The Thirteen Percent

The Thirteen Percent


By PT



This could be the last Fifth Fret post of 2011 (unless Pappy sneaks one in at the last minute – you never know with that guy). As the year rolls to a close, I want to take the opportunity to look back at some of the really cool stuff that happened to me this year, top ten style.

10. I learned a little acoustic blues.

9. I played guitar on my iPad.

8. I read some great books.

7. I gave myself permission to fail.

6. I learned a little guitar history.

5. I learned to appreciate solid state.

4. I saw a lot of amps.

3. I got in tune.

2. I podcasted.

1. I blogged.

2011 was the first year I have ever blogged on anything resembling a regular basis. Sure, I posted the occasional Fifth Fret post in 2010, but you certainly couldn’t call me consistent. But this year, especially in the latter half of 2011, I buckled down and decided to become an honorary blogger.

I’ve posted 27 entries on the Fifth Fret this year. The amazing thing is that those 27 posts represent a mere 13% of the total entries on this blog in 2011!

Which brings me to my real point: Pappy is a pretty inspiring blogger! Not only is he amazingly prolific and consistent, but he writes with the kind of contagious enthusiasm that cannot be faked. The guy loves guitar playing, music, and gear in a pure and passionate way. Even better, he loves talking and writing about guitar. And we all get to benefit.

So a big thanks to Pappy for another year of the Fifth Fret. Thanks for letting me post, and thanks for sharing your posts with all of us.

Can’t wait to do it again next year!

PT is the co-host of the guitar talk podcast Six-String Bliss. He also writes fiction and has been known to throw a little disc golf. He lives in the birthplace of country music.


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Planet Waves NS Mini Headstock Tuner

Planet Waves NS Mini Headstock Tuner Review

By Pappy

You know what I find indispensible now?  My Planet Waves headstock tuner.  It’s small, no-nonsense, looks good and it works.  All the time.  I just leave it on whatever guitar I’m using the most and whenever I pick it up to play it, I tune it first.  How could I not when it’s so easy to do?  A click of a button and then I can start turning machine heads and I always play in tune.

It’s great.

But there’s another thing I love:

Telecasters and Tele-shaped guitars.

The problem with my Planet Waves tuner is that it needs a bit of meat on the headstock for it to grab on to and my Flatline Delta 90 does not have enough real estate to make a good grab and start tuning.

And now that I’ve become so used to tuning before playing now, it feels WRONG not to.  And don’t even suggest using an old-fashioned tuner with a cord attached – do I look like some sort of animal?  I keep a Squier Tele behind the couch in my living room and I pull it out when I’m watching TV.  It’s the end of the day and I’m tired and I really don’t’ want to walk ALL the way to the other side of the house to plug into a tuner (because you want to keep your cords with your amp).  My motivation at the end of the day is… lacking.

But now it’s a complete non-issue!  Planet Waves released an even smaller clip-on tuner that clips to the bottom of the headstock and wraps around.  Basically it seems like it was made specifically for a Telecaster or headstocks without much space.  Now, if you have guitars with three tuners on a side or similar, there may be issues and the normal Planet Waves tuner is probably more up your alley, but any six-on-a-side headstock will benefit with this on it.

See how little of the headstock is taken up with the tuner?  I can still see the model name!

And you as a guitarist can improve your ear because you’ll always be playing a guitar that’s in tune.  Once you start playing in tune and tuning every time you start to play, you eventually achieve a lower tolerance for out-of-tune strings and notes.  If you are always playing out of tune, you only know you’re IN tune when you use a device but if you’re always starting out IN tune, it becomes easier to pick out strings that are a little flat or sharp.

Action shot!  Screen is easily readable in both light and dark situations.

Planet Waves has always been making cool stuff from cords to straps to locking tuning machines that automatically clip your strings and now, headstock tuners that offer quality tuning at a small price.  At a price like this, you can get one kind of tuner for each of your guitars and never have to worry about swapping out to another one.

Off the guitar, it actually looks bigger, but it still easily fits in the palm of a small hand.

Do I recommend it?  As a Tele player, I INSIST on it.  The more in tune you are as a player, the better you’ll sound and if you’re anything like me, every little bit of goodness helps.

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Wish Lists

Wish Lists
By Pappy

Well, another X-Mas is done.  What did YOU get?  I hope you received all sorts of tonal goodness if you celebrate X-Mas, and if you don't celebrate X-Mas, I hope the ones that do didn't annoy you too much.

It was during this holiday season that a brilliant thought occurred to me, thanks to Sweetwater.  See, Sweetwater sends me some really cool catalogs.  Besides the big ones that come every now and then, they also send this little pamphlet sporadically that focuses on a few pieces of gear, talks about a wide range of equipment and interviews a Sweetwater employee.

By the way, one of the questions they ask these employees is what their favorite music websites are and I now have a new goal to be one.  Not for them to SAY that the Fifth Fret is one of their favorite sites, but to MEAN it if they do say it.  Everyone has dreams.

Anyway, my wife checked the mail and was walking back to the house when I saw a pamphlet and knew right away what it was, but then this light clicked in my head.

The light said "lazy people."

What followed was my brilliant idea.

Almost everyone who uses Amazon has an Amazon wish list.  Stuff they want that they publish for the world to see (or specific people) and hope that someone buys them something from it.  People make these lists and then hope their friends or relatives will be sitting around before a birthday or any gift-giving occasion and remark to each other "I don't know what to get Mark this gift-giving occasion!  I'll just hop on Amazon and... yup, there's his list.  Now I'll just pick the most expensive thing..."

But here's the snag: everyone is lazy.  Maybe it's a laziness that exists on a subconscious level, but no-one really thinks to do this.  Instead they sit there and say "I don't know what to get Mark!  Hey, wait a minute... Mark likes books.  I'll just pick up the new Dan Brown."

