I love your point at the end. Recently I’be been using this phrase… “Music is amplified emotion.” So, one of the best things we can do is invest in our emotional health. Whatever is inside of you is going to come out through your music… so focus on your inner life and health. Not quite as fun and thrilling as buying new gear, but recently I’ve found that conquering my fears and connecting with my emotions is making me a much better player than any new guitar, amp, or pedal ever will.
Excellent idea, I reckon that anyone that watches this regularly would already know his favourites but I don't, I am not new to the channel but I have only watched his videos sporadically. So yes, a list of his favourites would be great, and highly informative too I would imagine. I got out of a stay in hospital years ago and I went into my local guitar shop (John Palmer Music Centre in Waterford) and I was looking for a good wah pedal but I ended up buying a Zoom G2.1u. I found myself suffering from choice blindness because of too many options, lol, so it was put away and it never got used. I am going to get that pedal out tmoro and give it another go, it cost me enough ffs! Sorry for the waffle, peace to you from Ireland mo chara x
what I don't get is why you keep these pieces of gear on a shelf. okay, shame you missed the return window, but I would still sell it to fund other gear.
My biggest gear regret, and it was almost 20 years ago now, was buying a Rickenbacker 4003 bass. A lot of my bass heroes played something similar, it looked so cool, it was an iconic piece of gear...and I just didn't like it. It was uncomfortable to play for me (I even injured myself on it during a gig more than once), it didn't feel right, and I honestly didn't really like the sound all that much. I had a Fender MIM Precision bass as a backup and ended up playing it a lot more and loved everything about it more. I had the same issue with a Gibson Les Paul Custom and in the end I think the issue for me was wanting something for the feelings I had about music made by bands I love with that instrument, vs my feelings and needs actually PLAYING it. My playing preferences ended up being very different from my "taste". At least it was educational, and both appreciated in value and I sold them years later for more than I bought them, so it's not a deep regret.
Love this comment and actually my own two main instruments are a 4003 and a Burny Les Paul, for the same reasons as you. But in my case, they’re both so familiar and comfortable to me that I can’t imagine playing anything else. Glad you found the gear that feels right for you!
I, too, bought a 7-string guitar "to do heavy ambient" with. And rather than play metal, I mostly use it for clean ambient pieces, which fills a lot more sonic space than a 6-string. Try tuning the 7-string to Drop A, and use open string chords... you might be surprised!
Like you, Bill, I've used Roland guitar synths back to the GR300, GR700, GR20, GR33, GR55....and now I use a GI20 into Korg synths. When I saw the previews for the new Boss GM800, I got right on board and preordered it. During the wait time, I studied the demos and looked deep at the ZEN core deal....and I cancelled my order. I'm positive this is a great piece of gear, but I couldn't justify the purchase based upon my own needs for what synths can do for me anymore. I've got that avenue covered and I know that I could do some great sounds with a GM800....but I can do that right now with what I already have. I've got a lot of gear I regret buying, and kudos for making a vid about this subject. Thank you!
Great video, yet again. I agree with almost everything you said Bill, except for the "there's no piece of equipment that can radically change what you're doing as a musician." It's rare, but it does excist! I bought a groovebox/sampler/drum machine 2 years ago in order to incorporate drum patterns with my guitar playing. Well, it changed my whole approach to making music: I went more into the electronic music production (a whole different rabbit hole) and started to create ambient music that way.
@@gregmetzler6828 I started out with the Elektron Model:Samples but about a year later upgraded to its bigger and more powerful sibling; the Elektron Digitakt!
I had the same experience with the Fractal ecosystem (AXE 3 with FC12). It’s an incredibly remarkable piece of gear. However you have to fully commit to learning it to get the most out of it, and from my standpoint, I already had sounds I loved, and getting the Fractal to do the same thing or better would have taken a monumental amount of time. If you are willing to learn an entire new way of approaching your set up, the Fractal offers the current peak of this technology. If you are trying to supplement what you already have, a smaller, simpler modeler is the way to go. That way you aren’t entirely reliant on one methodology and/or the dealing with the frustration of making multiple methods work together.
