Grand Designs

While perusing through a music store recently I kind of came to a conclusion. Guitar players are some of the most backward thinking fools ever, and I'm one of them.

Fender and Gibson pretty much set the mold for guitar shapes since the mid 20th century, and they've been the standard for the most part. Whenever someone comes out with some funky body shape or design, Guitar players run away like a child being threatened by cooties.

Bassists however seem to say "ok" whenever some company does a new ergonomic idea. Perhaps its because early basses, like the Precision are iconic, but it does have it's issues; it can be heavy and a bit ungainly. So bassists look at form and function a bit more than tradition.

Now yes, there is an extreme to that, in a certain sense, but even since I started playing guitar, I would see some cool bass guitar, and say "how come they don't do that kind of design for an electric 6 string"? Yes, I have covered this before with the blog post covering the Rickenbacker 480. But I still ask why. Here are a few shapes I would have loved to see incorporated as a regular 6 string guitar:


Kubicki EX Factor.

These basses play really well, and the neck is composed of 1/16" laminates, making it super stable! The cutaway area, if you can call it that, is pretty much non existent, giving super access to the upper frets. Phil Kubicki worked for Fender in the late 60's, and did George Harrison's Rosewood Tele. Considering he had a background in guitars, I'm really surprised he never did an electric like the EX Factor.

Ibanez Ergodyne

I have to say this was really adventurous, even for bass players, with the super curvey shape I'm surprised I didn't see these more back in the day, considering that Ibanez had the lock on quality mid priced ($600-$900) basses, especially in the hard rock and metal genres.


Mark Sandman Premier Bass



 

Mark Sandman of Morphine did his own thing; 2 string bass that got a lot of use like a slide guitar. It was pretty much a pawnshop prize. When players were going to hyper expensive 5 strings he went his own way. Waterstone Guitars did a re-issue of his bass (as a 4 string) and decided to do a matching guitar as well.

I'll admit this is where translating a bass guitar shape to electric 6 string didn't work out. More than likely the designers just re-configured the bass guitar body shape to work with regular guitar parts. Scale is a factor, The body should have been dropped down a bit in size to make it more proportional. The pickguard is also a miss in my book.

So while there's misses, here's one that nailed it


Spector

 It's so hard to believe that Ned Steinberger, of the headless Steinberger guitar company fame, designed this in the 1970's! It probably set the standard for the ergonomic bass designs that came later in the 1980's.  Kramer later took some interest in Spector, and actually did make these basses in the 80's & 90's. They also did some guitars for the guys in Skid Row, as well As Joe Perry. Those were more along the lines of Classic Double cutaway designs like Les Paul Jr's. But many years later:

Admittedly, some of the more curvy edges have been subdued. I personally was this close (holding my fingers together, almost touching) to getting one of these after seeing one at a guitar show. the smallish body shape is very cool, and the electronics package really seems up anyone's alley. It's quite surprising that these didn't take off.

With all sorts of wild guitar companies (strandberg, for example) doing designs that they say are following ergonomics, I'm still always perplexed why things haven't really progressed. I guess bass players are more forward thinking..

Drive Pedal Dilemmas

When I gave up using an amp to get my overdriven and distorted tones, and went with using pedals, it made sense. If I wanted a new drive tone, I could easily swap it out, for a pedal that gave me the sound I wanted. With the mini industry that effect pedals have become, the choices are pretty much endless.

For the longest time I used a Fulltone GT-500. I still think its a great blend of usable features; a fantastic distorted tone, with an super flexible EQ. Pair that with it's boost that has it's own EQ, and the choice of how to cascade one into another, it's pretty awesome. At times I used just the boost's drive cranked up as my main rhythm tone, and then just threw the distortion side in for a slight kick for solos and leads. It's not on my board at the moment, but I have no intent to part with it..

Then you get GAS. You get caught up in the frenzy of pedal junkie driven blogs (Guilty, right here!) gear forums, Facebook groups, never mind the onslaught of advertising done by the companies, and the "viral" youtube reviewers that somehow get the pedal early enough to do a video review, with great sound processing and production. Oh yeah and their home spun youtube channel releases their video nanoseconds after the pedal company posts the announcement. Gear junkie guitarists are like sharks, we sniff for blood in the water, then the frenzy ensues for the meat.

