Spudmurphy
Well-known member
So the systems are down in work and I'm still feeling aglow from last night.
So let's wind the clock back to yesterday afternoon. ....
I was going to play a few numbers in the evening at the Cardiff Blues Dragon Christmas bash and wanted to just run through a few things.
I'd finished work early and retired to my man cave. I had 3 of my guitars on their stands. The Hartail Albert, the hardtail EVH and my trem BCB Albert Lee. My mate is always telling me that he likes the EVH and I don't use it live too much - so I ran through a few things on the EVH. Then I picked up the lightweight Albert Hardtail and broke a string (I need to change my strings more often!) so I got ol' trusty BCB Albert off the stand - man that guitar is just made for me!! So Albert Lee BCB it was going to be then !!!!
The only problem with these "Jam" events is that you don't really get much time to have a sound check and usually by the time you get playing and get a sound dialled in, the old "Shepherds crook" comes from stage left and drags you off to let the next punter have a go.
At least I knew that I would be using my amp, pedalboard and guitar. I like the Blues junior - although only 15 watts it's a great amp for this venue. During the afternoon I went through some pedal settings consolidating the results of some trial pedal/amp settings during the week. I have a Electo Harmonix Soul Preacher compressor on my board, and had recently modified my Danelectro Vibe to get rid of the design flaw - a delay in the effect kicking in due to the light oscillator firing up. I'd always used ithe compressor with minimal settings. Now I had gone the other way and really turned the wick up on the volume and compression settings. Previously I had really disliked running it at these extreme settings as it really really squidged up the sound. But now I was running the amp at full middle, 2 on the treble and 2 on the Bass. The input volume was low and the master volume then cranked the sound up. When I kicked in the compressor it really drove the amp and the sustain was fantastic Tell ya what - it sounded great in the man cave and I was pretty sure that it would work live.
So I set off at 8:00 - my son gave me a lift so I could have a drink - isn't it great to travel light? One guitar one small amp, my pedal board and that was about it.
I went on about 10:15 and played a couple of numbers and the sound was just great. I don't know if any of you experience this - you get yer chops all practiced - some will make you think, then when you play live you stay in your comfort zone. Well not tonight, I just went for it!! I'm not a shredder and only wish that I could play like that but when I played I "zoned out" - I was just totally confident in the sound and could just play. I'd had a few family issues recently and I'm not gonna load that on you but it all kinda came out last night in my playing.
Members of the crowd who'd heard me play before said that they really enjoyed the numbers I did - one comment was along the lines of - it wasn't always a question of what you played - you allowed space in the number and just built up on it. The tone was awesome - It was great to get these comments from other musicians.
Oh well systems have returned and I'd better get back to work.
But I've said this before and I'll say it again - I wish I had my EB guitars back in the 70's. Cos my Les Paul is now totally redundant.
There "may" be photos - watch this space.
So let's wind the clock back to yesterday afternoon. ....
I was going to play a few numbers in the evening at the Cardiff Blues Dragon Christmas bash and wanted to just run through a few things.
I'd finished work early and retired to my man cave. I had 3 of my guitars on their stands. The Hartail Albert, the hardtail EVH and my trem BCB Albert Lee. My mate is always telling me that he likes the EVH and I don't use it live too much - so I ran through a few things on the EVH. Then I picked up the lightweight Albert Hardtail and broke a string (I need to change my strings more often!) so I got ol' trusty BCB Albert off the stand - man that guitar is just made for me!! So Albert Lee BCB it was going to be then !!!!
The only problem with these "Jam" events is that you don't really get much time to have a sound check and usually by the time you get playing and get a sound dialled in, the old "Shepherds crook" comes from stage left and drags you off to let the next punter have a go.
At least I knew that I would be using my amp, pedalboard and guitar. I like the Blues junior - although only 15 watts it's a great amp for this venue. During the afternoon I went through some pedal settings consolidating the results of some trial pedal/amp settings during the week. I have a Electo Harmonix Soul Preacher compressor on my board, and had recently modified my Danelectro Vibe to get rid of the design flaw - a delay in the effect kicking in due to the light oscillator firing up. I'd always used ithe compressor with minimal settings. Now I had gone the other way and really turned the wick up on the volume and compression settings. Previously I had really disliked running it at these extreme settings as it really really squidged up the sound. But now I was running the amp at full middle, 2 on the treble and 2 on the Bass. The input volume was low and the master volume then cranked the sound up. When I kicked in the compressor it really drove the amp and the sustain was fantastic Tell ya what - it sounded great in the man cave and I was pretty sure that it would work live.
So I set off at 8:00 - my son gave me a lift so I could have a drink - isn't it great to travel light? One guitar one small amp, my pedal board and that was about it.
I went on about 10:15 and played a couple of numbers and the sound was just great. I don't know if any of you experience this - you get yer chops all practiced - some will make you think, then when you play live you stay in your comfort zone. Well not tonight, I just went for it!! I'm not a shredder and only wish that I could play like that but when I played I "zoned out" - I was just totally confident in the sound and could just play. I'd had a few family issues recently and I'm not gonna load that on you but it all kinda came out last night in my playing.
Members of the crowd who'd heard me play before said that they really enjoyed the numbers I did - one comment was along the lines of - it wasn't always a question of what you played - you allowed space in the number and just built up on it. The tone was awesome - It was great to get these comments from other musicians.
Oh well systems have returned and I'd better get back to work.
But I've said this before and I'll say it again - I wish I had my EB guitars back in the 70's. Cos my Les Paul is now totally redundant.
There "may" be photos - watch this space.
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