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Archive for July, 2010

Practice 1 down. Many to go

I had my first jam/practice with two new musicians on Thursday. I had a really good time. We worked on some stuff I had already written and they both really got what I was trying to play and put their own parts in. The tracks sounded so much better with a good drums and bass player, even that first play through was much more organic and rich sound, much fuller. We also worked through some tracks I’d started but hit a bit of a block on, on we turned around the bare bones in about 30 minutes, which considering I’d been stuck for about a month on it, was fantastic. We recorded the practice on the drummers iphone so we didn’t forget what we’d worked on. Yes, ok, I’m getting a little excited over one practice but it went so well, and with really talanted musicians and nice guys too I’m very much looking forward to our next run through, which won’t be a for a few weeks due to an absent member for a holiday. While I’m waiting I best get on with trying to put some more structure into the tracks we’ve worked on and work a little harder on the tracks we’ve not yet worked on.

I doubt they will read this, but my two new musician’s are Martyn (drums) and Brandon (bass) and I really had a good time and feel inspired again after playing with two quality musicians.

Friday, July 30th, 2010 Playing No Comments

Site Updates, Recording, Reading & BA003

Busy weekend for me. I’ve updated my blog studio and gear page to reflect my current setup and prefernces. It’s a little more direct but also real. I also got a book this week that I’ve had a pretty good read through this weekend.

Tube Amp Book ISBN 978-0-87930-767-7

It’s called the Tube Amp Book, for someone with an interest in amplifiers, their workings and their history it’s a great read. It’s the size of an A4 folder and contains pretty much every amp builder from Fender through Mesa, to Budda. It even has a great section on the legend that is Dumble.

The book shows Dumble

For the more advanced in the electronic and amplifier world there is also a lot of detailed schematics for pretty much every amp I can think of, a few escape, Two Rock, Dumble, etc the more top secret builds. It’s not the easiest book in the world to get hold of, but it’s worth it. I’ll be using it as a reference on going and with a little luck as a basis to make some changes to amps.

Recording

I’m meeting up with a bass player and drummer this week for our first get together practice for a new band. We’ll jam out some covers to get to known each others playing a little better, but also work on some new songs. This inspired me to get on with some song writing and finishing off some works in progress.

Recording with Protools

In days gone by you’d have to play bits to other people and try to describe what you wanted, however using my home setup I can record some rough tracks to get the idea across, even better I can give it to them before we turn up to pllay so they can not only get an idea of the song, learn it and work out their parts and contributions better. I finished off two songs tonight and started a porition of one. They are all rough recording and not very polished however it’s enough to the idea across. Once I have the right people and the parts arranged I’ll record them properly (I’m terrible with digital drums so a good live drummer is key.) I’ll hopefully have a positive post on this next week saying “all’s well, we’re recording next week”.

BA003

BA003 Work In Progress

Work on BA003 is progressing nicley, I’ve got the bare componets ready for the next stage. I’ve got a dark alder body routed for 2 TV jones pickups (I made a little nic by the bridge pickup) and a hard tail strat bridge. The neck is birdseye maple with a Brazilian rosewood board. I’ve made a mistake in drilling the tuner holes too small, but that’s easy corrected. I’ve put together a wiring diagram based on the Fender custom shop’s S1 switching concept. I’ll try to start on finishing the bodywork this week and get a solid paint job on it. The TV Jones’s are stil a few weeks away so it should all tie in nice. I also need to hunt for the parts for the electronics. I also want to try to get some different saddles made for the bridge, but I’ve not found anyone who can do this yet and it’s way outside my skillset.

More updates to come

Sunday, July 25th, 2010 Gear, General, Studio No Comments

Guitar Effects Pedal Whore

Now that I’m playing a clean amp, I’m coming to depend on effects pedals for tonal changes. I’m really starting to discover the difference between pedals and boutique pedals. Yes I know this sounds snobby and others will disagree but the difference between £25 and a £400 drive pedal is amazing. The tonal quality, the buffers, the bypasses everything is just a light year better (I’m sure there are exceptions to the rule) I first noticed this when I had a Boss BD2 pedal, its a nice pedal no question, I took a gamble and bought a Keeley modified Boss BD2. The difference is amazing, such a fuller sound, more range and better overall. If you’re playing a crappy or well driven amps I don’t think you notice it, but if your playing a good quality clean amp, it really matters.

I’ve really noticed the difference between a vintage Boss CE2 chorus – which at the time was mass produced and todays CE2 and CE3 pedals. Then we up the game to the more boutique market. I’m finding I’m turning into a real brand snob, depending on the likes of Robert Keeley, Analogman, Klon, Bob Sweet, Rogery Mayer and Mad Professor. That’s not to say others are not good, but I’m just really starting to appreciate the quality put into the higher priced kit.

I’m trying to find a smokey tubeless overdrive pedal at the moment and I’m on the waiting list for an Analogman king of tone version 4.

If you think I’m a gear snob, that’s fine, there is an element of truth in that, however if you read what I’m saying I think it’s worth trying a few of the higherend pedals and see if it makes a difference to your sound and the way you play. It certainly has done for me.

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 Gear No Comments

Pedals & Effect Layout

If you’ve read any of my posts since this blog started you’ll find I’ve gone through major setup change for my guitar sound. One of the biggest differences is how I use pedals. My main pedal requirements are different drive and gain pedals, I’m playing with a lot of variations on drive/fuzz/gain/boost pedals which give me both different sounds and variations while allowing my under lying tone to remain the same, due to not coming close to saturation any more.

As a result my pedal board has really stripped back to a few drive pedals and a boost pedal which is great for plugin and go type approach. I get the variations I want, however the sound is still the same root sound. This works well for me, but I’m also looking to vary things up sometimes. I’d like to have a more full sound option at my disposal, sometimes adding a little delay, univibe, chorus, tremolo, octavia style effects, would really work well. When recording this is fine as you can setup the pedals in the chain you want and record. When playing live this is a problem as you’ll either end up with a huge pedal board, with a controller like the gigrig device or doing a crazy tap dance with looper pedals. It’s also limiting as once you’ve used a pedal once, you can’t use it again on your board. I’m looking into building a midi-switched pedal based effects setup. This involves back lining all my pedals into a case by the amp, passing each pedal through a relay based switcher, programming the switcher with “patches” which can be a one pedal patch, or a combination of multiple pedals. The control of the signal chain through the switcher is done by a midi based foot controller.

Not my pedal board, thank God. This is how it can get though

Daniel and Sarah at The Gig Rig have been exceptionally helpful in providing information of how the Gig Rig pro 14 can be used as a midi controller. This is now allowing me to look for programmable relay based switching units. It has to be a programmable unit as the gig rig is a dumb controller, and it has to be relay based as this will keep the signal path clean. This is my first toe in the water for midi based pedal switching, the last midi unit I used was a rack based effects unit and it was poor, it put me off midi units for a long time. I’m also looking at a Custom Audio Electronics RS10 midi foot controller. This is pretty much the top end industry foot controller, with a little more brains under the hood, however it does come with a price tag to match another gig rig pro 14 controller, so if possible I’d like to not spend that money again. I’ll keep this blog updated with my midi back line pedal setup as it progresses. Input and comments welcome on this.

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 Gear No Comments