Michael Nielsen (Big Hairy Guitars ) Ask Me Anything?

[DrewJD82]

Terry is such a legend. Amazing producer and mixer. Listen to his Limp Bizkit records. They're HUGE sounding.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs8aOJKJOhk
I wish they'd put out instrumental versions.

White Zombie Astro Creep, massive!

Terry produced the first Dream Theater album (When Dream and Day Unite), so ages ago I custom ordered it. it sounded terrible! hahah. I always wondered if he just signed his name to that to help out new band.

In every interview I've read with Terry, he's so minimal. Just great ears, and simple EQ, compression, and puts it all together right!

Hahaha I also had to track down When Dream And Day Unite back in the 90's when it wasn't easily available. I'd love to hear that album with Awake's production.

And I might be young enough where I bought Limp Bizkit albums as they were being released.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Hahaha I also had to track down When Dream And Day Unite back in the 90's when it wasn't easily available. I'd love to hear that album with Awake's production.

And I might be young enough where I bought Limp Bizkit albums as they were being released.

 

[la szum]

And I might be young enough where I bought Limp Bizkit albums as they were being released.

No need to reveal everything about ourselves, is there???

 

[cyclingrepublic]

I totally understand. I'm in a similar boat at home. If you want to use guitar cabs (which is very satisfying) then maybe go with a Fryette or Synergy stereo power amp. It will be less cumbersome, and 1U. A pair of Power Station's is a great thing as well. OR (what I do) is run a master volume amp with an FX loop in 1 side, and send the FX loop out to a Power Station for the other side. Stereo. BUT, that require a tube amp. Honestly, I've gone through a LOT of amps. The only amps that have ever required maintenance, or even tube changes are 40+ years old. Anything remotely modern should last you pretty much forever. Especially if you're playing at low volumes in a climate controlled home.

OR, you can run into a Power Load IR sorta box, then into a pair of nice studio monitors. That sounds great at very very low volumes, but not as satisfying as a pair of 1x12 cabs. At that point, you can just use a plugin in a computer out to monitors.

Synergy is great. Really is. They're never as HUGE sounding as the real amp counterpart, but definitely capture the characteristics, and sound very good. Totally legit. Most of the modules are great, there's a couple bummer modules, but 9/10 are killer.

Thank you so much Michael. Great information. I like the idea of running one amp in stereo with a separate power station.

I know deep down the best option would be to go the studio monitor option, but it is hard to “let go” of the fact there is no “real amp or cabinet”. But I have to keep telling myself, am I in this to play guitar and get better or have great gear that cannot go to its full potential.

What is one great lower wattage tube amp you would choose out there right now(if you only could have one)? Twin Sister, BE-50 Deluxe, SLO-30, Ecstasy 3534, etc? I know it would be hard, but what would be your one choice for a mix of 80’s rock mixed with great ambient tones?

Thank you!

 

[BigHairyGuitars]

Hey Michael from Welsh Wales in the UK.
I'm addicted to your channel (might need to seek professional help )
All your work is under the microscope so with that in mind are you fussy about your cables ?
Do you have favourites ?
Guitar to board ?
Patch cables ?
Board to amp ?
Cheers Mark

Hi Mark. Thanks man!

Ummmmm... Yes, I think I am fuzzy about cables.

• For studio stuff I'm all Mogami. I've only used Mogami for the past 15 years, so I'm a little paranoid about switching over.

• Guitar pedal cables are mostly George L's, or handmade cables that Dave Friedman made for on old pedalboard (that I repurposed). I'm not afraid to throw a ProCo cable into that mix though.

• I also have a pile of random cables ranging from expensive to super cheap. Because having A cable is better than not having a cable sometimes!

• My guitar speaker cables are Monster cables. Mostly because I paid a bunch for them 20 years ago, and they work.

