The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 12

This has been a pretty interesting voyage tough a pretty narrow topic. Recalling certain pieces of gear, the bands I was playing in, and the music I was playing at the time was interesting.

I don't like to live in the past tho. I know guys that remember some pieces of gear, and go off on how awesome it was, and while I don't argue the fact that it WAS good, there's some new stuff that can do the best of what the old stuff ever could, and then some, with more options and flexability. Inevitably I get the "Naw, there was something about that" speech. Like the gear gods came together in a deux ex machina like event to make this one item, and there was something special, in a circuit board that was meant as a product. Gearheads can live in the amber of time, suspended and preserved in the past, best viewed with rose colored glasses. Gear that can be called "old faithful" is great, when it's faithful, and not just old.

Some of this old gear is just that, old gear, and this effect has it's place. It takes a certain player to develop their sound and make it their own. Eric Clapton shunned the wah wah pedal for years, then did "Bad Love" and brought it back. It's not the use of something that's bad, it's the abuse of something that is bad.

I talked about my current chorus choices and my use of them in the music I make. It's like a seasoning or sauce. I like Sirracha, but on ice cream, I'm sure it's not that great. So I use chorus now for an "effect", not part and parcel of my overall sound. It's a great application of this effect to drive something home, like the chorus of a song. Butch Walker commented that "You gotta have a chorus pedal to play the chorus". Kind of a no brainer statement.

Here's a great video of Butch talking about some of the past, as well as his use of a chorus pedal (around 2:10):

"A chorus pedal can be your friend sometimes" is a great statement. If that's the case I've had a more than a few friends that helped me make music over the years. Thankfully, that's a literal as well as figurative statement that stands true, in my situation. Throughout my musical experiences, I've had growth through the gear that helped me make my sound, and the friends that I've been lucky to play with.

This was a fun romp down memory lane, but as of now, I'm waiting to see what the future brings..in so many ways.

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 11

So What do I use for chorus these days? Well I do have a Keeley restored Boss CE-2, but I did manage to grab one of TC electronic's John Petrucci Dreamscape Pedals, and now that one lives on my pedal board.

It does 2 modes of Chorus, Flanger, and vibrato. One of each is meant for clean guitars, while the other is meant for overdriven guitars. Now I use it for both clean and distorted sounds, so I defaulted to using the distorted modes. They don't seem to do as much processing on the low strings, meaning the bottom end doesn't get washed out. The Flangers and vibrato modes are ok, but I kind of don't like Switching or messing with settings things alot live, or even at practice.

I do however love the sound of Chorus and Delay at the same time, so I have a dedicated loop that has the Chorus and delay. My current delay of choice is the MXR Carbon Copy. When I hit the loop, they both enter my signal chain (chorus first, delay afterwards). This does add some cabling to my board, but the loop's true bypass switch does keep my signal path alot clearer.

Most of the time in my band I play with overdriven sounds. maybe 3 times in a set I engage these two together, usually for choruses of songs, for dramatic effect. In band when I was the only guitar player I used it alot overall to fill out the sound. Since I play in a band with another guitar player, I don't need to fill up any extra sonic space. Plus, that modulation with another distorted guitar can tend to make things mushy at times, so It really only gets used gingerly.

Here's a quick sample of how I use chorus and delay in most of my setup. This 2 minute clip really shows the effect of when both are engaged at the same time. It also kind of keeps the tap dancing to a minimum. The only Pedals that are on in this setup are the TC Dreamscape chorus, MXR Carbon Copy Delay, which are in the loop pedal's loop, and my BBE Sonic Stomp. The amp is a Hotone Diamond, and the cabinet is a Egnater with a 1x12 celestion.

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 10

Line 6 Modulation

So it's either Analog knobs, or fully digital with menus and software? no inbetween? Well there is an inbetween.

I was in this boat years ago, I liked having a leslie simulator, a flanger, a phaser, and a chorus. It unfortunately beat up my tone, filled up space, and made my pedalboard complicated. I went with Line 6's MM4 Modulation pedal.



There were 16 modes of all sorts of modulation. I liked the Tri-chorus & dimension choruses the most. with 5 knobs that covered various parameters that worked on all the settings, once you found a setting you liked, step on one of the footswitches and hold. It saved that sound to that button and with 4 buttons it gave me plenty of options. I think I paid $150ish for mine, and it was great. The only bummer was that you needed to make sure you used a special cable for your pedalboard power supply, as the power was not the standard 9v style. I had 2 chorus modes, a flanger, and a Tremolo set in it, and It's easy to see how one of these paired with one of line 6's DL4 delay units could really make a nice pedalboard, and a very simple setup that still gives plenty of choices, with no option paralisis.

I had this with my mesa boogie MKIII rig, and eventually I went to POD Pro with a power amp. I parted ways with more than a few pedals, the MM4 was one of them when this change occoured, as my POD Pro had all of these modulations built into it already. I don't miss it, but it's one of those things that really gives a ton of bang for the buck. Too bad they don't make it anymore.

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 9

So we've covered Chorus in the form of pedals and racks, mostly with all analog controls, with mostly static settings, meaning, they get shut on and off, not alot of real time tweaking and the like.

In the 1980's, rack gear was the way to go, with multi effects units that could do all sorts of effects at the same time. Some players got tired of paramaters and menus, and eventually went back to analog pedals, or dropped effects entirely, because of the immedacy of getting results with knobs and switches.