Last year I did a big pedal purge on reverb.com, I kept some select ones, but I still have WAY too many drive pedals. In the past, if I wasn't using a piece of gear for 6 months, it went up for sale. I mentioned parting ways previously with my Fender Prosonic and a Reverend guitar, and the remorse I felt, but I have no real trade-in or gear sale pedalwise that falls under the remorse category. I'm not a hoarder, I bet my wife might beg to differ though. At this point I'm a collector. Thankfully pedals are cheap, and in most cases smallish in size. The ability to change your tone with a small box is quite nice. But I've tried to keep my board to a minimum of 2 drive pedals.

1. A distortion pedal - Right now It's Vertex's Dynamic Distortion. It can go from cleanish boost, to TS drive, to Rat-tastic grind, and into sliky smooth fuzz. I like it somewhere between the Rat-ish and Fuzz areas. It totally killed my desire for a Rat Pedal.

2. A boost pedal - This kind of keeps floating around. I like my EHX Soul food, as it's got a nice color that interacts  well with pretty much every distortion pedal I have. There is some tweaking depending upon what pedal it's boosting though. Plus if I want, I can use that as an actual drive pedal. The second choice is the TC Electronic Spark drive. It's got a really flexible active EQ, so boosting and cutting lows and highs isn't a problem. There's a character switch that does a lot, I like it in the FAT mode. Plus like the EHX, it can be used as a primary drive. I like cranking the gain to Max, but the level control needs to be low or else it gets really loud and big, fast.

I actually won a pedal awhile back from Groff Amplification, their Imperial, which gets my vote for best marshall in a box sound. It can be used as a boost, as well, with lower gain settings and higher levels. But again, turning the gain back up, and the level down, it can do a really nice drive tone. Its one of those pedals that on it's own, with just me and my amp is good, but when I kick it in, with the band going, it really shines with it's own tonal space that compliments everything!

Pedals won are sweeter than pedals bought. I've pretty much entered in some kind of "win this" contest for musical gear since I started playing guitar, and never won anything, so I guess I was overdue. Happy to say it's a pedal I probably would have bought. Somehow they chose the name Imperial, and found out that some other company is using it, so they'll be re-naming it in the future.

But with just 2 dirty pedals on my board means a lot of my pedals are sitting out in the cold. Now at times I feel frisky and swap out the boost pedal, for another drive, or a fuzz. But the remainder of the time the pedals sit on a shelf. They're boxes of wires and junk. But I often see my Madprofessor Twimble pedal sitting there. I wonder if they come to life like the toys in toy story when I'm not around.

Beginnings & Baritones - Part 1

So when I get obsessed about something, It's like tunnel vision. TV Shows, Movies, Books, music, bands and cars. It could almost be classified as OCD. 

As I said multiple times before, I'm kind of a frustrated bass player. Back in Jr high school, I had a buddy that played guitar. At this point I didn't play any musical instruments, I was far more into BMX at the time. He used to "jam" with another guy that played bass. I hung out with them one time, and even though he had a cheap short scale bass, it was pretty cool sounding. The bass player also had some similar musical tastes that I had, and turned me on to some new music that I hadn't heard before. It kind of inspired me to want to play some Instrument. I thought of playing bass, but a few people pointed out a few downsides to being a bass player:

1. You need to learn to read sheet music. Actually while being able to read music is an advantage, and not a bad thing to know, it's not absolutely vital. 

2. Bass strings are more expensive than guitar strings. Yes they are, but they don't need to be changed as often. Back in the day, you could also boil old bass strings and re-use them.

3. Bass amps are bigger and more expensive. I dunno. I paid ALOT for my H&K triamp. I know bass players that had/have smaller and cheaper combos that sounded very nice.

Also I kind of wanted to jam with my buddy's bass player, and if I was a bass player myself, That would probably not happen. 

