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Lots of OMG shock horror on various guitar forums at the moment. Joe Satriani has apparently decided to dump his longstanding endorsement of Peavey amps and use Marshall JVM410’s on the upcoming tour of the new “Supergroup” Chickenfoot. Despite having the Peavey JSX signature series heads made to his exacting specifications, Satriani has decided to go for the new(ish) 4 channel head from marshall.

Now lots of people are pointing out quite correctly that Satch doesnt actually use the 2 distortion channels on his own amps & instead uses his own signature distortion pedal, made by Vox…. The Satchurator through his Peaveys clean channel and that its unlikely that there will be much difference in tone through the clean channel of a JVM.

Whatever the reason its good news for Marshall, who, thanks to the exchange rate and a much revamped product line, seem to be regaining ground lost in recent years. But all this news has done to my mind is point out the absolute nonsense surrounding Endorsement deals and the “signature” product industry as a whole.

Its quite common knowledge that a guitarist may be endorsing one brand of amplifier or guitar, while actually using another. The biggest culprits for this racket must surely be Laney & Crate, who whenever I see the artists in their adverts onstage its usually with another brand of amplifier. When Oceansize mentioned how good Laney were in a recent issue of Guitarist, it was embarrissing to see in the accompanying pictures of their backline a Marshall JCM2000 head perched atop a Laney 4 x12 in the background. Crate are also comical in the way most of their endorsers either endorse cabinets only and use another brand of amp ( Marcos Curiel from POD with a Mesa dual rectifier) or just practise amps (Lita Ford/Yngwie Malmsteen). In the early 90’s Bon Jovi’s Ritchie Sambora had a wall of Fender Tonemaster heads onstage and hidden behind them 5 rackmounted Marshall JCM800’s . Even Status Quo allegedly have Vox AC30 chassis built into Marshall JCM cabinets.

The biggest pisstakers in all this though are a tie between

1: Metallica – Kirk Hammetts new signature Randall Head isn’t all he uses, he still confesses to using Boogies live, with the bulk of his tone being created by Triaxis preamps and Dual Rectifiers again, and while James Hetfield talked to Guitarist mag about using a Diezel VH4 as the main amp in the woeful “St. Anger “sessions. His producer Bob Rock told Guitar world it was all done with a Marshall DSL100. Not that I imagine they’d be queuing up to admit to that one…..Ahem.

2: Eddie Van Halen – THe 5150 brand is now ubiquitous, with products made by Fender, Dunlop, Peavey, Musicman & Kramer. The big problem here is while Eddie is a legend, do you really want to buy equipment from a man who hasn’t written anything decent for 17+ years & made all his greatest work on a “parts” guitar costing $50 & an old Marshall plexi?

As with guitars it gets even weirder. Despite having longstanding endorsements with PRS & Gibson. The one guitar Rush’s Alex Lifeson has used as his main recording guitar for the last 2 decades is a decidedly non collectable 52 reissue telecaster. Lifeson bought it in 83 and its on pretty much every Rush record since then.

Obviously a musician has the right to use whatever he or she feels does the job best. But in this world of massive advertising campaigns and marketing hyperbole. It’d be nice to see some honesty rather than PR for a change.

Happy 2009, this is my first post for a while…..(7 months) and see’s my playing and indeed my interest in the guitar going through somewhat of a transitional period. Having stopped gigging and left the band I was in. The idea of playing music live in front of people seems strangely alien right now.

I guess this happens to everyone now and again, you suddenly find yourself at a musical crossroads, unsure what to do next (if anything at all?).

I’m old enough to have been here before though, this feeling last happened to me in 1997 when…through a combination of circumstances and personal choice the guitar just took a back seat for a while.

I’d come out of a hard gigging band several years earlier and moved down South to study. One would assume such a time would mean endless oppertunities for musical alchemy and a greater choice of both musicians and possibilities.

How wrong I was.

As the musical sands shifted I suddenly found no real demand for a player like myself.

My crunchy power chords, textural influences and preference for lush delay lines seemed rather lost in the late 90’s. The very few bands I auditioned for seemed either lost in a post Oasis/post Britpop confection or stuck in a “US underground punk” haze of low fi incompetence.