• For my main guitar cable, I FINALLY bit the bullet and got a great cable. It's all I use now, and it has the quiet auto off thing, so that when you pull the cable out, there's no crazy buzzing. I should have done that sooner. I had Signum Custom Cables make that for me. A friend introduced me to them, and his cables are great. I highly recommend: https://www.signummusic.com

 

[BigHairyGuitars]

That's my favorite DT album

REALLY!?! OK, I'm going to go re-listen right now.

 

[BigHairyGuitars]

No need to reveal everything about ourselves, is there???

Shit just got real!

 

[BigHairyGuitars]

Thank you so much Michael. Great information. I like the idea of running one amp in stereo with a separate power station.

I know deep down the best option would be to go the studio monitor option, but it is hard to “let go” of the fact there is no “real amp or cabinet”. But I have to keep telling myself, am I in this to play guitar and get better or have great gear that cannot go to its full potential.

What is one great lower wattage tube amp you would choose out there right now(if you only could have one)? Twin Sister, BE-50 Deluxe, SLO-30, Ecstasy 3534, etc? I know it would be hard, but what would be your one choice for a mix of 80’s rock mixed with great ambient tones?

Thank you!

Wow, those are all really great choices. First narrow it down to 2. What's the 2 things you typically play first when you sit down to play guitar. I usually play shitty blues licks, or late 80's chugga chugga. If I have to pick just one, I go Twin Sister because it's an incredible pedal platform. BE50 DLX is the "I rock out all the time" amp, the SLO is a very strong flavor... in your heart you'll know if it mUST be the SLO. The Ecstasy is like the Twin Sister but for Bogner fans. If you've always had your heart on a Bogner, it's a great way to go. I get my Bogner fix with the Fish preamp, but I do miss my Ecstasy head. I have a SLO100 which is amazing, but I prefer the X88R. My desert island head is my BE100 with the Dirty Shirley channel 1. great clean, pedal platform, and all of the rock / hard rock I can muster. I doesn't do ULTIMATE CHUG DJENT, but plugins work great for that anyways.

I'm 99% sure this is a totally unhelpful post. I'm 100% sure that 80% of this was written by the coffee I'm drinking.

 

[MichaelB]

Synergy is great. Really is. They're never as HUGE sounding as the real amp counterpart, but definitely capture the characteristics, and sound very good. Totally legit. Most of the modules are great, there's a couple bummer modules, but 9/10 are killer.

Any hint as to what the bummer modules are? I'm really leaning towards going with that system.

Also, I've seen a Revv amp behind you at times. How do you like those?

 

[Baba]

Great to see you here, and your Rockmaster vid makes me want to pull mine out, buy a PS2, put my Helix in the middle for switching and fx, and have at it.

Having said that, I think the magic in what I'm hearing from that vid is:

A. the power tubes coloration from the PS2, plus:
B. the IR you used

amirite?

 

[Whizzinby]

Great to see you here, and your Rockmaster vid makes me want to pull mine out, buy a PS2, put my Helix in the middle for switching and fx, and have at it.

Having said that, I think the magic in what I'm hearing from that vid is:

A. the power tubes coloration from the PS2, plus:
B. the IR you used

amirite?

Fryette power amps are designed to be extremely clean. Very little coloration comes from their power amps.

 

[cyclingrepublic]

Wow, those are all really great choices. First narrow it down to 2. What's the 2 things you typically play first when you sit down to play guitar. I usually play shitty blues licks, or late 80's chugga chugga. If I have to pick just one, I go Twin Sister because it's an incredible pedal platform. BE50 DLX is the "I rock out all the time" amp, the SLO is a very strong flavor... in your heart you'll know if it mUST be the SLO. The Ecstasy is like the Twin Sister but for Bogner fans. If you've always had your heart on a Bogner, it's a great way to go. I get my Bogner fix with the Fish preamp, but I do miss my Ecstasy head. I have a SLO100 which is amazing, but I prefer the X88R. My desert island head is my BE100 with the Dirty Shirley channel 1. great clean, pedal platform, and all of the rock / hard rock I can muster. I doesn't do ULTIMATE CHUG DJENT, but plugins work great for that anyways.

