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When Someone Is THAT Good, They Change the Game…

May 1, 2012 by GoofyDawg

Back in my younger years, about 35 years ago, I was an avid skier. I lived for the sport and spent every red cent I had for equipment and lift tickets. To me, there was nothing like carving perfect turns down a slope; and as I got better, taking on challenging pitches that few would even think to attempt. I even did a bit of racing, as I had a competitive streak. In all those years that I skied, and even up to now, in my book, there was no better ski racer than Ingemar Stenmark, the Swedish legend, whose total World Cup wins has never been beaten and most likely will never be beaten. Here’s a compilation video of him:

The thing about Stenmark was that he was so good that for many years in the Giant Slalom and Slalom events, no one talked about who would be first, but rather, who would be second. And he was also so good that the Federacion Internacional du Ski (FIS), the governing body for all international amateur skiing, changed the rules such that he could not win the overall World Cup beyond the two titles he had won by requiring that to win the combined a skier also had to race the downhill event, which he did not; even though with his wins in both slalom and giant slalom he amassed more points than the winner of the combined!

For those of us who followed him, it was an injustice. But despite that, he will forever live on as the greatest skier of all time. So what does this have to do with playing guitar?

Think about how different groups or players completely changed the game in music history. When Dave Davies of the Kinks used a razor blade to cut up his speaker cone to create a distorted sound for “You Really Got Me,” that completely changed the game of rock and roll. I realize that that wasn’t necessarily borne out of skill, but it was a game-changer.

If you want to look to pure skill, then there are two guitarists in recent history that completely changed the game – at least in my mind. The first was Michael Hedges, the acoustic guitar god who sprouted a cadre of alternate-tuning, body-slapping, both-hands-players such as Kaki King and Andy McGhee. Watching him play was a transformative experience. Of all the players who had an influence on how I play, Michael Hedges is probably the biggest, as I learned to use percussive rhythm techniques in my playing that I carried over to electric guitar. They’re subtle, but they’re definitely derived from hours of watching Michael live and listening to his albums.

The other game-changer – and I think most will agree with me – was none other than Eddie Van Halen. When he hit the scene, he scared the living shit out of his contemporaries. Sure, it could be argued that Satch legitimized shred, but EVH showed the world what was possible with rock guitar, and rock guitar playing has not been the same since.

You may or may not agree with me with my choices of game-changers; it’s subjective, after all. But the point to all this is that those who are that good at what they do really change the game, and make everyone step up theirs to keep up. Thank God I’ve been able to witness masters in my lifetime!

Posted in Guitars | Tagged | 3 Comments »

You Gotta Like Weird Part II… Eleven Electrix Human Sensor Wah

May 1, 2012 by GoofyDawg

I guess this pedal has been around for awhile, and like the EHX wah, doesn’t use an accelerometer, so you don’t tilt the wah itself. Instead, this pedal uses a motion or proximity sensor, and that FREAKIN’ ROCKS!!! Here’s a video demo (sorry, it’s in Italian, but who cares?):

Now THIS pedal I have to try out. Source Audio has been doing this stuff for awhile, but they require the user to wear a ring. This doesn’t require anything of the sort. Just move your foot up and down over the pedal. I DIG it!

Posted in Guitars | Tagged , | 1 Comment »

You Gotta Like “Weird” Introducing a Couple of New Pedals from EHX

April 30, 2012 by GoofyDawg

I dig what Electro-Harmonix has been doing the last couple of years. They’ve really thought outside of the box to either introduce completely new innovations or re-invented some established norms. With these two new pedals: The Superego Synth and the Crying Tone Wah, they’ve done both, respectively. But rather than talk about them, let’s first view a video from our friends at PremierGuitar:

The synth is cool, though I’m not sure I’d ever want one. The wah on the other hand is VERY cool, and I definitely will want to try one out once it gets released to the market in May. Imagine a wah with no moving parts! They’ve probably got some sort of accelerometer inside, but it’s pretty responsive, based upon the demo. My only concern with it is that I can’t attach it to my pedal board, as it was made to just sit on a surface. But once I test it out, I’ll see how I could make it work.

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What If Jimi Hendrix Somehow Came Back to Life? Would You See Him in Concert?

April 19, 2012 by GoofyDawg

Before I go any further, watch the following video of Tupac Shakur:

This footage was taken from the 2012 Coachella Hip-Hop Festival. WTF? 2012? Yup, they somehow found a way to resurrect Tupac. For sure, the technology used to do this is nothing short of amazing. The digital wizards even had Tupac saying stuff he’d never said before! So it’s entirely possible for them to resurrect any artist, like Jimi Hendrix. It wouldn’t be too hard for a great axe-slinger who can cop Jimi Hendrix to lay down tracks.

