Intro MadHatter and the rig

Hello there, I am The MadHatter, known as Steve. I have been a member of the boards for a little while, just watching, but, after a year of wanting one, I finally bought my very own RM100!
I have been playing for some number of years I don't remember... Less than twenty, but with my family wouldn't be surprised if I was born with the guitar in hand. I am currently piecing together a nameless band, which will feature two RM100s. My other guitarist is a good friend and very active here on the MTS forum. His username is Shinozoku, and we will hopefully get some stuff out there early next year, WITH a name (any good ideas please please send).

Well more than likely you came to this post to see some raw wattage and a high price tag, so without further ado:



Up top we have my old amp. Marshall JCM 2000 DSL. I bought this just in time to use it at the local show Rhythm and Roots Two years ago I believe. The amp just had a re-tube with a quad of TAD EL34's




Now for my brand new baby. This is my Randall RM100, fresh in the house thanks to 84Strat. The amp came with a pair of 6550s that sound incredible! When I have some spare cash I will put a nice quad in, but these are loud enough my drummer can't cover me up :-D





The modules I have are the Blackface(The pictured one is Shinozoku's but I have one on the way thanks to Daryl) and my own monstrosity, The A.F.K.A.T. I did a butt ton of work to this module when someone gave it to me. It is loosely based on an SL+ now but has all the balls I need. I like to say that it out-Marshalls the Marshall, especially coupled with the 6550s




Next up is my weird shaped guitar. This is my baby, Luna, a Dean Mach 5. The guitar plays like a dream and has put Gibsons and Paul Reed Smiths I've played to shame. I keep Roto-Blues strings on there, and I have two amazing pickups. In the bridge I have a Bare Knuckle Nailbomb Bridge, and in the neck is a Bare Knuckle Mule Bridge




I have also been playing this guitar quite a bit! Epiphone 12 string acoustic. It has a nice tone to it, even with these dead strings.



About two years ago, I got this next guitar brand new. Schecter C7-FR It was many firsts for me: first 7 string, FloydRose, and Active Pickups. The guitar was amazing, but the active pickups both somehow went out and lost all gain. The problem is so far beyond me and every guitar tech I have taken it to that I am just waiting to order a custom set of passives that I know how to work with.




The next guitar is truly my own. I am working o a small-time manufacturing company and this is the first run. The guitar was nice with some cosmetic issues only. You can see the mis-shaped headstock beside a cutout of the same headstock for my 7 string build.




I play all my guitars with these picks. Fender 358 Jazz picks. Love these little things, anything else is so strange now. I also use monster speaker and guitar cables.



Now let us move to pedals. Here is a beauty I made a few weeks ago. This is a TS808 clone dubbed "Lil Screamy" I did the art on the case... wondering how long it will last.



Next up is the octaver I made. This did not turn out how I wanted but is a decent prototype of what will become my "Doc Octave" You can see the battery cradle on the outside because again, my 9V power has run off. I am debating saving up for a one-spot and duct-taping it to my face so I won't misplace it or just making a squid power for the pedal-board that I'm working on.



Here is my big buy before the amp. Electro Harmonics Holier Grail. This is a fantastic reverb. I wish it had a bit more control, but for such a realistic reverb I can put up with it



Other stuff. Here is my Gollum that guards my rig, as well as the butt-ugly camo case for my Dean, and my family's old V4. Amp currently needs a re-capping... doing some strange stuff (Leslie effect included)





In the future (When I am not couch diving for lunch) I am planning to build a new shell to stick the Randall in. Here is the chainmail work I have begun to go on the front and show off the lovely 6550s. A band-member a while back played my amp and twisted EVERY knob on the amp, so I plan to have a little door that covers everything but the input and power with little holes for the LEDs. I love playing with tone, but when I have an upcoming show I want to know my amp is where I want it. I will also be making a speaker cabinet to match (if my hands do not fall off from the chainmail grating) It will lock to the head tight, roll on casters, and also have large off road tires to roll like carry on luggage(heavy duty handle aswell) over gravel with no issue. Both the head and hte cab will get a lovely coat of Rhino lining to they will be ready for abuse on the road if I ever get the van running again or find one.



If you could not tell I like to build things, such as the neck-through Mach VI have planned on. I hope with a college student working for Sam's budget I will get everything finished that I plan on. Also, Pedal-board is in there somewhere. If anyone knows any really good slanted board design that can be modified to fit the RM100 3ch pedal that would be amazing!



Well I have waisted enough of your time now. Thank you for taking the time to look this stuff over. This is my life right here, and probably the reason I only have 3 pairs of jeans. I look forward to my time here on the MTS forum!

Thanks,

~Steve,
~The Mad Hatter

Good to see the Vegas girls made it to the case Plus the nice plug for Diril Cymbals

How could I leave of the Vegas girls? I probably have enough of those cards in the other side to cover the whole case. I got some new stickers to attach aswell. getting so close to anti-camo.

Hey Steve, who do you play with? Are you from Bristol?

best 1st post ever- way to bring the GAS!

I like the skull pick holder. I am hooked on the Planet Waves Black Ice picks myself. A tiny touch bigger than the Jazz III's and just feel right.

David_Kessler said:

Hey Steve, who do you play with? Are you from Bristol?

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Yeah I live in Bristol, on the northern side. I play with Shinozoku, but our band is currently nameless. If you have any ideas please post them up! We will have at least a temporary name before the 3rd (deadline for college talent show)

crankyrayhanky said:

best 1st post ever- way to bring the GAS!