They took a WAG (Wild-Butt Guess) and this is a good way to lose friends.  Especially if you get them a Dan Brown book.  A lot of people are forgiving in nature, but there are lines, people.  Lines that shouldn't be crossed and giving someone a book written poorly in bullet-style format for people who don't like to read is a good way to get crossed off the X-Mas card list.

I know I would never think to check Amazon for a wish list.  Who says you use Amazon?  Or any other website that features a wish list feature?  Am I supposed to troll around the internet like some sort of stalker looking for your name, hope it's actually you, and purchase something?

That's asking a lot of me.

So here's a proposal:

Sweetwater, or any guitar store with the means, really, sets up a program.  You go through and pick things you want with a limit of, say, 10 items.  These items populate a double-sided piece of paper (a big one) and have little areas where you can add your own comment.  Keep it Twitter-sized.  The company's description of the product is also included.  You organize the order you would like the products presented and then fill in the fields on the site that make it able to be sent to five people of your choosing.  Break out the address book.  In addition to the product picture, description, your additional comment and the available colors, it will feature a QR code.  A QR code is important.  In November 2010, smart phones comprised 28% of the US cellphone market and that has only gone up.  Some carriers are looking to drop traditional cellphones in favor of smart phones and some cellphone companies are dropping their traditional cellphones as well because it seems people don't want them anymore.

And if you have a smart phone, you probably have a QR reader.

QR codes look like this:

They can bring you directly to videos, websites, or (in this case) it can make a note on your phone with contact information.  

They're ridiculously easy to use once you get your QR Reader (they're free) and any potential buyer can peruse your short list, find the bracket they feel most comfortable with, scan the code and buy the item.

What would be REALLY cool is if, once bought, it takes it off the list, like you would find at a department store wedding/baby registry.  "Oh, someone already bought Mark a Classic Vibe Telecaster... Guess I can go with the Joe Satriani Ice 9 pedal.  I bet he'd like that."

I think I KNOW he would like it, because I would be theoretically holding a piece of paper with items he picked himself, why he picked them, and the description that makes them all seem so cool.

And it would have been delivered to my mailbox, not my email box where I would look at it like spam and delete it, or hidden away on some website that I'll never look for.  I have a tangible wish list in my hand, probably a smart phone in my pocket and all the potential in the world.

Seems like a good idea to me.

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Relic

Relic
By PT

We’ve all seen that quote about the music industry from Hunter S. Thompson. I can think of at least two people in the musical instrument world who have it as their email signature. You know the quote I’m talking about:

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."

It’s certainly a humorous sentiment, and there are enough real life stories to prove the truth behind Thompson’s candid remark. (Interesting side note: According to my friends at About.com, the quote comes from Thompson's book Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the 80s, but he never wrote the pithy ending line ‘There’s also a negative side’. That was mysteriously added later and misattributed to him. Other interesting side note: I don’t actually have friends at About.com.)

Too often, I hear these stories, and I get a little sad about the music industry and what it does to people.  However, it is way more fun to hear the good stories - the ones that fly in the face of the HST quote. It may take a little more digging, but it is well worth the effort.

One of my favorite recent stories is that of acoustic guitarist Matt Stevens. Matt is the perfect example of how a musician can make a name for himself through hard work, talent and creativity.  I interviewed Matt for Six-String Bliss back in September 2010, and I was blown away by the nearly endless ways the guy markets himself and makes himself accessible to listeners. In a world where twitter-spamming is often mistaken for marketing, Matt has gone another direction. Sure, he is a constant presence on Twitter, but he tweets wisely, linking to all sorts of interesting content. He also streams gigs over the Internet, offers Skype guitar lessons and so much more.

But all of that is nothing without the music. Matt’s new album Relic hit me pretty hard. His stuff has always been good, but he took a massive leap forward with this one. It may be odd to say this about a mostly-acoustic album, but it reminds me a lot of Led Zepplin in the power of the music and feelings it evokes.  Relic is one of my top albums of the year.

Matt Steven’s isn’t at the top of Billboard charts, but he is making a name for himself in a big bad way. I can’t tell you how many magazine articles I’ve seen on Matt Stevens in the past twelve months, but I can tell you the most recent was a write up in Guitar Player magazine. And seeing such a talented and nice fellow getting his due from the guitar establishment brings a big smile to my face.

If you love guitar, treat yourself to Relic. It is available on his site at http://www.mattstevensguitar.com/ where you can name your own price for the album.

PT Hylton is the co-host of the guitar talk podcast Six-String Bliss. He also writes fiction and has been known to throw a little disc golf. He lives in the birthplace of country music.


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Chris Brooks "The Axis of All Things"

Chris Brooks: "The Axis of All Things" Review
By Pappy

There are a few things that bug me about instrumental guitar albums:

1) They're almost always too long
2) The songs often sound the same and feature the same tone
3) The songs are way too long
4) The whole album usually comes off as self-indulgent

Fortunately, none of these issues are featured on Chris Brooks' new album, "The Axis of All Things."  The album is fairly short, coming at just over 40 minutes long, with the longest song being 6:39 in length.  The songs sound different and often feature different tones or different styles of playing.  When you think you may be getting used to the tones and style that Brooks uses, out comes a new one that perks your ears up and keeps you from becoming complacent.  This isn't to say the album suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder and different for differences' sake because there's a common tone lining the album that seems to be Brooks' particular voice, but it doesn't feel like one really long song with the same licks and tones.  There are a lot of twists and turns through the songs, expertly positioned to keep the listener interested and maintain the integrity of the song.

Also, the biggest thing is that the songs don't come off as self-indulgent.  It doesn't feel like I'm listening to someone who wants to show me how great they are at playing guitar.  Instead, it feels like I'm listening to someone who wants me to listen to great songs and the fact that he can play with speed and precision of the level that could singe the eyebrows of shocked faces isn't showcased.

