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r_a_smith3530
February 1st, 2006, 10:36 AM
Well, I've already made a couple of posts, but I suppose that I should give you all a little introduction.

I'm an old fart. I'm from Chicago and currently live in the suburbs outside the city. Originally an automotive dealership line mechanic by trade, I eventually got into the management end of that business. I've had a couple businesses, repairing and building custom bikes and computer repair. Drawn to a Fortune 100 company, I eventually rose to support a regional data center before being laid off in the technology crunch. I'm temporarily back in the auto industry while I look for my next real day job.

Growing up in a family that built and raced sports cars in the 1950's, I took to tinkering early on, and today, among other things, my guitar/bass collection reflects that. My favorites are things just a little bit different than the next guy's.

I got into guitars later in life, although the interest had been there for years. For a while it was an on again, off again sort of thing. Today, I try hard to make time for music and it shows in my playing ability. I'm still a long ways off from being anywhere near great, but I'm steadily getting better!

My first playing guitar was a Yamaha classical. I didn't really like the sound of it, so it was soon replaced by a Seagull S6 spruce top dreadnaught. Growing up in the Sixties, it was all about rock music, and so an electric wasn't too far behind. Fortune smiled down upon me, for my first electric was a Gibson Les Paul Custom, in Wineberry. Every silver lining has a cloud however, for that LP was an early Norlin era instrument. It weighed a ton and never stayed in tune all that well. I began to search for a replacement.

During this time period, I acquired an Epiphone acoustic. It's a sweet little OO-sized box that I found much more comfortable to play than my Seagull. The Seagull left and the Epi is still with me to this day, although I installed a Martin 332 Thinline pickup into it at some point. An old DOD FX-10 Bi-Fet preamp usually sits between the Epi and what it's plugged into.

Eventually, a replacement was found for my LP Custom. One day I came across two guitars at a shop in Evanston. One was a beautiful Seafoam Green strat style guitar with the smoothest action I've ever felt, and the other was this tobacco burst guitar that looked something like a strat but not quite. It sounded fantastic! I went back and forth between these two for over an hour, really loving the action on the one, yet really digging the tone on the other. In the end, something a friend had told me made my decision. You see, that green guitar was a Modulus Graphite and my friend had said that real guitars were made of wood (today, an early Ovation Custom Balladeer is his main stage instrument, ha, ha!). The wood guitar with the beautiful tone went home with me. At the time, I didn't know what a G&L was and had no idea about the connection to Leo! That '83 S-500 is the only unmodified guitar I currently own (save for a set of Dunlop Straplocks). I loved the sound of that S-500 (still do), and so I did not want to alter it, but I am a tinkerer, so next, I began to search out a project. Guitar Player Magazine found it for me.

In 1994, Guitar Player Magazine chose Peavey's Reactor as their pick for greatest "bang for the buck." They felt that it was a great guitar held back by some cheap hardware bits. This was just what I needed to hear. I got ahold of a black Reactor and went to work. One of my idols is Master of the Telecaster, Albert Collins. His '62 Tele was fitted with a humbucker in the rhythm position. I decided to follow suit. I came across a guy working on an old Les Paul one day in a resale shop. His customer had wanted a Duncan JB fitted to the bridge position. I inquired what would become of the pickup he was taking out and was told I could have it for $50.00. I got the pickup and even got a chance to play that late 50's guitar. At the time, I didn't know the signifigance of that PAF sticker on the underside of the pickup. It really sounds quite nice when blended with the hot side of the tapped Seymour Duncan Hot Lead I installed in the bridge position. It sounds great by itself too! A five position switch gives me both vintage and hot tele sounds, the PAF, or blends of either the vintage or hot mixed with the old Gibson humbucker. A Chandler pickguard, in red pearl replaced the rather cheap looking white single-ply originally installed in Meridian, MS. GraphTech's Stringsaver saddles replaced the originals, and the cheap tuners were swapped out in favor for of sealed Grover's. It already had a graphite nut, so that was left be. A set of Dunlop Straplocks finishes out the mods to this guitar.

At some point, I got the itch for a semi-hollow, and that itch was filled by a Hohner SE35. A fine guitar, I kept it for less than a year.

Remember that I mentioned that my first "playing guitar" was a Yamaha? Well, some years before I actively took up guitar, I was given an old Harmony Sovereign in need of some TLC. One day I took that guitar out of the gig bag only to find that the neck had almost completely separated from the body, and the bridge was lifting. John Calhoun who used to work at Hogeye's in Evanston took that guitar and turned it into a work of art. It wasn't the prettiest guitar in town, but it sure sounded sweet. Along with fixing the neck and bridge, he also modified the bracing. That guitar ended up being given to my neighbor's son when we moved to our present home. At times I regret that decision.

