3rd Quarter of 2013 Inventory Update

Hi there!

Time is flying by, so it is time to give an update of what is hanging around the studio these days. As always there have been a lot of changes, and there are still a few things that need to move along to someone else, so if you see anything here that you cannot live without, drop me a line. It is all good stuff…

First off, the basses (only four!):

∙ Fender JV Serial 1957 Precision Bass re-issue, and American Vintage ‘62 Jazz Bass re-issue

∙ Sadowsky Metro UV70 and NYC Ultra Vintage P Bass – an old friend that has come back to me

Electric Guitars:

∙ MIJ Fender 1962 re-issue Stratocaster

∙ Gibson Explorer – currently apart for a project. You will be thrilled!

Acoustic Guitars

∙ Martin D-18 Golden Era, Little Martin and Backpacker steel string

∙ Takamine E34S1C (the Springsteen/Bon Jovi model)

∙ Seagull Coastline S12 12-string

∙ Kala solid mahogany soprano and tenor ukuleles (both out on loan to friends)

Amplifiers:

∙ Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0 12-T with extension cabinet

∙ Ampeg SVT Classic with an Ampeg 810 Classic Cabinet

∙ Ampeg V4B

∙ Fender Twin Reverb

∙ Fender Blues Junior III

∙ Fender Acoustasonic 30 DSP

Check in again on October 1 to see what has made the cut. I am motivated to make some room, so you know it will be different!

Mahalo!

Ricky Nye and the Paris Blues Band Jump Steady CD Review

Good day!

This CD review was originally published in the December 27, 2012 edition of Blues Blast Magazine. Be sure to check out the rest of the magazine at thebluesblast.com

When Ricky Nye and the Paris Blues Band’s latest CD arrived, I noticed that it was recorded in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I was reminded of all of the great bands that have come out of that city. In fact, one of my favorite bands from the 1980s, The Raisins, is from there, and it turns out that Ricky Nye is actually Rick Neiheisel, their keyboardist. What a small world!

Whatever name he goes by, Ricky is a fabulous keyboard player and singer, having done quite a bit of work over the years with various artists and leading his own bands, including Ricky Nye and the Red Hots, and Ricky Nye Inc. Ricky Nye & the Paris Blues Band is his latest group, and Jump Steady is their third studio release. Collaborating with Mr. Nye on this album are three Frenchmen: Anthony Stelmaszack on guitars, Thibaut Chopin on upright bass and harmonica, and Simon "Shuffle" Boyer on drums; they have been working with Ricky for over five years. Special guest Brian "Boss" Hogg from Kentucky also joins in on the saxophone.

Nye self-produced Jump Steady, which was recorded in just two sessions; Bill Gwynne engineered the album and it was mixed by Ashley Shepherd. It has twelve short tracks (all of them under four minutes each), and they can be lumped into a two different categories: classic boogie woogie and more straight-up piano driven blues. This should not be a shock to anyone, as the group’s name does say that this is a blues band…

Ricky chose some heavy-hitting cover tunes and also wrote four of the songs on this album, including the opener, “Rockin’ Roller Coaster.” This song sets the tone for the rest of the CD, letting the listener know that they are in for a good time. Ricky hammers out a piano line that is lively but technically better than anything you will hear in a bar room. Hogg’s saxophone is a nice counterpoint to the whole Jerry Lee Lewis vibe, and at a mere 2 ½ minutes in length this one made me sorry it ended so soon.

Big Boy Crudup’s “Mean Ol’ Frisco” is next up, and you are probably familiar with the cover version that was done by Eric Clapton. Nye and the guys sped this tune up quite a bit and did an admirable job, despite the big shoes they had to fill. Then the tempo throttles back for the straight-up blues of “But I Forgive You,” which is a true song of love and forgiveness, considering all the terrible things the subject of this song is accused of doing.

“New Orleans Murder” does indeed have a Crescent City feel, with a funereal pace and a spooky sounding tape delay guitar sound. Stelmaszack does a very smooth and tasteful job on the guitars, and this original tune is a real winner. Another Ricky Nye original, “I Ain’t Crazy” follows this one up, and we are treated to some lovely syncopated piano work with a little harmonica flavor on top. This two-minute instrumental is really neat, and I will surely be using it to set the mood for one of my upcoming parties.

