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Tony Bruno Custom Amps

These are obviously highly thought of. They certainly sound good to me.

Tony Bruno Custom Amps - Tweedy Pie 18

Hot Hands - hand controlled foot pedals

If you see what I mean! Check out the videos on the site and it'll all become clearer.



Hot Hand Guitar Effects (efx) - Source Audio

super cool scratchplates!

These are top secret, apparently.
But very very nice!
I don't think they'd work very well with the sunburst finish of my telecaster, though.
Ah, a good reason to build one of my own!

Fantastic guitars

I love the look of these guitars - the top one is a slidecaster with a Hipshot multiple tuning bridge - there's loads more on the website.

NOAHguitARS

Crook Guitar Straps

Look, he's already got one with my name on! (No - not Journey South!)

(Actually I've already got one with my name on)

CD Review - Neil Diamond - Home Before Dark

Disclosure: I got this CD for free

Now, I'm not a Neil Diamond fan. Sure, I know his well known songs, and I even played a few in Franco's Office Bar, Edinburgh, a long long time ago. But the reason I accepted the offer of this CD to review was the involvement of producer Rick Rubin, who has done great work with Johnny Cash on his American Recordings series. And when I got the CD and saw from the detailed, nicely packaged cover that Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench from Tom Petty's Heartbreakers were involved, my interest was piqued even more. And it seems lots of other folks have been interested, as this cd has just gone to Number 1 in the USA - Neil's first No. 1 album.

There's some good songs here - opener "If I don't See You Again" is a long tale of regrets and breakup - a simple arrangement complements the lyrics perfectly.

"Pretty Amazing Grace" is another "love song", I guess, which I can see being a live favourite on Neil's forthcoming extensive tour.

One of the reasons I haven't paid much attention to Diamond's work is that I used to find his voice an acquired taste - one that wasn't for me. (People say the same about my voice, too, it has to be said!) But on this album, though I'm sure he hasn't changed his singing style just for me, his voice is actually pretty good. I'm putting this down to the simplicity of the arrangements and the quality of the songs, and the fact that he reminds me of Fred Neil, a great singer/songwriter sadly no longer with us.

In his extensive sleeve notes Neil tells us about the writing and recording process of the album - quite insightful for fellow writers and musicians, and of enough interest too for plain old fans, I think.

One of my favourite songs here is "Don't Go There", where it seems Neil is trying to decide what to do next in a relationship - he's obviously worried about sharing too much, going too far and getting hurt in the process.

"Another Day", with excellent vocals by Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks tells the tale of love that has been lost, day by day, by both parties involved - "The two of us we both just let it fly". I agree with Jack Pribek - this would be great single.

There's lots of words in these songs - no simple "verse, verse, chorus, verse" for most of them - and at times Neil gets a bit "Moon, June" with his lyrics, but it is his 48th album, so I guess we can let him off for that!

Another track I like is "Forgotten" - although it is here that the rhyming seems a little simplistic, I like the loping feel that the band impart to this - it also reminds me a lot of Fred Neil's work on albums like "Bleeker and MacDougal"

"Whose Hands Are These" seems a simple song but the lyrics show how an idea can be developed to tell a story.

The title track "Home Before Dark" brings things to a close with a feeling of longing and searching:
"I looked for my truth, knowing the truth might hurt me"

For Neil Diamond fans this album will be, I hope, a pleasant surprise - the songs are great, the voice is great and the band are excellent, never overplaying things.

For non Neil Diamond fans, the album will be a pleasant surprise too, if they approach it with an open mind - it doesn't have the sometimes bombastic arrangements of his earlier work - it is, to me, a singer/songwriter album

Neil has just been confirmed to play this year's Glastonbury Festival - I hope he gets a good response.

Neil recently played a secret show at The Bitter End and there are tracks here, here and here and there's a streaming video of Pretty Amazing Grace here

My pedal setup

Due to an ongoing financial crisis, a few weeks ago I had to urgently raise whatever cash I could. I knew I could sell some of my pedals, albeit at a ripoff price. I rounded up an assortment of pedals and, as (bad) luck would have it, the only pedals the guy in the store was interested in were the ones I didn’t really want to sell – Marshall Supervibe (chorus), Marshall Vibratrem (trem and vibrato) and Marshall Bluesbreaker 2 (boost and blues overdrive) so the heart of my pedal board vanished, and I didn’t get much return from it, either. But things can be replaced.

