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Thread: New Playing Opps Coming Together!

  1. #1
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    Thumbs up New Playing Opps Coming Together!

    Two things have come together for me to give me some opportunities to play with others.

    1. Jamming with another electric player. A lawyer acquaintance/casual friend of mine and I have been trying to get together for a while to play. He is also a 40 something Dad who played in college and is getting back into it. He has the butterscotch colored Squire Affinity Tele and seems to be a natural rhythm guy. We finally found a night that will work about two times a month or so for use to play together, and held the first one this last week. He came over and we went over a few songs that we had exchanged tab/music for, by playing backing tracks and/or the song through my iMac into some speakers, and took turns playing rhythm and lead. We were playing electric style and it was fun to try out his tele, which he played through my son's Peavey Vyper 30. We played things like Thrill is Gone, Black Magic Woman, Gravity, Hotel California, and Bertha, and plan to add some more.

    His rhythm skills are nice and perhaps more varied than mine, and I can learn from him, and he learns from me about lead/fill playing, and we egg each other on. Very fun! If we weren't both so busy, we complement in a way that we could add a bass player and drummer and have a good mix one day.

    2. Acoustic jam with my instructor Chip. Spudman has met Chip and I have talked about him before. I have not been actively taking lessons with him for the last several months due to cutting back personal expenses, but we stay in contact. I hope to start up again. In the meantime, he invited me to join an acoustic jam at his place most Sunday nights. He is there, his girlfriend who plays mandolin and a little guitar, another mandoliner, another guitarist, and I. Chip alternates between guitar, mandolin, and a big stand-up, fretless bass. It is a somewhat structured jam, with emphasis on learning about playing to space, playing in such a way as to let the other players be heard when it is their turn to solo, lead the song, sing, etc. He intends on recording some of the jams later for our own edification and whatever. I have been bringing my own acoustic, and will soon bring a different one. (see shopping for a Martin thread)

    We played a mix of bluegrass "fiddle" tunes (awesome for my right hand), folkish Grateful Dead (Dark Hollow, Shady Grove), Neil Young (Heart of Gold, Harvest Moon), acoustic blues (Tea for Texas). Lots of learning for me of bass runs, fills, different folk/bluegrass techniques, and forces me to come up with different ways to play lead without the aid of lighter strings, double cutaways, and pedals that add sustain or hide poor picking/fretting technique. They turned up the speed on me on "Billy in the Lowground" and said if I wasn't falling, I wasn't playing hard enough, and I nailed it twice through, with decent tone and picking technique! Yeah!

    I am excited about these playing opps, and they are getting me more fired up about guitar than I have been, seeing as I just played by myself late at night when I was tired all summer. Gotta love it!!!!
    Last edited by sunvalleylaw; November 10th, 2009 at 07:28 PM.
    Steve Thompson
    Sun Valley, Idaho


    Guitars: Fender 60th Anniversary Std. Strat, Squier CVC Tele Hagstrom Viking Semi-hollow, Joshua beach guitar, Martin SPD-16TR Dreadnought
    Amphs: Peavey Classic 30, '61 Fender Concert
    Effects and such: Boss: DS-1, CE-5, NS-2 and RC20XL looper, Digitech Bad Monkey, Korg AX1G Multi-effects, Berhinger: TU100 tuner, PB100 Clean Boost, Line 6 Toneport UX2, Electro Harmonix Little Big Muff Pi, DuhVoodooMan's Rabid Rodent Rat Clone, Zonkin Yellow Screamer Mk. II, MXR Carbon Copy Delay


    love is the answer, at least for most of the questions in my heart. . .
    - j. johnson

  2. #2
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    That's great news, Steve! Jamming and diversity, good combination.
    Playing outside your comfort zone will push you to improve quickly, and you're having fun doing it. Kudos!
    Guitars
    Wilburn Versatare, '52 FrankenTele(Fender licensed parts), Fender USA Roadhouse Strat, Fender USA Standard B-bender Telecaster, Agile AL 3000 w/ WCR pickups, Ibanez MIJ V300 Acoustic, Squier Precision Bass,
    Amps
    Ceriatone Overtone Special, Musicman 212 Sixty-Five, Fender Blues Jr., Peavey Classic 30, Fender Super Reverb, Traynor YCV-40 WR Anniversary w/ matching 1x12 ext. cab, Epiphone SoCal 50w head w/ matching 4x12 cab (Lady Luck speakers), Avatar 2x12 semi-open back cab w/ Celestion speakers
    Pedals
    Digitech Bad Monkey, Digitech Jamman, DVM's ZYS, Goodrich volume pedal

  3. #3
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    Sounds like a lot of fun Steve
    I can't say that I've given up on a flanger cause I've never liked the effect either. I also can't say the same about Tremolo. I hate them both equally. - Tone2TheBone 2009

  4. #4
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    Glad to hear this, Steve! Jamming w others will get you better faster than anything else! And the sense of comraderie and shared goals w other players kinda sheds a whole new light on your own playing! Good on ya!
    bigG


    Guitars:

    Gibson Les Paul Studio Faded Cherry Mahogany, Peavey HP Signature EXP, Epi Sheraton II, Fender Standard Fat Strat, original 1982 Made in the USA Fender Bullet (w original HSC)/ 2005 Martin HD-7 Roger McGuinn Signature Edition (#102 of 250), Martin M-36 (0000), Martin OM-21, Martin 000-15M, Hohner EL-SP Plus Parlor acoustic

    Amps: Swart Space Tone 6V6se, Swart Night Light Power Attenuator/compressor/stereo line-out, Peavey Windsor Studio, Vox AD50VT, Fender Super Champ XD, Vox DA15, Marshall MG10KK, '83 Peavey Bandit 65

    Pedals: Cry Baby 535q wah, Bad Monkey OD, Boss DS-1, Sabine FuzzStortion, HardWire RV-7 Reverb


    www.swartamps.com
    www.ericjosephelectricguitars.com

    Carpe diem, brother, cause you don't know how many diems you have left to carpe.

  5. #5
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    Nice to hear you're getting some good outlets for your playing. As bigG says it'll make you a better player for sure!
    - Lev

    Main Guitars: Fender US Deluxe HSS Strat, PRS SE C24, Fender Baja Tele
    Bass Guitar: Squier VM Jaguar Special
    Main Amp: Vox AC15
    Main Effects: Digitech EXP-7, Line6 M5, Soul Food, Sub n UP, Flashback, Polara Verb
    Vids: www.youtube.com/levguitar

  6. #6
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    Pretty cool SVL. This is going to take your playing to a whole new level.

    "No Tele For you." - The Tele Nazi

    Ha! Tele-ish now inbound.

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