I Felt A Great Disturbance In The Force As Though Millions Of Amps Suddenly Cried Out In Terror.

[sergiodeblanc]

Nothing to mourn yet, they're all still here until I get my head around not having all this stuff!

Ehh… I suppose you can’t take anything with you anyway.

 

[László]

Ehh… I suppose you can’t take anything with you anyway.

I haven't gotten quite as far as planning for that scenario yet...

 

[KentuckyBoiledChiccan]

Nothing to mourn yet, they're all still here until I get my head around not having all this stuff!

Knowing Fillmore inside and out, I know it's unique enough that you'll miss it.

 

[vchizzle]

I'll speak only for myself.

I spend too much time fussing about what guitar to play, and what amp to play through, and not enough time deciding what to actually, you know, play.

Musically, I mean.

To be able to say, 'This is what I sound like', and have that be consistent is (to my way of thinking) more creatively desirable than diddling around with multiple instruments.

It might not be as much fun, but it's good to have a voice.

You don’t need to have a voice/signature sound/notable style as a studio musician/composer(you know this already). You need to be a chameleon for said project.

Also, Mesa’s are fine amps. Not in the same league as a Komet. No offense to Mesa owners/fans. They are a large scale production manufacturer though. There is no way to give the time and care to an individual amp. Meticulous attention and craftsmanship is what you pay for in a Komet. Even a company like Matchless is more like that. Keep in mind that’s not better or worse, just different. It’s all about what makes you speak to the best of your ability as a player.

Again, you know all this stuff. Your success speaks for itself. Sometimes we just need clarity in our minds.

 

[László]

Knowing Fillmore inside and out, I know it's unique enough that you'll miss it.

What might make me miss it a lot is that one of my best ad clients liked the tone so much after I used it on a project that he came over later to try it with his own guitar, and bought one for himself!

I imagine he'd ask for it again, but the DG30 does similar things in a throatier way, and it's a "faster" amp with a more percussive attack. At first that took some getting used to, but after a decade, it's become second-nature and to please only myself, I use the DG30 more.

However, the Fillmore is more forgiving, and does a more Fender-ish Tweed tone, especially clean.

You don’t need to have a voice/signature sound/notable style as a studio musician/composer(you know this already). You need to be a chameleon for said project.

It can go either way.

If a client wants a certain thing, yes, I have to deliver that. 100% true. For some of the Ford stuff on my reel, for example, a specific guitar or amp was requested.

But if I don't get direction regarding guitar tone, and I do a demo the client team chooses, they almost never ask for guitar or amp changes.

In those cases, changes are over details about what's happening around the picture and voice over, such as, "Can you play that sustained guitar chord at the dissolve where the car starts spinning on the salt flats?" and not so much sounds and tone.

Also, Mesa’s are fine amps. Not in the same league as a Komet.

While I love Mesas for what they do, they're not in the same league as my PRS CAD amps, either - those are truly in the same league as the Komets and the others, but with a different sound.

On the other hand, my PRS amps don't quite do Black Panel Fender, or a true Tweed tone. For those the Mesas usually fill the bill.

This adds up to me not putting anything on Reverb just yet. I'm moving one step at a time. There's no rush, but I do have a plan in mind with all this.

 

[László]

Once I had a client say he wanted the guitar to sound like a Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers guitar. Fine.

When he came over to the studio to have a listen, he said, "You know what, this track needs a big ol' Rickebacker tone."

So I walked over to my guitars and pulled out the big ol' Rickenbacker I used on the track.

"You mean like this one that I recorded it with?" I'd even borrowed a friend's AC30 to cut the track with. The track was jangly as hell.

He was busted. Had that sheepish kind of grin.

I said, "How about if I just make the guitar louder in the mix?"

He said, "Yeah, do that."

Ad folks make some of these specific demands because they read something somewhere, or saw a photo of their favorite band, or whatever. If they come to the studio for a session, they need that kind of entertainment, and I accommodate them. But very few people who aren't musicians can really articulate what they want musically, and fewer still can tell the difference in a track.

