Gear 1.1

Thunderbird by Keisman Pedals

I'm a gearhead guy. I love gear. I love talking gear and finding out what other guys use. So here's a little series of what I use. Gear for me, it not only makes the job easier but lots of the time it makes me capable of completing the job. For instance, I have a cheat sheet on my board that I can glance at for guidance if need be. Nothing fancy, just a few quick notes that I've jotted down during practices (which by now I have committed most of the content by memory) to help me remember the chain sequences for certain songs. I guess I'm a purist in a sense. I love to play a song the exact way its recorded. Don't get me wrong, I love a unique break out of a cover song that has been reshaped and changed to be a completely different animal. But as for my original music, I want it sound exactly the same live and recorded. I want the same energy that happens in a live show to be conveyed in the record and the same technical exactness found on the record to be translated live. Let's be honest, who goes to their favorite band's concert and says "I can't wait to hear all new songs and NOT be able to sing out loud til my voice is gone." No, we all love hearing our favorite songs played by our favorite bands. And to do this, lots of time you have to rely on your gear to replicate the intricate sounds and tones you generated in the studio using software.  I have small board compared to other guys but everything on board I love. My favorite pedal right now is the Thunderbird pedal made by Keisman Pedals (picture above, you can check out a demo here The Thunderbird) This is one the best and most solid drive pedals I've ever played. (No I'm not endorsed, but if you're reading this Keisman Pedals feel free to send me your Midnight Drive Pedal and I would gladly share my opinion!) The Thunderbird is two pedals combined into one. The Velvet Drive and The Early Bird. The Velvet Drive is a thick drive that has a lot of meat to it. I love to use it for leads galore. Throw in a little 'Verb and you're in face-melting Heaven (yes it's an actual place). The Early Bird is beautiful, harmonic light drive. It adds a very welcome bright drive to lots of the songs my band plays. Its a drive that if you pic or lightly strum you barely hear the distortion but if you punch the chord it really sounds out with some grit. The pedal is a True bypass which is always a plus. The Thunderbird is definitely staying on the board for good. The variance of tone it can generate on the dark and bright side is to vast to not keep it around. If you're looking for a drive pedal this might be the one for you! I'll share more stuff on my board later. 

Music- Tones

Tones

First post. Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog where I share my ideas, opinions, and experiences with my Music. 

I'm the front-man in 3 Days Leave, a christian rock band from SC (check us out here www.facebook.com/3daysleave). As the only guitar player in my band I have to do extra work on my tones. I'm mean lets face it, not many bands have three guitar players like Iron Maiden or Lynyrd Skynyrd. Most are lucky to have two solid guys with capable axes to fill all the demands of rhythm and lead with an occasional fill-in or picking pattern that only 2% of the listen audience will appreciate. Then there are the troopers, the real go getters who put in overtime to be the one guitar player and carry the crushing weight of knowing the melody and face-melting all depends on you (so this may be melodramatic but bear with me). It's a task nonetheless. Being the only guitar player requires you pick your battles. You decide when you're going to rip a lead, when you're going to pick a pattern, and when you just keep strumming on - the - click - every - single - time. In my band, we have a keyboard player, we'll call him Joshua... actually everyone calls him Joshua. He of course helps fill the rhythm but lets be real there are way cooler things you can do with an organ/piano/synth than just punch chords. So as I said, I pick my battles and my tones help me do this. I have a small but growing pedal board (pictures to come of a hand built board I'm working on). And on that board I have several pedals that I love and wouldn't... no couldn't play a show without. I'm a big fan of vintage sounds. Lets be real though, what mac-owning, scarf-wearing, I-lead-worship-at-my-church-sometimes guitar player doesn't express that same sentiment. But for me tones are kinda of a big deal, like Anchorman Ron Burgundy big deal. In fact, a buddy and I were talking about guitar tones and he mentioned that the guitar player of Maroon 5 is a tone snob and won't even use a belt pack for fear of distorting the signal. I can dig it, tone-snob maybe. When I punch my Boss Fender Deluxe Reverb '65 I want to hear that classic "spring rattle" that intermittently seeps through my strum. My reasoning? Tones are like adverbs. You can take a normal melody line and play it with a specific tones (the tone of course being rendered by a guitar, amp or more commonly a pedal) and "make" the song. Example, Poison "Every Rose has its Thorn." Yeah the verse starts slow and its only G and C but that bright, roomy, chorusy acoustic guitar takes the G and C chords and helps to make a number one hit in 1988 for the band Poison. In conclusion, next time you sit down to write a song, play a cover tune, or practice with your band take time to think about what KIND of sound is coming out of your amp. Create the tone with your ears. Use everything in your arsenal from EQ knobs on your amp, volume and tone knobs on your guitar, and your pedal settings. Be a connoisseur of tones. For me it makes the song and helps me to convey the message of the lyrics. 

Keep rocking the Free World.

-A.J.