UNCONVENTIONAL

Since going off on a couple weeks of a tangent with the blog, which was fun, I have discovered even more important and pertinant points about the subject of “frankenstein” guitars and even pedals, etc. With doing a lot of different style sessions lately, and blending in this new live gig that definitely calls on me to pull off lots of different styles, I have learned that in putting gear together for the gig at hand that sometimes its not the “name brand” that always wins the battle. My head always wants to take me to the big names first, like my Les Paul, and my PRS. I unfortunately listened to this urge for about 3 weeks and forcibly played these two guitars in situations and pushed them upon myself and the songs/gigs for no other reason than that they “should work!” for the part or the gig. Deep down inside I knew that I should pick up my two guitars that I made for myself, for different reasons, and play them in these situations, but I was somewhat falling victim to the name brand ...

Alright, this one may be a bit of a jumbled one on subject matter! I have a few different projects going on right now and my mind is a flurry with situations, theories, ideas, and opinions about what I have going on and the musical interactions that I am currently faced with. First off, as a musician that is getting very busy, and faced with learning lots of new material for a new band or musical endeavor, it is really important to pace yourself and plan your days out in such a way that allow you to have a few minutes here and there to recoup, and more importantly rest your hands! So far I have been doing an ok job at spacing out time to learn/chart new music between preparing lessons, teaching lessons, composing music, and allowing for time to pack up guitar rigs, load in/out, get changed into clothes for the gig, and plug in and warm up.  Whew, that’s a ton of stuff to think about, and somehow last night I let myself get to a point that I had a hard time conquering! After all tha...

It’s that time! The time all session musicians and recording musicians look forward to; time to pick the amp, guitar, and effects for the gig!!! I absolutely love it. This time when I know what the gig is and know what the gig sounds like, and I get to go into my arsenal of gear that I’ve collected for so many years and pull out what I deem fit for my parts in this particular recording session. Oh man, my brain starts churning with possibilities and I really get into it. At this moment something in me normally tells me to chill out a bit, pull back from crazy gear nerd world, and calmly, professionally look objectively at all of my gear and start to put it together in my mind for what I’m about to be called on to do.  A great example would be earlier today when I came into the studio. I had two completely different sessions ahead of me that called for a drastically different approach. The first session was going to be a re-arrangement of an old church hymn. So, I immediately though...

So, I have to admit that I have been having a lot of fun with looper pedals recently! In particular, the new MXR Clone Looper. I have it wired up to the fullest of its capabilities with an external footswitch and Dunlop mini expression pedal. I rarely use it to just record a rhythm part, kick it into play mode, then solo over it. However, this is also fun and useful when I’m in a teaching situation and want to demonstrate scales over a rhythm part or chordal changes. The way I have been using my looper on recordings and writing new music lately is by having the expression pedal rocked all the way off, which has the volume all the way down on the output of the looper. I then will at random, record pieces of what I am playing for about 3 to 4 loops worth of material.  Keep in mind that all of this is being done in real time, while I am playing a piece of original music. After all of the recording is done in the looper, I step on the playback button. At this point, I have some cool op...

Ok, well I promised you that I’d be back with another installment and I believe I said it’d be about my different uses of OD pedals and Fuzz pedals. First off, I LOVE overdrive pedals! I mean, you could fill up a room full of all of them out there and I would swim my way to the top having tried every single one of them (and probably opened up a few to see what makes them tick!…my favorite thing to do). All that madness behind us, I also have a funny relationship with fuzz pedals. Over the years, I would call it a love/hate relationship.  My very first pedal that I bought with my own money was a Dunlop Fuzzface in 1992. I still have it and have pulled it out on numerous occasions over the years to use in various different ways, but I never remember bonding with it and saying “wow, that feels great”. I have also purchased and have used dozens of different from mass produced to boutique fuzz’s and rarely do I love any of them. Remember, I did say that my use of pedals is differen...

Delay pedals, I know, I know, you’re thinking, here we go again with another guitarists take and review of yet another pedal! Well, not really. I am anything but mainstream with my ideas in music, or even my uses of the cool tools available. Since I was 13 years old when I bought my first fuzzface pedal, I can remember wanting to rip into that sucker and do something crazy to it to either make it sound “different” or just flat out crazy! I have followed this mentality all through my career and have always been the session or touring musician with the pedals on their board that start a good conversation.  In my blog I want to hold to that experimental attitude and take a look at the weirder or more unexplored ways to use pedals, instruments, and amplification. On that note, the first thing on my mind is looking at a more unconventional view of delay pedals. I have learned that I am a bit different in my approach sometimes, but that doesn’t mean that it’s wrong or un-useful to someon...