Bixonic Expandora

This little box has so much inside it’s amazing. The pedal has two internal dip switches that allow you to have overdrive, distortion or in the off chance you need an obliterating fuzz a fuzz setting. The distortion and overdrive both have usable sounds in them. I find myself drawn to the distortion side with my rig to get the creamy, thick chunk sounds an amp that’s already cooking yields with a stomp like this. 

The fuzz, while insanely neat sounding is better suited for recording than live use b/c it’s so clipped there’s an analog type tone that’s very hard to control. Squelching is part of it when you dial the controls at this setting and you needn’t add much of anything b/c at near zero level the box has smashed your sound.

Speaking of controls, this has three knobs on the top:Gain, Tone, and Level. The gain adds the dirt; the tone brightens the overall sound; and the level dictates how much of an audible increase in sound you get when it’s engaged. 

The Expandora is built well and is a fun pedal to use. 

Out of the Loop Lately

It’s been hectic around here recently. We relocated to another state and despite all the packing/unpacking and travel I have been playing and making music. I’ve also found some new tools that work well for my music but haven’t had the time to articulate them.
Thanks for following the blog and be sure to check in later this week as I try to get some newer things posted. breathe, and play what you feel.

Christopher

Royal Overdrive Demo

Recording at Home

Recently, I began using an M-Audio Fast Track. This little box allows me to use both my condenser mic and an instrument D.I. via my USB hub on my laptop to record sound directly into Garageband. The box includes phantom power and has gain knobs for both inputs. There is also a stereo line out using RCA jacks which you can then feed into whatever monitor system you use. The interface is very easy to use after you’ve installed the drivers on your computer. I found that by selecting the guitar track in garageband and clicking to show the rear of the amplifier you’ve chosen one can then select the input for your guitar (M-box direct 2) and set the level accordingly. This interface allows you to use the built in amp simulator on Garageband ’11 and is a must for late night demos when you can’t crank an amp.
The mic input can be selected by choosing the track “live instrument” and this should use Mbox direct 1 as a default. Like any recording the sound you get initially, i.e. mic placement and overall sound is what you will have to work with when you mix. It is important to get a crisp level but not clip or your track will be rife with distortion. The mic pre does a good job of conveying the sound you put into it. I’ve had little trouble using it as I would my digital four track and find the flexibility GB has with  adding and deleting tracks a wonderful option when recording.
Another thing about Garageband’s practicality is the ability to use a keyboard via USB to play synth pads, leads, key parts,and any other MIDI type function. This alone make this program a great tool for the home recordist. I’m using a student level USB keyboard to trigger my parts and M-Audio also has several options that fit this option, too.
The M-Box line has several different interfaces but if you’re looking for a budget friendly small home studio solution or a portable live recording rig I highly recommend the Fast Track. It fits in my laptop bag and alongside a pair of headphones and mic I can get sounds wherever my imagination takes me.

ChickenFunk

Here’s a recording I did the other day with a former bandmate, Jonathon Moody,  who lives about 13 hours North of me via the ‘net. We both used Garageband to record our parts. I recorded the guitar using a condenser behind the cab and one off axis on the front of the cab for the right channel track. For the left channel track I moved the other condenser from behind to out front away from the cab to catch more of the shape of the wah.

They were then mixed down and rendered alongside the full mix and posted on Soundcloud. The main function of the tune was to showcase the Pro Tone Pedals Flying Eye Auto Wah and the cool tones you can dial up. Enjoy!

Pro Tone Pedals Flying Eye Auto Wah

Recently acquired this pedal and had to give it a whirl. Here’s the video documentation:

Flying Eye Auto Wah by Pro Tone Pedals

Gigworthy-Gear Other Pros use

I spent four years at Belmont University getting my degree in Commercial Music. This doesn’t mean I write jingles it means I have a diverse portfolio of styles and genres I can cover on a guitar in addition to reading music. While there I met lots of other cats and kittens like me- diehard guitar freaks who love to play, tweak their gear and have fun making music. I recently spoke to several of them that I’ve stayed in touch with thanks to social media about what they are carrying these days to their shows. Some of us have done national and international tours and others of us have done lots of local bars and clubs. Either way, we are professionals doing this to make ends meet or augmenting our day jobs which are usually music related. Here are a couple of responses from them, verbatim starting with Jen Allen. Jen’s a rocker with an honest love of all things I-IV-V. She stood out at school because she was one of the few female guitarists in our classes. Here’s her rig rundown:

“ I’ve been switching up amps but what I’ve used in the past are either a Vox AC30 or Fender Twin. Those are both H.E.A.V.Y. so I’m now looking into doing the Fender head and 2×12 cab thing.
The music I play when I’m doing a solo thing (w/backing band) is blues, classic rock, etc. which have a variety of sounds and tunings. B/coz of this I end up with a plethora of guitars. I hate tuning from the stage so I bring a couple of guitars that are tuned to open D and open G (blues for D; Rolling Stones for G). Usually I end up w/a PRS ’94 Custom 24, a Strat, Tele, Gretsch 6120, Gretsch Jet Firebird, and a Taylor 614.

