What's the latest gear you've acquired?

Going to have to cut myself off for awhile...ordered a Martin OM-18 "Custom Shop". Couldn't pass it up for the price. I've always wanted a Tim O'Brien 00-18, which has the 25.4" scale length and 1 3/4" nut spacing, but never liked the neck shape. This one isn't a hard V and I think it'll be a forever guitar. Had no idea they existed until today. Fingers crossed.

Dolby 740

WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!!

Stunning. The de-blanket-ifier. I've never experienced anything like this.

On one level it can be described simply as an upward compression device. But one would be remiss if they left it at that bog standard description.

There are bands that slide on the frequency spectrum with a fixed gain, and there are fixed frequency bands with sliding gain. Oofda. My brain broke.

Just a couple days with it so far but it's everything I hoped for. Many many thanks to EmRR and trakworxmastering for the insights posted here half a decade ago that helped me understand how this would be different than my Dolby 365 and thus pull the trigger on this amazing beast.

I normally post pictures of new sweet treats, and try to show the guts and include an audio example of possible.

Frankly though I'm so giddy with this thing that I just had to fanboi post a warm nuthug for this device. I've wanted one for a long long time and finally one became mine. It's pretty rare that something I lust after for so long actually lives up to the hype I built up in my mind. This is one of those rare cases where it does,

I have found where it does induce artifacts if I go crazy with it, but when used judiciously it's simply in comparable.

I'll post someaudio examples and pictures over on the dedicated Dolby 740 thread here soon as possible. I can't wait to share how awesome this thing is.

Dude I totally get it. There was a couple of moments where I hesitated before posting. I even was as craven to save a search on Reverb and eBay in hopes of getting a second one. Then I defeated my inner Gollum and proceeded to share the joy :-)

But, yeah. It's that good. It boggles my mind that Dolby doesn't produce this or hasn't licensed it to someone else. Screw Atmos, Dolby bring this back!It also boggles my mind that no one has tried to make a plug-in on this, although once I read a description of the technical features it kind of makes sense why no one's tried to climb this peak.

I got mine off Reverb.

Dolby 740 Spectral Processor 2004 - Black reverb.com/item/83503124

I would suggest to set up automated searches on at least reverb and eBay, and then if you use Sweetwater in vintage King reach out to your reps and tell them to keep an eye out for any used ones. It's worth it.

If I see one pop up I'll send you a message.

Yeah, I bought a second 740 as a backup. Sorry guys!

poppaflavor - What kinds of sources are you using it on?

Wired up a new to me Adam sub8 courtesy of RGO classifieds and our desert dwelling pal carymiller.

I don't really have anything to compare it to since I've never used a sub for mixing in my own place but man what a difference maker. After about a billion REW captures I found a configuration that completely eliminated my 120hz issue, minimized my 80hz issue, and nearly eliminated a 400hz dip that was the result of toggling my 310's mid-bass settings to try to fix the other issues.

In other words, they really flattened out my low end a lot!

But also, the music I'm listening to sounds like I would want it to. I'm hoping I'll be much closer to easier translation if I'm just making it sound good instead of constantly thinking about "well don't forget the bass will be louder everywhere else."

Music just sounds better when you can enjoy the bass line. Thanks for a fair deal and fast shipping Cary!

I bought a pick today.

Cheers,
Geoff

Blue Chip TD-40. $55 Canuck bucks. So, spendy! I have to admit I am not totally sold on this as being a huge step up, or maybe even at all over some of my other picks. But I am not at home for a few days so will take me a while to see. I did play some awesome acoustics though. Iris, Atkin, a few Gibson including a couple vintage J45/50s. None of them sucked.

 Cheers,
Geoff

So far I’m not blown away. What am I missing?

 Cheers,
 Geoff 

My picking hand sweats quite a bit and it’s the only pick that actually grabs onto my fingers when they are ::moist:: , but also slides across the strings like a normal pick. I think I played fender mediums for something like 20 years before touching a Blue Chip and it was at a small booth they had at grey fox music festival In their early years. They had some guitars and mandos available to try out their picks and I as always had my change pocket of my dungarees full of fender mediums. It’s the last time I played any other pick. They allow you to pull tone out of an acoustic instrument with incredible ease. Being able to have a light right hand attack is pretty helpful as I get older too. Less fatigue in my right hand while being able to play at a loud volume when needed is pretty great.

Surprised the hell out of me when they made my electrics sound better too.

I realize this is all subjective. I was a super sceptic regarding these picks before I tried them, but I purchased 3 on the spot and have gotten a few more of them since then.

Also, yes they are expensive. I’ve never lost a single one. They are oddly precious to me.

Pretty happy with the Custom Shop OM-18!

After a bunch of research on ways people have dealt with Gretsch bridges I ordered a Tru-Arc Serpentine aluminum bridge for my Tennessee Rose. Hoping it’ll improve tuning/rattle/stability using a bigsby.

Also got my 160VU and 162 coming back from Jim Williams. He’s the man, no one turns stuff around like him.

Wow that’s awesome to hear! It wasn’t cheap but it seems to resolve a lot of issues!