So I chose guitar, and the rest is history. I've dabbled in low tunings, octave pedals, and even got my own bass guitar. But something was still missing. Back in the early 00's, I went to a music store with my cousin, who's kind of a shredder type guitar player. Very European Uli Jon roth styled, harmonic minor, very fast and accurate picking. He chose some wild guitar with a floyd rose off the wall, and paired it with a high gain amp. While he wailed away, I perused the other instruments and found an odd item:

It was an Ibanez Mike Mushok model baritone. I pulled this heavy beast off the wall, and plugged it into a Peavey Delta blues with a 1x15 speaker. It was amazeballs. Big, deep, heavy, with articulation and accuracy. It was like putting a foothold into the bass zone. While my cousin shredded away, some onlookers gathered around. I figured they were checking out my cousin. You didn't hear much playing like that in music stores, so I guessed it was a bit of a throwback for the older crowd and new experience to the younger people in the store. I didn't pay much attention, as I noodled. I realized it could play chords that could shake things off the walls. Eventually we stopped, put the instruments back on the wall, and went for lunch.

That entire week, the Ibanez vexed me. By the time Saturday rolled around I decided I would go back to that music store, and even though I'd be putting it on an existing credit card debt, I'd get it. When I did get to the store, I didn't see it on the wall. I asked the guy behind the counter if they still had it. He replied "nope, we had 2, and some guy came in last weekend, plugged it into the delta blues, and it sounded so good, when he was done, we had sold both of them" The other guy behind the counter said "sold the delta blues too". As they were a chain, I asked if they had one at another nearby location. "nope another guy asked the same thing last week, and tore ass out of here, and it was out of the system by the end of the day". The other guy behind the counter chimed in "yeah, I looked it up after we closed, I was gonna get it, and it was sold". You're welcome Daddys, (RIP), Ibanez & Peavey. 

I would look on craigslist for that guitar model, but to no avail. A few years later PRS partnered with Mike Mushok to make his own SE model. It came in an Adam Jones/Tool inspired Silver bust, and later a Sunburst. I didn't have the extra $$ so I had it on my wish list. Also, there weren't alot of local PRS dealers. One day it was gone from the PRS website. I looked on craigslist, and the ones I found were modded, and the seller was asking pretty much the same cost as a new one. 

A year or so later PRS had 2 new SE models, the 277 P90/soapbar and the 277/Humbucker. I was again at a loss $$ wise, but I had it back on my wish list. I had also found John Mann's Guitar Vault. He's pretty much Mr PRS in the New England area, and stocks everything from inexpensive SE's up to private stock. If I was gonna buy a PRS it would be through him.  

I finally decided to do something about my baritone obsession that still hadn't been satisfied.

To Be Continued...

Beginnings & Baritones - Part 2

In my past if I had something lying around for more than a year, I'd sell it or trade it in. In recent years I've held on to alot of pedals, mostly because the thought is "they're small, and dont take up alot of space, and I might use them someday". Someday seems not never come, and I decided to move these lil tone machines on.

My shelves and storage areas in the nooks of our 1 bedroom condo have been bursting with pedals. Most of these don't see the light of day. I've used them, liked them and moved on. I have a few I would never part with, for example, my Fulltone GT500, Madprofessor Twimble, My modded Boss BD2, EHX Soulfood, My Fuzzrocious MOTH, among others.

So I talked to a buddy of mine, and after a brief discussion I realised I'm actually sitting on a pretty big pile of pedals and other gear that individually aren't alot to cover the cost of a baritone guitar on their own. But collectively, if I could get them to all go for the right prices, I could clear off my pedal shelf, and use the money to get a baritone, Win-Win!

I'm not going to list what I decided to part with. 1. This isn't a buy/sell page 2. I don't want someone to think that because I'm selling a particular item, that its bad. I can't control what people think, or what they take away from this blog, but I can control some aspects of the content, and I don't want any black marks on any companies and their products, because i'm parting ways with them.

I re-configured my reverb.com account to funnel the profits (yes it sounds illegal, funnelling profits and all) to my guitar fund. Now posting items on reverb doesn't didn't mean they would fly off my shelf immediately. Never mind the haggling back and forth that can happen and the inevitable lowball offers. I prefer local sales, but I kind of like not having to meet at a Dunkin Donuts or a Barnes and Noble. On June 30th I had everything posted. By July 9th everything was gone. I had priced everything to move, at reasonable rates. I had also saved my gig money from my cover band, so I was sitting pretty by early August.

