It’s been a busy Spring ‘13 – I’m re-assembling Chateau Daveaux, getting her ready for mixing and a certain amount of tracking. The place has 13-foot ceilings like most of the grand old Louisiana colonial-style homes, and with enough knickknacks on shelves & oriental rugs I should get a decent amount of sound diffusion & reflection control & still take advantage of a good-sized space.  I’m still on the fence about ProTools I/O options – since I’m not trying to track more than four people at a time here or get into big drum situations it doesn’t make sense to drop thousands on an HD rig but it would be nice to have a good neutral-sounding “8 in/8 out” box with a/d-d/a conversion. Call it option anxiety, there’s just too much shit from which to choose.
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I finally had my old ’60’s Gretsch (Maxine) re-wired and given a little TLC from Jerome Garbutt here in NOLA. I forgot how much I loved that sound, there’s no guitar that sounds like her. Not a versatile instrument but when you need THAT SOUND, there it is. Here’s the test track:

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Been doing some shows with my friend and fellow Algerian Terry McDermott, which are fun & totally rock, although I suspect some of his core audence was expecting more balladry (he’s a rock artist in sheep’s clothing). This weekend we’ll do an opener for the mighty Terry Reid here in New Orleans, and I believe I’ll be sitting in with Mr. Reid’s band on guitar. A bit intimidating, that man is the master.

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(’To Be Treated Right’, from Terry Reid’s masterpiece Seed Of Memory)

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This week I begin the arduous process of sifting through 10+ years of sketches, themes and sound recordings to culminate in an album (name? open to suggestions). I had NO IDEA I had generated so much stuff, it’s quite a pile.
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Wednesday Rick G. Nelson and I will start the actual recording process. I plan on having some friends help out along the way – anything you’ve heard me do on my own has generally been all me, which can get boring (face it, Todd Rundgren is a genius but you can’t replace the energy of real people reacting to one another).

Into the breach!

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James Trussart let me hang out at his workshop and try out a bunch of different model guitars today – he makes strange beautiful works of art influenced by,  yet completely different from the classic Gibson/Fender standards.  He makes some models completely of steel, others with wood bodies & steel tops.

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The one I chose to leave with, a Steel DeVille, has all that I like about the Gibson scale (my hands are not large), plus 24-fret neck, but allows me the ’spank’ of Fenders that I love. I can really lay into it and it barks back, or finesse it and the notes bloom… The Bigbsy excites me, I have an old Gretsch that’s too fragile to take out on the road and I love the advantages of that color it gives. Every one of the similar model had other qualities I liked; they were all different in various ways – it was difficult to commit.  A good thing.

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He uses real snake or  alligator skin to texturize the surfaces!  I had assumed there was an automated process or mold or something to get that oxidization and texture, but it’s a crazy (!) primitive time-intensive method, which I don’t understand and probably shouldn’t divulge if I did.  He is a true luthier, craftsman, engineer and mad scientist. I’m looking forward to using the crap outta this instrument … I wish I had a gig sooner than Wednesday so I could use it thru a LOUD amp.  Check them out:
www.jamestrussart.com

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Both in-store shows at Amoeba Records in L.A. and San Francisco were a real good time – the people were super-friendly and we were treated like kings.  I have suspicions that amateur video of the show will leak before the proper versions are mixed & edited…

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Rarely being in such an awesome store, I really dorked out & got some guitar instructional DVD’s for the first time. Why not?  I remember years ago someone gave me a Joe Pass “Hot Licks” VHS tape on I-VI-II-V turnaraounds but I totally didn’t get it at the time, and hopefully I can get some inspirations from this batch.  I never practiced guitar in any formal structured way, I just played the records I wanted to learn over & over till i felt satisfied with my versions of the material… I guess having NO teen social life & spending 8 hours a days in my bedroom hunched over my Gibson Sonex 180 did about the same amount of good as formal lessons (although it did put a different template in my head than someone would have were they formally trained, but that’s a knife that cuts both ways).

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The Marshall Reissue Bluesbreaker I used in SF (from S.I.R.) was a special one – maybe it was freshly retubed or something, I don’t know. Marshalls seem to be like that, every now & then one really distinguishes itself.  Like the Bassmans (Bassmen?) with 2 6L6’s, it had the right amount of headroom versus squish I like, but with the Brit aggressive bite.  I want to get one of those, It’s a cool amp, I’d love to hear it tricked out with some Telefunken 12AX7’s.

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Next week we are to perform on the Jimmy Kimmel show on ABC, I hope I can get that Bluesbreaker again, since my SamAmp (which I love)  is being used by someone else guesting with us…

1 Comment | In: gear, guitar, music, twilight singers | | #

i was checking out some guitars a friend recommended me (see link), and on the site was this page describing basically everything a guitar tech should know. I think every guitarist should read it, it’s got a ton of simple advice that will make one’s life easier. Note the section on strings and string manufacturers.

