Band Chat

The only resource you need for all things related to bands and music. For further enjoyment, take in the history of Band Chat, and read classic posts at the original site.

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I realized it had been a while since I changed my guitars' strings, so took care of that problem recently. The process got me diving down a small rabbit hole, which is par for the course with guitar equipment...

I've never been one to think a ton about guitar strings. Back in the late 80s, when I started playing, is when I tried a few different brands and gauges (finally settling on 10-46, which are easy to bend, but have good rigidity for power chords), and kept using Dean Markley. Why? I think Alex Lifeson used them, which may have been the main deciding factor. I also have tried Ernie Ball at least once, and D'Addario more than a few times (they tend to be the strings guitar techs put on after a setup if I don't provide a set).

Although I would use a few types of Dean Markley strings, I tended to go for their Blue Steel product. The hook? They're cryogenically treated, which supposedly makes them brighter, helps them stay in tune, and extends their life (although I haven't broken a string since I was a beginner). Blue Steels used to be a little more expensive than standard string packs, but they seem to last more or less forever (the set on my Applause have been on there for two years!), so it never bugged me.

Over the last few years, however, Dean Markley seems to having business issues, so stock has been scarce. I bought a half dozen Blue Steel sets a couple of years ago to hold me over.

Back to recent days: when I decided to change my strings, I looked to see if one could still buy Blue Steels, and the answer...a big no. Even though I still have five packs, which will keep me in business for a while, I decided to take a look at what else was out there, for the inevitable time when I run out.

When I last had my PRS guitar serviced, the tech put D'Addario XLs on, so I looked to see what they had which was comparable to Blue Steels. Their NYXL sets boast new engineering processes which tout all the things Blue Steels do, so I kept them in mind. They're a few bucks pricier than typical strings (which annoys the Internet to no end), but recently came down in price, so I ordered them.

I noticed that GHS makes a set that are also cryogenically treated, so I ordered a pack (an easy sale: the company has been around forever, and unlike D'Addario, are a smaller business a la Dean Markley). These "Sub-Zero Boomers" are a bit different than what I normally use: round core instead of hex, which makes them slightly warmer, plus easier to bend.

I put the D'Addario NYXL set on my PRS and like them. They seem to have a bit less brightness than Blue Steel out of the box, meaning that they sound "lived in" from the get-go. They also hold their tune very well. If they're anything like the Blue Steels, I could go two years with them before thinking, "I should probably change my strings," but since I'd like to try the GHS ones as well, I probably will swap out the NYXLs after three months.

Another thing to note: packaging for guitar strings has changed over the last two dozen years. While "vintage" players like myself are used to the days when all the companies packaged each string in its own paper envelope, that has changed. Many now put them all in one plastic style bag to save waste, plus eliminate oxidation issues that sometimes occurred when the paper envelopes interacted with the strings' steel. To help players tell one string from another, they color code the ends. It's still frustrating when they're all clumped together, so Dean Markley gathers them in pairs, and GHS and Ernie Ball continue to put them in individual packages.

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Enjoy my new song, "Wanderer's Lament," an instrumental created for background atmosphere in my friends' hiking videos. I'll link to them if it gets used! 🙂

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By now y'all have seen that Rush is touring next year and have hired Anika Nilles to play drums for the dozen dates they currently have planned. What's fascinating to me is that so many refer to Nilles as "Rush's new drummer." This, however, is not accurate.

It is clear from the language of the press release that Nilles was hired as a touring drummer. All the promo photographs and videos which proclaim Rush is back feature Lee and Lifeson, but not her. There are no videos or press releases saying something like, "Welcome the newest member of Rush, Anika Nilles!" In fact, if you look at the Rush website and hover over the "Band" tab, it still indicates that Rush is Lee, Lifeson, and Peart.

Rush has only ever had two drummers: John Rutsey and Neil Peart. I wish Nilles much success as she plays with Rush, but I'm sure she knows that, ever since 1974, Neil Peart has been and still is Rush's drummer. There will be no replacement.