Now like Tyler Durden, I had acquired funding. But during this time I explored other baritone options:

The Chapman ML1 Modern Baritone has alot going for it.

PROS:
Price - $599 
Scale length is 28"
The ash veneer in grey & black is very bespoke, and classy.
I've played a few other Chapman guitars, and they were well done, and sounded great.

CONS:
No dealer in the area to try one out, or at least a dealer I can find that's local to me.

Holidays are usually excuses for retailers that stay open to have sales. John Mann usually does a guitar clinic with Paul Reed Smith, with some great players in tow. This September he had one, and as usual, deals were to be had. I made a B-line to the SE area, and found the only baritone in stock. I grabbed it, and plugged it in. It sounded and felt fantastic as I remembered that big, fat low end. I won't say what I paid for it, but it was a good deal overall. I'm not a PRS endorsing artist, but I can say if you live in in New England, and want a PRS, John Mann is the way to go. 

So here it is: my 277 SE Baritone. I think it's an older model, maybe a 2017. the current PRS website only offers it in a wine burst. Mine is a really nice transparent red all around. It has the mahogany body with a maple top. The flame top is a veneer thats's sitting on top of the maple cap, and looks really great in person.

First off It plays great. I'll attribute that to a few things. 1. When PRS gets their SE's from overseas, they go to Maryland for final tweaks/setup and overall quality control inspection. 2. John Mann goes through every guitar he gets in so I'm betting it got tweaked and adjusted to adapt to our ever changing new england weather. The nut is well cut, and the fretwork is great. 

Electronics wise It's quite simple, with what they would call "McCarty" electronics: a master volume, master tone with a Push Pull coil split/tap, and a 3 way toggle switch. I've come to love the PRS 5 way rotary switch, and this isn't that much of a transition.

As far as mods go, in most cases I can grab a guitar and know right away as to what it might need to suit my needs better. This is a tough one though. The pickups are pretty good overall, they are PRS's 85/15 SE set, and as of now I can't justify a reason to dump them. I'll have to take it to a few practices to really come to a decision on that. The tuners are a non locking style, but as they hold some seriously heavy strings, there doesn't seem to be any slippage. I might upgrade to a locking tuner at some point, just to make string changes quicker. I've already put my usual schaller strap locks on it, and I'll have to now stock a few packs of strings:

If I do go down the pickup mod route, I might try to get some nickel covers, and black pickup rings. I'm not against the exposed Zebra coils and white rings, just a thought to mix it up a bit.

The Image above is from one of the many PRS Facebook pages, one SE277 owner did this aesthetic mod, and it looks very classy. It has a very "McCarty" look to it. 

Overall It's a wild instrument to transition to. Now, a G chord in standard tuning is now a D chord..I'm hoping to use it in a clean setting with my cover band, to fill things out a bit, Instead of using a capo on some songs. Clean with the coil tap, it is nice and full. Throw on some dirt and it's mean. The longer scale is a bit of an adjustment, but the neck shape is very familiar and very comfortable. In my original band, The Goodbye theory, I'm hoping I can open up some new sounds with this too. It's certainly a game changer that doesn't feel limited.

One thing I am pretty proud of myself on though is the budgeting, and I didn't have to put it on a credit card or a financing option. I simply sold some old gear, saved my gig money, and my usual guitar fund allowed me to get this. It's not easy being patient, and it's certainly not one of my virtues, but in this case it's a lot sweeter to have this, and NOT have a monthly payment hanging over my head.

Right Tool For The Right Job

Since my other hobby is owning/driving (and repairing) Little British cars, the sub-hobby of that is collecting tools is included in there. Specifically the right tool for the right job. No using a screwdriver as a prybar or the end of a wrench as a hammer. In a work shop environment you don't cut corners. In the field however, rules are made to be broken.

Working on guitars, the same principals are applicable. If you need to tighten up a tuner's nut, the proper socket size ensures that the nut wont get stripped, or at the very least, the finish coating get chipped or flaked off. But at a gig it's not feasible to have a full tool kit to handle every possible issue that may arise. Also being a guitarist doesn't mean you need a bank of tools, but being able to take care of some problems quickly and easily can make things easier. Enter the multi tool.

