Gonzo Guitar

1990 Les Paul Custom in White

2010-03-16T16:45:00.007-04:00

This baby was the one I always wanted. I've been a Les Paul fan ever since I had even a passing interest in guitars. While others lusted after the gorgeous sunburst standard models, for some reason I had an even stronger lust for the Les Paul custom, particularly a beautifully-aged white (cream) color.

Well I found this beauty on Ebay for a very reasonable price. Part of the reason for the deal was the fact there had been many mods on the guitar. From my understanding, the first owner was a heavy metal/hair metal player who likely had a Randy Rhodes fetish. The custom had gold speed knobs like Randy's (as opposed to black). The headstock had been drilled into and refitted with a Floyd Rose locking tremolo system, and high gain pickups installed.

Second owner got the guitar and went "Holy F***! What has this guy done with this beautiful instrument!" He took off the Floyd, ditched the woofy metal pickups, and installed 57 Classics.

There were some discolorations and some slight scratches in the finish, but that didn't bother me at all. It had been played a fair bit which isn't a bad thing and when I got it I was surprised at how well intact the frets were. They were squared off instead of rounded (probably for jazz play), and set beautifully into the ebony board with large block inlays. The 57 Classics sounded pretty good and handled jazz, classic rock and even some country playing. The action was also the lowest I have ever seen or felt on a guitar which makes sense as that's what these guitars are known for.

When the Les Paul Custom first came out they were known as "light touch" guitars. The low action meant you couldn't play too aggressively. Again a great guitar for jazz.

I traded the guitar in a few months after getting it. Why? Well it was a great instrument. I can't say I was really dissapointed in the quality of the workmanship. The one drawback it had was that it was HEAVY even for a Les Paul. It was at least a pound heavier than my LP studio and a good 3 pounds heavier than my Tokai LP sunburst. The custom actually sounded a lot like the Tokai (which carries a Dimarzio virtual PAF pickup in the bridge).

It actually sounded too much like the Tokai. My first thought was getting rid of the Tokai but as it was lighter and would fetch a much lower price than the Custom, I let my dream guitar go.

He shoots. He sings part II - NHL Telecasters

2010-01-01T10:26:00.004-05:00

In some ways I can't think of an odder combination than NHL hockey and the Fender Telecaster.

When I think of Telecasters I tend to think of places like Tennessee, Georgia and Bakersfield, California which aren't exactly hotbeds of hockey (sorry Gary Bettman). Still Robbie Robertson played the Tele and he's as Canadian as you can get.

Now to the guitars. They are part of a limited series of 100 guitars put out by Fender which had a clear pick guard and the emblem of one of several NHL teams on them. These two are for sale if you're interested. The top one on Kijiji, and the bottom one on E-bay. Click the links to find their respective web pages, but act soon or the items will be gone and the links will be broken. And take a deep breath before you check out the asking prices. For what it's worth, one player of these limited edition models describes the guitars as nothing special in terms of sound, but for the die-hard hockey fan they may be worth it due to the fact that they're so rare. I wonder how many of the 100 are residing with Canadian owners?

Hey Little Dude

2009-12-23T15:10:00.013-05:00

The Ovation "Little Dude" was a failure of a marketing name for more than one reason - The first of which was the fact it wasn't so little. I recall mine weighing a small ton. Of course it didn't help that one of the handles had come off and the thing was covered in slippery black leather and was extremely awkward to carry. Of course I shouldn't be too unkind. It was made in the era of poor PA systems so a guy needed a huge amp just to be heard in any sort of decent sized club.

Still, what were they thinking when they came up with the name? Granted this ad is from 1970 so perhaps they thought hippies would find the name comforting. Frankly I can see it causing more problems than not. Imagine you're playing a gig and the guitarist from the opening band comes up.

"Dude, I dig your amp. What is it?"

"You mean this Little Dude?"

"Yeah"

Awkward silence reigns until the first guitarist asks again. "But like what kind of amp is it?"

"I told you. It's a Little Dude."

"Yeah, funny man. Look, if you don't wanna tell me it's fine. Just because you're the headliner doesn't mean you can screw me around okay? I was just asking a "f*ckin friendly question!"

You'll lose more potential friends with these amps, but get a great reputation about being secretive with your gear.

But back to my personal story. I got this amp in early to mid 80s the same time I got the Raven SG pictured on the right. They both came from a pawn shop that was operated by two men nearing their 70s who were the biggest characters I ever met - and probably the biggest rip-off artists.

They told me this was a tube amp - which it wasn't, but to demonstrate the tone, one guy plugged in the guitar cranked it up and started wailing away on some Clapton licks. The sight of this old geezer tearing it up on a hundred watt amp at nearly full volume with sound pressure levels high enough to shake the windows made me want to buy it. I think I paid about $200 for it, which in 1980s dollars was probably more than it was worth, as they go for about the same price now. Ovation only made these for 2 years before abandoning them. Perhaps the name put people off.

That amp never sounded quite as good as it did in the pawnshop. First of all, I could never turn it up to it's "sweet-spot" in my parent's house or my first small apartment. Early transistor amps like this one are likely what gave solid state a bad rap in the guitar amp department. Most of the time I played it, it was cold and lifeless sounding. Of course, I could barely play back then so it could have been me.

Still, the thing looked cool. The black leather covering was neat. It often did in a pinch as an extra chair or table when needed. And it had it's own reverb tank so if you bumped into it, it made a massive crashing sound.

Unfortunately, I went through a phase between university and my first few years of work where I moved 13 times in 10 years. I also lived in several 3 and 4 floor walk-ups. After schlepping this thing through a couple of moves I left it at a friends house for a few years, where it got loaned out to another friend then slowly vanished along with the SG guitar.

The Irresistable Lure of Brian Jones' Teardrop Guitar

2009-11-28T21:18:00.008-05:00

An enigmatic man needs and enigmatic guitar. No one knew this more than ex-Rolling Stone Brian Jones.

At the beginning, leader of men - notably Keith, Mick, Bill and Charlie. Originally the Stones were Brian's band. However, when manager Andrew Loog-Oldham started locking Mick and Keith into empty rooms with their guitars to create a hit songwriting duo, Brian became the odd-man out.

For a while, before drugs and his backyard pool took an end to his life, Brian was still the fashionable figurehead of the band. The Stone with style. And no more so was that evident in his choice of the Vox Teardrop guitar. This has to be one of the sexiest pieces of modern design ever conceived. Simple black on white. Male and female shapes. In many ways the yin and yang of electric guitars.

I always wanted one, but the originals are rare and are well beyond my wallet. Thankfully Phantom Guitars in Oregon makes a relatively affordable copy and I was lucky enough to find a used one on Ebay for an even more affordable price.