Nye and the boys then proceed to lay down some rocking boogie woogie for the next four tracks. Bassist Thibaut Chopin brings some neat harmonica parts to the Delmore Brothers’ “Pan American Boogie” and Nye gets a workout for both hands in Pinetop Smith’s instrumental “Jump Steady Blues.”

“Buggy Ride” is the last Ricky Nye original (and another instrumental), and it truly sounds like it is from another age. As with the rest of the album, Shuffle Boyer does a rock steady job on the drums for this track. We also get a great version of Big Joe Turner’s “Boogie Woogie Country Girl,” and I am glad that Nye did not feel compelled to copy the original version of this song (or any of the covers), but rather played it in his own style.

To finish up the CD, the band serves up three classic blues songs: Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Eyesight to the Blind,” the classic (and very dirty) “Honey Dripper Blues,” and Mississippi Sheiks’ “Sittin’ On Top of the World.” And these wisely chosen covers cement the fate of Jump Steady – this is a fabulous album! Ricky Nye put together a collection of twelve unique songs, and each one is short enough to leave the listener wanting more. I highly recommend that you check it out when you get a chance!

Mahalo!

2012 Martin D-18 Golden Era Acoustic Guitar Review

Aloha!

Today we are looking at a guitar that I really need to try to hold onto, a 2012 Martin D-18 Golden Era acoustic. This could possibly be the best acoustic guitar I have ever owned, right up there with my old Santa Cruz Guitar Company Model D. This a beautiful dreadnought that any guitarist would give their left nut to have.

The D-18 guitars have been popular models in the Martin line-up since they were introduced in 1934. These guitars hit the market at exactly the right time, and its playability, full range and sweet tone were just what the performers of the day were looking for. As time went on, this became the signature model in the company’s line-up and they became the guitars of choice of for musicians from all genres, including legends such as David Crosby, Andy Griffith and Elvis Presley.

The D-18 received a few changes over the years, in some cases to improve deficiencies, and in other cases to make production more efficient (cheaper). As a result, the current D-18 is a very good instrument, but there is a cadre of players that believe that the pre-war ways were better, so Martin created the D-18 Golden Era guitars for them.

The D-18 Golden Era brings back many of the original features, with the benchmark being the 1934 D-18. Most notable this includes a stiffer Adirondack (Red) spruce top that allows the use of 5/16” forward-shifted scalloped X braces. This results in improved top vibration as well as overall volume and clarity.

Besides the Adirondack top, Martin also uses first rate materials for the rest of the guitar. The D-18 GE has solid mahogany neck, back and sides, as well as an ebony fretboard and bridge (not to be found on a regular D-18), and a Brazilian rosewood peghead overlay.

There are some neat appearance clues from the original models, too. These include a large Golden Era-style peghead logo, old style 18 abalone fretboard markers, fossil ivory nut and saddle, and open-back nickel Waverly tuners with butterbean knobs. Rumor has it that open-back tuners were used during the war to conserve metal. Hmm.

The hand-signed label from CF Martin IV is pretty obvious, but you might not notice some of the neat stuff that they put inside the guitar. The mahogany blocks, the dovetail neck joint, and the cloth side strips are really nice finishing touches, for sure.

The hand-shaped neck has a pleasant V profile, and the generous 1 ¾-inch nut width and wide spacing at the bridge make this a great strummer, flatpicker of fingerpicker. I find the neck very comfortable to play for longer sessions.

And the craftsmanship is first-rate. The high-gloss finish is perfect (and not too thick), and the frets are level with an easy-playing action and not a hint of fret buzz. It came out of the box not needing a single thing. When I change the strings I only use the original equipment Martin medium gauge strings (as recommended), and I have been very happy with them.

