Last night, I played at practice. Lots of B in the new songs. I'll have to go over some things to get them right. We play the first songs fast, man, and I do not have the changes down.
But that's not why I'm posting today.
I have the Danny Gatton Telemaster! video on VHS. Yeah, kickin' it old school here. I play it every couple of years, mostly without a guitar in hand, and just have my mind blown. I tell you now that there's much stuff on that tape I will never be able to play.
And there's stuff I'm getting closer on.
I had my acoustic out. I was at the "Sugarfoot Rag" section, not the organ-faking section, but I started trying to play along. "Sugarfoot Rag" is something I've played at learning for too long — if I spent some time focusing on it, I'd have it down but have no place to play it — so I was trying to hit it. And it sounded odd. In fact, I think I've always thought there was something odd with that tape, but I didn't get it until right then.
Danny isn't in 440. He's flat about halfway to Eb. He's tuned to himself, but not to standard. And you know, now that I know that, it doesn't sound weird anymore.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
On Telecaster Culture
But as far as a specific guitar culture goes, it’s hard to find anything more hard core than Telecaster culture. Those Tele cats have a jihad thing goin’ on. You don’t even wanna mess with a Tele geek. They assemble at the TDPRI Compound for gorilla strategies and hard drinkin’. Nice bunch of folks, but don’t ever cross ‘em!
— Stratoblogster
— Stratoblogster
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
PRS Pickups
I'm telling you this because I don't know what to think myself.
The final presentation of Gearfest was Nick Catanese of Black Label Society, talking about Ozzy, PRS, guitars and playing. He's a really nice guy and a really good storyteller. (If you see him, have him tell you about being in the movie Rock Star, especially the Brad Pitt story.)
The story that comes to mind was actually told by the PRS Midwest Sales Rep. Paul Reed Smith (the man, not the company) has been working for a long time to recreate the "Holy Grail", the 1959 PAF as created by Seth Lover. He had worked out the metallurgy and this and that and was still not quite there. One day, Paul was on the phone, talking to a wire supplier, who said "Oh, yeah. My dad said something about working with Gibson in the late 50s, back when they were in Kalamazoo."
Hear the rep tell the tale, Paul was at the wire company's office before the phone hit the floor.
They look in back and find the machine. Paul immediately said "I want to buy it." They said no, but they promised him he'd have the exclusive rights to all wire coming off that machine. Thus, the 59/09 pickup.
I'm a Tele guy, and PRS gear, while nice, is a bit salty for me at the moment. I may never be closer to a real 59/09 pickup than the third row of the Sweetwater Performance Theatre. And at least part of me thinks this is really cool.
Part of me, another part, read this. A Lace Sensor built for high output. A Metal Aluminatone Lace Sensor. Which gets to my real niggly point. Yes, the 50s was a golden age for the development of the guitar, with the Gibson Les Paul with the Tune-o-matic bridge and the humbuckers being one of the canonical lasting designs. But I have to believe that the world didn't end in 1957, that the guitar world has ideas on how to make pickups that were not around when Seth Lover was in Eisenhower's America.
So, let's assume that Paul's ears are right, that these are the very model of the modern Patent-Applied-For humbucker. What do you thing of that? Good thing? Bad thing? Great thing?
The final presentation of Gearfest was Nick Catanese of Black Label Society, talking about Ozzy, PRS, guitars and playing. He's a really nice guy and a really good storyteller. (If you see him, have him tell you about being in the movie Rock Star, especially the Brad Pitt story.)
The story that comes to mind was actually told by the PRS Midwest Sales Rep. Paul Reed Smith (the man, not the company) has been working for a long time to recreate the "Holy Grail", the 1959 PAF as created by Seth Lover. He had worked out the metallurgy and this and that and was still not quite there. One day, Paul was on the phone, talking to a wire supplier, who said "Oh, yeah. My dad said something about working with Gibson in the late 50s, back when they were in Kalamazoo."
Hear the rep tell the tale, Paul was at the wire company's office before the phone hit the floor.
