Sirius XM Radio Network Channel 56: Willie’s Roadhouse

Howdy!

I get to drive a few different cars for my day job, and when I got into one a few weeks ago, whoever drove it before me had the radio set to Sirius XM channel 56, Willie’s Roadhouse. Why did it take me so long to discover this channel?

Willie’s Roadhouse used to be called Willie’s Place, and before that it was called Hank’s Place (after Mr. Williams). The first name change was when Willie Nelson signed an endorsement deal with the network, and the second name change took place after Willie’s Place merged with the Roadhouse channel. Whew. Apparently Nelson now owns a stake in Willie’s Roadhouse.

Channel 56 is home to traditional country and cowboy music, mostly from the 1950s through the 1980s. They the play hits as well as some really obscure stuff from the original artists, including Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams Sr., Charley Pride (yay!), Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash, George Jones, and Patsy Cline. Oh yes, and Willie Nelson. I have discovered songs I have never heard before, and found some artists that I just love, such as Bob Wills, the King of Texas Swing.

Though the lyrics of some of this stuff can be hokey (and at times racist and misogynistic), this music is generally wonderful. It is an important part of our musical history and without these pioneers, modern rock and country music would sound drastically different.

There are also a few regular shows that you can catch during the week, and it pays to figure out when these are on because they are fantastic. For starters, they broadcast The Grand Ole Opry on Friday and Saturday nights. Where else are you going to find this?

On Thursday nights, Wade Jessen (Senior Chart Manager at Billboard Magazine) digs out old vinyl from his personal collection and provides some of the history behind the music . This guy is a treasure, and his on-air persona is great.

And lastly, you can find the Classic Cowboy Corral on Friday and Saturday nights, as well as on Sunday mornings. This show focuses on the golden age of the singing cowboys, and is hosted by super yodeler Ranger Doug Green, and his irritating sidekick “Sidemeat.” Into every life a little rain must fall…

Anyway, Willie’s Roadhouse is now one of the presets on my stereo, and if you have satellite radio, you ought to give it a shot!

Adios!

1981 Takamine F-349 Acoustic Guitar Review

Hiya!

Over the years I have owned and played a few Japanese-made Takamine acoustic guitars and have never been disappointed with their craftsmanship, playability or tone.

Takamine is a Japanese guitar maker that has been in business for over 50 years now. They have started building guitars in other countries, but all of their high-end guitars still come from the land of the rising sun. Don’t sniff at their products and say that imports are junk, because they build some fantastic instruments. Though they have built some solid-body electric guitars, they are best known for their acoustic and acoustic-electric steel string guitars. By the way, the company is named after Mount Takamine in the Gifu Prefecture of Japan.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, this company became famous (or notorious) for building righteous Martin guitar copies that earned them a strongly-worded memo from the Martin legal department. Today we are looking at one of these animals: a 1981 F-349.

The F-349 (catchy name, isn’t it?) is a copy of the Martin D-17, their mahogany dreadnought. They went whole-hog on their reproduction, with using Martin’s headstock shape and logo script. I can see why Martin was upset, particularly when you consider that this is a nice guitar, and surely provided unwanted competition for a fraction of the price. This would be a lawsuit guitar, if a lawsuit had ever been filed.

The body has the traditional dreadnought size and shape, with 14 frets free from the body. The jury is out on whether this one has a solid mahogany top and body, as there is no S or SS in the model name, which is usually (but not always) the designation of a solid wood instrument. It appears to be solid to me, though it is hard to tell as the soundhole is blacked out around the edges, and when looking at the hole where the pick-up jack was installed shows the body to not be a laminate. Who know, and actually who cares at this point? It is a nice-sounding guitar.

Like the Martin D-17, ornamentation is sparse. The body has a multi-ply binding around the top and a simple black binding around the back while the neck is not bound at all. The rosette is elegant, and combined with the black pickguard and black-painted bridge it fits in well with the visual theme of the guitar.

