Digital Din

Ransomed Soul 20th Anniversary Video

2011-10-10T13:53:00.006-04:00

Our 20th Anniversary Concert, mentioned in an earlier blog post, went down on June 11 - 20 years, almost to the day (June 6) after our very first public performance as a band, at Bonnie's Roxx in Atco NJ (long since closed down, razed to a parking lot, and remembered as a much better venue than it actually was.) The concert was held at the Auction House Arts and Music Center in Audubon, New Jersey - an excellent venue run by some very cool folks!

We played just about every song we ever wrote together, including a few that had only been played live one or two times, so they were "new" to even some of our most dedicated fans. Among the relatively unheard songs were Father and Buried in the Bottle. We also brought along a sampler, which allowed us to play old audio clips from the archives, including introductions from our friends Mark and Cheryl (lifted from when they played our song on their college radio station), and clips from call-ins to when we were on the radio at GSC (Rowan) - several people who were in the audience for the concert were surprised to hear their voice from almost 20 years ago!

We also used the sampler for our new intro clips for our song Liquid Faith, featuring some of the many insane statements of Glenn Beck (his lunacy replaced that of Robert Tilton, whom we had samples of back in 1993-94, carefully timed on an audio-cassette to sync up to our live performance). Finally, we had a couple random "Easter Eggs," like the original "I did that on purpose!" ending for Break Down the Wall - a humorous outtake that appeared on our original 5-song "Seeds of Time" cassette -- but was omitted on "Timeline."

Another fun moment - one of our last songs featured a surprise cameo by our friend Kevin, who performed the whispered "Goodbye" on the studio version of The Hunt - we got him to reprise if for the concert (though he didn't know it was coming.)

A playlist of our entire 2 hour concert is posted at YouTube across several separate videos, linked together for ease of watching uninterrupted. Enjoy!

(We sure did!)

On Selling Your Stuff (aka regrets)

2011-10-06T17:12:00.002-04:00

When I was 16 years old, my parents got together and purchased an electric bass for me as my combined Christmas/Birthday present (my birthday is two weeks before Christmas). It was a big deal; we weren't "made of money" by any stretch, so it meant a lot to me - and changed my life, musically. My dad is also a bassist, so he was able to "vet" the purchase with knowledge of getting a "good" bass for the money. It was an Epiphone (by Gibson) Rock Bass, a four-banger with J-bass pickups and a slim neck. While a relatively humble instrument, Dad picked out a really good one with excellent resonance, clean electronics, and he set it up to play well. I played that bass for many years, onstage and in rehearsal, with several different bands. Some songs I wrote during the period only felt "right" on that bass. I later upgraded it with a set of EMG pickups and it sounded amazing.

When I felt like making the jump to a five string, I found a fiver made by an (at the time) unknown brand called "Samick" at a local music store for $350. It was nifty, with a modern body style, J/P config active pickups, a pearlescent white paint job, and cool Saturn inlays on the fretboard. Again, played the hell out of that bass, and also upgraded to EMGs, this time with 18v electronics and their BTC circuit. Sounded, played killer.

In times of low income, or desire for new gear, regretfully I sold these "firsties" to other folks. They both went to good homes - the four-string went to a co-worker who wanted to learn to play bass, and the five-string to an online bass forum friend, who bought it as a backup bass (but later admitted that it took first-call duties over his formerly "main" axe because it played and sounded so good.)

Now that I'm older and have a bit more spendable cash, I really wish I had both of those basses back. I almost have contact with the old co-worker (I'm friends with his friend and have emailed his spouse on Facebook, but not gotten directly in touch with him) and I've tried to locate the email address of the guy who bought the Samick (but lost the original email trail in a computer crash several years ago).

Recently, the band where both basses got lots of play re-formed for an anniversary concert (see my last blog entry for details). The show was a great time for both us and the audience; I'll post links to the YouTube clips soon. I really would have loved to have both of those basses for the show, but I had neither. So I recreated them; I got a black Epiphone just like my old one (but not quite as good) and found a Samick that was pretty close; I played the Samick for the show. It had the feel and sound of the old white one, but I still wish I had the old one back.

I went through all that to say this: gear has to be sold to make way for new gear. But if at all possible, try to hang on to your substantial "firsts," even if they're cheap Epiphones, Samicks, or otherwise inexpensively obtained instruments. I can say from experience that you'll probably regret it.

Blast from the Past - 20th Anniversary Concert Event

2011-04-18T13:14:00.006-04:00

From 1990 to 1994, two of my best friends and I performed in an all-original, progressive hard rock/metal power trio called Ransomed Soul. Those were some of the most fun musical years of my life; I was in college, in my early 20's, in much better shape, and fully enjoying the moment. We had the common pipe dreams of "getting signed," and spent every waking moment doing things for the band. In fact, my college achievement (and subsequent job prospects once I graduated) probably suffered a good bit thanks to Ransomed Soul. But I don't regret it. Over the years, we composed at least 20 songs together, and played loads of clubs all over South Jersey and Philadelphia.

It was incredibly frustrating at times; we were playing a fairly complex, "thinking-person's" brand of hard rock, which didn't exactly find a very strong foothold in an market where teased hair, spandex, and simplistic rock anthems were the norm; plus, towards the end, the new "Seattle Sound" was starting to take hold and was effectively pushing us out. It wasn't at all uncommon for us to play unsatisfying, unpaid gigs to seedy rooms of 4 people -- 3 of which came in the van with us (and the other one was drunk and heckling us).

But that is the original music scene for most of us, so I'm not complaining (much).

Yes, we took ourselves awfully seriously - we wanted desperately to create music with a message that meant something, and wanted the music to be intellectually interesting, yet catchy. And of course, we wanted to impress everyone with our stellar chops (which, in retrospect, were only moderately stellar.) Certainly, if we had it to do over again, we'd probably scale back the pretentiousness a bit - but your early 20's are a time when you're sure that you know everything; I just like to think that we dove in headfirst, taking full advantage of our own naiveté.

Why the name? I'm not 100% sure, we just sort of liked it. Scott actually wrote a song called "Ransomed Soul," and we decided that it made for a cool band name, too. We'd previously flirted with names like "Valkyrie" and "Solitaire" but figured they were too common to not be taken. Ransomed Soul was never a religious band, but people often confused us for one; the concept of a "ransomed soul" or "soul held for ransom" is often found in religious songs and writings. Unfortunately for us, the name -- while original -- also was very rarely spelled correctly on marquees or club posters. Some of the unintentional misspellings were laughable (but most were just annoying.)

We played our first real "gig" at the venerable (ahem) Bonnie's Roxx in Atco NJ; a rock/metal club with the infamous "party cage." Wait, what? Explanation: The club was "all ages," so younger patrons could pay the cover and see some live music - but Bonnie's also had an area of the club which had a floor-to-ceiling chain-link fence "cage" with a single entrance, manned by its own dedicated bouncer. Those who were of legal drinking age (or who had a very good fake ID) could get into this separate area, where they could both see the bands AND consume a selection of adult beverages. It was also common for the frontman of particularly frizzy-haired bands to climb the fence as part of their posturing. That, and swing around the support pole that sat just off dead-center in the middle of the stage.

Good times.

We played at Bonnies on at least a dozen other occasions; other venues included the Fastlane in Asbury Park NJ (no, we didn't run into Bon Jovi or Springsteen), Reds in Margate, the 23 East Cabaret in Philly, and a bunch of other bars and clubs, mostly seedy. A particular favorite was Miller's Inn in Tuckerton NJ - we'd get there with our gear, and while we were loading in and setting up, the pole dancer at the bar would be collecting dollar bills and occasionally slipping a "peek-a-boob" for particularly generous patrons. Then the lights would go out, the dancer would get dressed and leave, and the rock show would begin. Truly an experience.

We also played lots of shows on campus at Glassboro State College (now Rowan University), including winning a "battle of the bands" and performing several Earth Day concerts and other benefits. We had interviews on the air on the college station, too. It was altogether a really fun time, and we were so rock and roll!

Our last gig was at a short-lived rock club called "Six Shooters" in Atlantic City. Despite my having just purchased a brand new bass rig, the turnout was so small and response so lukewarm that we just decided, while we were packing up, to pack it in for good. It was a good run, but the time had come to move on to other projects - we were just tired of beating the pavement and only ending up with bloody knuckles.

Mike (Drummer), Scott (Guitarist) and I continued to remain the best of friends, and we even occasionally got together over the ensuing 16 years to jam, hang out, and reminisce. We even had a jam session at the surprise 40th birthday party our wives planned for Scott and myself. That jam was so much fun, we decided to celebrate our band's 20th anniversary with a "real" full-scale reunion concert.

So... we've scheduled it, and we are looking forward to a fun night with old friends, and hopefully some longtime fans hungry for a fresh dose of live "RS" music. Details are below, and you can also visit our Facebook Event page for the Reunion Show. Some photos and other info about Ransomed Soul can be found at our Facebook Ransomed Soul Band Page.

If you're in the region and want to enjoy a fun, old-school, slightly tongue-in-cheek performance of earnest, progressive-tinged hard rock, performed by a couple of 40-somethings with nothing to prove anymore, why not come on out? It promises to be a really good time.

Ransomed Soul 20th Anniversary Reunion Concert

Saturday, June 11 · 8:00pm - 11:00pm

Auction House Center for the Arts
http://auctionhouseshows.com/

100 WEST MERCHANT STREET

Audubon, NJ

Les Paul Robot Guitar

2011-03-17T12:11:00.004-04:00

One of my acquisitions during my downtime was one of the Les Paul Studio "Robot" Guitars. People's opinions of this guitar's usefulness vary pretty widely around the net, but I quite like it, especially in the studio. And since they were essentially on clearance, I got a USA-made Les Paul for under a grand, with all the rights and priveleges pertaining thereto... AND got a guitar that can fricking TUNE ITSELF.

"Big deal," you probably say. "I can tune my guitar just fine." Well, sure! But it's pretty handy, I gotta say. Especially if you're constantly retuning to different tunings for different songs - for instance, this thing would be awesome if I was a guitarist in a cover band. To silently, quickly retune to drop-D while the singer was addressing the crowd would be useful, no? No waiting for the guitarist to stomp on a pedal tuner, and trying to fine-tune with all sorts of stuff going on? And it does all six strings at once, which I know you can't do. So it's efficient and cool. And I gotta admit, it's hard not to grin while watching the tuners spin whilst doing their thing.

Another aspect that gets overlooked: re-stringing. It has locking tuners, and a mode where you simply get the string on the post, hold it in place, and the guitar automatically winds the string up to pitch! No more bleeding fingertips from the damned high E string, no more of the string slipping off the post.