It's an odd thing, when someone toes this line, I think.  Chris Brooks is an absolutely amazing guitarist, with a strong grip on melody and instrumental song-writing and the playing really feels like he's holding himself back in places for the song's sake.  But you know in your mind he has the potential in his playing to fly off in a shred-fest.  Similar to Superman not killing anyone.  He does it because it's right, but you know it wouldn't be hard at all for him to destroy you.

I appreciate the reserve in both cases.

This album also features some amazing tones.  Brooks uses a Suhr Custom Standard guitar (similar to a Super Strat) and a Suhr Badger 30 amplifier head, which Brooks says has a Plexi sort of sound, as well as a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier into Port City cabinets loaded with Eminence Cannabis Rex speakers.  Between the guitar and amp lie assorted Suhr and Boss pedals.

If you are a fan of instrumental rock, this album is required buying and you won't be disappointed.  If you think you may be interested in getting into this kind of genre, this album is an excellent introduction to it.

I highly recommend it.  It's great.  Check it out HERE and see what you think!

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Did you guys see my catch on Guitar Fail?  I would think if you were to advertise anything acoustic, it would probably be best to feature a picture with an acoustic guitar...

Pro Tone Pedals Essential Metal Distortion

Pro Tone Pedals Essential Metal Distortion Pedal Review

By Pappy

Pro Tone Pedals has always been a company that lies slightly off-kilter, offering guitarists a unique way to get the tones they want, or unique tones they didn't know they wanted yet.  They were among the first to pioneer insane levels of art on pedals and they back their products with strong warranties, leaving customers satisfied.

The quality tones, looks, and service has always come with a price tag that mirrored the quality though: high.

So Pro Tone Pedals alchemist Dennis Mollan wanted to offer something new for guitarists who have always wanted boutique quality, but has always had to settle for pedals made overseas that featured boring graphics and little in the way of uniqueness for tone.  He wanted to give the people an option.  In the end, he unveiled the new line from Pro Tone Pedals called the Essentials.  This review covers the Essential Metal Distortion.

As with all the Essentials line, there are budget-saving drawbacks that usually fall on the aesthetic side of the fence and include a bare metal appearance with the metal monotony broken up with either a tasteful black pinstripe or (in this case) a pinstripe-y spiderweb motif (giving a proper nod to metal heads).  They don't include rubber feet either, but since a lot of musicians velcro their pedals down anyway, it's a bit of a non-issue.  These cuts in the name of keeping the cost down are more than welcome by me because it's apparent once you turn them on that none of the budget cuts happened inside the pedal.  Unless you count battery snaps, but really, you shouldn't.  Batteries are awful in pedals, giving a wide variety of power that you can't really depend on.  You and your town would be much, MUCH happier if you invested in a Sanyo Pedal Juice or even a cheap OneSpot adapter.  It will save you money and it will keep your tone consistent.   

Now, unlike the Essentials Delay, there are plenty of pedal makers putting out cheap distortions, even high gain distortions claiming to be "metal."  They're usually cheap too.  As far as price goes, it's on par with others at $99.00.  The differences come from the attack on pedal construction and the resulting tone.  A lot of metal distortion pedals only focus on guitars tuned to standard, but not many modern metal bands tune to standard anymore, instead preferring to dip lower in the scale and hang out in the bass player's register (unless he doesn't like other people hanging out with him and in turn tunes his bass lower to keep a healthy level of separation apparent).  When guitarists tune low, the merit of the distortion pedal shines through and the complaint as Pro Tone Pedals saw it was that chords became "soft," and lose "all bottom end definition."

This is a serious problem for metal players.  Metal's a tough genre to become proficient in.  There's a lot of intricacies that are taken for granted by the audience in general because they're easy to overlook, but you put in the time learning how to properly marry your left and right hand and you want every detail to shine through, even if you tune down to A.

So Pro Tone set out for this crowd specifically and offered a distortion pedal that will retain that definition previously lost by other boxes.  The result?  Successful!

Check out Pro Tone's sound sample:

But what about the people that DO tune in standard.  Are we left high and dry?  Certainly not.  I'm glad too.  Whenever the metal bug bites, I usually keep my tuning in standard because 1) I don't have a dedicated metal guitar that I can keep in anything other than standard, 2) most of my favorite metal was recorded in standard and 3) standard strings are easier to thrash on because there's less flex in the string.

So how does it sound in standard?  Pretty great.  I used one of my favorite virtual amps, the Orange Tiny Terror, in a clean setting and plugged in a buddy's Schecter Omen 6 tuned in standard and loaded with Alumitone Deathbuckers in the middle position and got to recording.  It's definitely a metal guitar.

For the first clip, you'll hear just the guitar and the amp.  The second clip is with the pedal on.  The controls are: level at 9:00 (on every sample), the tone and drive at 12:00.  The tone knob has a very wide sweep so if you want it to sound deeper or more modern, you just turn it down.  If you want it to sound more vintage (like classic metal) it requires additional treble or less bass so you just turn the tone knob up and presto!  Classic metal tones.  

The third clip is with level at 9:00, the tone at 12:00 and the gain maxed out.  You can definitely hear the modern metal slant of the pedal.  I really appreciated the bass response of the pedal set this way.  A lot of metal distortion pedals are high-gain, but sound more fuzzy and don't get the bottom end right.  When I plug in I want to sound like James Hetfield, not James Hetfield's fuzzy, trebly little brother.  This pedal delivers in this regard.

The fourth sound is with the gain and tone maxed out.  You can hear the classic metal leanings easily.  I also switched to the bridge pickup, so please keep that in mind. 

So now that you've read the descriptions, let's hear the actual samples:

 PTP Metal Distortion by Fifth Fret 

Yup, if I ever needed a versatile metal box on the cheap, this is the one I would reach for.  The problem with this tough is that I rarely play metal anymore.  I generally like tones ranging from the lower gain sounds of punk rock to the borderline clean sounds of rockabilly and jazz (because I don't like pure clean - sounds too sterile for me).  A Metal pedal is very much a limited-use prospect for me.  Sure, metal heads would love to have it on all day, but that's just not me.