They look in back and find the machine. Paul immediately said "I want to buy it." They said no, but they promised him he'd have the exclusive rights to all wire coming off that machine. Thus, the 59/09 pickup.
I'm a Tele guy, and PRS gear, while nice, is a bit salty for me at the moment. I may never be closer to a real 59/09 pickup than the third row of the Sweetwater Performance Theatre. And at least part of me thinks this is really cool.
Part of me, another part, read this. A Lace Sensor built for high output. A Metal Aluminatone Lace Sensor. Which gets to my real niggly point. Yes, the 50s was a golden age for the development of the guitar, with the Gibson Les Paul with the Tune-o-matic bridge and the humbuckers being one of the canonical lasting designs. But I have to believe that the world didn't end in 1957, that the guitar world has ideas on how to make pickups that were not around when Seth Lover was in Eisenhower's America.
So, let's assume that Paul's ears are right, that these are the very model of the modern Patent-Applied-For humbucker. What do you thing of that? Good thing? Bad thing? Great thing?
The Moog Guitar
I previously analogized my experience with the Moog Guitar with Adrian Belew's audition with Frank Zappa, where Adrian didn't think he did as well as he could have and wanted to try again in a quieter environment. Here, Fareed Haque of Garaj Mahal has that chance.
The setting that Fareed mentions that gets boring after a while is what would be considered harmonic mode on a Sustainer, which emulates what happens when you stand next to a cranked amp. I've heard Moog's setup described as more of a built-in eBow. What I would like to have seen, which I might have if I had made it to Sweetwater in April, is Fareed making use of the mute mode and the autowah.
I'm going to step back and consider my instrument, the Telecaster. There are a body of techniques and a set of elements you only see on a Tele. The whole bridge, with the metal sides to hold the ashtray cover, the three saddles, that doesn't exist for other guitars, and certainly Leo Fender dropped most of it when he made his second design, the Stratocaster. The knobs being right up close, within pinky range. A Tele guy looks at that and says "Yeah!" Most other guitarists look and say "Huh?" I really think that there's a Moog mindset. Look at a Little Phatty.
Nobody makes keyboards like Moog anymore. I played and fell in like with the Yamaha MM6 at Gearfest, and this is a digital synth with banks of the General MIDI-specified sound types. While the sounds might be different on other instruments out there, the setup is largely the same. You don't really have that with a Moog. You don't have a "Rhodes" patch or a grand piano patch for a Moog. You have Moog sounds, and if you don't get the Moog mindset, you don't get it.
One of the things I saw at the Moog booth was the Etherwave CV, which has outs that relate to the pitch and volume antennas, which are pluggable into the Little Phatty to allow you to play that keyboard using the Theremin.
Evidently, you can do the same with the Moog Guitar.
And that is something. That is a demo. That's doing something new.
And just so you know, it's pronounced mow-guh , not moo-guh .
The setting that Fareed mentions that gets boring after a while is what would be considered harmonic mode on a Sustainer, which emulates what happens when you stand next to a cranked amp. I've heard Moog's setup described as more of a built-in eBow. What I would like to have seen, which I might have if I had made it to Sweetwater in April, is Fareed making use of the mute mode and the autowah.
I'm going to step back and consider my instrument, the Telecaster. There are a body of techniques and a set of elements you only see on a Tele. The whole bridge, with the metal sides to hold the ashtray cover, the three saddles, that doesn't exist for other guitars, and certainly Leo Fender dropped most of it when he made his second design, the Stratocaster. The knobs being right up close, within pinky range. A Tele guy looks at that and says "Yeah!" Most other guitarists look and say "Huh?" I really think that there's a Moog mindset. Look at a Little Phatty.
Nobody makes keyboards like Moog anymore. I played and fell in like with the Yamaha MM6 at Gearfest, and this is a digital synth with banks of the General MIDI-specified sound types. While the sounds might be different on other instruments out there, the setup is largely the same. You don't really have that with a Moog. You don't have a "Rhodes" patch or a grand piano patch for a Moog. You have Moog sounds, and if you don't get the Moog mindset, you don't get it.One of the things I saw at the Moog booth was the Etherwave CV, which has outs that relate to the pitch and volume antennas, which are pluggable into the Little Phatty to allow you to play that keyboard using the Theremin.