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After a gig in 1994, I stopped to drop off another friend at his apartment, and while inside for a few minutes, someone broke into my truck and cleaned me out – I had just returned from a move from Alabama with all of my gear in the truck.

I lost EVERYTHING – five guitars (two of which weren’t mine which I was to sell for a friend PLUS the first guitar my father bought for me when i was 15), a ‘64 blackface Bassman head, a 2×12 cabinet with new MojoTone speakers, my pedalboard, and an expensive pinstripe suit & wingtip shoes.

Ten years later TO THE DAY my friend Marc calls me and asks “Did you ever own a blue Strat?” and proceeded to describe the guitar that was stolen – I freaked out and started thanking him for finding it. Turns out that he didn’t know it was stolen from me, he thought maybe I had sold it years before & had just bought it but (reluctantly) sold it back to me for what he paid for it (which was like $25, to which I added a nice bottle of scotch whiskey).  A miracle!

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stolen May 1994, recovered May 2004

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Lightning apparently strikes twice

This past December 22, 2010, I lost my two favorite guitars, a blue ‘89 Fender Strat and a late-model Gibson Les Paul Special,  in the French Quarter. I was literally sick; my stomach hurt to think of it.  I made an agreement with myself to just let them go – to amortize and depreciate them in my mind as “business expenses” that had paid for themselves – to keep from letting the anger eat me alive.

Well,  two weeks later my friend Jack Pearse emailed me a link to a craigslist ad for a blue 1989 Strat – sure enough, it was mine!  I called the guy up and told him about losing it AND the Les Paul… He said, “Well, I have them both here – if they were taken from you then I can’t rightfully sell them. Come over and get them.”

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Apparently some shady guy he knew owed him money and gave him my guitars as collateral, then disappeared, welching on the deal, so he decided to sell them.  He wouldn’t take any offer of reward or anything, saying that he believed in karma and that he wouldn’t want the sale of stolen goods on the balance of his soul.

En route to his house I stopped at a store & bought him a cream cheese-filled kingcake (Google it if you’re from outside Louisiana) and hid a hundred dollar bill inside. When he opened the door I was taken aback – he was all tatted out from neck to knuckles, in sort of a thug/skater style – not the image in one’s mind of a Good Samaritan.   When I offered the kingcake he at first refused, but I handed it to his friend standing next to him, who was also simlarly tough-looking and tattooed (teardrop by the right eye) and  made him agree to take it.  I wish I could’ve afforded to give him more. The world needs people like that.

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I think I never realized how living in downtown New Orleans had jaded me. There are so many street kids and beggars and junkies and hobos and drunk people and crazy schizoid people what-have-you walking around at all hours (everytime someone calls me “sir” I automatically bristle,  expecting them to hand me a bullshit story and ask for money) -I’d let my prejudicial survival instincts destroy my bigger-view perspective.  I’m going to carry this lesson with me, and try to remember it everytime I’m tempted to think “people are shit”, or judge someone by their appearance.   Looks just ain’t always a plain indicator of character.

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This holiday season I’m leaving all my nice gear at home & doing a buncha parties & gigs where there could be potential drunks staggering into me – big fun, except for a 15% chance of vomit.  Here’s my “sacrificial” rig:

Electro Harmonix “22 Caliber” Amp head – $100 – actually sounds alright, I’m using it tonight for a small-scale gig to see how much abuse it’ll take.  They also make a 44-watt version.  If it can’t hang, I’ll use:

1974 Traynor BassMaster head – $200.  It’s a Canadian-made Plexi Marshall clone, basically. Sounds awesome if you trick it out with some Telefunken preamp tubes & Mullard EL34’s, but that would defeat the “sacrificial” nature of the amp;  I switch out the tubes with Sovteks for gigs & leave the good ones in for recording.  Think “Machine Gun”.

Late 60’s (CBS) Fender 2×12 loaded with Eminence 12’s from junk shop – $100. The cab was wired all out of phase and poorly, the guy thought it was a piece of crap. I reversed one of the speaker connections & soldered it properly and now it sounds killer.

Washburn Overdrive – $30 (sounds as good as a TS9, IMHO). Squishy.

And, the pièce de résistance:

An SX PRS-style knockoff, delivered to my door for less than $200 from rondomusic.com.

Maple top/mahogany back, rosedwood neck etc. I clamped down the trem, set it up & polished the frets, changed the tuners & voilá! Serviceable & sounds fine – the pickups are medium-output & not too middy for clean strummy stuff, but thick enough for blues.

