Mt. Desolation Album Review

Howdy!

w00t! A new super group! An alternative-country Super Group! Made up from guy from The Killers! And the guys from Keane!

Huh?

That is how my mind works, I suppose, and I am dubious of super-groups in general. But when I heard the genre and the band’s line-up, I had to go for it and download a copy of Mt. Desolation’s eponymous debut album that was released last week.

First off, the band was started as a side project by Tim Rice-Oxley and Jesse Quin from Keane, who are the front men and get writing credit. Other members include The Killer's Ronnie Vannucci on drums, as well as folks from Noah & The Whale, The Long Winters, The Staves, and Mumford & Sons.

After seeing this written out, this project seems like a horrible idea. But Mt. Desolation turns out to be a pretty good album, probably because they did not try to produce a countrified Keane record. It is not high art or ground-breaking new sounds, but it is an entertaining pseudo-country album.

The songs are well-written, and the album was produced well. There is a great mix of instruments on Mt. Desolation, including some nice banjo work. And Jessica Staveley-Taylor’s backing vocals sound great with Rice-Oxley and Quin.

Some of my favorite tracks from the album are:

”Departure” is a quick, upbeat tune with some piano, but more of a honky tonk sound than what you are used to hearing from these guys. A nice bit of warbling, and a solid chorus too. For a little more of the saloon sound, check out “Platform 7”.

”State of Our Affairs” is more indie than country, but it is a great song, and a haunting piece of work.

”The ‘Midnight Ghost’” comes off kind of like an old spiritual tune, with the bonus of some nice slide guitar parts.

After listening to the whole album a few time, one of my only complaint is that the lyrics are a bit cliché-ridden. Then again, it is kind of country music, so that can be expected.

I am not brave enough to tell you to go out and buy the whole record, but check out the Mt. Desolation previews on iTunes. You might find a song or two that you like.

Mahalo!

Peavey Custom Shop J-84 John Taylor Liberator Bass

Hi there!

Today we are looking at a pretty rare bass. It is a Peavey J-84 Liberator bass, made by the Peavey Custom shop, and endorsed by John Taylor of Duran Duran.

This bass was designed and built to John’s specifications, with custom black hardware and Juicy Couture graphics. It is a 34” scale bass with 21 frets on its bolt-on neck. It has an ebony fretboard. The electronics are Peavey custom shop active electronic humbuckers. First-class stuff all the way.

John Taylor and Juicy Couture (which his wife owns, IIRC) also came up with a great case and accessory package to go with this bass. The custom case has a bass hanger and an integrated amplifier/tuner unit. There is also a custom strap, and a canvas goodie bag with a custom cord and a pick.

And, of course, there is a certificate of authenticity signed by John Taylor, stating that this is number 29 of only 100 that will ever be built. So, with Duran Duran’s worldwide popularity, these were instantly collectible, which also made it an unwise business decision to actually play the thing.

The only bad thing about these basses was that you could only buy them through Neiman Marcus. For a company that charges a premium for what is supposedly the best service around, they really dropped the ball on this one. The sales representatives knew nothing about these if you called up to ask them questions. Then the nightmare of constantly changing delivery dates began. Eventually it did show up, though.

I paid $1400 for it back in 2006, and flipped it about a year later for a premium. You know how I am…

Mahalo!

Fender Champion 600 Amplifier

Hi there!

Today we are looking at a super-fun Fender Champion 600 guitar amplifier. This is a re-issue of the original amplifiers that were built between 1949 and 1953.

This is a pretty faithful reproduction of the original, although Fender said they have added a higher-gain pre-amp circuit to get more overdrive. I have never seen (let alone played) an original, so I will have to go along with them on this one.

The Champion 600 is a neat amplifier, and very light weight. It weighs in at around 15 pounds, and measures about 12 inches wide by 11 inches high by 8 inches deep. The 50s groove is going ON with the two-tone Tolex.

The electronics are 1950s simple too. This is an all-tube amp, with a 12AX7 pre-amp tube and a 6V6 output tube. The output is pretty low, putting out 5 watts at 4 ohms through the built-in 6-inch speaker. You can hook up a larger external speaker, should you wish.

The controls are dead simple: 2 inputs (high and low gain), and a volume control. That is it -- you will have to do all of your EQ with the guitar or your pedal board.

It is a simple machine, and there is no much more to describe, other than the tone. This amp sounds great! It does not hiss or hum excessively, and it puts out enough volume for home practice or recording. It overdrives fairly quickly, which is great if you want some old-style blues or rock and roll at reasonable volume levels.

