Re: Live Looping after reflections on BP slick video

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

Andre,

Yes, sometimes.

Actually I can tell you excactly when I use one, - whenever I am  
playing my Gibson RD Artist.

Originally the guitar came with a preamp circuit in it designed by Bob  
Moog and along with that preamp came built-in compression and  
expansion (supposedly the opposite of compression) with a switch to  
flip between the two (or off entirely).

Sometime in the mid '90s, when I was working for Seymour Duncan, I  
gave in to one of the tech's persistent nagging that I "Seymorize" my  
favorite guitar (the RD).

But, to work with the new pickups I had to lose the Moog circuitry and  
I wasn't particularly happy with that result at first.

Fortunately, however, Duncan had a new product they were beta-testing  
at just about the same time called ToneCircuits.

One of the ToneCircuit options was an on-board preamp and compressor,  
another was a preamp and a parametric midrange boost.

Once they installed the preamp/compressor model in my guitar I was  
happy again.

In fact it was a vast improvement over the Moog circuit, tonality,  
output and flexibility-wise.

And it was smaller too.

The Moog board was huge . . . took up 1/3 of the back of the  
guitar . . . and the ToneCircuit was smaller than a business card  
(both were powered by 9v batteries, I might mention, and the Moog unit  
went through them them much more quickly).

But there was no longer any expansion (which I seldom used anyway) nor  
the possibility of turning it on or off with a swtich.

The old switch went for coil tapping the new pickups.

Ever since then, whenever I play that guitar, the compressor is on all  
of the time - never off.

None of my other instruments have it - though I have considered  
installing it in one or two of them.

I have kept a spare ToneCircuit or two (of each variety) in my tool  
box since then, should I decide to try it.

I have just never gotten around to it.

I like the variety I get with different guitars in terms of tone and,  
sustain, bite and twang (or whatever) and I guess I prefer to let  
leach guitar have "its own voice."

The "voice" of my RD needs that compression.

It's funny, whenever I spend several weeks or months playing other  
instruments and come back to the RD, it seems like "coming back home."

It's very solid and "sustainy" because (in part, I suppose) of the  
built-in compression.

Notes seem to hang there longer (even when I'm not using a Sutainiac).

Anywho, I've rambled on enough.

Yes I use compression . . . I should have left it at that.

Best,

Ted

On Jul 1, 2010, at 7:50 PM, André Donawa wrote:

> A question for you guitar players. Do you use a compressor when you  
> are
> live looping and do you have any recommendations?