Here's the one I bought. Very similar to Brian's original. The knobs were slightly different (white plastic instead of metal) but otherwise an incredibly faithful visual reproduction. The finish was top-notch. These guitars play like a dream. The round shape feels comfortable against the body, the neck feels great and they are beautifully balanced. Holding one of these will also guarantee you'll stand out on any stage or bandstand.

If you are sensing a BUT here, you are right. I loved everything about this guitar except the sound. The sound was definitely thin. Well the guitar has narrow single coil pickups so that was to be expected. There's always a trade-off between thin and bright right? Not here. Not only was the sound thin but it lacked any brightness at all.

I was tempted to see if I could find new pickups for it even though they were an oddball rectangle design. However, I wasn't sure that was the problem. I think it was more likely a lack of good string tension. The strings merely passed through the back of the bridge rather than through the body (such as on a Telecaster or Strat) I could have tried to get someone to custom make me a new bridge but that seemed a lot of work since I couldn't guarantee it would solve the problem.

Reluctantly, I traded it in when I bought my next piece of gear. It's too bad. Looking back I should have had more photos taken of me playing it. Of course, I could never be quite as cool as Brian Jones.

He shoots! He sings!

2009-11-25T20:18:00.008-05:00

Hmmm, do I want to play music or hockey tonight? Well with the Gretsch TK-300 you can do both. This beauty is currently being auctioned off on Craigslist which is where I got the photo.

These guitars were made in the mid-to-late 1970s. They look so un-Gretsch that its hard to believe the company actually made these. You can tell the influence that the Japanese guitar manufacturers with their love for pointy shapes were having on the market. I think the Victoriaville hockey stick factory provided the neck and headstock. (Umm, I'm only kidding about that).

As for what it sounds like you can check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/mattiddings

Not too shabby after all!

Universal Truth #5 - Hair is Important in Christian Music

2009-11-09T23:06:00.031-05:00

As many of you know, live music is re-emerging as a way to get parishioners back to visiting their houses of worship on a regular basis. Christian pop music has become popular again. In fact, it's easier to get a gig at a church as it is in a bar these days.

Christian pop has long been a fixture in the U.S. and while I don't follow the genre religiously (pun intended) there is one thing I have noticed about the visual style of the performers. Much like Duran Duran was all about the billowy shirts, Christian Pop is all about the hair. Let's take a quick walk through some Christian Pop history and see what we find:

As for the title - I'm sure these three ladies meant it in the nicest way. Now lets take a look at the coifs. They're difficult NOT to notice hunh? Hair so large and unnatural that it warps the face to the point that you can't really be sure they're actually women. The one with the glasses reminds me of an interviewer with the BBC in London. His name is Nigel something or other.

Okay that's one example you say. It doesn't prove a thing. Let's move on to

Yeah. For some reason when I see these ladies I suddenly get an urge for Jiffy Pop. Perhaps the hair was meant to distract you from the identical home-made dresses. Or the fact that green and red are the worst colors to mix when printing text. They probably used the album as a test for color blindness.

Okay, to the 80s now. Lest anyone think I'm picking on the fairer sex - let's have a look at how the guys stack up hair-wise. Here's Mylon LeFevre (Mylon???). During the 70s Mylon actually played with the likes of Duane Allman, Eric Clapton and George Harrison. He even won a Grammy. Then, after a near fatal drug overdose in 1980, he devoted his life to Jesus and cleaned up his act.

What did he do with his new found sobriety? He grew his hair of course. Perhaps he felt he had to do it from an aesthetic point of view in order to balance out the crocheted blouse and ornamental neck-piece. For what it's worth he's still preaching and has his own ministry. His website is http://www.mylon.org/

If you don't recognize her hair then surely you recognize her face. Yes its Lisa Whelchel who played Blair from the Facts of Life TV show. Lisa's talents also ventured to singing and in the 1980s I remember her being booked to perform at a church not too far from where I lived in Brampton, Ontario. I had a crush on her and even though I wasn't a Baptist, I almost went to see her sing. Almost. Hey, I was probably about 13 and all my friends were into heavy metal. Who was I going to go with? Anyways, back to the hair. It's big, it's Christian, but from a guy who grew up in the 80s, it also rocks. If you're going to have big hair and your a woman, this is how you want to look.

Now we come to the present. This is a publicity photo for a Christian rock band called Skillet. For the most part the hair is now subdued. But the fellow in the front has adopted a coif that, while smaller, pays homage to Christian hairdoos gone by. Personally, I think his stylist was trying to do a Geraldine,(see below) but just didn't have the volume needed to get the job done.

GEAR - The Raven SG circa 1970s

2009-11-08T16:22:00.013-05:00

Sometimes it is not until we get older that we appreciate certain things. That's certainly the case with the guitar I'm about to talk about. When I was a teenager I wanted a Les Paul badly, but even a relatively inexpensive copy was hard to come by for under $300 in those days. Knowing I didn't really like my Strat, I went to a pawn shop to get another guitar and amp. The guitar I came out with was this Raven SG copy.

From the research I've done it seems like Raven's were made in the Far East for the Canadian market. While a budget brand, they were well made. Even though I was far from knowledgeable about such things at the time, looking back I recall the guitar had pretty decent action and was relatively well set up and easy to play.

As I gaze at the photo, I'm struck by just how cool a guitar this was. Neck and headstock binding and block inlays starting at the first fret gave it a very upscale look. Then there's the obvious aftermarket pickup upgrade in the bridge. When played wide open on a small tube amp this thing probably roared. Too bad I was using it on a big transistorized beast, but I'll get more into that on another post.

Of course the tastiest part of this whole guitar lies behind the bridge with a Bigsby style vibrato unit (or whammy bar as we used to call it back in the old days). I've never seen a Bigsby on Gibson SG and I have no idea if this sweet piece of hardware came stock on this copy-guitar or was installed afterwards like the pickup.

These Bigsby style units only have a semi-tone worth of give - which really wouldn't cut it for 80s hair metal playing - but they have a very sweet sound when used properly. The major drawback of the hardware is its heaviness but on a light SG it works perfectly to balance the guitar and keep it from being neck heavy.

So what happened to this instrument? Well after learning basic major and minor chords and little else I gave up on the guitar. I moved a few times and the massive amp I had was really getting in the way. I left the amp and guitar in a friend's basement and years went by without me asking for it back. Eventually it was loaned to another friend and from there it disappeared. Now that I can play better, I often wish I had it back even for an afternoon to take it out for a run and see just what it could do.

GEAR - The allure of the White Stratocaster

2009-11-02T08:59:00.011-05:00

In a previous post, I told you all about my first guitar - a catalogue grade plunker that I returned so I could get a better instrument at the guitar store. And this is the instrument. A Harmony Stratocaster copy circa late 70s.

To tell you the truth, I still wasn't entirely happy with this guitar either. You have to remember this was the early 1980s and everyone was playing what later became known as hair metal. The guitars of choice were Super-Strats with high gain pickups and the popular guitar colors ranged from bright red to lime green and banana yellow.

And what of this thing before me? Without even thinking about how it sounded my eyes were already disappointed by it's drab look. It was technically "white" but in reality white on a Strat - even most copies - is a dull beige. Why were they even selling guitars in this color? Well of course now I know. Jimi with an "i" played one of these, and he played it on film in concert movies such as Woodstock. Drab as it is, this color is associated with the magical creativity of one man.

Does that mean the guitar plays any better? Ummm no. It's all poppycock (as the British say) really. If spending half a million on a 1959 Les Paul isn't going to make you sound like Jimmy Page, having a white Strat certainly won't make you sound like Hendrix.

Of course, THIS guitar isn't even a real Strat. It's a Japanese copy. Even so, its pickups were bright and weak just like a regular Fender model. And that's really not a great thing when you're trying to play Van Halen riffs through the 100-Watt solid-state amp which can be glimpsed behind the guitar. The sound coming out of there was cold and lifeless. I eventually bought a distortion pedal which made things sound a little better but it still wasn't inspiring.

What else was wrong? Compared to the guitars I have now, the action was incredibly high. For fingers not used to playing, it was painful. I knew enough to adjust the action by fiddling with the tiny screws on each string saddle, but never had the courage to try to adjust the truss rod (which is probably what it needed). It was also a makeshift hardtail Strat. It looked like the whammy-bar had been broken off by the previous owner but either he or the guitar tech had done a pretty good job in adjusting the bridge piece so there wasn't a lot of give.

I never quite liked the maple fingerboard either. The thick varnish they used on it didn't give a very good feel to the guitar when I played it. The one thing I did like was the headstock. A bit smaller and less round on the end than the Fender's, I still prefer it visually to the real strat.

After several years of storage, I ended up giving it to a friend. After getting another Strat copy later in life (a Tokai), I ended doing the same with it. I'm not sure why, but I don' t really like Strats. Perhaps because I've never played a real Fender version.

Actually I think it's more to to do with the scale length as well as they way it sounds. Or maybe I haven't spent enough time trying to coax the magic out of those single coil pickups. The Strat is the world's most popular guitar. There must be a reason - and not just the color of the paint.

GEAR - The Beautiful Simplicity of PRS SE One guitar

2009-10-11T20:50:00.017-04:00

In the world of Rock and Roll, simpler is often better. In the 1950s, what made Rock and Roll different from other popular music was both the small size of the band (often a trio) and the raw simplicity of the music. So it's no surprise that simple, but well made guitars and amplifiers have been a staple of the genre since almost day one.

The PRS SE One guitar at left is the perfect example of stripped down functionality at its best. It's based on the Gibson Les Paul Junior design which was originally made as a student guitar but caught on with many pro players from Leslie West to Billie Joe Armstrong.

The PRS SE One has a similar pedigree. The SE stands for Student Edition and boasts a relatively budget price. Don't let that fool you however - despite being half the cost of a similar Gibson, the PRS sports several design improvements. The lower cutaway is sculpted for easier access to the higher frets, while the back is slightly contoured to your body so it doesn't dig into your ribs.

Another difference is the scale. At 25 inches, it's a little longer than the Gibson which gives it slightly more string tension and a bit of a snappier sound. The action is also less rubbery if you prefer light strings such as .09s. It also has a wrapover bridge and a soapbar pickup which has that fat, toneful and slightly ragged sound that's typical of the design.

The neck is one of the most comfortable I have played and once you pick it up, it's hard to put down. But perhaps the thing I like most is what it doesn't have. Rather than separate volume and tone controls it only has one knob - volume. Like most electric guitars however, lowering the volume also bleeds off some of the treble so it's a tone control as well - plus it responds to the dynamic nature of your playing. Here's a short clip of me improvising some blues on it through a Fender Pro Jr. amp

In the darkness of a club if you want to adjust your volume or tone you have to quickly select one of as many as four knobs - not an easy feat when you're playing. With only one knob to worry about it's a lot easier to use. And there's good reason to use it. The volume knob gives you a host of options in a cranked amp. Set up a good distorted lead tone on 10, then roll the volume back to give yourself a nice crunch or clean sound.

Here's an example. In this short video I start off with the volume on 1, and do a near clean verse of Sweet Home Alabama. I notch it up to 5 for a great AC/DC sound, then up to 10 for some hairy, distorted Neil Young.

Contrast the SE One to this feature-full but mind boggling old Harmony below and you can imagine which is easier to change on the fly.

The PRS SE One is not only a great guitar for the money, it's a great guitar - period. While it's made in Asia to keep the price down, its playability ranks up with any professional guitar I've picked up.

PART II - Universal Truth #4 - Music will take you places - including some places you'd rather not go

2009-10-10T11:16:00.001-04:00

For many people, strippers and Rock and Roll go together like rum and Coke (or heroin and death for that matter). Both lifestyles are associated with sex, drugs, travel and lots of heavy partying. Perhaps that's why people forge a mental connection between the two.

By late 1989, I had developed a good reputation at the magazine I was working for. As one of three music writers I was responsible for covering many of the acts that gigged regularly in the west end of Toronto. I had already interviewed the likes of Mick Taylor, Nash the Slash and had developed a niche as the classic rock specialist at a time when classic rock was still a happening part of the scene. That's why I found my next assignment a little confusing. I knew something was up the way my editor, Stephen, hemmed and hawed as he spoke to me on the phone. The conversation went something like this. Keep in mind the prevailing rock attitude in 1989 was heterosexual in the extreme.

Stephen: Ummm, your next assignment is a little different. It's a uh, well - they call themselves the Hotshots.

Me: What sort of music do they play?

Stephen: Well ummm. They don't. They dance though. Have you ever heard of Chippendales dancers?

Me: What? You mean they're the female equivalent?

Stephen: No. They're guys.

Me: Male strippers?! You want me to cover male strippers!? I'm the rock guy?

Stephen: Well they kind of go together you know. Strippers and rock bands.

Me: Groupies maybe. Female groupies. These are guys!!

I think he knew his logic was flawed so he changed his tact. This story needed some "delicacy" in its delivery and he felt I was the only one who could write it and keep it clean. It was probably a lie, but it worked and I accepted the story. Thankfully I didn't have to go see one of their shows. I could interview their spokes-stripper on the phone.

The guy I interviewed was actually very cool and had a good sense of humor about what he did. The article was relatively painless to put together and I even had enough confidence in my masculinity to put my name on the by-line.

Looking back on my article the thing that amuses me most is the line about their group getting into a fight with Chippendales over the rights to use a name once associated with old furniture and two animated chipmunks.

I am sure the fight was metaphorical and involved legal teams rather than fisticuffs, but I still have this Jerry Springer type image in my mind of a battle-royale between the two groups and all you can see are massive shoulders and little pre-tied bow ties flying everywhere.

As to Mr. Lyndall, whom I interviewed. I tried looking him up on the web without success. He must have retired from stripping to a quiet public relations job somewhere - his co-workers quite unaware of his past.

Universal Truth #4 - Music will take you places - including some places you'd rather not go

2009-10-02T16:16:00.024-04:00

During the age when live music was still king, low level jazz cats often got regular gigs playing music for exotic dancers in raucous burlesque houses and strip-joints. One famous example is actor Bob Crane.

Primarily known for his title character in Hogan's Heroes, Crane's first job in showbiz was as a drummer playing with the Connecticut Symphony Orchestra when he was only 16. Following a move out west, Crane became a popular disc-jockey at KNX radio in Hollywood and parlayed his notoriety into acting gigs.

Always a musician at heart, the story goes that he started playing strip-clubs for fun and to keep up his musical chops. After hitting the big time with Hogan's Heroes, he often showed off his skill at "beating the skins" on TV variety shows such as the Red Skelton Hour from which this video is taken. Have a look...

This video is eerily prescient in its symbolism. Crane's regular strip-joint gigs meant that he was often surrounded by others with voyeuristic tastes and strong sexual appetites. His own appetites continued to grow and eventually he was introduced to a man by the name of John Henry Carpenter - a salesman of early video equipment. He and Carpenter began a sordid friendship which involved picking up numerous women and videotaping their sexual liaisons.

Crane's sexual tendencies became known throughout Hollywood and TV work soon dried up. After a while things reportedly became tense between Crane and Carpenter, but their relationship ended when Crane was found bludgeoned to death in June of 1978. While Carpenter was suspected, he was never convicted of the murder.

Crane's death was as infamous as his life and photos of the gory crime scene are far too accessible in this age of Google. So much so that the site where I got his headshot actively discourages people from doing an image search of him.

Oddly enough this blog post was supposed to be about me, but I've written so much about Bob, you'll have to wait until my next post to find out the connection between me, music and strippers. Thankfully my story is much less tragic.

Mr. Bat Sings

2009-09-15T18:48:00.007-04:00

I got this from my friends at Show and Tell Music. It's from a 1981 album that few people have actually listened to, but the cover lives on in infamy as one of the most disturbing of all time.

Was Mr. Batt a refugee from the mad house? Or a jazz artist named Harold Battiste?

All evidence supports the former if anything . Mr. Batt was a white gospel singer - very white apparently - and his music had no thematic connection whatsoever to clowns.

According to the album cover he was accompanied by the enigmatic Mrs. L.E. Tweten - perhaps on a circus organ. Whether he was trying to imitate KISS or Pagliacci is unknown, but he is to music, what John Wayne Gacy is to art.

GEAR - The Bizzare story of The Shaggs model Avalon guitar

2009-09-13T11:00:00.031-04:00

Ever since Les Paul signed the first major endorsement deal for a solid body guitar, anyone who's ever strapped on a six-string has dreamt that one day they will have a particular guitar that will bear their name.

Most of the time this happens when a popular guitarist signs a deal with a corporate instrument manufacturer, but sometimes an artist just becomes so associated with a particular model that it gains their name. So is the case with the Avalon Shaggs model, seen played by Dot and Betty Wiggins of The Shaggs.

These shaggy-haired girls (hence the unfortunate band name) are arguably the most bizarre musical success story of all time. The group consisted of the three (eventually four) Wiggins sisters from New Hampshire.

Apparently, their father was told by a fortune teller that his daughters would form a band and become famous. Withdrawing them from school and forcing them to take vocal and music lessons, Austin Wiggins eventually payed for them to record the above album. Of the one thousand copies that were pressed, only one hundred were every officially distributed.

In the pre-YouTube age, even a cult following was unlikely, but somehow a copy of the album may its way into Frank Zappa's hands. Frank promptly declared they were better than the Beatles and were his third favorite band of all time. As to their music, it has been described as fresh, naive, creepy, melancholy, brilliant and terrible. Frankly, there is absolutely no way to describe The Shaggs music so I've uploaded a video courtesy of YouTube member hoglevid. You must play it to believe it.

Okay, I'll give you a minute to recover from that song. You may be thinking the same thing I am - they had music lessons? The second thing that comes into my mind as I hear their music is the poor engineer who recorded it. What was he thinking? I just picture some old guy with a crew cut and a polite smile - his eyes glued to the recording levels trying desperately to focus on anything but that sound coming through his headphones. At some point, I picture his mind giving up and him thinking - "Please, someone just shoot me!"

Now back to the gear. The Avalon guitars, which were made in the late 60s, are still a bit of an enigma. They're likely of Japanese origin given the over-curved cutaways and headstock. The Japanese companies of the 1960s and 1970s loved this style as they were reminiscent of Moserite guitars which were played by the most popular American band ever in Japan - The Ventures. The guitar could also have been inspired by the Burns Bison

Makers of catalogue grade musical equipment often sold similar gear under different brand names. As to the Avalon brand however no one knows exactly which company made them.

I have heard mixed reviews on these guitars. Some consider them terrible, while others love them. Considering the girls could afford upscale Gibson and Fender amps, this off-brand seems an odd choice. However, when one considers that that Avalon featured a bass done in exactly the same design - the choice of guitar becomes clear. I can picture Austin Wiggins - the girl's father - choosing these instruments for their visual symmetry. This was obviously important to him as the the girls usually dressed alike.

The group's cult popularity, when added to the fact that no one else of any consequence ever played these bizarre looking Avalon instruments, have made the group synonymous with this brand of gear. Both the bass and the guitar are now known to collectors as Shaggs models.

How do they sound un-Shagged?I got this clip from YouTube member Terser, who was able to find a beat up but otherwise intact version of the Avalon

Much and all as I may make fun of The Shaggs music, one thing is clear - they will enjoy a musical place in history and a popularity that I'll certainly never attain. And what's the likelihood that there will ever be a guitar that the world associates with me?

GEAR - More Cheap Plastic Amp in Action

2009-09-10T18:31:00.006-04:00

I haven't posted much lately as I've been recovering from a nasty cold. In the meantime here's a little something I put together a couple weeks ago when I was experimenting with recording my cheap Harmony amp from the early 80s. Cheap little amps can sometimes record surprisingly well. I didn't spend a lot of time composing this and most of the parts were done in one take. Still... it doesn't sound too bad.

WORLD'S COOLEST STORE FRONT

2009-09-09T19:21:00.006-04:00

I like to think if you got up on a ladder and turned all the knobs to ten then the security grill would rise and the store would open.

GEAR - Early 1980s Harmony Plastic 5-watt practice amp

2009-08-29T20:01:00.016-04:00

In my last gear post, I told you about my very first guitar which I bought in the early 1980s. That guitar is long gone, but oddly enough the cheap plastic transistorized amp I bought with it from Consumer's Distributing is still in my possession.

The amplifier itself has absolutely no make or model designation printed on it anywhere. I assume it's a Harmony, because the power cord that came with it is imprinted with the Harmony logo. The cord can be detached and the amplifier can run on 6 batteries which I think are "C' batteries. Does anything even use C batteries anymore? Okay okay, maybe a couple of things but lets keep it clean here.

Back to the amplifier. I can't remember how many watts it actually puts out, but I'd think 3 to 5 watts maximum - and transistor watts at that. A half watt tube amp could blow this baby right out of the water and throw it into a tree.

The amp features a bright and normal input as well as a volume and tone control. It also offers a 1/4 inch headphone jack. I decided to open it up for the first time and noticed it has a 5w 4 ohm speaker. There are a handful of other small components mounted on a PCB and that's it - pure catalogue-store, grade-z amp!

Why did I keep this cheap plastic thing? Well it never took up much room. More importantly, it's incredibly light. The speaker magnet probably weighs close to a pound, and the rest of the amp probably weighs in at less than half that. It's a model of simplicity. The plastic doesn't exactly have the resonance of a nice speaker cabinet but the thing sounds pretty woolly when it's cranked up. One thing I love about it is that it's SO underpowered, it precludes the need of having a distortion or overdrive pedal to switch from clean to dirty. So with all due respect to Jimmy Page, here's an example of what this amp can do on it's own with absolutely no effects whatsoever.

For more gear related postings go here.

Universal Truth #3 - We can all learn from Les Paul

2009-08-16T18:41:00.017-04:00

As I was coming back from my vacation in Alberta, I was saddened to learn of the passing of legendary guitarist and inventor Les Paul. It’s safe to say that no single man in the history of modern music has had a bigger influence than Les. His music crossed the genres of jazz, country and pop and also had a great influence on rock and roll. His inventions, which included the solid body electric guitar (like the two Les Paul models seen above) and multi-track recording made much of the music from the 1950s to the present possible. To really appreciate Les you should check out the PBS documentary Les Paul Chasing Sound

Les was a man who constantly reinvented himself. Starting out as a country star called Rhubarb Red, he started playing jazz as a hobby in Chicago and eventually moved to New York to be part of the jazz scene there - forming the Les Paul Trio, and working with numerous band leaders including the great Bing Crosby. Moving to Los Angeles he eventually met and married vocalist Mary Ford with whom he had amazing string of hit records as well as television show sponsored by Listerin. Here's a short episode. Check out his his lead break starting at the 1:05 mark. Possibly the greatest guitar solo ever. Wow.

In a business where it is considered suicide to be out of the public eye, Les did more than his share of disappearing from the limelight then coming back stronger than ever. At the top of the jazz game and tired of being constantly imitated by other guitarists Les left the New York club scene for over a year, working on his inventions and coming up with totally new sounds that he was able to get with multi-tracking. He came back more popular than ever.

Then there was the car accident that left his right arm in a cast for over a year. Thankfully he had the doctor set his arm in a way where he could still sit and play guitar. In the late 1960s he disappeared again for more than a dozen years before making an award-winning album with Chet Atkins which was recorded in less than a day.

He also won a Grammy in 2006 at the age of 90. In his waning years he played two sets every Monday night at the tiny Iridium jazz club in New York. Even in his 90s, he knew how to put on a show that made every single patron leave with a big smile on their face.

I was lucky enough to see him twice in that tiny club. The first time, we were surrounded by audio engineers who were in NY for a conference. Believe me, every one of them knew that their jobs had been shaped by this little old man and his inventions. The second time we went, my girlfriend Susan and I were right at the front of the stage. She did this sketch.

Those two shows were among the most memorable concert experiences in my life. Listening to Les crack jokes and tell wonderful stories while his arthritic 93 year old hands played impossible melodies made you feel that everything was right in the world. Blessed with perfect pitch and a brilliant mind, he never wasted a single bit of his potential and everything he gave to music he got back tenfold in success and enjoyment. He was humble, but confident. He worked hard and took chances and was rewarded for his efforts. Most of all he seemed to love the world and his place in it.

We may not all have his talent, but we can certainly learn from his determination and love of life.

You brought a lot to the table Les. We'll all miss you. And say hi to Mary for us too.

LIFE LESSON #9 - Be Versatile

2009-08-08T17:21:00.043-04:00

Here it is ladies and gentlemen, my first published article. Next to an advertisement for some bar with the ridiculous name of BG Cuddles. Yes that's the 80s for you. Let's move on.

The year was 1988 and I had just been hired as a stringer for Pulse magazine. My first assignment was to interview a country singer by the name of Reg Benoit.

Reg, it turns out, was a heck of a nice guy. He was known as the "man of a thousand voices" because he could imitate a number of different singers. Having seen him perform, a better description would have been the "man of a dozen voices". That being said, he was quite talented, as at least six of those voices were female.

Imagine walking down a lonely street and hearing the sound of Dolly Parton emanating from inside a dusty little bar. The music is obviously too loud to be a jukebox so it must be a band. You decide to walk inside. As your eyes slowly adjust to the darkness of the bar you look up expecting to see a beautiful, well-bosomed blonde that's pouring her heart out as she sings a song about losing her man. Instead you see - a short, hairy Newfoundlander with a full beard.

Thanks to the miracle of the Internet we can learn more about Reg's career here. About 10-years after this article appeared he suffered a serious spinal cord injury. However, Reg took it in stride, became a pastor, and moved into music full-time playing charity events and seniors' homes. He is still gong strong and was inducted to the Pathway of Fame in Peterborough, Ontario. It all goes to prove being versatile in work, and in life, is a lesson well learned.

EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA

And here's something extra. I actually found the first draft of the article and had it scanned. Yes kids it was done on a typewriter using copy paper. Any changes were done by hand as you can see. You can also see the archaic way journalists used to identify each page of their story. The first page was the lead. At the end of the page (if it went to another), you would write A copy next. The next page would be called A copy. Followed by B copy, then C copy etc. until you reached the end - at which point you would type -30-

Why not just number the pages you may ask? I asked my first journalism professor that same question and he said, "This is the way it's done and if you're going to work in this industry it's the way YOU WILL DO IT."

I miss the hard-bitten, no-bullsh*t old journalism. No one held your hand back then.

THE PHOTO - LETS PLAY DETECTIVE

2009-08-03T21:01:00.027-04:00

Okay, the photo below still fascinates me. As mentioned in the previous blog post, I was at the party where this picture was taken more than 35 years ago. However, beyond my Popeye comic and Silly Putty I can't really remember a lot about it.

Let's don our Sherlock Holmes deerstalker caps and try to do deduce as much as we can from this photo.

First off, either they've got ugly wallpaper or the inner wall of the basement has been dismantled - leaving the old newspapers used for insulation when the house was built exposed to sight. Hmmm it's the early 70s so let's go for ugly wallpaper.

Part of what confuses me is the make-up of these four gents. This was back in the day when there were two kinds of people - hip and square. The two guys on the sides are obviously in the hip camp. They're wearing groovy paisley tops - the kind which were relocated from the women's section to the men's department in fall of 1971 at the local Beamish department store. The dude on the right is also playing a cool white Vox Phantom-style guitar which would normally get use playing psychedelic pop or some gritty early Stones tunes.

Contrast that with the other two. The fellow on drums looks like the deputy sheriff from some backwater county in Georgia. Finally, the front-man playing the hollow-body electric guitar looks far short of hippness due to his lack of hair and plain brown shirt. Yep those two are square.

What's even more baffling is the fact that Mr Paisley Blouse is playing the sax. The saxophone was considered decidedly old-school by most bands at this time, which is why there are no sax solos on the first Black Sabbath record.

So what the heck kind of music would these guys have been playing when this photo was taken?

One thing we can tell is that the tune is in F, because both guitarists seem to be strangling their guitar necks to make that F chord.

The guy up front looks decidedly country - but the sax doesn't really work on a country tune. Jazz ? A slim possibility but the instrumentation still seems off. A Herb Alpert tune? mmmmm Spanish Flea seems a little improbable.

The one thing all those guys would have had in common is rockabilly. Two guitarists, a drummer and a sax can really do justice to an early rock and roll number. In my mind now when I see this photo, I think of them playing something by my favorite early rocker Eddie Cochrane. Maybe even C'mon Everybody. It won't let me embed the movie but here's the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyU5bsfRdpE&feature=related

For those who are interested. You can follow the following links to see the same song played by:
U2, Led Zeppelin, Sid Vicious, Humble Pie and of course The Stray Cats. Eddie's stuff is great and his music has been covered consistently by major artists. If he hadn't left us so early he would have easily been as legendary as Elvis.

Universal Truth #2 – For most people, the Summer of Love was 1972

2009-07-30T19:27:00.011-04:00

Yes 1967 was a big year for hippies. More than 100,000 of them converged on San Francisco that summer. It was the year of The Monterey Pop Festival . It was also a year that saw large gatherings of hippies in big cities across North America.

But let’s face it, cultural trends tend to take a few years to make it mainstream. By 1972, the same small towns where people would have shot a hippie on sight were suddenly full of men with long hair, massive sideburns and tie-dye shirts

Which brings me to this photo.

Oh my. I actually remember this party.

Of course, what I remember mostly consists of sitting in a corner pulling images from a Popeye comic with Silly Putty. We children were easily amused then. However, I do remember the band and the band was probably why I was there.

My grandmother was something of a musical legend in and around Madoc, Ontario. Not only did she play piano at the Legion every Saturday night – she also played the organ in the United Church first thing on Sunday morning. Believe me, the way they all drank at the Legion that couldn't have been easy, She was so admired as a piano player that no jam session or gathering of musicians was the same without her.

She was probably in her 70s when these photos were taken but would likely have been the life of the party – along with my dad who at some point donned my mother’s wig (yes wigs were big in 1972 – VERY BIG) and played drums. Much to my dismay, I can no longer find that photo anywhere.

If I ever do find it, I will put it on this site and my father will likely strike me dead from heaven.

Oh, I do have more to say about these photos, but I will leave that until the next blog post.

LIFE LESSON #8 - BE OBSERVANT

2009-07-29T18:22:00.013-04:00

I've been scanning pages from several issues of PULSE magazine, an entertainment rag I worked for in the late 1980s. I'll be referencing them in several of my future blog posts.

Here's an ad from 1988. It's for a bar I used to go to fairly regularly in Mississauga called ENTEX. When I looked at this ad I nearly flipped.

Why the *$#@ wasn't I paying attention back then?! Why did I just notice this ad now?!

Ian Hunter AND Mick Ronson on the same stage together for 9 bucks!

Sadly, Mick Ronson passed away a few years after this gig. Mick was the archetype of the rock guitarist and his work with David Bowie during the Ziggy Stardust years was some of the most awesome guitar work ever.

Ian Hunter -who was a mainstay of Mott The Hoople, and had a great solo career - was a legend in his own right. My favorite thing about Ian is that he played in a band who released a single called Yorkshire Relish, Caravan. It's a name that conjures up the early years of Spinal Tap.

If I ever get a chance to travel back to the past and meet myself, the first thing I'm going to do is bring this ad, shove it into my 20-year-old hand and say; "Go to this concert or you'll regret it!"

GEAR- My first guitar. Or Life Lesson #7 - choose quality

2009-07-26T21:37:00.007-04:00

My first guitar was purchased at the ubiquitous Consumer's Distributing chain of catalogue stores. Anyone in Canada of my age remembers Consumers (as we called it). They were kind of like Sears only without the clothing. They sold small appliances, jewellery, electronics, sports equipment and toys.
This description partially sums up the buying experience.
Consumers Distributing aimed to reduce costs for customers by storing goods in a stockroom, instead of displaying them in a costly showroom. Customers made their selections from a catalogue, filled out a slip with product identification, and waited for staff to retrieve the items from the warehouse.
Of course half the time the stuff you wanted was not in stock that day and if it wasn't in stock that day you likely weren't going to get it EVER because a check of their main warehouse would always prove fruitless.
"Oh by the way," the woman behind the counter would say. "We have a similar product here at 5 times the cost of the one you wanted. It's definitely in stock. Would you like to buy it instead?"
"Would you like to be jailed for bait-and-switch-style fraud?" I would say in my precocious 13-year old way.
They never liked me much there. I'm sure they called me names as soon I left the store.
On this day though the guitar was in stock, and it was exactly like the guitar pictured here.
What kind was it? It was definitely a Japanse guitar. But it had no name of course. The one pictured here is identified as a Teisco, however by the early 80s Teisco had long been bought out by Kawai, so it may technically been a Kawai. Japan was making some very cool guitars at the time, This was not one of them
I wish I could say more about what the guitar felt like to play or what it sounded like. All I can remember was that it wasn't quite what I expected (a feeling that was eerily similar to what I'd felt every other time I bought anything from Consumers)
I also bought a cheap plastic amplifier with it. Actually I still have that amp and will feature it in my next blog post.
I bought the guitar for about 70 dollars (not an inconsequential sum back then). I had no idea how to play it or even tune it. I took it to the music store to get the guy to tune it up for me. He looked at me and said for the money I had spent I could have gotten a much better guitar from his store.
He pointed to a Harmony Stratocaster copy hanging from one of the racks and said that it was the same price. Later that night i took the catalogue guitar back to the store and got my refund. The following day i went back to get the Strat.
Oh, that catalogue guitar is now "vintage" and would probably cost about $200 in good condition. Adjusted for inflation that's about $40 more than I paid for it. This guy thinks people are paying way too much for these guitars now. I agree.

LIFE LESSON #6 - IF YOU PASS OUT AT AN ARMY BASE WATCH WHAT YOU WEAR

2009-07-25T12:06:00.006-04:00

Back in the late 1980s, B-i-L's band was playing a gig at an army base in Kingston Ontario. The "dressing room" was actually the officer's lounge, which had been closed for the evening to accommodate us.

Normally, at the end of the night I would have helped tear down, but I had just come out of the hospital and had orders not to lift anything heavy.

Knowing this information going into the night, I had consumed a bit too much of the wonderfully cheap booze that our armed brethren have access too.

We barely pay our military in Canada, so cheap liquor is the least we can do.

But enough about politics - the important part of the story was that I was drunk at an army base and decided to sleep it off back in the "dressing room" on a rather large and comfy couch.

The only problem was the coat that I was wearing. It was a very chilly February weekend in Kingston so I had grabbed my grandfather's warm army-green hunting jacket. When I passed out on the couch, I had it draped over my head and upper body.

You can likely see where this is going.

At 0123 hours (pronounced zero-one-hundred-twenty-three-hours) military time, an MP strode into the officer's lounge and saw this enlisted man passed out with his coat on top of him.

Suddenly I went from beautiful silent blackened bliss to a shot of bright light and the shout of

"WHAT IN THE $%#%$%$ DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING SOLDIER!!!!!!! ON YOUR FEET IMMEDIATELY!!!!!

Much to my surprise I was on my feet - and believe me it was immediately.

The Military Policeman had an odd look on his face as he saw this 120 lb teenager standing there in front of him bewildered and trying to speak.

The worst part was I didn't know how long I'd been sleeping. All I could say was "Ahhhh, is the band st..sttill heerree?"

The MP's voice changed to a normal cadence. "You with the band?"

I nodded.

"Oh" he said quietly. He handed back my coat and walked away without saying another word.

LIFE LESSON #5 There's a time and place for everything

2009-07-21T13:23:00.014-04:00

Last week I went to see The Zombies at The Mod Club.

This band has always been a favorite of mine with their mellow psychedelic jazz feel and fantastic 60s-style vocal harmonies. You'll probably remember Time of the Season.

but they also had several other hits in the same vein.

The place was packed with fans - all of whom were really into the music, but one guy just didn't get it.

I've seen this guy at every Iron Maiden and Judas Priest concert I ever went to as a teenager. Totally drunk; Smelly leather vest; Obnoxiously loud with a voice that can peel paint, and aggressive to the point of expecting that the music would be better if he was able to shout in the band's collective ears and slug them on the shoulders while they were playing.

Every time there was a jazzy organ solo or a delicate vocal harmony he'd scream "Go! GO! GO! Do it, DO it, DOOOO ITTTTT!!!! Oh yeah that kills man. Kills! KILLLLLSSS!!!!

Now a teenaged guy like this fits into an Iron Maiden concert. However, when the guy is about 55, and everyone's trying to mellow out to psychedelic pop music he stands out - and not in a good way.

So the life lesson for this man and people like him is this: There's a time and place for everything. Just make sure you're not at the wrong type of concert 20+ years too late.

LIFE LESSON #4 - IGNORANCE CAN BLOW UP IN YOUR FACE

2009-07-20T12:40:00.007-04:00

There have been many well-documented tragedies involving the misuse of concert pyrotechnics. However, this life lesson comes from a less well-known story that I happened to witness.

The era is the late 1980s. The place is a former strip club which had been converted into a music venue. A classic rock and metal cover band is on stage. Their show was complete with pyrotechnics

There were a number of flash pots – metal cylinders containing ignitable flash powder which are attached by wire to a trigger mechanism (usually a footswitch) – across the stage.

The band was well into its second set when a young, drunken girl went up near the stage to dance with her friends. To the band’s credit, they avoided using any pyrotechnics when anyone was close to the stage. However, they weren’t counting on the actions of the girl.

Picture the scene. Girl with beer in one hand. Smoke in the other. Dancing. She takes the last drag on the cigarette and looks to put it out. The old “stripper stage” is about shoulder high and she sees a metal cylinder on it that, in her state, she oddly mistakes for an ashtray.

For me the image remains in slow motion to this day. Cigarette goes in….BOOOM. A flash of light. The scream. The unmistakable stink of burnt hair.

Thankfully, it didn’t end too badly. Her hair was toast but she suffered no serious burns. It also turned out she was underage so she wasn’t able to sue the band.

Still let’s learn from her mistake. Let’s not assume we know everything. Get to know about the world around you. It’s safer that way.

And please… don’t ever mistake a flash pot for an ashtray.

UNIVERSAL TRUTH #1 - KEITH RICHARDS IS ICKY

2009-07-19T12:32:00.008-04:00

I have a friend, a young one. She’s in her mid to late 20s but has the innocence of a 12-year old who's rarely been let out of the house. I suspect her parents are quite conservative.

She doesn’t drink, smoke or date. She also has no ego and little reverence for fame. She’s a flight attendant who works on high-end charters such as sports teams and rock groups.

She doesn’t know the sports or the player's names, but she knows what each of the players like to drink. It’s quite odd watching a hockey game when she’s around. They’ll show a close-up of a famous player and she’ll point to him and say “Hey, there’s Cranberry and sprite!”

Anyway, she was doing a stint as flight attendant for the Rolling Stones, when Keith Richards asked her out. She describes it this way.

Keith: Mmmm. Say you wanna go and have dinner or something mmmm?
Her: No thanks.
Keith: Mmmmmm why’s that? Ah you don’t like me?
Her: You smell of tobacco.

Turning away, she then goes into the galley where she’s quickly met by a female member of the band’s entourage.

Groupie: Did Keith Richards just ask you out?
Her: Yes he did. I said no.
Groupie: Why the f*&k did you do that?
Her: (pointing to Keith) Just look at him. He’s so ICKY!

I love ya Keith but truer words have never been spoken.

LIFE LESSON #3 - DON'T LET OTHER PEOPLE SPEAK FOR YOU

2009-07-19T11:04:00.011-04:00

This is very similar to lesson #2 below.

This time, I'm on stage at a big club downtown to do a charity show. We're one of five bands that night and are the last to do a sound check. We do our check - it's less than five minutes. The sound guy is fatigued after 2 hours of dealing with amateur musicians and wants to get out of the booth. None of us could hear the instruments in our monitors. Finally, we get someone to put up the levels so we can hear each other.

Fast forward a couple hours later. It's showtime! We're the first band to go on. We go up on stage and I start into the killer riff from David Bowie's Rebel Rebel. I can't really hear myself well. I can hear the bass, and drums but that's about it. It turns out, someone had turned the guitar amplifier way down during the break. However, I was so used to not hearing my guitar during the sound check I make the assumption that people can hear me front of house.

We do four minutes of Rebel Rebel without the guitar riff - the equivalent of playing Beethovan's 9th symphony on a tuba and tambourine.

The life lesson here is that i trusted someone with my "voice". I should have checked the amplifier myself before I started playing.

Maybe someone is trying to tell me something. Every time I go on stage it's seems I have a struggle to be heard.

Here I am between songs where you can hear my friend Chris say something about the fact he can hardly hear me. Finally things are rectified and we go into and ultra cheesy rendition of "She's a Lady".

LIFE LESSON #2 IF YOU WANT TO BE HEARD – SPEAK UP!

2009-07-19T10:46:00.009-04:00

It was something out of everyone’s worst nightmare.

Okay maybe not your WORST. Maybe not as bad as that nightmare you have about being in mortal danger and not being able to move or speak – or that dream you have about someone of the opposite sex you’ve known for years and never thought of “that way” and suddenly you’ve done it with them and you’re really confused.

No sir, I’m talking about this nightmare: You’ve only played an instrument for two years and it’s your first gig. You’re middle aged and you’re suddenly in front of your friends, family, co-workers and the like. You have no idea if you’re going to blank out, get stage fright, not remember how to play or what.

Suddenly the band starts into the first song – a tune you not only have to play but SING. Your heart is already in your mouth. You hit the strings to the first chord – NOTHING. NO SOUND. You can hear everyone else except yourself. They play the first few bars of the intro as you feel hundreds of eyes on you. What do you do?

You take a quick glance to look at all the links in the chain that can go wrong:
Amplifier on? – check!
Pedal board on?– check!
Tuner mute off? – check!

Why is this happening? You look to your band mates in the hope they’ll realize something is wrong. They don’t stop. What do you do?

Then you realize the volume pot on your guitar is turned down to zero. You slide it up to ten and begin. Miraculously – you finish the song. You even enjoyed it. What a great rush. People clap and cheer. Damn it, you’re suddenly a rock star.

The moral of this story as it relates to life?

If you want to be heard, you have to speak up, or at least turn your guitar on. I know it's cliche, but if you want something bad enough you often have to stick your neck out for it. I put myself on the line that night just being out there and playing in front of people for the first time, but it paid of for me - I had a great time. And I'll never forget that first song - ever,

Life's Lesson #1 - Don't say no to Sebastian Bach

2009-07-18T21:33:00.013-04:00

Or anything potentially interesting for that matter.

Most of our regrets are things we didn't do when we had the chance to do them. Thankfully, I only have a few - this is one of them.

In the late 80s I was just entering journalism school and already writing for a music magazine. I was one of the best writers they had and I worked for next to nothing ($2 an inch as I recall - I was a true stringer) .

Consequently, I had a ton of cool assignments constantly offered to me. After a while I started saying no to some of them.

One was an interview with Sebastian Bach. He was lead singer of Skid Row - a band I felt at the time was third-rate imitation of Ratt who were a third-rate imitation of Aerosmith.

Of course, all those bands are now considered "classic".

Besides, if Sebastian had been as cool that day as he was in this episode of Trailer Park Boys, I probably missed an experience I could tell my grandchildren about.

Assuming I had any grandchildren.

And assuming they were really into dope humor.

http://www.trailerparkboys.com/site_clip_detail.php?clip=33&season=11

Why I'm a Guitar Guru

2009-07-18T18:31:00.011-04:00

You are all probably wondering the same thing. What makes this guy a guitar guru?

I'm glad you asked. My credentials are impeccable.

First off:

I'm one of only three guitar gurus recognized by a registered charity (click the underlined link, then go seven photos down - that's right! See I told ya!)
I have owned more guitars in four years than most professional musicians
I married into and was divorced from a musical family.
I travelled with my sister's husband's band when I was 18.
I have interviewed a Rolling Stone

But more importantly, as you will read through future posts, I realize that the meaning of life can be examined through my varied experience in music and the rock and roll lifestyle.

Oh, and I almost forgot. I also hold a Doctor of Divinity from the Universal Life Church. So you can call me Dr. Guitar Guru if you want.

Or merely Jason.

I'm a busy man!

2009-07-18T11:04:00.015-04:00

Ok, how often have we heard someone say this? I never really knew what that phrase meant until I became the head of the news department at a national TV network (in Canada I might add - I'm not rich so don't break into my house).

After a brief flirtation with the electric guitar when I was a teenager (so brief, I don't think I got to second base guitar-speaking) I put the hobby aside for a couple of decades until I picked it up again in my late 30s as a means of keeping my head from exploding under the relentless pressures of my job. And hey - it worked!

If you're stressed or your brain is so full of personal and professional flotsam that it keeps you from seeing clearly - playing a musical instrument is for you! It helps you focus on something unrelated to your worries. It can also provide a social group (namely a band) in which you can bond in a way like no other.

Seriously - in a band setting you can be surrounded by people you would otherwise never associate with (because of their politics, smell or habitual heroin use) and then feel strangely incomplete without them when you're finished jamming and sitting in the car, surrounded by your gear, on that lonely ride home.

Before continuing, I should stress that none of my band mates from The Natural Disasters does heroin, nor do any of them emit a strong odor on a regular basis.

So what will this blog have to offer readers? I plan to have gear reviews and observations for guitar geeks, but also more general posts about music and life. I also plan to talk a lot about my days as a music writer for a magazine that no longer exists and which went belly-up owing me money.

The great thing about the demise of PULSE magazine is that I can scan funny, odd or quirky parts of the magazine and post them online. Believe me - the best way to describe PULSE was funny, odd and quirky - although not always on purpose.

As for the name PULLOFFS - well it's an allusion to a guitar technique where you finger a note on the fretboard, hit the string then release your finger. I view this blog as a way to release many of the stories and observations I carry around with me before they are lost to the ages. That's why I have used this as a title to my blog - that and the fact Guitarman, GuitarGuy, FretEnds, Headstock, MachineHeads and all the other guitar-oriented words and phrases were already taken.

Take care my friends. Until next time...