Essential Listening

Like a lot of people I go through phases when it comes to listening to music. For a while I might listen to Jimi Hendrix or Johnny Winter and then not listen to them for months. Nevertheless there are some albums I listen to at least every couple of weeks since they never seize to amaze and inspire:

UNSHAVEN: Live At Smith's Ole' Bar (Billy Joe Shaver)

Hunter Carmichael turned me onto this guy. Billy Joe is the real deal Texas outlaw. I don't think he ever recorded any Waylon Jennings songs, (and then there is Honky Tonk Heroes...). Billy Joe's son Eddy is playing lead guitar and it is seriously bad-ass. Monster, MONSTER tone, insanely musical playing, and Eddy is solely responsible for my exploring Stratocasters more in a country/rock setting.

Trace (Son Volt)

I use to listen to Uncle Tupelo some, but I never quite could get past Jeff Tweedy's whining. Jay Farrar is an amazingly observative songwriter. He has his way with words (he inspired the names of two of my guitars), and has a quality, not unlike Mark Knopfler, where you have no clue what the fuck he's talking about unless you do some serious homework.

Trace chronicles Jay Farrar's travel from New Orleans to Minneapolis, driving along the great Mississippi river. Americana at it's best. This album also has a line that I kept close to heart after hearing it for the first time:

"Too much living is no way to die"

Interestingly, I read an article in the New York Times (I believe) about how articles written about Son Volt and Jay Farrar were always good and well written.

So turn up the non-profit radio.

Folklore (16 Horsepower)

"Goth-a-Billy" is the best way I've heard this band described. I have no clue what they're singing about, but it calms me down.

Tape Head (King's X)

Although the probably shouldn't be, and can't be labeled this way, this is the only band out of the '80s that I do like (Although Guns 'n Roses was alright too). They can be pretty friggin' heavy, but, like the Beatles, they have never recorded a negative song. That includes songs like "I Hate You" and "Go To Hell".

A Night At The Opera (Queen)

This album, and "A Day At The Races", also by Queen were actually required listening during my music classes when I was in high school. But at the time I didn't understand it completely. Even though I was heavily into the late '60s, early 70's British scene, it was mainly centered around the London blues-rock scene. The Cambridge scene, from which Queen hails, had a more avant garde quality (hell... Allan Holdsworth came from Cambridge), and it took me a while to appreciate that.

This album is the epiphany of a classic rock album. Unlike all these idiots with their "concept albums", who likened themselves to the great classical composers (Tom Schultz anybody?), Queen was one of the few that could pull it off, and that without claiming to be the shit. Great orchestration, great harmonies, great guitar playing. Do I need say more?

Monty Python (John Cleese, Michael Palin, et all) also hail from Cambridge, whom I also didn't appreciate during my high school day, but now totally dig. Nobody expects the Inquisition! Back then I was into Rowan Atkinson, and his various characters (Mr. Bean, Blackadder and the Devil (even though you could call him Toby, if you would have liked), who is definitely from the Oxford school of comedy)

My pedalboard

This is my current pedalboard setup. The signal chain is as follows: Barber Tone Press--> Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive --> Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde --> Boss GE7 --> Ernie Ball volume --> Z-Vex Super Hard-On --> Line6 DL4 Delay Modeler --> Peterson StroboStomp. The circus is powered by a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2.

The Barber Electronics Tone Press is one of the coolest compressors I've heard so far. Most people don't realize that most compressors reverse the guitars phase, which sucks the life out of every note you play. This unit uses parallel compression, meaning that you can blend your natural signal with a compressed signal, with the compressed signal being phase corrected. I bought this on recommendation of my friend Hunter Carmichael. Nevertheless, he prefers his C-Mat Mods compressor because the Tone Press is a bit too bright for him. I usually have plenty of low end, so this doesn't bother me. I have this thing on all the time.

The Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive has been modded by Brian Wampler at Indyguitarist in Trafalgar, Indiana. Like all Tubescreamer/808 chip based overdrive units, it has too much mids for my taste, so Brian took some out. Voodoo Labs claims that this pedal is true by-pass, which is nonsense. It contains a buffer that's always in the circuit, wether the pedal is on or off. Granted, it hasn't bothered me, but it bugs me people claim untrue things. I pretty much use this pedal to give my clean signal a bit of hair.

