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12 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

I'm eagerly awaiting the delivery of a new (well, actually used) effects unit, a Line 6 HX Effects that I ordered earlier this week. I was hoping to buy one of these earlier this year before everything went down the tubes. I haven't tried one yet but apparently I can set it up to control my amp functions as well as its own effects, which means that instead of 1) turning my effects loop off a beat early, 2) switching channels, 3) hitting my overdrive pedal, 4) turning my modulation pedal off so only the delay is in the loop, and then 5) turning the loop back on, right as I go into a complicated lead part the drummer wrote, I can just press, say, button #2. I'm nearly certain that this will make me a better musician.

Nearly sure I need a “button number 2” to press for most things in my life.

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3 hours ago, MacabreEternal said:

Nearly sure I need a “button number 2” to press for most things in my life.

I'm going to try routing "dishes", "laundry", and "childcare" through one of the external loops, and see if I can program my expression pedal to make the morning coffee. I'm pretty sure all these settings are accessible through the Big Knob. I'll let you know how it works out.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bought some wood and Velcro to assemble this last weekend: the all-purpose Magic Black Box Board Of Doom.

hi2CChC.jpg

The Line 6 thing is the magic black box on the far end here. It works as hoped! Here's to Button #2 and its siblings 3, 5, and 6, which accomplish superhuman feats with a minimum of fuss. Here's to all the other buttons, too, so they don't feel left out. They light up different colors and one of them even flashes at tempo. Woo. It also sounds really good.

The other new purchase here is the black and brown Hog Foot Controller. The Hog itself is the silver box in the middle: an octave/pitch shift synth with a lot of interesting capabilities and finicky adjustments. Having on/off switches for six presets makes a world of difference in using the Hog during the course of a song. I've been wanting one since I bought the pedal five or six years ago; EHX doesn't make them anymore and they only pop up rarely. 

Aside from being able to have one footswitch control what could ordinarily be five or more separate actions on my "real" pedalboard, the other super cool thing about this setup is that I don't have to take it apart and move pedals and cables around every time I want to switch between guitar and bass. I have presets for my different rigs and all I have to do is connect them. Saves a ton of time as well as wear and tear on the gear. Fun!

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5 minutes ago, FatherAlabaster said:

My wife got me a case for the new guitar as a combination birthday/Christmas present :)

gFFMvJt.jpg

Great album, what's wrong with your digital copy?

Nice case.

It sounds patchy, some tracks are far too low in the volume stakes and others are far too loud by comparison and the opening track sounds terrible.

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