2012 is here, 2011′s musical highs and lows for me.

Less than 12 hours ago I rang in the new year of 2012. I’d been thinking about the musical postives and negatives that I’d seen through 2011 and now that I’m awake and fresh I thought I’d document this.

I saw a few stand out gigs in 2011, I saw John Mayer at the Hammer Smith Apollo that was simply stunning, Phip Sayce at the Bristol Tunnels (supported by Marcus Bonfanti) and the original Jayhawks line up at the Manchester Academy.

Through out the year there have been some great musical releases and some older musical releases that I’ve found and enjoyed.
  • Philip Sayce released the album “Ruby Electric”, a mix of some great new songs and some quality live recordings of past favourites
  • I found Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band “Live In Chicago” – I’ve never liked Kenny Wayne Shepherds music on albums (despite his obvious talnet) but live he really shines.
  • The Jayhawks original line up returned to release the album “Mocking Bird Time”
  • Laura Marling released “A Creature I Don’t Know”, this is nothing like Laura Marlings other albums and is a lesson in music production from Ethan Johns.
  • Through the Eric Clapton Crossroads festival DVD’s I really started to appreciate Derek Trucks, especially the album “Already Free”
  • Ryan Adams released “Ashes & Fire” each album Ryan Adams puts out I enjoy a little more than the last (apart from Easy Tiger which I think is his best work)

2011′s musical dissapointments consisted of

  • Aimee Mann – no new music
  • Lisa Loeb – no new music
  • John Mayer – delaying the release of “Born And Raised” due to a problem with his throat
  • Black Country Communion’s album “2″ – better than the first but still poor compared to what it should be
  • Joe Bonamassa’s release “Dust Bowl” a real dissapointment, possibly spreading himself too thin ?
  • Joe Bonamassa’s general move away from focus on music to pushing out albums and signature gear, seriously signature Les Paul (various models), signature Les Paul Studio, Signature Epiphone Les Paul, signature guitar picks, signature fuzz face, signature Wah, signature Carolanne amplifier, and even a signature microphone….his live rig is now consisting of 6 amps ??? This guy can play and write, I hope 2012 sees a return onto less but more quality output.

For me personally I’ve really found my feet and style as a guitarist and I actually like what I play, how I play, how I sound and what I write for the first time in years. Listening and reading a lot more to quality guitar plays such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Mayer and Philip Sayce, I think I’ve really started to understand how to use a guitar amplifier well and even multiple guitar amplifiers combined as one. I’ve learnt how to use and control gain and over drive through quality amplifiers and effects pedals and I’m surprised how little drive I use these days. Through discussions and listening to musician friends both real world and online cyber friends I’ve exeprienced other peoples positive and negative experiences which has helped me become more comfortable with my own. Because of the wide scope and age of music I’ve listened to this year I’ve started to see and appreciate more how much of an effect a producer has on how music is recorded and the importance of working with someone who not only has the skill to bring music to a high quality recording but also shares the same vision and direction of your own.

Best wishes to anyone who reads this blog, all 6 of you……

Sunday, January 1st, 2012 General No Comments

Martin Guitar Change & Harmonica Blues

not much been going on muscially recently, messed around with a few things but not found much working for me. My birthday happened last weekend and I treated myself to a new Martin OM28 acoustic guitar, it’s very very different from my normal acoustic taste, there is no cut away, it’s what I’d class as a strumming guitar or a song writers guitars, it’s not meant for guitar virtuoso style stuff, it’s been a god send, two songs that have not worked for me have just started working on an acoustic, I’ve simplfied it and like it.

 

new style of playing
Martin OM28 – for song writers

I’ll try to update my gear page as I can see this having a good effect on some of the music I’m working on.

I also bought myself a Harmonica and I’ve learnt the basics (very basic) and started putting it into one song, not sure if it will stay there, but it’s fun and I’m trying new stuff.
Sunday, October 23rd, 2011 General No Comments

Amps Updates

After a lull away from the blog I’ve been spending time building up my amp sounds and I’ve got a pretty good setup now.