Just for giggles then, I grabbed one of MY guitars, the Flatline Delta 90, and turned the gain of the pedal down to about 9:00 and the tone to about 1:00 and switched to the middle position and started rocking out in my own style. I loved it.  There really is a "soft underbelly" to the pedal, but it still sounds rough and tumble like Indie Rock should.  It loved open chords, let the guitar's tone shine through and had a really pleasant "KERRANNNG!" to everything.

Check it out!

 PTP Metal Distortion Indie Style by Fifth Fret 

With this in mind, I think the Essentials Metal Distortion is a great buy for most guitarists.  If you like gain, you can find SOME spot on the pedal that will scratch that itch and at $99.00, it would even make for a realistic item to add to your Christmas list.  It's a worthy buy what with the fact it's packed with great tones, made with a crazy metal head in mind, features true-bypass and is hand-wired right here in the US.

For more information, check out Pro Tone's blog about the pedal you can go HERE. 

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Gear News Exile

Gear News Exile

By PT


One of my favorite things about being a guitar podcaster/blogger/writer/man-about-town is the press releases. Over the years I have somehow gotten onto a lot of publicists’ distribution lists. Throughout the year, my email box is hit with anywhere from one to three press releases a day.


Sometimes I write about them. Sometimes I talk about them on the Six-String Bliss podcast. But mostly I don’t. By the time the next episode of the podcast or my next blog post comes around, the press release will probably be old news. But I do read each and every one of them. And I take a certain selfish pleasure in reading the latest gear news (albeit with a heavy PR spin) a few hours before it appears on all the popular websites.

Over the last couple of weeks, my Inbox has been drying up a little. And it’s only going to get worse. It happens every year. For the next month, PR people – folks who are paid to talk about their clients’ products – will suddenly turn cryptic and coy.

This can only mean one thing: NAMM is approaching. And while NAMM itself is great, the month leading up to it is gear news torture.

Consider this email I received a few days ago (this is a dramatic recreation, and the names have been changed to protect the innocent a la Unsolved Mysteries.):

Hello Media Colleague,

Big Name Gear Company (BNGC) would like to invite you to attend the world premier of the most significant product announcement in our company’s storied history.

BNGC CEO Franklin Bigwig and endorsee Johnny Rockstar will be on hand to answer questions, conduct interviews and demonstrate this mind-blowing new piece of gear.

Date: Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
Time: 8:00AM-8:39AM
Location: NAMM, Fancy-Pants Room B

Get ready for everything you know about gear to change forever!

Really? I have to wait a month to see what you are talking about? Although, on the other hand, thank you for addressing me as ‘Media Colleague’. I shall show that to my wife the next time she asks why I spend countless writing and talking over the Internet about guitar. “Honey, Big Name Gear Company expects a certain level of dedication from their Media Colleagues.”

So let’s all settle in for a long month in Gear News Exile. And while we are here, let’s try to think positive. We could spend time with our families. Celebrate the holidays. Maybe even play a little guitar.

And before we know it, the light at the end of the tunnel will appear. The floodgates will open, and the gear news will rain down upon us. Sure, the riverbeds are dry now, but the air is heavy with moisture and the storm clouds are gathering.

NAMM is coming.

Edit: I wrote the above on Wednesday. On Thursday, I got five awesome press releases. It's a Christmas miracle! - PT

PT Hylton is the co-host of the guitar talk podcast Six-String Bliss. He also writes fiction and has been known to throw a little disc golf. He lives in the birthplace of country music.


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Stuck

Stuck

By Pappy

When I was a young teenager I heard the Living End’s “Prisoner of Society” and my life changed.  The band in general exposed me to both punk and rockabilly and those two things have stuck pretty well to me and seriously shaped my musical tastes.  The guitar work of Chris Cheney was amazing and inspiring and in one fell swoop I wanted to play guitar and I wanted to play a Gretsch.  Specifically a 6118 because that’s what I saw him play.  He was the one most responsible for my playing guitar.

I bought the album and became obsessed with it.  I loved it, the intricacies of it, and (oddly) the fact that no-one else had heard of them.  I was a hipster before there was such a term (I don’t claim to be one now).  I had this band that nobody else was familiar with and they were all mine.  They were inspirational, they had amazing music, good content (their songs weren’t fluff), and I felt a bit of ownership of them.

Then “Roll On,” their sophomore release came out and I was not a fan of it at ALL.  Their sound had changed.  Songs lengths changed.  Tones had changed.  There were a lot more twists and turns in the songs and it felt more akin to AC/DC or the Clash than a punked-up version of the Stray Cats.

I felt a little betrayed to be honest.  I had no reason to feel that way, but that’s how I felt, regardless.

Now, over the years I would change my mind.  Roll On is now my favorite Living End album because of all those reasons I just mentioned.  I think I was just shocked by the change and didn’t get what I was expecting and didn’t like that fact more than I disliked anything else.

That’s a big fan for you though.  We all get a little nuts sometimes.  I think as you get older this begins to wear off and you become a bit more mature with bands and music, but when you’re young everything’s so much more severe and matters so much more.  When you’re young, it’s easy to get stuck on a band or album and change can be tough.

Metallica bassist Jason Newstead said that he understands confusion from fans after Load came out.  If you compare the sounds and images of the previous album (the black album) and Load, the two are pretty different.  One features long-haired heavy metal gods with a very dark theme and one features blood and semen on the cover, and four guys with short hair smoking cigars and drinking martinis on the back.  It wasn’t YOUR Metallica anymore because they had changed.  Metallica continued to change through the years, experimenting with their sound, changing their playing style, tone, and image but fans will still say that Master of Puppets is the best Metallica album (even if they’re wrong – Ride the Lightning is the best).  No matter what Metallica does, there will always be these people talking and praising the past, while either pushing aside modern efforts or becoming downright nasty about them.

