I wanna rock!: 08/01/2004

Classic Blues Tabs by title

Guitar Hero Series (1)

Here I will randomly insert people that are my guitar heroes. Perhaps I will go into detail about why, or perhaps I won't.

The introductory edition of my Guitar Hero series features Todd Park Mohr of Big Head Todd and the Monsters.

Todd Park Mohr - Guitar Hero
I am fresh from seeing BHTM tonight, and every time I do I marvel at the mans' guitar mojo. He wails, he has rock and roll style, a HUGE voice, and is able to carry the load in a 3 piece band.

I take back what I said about Gibson Strings!

Since I screwed up that last set of Gibson strings that I had with a fairly newbie stringing error . . . I decided to give them another shot. I read a post somewhere that someone thought highly of these Gibson Vintage Reissue strings so I bought some. I was pleasantly surprised to find that both the B and high E strings had 2 each in the package. WOW. That seems like a good thing!

I like the way they sound too.

Incidentally if you would like to avoid the silly problem I had with the earlier stringing you can follow these "idiots guide" instructions The important part is on the second page where he writes "Take care when winding the string around the tuning posts. Ensure you have no overlap and that you have enough wraps to prevent any string slippage. Either case could result in tuning problems. The thicker strings, the 4th, 5th, and 6th strings, should have 2 to 4 wraps around the tuning posts. See below left. Thinner strings, such as the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st strings, should have 4 or more wraps. The picture, below right, shows what I mean."

More Blues learnings

I got an Amazon gift certificate as recognition for doing a good job at work and spent it on Blues books. I am having fun learning new stuff.

I am working on mastering the E Blues Scale, and some fun blues licks based on it. The E Blues scale goes like this:

0 3
0 3
0 2 3
0 2
0 1 2
0 3

I had tickets to see Buddy Guy and Robert Cray at the Oregon Zoo last weekend, but sadly my daughter was sick with a cold so we decided not to go. In anticipation of seeing Buddy Guy I had been listening to a Buddy Guy album with Junior Wells live. Now I am listening to Lightnin' Hopkins and Howlin' Wolf repeatedly.

But don't worry, I am not really blue.

My current studio setup

My studio got an upgrade. I am especially proud of the $15 ricketty vintage wooden folding chair. I love it. Everyone else thinks it is funny. I finally gave up on standing and rocking, I actually play better when sitting, and it is easier to deal with all the other stuff while sitting as well. I need a music stand now, I was looking at some at Trade-Up music and was surprised to find that they were actually quite expensive. About 40 bones for one of those black institutional jobbies from music class.

Midnight Jamming

Tonight I ran the tape on a typical jam of a couple easy songs. Rock and Roll (one of my favorite Velvet Underground tunes!!) and All Along the Watchtower. Drum machine pounding out it's best computer generated rock and roll rhythm. This is nothing really very new, except I mixed it down to my computer and the tracks now reside in iTunes where they will be unceremoniously synched to my iPod tomorrow morning.

I am amazed (even with all my nerdiness) that I made some music that isn't horrible to listen to, and I can carry it around with me, email it to people, post it on a web site, burn it to CD, hell I could even call it an album and sell it or something (assuming I take care of the royalty payments and all that jazz - thanks Ed, remind me to post that link here).

No plans to record an album anytime soon, but I feel much better about recording stuff, and will hopefully get the mic thing worked out and then I will be all set.

Note to self: Post the status of the TUBEPre pre-amp soon.

Harper Ben Burn One Down guitar chord

Harper Ben Burn One Down guitar chord
This site has evil pop-ups, but this is the best tab for this spleef-centric Ben Harper song that I love.

Indigo Girls Guitar Chords

Indigo Girls Guitar Chords
I thought I posted this a while ago, but apparently I did not. Great Indigo Girls Tab site that has a capo guide.

Tracy Chapman - Baby canI hold you tab

baby_can_i_hold_you.pro
THis is a song my friend Nick was playing on Sunday. I like it and want to learn it.