But there are tone tweakers that miss that adjustability, and the ability to recall all sorts of variations. Strymon's Mobius is a pretty good example of all that.

Now this does ALOT. Autoswell, Flanger, Univibe, Envelope filter, Tremolo, oh and chorus. The ability to make so many variations (200!), and save them, without the hassle of navigating endless menus. With Tap Tempo, Expression pedal input, and MIDI, it's chock full of Hi-fi chorus goodness. It's not cheap tho, coming in at $450. Even for me this might be a bit much, but the Multi delay line chorus really caught my ears. Besides, Since I usually use chorus WITH delay almost exclusively, this could retire my delay..and my tremolo pedal, and my fliters, and my..well you get the idea.

Here's a great video demo on it:

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 8

Now Yes, Chorus is typically an 80's effect, and when I really came into myself as a player it was the 90's. I'll admit I wasn't much into Grunge or any alternative music from the start. I did like some; Alice & Chains, Soundgarden, but it took awhile for me to shake the influences that were so ingrained in my playing and sound that were so 80's.

Admittedly, I wasn't a big Nirvana fan. I blame it on every time I was in a music store some one was playing smells like teen spirit. It was an easy tune so many bands started to cover it. One night at a battle of the bands, EVERY band played it in their set. I can really appreciate them now, Kurt's approach was very refreshing in guitar playing, and songwriting that really brought a simplicity of what really makes things work in music, and it formed a pretty good foundation for a ton of musicians to build their future on.

Kurt did have a chorus, and like alot of his gear, was a piece that was pretty much relegated to swap meets, and pawn shops. The Electro Harmonix Small Clone.

These things were pretty cheaply made, with a sheet metal casing, a rate control, and a depth switch. It can be subtle, but it's like using a Lamborghini to deliver pizzas. It really does a great leslie, swirling like effect, and almost too much out of tune-ness. Listen to "come as you are", it's all over that. No tap tempo, no stereo spread, it's an effect that when you turn it on, you feel it!

EHX still makes this, in the sheet metal case, and also in a MXR Phase 90 like die cast case. Other high end chorus pedals say they can do this EHX sound, but it's almost like seeing a comedian do an impression of christopher walken, and then you see Christopher Walken in a movie. Nothing beats the real thing.

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 7

Like I've said in previous posts, Boss/Roland pretty much invented chorus. Boss pedals may get poo-pooed by pedal aficionados, but they do make some great stuff that can work across alot of applications. Over the years tho, real pedal nerds have sought out the rare, and unsung pedals that Boss made, such as the Spectrum, Slow Gear, and the Dimension C & D chorus pedals:

Now I did actually have a Dimension C for a couple of months. In the late 90's I used to spend weekends cruising all the local music stores. I popped in to Wood & Strings in Arlington. It was kind of more of a Acoustic/Band/Lessons/sheet music type store, They might have an electric guitar, or maybe some inexpensive solid state amp. There was a guy in there with a bag, and was trying to sell them some pedals. The guy behind the counter kind of waved him off, saying they weren't interested, as they'd end up sitting on their shelf for a long time, and suggested he go to Daddys or Guitar Center. I followed the guy out the door, and flagged him down to see what he had. There was a Yellow DOD overdrive, a Boss BF-2 flanger (old version, with the black knobs), and a Boss Dimension C. 

He said one of his old tenants left it one of the apartments he owned, and he tried to get in touch with him over 6 months but to no avail. He knew he was a musician, and figured there was some value in these lil boxes.

I said, I'd be interested in the Dimension C. I already had the same Flanger, and the Overdrive I wasn't interested in. He had the original box, and even the BOSS sticker and directions in it. I got excited and let out a small "wow" unfortunately, and the guy was like "is it worth alot?" I knew it was kind of rare, but didn't know its value. I somehow pivoted it, by saying "they didn't make alot of these", partly because you can't really adjust anything, which was true. I had $35 in my wallet, and mentioned that I'd be interested in it. The guy hedged a bit, and said he wanted an all or nothing deal. I was like, well I have the purple one already, and I'm not into the yellow one. He again held his ground, and I said, oh well, and began to walk away.

I got about 3 steps, and the guy called out to me "ok, I'll do it-$35" I turned around, and the deal was made.

Getting it home, this thing was hyper clean, no dings or dents. With just 4 presets that don't go really far, it's more spacious than warblish. It was subtle but still rich. if you think 80's pop chorus, this is it! I had a Strat with EMG's, and this with some delay and reverb had that "studio strat" sound. With overdrive it was nice, as the modulation didn't seem to weep into the low end frequencies.

Remember I mentioned I had this for a couple of months? Well, I never put velcro or anything on it, as at this point I was using my Danelectro cool cat chorus. I kind of grabbed it on a lark. I was looking on Ebay for something else one day, and I looked up what Dimension C's were going for, and my jaw hit the floor. I put mine on there, for sale, and within a few days the bidding went to $300! Sold to a guy in some place I can't remember.

I don't have sellers remorse on this, it was a chorus that wasn't all that adjustable for my needs, even as a guy that is a "set it and forget it" player. My line 6 Pod HD has a model of this, and I hear TC has a toneprint for their corona chorus. So that sound is still available. I forget what I spent that $300 on, but from what I've seen they are still going for around that price range. At this point I'd rather try to track down a Spectrum Pedal!

