Music - Tele hunting and Music Man guitars are amazing

I promise I'll do some photography stuff in the near future.

I went to go pickup some strings yesterday for two of my guitars and spent some time trying some of the pretty instruments before taking off. Since I have no real need for my 412 Marshall cab right now, and don't really want a 412 anymore for gigging when/if I get back to it, I decided I'm going to trade it in. I also have a few other items too that I plan on dropping off. I got a sight unseen estimate and started checking some stuff out.

I'm really disappointed in the quality of guitars that have hit the shelves lately. I've been out of the game for 5 years or so, and even then I was kind of choked that I had to look at three Les Pauls before I found one I thought was acceptable enough to spend they money on. Even then that one was missing a pickup height spring. Guitars have gotten a lot more expensive (everything kind of has). I was going to checkout the replacement for the Telecaster "deluxe" model, now called the elite, but they are upto $2500 Canadian, which is almost $1000 more expensive than 5-7 years ago. That's a pretty big jump. Granted, that guitar does play like butter.

Music Man St. Vincent

One of the salespeople recommended I check out the Ernie Ball Music Man guitars as an alternative. They are way out of my price range, but I decided to take a peak anyways. I'm really impressed. Fit and finish across the line was immaculate. Setups and tuning stability was nothing short of perfect.

The first one I picked up was the St. Vincent model. I've been watching a lot of Mary Spender on YouTube lately and she has gotten a hold of a really pretty one. I wasn't sure about it at first but I keep on liking it more and more whenever I look at it, so I had to give it a rip. It's a very light guitar, lighter than expected, and that rosewood neck was an absolute dream to play on. Thin, but not too thin, a really comfortable feel. Plugging into an Orange Rocker 15 combo I found the tone really fat,
but defined through all the pickup selections. It's a very round tone that brings visuals of a woolly mammoth to mind. It's cool! But very different from what I'm looking for tonally. A guitar one should really check out for later tho...

I then picked up the Valentine. This had a thin neck as well, a bit chunkier and rounder than the St. Vincent, but maybe a bit thinner than a 60's neck Gibson. Very comfortable. A bit heavier than the other guitar too, but still very light. Finish was flawless, but boring, actually the whole guitar is kind of boring looking to me. It's kind of like a Les Paul Special that is trying to pretend to be a Telecaster.  So it's got a humbucker in the neck, which is coil tappable, and a slanted pickup in the bridge to try and produce telecaster twang. It also has a built in preamp to give some boost. It was a very versatile guitar to play, but not at all Telecaster like. Too smooth on the top end. Wicked playing guitar tho. One I would love to add to my collection, but at almost $3000 CAD I felt it was overpriced. Sure it plays brilliantly, but it seems like it's an "almost there" guitar.

Music Man Valentine

The Music Man Stingray RS tho, that was a wicked guitar. Still pricey, but cheaper than the first two I tried. The neck is huge, very thick D shape. I'd almost say too thick. I'm no shredder, but I play a lot
of big stretchy chords and it was a little crampy. It sounded and played fantastic tho. Finishes we're cool, modern styling. I really like this guitar! I would like more pickup switching options tho. I think with the neck, push/push boost and push/push coil taps from the Valentine on the RS would be an absolutely brilliant guitar. I would seriously consider this guitar if I started gigging again as those options are easy enough to add. I would even consider parting with my Gretsch Firejet Pro for it if I could get it in a thinner neck.

But, back to Telecasters!

Man do I love Telecasters. I've gone through them like water, but they are always like a nice pair of jeans, a no frills, no gimmicks, nice and basic guitar. But they have gone up in price... I remember when an American Telecaster could be had for around $1200 or so Canadian Dollars for a "standard" model. Deluxe models got close to $2000, but to crest that price point you we're often looking at reissues or custom shop guitars. Now, a Standard starts just under $2000 Canadian. Out of my price point.

There are three major levels of American "standard" telecaster in the lineup, as far as I can tell, right now. The Special for around $1300. The Professional for just under $2000, and the Elite for $2500. I played all three and a mexi.