The reception of Lulu and St. Anger immediately jumps to mind…

I don’t really think Metallica, the Living End or ANY band should think too poorly of the fans for doing this though.  What it really means is that somewhere along the way of you releasing albums, one connected with a fan in a deep and meaningful way.  You made something that has become a huge part of their life.  This is the kind of album that people often say to the artist “I don’t know where I would be without that album.”

It’s important.  And it’s a badge of pride for you regardless of when the album came out or how many albums you’ve put out since.  You as an artist should always be proud when this happens.

Yes, I know it’s kind of a bummer to have your other stuff ignored, especially if you’ve released a LOT of material since then, and it must be difficult to hear a fan say they wish you could make an album like that again as if you’re some sort of song-writing monkey for hire and not an artist with artistic integrity, but try to look at the positive side of this.  You touched a life with music and you know the fan is always going to remember you and will always care about that album.  Your album won’t be easily digested and forgotten two years from now like so many pop stars’.

I definitely think what you SHOULDN’T do is target these fans as if they’ve done something wrong.  The only thing they’ve done is let you into their life, bought your stuff and made you $0.958 richer with every album they purchased (on average).

Korn singer Jonathan Davis says he’s excited about their new dubstep album because it will upset fans who are “stuck in 1994.”  He says it like it’s a goal of his to lose these fans.  In 1994 Korn released their debut album, which may be the most honest, volatile and perfectly balanced album for conveying the rage that comes with child abuse and drugs.  The music was new, with seven string guitars tuned a whole step down, crunching out rhythms and not going into solos, instead favoring “break-downs” where everyone slows down a bit and then explodes to the end of the song.  The singer moaned, whispered, screamed and cried his way through what felt like all the bad parts of a person’s journal and let it all out for the world to take as they will.

And since then they’ve released nine studio albums.  I was a huge fan as a youth, but dropped off at their fourth release named “Issues.”  By then some things had happened: the level of seething rage seemed to lessen and I felt like we had been here before and revisiting it wasn’t as important/urgent/helpful.  Perhaps I had just gotten used to it, but I think the more likely reason is that Davis was starting to get over it himself and was beginning to pander to the audience.  They were also becoming very successful.  Now, instead of me being the only kid in a Korn shirt, now there were legions of kids in Korn shirts – the same kids that would pick on other kids.  Jocks started liking Korn.  For those not in the know, if you’ve ever been mistreated, stepped on, harassed, or abused, Korn is the music for you.  It’s very cathartic.  So for someone who DID those things to be wearing a shirt of the band that got you through those things, it seems a bit much to take.

Now Korn wants to release a new album and Davis says he hopes the fans stuck in 1994 will get pissed.  No doubt this has to do with artistic integrity, but again, he should look at the bright side of things – something I’m not entirely sure he can do considering his entire career is based on looking at the bad side of things.  But he of all people should take a long time to consider the ramifications of his past albums and ask himself why he wants to piss these people off so badly.

I have never heard so many fans of a band say openly that they would have committed suicide had it not been for the band – for their debut album.  The band helped the fan through so much insanely bad stuff, almost always in their young teenage years or slightly before, and they are sincerely grateful for the band’s and this album’s existence.  Why shouldn’t they be?  It got them through some of the most horrible situations imaginable.  I don’t think that because there was an explosive album dedicated to abuse that the youth were thinking this happened to everyone – that it was normal – but that it happened to enough people that they could talk about it and not feel like the only one suffering.  What started out as sonic therapy probably led to REAL therapy.  And in 1994 this album came out.  I picked it up in 1997 and it was helpful for me (though my troubles pale in comparison to others) and now I’m almost 30.  I think there’s a good chance that a LOT of fans of this album from this time period now have kids and because of the therapy, because of the album, because of a hopefully loving and caring relationship, they have kids of their own that they would never subject to the same torture they had to go through.

The fans have spoken in numbers saying they wouldn’t even be alive had it not been for that album, and I think it’s not a crazy leap of logic to think that these people have a much higher likelihood of leading happy lives and breaking the cycle of abuse because of it.

That’s a pretty amazing badge of honor.  Even if they’re still having problems, at least you know they’re still alive because of your words and music.  They still have the potential to get better - a potential that ends suddenly if suicide is successful.

Look, I’m not saying you have to be a monkey for hire and keep releasing your debut album over and over, just with different covers and words.  I’m not saying you have to give up your artistic integrity.  I am saying that, where Van Halen can claim a lot of fans who took up the guitar because of EVH, you have a lot of fans that are ALIVE because of you.

So buck up and stop trying to upset these folks.  You gave them the will to live and they gave you your career and success.

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Rocksmith

Rocksmith
By Pappy

Firstly, I never understood all the hate for games like Rockband or Guitar Hero. People were saying that it was somehow preventing people from learning the guitar, the thought process generally going along the lines of "they'll never learn how to play the REAL guitar if they can have so much fun PRETENDING to play guitar!"

But you could just as easily lay the same results on the doorstep of the lowly tennis racket.

Here's the thing though: playing GH, I never felt like a badass. I'm standing in front of my TV, holding a miniature, toy guitar with colorful buttons. While there's something to be said about locking in with the rhythm, there's no shaking the fact that you're holding a toy and most definitely NOT improving your guitar skills (if you're concerned with such a thing).

Rocksmith, though, is awesome. You plug the cord directly into your XBox's USB port and plug the other end into ANY real guitar. No more materials are needed. A guitar you probably already own, the game and the included cord.

I always thought the list of songs on the game seemed pretty great. When it came out, I was in a big Nirvana mood and saw there were a few of Nirvana's songs on it, as well as songs from other great bands (like the Cure, Dead Weather, the Rolling Stones, etc) so I was intrigued.