My god this is a truly wonderful instrument. My workhorse Takamine EF341SC is a great guitar with a nice clean tone and great playability, but it pales in comparison with this Martin. The neck is great and the action is slick so it plays like a dream, but the sound is something else. The clarity of the tone is out of this world. Fingerstyle playing will quickly highlight any flaws in technique as slightly misfretted notes come off as tremendously dull when compared to what this instrument is capable of.

With no break-in, the top already has a very loose sound, as if it has already been played for a few years. The usual tightness of a new acoustic is not there, which is a real blessing. It has great volume potential, and the more you lean into it, the more you realize how well balanced it is from string to string with incredible mids and highs. This guitar makes me a believer in mahogany, and may have solved the mahogany versus rosewood debate for me.

This D-18 Golden Era guitar did not come with electronics, so I had a K&K Sound Pure Mini pickup installed. This is a nice choice for these, if you want the versatility of being able to plug in. It is a no-frills unit that only requires that the tail pin hole be enlarged, and it is easily removed if necessary.

These guitars are fantastic, and if you want one there is a price to be paid. A brand new Martin D-18 Golden Era has a list price of $4499 and a street price of $3399, which includes a nice hard case and a limited lifetime warranty for the original purchaser. Think of it as an investment in your future, as these guitars will last a lifetime if kept in a loving environment.

By the way, I have had the opportunity to tour the Martin factory and have seen first-hand the care that goes into building these guitars. It made me proud to own one. If you are ever in Eastern Pennsylvania or New Jersey, I highly recommend that you stop by their factory for a tour.

I have to do my best to hold onto this one, and not get distracted by the next shiny thing that catches my eye.

Mahalo!

Gibson Guitar Factory Tour --- Memphis, Tennessee

Aloha!

I am endlessly fascinated by the manufacturing process, and coupling this with my interest in guitars it was a no-brainer to check out the Gibson guitar factory tour when I was in Memphis recently to tour the Graceland mansion.

The Gibson guitar company has three factories in the United States (their Epiphone line is built overseas). They build acoustic guitars in Bozeman, Montana, solid-body guitars in Nashville, Tennessee, and hollow/semi-hollow body guitars in Memphis, Tennessee. The only facility that offers tours is Memphis.

The Memphis Gibson factory is their newest facility, and it employs about 60 people that finish about 50 to 60 guitars each day. It takes up a full city block, just a stone’s throw from the famed Beale Street and across the street from the FedEx basketball arena. By the way, do not wear good shoes if you are going to Beale Street.

The building has a retail store with an impressive array of their Gibson and Epiphone guitars, basses and mandolins. They also have a nice selection of apparel and accessories. None of it is cheap. You will pay $10 for the tour at the retail store for the tour, and you should really call ahead for reservations so you don’t get shut out.

We went on a Saturday, and all of the tours that day had sold out ahead of time, so it was good that I called ahead earlier in the week. They had us wait in the lobby until the tour started, and the lobby is huge, with not much of anything to look at. There are a few jukeboxes that don’t work and some pianos you are not allowed to touch.

At the appointed time, the tour guide gathered us around and gave us our instructions: no photography, you have to wear safety glasses (provided), stay with the group and do not step over the black and yellow lines on the floor. Easy enough. He also warned that it would be dusty and there would be fumes present. The tour was supposed to take no more than 45 minutes.

We started by walking through a corridor lined with all manner of Gibson guitars, where he explained a bit of the history of the Gibson company. Then we went to the far end of the shop, where he showed us where they humidify the wood and how presses are used to form the tops, backs and rims. There was some machinery running, so he plugged a microphone into a PA speaker so he could be heard. He was most unenthusiastic, and I had trouble making out what he said. But, I have been to other guitar factories before, so I could see what was going on and could explain it to my son.

Then we went to another station where he explained how the body is assembled, what adhesives are used and how the binding is installed. Across from there was a CNC machine that was routing neck joints, and this was actually the only manufacturing that was going on that day (Saturday afternoon, you know). He talked a bit about how the necks were assembled, and said that the fretboards are actually made in Nashville, and that the frets are installed and Plek’d at the Memphis factory. Maybe that explains why so many Gibson necks are crappy these days.

