Rex and the Bass 2013 Year in Review

Happy New Year!

This wraps up my 4th year of blogging, and Rex and the Bass is something that I still love to write. I appreciate the support of my readers, and I read all of the comments that you post on this site. If nobody looked at these pages, I would lose motivation for this project very quickly.

There were a few milestones this year – I uploaded my 500th post to this blog, and Rex and the Bass surpassed 400,000 hits, with half a million not too far off! Also, I am happy to announce that in addition to Blues Blast Magazine, I am now writing for Chicago Blues Guide. Neither of these gigs would have been possible without the writing experience I have gotten through Rex and the Bass.

Anyway, I thought that listing the top ten most read posts of all times might be interesting for you, so here it is:

1. Fender Jazz Bass Special Re-issue

2. Crystal Castles (2010) Album Review

3. Philip Kubicki Factor Basses

4. Little Dot Mark III Headphone Amplifier Review

5. Memory Lane: Pulp Fiction Soundtrack

6. Apple A1121 iPod Hi-fi

7. 1970s Ibanez Les Paul Custom Guitar Review

8. Honda EU2000i Portable Generator Review

9. Sennheiser HD 201 Headphones Review

10. Simon & Patrick Songsmith Acoustic Guitar Review

I look forward to another year of sharing with you!

Mahalo!

MXR M169 Carbon Copy Analog Delay Guitar Effects Pedal

Hi there!

I have tried out more delay pedals than I can count over the years, and have only found a few that I like. The digital T-Rex Replica is my all-time favorite, but it costs an arm and a leg, and the MXR M169 Carbon Copy analog delay pedal comes in a close second for a fraction of the price.

MXR is part of the Dunlop Company, which also sells all kinds of stuff, including picks, strings, accessories, and the Cry Baby Wah pedals. Using my unofficial count, there are over 50 different MXR pedals that you can stick on your pedalboard, and generally they are very well regarded.

The Carbon Copy is one of the more simple delay pedals that you will run into, and there are only three knobs (Regen, Mix, and Delay) and a modulation ON/OFF switch on its tiny chassis. Regen controls the amount of delay repeats, Mix controls the wet signal level, and Delay sets the delay time. The MOD switch controls the up and down pitch shift of the delayed signal, and this is adjustable for rate and duration internally (screwdriver required). It does not say this in any of the literature, but it appears that the lettering for these controls actually glows in the dark a bit. Between this and the nice bright LEDs, it is ready for the stage!

There are also the expected footswitch, input and output jacks, and a jack for a power supply. By the way, the footswitch provides a true hard-wired bypass, in case you were wondering. If you choose to go the 9-volt battery route, you will have to pop the back off to change it periodically. This is not terribly convenient.

As I said earlier, this is an analog pedal, and with its bucket brigade technology it can provide up to 600ms of delay (0.6 seconds for us non-math types). This is obviously less than what you can get from a digital delay, but it makes up for this with an awesomely warm tone and natural decay without undue muddiness. I was able to get a lot of really useful sounds and tones from this pedal when used with either a bass or guitar, though none of them had the crisp hi-fi character that you can get from a digital pedal. The MOD switch adds a notable depth to the tone, so you can try to emulate your favorite prog rock sounds.

I found that it is good for blues and country, but I found that it shined the most when used with a Stratocaster for straightforward rock or funk with my Precision Bass. It is a blessing to have such simple controls, and changes on the fly are very easy.

The Carbon Copy has a quality feel to it, and the pots and switches do not feel like they are going to break any time soon. I am amazed that they could cram so much goodness into a normal-sized pedal, so it leaves plenty of room for other stuff on the pedalboard. The true bypass switching is exactly what they say it is – the signal comes out just as clean as when it went in. In my usage I found no added noise from this unit and the Replica would be equally at home on the stage or in the studio.

The MXR M169 Carbon Copy delay pedal is a winner, and you are not going to find a better analog pedal for the money. These pedals have a list price of $254.61, and street price of $149.99. Check one out if you get a chance.

Mahalo!

2013 Kala KA-ASAC-T Tenor Ukulele Review

Aloha!

My dad recently sent his ukulele to my aunt so she would have an instrument to play again, as years ago she gave her uke to a friend. I found him a new uke, a Kala KA-ASAC-T, and it has turned out to be a fantastic instrument.

The KA-ASAC-T is a tenor ukulele that is part of Kala’s solid acacia series, meaning that it comes with a solid acacia top. The acacia is also called the mimosa or shower tree, and is a close relative of the Hawaiian koa tree. This is a handsome wood, and provides a nice tone an instrument’s sound. The top has herringbone purfling and is bound with strips of rosewood (the back is bound too). The back and sides are made of lacewood.

Mahogany is used for the neck, and Kala uses rosewood for the fretboard and bridge, and ebony for the nut and saddle. There is some nice detail work here, with customer mother of pearl fretboard inlays and a laminated headstock that makes the beveled slots for the tuners look fabulous. The tuners are geared units from Grover, and they are really neat looking pieces.

The build quality of this uke is good, and all 19 of the silver nickel frets have nice smooth edges. The binding, purfling and fretboard inlays are also well done, and with its flawless satin matte finish, it is quite attractive.

This one came set-up with premium Aquila Nylgut strings, and it plays very smoothly with no buzzing or other problems. It has a sweet and mellow tone, and I really cannot think of anything bad to say about it. This thing only weighs 1 pound, 3 ounces, and it would be a nice travelling companion!

If you like the looks of this but need another size, Kala also sells this uke in soprano and concert versions, but you will not get the slotted headstock or cool geared tuners.

As it is a quality instrument, the Kala KA-ASAC-T is a bit more expensive than your basic starter ukulele, and it has a list price of $519.99 and a street price of around $364 (case not included). But it plays well, sounds good, and it looks nice so it is worth every penny. My dad certainly loves his!

Mahalo!

Kris Lager Band: Swagadocious Album Review

Hello!

This CD review was originally published in the April 25, 2013 edition of Blues Blast Magazine. Be sure to check out the rest of the magazine at thebluesblast.com

Kris Lager Band – Swagadocious

Self Release

www.krislagerband.com

15 tracks / 1:07:41

Having spent a few of my formative years in the Midwest, I would never think of the state of Nebraska as being terribly hip or funky, and in Oklahoma we certainly had plenty of Nebraska jokes. But the Kris Lager Band comes out of the Cornhusker State with a heavy load of blues funk to blow my preconceptions right out of the water. Their fifth studio release, Swagadocious, is a huge album that is full of high-energy blues-based funk and boogie.

The Kris Lager Band has spent the last ten years touring around the Midwest, and countless gigs have enabled them to not only master their instruments and stagecraft, but to find their own sound. Kris Lager heads up the crew with his scorching guitars and solid vocals. Jeremiah Weir plays the keyboards, Brandon Hiller takes care of the bass parts, and John Fairchild handles the drums and takes on some of the vocal and lap steel chores. The band also mixes horns in on five of the tracks to keep things interesting; it certainly helps take this album to places they have not been before.

If you buy Swagadocious you will get your money’s worth, as there is an hour and seven minutes of quality music stuffed into this package. This includes fifteen original tracks, and Lager gets writing credit on all of them. Right from the first verse it is evident that Kris is a great songwriter and that this is a band with great chops. “Come to Boogie / Now You Know” starts things out on a fun note with fat organ sounds and raunchy guitar tone over a rock-solid beat. Kris’ voice has a lot of soul and his blistering solo work helps this mid-tempo blues rock tune set the mood for the rest of the album.

The next track, “Sunny Day Souldier,” has a more laid back soul vibe, but the band still brings it on in a big way. Weirs’ Hammond and the tight horn section paint a nice background for Fairchild’s heartfelt vocals and the band’s harmonies. There is also a fun 1960’s-issue call and response, so there is no way to listen to this song and not come away in a good mood.

This segues into my favorite song on Swagadocious, “Daylight Come / There is No Place.” This guitar-driven psychedelic blues rock song has wide variations in tempo, but still maintains a constant tone and focus. Lager is at the top of his game on this one, with mad guitar skills and howling vocals. Hiller and Fairchild do a masterful job of holding things together as the song speeds up and slow down. I will have to sneak this one into the mix for my next DJ gig.

The Kris Lager Band is constantly evolving and trying new things, as you will hear throughout this album. John Fairchild even managed to slip a little rap and scratching into the funk-filled “Get Back,” not in a hardcore East Coast / West Coast manner, but more in the spirit of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. These guys are not afraid to try something different, and I think it worked out well in this case.

The late Magic Slim makes a guest appearance on an impromptu track, “Kris Done Took my Woman.” This 12-bar blues song makes the full use of Slim’s rich voice, and Kris backs off the distortion a little on his guitar to fit into this more traditional framework. This song was well-placed in the mix, as breaking things down to the basics provides a nice pause from the complexity of the other tracks on the album.

The other ten tracks are just as good as these, and the overall consistency is indicative of the maturity of this band as well as their musical and songwriting skills. Swagadocious sounds as big and fabulous as its title and there is plenty to like here; if you are a blues, funk or soul fan and are looking for something a little out of the ordinary you have to check this album out.

If you like their music, I understand that the guys have not let the grass grow under their feet, and are finishing up yet another album, Platte River Runaway. This is being produced by the heavy-hitting bluesman Tab Benoit, so I expect it to be just as good as Swagadocious. The Kris Lager Band is the real deal, and I expect only great things from them!

Mahalo!

Martin MSP4100 SP Light Phosphor Bronze Acoustic Guitar Strings Review

Hi!

Every now and then I experiment with different acoustic guitar strings, but so far I have always gone back to my favorites, the Martin Phosphor Bronze Acoustic Strings. Depending upon the instrument I use either the light or medium gauge sets. Today we are going to take a look at the light gauges set (part number MSP4100) that I use on my old Takamine dreadnought.

The light set includes the following gauges: 0.012, 0.016, 0.025, 0.032, 0.042 and 0.054. They have a high-quality steel core with a bronze coating, which is a great combination. The steel helps keep the strings from breaking (I cannot remember the last time I broke a Martin string), and the bronze helps the strings sound brighter for a longer period of time. Plus the bronze color looks really snazzy!

After installing a set of these strings it takes an hour of two of playing to get them to over their initial overly bright and crisp tone. They do not stretch very much, and once they settle in they have a beautifully even and sweet tone across all of the strings. This tone translates well for both recording and live performances.

The tone of these Martin strings holds up for a surprisingly long time. I play every day, and end up changing them out about once per month. As I said earlier, I never break these strings, even though I change to different tunings fairly often.

Some of my friends swear by the coated Elixir strings, and they do hold their tone around twice as long as the Martin strings, but they also cost twice as much. Plus I do not care for the feel of the Elixirs, and their tone does not fit in with my style of playing. Don’t get me wrong, Elixirs are very nice, but the Martins just work better for me.

Martin makes their Phosphor Bronze strings in Mexico, and right out of the package I have never had a bad string from them. But I have to point out that the one thing I do not care for is their packaging. The strings come in paper envelopes inside a cardboard box. I would prefer that they were in an airtight package, as I never know how long these strings have been sitting around at the store, and I believe that exposure to air and moisture degrades string performance over time.

Though the Martin MSP4100 Phosphor Bronze Light Acoustic Strings have a rather high list price of $16.79, you will find that the street price is about $5.50 per pack, which is comparable to other makers’ wares. They sound great and hold up well, so if you do not currently use them you should give them a try.

Mahalo!

2006 MusicMan SUB 5 Bass Review

Greetings!

Over the past few months we have been looking at a few of the Musicman SUB instruments that I have owned over the years, and here is another one, 2006 Musicman SUB 5 bass guitar.

Back in 2003, the Ernie Ball company wanted to provide a lower-cost alternative to their admittedly expensive guitars and basses; the Musicman 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 no polishing to complete. You may notice that it does not say “Ernie Ball” anywhere on this bass...

The SUB 5 was their take on the iconic Stingray 5 bass, which is one of the best-selling 5-strings of all time. This one has a non-contoured poplar body that is finished in textured Cinnamon, which was not a common color. It is a fascinatingly iridescent finish with bits of metal flake thrown in; in different lights it can look brown, gold or green. Many of the SUB instruments came with lame faux diamond plate pickguards, but the later ones came with a black plastic guard (like this one). Note that the SUB 5 got a pickguard that is shaped more like the Stingray 4 pickguard. I have never been a fan of the Stingray 5 guard, so I think this is an improvement.

The neck is maple (painted matte black) with a 11-inch radius rosewood fretboard and 21 high-profile, wide frets. This is a 34-inch scale instrument, and the neck is 1 3/4-inches wide at the compensated plastic nut (early SUB basses did not get the compensated nut). Just like their Ernie Ball brethren, the neck on SUB basses is attached to the body with six bolts and they get the usual truss rod wheel for easy adjustments.

The hardware is a bit cheaper than what is found on the Ernie Ball basses. The chrome-plated open gear tuners are not Schaller units, and thought he bridge is similar it seems a bit cheaper. They had to get the price down somehow, you know.

The electronics package is very Stingray 5-like, which is a good thing, especially if you are a country guy or gal. These basses came with a single Musicman humbucker that had a volume control and a 2-band EQ. I know they offered the 4-string basses in either active or passive configurations, and I heard rumors that the SUB 5 had the same option, but I never saw a passive one. Needless to say, this one was active.

And this was really a great bass, regardless of how much it cost (which wasn’t very much, really). The pickup was gnarly, and it had that distinctive thick Stingray growl that is perfect for rock. Though the hardware was not quite as good as Musicman’s higher-priced models, I never noticed any problems with sustain or tuner slippage.

The craftsmanship was what I expected to see coming out of San Luis Obispo – the neck pocket was tight and the frets were very well done, with nicely finished edges and a level fretboard. It weighed a bee’s dick over 10 pounds, and it balanced nicely on a strap. The non-contoured body bugged me a bit as I was used to contoured Stingrays by the time I got my grubby mitts on of one of these.

This was a very nice playing bass, but I am just not a 5-string guy, so it did not stick around for very long.

The MusicMan SUB 5 basses were made from 2003 to 2006, and they were the cheapest American-made 5-strings on the market with a list price of a little over $1000 and a street price of around $700 or so. On today’s used market they sell for about $400 or $500, which is still a smoking deal for a solid bass.

Mahalo!

Ray Price: January 12, 1926 to December 16, 2013

The music world lost a legend yesterday.

Rest in peace, Mr. Price.