~Thursday 8th September~

[stagecoach]

They say everything is big in Texas has not come to Western Australia.

Size: 2,529,875 km² (976,790 mi²), that's 32,87 % of Australia, that makes WA the largest state in Australia and the second largest state/province/national region in the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_th ... ns_by_area
Our population is a mere 2.1 million, 1,6 million people live in the capital, so there is not a lot of us for the size of the land.
Western Australia is approximately 3.5 times the size of Texas and 10.4 times bigger than the UK.
The capital city Perth is one of the most isolated metropolitan areas on Earth. The nearest city to Perth with a population over 1 million is Adelaide in South Australia, which is 2,104 kilometres (1,307 mi) away. Perth is physically closer to East Timor and Jakarta, Indonesia, than it is to Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.

This would be the main reason we don’t get too many big acts coming to Perth. We have hosted a few exchanges over the year through IFYE. We have had comments like, can we go see Broome this weekend (which is in the top part of our state). When we mention that it is over 2200km away (about 1400mi) they are surprised. They usually say it doesn’t look that far on a map.

Lunch I forgot to buy bread yesterday so it is takeaways for lunch. Just a quick trip to KFC for a chicken burger and chips. Today is a bit busy and made worse by a heap of small jobs so have not had time earlier to do my LR

G&L Question– who is your Favourite G&L player – here is a little help
http://www.glguitars.com/artists/index.asp
Going through this list was surprising. There were a few names that popped up that I was unaware of like Phil Emmanuel. I prefer his playing over his brother Tommy. I can find Tommy a bit over powering at times and some stuff gets lost, where Phil just plays it and I believe he plays it great.
INXS – and another great rock band from Australia. Good to see some Aussies embracing the G&L beauty
Carl Perkins "the King of Rockabilly" – this guy was a very early influence on me
Vince Gill – I think this guys is an unbelievable musician and singer, but I just love this song and I love the music clip even more
[youtube]pjkLf_X88WM[/youtube]

Non G&L question #1– Brag time – what is your current effects setup? I have in order from the guitar

? Sonic Research ST200 strobe tuner
? Boss GE7 – this is so when I play mandolin I don’t need to modify my amp
? Boss CS3 Compression (this is mainly used as a secondary boost. I have tried playing with this on and I like being able to give myself some dynamics)
? MXR M101 Phase 90 (used to get the Waylon Jennings sound)
? ModeTone Tremor – Tremolo
? Boss DD3 – Again this stays on all the time as 1 repeat ( Slap back)
? BBE Sonic Stomp
? Xotic RC Booster – This is so I get a good boost for a lead break
? Ernie Ball Volume pedal Junior



Non G&L question #2– more part to of question 1, what do you like to add/remove from your pedal board?
For me it is complete (and full). The next step could be a bigger board. Maybe a distortion pedal (been looking at the Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive) or a chorus.

[blargfromouterspace]

Ahhh KFC. It's always a great idea at the time. I'm only just sitting down to lunch now - a bowl of home made hummus and some Afghan bread. It's the healthiest thing I've eaten for ages.

WA is big. The best deterrent to driving foreigners around is giving them something relative to their home - "thats the same distance as from your house to Roma and back, fraulein. I'm not taking you. There's dolphins in the river".

I'm an admirer of Vince Gill. The man has the voice of an angel. That song is hilarious. Can't say I've ever seen him with a G&L though.

My pedal board:

WIlson effects Meat Grinder fuzz
Durham Sex Drive clean boost
BBE Tremor tremolo
Tuner
Zvex Box of Rock
RetroSonic Phaser

Looks like a lot, but most of the time they're all off and I mostly only use one at a time. The last two only get used in the country band - gotta have that Waylon sound! I'm really happy with this lot. The only thing I lack is a delay/echo for some of the rockabilly numbers we do.

Good luck finding the right OD/distorion pedal. With all these youtube demos it's possible to spend weeks watching and researching them!

[Aussie]

This would be the main reason we don’t get too many big acts coming to Perth It is often frustrating when you hear that so-and-so is doing and "Australian" tour and will play in three cities on the East Coast. But overall I don't think we've fared too badly over recent years - at least it seems that way when I look over the bank statement.

who is your Favourite G&L player Hard to go past the Hellecasters ... which is a nice seque into the brothers Emanual with Phil playing a Commanche ...
[youtube]lPXW0qShOkg[/youtube]
And I have to agree whole heartedly with you ...I much prefer watching and listening to Phil's playing .... and I thought I was alone ....

Going through this list was surprising. There were a few names that popped up that I was unaware of ... and here's a couple more that didn't make the list:

Powderfinger's John Collins
[youtube]CJqFPrnbMaE[/youtube]
Yeasayer's Ira Wolf Tuton.
[youtube]hy2vbtmdRJQ[/youtube]

Pedal boards The band I played with until I stood down just over a year ago has four very different identities, and I have a separate board step for each of them - one for classic rock, one for modern hard rock, one for alternative rock and one for modern country rock. Unfortuneately because of that promise I made to my wife after publishing a list of my gear lead to the house being broken into and trashed thats about as much detail as I can go into.

cheers, Robbie

[Ahryn]

I hear you on missing big acts (although Victoria is the capital of BC most big bands only tour Vancouver) although I can't really relate on the size, I suspect all of Vancouver island can probably fit in western Australia.

Favorite G&L player, while looking at the list the only band that I really recognize is Thrice.

Unfortunately it seams like only the bassist has accepted the way of G&L, oh and it looks like Jimmy Vivino has a couple of G&Ls, now I have even more reason to gear watch Conan.

No real effects setup for me, just have my green screamer, the TC electric Polytune and a Malekko Ekko 616 LoFi on the way (according to the USPS tracker it has finally left Oregon).

[darwinohm]

Stagecoach, I have been absent and am leaving tomorrow morning for a weekend gig but I just wanted to check in. You have really had interesting LR's this week.

The Vince Gill video is great and I saw him perform this song this summer in a live performance. I believe that he does have some G&Ls but lost most of his collection in the floods that hit Nashville a couple of years ago.

Artist who endorse guitars do not mean much to me although I own several as investments. An endorsement only increases the price.

Great, interesting week and the land of OZ is huge with a low population. This has to be a perfect environment but for the seasons being 180 out! Thanks for the entertainment this week!!! We are approaching winter in Minnesota and it just gives us the opportunity to shop for more Guitars-- Darwin