I let a few folks know that I’d had to do this and asked if anybody had any spare, old fx pedals lying around that I might borrow. I immediately received responses from several musician friends and was offered a variety of pedals. One friend offered me the loan of a Korg Analog multi fx beast (PME 40X) from the 80s, which I gladly took, though I haven’t got to grips with it yet. The design concept was quite interesting because you could buy the modules you wanted and just plug them in to the motherboard.

A few months ago I’d given the same friend a DiMarzio humbucker from the 70s, that he was interested in fitting to one of his projects. Unbeknown to me he purchased from a mutual friend a replacement Marshall Vibratrem and gave it to me. He also lent me his spare Marshall Bluesbreaker 2 pedal.

I’ve posted previously about the Gallien Krueger amp that I had before I got my Laney. I got the electronics fixed but didn’t get replacement speakers. I knew another friend who had an assortment of pedals for sale, so we arranged a trade – he got my amp and I got an Electro Harmonix Small Stone phaser and a Danelectro Milkshake chorus. So in fact I’ve ended up with more pedals than I started with.

Here’s my signal path, with a few notes about what I use the pedals for.

Behringer TU 100 tuner – a straightforward tuner which allows me to tune silently – as soon as I press the pedal the signal to the amp is muted. If I had funds (ha!) I might replace this with the Boss equivalent, though as the Behringer cost £19 brand new and the Boss TU12 is around 3 times that, it will be some time before I can do it – and to be honest the Behringer has been fine.

Behringer CS100 compressor/sustainer – I’ve always used a compressor for my slide playing – I think it allows the notes to ring out for longer (I combine this with a touch of delay too) but I don’t really use one for chord work, which many people do. I do, however, use it to give me a different sound for a solo. Again I’d replace this if funds allowed – I’ve considered, at some point in the future, having a go at building my own fx pedals using some kits that are around, and a compressor would be a good starting point. I do have a Boss CS3 Compressor/Sustainer – the one that has several mods available for it – but there’s an intermittent problem with the on/off switch, that makes it unreliable to use on stage.

Marshall Vibratrem – this has two settings – one for vibrato and one for tremolo – and I still haven’t found my “sweet” setting yet - I use it for classic slow tremolo on slow twangy bits, but also I like faster speed vibrato (not quite a “Leslie in a box”) – I was interested in this after hearing Warren Haynes use a similar setting – both on chords and solo work.

Marshall Bluesbreaker 2 (boost/blues overdrive) – again a pedal with 2 settings – in boost mode it does exactly that and naturally is very useful for soloing – especially in front of the drive channel of my Class A Laney VC30 – a gain sound that I’ve never been used to until I first got one of these pedals. In the Blues mode, there is loads more gain, and I’ve started using this for some chunky guitar chords (e.g. the intro to “Jesus Just Left Chicago”) or for some lovely creamy overdrive. I tend to use either this setting on the pedal or the drive channel on my amp for overdriven solos – they both sound different – but using them together – at least in the kind of music I play - would just be overkill.

Arion Octave Pedal – I got this very cheap off ebay a few months ago, as I was looking for a more twangy guitar sound and thought that the combination of an octave pedal, some deep reverb and the bridge pickup on my Tele would give me that sound. (I haven’t got it quite right, yet). This pedal offers you two octaves – one octave below the original signal and another 2 octaves below the original signal. Using the controls you can blend the original signal with either or both of the octaves. I’ve been using an equal mix of the original signal and the first octave below it for some solo stuff – again inspired by Warren Haynes use of an octave pedal in his live work. It sounds good clean or overdriven. It is very effective, but not something that you can use on more than one or two songs in a set. I have managed too to use it for some twanginess when I’m maybe doubling the bass line – say on a Tom Petty tune.

Danelectro Milkshake Chorus – I always like a touch of chorus on my chord work (though I can play without it) and I try and have it set so that you only really notice it when it isn’t there (if you see what I mean), though this pedal does have enough variation to give a full range of chorus tones, from the minimalist to the extreme.

Nevada Delay – although this has the look of a boutique delay pedal, it actually cost £19 brand new from ebay – made in China I believe. As I said earlier I like to use delay on my slide work, but I use a lot less than I used to after listening to a live recording of my previous band Black River Blues when I realised my guitar sound was too “effected”. It has a useable range of sounds for my uses – I have started using it on the last few phrases of some solos to add emphasis and colour. I’ve also always used a delay in conjunction with “violining” of my guitar volume control for long and short swells – useful for atmospheric stuff (I’ve had some praise on my use of this technique). Again I’d consider replacing it if I could – the Boss DD range look good and are an accepted standard for a compact delay pedal, though, as might be expected, the equivalent Behringer “clone” is much cheaper.

