Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Guitars’ Category

Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb Re-Issue, Anyone?

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , on February 22, 2016| 3 Comments »

Last week, after watching the video of George Benson describing the construction of his new Fender Twin Signature, I got that ol’ familiar feelin’ of GAS. I loved the sound of that amp, and as the new band I’m in plays mostly classic rock from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, I figured I’d be playing mostly clean, which just a touch of grit at times. While my Marshall-style amps from Aracom are absolutely awesome, I haven’t had a Fender amp in my lineup for awhile. That Twin Reverb seemed to me something worth checking out.

But then after a gig I did yesterday with members from my old church band, I was mentioning that Twin to my good buddy Dave, and how I just loved that clean sound. He pulled me aside and told me that he was going to be selling his Deluxe Reverb Limited Edition, and I could try it out first. SHIT! Instant GAS attack! I love that amp! Dave had brought it to church a few times in the past, and it’s sound is incredible! I played it with both a Strat and a Les Paul, and I just loved the creamy-smooth cleans that would issue forth from the amp. Such a sweet, sweet sound! I’m going to pick up the amp probably in the middle of the week, and I’m itching to play it; both in my man-cave and at my next band rehearsal.

In anticipation of playing it, I did a bit of research on this particular version of the Deluxe. What I didn’t realize was that as opposed to having a 75 Watt speaker, this amp sports a Jensen C-12K, which is rated at 40 Watt. Effectively, this means that beyond a certain volume setting, the speaker will break up more and not get too loud. For rock and roll, this is ideal, and what gets me excited about this amp.

That doesn’t mean that this amp is quiet by any means. Fender amps are LOUD. But that’s why attenuators exist, right? 🙂 Besides, I’ll probably only have to attenuate my volume for rehearsal, which is in a pretty small room. For gigs, I may even have to use an expansion cab to add more dispersal, but we’ll see. In any case, I’m excited about getting to know this amp. Could it be something I add to my stable? We’ll just have to wait and see…

On another note, looking back on this blog, having created it in January of 2007 – hard to believe that it’s nine years old – I realized that my GAS is directly related to how active I am with a band. The last year and half, I haven’t been in a band at all, having played mostly solo, and the times I’ve sat in on a band, the gear I’ve got totally sufficed. But now that I’m in a new band, with entirely new responsibilities, I’m finding that I’m getting GAS – AGAIN!

BUT, I also realized that my particular form of GAS is more practical in nature – if you can call GAS practical – and has been a response to filling “holes” in my rig or to satisfy a particular need. With this particular GAS attack, I’m looking to get a combo to gig with. With my old church band, lugging my gear to the church wasn’t a problem. We rehearsed and performed on the same day, I live literally 3 minutes from the church, so I’d just bring whatever I need for the set to church, hook it up, and was fine for the 5-6 hours I’d be there.

But with the new band, we rehearse at a band member’s house, then play in different venues, so the fewer pieces I have to carry, the better, and a combo just makes a lot more sense. So we’ll see how this test goes. I’m pretty excited!

Correction:  Oops! My bad! A reader pointed out that I specified the Jensen C-12K as the speaker for this amp. It’s actually a Jensen P12Q, which has an alnico magnet and rated at 40Watts.

Read Full Post »

Jensen Jet Tornado: Good Enough for George Benson

Posted in amplifiers, Guitars, speakers, tagged , , , , , on February 18, 2016| Leave a Comment »

You’ve probably figured out by now – if you’ve read this blog with any regularity – that I’m a huge fan of the Jensen Jet series of speakers. Apparently, I’m not the only one. Fender has just released the George Benson Twin Reverb, and he chose the Jensen Jet Tornado 12″ for his speakers. Wow! What an endorsement by such an icon of guitar! Here’s the press release that I just received:

——-

NEWS RELEASE February 2016

Jensen® Tornado is George Benson’s Speaker Choice for the Fender® GB Signature Twin Reverb® Amplifier

Inspired by one of the world’s foremost jazz guitarists, George Benson, Fender’s GB Signature Twin Reverb amplifier is an all-tube amp that produces rich, punchy tone with smooth attack and singing sustain. The GB Twin Reverb is an updated version of the venerable classic amplifier tweaked to satisfy Benson’s discerning ears.

Features include an 85-watt all-tube two-channel guitar combo amplifier, a pair of 12- inch, 100 watt, 8-ohm Jensen Jet Tornado speakers with neodymium magnets, two channels, — normal and tremolo; re-voiced low-gain normal channel — a solid pine cabinet construction, gray vinyl cover, silver sparkle grille cloth, a George Benson badge on the lower right of the front panel and a protective amp cover.

