Great Player playing a Steve Morse

[kbaim]

Hey guys,
I had the good fortune of being in San Diego last thursday getting a couple of moles removed (not the good fortune part), when I got a call from Bob (bravo victor) saying a band called "Hectic Watermelon" was having their cd release party at SDSU at 8pm that night.

Being a graduate of SDSU myself, and being told how the guitarist was strongly influenced by Morse, and being in SD already, I was game.

Turns out the guitarist (John) was playing a Steve Morse model! And playing it unbelievably well. With keyboard patches and string patches, and lightning fast runs between really interesting chordal work. And oh yeah...Jerry Goodman (dregs violinist) sat in on a handful of tunes too.

All in all a great night of music. I've e-mailed John and told him to come around here and hang out with some fellow ballers. I believe he said he plays a bunch of steve's tunes (Norm you listening?) too.

One of his tunes is even called Steve's Stunt Double.
Hopefully he'll join in the fun (John...don't piss off a poster called Big Poppa )
his band's web is www.hecticwatermelon.com

 

[robelinda2]

good site! love the little audio clips. very Morse indeed!!!

 

[Pundix]

Thanks for the link! Lots of talent there; the sound clips were great. Nice looking site too.

 

[Adwex]

Cool, I'll be looking into these guys fer sure.

Thanks Keith.

 

[John Czajkowski]

Thanks Keith, and thanks to those who have already checked out my "Post-Zappa, commando-fusion" band, Hectic Watermelon, and our new album with Jerry Goodman (Mahavishnu Orchestra and Dregs)! This really seems like a cool forum, but then, what else would you expect from EB players!

I have been using two Ernie Ball Steve Morse guitars for my main axes for sometime now. I installed RMC piezo pickups into my number one for better synth (AXON AX100) tracking, and I am thinking about carving a right arm contour as the straight design is finally taking its toll on my wrist. I really wish I could get the pickup configurations on the Steve Morse model with a contoured body and with an RMC and you'd have the most amazing guitar available! I've played the Brian Moores, but the EB just destroys them. I like Tom Andersons, but, ultimately, I just like the feel of the EB neck better. The SM body wood is heavy, but very musical and chunky IMO!

As far as our music goes, please feel free to download the scores that I have up on the site. I'll keep them up until I get around to publishing them in a book or eBook. I don’t have any of the solos transcribed yet, but you can look at two pretty wacked tunes off our new album with Jerry Goodman, "The Third Derivative of James Brown" and "Bionic Hillbilly".

Thanks again for having me aboard! I can't wait to stop in EB land ant NAMM this year. (I'll be there with Egnater amps.)

 

[robelinda2]

thanks for dropping by!!!!!! Morse is great!

 

[John Czajkowski]

thanks for dropping by!!!!!! Morse is great!

Thanks for the warm invitation folks. I can't believe I didn't already know about this place. I normally hang out at The Real Allan Holdsworth Forum, The Gear Page, MTS (Egnater Amps) and Huge Racks Inc.; I'm a peeping Tom at Gear Sluts, Die Aussensieter (nür auf Deutsch), and several other geeky fusion and prog places.

 

[OrangeChannel]

Ha...JC...what's up doooood? Have you thought about checking out a Silhouette?

 

[John Czajkowski]

(In the voice of Spotsworth from Team America) So, I should have known...The Orange Channel.

I do like that one (it was the first EB I ever played mid 90s in a store in Oahu), but I really have become addicted to the pickup configurations on the SM guitar. I still would like to be able to get from the two single coils together to either the bridge humbucker or form two single coils to both humbuckers with one switch action. This is something I do quite a bit in my music and it is tricky live when things are going by pretty fast. If I'm not mistaken, the Silhouette only lets you add the single coil to humbuckers right?

 

[Pablo]

I have been using two Ernie Ball Steve Morse guitars for my main axes for sometime now. I installed RMC piezo pickups into my number one for better synth (AXON AX100) tracking, and I am thinking about carving a right arm contour as the straight design is finally taking its toll on my wrist. I really wish I could get the pickup configurations on the Steve Morse model with a contoured body and with an RMC and you'd have the most amazing guitar available!

