I post about the Youtube show That Pedal Show a lot. I’ve learned a lot from watching those two guys goof off, but their latest posts are something that is practically unbelievable.
A couple of years ago the two hosts took their #1 guitars to a Luthier who did various maintenance on them (mostly dealing with frets). One of the hosts mentioned that this particular Luthier makes his favorite acoustic guitar and he was going to bite the bullet and order one. The build takes a couple of months and the wait list is a couple of years. Yikes!
Over the last four days the show has posted one video per day (there will be a fifth tomorrow) that is just watching this Luthier build the host’s guitar from scratch. He starts with a couple of thin planks of wood and goes from there.
It is freakin’ FASCINATING. I mean, I knew it was an art, but the guy is shaping the guitar’s neck with a friggin’ chisel! A CHISEL! It’s just amazing to watch.
I’ll post the first video (number one of five) and links to the next three. When I get a chance to watch the fifth video (hopefully tomorrow) I’ll post that one too. The whole thing is going to be about five hours long, but it is just ridiculously satisfying to watch. Give it a try, a bit at a time. It’s so worth it.
This week’s episode of That Pedal Show is once again forcing* me to change things in the bedroom recording nook. They keep doing this to me!
The topic is using overdrive pedals in a band setting and it didn’t really teach me anything I didn’t already know. The what not to do examples were things that I used to do all the time, and the what you should do examples were things that I have decided were good ideas over the last 6-7 years or so. I guess I’m like Fredo Corleone. I’m smart.
Nope, what got into my head was just one of the pedals they used for the demonstration. They were using a Rat. Last year I bought a decent Rat clone. It’s on the table next to my desk but tomorrow it’s totally going on the board and getting used on some November Music stuff.
Inspiration, babie!
*Ain’t nobody forcing me to do jack. It’s just inspiration. Oodles of inspiration.
I haven’t watched this week’s That Pedal Show but I know it’s going to mess with my head.
I literally just decided that November’s music is going to be recorded using one specific amp. I mean, I literally just said that! Now I go to youtubie and see that this week’s show topic is running a two amp set up.
It’s like they knew what I was thinking and released the exact video that can fudge up my head.
I’m still going to watch though. I’ll consider it a challenge to stick to my guns… and then go back to two amps again next month.
I can’t sleep so I’ve been putzing around YouTube looking for cool ideas for things to do with your Les Paul.
First things first, this dude is playing a copy and that offends me. He has an SG and another Les Paul on the wall behind him. Are those cheap copies too?
Anyway, he lists five things and literally every video I’ve looked at tonight lists exactly the same things. The first two are things that I figured out on my own back in 1987 when my Peavy amp’s foot switch got smashed in my car. I thought they were common knowledge. No one taught me, I just figured it out after about 0.68 seconds worth of research.
The third and fifth tricks are things I use occasionally. I learned about “woman tone” (terrible name, Eric) from a Clapton biography back in ‘86 or ‘87. The kill switch thing… I forget where I learned that… it might have been that same Clapton biography or maybe a guitar magazine column. I’m thinking maybe Rik Emmett’s column? I learned a few things from him, but most of it was way above my skill level.
The forth tip is the one that’s interesting to me. I first learned of that from a That Pedal Show episode last year and I’ve been playing with it lately, but it’s not making that much of a difference. I’m guessing it will be a bigger effect at higher volumes. I want to try it at a Lizardfish practice, assuming there someday is another Lizardfish practice.
This week’s That Pedal Show is all about Fender Strats. I tried to love my Strat but I just couldn’t connect with it. It’s a killer guitar and I got some great sounds out of it. It just doesn’t feel like home though. I watched the episode but it took a few sittings to get through it. As soon as it was done I went back to the Les Paul vs ES-335 episode from last December because I needed to feel at home again.
I took out my new Les Paul and noodled along. I am pretty sure I am going to have to start talking to a therapist soon. Until then, playing guitar will have to do.
Les Paul Standard 50’s into a Ryra The Klone into a Vox AC15. In case you were curious. Recorded with the iPhone mic, which means you likely won’t be curious.
I’m still at my mother’s house. I’m not sure what time the change over is happening tonight, but it’s probably soon. Let’s wrap up what we accomplished.