It seemed rather odd meeting blokes from Camden putting on Mancunian accents and playing along to simplistic sub Gallager/Weller songs
(ever notice that whenever Noel G is on the cover of an English guitar magazine, they have a beginners special article inside….I mean why not go the whole hog & publish a special “underclass lads” edition with all the architypal “ladrock” favourites, articles on ripping off the Beatles Slade & Weller, using simple chords, gigging with an ASBO, organising rehearsals around a curfew order, a guide to shoplifting the best Les Paul copy from Cash Converters and styling your hair like Rick “remember him?” Witter).

On the other hand the “American Underground Punk” influenced crowd I knew seemed all to incompetent for my tastes. Anti Corporate dandys bashing out 3 chords in £100 trainers made by children in the third world?….Nah…it wasn’t really me!

This lack of musical oppertunity kept me away from the guitar for several years. When I eventually returned to the six string, It took me about 3 years to properly re-immerse myself into the instrument. It wasn’t easy, but I think that when I did re-emerge, I was a better musician and more tasteful player than before.

But what goes around comes around, I’ve spent much of the last 5 years of my life in bands and although brimming with musical ideas, my motiviation to do something beyond playing for my own pleasure is simply not there at this moment in time. This is actually more liberating than it sounds, however my biggest fear is reaching a point where I’ve lost ground in both ability and musicality. No one likes to go backwards when they stand still do they?

In light of both wanting to do something different and realising at the same time that I lack motivation to do in the first place. I think its a good strategy to keep myself involved in a more relaxed way. So a small recording project of a friends has allowed me to keep playing and be reasonably creative without the pressures of gigging, audiences, soundchecks, promoters, other bands and all the other annoyances of being a performing musician.

The other issue of this downtime is taking a closer look at my rig. Which in terms of amps & pedals has been largely unchanged since 2002.

I bought a Gibson SG earlier in the year and I have fallen back in love with the thick syrupy sound of humbuckers on a mahogany set neck guitar. In my friends recording project I’m running out of a Sansamp pedal into a Mac, its simple, quick and sounds ok for now.

If I were to gig again I don’t know what I’d use. The amp & pedalboard stand idly in a corner of the room. There are things I’d refine and things I’d change, but thats a set of decisions to be made another time.

Well its that time again, the smell of the crowds and the roar of a Ginsters pasty on the Motorway services at 3am.

Our first stop was the Lionheart Brothers gig at the Nottingham Bodega Social in January. Overall it was ok, but it didnt help that we had to set up on top of their backline, so I spent 30 minutes with a Marshall stack up my arse. It so close to me that I could feel it rather than hear it.

Overall things went ok, but it was shaky. We ended the set with a new song, which I’m not against, but it did seem a bit risky. The Christmas break had meant we needed to polish up a bit but the audience seemed bigger at the end of the set than at the beginning so that was something.

Next stop was Hoxton Bar & Kitchen to support Nottingham legends Six.By Seven. Unfortunately my amp had recently been faulty & allthough repaired the previos day….. a problem with noisy FX loops appeared in Soundcheck and I was thus forced to use our HoS backup rig consisting of my Sansamp TriAC preamp pedal through our singers old 1978 Marshall JMP head. The Sansamp is great, but it is reactive to the peculiarities of the amp your putting it through. Distortion was Ok, but the clean sounds just seemd too toppy and lifeless. As we’d arrived horribly late due to traffic, our soundcheck was a panic and…

Deprived of my usual tonal comforts I just played the gig as best as I could, but it wasn’t enjoyable for me. The SixbySeven audience was polite enough, but you could tell we werent really their cup of tea. We also decided to play 2 new songs, which was a risk too far. They seemed to love the first song and the last 2, the bit in the middle??

Then our next stop 2 weeks later was the Bull & Gate in Londons Kentish town. This time we were opening for Brazillian shoegazers Wry, who decided to have the longest soundcheck in the history of man. We even went out for dinner & came back and they were only just setting up the other support bands backline. As I sipped my Guinness & black I began to worry.

