Tag: guitar

Hello Kitty Strat: Not for Pussies!

Would this be anything less than awesome? I think not.

As I gloated last week, Jane Wiedlin gave me her Hello Kitty Stratocaster — the most bitchin’ $99 guitar ever conceived! I finally had a chance to destroy/customize it yesterday, in what will no doubt be the first of many desecrations/enhancements.

I’d ordered one of those Synyster Gates Duncan Invaders with the pretty white pole pieces for the guitar, but just couldn’t wait to experiment, so I browsed through the ol’ pickup collection, and found a nice Duncan Phat Cat I’d used in a Les Paul experiment some months ago.

I don’t generally recommend choosing pickups because of their names, but come on! Kitty + Cat? How could I resist?

Turns out it was a lucky choice. I hadn’t planned to install a pickup that was actually lower in output than the stock humbucker, but it lets me get nicer clean sounds, and coughs up more than enough crunch when goosed with distortion. Speaking of which: the other custom feature is a built-in-distortion circuit activated via push-pull pot (I took lots of pics of the process for a DIY built-in-effects tutorial I’ll be posting very soon.)

View the carnage in this little video. Thanks, Jane Weidlin! Sorry, Stevie Nicks!

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June 21, 2012
It Pays to Have Cool Rock Star Friends!

Sadly, it's ony Photoshop. Jane just WISHES she had a Hello Kitty triple-neck!

It was a perfect weekend here in SF: Unseasonably warm weather. BBQ in the garden. A fun recording session for a new project by Jane Wiedlin and Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Gos. And there was something else. . .

Oh yeah — Jane frickin’ gave me her Fender Hello Kitty Strat! Yes, the very same model played by Jimmy Page, John Lennon, Keith Richards, and Johnny Marr. (At least in my imagination.)

I love you, Jane!

So of course we started talking about how to customize it. Travis Kasperbauer, Jane’s engineer/husband, proposed installing an Seymour Duncan Invader pickup (maybe one of those white-capped Synyster Gates models…)

Jane suggested blinging it out with lots of beads and jewels and other eye-catching decor. And Jane know her eye-catching decor — her place is filled to bursting with mid-20th century kitsch, and her steampunk-themed studio could be the Addams Family basement where Wednesday and Pugsley rehearse with their punk band while Lurch runs Pro Tools. How often do you get to record 12-string overdubs while sitting next to a disembodied brain floating in a tank?

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June 11, 2012
No Stinkin’ Amps (or Amp Simulators)

An advanced technical diagram.

No videos or audio examples today — I’m in the midst of “reconfiguring” my studio. (That’s the technical term for pulling stuff out of racks, tangling all your cables, making an ungodly mess, and dissolving into a puddle of bitter, frustrated tears.)

But the good news is, I got some cool new stuff. I’m switching over a pair of large Pro Tools and Apogee systems to a minimalist Universal Audio Apollo setup, an audio interface that doubles as a plug-in host. UA makes killer plug-ins, but I’ve never owned any, since they’ve always run off of proprietary PCI cards, and the card slots in my computers have always been filled to capacity. Now that I have the UA stuff in my grubby mitts, I’m obsessing on the idea of exploring non-amped guitar tones, especially distorted ones. And I’m not talking amp simulators, but the distortion you get from overdriving a recording console’s preamps. (more…)

May 31, 2012
The Ugly Guitar Design Contest:
Every Entry Was a “Winner!”

Simply beautiful! (Luthier: A. Meyer)

Oh, man — this is the most fun I’ve ever had on this blog (provided you define “fun” as “laughing hard enough to snort coffee through your nose”).

It sucked trying to pick a contest winner! I received over 150 guitar images, and I loved every single one of them (provided you define “love” as “the way you feel about pictures that make coffee come out of your nose”).

I made a little movie featuring several dozen of my favorites. If you’re drinking coffee, cover your nose.

It’s about four minutes long. You can fast-forward to 3:30 if you only want to see my top three picks. I think you’ll agree with me that they are remarkable in their ability to inspire strong emotional reaction, even after viewing so many truly memorable guitar designs. But frankly, I don’t recommend skipping ahead.

I pity the fool who misses out on any of the treasures herein.

Apologies to all whose guitars weren’t included. They were all amazing! And thanks to everyone who made this such a memorable event! Let’s do it again soon.

May 21, 2012
Afrobeat Forever

The first good band I ever played in was led by Nigerian singer/saxophonist Orlando Julius Ekemode. I was an obsessive African pop fan, astonished to find myself playing afrobeat, highlife, and juju with a bunch of West African expats in Oakland, California. The crew included the great African music scholar C.K. Ladzekpo and Kwasi “Rocky” Dzidornu, who worked as a session player in London, where, among other things, he recorded the iconic conga track on the Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil.” Other players had recorded with great West African artists such as King Sunny Ade, Hedzoleh Soundz, Sonny Okosuns, and the big kahuna of African funk, Fela Kuti.

Orlando Julius — “O.J.” — was a kind bandleader who patiently coached me on how not to suck at the styles. I learned so much about time-keeping, note placement, and consistency. And if there’s a better consistency exercise than playing an unvarying one-bar pattern for a half-hour song, I can’t think of it.

I haven’t performed literal afrobeat in many years, though I still find myself alluding to the style. In fact, I just nipped down to the studio and recorded this lick:
The Quintessential Fela Kuti Lick
…and it still makes me happy. (more…)

April 26, 2012