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 6

On the 6th Day of chorus, my true love gave to me..The Chandler Digital Echo.

Yes it doesn't rhyme, and yes it's not technically a Chorus unit. It's a Delay/Echo unit that has a modulation section in it.  Danny Gatton supposedly used one to retire his "Magic Dingus Box"/echoplex rig, and Eric Johnson said in some interview that he tried one, and he liked it, and "didn't screw with the tone". Chandler put that quote in their Ad's, which I'm sure helped them sell more of them. Joe Satriani had a few as well, retiring some delay and chorus pedals. He used a couple of them for delays (one short, one long) and an additional one for Chorus.

This is one of my "one that got away" items. In my neck of the woods these didn't surface often. Daddy's Junky Music in Nashua had one, used for $250. I made the guy pull it out of the display rack, so I could try it. He was the kind of guy that probably only had a Wah pedal in his rig. There's nothing wrong with that. I can cook, but don't ask me to make a 4 course meal. He had a tough time going through all the cables trying to connect it. I finally said, let me try to hook it up, I'm in no rush. He went back to the counter, and within 2 minutes I was up and running. I really liked how the delay/echo worked with the modulation section.

So why didn't I get it? Well I wasn't using alot of rack gear at this time, as I was more getting into pedals. The price was a bit out of my range of comfort, and my rig wasn't stereo. Also I kind of liked my DD-3 Delay alot, and it kind of filled my delay needs nicely.

It was nice as the delay & chorus was in 1 unit, analog controls, and with such a spacious sound. The delay was rich, and even at low levels the modulation was full and dynamic. It was like someone just took a couple of great sounding pedals, and just put them in a rack format.

I brought the unit, and it's cables back to the Daddy's Salesperson, and he was pissed he went through all that effort, and I didn't buy it. I felt bad, so I bought some strings. That transaction was marred by some computer glitch they were having, so my act of kindness in buying those strings just aggravated the guy even more. I slinked out there, knowing the salesperson was cursing me.

During the week I started a "non-buyers remorse" and I came up with some justification to buy it. If I sold this pedal, and ate Ramen for a week, and didn't buy any CD's that month, well you get the idea. I went back to Daddys and it was gone. The same sales person was there tho, and I asked where the Digital Echo was. He replied, Sold it. The day after I was there. Bummer.

I've seen some people that do have these, actually fit the guts into a larger format stomp box, like the larger EHX pedals. In that form, with that sound, it's something that has put my ear to the ground in search of one for myself again.

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 5

So the big thing is getting that high end sound out of items that usually don't get thought of as such. One of the first companies that came up with the rack sound in a pedal was TC Electronic.

The problem with stuff like that is yes you get a rack sound, in a pedal, but the price is usually closer to a rack, than a pedal. I had one on loan to me for awhile, and when my friend started calling me asking for it back, I actually started dodging his calls for a day or two! The Sound was amazing, it had a nice Hi-fi like feel to it, certainly a modern sound that could get nice and glassy. It was one of those situations where it didn't clutter up what was already going on tone wise, but just added "more"

Recently TC said they can't make them in large amounts anymore, as some of the components aren't getting made as much, and as technology is progressing, there's less and less need for those components. Eventually the manufacturer will stop making them all together.

So TC decided to make one of their Corona Chorus pedals, with the retro graphics and a downloadable tone print (that works on the regular graphics version of the corona chorus as well). With a Street price of $129, its nice to see that rare-ish high end stuff I used to drool over, alot more available, and well within almost any budget.

If the Tone Print is as good as the original, It's worth getting either the green or the classic looking one, but I know I'd prefer the vintage looking one.

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 4

Chorus is an 80's Effect, it was perfected then, and like the 80's it was overused like Aquanet, and Dayglow colors that was finally defeated by Seattle flannel, and College Radio.

So in the Spirit of things 80's I give you "That 80's Rack Chorus", by Fulltone:

Now Multi Effects were standard in the 80's, but this comes from an era where if you wanted a Rack effect, that one box did ONE thing. Need a chorus, well that's one rack unit.Need a Delay?, well, you got a rackmount Delay unit. Later on things got combined into things like Multiverbs and the like. But this is a re-creation of that classic "dyno-my-Piano" chorus effect. I haven't played through one of these myself, but If there's anything that could make me go back to a rack system it's this. 

This is a video of Pete Thorn putting one through the paces:

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 3

When you add something to a rig, you really don't want to have that new item take something away. Honestly, I used to think that Eric Johnson's ears were probably OCD the way he described how certain effects needed to placed far away from each other for noise reduction, cables that were to thin or too bassy sounding, different batteries sounding different in different effects.

Then it happened to me. I retired my aforementioned Fender Ultra Chorus and got a Fender Prosonic Tube 2x10. Boss/Roland always did the best chorus, in my opinion, as they kind of perfected that effect for the masses, so I got the Super Chorus CH-1.

My Mesa V-twin was retired and I used the Prosonic's overdrive (and at this point it's the only amp I regret parting with), the aforementioned DD-3, and a VOX Wah. But as soon as I plugged the CH-1 into the signal path, something happened. The top end of my entire sound lost about 20%. I was perplexed. I checked cables, knobs, tubes and each pedal to come the conclusion that this CH-1 pedal just sucked the tone out of my signal. Bummer. I kind of did without it, and I didn't really have any issue playing with no chorus. I returned it to Guitar Center, thanks to their liberal return policy.