The mahogany neck has its original 20 chunky frets, and they are skillfully sunk into the rosewood fretboard. The peghead has chrome-plated sealed tuners, probably made by Gotoh. This Takamine shares the D-17’s 1 11/16-inch nut, and 25 ¼-inch scale. The fretboard is a bit more curvy with a 12-inch radius, instead of 16-inch.

The condition of this F-349 is very good, especially for a 32 year old guitar. There is very little wear to the original frets, no cracks or evidence of repairs, and only small dings and chips here and there – no signs of abuse here!

This one came to me with a DiMarzio humbucker mounted to the soundhole, which sounded ok when plugged in, but stifled the sound of the instrument when played acoustically. After removing it, the sound was more rich and volume increased noticeably. The only scar from this installation is a ½-inch hole in the lower bout.

After a quick set-up with new strings (light gauge), I have to say that this Takamine is really a peach. It is not the loudest dreadnought I have ever owned, but I never expected that going into this deal. It has a sweet and mellow tone that is tolerant of the occasional mis-fretted note, and the volume is nicely balanced from string to string.

The frets are still level, and it is a very easy-playing guitar with no fret buzz. It is not the greatest fingerstyle guitar, but for the basic stuff I am using it for, it is a fabulous guitar. It would be a terrific instrument for a beginner, for sure. I am holding onto this as a guitar to loan to friends that are considering taking up the instrument.

If you are looking for one of these guitars, remember that they are 30 years old now, so you should look it over carefully or have a luthier check it out. Just look for the usual stuff: bridge lift, cracks, evidence of previous repairs, and fret wear.

Compared to other new guitars on the market, you get a lot of performance for the money on this one. Finding a used Takamine F-349 is not terribly difficult, and they are still very reasonably priced, at around $350 to $450 for a nice example. If you need a durable budget acoustic, you might want to track one down!

Mahalo!

Fender Twin Reverb Guitar Amplifier Cover Review

Aloha!

The Fender Twin Reverb is one of Fenders most popular amplifiers, and I love mine to death. I felt pretty bad that dust would pile up on it while it sat around my studio, so I set out to find a nice cover for it.

I like keeping my combo amps covered when I am not using them for plenty of good reasons. A decent cover will keep dust and sunlight (and spilled beer) out, and keep it looking like new. Also, if I am taking it somewhere it will help protect it from rain or scuffs and scratches when loading it into my vehicle. So, I looked around on the internet and the best value for me was the factory cover, part number 005-025-000.

When it showed up, there were no surprises. It is made of heavy nylon with piping stitched around the handle opening and the edges. There is no padding, so it will not protect against hard hits, but I knew this coming into the deal.

It is well-sewn, and it fits easily over the amp chassis with no troubles. There is enough extra room so it is easy to take on and off. I have seen some covers where they are so tight that they fit like a sausage, and they are a major league pain in the backside private parts to use. That is not the case here.

Anyway, there is no drama and the Fender factory cover does exactly what it is supposed to. If you have a Twin Reverb there is no excuse not to get a cover for it.

The best thing about this thing is the price: the Fender Twin Reverb amplifier cover has a list price or $24.99 with a street price of $19.99. It is worth every penny!

Mahalo!

2004 Ernie Ball MusicMan SUB 1 Guitar Review

Greetings!

Today we are looking at one of the best values out there in an American-made electric guitar: my old 2004 MusicMan SUB 1.

Back in 2003, the Ernie Ball company wanted to provide a lower-cost alternative to their admittedly expensive guitars and basses; the SUB line of instruments came from this idea. These instruments were built in the same San Luis Obispo factory as their other wares, but with features that made them more affordable. This included cheaper body woods and hardware, as well as textured finishes that required less labor and polishing to complete. You will notice that it does not say “Ernie Ball” anywhere on this guitar...

The SUB 1 was their take on the Silhouette guitar, in this case a hardtail with two humbucker pickups. This one has a poplar body that is finished in Cinnamon, which is a neat color that has oodles of sparkly and colorful highlights that glint when they catch the light just so. This color is not common, and I have only seen a few with this finish. Many of the SUB instruments came with a bizarre faux diamond plate pickguard, but the later ones came with a single-ply plastic guard. This one got a black plastic guard.