Had the SY300 and loved it. The stock synth sounds in it are Mario Kart sounds. Stick effects after it and it gets better. You're right about the Boss effects in it. Not great. And Boss are being left behind in the effect space. Do have the FM9. By far the deepest and most complex piece of gear I've ever owned. The amp modeling is top notch. And so are the effects. Lots and lots of parameters to tweak. It's almost too complex. On many levels it is not an instant gratification machine. You grow into it.
I had one of those Roland guitar synths and sold it and grabbed a Electro Harmonix String 9 because it's seriously old school, cannot save anything haha and you just have to twiddle knobs like in the old days until you get the sound you like. Pretty useless live unless I'm doing some whacked out crazy kneel down guitar sounds in the middle of a track. For studio recording though, utterly love it :) PS: Noticed the final choice the Fractal FM9 - my studio board is the EH String9, into a Headrush MX5 (pedals only) into a Tonex pedal. Basically a studio rig direct to recording interface for £1,000 or less. And have space on the board to add other pedals in front of the rig. I wish I hadn't sold my Maestro Phaser original from the 1960s (sob) but otherwise than that, holy cow as a 57 year old used to playing live with a few pedals scattered around the mic stand, this is so neat and easy to use. Great video and thanks for exactly your final point. Buying gear is fun BUT there are no miracle pedals that will make you a better player except as you said. The Human Interface :)
FM9 - I have been a Fractal user for a long time. I suggest giving it a real deep dive and on the different aspects you can modify. John Cordy had a great video out this week that might be an inspiration for you.
That fractal fm9 is really cool with that said, you never know when something will come to you in ideas when writing and laying down tracks and that peace of gear is the ticket at that time i hope it will work out for you, i really do.
I've gotten into the habit of taking advantage of Long & McQuade's (here in Canada) daily/weekly/monthly rental options. e.g. a simple Boss pedal can be had for maybe $12/week, something in their 200/500 range for $20-30/week. If you choose to purchase after, they give something in the order of 60% of your rental fee back towards it. My preferred option to test drive pedals/guitars/amps now.
I completely agree with the SE7. I’ve tried every 7 string PRS makes and I love prs, I’ve got probably 10 of them, but I hate the 7 string versions. They are sold is guitars but I just can’t get a decent tone out of them. I’m used to drop and weird tunings cause I play Deftones, korn, Soundgarden etc, but I’m sorry, the tone sucks. Now, the FM9… I’m still learning, but it’s a useful tool. I’m old school so I can’t simply replace my entire pedalboard, but I got the FM9 as an extension to my current setup. There’s a serious learning curve for sure. It’s not plug n play. You have to take Cooper Carter’s 15 hour class; more $ no one wants to spend after a $2000 purchase, cause with shipping the fractal is $2000 + if you I’d get the warranty. Then you need their special hum cancellation cables if you are doing 4 cabling, which I do. It’s an expensive venture and time consuming, but worth it. It’s really the best modeling I’ve ever heard. Other systems aren’t bad, but when I play out I don’t want not bad. People come up to me asking about my tone all the time. My secret though is I don’t actually model. I still run a moded JCM900. I’m sorry but I will never give up my stack. You can not replace the feeling of a good tube amp no matter what anyone tells you.
Some great insights into some good kit. I’ve often been surprised by what works really well apt someone else just drag not scratch the itch for me, and visa versa. You’re spot on though with the most important bit of kit being ourselves and the inspiration. 👍
Im crap with pedals,ive got quite a few, i always go back to the amp channel foot switch, a guitar switcher with an output for my Most used pedal ever, a boss tu tuner
Much needed video, good stuff as always, Bill! I had the same experience with the 2 pitchforks. Your demo actually sealed the deal for me getting the + 😆. But that’s true of tons of gear I have because I enjoyed the demo. And I have many more pedals I LOVE because I saw your demo of them and because you showed me _how_ to use them to make the sounds and music I wanted. I’ve learned sooooo much about using my gear and guitars to play the ambient music I love sinking into and healing myself through music. I think a lot of us owe you enormous thanks for that. You’re the best, Bill! ✌️😌🎸
And and I said to myself "self" Not sure if you're a wrestling fan Mr. Orion but there's a podcast out there that would love you for that bit lol. Great video as always!
