Vision Music

[psw]

Hello All

It is good to see a players forum and although young and still small, got to start somewhere. I heard about the forum from Dean from a thread over at Project Guitar. I have been involved at PG for about five years almost entirely on one thread "sustainer ideas" which has 4,000 posts, 267 pages and over 170,000 visits...

I will try and keep my threads a little less long!

One thing that caught my eye was the recording ideas and I'd like to explore this a bit more. Early on I used to record by taking two cassette players recording one track while recording the backing from the other recorder and bouncing back and fourth!

Recently I purchased a BR-600 and would love to get or share some tips on using this machine. I compared various options and decided that the 600 was the best bang for buck incorporating various machines (drums, effects, mics, 8 track) all in one with much the same power of other units. I intend to use a PC to download tracks and I downloaded the BR900 software for editing drums and such that seems to be of use. But early days there.

As for the playing, I have a blues background, studied jazz and played a lot of rock and things.

I also have "built" and modified a few guitars.

I am probably best known for pioneering the DIY sustainer at PG. A sustainer is like an inbuilt 6 string eBow providing infinite sustain through electromagnetic feedback. An interesting effect.

Generally I like a clean sound with a little echo. My favorite kind of playing is that Jimi Hendrix / Curtis Mayfield rhythm/lead style and I am trying to work on arrangements that uses this kind of playing in solo arrangements.

At the moment I am using a fender hot rod deluxe with an old ibanez AD100 analogue delay. Guitars vary and numerous. For many, many years I played a Gibson LP even in jazz bands. My latest guitar is a telecaster which is going through various stages of modification and intended for this particular style of playing and is quite unusual.

I like Jazz and there is a lot to offer and some great tunes, but I am a little disappointed that it seems to have stagnated into a standard repertoire. It would be nice to hear about jazzers who have found pop or other tunes that can be arranged effectively.

A lot of the old tunes are not familiar to audiences or even a lot of players and while great, they were the pop songs of their time and the knowledge of the original tunes were fundamental in appreciating the variations and improvisations of a jazz player. Now the Jazz versions are the known versions and players often play variations of these till the tune is often lost...just some thoughts!

I actually have a music degree (from years back) with a fair bit of theory and improvisation ideas I could share. I'd love to hear from people about arranging or composing for the guitar.

Anyway...it looks like a nice forum and I hope it becomes more active and grows.

If any of these ideas could be explored more, I'd surely weigh in and if there is anything that people would like me to share, I'd be more than happy.

pete

[Larry_DC]

Hey psw,

Welcome aboard. Sounds like you're quite the gear expert. I look forward to hearing what you have to say about recording gear and guitars.

Is your new tele stock? I bought a Nashville tele with the built in B-bender last year. Even us jazz heads enjoy playing country once in a while
Telecasters aren't seen too often in the jazz world but Eddie Bickert has played one for years and sounds great. I recently saw a you tube video of someone playing jazz on a strat set to the bridge position! Without looking it sounded like Grant Green on his Gibson.

Tell us more about your DIY sustainer. Are there any recordings that feature it?

[psw]

Thanks for the welcome...

I am actually taking a break from wiring the tele up, slaving away over the kitchen table with a hot soldering iron...it is looking promising...this will be the third rewire in the last couple of months and I am hoping for something special.

The tele is of course known as a country guitar. However the original design was to cover a lot of ground including bass and jazz sounds. It is similar to the way the Les Paul is known as a rock guitar, yet clean it has a tremendous jazz tone and sustain as Les Paul himself still demonstrates to this day.

This tele project is unique in a number of ways and very different from standard. It was originally a 25th anniversary squier. To this I have added genuine schaller/fender locking tuners and LSR nut. One notable feature is a locking khaler tremolo. This remarkable piece of hardware has fine tuners and has a range similar to a floyd...about a fifth up and down to slack (about two octaves!) or it can be locked to a fixed bridge. It works on a cam with small strings below the bridge itself. I don't actually use it for that kind of thing, it is very smooth and I use it like a bigsby for subtle scoops and let downs of notes as well as putting a shimmer on chords. This shimmer is enhanced by my subtle echo as it is effectively a manual chorus effect when used.

Another interesting and different feature is the pickups. The bridge pickup is a very rare original fender full range humbucker. This pickup is significantly bigger than a gibson style humbucker with a distinctive fender like bright sound. The neck pickup is a new SCN tele and is a real stunner. This is a new generation stacked pickup with a central magnet core and both are extremely quiet. This neck pickup has a beautiful warm and clear sound, would be great for jazz and swinging octaves



The electronic are getting extremely complex. The standard chrome control plate now has three knobs and two switches. The volume is moved to the front within easy reach and out of the way of the tremolo arm. The back control is a tone control. The pickups are selected by a gibson style 3 way selector next to the volume. The volume control pulls up to put the neck pickup out of phase. This produces a nice almost strat like "quack" with both pickups selected that I am likely to wire as the default sound with the pot down.

I am trying to install a new sustainer of my own design. This is a surface mount driver that sits between the neck pickup and the neck and attaches with double sided tape.



To control the sustainer the middle knob controls the sensitivity and type of drive. Pulling up on this control creates harmonic sustain. The sustainer can drive the strings at an octave or octave and a fifth above the played note. Set right you can get a lovely "bloom" where a note breaks from a fundamental to a harmonic. I actually don't like the term "sustainer" as it can do a lot more than simply hold a note forever.

A toggle switch between the drive and tone pots turns the sustainer on. This is a complex 4pdt switch that bypasses the selector, engages the bridge pickup and turns the power on.

I did get the sustainer working a short while ago, but there is a fair amount of work yet...maybe later today...we will see!

There may even be a few more little electronics tricks I am considering.

The guitar plays beautifully and has a unique tone. It is still very fendery and very much a telecaster, bright and clear. The bridge provides a very good string definition, you hear every note in a chord.

So, it looks like a tele, but pretty unique...there is a lot of chrome and it is painted a baby blue with white pickguard and maple neck and board. It also has some touches of tortoise shell and the look is influenced by classic cars in subtle ways. Only the neck and body are original, so far from stock.

This guitar and a companion project were designed by me as a tool for my newer playing orientation. The sustainer is a fun device, but not vital to this style. More important is the string definition and unique clean sound. It is pretty cool though to sustain a note without volume or distortion and opens up some interesting possibilities.

So...better get back to the soldering iron...if there is an interest I will add pictures at some point when it is closer to completion. This guitar has taken some months to get to this stage although there was a fair while that I played it without any electronic trickery to get a feel for the guitar...always a good idea!

pete

[Dean]

Cool to see you here Pete,I hope you enjoy the site.You seem to have a lot to offer.
_________________
What don't kill you makes you stronger

[psw]

Thanks...

I am proud to say that the tele is working including the sustainer...just a little problem with the tone control, but it is a bit of a relief as there was a fair amount of experimental work involved.

The sustainer is a real surprise at how well it worked as it was a completely new design and very compact. It creates a huge sound...hehehe

Anyway...thanks for the welcome and good luck with the forum...

Pete