Four meds deliveries, three today and one last night. Three loads of laundry. Three song ideas, all of which are in 7/8 time which is glorious. One movie, Joker. Holy shit was that good. Two episodes of The Handmaids Tale. Holy shit is that show good. An episode and a half of That Pedal Show mostly focusing on Uni-Vibe effects but also Harmonic Tremelo. Uni-Vibes are cool. Harmonic Tremolo is cool too, I guess, but I’m not really a tremolo guy… though the amp I’m recording with this month has one (volume based, not harmonic based) built in and I’ve been sort of looking for a place to use it. Three bags of recycling taken out. Three calls from Dad. The last couple of cans from the 12 pack of Diet Pepsi that I brought over last week finished. Sleep… not so much.
Is that everything? It’s all I can recall off the top of my head.
The Red Sox lost, I did a load of laundry, my mother sat up for about an hour before going back to bed, I watched an episode of That Pedal Show that is making me want to go into cellar storage and find my cheap uni-vibe pedal, I wrote the music for another song that could possibly make good use of a cheap uni-vibe pedal, and the first episode of season four of The Handmaids Tale has some seriously dark shit in it.
I’ll be turning in soon. Here’s hoping my mother sleeps through the night. She was asleep when I got here. She woke up a couple of hours later thinking it was morning. I asked her if she wanted dinner as she was fishing out a package of instant oatmeal for breakfast. Hashtag, le sigh.
I’ve watched this video a bunch of times and I was watching it tonight because I couldn’t fall asleep.
They compare three 15 watt combo amps with a single 12 inch speaker: Fender Blues Junior, Vox AC15, and Fender Bassbreaker 15. I have a Bassbreaker 15 and it’s currently my #1 amp for playing at home. I mentioned earlier that I’m on the verge of talking myself into buying an AC15 too. I want to run the two amps together and if I can get enough volume out of the combination they might turn into my gigging rig (assuming the Coronavirus ever allows us to play gigs again).
Just posting the video (I bet I’ve posted this one before) to try and psyche myself into buying the Vox. That’s all.
It’s 11:30. I think I’ll be able to sleep now. Goodnight, everyone!
This is going to be long and lame. The tldr is that I put lead guitar on one song and then mixed it and it’s done.
That Pedal Show. That Effin’ Pedal Show. Easily the best thing for guitar players that I have seen on youtube. Nothing I’ve seen is even in the ballpark. They keep messing with my head. It’s getting down right freaky now. It’s like they somehow can see into my soul. What the hell?
Due to COVID-19 they are scrambling a little to keep producing content. When the lock downs started (they are in the UK, though that doesn’t actually matter) they had a big backlog of shows they could release. No one expected this would last as long as it has and now their backlog is gone. So they started projects that they could do at home, and both hosts hit on the idea of writing and recording some music.
Hey, that’s the same thing I’m doing with my quarantini time!
The video they released today is titled “5 Things We’ve Learned Recording Guitars & Amps At Home.” They are more or less coming to conclusions that I’ve already come to in the past. Namely, that recording guitars using amp or cabinet simulators or impulse responses can sound pretty good, but it feels wrong. I used to use amp sims built into GarageBand and it was fine but it always felt a little wrong to me. Next I used the cabinet sims built into my Fender Bassbreaker 15 and Vox MV50 amps. It was a little better, but it still didn’t really sound really real… really. Eventually I decided to just cut the crap and put a mic on an amp for all of my guitar parts. I think I made that official in February 2019’s RPM Challenge. Did I do it in 2018 too? I can’t remember. Whatever, I haven’t used an amp or cab sim in a long time. Putting a mic on an amp sounds better to my ears, but even more important it feels better when I’m playing. It doesn’t feel like gigs or rehearsals feel because I can’t turn up the volume enough to have the sound pressure physically effect me, but it still feels real.
I’m getting to the point, but first I have to tell a back story that I am positive I’ve written about here before.
In 2000 I bought a 1979 Gibson ES-335 Pro on ebay. I’ve always wanted a 335. Not as much as I wanted a Les Paul, which is why the first high end guitar I bought was a Les Paul, and when that was stolen the second high end guitar I bought was also a Les Paul. My 335 has had a rough life. I’ve taken care of it the best I could, but some previous owner treated it badly. When I got it, it was seriously beat to hell. It was also covered in a thick nicotine grime. The binding around the edge of the body is supposed to be white, but thanks to some heavy cigarette smoke it is now yellow. I used the 335 and my Les Paul interchangeably during my time in Break Even (2003-05), including using the 335 exclusively on our CD. More recently, the years have been catching up to it. The electronics are starting to fail. I can’t tell if the solder is letting go, or the components are rotting away or what. Because it is a semi-hollow guitar, there is no way to access the electronics without actually taking the body apart and there is no way I am ever going to do that on my own. I may someday pay a luthier to do it for me, but that’s likely going to cost me a lot.
