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[quote=”1bassleft”]I haven’t been given a ‘phone number since a double-glazing bloke pestered me outside the supermarket.[/quote]
Come to America, 1bass! While playing live, both members of our “rhythm section” are under the constant guard of their spouses against a veritable hoard of phone number wielding trollops. 😉
Also, we’ve found that – mostly through the exploits of a friend of a friend from London – a British accent plays very well with the ladies of Northern Minnesota – they’d love to hear all about your high tech instrument.
I advised one of my guitar students to get one of these Digitech multi-effects units, and she’s very happy with it. It gives you a variety of programmable, adjustable effects for a decent price. I wouldn’t take it into the studio or on a world tour, but for a guitarist who’s just starting out, it’s a pretty good deal, and the effects don’t sound half bad.
[quote=”lee_UK”]
But i must admit, he can play.. :D[/quote]That’s all I was trying to say.
Also, considering that even a Sheepdog with a telecaster strapped ’round its neck would get a fair number of phone numbers; I’d imagine that – despite his aesthetic deficiencies – Mr. Greene does ok with the ladies, too. 😉
FYI – Ted Greene is a master of Jazz chords and chord progressions. I’ve had the book Modern Chord Progressions for neary 15 years, and I still can’t touch many of the chords in the book, let alone transition from one to the other.
This dude is not a joke – he’s one of the more accomplished guitar players of the last 40 years and the book mentioned above will blow your mind.
The singer / rhythm guitarist for my new band is getting ready to update his gear, and I’ve been working on an equipment list for him with the same sort of versatility in mind. He’d like to spend less than 2K. This is what I’ve come up with so far:
Standard Telecaster “Hecho en Mexico†(He may opt for an American) with a stacked humbucker in the bridge and possibly an aftermarket neck pickup as well. As far as I’m concerned that “classic tele spank†is mostly undesirable.
Boss TU-2 Tuner pedal with AC adapter and daisy chain power cable
A chorus pedal, and a dual overdrive or just two cheaper o.d. pedals
I’m also a big fan of the DeVille 2 X 12, but recently a fellow local guitarist raved about his 40 watt Hot Rod Deluxe 1 / 12 with an external speaker cabinet. He seems to think that in the small venues common to our area, a person can really crank up the 40 watt combo for superior tone where the 60 watt 2 / 12 would be too loud.
With the three channel amp and a dual overdrive, a guitarist would have 9 different gain levels at his feet – that is, in my opinion, a good level of versatility from a tube amp and no awful sounding COSM cheese.
Great post, Paolo!
Thanks, Lee. A housing inspector by trade, I have several plug-in outlet testers in my work car; but until now I hadn’t thought to throw one in the guitar case. When setting up; we unplugged the big screen television, the jukebox, and all the neon beer lights in the vicinity of our equipment – I just can’t figure out what could have caused that amount of interference. Believing that I’d played with an ungrounded amp; I came home, handed the Mrs. her cut of nights profits, and explained that I’d truly risked my life for my “art.” We’re scheduled to play at the same pub in March, and I’ll be sure to look into this situation further – or just assign the questionable receptacle to the damn bass player! 😉
The Boss TU-2 holds the #1 spot on the LONG list of guitar accessories that I’ve acquired over the years.
It’s well built, easy to operate, and very handy. If you suffer from tuning OCD, you can check your guitar between every song when playing live. Plus, it can power several other pedals and looks pretty cool, too.
If you’re an electric guitarist, this is the tuner that you want.
Hey Lee,
I took both a JB Junior and a Hotrail loaded strat along to the gig last Saturday. My amp sat on standby with the tubes cooking for a good hour before we took the stage, and both guitars sounded great. Not quite sure what I was hearing at the time I authored this post – I seem to always be just slightly dissatisfied with my tone.
Maybe a Fender Hotrod DeVille would make me happy…
My vote would have to be for The Kink’s “Father Christmas.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moHjJZBPYXI
It’s a work of true genius on so many levels.
Happy Holidays!
Thanks, 1Bass – My com puter at work has a faster con nection, and I went through the sound files at Seymour Duncan. Maybe it’s just my unsophisticated ear, but a lot of those units sound very similar to each other.
My guitar guy called today and, despite being a consummate critic, he said the J.B. Jr. sounds really good. The Mrs. is picking my “new” guitar on her way home from work, and it’s off to the studio at 6!
😀
Hey,
I’m an occasional poster from Minnesota.
I got my first guitar and amp, a Fender Lead II and a Peavey Bandit 112, at the age of 15, patched in a ProCo Rat, and have been playing for over 20 years. I’ve played lead guitar in 10 or so different cover bands, but I’ve never played for an audience larger than 1000 people. I once spent 4 months “in the pit†on lead for a local production of an A.L. Weber monstrosity and depending on my mood, you may find a guitar student or two in my music room (alive and picking, not buried under the floor boards 😉 ). Over the course of my career, I have been silenced by the police on 4 separate occasions for violating city noise ordinances.
My current amp is a Marshall JCM 900 hundred watt half stack with a variety of effects pedals. I have a bunch of Fender Stratocasters loaded with Seymour Duncan pickups but bear no grudges against other guitars.
Currently, I’ve been listening to a lot of Guided by Voices, The Pixies, The Chili Peppers, and alternative stuff from the 90’s. My earliest guitar influences were all the cliché dinosaurs tinged with Minneapolis rock like The Replacements, Soul Asylum, Trip Shakespeare, The Gear Daddies, etc. I’ll admit to once being a huge Iron Maiden fan but deny it pressed. Other bands that hold a special spot in my ear are Big Star, The Meat Puppets, The Dead Milkmen, and Tom Petty. I like too much music to properly list.
My last band was great fun as we preformed “rocked-out†versions of a wide variety of covers including songs by Dolly Parton, The Fine Young Cannibals, and Cher – believe me, it was quite funny and the audience loved it.
I could go on but won’t. If you want to know more, my blog is here:
http://etherealgarage.blogspot.com/
Many thanks to the mods here for all their insight and proper use of the English language – it’s a nice forum. 😀
I’ve been enjoying your questions because you’re trying to overcome obstacles common to all aspiring guitarists. I too had a hard time with the B chord – it took me a long time to play it properly using my index finger as the barre on the 2nd fret and forming the A-shaped chord with my ring finger on the 4th fret. In the interim, whenever a B chord came up, I’d fake it by playing it as a two note chord; first finger on the A string 2nd fret and ring finger on the D string 4th fret.
Don’t be so quick to look for ways around these problems – just keep hacking away and you’ll eventually get it right. Good luck and keep it up!
The pedal has 2 outs – line and bypass. I play a stratocaster with Duncan hotrails through a Marshall tube amp and have never noticed a difference in sound. Again, it’s just so user-friendly and convenient – highly recommended.
It’s clearly not under $50, but the Boss TU-2 pedal (with power adapter and parallel DC cord) is such a great piece of gear – I couldn’t say enough good about it. If you need to, you can tune silently on stage between every song with the tap of a pedal. Don’t waste your $ on an inferior tuner; the TU-2 is a worthwhile investment in gear that you won’t regret.
Play this exercise using the fingering shown (F, C, G,C,F,C,G etc.) 1 million times:
http://usera.imagecave.com/vitaminE2d/chords.jpg
Sorry about the crude diagram – I’m at “work.”
OR
Become a guitar student of mine and I’ll smack the hell out of your fingers with a wooden ruler whenever you make a mistake. 😉