The neck is maple (painted matte black) with a 10-inch radius rosewood fretboard and 22 high-profile, medium-width frets sunk into the fretboard. This is a 25.5-inch scale instrument, and the neck is 1 5/8-inches wide at the plastic nut. The neck is attached to the body with five bolts and an angled neck plate, due to the extensive cutaway that allows access to the higher frets. The SUB instruments get the standard MusicMan truss rod wheel for easy adjustments.

The hardware is a bit cheaper than what is found on the Silhouette. This one has chrome-plated sealed tuners, though I believe models with tremolo came with locking tuners. This SUB 1 strings through the body, and the bridge has bent stainless steel saddles.

The electronics package is simple, with volume and tone controls, a 3-way toggle pickup selector and two custom humbucker pickups. Whatever that means…

And this is really a great guitar, regardless of how much it cost (which wasn’t much, really). The pickups are strong, and it has a great thick sound for rock or blues. Though the hardware is not quite as good as their higher-priced models, I do not notice any problems with sustain or tuner slippage.

The craftsmanship is what I expect to see coming out of San Luis Obispo – the neck pocket is tight and the frets are very well done, with nicely finished edges and a level fretboard. This is one of the easiest playing guitars I ever owned, and I kind of wish I still had it. If I remember correctly, this one went off to live with my friend Mike in the UK. God knows what happened to it since…

The MusicMan SUB guitars were made from 2003 to 2006, and they were quite a bargain, coming in at around $500 or so, if I remember correctly. On the used market they sell for about $300, which is a heck of a deal for a solid guitar.

Mahalo!

Call Williams Jr. Honeychild Album Review

Hello!

This CD review was originally published in the February 7, 2013 edition of Blues Blast Magazine. Be sure to check out the rest of the magazine at thebluesblast.com

Cal Williams Jr – Honeychild

Self Release

www.calwilliamsjr.com

10 tracks / 36:25

Over the years I have enjoyed a lot of great music from Australia and it looks like I am going to have to add Cal Williams Jr’s latest CD, Honeychild, to the list of winners. Cal is a singer and guitarist that has been working hard to get his music heard, having toured the UK and played with many great artists, finally ending up back in Australia where he plays with his own band, teaches guitar and records.

Honeychild is Williams’ third album, and as usual he takes on the lead vocal and acoustic guitar roles. He is joined by a fine group of musicians, some of whom are members of his regular band line-up. Included are Kory Horwood on double bass and vocals, Manny Kechayas on drums, Anthony Pak Poy on back-up guitar, Emma Luker on violin and Ben Timbers on the banjo. Besides co-producing the album with Anthony Stewart, Cal also wrote half of the songs on this release.

There is a nice collection of songs on this CD, which contains a balanced mixture of folk and blues sounds thanks in no small part to the use of banjo, acoustic guitars and double bass, not to mention Williams’ pleasant country-styled voice. By the way, I hear no Australian accent when he sings. The five cover tunes range from the 1920s to the 1960s, and were popularized by the likes of Nick Drake, Simon and Garfunkel, and Louis Armstrong. His five original songs blend well with these blues classics, and showcase his strong songwriting skills.

I am guessing that Cal Williams Jr is a fan of Nick Drake (as am I), as he included two songs that Drake recorded: “Blues Runs the Game” and “Smoking Too Long.” “Blues Runs the Game” is the opening track on Honeychild, and this has to be my favorite version of this song which says a lot because a lot of big names have tried to make it their own. His guitar is clear as a bell, and his voice and phrasing are perfectly suited to the material. Luker’s fiddle work adds another melodic layer to fill out this song and solidifies the whole effort.

“Smoking Too Long” is one of my favorite songs by the esteemed songsmith Robin Frederick. As always, Cal’s guitar is nicely picked, but in this case his voice comes out strongly and carries the load. The only other accompaniment is the double bass which is used to produce two great tones. First there is the percussive plucked part which is gloriously woody and natural sounding, and then there is an aggressive bowed interlude. This track was very tastefully put together, and with the forward-placed bass parts there was no need for drums. This collection of first-rate cover tunes is rounded out by the traditional “St. James Infirmary,” which was popularized by Louis Armstrong, J.B. Lenoir’s “Mama Talk to Your Daughter” and Blind Willie Johnson’s “Dark was the Night.”