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There are a lot of ways to inspire yourself to play cooler stuff, and exploring top-quality gear and attention to tone are definitely two of them.  Ultimately though, your tone comes from  your mind, hands & heart and a dash of technique. I use Instruments for safe situations, and Tools for gigs where “tone” is essentially taking a back seat to convenience.  And damn, I think my shit still sounds pretty alright.  If you keep your eyes open you never know what you’ll find.

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UPDATE:

The 22 Caliber pulled its weight – i ran it thru an old Boogie chassis and it was pretty loud, it broke up at the right volume ( I don’t require a crazy-clean headroomy sound, i like a little squish). Sounded about as good as a Peavey Bandit or Backstage. Definitely giggable and a great backup in case your rig  goes tits up at the wrong time.

4 Comments | In: Life, New Orleans, gear, guitar, music, random shit, technology | | #

Mein Deutsch Freunde sind glücklich, das zu sehen

new Brazilian buddy

Inaugural Dive Bar show – as new Live Karaoke spot in NOLA (technically Metairie, but any port in a storm).

2 Comments | In: Food, Life, guitar, random shit | | #

A lot of people (ok, guitar nerds) ask me what I use for the acoustic shows I’ve been doing lately (The Gutter Twins ‘09, Mark Lanegan May-Aug ‘10, Greg Dulli Oct-Nov ‘10) – it looks reminiscent of a couple of more popular old guitars (like a cross between a Django-style, a straight acoustic & a cheap f-hole archtop) but you might be surpised at the make -

It’s an Alvarez AD65CE, made for only a coupla years in the early 2000’s. I never see them for sale but I don’t know what one would go for if you found it. Spruce top, laminated maple back/sides, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard.

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I think it was intended for jazz players who use a thick plain or wound G string.  The P90-style magnetic pickup in the neck actually sounds pretty good with steel electric strings, but with the bronze acoustic strings I use,  it mainly adds some thick low-mid, a little bump around 200-300 Hz (i use a Radial 2-channel instrument preamp where I can blend the stereo output of the pickups, rather than use the volume pots on the guitar), without much detail – the bronze strings don’t have enough magnetic response to excite the pickup.  It does help on certain songs where I’m doing walking bass lines or with gain effects, it sounds nice & thick.

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The cool thing is the split output – I used to do instrumental loop-based ambient gigs at art galleries but only had a rudimentary looping setup, so I’d send the piezo pickup to the looper, since you can beat on a piezo & get reasonable drumlike sounds, then run the mag p/u through a bunch of other pedals.  Again, probably not what Alvarez had in mind.  On a jazz gig it would do alright i think, although it’s too much of an ugly duckling to be confused with a D’Angelico or Benedetto… Still, the neck is nice – not too thin but not too chunky.

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At some point I really need to spend the damn time trying out a lot of different acoustics & find the “right one” for my hands, but this thing does a good job in the meantime – I like to take tools on the road & leave instruments at home, y’knowwhatimean?  I’d hate to have this thing stolen but I’d rather see it destroyed than a $12,000 1964 Whatchamacallit.

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This was a quick 2-week run, but for some reason – not tedium, mind you – it seemed like six weeks. Perception of time is apparently elastic (or is time itself elastic?). Einstein thought so, anyway.  Ireland and Scotland are always a hoot, and Belgium showed a lot of love to be sure. Our London show was surreal and ethereal, with a heaviness that only comes when you play in an old-ass stone cavernous sacred space like the one we did.

ALSO, regarding Galway, Ireland  - if you are there go to Cava, a Spanish tapas restaurant (yeah, right? Ireland?) and order the confit of pork belly.  Three words, people: last meal menu.  Mark & I like it so much we went back the next day & ordered it again.

HASSELT

This is Karl, from Hasselt, Belgium.

My TM Keith (left) and I were walking around Hasselt after the Pukkelpop show (same night as those two tragic deaths, btw) looking for a pint, and I noticed all the St. Mary-themed iconography all over. I stopped to snap a shrine and this guy comes rolling up on us asking in Flemish what we’re doing – when he discovered we were foreign & spoke English he got excited, & promptly clued us in on the city’s Festival of the Virgin that was happening (once every seven years), and demanded that we come see his home around the corner where he had a nice shrine in the courtyard. Then he invited us to have some beer at a temporary family “cafe” that had been set up in a former art-supply store, full of his family and family friends.

Our intent was to grab a quick beer and return to the hotel but it turned into a great time, full of laughter and storytelling, and we accidentally got kind of hammered on Leffe. Totally unexpected. This is why I travel.  Perusing architecture is fine, but hanging out with your friends for a living and making new relations is a gift.

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I’m looking forward now to some American football and some food experimentation back in the NOLA, and to start paying back the generosity and warmth shown me by my friends in early August.  Boarding the plane in 9 hours, with anticipation in my heart.

1 Comment | In: Food, Life, Mark Lanegan, guitar, music, musicians, travel | | #