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Post by Cruachan on Dec 19, 2013 15:14:05 GMT
Hi Peter,
Is it possible that you inadvertently started using TapaTalk? I was plagued by repeated invitations for a while until eventually they wore my resistance down and I agreed to have it installed on my iPad. I rarely use it, but it can be handy at times if you just want a straight forward bulletin board presentation without the frills and, consequently, a more responsive experience. Occasionally it still intercepts, in which event I simply scroll to the bottom of the page and click on 'Full Version' and, low and behold, you're back in familiar territory.
Regards,
Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Oct 4, 2013 11:28:49 GMT
Like you I also use DIY PC's and was a die-hard XP Pro fan. It took about 10 yrs but with SP3 MS finally managed to make XP reasonably stable. No comment on 64 bit except lots of folks are using a semi trailer to pick up a bottle of milk from the local shop !! LOL!! Ditto. I still run XP Home 32bit on my desktop and my wife's PC and it carries on faithfully doing what we need it to do. However, I do admit to having been persuaded down the Windows 7 route on 2 laptops - one is stationed in the 'music room' for all things audio, and the other serves as my all powerful all singing 64 bit Pro gaming beast (Flight Simulation is another of my hobbies). No regrets here. As has been said, once you get rid of the unnecessary clutter, Windows 7 is actually a very capable and stable (more so than XP) operating system. Despite all their advertising attempts to persuade us to jump again it will be a cold day in hades before Windows 8 appears in this house. I like to have control and not have that control imposed on me. Fine, I suppose, for tablets but not on PCs and workstations. My local branch of Sainsbury's is still running XP Pro which, I believe I read somewhere, handles networks much better than even Windows 7. Microsoft have lost their way on this one and are likely to pay the price for having dragged their feet as the likes of Apple power on into the future. I suspect W8 will go the same way as Vista. Windows 9/10, hopefully, will turn out to be a very different animal. Thankfully, we have Windows 7 and even Windows XP will continue to run after MS support is withdrawn early next year. If you have software installed and doing everything you require of it then why worry about having to have the 'latest and greatest'? Yes developers will also drop support for XP, eventually, but the user base worldwide remains sufficiently large (currently estimated to be around 500 million) that this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Also, on the plus side, it is conceivable that the hackers will slowly start to ignore XP freeing us of the need to keep plugging those security loopholes (or you could just isolate your machine from the internet). Yes, XP remains a very capable operating system. Perhaps MS should have considered the further development of a version for the business community instead of ditching it. Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Mar 11, 2013 13:56:50 GMT
Hi Tino, Thank you for such a brilliant set of Photo's,and although I have watched the Fender factory tours on Youtube your pic's seemed to convey much more detail, excellent Job,and as well as all the written information that combined to make a superb virtual factory tour Totally great Regards Kay ;D I agree totally! Great insight. However, no mention of Hank B Marvin?!! Surely that has to be bordering on being unforgivable. I'm surprised more of you haven't commented on this glaring omission. Fender should be hanging their heads in shame. When we think of how hugely influential he has been this has to be very surprising if not ridiculous. Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Mar 10, 2013 12:05:38 GMT
After further consideration, I have decided to change the topic header to:
"Backing Track & Tablature Providers"
Invitations have been sent out to several Tablature Providers, as part of this process, and it has been pointed out that the original text could lead to confusion given the original intention was to set up a central resource of 'Backing Track Providers'.
I apologise for this and, of course, I am sure we would all wish to encourage Tablature Providers to be included in this listing. Whether this provision is part of what you can offer as a Backing Track Provider or your skills are being devoted solely to the creation of song Tablature, it really doesn't matter, we want you all to come on board.
Indeed, if you can also supply Chords for songs, with or without their shapes and recommended positions/inversions, then please let us know in the Single Provider post which is intended to be yours and yours alone to be modified, as desired, at any time in the future.
If you would like to be included then please send me your request using the Personal Messaging facility here at Charlie Hall & Friends or email me at m.g.c.campbellATbtinternet.com (replacing AT with @).
Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Mar 9, 2013 12:37:52 GMT
The invitations have gone out to all those names currently on my list as of today, 9/3/13.
If you have not received your invitation then it is possible that it may have been intercepted by your Spam filter.
Please let me know if you have not received your invitation to come on board.
Thank you.
Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Mar 3, 2013 12:42:02 GMT
Whether you are a commercial provider of backing tracks or simply wish to share some of your creations with our community I invite you to head off into the Members area and enter the Tabs, Chords and Backing Tracks (Members Only) forum.
Please read the thread entitled Backing Tracks - Creation of list of suppliers.
In particular, please read post reply #21 which has been updated recently as ideas have been evolving.
As you will discover, the intention is to create an extension of what we have already, only in a more convenient form for the membership, while at the same time giving any Provider the opportunity to advertise their presence to the community with contact information and website addresses, should these exist.
If you are interested then please register your interest by contacting me via the Private Mailing facility offered by this site.
Should you be willing to participate, then tell me how you would like your listing entry to appear - please keep it brief. If your preference is to sell backing tracks then include (Commercial) in the entry. If you simply wish to share your creations then include (Share).
Assuming there will be sufficient interest, we can then proceed to the next stage by creating an initial list of interested Provider participants. The entries will be in alphabetic order.
Once your listing appears in what is intended to be a stickied main post at the top of the thread you will be invited to create a single post using the same title as the one appearing in the main Provider listing and this post can be modified by you alone at any time in the future. Use this post to provide a brief background and advertise what you are willing to provide including, for example, Musical Genres, Tabs, Musical Notations, Chords, etc, etc. It will be left up to you to decide the content and to maintain this content in the future. Please remember each Provider is allowed only one post. Multiple posts will be deleted, so use it wisely.
Replies in the Provider postings thread will be discourage and deleted without comment. We want to keep this as simple and straightforward as possible. The intention is to provide a central list of Providers with contact information. Each Provider will use their own post as they see fit to advertise their wares.
Whether or not we proceed with this proposal depends on your response so please act soon!
Thank you.
Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Jan 9, 2013 1:10:10 GMT
Well, somehow I knew I wouldn't hold out for very long I arranged to try her out yesterday only to find that the 'soundproofed' room (essential - I wasn't about to make a fool of myself out in the main shop) was occupied all afternoon for tuition. So, back I went today and the staff were very apologetic and helpful - even got a cup of coffee! After a solid hour of messing about my mind was made up despite the fact that I was playing into a Blues Junior MkIII which couldn't hold a candle to my modded MkII and I didn't have the benefit of my pedal board and Magicstomp with Charlie's EFTP patches. The strings are being changed from 9's to my favourite D'Addario 10's (EXL110)-(10,13,17,26,36,46). When they learned I was a Shadows/HBM fan they tried to persuade me to give the Fender Original 1550s a try - (11,15,22w,32,40,48), but I felt that was really a step too far at this early stage in my relationship with the new girl. I was given a set to take away in any case along with a Mini Hercules stand and a Dunlop Micro Fine Fret Polishing Cloth so I didn't do too badly. The guitar is being prepped and setup/action checked/adjusted in house, although I gather Fender do a pretty good job before releasing their guitars to market. Also they tell me that Fender UK have a base somewhere in Sussex for warranty work and repairs and the service/turnaround offered is excellent. Hopefully their services won't be required. Pick her up on Thursday (first day I could get back to the shop) and, guess what? I went with Rosewood! In the end I decided variety has to be the spice of life. The instrument is immaculate and she looks fantastic!! Should compliment my Maple necked, Alder bodied amber coloured Strat very nicely. Once again, thank you all for your very interesting and informative contributions. Regards, Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Jan 5, 2013 12:17:25 GMT
Hi Peter,
Yes, I've used Winamp for many years and, like John, have it installed on my o/s hard disk partition. Have you discovered the visualisation modules yet? Very clever and entertaining.