The special is the entry level American. They used to be HWY1's before my hiatus, but had a matte finish, now glossy. The frets are a bit taller and wider than the others, but the neck familiar. Americna hardware, including a 3 brass saddle bridge, which I like. The texas special pickups are brash sounding, and on the verge of ice pick offensive. The fit and finish of this guitar was...well lacking. You could saw a tree down with the frets poking out of the neck for starters. The action was good, but intonation was way out. Whomever strung it wasn't pay attention and the winds were stacked at least two deep. It wouldn't stay in tune at all. I tried doing some adjustments to it myself and stretched out the strings, but no, it just wasn't cooperating. I know this is easily fixed stuff tho. It wasn't wowing me with it's play-ability, but it felt like the work horse it is.

The Professional ups the game with compensated brass saddles and V-mod pickups. Frets are a bit smaller and more familiar to what I had on telecasters 5-10 years ago. The neck has a similar shape but felt a bit different. It is very comfortable and more inviting to play for sure. Stretchy chords are easy to play and single note runs are effortless. The setup was a lot better, but still had tuning stability issues, so I'm wondering about the standard tuning heads now. I stretched out the strings and it got a bit better, but still kept pulling slightly out of tune. Maybe it's the 9 gauge strings, I'm an 11-50 guy myself, and like a wound third as well.

Fender Telecaster American Professional

The pickups are much calmer than the Special. The neck pickup is a bit rounder, smoother, and generally more flute like in it's tone. Sounds beautiful. Still has some top end definition, but also has that tele spank we have grown to know and love. The bridge pickup gets rid of some of that ice pick cutting, but has that growly clashing twang that just screams telecaster. It's great, it really is.

I then picked up the Elite, the best playing guitar of the bunch. The fit and finish we're nearly flawless, setup needed a bit of adjustment, but it stayed in tune very nice. Very light, felt like air, a guitar you could play all night for sure. The only big play-ability issue I could feel is that the finish on the neck may get sticky once you start sweating... Through the Rocker 15 Combo the tone was warm and full but still retained some Fender charm. Notice I said Fender charm, not Telecaster... that's because it sounded more like a strat to me than a Tele. It could still twang if I messed with the amp EQ, but just hot swapping between the three Tele's it was quite warmer and rounder in it's tone. I actually like it a lot, but admittedly not what I'm looking for. That being said I'm playing these in a vacuum and not on my usual Rockerverb 50 or AC30 rig. maybe the guitar would sound more tele like with my regular setup and EQ's set for my other guitars.

Finally the mexi. action was skirting low and just buzzy, but the neck felt good, nice and chunky. I'd argue it felt better than the American Special I played earlier. The pickups were abrasive and bright, but growly and full as far as single pickups go. You could really work this thing into a solid players guitar on a budget for sure.

Overall I preferred the Professional for sure, which means I'm going to hold out for a used version I think. The pickups are more balanced than the others and retain that telecaster tone, but are easily changed with the standard control layout. The compensated brass bridge is vintage/modern beauty and very comfortable. The neck feels comfortable like and old pair of worn jeans. It's just a really well designed guitar.

Music - Memory Lane - My old rig

5 years ago we wrapped up recording on my last project with "The Blackhole Illusion". A progressive post-rock/metal quintet with crazy guitars, crazier effects, and nutty concepts. When we started out it took a lot of time to get to the rig that I used in it's final days, and it was a long journey to get the
sound where I wanted.

Amps

My previous rig, with Rolodex, was much simpler. I had a couple of guitars, my Vox AC30, and a modest pedal board with a few drive pedals, phase, trem, delay, and a wah. Nothing crazy. But with this new band... not much of that transferred over to the new sound we were chasing. My other guitarist dropped his JCM900 in favor of a Fender Tonemaster. Really cool meaty amp with a lot of bark and deep growls. I went on a different journey...

