Man I am wrecked. Long day of studio sessions.
Had the earlier Kari Renee session at the place Jason from Velvet Brick works. Started off a little iffy, she was really inexperienced and nervous, bless her heart. Real sweet lady. But her drummer son, Russell the session guitarist and myself worked out the song and it went better from there. Kinda country/folky number. She has a good voice. Then took a stab at a "Turtle Blues", a greasy Janis blues song since I only had an hour left. Was a good warmup for the Truckers session and put some extra rent money in my pocket.
Then went straight to Cris Burns' place to record with the Truckers. Session went very well, blew out 7 of 10 songs. New cab sounds fine and was happy with my playing. Will finish last 3 songs for drums and do bass fixits tomorrow and I should be done. Awesome.
So yesterday was doing some last minute cab shopping when I got a call from Ken (ex-Butcherwhite). Said he was poking around online, stumbled across this blog and asked if I needed to borrow anything. Hell yeah, Ken is such a great guy. Told him I'd call him back after I hit a few more places. At Ray Hennig's found a new run Fender 4x10, which I thought had Eden speakers in it. They asked for $250 but let it go for $225. Awesome. Turns out has Eminence speakers, not too shabby. Lightweight and easy to move, but I will upgrade the handles and maybe throw some casters on it.
Used it last night with the SVT at Friends w/ETB and got some good tone compliments. Wasn't blown away by it but for the money I am pleased. Still have $$ left over to fix my Isovent, and can maybe use it as a trade-in towards a 2x15 down the line. Anyway, the gig went well. Started off fucking dead but steadily filled throughout our 8pm-11pm slot. It's Texas Relay weekend, meaning there are a lot of people downtown. Obviously beefed up police presence on 6th Street to keep an eye on the more questionable individuals, and there were quite a few.
Trying to navigate 2 huge vans down the middle of a closed-off 6th Street was an exercise in patience. Jesus people, don't you see a BIG FUCKING VAN coming your way? I was tailing Boss Hoss and fucking people were walking BETWEEN OUR MOVING VANS as we inched towards Brazos. Fucking jackasses, I tell ya.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Thursday, April 1, 2010
So I've been scouring Austin TX for a bass cabinet/rig to use for recording.
Have my mid 70's Ampeg SVT fully retubed and 100% but can't use it with the 4x10 cabinet I've been borrowing from my roommate. Have the Fender TB-600 out of the shop but same deal. Both amps are way over-powered for that cabinet (300-600w into a 200w = bad). So I can only use my Marshall JCM800 as a bass amp (100w).
So I hit most of the good gear stores Tuesday, saw lots of good/bad deals but nothing worth spending any money on. Bid $1000 on a $1500 Acoustic 370 w/matching 2x15 but lowest they'd go was $1200. There's an electric blue Kustom head/cab, but the cab is only 200w or so, so I would have to re-speaker it. But not worth buying a head AND cab when I just want the cab. Talked to Travis the gear rental guy and he only has an 8x10. Over kill. Rock n Roll Rentals only has an 8x10 or 2x10's. WTF? Tried to "rent" a cab from Guitar Center and they said no. But they didn't have anything I really wanted anyway.
So my dilemma is I'm willing to BUY something right now, but I'm not finding anything I'd want to pay money for (except that Acoustic 370 rig, heh). My goal is $400 range but willing to go to $600, and to find a cab that won't just sit in the garage once I get my Isovent back. Something I'd want to KEEP. So far nada.
So on that note did my sencond session with 25 Smokin Figurados yesterday and used my current ETB stage rig: Marshall JCM800 thru that 200w 4x10. Didn't sound too bad, a little aggressive and mid-rangey but is that a bad thing? heh. Blew threw 3 songs in 90 minutes. And this time no emailing/phone calls between Tim and Gregg to offer suggestions. They obviously trusted what I was doing, awesome. Would have liked to have prepped more, but keeping it loose allows for creativity, whether suggested or purely unintentional. Felt pretty good about what I did, and even better about the payout. If I can find more session work, playing live can be more about having fun than trying to pay the rent.
