Category: Guitar

What’s in the Bag?

Hey Robbie, what’s in that big bag?

Untitled

I’ll tell you in a second…

Last night’s band practice wasn’t very good, but it was okay.  We hadn’t played together in about a month and it showed.  I half expected that I would have forgotten how to play every song.  That wasn’t the case, but it didn’t mean I didn’t screw up left and right and get lost now and then.

I had a disconcerting technical issue.  I think I know what it was though.  After 2-3 songs my volume level dropped to almost nothing.  It was weird.  One minute I was roaring like a tornado of Big Muff Fuzz, and the next I was a whisper.  I thought it was my uni-vibe pedal as a light that usually doesn’t light was lit from the minute I plugged in.  I figured the battery was dead.  I bypassed it on the board but it didn’t solve the problem.  Screw this, thinks I.  I pulled my tuner off the board and bypassed everything else.  The signal path was guitar->wah->fuzz->tuner->amp.  The problem persisted.  So I bypassed everything and plugged straight into the amp.  It worked.  So I have it narrowed down to those three pedals.  I am acting under the assumption that the amazing Big Muff pedal has a dead battery.

So what’s in the bag then?  Speak of the devil, it’s my pedal board and all of my pedals from Mike the bass player’s house.  Now I can add all the new pedals to the board, replace all of the 9-volt batteries with the new DC Brick power supply, and rearrange the whole thing to get the most noisy fuzz boxy mess imaginable!  I’ll let you know when it’s up and running again.  There will be an I-am-so-cool-check-out-my-pedal-board picture, I’m sure of it.

Caution: Bad Guitar Playing

There are three new devices that need to go on my pedal board.  There will eventually be a fourth, but for now it’s three.  Here’s a video of me noodling with the new toys.

 

A Joyo Ultimate Drive (which is a clone of a Fulltone OCD)
A Seymour Duncan Vapor Trail analog delay
And for the first time ever, a DC power source for the pedals!  It’s an MXR DC Brick.  No more 9-volt batteries for me!*

 

*well… I think I have more pedals than the brick can handle, so maybe a few more 9-volt batteries.

More Than a Feeling

I sat outside the practice room while my step son’s band was rehearsing.  Toward the end of the hour they started working on a new song.  “More Than a Feeling” by Boston.

Forgetting the fact that Jen knew Boston’s singer, one of my first bands tried to play “More Than a Feeling” too.  If I remember correctly it was a short lived thing called No Anchovies Please (a kick ass name, indeed).  I was in 11th grade and had only been playing guitar for a short time.  I could barely do anything.  There was another guitar player in the band and he was good, and a few years later he would graduate to insanely awesome.

Everything we did was probably terrible, but I remember the first time we did the two part guitar harmony leading into the chorus and it was magic.  We all kinda looked at each other and said, woah!  Now my step son is going to have the same experience.  It’s going to be epic for him too.

The universe is like a circle.  What comes around goes around.  When that comes around gets to you, it is topped off with some sick ass guitarmonies.

Rock on, oh step son of mine!

I’m Sorry

Why do so many guitar player accessories have blatantly sexist names? I don’t want to be a part of this particular problem but I’ve gone and made a hypocrite out of myself.

David Gilmour… listen to his Stratocaster sound on Pink Floyd records like Animals and The Wall. What does he use to get that killer tone? I want that killer tone too! How can I get myself one step closer? Well I can start by trying out some of the gear he used. How about his overdrive pedal? Awesome!

Except that it has an embarrassingly sexist name. I won’t share it because it would make me feel like an asshole. Even worse? I bought one on ebay. It’s going to be shipped in a day or so. Maybe I’ll put duct tape over the graphics painted onto the housing. It won’t fool anyone, but at least Mr Hypocrite will be able to pretend.

I feel like a jerk, and not just because I want to steal someone else’s tone.

I Haven’t Posted Today

What’s going on, Rob?  You slacking or what?

