Th-Th-Thursday

Wed Nov 10, 2010 8:42 pm

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THEME TUNE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For anyone who may have missed the news, I got the gig with the band! Still haven’t back heard about the stevedore job though.

This evening I have a recording session with the soul band I play with (that's me with the guitar, top left). We’re recording the rhythm section as a live take and overdubbing vocals and horns later on. I hope that I can nail my solos when that big red button gets pushed! It's happening in the back room of a bar, which is, for one reason or another, closed on a Thursday night. It should be interesting. I just hope that the room sounds good and that we are able to get a good mix – there wont be any monitors! I’ll be taking along a few different guitars. My SH BB, my ’97 ASAT Classic with Don Mare pickups (low output, sounds very different to the BB) and my ’68 Baldwin Vibraslim.

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I’m going to use my Ceriatone 5E3 (Tweed Deluxe) which has THE best sound for the music we’ll be playing. We have just over four hours to set up and record four, possibly five songs. The guy engineering it all has worked with us before, but mainly doing live sound and he's really good - he doesn't whine on and on about the guitar sound! I won’t have a copy to share with you guys for at least a week, but I’ll be sure to post a link elsewhere on the forum once it’s all done . I’m very happy and proud to play in this band; they’re all great muso’s. God only knows why they have me playing guitar!

Without further ado, the lunch report.

My lunch today was Chinese food. I had a noodle dish with beef, Chinese broccoli and black bean sauce. Not the healthiest lunch in the world but I'm not going to be eating dinner (recording is from 6pm tonight) so I can justify it.

G&L Topic
What is your favourite thing about your G&L? For me, it’s the way it feels so solid. They feel indestructible. I’m sure that this isn’t the case and, of course, I haven’t tested to find out. Either way, I’m sure a G&L would best a lot of the competition if they were to be tied to a string and used in a game of conkers.

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Anyone have a Les Paul they’d like to pit against my ASAT? I didn’t think so.....

I read a post in the main forum about the new G&L pedals - I'm pretty excited about them. I really want to hear the Buckshot. I've got a really nice OD already, so it's hard to justify purchasing one just yet. Anyone else excited about them? It seems that Sprinter92 is the only member with one (so far!).


Other Topic
Music of the world. There is so much music out there that exists so far beyond the boundaries of mainstream music that gets largely ignored. This is a real shame. Don’t get me wrong, I’m most certainly not a hippie and I’m not talking about ‘Songs of the Whale’ and that sort of new age drivel, or indeed gypsy punk, but real world music, the stuff that’s embedded deeply in the culture which spawned it. One of the benefits of living in a multicultural society is that, through friends, we get introduced to this sort of music. A very dear friend of mine has a Hungarian background. He’s an incredible guy – he plays piano, accordion, marimba, thumb piano, cimbalom… He became more and more interested in his roots and delved deep into Hungarian folk music, which he then introduced me to. The way that the musicians, who are of an impossibly high standard, play together in a controlled chaos is utterly brilliant. How they do it is beyond my comprehension. The passion contained in it is infectious. Here's a link to a song to listen to for homework . As far as I know it’s unavailable outside of Hungary. It’s a piece that tells an entire story, it cries, it laughs, it dances. Boy does it dance! I love the instrumentation – violins, viola, cimbalom, bowed double bass and the voices. Get into it!

I love the music of Astor Piazolla too. He was one hugely talented fellow. One of these days I’ll work out how to play tango in the style he wrote it. Again, the passion is bubbling over. I love his bandoneon solo in this one.

Are there any other world music fans out there? Where are you listening to? (oooh, I like that as a tagline for a radio show or a World Music record label…) Yes the USA is included!

That ought to do for today, there's plenty of links and stuff there to keep you all entertained.

- Jamie

Re: Th-Th-Thursday

Thu Nov 11, 2010 1:08 pm

I dig that guitar! I can see playing that and people going "wha????????". Soul music. Well I was in a "Neo Soul" group from the early 1990's called Natural Selection. We had a couple MTV videos and topped the Billboards twice back then. I didn't play guitar, but was a vocalist and percussionist. Actually, my professional career has been as a percussionist and producer. My clay and wood (ash & walnut mostly) collection is massive. Some over 5' wide. They look & sound great on stage. So those instruments naturally throw me into the "World Music" category.

Now, I'm going to play conkers with myself.


Cheers,

Will

Re: Th-Th-Thursday

Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:05 pm

Guitars go by feel then sound. Fortunately G&L has both in spades, pickups are always interchangible but G&Ls are not going anywhere. I am very interested in the G&L double barrel pedal.

As far as world music, not realy. Old classical music, mostly romantic, some baroque. European metal, hard rock, bout it.

Re: Th-Th-Thursday

Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:56 pm

Congrats on the gig! Hope it goes well, and most of all, is a lot of fun!

What I like about G&Ls...playability and tone, of course, and I really like the Dual Fulcrum Vibrato design...but beyond that I think the attention to detail seems to be quite high.

G&L Pedals...I've got the Screamer, and it's a great pedal. I have some interest in the Mindbender, I only wish it had stereo outputs...wouldn't use it much, but would from time to time.

World music...I discovered West African Blues several years ago and really enjoy some of that....Habib Koite, Ali Farka Toure. I also lived in Southern Africa for several years in the 90s, so I enjoy some Rhumba music from Congolese artists, and some South African groups like Lucky Dube (reggae) and Johnny Clegg (pop) and Hugh Masakela (jazz trumpet) from Zimbabwe.

Re: Th-Th-Thursday

Thu Nov 11, 2010 3:21 pm

Good to hear that people are listening to a lot of different music. The music of Africa is great. I enjoy the music of Mali whenever I hear it. I was fortunate enough to see a gig a few years back of a musician (damned if I can remember his name) with his full band. They were incredible musicians and it is, to this day, one of the best concerts I've seen.

Tim - the local radio station was playing Afrocubism yesterday! It's on my 'to buy' list, which is kind of lengthy at the moment. I'll have a look around for the Yoshida brothers, that sounds like something I'd enjoy.

Will - That guitar does indeed raise questions! It has a great sound - the pickups in it are some of the best I've heard but they have lost a fair amount of output recently, I think something might be breaking. Any chance of a picture of that 5' drum? You know what they say around here - no photo, no exist!

Re: Th-Th-Thursday

Thu Nov 11, 2010 4:40 pm

Will - That guitar does indeed raise questions! It has a great sound - the pickups in it are some of the best I've heard but they have lost a fair amount of output recently, I think something might be breaking. Any chance of a picture of that 5' drum? You know what they say around here - no photo, no exist!


Ok, this is the only one I could find right now:

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Cheers,

Will