Category: Uncategorized

The Call of the Cave

Part of my recent trip to Europe was a scholar-led tour of Late Paleolithic cave art, starting in the Vézère river valley of France’s Dordogne and working west to northern Spain’s Cantabria region. I’m no expert on the era — just an armchair history geek with a lifelong early art fascination. I could bore you to tears with my holiday pics, but since this is theoretically a guitar/music blog, I’ll keep things brief and music-focused.

This sculpture of an early hominid from the Museum of Human Evolution in Burgos, Spain, has nothing to do with the fully modern homo sapiens who decorated the caves. Furthermore, recent research calls into question the historical accuracy for her guitar. Some scholars even suspect that it may have been Photoshopped into this photo.

Basically, I got to visit many of the best cave art sites not closed to the public, as both Lascaux and Altimira have been for many years. By sheer coincidence, one fellow geek was Hollywood composer Craig Safan, perhaps best known as the composer for Cheers. In addition to being a cool, smart, and fun guy, Craig has been obsessed with these caves since he visited them decades ago as a young man, and is planning a major composition inspired by them. Unlike me, he was up to date on all the latest research about music and musical instruments of the era, mostly based on fragments of simple flutes, bull roarers, and such.

Craig was traveling with a tiny Zoom recorder, a little ocarina, and a pair of small resonant stones. As we’d tour various cave sites as Font de Gaume, Pech Merle, El Castillo, and Isturitz, he discretely record little clacks, whistles, and tongue clicks, cave ambience and all.

Now, the last thing I’d planned for this vacation was an impulse response reverb experiment, especially after having recently written about the technology in this blog and for Premier Guitar. But it occurred to me that we might be able to capture the ambience as impulse responses in order to reproduce it later in the studio. I didn’t have a proper device for playing back a test tone, though I might have tried it on a phone or iPad. But Craig’s clacks and clicks seemed like they might work. He sent me a few audio files after we both got back to California. With a little editing and EQing, they worked pretty well — have a listen below, and help yourself to a couple of reverb files if you like. Some of the nicest are from the deepest gallery of Pech Merle. (more…)

May 4, 2014
Cro-Mag Comedy Contest Semi-Finals

Hi — I’m back from an amazing vacation, which I’ll tell you about soon. But first, I wanted to make good on my threat/promise of letting you vote on the funniest musician anecdote, a contest outlined here. I couldn’t narrow it down to 10 faves, so I went with 11. (In retrospect, I probably should have skipped the pre-selection stage, since all the stories were pretty darn good.)

Vote for the ones that make you laugh the most. The authors of the three most popular stories win one of my sketchy homemade stompboxes prototypes.

I apologize. For appropriating this image. For posting it here. For making you dream about it.

The only rule: Be cool. Please don’t stuff the ballot box or resort on other sneaky internet tricks. If you win via subterfuge, I’ll still probably send you a prize, though I reserve the right to expose your cheatin’ heart to public ridicule.

Polls close a week from today on Wednesday, May 7th.

The stories appear in random order. The polling widget appears after the last story.

And oh — for the record, don’t take the words “Cro-Mag Comedy Contest” as a slur against our Upper Paleolithic ancestors. Cro-Magnons were fully developed humans, genetically, physically, and mentally indistinguishable from modern homo sapiens. So we can safely assume they did all kinds of stupid shit. Especially the drummers. (more…)

April 30, 2014
Grüße aus Frankfurt!

Howdy from Frankfurt! I’m here for the week covering Musikmesse for Premier Guitar magazine. Messe is like NAMM, only somewhat larger and way louder. With beer and sausage. And probably lots of accordions, because you can’t have beer, sausage, or music trade shows without accordions.

You can check the many daily pics and notes posted at PG‘s Facebook page. We have a strict “new gear only” policy. No NAMM retreads — only items being introduced here in Frankfurt. Should be interesting!

:pacman: :pill: :beer: (pretend the pill is a sausage)

March 11, 2014
Tonefiend’s Half-Assed NAMM Report!
I just drove back to San Francisco from Southern California, where I got to hang out with family and spend a long, full day at NAMM. And while even the longest and fullest of days isn’t enough to see half the stuff at the show, I’ve put together a little slideshow covering some highlights and lowlights.

Per usual, my focus is the obscure and the absurd. For details of the big releases from the major companies, check out the excellent coverage by my Premier Guitar colleagues. (I’m the designated PG reporter for Musikmesse in March, but at NAMM, I had the luxury of stumbling around in a daze, pausing to gape at whatever shiny object happened to enter my field of vision.)