Finally, the guitar has a built-in intonation mode. You play the note at the 12th fret, then play the 12th fret harmonic - the guitar then tells you how many turns on the intonation screw to make to get the string properly intonated. C'mon now, that is cool.

Now, would I have spent the original $3000+ price for this guitar when it first came out? Hell, no. But for the very slight upcharge from a standard Les Paul Studio, it was a no-brainer. I did sell my heavily modded Fender Toronado to fund the purchase, which was bittersweet, but since I'm not a guitarist, I couldn't really justify having both (since I still have several other guitars as well). But I've been very happy with the Les Paul - it's a very resonant, great sounding guitar, plays really well and is lots of fun to play with.

Update! It's been a while...

2011-02-04T13:56:00.002-05:00

Sorry - to anyone who bothers to read this blog - for the long, long delay in new postings. A lot has been going on in my musical life, and I should have some new things to post about.

I've completely upgraded the computer and software in Digital Din (my studio)
My project Din Within has recorded a track for a tribute album to the band Yes
I've been recording an EP for a local band called "The Fynline" - a nice group of teenagers from my hometown
Josh and I have continued to write and record for our second Din Within Album
I commissioned and received an awesome new 6-string bass from Karl Hoyt - the one-of-a-kind "Monkey Bass"
I have acquired not my original Ransomed Soul bass, but an "exact replica" on eBay -- and am in the process of modding it to be like my original bass
I've also done the same with a 5-string Samick bass - it's black instead of pearl white, and has a slightly different headstock, but it's pretty close!
The above two points are particularly relevant because we're planning a 20-year reunion concert for the band Ransomed Soul - coming this Spring!

Not music-related - but one other major thing; my wife and I are expecting our first child in a matter of weeks (if not days!) So... that's had me pretty preoccupied.

So, hopefully, I'll get back on the bandwagon and post some new stuff!

--mark

Some recording for a friend

2009-06-16T11:53:00.002-04:00

I did some recording last Thursday with my friend Jeffrey Fields; he had a couple new songs he wanted to demo, and we got one tune done during the course of the evening. He plays a loose, casual folk or "Americana" style with acoustic guitar and vocals, occasional harmonica, etc.

The session went fairly well, even though I was pretty unorganized; we recorded his vocals and guitar together to get an intimate, live feel - though that made it pretty tough to do any "punches" or re-tracks if we needed to. He nailed a great version after a couple takes, and it sounded quite good.

We then made a few small additions; a subtle tambourine and kick drum during the chorus, a small ride hit on the last chord - and he let me drop in a simple vocal harmony on the chorus as well.

When all was said and done, I think Jeffrey enjoyed the experience and liked the results. And I enjoyed working with someone new. I hope to get together with him again soon to track the other tune. This time around, we may try separate tracking, maybe even a metronome, just to leave options open. But ultimately, it's his project, so we'll do what he wants! ;-)

A Stupid CD Distribution Tip for Independent Musicians and Bands

2009-04-09T12:54:00.002-04:00

I'm a progressive music lover and an independent prog musician, and I know that there are a lot of others like me. So, I figured this is a tip worth sharing with everyone, based on my experience. It might seem like a common sense move, or you might be averse to "partnering with the 800-lb. gorilla of the internet," but I'm here to tell you that I found this to be a worthwhile "sell-out" if you want to call it that.

That's right, I recommend that you sell your CD on Amazon.

On the surface, it kind of sucks, compared to the alternatives. Whereas CDBaby (an AWESOME company, sell your CD there too!) doesn't charge a "service fee" and, for my CD (Din Within's "Awaken the Man", which sells at $12) pays $8 per CD - the "Amazon Advantage" Program, essentially a "consignment" program, charges an annual fee AND only pays $5.40 per CD. But here's the thing, and again, it seems obvious: Amazon gets you out to such a incomparably HUGE audience - and more importantly, GROWS that audience with every sale (a feature that CDBaby can't really match, as much as I love them.)

Amazon's unique technology (Other customers who bought this also bought...) is the big sell here. Even though our album was released almost a year and a half ago (November, 2007) the sales have continued to INCREASE month-to-month, and lately, those increases have been exponential. More and more people are finding my music because other people who previously bought "Awaken the Man" also bought Spocks Beard, or Steve Wilson, or Phideaux, or Marillion, or... you get the idea - and now OUR album is being displayed on THEIR pages as a recommendation for "if you like this, you'll also like..." And people clearly do, because our monthly sales have gone up ten-fold over the last 6 months. And the album is 1 ½ years old!

When I considered signing up for the program, I really debated for some time on whether it would be worth it; in retrospect, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It seems a little corporate, especially for an "underground" music genre like Prog, but the distribution and legitimacy that it affords my little independent release is more than worth the reduced take we get on each copy.

Just my $.02.

Bonus tip: once your sales are consistently up a little bit, it pays to let them know you have a minimum number you're willing to send as restock. I get Purchase Orders for 1 copy occasionally, and I send a "stock-up request" to up it to a minimum of 10, 20, etc. and they always oblige. It doesn't make sense to pay shipping on one copy when I only get $5.40 per copy through them...

I'd also like to include a shout-out to Kinesis and Syn-Phonic, who are Progressive Rock Music Distributors; both have been extremely supportive by purchasing our CDs wholesale and selling them at the Prog festivals they go to!

Second Story featured on a Podcast

2009-01-03T11:18:00.003-05:00

We got a nice shout-out on a PodCast just recently; Second Story's "Return to Youth" opened the "Adventures of a Walker Dependent Music Fan" Podcast. Check out the show notes here, and visit the PodSafe Network to listen to the show!

Thanks to the show host, Gerry (sp?), for featuring us!

Second Story - You heard it here first

2008-11-24T05:00:00.003-05:00

To be included on the Second Story release - our tribute version of Queensrÿche's "One and Only" that we recorded back in 2000 or so; the album it was to be on was never released, and we were quite proud of how it came out. If we do a full CD release, it will probably be on "Thin Twisting Line" as a "hidden" track, but we'll get the licensing from Harry Fox so it's legit.

Cool, the album isn't even mixed yet and there's already a BONUS TRACK! ;-)

Second Story - 'The Silent Giants'

2008-11-22T05:00:00.003-05:00

"The Silent Giants" is possibly Second Story's most ambitiously "proggy" song. It's one of the longest tunes we had in our set, and it features full instrumental solos from John, Tom and Scott. It has distorted chordal figures on the bass, about 12 different guitar tracks, contrapuntal vocals (think "Gentle Giant"), lyrics steeped in metaphor, Mellotron keyboards, and much much more. We loved playing it live, as it also rocked pretty hard.

As you can imagine, it was with trepidation that I began work on it. When we originally tracked in Indre Studios, we had a total of about 34 tracks available per song - I'm pretty sure that this tune used ALL of them.

What I found most curious, despite my worries - the song actually mixed quite easily! I was able to get a really good drum sound for the vibe of the tune, Danielle's vocals sound really good, and with a little bit of judicious volume envelope swells, the vocal parts should also be great. I did a bit more fun stuff with the effects, particularly on some of the vocals. But again, you'll just have to wait and see (hear, actually.) ;-)

Second Story - ''Dancing on the Hill"

2008-11-20T05:00:00.004-05:00

This was a tune I was very worried about, based on how the other mixes of it had come out. It's a complicated tune, even though it may not sound like it. The drum beat is somewhat disjunct, the bass line (distorted and played with Funk Fingers) is a bit "blurry" and some of the other parts of the song (keys, guitar) have some unusual rhythmic things going on. When it worked, the song had an undeniable groove and a very original sound. Unfortunately, the previous mixes we've had of this song sounded sloppy, uninspired and just plain bad.

I've long had the feeling that the success or failure of mixing this song might be the "make or break" moment of whether or not I took this project to completion. Meaning, if I couldn't make this track sound good, there was probably no point in bothering with the rest of the album - it'd be too demoralizing.

Luckily, I think (and Scott agrees) that the song is sounding AMAZING. I was able to tweak the drum sound and really phatten it up. The bass tone, which the other engineers could NEVER seem to get right, is punchy and "gooey" - all at the same time. Some judicious audio track "nudging" helped fix some timing errors that I blame on the varied equipment used to dump the songs to digital, which may have caused some of that disjunctedness that we couldn't seem to shake in the other studios. Danielle's vocals just jump out at you and beg for attention. I've done some cool things with panning and effects - there's a really cool bounceback delay that I used in several places that really adds to the tune. And I even added a sound effect sample (Extra points if you can guess what and where it is.)

So the project will go on. "Dancing" sounds really good, so I think there's a good chance that everything can be mixed to our satisfaction. More to come!

Second Story - 'Abducted'

2008-11-18T22:38:00.003-05:00

So, once I was able to start mixing with the REAL drum tracks, the first song I started working on was the first one in the queue (they're alphabetical). So, Abducted it is!

Abducted was one of Second Story's simpler songs; a basic A-B-A-B sort of affair, it has some very cool unique things going on. For one, John's repeating hypnotic keyboard bass line in the choruses are hooky as hell. Also, I played the verses using the Funk Fingers (see an earlier blog post if you don't know what those are.) Tom played the hell out of the verse groove, particularly. And Scott had a nice recurring melodic line. Also curious is the lack of any vocals in the "chorus" - the intent (with John's bass line and Tom playing "four on the floor") was to simulate a dance floor. After all, the song is about being Abducted by the groove. So the groove says it all in this one.

So I did a bit of work on the tune, and Scott came over and listened to my early "alpha mix." He had a couple of interesting suggestions, and we did a little bit of fun experimentation, particularly on some vocal effects. There are also some interesting "surprises" that will reveal themselves when the song is finally released - but I'm not giving out any spoilers, so you'll just have to wait.

(evil grin.)

The Second Story Project

2008-11-17T12:58:00.015-05:00

So, I have to say that it's interesting to resurrect a project that once was - for all intents and purposes - dead. Here's the back story:

My previous project, Second Story®, was a female fronted neo-prog group that played in the Philly region from 1996-2004. We recorded our original, self-titled album at Eyeball Studios early on; it comprised mostly material that Scott and I had written before John or Danielle had joined the band. (In fact, 5 of the songs had been previously recorded with our original singer, Zaughn.)

We gigged a bunch behind that album, all the while writing new material. We began recording our second full-length album - to be called "Thin Twisting Line," from a song lyric on it - in January 2001. To steal a phrase: What a long, strange trip it was to become.

We booked an entire week at Indre Studios in Philly, a large-scale, well-known (and expensive) studio in the area. All of us took a week off from work to allow us to all be there the whole time. Based on our familiarity with the material, our previous studio experiences, and the expected professionalism of the studio, we figured we'd probably have time left over at the end.