Evidently, you can do the same with the Moog Guitar.
And that is something. That is a demo. That's doing something new.
And just so you know, it's pronounced mow-guh , not moo-guh .
Monday, June 29, 2009
If Practice Makes Perfect ...
Here's the rough situation: Leader has two Sunday morning bands, Band 1 and Band 2. I'm in Band 2, playing the acoustic guitar. Band 1 was the band for a while, but there's plans bring in mixable prerecorded tracks for the choir, where you can say "we have a guitarist and a drummer, but we don't have a horn section" so the rhythm section plays to the track like the choir but the horn hits are from the tape. This will require them to have more practice, thus Band 2.
The setup was you play Sunday, you get your chord sheets and a mix CD, you learn your parts, you spend one Sunday off, you practice on Tuesday and you show up again on Sunday. But our glorious Leader had his vacation and so we cancelled the Tuesday practice. So the first time we played some of our songs together was soundcheck/warm-up.
Last Sunday, the Band 1 lead guitar guy had a family wedding in Texas. So, in an effort to be useful, I volunteered to play electric. Not just to get out of the tuned-percussion ghetto, honest, but while I'm parked here, if anyone can tell me how to get rid of the sizzle and quack of an undersaddle piezo without ripping it out and slapping in half a K worth of Fishman soundhole pickups, you will have a friend for life.
Ahem.
So, the building is busy, so Tuesday is cancelled. I get the song list on Wednesday night, I do what I can Thursday and Friday, I go to Sweetwater on Saturday and Sunday morning, I again have my first time playing some songs during soundcheck/warm-up.
To a certain extent, I am OK with this. Seriously. I have played Wednesday night and have regularly had my first time hearing a song be right before I played it in front of people. It isn't where you want to be, but if you can begin to handle that, I think it's a good thing. To the extent I can say I'm a good player, I'm a good player because of that pressure. The best way to learn to play music is to play music, preferably with other people and in front of other people. But let's be honest, Wednesday night is not the show. Sunday morning is the show. (I haven't made it too explicit, but I play in my church. God bless you all.) That's the point where you want to do it right.
I think it worked out well. We have some good players, some good singers, and while I may feel I threw enough clams to open a seafood restaurant, I on the whole feel I did well. We did well.
But it feels — I don't know, irresponsible? — to play a show for several hundred people without an hour of practice to make sure things are together.
The setup was you play Sunday, you get your chord sheets and a mix CD, you learn your parts, you spend one Sunday off, you practice on Tuesday and you show up again on Sunday. But our glorious Leader had his vacation and so we cancelled the Tuesday practice. So the first time we played some of our songs together was soundcheck/warm-up.
Last Sunday, the Band 1 lead guitar guy had a family wedding in Texas. So, in an effort to be useful, I volunteered to play electric. Not just to get out of the tuned-percussion ghetto, honest, but while I'm parked here, if anyone can tell me how to get rid of the sizzle and quack of an undersaddle piezo without ripping it out and slapping in half a K worth of Fishman soundhole pickups, you will have a friend for life.
Ahem.
So, the building is busy, so Tuesday is cancelled. I get the song list on Wednesday night, I do what I can Thursday and Friday, I go to Sweetwater on Saturday and Sunday morning, I again have my first time playing some songs during soundcheck/warm-up.
To a certain extent, I am OK with this. Seriously. I have played Wednesday night and have regularly had my first time hearing a song be right before I played it in front of people. It isn't where you want to be, but if you can begin to handle that, I think it's a good thing. To the extent I can say I'm a good player, I'm a good player because of that pressure. The best way to learn to play music is to play music, preferably with other people and in front of other people. But let's be honest, Wednesday night is not the show. Sunday morning is the show. (I haven't made it too explicit, but I play in my church. God bless you all.) That's the point where you want to do it right.
I think it worked out well. We have some good players, some good singers, and while I may feel I threw enough clams to open a seafood restaurant, I on the whole feel I did well. We did well.