Two Rock and Zilla cabs, my main amp

Two Rock and Zilla cabs, my main amp

I’m using my Two Rock Custom Reverb Signature amp with 2 Zilla custom made 2 x 12 cabs. The cabs are both loaded with Celestion Gold speakers and vintage 1979 Celestion G12-65 speakers, which gives a fantastic sound, super clean and very chiming sound with a very warm bottom end response. When driving the amp the tonal range is superb from being able to keep clarity of the notes through break up to quite a driven sound that is unforgiving as the compression is not there.

I can use one or both of these cabs, the interesting factor is micing them up, they are both open back cabs but with 2 different speakers the possibilities for mic positioning and use is quite big. The volume is also very controllable although driving the speakers at bellow 30watts doesn’t really bring them to life as strong as possible, 30- 50 watts seems to provide a sweet spot.

I’ve also been playing with the idea of a two amp setup, this is more for recording interest than live playing. I’ve been using a Zilla custom built 4 x 10 cab loaded with Celestion golds and a Fender Twin combo.The Fender is configured to have the mid-range quite high with a little trebble while the two rock provides a thick bottom end and a little bit of midrange, the two signals are then mixed.

two rock a twin in perfect hamony

two rock a twin in perfect harmony

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011 Gear No Comments

BA003 Finished

This one has been a long time coming and it’s finally here. I wanted a Fender Custom Shop La Cabronita telecaster, which is the high price of approx £4000 UK, however to have the options I wanted (fingerboard/neck wood/etc) I was quoted closer to £6000 UK, which for what I wanted, didn’t seem a nessasary price.  I loved the idea of the La Cabronita, the TV Jones pickups and the S1 switching are a cool feature that don’t produce a similar sound to any of my guitars, the problem I had is I like rosewood fingerboards, which the La Cabronita doesn’t come with and like necks without any finish on.  Due to the quality of what I needed, this guitar needed to be built right first time round, so I decided to work with USA guitar builder Warmoth. Warmoth do an excellent line in Fender licended parts at very reasonable prices, they didn’t however do a La Cabronita set of guitar parts. I had to do a lot of research and measurements (which also included a sneaker visit to a custom shop dealer with a hidden tape measure) to measure up for my La Cabronita body, and that’s what I did, submitted the details to Warmoth and had them build me a body. it’s a medium alder boday routed and positioned exactly the same as the Custom Shop model, the only difference is the electonics cavity which is more in line with a standard telecaster.

My La Cabronita Especial
My La Cabronita Especial

As soon as my body was delivered Warmoth magically started producing a La Cabronita body (with the correct electronics cavity)  so I guess the body turned out pretty well as it now appears in production.

The body is a thin nitro blonde paint job, similar to the Mary Kray stratocaster where you can just about see the grain of the wood work coming through, but only if you look hard. The pickups are two TV Jones Filertron Classic pickups. The wiring is a passive S1 switching option wired into a 3 way selector, with single volume pot with push button volume pot option. The bridge is a Fender USA hardtail strat bridge, finished off with a copy of the La Cabronita stratch plate. The neck is also Warmoth made as they did a great deal with the body, birdseye maple neck no finish with an unmarked Brazillian rosewood fingerboard, finished off with Fender Perloid custom shop tuners.
It’s a really classic TV Jones 50′s sound with a modern twist thanks to the S1 wiring, it’s certainly my favourite telecaster.
Monday, April 25th, 2011 Gear No Comments

BA002 Finished

This post is a little delayed as this guitar was finished well before Christmas but moving the site to a new server, the Christmas and New Year break has delayed this a little.

BA002 is my second real home built guitar, there is nothing unique or ground breaking about this one, it was built to test some stuff out and fill a hole in my guitars that was missing. I’ve now sold all my Floyd Rose trem based guitars as they just where not getting used and didn’t really fit my style any more, however I founded I do actually need a Floyd Rose based guitar every now and then, so this guitar got built. The body is a 63 strat replica (I’ve discovered I really like the true vintage style/shape and weight 62/63 strats) made from a medium alder single slab. it’s vintage accurate in spec, however, I had it routed for a Floyd Rose trem system, no cut away under the bridge, just two pivot points. The body had a true vintage sunburst put on (more yellow than orange) which turned out quite well but had a few flaws in it, so I relic’d it it’s easier to gig a guitar once it has that first knock in it, so this has the first knock put in for me. The pickups are a bare knuckle set, not my normal custom winds, but a much rockier, agressive output set.