Boy, were we naive.

The first of many things that went wrong? Less than a week before the starting date, the studio manager called: "Patti LaBelle wants to come in to do rehearsals the week you're booked. Can you bump?" So, I called the rest of the band, and we were able to accommodate her. For a price, of course - the liner notes of the album, if we complete it, will contain the line "Thanks to Patti LaBelle for providing the tape reels for our recording session." Yeah, we don't move for anybody for free - not even Patti LaBelle. And three brand new 2" tape reels cost well over $600.

So, as you can imagine by my tone, we didn't finish the project in the 7 days we allotted. We didn't even get half of the tracking done, never mind mixing. AND, to make matters worse, John and myself, who both worked for an music software firm at the time, came back to the next work week to find out that we both were getting laid off. So, in the middle of this fabulously expensive studio foray, John and I lost all of our expendable income (and our living income, too!)

To make a very long story a little shorter, we were able to manage sporadic trips back to the studio over the next several months, but it took a couple of long, agonizing years to actually complete the tracking. Then we moved to mixing. That ended up being even more disappointing; after the vast amount of time that had passed - after the great deal of time, energy, and money that had been spent - the mixing of the album went quite badly. The resulting album sounded disjunct, loose, and just weak. We left the studio completely spent and totally demoralized.

After some time passed, we decided to take those tapes to a new studio to re-mix with a new engineer and fresh ears. After some aggravation getting the tapes transferred to a format that worked, we let Vic at Giant Steps have a go at it. His mixes were considerably better, but they still didn't capture what we had hoped for, and we knew we couldn't release the CD and be proud of it.

Not long after that disappointment, the band quit being active in performance or songwriting, and the album has been essentially shelved since our "disbandment" in 2004. But we've always wanted to complete the album, if only to have something to show for all the time and money.

So over the last year, I've been collecting the things I need - and the time and experience - to do the mixes myself. The original studio tapes were in multiple formats; the drums were recorded on 2-inch 24-track reel-to-reel, while the rest of the tracks were sync'd on a trio of 8-track digital tape machines (DA-x8 machines by Tascam).

I picked up a DA-38 for a few hundred bux on eBay; however, a 2" 24-track machine is about the size of a large refrigerator, and about twice the weight. And, they usually run for between $10-20k. So, unless one fell from the sky, I couldn't reasonably obtain one of those, especially not for a one-off project. And a lot of studios don't have them anymore, since the advent of ProTools and other DAW systems.

So, considering that I'd have a hard time converting the 2", I was planning on doing the mixing based on the tracks on the digital tapes only - the recording engineer had put rough drum mixes (kick/snare/kit L/kit R) on the tapes to save wear and tear on the 2" machine. Unfortunately, I quickly found that it wouldn't be a good solution - the 4-track drums on the digital tapes were totally inadequate.

Luckily, I found a guy who runs a studio in Millville, and he has a 2" machine. He dumped the tracks down to individual tracks on a DVD for me, so now I've got everything! I've dumped all the 8-track digital stuff down to SONAR, and now with the addition of the original 2" drum tracks, I can really get at these mixes.

Okay, so it begs the question: "Why will it be different?" I mean, we had two professional engineers at two different studios attempt (and fail) to mix our album.

Here's why:

I'm not on a timetable due to budget constraints - I can take my time
I fully understand the "vision" - meaning, I KNOW what it's supposed to sound like
I really want it to sound good this time. It means a lot to me (and my bandmates)

Well, that was a record-breaking blog post for me. I'll start telling you how the mixing is coming along in my next one... Hint: so far so good!

;-)

Cool vid of the bridge on my PBC bass...

2008-10-17T05:00:00.001-04:00

The Rig from Hell, Part II: The ADA Preamplifier, and why it's so freaking awesome...

2008-10-16T05:00:00.001-04:00

One of the key components in my "rig from hell" is the ADA MB1 preamplifier. It's well over 10 years old, and the company that made it no longer exists (as I understand it, their factory burned to the ground and they just cut their losses and closed up shop rather than rebuild) - but I love what it does for me; I even own a backup that lives in my studio rack.

It's an electronically controlled unit that allows you to create 256 recall-able preset tones (it also comes with some of its own factory presets). Lots of EQ control is a given, with multi-band and parametrics galore; but one of its nicest features is that it's actually a "dual" preamp - your signal passes through (at your option) 1 or 2 onboard circuits: a solid-state preamp as well as a tube-based preamp. So you can combine those two characters to create a very unique blend. And the tube preamp also has overdrive, so that adds to the sonic stew.

Also quite useful (essential, in my case): dual effects loops, which are switchable within your presets. It also has a built-in chorus effect and built-in compressor, both useful tools for bassists.

It also features Bi-Ampable outputs (alongside a standard full-range output) which I used when running the full rig with both cabinets. When I'd play smaller rooms, I'd bring just the 2x10 and run full-range through that.

The ultimate key, though, was that the preamp is MIDI-controllable. That means that I could use a MIDI floor pedal to choose between presets on the MB1, either between songs or mid-song, to change the sound that I was playing. ADA even made a simple pedal that worked well, but my Ground Control pedal was much more advanced (read about that in a future post.) So whether I needed a straight-ahead bass sound, a distorted grinding tone, a chorus-laden tubey sound, or one of many others, I had to but step on my pedal. And different presets used various effects, too - some used the effects loops, some bypassed them. So already I have lots of tonal flexibility, and I haven't even delved into the many other pieces of gear in the rack.

Next issue: Various Bass Effects Units in the Rig From Hell

Wordless Wednesday

2008-10-15T11:37:00.001-04:00

The Rig from Hell (Part I)

2008-10-13T05:00:00.001-04:00

I've made several mentions of my "insane bass rig" and I guess it's probably time to clarify that description. Lots of bassists have put together bass rigs that are excessively complex and chock full of features and tones (most of which they'll never use.) There are also plenty of bass toys out there that do some amazing things; the Line6 gear offers tons of tonal flexibility by modeling a huge collection of amps and effects, the Roland V-Bass does it as well (but uses a special pickup to accomplish it). There are certainly plenty of analog effects pedals and units out there too.

Before I go into the technical details, I'll first examine the "why"... as in, "Why did Mark bother to brainstorm, purchase, assemble and carry around this giant tangle of cables and rack-mounted insanity?"

Heh.

Good question. Actually, quite a while back, when my good friend Scott and I were starting to put together the band that would eventually become Second Story, we both decided that we needed the ultimate in flexibility for our sounds. While we always intended to have a keyboard player in the band, we also wanted Scott (on guitar) and me (on bass) to be able to create new sonic flavors to add to our musical stew. That is, besides the "normal" guitar and bass tones that are common in popular music. And we needed them to be switchable "on the fly" so that we could change them between songs - even mid-song - so that we could really be free to create new textures. So we set out to figure out how to do that.

So now that you understand the why (maybe) here's the gear list.

The image to the right shows the rig behind me; it is an earlier shot, prior to the addition of the MB76 Patch Mixer.

Rack 1

Furman Power Conditioner

dbx Subharmonic Synthesizer

ADA MB-1 Preamp

Peavey Spectrum Analog Filter

Akai MB76 Patch Mixer

Yamaha G50 Pitch-to-Midi Translator

Alesis NanoBass Synth Module

Furman Pluglock

Rack 2

ADA B500B Power Amplifier

Speaker Cabinets

SWR Goliath Jr. 2x10"

SWR Big Ben 1x18" Subwoofer

Miscellaneous

Digital Music Corp. Ground Control MIDI Pedal

Ernie Ball Volume Pedal (used as CV pedal for MIDI)

Axon AIX-103 Hexaphonic MIDI Bass Pickup

So you can see that there are a lot of components; all of the ones in the "Rack 1" list are crammed into a 6-space SKB rack. That rack also has one of my favorite gigging inventions, the "RakTrap." It is an addition to the SKB which adds two separate door-access compartments into the back lid - normally wasted space - where I can carry spare cables, a flashlight, a soldering iron, picks (for when Scott would invariably forget his), my eBow, spare strings, NuSkin liquid bandage in case of emergency, and much more. It's a shame that they aren't available anymore...

Next Issue: The ADA Preamplifier, and why it's so freaking awesome...

Saturday Morning Cartoon

2008-10-11T05:00:00.001-04:00

One of my longtime favorites...

My new Bass Combo

2008-10-09T11:45:00.010-04:00

It's been a long time since I bought a new bass amp; I've purchased a few smaller things (like a Bass Pod Live) but no actual amps. I've long enjoyed the massive tone options of my insane bass rig (the subject of a future post) - but it's getting to the point where I want to do "pickup gigs" and other jams that don't require the sonic flexibility of that rig. And since that flexibility comes at the cost of size and weight (a six-space rack and a two-space power amp, plus cabinets), it was unwieldy to say the least.

I'd considered some upgrade options; I tried a Euphonic Audio iAmp500 with my 2x10 SWR cabinet, but they didn't really suit each other that well. I considered a micro-sized rig, like an Acoustic Image Focus with an EA Wizzy cabinet, but the price started spiraling out of control - and since I'm not actively gigging, I couldn't justify the cost.

Enter Markbass. I've seen their stuff around, and lots of folks on the boards have been talking about how nice their gear is for a while, but I never had the opportunity to try out their amps or speakers. They just started carrying Markbass at Guitar Center though, so one day when Josh and I were there just window shopping, I decided to take a closer look at what they had. Here's what I found:

This beauty is the Mini CMD 121P; it's a small-format combo amp that has the "Little Mark II" power amp mounted in a 1x12 cabinet with tweeter.

And I proclaim it the "VOICE OF GOD" in a package that weighs under 30 pounds.

As it sits, it has 300w - add a second 8ohm cabinet and it jumps to 500w. Punchy, loud, and accurate (that's important to me) it just sounds great without having to fiddle with the knobs. Most of the time, I run it totally flat, it just sounds like me. (As I've always said: 70% of tone is in your fingers; the other 30% is in your other fingers).

Along with the very usable and musical EQ, it has a "vintage voicer" which offers a sort of darker, old-skool vibe, and a "slap voicing" which - predictably - gives that scooped mid sound that slappers love. Both are on rotary controls, which allow you to bring in as much (or as little) of those tones as you like. Add a Tuner out, direct out, effects loop, XLR input - there are just too many cool features to list. And even though the strictly enforced pricing policy has it price-locked at $899, I figured out an end-around that got it into my hands for a good bit cheaper (big surprise).

I'm totally digging the sound, and it would have even been worth the 9 bills if I'd paid full price. I'm definitely looking forward to using it often.