The tonal character of the Jensen Tornado is perfectly designed to give the clean, articulate tone many jazz guitarists favor with a classic full-bodied sound. The neodymium magnet design and characteristics resemble Alnico magnets, contributing to its distinct behavior and quality of tone. The frequency response is noticeably extended in the upper range, generating a sense of airy openness and definition, essential to deliver all the details and the harmonic complexity of jazz chord play, and all the dynamic nuances in the fastest single note runs.

The high headroom from the two Jensen Tornado 12-inch speakers (each at 100 watts), allows every bit of the 85-watt GB Twin Reverb to flow through clearly and dynamically.

The Jensen Tornado speaker weighs only 4.45 pounds – less than half an average comparable 12” ceramic speaker. Combined with the solid pine cabinet, the GB Twin Reverb is 13 pounds lighter than a standard Twin Reverb amp.

Jensen is proud of its contribution to the tonal delight all jazz players will experience when playing the new Fender GB Twin Reverb.

Jensen remains dedicated to working with all musicians in pursuit of their perfect tone!

jensentone.com

——-

Here’s the great George Benson talking about the construction of his signature amp:

To me, this is absolutely exciting! In the video GB talks about the headroom of the amp, and how he can play with the volume sweep a lot more than with his previous amp (which was a custom Fender Hot Rod Deluxe). One thing that has frustrated me about Fender amps is that they go from very low to very high volume in very little sweep. Mr. Benson mentioned that he’d have to play with the volume control and keep it between 2 and 3 to dial in the proper volume. I smiled when I heard this because that’s exactly my experience with my Hot Rod Deluxe, and it was the driving factor in me experimenting with attenuators so I could drive the amp more. So it looks like Fender has created a much more forgiving volume sweep with this version of the amp. I definitely will have to check this one out!

As far as the Jet Tornado speakers are concerned. Damn! What a sound! At 100 Watts, they are certainly all about clean headroom. And the sonic content in that video recording just affirmed my belief that Jensen was definitely onto something with the Jet Series of speakers. Originally, I thought that this was Jensen’s answer to lower-cost, entry-level speakers, since they were known for their superb vintage Alnico and Ceramic speakers.

But time and time again, I’ve been so pleasantly surprised by the performance of all the Jet Series speakers I’ve tried. Whichever one I’ve gotten, they’ve stayed in the cabs I’ve placed them in, and they aren’t coming out any time soon. They are that good.

So to have such a great player such as George Benson use a pair of Jet Tornados in his signature amp is a HUGE endorsement for this wonderful line of speakers. With the features this amp has, and the sound that it produces, I’m getting that old familiar feeling of GAS.

For more information on this amp, check out the Fender web site! And lest I am remiss about the crux of this latest entry, check out the Jensen Jet Tornado 12″ spec site!

Read Full Post »

Frank Zappa on Guitar Soloing

Posted in Guitars, tagged on February 5, 2016| 7 Comments »

I recently saw a video of Frank Zappa sharing his thoughts about playing a solo. All of it was great, but the one section that struck me the most was this:

“My theory is this: I have a basic mechanical knowledge of the operation of the instrument and I got an imagination. And when the time comes up for me to play a solo, it’s me against the laws of nature. I don’t know what I’m gonna play and don’t know what I’m gonna do. I know roughly how long I have to do it, and it’s a game where you have a piece of time and you get to decorate it…”

OH MYYYYYY!

For me, that statement alone was affirmation to my approach to playing solos. No, I’m not super-skilled, and certainly not super-fast, but I’ve always taken the approach of doing solos organically.

To be honest, I’ve been embarrassed about not knowing licks or phrases that a lot of other guitarists seem to know. I’d go into a shop, and play a few different lines with a particular song in my head. Then the guy next to me would whip out Slash’s “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” I’d chuckle to myself and say (to myself), “I really should learn that…”

But time has never permitted, so I play when I can play and when I’m jammin’ with a band or with my mates, when it’s my turn to solo, I tend to just feel my way through. Personally, I don’t think it’s anything technically special, and at least those who hear it don’t cringe, so I guess my solos work.

But listening to that interview gave me heart. I’ve recently been asked to play lead guitar with a cover band. I warned the guy who invited me that I don’t know any of the solos, and that when I need to solo, I’ll just do what I do. I’m not sure how that’ll go over, especially if they want to do note-for-note covers. That’s really not my thing…

In any case, check out the interview (the “juicy” part is around 13:30):

Read Full Post »

New Gear: BeatBuddy Mini

Posted in Guitars on January 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »

beatbuddymini-largeNow this is a box I can gig with!