Quite a while passed before I came upon another guitar that I wanted to take home. During that time, my playing lapsed quite a bit. When I started back to playing, I realized that there was a sound I was missing; that sound was that of a Les Paul. Today I've captured that sound, in the form of a 1984 Les Paul Studio. Not a fan of the large, mother-of-toilet seat fret markers installed into nearly every new Gibson, the simplicity of my Studio's unbound dot neck is just fine with me. This guitar is equipped with a factory-installed coil-split switch that allows the rythm pickup to function as a single coil. It has to be the prettiest guitar I own. Think 1960's and Chevrolet's Mulsanne Blue Metallic, translucent on the face, allowing wood grain to show through, and opaque everywhere else. The pickup cavities are filled by DiMarzio and Duncan pickups, respectively a Tone Zone and a '59.

The friend who cajoled me into this guitar thing in the first place once made a comment that I should have taken up bass, so we could play together as a group. Slowly, the idea began to take root. One day, while at a local Sam Ash, I wandered into the low end. When I came out, a black Yamaha RBX774 was nicely tucked into a gig bag. Now, don't get me wrong, Yamaha's are really nice instruments, but after a while, I decided that this was not the sound I was looking for.

Meet "Frankenbass." I call it that because like its nemisis, it is a collection of parts, the sum total of which are capable of extreme tonal damage! The body is from a 90's Fender Deluxe Precision P Bass Special, refinished in what I can best describe as a Candy Aplle Red burst. That body is mated to a slab Rosewood board Precision neck from the 1960's. The pickup cavities are filled with a P-J set of Bartolini's coupled with their active tone circuitry. A Quan Badass II bridge is used, and the rest of the hardware is standard Fender fare. Like all my electric guitars, this bass is fitted with Dunlop Straplocks.

For amplifiers, I have a Peavey Classic 50/410, bought around the same time as the Reactor. It replaced my old 50 watt Kittyhawk. For the low end, a Crate BXH-220 head and BX410E cab replace the Ibanez 35 watt SoundWave I bought along with the Yamaha.

Growing up in Chicago, my first taste of the blues came when a friend's dad used to take us down to the Maxwell Street market back in the mid-Sixties. My first real two-wheeled bicycle also came from one of those trips. I got to see some of the greats playing on the sidewalks and lots of the market area. It made an impression, to say the least. "Hanky Panky" was big on the charts at WLS and WCFL at the time.

Although I love and play all kinds of music, it is the blues that keeps drawing me back, like a moth to the flame.

So, there you have it. I hope to get to know many of you through this forum. Oh yeah, that friend who today plays a plastic guitar and talked me into taking up the bass? Well, we'll be doing a gig together as a duo within the next couple of weeks!

http://photobucket.com/albums/c342/sportyrb/

Power to the People!

6STRINGS 9LIVES
February 1st, 2006, 12:35 PM
Hey Rob, after that post I feel like I've known you for awhile... thats a nice collection of guitars , being from chicago how could you not be a blues lover ..welcome aboard the "FRIENDLY" forum , 6S9L

warren0728
February 1st, 2006, 02:05 PM
welcome aboard Rob! I think you will like it here.

I'm a fellow blues fanatic myself!

ww

SuperSwede
February 1st, 2006, 02:55 PM
Welcome Rob!

I really like that blue LP, I have never seen Mulsanne Blue before!

Nelskie
February 1st, 2006, 03:44 PM
Rob - Enjoyed reading your intro. Like 69SL said, it almost feels like you've been here forever. I did a post not too long ago about my buddy's "modified" (for the lack of a better term) Hamer Standard, which I affectionately dubbed "Guitarenstein". Maybe he and "Frankenbass" should hook up for a monsterously good jam session sometime. I'm getting "spooked" just thinking about it! Welcome aboard!

Matt
February 1st, 2006, 04:30 PM
That G&L S-500 is really cool! Welcome to the site.

regards

Matt

Robert
February 1st, 2006, 04:39 PM
Great to have you here, Rob! Warm welcome! I love the blues too, and blues is the music I've been mostly been playing at gigs the last 5 years. Great to have a knowledgeable bass guy here - I will be enjoying reading your posts!

Spudman
February 1st, 2006, 09:19 PM
Hey Rob.
Good to have you on board.
Chicago huh? Do you know...oh what's his name? I'm sure you do.
Chicago is a great place. I have a few friends in the area. All nice folks and it's easy to see you are too.
Welcome.
Love the blue Paul.

r_a_smith3530
February 2nd, 2006, 12:57 AM
Welcome Rob!