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Thanks! :-D I've been into the MTS amps for about a year.. ever since Shinozoku and I brought our amps to the college and I got a chance to see what these were all about. I have to thank him for breaking me away from the name brand extortion.

eyeball987 said:

I like the skull pick holder. I am hooked on the Planet Waves Black Ice picks myself. A tiny touch bigger than the Jazz III's and just feel right.

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Thanks! My mother actually picked that up for me. She's a truck driver and got it in Arizona I believe. It is an ash tray re-purposed! Also, I will try to check out those picks. I haven't heard of them before and love to experiment. I actually practice mostly with a Dava Jazz pick that is oh so comfie.

Well Thanks everyone I am off to work! Oh and Shinozoku tonight should work if you're still free but I don't get off until 7

Peace!
~ThE hAtTeR

AWESOME! Love it all dude. This is the obvious solution, but did you try changing the battery in the active EMGs on your Schecter? They lose gain when the battery dies out.

chuckmehh said:

AWESOME! Love it all dude. This is the obvious solution, but did you try changing the battery in the active EMGs on your Schecter? They lose gain when twhe battery dies out.

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They were the Duncan Designed equivalents to the Seymour Duncan Blackouts. I believe he tried 3 batteries, had two techs re wire it and re wired it himself. It had to be something internal in the pickups because every possible piece in the signal chain was checked.

MadHatter_Lurch said:

Oh and Shinozoku tonight should work if you're still free but I don't get off until 7

Peace!
~ThE hAtTeR

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Giving a bass lesson tonight, and probably working on schoolwork. Was hoping for right around like.. now xD But I forgot you had to make up for yesterday at your job, so I'll catch you later.

Agree with Ray...Awesome first post...I just realized that black & white module isn't a JF Modern...I know I saw one that looked just like that one...Cool! Got any clips of her?

Killer intro Steve,
Looks like there's a spot missing in that RM100. I guess that's where you are going to be putting the Blackface module I sold you. Should be there tomorrow. I want to hear some clips of that Marshall eater module you got there. Module modding is still a bit of a mystery to me, but thanks to some of the guys on the forum here, I've come a long way in decoding that riddle. I also like the chain mail that you make. Are you going to make a grill for the RM100 out of chain mail? I got to see how that turns out. That would be sick if you had a chain mail grill with LED lights behind that on a toggle. You can tap power off of the fan wire. I look forward to seeing another chill forum member around.

chuckmehh said:

AWESOME! Love it all dude. This is the obvious solution, but did you try changing the battery in the active EMGs on your Schecter? They lose gain when the battery dies out.

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Yeah it has had more batteries since it died than Britney Spears has well... insert word here. The guitar really makes any amp sound like the speaker is blown. I will bite the bullet soon and get a passive and sand the sides of the routing to fit.

Mattfig said:

Agree with Ray...Awesome first post...I just realized that black & white module isn't a JF Modern...I know I saw one that looked just like that one...Cool! Got any clips of her?

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Yeah just a temporary paint job till I get the initiative to make my design in Photoshop and print it on transparent paper. Haven't heard of it, but want to try so you get the lovely metal in the back. As for a clip, I have a song recorded that I am 80% positive used the AFKAT and Shinozoku's Blackface with my vintage tubes. If you want to hear it just pm me with your E-Mail. I don't know a good place to post an mp3. When we get going good everything on the band myspace will be recorded with one of our rigs Also, that song was with aging EL34s(Groove Tubes) the 6550s make it sound so so so incredible.

Daryl said:

Killer intro Steve,
Looks like there's a spot missing in that RM100. I guess that's where you are going to be putting the Blackface module I sold you. Should be there tomorrow. I want to hear some clips of that Marshall eater module you got there. Module modding is still a bit of a mystery to me, but thanks to some of the guys on the forum here, I've come a long way in decoding that riddle. I also like the chain mail that you make. Are you going to make a grill for the RM100 out of chain mail? I got to see how that turns out. That would be sick if you had a chain mail grill with LED lights behind that on a toggle. You can tap power off of the fan wire. I look forward to seeing another chill forum member around.

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Actually I haven't filled that yet. Going to get another high gain to play around with. The first slot is actually Shinozoku's Blackface, so tomorrow that will be filled with my own! :-D When I have some free time to set my recording equipment set back up I will record a good sound clip of the AFKAT.
That is the plan with the chainmail. I love the way the head looks now,but I would like to see the tubes and such. I really like the LED idea. I believe Target has some Christmas lights that sound like they're made from the LEDs like the RM100 uses so I may cannibalize a couple strands. Blue? Also trying to talk myself out of doing a chainmail handle. While I am 100% positive I can make a handle that will hold it, It is best not to even put the amp into a situation where the handle could fail. Anyway love the ideas! I am going to have a lot of fun making this new head a reality. Also, gotta finalize the cab design. plenty of blueprints but nothing tangible.

Anyway, Thanks guys I look forward to being active on here.

Peace!
~The Hattinator

Well I was doing some module modification and general tom-foolery when, on my way up the stairs, the AFKAT went flying, knocking both tubes at about this angle from the board / / I proceeded to take the module apart still and will be putting it back together. I will let you know what happens... if the AFKAT lives or dies... Also it bent the hell out of a thumbscrew and I broke it trying to bend it back. *Sigh* success and failure today.
as far as success goes, I receive my Blackface yesterday. Less than 24 hours later I have already been messing around. I am very very low on parts at the moment, so I played around with removing a tube. The bright switch is now defunct as a bright switch, and currently switches out the V1. the sound is pretty sweet to my ear. Again, when the winds of boredom blow me in the direction of my recording stuff, I will make a couple clips for you to hear.
The Blackface came with a couple SovTek 12AX7WA If my EH tubes have bit the big one, then I shall be trying these for better or worse. Yay for stupidly setting the amp parts on something you were carrying!