No sound samples just yet, as I have been playing around with it and practicing before I do demos, but let me just say that this scaled-down version of the BeatBuddy is every bit as high-quality as the original. I’m impressed!

For those of you who are new to the BeatBuddy line, this is something you simply must have. It’s literally a drum machine housed in a foot pedal, and it ROCKS! It’s totally intuitive to use, and while I haven’t gigged with my original much, it gets a lot of use in my studio as a practice and writing tool; especially with songwriting where I need to get at least as close an approximation of a real drummer to help me visualize a song. Well, that said, it’s not just a close approximation…

The BeatBuddy has absolutely natural sound! This is because the actual beats are samples from a live drummer, not programmed from a synth to replicate a drum sound. All the sonic expansiveness that you’d expect from a real drum kit is present in the beats; even the slight – and I mean super-subtle – tempo misses, which is what you expect when playing with an actual drummer. This makes playing with the BeatBuddy very natural and organic.

However, it’s actually VERY useful with recording as well. Here’s an instrumental I wrote using the BeatBuddy:

Please excuse the little mess-up at the end. 🙂 I played the rhythm part right along with the BeatBuddy, then layered bass, electric piano, and the lead on top of it. What’s really intriguing about the drum sound is that I didn’t have to do much with it when mastering and mixing down. I added a touch of compression and panning, and just a little reverb to open up the sound a bit.

So what’s the difference between There are three fundamental differences between the BeatBuddy and the BeatBuddy Mini: 1) Fewer built-in patterns (about half as many as the BeatBuddy) and; 2) No apparent programmability. For me, that’s not a problem whatsoever. When I’ve used the original BeatBuddy, I was using the stock, built-in patterns, and the Mini has the patterns I use the most. Finally 3) Price. This is $149 direct from SingularSound! What a steal!

Another big difference for me is that the smaller footprint means that I can put this on my PedalTrain Nano board as a regular pedal. One of the issues for me with using the original in my solo gigs was its larger footprint meant that I’d have to lose two pedals to make room for it. With the Mini, I can have four pedals on the board: Chorus -> Reverb -> Delay -> BeatBuddy Mini and go right into my TC Helicon Harmony G XT vocal and harmony processor, then right into a PA. SO COOL!

In any case, I’m very excited about this pedal! If you’ve never seen this in action, here’s a one of Singular Sound’s demos:

I love that wig!

For more information, go to MyBeatBuddy.com!

Read Full Post »

Baby Got Back (Reg-i-fied)

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , , on September 8, 2015| 2 Comments »

I’ve been studying different styles of modern reggae for the last several months. I’ve always liked reggae but never got into it. But as my older kids listen to a lot of it, it was inevitable that I’d catch the bug.

Most of my familiarity with reggae is the old school stuff from Marley and Tosh and others. But this new stuff, has taken reggae and expanded it, crossing borders between Pop, Hip-Hop and R & B. Also, while the basic rhythms are retained in the newer styles, melodies have also become very rhythm-centric. It’s pretty amazing, and some of it is extremely musically complex and sophisticated.

I’ve written reggae songs in the past, but they followed the old-school patterns, and I’ve been itching to write more modern stuff. But I was admittedly at an impasse. Well, the other day, I came up with a riff that I laid down, but couldn’t find the words. So I thought I’d practice a bit and see if I could convert an existing tune into a reggae version. For some reason, “Baby Got Back” came to mind. Here it is:

When I told my son what I was intending to do, he laughed out loud, and said, “Well Dad… it could be cool if you could pull it off.” I think I did. More importantly, I wanted to give justice to the original. It’s such a fun tune that I wanted to capture that fun in this one.

As far as equipment was concerned, here’s what I used:

Amp: Aracom VRX18 clean channel

Attenuator: Aracom DRX (volume was literally conversation level)

Guitar: Slash L Guitars “Katie May” (Both rhythm tracks were recorded with the neck pickup, with the coils split; the lead was recorded with either the neck or the bridge pickup).

Pedal: EHX Soul Food – All overdrive parts. I kept the amp absolutely clean.

Read Full Post »

Unsung Guitar Hero: Terry Kath

Posted in Guitars, tagged , , on August 28, 2015| 1 Comment »

I’ve had a list of the best of what I feel are the best rock guitarists floating in my head for years. I’ve shared many of them, but can’t believe I hadn’t mentioned one of my all-time favorites from the 70’s: Terry Kath. In an era of rock dominated by the likes Jimi, Townshend, Santana, Frampton, Van Halen and Schenker, it was easy to overlook the absolute genius of someone like Terry Kath. Quite possibly it is because he played with Chicago, who were jazz-pop, and not really factored into the rock scene, even though Chicago’s musicians as a whole were absolutely amazing.