Why not simply get a Silhouette Special and rout it for the Morse setup? I am modding some of my guitars for my own weird HHS setup and my homebuilt custom will also feature this setup... here's a quick Str@t mockup I did (feel free to shake your heads ):

Cheers

Eske

 

[OrangeChannel]

(In the voice of Spotsworth from Team America) So, I should have known...The Orange Channel.

I do like that one (it was the first EB I ever played mid 90s in a store in Oahu), but I really have become addicted to the pickup configurations on the SM guitar. I still would like to be able to get from the two single coils together to either the bridge humbucker or form two single coils to both humbuckers with one switch action. This is something I do quite a bit in my music and it is tricky live when things are going by pretty fast. If I'm not mistaken, the Silhouette only lets you add the single coil to humbuckers right?

Its got a 5 way stock w/ the HSH setup...plus the piezo if you are so inclined...the splits sound nice, but they're not the same as the morse...however NorM here actually has a Morse setup on his Blue Dawn Silo...pretty cool looking and sounding via some of the clips he'd posted in the past...

 

[John Czajkowski]

Its got a 5 way stock w/ the HSH setup...plus the piezo if you are so inclined...the splits sound nice, but they're not the same as the morse...however NorM here actually has a Morse setup on his Blue Dawn Silo...pretty cool looking and sounding via some of the clips he'd posted in the past...

Pablo and NorM's ideas sound cool, but they seem like a lot of work! I think I just need to cough up for another used SM and shave one of them. I really dig the neck's feel on the SM too. It has this really nice gunstock finish. The shaved arm contour won't look pretty, but I don't care too much about that.

In the meanwhile, here are the first two tunes from the show Keith saw: Little Black Baby Jesus and Sacred Watershed.

 

[kbaim]

Hey John, Glad you made it over.
Hope we hook up at the Morse family reunion jan 19th at coachhouse!

 

[OrangeChannel]

Pablo and NorM's ideas sound cool, but they seem like a lot of work! I think I just need to cough up for another used SM and shave one of them. I really dig the neck's feel on the SM too. It has this really nice gunstock finish. The shaved arm contour won't look pretty, but I don't care too much about that.

Yeah I thought of doing that a la Tyler to a used Morse too if I can find one that's beat
to shizzle. BTW they all have the gunstock oil finish. I love reapplying that stuff as it wears off...

 

[ba2m]

i heard hectic watermelon from ponco.. and i'm very shock when i heard their songs.. it's amazing.. what a great music played by perfect musicians..

i hope i can get watermelon cd sometime in here john..

great!salute..

 

[John Czajkowski]

Thanks so much ba2m!

We are cetainly not perfect, but we work hard to execute very difficult music as fluidly and naturally as we can! Sometimes it works better than others...The cheapest way to get the album in your area will be to just download it or the tracks you like from our website or iTunes. I hope to get distribution hooked up in Australia and Japa soon via Abstract Logxic since shipping singles CDs from the US to Asia is pretty expensive.

Thanks for yor support,

 

[Ponch]

Yeaah !! I'm one of HWM fans .. the maniac one ha2.. I bought 2 cd's from John.. hi John is there any plan to have an American live tour? . I've noticed that I missed all HWM giggin schedules... perhaps i'm lucky enough to see HWM live this year, who knows . but please come to oklahoma HWM !

Ba2m, i knew that you have good taste in music no doubt about it .. talk to you later bro !

 

[John Czajkowski]

Yeaah !! I'm one of HWM fans .. the maniac one ha2.. I bought 2 cd's from John.. hi John is there any plan to have an American live tour? . I've noticed that I missed all HWM giggin schedules... perhaps i'm lucky enough to see HWM live this year, who knows . but please come to oklahoma HWM !

Ba2m, i knew that you have good taste in music no doubt about it .. talk to you later bro !

Hey Ponch,

Thanks for the enthusiasm! We are new and independent band, so a full U.S. isn't in the plans, but we are actively seeking booking for a Summer East Coast tour.

Thanks again,

John

 

[Colin]

hey John, make sure you stick around and post on other threads that aren't about you Have you tried a Y2D yet?

 

[John Czajkowski]

Ya, I know…I’ve been exercising very poor forum etiquette. NO excuse Sir—other than the usual things that consume ones life beyond the internet. I have not tried the Y2K. It looks as though Steve got rid of one of the single coils, but I real like having both, so I’m not really jonesing for one...yet. I need to cough up for two new Egnater heads anyway (ouch).