Guitar Gear

Funny how my studio tests and practice jams seem to turn into songs. This song, entitled, “The Long Way Home” is about that deep longing and melancholy when you’ve been away from home for a long time. I wrote the chord progression several weeks ago and saved it, then when I returned to it last night to record a studio test of the 1959 Les Paul Replica, I started thinking of being 40 or 50 years back in time at train station, looking down the tracks, and getting that longing feeling for home while I was constructing the melody lines. The painting above by Jeff Burgess captures that melancholy perfectly.

Tonight, after listening to the original test, I scrapped everything, both guitar parts and bass and re-recorded them. This time, I recorded my 2 X 12 with a pair of mics so I could get both speakers’ tones. That was actually pretty tough, as I spent about two hours getting the right mic positions. My cab has a Celestion Gold and Blue in it. I placed the Gold’s mic right at the seam of the cone and center “button” and placed the Blue’s mic head-on at the edge of the speaker cone to get more low end. Oh well… that’s just one of the challenges of capturing decent tone.

What amazed me about the recording wasn’t the lead, but the rhythm part. The neck pickup of the ’59 played clean sounds like an acoustic. It’s absolutely lush and gorgeous without being at all boomy.

Here’s the finished product:

Amp: VRX22

Guitar: 1959 Les Paul Replica