Wild Saturday Nights: West Coast Edition

Well folks, what they say about California is true: it's laid back out here. You might call it "slow." Our wild Saturday night is made up of a tasty homemade soup



and some steel guitar searching on the ol' YouTube. Here's a couple jems we found:

LA based Western Swing combo (featuring the amazing Jeremy Wakefield on steel) The Lucky Stars:



this exotic weirdness:



Bob Wills:



and another Wills song ($2 if you can identify the guitar being player upside down by a lefty)



In other news, the RV Bigsby guitar has been refretted and a new nut made. It plays a million times better and will be seeing some action this fall here in Santa Cruz. Perhaps it will be seen at Carolyn Sills' upcoming Patsy Cline Holiday Spectacular at Don Quixote's on December 15th.

R.I.P. Klon Centaur Overdrive

Well maybe rest in peace is a bit much.

One of my favorite overdrive pedals, the Klon Centaur, is no longer being made. As of December 22 of last year, the production of the Klon ceased, presumably to allow full time devotion to the R& D of the infamous pedal's successor. Below, the first version of the Klon featuring a gold finish and red centaur logo:

The Klon Centaur Overdrive is a hand made guitar effect pedal built one at a time by the inventor. It is a simple and sturdy unit with a unique look. Apparently the original unit has been discontinued in favor of a new version housed in a smaller chassis. The new Klon-Jr is slated for release sometime this year. No word on any mods to the circuit design. I stumbled upon the Klon years back thanks to a tip from Jim Campilongo. Check out another House of Twang post about him here.

Smaller pedals are all well and good. There's nothing like conserving space on your pedal board, especially if you're one of those fellas whose uses a ton of different stomp boxes:

I love guitar effects. However, for the music I play, I rarely feel the need for anything more than a Fender amp's spring reverb and tremolo coupled with a good analog delay (I'm a big fan of the Maxon AD80) or even better: the lush tape delay tones of a Fulltone TTE (Tube Tape Echo). So in this case I'm not to broken up over the idea of the Klon shrinking in size. I have to imagine the fella that makes the Klon will retain the stomp box's unique sound. It's hard to describe what the Klon does but in a nutshell, is gives your amp more of itself.

Mo' betta.

Using this pedal, you can get that wide open, cranked amplifier sound without having to turn your amp up to deafening volume levels. I employ the Klon when using a higher powered amp so I can get a nice overdriven tone without being too loud. When Boss Tweed was touring Europe, I just used the Klon and my Maxon delay night to night. I was always able to dial in a sound that I liked no matter what the provided backline might have been. To my ears it is exceptionally transparent whereas many Tubescreamer-type pedals kill your guitar's natural tone with thin, mid-rangey overdrive. Not into crazy overdrive? Then back off the Klon's gain, add a pinch more volume and it's like putting a tone magnifying glass on your amp. Mo' betta.

The Klon is a fairly mysterious beast. I say mysterious because the fella that makes these things pours some kind of black goop all over the circuit board inside the pedal in an effort to protect his design from would-be copy cats (below). Note the stamped out area for secure positioning of the 9 volt battery. Smart. Why aren't more effects built this way?

Like most guitars, amps and effect pedals, it's hard to understand what the Klon sounds like and how it interacts with your guitar rig without actually playing it. Problem is, the Klon is sold direct from the builder/inventor himself, so you can't just zip down to your local guitar shoppe and try one out.

Either you like it... or you don't.

A good saying for all guitar gear. Not everyone likes this pedal, of course. There are numerous haters out there and that's fine. This guy goes on and on saying what a gimmick the Klon is while pimping his own overdrive pedal. Classy. To me, you're missing the point if you don't use the Klon with your live rig. It is made with the performing guitarist in mind, with amp dialed up to loud, not the bedroom picker forced to play at a tame volume.