Then we went on to where the guitars are sprayed, and it smelled heavenly in there! He explained about the different steps of the process and why they use the finishes that they do. This stuff is fascinating, and it the vapors gave me a nice light-headed feeling.

Finally, we ended up in the final assembly area, where he talked a bit about how the electronics and hardware are installed, and how the guitars are tested. It turns out that 4% of the guitars they build are scrapped because they are so flawed that they cannot be fixed. I would not be proud of this statistic.

And that was it. The tour only lasted about half an hour. I liked seeing the facility, but did not come away impressed with the Gibson company. The manufacturing facility was dirty and seemed disorganized, and the tour guide was unkempt, apathetic, and was wearing a torn and dirty t-shirt. If this is the best that Gibson can do, they should really think twice about allowing their customers in to see the operation.

I have to contrast this with the Martin guitar factory tour, which was fabulous. Their facility is much nicer (though it is older), the tour guide appeared happy to be there, and they provided headsets so that you could hear what the tour guide was saying. Oh, and the Martin guitar factory tour and parking are free.

So, I would not make a special trip to downtown Memphis to see the Gibson factory tour, but if you are in town doing something else, and do not mind spending $10 (and $10 more for parking), it would be an ok thing to check out.

As I said earlier, if you want to go on a tour of the Memphis Gibson guitar factory, call ahead to get a reservation as the tours sell out quickly. The tours are offered on the hour, and keep in mind that you might not see as much activity on the weekends.

Mahalo!

Radial Engineering JDI Direct Box Review

Howdy!

I rained down praise upon the Radial Engineering Firefly direct box last month, but they have a lot of other great products in their line-up, including the JDI passive direct box.

Radial Engineering builds an impressive collection of products, including one of my direct boxes, the aforementioned Firefly. Their stuff is comes dear, as they use quality components and their boxes are built with workers earning first-world wages in Canada.

First off – why would you need a direct box? If you want to send your instrument’s signal directly to the mixing board, a direct box will allow you to do this with a minimal increase in outside noise as well as reducing signal loss. It does this by converting a high impedance signal to a low impedance signal, as well as balancing this signal.

If the impedance is lowered, it will travel over long lengths of cable with less signal loss. Unfortunately, low impedance signals are more susceptible to noise created by magnetic fields – and just think of all of the magnetic fields created on stage by the amplifiers and lights. Old-school landline telephones also send low impedance signals over ridiculous lengths of wire with virtually no added noise. How do they do it?

They use balanced lines, which I am sure you have heard of if you have ever messed around with sound equipment. Balanced line split the signal into two equal parts, with one part in phase and the other part purposely inverted (out-of-phase). There is also a magnetic shield, which makes up the third pin of your standard XLR cable. Outside noise that passes through the shield is picked up equally by both wires. When the two signals come back together, the out of phase signal is brought back into phase along with the noise it has collected. The original signal is now in phase and the noise goes out of phase with its counterpart and cancels itself out.

So, a direct box (or DI box) takes care of all of this in one little component: It converts the high output impedance of the pickup to a low impedance signal and convert the unbalanced connection to a balance the line. Then you can plug it straight into a microphone line input and put your sound into the hands of the by running the board.

The Radial Engineering JDI is a bit more spendy than other simple direct boxes on the market, but it is a durable piece of equipment that works very well and should last for the rest of your career.

Looking at the unit, it is about the same size as an effect pedal, and it has a solid steel chassis, painted in a lovely green hue with neatly screen printed graphics. It is shaped sort of like a hardcover book, so the steel wraps around and protects the switches from being torn off if you drop it or as it bangs around in your road case, There is a rubber pad on the bottom to help isolate it and to keep it from moving around.

