Aye, i don't buy gear really anymore, and have completely fallen out of touch with what such things cost these days.

I just back from my little sisters wedding in NH. We all stayed at a pretty rad farmhouse that had an orchard attached to it.

This, combined with the fact that most of my family was traveling back to IL or NY, and the rest were going way on a honeymoon(so none of them could take perishable foodstuffs but me), combined to result in the fact that i have now have in the house, about 60lbs of apples, 5lbs of plums, about 4 lbs of spring mix(considering that spring mix doesn't weigh anything, 4lbs is an absolute shitlot), a pile of pears, several gallons of fruit juice, a gallon of maple syrup, About 3lbs of cole slaw, and about three and a half chickens, to deal with. And that doesn't even begin to account for all of the ice cream and snacks shit that came back with me.

I expect surely, soon, to die of a state of general overfoodness.

And i seem to have started buying kitchen knives again.

What sort of knives, if I may ask?

Incoming here: Avid Eleven Rack. For live use.

All kinds of knives. Pretty much all in the style of japanese knifery. The japanese are, as they are with many things, weirdly detail-obsessed, when it comes to metallurgy and blade-making. They nearly have a different knife for every possible thing that a cook might need to cut. Many specific fish have their own knife styles dedicated to them.

At this point i am kind of filling in what may very well be imaginary gaps in my (frankly already excessive) collection. Aiming these days for middle- and heavy-weight shorter blades and various boning knives.

What have you been using lately for that? And how will you maplify it? Or are you cats just going to a direct sort of setup now?

yes I am interested in what you will do. I went just FOH with mine for the gigs I used mine for. Asked them to send it to my vocal mintor. that was ok for about a half a set each time. I later bought some power monitors which would do the job, but never played live with it again.

I use mine for practice and recording quick clips to the band. Plus I've used it as an interface for voice over work for my actor friend. Handy little box for apartment living. I also have a Tech 21 Power Engine 60 or whatever which does a good job.

Re: kitchen knives, why am I not surprised Chris has an excessive collection of bladed things? That the Japanese have a purpose-designed knife for all manner of sea creatures surprises me exactly not at all also. There is something to be said for a purpose-designed tool. What Chris will use them for... I don't know. Seabeasts have never been in my culinary bailiwick.

Re: Garda's live setup, we've been running a rack of stuff straight to the PA for a good while now. You'd laugh and say I was a stupid asshole for using my pedals into my ancient Pod XT on more than one occasion. I would too. Because running a Bogner preamp into a 13-year-old Pod is silly*. Our Chris has two of them- Eleven Racks- and I wanted one of my own. I've just been lazy. We have a big rack of shit that feeds a MOTU 828 and ProTools**, and that all gets run to FOH, along with four vocal mics, one of which is a vocoder. Bringing the big amps out seemed silly when our drummer's name is Dell Precision these days.

So yeah, two Avid Eleven Racks and a Sansamp for the bass, plus a few extra things. TC G-Major 2 (for reverse delay and pitchshifting), TC VoiceTone Synth, Roland Fantom rack, etc.

Seeing as club PAs and most live mixes suck around here anyhow, we've survived unharmed. If anything, our live sound has actually been better, which is hilarious given the sheer mass of high-end gear we used to trot out. Mostly because it's harder for them to fuck with our mix. Every FOH graphic EQ still sounds better in bypass, though. I don't know that anyone knows how to use the things.

The big issue has been generating feedback, because we love our feedback. We're sorting out tools for that, though.

*-Said pedals sound better into the little 15w Vox in my living room.

**-Now it's probably Reaper, because it will run our DMX controller for lights, etc., which PT will not. Synced to VLC for video.

...and a Warm Audio TB-12 Tonebeast, too. Apparently I have a thing for bright orange rack gear.

Going to see Godflesh tomorrow.

This is the opening band. I am not at all familiar. Prurient

One of those things. Dude was just telling me about Prurient yesterday. Unrelated to any Godflesh connection or shows.

Has a nice noise to it.