But it feels — I don't know, irresponsible? — to play a show for several hundred people without an hour of practice to make sure things are together.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Boy, Are My Fingers Tired, a GearFest Review
Before I start, let me introduce you to Darol Anger. He played on the first David Grisman Quintet album, he played on "Manzanita", which is one of the most beautiful tunes to come out of bluegrass. A great player of the fiddle, an instrument that I am trying to learn. He played Fiddlers' Gathering today. And, in general, I try to attend the Fiddlers' Gathering.
But instead, I went to Gearfest.
Some high points:
The Keyboard Room: I went in there after attending a course on ProTools. That course of course made me want
The item most coveted by me, the one I wish most that I could take home, is the Yamaha MM6 keyboard. Let it be known throughout the land that Sans Direction is a big classic rock keyboard fan. Hammond, Rhodes, Clavinet, Wurlitzer, the sounds that made rock rock. It is known that, in 2009, if you want those tones and you're playing out (rather than a studio or your own bedroom), you rock a Nord, but that's if you have several thousand dollars. If you're more a hundredaire (Thank you, Greg Koch), the MM6 has good sounds at lower prices. I specifically pick out one stereo Rhodes tone that I think I've heard on Steely Dan tracks and I know is the starting keyboard sound on Pink Floyd's "Sheep" as a tone the MM6 does perfectly. If I could have brought home one piece of gear from Gearfest, the MM6 is what I would bring.
Let it be understood that, as a keyboard player, I'm a good guitarist. But I want to learn, and I can't without an instrument.
The other theremin I played (and be it noted, not touched) was at the Moog booth in the Gear tent. They tweeted that people should go and say hi to Linda in the Moog booth, and I did. I played a Little Phatty, which was cool. I also took the demo, seeing how to connect the Etherwave to the Little Phatty to make it synthier. That was cool. That was way cool.
I also played a Moog guitar. The Moog guitar has been discussed here before, but I have not until this day touched one. And, well, it's a beautiful enough guitar, and it plays well. But recently, I read an account of Adrian Belew trying out for Zappa's band. He was in the middle of Zappa's rehearsal studio during the lead-up to a tour, and Belew tried to play and be impressive while everyone around him was packing stuff up and moving it out. In the end, Belew said he thought he blew it and thought the interview would've been different, and asked to try again in a quieter environment. I think that, in a quiet room where I could turn up to taste, I could bring the Moog guitar to life. The wah-like setting sounded more like a ring modulator to my ears, and I couldn't get the autowah setting to work. What I did get to work was the mute, which is the reverse of a sustain function. I am not sure I found a useful way to use the mute function. It's different enough from my slab-with-a-neck Telecaster to make it difficult to just switch over what I usually do. So, just because I couldn't make it work for me, that doesn't mean it's a bad thing.
Patrick, I have a Keep Your Hands Off My Theremin shirt, and you cannot have it. I have some Moog pocket protectors, and next time we see each other, I will give you one.
Fender Fender Fender: I visited the guitar tents, where I met John Grabowski, the man who tweets for Sweetwater, plus a bunch of the Fender guys. A great bunch of guys. I played the blue-flamed James Burton Tele, and that's something. 3 pickups. 5-way switch, with an S1 switch, too. Here's where it gets weird. Positions 1 and 5 are neck and bridge. Positions 2 and 4 are neck/middle and bridge/middle. The S1 switch switches between middle and neck/bridge in position 3. And, officially, I am not sure that the James Burton sounds like a Tele, but it sounds good, I gotta say.
I didn't take a crappy cellphone pic of that.
I took a crappy cellphone pic of a Fender Custom Shop Telecaster with S1 switching and sparkles. Relic sparkles. Yes, someone took the time and effort to make a great modern Sparklecaster, and then beat it up. As Greg Koch said, some people get it and some people don't. For the most part, I don't. I think Steve Dikkers' Sparklecasters are much more sparklier than this one, which took a moment for me to recognize as sparkley. Not that I didn't live playing the thing.