In the following clip, Chicago plays their hit “25 or 6 to 4.” Terry Kath’s solo on this is nothing short of amazing. Bouncing in and out of different modes and intermixing both blues and pentatonic scales, and doing it at shredder speed… O. M. G!!!! His solo on this song is totally relevant, even today; forty-five years later!

Tragically, Terry Kath passed away in 1978 due to an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Like many artists at the time, he suffered from alcohol and substance abuse; yet another talent that left the world far too soon…

Read Full Post »

First Impressions: Bohemian Guitars BOHO Series (Motor Oil)

Posted in Guitars, tagged , on August 10, 2015| 4 Comments »

bohemian-guitars-21787167
A couple of weeks ago, I got a press release from Bohemian Guitars saying that they were getting ready to launch their BOHO series of guitars. I had previously seen a video of these guitars from NAMM 2014, and honestly, originally dismissed them as yet another gimmick. After all we’ve got cigar box guitars, and other “interesting” construction guitars. I suppose the purist in me has had a hard time accepting that a “real” guitar has to have a traditional wood body.

But something about the press release intrigued me. Not sure what it was. Maybe it was the Manhattans that I was drinking (I was on vacation when I got the press release). Or maybe it was the high altitude; our resort was close to 8,000 feet above sea level at the top of Heavenly Valley ridge at South Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Whatever it was, I replied to the press release and asked if I could get a review unit.

Amazingly enough, the guitar was waiting for me when I got home, so I opened it up and saw… a gas-can with a guitar neck attached to it…

Okay, I will honestly admit that at first blush, I thought “gimmick.” I really didn’t want to like the guitar. It looked kinda cool, but I was extremely dubious about it being a real instrument. So I let it sit in my living room for a couple of days.

But I did ask for a review unit, so to be fair, I brought it into my man-cave studio, plugged it in, and… was VERY surprised at how good it sounded. The neck felt very nice, and the action was set just right. As for the sound, I have to admit that I really dug the sound; REALLY dug it. And when I dig a sound, I know I can make music with it. So I recorded a quick reggae clip to demonstrate the guitar’s clean tones. Take a listen:

The rhythm track was recorded with the neck pickup, while the lead track was recorded with the bridge pickup. Both guitars were plugged into an Aracom VRX18 running into a custom Aracom 1 X 12 with a Jensen Jet Falcon speaker. For the lead, I used a VOX Big Bad Wah. Also, while the clip is mastered a bit with some compression and reverb, the guitars were not EQ’d. Very nice tone.

What impressed me about the guitar is that amazingly enough it has some very nice sustain. I didn’t expect that out of a guitar that’s selling for $299.00. But I’ve learned in my many years of reviewing gear, that you can’t judge gear based upon its price. For heaven’s sake! Look at the Squier Classic Vibe series guitars: Cheap but by no means lacking in quality.

If I have one nit, it’s that bending the first string around the 12th or 13th fret while really digging in will cause the string to fret out, but I think that’s something that could be solved with a setup. After all, this thing was shipped to me, and who knows how it was handled. Plus, I think this is the same guitar that you see on the YouTube videos, so it has seen some use. But other than that, the guitar has kinda grown on me.

I’ve actually been recording raw tracks for my formal review which I’ll release in the next couple of days. So stay tuned. I think this is a totally fun guitar. Can’t wait to gig with it!

Read Full Post »

Sometimes, Only the “Real” Thing Will Do

Posted in Guitars, tagged , on July 15, 2015| 2 Comments »

I recently wrote a song – not even sure I shared it here – called “Love Is More Than What It Seems.” It’s kind of a fast-moving, “happy” rocking tune. I originally recorded it with my Hughes & Kettner TubeMeister 18. Gorgeous little amp that’s totally versatile. I love it. I used the silent recording option with it, and for the initial recording, it worked great. But as I got into mastering it, I was less and less satisfied with the electric guitar sounds. They just didn’t sound “right.”

So I switched to my beloved DV Mark Little 40, and that got me closer. But I was still not really digging the electric guitar tones. Then I realized that what I love the H&K and Little 40 amps for is their live performance versatility. But for recording, they just don’t quite cut it for me. For the biggest strength happens to be their weakness in a recording environment.