Consider this my unpaid endorsement - if you haven't checked out Markbass amps, please do!

Wordless Wednesday

2008-09-24T05:00:00.001-04:00

Saturday Morning Cartoon

2008-09-20T10:05:00.001-04:00

Wordless Wednesday

2008-09-17T05:00:00.002-04:00

Saturday Morning Cartoon

2008-09-13T05:00:00.001-04:00

Wordless Wednesday

2008-09-10T16:45:00.001-04:00

Saturday Morning Cartoon

2008-09-06T05:00:00.002-04:00

http://warehouse.carlh.com

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

2008-09-03T05:00:00.001-04:00

Happy birthday, Mom. I miss you, wherever you are.

Saturday Morning Cartoon

2008-08-30T05:00:00.002-04:00

More: http://quilllabyrinth.com

Wordless Wednesday

2008-08-27T05:00:00.001-04:00

Saturday Morning Cartoon

2008-08-23T05:00:00.002-04:00

More: http://bassistwanted.com

On being a human jukebox

2008-08-22T05:00:00.004-04:00

So, I've never really been in a cover band. Sure, I've learned a few tunes here and there for fun, and as a kid just starting out on bass, I'd plunk along with the radio or with records (yes, vinyl records). But I've never actually been a member of a band that played covers exclusively. And that whole "practicing" thing never appealed to me either, so I haven't really just jammed on tunes for the sake of moving my hands, either.

Once, back when I was just out of high school, a couple of my friends and I got together a couple times to work out some covers, with the intent to "play out" (back when that was a big deal). I remember that one of the tunes was "Pour Some Sugar On Me" (hey, it was a current song at the time!) Another was "Rock and Roll All Night (and Party Every Day)." Yeah... I hated that. Aside from not being all that good at bass at the time, I really didn't know the KISS tune (never been into KISS, myself) and it was somewhat humbling and rather annoying. I had trouble picking up the tunes, got frustrated, and certainly frustrated my friends. So it didn't last long, and back I went to concentrating on songwriting and just having to be able to play the stuff we wrote.

In later days, I thought a cover tune or two might punch up our live show, so those of us in Ransomed Soul learned the first bit of "Carry On Wayward Son." Realizing that with a power trio we wouldn't be able to cover the organ parts, we ended up just doing the beginning section of the song - and then transitioning into one of our songs that happened to be in the same key. It was sorta fun, and it perked up the audience, but we really didn't spend much time on it.

That same Kansas song showed up again in Second Story - and having a keyboard player this time around, we actually "learned" the whole song. Well, okay, we got really close - a lot of the details were played in "shorthand" rather than learning it note-by-note. But the audiences dug it and felt that it did the original song justice. I don't know why, but we just figured it out one night at rehearsal when we didn't feel like running our originals. Oh yeah, early on, before the band had enough material to fill a show, we also did "I Don't Wanna Wait" by Paula Cole pretty well.

And of course, Second Story recorded a Queensrÿche song for a tribute album (which, unfortunately, was never released due to gross mismanagement at the "label" putting it out - a diversion for another day). But that track was not a dead-on cover; the band agreed that the essence of a good "tribute" track was to put our own stamp on their song rather than re-performing it like a jukebox. So again, we really spent more time re-arranging to our taste rather than playing a note-for-note cover. (The track totally kicks ass, by the way.)

I guess I'm only thinking about all of this because coming up at the end of the month is "Beardstock," a musical/food/festivities weekend for the fans of the band Spock's Beard. And I've (foolishly?) offered to play bass and sing on a fair number of tunes for a couple of impromptu "bands." And it's a pretty new experience for me - this time I have no choice but to figure out what so-and-so played, trying to remember the changes in prog songs I've never heard before... It's certainly going to be an experience. But it's an experience that most players have very early in their playing career - here I am, 20 years deep into playing, and I'm practically a cover song virgin! And the type of music fans at this party are going to know if I don't play Geddy's parts note-perfect. I guess the hardest part is going to be not worrying about that - and just enjoying the jams. And at least nowadays (unlike when I was a beginner) I've got the chops.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-08-20T05:00:00.001-04:00

StarF**ker Central, Part I - Tony Levin

2008-08-19T05:00:00.002-04:00

I've been fortunate enough to meet a number of my musical idols. Being that I'm not all that famous myself, it's cool that so many of them are down-to-earth enough to have a conversation with a relative nobody like myself. Here, first entry in an occasional series about my brief encounters with musical "heroes."

Tony Levin is generally considered to be a very cool, somewhat quirky guy. He's a great bassist and an innovative musician (among other instruments, he also plays a Chapman Stick). His book "Beyond the Bass Clef" is a fun read, with gig anectdotes and studio stories - and the odd crazy invention (bass rig with capuccino machine) and oatmeal cookie recipe(!) It was during a book signing that I got to have a brief conversation with him, and I just so happened to have a fun story to tell, which he quite clearly appreciated.

As you may have read in a previous post, I own several pair of Tony's "Funk Fingers" (small drumsticks that attach to a bassist's fingers for a percussive sound.) Tony used them on several tunes with Peter Gabriel. In the meantime, I actually used them on two of Second Story's more popular tunes, and as a result, if you came out to see us, you were quite likely to see them in action at least once.

A friend and regular audience member came up to me after a show one evening all excited - he told me that, the previous weekend, he had watched Peter Gabriel's "Secret World Live" video. "And his bassist - he had those crazy drumstick thingies like you have!" I, of course, filled him in that Tony was actually the inventor of those "drumstick thingies." As you can imagine, when I recounted that story, Tony got a nice laugh out of it.

I found him to be generous with his time, attentive to his fans, and quite friendly overall. Cool guy. And he signed my book.

My Hoyt 6-string Fretless (Mark Gollihur Signature Model)

2008-08-17T05:00:00.001-04:00

Yeah, you read that right - the gorgeous work of art in my hands to the right is my "signature model" bass - made entirely to my specifications by Karl Hoyt, luthier and family friend (he's also made 3 basses for my dad). I even sent him a sketch of the body design - I wanted the extra long upper horn for balance (that's a looooong neck with lotsa tuners on it) and a short lower horn for easy access to the upper range.

I love my bass; it has a through-body maple neck with an ebony fingerboard, and amazing side wings that are a "hippie sandwich" of wenge (an African wood with the color of chocolate-y goodness) surrounding a gooey center of mahogany. It even features an amazing hand-made bridge of solid ebony - and matching ebony knobs! The bass is truly a work of art.

The electronics are also custom-tailored for this axe; a Bartolini preamp blends the undersaddle piezo pickup for natural "acoustic" sound, while the (now quite rare) active Lane Poor magnetic soapbar pickup sits in the "sweet spot."

This bass, which I've strung with LaBella Deep-Talkin' Black Tapewound strings, sounds amazingly woody and warm - it just has this wonderful singing tone with no hint of nasal ugliness. And with its low action, the mwah that you can produce with this thing is just unstoppable.

This was the first 6-er that Karl had made, and it was also his first neck-thru, if I remember correctly. He has made quite a few very cool basses, including an acoustic-electric and a couple of electric 5-ers for my dad (1 fretted, one fretless). In fact, if you look back into my July posting archive, you'll see a mock ad (from a "Wordless Wednesday" post) that my Dad and I did up just to break his stones. Karl's a funny guy with a goofy sense of humor - and he makes cool basses.

Saturday Morning Cartoon

2008-08-16T05:00:00.001-04:00

No "Brain Ripping"

2008-08-14T05:00:00.004-04:00

As a self-released artist who has found copies of our album pirated on message forums, newsgroups, and torrent sites, I actually am caught in the middle of this argument - and while I don't necessarily agree with the writer's position (presumably) I thought this was pretty well-written and funny. This was passed to me by email without the original writer's information, so if anyone knows where it came from, let me know so that I can acknowledge the author.

RIAA Declares Using Your Brain to Remember Songs is Criminal Copyright Infringement

On the heels of the RIAA's recent decision to criminalize consumers who rip songs from albums they've purchased to their computers (or iPods), the association has now gone one step further and declared that "remembering songs" using your brain is criminal copyright infringement. "The brain is a recording device," explained RIAA president Cary Sherman. "The act of listening is an unauthorized act of copying music to that recording device, and the act of recalling or remembering a song is unauthorized playback."

The RIAA also said it would begin sending letters to tens of millions of consumers thought to be illegally remembering songs, threatening them with lawsuits if they don't settle with the RIAA by paying monetary damages. "We will aggressively pursue all copyright infringement in order to protect our industry," said Sherman.

In order to avoid engaging in unauthorized copyright infringement, consumers will now be required to immediately forget everything they've just heard -- a skill already mastered by U.S. President George Bush. To aid in these memory wiping efforts, the RIAA is teaming up with Big Pharma to include free psychotropic prescription drugs with the purchase of new music albums. Consumers are advised to swallow the pills before listening to the music. The pills -- similar to the amphetamines now prescribed for ADHD -- block normal cognitive function, allowing consumers to enjoy the music in a more detached state without the risk of accidentally remembering any songs (and thereby violating copyright law).

Consumers caught humming their favorite songs will be charged with a more serious crime: The public performance of a copyrighted song, for which the fines can reach over $250,000 per incident. "Humming, singing and whistling songs will not be tolerated," said Sherman. "Only listening and forgetting songs is allowed."

Consumers attempting to circumvent the RIAA's new memory-wiping technology by actually remembering songs will be charged with felony crimes under provisions of the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act). The Act, passed in 1998, makes it a felony crime to circumvent copyright protection technologies. The RIAA's position is that consumers who actually use their brains while listening to music are violating the DMCA. "We would prefer that consumers stop using their brains altogether," said Sherman.

With this decision, the RIAA now considers approximately 72% of the adult U.S. population to be criminals. Putting them all in prison for copyright infringement would cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $683 billion per year -- an amount that would have to be shouldered by the remaining 28% who are not imprisoned. The RIAA believes it could cover the $683 billion tab through royalties on music sales. The problem with that? The 28% remaining adults not in prison don't buy music albums. That means album sales would plummet to nearly zero, and the U.S. government (which is already deep in debt) would have to borrow money to pay for all the prisons. And where would the borrowed money come from? China, of course: The country where music albums are openly pirated and sold for monetary gain.

When asked whether he really wants 72% of the U.S. population to be imprisoned for ripping music CDs to their own brains, RIAA president Sherman shot back, "You don't support criminal behavior do you? Every person who illegally remembers a song is a criminal. We can't have criminal running free on the streets of America. It's an issue of national security."