I mentioned this issue to a friend, and he suggested a Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus. Danelectro had made a comeback of sorts, with some cool retro style guitars, and some effects pedals that had nods to the past. Their Dan-echo was very tape delay esque, and I heard good things about their overdrives being natural. My friend said it was as close to a Boss CE-2 that you could get and not break the bank.

So I got one of the Cool Cat Chorus Pedals. The design was very retro looking, and only had a speed and "chill" knob. I Set the Speed to like 10%, and the chill to maximum. There was no tone suck at all. I was kind of amazed that a newcomer (as Im sure someone just bought the danelectro name) got the tone beat. The effect was nice and spacious, and if it was cranked it still had a musical warble that was nice and jucy. It had a special power supply (18V) and in the days before Multi voltage pedalboard power supplies being common, the extra wall wart on my pedalboard was kind of a bummer, but my friend was right, it was very CE-2 like. Years later, when I got my hands on a real CE-2, I did a quick comparison. and it's hyper close. Eventually I sold the cool cat, but it's a great value for the $.

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 2

 Admittedly this post isn't about a particular chorus unit, but to really hear a stereo effect, you need 2 sound sources, a left and a right signal. For guitar players that means two amps or an amp that has stereo capabilities. There are still some amps out there that have stereo options, usually a 2x10, or a 2x12. I've have some experiences with a few, and these still stick out in my mind, even years later.

The JC-120 is probably THE amp I have a love and hate relationship with. The cleans are beyond amazing, but the dirty channel is pretty weak for most applications. Joe Satriani used one with a Boss-DS1 for a few tracks on "surfing with the alien", so it's not a lost cause for dirty tones. The clean sound on Metallica's Enter Sandman is a JC-120, and that tone is instantly identifiable.

I had a friend that had a pair of them for awhile, and He let me try them out for a few rehearsals. Using a few various Distortion pedals, including my Mesa V-twin Pedal preamp.  I could get some nice tones out of them. I preferred the one that had the non metallic speaker cones. They seem to hold their value in the used market, so getting a good one at a cheap price is almost impossible. The price on new ones hasn't moved all that much either.

I did, however get a Fender Ultra Chorus (later called the Ultimate Chorus). It was kind of like a non tube Fender twin configuration. It was all solid state, with stereo Chorus (hence the name) and reverb, and 2 channels.

Honestly, the overdrive wasn't good, It was notchy, and blocky-ish. But the cleans could make a virgin look like a hollywood hooker. I ran a Boss DD3 delay in the effects loop, and a Mesa Boogie V-twin pedal in the front. It really was an amazing rig, with that warm tube tone from the Mesa Boogie, and those cleans with the chorus were spacious and rich. If you're going to get that true stereo effect, a chorus pedal into 2 sseparate amps is the way to go. But this configuration gave the same effect, in a smaller package. This lil rig did me well for a long time, and fit into the trunk of my 94 Ford Escort easily.

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 1

I remember the first time I heard it, a friend of mine had a DOD Chorus, He was running it in Mono, so wasn't true stereo, but the spaciousness it had was amazing! He was gracious enough to let me borrow it for a night, and that neat warble had me in it's clutches for years afterwards.

Working part time when you're a teen can suck cash wise, but eventually I got myself a used Digitech PDS-1700. The battery cover was missing, and the music store had it in their version of a "cut out bin". I think I paid $70 for it. It did Chorus AND a flanger. Digitech at the time was DOD's upscale brand, and while it might have technically been better. I think the DOD version sounded better. 

As the years went by, I delved into rackmount effects, and of course there was chorus. At this point I was playing in bands where I was the only guitarist, and I needed to fill out the sound, and this was an invaluable tool. 

Later on I got involved in bands that had a lead singer that also played guitar, and Chorus kind of just muddled things up in the mix. By this point I was primarily using it as a slight modulation, usually only on clean parts, with some delay and reverb for some ambient tones. 

I'm lucky to have an original Boss-CE2, and I had Robert Keeley go through it, replacing the leaky capacitors, and replacing some of the components for cleaner sound, and higher fidelity. He did a great job of it, and I have to say, I' never part with it.

Currently I'm using a Dreamscape by TC electronic. I did a review HERE on it a few years ago for Performer Magazine. It's very versatile, but again, I really only have it set for a wide spread in a shallow sense. We'll talk about that one in a future post.

I love inside jokes, and jokes that keep on giving. A few years ago at a NAMM show I ran into my friend Bobbo. He asked "did you see anything new that's interesting?' I just shrugged and pointed over to the nearby Tech21 booth, and said "well Tech21has a new chorus pedal" not thinking much of  my suggestion. Bobbo's response was simple and to the point:

"If you're into that sort of thing"

Admittedly it was funny, even now. He then was kind of like "aww shit". It was just such a knee jerk reaction that brings a smile to my face to this day. 

Since then I post and share videos of new Chorus devices and tag Bobbo, just for fun, At least I have fun. "if you're into that sort of thing" is a great tag line (ahem, new album title?) In this day and age it's nice to have a laugh at something that really doesn't matter in so many ways. So to take the laughs to another level, I bring you the "Twelve Days of Chorus". Every day from now until December 24th 2016 I will be sharing some of the best (maybe worst, depending on your tastes) examples of this wonderful effect that the internet has to offer.

Bobbo this one (and the next 11) are for you!