My most underutilized pedal, that I was sure going to be a gamechanger, is my H9 Max. It is a great pedal and I know I just need to explore it more. I won't part with it but cost to use ratio is pretty high LOL, and honestly my HX Stomp is getting more attention these days.
The takeaway: if you have no use for it it’s better to unload it. And that is totally independent from the quality of the gear. The gear can be superior but if you’re not using it….Great thought in the end: it’s not the gear; it’s what the musician does with it.
I have a PRS Custom 24 my wife bought me for our 20th anniversary and it spends most of its life in its case under my bed. It is beautiful and plays flawlessly. I did not realize how much I love single coil Fender type guitars until AFTER I got this beauty. I am thinking of having the coil splits put in so I can get some single coil sounds out of it. We live and learn... sometimes. ;-)
I've had many pedals that I was disappointed in. Not because of them but because the just didn't fulfill my aural picture. No sweat. Did the bargaining thing at the corporate store and tried and tried stuff. I wanted to get the String 9 but it doesn't work the way I hoped. I had a huge store credit and bought the EHX Super Pulsar. Brought it home and thought..........Mistake! Fast forward to a surgery on my right leg which laid me up for weeks. Move the Orange 30 and Acoustic Bass practice amp the pedal board, bag O cables and RU-vid. Certainly, your videos along with Ambient Endeavors, Collector/ Emitter, Pedal Zone and one other that I am not recalling right now. Long haired dude with a beard and very articulate in his videos. At any rate I learned a bunch. Caveat. I am a Bass player first and foremost. Love Distant Fires Burning, Rothko, Zander Zon. C. Drew Breder, Damien Coccio etc, but all Bass playing goes through the computer, so I grabbed my trusty Telecaster's. Plugged them in to the amps with the pedal board and found that with endless time the world is a sonic oyster, Pearl included. Thanks to my wife for doing the lifting. I worked that Super Pulsar to death and would not be caught without it. My board consists of EHX Freeze, into the Earthquaker Afterneath, the Earthquaker Astral Destiny, TC Flashback x4, stereo into the Super Pulsar, with the Walrus Audio APR87 when needed. I prefer the reverb before the delay but if I want delay after, the ARP87 gets the job. I still want the String 9 after this shed lesson though, but I am thinking the CloudBurst will be better. Orchestral purposes. Thoughts on that? Thanks for the video Bill.
So there is one piece of gear i regrett buying even though i had a lot of fun with it. The Ocean machine by mooer. It was my first guitar Pedal i bought after seeing you review it a few years ago. It was pretty good as a first Pedal because of the 3 different Modulations options you get. I regret buying it because of the Overall quality of the Pedal. After around 1 year the Sound quality became weaker. There were some distortion, that should not be there. After around 2 and a half year one knob stopped working and After 3 years one of the foodswitches broke, leaving me with one Modulation activated all the time. I did not move it a lot and i take good care of my gear and i now have Pedals that are older than myself and still working perfectly. When i purchase a New Pedal i am looking for pedals that are doing one thing (just reverb or just Chorus etc.) Also digital screens are a nogo for me. Except for my loopstation. So i did not regret buying it but it would be a Pedal i would avoid today 😅
Only five? Dude, I own three acoustic Taylors, one Yamaha trans acoustic, one supped up Tele, and a 30 year old Ibanez Roadstar upgraded with over a grand into it and at least 15 pedals I never use! I only play my 25 year old Big Baby Taylor because my wife tells me I sound sexy when I play that one! It sends me to heaven everytime she says it. I'm truly Guitarded!!
Blue Chip Picks for me...i bought two, and was so anticipatory for when they came in...and I did NOT like the tone of feel i got from them. I'm very much a V-Pick guy but wanted to try something new. Oh well. win some, lose some.
