Archive for the ‘Guitar’ Category

Thoughts On The 1 Uppers Gigs 8/21 and 8/23

August 24, 2009 by john No Comments »

Last weekend I played 2 shows with my country band The 1 uppers. Friday night’s show was the Conor Byrne. The regulars who frequent the bar are big fans of music in general and they seem especially enthusiastic about country. We were last on a bill of three bands, which meant we were subject to the late starts and late finishes of each of the bands before us… by the time we took the stage it was well after midnight. We played many of the songs which we’re currently recording for our CD and threw in a couple of cover selections as well. I have been experimenting with using just the Telecaster, straight into my Hot Rod Deluxe with nothing else in the signal chain. This does sound good, but I found myself wishing I had a little more tonal variety available. I had a bit of trouble with the output jack of the tele; the cord kept falling out and I couldn’t seem to get it to lock into place. Some soldering will be in my near future. I didn’t get home until after 2:30 which is quite a bit later than usual. Fortunately I managed to sleep in until around 9:00 the next morning, which allowed me to be fairly productive on a home remodeling project.

On Sunday we played again, this time a mercifully early show at the Sunset in Ballard. This is a classic local bar that is legendary for its vibe. I decided to bring the strat instead of my tele, and also brought the Pod XTLive for some tone shaping. The addition of slight compression and delay makes a big difference in the feel of the guitar; it was worth the extra bit of gear for this gig. The other bands on the bill were very good, and it was fun to see friends who live in the area. During “Luxury Liner” we Kris spun a long solo that was a wild run of tricky licks. There’s no denying how good he is. This was one of his trademark jaw-droppers. Playing in a band with him and Jon Hyde is amazing. They’re great musicians who continually surprise us with great ideas. At the end of the night we celebrated another successful gig. The next show is a few weeks off because some members of the band will be traveling for work and other projects. We’ll get back to 1 Upping again soon.

 

Thoughts On The 8/1 Black Celebration Gig

August 3, 2009 by john 1 Comment »

Stratocaster HeadstockBlack Celebration performed last Saturday evening at Neumo’s on Capital Hill in Seattle. We were part of a three-band bill that included Love Vigilantes (New Order tribute) and Erasuresque (Erasure tribute). It was a hot day in Seattle and the club was very hot all night. They did have some fans operating to move the air a bit, but it was still mighty toasty! One of the nice things about doing these kinds of multi-band bills is that we always find ways to share equipment to minimize down time between bands. This also keeps the stage logistics to a reasonable minimum. I brought my trusty black strat and decided to bring the Telecaster as my backup guitar. Ricky (guitarist for Love Vigilantes) parked 2 of his ES335s in my guitar rack, and along with our 2 amps and couple of pedalboards it looked like we had an on-stage pawnshop going. 

IMG_0054 IMG_0057 IMG_0055Neumo’s has a lot of rules. Probably as many rules as Dungeons and Dragons. Except there isn’t a saving throw. The venue is a lot of fun to play and I do enjoy it. They are quite organized and actually very cool to work with. Since I’m a PM by trade, documentation is always a positive thing.

I took advantage of the big stage by going wireless. It gave me the mobility to trot over to Zach’s side of the stage and wander back to visit Shane in drum world. Neumo’s has a very good sound system and our mix always winds up exercising their subs to great effect. Even the stage monitors and side fills are top notch, so it’s easy to get a good representative mix onstage. I thought we played an excellent show. All three bands were in good form, with strong audience reception. It’s always fun to have people in the audience singing along with their favorite Depeche Mode songs, and we even fielded a few requests (which, fortunately, were in our set list!). Overall, a fine evening of music and comraderie. I believe we’ll be scheduling more shows for the Fall, so stay tuned.

 

1 Uppers Rehearsal

July 24, 2009 by john No Comments »

Last night the 1 Uppers assembled for rehearsal. It’s been a little while since we were all together, and last night we were without our drummer. Eric is a busy guy and is occasionally unavailable, so we plodded along with the help of our substitute techno-drummer “Al E Sis”. We ran through some new songs last night; Jon and David continue to bring beautiful new songs to our set and it’s a pleasure to be a part of the music. Caben is rock-solid on bass which helps keeps the rest of us loonies in line. And of course Kris is just plain old amazing… he laid down a solo last night that gave me goosebumps.

