have to shine a flashlight on the display just to read it afterward. It's still functional, but with the backlight not working, the unit gets very annoying to use very quickly. Thankfully, replacement screens are available and easy to install.
The GT does not age well as far as its internal electronics are concerned. Being some units are now close to 20 years old, restoration may be needed.
The power supply for the Quad GT is exactly the same as the Alesis DataDisk. It's a 4-pin proprietary (yuck) adapter, and it is absolutely required that if you buy one you must get the AC adapter with it, because there is no universal adapter available that will power the unit.
Worth owning?
No, unless you want that 1990s "warp" style reverb, and that takes a bit of explanation.
Certain digital reverbs made by Alesis when modulated a certain way have a sound that can only be described as "warped". The Quad GT can do this, as can the Midiverb and Midiverb II. However, those units are only sought out mainly by synth guys and not guitar guys.
Anything BOSS makes for multi-effects (yes, anything) will sound much, MUCH better than the old Quadraverb.
Gear update for October 2013
Some fairly major changes have happened recently concerning the gear I own now.
2003 Schecter C-1 Classic: Gone.
Yep, sold. Been wanting to do this for years and finally got around to it. I didn't make much, but that's okay. The new owner is very happy with it.
2012 Fender Modern Player Stratocaster HSS: Gone.
This one was traded out. I just never took a liking to this guitar no matter how much I wanted to like it.
Small side note: While the Modern Player Strat HSS gets a "it's okay" review by most people, those who buy the Modern Player Telecaster Plus have nothing but wonderful things to say about it. For whatever reason, Fender is doing Telecasters a lot better than Stratocasters these days. I don't know why exactly, but the Teles always get the more favorable reviews over the Strats.
Officially, I now own 6 guitars, 4 of which are in good working order. The ones that work are my '89 Squier II, 2010 Bullet Strat, 2005 Yamaha RBX170 bass and 2012 Epi Les Paul. The ones that don't work are the '93 Fender USA Standard Stratocaster (the truss rod is busted in the neck), and the Squier Bullet HH which is in pieces that I'm parting out and selling on eBay.
Concerning the '93 USA Strat, eventually I will get a replacement USA neck for it. I just don't feel like spending the $400 to get one (especially since I really don't need it right now). Yeah, I could put a Mexican neck on it and save money that way, but it's a USA guitar, so I'd prefer to have a USA neck on it.
In other words, the '93 USA Strat is the "I'll get to it when I get to it" guitar. :) In addition to the new neck, a new pickup and control set would be going in as well. Around $500 or $600 worth of stuff all together. I'll get to it eventually.
Soon-to-be-gone: DigiTech GSP 1101, Tascam DP-008, BOSS DR-3 and Behringer Xenyx mixer
I bought something recently that for me replaces all of those things, a ZOOM R8.
Had I known what the R8 was capable of beforehand, I never would have bought the Tascam or the DR-3.
I will have a full review on the R8 soon, but what I can say about it now is that when you use one of those, you literally need nothing else. It has a full effects unit in it with amp modeling, distortion, overdrive, flanger, phaser, delay, wah, reverb, booster, noise reduction filter and more. It has its own drum machine in it. It has a looper. It has 6-band EQ. It is a sampler. There's a lot more to it, but WOW is this thing full of features.
The R8 is the first multi-track I've ever used where you can literally plug in a guitar dry and the unit has enough in it to make any guitar or bass sound great. And with XLR inputs, using a microphone is easy too.
I only have three complaints about the R8. It feels cheap and plasticy, the pad buttons feel weird and it is one of those "submenu hell" type of units (meaning it has a bit of learning curve). But other than that, the R8 does everything right. It is the ultimate sleeper when it comes to home recording.
I'll put it another way. Imagine for a moment if there was one unit you could use where it simply did everything where you need no effect external effect pedals, no mixer, had its own drum machine and all you had to do was plug in a guitar dry and start recording. That's the R8.
Oh, and bonus: No power supply needed. It's powered 100% by USB, which means a cable to the laptop or PC is all that's needed to power it up.