The input panel has the usual 1/4-inch instrument input and traditional thru-put (to send your signal on to an amplifier). There is a merge switch that changes the thru-put jack into a second input, thus allowing a stereo signal to be summed into a mono signal. The instructions printed on top if the box, in case you forget how it is supposed to work. There is also a -15dB pad switch in case you have an exceptionally hot input.

on the other side, the output panel has a balanced 600-ohm XLR connector with a hot pin 2 hot per AES specifications. There is a polarity reverse switch to toggle pin 2 and pin 3 to allow interface with older non-AES compliant equipment. The ground lift disconnects the pin 1 to allow for input and output isolation. The speaker switch is a second -30dB pad that can be used in with the -15dB input pad to allow the JDI to be connected in parallel with a speaker. This function includes a speaker emulation filter circuit. And lets the sound guy can tap the post-distortion signal, and

Unseen by human eyes, inside the JDI is a Jensen JT-DBE transformer, which is used as its main driver. The Jensen has magnetic memory, thus eliminating phase distortion. It is quiet and perfectly isolated and with no added distortion you can count on your signal getting to the board just the way that you created it. You can use it to run straight into the board or into the snake with no fear of overloading the system.

In the real world, it does all of this exactly like it is supposed to. After you get it set up and plugged in you can forget it is there and get down to the business of making music. It is really nice to have a product that does exactly what the company says it will.

As this is a passive device (no battery or phantom power required), the JDI is perfect for hot devices such as active or self-powered instruments, including acoustic guitars and basses with built-in battery-powered preamps, and AC-powered equipment such as drum machines, DJ mixers, and keyboards. These types of devices can overload active boxes, making them sound thin and shrill. The JDI can handle any of these things without distorting.

All of this quality and performance do not come cheaply. The Radial Engineering JDI passive direct box has a list price of $220 and a street price of $199. It is worth every penny, and you should have one in your gig bag!

Mahalo!

The Great Garage / Studio Remodel of 2011

Aloha!

When I do a project, usually one thing leads to another, and then everything just gets completely out of hand. This is how my garage/studio ended up the way it is.

A few summers ago, my old wooden garage door broke and I decided that it was appropriate to get with the times and purchase a sectional steel garage door. This is how it all started.

The garage door salesman came out, took one look at the garage and told me I had to tear out the heavy-duty wooden shelves and loft that I built 15 years before, as there would be no place for the garage door tracks to go. After he left, I looked around my garage and it was a cluttered mess. It was dark, and my drum set, tool boxes, bicycles and motorcycles took up a lot of real estate. I figured it was time to get a fresh start and just fix the place up a little.

I moved everything out to a nearby vacant garage, and went about demolishing the shelves and loft, which was a huge deal because I wayyyy overbuilt them. Then I looked at the crummy plaster firewall and tore it out with the intention of replacing it with drywall, and that would be the end of things.

Then one of my friends came over, and when he saw the exposed studs and tarpaper all over the garage he advised that while I has everything cleared out, I should really do the job right. He has a beautiful 1,000 square foot garage, so I value his opinion. My wife concurred, and I plunged straight into the abyss.

First off, he had me order the insulated garage door, so it would be quieter and look nicer on the inside. This was a wise choice, and the guys from Mesa garage doors had it installed in just a few hours. I elected to not install a new garage door opener, as I rarely open it to the street.

Then, on his advice I ordered drywall for the entire garage, not just the firewall. This meant that I had to pull half a million nails out of the studs so it would lie flat. I guessed how many sheets I needed, then ordered it from Lowe’s and had the stack delivered to my driveway. The $75 delivery fee was the best money I ever spent.

My buddy actually showed up to help me hang the drywall, and amazingly enough there was none left over. Then he asked when I was going to tape it and paint it and I said that I had not planned to do that. He shamed me into calling his nephew’s pot head friends that do drywall, and they showed up one evening to give me an estimate. I think they were drunk when they arrived. When I told them what I was looking for they said they could do the job that evening, and they headed off to buy materials and beer. They knocked the job out in no time.

After I sanded and painted the walls, the electrician came out and ran conduit all over the garage (I love exposed conduit!) and installed new fluorescent fixtures and power outlets everywhere. It is amazing how much brighter it was after the walls were painted and the new lights were in.

Then came the shelving. This same friend has a contact that deals in surplus warehouse equipment, so I purchased pallet racks with wire grate shelves. They extend from floor to ceiling and cover three of the walls. These are the strongest shelves I could find, and they are rated for 10,000 pounds per shelf.