However my fears were unfounded, the gig went great, we’d been sensible and pulled back to playing our normal set with added discipline and aplomb. The one new song we played went down great and I even enjoyed playing the one song in the set I dont usually enjoy.

Compared to 2007, my 2008 rig remains unchanged, save for the exra delay line, A TC Electronics ND-1 Novadelay is being used for synchronous delays in “Wish It Away” and to add exta atmospherics in our new tunes.

I still havent forgotten about the £500 Stratocaster challenge, I’ll post an update soon.

Peace Out

I saw him standing in a corner of St Pancras Station, Thick brown wavy hair, long black coat

The case looked like It may be an acoustic or maybe even a semi, like a 335, maybe an Archtop

So I asked him

He replied ” God-No” in a dour pretentious Schoolmasterly voice. His tone was dismissive.

Then it dawned on me

He played one of these

Now I love the tone of a good gut or Nylon strung Classical guitar. I fell in love with Balleto by Weiss at the age of 14 and wished I could play it. I even went for Classical guitar lessons for a bit as a 15 year old.

Thats where my problem started

My teacher was well meaning, but at 14 I could play quite a lot of stuff and rather than help me adapt and build the Classical discipline into what I already knew. My teacher insisted on brushing that aside and making me learn from scratch.

He’d taunt me and say “its not a Fender Stratocaster now” as if a strat was a garden spade and his midrange Spanish a paintbrush in comparison, as if he was the artist and I the DIY enthusuiast.

Eventually I lost interest, there seemed no point to learning to play Bah Bah Blacksheep when reading music, when I could work out a Yes track by ear?

Then later I met a guy who could play Classical Guitar, at Conservatory level, he’d studied under the masters and knew his stuff. He also ran a Classical guitar society to boot.

But he’d also auditioned for Iron Maiden and played Rock, his hero was Steve Howe from Yes and he had an unhealthy obsession with Fender Amplifiers designed by Paul Rivera.

I went to a recital by his Classical guitar ensemble and I quite enjoyed it. He had people of all different levels playing together and a few duo pieces.

But while I drank Chilean wine and M & S nibbles, I talked to some of the other players and noticed an interesting correlation in their attitudes.

Some of the weaker musicians were total snobs about the electric guitar, again they saw it as a terrible crude thing. The more advanced players seemed prejudiced free, maybe they didnt like it. But they didnt seem to see it as a lower art form.

I find this funny because at the moment the Electric guitar is undergoing a massive transformation. In the past you bought a cheap guitar and taught yourself, off records or CD’s and stuff you saw. Other guitarists, relatives, siblings and friends. The Electric Guitar was a folk artform, a beginner could get a reasonable sound and result out of it.

But soon that will pass. Personally I’m scared. There have always been guitar teachers and some of these guys are good. But now the Electric guitar is becoming institutionallised.

There are now music schools in both Britain and the United States, music grades and exams, you can learn songs and solos and be graded on your competency. The pretentious music snobs who rejected me have all gone out and bought a Yamaha Pacifica 112, to teach kids with and earn money. Its funny how money will malke some people lower themselves eh.

I wonder what these Royal College of music Examiners and Academics would make of true originals like Keef, Kevin Shields, John Martyn, Will Reid, Polly Harvey etc etc. What would they make of originators of the form, Robert Johnson, Wes Montgomery, Albert Collins.

In a way its a scary thought, does an artform die as soon as you institutionallise it?

You could look at 20th Century art and a school of tradition. But to me I prefer Art made by the likes of the French Postman Ferdinand Cheval, an ordinary man, who at the age of 43 created the palace of his childhood dreams using stones he found on his daily route and discarded objects. To me he made this beautiful artwork out of some divine inner need to create. Not because he thought it was a good career or maybe a right wing advertising executive with a perchant for busty Jewish Princesses wanted to buy it.

Beautiful isnt it.

So long live Rock and Roll and the poor disenfranchised kid sitting alone in his bedroom on a borrowed unplayable guitar witha high action, making mistakes & trying to figure it out and discovering him or herself in the process. If one day that kids replaced by a calculating, careerist fame academy wannabee who cares only about their “grades” then humanity is fucked as far as I’m concerned and we will go to hell in a handcart.