Looking this one over, I would have to say the craftsmanship is pretty good. The Tolex is even, and the electronics are tidy. And, yes, these are built in China, so they do not have any “Fullerton” magic, but that does make them more affordable.

Of course, it does not hurt that the Champion 600 is very affordable. The list price on these is $199.99 with a street price of $149.99. And, it looks like you can find used ones for about $100 on Craigslist.

Mahalo!

American Poet: Luther Campbell

Howdy!

What ever happened to Luther Campbell? I pondered this the other day after one of his songs popped up on my iPod when I had it in shuffle mode, so I had to look into this further.

Do you remember him? You probably know him best as the filthy-mouthed misogynistic leader of the Miami Bass rap group 2 Live Crew. He was a genius that could weave profanity into the most shocking lyrics in the history of mankind.

In the early 1980s, Luther started out as a concert promoter and record label owner of Luke Records (shortened from Luke Skyywalker Records, after he got sued by George Lucas). He brought 2 Live Crew to Miami in 1985 to give them a record deal, and then ended up joining them as their frontman.

He began to put out solo albums of his own, and eventually split from 2 Live Crew in the early 1990s to start The New 2 Live Crew. Clever name, no? Luke records eventually went bankrupt in the mid 1990s. Since then, the original 2 Live Crew has been re-united and has continued to record and perform without Mr. Campbell. He also has periodically put out his own solo albums, the latest being released in 2006.

Luke even had his own reality TV show, Luke’s Parental Advisory that ran for 8 episodes on VH1 back in 2008.

Mr. Campbell is also a patron of the sports, in particular the University of Miami Hurricanes football team. The Miami Herald reported that he offered "bounties" to Miami players for scoring touchdowns, intercepting passes, sacking quarterbacks, and injuring opposing players. To further support of the team, he threatened to go public with various violations by the University of Miami's football program, unless Ryan Collins (an African-American player) became the starting quarterback for the season. What a great guy! He is currently the host of a Saturday sports talk show on Miami's 790 The Ticket.

Most recently Luther Campbell has been involved in the adult film industry. He has championed the cause of trying to clean up the "sometimes amateurish new courtship of Hip-Hop and Adult Entertainment". Thank goodness someone is out there doing good works.

To tie a bow on this blog post, I must say that Mr. Campbell’s life is going on just about as I expected. No surprises here.

Mahalo!

MusicMan Luke Guitar

Hi there!

Today we are looking at a very nice Ernie Ball MusicMan Luke guitar, finished in glossy black. Deadly serious color, it is. This is, of course, the signature guitar of Steve Lukather.

Steve Lukather is more than just the guy from Toto (which should be enough for anybody). He is THE go-to guy in the music industry, and has been involved, in some capacity, in the creation of over 1000 albums.

Anyway, this is the guitar that the MusicMan company builds to his specifications. Key to its sound is the venerable HSS pickup configuration, with active EMG pickups and electronics. That would be an 85 at the bridge and SLV single coils for the center and neck positions.

The alder body has a very pleasant shape, and this is really a sharp-looking guitar. The neck joint is sculpted to allow access to the upper frets.

The MusicMan floating tremolo works well and stays in tune. The Schaller locking tuners are a nice (and high-quality) touch which make string changes a breeze.

The neck is true and the truss rod works fine. There is a bit of birdseye to the neck. You do not see that very much anymore

This Luke weighs in at 7 pounds, 14 ounces, which is not too heavy.

This guitar is all original, and has not been modified or repaired. I am the original owner, having bought it earlier this year from Guitar Center (where it sat around forever, apparently).

This guitar is in excellent overall condition with only minor play wear, and no major dents or dings that I can find. There is almost no wear to the low-profile wide frets. It plays like a dream and sounds killer, especially in the bridge humbucker position.

These are built to the highest standards in San Luis Obispo California, and are not terribly cheap. A new Luke has an MSRP of $2250 and a street price of $1575. Why don’t you head out today and pick one up?
Mahalo!

2010 House Party

Howdy!

I have not posted to the blog for the past week, as it has been pretty busy around here with work and preparations for the annual house party. Fortunately, on Sunday the house party came off without a hitch.

We’ve had an annual end-of-summer house party for a few years now (although lately it has been bi-annual), as an opportunity to get our friends together and have a good time. We do not have many parties during the year, so these are usually a pretty big deal.

A handy by-product of the party is that house projects that have been suspiciously delayed miraculously become priorities when we realize there are a bunch of people coming over.