@3:28 I saw the Strymon blue and was OH NO! LOL thankfully I was wrong on that. New subscriber here...dunno if you're a Nightsky/BigSky fan or not haha guess I'll find out soon enough!
I agree about the SY-300, and while it is nice, I have found I don't use many of the sounds. It is an expensive pedal and just did not bring what I thought it would. I use it, but could have used much less expensive gear and been pleased. I have it on a separate stereo buss, and it adds some nice tones to my main buss, but it wasn't worth it.
The 300 is a bit of overkill if you just want a few sounds. That's why I ended up just using an SY-1 and just remembering where each of the 4 settings I use is located on the knobs.
I recently upgraded to a faster computer, so I started using the Neural Amp Modeler plugin. I am now looking at my amps, pedals, and even my POD Go and wondering why I even have them. Plugins are so much better now, and most DAWs already have great effects built-in. There are even digital simulations of some of the pedals I have that sound just as good, and it's so much easier just plugging the guitar right to my interface and not turning on anything else (except for my trusy Digitech FreQout pedal!). BTW - are you selling that 7-string PRS?
I’m having second thoughts about the Chase Bliss Mood MK2 I just got….I’m not sure it fits my guitar style. Seems like the sort of pedal that you play a few notes, then turn some knobs to try to find a cool pad to play over. I like to create while playing and noodling, and this isn’t doing it for me. Anyone else feel this way?
Thanks for this video, your views on the 7 string are helpful. Occasionally a 7 string guitar will catch my eye, and I tell myself "you have enough problems with 6 strings, why add another?" Good to know it's a different beast, that isn't a complete surprise but good to know.
My biggest gear purchase regret: The Chapman Stick. The regret is not based on the instrument itself. My regret is based on my lack of discipline to learning the instrument, and events in my life took precedence (meaning, the timing was wrong). I still reconsider getting one from time to time, but I am wiser now and know I most likely will not have time to master the instrument, at least in the terms of mastering it for my personal goals. A runner-up regret is that I also bought a Marcodi Harpejji. For the same reasons as above. It sits in a case in my closet, due to that human condition called, "loss aversion."
ALSO, Bill: SAME on the SY-300, in fact I just sold mine. (I also gave the GR-09 a try in the mid-late 90s) SAME kept the original Pitchfork (Also selling my Meris Enzo) ;)
My best band buddy play the Stick and I often thought about getting one way back in the day, until he lent his to me for several weeks. Made me realize how much work was going to be required! It took him 2 years of practice before he was comfortable enough to bring to gigs.
I just sent back the H90, :) I didn't like the sound, I was exited about the new algorithms but at the end for the same money I got 3 pedals with much more character. also too much time programming the thing, same happened with the zoia.
Thank you, another great video. What is it with guitar synth pedals? The Boss SY-1 was one of my regrets. It was fun at first but after about a week of fairly intense playing around with it, I found it's limitations. It just didn't fit into my current workflow. On the other hand, I've now started to re-use an old digitech pedal that I purchased in the Jurassic period😂 because it has programmable levels of volume swells that are ideal for my ambient tracks.
My biggest regret is not getting a 7 string guitar 10-15 years earlier when I originally considered it. Playing one was freakishly natural the first time that I tried it, an experience I never had when I played a 5 string bass. Now my regret with the 7 string guitar is I see a lot of guitars that I like a lot, but they all feel like they are missing a string.
I have purchased and sold so many chorus pedals and multi mod devices over the years and they always collect dust. I want to like them, but I just never turn them on.
I play gtar without any gear.just a simple amp & just distrotion as the only effect..the only thing that i can sometimes improve n get as a new gear is just a 'guitar pick'..anyway u are lucky to have many gear,dont regreat it but use it..
It seems that a lot of people, mostly via RU-vid vids I've seen, who put the FM9 at the top of their list of modelers are looking for metal or even extreme metal tones, and they're kind of connoisseurs of those sorts of tones, which are tones you (and I as well) aren't really looking for.