I remember the TV show MacGuyver, where the only tool he needed was a swiss army knife to get out of any bad situation. I've had a few over the years, and they can be handy for a quick fix around the house or even tightening a hose clamp on a radiator. But since the 1980's Multi tools really took things to the next step.

The overall idea is it's a quick fix solution, to save time finding a tool in a tool box, or even getting to the tool box. It's supposed to be quick and accessable, as well as small enough to wear on a belt or key chain.

For the past decade my multi tool of choice is a gerber. It has a pair of pliers for tightening up any nuts or bolts, Screwdrivers, scissors, bottle opener, and wire cutters. I think I paid $30 for it and for changing strings on a guitar it really is all I need. Tightening up a strap button or even changing the height of a pickup, super easy.

Along with my guitar gig bag, I usually bring a back pack to gigs/practices and have one of these multi tools in there. I don't like to have a big piece of metal like that rattling around in any guitar case or gig bag, that's just asking for trouble.

Now there are companies that offer up guitar-centric multi tools, and every time I see one, the price is usually too high, it's not well made, and usually useless for anything other than a string change. I can't tell you how many times at any gig where a band mate or even a sound guy asked for a pair of pliers. You don't find them on "guitar tools".

So while I do have a bit of a tool fetish, and I am happy with my Gerber, I have been looking around at some new options and I figure I'd share them with you.

Leatherman makes a cool inexpensive version called the Skeletool:

It's got a screwdriver attachment, knife, pliers, and wire cutters, and the belt clip is nice.Overall leatherman is a good place to start for any multi tool, the quality is great, and they're highly functional.

There are alot of other combo tool setups, but my wish list though would be a multi tool with a Phillips & flat head screwdriver ends, Hex/Allen wrench sizes for Floyd rose tremolos, a truss rod adjustment wrench, pliers, and wire cutters. It's pretty simple, However I have yet to see someone come up with this combination. Some how, we get saws, and multiple knives, and can/bottle openers. Not to say that these don't come in handy, but alot of times, at a gig or the studio those might not get alot of use. Ok maybe the bottle/can opener will. 

Recording Project Resolution 2019

So, if you've been reading this blog, you can tell I have a few guitars. My big problem at this point in my life is using them, more specifically finding places to use them. My cover band is primarily acoustic. We've done electric gigs, and I do try sneak in my tele or strat from time to time, even at a practice, but 90% of the time it's my acoustic that gets the business for the cover band.

My original band, The Goodbye Theory has been a bit dormant. We did actually do a gig in 2018, and we have plans for doing our next Ep soon! Hopefully We will have some gigs as well! I love playing and working on new original material, but it's difficult getting gigs that work for us. But when we do get together I usually bring an extra guitar, just to experiment. But I still have a lot of guitars that I love that don't get that much use.

This past year, I got a Focusrite 2i2 interface, and loaded up the computer with Studio one. I've got a good selection of plugins, as well as a decent cab emulator pedal. Even my inexpensive Boss ME70 works great plugged into a DI. When I did my first "real" recordings in the mid 1990's, The technology available was nowhere near this. The cost to do my original recordings back then was also expensive, and needed tons of space to work. Now in the kitchen/dining area of our one room condo I have everything I need to do some recording on my own. So with all this technology at my fingertips, I've committed myself to put it to use. 

So I've decided to record a series of songs featuring my individual guitars. My overall guitar parameter/mandate/rule for these recordings is just that one guitar gets used on that song. No layering a Tele with a Strat, I'll have a Tele song and a Strat song. If I want to do layers of the same guitar, that's ok. Certain guitars do certain things well, and I'd like to give each guitar in my collection a showcase as to what I really love about that particular instrument. That doesn't mean a Tele song will be a twanging country fest, or my strat will showcase a blusey element. It'll be how I use those instruments in musical context. 

Now I will have Bass, and Drums on them, possibly even some keyboards. I don't know if these songs will have vocals or be instrumental, I haven't hashed that aspect out yet. I would like to be consistent with the overall output, possibly one a month. Ideally I could also use this as a way of collaborating with musicians that I haven't worked with in a while, or never worked with before.

The challenge will be to be productive consistently. I work a 40 hour a week day job, work part time writing for a magazine, play in an original band as well as a cover band. So you can see time management is going to be an issue. I'm already at a defecit for January, as I'm going on vacation for a week, as well as going to NAMM. I'm still going to try and have one idea done by January 31st. 