I like the Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde quite a bit. It has an 808 inspired overdrive and a distortion that'll allow you to get anything from blues to raging Marshall stacks, thanks to an EQ function. When I play my Teles, I usually set up the overdrive side for a lead tone for my bridge pick-up, and the distortion side for my neck pick-up, OR I'll set it up for slide guitar with plenty gain.

The pedal has two downsides: it's pretty big and shaped awkwardly, so it's a bitch to put on your pedalboard with all the other pedals, and the pedal has two switches which are easy to step on, causing either your tone to change, or loose volume, when the switch is between positions (this happens quite a bit). It can be a real pain in the ass. Visual Sound did re-design this pedal and moved these switches closer to the foot-switches. I haven't tried this upgrade, yet.

The Boss GE7 is a stock equalizer. I use it for quite a few different things. When I don't like the tone coming out of my amp, I use the pedal to color the tone a little bit. When I'm playing Strats, I use it as a clean-boost, but I can push the frequencies I want. The way the pedal is dialed in in the picture is to give my Fender blues Jr. amp a bit more definition. These amps are pretty muddy, and I've already thrown out the stock Fender speaker and replaced it with a Jensen. It sounds better, but is still a bit muddy. The GE7 does wonders. Stock it's a bit noisy, so I'm gonna have to have Brian Wampler have a look at it.

Next up is Ernie Ball VPjr. I had Brian add a volume knob to this volume pedal, alowing for a minimum volume. I can do pedal-steel type swells without having to worry about losing signal all the way. I can also go from rhythm volume to lead volume without having to precisely push the pedal.

Unfortunately this mod is passive, so I the volume pedal dropped my signal level quite a bit. That's where the Z-Vex Super Hard-On comes in. This is one of the most transparent clean boosts I've heard, but it pushes all frequencies, so I use it to make my volume pedal active, and kind of like an overall volume control for my pedalboard.

The only reason I bought the Line6 DL4 was because of the tap delay. I hate my repeats being out of time. Quite a few delay functions have a considerable volume drop, which I hate, because even though they sound good as they are, they're useless on stage. I know that Robert Keeley offers a mod for this pedal, but that a $100,= I don't have right now.

The last pedal is a Peterson StroboStomp. It's an insanely precise strobe tuner, which you can program for pretty much whatever tuning you want, using the physics of tempered tuning . It also has a active D/I with ground lift, so it's great for acoustic guitar. The only downside to this pedal, like the Jekyll & Hyde, is that the two button you use to program the unit are in line with the foot-switch, so occasionally I step on 'm, forcing me to bend over and push buttons to get the pedal in tuning mode. Also, the ground lift is located inside the pedal, so if you have to change the ground, you actually have to unplug the pedal, take it off your pedalboard and open it up.

Other pedals that I currently have, but don't have to use right now:

-Maxon OD808 overdrive, modded by Indyguitarist (took out some mids).

-Maxon Phase999 phaser.

-Analog Man Black Cat OD-1, a Bradshaw Freddy Fuzz clone. This is the only Fuzz I know that works with wireless units.

-Morley JD-10. This is the Jerry Donahue Signature Pre-amp. Amazing pedal.

-MXR DynaComp, modded by Brian Wampler to act like an old Ross compressor. It's similar to the Keeley compressor.

-Boss DD3 delay, again modded by Brian, to sound a bit warmer.

-Boss BF2 flanger.

-Morley Little Alligator, the Steve Vai signature active volume pedal, with volume knob.

-Dunlop Cry-Baby wah, modded by Brian. He made it true by-pass (it's beyond me why Dunlop doesn't do this) and voiced it to my specs.

-Visual Sound Route66 compressor/overdrive.

-Arion SCH-Z stereo chorus. An amazing pedal for 20 bucks. Brian modded it nonetheless to make it a bit more transparent.

Flat Stanley

Nephew Taylor from Jonesboro, AR has a Flat Stanley project going on at his school, and he sent his Flat Stanley to Nashville. See for yourselves:

Here's Flat Stanley with Ed Beaver (left) and Mark Easterling (other left). Ed builds the guitars and Mark plays the hell out of them. Mark can actually (well... very probably) tell you on what date back in 1953 Leo Fender decided on changing tone pot manufacturer. His tone is insane. I've learned a lot from these guys.