If I’m doing someone else’s gig, I try to condense as much as possible – the PRS Custom 24 is a must and usually one of the Gretch’s.

For effects I go w/foot pedals. Like my guitars, I have kind of a plethora – again because of the varieties of music I play. I have 3 diff types of dist/overdrives (again, b/c I don’t want to adjust anything during the performance). Here’s a list of what I use:
Boss-TU tuner
Vox wah
Danelectro Dan-Echo
Boss DS-1 distortion
Boss BD-2 blues driver
Route 66 overdrive
Boss DD-7 digital delay
BBE Mind Bender vibrato/chorus
Boss TR-2 tremolo
Keeley compressor
Creation Audio Labs MK 4.23 clean boost
Ernie Ball Volume

That’s the line-up for the moment. Prob 1 or 2 of the distortions will get replaced here and there from time-to-time – I’ve also used a Nobles ODR-1 distortion and a Maxon OD808 overdrive (one of my faces).”

Jen’s in Nashville, TN so if you get a chance and are in the neighborhood check her out with her band. Thanks for the share, Jen.

Stephen Davis is another classmate who played on my senior recital and swapped technique opinions with me back in my old school. We both loved the shredders Vai, Satriani and Johnson although we both had a deep affection for jazz, too. Stephen has done it all- rock, blues, jazz, country you name it. He can be found at Rock Block guitars in Nashville hawking amps and guitars to the pros and joes. He’s also got a weekly gig at the Family Wash doing jazz standards. Check him out and his simple jazz rig:

“I normally take my archtop and a 64 vibrolux reverb.” He plans to let us know about some other things he’s been taking lately but duty called before he could fill us in. I’m looking forward to sharing that with you all.

I’ve also asked former bandmates what they are carrying out. My friend, Thom Walker is a bassist and North Texas grad who cut a record with me a few years back. He’s a fine player and a versatile musician. Here’s his rig as he describes it:

“ Depends on the gig. Orchestra gig I am carrying my double bass, stool, and bow. Blues gig will be my p bass. Jazz gig, depends on the style, Latin jazz my 6 string, contemporary jazz my 6 string. I typically carry one instrument. Amps are always the same, Walter Woods heads. The substitution comes with the cabs, either a single 15 or 4ohm 210. My bass and head fit in an irig bag on my back allowing me to carry my cab in one hand and coffee in the other hand.”

Another Belmont Alum, Graham Spice, is a musician who plays guitar, keys, trumpet and is on faculty at Washington and Lee here in VA. He told me the following regarding his live gear:

Here’s my guitar rig details:

I have 2 amps: one heavy and one light. The heavier one is a Mesa Boogie MkIIb from the early 80s that I bought in ’93 or ’94. It had been on tour with the guitarist of Ronnie Milsap’s group who had a number of matching Boogies. I have since done a ton of modding the values of various components with my buddy Paul Cochrane in Nashville who makes the famed Tim and Timmy pedals.

The lighter amp is a Goodsell Super 17 MkIII (http://www.superseventeen.com/). I first heard this amp at a summer NAMM show in Nashville years ago and was blown away by how full a sound achieved with such a light footprint. The 5 watt/17watt switch is really cool for playing quietly in the house, the verb and vibrato are deep and beautiful and the overal tone is very rich. I got a very nice cover for the Goodsell from Studio Slips (http://www.studioslips.com/)

I really like having an EL84-based amp to contrast the 6L6s in the Boogie. Before I purchased the Goodsell, I reviewed some other amps. Although I loved the tone of the ToneKing Imperial, I decided against it because I am able to get a good Fender-ish tone already with my Boogie and needed some contrast.

For guitars I have tried to collect one of each of the major solid body electrics: for a tele I have a Nash T-63, for the Les Paul style I have a Heritage H-150CM LTD, for the strat I have a cheap Yamaha Pacifica and I still have an old PRS CE24 from from ’86. For acoustics I have a Collings D1 and a Larivee D-03. The guitars are generally stock although I have changed the pickups and wiring in the Heritage H-150CM to match the Nash LP (http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/tonefreaks/132135-nash-les-paul-style-wiring-diagram.html#post3370107). Similarly, the PRS has a push-pull tone knob that splits the humbuckers. Someday soon I’d like to get Lollar pickups for the Yamaha strat.

I don’t use a pedalboard because I don’t use many pedals and don’t need to speed up that setup. My main distortion is a modded tubescreamer, a few wha pedals (need to get good one that works all the time like a Real McCoy), a cheap Arion stage tuner (wanting a ST-200 Turbo Tuner) and a Strymon El Capistan delay. Sometimes I add a Mutron Phasor or Boss Compressor/Sustainer for more sounds.

Other gear that I use frequently: Yamaha BB3000S bass, Walter Woods bass head, Leslie 122a, Fender Rhodes 73 Suitcase, Wurlitzer 200a, 70s Gretsch drumset, Bosphorus and Paiste cymbals, an old Musser xylophone, and tons of recording equipment. 

My job is teaching music technology at a university in southwest VA so I also have a lot of tech gear in that area. I love the iPad and Alesis iO Dock combination – I get a lot of mileage out of that. Other gear I use frequently includes PMC monitors, Mytek and Lynx converters, preamps from Pendulum, Universal Audio, Daking, Grace, Avedis and others, and of course a bunch of different mics. 