Thank you for putting this out there, brands wont like it, but sometimes things just arent for everybody, and it needs to be said. I too bought an axefx i just dont jive with. Spent time tweaking every knob in every page on every block from the input to the output, all kinds of different combinations of things. Its just not for me, and after two years just tweaking and waiting for updates im tired of it. I dont play live all i do is hang around and tweak and jam. Just never gotten anything like my real amps or effects. Its almost worse with in ear monitors because i hear everything i dont like more. Wanted to love it, especially for the price. But i think its time to let it go to someone who will enjoy it more than i. I also bought an $2000 ibanez guitar around the same time as axefx. And i kinda feel the same about it, it doesnt do anything different or feel any better than my regular ibanez guitars, and i still need to polish the frets and put pickups in it. And i feel what makes it worse is everytime i pick it up or look at, i just dont see the value and always just feels like a waste. Great guitar though the action was the best id ever had a guitar sent to me. My last gear of regret is when i put two celestion g-12h 30 in a 4x12 with two eminence governors and it just over saturated the cab, alot of people could like it, but just not for me, even my drummer whos my brother noticed it right off the bat. Atleast that regret cost significantly less than the other ones. Thats really the three biggest gear of regrets for me, happy to say the first real tube amp was the last for me, and i fully understand thats not the case for probably 99% of you. I hope yall find what your looking for lol, theres so much gear to go through now adays its insane.
I lied i had a two notes torpedo when they first came out and i wish i had never gotten rid of it because i never got to try it with wall of sound. but i never ended up liking it cause it was always like playing through a 1x12. So 4 gears of regret.
I had the FM3 and I wished I had waited for the FM9 but after owning the FM3 for a while I could see how fast the tech was moving and with Quad Cortex being released and now Tone X, $2k preamps don't make as much sense. I had the Helix LT before the FM3 but I just had a really hard time dialing in presets that I like. I hear other people's Helix and they sound great, I think it's just a feel thing.
Ha I feel really good that I bought the original pitchfork and not the enhanced one. I have so many pedals I bought and they end up on the shelf. But I am down to a small board again with 10 pedals. I also egret buying the holyboard 123 and traveling bag. It is beautifully made, but too big, too heavy. My 69 dollar ghost pedal board with case is what I really needed.
Don't agree with you on the Editor for Fractal and Line6. I have a Helix and a Axe FX 3 Mk2, and I find the Fractal editor by far, so much easier and more powerful to use. I've seen 6 decades, so I didn't grow up with tech either.
the neunaber EXP / expanse can have delay and reverb on it, and it suppouse to be the same reverb at the inmerse... btw, i have and i'm not shure if i love it or not...
I have had a fm3 for a couple of years. I realized the only way to really get it is to study the various user manuals . My favorite remains the boss gt1000 core.
Maybe, in our search for a sound, instead of regret, it’s just a lesson of where you want your sound to go. So maybe instead of regret, that piece of gear was necessary for your understanding and self awareness to evolve further.
I found today one of the versions of axe fx you can profile your effects pedals as well of your amps i hope it's all its cracked up to be cause I'm either gonna have to save up alot or sell and bunch of stuff i don't need to get one I wonder how far it can go cause I got some pretty crazy pedals that are probably pretty hard to emulate
I totally agree on the first 4 regrets, the FM9 actually has changed my life and downgraded my entire rig for when I play at my local church, the sounds are amazing. Had my eyes on the Helix LT @ first but I actually had somewhat of an experience with Line 6 gear and I liked it but not super impressed. But then again everyone has their own opinion. Thanks for making this video, next up, “Gears that change my life” 🎸🎸🎸✊
Nice video thank you. I'm kind of a procrastinator so , this doesn't effect me. If you believe that , let me sell you a "Sky Hook" Actually I have been lucky , I kind of regret buying a Fishman TriplePlay ( wireless) You got to have the FC-1 too. The thing works great but , it is just a tool for my home studio. It's boxed up 🤣 We need more musicians swap meets. If that's even a thing anymore? Not so much to profit but , to unload some gear.