The first song is Satisfaction. It's fun. But eventually I got to In Bloom by Nirvana. I played this one a lot. A WHOLE lot. It started out with me playing single notes on single strings along with the song, but not with the same note count. On songs like the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Higher Ground" the faster palm muting section would be represented by one strike on the open E, not a bunch of muted E's.

But the more I played In Bloom, the more intricate it became. The game was learning about me and my skill and upped the difficulty accordingly. The first time the solo came around, I played one note and rode it to the end. The seventh time I played the song, the solo included more notes and sounded a lot closer to the actual song.

At the end of it, I could play In Bloom. It sounds legit (except for the solo, because I need to put some more work in it) and like the song.

Oh man, and it's fun. I spent two hours "playing" and at the end of it, I had a good grasp on the majority of a song, I had some fun playing others and my fingers were sore.

I had inadvertently been practicing!

"Playing gigs" is fun too. You learn some songs and you can rehearse them until you have a good grasp, or you can go in fairly cold, but the better you are, the more the crowd will react and the more you know the song, the more you can watch the crowd.

So there I was, standing in front of my TV, but playing a real guitar, and a girl near the front row pulled out her cell phone to either take a picture or record a video and I found myself striking a bit of a rockstar pose, pulling the guitar up in the air a bit and really getting into it.

What a great time.

When playing, the screen not only shows you major fret numbers that line up with your fretboard dots, but it highlights the anchor station - where your four fingers should generally be that would make it easiest to hit the notes that are coming up next. Anchor stations change, as does the highlighted area.

The scrolling also changes. In areas of songs where there are more notes than others, spanning more of the fretboard, the notation is smaller. It turns, as well. This might not sound like a big deal. It is, though. With Guitar Hero there was a constant downward scroll moving at a consistent speed. The result was after a few songs, I was dizzy. If I was persistent, I would get a headache. No marathon Guitar Hero sessions for me.

And there's also the fact that there are more songs available for downloading (for a fee, of course).

OK, so let's look at this from a different perspective: For about $80.00, you can learn 48 songs, and most songs are able to be played in multiple arrangements, either in single-note (easier) or a combination of single notes and chords (harder and sounds much more accurate).

That price will not be beat by any guitar teacher. It CAN'T be beat by any instructor. The only thing the instructor can offer you is the possibility of explaining the theory that goes into the song's notes (Rocksmith does not supply this information).

But your instructor can't offer a learning experience as fun as this, nor can they offer the feeling of playing in front of a room full of people, even if they're virtual.

It's just plain fun.

Along the way you unlock amps, pedals, guitars and entire settings nailing down a general tone (Seattle Flannel, for instance) and can go noodle with these tones as long as you like. For someone who doesn't record, this may be a big plus, but anyone with an interface and their free copy of IK Multimedia's AmpliTube 3.5 will get much better tones.

So the fact that you can unlock these tonal tools is much more of a bonus, not really a buying feature.

Overall, if you're on your last nerve about your gamer children not paying attention to their practice regiment, this may be an option (you can play it yourself and get a bit more rounded as a guitarist in a win/win situation). If you're looking to learn a bunch of great songs, this is worth it. I don't really think it's comparable to Guitar Hero or Rockband because you DO learn how to use a REAL guitar, but playing guitar is still a pain, so even if this is your primary instruction, as a beginner, it may be a hassle. Your fingers will hurt, you'll question your motivation, etc. But if you stick with it, I think it would be worth it.

If you're a guitarist with a gaming device, this may be worth your while.

Will it be the party game that Rockband and Guitar Hero was? No. It's a niche game that definitely falls more into the "instruction" side than "normal game" side, but I think there's major potential, the instruction is easy to grasp after a while and you'll walk away a better guitarist (or at least armed with a few more songs).

Check it out and see what YOU think!

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This post is brought to you by Pro Tone Pedals!  Pro Tone Pedals make some of the most unique sounding and looking pedals I've ever seen in my life. His pedals will always stand out on a pedal board and when you click them on, there's going to be heads turning. They make high-quality, investment-grade pedals that have amazing sounds to match their amazing looks. Check out their site and take a look at the videos, listen to the sound samples and see what Pro Tone can offer you!

QFA: Santa's Here

Question for the Audience: Santa's Sleigh
By Pappy

Does anyone remember the movie Ernest Saves Christmas?  It answered one of those nagging questions that everyone has at one point another: how does Santa fit all those toys and gifts into one bag?  Some shows and movies show Santa with a gigantic bag, but the bag would have to be insanely large for gifts for every boy and girl...

Instead, Santa's bag in this movie is filled with small magic balls that turn into gifts.  Like Pokemon (I think.  I'm not entirely hip to Pokemon, so I may be wrong here...).

Anyway, let's say Santa comes down the chimney/vent/window/slides under a door in a liquid puddle a la "Terminator 2: Judgement Day."  He knows you caught him and, like any good genie (or elf in this case), says you can choose five balls out of his magic bag that will turn into what you want this year.

JUST five, mind you!

So!  What are your magic balls going to turn into?

My list is as follows:

1) Taylor custom 616CE.  I'm not just wishing for this beast, I'm currently saving for it.  Oh, it's going to be awesome: a 616CE with koa binding and rosette and their beautiful Cindy inlays on the headstock, neck and bridge.  As Wayne once said, "it will be mine.  Oh yes.  It WILL be mine."  Santa or no.

2) Orange TH30.

3) Gretsch Black Phoenix.  Gretsch offers several Falcons, but this one may be the best 17" Gretsch there is.  Amazing guitar.

4) Gretsch Chris Cheney Falcon.  Look, here's the skinny on this: Santa would be the only one that could get me this guitar.  Unfairly available to an incredibly limited market that has a ridiculous exchange rate that is so lopsided that importing is walking that fine line between "highly unlikely" and "downright impossible."  I hear there's one person in the US who did just that, but I haven't heard from him lately.  I assume this is because he's not getting that great of an internet connection in his new dwelling, the discarded refrigerator box.  But hey, he's got a great looking guitar, right?