NOTE: This does not yet represent the actual position of the RIAA, although from the way things are going, the association may soon adopt it. Permission is granted to make copies of this story, redistribute it, post it and e-mail it (please provide proper credit and URL) as long as you do not actually remember it because copying to your brain is now strictly prohibited. Any attempts to circumvent the memory-based copyright restrictions on this article will result in your brain imploding, causing such an extreme loss of cognitive function that your only hope for any future career will be running for public office.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-08-13T05:00:00.001-04:00

Upgrading EMG pickups to 18 volts - one of my favorite mods!

2008-08-11T05:00:00.004-04:00

I've long hosted this information at my website, but I figured putting it here might help more people find it. I get emails from people occasionally who found it, did it, and just have to tell me how great it made their bass sound. So here it is!

Getting More "Oomph" from Your EMGs
The simple $.79 mod that may save you from buying new pickups

I find it interesting that EMG's have seemingly fallen out of favor with most modern bassists. I've been using them for more than 10 years, and with the exception of my killer Hoyt fretless 6 (which has a Lane Poor and piezos) all of my basses have had them. And I'm very happy about that, and have no plans to change them.
The fact is, most people have grown tired of that signature EMG sound, which has become somewhat eclipsed by newer, boutique pickups (which, don't get me wrong, rock) -- and EMGs have become somewhat passe' to many modern bassists on that ever elusive search for the perfect tone.

So I was thinking -- if everyone else has moved on, am I just down with the old sound, too stubborn to change? Has the "in" sound moved on, leaving me hopelessly clinging to the "modern/active" tone of the past? Am I simply "out of touch" with the essential tone for the modern bassist?

Pauses for effect...
Nah. I realized that all of my EMG-outfitted basses of the recent past have had one major improvement, which -- for me -- has made all the difference in the world. The amazing thing is that those selfsame EMG pickups you already have (and are considering replacing) may have that tone you're looking for, lurking in the dark recesses of some forward-thinking design. And you can coax it out with a little effort, some basic soldering, and a little bit of pocket change.

The smart folks at EMG had the thoughtfulness to make their pickups able to handle voltages from 9v to 27v, reportedly to make them phantom-powerable (another intriguing thought, but the subject of another digression.) Some enterprising folks discovered that adding a second battery (thereby powering the pickups at 18 volts rather than the stock 9) makes an enormous difference in the voicing, sound quality, and headroom that EMGs can provide. That "choked" or "signature EMG" tone is no more. Clarity and "oomph" is yours for the taking. This mod improved all of my preset sounds, from the "rumble and click" setting to the "balls and chunk" preset. And it only takes 15 minutes and costs like a buck to try it; and for the faint at heart, it's totally reversible.

Think I'm nuts? This is directly from the EMG Site:

"Can I use multiple batteries?
Yes. If you've got room for multiple batteries in your guitar, you can use two batteries wired in series to power your onboard circuitry at 18 volts. The output level will not appreciably increase, but you'll have increased headroom and crisper transients. This is especially useful for percussive/slap bass styles where you can generate enormous instantaneous power levels across the entire frequency spectrum. You can also wire two batteries in parallel to provide a regular 9 volt supply but with much longer lifespan between battery changes.
Although most of our products are rated for 27 volts, we recommend a maximum of 18 volts. The additional benefits of 27 vs. 18 volts are negligible."

Hold that iron!
All the standard disclaimers apply...
Please don't blame me if you screw up your bass... this information is for you to implement at your own risk. However, this is stupid-easy. And I have personally performed this mod on 4 basses (3 of mine and a co-worker's, who then helped two of his friends do it) and everyone has been tickled pink thus far. Though I'm pretty sure that the mod works with all EMG active pickups and circuits - you might want to check with EMG to make sure you won't fry anything.

For instance, from EMG Tech Support:

"The EMG-HZ pickups are passive, not active. There is active tone circuitry in some (maybe all?) LTD basses that requires a battery. You can run the circuitry on 18 volts without damage to the circuitry as long as the modification is done correctly."

This won't work (obviously) on EMG Selects (they're passive, silly) and I don't have information on whether this works on any other active pickups by manufacturers other than EMG. I don't know if this works with your Ibanez, or your Warwick, or what. Though I'm pretty sure that it's an approved and kosher upgrade on the Woogie Fritzmeyer Signature Model. Got it? Good.

So on we go! It's not tough, if you have moderate experience with a soldering iron.
Highly recommended - read ALL of the instructions before you start!

Materials required:

Soldering iron and solder
9V battery "clip"
Something to snip and strip wiring (wire stripper, teeth, whatever you got)
Electrical tape
A couple of new batteries
a 9V battery holder is preferable - it keeps the battery from bouncing around in the cavity. (Surrounding the batteries with foam is a decidedly low-tech but effective approach, as well.)

The Instructions:

Figure 1: What you've got now.

The clip for the 9 Volt battery currently attaches directly to one of the prongs on the 1/4 stereo output jack; this way you're not draining the battery when nothing is plugged in.

Take out your current battery.
Figure out how you're going to jam 2 batteries into that little compartment (an important step - you may need an extra length of wire or some creative thinking, depending on your bass.)
Heat the iron and desolder the black wire from the existing 9v clip from the output jack.
Solder the red contact of the new 9v clip to the black contact of the existing one and completely insulate with the electrical tape.
Solder the black wire of the new clip to the output jack where the old one attached.
Do whatever else you need to do while you're there -- put in the battery holder, if applicable.
Put in two fresh batteries - mixing old and new will give less than stellar results.
Play and be stunned and amazed. If not stunned and amazed, reverse steps to negate, or use "Upgraded to 18v electronics" as a unique selling point when you get rid of this bass.

Figure 2: How it will look.

Here's what it will (essentially) look like when you're done (but don't forget to insulate the wire-to-wire solder joint to prevent shorting.)

For those afraid of commitment:
Fellow TBL'er (The Bottom Line Bass Digest) Rick Blair suggests this alternate method which simply involves creating a harness with a three pack of battery clips:
"Wire 3 battery connectors in series and connect a battery to two of them and the third connector to the original battery connector in the bass. If you ever decide to go back to a single 9V battery, merely unplug the harness."

Important Note: this section has been recently updated due to some people having trouble with this method. Please completely think the whole thing through as you're doing it to make sure polarity is correct - reversed voltage may damage your preamp or pickups.

Figure 3: The temporary harness
(Again, don't forget to insulate the solder joints to prevent shorting!)

For the real wackos:
You can, if slightly off-kilter in the noggin, even add a THIRD battery to increase to 27v. However, I'm told that the upgrade from 18 to 27 is not nearly as dramatic as that from 9 to 18; and it's probably not worth the extra battery costs or trouble to make room in an already crowded cavity.

Hey, this mod is also applicable to guitars as well. I used to have an old Peavey six-string that screams.

Good luck, and keep living the low life!

Saturday Morning Cartoon

2008-08-09T17:01:00.002-04:00

Comfort Strapp - the best guitar strap I've found!

2008-08-08T17:16:00.000-04:00

These are the coolest and best guitar straps I've been able to find, especially if you play heavy basses or guitars. The two ends are constructed of the typical webbed strap with leather ends, so there's nothing too special about them - it's the middle of the strap that makes all the difference. The middle uses a thick swath of neoprene (the stuff of wetsuits) but its inherent "bounciness" is tempered by its attachment to a fixed-length strap of webbing. So it has a little bounce, but not too much. Having just enough shock absorption makes it comfortable; it makes heavy basses and guitars seem lighter. But by controlling the stretch factor, it doesn't bounce all over the place - your instrument stays where it belongs. The neoprene also has enough friction against most clothes to keep it from sliding; so the Comfort Strapp is the most controlled, best strap I've tried.

Read more about them at Comfortstrapp.com.

Note: I am not a paid endorser of Comfort Strapp.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-08-06T05:00:00.001-04:00

Cool mods for the Fender Champion 600 (reissue) Amp

2008-08-03T05:00:00.001-04:00

I recently picked one of these little guys on eBay, and I'm really enjoying it - it should make for a really good studio amp. It reacts nicely to pedals in front of it, has a nice and simple tube tone. I've had fun running the Tele and the Strat through it.

Of course, I'm a big fan of modding, so I started looking for replacement tubes and speakers - and I found a full mod instruction/kit to really amp this thing up. So I think I'm going to go for it. Here's the walkthrough - check it out!

Saturday Morning Cartoon

2008-08-02T05:00:00.001-04:00

More: http://bassistwanted.com

Why do you guys sound so good? (When we sound so bad?)

2008-07-31T05:00:00.004-04:00

This is an article I wrote for an online magazine back in 2001. When Second Story was gigging regularly, I used to get asked a lot, "How come you guys seem to get better mixes and sound from the soundman than we do?" Here's at least some of the answers.

Getting Great Sound from a House Soundman

It always amazes me how many local artists tell me that they don't play a certain club anymore because the "sound man is so bad there." With rare exception, I tell them that whenever we play that same club, our front of house sound is just fine. Granted, there are clubs that have people behind the boards that shouldn't touch the tone controls on their home stereo — much less a fader on a mixing board — but those clubs are so few and far between that it usually isn't the issue.

Getting good sound in your local club can be a matter of following a few simple rules, most of which I've seen broken by most of the bands we've played with over the years. Whether it be ego or ignorance, not doing your part to get good sound is probably doing far more damage to your front-of-house mix than the soundman's inability (or indifference.) Here are a few things that I've learned over the years; many of these were tips from soundmen, many just revelations and discoveries after lots and lots of gigs over the years.

Above all – BE NICE.
The soundman is just doing a job. To him, it's often no different than your weekend gig behind the register at the corner drug store. It's a paycheck. He obviously has to do a good enough job to keep the gig, but if you're not pleasant and friendly, he's not going to invest more than a minimum of effort to get you guys on stage. If he's thinking, "these are cool guys," he's usually going to sit behind the board and bring the fader up when the guitar player starts his solo, instead of wandering off to get another beer.

As an addendum to the above, be considerate.
We've got an amazing amount of gear for our live show. Between MIDI and "regular" bass, two guitar preamps and midi guitar, keyboards, a sampler, drums, percussion... we could be a soundman's nightmare. But we've carefully designed the way our equipment works so that it is simple for the engineer — one mic (on one speaker) covers all three guitar preamps, a high-quality DI (with a three-foot XLR extension cord that hangs off the side of the bass rig) covers all the bass, and the sampler runs through the keyboard player's rig, which is also handled by a single DI. Voila! Even with all our complex gear, we're as simple to mix as a standard 5-piece group. Also included in being considerate – get your gear onstage and set up quickly and efficiently, and when the show's over, don't waste time breaking down, especially if there's another band after you.