Disclaimers apply:
- While I receive no payment or perks in exchange for coverage, a number of folks whose products I mention are friends, clients, or both.
- All opinions expressed are strictly my own — especially the obnoxious ones.
- You can’t hear a frickin’ thing in the toxic noise zone that is NAMM, unless an exhibitor provides a soundproofed listening booth or a private suite. I have no idea how most of this stuff actually sounds, nor does anyone else reporting from the main show floot.
Finally, an apology: I couldn’t figure out how to embed links within my slideshow captions, so you’ll have to do some typing to learn more about these products. Sorry — but I did warn you that this was a half-assed NAMM report!

r
:stupid:

The very first thing I saw was a large group protesting against Bain Capital’s Guitar Center for allegedly ripping off a cajón pedal design by Michelle Mangione and Steve Soest. Demonstrators included my eternal punk goddess, Exene Cervenka of X (pictured). Details at guitarcentersucks.com.

I finally got to hear Fishman’s Fluence — an electric guitar pickup that uses the radical technology of printing magnetic coils onto a circuit board rather than by winding wire. The pickup transmits a flat, full-frequency sound, which is subsequently shaped by an active EQ stage. The three initial releases feature two tones each, though theoretically, there is no limit to the number of pickup sounds you could generate via a single Fluence pickup. (The Strat held here by genius guitar tech Gary Brawer, for example, toggles between a vintage sound and a modern hot-coil tone.)
The results are very impressive. Changing modes really does sound more like a pickup swap than a mere EQ adjustment. Also pictured: Frank Falbo (center), who worked on the project, and Larry Fishman (left).

Rear view of the Fluence system and battery pack, which provides 100+ hours of playing time between USB charges. Fender/Marshall vet Ritchie Fliegler also worked on this product, and his son, Jack, provided a shredworthy demo of the high-gain humbucker version, which toggles between an active, EMG-like tone and a high-gain passive humbucker sound. The third model in the initial launch is a vintage humbucker setup offering a choice of PAF-style and hotter-than-vintage tones.

I didn’t get to hear them, but these fuzz pedals from the British Pedal Company certainly look authentic. The Rangemaster reissue even has a built-in output cable like the original.

No NAMM report is complete without the obligatory accordion pic!

Hiwatt’s booth included this lovely relic: David Gilmour’s historic rig.

Small enough to fit into a guitar case, the tiny yet ergonomic Fly Rig by Tech 21 includes two stages of SansAmp gain, plus nice-sounding digital delay and reverb. I could totally envision using this not only on its own, but as a convenient and travel-friendly backup rig.

Tech 21’s Andrew Barta also showed me a prototype of the clever Clutch knob, an invention he didn’t create, but may develop and distribute. It’s a push/pull knob (not pot) that, when depressed, sticks in position while continuing to rotate in one direction. You might use it, for example, to dial back and forth between a wide-open guitar volume knob setting, and the exact spot you like for a rolled-back clean tone. I can think of many great stompbox applications as well. I want about 20 of these!

My pals from Voodoo Labs dressed as the cast of a certain film about bowling and ferrets. So much hipper than the usual black work shirt with embroidered company logo!

Cheap chic: The whimsical, retro-flavored designs from Trev Wilkinson’s budget-priced Italia line: Always a sickly-sweet treat! 🙂

EPSi from Logidy is an impulse response reverb in pedal form. It reads IR files from an SD card, and yes, you can use your own. (If you don’t know about IR technology, search for “impulse response” on this site. It’s amazing and fascinating stuff.) I’d ordered one of these the instant I heard about it, and received it just before departing for Anaheim. My initial reaction: wowie zowie. I’ll be writing more about this wily gizmo soon. (If you’re interested, get one now at $199. The price will probably go up soon.)

I recently reviewed Magnatone’s stunningly gorgeous (and, at $4,000, stunningly expensive) Super Fifty-Nine amp for Premier Guitar. Unlike its larger sibling, this compact 2 x 6V6 head offers true stereo vibrato, and will “only” set you back $1,700. To the extent I could hear it on the noisy show floor, it sounded gorgeous.

The prototype StrongArm Six-String Sustainer from Keith McMillen Industries looks promising. It allows you to blend sustained and normal tones and set the drive level via concentric pots. It definitely promises many exciting applications, but between the pots, saddles, and LED-enabled pickguard, it’s probably more suited to purpose-built guitars than DIY installation. Stay tuned.

With their exquisite engraving and flamboyant surfaces, Teye guitars always attract a crowd. Most of them sell for north of $5K.

Stompblox specializes in modular pedalboards with snap-together sections. They also showed the Brick, an ambitious power supply/signal switcher.

I haven’t had the opportunity to try Moolon pedals, but man, dig the beautiful engraving and eyelet-board construction!

My brilliant friend James Trussart with one of his new pinstriped teles. Also new is his groovy “flipped” jazzmaster. As always, the Trussart booth was an island of design elegance in a sea of vulgarity.