The R8 is not marketed as a multi-track recorder but rather more of an interface. Believe me, it is WAY more than an interface and can do the job on its own in fine style.
More to come on the R8 soon. Possibly with video.
How to sell a guitar on eBay
There has never been a guitar I've parted with where I regretted selling or trading in for something else. I've owned some fairly ritzy axes in the past, both electric and acoustic (one of them was an upper-end Ovation Balladeer with a stereo output). Once I decide it's time to get rid of a guitar, I get rid of it and don't look back.
Lots of guys buy guitars but never sell them. Or if they do sell, it's rare when it happens.
The reason some guys hang on to guitars is because of what's involved with selling one on eBay.
Important note: What I'm going to tell you below is absolutely not the cheapest way to sell a guitar. Not by a long shot. But it is the easiest.
What most people deal with when selling a guitar on eBay, and how to work with it
Once you know all the costs involved with selling a guitar on eBay, you'll feel more comfortable selling that way if that's what you want to do.
Typical scenario:
- You have a guitar you want to sell, and the guitar is in pretty good shape. Not perfect, but still good.
- You have absolutely no idea how to ship the guitar properly, nor do you have any packing materials to ship with.
- You have absolutely no idea how much you're going to lose in fees and shipping.
Here's how it works.
Step 1. Use a gig bag instead of a guitar case no matter what the guitar is
(Tip: If you want extra padding, get the bag for acoustic guitars even if shipping an electric.)
A guitar shipped in a guitar case vs. in a gig bag is the difference between a 18-to-20 pound shipment and a 9-to-12 pound shipment. Use the gig bag to ship with.
If you're thinking, "That's insane!" No, it isn't. All that matters is the bag so the guitar doesn't get scratched up; UPS takes care of the rest. Keep reading.
Step 2. Understand eBay and PayPal fees
A 10% fee will be taken by eBay, and another 3% fee will be taken by PayPal.
Step 3. Understand how to list on eBay
Always post the listing with free shipping, and adjust your price to accommodate for shipping costs and 13% eBay/PayPal fees. Ship free and adjust price. Why? Because it will make the guitar sell faster.
Step 4. Understand how much it costs to ship from a UPS Store
A guitar in a case will run you somewhere between $100 to $150 to ship. Yes, it will cost that much. A guitar shipped in a gig bag will be around $75 to $90. Obviously, this varies dependent on how far it has to ship.
You use UPS Store for three reasons. First, they take care of the packing and boxing and you don't have to pack a thing. Second, they take care of the forms for you. Third, they have full tracking from start to finish.
What you're paying for with UPS Store is convenience. Worth it? If you don't feel like packing a guitar yourself (which is a royal pain to do) and don't feel like dealing with forms, yes it is.
Step 5. Understand how to ship
You always ship a guitar with signature-required-on-delivery and full shipping insurance whether the buyer asks for it or not.
If you don't ship with signature-required and insurance, there are some buyers out there who will try to say "I never received it" and try to get a free guitar out of you. You avoid this by shipping it with signature-required and insurance. If the buyer tries any funny stuff, send him straight to UPS and tell him package was shipped fully insured, and if he did not receive it to contact UPS and file a claim.
Believe me, you do not want to take the risk of not using a signature or insurance when shipping guitars, because it can cost you dearly.
Step 6. Do not sell internationally
Stay within your country borders because otherwise your shipping costs will jump up to an insane level.
Without fail, you will always get a guy who will write you a question on your eBay listing and ask if you ship to his country. Ignore it, because he's trying to get you to change the listing in the hopes you will not adjust your price for international shipping and may even try to get a free guitar out of you as described above. Don't fall for this. Stay within your borders so you can keep your price the way you set it originally.
An example of how much you will lose with all fees taken out
We'll use the example that you sold a guitar for $500 within the US, and the guitar will be shipped 1,000 miles to its destination by UPS Store.
13% of $500 is $65. You end up keeping $435 before shipping.
Assume $100 for shipping with packing by the UPS Store, signature and full insurance. Now you're left with $335.
On a $500 sale, you keep $335, which is close to 33% taken out from what you made.