It’s gratifying to hear the warm gritty tone of my telecaster straight into the amp. As much as I enjoy the tone of my Line6 gear, it’s just so fabulous to hear the uncolored sound of the guitar. A big salute to the Lollar pickups, Joe Barden bridge, compensated brass saddles and sneaky four-way pickup switch. This was all Kris’ idea and it turned my run-of-the-mill tele into a lovely tone machine.

I’ll be working on my guitar parts this weekend and hoping we’ll get a chance to finish up our recording soon. I need to track some solos and fills, and then we’ll add those final bits of audio candy to wrap up the CD. It’s been a good summer for music, and I’m playing more guitar than I have in years. I am very lucky to have a family that supports my love of music and tolerates all the madness that comes with it.

 

Elephant Talk

May 28, 2009 by john No Comments »

King Crimson is so incredibly great. This is one of their signature moments from (what I argue to be) their most amazing and creative period as a band. Adrian Belew, always the joyful rogue. Robert Fripp, mad scientist virtuoso. Bill Bruford, human clock. Tony Levin, multi-instrumental wizard. The three best albums from this lineup are Beat, Discipline, and Three of a Perfect Pair. There are also a number of live videos from this time, and all are worth seeing.

 

Thoughts On The 1 Uppers Gig 4/17

April 18, 2009 by john No Comments »

Friday night the 1 Uppers took the stage at Conor Byrne in Ballard. It was an opportunity for us to perform a number of new original songs. My newly simplified guitar signal chain (guitar + 1 effect + amp) really sounded and felt good. I had a minor challenge with my output jack on the tele which seems to be problematic… may need another go-round with the guitar doctor. The set went very smoothly and I enjoyed the way the new material flowed. It’s difficult for six musicians to play together without creating a muddy dense sound and I think we’ve gotten into a good habit of leaving plenty of space for interplay and dynamics.

As always, Jon Hyde and Kris Geren positively rocked the house. Those guys are both incredible players, and they fully deserve the accolades and attention at our gigs. Conor Byrne is the kind of bar musicians love to play… it’s comfortable, the bartenders are easy-going, the band gets drink tickets that can be redeemed for awesome microbrew beer (most bars restrict the band to crummy beer), and the regulars are supportive of live music.

 

Music Gear Health Check

March 3, 2009 by john No Comments »

MR YUKLast night during 1 Uppers rehearsal my trusty Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp started behaving strangely. It was randomly switching channels, the reverb was cutting in / out, and it was making profoundly unmusical sounds. I tried to switch out the cables, the guitar, and so on. Eventually I unhooked the footswitch and unplugged the guitar, and STILL it was doing all that crazy stuff. For the balance of rehearsal I was horribly distracted by how thin and crummy my amp sounded.
This morning I spent some time looking around on the usenet forums and deduced that either (1) my amp is haunted or (2) I’ve developed a cold solder joint at the +/-16V power resistors that control the op-amp switching. I’ve watched “Ghost Hunters” on the Sci Fi channel and since there weren’t any disembodied voices during the EVP session, I’m guessing it’s the resistors. Apparently this is a very common issue with this amp model and there are numerous postings to this effect. Fortunately it’s a pretty minor repair and I hope to have my amp back in time for Sunday’s gig with the 1 Uppers.

So, back to last night. As I was driving home from rehearsal I started making a mental list of my music gear, noting which items are need of repair. The list of fixes is bigger than I realized and it seems some gear maintenance is in order. Welcome to the world of a working musician! So here is my list, in order of severity:

Bring Out Your Dead

  • Behringer 300XLA : This amp actually caught on fire while I was playing with The Preons. We all noticed it was increasingly stinky and it began to smoke. I made no attempt to save it – in fact, I turned up and let it die a truly rock-and-roll death. It’s probably unfixable at this point. But it was worth it.

