We Junked up the SPACE!!!

That's right, it's a disaster area right now. A new local band is practicing in the SPACE right now and they have been using all sorts of stuff to do their bidding. One of them is running two amps in stereo while the other has got the RC50 loop station and he's running pre-recorded tracks from that into the PA! It's just two dudes, but they have managed to use as much gear as four. Needless to say, it's getting pretty loco.

I better get to cleanin',

cutawaycurator

Vasu's Boutique

Nerds,

I met up with an old college buddy of mine, Vasu, who I haven't seen in years. Well Vasu is really gettin' things done right now in the Bahamas working his way through medical school. While he was in town he was kind enough to stop by The Space with a couple of jewels from his gear collection (oh, did I forget to mention that Vasu is a guitar player?) Well the Doctor was in indeed! Needless to say I have rarely been in the presence of such fine gear!

First off, The Savage Blitz 50. A 50 Watt (duh) class AB head which is modeled after the original Marshall JTM45 "Bluesbreaker", the one that Eric Clapton played with when he was with John Mayall & Bluesbreakers. Anyway, enough about the pedigree, this amp SINGS! Vasu had the amp "jumped" so both the normal and bright volumes were compounding to create one mean tone. If you get the chance to check one of these out, I highly recommend it. And look at that thing! It's HUGE!

Next up Vasu brought along his Fender Custom Shop Strat. This thing was gorgeous! A beautiful butterscotch "thin skin" nitro finish with the single-ply pickgaurd. The main claim to fame of this Strat is the humbucker in the bridge with a "coil tap"! One minute you're shredding with the Humbucker, then with just the roll of a knob, you're G.E. Smith gettin' pickin' with a nice Tele sound. Ash body, V-shape neck, relic'd out...what else could you ask for?

Finally Vasu showed me his very unique Equator Instruments hollow-body. This thing is a true hollow body with a very boxy tone. But when I played around with the tone knob, I was really surprised at the different tones and colors I was able to get. And those two humbuckers can really scream!

So Vasu had to depart back to paradise and I had to say goodbye to the lovely toys, but I'm sure they'll make another appearance in The Space before too long. In the interim, Vasu was kind enough to let me borrow his Keeley mod'ed TS9 and Blues Driver...so that should be fun!

Thanks for reading,

cutawaycurator

SM57 vs e609

Nerds,


The Shure SM57 and the Sennheiser e609...


They are probably the most common, most used mics for mic'ing guitar amps. So I decided I would pit them against eachother.
Even though both these mics are extremely common-place both in the studio and on the stage, they do have very unique and distinct sound characteristics. And being the detail-oriented, mediocre guitar player that I am, I decided that I would let you all hear some of the differences between these two mics.

Here's the setup...

Clean Tone:
1994 MIJ Strat with rosewood neck-->Boss TU-2-->Fender Twin Reverb 1965 RI


Overdrive Tone:
Strat-->Boss TU2-->Epiphone Valve Jr.-->Celestion Heritage 75W 12"


Now I tried my absolute best to place these two mics in the same position relative to the speaker(s).


And without further ado...




You make the call, the SM57 and the e609.

Until next time,
cutawaycurator

WTFender?! Vol. 2 - Target Market is on point!

Nerdles,

Hey bros and dudettes, I know it's been a while since I've posted anything (whatever happened to that New Year's resolution anyway?). Well whatever my sorry excuse for my blogging inactivity may be, I do at least try to make the occasional music concert show every now and again. About a week ago I had the delight to see Murfreesboro band "The Lake" open for local rippers Target Market's final show. The Lake was superb and Target Market really put an amazing cap on the evening. A truly awesome band that many many people will be sad to see go. And in my truly geeky fashion I managed to snap a couple photos of yet another epic display of Fender loyalty (which always brings a tear to my eye) but I'm still super manly. In fact I'm gonna go lift weights after a post this entry. Then I'm going to go cry...I mean beat someone up. Yeah, punch somebody right in the appendix. What do you think of that? Yeah, you're scared and yet oh so intrigued at the same time. So to Target Market, you guys were amazing. And to those of you who don't know who I'm talking about, go listen to/buy their stuff.