Mr. Williams put four of his original tunes in a group in the first half of Honeychild, and when listening to the album as a whole you do not really notice a change in tone or style when he switches from his songs to others’. This is not so much that he is aping the other writers, but is instead remaking their songs into his own style. This helps the album to stand as a single entity, rather than just a collection of tunes that was thrown together to complete a package.

His guitar work is impeccable throughout, and there is a nice interplay between his top-shelf picking and Ben Timbers’ banjo on “Ole 49er” which has a folk/blues sound and straight-up blues lyrics. Then Cal shows his versatility and changes up his sound to combine delta slide guitar with a Bo Diddley beat on the title track. His “New York Central” captures the Louisiana vibe with plenty of slide guitar and more of those beautiful round bass parts under his gorgeous voice. There is even an instrumental, “Geshe La,” which is a marvelous quilt of tones and textures that is a showcase of Williams’ talents, and could easily be used as his musical resume. He is really a masterful player, and his years of hard work have certainly paid off.

I really enjoy listening to Honeychild, and my only regret is that there is not more of it to listen to. None of the songs are very long, with a few of them coming in under three minutes, and a total play time of only 36 minutes. But everything that he included on the disc is really high quality stuff, and sure enough I got plenty of them stuck in my head over the past week. I think that this music is compelling and you should surely give this new Cal Williams Jr album a try.

Mahalo!

2006 Sadowsky Metro MV5 Electric Bass Review

Aloha!

Today we are looking at my latest futile effort at integrating a 5-string bass into my collection, a 2006 Sadowsky Metro MV5. This is certainly one of the best sounding and easiest playing fivers I have ever owned, and there have been quite a few that I have experimented with over the years.

In case you are not familiar with the brand, Roger Sadowsky builds the best bolt-neck basses in the business out of his Long Island shop. Of course, you pay a premium to get your hands on one of them, with prices of most of them around $4000, and a six-month wait for custom orders. His Metro line is a little more accessible for us common folks.

About a decade ago, Roger set up a production facility in Tokyo, which is the land of craftsmen. Originally called the Tokyo line, they are now called the Metro series, and these are some ridiculously good instruments. The idea was to produce basses with the same electronics, but with no custom options so they can benefit from economies of scale. They also use less expensive bodies and necks, as well as cheaper labor to bring the prices down a bit, but don’t get the idea that these are cheap instruments, in any sense of the word.

So, Sadowsky Metro basses come in four or five string models with traditional precision and jazz bass profiles, rosewood or maple fretboards, and an assortment of pickup configurations. As I said earlier, there are no custom options, and if you are looking for a left-handed or fretless bass you will have to keep on looking. Generally they weigh a pound or two more than their New York-produced instruments due to wood selection and the lack of body chambering.

The only visual distinction between Metro and New York basses is that the Metro basses do not have the NYC letters on the headstock. That is it.

As I said earlier, we are looking at a Sadowsky Metro MV5 that was built in 2006. It is in great condition, unmolested and unmodified, with the exception of a new pickguard.

The MV5 has a jazz bass body profile, in this case ash covered with a glossy black poly finish (RV5 basses get rosewood fretboards and alder bodies). It originally came with a 3-ply black pickguard, but along the way someone though that faux tortoiseshell would be the way to go. It looks nice, and no new holes were drilled in the body to mount it, so it is a double win.

The maple neck is dreamy, with It has 21 frets, simple black plastic dot markers, and a square heel. The square heel is not aesthetically pleasing to me, but that is what you get when they put that extra fret on. It has a truss rod adjustment wheel at the heel, so set-ups are easy. The entire neck is finished in nitrocellulose lacquer (like all Sadowsky basses). No neck plate is used for mounting this to the body, so there are four ferrules set into the body to hold the neck screws.