I’m listening to a recording of last night’s band practice.  It had been a couple of weeks and it really showed.  Ouch.  The tape was made with my phone, not my laptop.  Why?  My Lexicon audio interface is producing HUGE amounts of extraneous noise on all channels.  I think she’s dead, Jim.

I’d been threatening it, and last night I did it… I played my Strat at practice.  It doesn’t sound too bad on the tape.  Different, but not bad.  I still think I’ll be back to the Les Paul next week though.  It just feels more natural to me.

I’d been threatening it, and last night I did it…  I bought a distortion pedal on eBay.  It was 50% off the retail price.  Cool.  Of course that was before I realized I need a new USB audio interface.  Ouch.

Speaking of ouch, I was walking to my car after work and my right leg just gave out.  Huge pain in my calf.  I thought I was going to fall but I kept my feet.  I’ve been limping like mad ever since.  I didn’t step funny or move weird or anything.  One step it was perfectly fine, the next it was hurting like hell.  I hope it’s better tomorrow.

Two in a Row

Today was the first band practice after two weeks off. It was the second practice since I had my really scary pain filled practice. Fortunately, it was the second in a row that was mostly pain free. I had a little issue early on in my right hand, which is pretty unusual. My left hand, where most of the crippling pain happens, was okay. Whew!

Lots of issues though. I plugged in the MacBook and there was a ton of noise coming in on the left channel. I spent a couple of minutes trying to track it down and then just closed the laptop and went on with practice. Next week I’ll get some new cables and bring some compressed air and try and figure out whatever was wrong.

I also had a battery in a stomp box die. I decided to go with the quick fix here too and just plugged the guitar straight into the amp and bypassed the pedal board entirely. That lead to the silly problem. As I was plugging the cable into my guitar I threaded it through my strap, as you should. Unfortunately, the strap popped off and I didn’t re-thread the cable when I put it back on. Wouldn’t you know it, the very next song I stepped on the cable and popped it out of the guitar. Damn it! I plugged it back in, threading it through the strap again, and the strap popped off again. Argh! I literally screamed in frustration… while standing next to my microphone. hehe Woops!

The things we guitar players do, am I right?

I Live to Play Guitar Again

Whatever it was that I did this weekend, it worked. I had very little pain in my hands during last night’s band practice. Every now and then it would flare up just to remind me that it was there, but it was never bad and it didn’t last long.

So what was the cure this time? Increased practicing on my own? Starting to warm up an hour before rehearsal started? Stretching sooner? The double shot of Advil I took just as rehearsal was starting? Playing my Les Paul instead of my ES-335?

Or did I just relax and not tense up the way I usually do.

I don’t know. Some combination of all of them? I don’t know, but I’ll try the same routine next week. With the pain out of the equation, I was able to concentrate on what I was doing and I felt much better about the quality of my guitar playing. My singing too, although who cares about that, amiright?

We played a bunch of new songs, and for the first time since I started mic’ing the room the recording sounds half decent. The vocals still need to come up and maybe the guitar needs to back off a bit (fat chance of that happening, amiright?). I even did a tiny bit of mastering this time. It’s just a stereo track. I put a compresser on the whole track, added a little eq, and just the tiniest touch of reverb. I also unmuted the left side of the drums.

What do you think?

Prep-Time Part 1

Practice is at 6:00 tonight. A little after 1:00 I did some prep work. The Les Paul hasn’t been played in a few months and the strings were rusted and grimy. I took off the strings and gave the neck a serious wiping down. It helped, but it’s not perfect. I need to polish it but can’t find my bottle of goop right now.  
I put on a new set of strings and played through my homework (four songs) a few times. I played sitting and standing, and all four new songs sit around the 2nd fret, which is usually what triggers the pain. No problems at all. Maybe I just need to relax when I play with other people around.
We are going to eat dinner soon. After that I will play again for another 45 minutes or so. I’m also planning to bring a bottle of Advil to practice too. Hopefully all of this combined will keep me mostly pain free tonight and I’ll actually be able to focus on playing the damn guitar as well as I can for a change.