Guitars and Life

It was my birthday earlier in the month.  So with the various vouchers and cash I got I've acquired a couple of bits of new kit. 1. Harmoniser pedal. I thought I'd try one out and didn't want to spend a lot on something that has limited use to be honest.  I watched some reviews of the cheaper mini pedals that have been coming on the market recently.  Influenced by Mooer who came up with the format.  The idea is just genius.  They figure most people who are serious have a pedal board already and that has a 9v power supply on it.  Therefore why to all pedals continue to have to have space for the 9v battery and that dictates a lot about how small a pedal can be - a format long championed by market leaders like Boss. So take that out, minituraise as much as possible and suddenly pedals can be really small actually.  Small enough that you could have 3 or 4 easily on a little board with a power supply and be able to put it in the pocket of your gig ba...

I was part of the Rochester Music Cafe - Love Songs night. The cafe is an idea for a "community" based music group.  An eclectic mix of people from solo singer songwriters, solo singers etc. etc. I was asked to join by my brother-in-law who has been involved as they were weirdly lacking electric guitarists - normally not a problem but they had drummers, bassists, keyboard players and singers galore but no one who can widdle on a 6 string. The format is a one or two numbers from each singer.  I was in the "band section" which was new for this set up they've never had a full blown group play like this.  We did BonJovi's I'll Be There For You - we were ok - apart from yours truly hitting the wrong intro chord! Way to go!  Also a trio did one of my old numbers - Just Let Me Love You Tonight . Actually it was good to get out and play with others - it stretches me and makes me listen more. One funny story I must share was the drummer commenting on my...

Finally got round to recording "Amber"... Demo is through a Hughes & Ketner 60W 2x12 Dual 6L6 combo, first bit through the clean channel which is a Fender like channel and then through the distortion channel for the second bit.

Ok So here is a little side by side comparison of three of my guitars. All through my H&K Statesman Dual 6L6 combo. There is a Boss Flanger throughout - that is connected via the amps effects send and return in parallel mode which I like as it has the effect colouring not dominating the sound. In each sound clip is a shortened version of one of my tunes. Starts off on the clean channel with Twang in, then moves to the drive channel, finally the solo is on the drive channel with the boost in. On the guitars in order the following.. Peter Cook Custom - clean is on the neck pickup then move to the neck for distorted chords and solo PRS CE22 - position 9 on the selector (Outside coils of both pickups in parallel) for clean bit the position 10 bridge humbucker for the rest Gordon Smith Graduate 60 - neck pickup with coil tap engaged and then bridge humbucker once drive is selected.

"I dunno Dud!" :-) Alright as asked by many of you... well one reader! So here is a demo of the Peter Cook Three settings - first on a jazzy sequence. This is using the Neck pickup - through my H&K Statesman 6l6 combo which is on the clean channel with the Twang button in. So the only change is on the guitar. First - Freq pot at 1 Boost at 8 Second - Freq pot at 10 Boost at 10 Third - Freq pot at 7 Boost at 8 Nothing else is changed! Shows how versatile this beast is. Then we go RAWK! On the drive channel of the same amp, gain on the amp about 50%. This is on the bridge pickup - again only thing changed is the tone controls on the guitar. First - Freq pot at 3 Boost at 8 Second - Freq pot at 10 Boost at 10 Third - Freq pot at 7 Boost at 8 The third settings on both are my favoured settings with the guitar. So here's the sound clip with all those on... enjoy