MY NEW TOY

[tEd ® KiLLiAn <tedkillian@charter.net>]

Hi all!

I spent the latter part of the afternoon today playing with my newest 
loop toy, a Line 6 M13.

I've researched these things for a little while now and contemplated 
buying one for well over six months.

Thanks Bill Walker for much good advice while I was looking.

Then, last week, a deal popped up on Ebay that was too good to pass up.

It arrived on Tuesday and I tested it out right away to make sure it 
was not a DOA brick.

Today was the first time I got to spend any serious time with it - just 
playing around so far, not programming - and the experience was simply 
delightful.

I used a GK-3 equipped Tele and a Boss WP-20G set on hexaphonic "slow 
gear" just to feed the M13 an interesting signal  . . . and a pair of 
Mackie SRM150s to listen to give it voice and I really liked what I 
heard.

I got a pair of the Line 6 EX-1 expression pedals too and enjoyed 
toying around with changing various parameters on the fly that way.

Seems like a pretty straightforward box, all-in-all.

After a long, looooong search, I think I've finally found a device that 
can give me a simple, nearly all-in-one, guitar looping setup for those 
quick gigs that don't warrant (or permit) taking along my larger 
collection of gear (I'm thinking Santa Cruz mostly).

As long as it is reliable, I think I've found a winner.

Bill Walker is right about one negative about this device though, it 
really needs a guitar amp to make it sound right tone-wise.

Unfortunately I sold off all my combo amps and have switched to just 
using the Mackie SRM150s for personal monitoring, and a pair of SRM450s 
for low-end and PA oomph - a system that is all together too clean and 
devoid of guitaristic character to make the M13 really sound terrific.

But for now it's what I've got.

I am sure that it will be tempting to add several other gizmos to this 
. . . my trusty Sustainic C for one, and the aforementioned WP-20G for 
another, and an EB volume pedal are what I'll try to stick to  . . . if 
I can.

As far as simplifying goes, I played a gig a couple of weeks ago with 
just the GK3 Tele and WP-20G Sustainiac C and a pair of EDPs and Akiras 
and had the best gig I've had in years.

Yeah, I missed the Vortexes and VG-99, guitar synth and all the other 
neat stuff.

But I had a good time . . . a better time than most outings.

I played for 4 hours straight in an art gallery wine and cheese setting 
(talk about a dull audience) and it was really guite satisfying.

I'm looking forward to getting to know my new toy better in coming 
weeks.

I think it's going to work for me.

Cheers,

Ted