This is Flat Stanley chilling out with Steve Cochran, aka Slip, who is also attempting to be flat, at least for the occasion. Steve is another great friend and a hell of a soundman who works for Meyer Sound. He also knows his way around 4-wheelers quite well. This guy also started calling me Headley, which obviously stuck. He claims that it was inspired by the movie Blazing Saddles, after Headley Lamar, which I accepted. Then I looked on top off our Prevost tourbus and saw that the air horns are made by a company called Hadley. Hhhhmmmmm................ Slip??

Randy Gabbard knows more about tube amps than you and me, put together. He's responsible for many awesome pedalboards that float around Nashville. He also speaks English quite well, but he's not so good at German. Ich musse Pee-pee machen!

Telecasters

Here are my Telecasters. The one on the left, Arthemis, was built for me by Ed Beaver, as a little sister to Kreosote, of which you'll find a description under Stratocasters. I'm not sure what wood was used for the body, but I believe it's ash. She has a maple neck with a 17" radius ebony fretboard. Kluson tuners, Joe Barden bridge. Originally the guitar had a GFS Lil' Puncher in the bridge (which is a Barden clone) and a Bartolini PBF-47 in the neck position, kinda like a '70s Fender Telecaster custom. I ended up not liking this set-up, for one because GFS pickups are insanely cheapo. I had them in my other Tele for a while and loved it, but apparently GFS has some consistency issues.

So then Ed became a Joe Barden dealer, and we put a set of Joe Barden T-model p/ups in the guitar. Great pick-ups but slightly too bright for my taste. I was able to get really cool tone with the Bardens and my Fender Blues Deluxe 4x10 amp, but the guitar was too bright for my Dr Z. Maz38 Sr. (For one, a stock 1x12 Dr Z. Maz38 Sr. has a 16 Ω Celestion Vintage 30. It is beyond me why Dr Z. decided to use a 16Ω speaker on an amp that's bright enough as it is. I've since replaced it with an 8Ω Nick Greer Special Design, which sounds like a cross between a Weber Blue Bell and a Weber Silver Bell).

*note*: Mark Easterling told me about a trick you can do with a Barden T-model bridge pick-up: Since it has three screws to hold it in place, you can screw the treble side of the pick-up, the blade closest to the saddles, all the way down, with the bass side sticking up. You'll get more bottom end out of the pickup that way.

Anyways, as it turned out, Ed had promised Brian Wooten, of Trace Adkins band, a set of Barden T-models. So he needed mine back. I ended up trading pick-ups with Brian and took over his Kinman AVn-60's, which I absolutely love. Punchy, articulate, clean and very woody, and that's what I use now.

The guitar on the right, Bitch, started out as a Fender Nashville Tele, and has a Parsons/Green B-bender. Stock, the guitar had a maple neck. The original neck was an insane piece of shit. The wood was so stiff that the truss would not even move so I ended up stripping the truss. I took that neck and put it out with the rest of the trash, after battling with Fender's customor service. I then bought a birdseye maple Warmoth neck with a compound radius. When I got it in the mail and checked it out it felt funky. I called them and they told me that if you weren't used to a compound radius neck, you need to get used too it. Okay... I put that neck on.

The guitar had always sound shrilly bright to me, so Ed suggested putting one of his necks on there, so now Bitch has a Stratocaster type maple neck with ebony fretboard. This is when we discovered why the Warmoth felt funky; it was warped. Even though the neck was still under warranty, Warmoth pretty much told me to go fuck myself, so to hell with them.

Yet the guitar was still too bright, but I had an excellent job waiting tables so I could afford experimenting with pickups a little bit. Originally the guitar had Fender Texas Specials which are overrated beyond belief, I discovered. A Fender Texas Special is seriously nothing more then an over-wound stock Fender pickup. After a string of different pick-ups (DiMarzio, GFS, Rio Grande and such, I decided on the Seymour Duncan Vintage stacks, which is essentially a humbucker.

