Guitar
Wow, today was theory day. I attended the Vancouver chapter of the Safe Amp Society's S.P.A.C.E. Camp Conference, a rare chance for me to cross paths with Vancouver's indie underground(current?swell?). Later in the evening I had to perform at a fairly middle-of-the-road sports-bar-like kind of joint, hosting a jam. There were pleasant surprises all round.
First the conference: I attended three sessions today, the first a DIY pedal workshop, the second a forum on rhythm concepts, and the third a "music theory for indie rockers, it's not uncool to know something about something" type of affair. All the topics were ambitious in scope (given the time available to explore such concepts), yet, through a certain amount of charm, guilelessness and pure love for music, all the sessions were rewarding, insightful and ultimately quite deep. It seemed to me that the musicians chosen responded to the good listeners in the room, just as they would on a gig. Really, it was probably one of the weirdest, yet most intimate gigs those folks ever played, without playing much at all.
The first session I attended was hosted by Julian Marrs of Marrs Pedals. Julian has an absolutely ridiculously flexible fuzz called FUZZ LIGHT YEAR, and an intense tremelo unit (with built in fuzz) called the MULTIVERSE that also has the option of the SATELLITE, a dedicated LED driven strobe that synchs with the Trem rate. Oh my dear...
Julian's forum on DIY effects perhaps suffered from being a little too broad in scope. The first segment was an overview of pedal effects for beginners, and at forty-five minutes, I felt it could been handled by an effects savvy artist as a session in it's own right. It would've allowed Mr. Marrs to focus more on the topic of DIY pedal building, which got a bit crammed in at the end. Regardless, for NooBs in the room it was an enlightening chance to understand what all those things do, and what that sounds like; for the gear-heads it was a chance to breadboard a basic fuzz circuit with someone who'd been there and done it. (Lyle Cline of Boneshaker Pedals was one of the volunteers and ran a station at the forum). For the record, the Bazz Fuss (seemingly a DIY classic) circuit employed for the demo was corpulent and juicy!! Big fat mama, turn your light down low!!
The next session was "Rhythm Concepts for All", hosted by two most excellent drummers: Daniel Ruis (Aunts and Uncles) and Kevin Romain (SSRIs). The duo hosted an excellent informal review of basic rhythm notation and concepts, managing to keep the discussion focussed and informative for both beginners and veterans, alike. Most of all, they kept groove front and centre in the discussion, bringing every idea covered back to a "goose-neckin" reality.
Next up were two other members of the SSRIs. Jo Hirabayashi and Elliot Langford presided over a similarly introductory-yet-deep-as-cow-flap-in-alfalfa-season session about music theory. This is a tricky set of concepts to talk about in a mixed audience, but the two did an excellent job of explaining and illustrating the ideas of harmonics, scalar and chordal harmony and intervals. Now, I'm a little bit subjective on this topic, 'cause I lie in the bathtub thinking about the circle of fifths, but I honestly don't know how you go about talking about this stuff any more clearly than they did. I hope it was revealing to all, even though I know a couple of participants were a little baffled on the practical applications of all this jizz-jazz.
After the conference, I was able to nap briefly, then load up (more gear than I usually carry to three gigs), so as to go out to the 'burbs and host a jam session. And who should show up but my old buddy
Ted, the music theory junkie (who almost always shares something mind-blowing, or at least enlightening), telling me how the C major scale relates to the colour spectrum (direct correlation, as it would seem) and natural topography (same), and sending me off into fits of musicalism (if I may coin a term, for when you're thinking too much about the nuts and bolts of music, but in a good way).
Oh yeah. At the gig I tried out Boneshaker Pedals' Lyle Cline's micro-amplifier. Twenty (approx) watts in a micro-enclosure, I plugged it into my EHX Freedom Brothers speaker cabinet (amp guts not working, operating as a 2x5" speaker cab) and played about an hour's music through the wee beasty, whilst accompanying two guest guitarists running through a 1x12 combo tube combo, each. Lyle's little-weeny-tiny amp, with a bit of clean boost, delivered some pointy, mix-piercing tones that allowed me to hang with two other guitarists with authority and a little attitude (albeit with little low-end presence, tiny speakers and all). This one is going into the gig-bag to stay: minimal weight and size to have a gig-ready backup to my rig; if my amp has problems, I plug the midget into my combo-amp's speaker and this little guy will get me through the night. If I manage my hands right, nobody will be the wiser.
All in all, a tremendously musically rewarding day. Thanks to everyone (Huggybear!) that I didn't mention in this article. And check out www.safeamp.org/ .
- Pedal Time! 1967 Vox Tone Bender
guitarz.blogspot.com Another great vintage fuzz pedal (yes, I'm quite into pedals lately, and mostly in fuzz boxes), the Vox Tone Bender. Even more than in the field of early electric guitars, the dawn of effect pedal is both full of myths...
- Pedalboard Project
A man my age should have a proper pedalboard, thought I last week, mostly because I'm fed up loosing 20 minutes unpacking, plugging, unplugging and repacking my pedals each time I go to the studio to rehearse. Because I never have...
- Fuzz Pedals Demo - 16 Different Fuzz Pedals
I appreciate that this guy took the time to hook up all these relatively available Fuzz Pedals to let us hear them all side by side. He doesn't change any of the controls while playing so you have to imagine there is some flexibility in the...