I'm 99% sure this is a totally unhelpful post. I'm 100% sure that 80% of this was written by the coffee I'm drinking.

It was definitely helpful, coffee or not . Thank you.

So what are you currently doing at home for practicing?

 

[BigHairyGuitars]

Any hint as to what the bummer modules are? I'm really leaning towards going with that system.

Also, I've seen a Revv amp behind you at times. How do you like those?

The Diezel VH4 is kinda flat (the Herbert is great). The Vox and Morgan are kinda thin. I hope they rework them into a fatter more Matchless kinda vibe. I've tried some 3rd party ones too that were meh, but don't really remember their exact model now.

Revv stuff is really good. I have a D20 which is a great little pedal platform amp, and/or a great power amp / DI for preamps.

 

[BigHairyGuitars]

Great to see you here, and your Rockmaster vid makes me want to pull mine out, buy a PS2, put my Helix in the middle for switching and fx, and have at it.

Having said that, I think the magic in what I'm hearing from that vid is:

A. the power tubes coloration from the PS2, plus:
B. the IR you used

amirite?

Fryette power amps are designed to be extremely clean. Very little coloration comes from their power amps.

IR's make a HUGE HUGE difference. It's like the difference of a poorly mic'd up bad sounding cab vs a nicely balanced full sounding cab.
The Fryette is not colored like a JCM800 power section, but it has a color to it. Steve says that he designed the PS2 to be pretty neutral, but I can get it to sound VERY close to my 2150. Every power amp inherently has a "sound", the Fryette one is really nice... punchy and rockin'.

 

[BigHairyGuitars]

It was definitely helpful, coffee or not . Thank you.

So what are you currently doing at home for practicing?

I try to play at night while I'm watching TV with my wife. We've been together so long that she can tune out the 'plink plink plink' sound. If I run too many scars, she'll occasionally turn and make fun of me and go "meedily meedily meedily!" I play most when I have to make a video, then it's a panic to play something good. haha.

 

[cyclingrepublic]

I try to play at night while I'm watching TV with my wife. We've been together so long that she can tune out the 'plink plink plink' sound. If I run too many scars, she'll occasionally turn and make fun of me and go "meedily meedily meedily!" I play most when I have to make a video, then it's a panic to play something good. haha.

I understand that. That’s pretty much what I do with no amplification.

Quick question. What would an ideal set up be for you if you were going to do a guitar set up using monitors? I even like the idea of using just great preamp pedals to go with power amps to go through monitors. That’s obviously a more minimal set up. I like the idea of playing not using a computer. But could be kind of ideal? But I do not know too much about IR‘s or anything.

 

[MichaelB]

I just read you worked on the Sykes live album. Great album. Do you ever get the urge to ring him up and ask him why he nearly vanished? Ha. Page and Sykes are why my favorite guitar is the mighty Les Paul. It's such a bummer he dropped out of existence, besides that one song he released a few years ago. Cheers and thanks for the responses to my questions.

 

[GreenwingMacaw]

I have a Soldano Hot Rod 25 and love it. My next purchase will be a Marshall 20watt Studio Series amp. After watching your video this morning on the MGAT-1 Hyper Preamp, which 20watt Marshall would you recommend? Since my playing/recording with LogicPro X will only be at home, my first choice was the SC20 JCM 800 amp, it seems the master volume will help me manage dB levels and the clean sound on the JCM 800 20watt head would work very well with pedals, especially the MGAT-1. Thank you for your work and taking the time to answer our questions!

 

[RackWh0r3]

@BigHairyGuitars , Can you do a demo of the Boss GT-Pro? I'm surprised no one ever did a proper demo on that unit when it came out. It has great routing options and I/Os for as old as that unit is.

 

[JiveTurkey]

That Sinvertek M style pedal demo you just posted up sounds RIDICULOUS