But there is a darker side to this: Can you see record labels and music execs salivating over the potential revenue this could generate if they used it for other artists? This article seems to think that’s so…

Hate to rain on people’s parades, but I’m not sure how I feel about this technology. It would be cool to see Jimi once again, but… <loss for words> But no question, with today’s technology, an artist need never die.

Posted in Guitars | Tagged | 4 Comments »

EVH Interview: Wow! What an Eye-Opener!

April 17, 2012 by GoofyDawg

Just read this interview that Esquire did with Eddie Van Halen. What an eye-opener! It’s a great interview, and guess what? He finally reveals the secret behind the “brown sound,” and it’s nothing like all the speculation that has circulated through the guitar world for years. It actually had me laughing at what he did. 🙂 Once you’re done with the interview, there are two more articles following. I haven’t gotten through them yet, but I’ll probably read them tonight.

Posted in Guitars | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments »

Wow! A pickup that does it all!

April 17, 2012 by GoofyDawg

That’s one of the more humorous ads I’ve seen for guitar gear. 🙂

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And My All-Time Favorite Guitar Player Is…

April 16, 2012 by GoofyDawg

Peter Frampton.

Like a great wine, Peter Frampton has just gotten better with age. He was my favorite guitarist as a kid and he remains my favorite guitarist today. Frampton proves that making great rock and roll isn’t about speed. It’s about feel and conveying a message. I had never seen the following video until today, and the solo at 3:46 literally made me weep. Among dredging up fond memories from 1976, Lines On My Face is my absolute favorite Frampton tune. Yeah, he’s best known for being the first to really rock the talk box, but Lines On My Face always showed to me the depth of his passion, and even 40 years later, his playing still moves me.

Posted in Guitars | Tagged , | 5 Comments »

Overcoming Stage Fright

April 12, 2012 by GoofyDawg

That is moi about 27 years ago, flying through the air as the Nutcracker Prince. Yes, the fat man was actually in great shape once upon a time. 🙂 But that’s not what this article is about; at least entirely…

That picture was taken from my very first public performance – actually the second performance of the day, but on the first day of my first public performance. As a dancer, especially a male dancer, you have to get over your stage fright and self-consciousness and fast. Look, you’re prancing around on stage in tights with the shape of your genitals clearly visible to the world. Once on stage, it’s too late to be thinking about your balls hanging out…

Admittedly though, I had a serious case of stage fright the first show of the day; so much so that I forgot the final steps to my solo, something that I had practiced for 3 months leading up to the show! I recovered by doing a standard sequence of steps that made it look as if I knew what I was doing. But I was PISSED after that show for losing it!

So during the few hours between the matinee and grand opening night show, I practiced for about an hour and a half before the show, and went over and over my blocking and steps till I could literally do the solo with my eyes closed (which I also practiced). I had it down so well, that I even worked out more complicated maneuvers that I added into the solo (without the artistic director’s knowledge 🙂 ), so confident was I with what I had worked out.

When it came time for my solo in the grand opening, though I was a tad nervous at the start, I was confident and focused enough to nail the solo. I mean nail it. I know the picture is a little grainy, but if you can see my face, what I was doing was playing to the audience; not self-absorbed at all, not giving any thought to how I looked. I was running on pure instinct, trusting in my memory of the steps I needed to execute, which allowed me to interact with my audience, or as my beloved dance teacher and mentor put it, “Make love to my audience.” And I got a standing ovation and yells of “bravo” at the end of my solo. And I in turn walked to the front of the stage, bowed to the audience and applauded them for going on the journey with me.

So how did I get over the stage fright?

People talk about using your nervousness or fear or turning it into some other feeling like anger. Still others say to imagine the audience in their underwear or some other visualization, and there are professional coaches who make tons of money teaching people how to get over their stage fright. The coaches probably work, but why pay when you can teach yourself?

So circling back to how I overcame my stage fright, there are a few things I’ve learned in all my years of performance that I’ll share here:

  1. First, be mechanically prepared; that is, know your shit. This doesn’t necessarily get you over the stage fright in the moment, but it certainly helps to give you confidence.
  2. Be mentally prepared. The best way to describe this is that before you perform, visualize yourself doing it so that once on stage, it’s not a surprise. Racers such as ski, bobsled, and even race car drivers do a lot of visualization to make sure they’ve visualized the right line to take through their course.
  3. Once you hit the stage, JUST DO IT! You know your stuff, you’ve visualized it, so execute. You might feel nervousness, you might feel anxiety, that’s okay. After almost 40 years of performing in public, I still get nervous before all my performances. But I don’t try to compensate for it. I simply execute. My performance may not be sexy; it may not be sophisticated. But I’m just doing it. Once I get comfortable, I get confident, and once confident, I can truly put on a performance.