Winamp, in my opinion, is the musical equivalent of Irfanview, another very versatile and useful application to have installed on your hard disk. Since getting back into this hobby of ours I've been using Winamp exclusively to rip new songs and backing tracks off CDs prior to downloading them onto my Boss eBand JS-8/10 units. I use the former for playback of backing tracks into a nice Bose 2.1 speaker system and the latter for training. You could, of course, record such tracks while being played using Audacity but Winamp is another powerful string to your bow.
Regards,
Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Jan 4, 2013 0:24:55 GMT
Well, after what threatened to be a non-starter this thread has really taken off and I thank you all for your excellent and informative contributions. It's certainly given me much to think about. Keep them coming!
May I be the second (Frank beat me to it!) to congratulate s4wgb (although I would much prefer to be able to address you by name) on your wonderful finished project! She is a real beauty and you should be very proud of this achievement. Please tell us more about it. I wish I had such skills. Brazilian Rosewood fretboard, eh? In view of Charlie's comments how did you come upon such a rare item? Must have cost an arm and a leg!
You will be interested to know that I've decided to place this acquisition on hold for the time being. The missus had arranged to go out this afternoon for an afternoon Spa Christmas treat and I was plotting to use this time to go try out the Fender. Then the doorbell rang to announce the impromptu arrival of my daughter, son-in-law and 9 year old grandson! Ah well, perhaps it was the timely intervention of fate. If I'm really going to spend that sort of money on a second American Deluxe, which I probably don't need, then I need to take more time to consider the wisdom of such a rash action. Somehow my gut tells me what the eventual outcome will be. How long can I hold out, I wonder?
Cheers everyone! You have been most helpful.
Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Jan 2, 2013 16:54:23 GMT
84 views and only 2 respondents so far, really? My question was not meant to be rhetorical..lol. Thanks Julian..and Didier I think you're being far too modest I must say I'm having a hard time believing that so few of you have an opinion on this matter. Perhaps I should elaborate by confessing the reason for posting my question. For the past 2-3 weeks I've had my eye on a beautiful Strat hanging in one of our local instrument shops. It's pretty expensive and I probably shouldn't even be considering such a rash move, but you all know how it is and resistance in such instances is probably futile My current pride and joy is an American Deluxe which has a one piece maple neck/fretboard married to an amber alder body and brown pick/scratch guard. It has a sensuously smooth neck, looks great, plays well (has samarian cobalt noiseless pups) and is the other love of my life these days. The instrument in question is the latest version of the American Deluxe, has the new N3 Alnico pups with revised wiring which, in certain switching configurations, I understand go some way towards creating that classic Strat chime. It also has a maple neck but with a rosewood fretboard and a 3-colour Sunburst alder body with white pick/scratch guard. To be honest, I would prefer the all maple neck and board but for no rational reason other than appearance and, from experience, ease of maintenance. On the other hand, this new contender is also a wonderful looker and my reasons for hesitating may seem rather trivial and irrational to those who have had experience of both maple and rosewood boards. Yet few seem motivated to contribute to this thread so far and I'm wondering why? Perhaps this topic has been done to death in the past but, as yet, my searches on the forum haven't turned anything up. Does rosewood really affect the quality of sound in any significant way? Indeed, am I likely to notice? Does any of this really matter and should I just follow my gut instinct and bow to those impulsive desires? ;D Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Jan 1, 2013 12:08:20 GMT
Hi Julian, Oops, my mistake. I was in fact referring to the box in the corner of the room Any reason why most of your guitars have maple necks/fretboards? Is it aesthetics or simply down to the fact that they are less of a hassle to look after and maintain their appearance? Oddly enough, from the aesthetics point of view, that's the main reason why I favoured the Strat when I rejoined this hobby after so many years. I don't like the 'Tele' (got it right this time) body/scratchplate/control positioning design whereas the Strat just seems perfect in every respect. Silly I know, but, like many things, I suspect individual preference, aesthetics or otherwise, rules the day for most normal folk. Regards, Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Jan 1, 2013 0:11:30 GMT
Hi all, Am sitting here with the lady of the house waiting to usher in the New Year with a wee dram. The Proclaimers are assailing my ears on the tele as my thoughts drift to ponder such fundamental issues such as the merits of maple versus rosewood fretboards on Fender Strats. I have an American Deluxe with a maple neck/fretboard and maintenance is very easy. From what I've read, the same cannot be said of rosewood fretboards which seem to require periodic cleaning and oiling. Some say the maple boards produce a brighter tone than the rosewood which I find hard to understand, but hey, who am I to make such judgements? It would be interesting to hear the views of those who have had experience of both. Oh, Mons Meg has just given voice from the battlements of Edinburgh Castle announcing the entrance of 2013. A very Happy and Prosperous New Year to one and all here on the forums!! Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Dec 21, 2012 1:41:05 GMT
Hi Rosemary, Well done! I did enjoy that rendition and also the tone from your Strat/Zoom G2.1nu/AC15 combo. That's one I've often thought about learning to play. Cavatina has a very nice set of chords. One small tip, if I may: your videos would look so much better if we occasionally saw a smile to camera Oh, just ignore me. Carry on as you are, you're doing fine. Regards, Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Dec 16, 2012 17:28:14 GMT
Merry Christmas and a very happy and prosperous (Hall-Collins Unit sales?) New Year to you Charlie, your family and to everyone here. I've said it before, this is probably one of the best sites on the net and now all the more so because its founder has returned to the fold sounding both hale and hearty once again! Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Jun 15, 2012 20:46:21 GMT
Hi fouad, Wonderful! Played with lovely touch and feeling. I wish I could master the ability to play those occasional notes that are slightly off beat but are so important to adding expression to our playing. Pete Korving is the master in this respect but you come pretty close I was really impressed with your transit images. Clearly you are a man of many talents. However, wasn't it a bit risky capturing those images without a proper solar filter? What if there had been an unexpected break in the cloud cover? Did you project the image? Weather was lousy here in Scotland - couldn't see the sun never mind the Venus transit Well done! Regards, Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Oct 14, 2011 11:44:49 GMT
Thanks to all the members for the positive posts and helping each other. May I second that and also the sentiments expressed by the original poster in this thread. This site is, in so many ways, a perfect example of how it should be done. Everyone is positive and helpful with their comments, there is no gratuitous bad language and, as far as I am aware during the times I have been visiting, nobody has been reprimanded or banned. It's such a refreshing experience. These forums are an excellent educational resource and Charlie, above all, has proved himself to be a worthy mentor and friend. I regard it as a privilege to have been accepted as a member of this great family. Thank you and I join with everyone in wishing Charlie a well-earned respite from our constant barrage of questions. How he managed to keep up with it all I'll never know. Perhaps this break will prove to be valuable in many ways. We all know that feeling of expectation after having submitted a question or posted our latest masterpiece: great to have a response or, indeed, any response and constructive input, but somehow Charlie's contribution always seems to be the one that we are anticipating to round it all off. On an active site such as this we cannot expect this of any one person much as that person may feel an obligation to make us all feel included. It's just too much and now is the time for others to share in that responsibility. We are aware that there are many amongst us who are also gifted players and have the wide-ranging experience and knowledge of our hobby. Let's acknowledge that fact and continue to accord them the respect they also richly deserve for their contributions. Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Aug 26, 2011 0:26:51 GMT
Hi Charlie,
And another! Please count me in as well.
This would make a great Christmas present - fingers crossed!
Will a list of recommendations be supplied as you did with the EFTP for my Magicstomp?
