Fishman Makes Tele Pickups

Greg Koch is the funniest man in music these days, and here he's showing off the new Fluence pickups from Fishman. I couldn't make them sound as good as he does, but he certainly makes a case for them here.

I might want a PowerBridge up in there, too.

After-Warranty Report: Kliq TinyTune

I didn't just complain on my blog yesterday.

I made an Amazon review. A three-star Amazon review.

I also got the order ID, registered the Kliq pedal, and submitted a report of faulty gear.

They took my address and shipped me a new pedal. In fact, I know it's in town already.

We'll see how long the new one lasts, but I have to say their customer service is right on. After a few times playing out, I might revise and extend that Amazon review.

Pete Townshend played a Telecaster

I suppose you can call that "playing".

All The Buzz

My baby.

I play guitar for my church. The core of my rig is a Boss GT6, but I've found it impossible to have a solid clean tone without the dirty tones just blasting it for volume, so I have a board with a compressor, Washburn Soloist distortion, DigiTech Bad Monkey, EHX LPB-1 clean boost, EHX Signal Pad attenuator, Danelectro Cool Cat tremolo, and Morley Little Alligator volume pedal, which I connect into the input of the GT6. The pedals are connected mostly with the kind of cables in a jar next to the cash register at Guitar Center. I power the board with a Visual Sound 1Spot, and normally, it's been no problem.

Signal starts with my #1, a mid-80s Telecaster I added a four-way switch to, which is my #1 guitar.

Yesterday, toward the end of service, I noticed a small buzz coming out of my system. I nudged some pedals and got a big buzz. I used the volume pedals to drop the volume and tried to figure out where the buzz was coming from. After service, I poked and found that switching out the cable connecting the board to the GT6 caused the buzz to go away, and switching in two longer cables brought the buzz back.

This is close, except I swapped locations for the Signal Pad
and Cool Cat, and swapped out the Death Metal,
which as too much gain for anything I need. I should redo
with the dirt pedals in the front row. 

Yesterday evening, setting up to play again, I simplified to just Tele -> GT6 -> DI, and immediately got all the buzz in the world, and found that, by turning down the volume on the guitar, I could change the pitch of the buzz. I expected either 1) nothing would happen, showing the problem was in the pedalboard, or 2) the volume would go down, showing the problem was with the instrument or involved the single-coil hum. What I got surprised me and I could base no diagnosis on it.

I was handed a loaner guitar and the issues went away.

This morning, I plugged my #1 into my amp at home and it sounded just like I'd expect.

I honestly have only the slightest idea as to what went on. I've had problems at that venue before, and the problems I've had with buzz there, I've had nowhere else. Then again, I'm normally either into the DI at church or my amp at home (or elsewhere).

My thoughts about the fix include:

• taking the #1 to the shop and see if my rewiring is problematic
• moving up to the next level for patch cables
• going from a 1Spot to a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power or the like
• finding a means to have a special ground for my gear

I'm in a confused state on the issue, and will have to plug things in and try things out to try to solve things. Any comments or suggestions?

I Am Gear Batman

First, don't leave your gear where anybody can get to it and nobody is watching it.

I play at a church, and when I started playing there, I was told a story about how the pastor had left a 12-string Ovation in the sanctuary, and one day found that it had left him forever.

See message at the top of the post.

When I play, I plug my Tele into a Roland GT-6. Very portable, and I port it when I go. 

This year, we recruited a third guitarist (fourth if you count the worship pastor, who plays guitar and sings, and we've since found a fifth), and he has a big pedalboard, a DI connection to his mic'd tube amp in the rafters, and since he has a tour-ready case for his pedalboard, he tended to leave his pedalboard at church.

And he lost two pedals, including a ZVex Fuzz Factory.

He started carrying his gear home after that. This is spring.

I watch the local musical instruments feed on craigsist, because every so often there's a pedal or something I can afford, and I saw a Fuzz Factory, and I start thinking "ZVex has unique paint jobs for their pedals. Maybe the third guitarist can recognize his pedal", and I pass it on. He, in turn, has someone call and ask about it. I don't know who the culprit is, and I don't know what happened to him (hey, guitar gear theft; I might be stereotyping, but it trends male to me) but I do know the third guitarists got his pedals back.

After-Action Report

s
This is my #1 Tele, in the middle of a string change. Mid-song, I popped the high E off the set of D'Addario .009s they put on at GearFest at Sweetwater. I think that five months is pretty good for a set of strings. Thing is, I had one set of Ernie Ball Slinkys (.010s) and four sets of Extra Slinkys (.008) in my gear bag, so I couldn't really just go back and grab one string.