I also have no problem in also expanding on these recordings, If one (or even parts of one) song ended up on a future Goodbye Theory EP, I'd be happy. If they don't, that's cool too. Being a big fan of 1970's & 1980's prog rock, and the fact that so many musicians migrated to other bands, it's not odd to hear a part or idea in one song, in a different song by a different band later on. The British prog bands like UK, Yes, Asia, GTR, Genesis, ELP, among others have similar parts sprinkled across them, due to that member cross pollination.

I have no problem with re-cycling either. There's alot of parts and material of songs and bits that have ended up in some of my previous bands materials. In some cases, i'd like to re visit this material, with fresh ears, as well as the drive to complete them as to how I originally envisioned them, but may have gotten changed through the band composition process. Some bits might be from recordings I did on my own years ago, but as I've aged, I'd like to see if I can take something old, and put a new polish on it.

I've also been dabbling with doing some video stuff, and some of this may end up on Youtube as well. 

As we're entering the colder winter months, I'm hoping to spend this hibernation season being productive in a sense. And if all goes well, I'll be able to share some new media with you too. It's a pretty tall order, basically making a full album over the next 12 months, but I like a challenge. 

2018-2019

So 2018 was pretty interesting overall musically on my end of things. It started off with a jump to Anaheim at the NAMM show. Tons of cool gear to check out, and of course I came home with a YUGE case of GAS. I have to say though cooler heads prevailed and while I did get some new gear in 2018, I kept myself under budget.

My resolutions for 2018 were to Play more, which I did!

My original band, The Goodbye Theory, wasn't as dormant, we actually did a gig this year, ST Patty's day at the Hard Rock Cafe in Boston! The gig went really well, and it was fun to play live. I'm hoping we have more good gigs like that for 2019!

On the cover band side of things, we started off slow, but really got alot of gigs in the Summer and Fall. The venue we played at said in October "we're booked for parties for November and December, but if we have openings we'll call you", usually that's not a good sign. However we ended up with 4 gigs at the same place after that! The gig money came in handy as well!

Guitar setups, and getting any mods needed for my instruments, were also on the menu for 2018, and while I did get alot of those sorted, I still have a long way to go overall. It's mostly tweaking and some refinements. I did get my mustang properly sorted though. It took a bit of work, with some amazing trouble shooting and work from Adam of AF Precision setups, but It's now a really fun and reliable guitar to play!

Recording. I did do a bit of it at home, it's been a learning process for sure, and I got alot of help from my friend Rob. I know I haven't shared anything with you, but I have some stuff coming for 2019!

Less gear obsession. I did acquire some new amps, my Blues Jr & Boss Katana. Both at good prices, and made deals that the previous owners were happy with. Pedals, I did win a Groff Imperial, as well as acquired EHX's ocean's eleven reverb. I downsized my pedalboard to a Pedaltrain classic JR, and went with a gig bag. Once I got that dialed in, I was more than happy.

I did get a new guitar, my PRS SE 277 Baritone. It's made some appearances at goodbye theory practices, and It may have a place in the band. But I know I'm going to use it alot on its own!

My final resolution was to be more interactive, through instagram, facebook and this blog. After all the facebook stuff that's come out, such as security, and negativity, I'm kind of making small steps to use it as needed, like when I have a gig, or an article I did for the magazine goes live. I do love instagram though. Twitter is ok too. I did drop the ball a bit on this blog in the fall. I'll blame that on the fact I got a promotion of sorts, and a bit more responsibility.

So,I don't think I really delivered on that. I kind of hoped that this blog would become a bit more of a dialog between my readers and myself. I admit that might be tough, as more people tend to gravitate towards youtube videos for music stuff. But even then, looking at the comments people leave on youtube, perhaps Its better this way. I'll admit when I was at NAMM last year I was standing next to Mary Spender, and I was about to say "hey!" then I realized that while I do follow her youtube and instagram feeds, its not a dialog. I have done some youtube videos, and this year perhaps I'll dive into that some more.

Overall it's been a great year, and I'm hoping and working on making 2019 a great year in itself!