Dee-Uh-Dar-Eee-Oh: D'Addario had free string changing. I know two guys with Steinberger copies, and I tried to get them to come along, because double-ball strings are not cheap and not really common, but oh well. I had the strings changed on my black Tele, which I will play on tomorrow. Changed from Ernie Ball. We'll see how they go.
Effecting: I have decided as of right now that the next effect I get will be the Boss NS2 Noise Suppressor. I plugged in a Tele (not mine), dimed a compressor and played with the NS2, which got it all out. I play with an Aviom in-ear system, and I get an earful of the hum. I'm not too sure that the house finds it noticeable, but in my ears, I feel the need to stomp that buzz. Especially if I want to have the compression on all the time.
The Talks: Chet Chambers, talking about recording, confirmed by belief that the acoustic guitar in an electric band context is essentially a tuned snare drum. Sean Halley showed how easy it is to put together tracks in ProTools. Nick Catanese and Chris Cannella can play, and I'd love to see both of them in longer presentations than they had here.
And then there's Greg Koch.
He is truly a mutant. If tomorrow he woke up and his hands and guitars didn't like each other, he'd make a killing as a standup. He was mostly showing off the Roadworn guitars and the Vintage Modified amps.
The VM combines the digital wonderfulness of the Cyber-Twin with the tube joy of a classic Fender amp. 40 watts, which as Greg says, "is all you need and deserve". Nearly 20 years ago, I saw something online where a guy talked about a gig. "Your stack is louder than the PA", the sound man said. I can't recall if the response was "Thank you" or "You're welcome", but either one gets to the point, which is that guitarists are undisciplined, can't be trusted and need to limit themselves to small 40 watt amps. Also, light and portable.
I suppose I should've gone with this earlier. The Joe Campilongo-approved Princeton, with an attenuator built in. I fell in strong like with this one.
Final Thought: I desired this strap. I saw a picture of Johnny Depp with that kind of vintage strap going onto a blackguard Tele and it just looked great, so I decided I wanted one like that for my SX. But somewhere between 11am (when I made the order) and 5:30pm, when I left, the single Fender vintage strap with the shoulder pad had been sold. But the shipping guys made sure I didn't walk home empty-handed.
The only downer of the day was the impromptu relicing my eldest did to my #1, which I don't like but I'm not really mad about.
Now, good night. I have to get up and play in the morning.
But instead, I went to Gearfest.
Some high points:
The Keyboard Room: I went in there after attending a course on ProTools. That course of course made me want - ProTools
- A Mac
- A mixing board
- microphone and direct input interfaces
- microphones
- Lots of other stuff I can't afford
The item most coveted by me, the one I wish most that I could take home, is the Yamaha MM6 keyboard. Let it be known throughout the land that Sans Direction is a big classic rock keyboard fan. Hammond, Rhodes, Clavinet, Wurlitzer, the sounds that made rock rock. It is known that, in 2009, if you want those tones and you're playing out (rather than a studio or your own bedroom), you rock a Nord, but that's if you have several thousand dollars. If you're more a hundredaire (Thank you, Greg Koch), the MM6 has good sounds at lower prices. I specifically pick out one stereo Rhodes tone that I think I've heard on Steely Dan tracks and I know is the starting keyboard sound on Pink Floyd's "Sheep" as a tone the MM6 does perfectly. If I could have brought home one piece of gear from Gearfest, the MM6 is what I would bring.
Let it be understood that, as a keyboard player, I'm a good guitarist. But I want to learn, and I can't without an instrument.
The other theremin I played (and be it noted, not touched) was at the Moog booth in the Gear tent. They tweeted that people should go and say hi to Linda in the Moog booth, and I did. I played a Little Phatty, which was cool. I also took the demo, seeing how to connect the Etherwave to the Little Phatty to make it synthier. That was cool. That was way cool.I also played a Moog guitar. The Moog guitar has been discussed here before, but I have not until this day touched one. And, well, it's a beautiful enough guitar, and it plays well. But recently, I read an account of Adrian Belew trying out for Zappa's band. He was in the middle of Zappa's rehearsal studio during the lead-up to a tour, and Belew tried to play and be impressive while everyone around him was packing stuff up and moving it out. In the end, Belew said he thought he blew it and thought the interview would've been different, and asked to try again in a quieter environment. I think that, in a quiet room where I could turn up to taste, I could bring the Moog guitar to life. The wah-like setting sounded more like a ring modulator to my ears, and I couldn't get the autowah setting to work. What I did get to work was the mute, which is the reverse of a sustain function. I am not sure I found a useful way to use the mute function. It's different enough from my slab-with-a-neck Telecaster to make it difficult to just switch over what I usually do. So, just because I couldn't make it work for me, that doesn't mean it's a bad thing.