I first tried my Orange AD30 twin combo that I was using as a backup to my AC30. A lovely amp, really a darker and grittier sounding AC30. I love that amp, it has a very unique tone. But it had no top end sparkle or cut. So it wasn't doing to
well in the mix with my mates Tonemaster. It also wasn't handling the large array of pedals I was collecting for this project very well either. So I sold it to start my amp journey.

Being primarily a "vintage tone" style guy I like a lot of open and mid range growl to my sound. I'm not a Fender amp guy, too boomy in the bottom. The first amp I tried was a Marshall 2266B 50w Vintage Modern head through a Marshall 4x12 box with Vintage Century Celestion speakers. It sounded good, but wasn't very versatile. In fact, this was probably my favorite sounding Marshall I've ever played. It was essentially a single channel amp, and the best it sounded was just cranked! The cleans weren't bad, but sounded very sterile... So I ultimately decided to move on.

I grabbed the Mesa Transatlantic TA-15 next. My idea is that through a 4x12 15w should be more than enough, especially when the 30 watts of my Orange and Vox were killing it prior. Well, I was wrong. I could not get this thing to clean up enough. It was a wicked tone, had a great sound when I could dial it in. But it just couldn't keep up with the band. Also, no FX loop was really starting to become an issue. I loved the drive tones of these amps but couldn't use my FX properly with them...

So I decided on two different routes at this point and got the band together for an amp finding field trip. This new amp must be at least a 30w Class A or 50w Class A/B amp. Preferably English voiced for that mid range bite, but also had to have a tight bottom. Clean tone that could give my AC30 a run for it's money,. If no FX loop, single channel and a drive pedal that could give me a high gain tone similar to something like a Soldano SLO100.

We tried a few amps that weekend. I was really fond of a PRS two channel 50 watt amp. It sounded really really awesome. But the guys thought it was too similar in tone to the Tonemaster as it was more american voiced for sure. I then tried a Hughes & Kettner. I don't recall which model, I really liked it. In fact I thought it was pretty close to perfect.. but the guys we're not sold on it. I think it was too glowy. It was then that we fired up a Blackstar Stage 100.

The Stage 100 was a really cool amp and became my amp for the first half of the life with this band. It had a great clean, two really awesome drive channels, and it was nice and tight. The problem was, as it aged it quickly degenerated into a pile of garbage. Not just the tone, and I tried new tubes a few times, but the reliability was really poor. I got it fixed twice and a new floor board under warranty, but I was getting increasingly frustrated with it. So without the guys knowing I went out and traded it in for an Orange Rockerverb 50.

Why didn't I do this in the first place!

The Rockerverb 50 is still in my collection today, and I almost sold it twice due to not playing, but I won't be doing that anytime soon now. The amp is solid, it's incredibly reliable. It has a clean tone that is smooth and open. It has drive channel that is thick and crunchy with a lot of mid range bite and low end bump with just enough highs to cut through the mix but not destroy your ears. It really is my perfect 2 channel amp. I have a hard time deciding which amp I like more between my AC30 and the RV50 all the time (it's always the AC30!) it's just such a cool sounding (and looking) amp. I owned one before, and don't know why I never looked at it again when it was time, but I'm glad I did. I love it so much. I guess I am an Orange guy through and through.

Guitars

So what is the story behind the guitars?

Well I started with my usual, a Gibson ES-335, a Chinese Tokai Telecaster, a Gretsch Jet Pro, and Gibson Les Paul Standard.

My Tokai Tele, which I wrote about before, was my primary guitar starting out. I love my Es-335 and used it quite a lot during the project, but with this new project a heavier sounding guitar was needed. The Es-335 was just too smooth, not enough bite and grind. The Tele was doing a great job, but it's a chore to play, quite possibly one of the worst playing and one of the best playing guitars I've had.

Then there was my Les Paul, it was heavy (a back breaking 13lbs) and it was odd that it had no sustain compare to other Pauls I've owned and it just had no top end cut, totally a mud ball of tone. I swapped in some TV Jones pickups as I loved the tone of my Gretsch, but it was a feedback machine. That solved it the majority of the tone issues, but my back was killing me. So I ordered up what became my primary guitar for the group, my PRS Custom 24.