Telecaster Upgrades!

Tele Upgrades.

Now when I first started playing in the mid 1980's I actually took my first few months of lessons on a friend’s blonde 68 Telecaster, so while back then I really couldn’t play, I knew that there was something in that sound that only a tele has, and now I was on a quest to recapture it. But, my current tele was missing something. It had the standard bridge, and I wanted it swapped out for a Wilkinson vintage style one. I was nervous, as I liked the idea of each string having its own saddle, as opposed to 2 strings sharing one on a vintage style bridge. But seeing a lot of high end “clones” like Suhr, Nash, and Danocaster using these vintage style bridges I figured if those fairly high end instruments came that way I shouldn't worry.

Why not change the pickups? Wouldn’t that be easier? In theory yes, it would. But I already changed the pickups from the stock ones to a set of Vintage Hot hum cancelling set from Guitar fetish. Some people may scoff at their stuff, but in talking to a lot of people, it’s a “your mileage may vary” situation with any pickup. I have one of their “VEH” (guess who they’re referencing there) humbuckers in a parts caster, and It really delivers a nice slightly hotter vintage PAFish pickup sound. Their prices are beyond reasonable, too. So I had good luck with them, and tried them out. The hum cancelling feature was good, but the pickups were lacking something. So I went down the rabbit hole again, and started looking at pickups again.

After having a talk with a few people, I realized changing the bridge might fix my tonal mojo. I found out that after switching the bridge of my PRS Mira, that such a major tonal change happened, I stopped looking at pickups to mod that guitar. 

Before, with the American Standard Bridge

The replacement

I looked at various high end bridges, and saddles that could work. A friend suggested making a “backwards” upgrade, and go with a vintage style bridge.  After a little research, I found a few people that did this mod to Mexican and American tele’s that had the bridge I currently had, and faced the same issues I was experiencing. Again the 3 vs 6 saddle situation kind of made me worried, but I think the brass saddles, combined with a thinner, pressed steel bridge, as compared to the thicker steel would brighten things up just enough.

After getting it back from Mouradian guitars (who I can’t say enough nice things about) it was amazing! Acoustically it snapped much more (I’ll admit new strings help) but it felt tighter too. The only bummer is the “butt crack”; on vintage tele’s about 1/16” of the tele’s pickup rout stick out on the sides of the bridge. They’re, only visible when playing, or looking at it when the guitar is a certain angle. It doesn’t affect the structure or tone, and if that’s the way it was back in the day, I can deal with it. My idea was to get a more “tele” tone, and a vintage look.

Afterwards

The "Butt Crack"

Plugging it in, I was extremely satisfied. There’s plenty of that extra snap/high end that I was looking for, and the low end tightened up a lot! The raised edge of the bridge is really nice to anchor my pinky on, but doesn’t get in the way of any palm muting. Problem solved. The bridge cost me $40, and the installation was $40. 

I do have some future mods in mind, locking tuners are on the list, and that should be the last structural/tonal mods. I might upgrade the nut to a Tusq or an actual bone nut, as well. There are some cosmetic changes I’d like to do, possibly change the pickguard & control plate to an unfinished aluminum, as well as changing the knobs to a dome knob with a big knurl (almost cheese grater style). It’s also a very clean guitar, I’d like it to get some wear on it, but now I can get that wear from actually playing this one, rather than generating some faux patina or “relic-ing”. 

So does this keep me from drooling over other guitars, of course not, but it does keep the GAS at bay, at least for a Tele. Still want that Short scale fender or a Baritone. But that’s another story.

Upgrades & Mods to keep GAS away.

We've all said it "just one more guitar". Yes you already have several, but justifying a new one isn't a task. I've had more than a few, just below the line I could call a "collection". Now my guitar quantity status sits more in the "Tools that I use" situation.

GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome) isn't easy to overcome, but over the years, I think I've gotten through the worst of this affliction. I've found guitars I love, and use on a regular basis. No wall/case queens at this point.

It does rear it's ugly head from time to time, and in the past few years I've beaten it down in an interesting way. I've made the conscious decision to make the guitars I use more use able, modifying them to my current needs. I'm not making irreversible structural changes. Thankfully I don't own any vintage or rare instruments that I wouldn't be de-valueing. Here's the rundown on my "to-do" list to my current stable of guitars:

Telecaster. I parted ways with a custom G&L ASAT to get this Made in Mexico Tele. Yes, they guy I swapped it with got a great guitar. I never really bonded with the G&L, and it pretty much sat unused for years. Since getting my Tele, It's gotten a ton more use than the G&L ever did. However even after swapping out the original pickups with some Guitarfetish stacked tele pickups, there's something missing. It's a little dull. I started to think I might need to change the bridge saddles, and I looked for a few high end tele bridges. A friend suggested I don't upgrade, but downgrade to a vintage styled tele bridge.

A little research proved successful in finding a bridge that would fit on my Tele without alot of mods. I just purchased it, but I'll have to wait, I do have an appointment with Mouradian Guitars in December. I hope tone christmas comes early. The only thing I really wish i could change is the color, it's a great looking guitar, but needs a bit more "patina" or relicing. Making it a more playable guitar means it'll get played more, wearing in, getting some scratches and dings to add to it's presence.