I hate to admit it but, I regret buying guitars. I love playing guitars but at my heart I know I’m a synthesizer player more than anything. I started playing guitars when I was in second grade and far later in high school I became a keyboard player. Now I generate unearthly tone on my many synths and rarely play guitar in my music. I will forever love guitars but, I’m a synthesizer player not a guitarist.
"it doesn't give me anything I already have" it sounds like the Fractal was an impulse buy despite it taking 10 months to arrive. perhaps you even got caught up in the sunk cost fallacy
This is an important video because RU-vidrs very rarely look back like this and, even if they do, a lot of the things that they might have regretted they either got free or got on a limited time basis. The fact is: having a huge number of complex pedals is great, but when it comes to actually hooking them up and using them, they are just going to be an inconvenience and probably stay on the shelf. Nearly always when I buy something that is really useful it is replacing or displacing something else that partly did the same thing: especially when I buy a new guitar! Being critical about our buying choices is a step towards making better decisions in the future.
My rig tends to “breathe” (GAS vs lack of funds = inhale vs exhale 😂) but I’ve been sticking to the latest iteration pretty consistently. I use an HX Stomp as the glue and brain of it all, so it’s a pretty capable setup even at just the one device!
You are so right on some of these. As I get older (I'm 52 now), I get easily lost with complex gear. I am gravitating towards simpler pedals that I can tweak on the fly.
Dear Bill, as a man probably of your age (I’m 61) I really appreciate not to say I love your contributions. They’re almost kinda sacred island in this loud’n’busy, more and more fragmented world. And the end of this video of regrets virtually turns into a (to say so) beautiful prayer. Thank you very much!🙏 Benno
I have one small regret buying my Empress Zoia, it does EVERYTHING and makes it difficult to find new pedals that do something new. I'm miles deep down a rabbit hole of sonic weirdness, and see no end to it.
Complexity doesn't always work for many people. All 5 of your choices in my opinion are complex. I remember seeing Lenny Breau and preferred him on 6 strings instead of 7. So glad you did this video. I appreciate your honesty.
5 watt world quotes a synth RU-vidr: "if you're not being productive then don't buy another gear hoping it will change it". I try to stand by that nowadays. The tipping point for me was when I bought a bigger pedalboard hoping to consolidate all my pedals and quickly realizing that I prefer smaller ones and that signal chains are never permanent.
Excellent video - totally appreciate the honesty! My regret is too often selling a piece of gear and then coming to the realization that “hey! I miss that!” - but I don’t regret selling my tube amps and transferring to Quilter solid state amps! Nor does my back!
I’m actually not super surprised about your thoughts on the FM-9. Helix stuff is amazing and can do so much! Interestingly enough Devin townsend uses exclusively fractal stuff for his heavy music but for his ambient guitar project “dreampeace” he uses a helix. Check it out!!
The Fractal stuff is great if you are going to set up a tone and effects chain to use all the time. Or, if I want to have a particular sound to cover a song, I can have a preset just for that song. The Fractal can sound like anything. Tweaking things in real time though is tough unless you do it on the computer. The helix user interface is so much better for tweaking things on the fly on the unit itself. When I just want to play around, try out different things, its just easy on the Helix. I've had a axefx 3 since they came out and still find the interface annoying to deal with.
2:25 I just wanted to mention that the Expanse + EXP pedal is actually meant to be loaded up to the computer so you can add multiple different effects to it. I have multiple WET reverbs loaded on mine.
The Boss SY-300 is my regret, fun for the first hour. But it is very confusing to create custom sounds and the stock sounds are a little too cheesy. I agree 100%
Be sure and use an expression pedal with the Boss, you’ll have more usable options. Same with their Slicer pedal - the ability to slow it down with an expression pedal? Crucial.
It’s possible to fall back in love with a piece of gear you think you hated… About a month ago I bought a Behringer Poly D on a whim, I’d always wanted a minimoog and it was a mere £450! At first I thought I’d made a massive mistake - mostly as I didn’t have space for it! Didn’t know what to do with it. Then, I had a jam with a guitarist friend with it and my Korg SV2 on a Rhodes sound, and I fell in love with it. Mostly because I’d learnt how to use it, through improvising and having some fun with a good mate! Lesson? Spend some time experimenting with gear properly before getting rid of it, you might fall in love with it!