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I've held off for a bit talking about the JHS 424 Gain Stage, which takes the preamp section of a Tascam Portastudio 424 four-track recorder, and puts it in pedal form. But once I saw the above video, which is a promo for it by Andertons, I decided to make a few comments.

It's a riot that the pair use the words "unpleasant" and "awful" to describe the sounds it makes. They're sounds that I got in the 90s by plugging my guitar directly into my stereo's cassette deck. But because Andertons is trying to sell a product, they're working overtime to convince us that it's "cool." More power to JHS for being old school snake oil salesman: recognizing the talent of someone like Mk.gee and trying to bottle it in a pedal, then sell it to the masses. But there are only a few musicians that can take stereotypically unpleasant sounds and turn them into art (Sonic Youth and Jesus and Mary Chain come to mind).

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Recently I purchased a Valeton GP-5, a multi-effects processor for guitar. It has been getting a lot of buzz lately for being able to cheaply utilize NAM captures (modeling of guitar amplifiers and cabinets), but I mainly wanted to use it as an inexpensive way to experiment with effects I don't have, and more easily add them to recordings.

Although I've found the software buggy, and more times than not the sound has a "cocked wah" tone to it (I wonder if the default EQ doesn't mesh well with my headphones), so far it's been useful. I've mainly been using it as a practice tool, playing alongside its drum machine. Its Boss DS-1 modeling sounds pretty similar to a real one, and I've enjoyed testing effects I don't have, such as a Fuzz Face and tape delay.

One thing I have noticed, however, is it exacerbates the issue the guitar community has of caring about sound over playing. If you poke around its Facebook Group you'll see quite a few people asking how to get very specific tones that are the hallmarks of various famous musicians. When I started playing, the cost of this "every sound you can think of in one pedal" thing could only get you one effects pedal. So you learned to deal with simple sounds, slowly adding to them as you improved and acquired more cash.

I'm all for using your heroes to help achieve a result. The issue is that people get caught up in that process, obsessing over sounding exactly like that other guitarist, rather than using the essence of that sound as a tool to inspire their own playing.

Summary: be your own best self!

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The final mixdown of "Sinking" is now available.

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I recently got myself a 90s era made in the USA DOD FX65 Stereo Chorus. Even though for years I used a DOD FX75-B Flanger as a chorus (it handles that job well if you experiment with the knobs), later got a Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble, and have chorus modeling on my Yamaha THR5 amp, I've been curious to hear what a well-made analog chorus pedal sounds like. My nostalgia for DOD pedals won out.

Although Boss's CE-1 and CE-2 are people's gold standards for chorus, they (and the CE-2 Waza reissue) are expensive. The FX65, however, is a sleeper hit. It gained some notoriety due to John Frusciante using one," and I suspect Josh Scott's video, where he said it was his "favorite chorus pedal in the entire room," helped as well. I'd been searching for one for a while, and finally snagged a unit for the darn good price of $50. It even has the battery cover, which most people lose!

There's no denying it's a good sounding pedal. The delay time knob, which most standard chorus pedals don't have, allows for some extra versatility. With it I can get some mild flange effects. Since I can also get chorus sounds out of their flanger, it indicates the two pedals likely share specifications. The speed knob has a good range, allowing one to push toward a Leslie speaker type sound.

I haven't directly A/B compared them, but the DOD seems to be a little darker and have more "character" than my Boss CE-5. The latter, much like my Boss PS-2 Pitch Shifter/Delay (vs. my DOD FX90 Delay), feels cleaner, brighter, and more "perfect" in its tone. I've noticed the FX65 and 90 tend to inject a tiny bit of breakup through my amp if I play a hard, loud chord. The CE-5 also has more options. You can apply the chorus sound to only certain frequencies, for example, so experimentation and patience will pay huge dividends.

Neither the FX65 nor the CE-5 are as "deep" sounding as some others, so if you're looking to exactly replicate Zakk Wylde's tone on Ozzy's "Road to Nowhere," you'll have to look to a Boss CE-1 or clone unit. But to approximate it? The FX65 is a great option!