5) Taylor 814CE.  I love the 616, no doubt about it, but I would also like to have this slightly smaller guitar with a more traditional wood pairing to play as well.  It seems like a guitar that's perfectly sized for couch playing!

Those are mine!  Let's hear yours!

FQRBtAotRaRHoF2012CoI

FQRBtAotRNRHoF2012CoI
(Five Questions Raised By the Announcement of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2012 Class of Inductees)
By PT

The Rock N Roll Hall of Fame has somehow accomplished the feat of being both relevant and irrelevant at the same time.

At the end of the day, does it really matter who is inducted? ‘Almost Cut My Hair’ is a killer track regardless of whether Stephen Stills is an HoF honoree. (He is - twice. More on that later).  At the same time, any attempt to qualify who are the greatest performers in  Rock and Roll history can only lead to debate and in-fighting within the clan of the music geek.

Which is awesome.

Every year when the list of inductees is announced, I can’t keep the smile off my face. I know I am in for at least two weeks of discussion on the merits of the artists selected versus those left off the list, articles and blog posts decrying the shadowy selection process, and endless wails of disbelief that Rush is still not in the HoF.

This year’s list of inductees is an especially strong one, and it has raised these five questions in my mind.

Q: Will Buckethead be inducted? Because I’ll bet that would really piss off Rush fans.

A:  Sadly, no. My dream of all 800 members of Guns N’ Roses taking the stage in Cleveland is not to be. Alas. While the official word has not been released (to my knowledge), the prevailing wisdom is that only the founding members plus Dizzy Read and Matt Sorum will likely take part in the ceremony.

That does raise an interesting question though: Shoud the HoF induct individuals instead of bands? Opening the door to full bands leads to some… issues.  For instance, take Clapton.

EC has been inducted 3 times: as a solo artist, as a Yardbird, and as a, er, Cream-er. Undoubtedly the Yardbirds and Cream both deserve an HoF slot, as does solo Clapton. On the other hand, is Clapton really three times more HoF worthy than, say, Mark Knopfler or Brian Setzer, both of whom have yet to be honored once?  Alternatively, one could make the case that Clapton should be inducted yet again for Derek and the Dominos. Sure, they only released one album, but that album is probably one of the top 25 rock albums of all time. Doesn’t that band deserve a seat at the HoF table?

Think about it too much, and your head will start to spin.

I know you are probably saying, “PT, you are talking crazy. A band is more than the sum of its parts. To induct some members and not others would be ridiculous.”

My retort to you, Hypothetical Reader, would be this: consider the ‘85 Chicago Bears.

Not that it has to be the ‘85 Bears in particular, but they are a great example. The ‘85 Bears were more than the sum of their parts as well. Their smothering defense wouldn’t have been what it was without every man on that squad. Yet Richard Dent and Walter Payton are Hall of Famers, while the vast majority of their teammates are not. This is the way sports Hall of Fames work. So there is precedent.

Inducting the person rather than the band would solve the problem of Clapton. If he’s in, he’s in. Now we can concentrate on Setzer and Knopfler.

Of course, my solution leads to all sorts of other problems. Best not to think about that now. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Q: Is Donovan the creepiest selection ever?

A:  I don’t know, but every song I’ve ever heard from Donovan is super creepy. Seriously, go back and listen to Mellow Yellow. Now do it with the lights off. You can’t, can you?

I love that this guy is now a Hall of Famer. Genius.

Q: Am I old? Bands from my childhood are now being inducted.

A: Yes. I officially became old in 2009 when Metallica got the HoF nod.

Q: Who’s the Sideman?

A: Ah, the Sideman. My favorite part of the HoF proceedings. Each year the Hall of Fame inducts one or more people who spent their career outside the spotlight, but still had a profound impact on Rock and Roll. It is really quite a cool idea. Go to www.rockhall.com and read about the past Sideman inductees. It’s a mind-boggling collection of fascinating characters.

So who is the Sideman this year?

Nobody! The Sideman category has been cancelled.

Okay, that’s not quite true. They just renamed it the ‘Rock And Roll Hall of Fame Award for Musical Excellence’. Which is at the same time less demeaning and way less cool sounding than' the Sideman'.

This year the honorees are Tom Dowd, Don Kirshner, Cosimo Matassa and Glyn Johns.  Never heard of them? That’s the point of the Sideman!

Q: Is this the Best Class of Guitarists Ever? 

A: No. But it is a pretty great year for guitarists.

First, you’ve got Freddie King,  an electic blues pioneer. You’ve got Slash, arguably the most important rock guitarist of the last 30 years. And you’ve got the creative and soulful playing of John Frusciante. And I guess maybe Ronnie Wood for his short-lived role in Faces? (See how confusing the whole-band induction concept is?) All in all, a quality year.

By its nature, each year of the HoF brings diminishing returns. More and more of the great ones of the past have already been inducted. Every year can’t be Elvis, the Beatles and the Stones.

For the record, my favorite guitar years are 2004 (George Harrison, Prince, ZZ Top, and Traffic), 2002 (Chet Atkins, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Ramones, and Talking Heads), 1998 (The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Santana and Gene Vincent), 1995 (Allman Brothers, Zeppelin, Neil Young and Zappa) and 1988 (The Beatles, Beach Boys, Dylan, Lead Belly, and Les Paul).

But the greatest year was 1992. This class included Booker T and the MG’s, Johnny Cash, Leo Fender, Elmore James and the Yardbirds. Awesome group even without the one inductee that puts 1992 over the top: the Jimi Hendrix Experience. So you had Jimi, EC, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Johnny Cash, Elmore James and Leo Fender all inducted on the same night.  Best year ever.