50's Reissue strat. This one got a TON of mods done last year. Soon I'll have some in depth details on this one in an upcoming issue of performermag.com. But to make a long story short, I now have 3 Seymour Duncan Stacked single coils in it, a pickguard that has a reverse angle on the bridge pickup. The wiring's ben tweaked a bit too. After doing all this work, it's become alot more useful to me, and I recently did a gig with it, and played for all 3 sets!

I still have alot to do on this one though. As I mentioned above, I realized that changing the bridge can make a big difference in tone. I did need to change the pickups on this, especially for the hum cancelling properties. I'm eyeballing a John Mann PRS Style Tremolo bridge for this one. I love the trem on my CE24, and bringing this element to my strat would make the tremolo (and the overall guitar) more useful. I'm also trying to find a locking tuner that will work nicely, as well as possibly a new bone nut on it. I do have some adjustments to the wiring to make too.

PRS CE. This is a tough one, It's been my main guitar since 1995, it's gotten TONS of use, from so many bands and projects throughout the years. After playing my Mira with the newer tuning pegs, I've decided to swap out the old ones with the winged locking collet. John Mann said he can re-use the casings, and re-do the innards with the new ones.

I always toyed with swapping pickups, but I have kind of filed that under "tinkering for tinkering's sake". I knew alot of PRS Guys that were swapping pickups out on a regular basis, I never had a problem with the stock ones, but it might be time for a slight change. It came with black pickups and black pickup rings. I swapped the rings out for chrome ones a long time ago to give it some "bling". While it does make things pop a bit more visually, I think the black rings with some chrome or nickle covered pickups might give it a more of a classic look. So i'm on the hunt for an interesting set of modernish pickups. I've thought of a Duncan Custom in the bridge, and a 59 in the neck. I've been hearing alot of good things about Barekunckle pickups, and I've been checking them out. Choosing pickups can really be one of those "down the rabbit hole" scenarios. So I'm trying to be reasonable, and taking my time on this.

Will all these mods keep the GAS gremlins at bay? Kinda. I have less urges to seek out other guitars that kind of do alot of the same things I can get out of the guitars I already have. It keeps things simple. and as I already like the way these guitars already play. However It doesn't solve the urge for things like a baritone or a short scale Fender Mustang/Jaguar/Jazzmaster. But I can deal with that urge after all these other guitars are already sorted out!

Media

I've been notified by a few people that have started to follow this blog, and as FYI to my new fans/readers that may not be in the know, I do gear reviews and some other writing for Performer Magazine. They can be found here:

http://performermag.com/

Thanks for reading!

Chris

"scarface" postscript/update!

If you read my previous post on my "scarface" partscaster, This is a neat update. Wampler Pedals (https://www.wamplerpedals.com) had a great post on their social media pages regarding a single coil (in this case a single coil humbucker) in the neck position. This isn't that far off on what I had in mind for my singer's guitar, that later on became my "scarface" partscaster. Glad to see someone followed through with that interesting concept. I just wonder how it actually sounds!

Say Hello To My Little Friend

A good guitar always has an interesting story

A very long time ago, I was in a band where the lead singer played rhythm guitar. He was no where near even a moderate gear head, a guitar to him was a tool. His guitar at the time was an Ibanez that had a H-S-H pickup configuration and a Floyd rose type of locking tremolo. For a guy that would use a guitar as a songwriting tool, I don't know how he ended up with it, probably some pressure from a sales clerk, I imagined. He was pretty heavy handed, and with a little suggestion he switched from .09 strings to .10's, to prevent string breakage. His picking hand kind of rested on the floating bridge, so at times, things got warbly out of tune here and there.

Floyd Roses bridges are great, and believe me, not all that long before that Ibanez style guitar would have been on my "must have" lists for guitars. But when you break a string, it's a few more steps to fix the situation. My singer, even with heavier strings, could really be tough on them. Compound that with a fairly heavy gig schedule, he was breaking enough strings that I bought a box of D'Addario's. With our heavy gigging schedule we went through them in less than a year.

I suggested I build him a guitar that would be more fitting to his style, not a shred machine, but truly a great rhythm guitar, that would stay in tune, be less prone to string breakage, and look interesting. He was all game, and while we were both pretty broke, I figured buying parts from craigslist and ebay would cut the costs alot, and final assembly would be the biggest expense overall.

I started with a standard strat style body, it was pretty heavy, so I assumed it was ash. It was already finished in gloss black, with some dings in it. For $25 it was a great EBay find. Sanding down the electronics cavity I realized it was solid wood, not a plywood body. I scuffed the gloss black to a satin appearance, to make it look a bit rat-rod ish. Taking my Dremel fitted with a conical grinding bit, I started to carve scar or vein like grooves into the body. I made sure that they would begin or end at the edge of the pick guard. After I filled these exposed veins with flat black modeling paint, it had a rough rugged look to it. My next idea was to get ultra violet paint (the kind that only appears under black lights) and then go over the grooved areas again with that. We played a few clubs where the sound guy ran the lights, and for some reason they had a "black light" mode in their lighting rigs. the final touch would be getting a glitter-ish paint, where a small amount of glitter or metal flake was suspended in a clearcoat, and then go over the UV paint with that, I got the idea of from one of the bartenders at one of those clubs. Her lipstick lit up in the black light, unbeknownst to her, and she always had some of that heavy glitter that she applied over her lipstick. My singer loved the idea. There were some Ibanez guitars that had a carved in to the body Spider web style, and this was a bit more organic like feel to that same concept.

