Hammond B3.

Well, I am now the proud owner of a Hammond B3 Organ.

Needs some work but they all do. I also need to find a leslie Tone Cabinet for it.

Here it is as I unload it at my warehouse.

The baldwin R1 series baby Grand piano.

Here it is shortly after I aquired her.
No legs and no pedals.

Its a work still in progress. I have had the body re-finished and have new legs and pedals to install.

Long Time No Post

Hello boys and girls.
I have not posted for a while but here I am again.

I have been quite busy with my new client, David Forbes who is doing 12 original songs with me.
All of his music is very guitar centered and that's great with me.
David is an awesome Guitar and Bass player and his song writing is also impressive.

So far we have 5 songs down to click tracks. One has real drums.
So we are now overdubbing guitar tracks and editing.

The plan is to get all the songs as close as we can then have the drummer come in and knock off as many as he can. Will also do Bass guitar at the same time.

David also wants percussion, keyboards and piano in some of the tracks.
So we have lots to do as he wants this project to be done by Christmas.

In other news;

I have acquired a vintage Rivera Amplification amp head from the great Terry Manning at Compass Point Studios. I cant remember what model it is but its an incredible sounding guitar amp, So far I have been running it through my 2x12 Sonic closed back cab with nice results. The amp itself is quite different from others that I use in that it is very tweak able (lots of knobs). Similar to the Mesa Boogies but the big difference is that this thing sounds incredible. It is all tube and is actually 2 amps in one that can be run as stereo left and right or double the power.
It also has its own reverb tank for both channels, the reverb is by Hammond and is by far the smoothest reverb that I have.

AND

I have also aquired a Baldwin R1 series Baby Grand Piano.
Long story on the piano that I will include with photos of the Rivera and the Baldwin.


I am also not taking any big projects at the moment as I am now working on my stuff again. Details to follow.

Fun Fun Fun.................................

Rolling along

Started working on my newest song called "Coffee".
Its about the devastation in Haiti and selfishness.

I wanted the 2 rhythm guitars to contrast heavily from verse to verse so this is what I did.
I used an electric guitar for one and an acoustic for the other. I wanted the electric to sound lush and swirly. So I ran my Telecaster into a GT Brick pre-amplifier > Peavey ValveVerb > Leslie 60 speaker system.

I miked the Leslie system with 2 x TnC AMC 900 ribbon mic's into API 3124 pre.


Awesome sound!
The left and right separation is incredible and the sound is full, swirly and lush.

For the contrasting acoustic rhythm guitar I wanted something that sounds LoFi.
So I used my Martin Backpacker travel guitar. This guitar sounds great but it sounds very small. I miked the Martin with a single Beyerdynamic M-130 ribbon mic into the API pre.
Really nice LoFi sound that contrast nicely with the Tele/Leslie track.

Next will be drums.
I have already sent Neil Symonette an MP3 to listen to. He will be coming iether tonight or tomorrow night.
Hopefully if we have time he will also put drums on "Mr Jones".

Neil also has an old song that I did with Donny Ferguson on bass. When it was originally done we had used a drum machine. Neil is going to replace the drum machine with real drums. This song has a jazz vibe so I asked Neil to do the drums at his studio because he is set up for jazz and has an awesome drum kit.

Rolling along.

Ha!

So much for doing my stuff.

Looks like I have a new client, no names yet.
Wants to do 12 originals and is an awesome guitar player, says he plays bass as well.

But, I'm sure that I will still find the time to work on my stuff.
In fact Neil Symonette (awesome drummer) is booked to come to my place on Tuesday to put tracks on 2 of my songs. He has a third one that he is going to do the drums at his place, its kinda jazzy and his gear is really nice for that sound.

Yes man, fun fun fun...................

2010

Here we go.

So, I just came back from vacation a week ago. Same place, same thing.
I wrote 2 new songs! One of them I really like allot.

I have decided that at least the first part of this year I am going to work mostly on my music.
My first EP was OK and quite a few people said it was nice BUT that's not good enough.
My next album will be much better.
I plan to stick more to what I am hearing in my head and not try to chase some sound that I think other people will be able to relate to. What I am hearing in my head is far from mainstream.
But anyhoo.

Today is 21 January, I should have Peter Peters albums by tomorrow.
Finally. Peter has been very patient.

Did I mention that I also acquired a 1974 Wurlitzer 200 Electronic Piano?
AND it came with a Leslie 70 speaker system that sounds gorgeous on the Wurli and guitars.
I will post a picture later on.

So here I go again...............

Masters arrive.

21st December, the Masters have arrived.

I kinda don't think that this album will be ready for X-Mas.
Or New Years.
I'm thinking mid to late January.
Everything seems to stop around this time of year.

So, Friday past I was setting up for a session with Tommy Goodwyn and a new drummer and Alfred Kenny on Bass.
After I had all the mics up I went into the control room to start my rig.
As I enter the room I hear something ticking. Tick, tick, tick.......
I don't have a clock in here.
The air conditioner is leaking water down on the left side of my desk!!!!!!

Patch bay
Lexicon
Digi 002
HHb CD burner
Tascam CD burner
Rosetta converter
5x Glyph hardrives.

Luckily I had just turned on the AC so there was not too much water.
My new security camera monitor and switcher got the most of it.
I cleaned everything as well as I could and turned on the other AC and put a fan in the CR to dry up what was left.
I didn't turn anything on until Sunday afternoon, everything seems to be fine.

La De Da.