Have decent gear.
This may sound like a no-brainer, but I've heard bands whining because they didn't get a good sound out front; meanwhile, the guitarist is using a stomp-box through a Peavey Audition 20, the bassist has 40 year-old strings on his $110 bass, and the drummer hasn't changed his heads (or tuned his drums) since he bought the kit for $200 in 5th grade. While not everyone can afford top-notch gear, you've got to have decent tools to build a good show. Even if you polish a turd – you've still got a turd.

Stage volume is key
So many times I've seen bands with a guitar player whose rig is so mind-bogglingly loud that the soundman actually turns off the mic in front of his cabinets; there's so much volume coming from the stage that he can only try to even up the level of the other instruments to compensate. At this point, the soundman has lost control. If you have a bad mix now (and you most certainly will) it is your fault. Need that full-blown distortion sound? Get a Marshall Powerbrake or something. Though this seems like common sense, I see it all the time. Usually, for these bands, I leave the room - it makes my ears hurt.

Set up "Side-stage"
In clubs that amplify all the gear (drums, bass, guitar - not just vocals) your amps become redundant if they're facing the audience. What's the point of facing the amp at the crowd if all they hear is the mains? Turn that amp sideways to face the band – not only will it allow you (and your bandmates) to hear yourself better, but you can also turn it down a bit and get a little clarity on stage. Also recommended: tilt that baby up towards your head. If your amp is hitting your pantlegs, you won't hear it as well as the poor bassist on the other side of the stage (and vice-versa) and you'll both turn up, negating each other's efforts.

Think ahead
Does your band have a sound that is unusual? Do you have specific mix requests? Don't expect the soundman to know these things, you've got to tell him. Obviously, don't overdo it ("in the second chorus of the third song, we NEED you to put a huge slapback delay on the background vocals"), but if you're a keyboard heavy band playing in a guitar-rock dominated scene, you should let him know. And if you're planning on whipping out a Sousaphone in the third number, he should probably know that as well. As an example, I often use heavily distorted bass sounds; I let the soundman know ahead of time so that he doesn't think something's wrong with the bass when it gets all "fuzzy." I also use a subharmonic synthesizer module occasionally – I make sure I warn him about it so I don't blow his subs. (Note: one soundman didn't believe me and brushed me off - I actually DID blow two of his subs because he had them cranked. That was HIS fault.)

Finally: Be appreciative
When the show's done, ALWAYS thank the soundman, even if you may not think it was his best effort. They like to hear that they did a good job just as much as you like to hear it from the audience. If he did an amazing job, it's not unheard of to slip him a tip and/or buy him a beer. Even if just a thank you and a handshake, he'll remember you next time you play there – and it will be a pleasant memory, not a "oh no, not these uncivilized rock star wannabes again."

All in all, I'd say that the vast majority of sound problems can be solved with some effort, forethought, and common courtesy. Remember that your ultimate goal is to have great sound out front – a soundman can make a great band sound horrible if he wants to (or doesn't care.) But all that even the best soundman can do for a under-prepared, ill-equipped band is to make them suck a lot louder.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-07-30T05:00:00.001-04:00

My "Rickenfaker"

2008-07-29T05:00:00.002-04:00

Here's my 1976 Ibanez "lawsuit" copy of a Rickenbacker® 4001. I picked her up on eBay a while back. She was in rough condition; the pickups had been spray-painted flat black - without being removed from the bass! In addition, a thumb rest had been screwed into the face of the body! Of course, she had the usual dents and dings that you'd expect on a bass over 30 years old, and she was grungy from having been neglected.

I took her apart, cleaned her up, removed the pickguard and electronics, replaced the pickups, electronics and knobs with genuine Ric parts, and put a set of RotoSounds on her. Once I was satisfied that she was back up to speed, the crowning touch: I fashioned a replacement headstock logo, in the style of Rickenbacker's type, that says "Rickenfaker." I figure, it's not the real thing - so I might as well play up to that fact. It's a poseur, but it does a good job! We've recorded it on a number of the Din Within songs with great success so far.

I also equipped her with a "stereo" output jack (with a switch) to allow me to send the pickups to separate amps (a la "Rick-O-SoundTM") or both to a single output for normal use.

Here's a closeup of the "Rickenfaker" overlay. When I first created it, I thought it was such a swell idea that I'd put them on eBay for other owners of copies to apply to their basses - alas, that didn't last long. Once the Rickenbacker brass caught wind of it, they strong-armed eBay into cancelling the auctions, and subsequently threatened me with eBay banishment. They are EXTREMELY protective, which I understand - but it's not like I was passing off the bass as a real Ric (or making a kit for others to do so). Legally speaking, my humorous log is a parody, which constitutes fair use (look it up). But I wasn't about to get into a verbal fistfight with them (and risk my eBay history and account) for a measly $10 apiece.

So, nyah nyah, I've got a RickenFaker logo and you don't.

Saturday Morning Cartoon

2008-07-28T05:00:00.001-04:00

More: http://xkcd.com/132/

Our Music Video for "Wake"

2008-07-27T05:00:00.005-04:00

Back in the day, our band Second Story had a song called "Wake" which was a fan favorite. Dark and a little spooky, it featured samples by Dr. Jack Kevorkian and told a story of a person who was "trapped in their own body" by illness or injury. The song's lyrics are a study in duality - the first verse asks for release from her prison by being "woken up", while the second verse asks to be "woken up" by being released...

Sometime around 2000, we shot a music video for the song - a co-worker of myself and John was studying film in college, and she needed a good project for a class. She conceived and edited the entire video, as well as secured a location and brought all the props and other needs. We basically showed up, and that was it! We wanted to eventually edit in some performance footage to make it more like a traditional music video, but never made that happen. But it's pretty cool to watch!

Enjoy.

Lyrical Genius, Part II - Ben Folds

2008-07-25T08:00:00.000-04:00

It's a shame, but it seems to me that a lot of songwriters don't really work as hard on their lyrics as they do their music. Granted, there are exceptions, but so much of - particularly popular - music is made up of utter dreck, lyrically speaking. (Of course, a lot of the music blows, too.)

Even most of the words that are well-written are pretty lacking; they don't really mean anything.

So I present the second in a series on songwriters that I feel deserve mention for the profundity that they display in their lyrical output. Enjoy!

BEN FOLDS

Ben Folds is considerably more well-known than my previous entry; he's had several songs hit on the radio ("Brick" was a pretty major hit) so you've probably heard of him, even if you never heard of Kevin Gilbert. But perhaps in all the upbeat, rockin' piano jammin', you never noticed what an incredible storyteller he is? The aforementioned "Brick" is a very good example; a (fictional?) story about a couple of teenagers who go to the women's clinic the day after Christmas is not actually a pro- or con- argument for abortion, it's instead a powerful statement on loneliness, "status quo" relationships, and honesty, among other things. And it's told in the context of a story so simply told - few words, but words well chosen - that one can hardly have trouble identifying with the "character" in the song.

It's a skill that Ben has in spades. Another very good story told, from the "Ben Folds Five" album, is "Boxing." It's a story about a boxer who's well past his prime, yet still boxing because it's all he knows. It's sung to his manager, Howard, and the most goosebump-raising line is at the tail end of each chorus:

Boxing's been good to me Howard
But now I'm told, I'm growing old
The whole time you knew, in a couple of years I'd be through
Has boxing been good to you?

Damn, that gives me chills just typing it.

Then there's the amazing "Fred Jones Part II" from "Rocking the Suburbs":

Fred sits alone at his desk in the dark
There's an awkward young shadow that waits in the hall
He's cleared all his things and he's put them in boxes
Things that remind him: 'Life has been good'
Twenty-five years
He's worked at the paper
A man's here to take him downstairs
And I'm sorry, Mr. Jones
It's time
There was no party, there were no songs
'Cause today's just a day like the day that he started
No one is left here that knows his first name
And life barrels on like a runaway train
Where the passengers change
They don't change anything
You get off; someone else can get on
And I'm sorry, Mr. Jones
It's time

An incredible story, told incredibly simply. You relate, you understand - it's an amazing skill, and one that I hope to develop in my own songwriting.

To steal Kevin Gilbert's phrase: To be simple, yet profound.

I'll close with lyrics from "The Luckiest" - an amazing (perhaps a little sappy) song that my wife and I made "our song" at our wedding and for always. It has the amazing distinction of this great moment: When we played it for my Mom (who we lost in April) the first words out of her mouth after she heard it for the first time were, "You know you have to play that at your wedding, right?" (This was before we were even engaged.) Amazing song, amazing lyrics: Note - I typed from memory, prose-style, so the line spacing may not be as Ben Folds originally wrote 'em.)

The Luckiest (from "Rockin' the Suburbs")

I don't get many things right the first time
In fact, I am told that a lot.
Now I know: all the wrong turns and stumbles and falls
Brought me here.
And where was I before the day
That I first saw your lovely face?
Now I see it every day.
And I know that I am the luckiest.

What if I'd been born fifty years before you
In a house on a street where you lived?
Maybe I'd be outside as you passed on your bike...
Would I know?
And in a white sea of eyes, I'd see one pair
That I recognize
And I know that I am the luckiest.

I love you more than I can ever find a way to say to you.

Next door there's an old man
Who lived to his nineties
And one day, passed away in his sleep
And his wife, she stayed for
A couple of days and passed away
I'm sorry, I know that's a strange way to tell you
That I know we belong...
And I know, that I am the luckiest

Wordless Wednesday (okay, there's words in it, but still)

2008-07-23T05:00:00.001-04:00

The ol' Battle Axe

2008-07-22T05:00:00.000-04:00

The bass shown in the photo to the right has been my main axe for almost 12 years now. It's a pretty amazing instrument, with lots of unique features that make it the most gig-worthy and the best-sounding bass I've ever encountered.

My 6-string fretted GTB 356 Model was made by a US-based company called PBC that was located in Coopersburg, PA - they're no longer in business, but the basses are still made by Dave Bunker in Washington State. When I decided that a 6-string bass was going to be a necessity for Second Story, writing partner Scott and I took a trip up to PBC's factory store to check out their basses and manufacturing facility. (We had seen a couple of their basses and even talked to a rep at one of our local music stores.)

When we got there, they had a showroom full of basses - and LOTS of them were sixers. I picked up at least half a dozen while we were there, and they were quite nice; well-appointed, and very nicely finished (most, including my bass, have AAAA-grade flame-maple tops or better.) When I came across the bass I eventually bought, I knew instantly that it was the instrument I had to buy - it practically melted into my fingers. There are some instruments that you just KNOW were made for you, and this bass was one of them. While I was "cashing out" the bass, the guy also confided in me that the bass was originally built specifically for Allen Woody; but when he came to get it, a new model caught his eye and he took one of those instead.