I took my advice and worked through it, and when I got done playing, I got ready for next time and switched sets to an .008 set. I'm trying out B.B. King's advice to Billy Gibbons, that you don't need to work that hard. I tried .008s before and liked them, so I'll go again.

Lessons Learned:

• I need to stick with a string gauge. I do, except here I was scheduling a change at an inconvenient time
• I need to keep a string winder in the gear bag. I thought I did, but I don't. They're cheap.
• I need to keep a tuner in the gear bag. I pulled one onto my phone, and it worked, but it would be better to plug it into the guitar. 
• I think I need a spare guitar. My #2 is in desperate need for a level, crown and polish, and that could work, but there's a guitar at the guitar shop that I desperately love.

"You Were Probably Going To Mod It Anyway"

So, I was on TDPRI, looking around, and someone posted that he was thinking about getting an Esquire.

An Esquire is in essence a Telecaster with no neck pickup. It was wired with three setting: a bassy setting to cover the the low-end (not really a common position), a standard volume-and-tone setting, and one where you bypass the tone knob and go right to the jack. This is a bit of a hot-rod wiring.

My suggestion was to get a Squier Classic Vibe '50s Tele and mod it, because TDPRI is all over these things as being very good early Tele repros for not much money, so you can get solid standard hardware and change what you want.

I'm not really in the market for that, but I'm always curious, so I started searching and saw this:

Sweetwater created the FENDER® Sweet-Mod Classic Vibe '50s Telecaster® to give you a hot-rodded Fender experience right out of the case. We start with the tried-and-true Fender Classic Vibe '50s Telecaster®, supercharged with DiMarzio Area T stacked humbucking pickups for big, fat, aggressive tone. You get the iconic look and feel of the Classic Vibe '50s Telecaster, with a seriously upgraded sound courtesy of Sweetwater's factory-authorized guitar workshop. You were probably going to do these modifications anyway, and our expert guitar techs have already done the work - for less than your local guitar tech would likely charge. No other retailer has the Fender Sweet-Mod Classic Vibe '50s Telecaster, and it's made to pack an amazing sonic punch. 

"You were probably going to do it anyway."

There's a number of different choices. Teles get either Fender Noiseless or DiMarzio Area Ts. (Stratoblogster can tell you the Strat options. That's his job!) No Esquire options (because you'd have to swap out the pickguard, too, I think). I must say, I'm wanting.

New Pedal on my X-Mas List

I've wanted to get a Fernandes Sustainer or similar unit in my guitar for a while, just so I could do that sort of thing. This is a big reason why I want a Moog guitar or lap steel, too. Or, at least an eBow.

For the record, those are still on my wish list, too, but from the looks of things, if I had a Fender Runaway, it could do most of what I'd want all that for. I'm not sure how it works, but it seems like a variant of compression and likely to want to be at the front of my pedal chain, toward the right side (not just because of the way guitar pedals go, but also because I'm right-footed and would rather have wah, volume and this right next to each other in front of my right foot, no matter what way things are wired.

These aren't in stores yet, as far as I can tell, but I'm waiting with decreasing patience for them to show.

The Angels Want To Play My Red Strat

Well, not really. I don't have a red Strat.

What I do have is a set of Ernie Ball Extra Slinky strings on my top-loader Tele. That's .038 on the low end to .008 on the high end. Effortless playing, I have to say. I have no knowledge about how well they'll last, but right now, they're feeling great.

Ironically perhaps, I have Not Even Slinky strings ( .012-.056 ) on my Rondo. It is set for slide and I keep it tuned to Open D. It takes all kinds, and I love them.

Quick Repairs

My control plate has had problems staying on. The hole for the rear screw is stripped, and has fallen out.

Don't worry, don't worry. I know the fix. A toothpick and some wood glue add material to the hole, giving the screw something to grab onto. But I've fixed a hole and had it strip out on me again, so I'm more and more considering my options.

First one is to start fresh. Get a new body from Warmoth or somewhere. Black hides a multitude of sins, and mine has experienced enough that the black is flaking off in places. Yeah, I know that folks pay extra to buy a beaten-up guitar, more power to 'em, but part of me wants a pretty black guitar again. And if I go this way, I can go ahead and get something routed for a neck humbucker or 2 Strat pickups or something. The downside here is that I'd be looking at $300 or more when I'd rather hold onto that much money for a while, if I actually had it sitting around.

The second is threaded inserts for where the control plate connects to the body. Then it would be just metal screws to connect the plate to the body. Hardware and superglue to hold it in place and I should have a control plate I can be in and out of all day, for under $20.