Until next time, whenever that may be...

cutawaycurator

okay okay, the geeky details...

At first glance, here's what I think we're lookin' at:

-an American Standard Tele

-some sort of Standard Strat

-the RI Fender Tele Deluxe

-and a pair of Hot Rod DeVilles (I think)

-bonus P-Bass photo

SPACE JUNK answers your emails #3 - Dynarmonics

Nerdlies,

The weather has finally been half-way decent the past couple of weeks. And man, I couldn't have needed it sooner! This winter was really startin' to drag on. And when that stupid Groundhog saw his shadow...man that was just like the worst! So I guess this is my long-winded explanation for why I haven't posted anything in a while. What can I say, I've simply been frolicking constantly in the semi-tepid, slightly enjoyable weather. Yeah...that should take me off the hook. Well here's something for you to enjoy for the time being...oh, and send me some frickin' emails will ya?

bye,

cutawaycurator

Holding The Wolf By The Ears...Experiments In Home Recording

Hey Junkies!

This is Sam. I've appeared in a few video posts on SPACE JUNK in the last couple months and now I'm really excited to be a contributer blog-wise. Joel actually sent me the invite some time ago, but I've put it off for various reasons, most of which were either procrastination or stage fright (well maybe not stage fright...maybe just plain old laziness!) Anyway, I think I have something to offer to this discussion and I hope that we'll see even more artists and creators up very soon!

Before I get into what I'd like to present to you today, let me tell you a little about myself. I'm one of those music fiends that has always been involved in sounds and melodies since I could make noise. It's something that was in me always vying for my attention. I was already writing and performing when my dad first explained to me what a 4-track recorder was. Up until then, me and a friend had been bouncing takes between two tape decks and a mixer! The idea that you could have 4 tracks with independent control over volume, eq and effects rocked my teenaged brain! I saved up money for a long time and bought a Tascam 424MKII (I'll have to blog about that machine sometime. I still have it.) Having a recording unit in my bedroom almost instantly changed the way I created music.

After a few years and couple cassette tape releases later, I realized that I was at a crossroads - I could put my creative energy in learning how to engineer and record or I could perfect my writing and performing. It made sense at the time to choose the latter. I still fooled around with recording at times, mostly out of necessity, but it was on the back burner.

Recently, I've come full circle. The direction of my music has led me back into the studio and not very gently either. The main difference now, is that I'm not interested in going it alone anymore. My close friend and co-writer, Jimmy Britton, has enlisted to produce and co-engineer the bulk of the record. We tracked drums in December performed by Dave Czerny and engineered by John John Katsafanas. I've pulled in Ross Christopher for violin and a little cello. The collaborations won't stop there. I'm actually working on getting Joel in there as well as a few other friends. As the recording sessions progress, I'll be posting highlights and experiments here on SPACE JUNK. I am definitely approaching this like a mad scientist with just enough knowledge to be dangerous.

Check out the first micro movie below of our insanity at what I affectionately call reckless abandon studio. Some key points are tracking a glockenspiel and Jimmy producing a cello and violin session over iChat! The bit at the end is some true geekery involving a VOX AC-15, Les Paul Studio, Little Big Muff π, BOSS RE-20 Space Echo and a Digitech Whammy. Enjoy, and please comment and repost this entry.

Until the end of the world,

Sam Wade

LIFEINJERSEY in St. Louis!

Nerds,

Amazing Kansas City band LIFEINJERSEY was in St. Louis this past week as part of their I-70 tour. I was fortunate enough to have these guys stay at my place after their rad-as-hell show at the Firebird. The evening was filled with fun and ghost stories as well as some amazing YouTube videos. The next day, before they headed for Columbia, we met up for lunch where Dave made quite the appropriate lunch selection and Carson and John mobbed up on their respective lunches. Adam preferred to sit with some Whole Foods strangers and we snacked the day away! It was great having them here and if you haven't heard these dudes, you are missing out BIG TIME!

plotting points,

cutawaycurator