I've wanted a PRS for a long time, I longed for one! I wanted and SG and a nice Les Paul too... but I knew that with a PRS I would get exactly what I wanted when I placed the order. Gibson is so hit and miss with quality control since the early millennium that I just couldn't trust them to deliver a great product. So I put in my order for a Custom 24, tremolo bridge (my only trem guitar), whale blue finish, and bird inlays. I skipped the 10 top and artist package. Well, the guitar is still a stunner, just beautiful.

It plays like butter, oh my god. When I picked this thing and dropped off my Les Paul for trade I never looked back. What a guitar. My fingers are weak and locking up compared to where they were flying up and down the neck 5 years ago, but I was able to drop in and play this guitar as if it were a well worn in pair of shoes (and the guitar is well worn now, showing way more gigging damage than any of my others). It sounds amazing, it plays amazing... It is silky smooth. The only guitar I've bought that I've done NO mods too.

A year later, I got my second guitar that became my other "primary" for this band. A Gibson RD Custom from 1978. I've wanted a Gibson RD since I first saw one back in the 90's. They are such a cool looking guitar and this one was a maple on maple. It had the treble booster circuit and the active EQ like the other RD's out there, but a more stripped down look. Flat frets and a super wide neck. IT cut through the mix and clanged like a Telecaster, but growled and roared like a Les Paul. It's just fucking rock and roll man.

It took a lot of modifications tho. I ripped out the stock pickups as they had this really bright and brittle sound and threw in a Seymour Duncan P-Rail in the neck (and had it mostly set on the P90 mode), and then a Gibson Dirty Fingers in the bridge. The Dirty Fingers are often considered a muddy pickup, but with this full maple body they just dominated Alas, I did have to sell it when we started to build our new home. I wish I could have sold my Les Paul instead.

Les Paul? What. Yea, while we were recording I bought another Les Paul. I always wanted a Manhattan Midnight Les Paul. I had the opportunity to buy a 2005 model with white double binding (including headstock binding) It was trimmed out like a custom, but chrome hardware and pickups like a regular Standard. But I bought the Light burst standard I sold for the PRS instead.

When the Manhattan came back in the Traditional line I had to do it. I ordered one in, played it, and it plays perfect! A little heavy in the body for balance, and my heaviest guitar overall. Not back breaking heavy like my Lightburst was, but still chunky. I have yet to gig with it, but it is all over that album along with the PRS and my ES-335. I think even the Gretsch got a showing on that record.

Pedals

What a crazy road this was... instead of going through every variation of my pedal board as that would take a century, I'll just go through it's "Final Form". 

From the guitar we go into the EB Volume Junior. The vol pedal goes out to the TC Electronics Tuner. Then main signal to a Vox Union Jack Wah pedal, to an RC Booster from Xotic FX. Down to a compressor. From the Comp we goto a Crowther Audio Hot Cake (my favorite pedal) then to a Diamond Multidrive. From there out to the amp's front end.

FX Loop out comes into the EHX POG 2 (a major component of this bands tone) and into a Diamond Trem (also a major tone device). From there it reaches the T.C. Delay pedal. I eventually swapped this out for a Vox Delay Lab while recording and during our final gigs.

 Then we jump over to board 2. Board 2 started off with a Retrosonic Phaser. From the Phaser we drill over to the Line 6 M9, down to the Dr. Scientist Tremolo, Vox Time Machine Delay, and then back to the Line 6 DL4, and finally the Maxon AD999.

Jesus that is a lot of fucking pedals. Sure there was a bit of tone suck, but all wired with George L Cables sure helped. I also was using a "Pedal Snake" for running between the amp and the board. Made setup and tear down a breeze. never should have sold that thing.

