Happy holidays and 2020!

Complain about your schedule. Apparently people like that sort of thing.
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ujnhunter
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Re: Happy holidays and 2020!

Post by ujnhunter »

owl wrote:
Wed Jan 01, 2020 12:27 am
I also bought a ridiculous guitar. I saw this at my local guitar shop for $800, but this store has it for $300, I guess because nobody wanted to buy it haha. I feel weird about buying a guitar online, also IMO it's SO UGLY! But I feel like hopefully it will be quite fun for practicing at home and writing. Along with single coil or humbucker, it can be a 12-string or a banjo or a resonator or a nylon string or a sitar! Mostly not anything well, I think, but I think it's going to be FUN.
Ha! I (as a gift from my wife and son...) bought myself this same exact guitar! I personally think it looks pretty cool... but I'm not really a guitar traditionalist (though it has to have a headstock and I am a Strat guy). So seeing that I dig the headstock shape of this guitar with the matching color and it's pretty much just a more ergonomic Strat shape anyhow with an added balanced guitar strap button (so you can use either depending on where you prefer your guitar to sit against you and so it doesn't tip over if you lean it against your amp/wall), I like it. I do agree that the look of the guitar is why it has dropped so much in price though as most people do seem to think it looks ugly. The fact that it has the passive mode dual humbuckers is what sold it though, I wouldn't have bought the first gen version that required the batteries and the modeling to be active... I view the modeling to be a bonus. So far I really like the Acoustic sounds that use the Piezo pickups in the bridge of this guitar which should come in handy when I want some Acoustic sounds without wanting to setup my mics and use my wife's smaller sized Acoustic guitar and it's super great so far for just picking it up and practicing (silently with my headphones) as there is nothing to do but put my headphones on and turn it on. I still want a Variax though someday and will continue looking for a cheap one to come my way (simply for the alternate tunings it offers) as I already have a Variax equipped Pod HD500X waiting for one. ;) Someday. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the Vox guitar owl.
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Re: Happy holidays and 2020!

Post by owl »

ujnhunter wrote:
Thu Jan 02, 2020 11:28 am
owl wrote:
Wed Jan 01, 2020 12:27 am
I also bought a ridiculous guitar. I saw this at my local guitar shop for $800, but this store has it for $300, I guess because nobody wanted to buy it haha. I feel weird about buying a guitar online, also IMO it's SO UGLY! But I feel like hopefully it will be quite fun for practicing at home and writing. Along with single coil or humbucker, it can be a 12-string or a banjo or a resonator or a nylon string or a sitar! Mostly not anything well, I think, but I think it's going to be FUN.
Ha! I (as a gift from my wife and son...) bought myself this same exact guitar! I personally think it looks pretty cool... but I'm not really a guitar traditionalist (though it has to have a headstock and I am a Strat guy). So seeing that I dig the headstock shape of this guitar with the matching color and it's pretty much just a more ergonomic Strat shape anyhow with an added balanced guitar strap button (so you can use either depending on where you prefer your guitar to sit against you and so it doesn't tip over if you lean it against your amp/wall), I like it. I do agree that the look of the guitar is why it has dropped so much in price though as most people do seem to think it looks ugly. The fact that it has the passive mode dual humbuckers is what sold it though, I wouldn't have bought the first gen version that required the batteries and the modeling to be active... I view the modeling to be a bonus. So far I really like the Acoustic sounds that use the Piezo pickups in the bridge of this guitar which should come in handy when I want some Acoustic sounds without wanting to setup my mics and use my wife's smaller sized Acoustic guitar and it's super great so far for just picking it up and practicing (silently with my headphones) as there is nothing to do but put my headphones on and turn it on. I still want a Variax though someday and will continue looking for a cheap one to come my way (simply for the alternate tunings it offers) as I already have a Variax equipped Pod HD500X waiting for one. ;) Someday. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the Vox guitar owl.
Oh cool! How long have you had it? Any words of wisdom about getting the various modeling settings to sound ok? I'm actually not sure from the listing if this one is the first gen or the one with the passive pickup settings, I guess I'll find out when it gets here... (how's that for responsible research and shopping?)

