p90jr

I think Brother Gatemouth was taunting us with his intro to this one. His fingerpicking technique blows my mind because... how is he doing it?

I've spent a lot of time and a bit of money making sure I don't get "that sound ('electrified yard rake' is my descriptor)" out of my piezo-equipped guitars. My tech guys are now big on K&K Pure Mini pickups, which adhere to the bottom of the bridge instead of replacing the saddle with the transducer strip. They sound great and natural... but I mostly gig with solidbody acoustic Kelly/Turner and Godins, now, because I just want them to be as hassle-free (and non-tempermental) as electrics... so I guess I am using under-saddle piezo systems built into those, but with onboard preamps that make them sound great. And my Variax electric uses piezo bridge pieces to control the modeling processor, and the acoustic models on that thing really sound great (even the 12-strings)... I just get bummed a bit because it doesn't "feel" like I'm playing an acoustic when I use it that way... I don't know how to explain it, exactly... my body isn't getting the right "feedback" from the guitar in the way it feels and the dynamics aren't there when I'm strumming hard the way I expect, but the solidbody acoustics feel right, even though I put .10 gauge sets on them. I really wish Yamaha would release another Variax acoustic model because the old ones are so rare, now, but they seem to have given up on the Variax, really...

My brother has one... very cool instrument.

drool

Speaking of vinyl reissues... I finally added The Chameleons (UK)'s "Strange Times" from 1986 to my vinyl stash in the form of a new vinyl reissue (sounds great, on colored marbled vinyl)... it always seemed hard to find for a major label release around here, then was too pricey used when the internet geared up, so a cassette copy was all I had and that vanished years ago... This is one of the great forgotten (or never heard enough) new wave bangers of all time... like The Edge jamming with The Smiths with Richard Butler from the Psychedelic Furs on vocals...

I had heard songs over the years that I liked but never dove into them but a friend insisted ,y wife and I go see them at the smaller room at the HOB in New Orleans on the tour for their record "Howl," which was the one where they really mined acoustic and blues stuff a bit... it was one of the best shows I've ever seen and I've been a fan ever since. Saw them at 2pm at the Voodoo Fest a year or two later and that's not the setting for them (I think they were about to pass out in their black clothes in the New Orleans heat and humidity, plus half the PA seemed to be out for their set)... I recently got the vinyl reissue of "Howl" which I've been spinning a lot and the vinyl reissue of their first record just cam in so that's been on my turntable a lot.

Like Caevan said he prefers to play bass through guitar amps... but here's a nice bit of trivia... On Led Zep's first or second US tour they had a Rickenbacker endorsement deal and were given a bunch of Solid-State Transonic amps to use... Page hated them and quickly started replacing the heads with Fender Bassman or Marshall heads, not bothering to hide the fact as the tour went on... when they were leaving and telling the roadies farewell one of them asked "What do you want us to do with these amps?" The reply was "Throw them in a river somewhere..." One of the guys took them and stuck them in a warehouse... a couple of years later Petersson heard about it and tracked him down and bought some of them, and those are amps he used onstage in Cheap Trick's early days and he still pulls them out from time to time for tours...

I goofed in my almost-asleep original posting... Baúm is a Danish company, not Dutch...

This blew my mind the first time I heard it when it came out... they did a segment on them on "PM Magazine," I think, which was a syndicated "Entertainment Tonight"-type show. The Sex Pistols had played at a bar here down the street from my Catholic School just a little bit earlier, so they were a buzz here. A year or two later a neighbor kid I hung around was given an album for his birthday by his sister's then-boyfriend -who was the lead singer in the big popular punk/new band in town: "Boy" by U2, and when he put on "I Will Follow" for me the first time I said "hey, that's a cool re-write of that Public Image song!" A few weeks later I saw U2 on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder... I saw Public Image on there, too... being an insomniac since kindergarten exposed me to some cool rock concert TV viewing!

I don't think I've mentioned it here... Curiosity got the better of me (and good timing with a clearance sale at Anderton's Music UK and historically low currency exchange rates months ago) and I ordered a Baúm Conquer 59 w/ Bigsby from the “Original Series” which are built for the Dutch Baúm company in South Korea and seem to be very good copies of the handmade Dutch models. Very nice and cool guitar... not a high gain rock machine (I have enough things that cover that) but a 60s vibe, reminds me a bit of a Jazzmaster meets a Coronado with a bit of Rickenbacker... throws me into a different headspace (or at least that's my excuse to the missus so hush hush)

The acoustic 12 strings on my Variax sound great if they are pumping through the PA or a good acoustic guitar or PA amp... I've found the trick with all of the acoustic models but especially the Reonator settings (including sitar) are to turn down the volume just a pich and turn down the tone knob, which on the variax if effectily moving the "mic" further back from the "soundhole." I'm not sure how the controls work on the Acoustic 700... The Electric 12 string is the weakest and least convincing sound on my Variax, but running it through the Janglebox compressor helps it a lot.