You really nailed it with your closing comments. Guitar players, especially electric guitarists are constantly chasing rainbows in terms of the "holy grail" that will send us to the "next level" of musicianship. Unfortunately, as you suggested in your final comments, that rainbow or holy grail doesn't really exist, as much as gear manufacturers and music retailers want you to believe otherwise. There is, at last, no substitute for spending more time with the instrument in your hands, and maybe a little serious soul-searching about what are our most serious shortcomings as musicians. Especially for those of us who mostly "hole up" at home and play our instruments alone, we probably ought to "get out" more often, see live music. When we're playing with other musicians, we should try to play with musicians who are better than we are. Most of us could benefit from keeping our guitars properly set up and tuned, and playing with a metronome and working on our rhythm chops, and maybe playing fewer notes, but "better" notes when we're playing lead.
That's okay. I regret that I learned to play guitar. It cost me lot money, the guitars take a lot space, the amps too also the pedals. And even worse I have a job with guitars. I feel guitars are all over the place. And if it's dark I now they stare at me!
This is a great video topic. Good Job!! I feel about the same with the learning getting into the instrument. It was a boom when I got started in 2019. So many bought and sold. The first one I bought black strat remains my favorite. I plan on focusing on 2 guitars and trading off the rest for upgrades etc.
The trick for learning 7-string is to remember that you can retune that bottom string! If I’m playing something it D major/B minor or E, B works great on the bottom. Occasionally I tune it down to A if I bop between the 7-6-5 strings or want access to single finger chords. But most of the time I tune it to C, and that offers some great chord options without stretching my fingers more than a 7-string already does. (And I have big hands.) Watch some Yamandu Costa, Lachie Robertson, or George Van Eps, and give it a shot! Otherwise I’ll take that PRS off your hands 😉
Another cool simple trick on 7 strings is to tune the G string to F#. this way it's like playing a 6 string tuned one 4th below with an additional high E string ;) Stephen Carpenter of the Deftones tunes high 7 strings like 6 strings guitars but with double 6th high string.
I wish I could buy my old self back. I remember using just a single old and beaten Boss Metal Zone and make it sound better through the whole night (being in a cover band on tour overseas). Now I want to have 3 to 5 overdrive and distortion and not having the sound that what I used to be. Oh endless GAS.. . 🤣
I had an AX-8 and was on the FM-3 waiting list, but then I switched to a Boss GT-1000 core. With fractal audio, first I was more tweaking than playing, then I ended up using one amp and didn't use all the other options I paid for. So I thought I can significantly reduce in size. Plus, as you said; Boss had a distinctive sound. I always loved their delay algorithm. Now the AIRD amp simulation sounds amazing too - imho way better than the AX-8. I guess Fractal Audio just isn't for everyone. I didn't regret buying the AX-8 though. Back then most amp modellers sound pretty pour.
I was lucky to get an FM3 quite early on, it was my first ‘multi-effect‘/amp modeller since a boss GT3 I borrowed many years ago. After the honeymoon phase of a few weeks, I was overwhelmed by the options… it found a place in my drawer for over a year and I went back to my love for individual stomp boxes. Recently I gave it another chance (like you are doing :)), watched some useful videos by Leon Todd and G66, now I am finding ways to use it that I didn’t think possible before and it’s expanding my creativity. For me at least, it was well coming back to and investing more time in, no regrets here :) Thank you for the video and good luck revisiting your FM9!