Electronics wise, My idea was a single humbucker in the neck. Even in the studio when a producer or engineer heard his guitar they would ask why his sound was so bass heavy. He always played on the neck pickup for it's fuller sound. They would always get him to switch to the bridge pickup in the studio. During sessions he'd switch it back, either intentionally or accidentally with his strumming. During mixes they'd be scratching their heads, trying to clean up his sound. Eventually they would give up, in more than one case the engineer would confide in me that he was glad I did so many guitar tracks;  if we were playing the same kind of guitar part, they just mixed our singer's rhythm guitar out. When his parts were front and center, they fixed them, they did their best to make it sound good.

A single humbucker wouldn't have alot of tonal options, but I figured getting a 3 way toggle; with the 1st position, just the front coil, the 2nd a full humbucker, and the 3rd, the rear coil. Again, thankfully our singer didn't really think of this as odd. The only other control would be a volume knob. It made for a simple instrument. It still had some tonal options, albeit limited to rhythm sounds.

Since our singer had kind of big hands,  he liked the Ibanez slim line neck, but it seemed he pulled too hard on it, and would slide strings almost off the fretboard. I was hoping a rounder neck would be a better fit. I went on a search for a fairly large radius neck. Again, on Ebay I found one, it had no logos or any markings, but based on the headstock shape it was either a Peavey, or an allparts item. The rosewood fingerboard was nice, and all the frets were in good shape. For another $25 it was a deal. I primed the headstock, and painted it flat black to match the guitar body.

The body was routed for a standard strat style tremolo, so I was limited in choices there. Ideally I wanted to find one with roller saddles, but no luck. Ebay again provided a chrome bridge, with heavy block saddles by WD, still in the box, for $35.

I was only into the guitar for $85 or so, when I showed my singer the body, and he was excited to see it, as well as the neck, He gave his approval of the progress thankfully. A few weeks later on I said if he could throw me a couple of bucks, I could finish off this guitar for him.

Admittedly, we were all broke, but at this point my singer said "I never said I wanted you to build me a guitar" I don't know if it was a money issue, or something else. I kind of assumed after talking about it, it was a go. After showing him the body and parts he was excited, so again, I though he wanted me to do this. But when it came time to put in some money on his end, not only was I vetoed, I was told it was never approved. Maybe I misunderstood. Regardless I now had a project guitar in the works, and not alot of money to finish it off.

I thought of selling the neck and bridge, I could re-coup some of that. The body was now all caved up, and in complete flat black. I doubt that would have sold at all. I decided this would be a long term project for me. If I completed it, I'd make it a guitar for me. If my singer wanted it afterwards, I'd sell it to him for cost, plus assembly.

Eventually I left that band. One night under the influence of some good beer I hung the guitar up, and grabbed a few cans of spray paint I had. My MGB was in the middle of restoration, and I had a good selection of various paints for all the parts I was doing for it. Silver, a red with a metallic in it, as well as a black with a slight metal flake, I'd drink a bit, spray a bit, let it dry, and then repeat the process. by the end of the night, It looked cool. With all the grooves and scars, it kind of got to be known as "scarface"

Sound wise I wasn't going to do a single neck pickup anymore. The electronics 2 humbuckers from a PRS SE Tremonti, mounted on a single ply black pickguard. I did a single volume knob, and a three way switch. To finish things off, I got a set of used G&L Tuners from my local music store for about $35. After finally getting it together, it played pretty nice. The pickups weren't my fave though. They lacked a bit of bottom end. Im sure in the PRS the were designed for they would be ok, but not this parts caster. It kind of got stuck in that mode and I forgot about it. Eventually I replaced the pickguard with a single HB and volume knob, and went with a guitarfetish VEH pickup, which is kind of like a Van-halen ish humucker. I've hand some other pickups from guitarfetish, and I have to say it's a your mileage may vary. The hum cancelling single coils in my tele, are just Ok. This humbucker is really nice tho!

With the single humbucker, the guitar actually came to life. It has alot of punch, clarity, low end and overall sounds great. For a single pickup guitar there's still plenty of tones in there. The neck is a bit fatter than what I usually play, but it does feel great. Unplugged it's fairly bright, with plenty of snap. I blocked the Tremolo, and it adds a lil more sustain, but stays in tune really well. It's a bit heavy, bit that's the only downside.

It's my go to "around the house" guitar. It's great for just running to the computer and doing a  demo, super easy to dial in a tone and just go. At the time I felt kind of let down when my singer pulled the plug on doing it, I really think it would have been a good guitar for him, but I ended up with a great inexpensive guitar.

Low End Problems

I’ll be honest I’m kind of a frustrated bass player in a certain sense. Back in the jr high school years, when I was getting into music, I toyed with the idea of playing Bass. Part of the reason I didn’t, was that several musicians I really respected played bass, and if I became a bass player myself, there were a few negatives. 1-I would probably never be able to play or collaborate with them, as we both shared the same instrument. 2. In the typical razzing you get in the early teen years the “oh you’re doing it so you can be like so-and-so. 3. Bass strings were a lot more expensive than guitar strings 4. The general thought was if you’re going to be a good bass player, you’re going to have to read sheet music.

So I ended up playing guitar.

In the past whenever I was working on demos at home I’d borrow a bass from someone, and always feel in some way that this feels right, even when I ended up with callouses and blisters. Eventually I got my own bass, and again I like using it for demos, but it doesn’t get a lot of use other than that. Thankfully I didn’t pay that much for it.

