Too late! One of those (a lawsuit copy anyway) was my first electric guitar. I always wanted one. Played it sitting down at the music store. Bought it. Always practiced standing up back then. THEN I discovered I really wanted to be a surf guitarist! LOL. I don't play it at all now. My bass is heavy enough, but I practice sitting these days. My bad left shoulder makes all practice painful. I just finished about twenty minutes on bass with Peter Gunn and Wipeout. Yikes! Hurts from shoulder to forearm.

I'm looking forward to everything I'll accomplish before I can start back on guitar, but I'm REALLY looking forward to when I can without all these problems.

vintagesurfdude wrote:

Sorry you're having shoulder issues. It's tuff to
practice with pain. No knowledge here of these things.
But I do have a suggestion...... under NO circumstances
play a Les Paul standing up !!!!!

Good luck with the surgery!

This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.

Does anyone think this might work for me?

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/keyboards-midi/casio-wk-225-76-key-portable-keyboard

This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.

Noel, I really wish You all the very best w/this issue. I was "rear-ended" in Dec '69 while "stationary" & the Impala that hit me was doing 45 mph. It seriously hurt me. (It got me a "4F" draft classiification, for those who remember those years). I opted for "no surgery" & was told I'd have the pain for "the remainder of life". I was put thru intense chiropractic manipulation for 4 mos. & then did much walking & exercise. I caddied @ a golf course for a few years as well. The pain is still with me & worsens each year but I get around just fine. I don't know of the severity of your situation, but if chiropractic is something you could look into, I would seriously consider it. I opted out of surgery because, in my case, it was a "risque" situation. Now I know that there is a LOT to be said for chiropractic & You may wish to consider it. Good Luck, whatever You decide to do.

I could use just about anything to learn to sight read and play piano. But I also want to start composing and putting together arrangements, looking forward to being able to add the guitar parts later. So connecting to a PC is good. I don't know if all I want is a keybord that plugs into my PC that is loaded with software to create backing tracks, composition, recording and mixing, or get a keyboard like the Casio and then just add composition and mixing software on my PC.

DreadInBabylon wrote:

Good luck with the operation, Noel. Good for you on
making the most out of the situation, seeing this not
as a holdback, but an opportunity. This is true wisdom
at work.

As for keyboard, maybe you should decide how you wanna
use it - stand alone or with PC software (or both). If
going with the latter, I'd choose something that is
simplest, but has a great touch/feel (full weighted
keys). What are you going to connect it to (Audio out)?
Second the Reason, it's a super fun program. If you
want more advanced sounds, including some huge
realistic sample banks, NI Kontakt is a standard.
I Also heard good things about the higher-end M-Audio
keyboards.

BTW, how do you like your Space-Echo?

This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.

Depending on your choice, your shopping list may grow...
Just some thoughts:

Thing is with stand alone KBD, you just turn in on and play, no fuss. Downside may be that ones with really great sounds may be expensive. After playing for a while, you'll want them (same as with guitars actually).

You can achieve those great sounds with much more flexibility with a KBD-PC combo, but that means also having a decent sound card, decent monitors, and a strong enough computer to run it all with low latency. Downside may be, fiddling around with a mouse when all you want to do is play a tune may be cumbersome.

Well, if you plan to record your guitar and start mixing stuff, you'll go that path anyway. So really, any KBD with MIDI or USB will work, I suggest something much simpler then that Casio. But it should feel good to you, and have quality keys, I don't know anyway you can test that but physically.

For software, Reason is good and simple and quite fun to start with. For more deep serious work, IMO, nothing beats Reaper (downloadable version is a full program, just a 5sec nag after a month's use). It's a full on DAW, with everything you will ever need, and is cheap, and the online community is awesome, only second to, well, this community here.

Glad you like the Space Echo, it's a big mother, isn't it...
I don't think you can achieve sound-on-sound with it, at least not easily. It doesn't have a looper function, as far as I managed to read about it.
One trick may be getting an AB box, playing a phrase into the Echo (set to maximum repeats), switching over to the other channel and playing over it. Of course, this setup needs 2 outputs as well - to 2 different amps or 2 channels on the same amp, or a Y box to combine the repeated and played signals.
But because it's a tape emulation, the repeats won't stay pristine for long, so it's not the best application for this pedal, IMHO.

Last edited: Feb 25, 2012 13:45:55

Noel, I'm sorry to hear about your injury. Well if it isn't one thing after another and blow me, I'm having a problem with my left shoulder too The hospital did an ultrasound scan a couple of weeks ago and the doctor gave me a cortisone injection, still not right. We'll see.

That Casio WK-225 looks good if you want it for the instructional method, otherwise I would recommend the Casio CTK-7000 for the combo organ sounds. I have a Casio CTK-691 now discontinued but it has 50 drawbar organ tones and 8 drawbars to customise your own sound, same as the CTK-7000. If cash is tight you could keep your eyes open for a used CTK-691, they go for a hundred bucks secondhand. If mine is anything to go by they are pretty indestructible. The preset organ sounds in the Casio are very good for the old school combo organ tones like the Farfisa/Vox/Wurlitzer so long as you turn off the ridiculous DSP effects.

Anyhoo, here's wishing you best of luck with the surgery. I had a bellyful of surgery last year but I don't regret it now one bit.

Again, thanks to everyone for your concern and best wishes. I'm getting a date and time later today. The operation involves severing the muscles from the bones, cleaning up the ends and attachment locations, wrapping the muscles over top of the bones past where they normally attach, and screwing them in there. Sort of like with wrap-around tail pieces. It's supposed to be more secure with old fogeys like me. The resulting shorter effective length of the muscles will make for interesting therapy.

Later I'm going to have to case my guitars, disconnect everything, wrap up my cables, cover my amps and reverb, and remove all the batteries form my pedals and box them up. Nuts. It'll probably be over a year before they come out again. More nuts.

Still, if I come out of all this sight-reading music, playing keyboard a bit, and able to compose and arrange tunes as I intend, it will be a very useful (if uncomfortable) hiatus. My wife (whose name is Barbara) tells everyone I don't do anything in half-measures; I'm always all-in. Somewhere my dad is laughing at me. He was right again!

This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.

You may want to use some of those pedals with your keyboard.

RK

Noel wrote:

I hadn't thought of it, but now that you mention it,
I'm thinking the pedal I'll use the most with whatever
keyboard I buy will be my Space Echo. How does a
keyboard sound playing through an outboard reverb
tank?

You know, even though I have a sound module set up to allow me to easily route it through my reverb, I don't think I've tried it much. I will tonight, though!

The attached video should give you an idea of how it might sound. Whatever you do, don't be seduced by the pure tones, multitudinous knobs, or shiny faceplates and blinking lights of modular synthesizers.

RK

Noel wrote:

How does a keyboard sound playing through an outboard reverb?

You'll be putting the tank back where it came from...
According to the legend, that's how it all started, isn't it? (Dick Dale + Hammond).
Our prayers are with you Noel.