So what was going on here?! Well The Time Machine and Dr. Sci trem were both setup for a very specific song and I didn't want to mess with them at all. The AD999 was also used pretty specifically, but I played it more like an instrument than anything. It was really cool for that. The delay box on the main board with the TC Flashback/Vox Delaylab we're my main delays and backups incase the first board died. The POG became a major part of my sound in places as well, really cool sound, but took over the mix in a lot of ways. The Diamond Trem was my main trem pedal that actually saw a lot of use. I secretly love trem more than anything. The Line 6 DL4 - looping, live looping! So cool, so much fun. check out Minus the Bear for my influence with this one.

The M9 was used for a ton of different filter and wacky settings. Then various drives as I needed them, but in the end I used primarily the Hot cake and the amps distortion with the Xotic RC as a booster when needed. The Retrosonic phaser was used very minimally, even though it was a major part of my Rolodex sound profile.


So that was my rig, pretty insane. Crazy that now I just want my AC30, my wah, AD999 Delay and hot cake. I'll be happy with that.

Photography - Why I love my Fuji X-T2

A few years ago I was gear crazy.

Scratch that... I was out of control.

At my peak I had an Olympus OMD EM5, Fuji XT1, Nikon D800, Pentax K3, Pentax K5, and a Pentax Q. That doesn't include all the film Pentax cameras I was snatching up on the cheap. I sold most of them about 2.5 years ago. I kept my Nikon D800 and D810 kit and that was it.

The family and I went out one weekend to a street festival. Before I would always grab the Fuji (the last camera I sold), but since I didn't have it and really didn't feel like hauling around 2kg of Nikon full frame on a leisurely stroll I decided to take my Pentax LX film camera and a 31mm FA Limited lens. A beautiful little kit. I loaded a new roll of Fuji Vevlia 100 and we left for the day.

I felt like I got some really amazing shots throughout the day, was timing things very well and really felt good about what I was shooting. Then I looked down and it said I shot over 40 frames... something was wrong. Advancing the film had resistance...so I was confused. I decided to push the clutch and roll the film in.. I got one or two full spins and felt the film fully retract... the film was never advancing, but somehow still gave resistance like it was. I must have misloaded it because it has worked fine since. This roll of Veliva...that I felt was going to be full of amazing shots was blank.

I was mad, disappointed, and frustrated. I immediately got on Pentax forums and put up my Pentax Q kit for sale. I got almost $1000 for the little guy. I sold some guitar pedals and got enough to buy a used Fuji XT2 and a 35mm f2.0 lens. I came into a little extra cash and grabbed two other lenses for the system. I started shooting a lot more, taking my camera every where! Eventually I upgraded the f2.0 35mm and 50mm lenses to the 35mm f1.4 and 56mm f1.2, and added the 90mm f2.0 to my kit. I'll do individual articles on those guys in the future...

But I don't leave this at home if I can avoid it, and I cannot wait for festival season again! This camera is amazing.

First, it's a very capable camera.  I've used it for weddings, fashion shows, studio portraits. In fact, I rarely reach for my Nikon since I got it. The XT1 was a different story, it didn't have the resolution that I was used to with the Nikon D800/10 and so I'd rather have too much than too little. But 24 is a pretty good place to be.

Second, it forces me to think more. I am faster with my Nikon, but I also have a lot of wasted hard drive space on images I'll never use because it's so quick to change settings and...well spray and pray. Not saying I didn't still think about what I was doing, I'm just saying that the Fuji by design forces me to work slower because it feels like an old film camera. Which is odd to say, because the Fuji is actually a very quick camera.

It comes down to how versatile the controls are on this thing. I can use the old school shutter speed dial and adjust aperture on the lens like I do on my old film camera. This is how I use it most of the time for casual shooting and studio stuff. This makes me operate a bit slower as I feel I plan out my shot and exposure more based totally on how I am using the camera.

BUT, if I need speed, I can quickly switch over the shutter dial over to T and use the back control dial to adjust my shutter speed without fiddling with the dial. My hand is already on the lens so aperture changes become stupidly quick too. I may not be able to change my iso as quickly as I can on my Nikon, but I can still modify my exposure enough to keep up.