Famed Fender amp designer Bruce Zinky created the revitalized Supro amps, though the brand is now part of Pigtronix. This 6973-powered combo absolutely nails that “Immigrant Song”/”Communication Breakdown” tone.

More Sears & Roebuck chic: The new Silvertone line offers replicas of various ’60s models. These use modern construction, which, for better or worse, probably means they’re more reliable but less freaky-cool than originals. I’m looking forward to checking these out.

The retro resurrections continue! Tim Lerch playing one of the newly reissued Kay guitars. They’re budget-friendly reproductions of models from the historic Chicago brand.

More Kay coolness. I didn’t get a chance to hear or play these, but they’re so cool-looking, I almost don’t care how they sound. 😉

Now that is an artist endorsement photo: the inimitable Wanda Jackson for Daisy Rock guitars. (Plus I have that pink guitar fixation … )

Marketing FAIL from Black Lion Audio.

Mooer specializes in micro-stompboxes, especially ones in small rectangular 1590A boxes. Now they’re doing a lot of effects in square 1590LB enclosures as well.

Hey, lookit! It’s the back of Stevie Wonder’s head!

New replacement bridges from Tone Pros include a model with nylon saddles à la certain 1950s Gibsons, and a Bigsby-friendly roller bridge.

This control kit from Touchmark flips the touch-pad equation: They’re not for controlling external devices — there’s no MIDI output. They simply replace traditional tone and volume pots. With practice, a guitarist could manipulate the controls while playing. The system includes a pad-programming computer app.

Aussie guitar monster Adam Miller tries out the first electric model from Falbo Guitars. (You saw luthier Frank Falbo way back in that Fishman Fluence pic.) Frank’s acoustic guitars are quite magnificent, and I’m looking forward to checking out this Fluence-equipped model someplace where I might actually hear it.

This wireless system from FXConnectx offers remote pedalboard control. Ambulatory rock stars can even position multiple units around the stage.

Ooh, pretty! This two-tiered Aclam pedalboard hails from Barcelona, ground zero for shapely and organic designs.

This is the best NAMM report ever, because it has two obligatory accordion pics. That’s one big-ass squeezebox!

Leaving the show, I chanced upon one last example of the taste and restraint for which NAMM is renowned.

Back at the hotel I flicked through the channels, only to encounter Steven Segal telling Mike “Women Can’t Control Their Libidos” Huckabee about the awesomeness of his friend Vladimir “All Gays Are Child Molesters” Putin. Nice product placement!

January 27, 2014

Want to torture yourself? Pause on Dec. 31st to consider the resolutions you scribbled down 364 days ago.

But not everyone is a resolution cynic. Check out the comments section below last year’s NYE post, and you’ll find a dozen entires from Josh Starmer, who pledged a year ago today to record an entire album, finishing one song per month.

Yup — he did it! You can read about his journey here.

Speaking of journeys: I emailed Josh to congratulate him, and he wrote back from frickin’ Cambodia on the day he was touring Angkor Wat.

Heck of a year, Josh!

I solicited words of wisdom. Josh’s reply:

For every one part challenging, it was 10 parts rewarding. Before I started, I’d never written a song before. I’d recorded little instrumental tunes, but nothing with words. I was pretty intimidated by lyrics early on, so I did what any awkward person would in such a circumstance, I sang about the weather. I then sent the song out to my closest friends and, over the months, their praise and complements kept me going, and their honest criticisms made me better. I’ll have an album out by mid-February.

Each month started out with one or two weeks of doubt and freak out. It didn’t matter how good an idea I had about what I wanted to record, it always seemed impossible. But, like everything, it was just a matter of starting, pressing record, and then putting the song together, piece by piece. The second two weeks of each month were always filled with immense pride as I watch the song materialize out of nothing. An idea in my head made real, and in many cases, better.

Along the way I developed a systematic method for singing in tune (which, sadly, is a different skill from playing any other instrument in tune), and I’m going to write about that as soon as I can. There’s a lot of bad advice out there on the internet, and I think what I came up with works really well.

Oh, and perhaps the most important thing – I can’t say enough about how cool it’s been to take an seemingly impossible task and just chip away at it each month in a disciplined way. I’ve found myself encouraging everyone I meet to do a similar thing – be it sewing a quilt, or writing short stories, etc…

How cool is that?

Anyone up for the “Starmer Challenge” in 2014? Or are you goals more modest? Or more grandiose? Please — confide your hopes and dreams for 2014 so that one year from today we can all join together to ~~laugh at your failure~~ toast your amazing accomplishments!

So what are my 2014 resolutions? Easy — same as 2013! :satansmoking: