On Integrity

"I’m a strong believer that you are not a better person than your word. If people can’t believe what you say, then you’re not much of a person." — Charlie Louvin

Don't Even Know What I'm Hoping To Find

Tonight was practice night.

Imagine a guy who kicks the bass drum like Bonham. On a kit with a double pedal so he can make a drum roll without using his arms.

Add a bassist with a five string whose chief influences seem to include Cliff.

Plus a Hammond organ and a grand piano.

Plus me on acoustic. He wants me on acoustic.

In a band like that, an acoustic guitar is as useless as a screen door on a submarine. Nobody will be able to hear me. Probably not even myself.

So, I'm disappointed.

In the mean time, I've been playing the vid on the last, nameless post. Playing it while having the tab sheet open. You see, I was doing scale exercises last night and came onto a bit that sounded like "Running on Empty". I was on electric, not one of my steels, but I was still pretty sure it was in A. And I was right.

Isn't it great when you're right?

So I played it again, trying to play along. I found the first steel bit, at about 50 seconds in. It took me a bit by surprise. It's an A arpeggio. It's easy on a steel, because hey, you don't even have to move the bar, but guitarists want to hit the scale notes beyond the chord notes. But if you play around A major near the 12th fret, you'll find most of the notes you want.

So I took out my #2 lap steel, a repurposed Epiphone Les Paul Peewee with a nut extender, tuned it to A Sebastapol (like open D, except up to A on a smaller instrument), brought up a Sebastapol tuning on my scale and chord tool, and started to play the scale. Then I plugged into my Frontman 25R and tried to dial in the tone.

Nobody is ever going to mistake a Frontman 25R for a Dumble. But that's my amp and I'm happy with it. Use the Drive channel but with the Gain only up to 3, I got a bit of the wailing tone. I'm not sure, but I think there's some phaser in there, too, because I don't have it, but I have a decent tone to start with. Maybe it's just screaming tubes that my solid state amp just can't mimic.

This is what I have of the main lead, tabbed in standard tuning.

e ------------------------------------------------------
B --------------------------------15-15-14-12-----------
G -14-14-14-11--------------11----------------14-11-----
D -------------14-11--11-14----14-------------------11--
A ------------------------------------------------------
E ------------------------------------------------------

e ------------------------------------------------------
B ------------------------------------------------------
G -14-14-14-11------------------------------------------
D -------------14-11--14-11-------11--12-11-------------
A --------------------------12-14-----------12----------
E ------------------------------------------------------ 

I guess it's the F# where I lose it.

I am sufficiently uninterested in JB in general and that song in specific that you could tell me BB King, Eric Clapton, SRV, and Hendrix were taking turns soloing and I still wouldn't listen. — Patrick on the above song, Jackson Browne's "Running On Empty".

I don't share that position. I am regaining the appreciation that I had in the 1980s for Jackson as a singer and songwriter, not just as a guy who employed David Lindley and Waddy Wachtel. But Dave and Waddy, still, are the primary reason I listen.

Link Dump
Tele Mod Guide from Premier Guitar

This Is Just Absolutely Sick!

Hat tip: Electric Guitar Review

Now, This Here Is Mojo

I haven't had the gear to replicate this myself, but I know I have heard enough to know this is true. The wonder of a tube amplifier is in the sweet spot. You hit it and you have the sweet singing tone that you buy a tube amp for. If you can stand to be in the same building with it. And the audience might not want to be in the same room with it, either. You can turn it to the wall, hide it under the stage, put a blanket over it, but those are not good solutions.

So, what do you do?

Evidently, you replace the magnet in the speakers with an electromagnet, so you can turn down the efficiency of the speakers. You can keep the Volume knob at 2 o'clock while turning the volume down at the cabinet.

That is, if you're rocking Fluxtone Speakers.

They have video from a studio where they show it off with a 100+ watt Engl amp. Yeah, any technology, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from a rigged demo. I would love to see it myself, rather than trust Shub-Internet. But still, this is one of those "Oh, man! That's so obvious! Why didn't I think of that?" things.

And thanks to Premier Guitar for doing the story on it.

Has it beent that long?

Yes, I think it has.

Above is a Trussart Steelcaster Pink Paisley. Throw in a B-Bender and the spat of drooling will make me die of dehydration. This is my Gratuitous Tele Pic of the ... quarter? I would guess it has been three months since my last gear shot. I have been kinda busy. Including....

Playing Bass My musician friends and I have had a regular Tuesday jam, and as they're keys and guitar, I'm on bass. This is an interesting roll, because I think I can have more power over song direction on bass than as a second-chair guitarist. Not every bassist uses that power — for every Pastorius, Entwistle, Jamerson, Collins or Sheehan, there's a hundred folks who are holding the position because the guitarist is their brother/cousin/boyfriend/father/child and asked them to — but it is there, and the fewer people in the band, the more clear it is. Here's John Entwistle's bass part for "Won't Get Fooled Again". With the chaos that are Pete Townshend and Keith Moon taken out, you can hear that this is the song, and because Entwistle had it, they could go and and be the wonderful chaos they were.

Considering Taxes I am not sure on this, but I might be able to get a #2 guitar with the tax money. My preference would be a Les Paul copy from Rondo, but I'm thinging a Strat copy, at less than half as much, is much more likely. I'm planning to string it up with ropes and make it my slide guitar. I have country-bending .009s on my Tele, with the lowest action I know how to set. Wish me luck.

Playing Guitar I've been playing every Wednesday. Mostly acoustic. We have someone sitting at the Hammond now. So that's vocals guitar guitar bass drums piano and organ. I was playing acoustic, but I might be bringing my Tele (or, later, the Stratocopy). If everyone else has power, I might as well bring the power, too.

Wanting To Play Guitar I've been tapped to play Sunday. They want to have click-tracks set up so that the choir can practice to their tracks and sing to the band. So the leader's setting up Band A and Band B, so the unpaid band doesn't get burned out. And he wants me to play on Band B. Next Tuesday is the first practice.

Working As a temporary programmer/admin/helpdesk guy. Until Monday. When I become the permanent programmer/admin/helpdesk guy. Benefits and everything. Boo-yah!

It's Funny Because It's True