I’ve messed around with some nonstandard tunings, like Drop D, and even at one point had my strat set up a whole step lower. To take things even further I took an inexpensive first act guitar and even had it set up in a baritone tuning with heavier strings. It was a fun experiment, but had issues; while tuned low, things got flubby, more than likely due to the fact that the scale was a standard guitar scale. The longer scale of a baritone would bring that tight crispness to that big low end.

A few years back Epiphone sent me a Rob Flynn Flying V baritone to review. It was a fun guitar, and definitely showed the actual difference the long scale made. However, personally, the skull graphics on a flying V body wasn’t really my thing aesthetically.

I did get a few chances over the years to play a few baritones, A Jerry Jones, fender bass VI, a Telecaster conversion, an Ibanez Mike Mushok, as well as a few custom pieces. While I liked Epiphone’s forward thinking the others were in most cases (the Ibanez being the exception) a bit too vintage sounding. I was looking for something “in-Between”.

The Ibanez Mike Mushok was cool, and after I tried it out, I put it back on the wall at the store. Going back to the same store a few weeks later, I told myself, “If it’s there, just buy it”. I figured it’s a niche instrument, and would probably gather dust, until some sale event. Boy was I wrong. Cruzing the wall, it was nowhere to be found. I asked the guy behind the counter who told me I was the 3rd guy to ask about it that week! Apparently it was sold a day or two after I tried it out.

So then PRS made a Baritone, and again this was Mike Mushok’s signature edition. At $699 the price was OK, and came in an Adam Jones inspired silver burst, and later versions came in a nice classy vintage see thru look.  My main guitars are by PRS, and as I know their quality, tone and feel. I’d love to “keep it in the family” so to speak. As I got ready to pull the trigger (meaning I had some spare $) it was gone off of PRS’ website, as it was discontinued. Alas, looking for a used one for a reasonable price on craigslist was also difficult.

Fast forward to 2016, PRS now offers TWO baritones, a humbucker equipped one, and a semi hollow p90 one. I’ve made it my personal mission to save up enough for one by the end of this year. However I am in a quandary, as I love the P90 version (it comes in a cool grey/black see thru finish) the noise of the P90’s may require some pickup upgrade, where the humbucker version might not.

The other issue is finding a cabinet that can handle those low notes. I have blown out a few 12” speakers even just with low tunings. I’m thinking of a 1x15 cabinet to take care of those low frequencies. I’d probably run one of my regular amp’s into it, like my ZT for any loud volume situations. I have a great hotone amp that could handle quitter gigs. Thankfully both are small amps

The application of this instrument might be a bit different, in some cases I’ve thought of getting together with a bass player, preferably a 5 string player and a drummer, or even just a keyboard player and a drummer for some morphine-ish type stuff. It seems like an interesting new creative tool that I’d like to check out.

I’d love to hear from any baritone players and their experiences with this type of guitar, in their application of using it in a band, as well as any special gear that has helped them integrate such an odd and interesting instrument.

Sharing is Good

 I figured I'd share some of my music with you all. This is an acoustic track, That has some acoustic 6 and 12 string guitars, as well as some guitar synth for some ambience. It's not my usual thing, but I hope you like:

Here it is

Contests and Giveaways

Sorry, I don’t have anything to give away here. But “winning” is always on everyone’s mind: the lottery, or at a casino, a sporting event, or an election. Guitar magazines/companies/websites often do giveaways: enter your name to win. More often than not it’s a way for companies to get some demographic info on you for marketing, or even just your email for future notices/spam. Thankfully most email giveaways don’t encourage spam, or unwanted emails. 

I remember entering in every giveaway that was ever offered since I got my first guitar magazine. I’ve never won anything. Thinking of all those 3x5 cards that usually fell out of a magazine, getting them filled out, and into the mail. When the internet came into play, all the web pages with a click here to win button. Yet always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

Even now so many years later I still do it, getting extra entries for sharing with Facebook or twitter, even the Instagram ones where you have to capture and repost an image, which is kind of a pain in the butt. All in hopes for a win. A free guitar is a great guitar.

So in the spirit of winning, I’ll share with you a giveaway, it’s from John Mann’s Guitar vault. Every year he goes to the PRS factory, picks out some amazing wood, and sometime later a beautiful guitar emerges. He the offers it up in a raffle, for $103 a chance to win, and there is a limited number of tickets sold. The money raised goes to the Daniel Webster house, a charity for homeless teens in NH. A good cause, and a great guitar. 

Even If I don’t win, I know it’s going to a good cause. Just on a probability scale though, eventually I’m bound to win something one day. Finger’s crossed.

If you want to win, here's a link HERE

Not Abandoned..yet

Blogs tend to get created with enthusiasm, kept up for a bit, then forgotten and discarded. I hate to say it, but this was one of those.

In the past 5 years, I've been busy: Getting married, writing for Performer Magazine,  where I am now Senior Product Reviewer, working with my band "The Goodbye Theory", and dealing with the general stuff that life throws your way.

I'm making a effort to bring this Blog back to life. In the future I'll have links to my articles for Performer Magazine, Pictures, videos, Audio, and other writing musings related to Guitar and music in general. I'm going to try to have some new content a couple of times a week, hopefully it'll be something to keep you all coming back!

Enjoy
Christopher Devine