Electro Harmonix Small Stone phaser – a result of my trade mentioned earlier, this was brand new in the box. I haven’t used a phaser for a long long time so wasn’t sure what I’d get from it, but it has very usable sounds from the sublime to the extreme, depending on where you set it. I have quite a mild setting which is good for chord work as well as adding a different voice to some solos. We don’t play any songs that use a phaser as part of their signature licks (though I’d love to have a go at “Summer Breeze” by The Isley Brothers!) so I don’t need to exactly match anybody else’s tone. (there's a really informative page about these pedals here)

I have all of these pedals mounted on a piece of ¾” ply that was left over from a job at home. I got some heavy duty Velcro and use that to attach the pedals to the board – sometimes though the Velcro is stronger than the glue holding the rubber base of the pedal to the pedal itself. I’ve attached a handle to the top edge of the board to make it easier to carry. I’ve mounted a 4 way mains distribution board and use a mains adaptor with a spider device to power all of the pedals apart from the phaser, which has a different mains input and has its own mains transformer.

The pedals are connected by a variety of patch leads and jack to jack connectors (straight and cranked). The GK pedal at the top of the picture is the channel/reverb pedal from my GK amp – it carries out the same function in my current set up.

I am not 100% sure about the order of these pedals yet, but it will be fairly easy to make changes if I want to. I quite like the idea of having a proper pedal board/case, and there are some on the market here in the UK via ebay that are pretty reasonable – though “reasonable” depends on how financially stable you are!

When I recently put all of this stuff together, I had 3 hours were I wasn’t getting a signal to the amp. I got extremely frustrated and tried each pedal one at a time, adding pedals to the chain. After walking away from it, my son said “What about the connectors?”. And he was right – one of the cranked connectors which doesn’t appear to have any moving parts was faulty.

As I’ve mentioned in the piece about my amp, I can and do play without effects, but I do like the variety of sounds that they offer me. I’d consider adding a wah and a good volume pedal at some point in the future.
And if you’re thinking of buying a new pedal, take a look at you tube first – there are loads of video demos and reviews there.

Amp talk by me

I wrote a piece about my amp choice and some other verbiage - it is over at Jack Pribek's place. While you're there, buy a copy of his CD - it rocks (review coming Real Soon Now!)

The Midnight Rider

I don't think this would fit in the car park of most pubs I've played in, but it would be cool to turn up at a gig in it. Could probably do a gig in it!

Nice Black Telecaster

A friend of mine (Bad Bob Bates from The Bandits) likes telecasters and their variants. He has a few home built models, and he has just put this lovely thing together. I haven't seen it in the flesh (wood) yet, but it looks good here.

Garden Guitar

This just won't fit in my back garden

via J-Walk

Kickstand - guitar stand

Here's an interesting take on a perennial problem for us guitar players - do you trust your vintage guitar to be leaned against an amp? Do you carry around yet another piece of metalwork that needs a degree in engineering to assemble and keeps getting tangled up in all of the cables on stage? Oh, and how many have you left at gigs? (I'm on my 4th guitar stand)

I'd have one of these tomorrow - it attaches to your guitar using the existing strap button hole, so no permanent changes are made to the guitar.

I wonder if they need a UK distributor - I could sell them on ebay, go to guitar shows maybe?
I'm up for a review model if they feel like sending one!

Check out the videos to see it in action.

Harpejji

Some interesting sounds from this new musical instrument - kind of a cross between an autoharp, a keyboardless piano, a bagatelle table and an ironing board.

Ooh look, they have sunburst! Check the videos to see what it sounds like - great harpejjios there!

Marcodi Musical Products

Whole Wheat Radio from Alaska

I check way too many blogs every day. One of them is The J-Walk Blog. He's a banjo player, but I won't hold that against him. He has loads of interesting and amusing links, many of them music related. I checked in today and was reminded by J about Whole Wheat Radio (Radio for Grownups) that is available online from Alaska. A great selection of music for those hours when you want to listen to music but can't make a choice - just leave it up to them.