BA002 up front and finished

The pickup combo is two cream BK Mother Milk pickups in the neck and middle position, with a BK “The Mule” humbucker in cream and black zebra in the bridge position, in a standard 5 way strat setup with CTS pots. As this guitar had a Floyd on and was made for rock, it needed a little more grunt behind it and a humbucker bridge is a good option (a nicer option than the Sambora Strats I got rid of).

The neck is amazing, it’s a flamed maple standard 63 neck profile, drilled out for a Floyd Rose nut. The neck is totally unfinished and is one of the nicest necks I’ve played. As this guitar was a bit of a trial setup, I put an ebony fingerboard on with clay markers. WOW, I’ve  played ebony boards before with various levels of results, but this one is good, it’s smooth and fast and very comfortable but not harsh on the tone, it’s a real change from my prefered Brazilian Rosewood, and not something I’ll be doing again but it is a one off and a great result. The neck has my 2 point truss road design in it as with BA001, but it doesn’t make enough of a difference to warrent the extra work so I’m dumping that from this point on. The neck is really a work of art, thanks to my Guitar tech Andy Manners as I just didn’t do this justice when I tried.

BA002 Back

The tuners are stock Fender USA standard strat, nothing magical there. The bridge is a Floyd Rose original USA trem, nothing special about it, but my setup is a bit odd, well for me. I always use 5 springs on the trem to lock it down, it gives sustain. This one is different, as I need it to float, 5 stprints was too much to make it sit comfortable and was too agressive on the release of a note, so I’ve scaled it back to 3 springs and it works great. This guitar is a real odd ball for me it’s not the sort of thing I like and was built out of need rather than desire with options I normally would not go for, but some how, it works and a fantastic guitar has been made, I’ve found myself playing and jamming with it over my favourite gutiars at time, it will never replace them but it’s a great instrument and end result. My only wish is that I hadn’t put the Floyd Rose on it, as I hate them and I feel this ruins what has ended up as a great guitar, but that said this guitar wouldn’t have come about if I didn’t need a Floyd Rose, and who knows, maybe one of the reasons it just works is down to the Floyd Rose. Either way, I’m really happy with it.

Friday, January 21st, 2011 Gear 1 Comment

Music Radar’s Top 10 Guitar Pedals

Recently Guitarist magazine wrote an articale on the top 100 guitar effects pedals. It was a good read, the usual suspects cropped up in various places in the pecking order and some odd ball effects where thrown in (researching them now for my own use thanks Guitarist magazine !).

The Future Music group that publish Guitarist magazine has an internet forum (you’ll see it in my links section) musicradar.co.uk I decided to ask the guitarists and musicians on that forum what their top 10 pedals would be, didn’t have to own them, just what they would want/have/use. You can see the rules here. On Christmas eve I closed the forum thread and the results are finally in. The responses where limited due to minor variations in the pedals types, eg: Boss TU2/TU3, so I’ve taken a little liberty in grouping a few pedals together to get a more honest picture, but here are the top ten pedals that people wanted/used.
There is no order as a few pedals shared the same number of votes, but what is interesting is that the Guitarist magazine number one pedal is also the music radar forum’s number one pedal.

1.) Dunlop Crybaby Wah
2.) TS 808 (or clone)
3.) Boss CE2/3
4.) Boss TU2/3
5.) RAT (Proco)
6.) Fulltone OCD
7.) EHX Small Stone
8.) MonkeyFX Valvesporker
9.) Boss SD-1
10.) Keeley Compressor

Now I’ve had to expand beyond 10 due to the number of tied results
11.) Eventide Time Factor
12.) Digitech Whammy

A lot of pedals that I personally expected to see make it into the list didn’t make it, looking at the results this is due to people wanting specific versions of pedals that have multiple versions. The EXH Bigg Muff and Klon Centaur sat on the edge of making it into the list.

There is it.

Tuesday, December 28th, 2010 Random Offtopic No Comments

Top Listened To Artists, Updated Weekly

  • The Beatles
  • Lisa Loeb
  • John Mayer
  • 'Til Tuesday
  • Philip Sayce
  • Ryan Adams