I really like that blue LP, I have never seen Mulsanne Blue before!

That's because Mulsanne Blue is a Chevrolet car color from back in the Sixties, not a Gibson color. The paint job was custom done! A fair number of 'Vettes from the mid-Sixties were painted Mulsanne Blue.

r_a_smith3530
February 2nd, 2006, 01:20 AM
That G&L S-500 is really cool! Welcome to the site.

regards

Matt

Thanks guys for the warm welcome!

Although I love all of G&L's models, the early G&L's were quite special. What you saw in the early days was the pure genius of Leo Fender. Later the guitars changed, as the marketing people and the bean counters got more of a say. The S-500 started to look more like a strat and less like the hotrodded update concept that Leo had designed when he and George started G&L.

I forgot to mention it in my earlier post, but this particular S-500 has a Mahogany body and an Ebony fretboard. While not quite as smooth as the Modulus I A-B'd it with the day I bought it, this guitar's action is no slouch, and I have never played a Gibson, PRS, or Ibanez that was any smoother.

Tim
February 2nd, 2006, 04:59 AM
Hello Rob and welcome to the "best" forum on the Net. These guys are great. It took me a while to read your first post. Another bass player!

Maybe your or some of the other members can answer a question. What is the difference between the “Chicago Blues”, the "Delta Blues”, the ‘Mississippi Blues” and all the other blues? I know it has something to do with style, but I haven’t picked it out yet.

Tone2TheBone
February 2nd, 2006, 09:38 AM
Great name! Welcome Robert. You will like this place and post as often as you can.

Rob

SuperSwede
February 2nd, 2006, 09:52 AM
You will like this place and post as often as you can.


Is that some kind of hypnotization ?

Tone2TheBone
February 2nd, 2006, 10:21 AM
I dunno Super....IS IT?....(rocks a timepiece in front of your eyes). LOL The power of suggestion works wonders. ;)

SuperSwede
February 2nd, 2006, 10:31 AM
I guess the Tone works in mysterious ways...

r_a_smith3530
February 2nd, 2006, 10:18 PM
Maybe your or some of the other members can answer a question. What is the difference between the “Chicago Blues”, the "Delta Blues”, the ‘Mississippi Blues” and all the other blues? I know it has something to do with style, but I haven’t picked it out yet.

Hey Tim, good question and yes, you nailed it, it's all about style. What is generally considered "Delta Blues" is the sound you hear when you listen to one of the 29 tunes (or outtakes) that Robert Johnson gave us, as an example. It is that raw bass driven acoustic sound, sometimes including slide.

Charley Patton and Son House are considered to be the fathers of the Delta Blues style. McKinley Morganfield, a.k.a. "Muddy Waters," himself from the Delta area of Mississippi, was originally recorded back in 1941 and 1942 for the Library of Congress. If you listen to these recordings, you will definitely notice the similarity between them and the works of Johnson and House. That is probably because House taught Johson his first licks and was also the primary influence cited by Muddy. BTW, Muddy mentioned in an interview once that he paid two dollars and fifty cents for his first guitar, and that he then took that guitar and made fifty cents playing a juke joint. His next guitar came from Sears at a cost of eleven dollars. He thought he was in fat city!

Eventually, Muddy, like many Mississippi blacks, found his way north to Chicago. There was money to be made and much better chances. It is here in the Windy City where McKinley discovered electricity. The difference it made to his sound and that of other Mississippi Delta blues players, is what evolved into Chicago Blues. Slightly overdriven tubes, giving that warm sound, with a bass, drums and maybe a harp as accompaniement, are what make the Chicago Blues sound. It is not as smooth as New York Blues, which is almost jazz-like by comparison, with horn sections and such. It's also different than Texas Blues, almost a jump blues.

There are so many great recordings out there. I recommend that if you have an interest in the blues, that you try to pick up as many different recordings as you can. If you want to hear some great Chicago Blues bass players, I would recommend that you listen to recordings of either Willie Dixon or Aron Burton.

I've been fortunate. I was able to see some of the greats in my time. I saw Son House play, and I checked out Muddy Waters a number of times. I've seen all the Kings (BB, Albert, and Freddie), and both Albert's (King and Collins). I've been to almost every Bluesfest, and have even had an opportunity to play (guitar) at a few jam sessions at local blues clubs here. I got to help update the sound system at "Legends," Buddy Guy's joint. Living in Chicago does have its advantages! Unfortunately, some are mixed memories. I got to hear another bluesman, this one from Texas, shortly before a helicopter crash claimed his life. Eric Clapton was supposed to be sitting in the seat that Stevie Ray Vaughan occupied!

Long live the blues!