CD Review - Newton Faulkner "Hand Built By Robots"

Disclosure: I got this CD for free

This album is already doing very well, (platinum, I believe) so it doesn't really need my support to make or break it, though it has just been released in the US. Newton Faulkner is one of several young singer/songwriters around who play some mighty fine acoustic guitar and at times use their guitars as percussion instruments. But there's more than flashy guitar here. There are good songs, delivered in a good voice - "To the light again" is up tempo and uplifting, after a brief instrumental intro. Newton studied guitar with the late Eric Roche, so he should know what he is doing in that respect - and he does.

His is one of those "MySpace success stories" too - kind of a new phenomenon these days where people get exposure and maybe even record deals through their MySpace page.

But what is good here isn't fancy guitarobics - it is the songs that make this CD worth listening to. "Dream Catch Me" is one of my favourites, along with "People Should Smile More".

You can watch Newton on VH1s The Leak here and listen to the track "Dream Catch Me" here and buy the CD here

Poster Art

Humbucking Keyring

Swineshead pickups make great looking and great sounding pickups in the UK. I doubt I'll be getting any anytime soon, but I might pop for one of these humbucking keyrings!

Ehlers Guitars

Some lovely guitars here. I dream of the day that I might be able to afford a custom made acoustic guitar - then I wake up and smell the coffee!
Ehlers Guitars :: Photo Gallery

Building a Telecaster with a Bigsby

A lot of work goes into this guitar - especially finding the right parts.


PROJECT TELECASTER - MYPROJECT
Technorati Tags: guitars, telecaster, bigsby

Hmm - Telecasters with Bigsbys!!

Loads of pictures here
62Custom 04 - MIJ
Technorati Tags: guitar, telecaster, bigsby

The Ones That Got Away

Here's a site dedicated to those guitars that we've all had but had to get rid of. And we wish we had them back. I've had a few of those, I can tell you! (Though I don't think I'd miss this Guyateone bass too much!)

Gary Grainger Private Stock Bass

PRS Guitars - Gary Grainger Private Stock Bass

No, I haven't taken up the bass - though I have played some bass on some recordings and in some bands. I once sat at a restaurant table next to Gary Grainger and John Scofield. I was too shy to introduce myself.

Radio & Television Equipment Co.

..:: Guitar Saloon Online-Shop ::..

Wooden Pickguards

These look very nice - but surely they wooden work? (I.m sorry, Ive been ill you know!)
..:: SINGLECOIL.COM webshop ::..

Sho Bud acoustic guitars

quite rare, but very nice!
Sho Bud Acoustic Guitars :: Unofficial Home

Valhalla power cord

They're kidding, right?
List
Prices

2m with Nordost UK plug @ £1,924.95

screedbot

Chayanne and Bishop FM

I was supposed to go to Bishop FM lat night, but I've been ill for a couple of weeks and despite my best efforts I couldn't make it. I'm sorry I couldn't get there because I was looking forward to meeting, hearing and playing some tunes with Charlotte Yanni - Charley or Chayanne as she is known. Charley is a French girl living in South Shields (a "Geordie Frog" as she describes herself) and she writes and sings some great tunes. I managed to tune in to the last hour of the show online, and it just made me wish even more that I'd been there - I didn't tell anybody but I'd even learned some of her own tunes on the guitar so that I could accompany her. Never mind, there'll be other times, I'm sure. On Sunday of this week, Charley was in the regional finals of Live & Unsigned, a competition with a huge prize for the eventual winner. Unfortunately, Charley didn't progress, but she is still upbeat and I'm sure her infectious character, great singing, playing and songwriting will bring her success before too long. Charley has a myspace page here and a youtube page here

Band name change

I know, I know!
We're now called Big G - actually a name that was first applied to me in the early 70s when I was playing in various bands that got together for one off jam sessions and the (very) odd gig.

Poster Art Poster

A long long long long time ago, before the age of downloads of live music, before the age of CD burners, there was tape trading. I , like many others have boxes and boxes of tapes stashed away, mainly of The Grateful Dead. I used to look forward every day to the postman delivering packages to me from around the world. I used to like to put some extra stuff in packages I sent out (postcards, stickers, etc.), and I asked folks to do the same when they were sending stuff to me. In one such parcel I got this poster for a Sixties Poster Art exhibition. Unfortunately I can't remember who I got it from. I got it laminated as soon as I got it and luckily the lamination process didn't damage anything - I've had mixed results with lamination. It seems fairly easy to read on the screen here, but if you look at the hardcopy in just the wrong way the words start to melt, just like that girl's face the last time you dropped acid.