For guitarists, the internet buzz over the Klon is heavy. For me, I'm happy to have scooped one up for cheap on eBay a few years back. Checking in on the 'Bay today, the same old Klon Centaur is fetching prices close to a grand! I'm sure there will be all sorts of speculation over whether the new version is as good as the old one. We'll see...

Either way, I'm proud to own one and consider it a sound investment... yuk yuk.

Below, the second version of the Klon which I use:

Guess we'll have to wait and see what the new version holds. I throw my support behind this pedal and its inventor. He has managed to carve out a niche in an over saturated market. Based on my experience with the Klon, I expect the new version to be as good if not better than its predecessor.

Oops!

I Did It Again...

Sure we all know the Britney Spears pop song but my mind was blown last week when a co-worker played me Louis Armstrong's original version of the song, recorded in 1932 in Chicago. Click here for the Depression-era version and here for more info on the tune.

Free Music!

Folks, I've never been one to download someone else's music for free. Some people consider it illegal. But I do enjoy listening to old records and if I can get 'em for free, so much the better. I thought I'd share a link to bunch of old time music compiled by the good people over at The Old Time Hearld. It's got all kinds of goodies from the great radio station, WFMU in New Jersey, Alan Lomax's archives and even a site called the Honking Duck. This music was recorded long ago and aside from these online archives, may only be available on the original 78s. Click here for links to all the freebies.

Over the past couple years I've turned into a certified Western Swing nut. Western Swing was a popular form of music emerging in the '20s and fading from the public eye by the late '50s/early 60s. With influences ranging from swinging jazz to cowboy, hillbilly, polka and country music, the large, multi-piece western swing orchestras of the day dominated the airwaves and dance halls from Tulsa to San Diego. I think of it as cowboy jazz: sophisticated yet light hearted. Fathered by stars of the genre such as Bob Wills, Milton Brown, Cliffie Stone and Spade Cooley, Western Swing brought together top notch, inventive musicianship, wholesome, cornball lyrics and a dance-able beat. Instrumentally, the focus moved from horns, accordions and fiddles in the early '30s to amplified electric guitar (thank you Charlie Christian) and non-pedal/lap and pedal steel guitar in the '40s. Instrumentalists like Leon McAullife, Joaquin Murphy, Merle Travis and Jimmy Wyble pushed the limits of what was possible on amplified strings. Check out this link to another fellow blogger, Western Swing on 78. He's also got a listing of current bands playing this music. Great stuff!

Santa Cruz

Well friends, I'm happy to report (after a brief blogging hiatus) that we've settled in Santa Cruz, California. Santa Cruz is an amazing place, a small town with a flair all its own, just big enough to attract a host of great musicians, artists and all sorts of bizarro creative types. I've landed a job building guitars for an incredible acoustic guitar company here in town. As luck would have it, my boss caught wind of Lady Carolyn's various skill sets n' talents and offered her a job in the front office. So I'm building 'em and she sells 'em. A pretty sweet deal.

Here's a few photos to catch up on what we've been up to since leaving the Phoenix desert. Photos of the OM style guitar I built at RV:

After a brief job search, we landed in Santa Cruz. What an amazing place! We're settling into Left Coast life, enjoying our work and the vibe out here. Our neighborhood is killer, with parks, restaurants, the beach, redwood trees and imitation NY bagel shoppes just a stone's throw away from our place. Healthy living is the thing and surfing is king. The local music scene is thriving. Future musical projects are already in the works, so stay tuned for that.

A shot of Monterey Bay off West Cliff Drive, a 10 minute walk from our house:

Gumbo!

What do you get when you cross:

with:

Give up? The Gumbo bass!

As a surprise, I thought I'd put my newly acquired hand skills to work and build a new instrument for my lady. Over the course of the last 4 months, I quietly squeezed in a few minutes here and there to finish what I'm calling the Gumbo bass: a 30" short scale bass version of Bo Diddley's "Jupiter Thunderbird" guitar. It's finished in a Gumby-esque candy apple green and outfitted with a hotrod style single volume pot to jack setup. My goal was to make a simple, compact and killer looking bass. Christmas came too soon for this project so I just gave it to Carolyn Thursday night. There was much rejoicing.

