shinksma
What? I get a title?
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2014
- Messages
- 5,318
Bit of a long-winded tale, but I wanted to share this with some folks that I think would understand. And I decided to post it here too.
Last night most of my band got together for dinner - we have two couples in the band, and we live near each other, so dinners at one place or the other are common.
Knowing what we are like after some drinks, my wife and I made sure to drag over some gear expecting a jam session to break out...and it did. I took the RL SH Vela and my usual gigging gear: acoustic amp and pedalboard (with a new Boss PS-6 on it).
A seemingly unrelated aside:
The PS-6 is a recent acquisition to scratch that itch of being able to cop some harmonies while being the only electric lead guitarist in the band, a la Hotel California (Eagles) or Jessica (Allman Brothers) or maybe even some of Gilmour's solos in Dogs (Pink Floyd). It was also an experiment for one of the band's newer songs, written by the other guitarist - he wants a guitar lead or two for the breaks, but couldn't express the sound in his head (he is a rhythm acoustic guitar player, mostly). He did play some Allman Brothers songs recently in the car, so I figured maybe a lead with a bit of harmony at the end would be what he wants. We played through his song a few times, and he seemed to like the overall feel. More experiments to do.
After playing some other tunes, I wanted to demonstrate a chord progression / riff that I had created while doing some mad experiments: I was trying to re-create a tri-chorus sound using two different chorus-like pedals at the same time (it worked, or at least I was happy with the sound I got). The chord progression was interesting, as was the tri-chorus sound I had faked.
But I had created that tri-chorus sound on a different board than the one I had with me - I had used my big stay-at-home board, with a Keeley 30ms (Abbey setting) and a Boss RT-20 (slow mode, very mild overdrive). I did not have those pedals on my gigging board, instead I had an F-pedal PhazeVibe and the PS-6, which has a Detune mode (which is similar to a Chorus). Well, they worked! Got a nice swooshy chorus like sound, added a bit of dirt, and played them the chord progression. The Vela just sounded so "right" for the tone using the middle pup switch position, no coil tap (I must admit I first developed the chord progression on my 305, where it also sounded good).
Half the reason I wanted to play the riff is that it is not a usual chord progression, it kinda breaks the rules: Cm, Gm, then E7#9 (the "Jimmy Hendrix" chord used most famously in Purple Haze) - the E7#9 isn't part of any typical Western music key based on Cm or Gm that I could identify. I figured it was an unusual key for us too - we usually write stuff in the predictable keys of D, Dm, A, Am, G, C, Bm, occasionally Em. So Cm was a nice diversion from the usual.
So, the point of this story is:
After playing through a couple times, the rhythm guitarist asks if I have any lyrics yet. Nope, not yet. "Great!", says his girlfriend/sig other, "I have had a phrase running through my head all day!"
She sings a couple of lines while I play, my wife spontaneously sings a third, I add a fourth, the other guitarist suggests the next again, we assembled the first verse, then the second, came up with chords then words for a chorus, the next verse, I added a simple bridge as a placeholder that ended up being perfect so it stayed, and in less than an hour we had a song written! We did a quick recording of it to get a rough cut saved in their home studio, because specific melody twists, tempo and syncopation can be easily forgotten by the next day (especially when wine was enjoyed throughout the dinner and jam session!).
The song is inspired by the terrible tragedy caused (still being caused) by Hurricane Harvey, and our thoughts go out to everyone affected. It is a song of despair and hope and family.
This is why I love playing in my band. And why I like PRSi - they so easily add to the inspiration. I played those chords over and over as we churned them into a song, and the Vela never made my hands nor back feel tired, and the tone was just so fricking incredible.
Last night most of my band got together for dinner - we have two couples in the band, and we live near each other, so dinners at one place or the other are common.
Knowing what we are like after some drinks, my wife and I made sure to drag over some gear expecting a jam session to break out...and it did. I took the RL SH Vela and my usual gigging gear: acoustic amp and pedalboard (with a new Boss PS-6 on it).
A seemingly unrelated aside:
The PS-6 is a recent acquisition to scratch that itch of being able to cop some harmonies while being the only electric lead guitarist in the band, a la Hotel California (Eagles) or Jessica (Allman Brothers) or maybe even some of Gilmour's solos in Dogs (Pink Floyd). It was also an experiment for one of the band's newer songs, written by the other guitarist - he wants a guitar lead or two for the breaks, but couldn't express the sound in his head (he is a rhythm acoustic guitar player, mostly). He did play some Allman Brothers songs recently in the car, so I figured maybe a lead with a bit of harmony at the end would be what he wants. We played through his song a few times, and he seemed to like the overall feel. More experiments to do.
After playing some other tunes, I wanted to demonstrate a chord progression / riff that I had created while doing some mad experiments: I was trying to re-create a tri-chorus sound using two different chorus-like pedals at the same time (it worked, or at least I was happy with the sound I got). The chord progression was interesting, as was the tri-chorus sound I had faked.
But I had created that tri-chorus sound on a different board than the one I had with me - I had used my big stay-at-home board, with a Keeley 30ms (Abbey setting) and a Boss RT-20 (slow mode, very mild overdrive). I did not have those pedals on my gigging board, instead I had an F-pedal PhazeVibe and the PS-6, which has a Detune mode (which is similar to a Chorus). Well, they worked! Got a nice swooshy chorus like sound, added a bit of dirt, and played them the chord progression. The Vela just sounded so "right" for the tone using the middle pup switch position, no coil tap (I must admit I first developed the chord progression on my 305, where it also sounded good).
Half the reason I wanted to play the riff is that it is not a usual chord progression, it kinda breaks the rules: Cm, Gm, then E7#9 (the "Jimmy Hendrix" chord used most famously in Purple Haze) - the E7#9 isn't part of any typical Western music key based on Cm or Gm that I could identify. I figured it was an unusual key for us too - we usually write stuff in the predictable keys of D, Dm, A, Am, G, C, Bm, occasionally Em. So Cm was a nice diversion from the usual.
So, the point of this story is:
After playing through a couple times, the rhythm guitarist asks if I have any lyrics yet. Nope, not yet. "Great!", says his girlfriend/sig other, "I have had a phrase running through my head all day!"
She sings a couple of lines while I play, my wife spontaneously sings a third, I add a fourth, the other guitarist suggests the next again, we assembled the first verse, then the second, came up with chords then words for a chorus, the next verse, I added a simple bridge as a placeholder that ended up being perfect so it stayed, and in less than an hour we had a song written! We did a quick recording of it to get a rough cut saved in their home studio, because specific melody twists, tempo and syncopation can be easily forgotten by the next day (especially when wine was enjoyed throughout the dinner and jam session!).
The song is inspired by the terrible tragedy caused (still being caused) by Hurricane Harvey, and our thoughts go out to everyone affected. It is a song of despair and hope and family.
This is why I love playing in my band. And why I like PRSi - they so easily add to the inspiration. I played those chords over and over as we churned them into a song, and the Vela never made my hands nor back feel tired, and the tone was just so fricking incredible.
