Re: bad night, or: instruments

["Mike Biffle" <mbiffle@svg.com>]

> I saw a webpage showing Fripp's rack, and was amazed that in his 
>mega-buck signal path, with four Eventides (I think), 

4 TC 2290's... a couple Eventides... a TC -Force... a couple Roland 
GP-100's. Bunch of other midi, synth control and sound module stuff... and 
the Whammy.

> he used a Digitech Whammy, which is about $125 new.  Isn't that like 
>putting cheap tires on your new 'Vette?  Couldn't he find something 
>better that did that job?  Isn't your signal path only as good as the 
>weakest link?  

If the best tool for the job is cheap... then cheap it is! I keep seeing 
examples of players with just ok gear getting amazing sounds from it. (And 
I'm not just talking "interesting... but not really pro"... I'm saying 
they had it all happening...) That's also what makes things interesting... 
the different ways we all go about creating. 

I'd venture to say there really isn't something out there that does the 
same job as the Whammy... Sure the G-Force does really smooth gliss-like 
whammy stuff, but you have to program individual patches to get the 
variety that instantly pops out of a whammy. It's really cool to put a 
Whammy in front of your distortion which isn't where you'll find most 
DSP's being used because that would sacrifice their other amazing 
post-distortion processing options. 

You're also not noticing his Roland GP-100's, which are digital COSM 
(modelled amps and such). It's buffered, non-true bypass, and certainly 
doesn't follow the old single cord into the tube amp paradigm. So many 
might say he's totally cheesed up his signal path with digital crap.

He's also playing without guitar amps... into a pair of powered speakers 
for monitors... and sending his signal direct to the house. Maybe cheesy 
in concept to most "guitarists", but in execution, devastatingly 
effective, and quite possibly the smallest, most elegant solution for the 
job at hand when compared to the battery of amps, switchers, speaker 
arrays, then racks required to accomplish the same job. He's got a LOT 
going on for a single stack 'o rack!

> But it doesn't always work like that.  We use what we can afford.

I'm not so sure money is the object with his selections... (It is with 
mine, but that's life!)

Best regards,
-Miko