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.

• 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……

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 harmony

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.

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.

I’m giving to give an example of how it can really inspire music and in some cases take it to a higher level.

I’m going to offer up the solo from John Mayers song “Belief” from the Continuum record. It’s a very simple but effective solo and one of my favourites.

If you don’t have this album, buy it now, but I digress.

Lets look at the album track first of all, here is the album solo

Belief – Album Solo

As you can here a lightly driven guitar for a short and simple solo, very nice very effective.

Now lets listen to it live, this was taken from the album launch gig.

album-launch-belief-solo

As you can here, it’s a slightly different sound, a little harder driven, the tempo is a little up and there are minor changes to it. It’s a great live sound and has a bit of feel to it.

Fast forward a year or so, and we are back to another live performance.

where-the-light-is-belief-solo

The sound has matured as has the live performance, the tempo is a little up again, and the driven sound much smoother, the solo is based around the original studio recording with a few tweaks, a little more than the album launch gig. As you can see he’s getting more comfortable playing it and is improving it and playing around with it more, to keep it fresh to the audience as well as to himself as a player.

Now we fast forward on another year or so, the songs been around for over two years now and it’s been played, lord knows how many times live.

becon-belief-solo

The tempo is again quicker than the album track, but there is a real intensive feel about this one, much more than the others, the sound is similar to the most recent gig, a smoother but harder driven sound, this time the solo is based on the concept of the album solo, but is much more advanced and free, it’s a much more technical and impressive solo (one of my favourite guitar solos to date).

All the times this has been played live, you’d think it would get tedious, but from what I’m hearing I can hear it progressing as a guitar solo, and a piece of music, plus I think it’s probably improving the player and expanding his range and ideas for future tracks.

I’d like to hope I’m right about this and playing the same song over and over does actually inspire you to do it better and better rather than sit there playing the same notes over and over.

thoughts ?

Fingers crossed though.

While listening to Country Music TV’s Cross Roads  projects I’ve found Brad Paisley and Keith Urban. I’ve certainly been aware of them as guitarists for a long time, however I’ve never really listened to their songs. They are actually really good and very diverse in style as well as being very good guitarists with very different styles and techniques. Brad’s use of a B-Bender on his telecasters is very subtle and clever, and Keith’s right hand rhythmic technique is very impressive. While I won’t be playing B-Benders any time soon, the clever bends are something I may try to use in future.

I’ve also been listening to Aynsley Lister, a UK blues rock guitarist and song writer who writes some lovely melody lines with clever guitar progressions. He also does a superb cover of Jimi Hendrix’s Cross Town Traffic which I think I’ll rip off and add to my own set, it’s great.

Despite my new listening pleasures, I’ve got to keep myself in check listening to all this country based music, I need to make sure I don’t turn into a cowboy.

Drummers contact me if you want to play.