In 2018 Lizardfish played a gig where I decided I was going to give my beloved 335 a retirement party. One last gig using it as my #1 and then I declare it’s service complete and it stops leaving my house. As bad luck would have it, I had all sorts of problems with it during that gig. The signal kept cutting out. I had to switch to my Les Paul for about half of the show. It was sad, but it proved that I was making the right move. A short time later I bought my 2018 Gibson SG to replace the 335 as my #2. I brought the 335 out for one song during February’s RPM Challenge project because I wanted to have all three Gibsons on the same song. I think I also used it for some feedback on another song. That was it though. Other than those two little things, the 1979 Gibson ES-335 Pro has been retired.
Until today’s episode of That Pedal Show.
Both of the show’s hosts are Fender guys mostly. Dan goes for Telecasters and Mick goes for Stratocasters. They both own a gorgeous Gibson custom shop model that they often go to when they need something with humbuckers. Dan has a ’58 Les Paul reissue and Mick has an ES-335.
Now as I’ve mentioned, I have been doing a lot of recording lately through an amp at low volume. As I’ve also mentioned, that is the topic of today’s episode. At round about 29:35 of the video, Mick was talking about needing to feel a physical connection to the guitar as he’s playing (didn’t I just say I needed something like that?). He also said that when he’s playing loud he wants to play his Strat, but when he’s recording at low volume at home he wants to play his 335 because it resonates more. It’s partly hollow and when you’re playing you can actually feel the guitar vibrating a little in a way that a solid body guitar doesn’t.
GOD DAMN IT! HE’S RIGHT!
My memory immediately flashed back to one of the first Break Even gigs in… 2003, I think. We were on a small stage, all five of us close together, and we were loud. Like… really loud. Playing my Les Paul at a sick volume like that is a wonderful experience. I had never played my ES-335 in that setting though and when I did it was absolutely magical. The hollow portion of the guitar has two F holes and as we were roaring away, the air was rushing through those holes. Every time Bob hit the bass drum air would literally flow out from inside the guitar. Every time Dave hit a note on the bass it happened. Every time Steve and I hit a chord just right it happened. I never even imagined I would be able to actually FEEL THE AIR MOVING THROUGH MY GUITAR. Like I said, it was friggin magic.
Lizardfish never gets loud enough to reproduce that effect. Every once in a while I’ll feel a little breath of air and it will bring me back to that first night, but it never happens consistently and it’s rare. When Mick talked about his guitar resonating I knew exactly what he was talking about and I realized that I was actually missing it. Back in February when I was recording with two amps I was playing louder than I ever get to play at home. I thank my wife and step kids for not losing their shit every time I played, but I haven’t done that since and in March, April, and May I’ve been quiet and I think it’s noticeable in the recordings because I am not connecting to it in the same way.
Well screw that, I thought, and I went straight down stairs and grabbed my ES-335. After work I took the two year old, rusty strings off, put some fretboard oil on the neck, and polished up what little finish is still on the body, put a new set of Stringjoy strings on, tuned it up, and started recording.
I only had one song that was ready for lead guitar, and it was one I was sort of avoiding. It was a 12-bar blues and I had left a ton of space for guitar solos. Like, waaaay more than I usually do. On the two occasions I set out to record leads I had skipped it because I feel like I am not playing well enough to justify giving myself that much solo space. I had actually written a song that intimidated me… like… what the hell, dude?
I plugged the 335 into the overdrive pedal I bought myself for my birthday a couple of weeks ago and just started playing. What I came up with is sloppy and hacky and not very good, but it felt good doing it. That’s what was important. It felt good. Also, fortunately the electronics didn’t give me any problems, which was helpful. If it had failed this would have been a much less happy post.
So first, the song. Then some pictures.
Pre-restringing and cleaning and oiling and stuff. ______________________________________________________
The F hole that all of that air moved through on that magical night in 2003. ______________________________________________________________________________
The only place were the electronics are even a tiny bit accessible, which is why I ain’t going to mess with them at all… ever. Professionals only, please. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
The obligatory post-recording picture _________________________________________
The obligatory faux artsy post-recording picture _____________________________________________________
And that, my friends is how watching That Pedal Show inspired me to do something new with my music… again.
Inside the Red Head's Head 