The big thing I loose out on (for now) is TTL control. I don't have any flashes that interface with the Fuji automatically. Everything I have is still Nikon. From my TTL trigger for my Profoto B1, to my SB series flashes. So I can use it all manually with my Fuji, but no auto for when I want to get a baseline. (I often will TTL my first shot outdoors with my flash, then switch to manual and fine tune). Once again, this makes me think a little more.

Overall, it just really helps me enjoy photography more. The Nikon feels more like a tool used to do the job and get it done with the highest quality possible. It's not fun to use on a whim. It's heavy, it's bulky, it's a pain in my lower back. Part of that has to do with the fact I have big heavy lenses and no compact slow lenses for the kit.. but that is why I got the Fuji, to accompany me where I want to go.

Now here is the dangerous thing... I haven't touched my Nikon in over 6 months. Do I sell it and start saving up for a Fuji GFX to fill that void? No...I shouldn't tempt fate.

Music - Shopping list and production list.

Back when I cased my guitars for a while (almost 5 years ago!) I sold quite a bit of gear to help fund some furniture and home upgrades. Mostly pedals...but I did part with my 1978 Gibson RD Custom, an amazing guitar... sad day.  I'll get another RD one day, but it's not something I'm planning on grabbing short term.

After messing around in my semi-redone office this weekend I found a few things. out. First off, I downloaded the demo version of Toontracks EZDrummer and I am hooked. I love this software. I am still scratching the surface on it, but in what felt like 10 minutes I had a full drum track ready to go for my new song and it felt good. It is a pretty powerful software, and I'm sure once I learn it better I'll be able to do exactly what I need to create the sounds I want. So, my own copy of EZDrummer makes it to the top of the list really quickly.

I'm using my old copy of Cubase5 right now to produce on, and currently I see no need to switch out from that. I used to know Cubase pretty good, so I figure unless there is a real need to upgrade to the current version this should do me good for now.

For guitar tones I have most of my guitars at home right now, but no amp. I also live in a townhome and share walls, so I don't think cranking my Orange half-stack will win me many favors, especially since most of this will be done in the 8-10pm range. So I sat down and setup my Line 6 POD HD500.

It wasn't too bad, really I was getting very usable guitar tones, and without any of the fuss of micing cabs. They are heavily compressed, but they got some thump and definition so they will do for now. Eventually, when the money allows I will get a Helix from Line6 to replace the HD500. However, I am a lover of my Orange amps.

I went on a bit of a trip with amps for a while. My main amp for years was a Vox AC30 from 1973. I love this amp, it's one of my most prized pieces of creative equipment. My backup amp was an Orange AD30 twin channel combo. I also loved this amp, but it was terrible with pedals as it had no FX loop and the dirty channel was messy and full of crunch. Just what I love! So I sold it when my last band formed. I went through a few different amps at the time as we had a very different sound than my old band... I played Mesa's, Blackstar, PRS... but eventually ended up with an Orange Rockerverb 50 (original version). I really want to use this amp again... So I'm going to look into getting a speaker load/cab simulator DI box. Most likely either the Radial or Mesa-Boogie offerings.

Then I need to get a bass. I can only fake bass for so long using the POD's octave down FX. I have always wanted a Thunderbird. But a Gibson is way out of the price range. So I will keep my eyes open for a used Epiphone to show up. I will just rent a bass for now when I need to lay some bass tracks, but eventually I'll get my own.

Then I need to get a mic and some cables back into my life, not to mention restring my guitars...they need it badly. I'll probably drop a gauge to save my fingers, go back to 10's from 11's for now on most...aside from my PRS, that thing is so perfectly setup with 11-52 that I can't think of changing now!

So yea... to recap:
Step 1: Restring guitars
Step 2: Buy a copy of Toontrack EZDrummer
Step 3: Speaker Load/Cab simulator DI box for my Orange Amp
Step 4: good vocal mic and some cables
Step 5: a new used bass