Yes, that is significant. But at least you now have a very good idea of how much it would be.
Yes, there are many other ways to sell cheaper
The method I listed above is probably one of the most expensive (if not the most expensive) way to sell a guitar on eBay.
But like I said, it is the easiest because there is nothing to pack.
This is the process to ship after your guitar is sold:
- Get the buyer's shipping address; you obviously need that.
- Drive to your local UPS Store with the guitar in a gig bag.
- Ask UPS (yes, you must do this) to ship the guitar with signature-required-on-delivery and shipping insurance for the amount you sold the guitar for.
- Pay the shipping fee.
- Get a receipt with the tracking number.
- Go home, update the sold listing with said tracking number.
- Send a message to the buyer that the guitar has been shipped UPS Ground with signature required on delivery and full shipping insurance.
That's it.
Again, there are many ways to do this cheaper, but none easier. You pack nothing, you don't have to fuss around with any stickers or labels, you need no packing materials since UPS Store takes care of it all, and so on. Expensive? Yes. But very easy.
Adam-12 television show review
Finished watching Dragnet a little while back and have been watching episodes of Adam-12 off and on.
Now I will admit up front that Adam-12 is nowhere near as good as Dragnet is. Not even close. However, the styles of both shows are very similar. Why? Because Jack Webb took part in creating the show, and was the executive producer as well.
There's one episode of Dragnet where you will see Malloy and Reed there. It's in the episode "Internal Affairs: DR-20".
By the way, yes you will see the same sets and locations shared a lot between those two shows. You'll also see many actors that worked parts on both shows too. So if you watch Dragnet first and then Adam-12 second, you will instantly spot familiar sets and think to yourself, "Yep! Seen that house before. And that hotel too. And that road..." You'll also think to yourself, "Yeah, I've seen that guy before. And that lady too.."
Adam-12 is considered to be the last "good cop" show. And by that I don't mean "good cop show", but rather a police show in where the cops are shown as the good guys where they exhibit high moral values. Sense of duty, sense of honor, sense of police brotherhood, rigid responsibility to the citizenry, etc. All that stuff is in the show.
The show ran for a long time. Seven full seasons from 1968 to 1975. I've no idea how well it did in the ratings, but it must have been good enough to keep people watching it.
I've almost finished watching the second season, and to be honest I don't know if I'll watch the rest because I'm not nearly as interested in this show as I was in Dragnet.
Here's some observations I've had about the show so far.
Malloy is rude
The attitude of veteran cop Malloy is of a guy who is flat out rude. It's really difficult to like this character, and in all honesty I don't. The character is a guy with a permanent bug up his ass.
What's even more annoying is that there have been several times he's been introduced to women by his partner - hot women, mind you - and he won't give them the time of day. We're talking ridiculously hot girls here, and Malloy wants no part of them. And in the few instances you see him with a woman, who of course is supremely hot, he just doesn't care. It honestly makes you wonder if he's gay.
There's one episode in particular where he gives a traffic ticket to this insanely hot blond who is absolutely loaded with money. This blond starts pawing after Malloy and totally wants to bang him, so much to the point she even bought him a Porsche, which he of course refused to accept. Yes, really. Malloy wanted nothing to do with her. Totally hot chick, absolutely loaded with cash so she's not a gold digger, and a fine prize for any man, but... nope. Malloy couldn't be bothered. At the end of that episode, he finally relented and went on a date with her, which you never see because it's only said he would. After the date, his only explanation for why those two won't be together is that he told her something that would "make sure" neither of them would see each other ever again. My guess is that he told her he's gay. What other possible explanation could there be? The guy just needs to come out of the closet.
If a big-racked, hot-assed blond with a perfect face and body along with being loaded with money came up to me and said, "Here, have a Porsche. Now come over to my house and do me", I would have been naked and in her bed right after the word Porsche.
Malloy at times also drives like a complete idiot. Almost every time he pulls up to a scene, he slams on the brakes, screeches the tires and I'm surprised he doesn't run over a baby on his sudden way to a halt.
Basically speaking, Malloy's character is just a tough one to believe. Stiff as hell, hates women, sarcastic in a real non-funny way... the guy is just rude.