In the end, maybe the HoF doesn’t matter all that much. But it sure is fun to talk about. And isn’t fun what Rock And Roll is all about?

PT Hylton is the co-host of the guitar talk podcast Six-String Bliss. He also writes fiction and has been known to throw a little disc golf. He lives in the birthplace of country music.


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Pro Tone Pedals Essential Delay Review

Pro Tone Pedals Essential Delay Review

By Pappy

Pro Tone Pedals has always been a company that lies slightly off-kilter, offering guitarists a unique way to get the tones they want, or unique tones they didn't know they wanted yet.  They were among the first to pioneer insane levels of art on pedals and they back their products with strong warranties, leaving customers satisfied.

The quality tones, looks, and service has always come with a price tag that mirrored the quality though: high.

So Pro Tone Pedals alchemist Dennis Mollan wanted to offer something new for guitarists who have always wanted boutique quality, but has always had to settle for pedals made overseas that featured boring graphics and little in the way of uniqueness for tone.  He wanted to give the people an option.  In the end, he unveiled the new line from Pro Tone Pedals called the Essentials.  This review covers the Essential Delay.

Boutique delay pedals are priced at a point that makes a lot of guitarists lose control of their jaw.  It seems like so little to ask for, a repeat of a signal you made, but the prices for this effect are often astronomical.  Even non-boutique companies offer delays for about $140.00 which is better, but not by much.  An effect like this that's mass produced should be cheaper in price.

In this aspect, Pro Tone offers a good alternative with their Essential Delay coming in at $120.00.  Now, twenty bucks might not seem like much, but that's where the boutique part comes into play.  This pedal is made in the USA, hand-wired, affixed with all sorts of secret mojo, true bypass, and they offer you a unique thing to look down and see on your pedal board.  That's part of the joy of buying boutique, I guess.  You can claim the pedals are your secret weapon and feel good about supporting the little guy, often making these in your own country.

There is a tradeoff though, and it deals mainly with aesthetics.  The pedal is bare metal, with black art that is spartan, but this feels less dramatic what with the fact that the pedal is fairly small.  Personally, I think it looks understated and will probably appeal to a wider base of delay fans than most of Pro Tone's more expensive graphics which may be a bit divisive.  But since the pedal has the dimensions it does, there really isn't the much space to create the usual visual cacophony that Pro Tone is known for, so I think it works.  Perhaps a white base-coat would be preferable, but at $120.00 I'm certainly not complaining too much.

In an area that isn't aesthetics that features a trade-off, you also lose the pedal's feet.  Those small rubber bumps are gone in an effort to keep the price down, but when asked about it, Dennis stated that a lot of people just velcro pedals down to their boards anyway, so it's a transparent difference.  That's a valid point.

But those are just the body differences.  Things you can overlook that don't effect the most important thing: the sound.  So what are the trade-offs when it comes to the reason you bought the pedal in the first place?

Well, there's no battery snaps.  The pedal runs completely off of a 9V negative tip BOSS-style adapter.  Don't know what that is?  Don't worry.  If you buy a 1-Spot adapter or (better yet) the Sanyo Pedal Juice (which is my favorite way to power pedals) you'll be able to power this pedal.

Because I love the Sanyo Pedal Juice so much, the fact that this doesn't have batteries is completely transparent to me.  I don't LIKE batteries.  They drain and change the tone.  Don't believe me?  The makers of Kendrick Amplifiers, often regarded as some of the brightest brains when it comes to amps, released a pedal that uses two batteries, powering two different sections in an overdrive pedal SPECIFICALLY because of this.  The pitch was that if you wanted both the tone that came with a new battery and the tone that comes from a battery half-dead, you can now bounce between the two.  But I haven't heard a pedal that sounds better half-dead than fully-juiced.

So the fact that there's no batteries is completely fine with me.  I actually prefer it because, even though I don't use batteries, the empty snaps inside the casings run the risk of shorting the pedal out if they touch something they normally wouldn't be able to (because you normally have a battery connected to it).

1-Spots are cheap, as are the daisy chains and if you can swing a Pedal Juice, you'll never look back.  I promise.

As far as other tonal ramifications for offering this pedal at $120, there is none.  It's a great-sounding delay that was modeled after vintage tape delays and, as a result, sounds a bit darker than a lot of modern delays that are bright-sounding.  But the fact that it's geared more toward yesteryear's tone makes it easy for me to find a warm vintage slapback for rockabilly and it makes for a satisfying base for more overdriven music featuring long delays.  Darkker delays like this add a bit of menace to it and when I turn up my delay time, that's exactly what I'm going for.  A very Nightmare on Elm Street kind of sound.  According to Dennis, the maximum delay time is 450ms give or take 20% for the pot swing.  I'm not the Edge, but that's longer than I would ever need a delay gap to be.

One of the small things that I especially liked about the development of this pedal is that Dennis tested them out with virtual amps.  A lot more guitarists are looking to get into virtual recording because it's cheaper and offers significantly more tonal options, but you don't have to give up real pedals in the process, but some pedals don't sound as good with virtual amps as they do with real ones.  It's nice that Dennis thought of this and attacked it this way.

So would I recommend buying this?  If you're looking for a delay built in the US by a small company that is different than what everyone else plays and maybe even save some money, I would say yes.  It even comes with a five year warranty.

But enough chitter chatter.  You know how it looks, you know how much it costs and the trade-offs associated with the price.  Let's get down to the nitty-gritty and let you hear how it sounds!  

First up are two sound samples from Pro Tone Pedals.

 Pro Tone Pedals Delay by ProTonePedals 

 Essential Delay 2 by ProTonePedals

Now here's a couple sound samples from me:  Visit the SoundCloud page to read even more details on what I used and how I recorded these.

 PTP Delay Clean by Fifth Fret

 PTP Delay Crunchy by Fifth Fret

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