I took some photos of the build process here and there. Let's start with a look at the current "Billy-Bo Jupiter Thunderbird" guitar currently made by Gretsch:

My Lady Bass has long been a fan of this space age shape. It makes me think of something from a Flash Gordon serial. It's futuristic and vintage at the same time. I wanted to make this thing as light weight and resonant as possible so I chambered the body, removing pockets of wood from the mahogany body blank before gluing on a 1/4" maple top. Below, a photo of the chambered body (left) and the chamber template I made (right):

I left the center solid to mount the pickup and bridge and create a solid line of wood from the nut to the saddle. The chambered body close up:

The top glued up:

The body cut out, top glued on and edges rounded over:

Another angle:

Close up of the "G" headstock inlay:

The neck glued up to the body:

I did a pre-finish mock up to make sure all the parts fit. The unusual pickup is made by Hammon Engineering. It's a copy of the Hagstrom single coil bass pickup from the '60s. The thing sounds fat and juicy and looks dynamite. Heck, it's larger than the bridge! The mock up:

The candy apple green finish was the toughest part of this project. To achieve the iridescent look, I sprayed a layer of gold and then a layer of green on top. This was a technique Fender borrowed from the auto industry in the late '50s. Photos don't do the deep green justice but here's a shot of the newly minted bass in the middle of the lacquering process:

After a couple weeks of curing time, the bass was ready for final buff and assembly. I surprised Carolyn with it the other night. Now THAT was fun! Here she is opening the case:

Playing it for the first time:

Some outdoor glamor shots:

I built this with a string-through-the-body design a la Fender's Telecaster. It's kind of small but you can just make out the string ferrules on the back on the bass. The bass features a 30" scale length as opposed to the standard 34" for ease of playing with small hands. The string-through design counter acts some of the 'flubby' tone you might get with a short scale length. The best of both worlds! View of the back:

In the case:

On to the next one!

NAMM '10

Well dang, what a weekend!

Finally made it to a NAMM show and what a spectacle it was. NAMM is held annually at the Anaheim Convention Center in LA. It runs for 4 days and comprises virtually all of the mid to major level music merchants in the US. There are so many exhibits you can walk around for 4 days and not see everything. Unbelievable in size and scope, tons of new products available and the people watching was insane. Aside from trying to take in all the musical gear, I saw many a celebrity rocker (and some not so much), met Duane Eddy, Kedzie Matthews & Slash, hobnobbed with some of the guitar world's cognoscenti and finally made it to one of Deke Dickerson's Guitar Geek Festivals. A solid weekend! Some highlights:

Outside the convention center:

A wall of Fender's new La Carbonita model: (a super simple Telecaster style guitar with one TV Jones/Gretsch pickup model built in the Custom Shop... so it's mega expensive, around $5K.) You gotta hand it to Fender for knowing how to make money. Granted, these look like pretty sweet machines.

Tele man Jim Campilongo shows off his new signature model: a copy of his '59 top loader. A feather light instrument! Wish I had actually heard him play it:

Across the way at the Gretsch booth, the new Eddie Cochran 6120 model was in glass along with a host of goodies that come with uber collectible guitar:

Bob Brozman was hanging out and noodling at the National Reso-Phonic booth. He's an amazing musician, entertainer and ethnomusicologist. He literally wrote the book on the history of the National resonator guitar. He'd start a tune on a Style 1 roundneck:

and mid-song would switch to a square neck without missing a beat. Amazing:

Adam West's Batmobile was at the Hallmark booth!