Reed is either really stupid or really smart depending on what week it is
Reed is the rookie cop and a much more likeable character. The guy is married, and even though his wife is a total ditz, that's fine. For some reason I get the impression that his wife used to smoke a ton of weed (or maybe she still does) and was a total tart in high school. Her character is just that she's basically a busybody and is always complaining about something whenever she's not busy. I think the writers probably had a hard time depicting what a "1960s cop's wife" was supposed to be. When it came to writing for an older cop wife, that was easy because all she had to do was be elegant but firm. But for a young cop wife, the writers had no clue.
Reed tries his best to make friends with his partner, Malloy. But Malloy being the total rude dude he is always shoots him down with one of those non-funny sarcastic idiot comments (again, writer's fault there). Reed, not knowing any better, just takes it. Over and over.
There are times when Reed is smart, but other times when he is ridiculously stupid. It's almost as if the writers for the show would simply flip a coin to decide whether or not Reed would be smart or stupid for that week's episode.
Reed's character definitely has more of a moral center than Malloy does. Malloy is hardened and crusty, but Reed isn't and actually has a heart when it comes to his work. That's a good thing, because above all else, it's the only thing that makes his character likeable.
Storylines
All the stories told, said honestly, suck. And the reason they suck is because of the stiff acting. I don't blame the actors for this but rather the writers. The actors are handed a script, and the director says "Okay, act like cops", so the actors take their best guess as to how a cop is supposed to act like. The end result is acting that's a bit on the plastic side.
Good episodes of Adam-12 is when the show brought in some really good actors that weren't playing cops and had actual character to them. For example, that episode where I talked about that super-hot blond that was pawing after Malloy? She was a good character, and it wasn't just because she was hot, but because she was also interesting.
Whenever actors are playing drunks on the show, that's always a good episode because they are hilarious.
Like Dragnet, Adam-12 absolutely hated hippies and went after them with a vengeance. Anyone who smokes weed - even if the person has just one joint that's not even lit - is as far as the show is concerned a total menace to society and should be locked up immediately. I don't even smoke weed, but when watching how the show treated hippies, I was thinking to myself, "You have GOT to be kidding me..."
Cops on Adam-12, of course, never smoke weed. Ever. And this was during the late 60s and early 70s. Riiiiiight... Maybe if Malloy smoked weed, he wouldn't have been such an idiot.
Aside from the hippies, Adam-12 also hated what they coined the "counterculture" of America at the time. The show depicted the cops "just trying to do their job", but there were many instances where the cops outright harassed citizens for basically no reason. You'd have to watch the show to know what I'm talking about.
Plymouths and AMCs
The cop cars used in Adam-12 were all Plymouth Belvederes in the early years, a Plymouth Satellite for one year, and AMC Matadors after that until the show ended.
It was Jack Webb's idea as far as I know to have the patrol car appear as if it were an actor. As such, you see shots of the patrol car quite often. And of course the patrol car was shown in the opening title of every show.
Are the Adam-12 patrol cars memorable? Not to me. The ultimate memorable cop car is the one used in The Blues Brothers, which was a '74 Dodge Monaco. That car was amazing because it was old, dirty and ran like a bat out of hell. Those Belvederes in Adam-12 have got absolutely nothin' on that shitbox Dodge.
I will say this however about the cars used in the show: At least Adam-12 had the nerve to keep up with the times and used cars the LAPD actually used, and changed them when it was necessary. Dragnet didn't do that. Friday and Gannon drove that same craptastic 1967 Ford Fairlane from beginning to end.
Is Adam-12 worth watching?
Somewhat. It's woefully dated. While it does have a Dragnet style to it, it doesn't have the flavor, but...
...it's been said that Adam-12 is like watching life through the windshield of a car. I'd have to agree with that. The more you watch the show, the more you think you're actually living in that time (in short bursts, obviously). With each episode watched, you actually start to learn the environment they patrol, get to know certain characters fairly well and yeah you feel like you're living in the "clean side" of the late 60s and early 70s.