I'm interested in the ergonomics of it, I only have a Tele, which I love, but I guess it's also famously primitive/less comfortable to play than a Strat? This one seems like it will be way more light/thin/comfy, and I like that I'll be able to just plug in headphones for practice. I practice unplugged a lot because I'm lazy and don't want to set stuff up, but it means once I'm plugged in I always get mildly startled by all the extra noise my fingers make when I'm playing with high gain, but that's an important part of playing an electric so I should really spend more time practicing controlling it. :)

(also, I didn't know the Variax was the one with the alternate tunings dial!!! I played one in a guitar shop once and didn't look at the name of it at the time, and have been vaguely wondering for years what that guitar with the alternate tunings was since I never saw it again. I thought maybe I just dreamed it.)
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Re: Happy holidays and 2020!

Post by ujnhunter »

I've had it (in a box, but used a couple times to make sure it worked and wasn't banged up) since a week after Black Friday. If you bought the listing that you posted, it's the Mahogany model which has the passive humbuckers, as I bought the same exact guitar from the same exact listing. Mine arrived double boxed (a giant rectangular box with a guitar shaped box inside) and in perfect condition. Even if you did lots of research... you'd probably not find out much, seeing as there isn't really much info out there... Vox don't even have all the info on their site. I haven't tested any of the modeling settings through anything other than the headphones for practice... so I'm not sure how the various settings would sound through an amp or recorded yet. Also not much of an acoustic guitar player, but the modeling sounded cool to me in headphones with a touch of reverb (which is the fx button/knob for all acoustic models where the fx/knob for all the electric models is a drive). The acoustic 2 (I think) and the resonator/banjo sounds pretty cool to me and I'm definitely going to test them out in a recording at some point. The 3 way switch on the Electric Models is switching between pickups (Bridge, Neck, Both), but the 3 way switch on the Acoustic/Synth models changes the presets (Synth, Bass Synth, Swell, 12 String, Resonator, etc...) If your guitar arrives like mine did and it's setup well (mine was perfectly fine out of the box after tuning it) then I think you're going to like it. If not for the sounds/recording features, for the ergonomics/practice ability for sure.
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Re: Happy holidays and 2020!

Post by owl »

ujnhunter wrote:
Thu Jan 02, 2020 2:35 pm
I've had it (in a box, but used a couple times to make sure it worked and wasn't banged up) since a week after Black Friday. If you bought the listing that you posted, it's the Mahogany model which has the passive humbuckers, as I bought the same exact guitar from the same exact listing. Mine arrived double boxed (a giant rectangular box with a guitar shaped box inside) and in perfect condition. Even if you did lots of research... you'd probably not find out much, seeing as there isn't really much info out there... Vox don't even have all the info on their site. I haven't tested any of the modeling settings through anything other than the headphones for practice... so I'm not sure how the various settings would sound through an amp or recorded yet. Also not much of an acoustic guitar player, but the modeling sounded cool to me in headphones with a touch of reverb (which is the fx button/knob for all acoustic models where the fx/knob for all the electric models is a drive). The acoustic 2 (I think) and the resonator/banjo sounds pretty cool to me and I'm definitely going to test them out in a recording at some point. The 3 way switch on the Electric Models is switching between pickups (Bridge, Neck, Both), but the 3 way switch on the Acoustic/Synth models changes the presets (Synth, Bass Synth, Swell, 12 String, Resonator, etc...) If your guitar arrives like mine did and it's setup well (mine was perfectly fine out of the box after tuning it) then I think you're going to like it. If not for the sounds/recording features, for the ergonomics/practice ability for sure.
My new guitar arrived yesterday!!! I spent a long time playing with the really terrible sounding synth that I was initially sure, from watching the videos, was going to be one of the patches I just wasn't going to use... a) because it sounds pretty bad and cheesy, b) because I have a keyboard and a lot of synth sounds that sound better, and c) I'm better at playing keyboard than guitar... but it's super fun? And the bass synth goes wah wah wah womp womp womp, it's even worse (aka better)!