Hallmark/Batmobile Guitar Hero controller:

Below, Martin's new bartione acoustic. I have a soft spot for baritone guitars. Martin's sounded beautiful! Note the side port:

Gross: double neck acoustic Flying V with 12/6 string necks. So staggering was this tasteless feat of idiocy that I failed to notice the acoustic Explorer to the left:

Dean Zelinksky is known for building pointy, hair-band-style guitars. He had a cool new design at the show though, a sort of Gibson ES-335 style electric. The edges of the guitar were tapered down to a super thin 1/4 inch or so, thickening up in the center of the body where the pickups and hardware were mounted. Kinda like one of a single pack Advil: skinny on the edges with a plump center, if you follow.

Zelinsky knows how to make a splash. Check out the real attention grabber at his booth:

More novelty time: triangle shaped guitar speaker cabinets?

Pretty cool looking I guess. Problem is, what if you want just one? Do you just lean the head on the side of it or something? Sheesh...

Onwards then to Stevie Vai frozen in carbonite:

Silly.

Celebrity highlight #1: My pal, Tommy Rockstar, who is an old friend of Mr Brownstone, waited on line with me to meet Slash. I credit Slash with getting me started on the guitar. The first song I learned to play was "Don't Cry" by Guns n' Roses. I was thirteen and it changed everything! Pretty cool to finally meet the guy. Tommy was even more exited though. He had Slash autograph his arm:

...and then promptly had the autograph tattooed!!

wow... that's some real GnR love.

So then I was off to Deke's 7th Annual Guitar Geek Festival:

I couldn't possibly document the whole thing but if you're interested, check out Tim aka Proteus' coverage here at the Gretsch Pages. I'll just include a couple cool shots. Below is the crude home made double neck lap steel that Speedy West played before getting his Bigsby steel guitar... talk about moving on up! The sign says "do not touch." I touched... I had to! Sorry, Deke.

Terry N. McArthur built Deke's iconic double neck guitar in 1958 when he was just seventeen. With some help from none other than Semie Moseley, Terry went about copying the guitars played by his idols, Joe Maphis and Larry Collins. Terry recently got back into guitar building after retiring from a career as a cabinet builder. Here are a few of his wonderfully over the top instruments:

Terry playing a guitar made by Larry Collins in the '50s:

Another highlight from Deke's guitar museum, Scotty Moore's Echosonic amp! This was the amp that was there to record Elvis' early hits on Sun Records. WOW!!! It has a built in tape delay, THE requisite sound effect for rockabilly tone. Chet Atkins also used one of these amplifiers to record his hit version of, "Mr Sandman." Leave it to Deke to come into possession of this historic piece of music history.

Saving the best for last, I was lucky enough to chat with Mr TONE, Duane Eddy for a couple minutes. The fella got up and played an incredible set of his instrumental hits. It was jaw dropping. Duane Eddy: Twang's the Thang! ~House of Twang~ itself is named as a tip of the cap to Duane. It was truly one of the great guitar extravaganzas that I've ever witnessed. Good to see him back playing a Gretsch 6120 DSV... and you wonder why I'm so obsessed by these guitars. He was plugged into a couple early '60s Fender Dual Showman amps. (Guitar Geek side note: Tim/Proteus, who covered the Deke show as well as the Gretsch booth at NAMM, has a side business crafting replacement bridges for the modern Gretsch fleet. His "Tru-Arc" bridges accurately match the fingerboard radius of the various models currently made by Gretsch. Until now, some of the Gretsch guitars suffered from minor intonation issues since they were outfitted with a standard radius bridge that may or may not have matched the fingerboard radius. The Tru-Arc solves these tuning problems as they are available in a variety of radii depending on the model at hand. The Tru-Arc has been getting rave reviews but has yet to have a celebrity endorsement, until now: Duane had one outfitted on his 6120 that night! What more convincing could you need? Sold! Congrats to Tim for reaching milestone. Exhaustive coverage of Duane's set here.)

Duane Eddy, his Gretsch and me:

Deke backing up Duane:

After all that, you'd think I'd be done with my guitar geeking a good while.

Fear not, readers!

Much more to come...