 

[László]

I had an interesting day. I don't like interesting days.

I like dull, uneventful days so I can waste the day moving my amps and furniture around instead of doing actual work, yet still feel like I accomplished something.

This kind of thing used to be confined to weekends. Not any more. Now it's my preoccupation as well as my occupation since most of the car companies have moved their good ad work out of the state, and there's less to do that pays well.

It's just as well. Ad World must be a very scary place to work, because the ad people seem to be terrified 24/7. They're terrified of the clients. I don't blame them, but they used to be more fun to work with when they weren't scared sh!tless.

My studio is not a scary place to work. I'm not going to fire myself. I'm not going to fire my clients.

And even if they lose their fat paychecks, they can hang out at my place and I'll share my ramen noodles and fry up some insects. We might also be able to trap some chipmunks. We have plenty of them. I don't know what they taste like...yet. If you have a good chipmunk recipe, let me know in the comments down below.

Oh, I'm not sayin' the food will be good. But it'll be cheap and nourishing!

 

[Wyzard]

Or there's this:

 

[GGJJGG]

Or there's this:

This is a thing here in Michigan.

Muskrat Dinners a Tradition During Lent Downriver - Hour Detroit Magazine

Bud Willis stands over a pot of boiling muskrats in the kitchen of Trinity Lutheran Church in Wyandotte. He’s been cooking for hours already.

www.hourdetroit.com

 

[Wyzard]

 

[László]

This is a thing here in Michigan.

Muskrat Dinners a Tradition During Lent Downriver - Hour Detroit Magazine

Bud Willis stands over a pot of boiling muskrats in the kitchen of Trinity Lutheran Church in Wyandotte. He’s been cooking for hours already.

www.hourdetroit.com

Wait, I'm in Michigan...

But I thought Downriver muskrat eating was an urban legend. I...um...kinda don't know what to say!

 

[alantig]

Or there's this:

A decidedly different meal than muskrat cream casserole. Although the later leaves the muskrat with a smile.

 

[Wyzard]

But I thought Downriver muskrat eating was an urban legend. I...um...kinda don't know what to say!

From an article by Leyland DeVito published in Hour Detroit:

"According to a 2007 article in the Catholic News Service, “The Detroit archdiocesan communications department said there is a standing dispensation for Catholics Downriver — in Detroit’s southern suburbs and below — to eat muskrat on Fridays, although no documentation of the original dispensation could be found.”

The practice of Catholics eating semiaquatic rodents during Lent, however, is not unprecedented. In the 17th century, the church allowed the Bishop of Quebec to tell his flock they could eat beaver. In Venezuela, Catholics eat capybara — the world’s largest rodent, at up to 4 1/2 feet long."


I guess the "life semi-aquatic" (pace Wes Anderson) qualifies them as ........er, a sort of fish.

 

[László]

The practice of Catholics eating semiaquatic rodents during Lent, however, is not unprecedented. In the 17th century, the church allowed the Bishop of Quebec to tell his flock they could eat beaver.

Eating beaver is gonna happen whether it's sinful or not. Might as well roll with it.

 

[Wyzard]

Ah, but is it kosher? Asking for a friend.......

 

[László]

Ah, but is it kosher? Asking for a friend.......

Depends on how horn...I mean hungry you are.

 

[Wyzard]

Depends on how horn...I mean hungry you are.

Kash....... root?

 

[László]

Kash....... root?

Was never a requirement for me in any way, shape or form.

 

[László]

Comrades, I'm trying to decide which amp(s) I can do without as part of my Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (I guess this thread counts as the first iteration of my Little Red Book).

So today I mobilized the Red Guards - my PRS electrics (none of which is red, though all of them are Reds) - and put my Gang of Four amps on trial.

The amps requested additional time to roll tubes. That request was denied by me, in my role as Great Proletarian Judge. Each amp had to stand in the dock, and tell its sonic story.