You can get wrapped up in the Adam-12 world. Sort of, anyway. If you watched 4 episodes in a row, that's about the length of a short movie. Watch anything for that length of time and yeah, you get that "took me to another place" feeling. A little bit, anyway.
I'm not saying Adam-12 is great television or anything like that, because it is a bit plastic. But it is unique.
Cheap easy ways to prevent guitar theft (and gear theft)
I've learned quite a bit on how to prevent gear theft over the years. There are many methods of gear theft prevention, but here are the ways I've found that actually work.
Know that anything that can be carried by one man will always be stolen first
The first step towards gear theft prevention is gaining knowledge. And the first thing to know is that whatever can be carried by one guy is what gets stolen first. Always.
This means that guitars, pedal effects, microphones and so on can be stolen easily. It also means that larger items such as a 4x12 cabinet cannot just for the fact it's so huge and would be very difficult for one man to haul around, even if it's on wheels.
Most thieves are dumb enough to believe a sign
Let's say you're forced into the situation where you have to leave your gear somewhere unattended, such as in a practice space.
Assuming for the moment your friends (as in your band mates) aren't thieves, placing a sticky note on the neck of your guitar with "Broken electronics! Do not use!" is usually enough to stop a thief from stealing a guitar. He's not exactly going to plug it in and check because that would make noise and he'd get caught.
Sticky notes work for basically anything. "Broken, do not use" can be put on mics, amplifiers, pedals or anything else.
In fact, you could put all your carry-able stuff in a box, then just put a sticky note of "Everything in this box broken, do not use". Make sure that sticky note is really visible so a thief would see it. If a thief ever breaks into the practice space, he'll see the sign and most likely ignore anything labeled "broken".
Use a busted 4x12 guitar cabinet as a storage area
Thieves will not steal 4x12 closed-back cabinets because they're just too large to move, and you can use this to your advantage.
Buy a cheap used guitar cabinet, and if possible, get one with blown speakers.
Take the bottom two speakers out, put adhesive Velcro on the four corners where the speaker screws go, and cover the speaker holes with two square sheets of black fabric.
Whenever practice ends, take off the front grill, remove the black fabric over the speaker holes that's held on by Velcro, put all your microphones and pedal effects inside, put back the black fabric sheets and then reattach the speaker grill.
While this isn't a foolproof way of hiding your stuff in a practice area, it's certainly better than nothing.
If the practice space allows it, build a steel cage out of old steel grates
I knew a few bands back in the day that used to do this, and it always worked well.
Back where I used to live, guys used to rent practice spots in old mills. These were old-ass buildings where you could basically build whatever you wanted in there since the owner didn't care.
Guys in bands around the area were mostly blue collar types, and as such had access to things used on construction job sites either for cheap or free. One of these things were thick steel grates. These guys would cut these grates in such a way where they'd build a large cage out of them and use a corner of a back wall in the practice spot to put the cage together. On the front of the cage was a fabricated door on thick steel hinges.
If you're thinking, "That sounds almost like they were building a prison cell", that's not too far from the truth because it was basically constructed that way.
When the band was done playing, all the stuff went in the cage (drums, amps and all) and was usually locked down by a large steel bar with a large padlock at the end of it. And the industrial padlock was mounted in such a way where it was next to impossible to get a set of bolt cutters in there to cut it loose.
To add even further security, the band would put black sheets or tarps over the gear once in storage so any would-be thief couldn't see what's in there.
I can say for a fact that guys in bands who stored stuff like this never had their stuff stolen. Even the most desperate of thieves wouldn't put all the effort forth of busting into a thick steel cage without knowing what's in there first.
Take it home with you
This is the best advice on this list. When you're done with a gig or done with practice at the practice spot, take all your gear home with you.
Yeah, it's annoying to lug around all your stuff whenever gigging or practicing, but that is the #1 way to keep your stuff from being stolen.
Oh, and one final note. If you haven't done so, write down the serial numbers of your guitars or at least take a photo of them. It doesn't matter if your guitar is worth $10,000 or $100. Do it anyway. If your axe ever gets stolen, that's the only thing that can really identify it.