I think I'll try that first.

I also think that, when I get to where I can start making my own dang guitars, I'll do that for mine. I know of folks who put inserts on the neck so they can get it on and off quickly over and over without stripping. I so like.

The Thing That Should Not Vee

This is why I love Premier Guitar! As is clear, it is a guitar with Telecaster stylings on a guitar with a Flying V body style. It's called the Tee Vee and it's from RS Guitar Works. This one draws from the original blackguard look of 1950s Teles, while the one Premier Guitar reviewed is more drawn from a 1960s Custom Tele, sunburst with a rosewood fretboard.

On TDPRI, the great guitar sparkler Buckocaster once put holographic sparkle on a Tele-V body, but I don't think I ever saw the completed guitar, so this is not quite as original as it seems, but it's a great and wonderful thing.

Oh, I HAVE To Go There

I saw this on a French music blog. This is Billy Cardine. He plays lap steel. Look to his right, toward the bassist in the background. Do you see the logo on the headstock? Do you?

Here. Let me give you a hint.

It's a Moog logo.

There's another pic on the site which shows neck-and-bridge Moog Guitar-style pickups. It's a Moog Lap Steel.

I've talked about the Moog Guitar before. Impressive works. Impressive works that take more than a little getting used to, and require a battery that the showroom model might not have, but impressive works nonetheless. I've been more and more thinking about how to access the power of electronics in the with the tools I'm already familiar with, and it seems that there could be something with the Moog lap steel.

It isn't just the increased sustain, though. You have a huge one-piece body, high action and a huge movable fret, so they sustain well naturally. It's controlled sustain and muting. The Moog concept is far beyond the Sustainer/Sustainiac concept. I'm waiting patiently for video, and more importantly, audio of this thing.

I ran into this looking for Melobar (which deserves a dedicated post), and I think this is so cool. Obviously, Moog's syst em is more involved than a Fernandes Sustainer, but it makes you wonder what you could do with all that. Somebody wondered if anyone ever took an EBow to a steel guitar. I'm sure it's not too common to do, but it has been done. In 2000, Robert Randolph made a Sacred Steel album with John Medeski and the North Mississippi All-Stars called The Word, and on one of the tracks, "Call Him By His Name", starts out with Robert sounding like a melisma-laden black-gospel singer just going off, done with steel guitar and EBow. That's a good track to start to show the possibilities of this thing. Or, at least what I think they are.

Get Bent

Reading the Holiday 2010 issue of Guitar Player. The one with Carlos Santana on the cover. The part that really gets me reading is the Marty Stuart article on page 50. A good big chunk of the interview is about his #1 guitar, the original B-Bender originally belonging to Clarence White. I like Marty Stuart because of Clarence White. I started buying Marty Stuart albums because of Clarence White. I now get his work on his strengths.

The one thing he recommends for B-Bender players is long-pull bender. I wish I could find more information on how to play the thing, but then again, nothing can really tell you how to play it until you have one to play. Nobody could've talked me through playing mandolin or lap steel without having a mandolin or lap steel. Which, again, makes me want to get one more.

What I find most interesting is, while there are many guitarists dropping D, tuning to D-standard, dropping C, getting baritones, 7-strings or 8-strings, and Marty, for one song, tunes a Tele that used to belong to Mick Ronson up to F. That's an interesting thing.

New Pedal Day - Little 'Gator

I am now the proud owner of a Morley Little Alligator volume pedal. I have plugged it in just long enough to be assured that it works, which it does, but soon it will hold a prized place near the end of the pedal chain, after the dirt but before the tremolo (and the eventual delay pedal).

The Morley has an optical mechanism, so there should be nothing that wears out and needs to be replaced. It does have a minimum volume pot which should last as it's not connected to the main mechanism and fairly fire-and-forget. I had planned to make it drop to zero, but I'm curious if I can set it to tame my Digitech Death Metal pedal and have it still be able to handle nice, clean steel-type swells.

The Morley volume pedal has a reputation for being closer to an on-off switch, but I've talked to Morley people and I feel confident that I can adjust it to what I need it to be. Tonight I'll be testing it out some.

Ad-Hoc Guitar Fixing

I have had my acoustic, a Fender A/E dreadnought, for nearly a decade, and while I have changed the bridge pins and the strings and have had the end pin jack resoldered a few times, but really, it's as it was made. And, while I play up the neck a lot, I by and large play the dread to play blues, folk and country and other first-five frets stuff.