It’s Just A Flesh Wound

  • Fender Hot Rod Deluxe : Bad power resistors in the +/- 16V supply. Headed to the shop this week.
  • White Strat #1 : Needs a new five-way switch, new output jack, new screws and springs to stabilize the middle pickup. I think I have most of those parts at home, and should be able to fix this easily. This guitar also really needs a setup. Once I’ve gotten my parts installed I might drop it off with a tech.
  • White Strat #2 : Needs new bridge saddles. I’ll need to order these.
  • Warr Guitar : Needs all potentiometers and switches replaced. They’re all the original components and are becoming intermittent. I definitely don’t have these parts on hand. I’ll need to order them. Or I might just drop it off with a tech.
  • Ashdown 410T Bass Cabinet : Needs a new 1/4″ input jack. The Neutrik jack still works fine. I haven’t bothered fixing it yet, but as long as I’m making solder fumes I might as well.
  • Telecaster : Needs a new output jack and the bridge hex screws ground down. Pretty minor. The new pickups, jack cup, bridge/saddles and 4 way switch are TOTALLY AWESOME! Thanks Kris!
  • Fretless Bass #2 : My fender P-bass needs new pickups and a new wiring harness. Feh. This might be one that I have a shop do. Although I’m pretty handy and might take it on.

Looks like I’ll need to do some work on this gear sometime. With the ongoing projects at home I don’t know how I’ll find the time. Perhaps I’ll call up my musician buddies and host a solderfest in the garage…

 

Stratification: Time For A Guitar Repair

January 8, 2009 by john 3 Comments »

Last night I performed some necessary maintenance on my primary electric guitar, which happens to be a Fender Stratocaster. The output jack has been intermittent since last month and I wasn’t going to risk playing another gig without fixing it. Testing with a continuity meter didn’t immediately reveal the issue and I knew it was going to require some disassembly to diagnose it. When I removed the jack plate and inspected the soldering and wires it wasn’t immediately apparent that anything was wrong, but I went ahead and replaced the jack. I made two important discoveries in the process. First, the existing jack had a slight rattle, and when tested with the meter it showed a poor connection between the body and the ground lug. This was the source of my intermittent output. The second discovery was that the routing in guitar body underneath the jack plate was pretty tight. So after I replaced the jack and reinstalled the plate, there wasn’t quite enough clearance for the phone plug to easily fit inside the routed cavity. It worked if forced into the jack, but this put pressure on the jack body, which is probably why the internal connection failed on the previous jack. After a few minutes of adjustment I discovered it was barely possible to make it fit, provided the jack was rotated to a specific angle before being tightened in the jackplate housing.

So the problem is rectified for the moment, but ultimately I need to rout a little more wood from one end of the existing cavity. It’s a problem I’ll solve at a later date. For the moment, the black strat is ready for gig action and that’ll get me through this weekend’s show.

My next guitar repair project involved my backup strat, which needs several things done. I’ll probably get around to that project next weekend.

 

2009 Music Gear Projects

January 2, 2009 by john 1 Comment »

I’m generally skeptical of New Year’s resolutions. But among the things I’m trying to make happen this year is to get each of my instruments into the hands of a qualified luthier. I have a few [guitars, basses, banjos] that all need minor service and at this point there’s no way I can make time to do it at home. Fortunately, they’re all in good shape and there really aren’t any major repairs necessary. A little solder work here, a little adjustment there. One of my basses needs to have the frets dressed. One of the strats needs a bunch of minor tweaks. I’d like to replace the pickups on one of the fretless basses. My banjo needs to have its Keith/Scruggs tuners replaced. The tele needs a new output jack. And the list goes on.

read more…

 

Guitar and Bass Musings

December 4, 2008 by john No Comments »

The more I play guitar and bass in various music ensembles, the more I come to view these instruments as a continuum. The only major difference between them is that I play bass with my fingers and play guitar with a pick. I certainly make exceptions to this rule; one of the Preons tunes requires the use of a pick and on some occasions I play electric guitar without a pick.

Adapting this approach to a single instrument is going to be interesting for me. I’m already planning to combine my playing styles within the context of an extended scale. In the Preons, where I’m the bassist, I often tap with my right hand to play counterpart or to extend the reach of notes and chords. Over the next few weeks I’ll be providing information on how I’m progressing with this challenge.

 

Thoomp

November 1, 2008 by john No Comments »

My friend – and fellow 1 Upper – Jon Hyde was kind enough to loan me his Danelectro baritone guitar for a few weeks. It’s really a lot of fun, and I already have decided I want to use it for some of our gigs. The instrument makes a lovely grind when distorted, and I’m using it to play some of the tic-tac bass lines that are so prevalent in this style. As a solo instrument, I need to do some patch programming to really get usable sounds together. Perhaps next week I’ll be able to get some work done on this.