Monday and Tuesday at Friends with ETB were brutal, speaking of which. Dead both nights and a double-booking almost had us pack up and go home. Which we probably should have but fuck it. Not very profitable nights.
That, and the last week has been physically exhausting and emotionally draining, and that's all I have to say about that. My time in Corpus was too short, and was thrown right back into the marathon called my life. No wonder I feel so drained.
Today went and tried more gear. Tried the blue Kustom and didn't like the head enough to buy the set. South Austin Music also had an Acoustic 220 head/2x15 cab set. Asked how much. $500. $500?!?!? What the hell is WRONG with it? It's HUGE. Yeah. This particular 2x15 cab was stupid big. Bigger and deeper than an 8x10. Just retarded big. Sounded great tho! But totally over-sized for practical use. And it was 2 ohms and would need an overhall just so I can use it with a diff amp. Not worth the $500... but tempting just to have. Will hit south Guitar Center tomorrow and maybe a few other places.
Hoping the Gods of Rock will take pity on my plight and deliver the perfect bass cabinet to me, like TOMORROW.
Have my mid 70's Ampeg SVT fully retubed and 100% but can't use it with the 4x10 cabinet I've been borrowing from my roommate. Have the Fender TB-600 out of the shop but same deal. Both amps are way over-powered for that cabinet (300-600w into a 200w = bad). So I can only use my Marshall JCM800 as a bass amp (100w).
So I hit most of the good gear stores Tuesday, saw lots of good/bad deals but nothing worth spending any money on. Bid $1000 on a $1500 Acoustic 370 w/matching 2x15 but lowest they'd go was $1200. There's an electric blue Kustom head/cab, but the cab is only 200w or so, so I would have to re-speaker it. But not worth buying a head AND cab when I just want the cab. Talked to Travis the gear rental guy and he only has an 8x10. Over kill. Rock n Roll Rentals only has an 8x10 or 2x10's. WTF? Tried to "rent" a cab from Guitar Center and they said no. But they didn't have anything I really wanted anyway.
So my dilemma is I'm willing to BUY something right now, but I'm not finding anything I'd want to pay money for (except that Acoustic 370 rig, heh). My goal is $400 range but willing to go to $600, and to find a cab that won't just sit in the garage once I get my Isovent back. Something I'd want to KEEP. So far nada.
So on that note did my sencond session with 25 Smokin Figurados yesterday and used my current ETB stage rig: Marshall JCM800 thru that 200w 4x10. Didn't sound too bad, a little aggressive and mid-rangey but is that a bad thing? heh. Blew threw 3 songs in 90 minutes. And this time no emailing/phone calls between Tim and Gregg to offer suggestions. They obviously trusted what I was doing, awesome. Would have liked to have prepped more, but keeping it loose allows for creativity, whether suggested or purely unintentional. Felt pretty good about what I did, and even better about the payout. If I can find more session work, playing live can be more about having fun than trying to pay the rent.
Monday and Tuesday at Friends with ETB were brutal, speaking of which. Dead both nights and a double-booking almost had us pack up and go home. Which we probably should have but fuck it. Not very profitable nights.
That, and the last week has been physically exhausting and emotionally draining, and that's all I have to say about that. My time in Corpus was too short, and was thrown right back into the marathon called my life. No wonder I feel so drained.
Today went and tried more gear. Tried the blue Kustom and didn't like the head enough to buy the set. South Austin Music also had an Acoustic 220 head/2x15 cab set. Asked how much. $500. $500?!?!? What the hell is WRONG with it? It's HUGE. Yeah. This particular 2x15 cab was stupid big. Bigger and deeper than an 8x10. Just retarded big. Sounded great tho! But totally over-sized for practical use. And it was 2 ohms and would need an overhall just so I can use it with a diff amp. Not worth the $500... but tempting just to have. Will hit south Guitar Center tomorrow and maybe a few other places.
Hoping the Gods of Rock will take pity on my plight and deliver the perfect bass cabinet to me, like TOMORROW.
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