I actually love 7-strings for everything from metal to ambient, and I can really recommend giving it another try - ESPECIALLY for ambient! A few suggestions I would give: 1. I think ambient is a great way to get used to the extra string and just start slow. Play with a long, slow delay (or even go "Frippertronics"), keep in mind what notes you need, and it will just become natural over time. It's probably the most relaxing way to learn, when the tone itself requires you to play slower and give yourself time to think. 2. I tend to prefer drop A (or lower, if you will) as I think it's both more intuitive and arguably more useful overall - it's actually hard to incorporate the low B into bigger chords, whereas you can always just hold the extra two low strings to get an octave/power chord. Or just hit an open A power chord when in doubt, because why not. 3. Tuning even lower can be surprisingly great for ambient, as long as you keep the low end in check. You get a lot of frequency range to play with, and the low notes can sound really dramatic with ambient effects. I've made an ambient piece as low as drop F and those reverberating near-bass notes combined with playing up high can really be *something*. 4. Very subjective, but imo: try lighter strings than you think you need. The neck is bigger so everything takes a bit more effort, and tight strings can really feel like you have to fight against them, whereas lighter strings are a lot more dynamic, which is imo especially fun to play with in an ambient context, when you can do everything from very subtle to TWANNNNNNG easily. (And imo, most 7-string sets except the most typical ones are often very dumb and absurdly bottom-heavy - if you want something beyond the usual 10-56, imo it's better to refer to what you use on 6-string and buy a separate 7th than buy a 11-74 set or whatever they came up with in their mad scientist lab.)
I sold my expensive valve amps and my entire pedalboard worth over £4000 and purchased a Fractal FM9. I have no regrets, its sounds amazing, the amps the effects are world class, and it gives me all the sounds I've been chasing in my head for years. Stick with it. The ambient sounds on it can do are the best I've heard. I use it in Church often for huge soundscapes between songs. So good. And light.
I'm just starting and don't have the budget for such a pedalboard. But I just bought the NUX MG-30 and I'm super happy with it. For a beginner is great. I had my dream of buying pedals and build my pedalboard. But I changed my mind, with such a multieffects you have all the pedals and you can switch patches quickly to play different songs, styles. So you don't have to bend down and adjust all the pedals so you can start playing something, then do it again for something else. It's a great thing. Oh and I already have a computer interface to record, so I don't have to buy a separate one!
Yeah I love my FM9. It takes a little time to wrap your head around it but once you do it’s fantastic. So flexible. You can set it up the foot switches to do whatever works best for your style. I’m still playing around with mine trying to figure out the best way to set it up but the sounds of the presets alone are excellent.
Wow two things I absolutely can’t play without a 7 string and the SY300 I switched from 6 string guitar to 7 string with no plan or knowledge of how to use them at age 13 now 15 years later i exclusively play 7,8 & 9 string guitars with multiple synthesizer pedals. The lower pitch of the extra strings makes the synth pedals really pop. I love your channel btw super inspiring videos. Your video on the SY300 was the reason why I got it and now I can’t imagine playing without it. If I didn’t watch your review on it i probably wouldn’t have got it. Keep up the great content 🤘👽🤘
You have my respect, sir. My regret video would be longer than Avatar. Most of my regrets are pedal related or of the "think I'll learn banjo" category. Right now, my biggest regret is all the money I spent on stuff that I didn't need to rarely used. Good video. Thanks.
I am not currently playing, however, I did so for about 20 years. There are no videos, as we only livestream the sermon. Also, our music is strictly focused on congregational singing, so I mostly played traditional hymns on acoustic guitar, along with piano and the odd violin or flute.
Completely agree on the 7 string. I bought one during the years i played professionally 6 nights a week and like you i had no plan to incorporate it into our show/set list. Sounded cool for about a week then sat in the equipment van until i sold it. After playing for sixty five years my regret list is long and somewhat esoteric but right now it is the Meris Hedra and UA Starlight. The Starlight is powerful and sounds great but it’s just not the “right” sound for me. The new Strymon Brig is seriously calling me because it just sounds “right” if you know what i mean. The Hedra is a total mind screw and I’m having a hard time making it sound like the amazing demo vids. I’m holding on to it for now because I’ve discovered that if you ignore what it’s supposed to sound like and make is sound just the opposite . .cacophony, it’s awesome LMAO!! Love your channel Bill and your music too.
