Small Post

Went to the dentist today.

Got my teeth cleaned.

They now throb a bit.

That is all.

There's Floodin' In Texas....

It has been eighteen years.

I first heard of the man when the first video from his second album came out. A great song, but not the best on the album. Mostly just him walkin' around, with his guitar over his shoulder like a hobo with his stick and bag. It was his second video that made me get his album.

And man, that's all it took. I think that's all it took for everybody.

A friend of mine met the man once. He was a fellow guitarist and editor of the college paper and used that to get a backstage pass and interview time. Complete abuse of power, but hey, I'd do it too. Anyway, he struggled to get past his idol-worship and do the interview, and after a while the tour manager knocked on the door and said "Hey, wrap it up! We gotta go!" The man said "Hey, I'm talking to this guy!" It would've been the easiest thing to blow off the rest of the interview, but he finished it, which made the man so much cooler in my friend's eyes. And in mine.

The state of the art has not, as of yet, moved past him.


1954-1990

OK, You've SEEN My Tele....

I claim Richard Thompson as my favorite guitarist. I don't really claim him as an influence. Why? Because I never have really sat down and tried to learn his stuff.

Until now.

I put on "Gimme Shelter" (Admittedly not RT) and the Watching The Dark 17-minute version of "Calvary Cross", and tried to pick 'em up.

"Calvary Cross", as a Google search for tabs will tell you, is F Am G through the verses. What the tab doesn't tell you is that, on the long version, he goes to D F#m E. As far as I can tell, he's playing in E major, or something related to E major.

Thompson is also the reason I love tremolo. Just to make this point clear, tremolo is a variation on volume, like with the Fender vibrato circuit, and vibrato is variation on pitch, like with the Fender tremolo bar. Yeah, the great Leo Fender got them reversed. That's OK, though. He invented the stuff, he didn't have to name it right.

Anyways, I've recorded something with that flavor and tremolo. Through my AX1500G, into my work laptop with Audacity.

RT Thing

Backing Out Of A Rut

Right now, Premier Guitar is my favorite music magazine. Not only does it meet or exceed the high level of gear reviews and instructional content of Guitar Player, but it also has a great web presence, both in it's website and it's connections to other guitar websites. It's almost like another site in my blogroll.

Part of this is their Web Exclusives. The guy I normally read most is John Bohlinger, who gives you a tour through his life as a gigging musician. But I want to point out another WE column, this time with Steve Ouimette.

Playing Backwards Forward is his suggestion for breaking out of ruts:

So, we’ve all heard examples of backward guitars. When I say “backward,” I mean back in the day when people recorded on analog tape (some still do, god bless them!), they would flip the tape backward and record against the tracks going the opposite direction, then flip the tape back to its correct path of travel. This created a reverse guitar effect that was incredibly cool and totally unpredictable. Songs like “Magic Man” from Heart and many, many songs from Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles made incredible use of this trick/technique. Aside from the cool psychedelic vibe and enveloping sound it created, we can learn a lot from this if we put it to good use.

Remember a few posts back, when I started Explain The Effect? I used the reverse tool to make forward a backward-tracked guitar solo. And while doing so, I had this exact thought.

But I never wrote it down.

Excuse me while I kick this guy....

....

Ahem.

So, record your playing on the computer, reverse it, and learn how to play the reversed lick forward. You may still need to invest in a Slow Gear clone in order to make it sound really trippy and backwards, but without that, you might come up with new cool stuff, which you can now play backwards and forwards.

Shake Your Medicine Rattle

I have a strap for the all-black Tele. I like the strap on my all-black Tele. It's a good strap. But it isn't pretty.

This is a cool-looking strap. I want one!

Of course it is. The Boss is rich. And cool. He can afford cool-looking gear. You get to that level, either your less-cool gear becomes cool because of you or you purchase cool gear to supplement your coolness.

My first strap, now dedicated for use with my acoustic, is a big wide strap I got because I thought it looked like Stevie Ray Vaughn's strap, except it didn't have the big musical notes.

It seems like, past comfort and a certain amount of stick to keep a neck-heavy instrument in place, the strap is a mostly-fashion decision, and like all mostly-fashion decisions in a generally male-centered field, the default choice is black.

Why black? Because you're not gonna be out of place with black. If it was pink paisley and you showed up at a metal show with it, you'd be laughed at. Search for baritone guitars on Musician's Friend and you'll find mostly black instruments, I'm sure for that exact reason.

So, what all-fashion choices have you made with your gear?

Responding to Fondue

Joe Bonamassa vs Rory Gallagher.

I really didn't know either.

I found some of both on the Internet. You can find almost everything on the Internet. Googling site:blogspot.com artist is a wonder.

Then I put it all on my Creative Zen Stone. No LCD. So I had to guess.

Rory's self-titled album. One Joe song. I could tell the Joe because it shared a stone and style with Sonny Landreth. "So, It's Like That". Like Sonny without a slide.

Rory was good, really good. But I'm not seeing great.

So, for Joe vs. Rory, I say Richard Thompson.

How Could I Leave This Behind?

At right is a black Jay Turser copy of the early Fender Precision bass. Isn't it pretty? InstrumentPro.com has them, in white, black, blonde and sunburst. A sunburst '51 is what Sting plays. I try not to get all obsessive about the exact styling of my favorite players and their instruments. My B-Bender will not be sunburst, my fretless Jazz bass will not be sunburst with no pickguard, my first Strat will not be black with a white pickguard. But really, that white up-the-top-horn pickguard screams 50s futurism to me, in white even more so, with the sunburst looking 30s old-school, it even more than the Strat hits that cool retro nostalgia for futures past.

It's about $170 pre-shipping. If you think you need to buy me a Christmas present, that's an early hint.

"But, Sans", you ask. "Why are you thinking about basses recently? Aren't you a Tele guy?"

I am. I am a Tele guy. I will continue to post Telecaster pics until you guys want to call me Teleblogster. But there's one truth that seems universal.

There's too many freakin' guitarists. Bass is cool, and there's always someone who wants one.

I've been jamming, with a friend's bass. Keys' bass (a black Epiphone he got cheap) and Guitar's ex-bassist's rig. Also, on occasion Guitar's other ex-bassists's bass, a MIM Fender Jazz that needs some work to make it sing. I'm picking it up. I'm also (see above) on the hunt for my own bass gear. Plus I'm wanting to learn how to make it work.

The bassist on Wednesdays, he's not the most technical guy, and he plugs direct into the DI box. And, nobody hears him. I volunteered to set up his bass some, and so I have it at home. It's a Squier P-Bass, and once I raised the pickup and lowered the action, it got a bit louder. I'm thinking that it needs a bit of truss rod work, but my tool can't get in there when the strings are in tune. I need a longer hex wrench! I'm looking at the Fender Bass Setup FAQ. That's a good source, and it should be much better and much louder.

I have a question. I've seen a setup a few times where the bass has a P-Bass pickup in the "neck" position (actually smack-dab in the center of the body) and a J-Bass pickup in the bass. Keys' black Batman bass has that. Is there a term for that kind of setup? I'm tempted to call it a PJ setup.