After having had My Gibson Les Paul set up at Chandlers and consiquently falling back in love with it, I’ve decided not to sell it. I did actually tried gigging it on Saturday night in Blackpool and I’ve come to the conclusion that while its a fine guitar, it does not cut through the mix as well as my Telecaster and is therefore no use as a gigging axe in my current band.

So needing a good backup guitar soonish. I’ve decided my next guitar will likely be a Stratocaster or good variant, however I want one with certain specifications. My ideal Strat if I had the cash to splash at the Fender Custom Shop would feature.

A 22 Fret neck, ideally with Jumbo Fretwire (string bends are easier and it feels more expressive)

Either a humbucker in the Bridge Pickup, or an active boost of some kind, maybe those nice SCN pickups and S-1 switching of the American Deluxe Strats.

A modern Radius (ie:flatter) fingerboard profile on a traditional late 50’s, soft ‘V’ neck profile.

Locking machine heads and a modern Trem

It would be black with a black scratchplate and look all mean

A vintage tinted neck with a Brazilian Pau Ferro fingerboard (ok I’m getting really silly here)

However I don’t have £3000.00 to spend! The most I’m gonna spend on said instrument is likely to be around £500….. ish , so in order to get maximum bang per buck, I’m going for either the secondhand market or the grey import one.

So far I’ve narrowed it down to the following instruments

1: Fender J-Craft Clapton. The japanese version of Erics signature strat has a V neck, active preamp and Lace Sensors which IMHO piss all over the current Clapton models choice of Fenders own “Noiseless” single coils.

Basically its a japanese built mark 1 Clapton Strat. Now these are so cheap I can get a new one for £500. Its got the active boost to give me fat humbucker type tones and a V neck. Would change that shitty 1 ply scratchplate though.

2: Levinson Blade RH2/RH4. A japanese built classic from the late 80’s. Blades are very popular with session musicians and working pro guitarists alike, they don’t have many rockstar endorsees but chances are, if your in the pit band in Miss Saigon, you own one of these.

Featuring a 22 fret neck, Jumbo frets, a fabulous build and Blades own VSC active electronics. The Blade is the dark horse here. The biggest drawback is their residual value. The prices seem all over the place used. A quick scan of Ebay shows used prices from £500-900 depending on condition. Thats a lot of variation for a rather unfashionable guitar. But its a lot of guitar for the money.

Downsides? I’ve heard that the pickups are a bit clinical sounding and seen quite a few guitars retrofitted with EMG’s. Lookswise its a bit dated now. But its features in this price range make it a serious contender.

3: Used American Deluxe Strat. The V neck version is probably my ideal guitar but think some of the the colour schemes are rank. That gold adonised scratchplate looks nice in the dealership, but wil look like shit after 3 months of gigging.

Plus factors? Loved the SCN pickups and S-1 switching, the soft V neck was ace on the guitar I tried last year. However most guitars on the used market will have a modern C profile neck, which feels too small for my big hands. The credit crunch in Britain means I am seeing quite a few of these in the classifieds going for reasonable prices as Barry defaults on his mortgage payments and under pressure from the wife decides to use his Squier silver series instead.

Downsides? The earlier American Deluxe Strats feature the same Fender “Noiseless” pickups as the later Clapton Strats, these are best described as tight sounding and scratchy and are to be avoided, unless you factor a complete pickup retrofit into your budget, and that would be at least another £150. EEEEK!

And finally

4: Fender Lone Star/Texas Fat Strat. A late 90’s classic variation on a theme. Its also the devil I know as a mate of mine owns one of these and they are amazing tonally. The Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates HB + 2 Texas Special single coils give incredible versatility. It literally can do anything tonally, one of the few guitars made with hot pickups, where an element of thought has gone into how the pickups interact with each other.

Downsides? As with the American Deluxe, I’m not a fan of Fenders modern C shape Profile. Also the body carve looks a bit boxy and square on the examples I’ve tried. Also its getting on for a 10 year old guitar, so finding a clean one may be difficult.

I’ll update this blog as I try these beauties out and give my conclusions here.

Adios!