From then on it was just moving most of the stuff back in and doing the final finishing. I mounted a half dozen of the Hercules guitar wall hangers, put up my disco ball and spotlights, and it was good to go.

I am glad I took my friend’s advice, as the garage is a lot nicer place to practice, not to mention just hanging out. Remember, if you are going to do it – do it right the first time because you might not get a second chance!

Mahalo!

The Muddy Sons Pushed On Down The Road Album Review

Good day!

This CD review was originally published in the December 21, 2012 edition of Blues Blast Magazine. Be sure to check out the rest of the magazine at thebluesblast.com

The Muddy Sons – Pushed On Down The Road

What in Sam Hell Productions

www.muddysons.com

10 tracks / 48:09

Sometimes you look at an album cover, band name or title and know exactly what you are in for when you listen to the music. When I got The Muddy Sons’ Pushed On Down The Road CD with a photo of smirking guitarist and drummer on the cover, I instantly had thoughts of raw blues and down and dirty rock and roll. Thank goodness that is exactly what I got!

The Muddy Sons are a duo from the Pacific Northwest, with Portland’s Madman Sam on vocals and guitars and Jeff “Drummerboy” Hayes of Seattle on the skins. Pushed On Down The Road is their debut album together, but that does not mean that these guys are new to the music business. Sam has put out four albums of his own, and Hayes has appeared on dozens of releases for various artists over the years. It turns out that they are a match made in heaven, or hell if you prefer your blues from the old school.

This album only took seven days to create and has ten original tracks that were written by Sam, and not a single Howlin’ Wolf cover in sight. Some of these songs that previously appeared on his solo acoustic albums include “I Can’t Take It Anymore,” “Two Cigarettes and a Half-Pint,” and “Like That’s Gonna Stop Me.” Sam produced the project as well as doing the editing, mastering, art layout and participating in the mixing. He is a busy guy, it seems. Sam and Hayes performed all of the music and there are no keyboard or bass parts; no other musicians are heard on this release.

“I’ll Be Satisfied” is the opening track of Pushed On Down The Road and is quite an eye-opening experience. This song is as raw as blues gets, with nasty and dirty guitar sounds, a howling voice and a slowly boiling drum line. Here you will hear the Muddy Sons’ expression of their love for Delta Blues, with a little of the Chicago sound mixed in. One way to describe their music is to say that it is what the old acoustic delta guys would have played if they had gnarly distorted electric guitars to mess around with.

Despite the lack of other instruments, there is not really anything missing from this recording, as all of the songs sound right just the way they are. After the seven-minute opener, the guys treat us to shorter high-tempo tune, “I Can’t Take it Anymore.” Hayes’ kick drum takes the place of a bass guitar in this one and Madman’s guitar is on fire, filling up every spare sonic moment. This song made the transition from its previous acoustic version with aplomb.

“Two Cigarettes and a Half Pint” also does well in its electrified version, with slide guitar galore and some seriously stomping drums. The lyrics of this energized southern rocker are not terribly deep, but from the title you probably already figured out that they would not be. The dynamic duo drops straight back into hard-core blues with “No Longer Qualified,” where Sam laments that now that he found a good woman he is no longer qualified to sing the blues. Of course this is not true, because he howls this one out with plenty of heart and soul, but it is a great play on words and his tale lets us hear what a great storyteller he is.

After a few more tracks with great titles such as “Stainless Steel Toilet,” and “Sorry As You Gonna Be,” the album finishes up with “She Talks Too Much.” I am kind of embarrassed to admit that I got the giggles when I heard the gloriously politically incorrect lyrics to this song. But there is more to this tune than its misogynistic leanings, as the Madman manages to cram more clever words and phrases into one song than should be allowed. Drummerboy keeps an arrow-straight beat throughout, and if you have ever been in a band you would be jealous that Sam managed to hook up with him.

The Muddy Sons are a hoot to listen to and they did a heck of a job putting together Pushed On Down The Road. Those that like nasty rock or blues will find plenty here to entertain them, and the fainthearted may want to take a test-listen before buying. By the way, I have heard that their live show is something to behold, so be sure to check them out if they are playing near you.

Mahalo!