The prosecutor (namely me, not only the judge but also the Great Proletarian Prosecutor) played music on guitar through each amp.

None of the amps confessed to Counter-Revolutionary Activities; even torturing them with high volumes and lots of pedals didn't make them whimper and confess. OK, fine.

The defense counsel (also me, the Great Proletarian Defender) pointed out that the amps deserved better treatment by virtue of their long and distinguished service to the People's Collective Basement and Craptastic Studio, and to the State.

The Great Proletarian Judge took the matter under advisement.

If I can let you in on a little secret, most of our Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution trials here in the People's Collective Basement and Craptastic Studio are rigged. We do whatever the Politburo Chairman (my Comrade wife) tells us to do.

The Chairman 'suggested' letting the matter rest a little while, but to continue to hold the amps in protective custody. Protective custody is the "re-education camp" in the far corner of the People's Collective Farm and Craptastic Studio, where they are tethered to a Worker's Paradise of cables of all kinds. They don't go anywhere until I tell them they can go. It's possible that one or more of them will simply be made to disappear without a trace.

"What happened to that Mesa amp, Comrade Laszlo?"

"What Mesa amp, Comrade Chairman?"

"The one that's not here any more. Are you sabotaging my authority as the Chairman of the Politburo? You could find yourself in a re-education center or disappeared if you're not careful, capiche?"

"I lost that amp in the storage room, Comrade Chairman. It's such a mess in there that I can't find anything."

"I see. Sabotaging State property, too, eh? Guards, take this man away. The re-education center is too good for him, I want him sent into orbit with one of our satellites with only enough oxygen for one day. Ta-ta Comrade LAZ."

 

[Moondog Wily]

Comrades, I'm trying to decide which amp(s) I can do without as part of my Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (I guess this thread counts as the first iteration of my Little Red Book).

So today I mobilized the Red Guards - my PRS electrics (none of which is red, though all of them are Reds) - and put my Gang of Four amps on trial.

The amps requested additional time to roll tubes. That request was denied by me, in my role as Great Proletarian Judge. Each amp had to stand in the dock, and tell its sonic story.

The prosecutor (namely me, not only the judge but also the Great Proletarian Prosecutor) played music on guitar through each amp.

None of the amps confessed to Counter-Revolutionary Activities; even torturing them with high volumes and lots of pedals didn't make them whimper and confess. OK, fine.

The defense counsel (also me, the Great Proletarian Defender) pointed out that the amps deserved better treatment by virtue of their long and distinguished service to the People's Collective Basement and Craptastic Studio, and to the State.

The Great Proletarian Judge took the matter under advisement.

If I can let you in on a little secret, most of our Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution trials here in the People's Collective Basement and Craptastic Studio are rigged. We do whatever the Politburo Chairman (my Comrade wife) tells us to do.

The Chairman 'suggested' letting the matter rest a little while, but to continue to hold the amps in protective custody. Protective custody is the "re-education camp" in the far corner of the People's Collective Farm and Craptastic Studio, where they are tethered to a Worker's Paradise of cables of all kinds. They don't go anywhere until I tell them they can go. It's possible that one or more of them will simply be made to disappear without a trace.

"What happened to that Mesa amp, Comrade Laszlo?"

"What Mesa amp, Comrade Chairman?"

"The one that's not here any more. Are you sabotaging my authority as the Chairman of the Politburo? You could find yourself in a re-education center or disappeared if you're not careful, capiche?"

"I lost that amp in the storage room, Comrade Chairman. It's such a mess in there that I can't find anything."

"I see. Sabotaging State property, too, eh? Guards, take this man away. The re-education center is too good for him, I want him sent into orbit with one of our satellites with only enough oxygen for one day. Ta-ta Comrade LAZ."

Вам разрешено действовать, товарищ! In the Latin/Roman/English alphabet that would be written Vam razresheno deystvovat', tovarishch!