So… being a vintage Marshall fan, I pulled out my Aracom VRX18, based upon the classic Marshall Plexi 18. I’ve got NOS Pre- and Power-amp tubes in it, and this amp just oozes classic rock tone. Combined with my ’58 Historic Les Paul, and outputting through an Aracom Custom 1 X 12 equipped with a Jensen Jet Falcon, it was the exact tone I was looking for! Methinks I should’ve just used it to start out with, but hey! Live and learn right?

Here’s the song:

The interesting thing about that amp is that it doesn’t have the sustain, nor even touch-sensitivity of my other amps. But that works to its advantage because it makes me work a lot harder on the fretboard, and that makes my playing much more expressive as I have to work every note. But best of all though, the “bloom” I expect from any of my Les Pauls is right there; it just decays a little quicker than my other amps. But who cares? It works…

By the way, I also used the wonderful Aracom DRX attenuator to record the electric guitars at just a little louder than bedroom level. I was a long-time user of the PRX150, but with the dual-level attenuation, at least for live performances, I can get a nice volume boost at the press of a footswitch button.

Equipment:

Guitars: Yamaha APX900 (acoustic, direct-in); 1958 Les Paul Reissue

Amp: Aracom VRX18

Cabinet: Aracom Custom 1 X 12 Jensen Jet Falcon

Bass: Fender Jazz Bass (direct-in)

Note: Guitars were not EQ’d, though to bring them out in the mix a bit more, I used a stereo spreader.

Everything was recorded in Logic Express 9.

Read Full Post »

Jensen Speakers Announces the New Jet Nighthawk!

Posted in Guitars on July 3, 2015| 3 Comments »

Jensen Jet Nighthawk

I’ve been a fan of the Jensen speakers for a long time. The first custom speaker cabinet I had made used a Jensen P12N Alnico. I still use it when I record clean tones. But then I discovered the Jet series and fell in love! All my rock rigs have either a Falcon for 12″ and for my 10″ rigs, I use the Electric Lightning. Some gear purists may turn their nose up to these ceramic magnet speakers, but I absolutely love them. After all, it’s not about the materials, but about the tone, and the Jet series speakers – at least the ones I have – have never disappointed!

The other day, I got a press release from AmplifiedParts, announcing that they’re now carrying the Jensen Jet Nighthawk. Being such a fan-boy of the Jet series, I immediately contacted them to get a demo unit to do a test on the speaker. Can’t wait until it gets here. But until I get it and install it, here are sound clips from the Jensen site:

Blues

Country

Jazz

Metal

Classic Rock

If you take the time to go to the Nighthawk site, pay particular attention to the frequency response chart. This speaker has a “scooped” response, with fairly aggressive upper-mids, and a rounded bottom-end. From that, I expect it to be a fairly warm-sounding speaker, but with plenty of punch in the upper-mids to cut through a mix. While Jensen did the metal and rock tests with a Schecter and a Strat respectively, I looked at the chart and immediately said: Les Paul. Okay, okay… I admit it, it’s one of the first things usually comes to my mind. 🙂

But on the serious side, I can’t wait to try this speaker out with my R8 that’s equipped with Deacci Green Faze pickups, modeled after Peter Green’s (of the original Fleetwood Mac lineup) Les Paul, whose pickups are wired out-of-phase. The middle switch position KICKS ASS! Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound as good as I know it can with the Jet Falcon – it’s a little muffled for my tastes – but it worked incredibly well with the Electric Lightning. Unfortunately, that only means that I can only use it in the studio or in a small venue. I’m hoping that the Nighthawk will provide the upper-mid punch that I need.

Really looking forward to testing it!

Read Full Post »

BeatBuddy and Pigtronix Infinity: A Match Made in Loop Heaven

Posted in Guitars, tagged , on July 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Late last year, I had a conversation with David Packouz, founder of Singular Sound. We were discussing various things that could expand the use of the BeatBuddy drum machine pedal. Having just used its MIDI sync to record a demo, one of the first things that came to mind was using the BeatBuddy with a looper, and do a video tutorial on it. David asked what looper I thought would be good to use the BeatBuddy with – I had already done some research on various loopers, and was prepared for this question – and I replied that the Pigtronix Infinity Looper seemed to be the only one that seemed to have reliable MIDI sync capabilities.

And lo and behold, after receiving an email update from Pigtronix on the Infinity Looper, I saw the video below on the Infinity tutorial video page!

This is super-exciting to me because I’ve been wanting to use the BeatBuddy in a live setting for a while, but I wanted to do it with a looper!

Now… I have to save my pennies for the Infinity…

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »