General Music Chat

I call this a music thread, so it wont get sidetraked into other areas.

I was just curious with a new year on us, what folks are planning on doing this year musically.

As for myself, Im kinda in a corner, my cover band seems to be on hiatus for a variety of reasons.

I have been working on some original ideas, Ive recorded the rythym guitar for one tune, and Im trying to flesh out a prog rock guitar thing with various pieces of ideas Ive had rolling around for a while.

Ive been playing a lot by myself, but it always morphs into a a wank fest of me soloing. I was messing around with Auld Sang Lyne, or however you spell it yesterday with various delays and effects on the guitar to amuse myself.

Been experimenting with my POD PRO into my old Sunn Model T Head, just playing with various tones in it, Ive found that for lead playing the digital preamp seems to track fast phrases better than my tube amp does, plus the ability to sprinkle in a little reverb or delay to thicken it up is nice.

So just thought I would put up a musical thread about what everyone is doing. Im playing a lot, but dont really have any goals to speak of at the moment, other than just keeping my chops up.

Ah the ebb and flow of music. Last year The Johnny7 Band was on hiatus due to health reasons. No gigs under that name after 7 years of playing out together. I kept myself busy doing mostly acoustic shows and fill-ins for players I know in the area. On Jan 9, J7 is restarting with a new singer/guitarist who mostly does rhythm which will free me to handle more fills, solos and ear candy. I have played with him before and I think he is a good fit. Looking forward to 2013!

As long as you keep playing it's all good John.

I play a lot of acoustic when home. In particular I've been working on "Let It Grow" - Clapton, "Blowing Free" - Wishbone Ash and "Maggie May" - Rod Stewart. Hot Rod is hard to sing, let alone sing and play! The classic rock band had a couple of weeks off for the holidays but we rehearse on Thursday. The Farleys will begin to ramp up in a few weeks as well; usually we start the year by recording something but we'll see.

Jimmy you might can help me with something, Ive begun experimenting with alternate tunings, I guess thru the years Ive always stuck to standard other than drop D.

The song I recently recorded was kinda Zep inspired acoustic, I dropped the low E string to D, and dropped the A string to G, got quite a few good ideas from that tuning. And actually took the time to record one of them.

What are some other good alternate tunings to try, for inspiration?

I am still playing with Mission Imposter but looking for another group to fill in the spots when MI is not playing. Also I am moving toward going full pc for recording. I just finished building a pedal board, I will be using 2 amps 1 for clean and one for dirty. I bought an ABY switcher and decided to build a pedal board for amp controllers. It looks very professional (i'm a carpenter). I made it slanted with a removable bottom which is where the power supply is, that way the wall warts are not visible. While I was at it I made it big enough to put the Talk Box and another signal chain of stomp box's for the clean amp. I am always writing and coming up with new ideas for originals.

JW try "DADGAD"..it's lots of fun..and plenty of weird..

Haley what amps are you using these days, Im curious about the clean one.

I always think of a Roland JC 120 for clean, Ive been messing with this setting in my POD PRO, looking for that elusive clean tone that I cant seem to quite nail with my Mesa's.

That EBEEBE tuning is fun too ("No More No More" by Aerosmith used it). Mostly I use the capo for various tunes.

Haley what amps are you using these days, Im curious about the clean one.

I always think of a Roland JC 120 for clean, Ive been messing with this setting in my POD PRO, looking for that elusive clean tone that I cant seem to quite nail with my Mesa's.

I am using the Carvin V3M for dirty and a Crate Palamino for clean. This solves several problems. I have been carrying that Crate around as a backup for gigs. M.I. rehearsed last month and they were commenting on how much better the clean sound on that crate is. That ABY switcher is seemless. I am very happy with the sound I am getting. I will use it this Saturday and will know if I am going to keep using this setup after that. Most old school guitar players use a Marshall, Mesa for dirty and use a fender for cleans. This Crate gets the same cleans as a fender.

I've got a B-52 boutique amp, 100 watts all tube with three channels. I still prefer the Marshall for dirty tones but the B-52 gets it done for a clean, crunch and lead channel setup.

DADGAD and EBEEBE, thanks guys I will try those

Well, I plan on IMPROVING! Pretty broad sounding right? But that's always my goal for the new year. To improve everything (musical and personal) or at least make the best effort I can in that regard.

In particular I plan on working on my guitar skills, upright playing (arco and pizzicato), and my writing.

We are mainly gonna continue as a duo.
We will burn a backing track to CD with all the percussion, alternate tunings, Variax, really expensive & fragile keyboards, digital programmable sh!t, and whatnot.
Marsha will play her BC Rich Mockingbird and cheaper, more durable, keyboards.
I'll play my Guild Pilot bass, whatever baritone-tuned guitar (the Les Paul copy, if I ever get it fixed), Hi-Fi & Lo-Fi vocals, and foot-controlled Dictaphone machine full of samples & noises.
We may still add a drummer or other collaborators along the way.
But, I guess we're mostly doing things kinda like Timbuk 3, They Might Be Giants, or WEEN.

About 2/3rds into our set of written songs we will do a total Merzbow-esque improvised noise freakout.
We will just play a wall of chaotic noise til the end.

We will project lots of crazy juxtaposed datamoshed videos behind us while I sit behind my table and Marsha sits behind her keyboards.
If we give the audience something to look at while we perform maybe we won't suck so bad.

yeah, "improving". as the youngsters say...i'm down w that. (do they still say that?)

my problem is probably the same as most on here....good clock management. that's one of the reasons i'm spending less time here.

and like many on here i play more than one instrument, so constantly trying to improve my skills on several instruments means i need to stay focused and keep my eye on the prize. and despite my best intentions, that's never been easy for me.

i plan on continuing to play and work in several different band lineups. the present count is FIVE and that's not including the solo gtr gigs.

i also plan on being a little more aggressive and on the stick, beating the bushes for new venues to play though i've always been pretty good on that score.

I'll play my Guild Pilot bass....

oooooh, nice. i'm a big fan of Guild's. as you may or may not know, i own a '67 Starfire Bass and a '66 Starfire II gtr. absolutely looooove 'em!

any pics of your Pilot?