Regards,
Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Jun 17, 2011 12:49:26 GMT
If you go to the NOD32 website and choose Free Scan of my computer,it will tell you what it finds. I use NOD32 but it is paid for AV software. It has never let me down in the 4 years I have been using it. Worth a try. Alan Ditto, excellent software. Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Nov 27, 2009 0:46:08 GMT
I think the 2009 dvd is a fabulous memory of 50 years, both in sound and picture quality. Just what I was thinking. I watched it today and thoroughly enjoyed every minute. All credit to those who put this together. Wonderful job! To be honest I prefer the balance of sound on the DVD to what I heard at the show which I felt was far too loud at times and for me this obscured the subtleties of the music. Still, this could partly be due to the fact that I was sitting 5 rows back from the front I too have never been much of a Cliff fan and I have never seen him perform live. I have now (at the SECC Glasgow) and I do have to say I was very impressed. He gave us a strong and energetic performance and never wavered from pitch - not bad for someone in his 60's. The chemistry between him and the Shads was clear for all to see and this was reflected in their faces as they were obviously enjoying the experience as much as their audience. Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Nov 18, 2009 20:55:54 GMT
Fender have some really good amps out at the moment with the blues juniors & champs etc... for me it seems hard to think of a better amp at anywhere near the same money. Cheers Dick Hi Dick, Couldn't agree more. I have a 15W Fender Blues Junior - also a terrific personal amp. Great clean sound and powerful punch when needed. Yes, it does have a built in spring reverb unit. I use a modest setting of 2 and use my Boss DD-7 at the end of the effects chain for the rest. Mind you, I did have a few issues with the FBJ at the outset - unacceptable background hiss, audible hum and tube microphony. However, all was resolved by swapping the tubes out for their 'JJ' equivalents and the fitting of (Ti-9) UltraSonic 9 Dampers. Does make you wonder about Fender's quality control when it comes to their choice of valves fitted to their amps. Clearly there is nothing wrong with the circuitry as my experience has confirmed. Regards, Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Oct 27, 2009 17:37:56 GMT
Some sane and sensible advice: www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2354488,00.asp The only bit I take issue with is the sentence that states: " People who have Windows XP can't upgrade, which is generally fine; their machines tend to be getting too old anyway." This is likely to apply to a great many folk, but not everyone by a long stretch. My PC is a home/custom build and while it may not be the latest and greatest it remains a very good performer. One of my interests is simulation, especially simming of the flight variety, and my ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 (AM2CPU Board), AMD Athlon 64X2 6400+ (BE,3200MHz,Windsor),Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro, 2GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 PC2-6400 4-4-4-12(2T) (Dual Channel), NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB (DDR3) (ForceWare 182.08 WHQL) does just fine thank you very much. I doubt whether Windows 7 has much to offer me right now other than a great deal of hassle and time spent reinstalling everything. Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Oct 27, 2009 17:27:15 GMT
Hi sheendigs, " It seems that one cannot execute a great number of Windows XP applications in Windows XP Mode for the 'Home Premium Edition' The professional and Integral edition allows that." ...and that's not the end of the story: www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2346464,00.asp The relevant bit follows: To install XPM, you'll need the right combination of hardware and software. Your hardware must include a CPU and motherboard that supports Hardware Virtualization Technology, sometimes known as VT-d, AMD-V, or Vanderpool. Most middle- and high-end systems sold in the past two years should be safe, but not all, and even some quad-core CPUs don't support the necessary technology.I think you are very wise to wait. Regards, Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Oct 25, 2009 1:18:51 GMT
Hi, I recently acquired a spare PSU for my Magicstomp Mk2 and was pleasantly surprised to find how easy it was to source one directly from Yamaha. What follows is a copy of their email to me: " Thank you for your email regarding a spare part.
Spare parts for Yamaha Instruments can be obtained from Yamaha UK - 01908 369261.
The KAC10 is available from stock, the part number is V5883100 and is a retail cost of £17.71 incl VAT.
We hope that this helps.
Kind Regards,
Yamaha UK Customer Support Team" I ordered it over the phone and it arrived in a couple of days! Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Oct 24, 2009 23:58:30 GMT
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Post by Cruachan on Oct 24, 2009 11:50:55 GMT
Hi Phil,
"You can’t upgrade XP in the same way and have to do a clean install, which is fairly quick but then you have to set about re-installing all your software and settings manually."