Another killer Boss tab site: Springsteen Chords

Springsteen Chords
This one has all songs by album. The previous one that I linked was good, but was missing a bunch of the songs that I wanted to learn.

PreSonus TUBEPre Microphone Preamp

PreSonus TUBEPre Microphone Preamp
I got one of these instead of the ART box. I will plug it on a give it a go tonight!

The Reivers

The Reivers.net
This is a site about a band that I knew in Austin, TX when I lived there in 1986-1987. They were around in some form or another from 1984 - 1991 when they broke up for a number of reasons (name controversy, record company issues).

I had the pleasure to see these guys bunches of times, and own all of their released albums.

There are Tabs for their songs here.

Bruce Springsteen News: brucespringsteen.net

Bruce Springsteen News: brucespringsteen.net
More reasons to love the Boss. Politics and music? Of course!
Bruce is playing in "Vote for a Change" concert series. This particular page has the complete transcript of a speech that Al Gore gave at NYU on May 26th. If this doesn't get you pissed about our current administration and out to vote I don't know what will.

The Tascam 424MKII feelings

I like it, and it works for me. Primarily I use these things for recording myself, and playing it back so that I can get better. I must admit that a couple nights ago I recorded myself playing Bob Marley's Redemption song with my drum machine playing a silly reggae rhythm, and tonight I was scanning the tape and it kind of freaked me out because at first blush it sounded nice. Shocking.

Anyway, the only issue with this slightly older device is that it doesn't have Phantom Power for my mic. Therefore I need to buy a pre-amp that has P-Power like this ART Tube MP Professional Mic preamp/Processor (484020). THis particular one is $50.00.

My current Springsteen fetish began here: TASCAM Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska - A PortaStudio, two SM57's, and Inspiration. A fantastic story about the recording of Nebraska. I have always been fond of the Boss, and sometime in highschool (pre Born in the USA) I desperately wanted the Bruce box set and my parents delivered (on vinyl!!). I wonder where that is today?

LuckyTown -- Springsteen Chord/Tab File Archive

LuckyTown -- Springsteen Chord/Tab File Archive
Happy Days. All the boss sogs I ever need to know. . . well it looks like ALL THE BOSS' SONGS. Period.

SWEEET!

The Tascam Portastudio 424mkII

My Friend Chuck has one of these (in fact this is a picture of his) and hasn't used it. I have been recording stuff on my computer, but it turns out that there are a lot of hassles related to computer recording that I am not wanting to @&$% with. With a tape based system you rewind, level and record. There are a lot of things that are more difficult to do on tape, but I essentially fire up a drum track on the trusty SR-1 and play guitar over it, play it back and redo, or play another track. This system will satisfy all of those needs without worrying about drivers and hard disk space etc. it will be pretty easy to transfer a completed track over to the computer for goold old fashioned MP3 pleasure.

Chuck's Tascam Portastudio 424mkII

I was just about to pack it up for the night (me, not the Portastudio) when the call of gadgetry pulled me in. I quickly plugged it in, shoved the 1/4" cable from my guitar into the input marked 1 and drum machine into 3 (don't ask, it is some weird sort of superstition I picked up long ago), started the blues program on the drum machine, played with the many knobs and faders and tada . . . I was playing the 12-bar blues in the key of E. This thing has a cool orange LED that looks kick ass in a dimly lit room. Now all I need are some casettes. Anyone remember those?

Cool LEDs

Side note on the "Portastudio": This thing is big. Not sure what they were comparing it to, but I can think of a lot of portable things that aren't even close to this big. I don't plan to take it anywhere though so who cares.

Jam II: The sequel

We hosted our second jam today, and fun was had by all. The band this time was Chris, Bryce, Ed, Landon and Chuck. Most notable in this jam was the much louder volume. Everyone was plugged in this time, which caused a greater degree of racket . . . lovely guitar/bass/fiddle racket.

The Photo Evidence: