Been busy working on getting the storefront going - still months off, but this ain't gonna be a 2 weeks process regardless.
In the meantime, I've slapped up a poll here to figure out what my Canadian brethren and sistren (?) are looking for in gear online. If ya'll got a minute, it would be appreciated.
Sometimes the comedy of gear gives way to applause.
OK, so this is Bruce. I mean, just look at this fucking thing! Some factory went way out of their way to make an entry level bass look *very* high end. The brand name is TCM.
My guess is that this is early Korean, maybe circa '82-83. The peghead isn't scarfed onto the neck, and has a heavy volute. One piece of mahogany for the entire neck, cut at a cacked grain angle. Body is the same mahogany with stripes of maple. The countering is a real tell tale sign: rounded back edge, with a fairly square top , and a ramped arch. The Japanese had moved on from such building techniques in budget instruments like this by this era: usually this sort of level of detail at a cheap price point was simply impossible except from Korea.
And how do I know this was low budget to begin with? Well, check out the cutaways: asymmetrical. And it's clearly a mistake, since the lower cutaway is 1/2" longer than the top one. Bolt on neck, with misaligned holes. But the best is the peghead:
Hey, let's check out that E machine head from the back:
Yep, left the factory with the E bored out 3/8" lower than it should have been! And those tuners: 80s skate keys, which scream budget. Usually I'd chuck those in a heartbeat, but these work well enough...
Another $100 Kijiji find. So why did I keep it? Well, 2 reasons. The bridge is one *honking* chunk of metal, like a BadAss II with weight gain, so oddly the sustain is really great. And the other thing is that P pickup. No markings on it, medium output, but it's got this upper mid ring to it, total Tejas tone. The J sucks, as I always find they do, so I wired it out.
Again, this is the 28.8K bass, same rig as above, but with a 15" and different mikes. This beast is a keeper for use. And the neck's solid, haven't had to set the action after I got it, maybe 7 years back. Sure, dead spots galore, but that's bass for ya...
And any piece like this needs a righteous name. So, since the odds of me finding an SD Curlee on the Canadian Prairies are pretty well nil, that's about as close to this as I'll ever find:
I've always been a sucker for SG's. They've always been *the* punk rock guitar - during the hardcore years, they're what we all lusted after. But in this neck of the woods, they were scarce, and they were typical Gibsons: great designs poorly built. No shit, I've tried about 150 Gibby SG's in my life, and maybe 3 or 4 had the correct neck angle. How you can design a guitar that requires a very particular neck break angle and set them too shallow 99% of the time is beyond me... And the last Gibson SG I tried, a 2013 Jr style, *still* was set way too shallow. I mean, if you can't build 'em properly, leave it to people who can. (Which is basically my argument against Fender as an entire entity...) About 8 years back, I tried an Epiphone 310 at a local dealer. Typical 90s Epi, crap hardware, crap electronics. But, oddly enough, the neck angle was correct, and on a bolt-on one at that. Which made me figure, if'n some anonymous builder in China can finally get the angle right, maybe others can too... And shortly thereafter, I stumbled across Joey:
Labelled J&D Brothers (which seems to be the factory brand Guitarfetish is selling off), a mid-70s wide-body copy. Set neck, all mahogany, and on sale from an online dealer (no longer around) for $130 + Shipping. He shows up, and wonders of wonders, the neck angle is dead on, ON A $130 CHINESE COPY. After decades of shallow Gibsons, I held in my hands an SG with the correct angle. And it was mine.
Let me try to explain why the neck angle matters so much on an SG. A properly built SG vibrates with the notes played: even accounting for harmonics that are emphasized by the particular pieces of wood used, even an B played on the high E string will be transmitted to the body. You feel the notes as you play them. Dampen them off, the whole guitar stops vibrating. It creates a type of dynamic sustain that Les Paul owners would kill for: you can let notes ring out forever or stop them on a dime. All great SG players quickly learn how to use this sustain to maximum effect, even when they're not playing long legato passages.
The problem is, the design spec for an SG is a neck angle of 4.25° for most years. Usually, it sits around 1° to 2.5° on most Gibsons. Now, I've played Les Pauls where the neck angle have been incredible shallow to absurdly steep (I had a friend with a Pro Deluxe that had to have a 20° pitch!) and the guitar will work ok. But an SG body is an inch of mahogany, leaving very very little extra wood at the neck joint to compensate. And too shallow of a neck angle leaves you with a cool looking guitar with banjo sustain and total ghost notes on the lower strings. It's really *really* critical, and sloppy factory work has wasted thousands of these axes. Such a shame...
Anyway, back to Joey. So 70s wide body, but with the 60's break angle. Great tuners, neck a little flatter than I like, hardware damn good. The stock neck pickup gives the greatest tone rolled off sound of any of my axes: coupled with some Big Muff, I can fulfil all my Fripp fantasies. The bridge pickup sounded like ass though, and had to go. I ordered in a Mean 90 and broke out the soldering iron.
Problem was, somehow I wired it out of phase with the humbucker. And somehow, it created this amazing tone, almost like a half-cocked wah. I really don't understand the frequency cancellation going on, but damn is it fun! You can hear it in the middle of this vid I did, about dudes and their "my tone" banalities:
Eventually, I screwed up the neck's tone pot from violent wrenching around, so I replaced it with a toggle switch. Joey stays tuned a full step, strung 9-46 for that Iommi playability. This is one of my favourite axes, and one I use constantly when I record, especially on the inEffable stuff.
Oh yeah, and in spite of all the SG players I love (Townsend, Iommi, MacKaye, McPhee, Sensible, etc), in terms of players who made them look so cool, nobody beats Keithley in my books.
Got a text from my bro that Brian Goble aka Wimpy/Sunny Boy Roy left us Sunday, only 57 years on his ride. Bummed.
Way back in Jan/Feb 1980, my bro came home from a road trip with my pop to Calgary. He went to a mall there, trying to find a record store. There was a group there doing an in store he had never heard of: Pointed Sticks. They suggested he buy some stuff, including the Disco Sucks ep by DOA, and the first Subhumans 12". which the original version of Fuck You on it.
Punk rock changed my life.
I was 11 when I heard this stuff, had just started playing guitar the previous fall. Those 2 discs, along with the Lies 45 by Pointed Sticks (lovingly autographed by Roy's late brother Dimwit) became another obsession for my dorky pre-teenage self. The power, the clarity, the lack of anything remotely merch about it - loved it. I heard Canadian punk before I heard the Pistols or the Clash or the Ramones - it's in my blood.
The Subhumans always resonated strongly with me, sort of that bridge between punk and hardcore. Incorrect Thoughts is still an album I play all the time.
Roy of course went on to provide the bottom in DOA, when they started morphing into hard rock. I saw those lineups about a dozen times in the 80s, every show better than the last. One of the best shows I've ever seen was on the DOA/No Means No tour (87?): No Means No came out, did 40 minutes, Seth Card hopped on drums, John Wright hopped on vocals and they did the Hanson Brothers for 10 minutes. Then a hammered Roy came on, stepped to the mike, and they went into Subhumans mode, Firing Squad and Sickoids.
I lost my shit. There was about a dozen of us in front, Kelly Simpson, Toogood, the Boddy bros from Euthanasia, and we all just lost it - we all just missed the Subhumans, and this was as close as we were gonna get. Roy brushed the sweat off his brow and it hit me: I felt baptized.
Eventually, when Gerry Hannah got out of jail and his life straightened out, the SubHumans reformed. I think they played here once, and I heard about it months later. Always disappointed in that.
I remember reading once that Roy said he started the Subhumans to get away from his shitty warehouse job. Working my shitty warehouse job today, all I could think was, man, that was a ride.
During those insane hardcore years, a gazillion brilliant (and I mean truly BRILLIANT) pickers came to light. But most of them were strange, esoteric creatures, the stuff you couldn't lay to straights and have them go "whoa." Most were really outsider players, ignoring the "rules" and with no real base in what I refer to the common banality of the player echelon.
Except for one dude:
There was a lot of Meat Puppet fans here in Edmonton in the mid-late 80s. There was a kindred spirit: this band from an isolated city, trying to get their ideas heard. Maybe Phoenix isn't as isolated as Edmonton (it's only a third as long to the coast), but they got their word out in a massively inspiring way. With the Puppets, the playing, if you get right down to it, is pretty "straight." The songs could really get out there, but the sonic references weren't as obtuse as say the Minutemen or No Means No. They were just a killer band that, like many, stumbled into the hardcore movement. And could hang:
What always slayed me about Kirkwood's playing was his use of delay, probably the greatest master of it in the 80s (save for maybe East Bay Ray). When I rank on guitarists who don't know how to use delays, I point to Kirkwood, the master of the time-based wash.
