Ralphie's Ramblings

Ace Frehley When I read that had a new cd coming out at about the same time as a new KISS CD I was  intrigued.  I had just read an interview with Ace in a popular Guitar magazine and the bitter feelings between them were evident.  Also, with Ace's famed substance abuse problems and his inability to even play during part of it, I wondered how good it could be. Well, the Starman has done it again.  Much like his first solo release in the Kiss solo releases way back when, Ace has trumped any solo release the band hs made.  It totally blows Paul Stanley's recent solo cd out of the water (and I thought Paul's was pretty good).  In fact, it blows the most recent Kiss CD, Sonic Boom, out of the water.  Tommy Thayer does his best Ace impression on Sonic Boom, but just does not have the same power or feeling.  In fact, he often copies Ace too much. Bruce Kulick and Vinnie Vincent each brought something a little different and unique to Kiss, where Tommy seems content to be an Ace imp

  One of my best finds in guitars as this VG Strat. I got rid of my Carvin CT3 to get it. Fender has discontinued these and I do not know why? No sales? Was it misunderstood? It the root it is an American Strat with all the great feel and sound off an Amrican Strat. But inside it is so mucch more. With the Roland picckup it is a Strat, Tele, Humbucker guitar and an acoustic. It has a varieety of alternate tunings and doe each well. It can also be a 12 string in all but the first mode where it is a sanddard American Strat. I love the feel and vversatility of this. The only downsie is the batterry usae which is about 4 hours with standard double A's or 6 to 8 with decent rechargeables. So I just keep a spare set charged at all times. I hope they bring these back out in the future. I love mine.

Tone Factor - Dedicated to bringing you the finest in hand-made, boutique effects pedals, Guitars, amplifiers and other accessories I love delays.  But I am really like a more natural old style delay with out all the wild space effects.  So today I was searching Tonefactor for delay that I might really sink my teeth into and saw this one. Subdecay Echo Box - Start out with a great delay sound, add intuitive and useful features, and you have your self The Echo Box. The sound is somewhere between a digital and analog delay, but without the coldness of the the typical digital delay, or sometimes "icky" artifacts heard with analog delays. The repeats degrade each time they are recycled, but without any clicking, or popping often caused by "noise reduction" compandor circuits in older delays. Instead the Echo Box uses a discrete noise reduction circuit designed from the ground up. Natural decay mode allows the echo effect to naturally trail off after being bypassed.

YouTube - Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret As many of you alrready know, my main source for pedals is http://www.tonefactor.com.  They also have a cool You Tube Channel that shows off a lot of the gear they sell.  Above is the link to one such item. The DLS is plain sweet. Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret

Showcase Body As a huge Tele fan, I hae to share this. A carved top Tele body. This looks sweet. I have a Logan Tele and a JHS Vintage Advanced semi hollow Tele. How nice would it be to build one around this! Man it looks nice.

Christian Musician Forum OK. So it has been awhile since I have been here. I am trying to get back to some blogging when I have time. For now, if you are a musician or music fan, check out the link above. It is a great bunch of guys and gals who love to talk music.