And this is a great bunch of people. They are folks I work with, as well as parents of children from my kid’s school and my neighbors. Hell, throw in a few old high school friends for good measure, even.

This year we were more prepared than ever, but of course the morning of the party was the typical progression of last-minute crises. Not the least of which was a light rain that started on Sunday morning. Not a good sign when 100 people have RSVP’s and there is not a lot of indoor space. The rain did stop, and held off until after the event was over.

Brats, burgers, hot dogs and veggie burgers were on the menu, and there was plenty of beer and adult beverages on hand. Our guests brought all kinds of cool side dishes, as well as other miscellaneous drink products.

A lot of folks brought their kids, and some ran amok in the front yard, while others did crafts inside. Amazingly, I did not see a lot of crying (for which I am eternally grateful).

The high point for me was the band that played. My friend Eric is in Stimulus Package, and they agreed to come out and show us a good time. I figured they would play for an hour, but they ended up doing two sets and playing for almost three hours. There is no substitute for live music, for sure. I barely even scratched the surface of the DJ mix I had put together for the party. BTW, also high on the amazement list was that there were no complaints from the neighbors and the police did not show up.

If I left anybody off the invite list, I apologize. It is hard to keep everything straight when planning something like this. And lastly, big thank to my wife, who did a great job of keeping all of this together, and making the event a success.

Mahalo!

Tech 21 VT Bass Pedal Review

Aloha!

I have yet to own an Ampeg SVT amplifier, although they have been widely used in the industry forever. They are the definition of bass tube amp sound, and I have seen them on stages everywhere. But, they are ungodly heavy, and cost quite a bit of coin.

Enter the Tech 21 VT Bass pedal. This thing aims to provide all of the rich tube-ish goodness, in a small and affordable package. And it does this pretty well.

Tech 21 has been around since 1989, and gained fame with the original SansAmp. They have since branched out into effects and amplifiers as well. This pedal is part of their Character Series, which emulate different amplifier sounds. I do not know about all of their products, but the VT Bass pedal I got was labelled that it was made in the US.

The VT Bass is a medium-sized pedal that measures about 3.5 inches wide, by 4.5 inches long and 2 inches tall. It does not take up too much space on my pedal board. I peeled the little rubber feet off the case so I could add velcro to the bottom. It takes a 9-volt battery, or you can plug in a standard power source.

I had better get it out of the way, and start with my 2 biggest dislikes of the pedal. 1. It looks hokey: a picture of grill cloth and tolex is not going to make this thing sound any more like an Ampeg. 2. This thing is made of sort sort of really light metal, and it just feels cheap.

For this test, I used a very good passive Fender 57 re-issue Precision Bass strung with D’Addario Chromes (volume and tone pots dimed). I also used a 2-band active Musicman Stingray 4H (all controls set at 1/2).

For amplification I used my Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0 through a Genz Benz Uber Bass 410 cabinet. I changed my usual amp settings ti include less gain (9 o’clock, or so) into the tube pre-amp and not much boost to the low frequencies.

I plugged the pedal both directly into the input jack, as well as through the amplifier's effects loop.

The VT Bass has 1/4-inch input and output jacks. I was a little surprised to find that there is no XLR output. Not that I ever use one, but they seem to be on most of their other SanasAmp products.

The controls are not too weird: an ON/OFF footswitch, LEVEL, LOW, MID, HIGH, DRIVE and CHARACTER. Ahhh, CHARACTER.

And CHARACTER is where the magic happens on this pedal. This thing lives up to the hype. As you turn the CHARACTER knob up, the sound progresses from classic SVT to heavy tube to nasty/crunchy distorted sounds. This pedal is a rocking dream.

I never found the need to dial in much DRIVE. I mostly left this knob adjusted between 3 and 6 o'clock.

And I left the LOW, MID and HIGH equalizer knobs mostly around 6 o'clock. The pedal is pretty easy to set up the way you like it. I mostly left it alone once I got the tone I wanted.

The VT Bass does not add any hiss or offensive noise to my signal chain, and the switch does not pop when the effect is turned ON or OFF. I do not know if it has "true bypass", but I suspect it does not.

Here are some final details:

The VT Bass comes in a nice metal tin along with the paperwork and instructions. I will probably give the box to my kid to put his stuff in. How much crap do I need?

Tech 21 pedals come with a 1-year limited warranty. I wold like to see a bit more of a warranty. It cannot cost them very much to build these things, and better warranty would provide more peace of mind.

The list price of the Tech 21 VT Bass is $199, with a street price of $149. It certainly is cheaper and lighter than an Ampeg SVT.