...which is precisely why, barring unforseen circumstances, I'll be sticking with XP for the forseeable.
IMHO Microsoft missed a trick (once again?) here by deliberately ignoring the needs of existing XP users (and I'm ignoring their lame attempt to appease users like me by providing an XP emulation with Windows 7) by failing to provide a bullet proof upgrade path.
Vista, in the end, proved to be something of a disaster. Windows 7 is now what Vista should have been, but is it now too late? I do wonder.
I imagine that the bulk of users are still on XP and some, like me, with very complex, highly configured and well performing stable installations will be dreading the day when they will have to start over. In fact, there is still no real incentive to do so as Microsoft will be providing ongoing support for XP until 2014.
I suspect the early adopters of Windows 7 will be those who always have to have the latest software and those purchasing new PCs who have little choice and will want Vista off their machines at the earliest opportunity.
Good as Windows 7 seems to be, never mind Joe Public I predict Microsoft may be in for a hard time ahead trying to convince all those businesses out there to change once again and this could prove to be a real problem for them commercially.
The only realistic way around this issue is to create an additional partition, if you have the space, and install Windows 7 on that. This is far from being ideal from the performance point of view but by providing a dual boot arrangement you can, over a period of time, move everything over. I don't think I'll bother. To expensive for something I don't really need right now and too much hassle. Who needs it?
Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Oct 21, 2009 14:52:07 GMT
Hi Roger,
Just to be clear, in case you wish to give it a shot, I'm not talking about 'chord muting' as that link provided by sheendigs also describes.
When I come to a muted section I play the notes as normal, but instead of placing the playing finger just behind the fret it is placed on top of the fret. I discovered that if I applied just the right amount of pressure it would produce a nicely dampened sound. Sounds great for stuff like the Atlantis and 1861 intro sections and the muted variation in Wonderful Land.
But, as I said, the down side is having to place each finger accurately and not press too hard or the string will ring out. Great if you get it right and I usually find myself relaxing back into the rest of a number once that section has passed. The trick I find is to use a generous area of finger pulp while applying gentle pressure down onto the fret.
Try it. Even if you don't use it routinely it could prove to be a nice additional string to your bow.
Best regards,
Mike
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Post by Cruachan on Oct 20, 2009 20:52:31 GMT
Hi Roger,
I realise that this probably isn't going to be much help to you, but before I discovered that Hank was in fact palm muting I achieved 'that sound' by muting each note with the playing fingers of my left hand. Indeed the sound was so convincing that I believed this was how Hank was in fact doing it. Unfortunately this does require a fair amount of accuracy to hit each fret at just the right point to stop the note from sounding unmuted or worse, partially muted.
I found I was having good days and bad days using this technique and I needed to find a method that produced more consistent results. Now I know that palm (or, more strictly, that should be edge of palm) muting is the way to go I, like you, am faced with having to practice the technique until I get it right. When you have plenty time to place your right hand in the correct position then it's usually okay, but time is rarely a luxury in the middle of a number.
My instrument is an American Deluxe Strat and it has a flat stainless steel bridge (Deluxe 2-Point Synchronized Tremolo). Palm placement does feel relatively comfortable although it can be difficult to judge how much fore and aft to use without the pick hitting the middle PU. I find that I have to have my little finger relatively straight and following the line of the palm edge that is doing the muting.
The guys have been offering some helpful advice in the Techniques forum and I am fairly confident I'll get there in the end. I think it's all down to practice and muscle training until it becomes second nature. I hoped for a shortcut solution; sadly I don't think there is one. Even the VML Easy Mute arm didn't help me as I found it was loose and wobbled slightly in the hole - mine is a snap-in fit rather than the screw-in variety.
I use D'Addario XL 10-46 strings Magicstomp Mk2 with Charlie's EFTP patches BOSS CS-3 and DD-7 (on analogue setting) Fender Blues Junior Amp
Regards,
Mike
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