Friday Rehearsal
Back to work today, so nice to hear the songs all good and loud again after this last week off.
We ran through the songs for the set, then took some time to tinker with "Skin of your Soul". The other night I spent some time re-working the choruses, and that led to a a new part for the last chorus, we played it today and it worked. We played "Half Hearted" and Dave did some work on his guitar part. All in all the tunes are sounding really good and we're getting excited to play. On Monday we will get the set list together.
I need to get some gear before we play, if possible. I have decided to play Telecaster guitars. While Dave is a guitar nut, and has a variety of really cool and beautiful instruments, I am into having one type of guitar and playing it all the time. I also feel better with a beaten up one, I never have been very good at taking pristine care of guitars, and feel more relaxed with them if they have a scratch or two. At the moment I am playing the 2nd guitar I ever got, an 80's black Tele that has been covered with layer after layer of stickers. I love this guitar. Didn't forsee playing it in this band, but after playing my Strat for a while, I just plugged in the Tele for fun, and it sounded much better in this context. Just felt right. So the plan is now to buy one more, a new one, and use those two for shows. I also need to buy an amp. Sold my Marshall to my friend Nate last year (and it was such a great amp, too) so I have been borrowing one of Dave's. I use a Line 6 at home, but it's not right for shows. Thinking of trying out a company called "Bad Cat", they are like Matchless amps, but apparently better. I am going to go try some out next week. Chaney reccommended an amp called "Divided by 13"... hafta look into that. If I can, I want to get all this stuff locked down by showtime, but if I can't, I'll probably use Dave's Bogner. It was about four thousand degrees in the jam room today and I sweat enough to fill an Arrowhead bottle.
Afterwards, I took some photos of Stephen behind the drums for his upcoming Banyan CD.
Comments
steve,
i'm surprised chris knew about fred's divided by 13.
http://www.dividedby13.com/
fred is my amp tech (and a lot of people's amp tech).
most notably in my opinion, mike ness, who has one of the best live guitar tones in the world thanks to the modified bassmans that fred did. i have the same amp mike has, love it, but it's definately not for everyone.
some of those boutique amps in my opinion don't work well in live situations and don't work well for rhythm guitar playing, but i've never played a badcat personally. all that (boutique) shit is awesome when it comes to recreating the tone of a guitar, but you gotta check out how it sounds with dave's marshall, not just how it sounds on it's own. also you gotta factor in the fact that you're gonna be playing a tele (right on!) which won't work with just any amp when you're doing rhythm playing.
in the end it probably doesn't f'n matter, it's just rock and roll and it will sound good regardless. back to fred's divided by 13 amps... check out his site. i've played through a couple of these, i personally didn't like the ones i played through. a lot of studio guys are using them. he's got different models though, check out his el84 amps, could be a great compliment to the marshall in a live setting. he's in san pedro and you should go down there and check them out, he's cool, he used to be in DI. in my opinion the best dave has ever sounded live was the one time i saw him using the bogners with janes, it was just complete audio guitar ecstasy........
also don't count out the 5150's which will cut through anything, they can be wicked (with humbuckers though).
have fun!
Chris
Posted by: chris | September 10, 2004 08:40 PM
I found clue #2! I have to give you props for the placement. No wonder why people are having a hard time finding it. How about you tell me where the gig is as a prize or you e-mail me the day before?? I'm free on the day of the week that the gig is on. I don't wanna miss it.
Go with the Bad Cat. Those things have awesome tone. I live in the OC and I hear www.tonemerchants.com is the place to go. I was getting repairs done to one of my guitars and the guy was telling me that place is like a toy store for guitarists who actually have money. lol
Thanks for the work and insight into the band.
Posted by: Randy | September 10, 2004 09:00 PM
yo, randy....*whispers*...." the emperor has no clothes"
Peace out
Posted by: linda | September 11, 2004 01:54 AM
Hi Steve,
it's been 3 years since Al Quaida WTC attack. i wonder where were you that day. what are your memories about that terrible incident.
love,
Obvious
Posted by: Obvious | September 11, 2004 04:22 AM
Hi Steve,
Have you played any poker recently? Are you and A.B. still friends after that trash talkin' e-mail he sent you a while back? Just curious...
Have a good weekend all. -Al
Posted by: Al | September 11, 2004 07:22 AM