fsmith
Well-known member
One word. WOW!!!
First of all I'd like to thank Ernie Ball and Bay Tunes Guitars for making this clinic happen. Apparently the guitar stores have to jump through some hoops to make something like this happen, and I'm thankful that a store so close was able to pull it off.
Steve and Dave arrived for the clinic about a half an hour early. I sorta knew the shop owners so they let me stay and watch the guys setup. They kept everyone else outside. There was this one other guy wandering around, looking a little out of it,
and I didn't find out until after the clinic that it was none other than fellow forumer TommyInDelaware... He told me later on during the show that he was beat.
These guys were simply incredible, I have never met to more down-to-earth, ego? What ego? guys from the music business. They came in and stared setting up, I was a little disappointed that he only had #1 with him, not the new Y2D.
Sitting front row center, I was hoping for some great shots of the guitar. (more on that later)
The guys from the shop thought they had everything setup for Steve and Dave as they wanted. They had 3 Peavey XXX's, and 2 EB volume pedals for Steve. Of course I was asking questions the whole time... Turns out that Steve likes to have his dry signal going to one of the 3, and the volume pedals control the other 2. Each has a delay pedal after the volume. One is a long delay, the other a short delay. He pedals in the amount and type of delay on the fly. I've never watched another guitarist who is constantly changing pickups on the fly like Steve. Steve ended up not liking the tone from the main XXX and they he ended up using a Marshall AVT 100. I talked to the owner's son later and he was laughing saying he could never make that amp sound good at all. Steve tweaked it up and damn it sounded like Steve.
So anyhow they played for a good 2 hours. It was part lecture, jokes, and jamming to some backing tracks. They stayed until everyone got everything signed and had a chance to talk to them. Supposedly sound check was at 5, and we didn't get on the road for Baltimore until some time after 5. I wound up meeting Tommy after the clinic when he walked up and asked me if I was on the forum and what my name was... Apparently my questions about all of the speculation on the forum tipped him off, and maybe the EB shirt too.
Tommy ended up following me to the venue and we got there about 5 minutes before Steve and Dave who were following behind.
The show was incredible. No other way to describe the musicianship of both bands. I almost ended up getting screwed during the Dregs show. I went to the front of the stage knowing he was going to play the Y2D during that set. Hey NorM you should see this thing in person!! So anyhow he breaks out the new one and I figure hey, what's one or two pictures with my camera phone going to hurt??? About 30 seconds after the shots security walks up to me and says "follow me"... Uh oh. I saw the signs about no taping etc... He took me outside and made me delete the pictures in front of him and warned me that one more time and I was out... No problem occifer, no more trouble outta me. I had already made it my background picture too...
Anyhow to wrap it all up, what a day. Hey Baim, you were right, I'm inspired to play the strings off of my guitars. It was a very insightful clinic. Lots of technique and advice for players of all caliber.
Tommy it was really nice to meet you and your lovely wife. I hope you made it back to Delaware without any problems. Alright so I felt bad that I had like a 10 minute drive home...
I ended up getting a lot of pictures. I'll post a few.
Hey NorM, I asked the questions that everyone (you) wants to know... And I got the answers directly from the man himself. In fact when I had a chance to talk to him and told him that I had one on order he asked me what changes if any would I like to see in the finished guitar. I ended up mumbling something about whatever you decide will be good enough for me. It's a very humbling experience to have someone like Steve actually ask for an opinion from Joe Nobody.
Sorry about the length of the post, there were so many things worth writing about.
fred
First of all I'd like to thank Ernie Ball and Bay Tunes Guitars for making this clinic happen. Apparently the guitar stores have to jump through some hoops to make something like this happen, and I'm thankful that a store so close was able to pull it off.
Steve and Dave arrived for the clinic about a half an hour early. I sorta knew the shop owners so they let me stay and watch the guys setup. They kept everyone else outside. There was this one other guy wandering around, looking a little out of it,
and I didn't find out until after the clinic that it was none other than fellow forumer TommyInDelaware... He told me later on during the show that he was beat.These guys were simply incredible, I have never met to more down-to-earth, ego? What ego? guys from the music business. They came in and stared setting up, I was a little disappointed that he only had #1 with him, not the new Y2D.
Sitting front row center, I was hoping for some great shots of the guitar. (more on that later)
The guys from the shop thought they had everything setup for Steve and Dave as they wanted. They had 3 Peavey XXX's, and 2 EB volume pedals for Steve. Of course I was asking questions the whole time... Turns out that Steve likes to have his dry signal going to one of the 3, and the volume pedals control the other 2. Each has a delay pedal after the volume. One is a long delay, the other a short delay. He pedals in the amount and type of delay on the fly. I've never watched another guitarist who is constantly changing pickups on the fly like Steve. Steve ended up not liking the tone from the main XXX and they he ended up using a Marshall AVT 100. I talked to the owner's son later and he was laughing saying he could never make that amp sound good at all. Steve tweaked it up and damn it sounded like Steve.
So anyhow they played for a good 2 hours. It was part lecture, jokes, and jamming to some backing tracks. They stayed until everyone got everything signed and had a chance to talk to them. Supposedly sound check was at 5, and we didn't get on the road for Baltimore until some time after 5. I wound up meeting Tommy after the clinic when he walked up and asked me if I was on the forum and what my name was... Apparently my questions about all of the speculation on the forum tipped him off, and maybe the EB shirt too.
Tommy ended up following me to the venue and we got there about 5 minutes before Steve and Dave who were following behind.
The show was incredible. No other way to describe the musicianship of both bands. I almost ended up getting screwed during the Dregs show. I went to the front of the stage knowing he was going to play the Y2D during that set. Hey NorM you should see this thing in person!!
So anyhow he breaks out the new one and I figure hey, what's one or two pictures with my camera phone going to hurt??? About 30 seconds after the shots security walks up to me and says "follow me"... Uh oh. I saw the signs about no taping etc... He took me outside and made me delete the pictures in front of him and warned me that one more time and I was out... No problem occifer, no more trouble outta me. I had already made it my background picture too...Anyhow to wrap it all up, what a day. Hey Baim, you were right, I'm inspired to play the strings off of my guitars. It was a very insightful clinic. Lots of technique and advice for players of all caliber.
Tommy it was really nice to meet you and your lovely wife. I hope you made it back to Delaware without any problems. Alright so I felt bad that I had like a 10 minute drive home...
I ended up getting a lot of pictures. I'll post a few.
Hey NorM, I asked the questions that everyone (you) wants to know... And I got the answers directly from the man himself. In fact when I had a chance to talk to him and told him that I had one on order he asked me what changes if any would I like to see in the finished guitar.
I ended up mumbling something about whatever you decide will be good enough for me. It's a very humbling experience to have someone like Steve actually ask for an opinion from Joe Nobody.Sorry about the length of the post, there were so many things worth writing about.
fred