I like the Gloamer demo... but I'm trying to figure out if it will do anything I can't already do with all the pedals I have (and the HX Stomp, which I have hardly delved into as far as stereo effects)... I'm currently using the Crescendo with my Janglebox Nano or Barber Tone Press compressors, and tremolo pedals... I guess if a used one pops up cheaply, or as a SDOTD, I'll jump on it immediately...

Maybe the popularity of the Fender Acoustasonic models will push Yamaha to develop a Variax that's similar, but with alternate tunings!!!

Larry is actually playing these... and Korean-built guitars are way beyond respectable, quality-wise, IME... Duesenberg guitars are "assembled in Germany from woodworking done in South Korea," and look at those pricetags.

I would love to have one, too. I use my electric Variax for some acoustic songs with alternate tunings, but onstage it bums me out a bit because it doesn't feel like an acoustic, if that makes sense... it throws off my touch, I start strumming it too hard because I want that whatever it is you feel when strumming an acoustic (or probably just slightly heavier strings, but some body resonance I can feel, maybe)... I wish they'd do a run in a Yamaha-derived Solidbody acoustic or hollowbody acoustic, I'd jump on one!

A good low wattage amp IS a compressor, especially with good tube sag and set up for a little slower response... I think that's just Bill's touch and fingers in conjunction with his delay pedal...

Guitar Center/Musician's Friend has made so much profit the last 2 years that they aren't in danger of bankruptcy (do you guys remember me posting GC Death Watch articles here for the past decade or so?). But notice... "the past 2 years." You can figure out where they were making that profit... online, not in stores, which were shut down or had limited access during COVID. I've popped into the one here a few times in the last year or so... hard to find anything to buy because the string selection is spotty... but the store's inventory has been greatly reduced and the floor plan changed to fit, which just makes it seem empty. The amp selection is the most notable, We'd always been told this store was mainly stocked with returns from mail-order (not sure that's true/legal...), and the folks who said that say "no returns, no stock for this store..."

It does seem to be the Line 6 Delay Modeler into the EHX Freeze pedal...

I'd have to see a clip of exactly what you're referencing, but I know/have seen Frissell use the Electro Harmonix Freeze pedal in a manner that you're describing... it holds a single note or chord kind of like a loop but a little different, and he is a master at using it to create ambient sounds with how he attacks it... or maybe he's using some kind of swell thing or gate before it... here...

good research... last I saw some Ramones fans were insisting Zander probably had a crew member steal it, which seemed ridiculous...

I woke up this morning and succumbed to the Moog Grandmother Synth as the SDOTD for $350-cheaper than usual... they seemed to sell out of the deal quickly. It was an impulsive thing... maybe I'll flip it and make a few hundred bucks?

I just started playing with a band where I have to wear earplugs in practice, again...

The thing about these really high concert tickets is that it is the industry fighting back in way against the high tech scalping operations that use computers to buy up the floor seats and then automatically re-list them for 10x the price... which people pay!!! A scalping operation can buy out 200 tickets at $400 and sell them for $4000 each... but can they buy 200 tickets at $4000 each and sell them for $8000 each? Probably not... it is about selling the tickets at what the market obviously can and does bear but screwing the people gaming the system for profit.

Concert volume has come way down since the 90s... most cities put volume/decibel limits in place., People I know complain about being in Arenas now and not being able to hear the band over the people around them talking on their cell phones.

Scott, btw... the very next time I used a Hosa cable after you posted about how they fail... it literally fell apart... it was a right-angle plug and the plug shaft just fell out of the enclosure. Lesson learned. I shall never doubt your extensive experience and conclusions again, good Sir. A blend control for the Crescendo? Hmmm... I don't want it to blend with the clean signal, for what I'm using it for... which is volume swells... I don't want to hear the attack of the notes, just the trail... I figured for the price a one-trick pony was fine, but I'm finding a lot of uses for that two or three tricks I'm finding in it... I play with an "Americana" songwriter, and he has a few songs where his acoustic finger-picking needs to be the prominent thing, so being able to play 2, 3 or 4 note chord swells behind that, with the B Bender or not, or minimal slide stuff... atmospheric stuff... between that and the eBow he's really happy at what I'm adding to his stuff. The Mission Volume Pro pedals lets you set the minimum volume... maybe that could be in the ballpark of what you're describing?