All I know is: the bass is awesome.

Features:

Bookmatched AAAA figured Maple top
Patented Tension Free neck, 5 piece, Maple fretboard
EMG Dual Coil soapbars, EMG BTC Circuit, 18v (The bass came with the pickups; I upgraded it to the BTC preamp and the 18v system)
Individual "Through Body" Bridges in Gold plated solid machined Bell Brass (one for each string)

The Tension-free neck is the most interesting special feature on this bass. Rather than a traditional truss rod, the maple neck has a pair of channels routed through it; within these cavities lie two cold-rolled steel bars. All of the tension that the strings impart on the neck assembly are carried by the bars - not the wood. The manufacturers claim that this eliminates dead-spots, and allows for excellent adjustability and durability. All I can say is that the bass plays like buttah, and from the low B on the bottom string to the very highest notes up the C-string the bass has a balanced, even sound - octave to octave, string to string.

The other innovation is the high-mass bridge system; there's actually a separate through-body bridge assembly - made of bell brass - for each string, which ties into the massive tone plate on the back surface of the bass. It makes for a bit of added weight, to be sure - this bass is no lightweight - but it creates the ability for amazing sustain; and since each string has its own bridge, multiple notes played simultaneously ring out and sustain just as well as single notes do. There's just a tremendous amount of clarity and focus to the bass. It... just... sings.

Of course, visually the bass is striking - with its no-headstock design and very beautiful bookmatched top. And the headless design makes for some great ergonomic advantages as well. Firstly, the balance on this bass is amazing - where most six strings "neck-dive" because of the weight of all those tuners on the end of the neck, this bass just "hangs" in playing position with no effort. Also, not having a huge headstock makes the bass a lot more compact, which is valuable on the many crowded stages I've played on - I never accidentally whacked my singer in the head (though I thought about doing it on purpose more than a few times). And it makes for a smaller case, which is nice.

Clearly, I can talk a lot about this bass and go on forever. The maker is relatively unknown, but I'm a big fan and will hang onto this bass forever!

Funk Fingers?

2008-07-20T08:00:00.001-04:00

These are some of my favorite toys. Originally developed by Tony Levin and his bass tech, based on an idea that Peter Gabriel suggested - I believe the story went something like this: When they were rehearsing or recording one of Gabriel's tunes, to get a percussive sound, Tony was whacking his bass with a spare drumstick. Peter said, "Why not attach the sticks to your fingers? The result was this:

For a brief time, Tony actually had a bunch of sets made, and sold them on his website. I was lucky enough to grab a few sets for myself when they were there, since he no longer produces them. As a result, he gives his permission to recreate them yourself for personal use - but mandates that you cannot mass produce or sell them for profit (I think he owns a patent for them). I've since seen original pairs of the ones he produced sell on eBay for over $100 (which is ridiculous since they should be easy enough to make for yourself.)

I actually got pretty good at using them; I performed with them regularly in live concerts and bar gigs with Second Story - as well as recorded two of the songs for the second album using them ("Dancing on the Hill" and "Abducted"). I hope to soon have some video available of them in action.

But they're neat, very cool, and they never failed to get a reaction from the crowd when I started smacking my bass with them. And they can provide an ultra-percussive bass sound that just can't be matched with the thumb alone.

Here's a clip from the studio (pre-vocals) of "Dancing on the Hill," which features me playing the Funk Fingers through a distorted amp.

And here's a sound clip, from a live performance with Second Story

Ahhh... toys.

Saturday Morning Cartoon

2008-07-19T01:00:00.000-04:00

The FrankenStrat (part II)

2008-07-18T08:00:00.001-04:00

(continued from yesterday's post)
The Electronics
So, now that I had the beginnings of a cool guitar, I needed to outfit it with some pickups. I knew that a red tortoiseshell pickguard would look super cool against the pale yellow body, so I ordered a loaded pickguard from Carvin. The pickups actually sound really good, with a vintage vibe but not a lot of noise. They're three single coils, classic Strat-style. However, they also add a special "7-way" switch to allow you to add the neck pickup to any other pickup combination; so, in addition to the typical five-way switching of a standard Strat, you also can flip the switch to get the previously unattainable neck and bridge combination, as well as all three pickups simultaneously.

Another thing trashpicked at GVOX was an old Fishman Strat-style bridge with piezo elements mounted in the saddles. Each of the tiny wires for the piezos had been severed, presumably for testing with pitch-to-midi systems, so I had to carefully re-attach them and wire it up as best I could. Once I did that, I got an active blending preamplifier from Bartolini to blend the piezo-electric elements with the magnetic pickups. I moved the "7-way" switch on the pickguard and installed the blend knob inline with the other two pickup knobs (vol/tone), and drilled tiny holes in the pickguard to allow access to the gain micro-pots for each pickup channel.

So electronically, the FrankenStrat exceeds the capabilities of most other Strats; allowing for 7-way pickup selection, "acoustic-like" piezo pickups in the bridge, an active blending preamp... it's pretty awesome sounding.

The Final Touches
All that was left were some final touches. I got a custom matching (well, almost) back plate cover made, put Grover locking tuning machines into it, and most recently, got a custom neck plate with a holographic laser-etched "Custom Shop" logo design on it. I sanded most of the finish off the back of the neck and protected it with Boiled Linseed Oil, which is one of my favorite techniques for a really comfortable and fast neck. Finally, I took it to a trusted guitar tech and had him fully set it up for action and intonation.

While I'm not a great guitarist (I'm far better on bass) this guitar is like "going home" for me. It's a little heavy, thanks to the Squier body, but it balances really well on a strap or on my knee. Perhaps it's the special time and effort I put into it, but it just feels like "my" guitar and no one else's. I'll never get rid of it. If you've never dabbled with putting a guitar together with parts, no matter where the source, I highly recommend it. It's a very rewarding experience!

The FrankenStrat

2008-07-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

Here she is, my favorite electric guitar. It's a true FrankenStrat, and over the years I've put a lot of work into it and I'm quite happy with the results.

Humble Origins
The guitar got its start when I worked for a music software company. Among the products offered by GVOX was a computer interface for guitar; it allowed you to connect the guitar to your computer and use it for learning and composition. Nowadays, guitar-to-MIDI systems by Axon, Roland and Yamaha surpass (by far) the capability of the GVOX Guitar System, but at the time, they were cheap and pretty effective.

Over the years, they'd acquired a fair number of guitars at GVOX, for testing, giveaway prizes, etc. They had even forged a special relationship with Fender at one point to market and sell a "GVOX-Ready Strat" which had the mounting hardware for the GVOX pickup built in. So there were a lot of guitars around the office. I even had a pretty cool Strat next to my desk. That said, some of the technical gurus had even, at one point, apparently been working on wired-fret guitar systems and other such tech toys - so a lot of the guitars around the building had been somewhat "abused."

One such instrument provided me with the body for my favorite guitar. One day, while helping to take out the trash, I noted that a Squier Strat was being sent to the dumpster; its electronics gutted, its neck de-fretted and cracked... but the body, a cool yellowed semi-transparent, was in really good shape! So the body (with permission, of course) ended up in my back seat instead of the dumpster.

Similarly, some months later, I was helping to clean out our basement storage area and a Mexican strat whose body had been heavily battle scarred (but whose maple neck looked to be almost perfect) was marked for disposal but found its way to my house. A little bit of Dremel work later, the neck fit securely into the pocket, and I had the beginnings of a rippin' Strat!

(to be continued tomorrow)

Wordless Wednesday

2008-07-16T05:00:00.001-04:00

Secret Stash Volume I

2008-07-15T05:00:00.000-04:00

Occasionally I will roll out a cool demo track, archive or other interesting tidbit from my musical past. Here's #1 in the series.

This could have made a very cool bonus track on the Din Within CD, for sure - wish I'd thought of it at the time. It's an early demo of the song "The Bottom/Between Two Lives" that I put together to show Josh my early concepts. Some of those concepts made it into the final song, some didn't. And of course, this track is before Josh got all his gooey guitar goodness into the track.

The demo clip (and the "Between Two Lives" part of the song) is based on "Thru the Haze," a song I actually wrote for a songwriting contest when I was in High School. You can read the "Din Diary" (blog) at DinWithin.com for more details on the song's creation, but the condensed version of it is this: I radically re-arranged parts of that song, and Josh and I re-orchestrated it and combined it with a song he wrote called "The Bottom" to create the song that made it onto the album.

So, the lyrics used in this demo are the original "Thru the Haze" chorus, which we scrapped and completely re-wrote for "The Bottom/Between Two Lives." The drums on the clip are my programmed sample drums, and the instruments and vocals are all me. The synth solo was replaced with an amazing guitar solo (by Josh) in the final song. And of course, the song's overall layout was changed substantially, with new parts that Josh and I composed and produced together, etc.

But you can hear the beginnings of some of the textures we used, and I always find it quite interesting to compare songs with their early demos; you can hear my stamp on the song by listening to the demo, and you can hear Josh's by comparing it to the released version.

So without further ado: the early demo (circa Feb. 2005) of "The Bottom/Between Two Lives"!

The H-Clamp Microphone Clamp

2008-07-13T08:00:00.001-04:00

One of the issues that I've always dealt with is getting a good, consistent mic signal from a guitar or other stringed instrument, especially in the studio. Once you get the distance, angle, and orientation set, the player starts playing and moves around - and the whole thing gets out of whack. Plus, who wants to sit stock-still while trying to record a guitar part? You just end up with a stiffly-played, unevenly recorded part.

No fun.

That's where the H-Clamp comes in; it's a very simple - but super-logical - answer for the need for a stable mic holder for guitar, upright bass, and a host of other acoustic instruments. Made by a UK-based manufacturer called ExplorAudio, the simply conceived but extremely well-made clamp-on mic boom makes mic-ing up an upright bass, acoustic guitar, etc. easy. It is equally at home in the studio and on stage.

Made of durable and lightweight alloys and composites, it doesn't load up your instrument too badly, and its instrument contact points are covered with silicone and other protective surfaces to prevent damage or scratching. The boom can hold most mics; you can use an optional shock mount for isolation purposes. And since it's a boom, you can adjust the mic's positioning pretty freely. It allows for a large variety of placements, angles, and positions. And of course, where you place it on the instrument is pretty much up to you. So if you prefer the "off-axis towards the soundhole" option or the "pointed at the 12th fret" position, you can pull it off.