Metro basses some with the same pre-amplifiers electronics as Sadowsky New York basses. As this is an early production bass, it has single-coil instead of humbucking pickups, and it does not have Vintage Tone Control. The controls are volume, pan, treble boost and bass boost. This bass still sounds incredible and the tone is way better than any bass that Fender or any other maker is building today.

The craftsmanship is befitting the price, with a perfect neck pocket, fretwork and nut. The frets show no wear and are still level as can seven years after it was built. The finish is even and the inlays and binding are perfectly flush. The chrome high-mass bridge and open-back Hipshot tuners are still shiny and clean. This is a real beast!

It plays just as nicely as it looks, and it is set-up with a tasty low action and a fresh set of Sadowsky Blue Label Strings. This MV5 is not terribly heavy for a Metro, coming in at 9 pounds, 12 ounces. I have seen these pushing 11 pounds before. Ask the weight before you buy…

Metro basses come in the same Sadowsky ultralite semi-hard case that the New York basses used to come in (they have since changed to a deluxe hard case for their domestically produced basses).

What will all of this goodness cost you? The list price of a new Sadowsky Metro MV5 is $2625 and Sadowsky does not allow their dealers to discount these at all. This is about the price of a used NYC bass, and used MV5 basses usually sell for around $2000.

So, if you are looking for a Sadowsky, but just can’t pull the trigger for a New York model, this might be the bass for you. You will have a hard time finding a better bass, regardless of price.

Mahalo!

SKB 1SKB-300 ¾ Size Guitar Hard Case Review

Aloha!

I travel a few dozen times per year for my day job, and to keep my fingers in shape (and to kill the endless hotel hours) I usually take along a guitar on my trips. I used to take a Martin Backpacker, but it is such a miserable chunk of crap, that I eventually found a Little Martin LX which is a lot more pleasurable to play.

The Little Martin is a ¾-sized guitar that comes with a nice padded gig bag that fits in the overhead compartment or front closet on most of the flight I take. Unfortunately, on small regional jets there just is not enough room for it and it has to be gate checked, which makes me really nervous. I did some searching around the internet and ended up with a nice molded hardshell case, the SKB 1SKB-300, which took away a lot of the worry.

The 1SKB-300 is specifically designed for the Martin LX (Little Martin) and Baby Taylor models. It fits a lot of the other ¾-size guitars as well, but it will not fit the Taylor GS Mini. Trust me, I have tried. Generally, it should fit guitars with a lower bout of 12.5 inches, an upper bout of 9.25 inches, a boy length of 16 inches and an over length of 34.75 inches.

This SKB case is made of blow-molded plastic with an extruded aluminum channel that seals the lid to the body of the case. To further protect the guitar there is EPS foam insulation (like in a motorcycle helmet) and some sort of synthetic fuzzy stuff on the inside. Inside you will find a storage cavity that will hold a tuner or a strap (but probably not both) and a key for the typical useless guitar case lock. Outside there are three chrome latches, including one with the aforementioned lock.

When my case arrived, I put my Little Martin in it, and it fit like a glove. The neck was very well supported, and there was no movement at all when the lid is shut. Unfortunately, the lid has never set completely flat, so it needs to be pressed down a bit to get it to latch. This is common with these cases, and I am willing to live with it. The latches work fine, but I worry that they are stuck to the outside of the case with no ridges to protect them, so I do not know how they will hold up to regular baggage handler abuse. On the plus side, SKB stands behind their products with terrific warranties and they are really good about replacing broken hardware The molded plastic handle is comfortable enough, but it would be nice if there were eyelets so that a shoulder or possibly even backpack straps could be attached.

This does not seem like too much to ask, because the SKB 1SKB-300 is awfully expensive for such a small, no-frills case. The list price for one of these is $144.99 with a street price of $99.99. It you are considering one of these, it would behoove you to keep your eye on Amazon, as the price for this fluctuates quite a bit – I have seen them as low as $65 to $75, which is quite a steal, especially if you get Amazon Prime free shipping.

This case is one of the only games in town, so if you are looking for a hard case for 3/4 –size guitar, you might want to pick one of these up.

Mahalo!