It was safely packaged in an enormous box. I should probably check the intonation with a tuner, but from casual playing it sounded fine straight out of the box! But the tremolo arm seems super tight, like I have to put some real elbow grease into it to use it. I'll have to find out how to adjust it (I assume this is possible. I've never had a guitar with one before.)

I think the banjo and resonator sound surprisingly good! Every 12-string seems to sound surprisingly bad! I think some of the acoustic models aren't bad if you turn down the tone, but the sustain on them is a little weird. I'm sure the sitar could be used sparingly and sound OK. And I do indeed have the passive pickup mode and it seems to work fine... but honestly I've mostly been playing around with the various weird noises!

It's really light and seems pretty comfortable to play, and I love being able to just plug in headphones and practice without having to futz around with an amp or interface. I do have one of those little mini-amp doohickeys that plugs right into the guitar that I would use sometimes for practicing with headphones, but somehow it feels a lot easier to plug straight into the guitar than going to the trouble of finding that and plugging it in.

I tried it out with my actual amp at lunchtime and took some video of it, but it ended up as like 3 or 4 videos because my phone kept crashing. :( Maybe I'll try again later once I clear some space off my phone.
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Re: Happy holidays and 2020!

Post by ujnhunter »

owl wrote:
Tue Jan 07, 2020 4:22 pm
It was safely packaged in an enormous box. I should probably check the intonation with a tuner, but from casual playing it sounded fine straight out of the box! But the tremolo arm seems super tight, like I have to put some real elbow grease into it to use it. I'll have to find out how to adjust it (I assume this is possible. I've never had a guitar with one before.)
I haven't installed my tremolo arm yet... and I've never gotten a "brand new" guitar until now either... so be sure that they haven't added a "block" perhaps for shipping purposes? If it is in fact not "blocked" then you can adjust it by removing one of the springs so it is less stiff, just remember that would also make it easier to accidentally hit... Glad you're having fun with it. I totally get the freedom of just plugging headphones directly into the guitar, you don't have to worry about a fragile in-between doohickey that you need to plug into the bottom of your guitar, it feels much more contained.
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Re: Happy holidays and 2020!

Post by Spud »

Not much action in this thread in the pasts 11 months, so I thought I would drop this here to close out the year. An oldie but a goodie. Sorry, Niv.

I thought I would re-activate this page for the Holidays. Really good work by all, and special thanks for fluffy for hanging onto these for all these years:
http://www.songfight.org/coverfights/xmas/
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Re: Happy holidays and 2020!

Post by Niveous »

Spud wrote:
Fri Dec 18, 2020 7:15 pm
Sorry, Niv.
¿Por qué?
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Re: Happy holidays and 2020!

Post by fluffy »

jb wrote:
Sat Dec 28, 2019 3:20 am
Happy holidays and the new year can’t get here fast enough for me.
IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT
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Re: Happy holidays and 2020!

Post by jb »

It’s true, the whole world basically had hand foot and mouth disease this whole year. But I take no responsibility. I also learned how to do that this year.
fluffy wrote:
Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:53 pm
jb wrote:
Sat Dec 28, 2019 3:20 am
Happy holidays and the new year can’t get here fast enough for me.
IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT
blippity blop ya don’t stop heyyyyyyyyy
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Re: Happy holidays and 2020!

Post by Spud »

Niveous wrote:
Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:48 pm
¿Por qué?
I heard you're not a big fan of Christmas music, that's all.
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Re: Happy holidays and 2020!

Post by Niveous »

Fair.

I have a love/hate with Xmas tunes.

I am a strict No Xmas songs before Thanksgiving/ after New Year's guy.

The only Xmas song I will listen to without at least some bit of cringe is "Oi to the World" by the Vandals/ No Doubt.

Since I am a dedicated chart watcher, I'm ultra fascinated by holiday music. Like how this past Billboard Top 10 was 9 Xmas songs and "Mood" by 24kgoldn. That was insane. It has never been like that. This holiday, Xmas songs took over the chart.

And somehow Brookes wrangled me into playing bass (and drum programming) on her cover of "Last Christmas". If you wanna hear that, you can find it here: flochanmusic.bandcamp.com

I won't listen to that cover again until November.
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