Victor Moscoso, who drew this poster, has a site here. He's one of the original San Francisco sixties poster artists and has produced posters , album art and more for many years. Check his work out.

Job Application

Way back in 1990 I was working at a small print shop, doing DTP on a very underpowered Apple Mac Plus. I learned a lot in a short while before the business went bust. While I was there I applied for a job with Cleveland County Council, who published a newspaper called The Clevelander that went to every home in the county. I decided that, to have any chance of getting an interview, I had to do something to be noticed. Here's my application form. I got an interview, but didn't get the job (there were only 2 of us in for it and the other person had more experience) (Click the image to read the drivel)

Trì is born

You may have read about my various musical adventures with Phil Graham - every now and again we get together to play an assortment of folk, rock and blues songs - whatever the gig needs, really. We've done a few of these now as a duo, and generally I'm happy to act as guitar player and harmony singer, with the odd lead vocal or two. You may also remember that I'm in a band that has just added a keyboard player as our fifth member. The drummer in this band, David, also plays assorted percussion - djembe, bhodran, etc. A while ago the three of us played a pre-St. Patrick's day gig in Newton Aycliffe, and it went pretty well. So, we have formalised our relationship a little more - we are a band and we are called Trì -as Phil says, "It's Gaelic for "three" and the pronunciation is longer than the i in Tricks but shorter then the e in Tree."


Phil is still going to be doing solo gigs, as am I, and David and I will continue to give our band our main focus, but every now and again Trì will get together. We have such a gig in a fortnight's time, just a short spot at the beginning of a football presentation evening - it is good to be out gigging even though our band isn't quite ready yet.

Laney VC 30 Guitar Amp repair

Not mine, but this is a very comprehensive write up of a repair to one of these great amps. Mine doesn't have this speaker, it has an uprated model (12" Celestion model Seventy 80) and the magnetic problem mentioned in the piece doesn't exist. Lots of other interesting amp stuff here too.

What a lot of neck!

This 4-necked beast is currently available on ebay here

via J Walk

Watkins Guitar World

When I was a lad we would dream about the guitars we'd like - one that didn't seem too far out of reach was the Watkins Rapier - I never did get one but I had a brand new WEM Dominator guitar combo a bit later - solid state and not very good. There's loads of great info on this site - I'll be checking back and maybe looking on ebay for a Rapier of my own!

Van Morrison Keep It Simple - CD Review

(Disclosure: I got this CD for free)

Van Morrison is another one of those folks who have always been around in my psyche. Like a lot of people of a certain age, I loved "Astral Weeks" and "Into The Mystic" is currently on the rehearsal list for both my band and solo sets. I've sung "Moondance" and "Brown Eyed Girl" in 2 different bands, and the other week at The Buskers I belted out "Gloria" - a song I've played for years and years.

I know that Van has some avid followers too, folks who hang on his every word. I'm not one of those folks, but I do like him.

I was sent this CD a few weeks ago and I immediately liked it. In fact, i liked it before i got it as I listened to a track online here

And I fully understand what Van means when he talks about "Entrainment":

“’Entrainment’ is when you connect -- when you connect with the music,” says Morrison, “’Entrainment’ is really what I’m getting at in the music – where I’m able to do what I used to call my thing. Entrainment is based on accessing a sort of hypnotic kind of thing – not stage hypnosis, but more like tying in with the music. Its kind of when you’re in the present moment – you’re here – with no past or future.”

I know exactly what he is talking about and search for that feeling every time I play.

This album as the title suggests, is fairly simple - a small ensemble of musicians playing with a soul/blues feel for most of the time. It seems as if Van is assessing his life in these songs:

"How can a Poor Boy" isn't the blues standard of that title, rather Van talks about his journey through life:

"Had my congregation, had my flock". He makes reference too to The Shadow - surely a reference to something he listened to as a child.

His life gives more content on "School of Hard Knocks" and there follows "That's Entrainment" - an uptempo song that could become a standard, I think. There's some great playing on this album too - nice to see English country music star Sarah Jory on pedal steel and banjo - when I was playing in a country band years ago she was an up and coming youngster who was destined for big things. I love the Hammond sound by John Allair and the guitars are tastefully understated.

"Don't Go To Nightclubs Anymore", with a great late night blues feel, must also be another autobiographical song - "Alcohol was too big a price".

"Song of Home" has, naturally, a feeling of homesickness and talks about the need to get back home n