- Solder Soldiers- Lyle Cline Of Boneshaker Pedals
Boneshaker micro-amplifier: 20 watts in a tiny enclosure. Recently, whilst trolling Craigslist for gear I can't afford and will never buy, I came across a posting which intrigued me: a local stomp-box builder selling a tremolo, a mini-pedal amp (20...
- Ephemera And Updates
Hey gang, I haven't forgot about you! I've just been extremely busy with both family and musical responsibilities. There are some cool posts coming up though: the Zinky Smoky Amp demo is almost ready; it's written and recorded...
Guitar
Space Camp plus!
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| Julian Marrs walks us through the Bazz Fuss circuit. (Do the math...) |
First the conference: I attended three sessions today, the first a DIY pedal workshop, the second a forum on rhythm concepts, and the third a "music theory for indie rockers, it's not uncool to know something about something" type of affair. All the topics were ambitious in scope (given the time available to explore such concepts), yet, through a certain amount of charm, guilelessness and pure love for music, all the sessions were rewarding, insightful and ultimately quite deep. It seemed to me that the musicians chosen responded to the good listeners in the room, just as they would on a gig. Really, it was probably one of the weirdest, yet most intimate gigs those folks ever played, without playing much at all.
The first session I attended was hosted by Julian Marrs of Marrs Pedals. Julian has an absolutely ridiculously flexible fuzz called FUZZ LIGHT YEAR, and an intense tremelo unit (with built in fuzz) called the MULTIVERSE that also has the option of the SATELLITE, a dedicated LED driven strobe that synchs with the Trem rate. Oh my dear...
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| Marrs Pedals' Multiverse: insanely tweakable trem+fuzz. |
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| Lyle Cline of Boneshaker Pedals was a workshop volunteer. |
Next up were two other members of the SSRIs. Jo Hirabayashi and Elliot Langford presided over a similarly introductory-yet-deep-as-cow-flap-in-alfalfa-season session about music theory. This is a tricky set of concepts to talk about in a mixed audience, but the two did an excellent job of explaining and illustrating the ideas of harmonics, scalar and chordal harmony and intervals. Now, I'm a little bit subjective on this topic, 'cause I lie in the bathtub thinking about the circle of fifths, but I honestly don't know how you go about talking about this stuff any more clearly than they did. I hope it was revealing to all, even though I know a couple of participants were a little baffled on the practical applications of all this jizz-jazz.
After the conference, I was able to nap briefly, then load up (more gear than I usually carry to three gigs), so as to go out to the 'burbs and host a jam session. And who should show up but my old buddy
Ted, the music theory junkie (who almost always shares something mind-blowing, or at least enlightening), telling me how the C major scale relates to the colour spectrum (direct correlation, as it would seem) and natural topography (same), and sending me off into fits of musicalism (if I may coin a term, for when you're thinking too much about the nuts and bolts of music, but in a good way).
Oh yeah. At the gig I tried out Boneshaker Pedals' Lyle Cline's micro-amplifier. Twenty (approx) watts in a micro-enclosure, I plugged it into my EHX Freedom Brothers speaker cabinet (amp guts not working, operating as a 2x5" speaker cab) and played about an hour's music through the wee beasty, whilst accompanying two guest guitarists running through a 1x12 combo tube combo, each. Lyle's little-weeny-tiny amp, with a bit of clean boost, delivered some pointy, mix-piercing tones that allowed me to hang with two other guitarists with authority and a little attitude (albeit with little low-end presence, tiny speakers and all). This one is going into the gig-bag to stay: minimal weight and size to have a gig-ready backup to my rig; if my amp has problems, I plug the midget into my combo-amp's speaker and this little guy will get me through the night. If I manage my hands right, nobody will be the wiser.
All in all, a tremendously musically rewarding day. Thanks to everyone (Huggybear!) that I didn't mention in this article. And check out www.safeamp.org/ .
- Pedal Time! 1967 Vox Tone Bender
guitarz.blogspot.com Another great vintage fuzz pedal (yes, I'm quite into pedals lately, and mostly in fuzz boxes), the Vox Tone Bender. Even more than in the field of early electric guitars, the dawn of effect pedal is both full of myths...
- Pedalboard Project
A man my age should have a proper pedalboard, thought I last week, mostly because I'm fed up loosing 20 minutes unpacking, plugging, unplugging and repacking my pedals each time I go to the studio to rehearse. Because I never have...
- Fuzz Pedals Demo - 16 Different Fuzz Pedals
I appreciate that this guy took the time to hook up all these relatively available Fuzz Pedals to let us hear them all side by side. He doesn't change any of the controls while playing so you have to imagine there is some flexibility in the...
- Solder Soldiers- Lyle Cline Of Boneshaker Pedals
Boneshaker micro-amplifier: 20 watts in a tiny enclosure. Recently, whilst trolling Craigslist for gear I can't afford and will never buy, I came across a posting which intrigued me: a local stomp-box builder selling a tremolo, a mini-pedal amp (20...
- Ephemera And Updates
Hey gang, I haven't forgot about you! I've just been extremely busy with both family and musical responsibilities. There are some cool posts coming up though: the Zinky Smoky Amp demo is almost ready; it's written and recorded...