Today we had practice for a big special musical event we're having in September, where I'm the acoustic guy. Last practice, I noticed a little bit of buzzy, sitar-like sound coming from the high E when the 3rd fret is played. Which, if you're playing first-position cowboy chords, you hit all the time. Even more if you're using the James Taylor jangle chords, like G (320033), C2 (x32033), Dsus4 (x00233) and Em7 (020033). That high G popped out and hit my hearing like a poke in the eye. I tried to retune to D and capo 2, but I hit two problems. First, the tuning stability was AWFUL, and second, I began to notice that the B string also had the buzzy sitar problem.

First thing when I got home, I cut up an old membership card and placed it under the saddle, in order to shim the saddle up and avoid these sound problems. It's only been together for a bit, so I don't know if everything is solved, but it seems good so far.

Gonna Make You Burn, Gonna Make You Sting

This is from a gallery on Premier Guitar, showing Robert Kantor's Swarovski-bead-encrusted guitars. I of course went to the Tele Deluxe, which is named "Black Dog". Evidently, they're available at Rudy's Music in New York. As you might guess, the Black Dog is a little plain compared to some of the others. For example, take the Crash guitar Eric Clapton has been playing recently. Then, redo the art in glass beads.

A Bunch of Nothings

Got the new Premier Guitar. Haven't read much yet. There's a story on Parsons Guitars that includes many great guitar shots. There's a story on the Black Keys that looks to be good. Love Brothers. Like the "Unsung Heroes" story, but they missed a trick by not showing his rig, which is the wildest head-and-cabinet set I've ever seen.

And there is word coming of a Premier Guitar TV show. I would DVR that and replay the heck out of it.

Have the new Guitar Player. Read more of it. Haven't read the Steve Miller article yet. Don't know if I will. Don't really like Steve Miller.

I've been having an idea. The Sonuus is a guitar-to-MIDI converter. It's monophonic. The MoPho is a monophonic synthesizer, in the old-school analog sense. So, any signal that a Sonuus could handle, a MoPho could handle. The MIDI Mouse would allow you to go between presets so you could have it all floor-mounted. And thats only $600, which I don't have, and that's before the A/B/Y switches you'd want to switch between normal and synthy. But wouldn't be cool? Wouldn't you sound like nobody else?

MLP - Clayton Golds

Steve Clayton on Clayton Golds.

Get Clayton Golds direct.

NGD: LPB1, plus

I have failed to take pics of either the unboxing or my assembled rig, but I am now the proud owner of an EHX LPB-1. It's a linear power booster, basically a clean boost pedal. I haven't yet decided on the placement for this pedal yet. I tried it right after my Boss CS3, which was OK, but there are a few places left to try. But I have to say that I like it. I really like it a lot.

I mentioned previously that I plugged my #1 into a Mesa Boogie amp. It has ruined me. I know how good my guitar can sound, and now I'm shamed and offended by my tone. It may be too many patch cables. It may be my AX1500G. It may be settings on my AX1500G. But I must fix it. I must!

Just Got Back From Gearfest

Well, no. I got back. I played with toys. I crashed. I woke up. And now I'm reporting.

As always, it's a good time. And this time, I came home with something more than the freebies. Eric's been needing a strap, and I got him a nice Levy strap, suede so that it grips the clothes and fights neck drop. And I got myself a new pedal, an EHX LPB1. I like being Mr Clean with my amp, so I don't need some dirt, I just need some more. I've played with it some at home, and it's more.

I also got my #1 restrung, and I took the liberty of taking it into the guitar room and running it head-to-head with some other Teles there. And I found a few things.

• My Tele, a late 80s MIJ toploader, has a certain grace and certainly sounds like a Tele.
• The series position, the fourth position on the four-way switch I added, adds a noticeable and nice amount of volume.
• Sweetwater has a number of sweet Telecasters. This one has the great baseball-bat neck, but it was a little too sticky with the poly, but the size was perfect.
• I think I want a Mesa-Boogie Lone Star Special. 

This was not part of my head-to-head. It is a Custom Shop Ghost Paisley Tele, and that's sweet. 

I saw Greg Koch, who is truly a mutant. Imagine Chet Atkins playing "Stairway To Heaven". Greg can do it. David Grissom also showed off his PRS guitars and the new PRS amps. I knew David was good, and I knew PRS guitars sounded good, but man, I was impressed.

I also met Mandy Marie, who I kinda know from TDPRI. She was looking at a Jazzmaster (I think) and my son was playing with a Sustainiac-equipped Jackson, and they jammed. It was cool. 

I played a Nord Stage EX. I played a Korg KAOSSilator. I want both. The Nord has exactly the Rhodes and Hammond sounds I want in a keyboard.

I took some pics of some cool stuff, and I'll try to get them up tomorrow.