Another thing that really helps me is simply being in the moment and realizing that “it is what it is.” There’s nothing I can do about it – even if I make a mistake. Can’t stop a song if I mess up, so I just have go on. Being in the moment is simply being present. Not dredging up the past and not looking into the future, but purely focusing on where you are and what you’re doing (gawd that sounds like Yoda). After all, where you’re at is no accident. You chose to be there; likewise, your audience chose to be where they’re at – where you are. Nothing can change that, so be in the moment and show up.

Notice that I haven’t once mentioned anything about analyzing your situation. I think analyzing and trying to figure out why you have stage fright just makes you have it more. Instead, I offer suggestions that put you in action, for to me, it’s action, not thought that breaks the stage fright.

Posted in Guitars | Tagged , | 4 Comments »

Oh well… So much for getting a Strat HSH. The new 2012 Gibson Les Paul Standard is arriving in May!

April 11, 2012 by GoofyDawg

There’s no guitar like a Les Paul that will distract me from considering other guitars. Just when I thought my next axe would be a Strat HSH, I think I have to get this new Les Paul with the Premium Plus finish. Last updated in 2008, this new Les Paul sports some freaking awesome features. But the thing that has me buzzing is that all four control knobs are push-pull knobs. The volume knobs split their respective pickup’s coils, but the neck tone’s push-pull is a phase switch to put the neck pickup out of phase with the bridge. Nice! And finally, the bridge tone’s push-pull routes the bridge pickup’s signal directly to the output jack, bypassing both the volume and tone knobs to deliver full volume and tone to the output jack for a lead tone. SO AWESOME!!!

The guitar has other accoutrements such as locking Grover tuners, but I DIG the tone shaping possibilities with this guitar. Plus, it’s actually coming out at a reasonable price for a new LP at around $2500, which is less than the 2008 model, but sports more features. Go figure.

So… the Strat HSH will just have to wait….

Posted in Guitars | Tagged | 17 Comments »

How to Pick a Speaker

April 11, 2012 by GoofyDawg

Unless you’re a dealer or a distributor of speakers, there are only a couple of ways to pick out a speaker:

  1. Go down to a dealer or distributor of speakers and listen to a bunch, then go and buy the one you like -or-
  2. Buy some speakers, listen to them, and pick the one you like. Oh wait! There’s a third way of choosing a speaker!
  3. Go on the forums, ask people what speaker they’d recommend, buy all the recommendations, listen to them, then pick the one you like.

I know, I know… It all sounds flip. But think about it. How the hell do you choose a speaker? The plain fact of the matter is that you have to listen to it to determine if it works for you. Descriptions, conversations, and recommendations are helpful indeed, but in the end, it’s the sound that the speaker produces that vibrates your eardrums that will be the ultimate deciding factor.

Of all the parts of the signal chain, I’ve found that in comparison with other parts of my signal chain, I’ve probably spent the most research time on speakers; much of it anguishing over having purchased a speaker I thought might work, only to find that it sucked! Let’s face it: A speaker is the endpoint of your signal chain, and produces the sound from everything in the chain before it. If it doesn’t sound good to you, it doesn’t matter how good everything else is in front of it.

There’s no “pat” advice I can give. You just have to listen to a lot of speakers, or take a chance on buying one and hope you get lucky. I’ve been lucky so far with my Fane Medusa 150 and with an evaluation Jensen Jet Electric Lightning that I got from Jensen that I decided to buy because it sounded so good. But there are lots of speakers that I’ve tried that I’ve never written about because they just didn’t work with my rig.

There is sort of a fourth way, and that is to listen to the recommendations from someone who knows your tone. My friend and amp builder Jeff Aragaki of Aracom Amps is that guy for me. Since he personally built and customized to my specs most of the amps I play, he knows what I like, so when he has recommends speakers, I listen. It was that way with the Jensen Jet Falcon 12″ speakers I have in three of my cabinets. He got one to try out from a distributor, and called me up, asking if I’d test it since he didn’t time. We met a few days later for me to get the speaker from him, and once I installed it in my cab, I loved it so much, I kept it, then bought two more since then to go into other cabinets. Mind you, this replaced a Celestion Blue – which is a GREAT speaker – that costs three times as much!

Oops… got a bit side-tracked. So while it ultimately takes listening to speakers to see if they will work, there are some preparatory things you can do to at least narrow your search:

  1. Go to the manufacturer’s site and look at the frequency response charts. For instance, check out this chart for the Jensen Jet Falcon 12″:
    This told me to expect a bit of a scooped tone as the lows and mids had peaks. Or check out this one for the Celestion Gold:

    This shows a more moderate low- and midrange response, with slight emphasis on higher freqs.
  2. Once you see a pattern that you’d like to explore, start listening to clips, taking note of the gear used.
  3. Finally, see how you can try one out or hear one in person.

As I mentioned, there is no “pat” way of deciding on what speaker to buy. But with a bit of research, you can narrow the field down significantly.

Posted in Guitars | Tagged , , | 9 Comments »

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