As you've probably figured out by looking at the picture, Bitch is a tribute to Clarence White and Marty Stuart, who both inspired my to explore Telecasters. Besides the visuals, she even has a Scruggs banjo D-tuner. I had Ed put one of those Scruggs on my high E-string as well, as was done by Clarence and Marty, so I could instantly go to a semi-open G tuning for banjo rolls, but I ended up stripping it and took it off.

My own band.

I've been contemplating my own band. Band names I've come up with so far:

"Twisted Sistah" (this would be a black metal band)
"Death Row Tull" (psychedelic rap-core with flute)
"Sheet Metal"
"Sheet Rock"
"Grand Theft FEMA Trailer"

I also considered going with Frëd Böekhörst.

My friend Jason Murphy, who teaches philosophy at Saint Louis University, in Saint Louis, even though he questions his occupation, sent a very helpful Email of which I not only copied but also blatantly pasted an excerpt for your reading pleasure:

A way to conquer Nashville.
 
I have grown excited about an idea for a band, called BUCK HORSE AND NIJMEGEN. Because I am a genius, this band name and the following song titles can worked in country, metal, and western styles.
 
So have at it.  These are free of charge
 
Buck Horse and Nijmegen
 
Song Titles
 
“It’s Time to Skate So Eat My Dutch”
 
“Havana on the Waal, ya’ll”  (Rap?)
 
“Let This Windmill Grind Your Grain”
 
“We Need More Guilders in Gelderland”
 
“All of My Ex’s Live in Zaltbommel”
 
“Johann Cruyff Can Still Kick Peyton Manning’s Ass”
He’d knock that pointy-baller off the pitch
Oh, Johann Cruyff we want you to wear orange
We miss totall football, total football.
  (sung to Danny Boy)
 
“Ain’t Nuff Flava in Flevoland”  (Rap?)
 
“I Wanna Waxima Maxima”

Thanks Jason

Stratocasters

Here are my Stratocasters. From left to right:

A custom built Ed Beaver Stratocaster. I call her Tempest, after Tempest Storm, the stripper. Ash body, birdseye maple neck with a technically and mathematically infinite radius, which I decided to do after a conversation with Mark Easterling, a guitar bad-ass who has all his guitars set up this way. Gotoh 1088TW tremelo bridge, Planet Waves auto-clipping tuners. P/up's: They're all made by Rio Grande, but have different flavors: Stelly (bridge), Halfbreed (middle) and a Vintage Texas Tallboy (neck). This guitar was the first Ed Beaver I owned.

The second guitar is basically a stock Fender Stratocaster. She's named Bettie, after Bettie Page.
(Hmm... there's a pattern going on with these names. Put on your tinfoil hats.) It's got Rio Grande Vintage Texas Tallboy Pickups and the only other things that are not stock are the tuners, which are Sperzels, I put on some Graphtech saddles, and the pickguard. I also took out the tone pots to get a purer tone, but I ended up wiring one back in because I got too much high end. This guitar has been through a lot. I bought it new @ Guitar Center in Hollywood, CA in 1999 for $799.=, and took it to Memphis, TN to play the blues and anything else that made money. She has flown across stages, through a window (my bad), spent time on a grill (drunk fratboy's bad) and has been used as defensive weapon. I love playing this guitar. It's got a cool vibe and she'll occasionally let me do some Eddy Shaver inspired stuff.

The guitar on the right is Kreosote, another Ed Beaver custom guitar. I am actually not quite sure what the body is made out of, but it's wood for sure. Maple neck with an ebony fretboard, Planet Waves auto-clipping tuners. Hardtail bridge. P/ups: Bartonlini PBF50 (bridge) and a Bartolini PBF-47 (neck). These are some of the coolest humbuckers I've heared. Punchy yet clear. Ed wired the pickups so that when the tone pots are all the way open, you actually ground out a coil, creating a single-coil pickup. The Bartolini's actually sound like true single-coils when the coil is tapped.

You can't really see it, but Kreosote has tons of burn marks on the head stock after she was put to use as a fireworks launching device during a gig @ Lake Martin in Alabama. It burnt and melted the plastic on the tuners. I've been out of tune since.

Okay... post number one.

I have nothing to say, so I'm with whatever you have to say for yourself, preferably to yourself. I will also stick with it, even if you don't.