I have been playing a lot of keyboards lately in different groups. Here are some videos of various bands I’ve played with in the past few years along with some golden oldies. I’m on guitar, keyboards, and occasionally trumpet:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA5D955542AEC0FA8&feature=mh_lolz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kSaKo8wSmo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2bJH4iFaD0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzZF5SlOsXI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqwbYE8gv8g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBnpkSFUbys“

I appreciate each of my friends for their time and contribution to this post and the blog. Thanks very much.

We each have an individual character to our playing and our rigs. Having the ability to see and hear how other musicians get their sounds from the gear they use speaks to finding what works for you and earning your way with it. Stay posted as I look to share with you why certain guitars get the call for certain gigs and hopefully our guests will chime in with their rationale behind their guitar choices, too. Thanks for reading and play on.

Guitar, Cable, Amp

When it comes to pedalboards there are a multitude of options and sizes. Adding in the options for stomps-overdrive, distortion,fuzz, wah wah, chorus, delay, synth, octavia, boost, reverb, etc. and you’ve got a recipe for complication. Wiring noise, switching interactions and power source filtering can be a headache.
I find it important to occasionally remove everything from the signal chain to get back to how I started as a guitarist. Using just a cable, guitar and the amp I can capture the simplicity of getting good tone with my fingers and the combo. This is a great way to hear the character of whatever amp and guitar you use because you aren’t coloring the sound with FX pedals or signal degradation via cabling or extraneous power sources. Once you’ve found a tone you like with the simplified setup it’s easier to add in effects as you “need” for the music you play. I have also found that I can get a clearer idea of how each of my guitars interacts with the amp using this setup. Certain pickups will push the amp into overdrive faster and others may need a tweak of a knob here and there. Again, knowing this and finding the volume level that I can use audibly to do so makes the live playing situation where getting your sound and tone over much easier. Additionally, when you’ve added whatever boxes help you color your sound you’ve already dialed in your overall volume which makes set up and soundcheck go smoother resulting in less stress and more time to get the band sound clean for a set. Most jazz guitarists play this way anyway, but those of us who like to rock can learn a lot from this, too. Scotty Moore, Brian Setzer, Eric Clapton, Jimmie Vaughan and Albert King are all cable, amp, guitar guys for the most part. if it worked for them I’m sure we can find a way to make it work for us.

Paul Reed Smith CE22 Bolt On 1994

Why I love this combination explained in the video.

What’s in the Case?

As a guitar tech random instruments come across your bench. Today’s guitar was no exception. Mike, the gentleman from my earlier post -Why it’s just any old guitar- came by and brought in a huge ABS plastic molded case. It was very neck heavy from the looks of it and inside I soon found out why.

We unclasped the hinges and inside was a bubble wrapped guitar with a natural finish. The headstock read Peavey T15 Made in USA. Beside the guitar was an intact Peavey solid-state amp with the power cord neatly bundled around the four L hooks that were attached to the amp. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had heard about these but seeing them up close is something different.  The strings were corroded and the frets had a light coating of rust and funk.

The original P labeled volume and tone knobs were intact and the guitar featured two rail type pickups. I plugged it in on Mike’s request before restringing to see if the electronics were good. A quick strum and the guitar came to life with a bright punch. All three positions of the toggle were good and there was a little bit of scratch to the pots but not enough to warrant replacement.

I took photos of the guitar before I restrung it. The body is made of five pieces of wood glued together. The neck is built from two pieces glued lengthwise. It has a large volute behind the metal nut and a very thin narrow shape. The pickups had SUPER FERRITE written on them. The bridge is an interesting piece that combines the floating idea of a Fender with a top loader option or a string securing point behind the Gibson-esque tune-o-matic hybrid saddle. There really is no tremolo here but rather a carved out area where the bridge sits and is secured by a screw. This was the most perplexing part of the guitar because Mike had given it to me with the strings top loaded and the reference I found online in the original manual  and other pictures had them in the recessed slots. I told Mike I was going to use the recessed slots because the string angle through the top loader gave them a weird break over the bridge. He was cool and I continued the work.

I used a nail finishing type emery board to remove the funk from the top of the tall frets. I did this in lieu of 0000 steel wool because the fretboard had a gloss finish over maple and the steel wool would leave scratch marks if the neck wasn’t taped off. The frets looked a lot better after  polishing. Mike checked out the tuned up guitar and I mentioned the pickups were close to the strings causing a scratching sound when the string struck them while playing. after lowering them I plugged up the guitar to the internal amp.

I found it funny the owner’s manual recommended a player never turn the Pre Amp gain past 5 as it may compromise the internal speaker. The amp was a decent sounding solid state unit with a four inch speaker. The guitar sounded good through it and my mind wandered how many of my peers had these as starter guitars.

As an instrument this guitar is in great condition given it’s age. Being a student model guitar with the original packaging and amp all in good functioning shape  I think Mike got a deal for this piece of gear. Time will tell but there are few of these around with everything intact and original. What an interesting guitar.