ExplorAudio makes several different models; a version for acoustic guitar, a version for Cello, a version for Upright Bass, and a version for "Extra Deep" Bass (for basses of unusual depth). They also make a "Guitar Plus" version which includes three separate depth shafts, allowing you to get one H-Clamp for multiple instruments. Very cool! The photo to the right shows my H-Clamp on my carved upright bass; it's holding one of my Oktava MK-012 small-diaphragm mics.

The only place I know of to get these things in the USA is Gollihur Music - of course, I happen to work there. We always have them in stock, and the feedback from other musicians has been very positive. I have a couple of them in my home studio, and they're definitely money well spent.

Saturday Morning Cartoon

2008-07-12T05:00:00.000-04:00

HOW many strings are on that thing?

2008-07-11T08:00:00.005-04:00

If you really want to get the audience's attention, you pull out a bass like this one. It's a 12 string bass (yes, you read that correctly.) It is actually sort of like a combination of a 4-string bass and a 12-string guitar; the strings are tuned in groups. There are four "root" strings for the standard bass guitar pitches of E-A-D-G. Then a pair of matching strings tuned one octave up are placed in close proximity to the main strings. So what you end up with, in the case of my instrument, is a tuning as follows (where a capital letter indicates the root string and lowercase letters are the octaves):

eeE aaA ddD ggG

The groups of strings are called "courses" and they are fretted and strummed/plucked in groups of three. What results is a HUGE, ringing, naturally chorused sound that can just fill the room.

Here's a clip from the second album from Second Story - a bit of "Truth Is..." which features the 12-string.

You've probably heard a 12-string before - Jeff Ament used one for the intro and outro riff (and much of the song) in "Jeremy"; playing a repeating figure complete with octaved harmonics. It's the signature line on the song. Another popular user of the 12-string is Doug (dUg) Pinnick of King's X; he's used it a number of times over the years, and since King's X is a trio, having the extra "girth" that a 12-string provides comes in handy, I'm sure.

As for me, I used it in two Second Story songs - "Truth Is..." and "Wise" - it also makes a brief appearance in the Din Within song "The Bottom/Between Two Lives." And I intend to use it a good bit more on the next Din Within album.

My particular bass is made by "Galveston," which is one of several names slapped on instruments that come to the States from China under several brand names (including several store brands). While the bass is quite solid, the stock electronics sucked big time, so I replaced them with some Seymour Duncan actives and a Bart preamp - the new pickups really emphasize the "chimey-ness" of the octaves, and yet they really helped to fill out the bottom end, too. And the Bart preamp really gives the bass a lot more headroom, which is necessary for a bass that creates so much bandwidth. Altogether, quite a worthwhile upgrade, even though I had to do a little work with the Dremel to make it happen.

It's not for everybody (or every song, to be sure) but the 12-string is a pretty awesome tool to have in your arsenal. I'm sure it intimidates most of the guitarists I know!

Lyrical Genius, Part I - Kevin Gilbert

2008-07-09T08:00:00.002-04:00

Kevin Gilbert was a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, singer and audio engineer/producer. He was one of the founding members of the "Tuesday Music Club" which was the foundation for Sheryl Crow's breakout record "Tuesday Night Music Club" which won accolades and awards (though Kevin saw little positive effect of Sheryl's ascent to fame). He also worked with Madonna, Michael Jackson, Keith Emerson, Spock's Beard, Jonatha Brooke, and many others. His solo release "Thud" is an amazing album even today (having been released over a decade ago) and his posthumously released rock opera "The Shaming of the True" is an under-recognized masterpiece. I urge you to check out his work. Now.

The Circuit-Bent DS-1 - a Video!

2008-07-07T21:33:00.003-04:00

So, I put together a quick video of the Bent DS-1 in action. Sorry that my guitar playing is lame, and also that the sound quality (using my camera's onboard mic) could be better. Next time I'll try using an outboard mic, maybe even run through some of the studio equipment. But you get the basic effect.

The guitar being used is my FrankenStrat (the subject of an upcoming post) and I mostly play in the neck position.

Check it out, see what you think!

My Introduction to Circuit Bending

2008-07-05T14:01:00.007-04:00

So, if you've never come across the term, "Circuit Bending" is a sort of underground craze. Basically, it's creatively short-circuiting otherwise perfectly good electronic equipment, with the goal of creating new, sometimes strange, often other-worldly sounds with it. A very commonly "bent" device is the classic "Speak and Spell" toy (and its variants, like the "Speak and Math", etc.) - when you open one up and bridge certain points on the circuit board, you can speed up, slow down, pitch-shift, and otherwise mangle the voices that it creates, often to quite interesting and spooky effect.

So... why the heck would you do this? Well, a lot of "noise-based," soundscape and other "aliatory" music-makers think of these sort of sound makers as a goldmine for creating unusual sonic surprises in their music. And, if you're into experimenting and creating something new, it's really kind of fun! Plus, you can buy loads of "toys" to "break" on a pretty low budget.

DISCLAIMER: If you try any of this yourself, please limit yourself to BATTERY-POWERED devices only. Short-circuiting the wrong points on AC-powered electronic devices can KILL you.

So, my first project, seen above and below, was a practical one for me, since I'm a more conventional player rather than a soundscape artist. I picked up a lightly used Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal for $30, opened her up, and starting playing with different connections on the circuit board. I found several points of interest (thanks to some help on the web of those who've bent this pedal themselves) and thereby made a common distortion pedal into something unique and interesting.

You can see the switches and buttons I installed into the sides of the pedal; they activate the short-circuits (and, of course, turn them off for normal use). Another way to modify circuits(rather than a simple on/off switch) includes using potentiometers to vary the amount of current flowing to the short, which thereby varies the alteration. Even more interesting, some folks use light-sensing variable resistors; by changing the amount of light entering the light sensor, it changes the sound - cool! Body contacts, to allow your touch to modify the short, is another method commonly used. For my first project, though, I thought it prudent to keep it simple, so I stuck to switches.

So there are four different mods, which are turned on and off using the metal switches. I then further modified two of them with the red buttons; by pushing in the button, it puts a tone cap inline in the short-circuit, which modifies the pitch that is added/generated by the short-circuit. Playing with the existing knobs also modifies the bend.

All in all, I just wanted to get into circuit bending with a minimum of difficulty and a high level of success (meaning: I didn't want to "kill" the pedal, and wanted to have something I could actually use when I finished.) I did exactly that; I now have a "new" pedal which can make unique and unusual (but useful) sounds, and I did it myself for under $50.

It's cool stuff!

Re-living the past, bassically...

2008-07-04T21:50:00.006-04:00

In 1987, for my birthday, my parents bought me my very first bass guitar. That instrument was a "Rock Bass" from Epiphone/Gibson, a basic, passive model with a J-J pickup configuration. It was a great "starter" bass for the time; made in Korea, back when there wasn't anything worth owning coming out of China - it was solid, well-appointed, good-sounding and even kinda cool looking (pointy headstocks were all the rage in the late 80's.)

That bass carried me through my early years as a player; it was my main bass for Outcry, my first "real" band that played "real" gigs (only two of them, but we rocked out both times!) When I co-formed Ransomed Soul with my friend Scott in 1990, that was the bass I was playing. It saw lots of action at lots of seedy bars (can I get a shout-out for Bonnie's Roxx?) and sounded really good.

When I cobbled together the scratch, I upgraded the pickups to an EMG JJ set. When we recorded our debut album(s), I ran the bass right into the mixing console with no additional preamping or other toys - and the bass really sounds tight on those recordings. And it played really well.

As the years went on, 5-string basses became more popular, and I eventually found one that worked really well for me and started using that as my main bass, which relegated the Epi to backup duty. Once Ransomed Soul broke up, she mostly gathered dust. When (with Scott, again) I co-founded Second Story in 1996, it was playing my new SIX-string bass. Knowing that there was little to no chance that I'd be using the four string for any of the Second Story material, and needing the duckets for other musical gear (a future post will detail my INSANE Second Story rig), I sold "Heather" (yes, she had a name) to my co-worker and friend - and aspiring musician - Tom. A few months later, I was transferred to a new store, and I lost touch with Tom, the bass, and eventually, that job.

I've recently been feeling a bit nostalgic for old musical toys, and I don't really have a way to get in touch with Tom - so, I've been trolling eBay for similar basses to the old girl - and a little over a week ago, I found one: Epiphone Rock Bass, late 80's vintage, black hardware (rare) on black bass, rosewood fingerboard, JJ pickup setup... in good, played but not abused condition. The bass is virtually identical, and even came with the original case. So, I snagged it.

Because I'm a total freak, I also snagged a set of EMG old-model JJ pickups on eBay for cheap - used, but not abused. I figure that a little soldering will get me an almost exact duplicate of my original bass - all I need now is a set of black Dunlop Straploks and a purple strap...

So I'm really digging re-living the past - the bass will mostly live on the wall in my home studio, and maybe get pulled out for the occasional studio track. But it's cool that I was able to find it.

It's sometimes nice to go home again.

An introduction

2008-07-04T20:34:00.003-04:00

So here I go, I guess it's time to start blogging. All the cool kids are doing it, so maybe I should too. I've always been a sucker for peer pressure.

Seriously, though - here's the gist of it; lots of musicians are on the web, hawking their band, selling their album, talking about gear, etc. So I thought that this would be a nice way for me to do that and more - share experiences with musical oddities like modifying guitars (I do that a lot), circuit-bending (I just started playing with that), and creating insane guitar or bass rigs with all sorts of bells and whistles (I've done that for myself as well as helped others with it). So I'll be talking about a lot of that sort of stuff as it occurs to me to do so. I'll probably ramble on about old musical projects, neat toys, long lost instruments I never should have sold, etc. Hope that interests you.

Who I am is a lifelong musician; son of a vocal/general music teacher (Mom) and a former music major/club musician/music store owner - and now, boss (Dad). My primary instruments are voice and bass (bass guitar and upright bass), but I'm a multi-instrumentalist and therefore own a large collection of other stuff - keyboards, drums, guitars, mandolins, didgeridoos, trumpets, and much more. I have my own studio, which I call Digital Din; my training is purely "on-the-job" as far as engineering goes, but last November my group Din Within released our debut album; it's an album that (with writing partner Josh's help) I recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered myself. Of course, I was also responsible for much of the performance. It's done quite well worldwide; it's available for sale at Amazon.com, CDBaby.com, iTunes, Napster, and many more (check out the Digital Din Homepage for a list of many of the retailers at which it can be purchased.)

So that's about it for now. I think my first post of real content will probably be about my "new" bass - actually a 4-banger from the 80's that I bought to recreate my first bass - one I wish I still had (for sentimental reasons only) but don't because I sold it to a former co-worker (Tom Wetzel - you still have my bass, man?)

Anyway, tune in soon for that post. Thanks for reading!