Prurient was better live than on record, too. I only caught the tail end of his set, though. The show actually started at 8, shockingly, and we didn't show up until about 20 after.

Godflesh played for... At least an hour and a half. Set ended around 10:30. Not much time between bands, what with one being one guy with a DJ table full of gear, the other being two guys and a drum machine. My friend went out to have a smoke, came back, and Godflesh was on.

Possibly the heaviest band I have ever seen. The effect on the crowd was very strange, very hypnotic. Repetative and mechanical, yet somehow still organic.

Broadrick played a custom 8-string into a JCM 800 with beat-up old checkerboard cabs, full stack, mic'd with an RE20 (top) and 421 (bottom). Clearly, Greenbacks are useless for downtuned metal, as per forum wisdom*... Minimal pedals- some three-knob delay, taped over, black, small box (Carbon Copy?), EHX Pitch Fork, and what looked like a Korg Pitchblack tuner. Mr. Green played a P-Bass into an SVT + 8x10 with the same tuner and an HM-2** for dirt. They played the older stuff up a string but down a step from the original, on the B string. Unusually for an 8-string band, the bass was tuned properly. An octave below the guitars. That's a low fucking note. Shockingly clear despite all the distortion.

They sounded awesome. The mix was actually really good. Actually sounds better live than on record. Most of their toan was stage volume. We were standing in the back, in a place where I could hear what was the PA array and what was Mr. Broadrick's amp. The amp sound was better. The overall volume actually wasn't bad. It was a big room, there was minimal PA except for vocals and drum machine. It was loud, but like loud band rehearsal loud. We took our earplugs out. There's almost no crash cymbal in their programming, and minimal high end harshness. These guys are all about the low lows. Even at that volume, you could feel the vibrations. They are certainly the world's heaviest dub reggae band.

I really enjoy their song structures and simple grooves. Funny how they're a sort of anti-metal in everything but actual sonics and gloominess, at which point they're a serious contender for top heaviness.

*-Every time I've heard a metal d00d use them, they sound great. I don't know what people's deal is.

**-The gearheads all came to look after the set. Counting ourselves, I believe five dudes and one lady commented on the HM-2. The bass sound was truly majestic. And you could hear it. Anyone who's been to any sort of metal show knows how rare this is. Admittedly, this also counts as industrial music, but just having a bass player is unusual enough there.

Finally got around to hooking up the Eleven Rack even though it's been here for a couple days now. I quickly dialed in some passable AC30 and Fender Super cleans, a Matchless crunch sound, and a Bogner Ecstasy high-ish gain thing. I'll have to try 'em with the band, of course, but I think I have a reasonable base to work from. And yes, I immediately gravitated toward models of things I've actually used. This should be a lot nicer than my old Pod.

Afternoon gents long time no speak. Seem to have ran out of time for chatting shit on the Internet like I used to

I should finally be getting round to ordering one of those Jaguar basses soon! Just gotta wait for my friend to get the cash together for my p bass. I'm also having fender gas, toying with the idea of painting my old parts strat body capri orange and kitting it out with some single coils - I have no real use for the humbucker that's in it now as I can get those kinda toans from my other guitars. Haven't been playing much recently though but I just put that down to being at work far too much the past few weeks.

Heyo T!

I spend a lot of time on trains these day.

Also I'll be in NYC until Oct. 9th, and back the 23rd if any of you nor'easterners want to hangout sometime.

Also also, I need to either bring a guitar to NYC, or buy a guitar in NYC to keep in NYC. So, just putting that out there if any of yous guizes are selling something on the cheaper side of things.

There is now a Warm Audio TB12 Tone Beast sitting atop an Avid Eleven Rack on my desk. My desk is very orange at the moment.

Why the fuck do I want a Loar Archtop and why the fuck don't I own one yet?

Ne'er hoid of them. Looking at them now, i think i personally would be tempted by them if they were about half the price they are showing.

I could go for a lo-fi semihollow. But i don't want to spend MIM fender money on one.