John Hendow

On Saturday 9/30, two of my bands performed as a double bill at the Fremont Oktoberfest. We have performed at this event many times in the past, and it was great to continue our annual tradition of being a part of this great outdoor party. We arrived to find the usual crowd: huge, enthusiastic, and ready to party! The Dudley Manlove Quartet performed first, running some of our favorite pop and rock hits. The crowd really responded nicely to the 60 and 70s pop, and when we launched into the 80s material and rock classics, it was over the top.

We had just a few moments between bands to do some resetting, and to change clothes. BowieVision was a big hit, with the audience joining us to sing backup vocals on a number of songs.

For this pair of performances, I brought the full AxeFX system, which was very satisfying. When I started to set up, the stage tech manager came over with a mic stand, ready to put it in front of my speaker cabinets. I told him “thank you, but I don’t need a microphone, just the XLR cable please. I’ll give you a full-range output from my system”. He wasn’t thrilled about it and said something to the effect of “direct out for guitar never works”. That statement may be true for some processors, but with the AxeFX, direct is really the optimum connection method for the board. The AxeFX handles the effects, amp, speaker cabinet, microphone and room response modeling. At any rate, I checked in with him between bands to see if the FOH operator needed any adjustments. He didn’t ask for anything to be changed so I just carried on. The response and tone of the AxeFX is fantastic, and I’m really enjoying the system.

Looking forward to the next big public shows for both bands. BowieVision will be performing at the Crocodile on Saturday 10/25, and the Dudley Manlove Quartet will be performing at the Sunset Tavern on Friday 10/31. See you there!

Last summer I had my main guitar refretted by Mike Lull, luthier extraordinaire. I had worn down the frets on my black Stratocaster to the point where it was pretty difficult to play. Mike did a beautiful job of refretting the guitar, and it made a world of difference in the playability of the instrument. I took the guitar back to him last week to have a quick adjustment made to the neck, and while I was there I asked him to remove the stock “roller nut” and replace it with a standard bone nut. The roller nut on this model strat is a source of rattling and vibration dampening. I should have had Mike do this replacement when he was working on the frets, but it didn’t occur to me.

The overall difference since the nut replacement is very noticeable. The tone of the guitar is clearer, and I don’t hear that occasional rattle from the headstock. I also think it’s vibrating more cleanly, with less dissipation. I’ve only had a chance so far to use the guitar in a practice environment; the real test will be onstage this next weekend. I’m looking forward to hearing it in that context.