Patrick, I have a Keep Your Hands Off My Theremin shirt, and you cannot have it. I have some Moog pocket protectors, and next time we see each other, I will give you one.
Fender Fender Fender: I visited the guitar tents, where I met John Grabowski, the man who tweets for Sweetwater, plus a bunch of the Fender guys. A great bunch of guys. I played the blue-flamed James Burton Tele, and that's something. 3 pickups. 5-way switch, with an S1 switch, too. Here's where it gets weird. Positions 1 and 5 are neck and bridge. Positions 2 and 4 are neck/middle and bridge/middle. The S1 switch switches between middle and neck/bridge in position 3. And, officially, I am not sure that the James Burton sounds like a Tele, but it sounds good, I gotta say.I didn't take a crappy cellphone pic of that.
I took a crappy cellphone pic of a Fender Custom Shop Telecaster with S1 switching and sparkles. Relic sparkles. Yes, someone took the time and effort to make a great modern Sparklecaster, and then beat it up. As Greg Koch said, some people get it and some people don't. For the most part, I don't. I think Steve Dikkers' Sparklecasters are much more sparklier than this one, which took a moment for me to recognize as sparkley. Not that I didn't live playing the thing.Dee-Uh-Dar-Eee-Oh: D'Addario had free string changing. I know two guys with Steinberger copies, and I tried to get them to come along, because double-ball strings are not cheap and not really common, but oh well. I had the strings changed on my black Tele, which I will play on tomorrow. Changed from Ernie Ball. We'll see how they go.
Effecting: I have decided as of right now that the next effect I get will be the Boss NS2 Noise Suppressor. I plugged in a Tele (not mine), dimed a compressor and played with the NS2, which got it all out. I play with an Aviom in-ear system, and I get an earful of the hum. I'm not too sure that the house finds it noticeable, but in my ears, I feel the need to stomp that buzz. Especially if I want to have the compression on all the time.
The Talks: Chet Chambers, talking about recording, confirmed by belief that the acoustic guitar in an electric band context is essentially a tuned snare drum. Sean Halley showed how easy it is to put together tracks in ProTools. Nick Catanese and Chris Cannella can play, and I'd love to see both of them in longer presentations than they had here. And then there's Greg Koch.
He is truly a mutant. If tomorrow he woke up and his hands and guitars didn't like each other, he'd make a killing as a standup. He was mostly showing off the Roadworn guitars and the Vintage Modified amps.
The VM combines the digital wonderfulness of the Cyber-Twin with the tube joy of a classic Fender amp. 40 watts, which as Greg says, "is all you need and deserve". Nearly 20 years ago, I saw something online where a guy talked about a gig. "Your stack is louder than the PA", the sound man said. I can't recall if the response was "Thank you" or "You're welcome", but either one gets to the point, which is that guitarists are undisciplined, can't be trusted and need to limit themselves to small 40 watt amps. Also, light and portable.
I suppose I should've gone with this earlier. The Joe Campilongo-approved Princeton, with an attenuator built in. I fell in strong like with this one.
Final Thought: I desired this strap. I saw a picture of Johnny Depp with that kind of vintage strap going onto a blackguard Tele and it just looked great, so I decided I wanted one like that for my SX. But somewhere between 11am (when I made the order) and 5:30pm, when I left, the single Fender vintage strap with the shoulder pad had been sold. But the shipping guys made sure I didn't walk home empty-handed.
The only downer of the day was the impromptu relicing my eldest did to my #1, which I don't like but I'm not really mad about.
Now, good night. I have to get up and play in the morning.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