I still constantly listen to the 80s trifecta of Huevos, Mirage, and Up on the Sun, where that nutty ZZ Top groove started slipping in all over the place, and often unexpectedly:
And the 90s grunge influence stuff was killer too:
When a lot of the bands I dug back in the day get back together, I tend to bum, buncha dudes usually trying to pay taxes/mortgages instead of trying anything seriously new. But after the crazy soap opera of the Puppets, it was great to see them coming around again, and still bringing it:
Oh yeah, and Kris is a motherfucker of a bassist, and another deep influence.
As always, a nod to the fine folks @ effectsdatabase for the heads up on this one.
No screens, no scrolling, no 2" thick manual. Old school Multi-effect, sounds cool. Tube Screamer OD (which I'm not a fan of, hate TS's), modded DS-1 distortion (which I love), CE-2 style chorus (which I need to AB with my original), and a nice modern delay (approx. 450ms). Effects loop, 9Vdc out (integrated power supply for yer other effects!), and cab simulation w/ 1/4" & XLR outs. And a ludicrous amount of db gain on tap, and LEDs bright enough to burn yer retinas. Pretty cool device, just what some players need - no "man-board" issues, no lugging tons of gear around. A little too plain Jane for me, but I'm a noise guy :) You can buy it here or here.
Like I said, I'm like the crazy guy who gathers together stray unwanted cats and fill my house with them. 'Cept I hate cats: I love guitars. And trust me, I have seen more than my share of neglected axes. Maybe instead of an arsenal, I have an orphanage... Anyways, let's talk about Flasher:
While perusing Kijiji one day, noticed an ad, no photo, selling an Epiphone for $80. Checked the map - seller was literally within walking distance. Phoned him up, and popped over. And then the fun begun...
Dude was this crazy old Ukrainian dude. He had homemade pink flamingos in the yard, no shit. We when to the basement, every ledge of which was covered in little models of wagons and boats he had made out of twigs (very well done ones at that...). As I entered the rumpus room (with tan and green checked carpet from the 70s in immaculate condition), he hid another guitar. The place was filled with beat up trumpets, trombones, a fire engine red snare, and on one side, a wall of couches stacked up. He talked a mile a minute in a heavy accent. I dug him instantly.
He bemoaned his wife making him get rid of his stuff, "sure don't wanna get rid of this nice guitar." I chatted it up with him, when he gave me a sudden glare, asking "what you gonna do with this?" Gave him the song & dance about fixing up gear for "my church" and giving it away - a line I've used with folks for decades. Swapped him 4 twenties, and hiked home.
So, 70's Cretwood ET-290, a guitar that's been on my want list for years, except maybe in better shape. Crudely stripped and finished in 90 coats of blue spray paint, with strange little embossed stickers all over it:
I particularly liked the reminder of the tuning it's in:
2 tuners busted, cracked nut, coil rot on both pickups (both were so intermittent it was like I was using a kill switch), wiring was dicey, knobs glued to the pots (I *hate* that!) and an output jack so corroded it broke in half (down the middle!) when I examined it. But the best part: buddy unscrewed the upper strap button to take the strap he had on it off. Getting it home, I discovered it was the hazard light knob from like a 70's Comet, with a screw jammed in. Hence the name Flasher. 70's Epi's have 3 big issues to deal with, in my experience. First, the truss rods tend to seize or snap pretty readily, they're kinda small in diameter. Flasher's in fine, stroke of luck there. Second, like many budget guitars from the era, the pickups tend to corrode and short over time, requiring a rewind (yeah, right...) or a swap out. Problem is, these humbuckers are wider than normal, which lead to all sorts of mounting issues. And third, at least in this neck of the woods, they're the classic "throw it in the unheated garage for 10 years" electric: I seen these with some serious wood rot in the neck. Again, Flasher is fine. It's currently hooked to an old Washburn humbucker I had kicking around (which sounds great) and a single volume. The neck hum is there because I kept catching my pick in the cavity. The neck is super wide and flat (almost early 80s Fender), which I honestly can't solo on. So this is my chainsaw axe, for those Johnny Ramone excursions. I've used this a lot in recording, exclusively on my 28.8K & the Bauds stuff, where chainsaw is the order of the day. That signal path, which I love, is Flasher into a Smokey Amp (Dunhill, natch) into a 15" Fender bass cab w/ a 57 at the cone. Great tone. I love this goofy thing. I wish there were more crazy Ukes around here with guitars they wanna sell... I've run into the guy who sold me this a few times at the store, and he's always "Yer that guy... don't tell me... you I know from somewhere..." Still nuts, and I still dig him.