So if you want a great sounding chorus, for a decent price, and are the type that gets inspired by using an actual classic effect, the FX65 is a good choice. For something new that has more features, the Boss CE-5 is perfect. The chorus modeling in my THR5 is also solid, and while more limited in options, it easily allows me to record that effect in stereo!

You can't go wrong with any well made effect pedal, so my overall advice is to get whatever motivates you to make great music. And remember that it's better to recognize and appreciate a thing for it specifically is rather than lament what it isn't.

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After a year being dormant, a new demo of "Sinking" is available for your listening pleasure. Edit: a new version is here, now with two guitars playing the end riff.

Edit 2: a new version with guitar solo is here.

Edit 3: a new version with cooler ending drums is here.

Edit 4: now with bass.

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While going down the YouTube rabbit hole, I came across this video Josh Scott of JHS Pedals did for Reverb.com. The concept of the video is that he answers common questions about guitar pedals from watchers...explaining fundamental concepts and debunking common myths. But there was one question asked that he didn't answer, and I'm here to do it for him!

He did answer all the expected questions: quality of analog vs. digital, silicon vs. germanium, and true bypass vs. buffers, etc. So it was a bit unusual that once he got to, "What's the deal with, 'Tone is the fingers'" that he decided to ignore it. Why?

I can only hazard a guess, but I suspect since the question isn't specifically pedal related, Josh determined it was easier to dismiss it. But it's worth exploring since he does in fact have an answer to the broad umbrella this falls under (see my final paragraph for what it is).

What do people mean when they say, "Tone is in the fingers"? What they're trying to say is that no matter what kind of gear you have, how much you have, or how expensive it is, what's important is the quality of the music and the expertise of the person playing it. To wit, if Eric Johnson invites me up on stage to play with his equipment, I am not going to sound like him, even if I am skilled at playing his songs and know what gear settings he uses. There is a personal element to the way people play musical instruments that eclipses the gear.

This is why Josh constantly says, "Please play guitar." He is emphasizing that the equipment one uses, how it's constructed, and how much it costs, is largely irrelevant, and thus shouldn't be the driving force of a guitarist. If it inspires you to play guitar, then by all means talk about the nuances of gear. But never let it distract from actually making music.

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Need a leg up? Try a "Booster Seat," courtesy of my new DOD BiFet Boost 410.

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Here's a new demo for y'all, "Edge of Breakup".

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These days the humble distortion pedal tends to get overshadowed by overdrives and fuzz(es). But nothing gets the guitar community riled more than the Boss DS-1. It's good! It's terrible! You're using it wrong! It has to be used into an amp on the edge of breakup!

I was ignorant to all this when I bought my DS-1 back in 1993. At the time I was using a DOD American Metal and Peavy Special 130 amp, looking to branch out into different sonic territory. Since two guitarists I dug, Dave Navarro and Kurt Cobain, used it, I said what the hell, and bought one.

My first surprise was how different it was than the DOD pedal. While perhaps obvious to most, at the young age of 23, and having only played guitar for four years, I still wasn't quite aware of what all this different equipment did. It took some mental adjustment to get used to the overall less gain and different tone profile, but after a while I grew to enjoy those changes.

This brings me to my main point: explore what a piece of gear can do, and focus less on what you want it to do. The DS-1 has a very specific sound, and is always going to sound like a DS-1, so set expectations accordingly. But it is easy to forget that since every musician has unique gear, the DS-1's tone will vary depending on that choice of gear and how each of its options are set. This is one reason why some people say it's great and others say otherwise.

This doesn't mean that the DS-1 can't be tweaked, so don't be afraid to shape its sound! The obvious thing to do is to use the tone knob on the pedal for this. But don't forget about the EQ knobs on your amp. On my Fender Twin Reverb the "treble" and "middle" dials immensely change the sound of the DS-1. One can change the DS-1 tone further with additional EQ, usually provided by a pedal like the Boss GE-7. One complaint people have about the DS-1 is it's too mid scooped, and using EQ can add those frequencies back in.

Another trick I've recently used is to boost it with another pedal. I use an Ibanez Tube Screamer for this, and find it gives the DS-1 a little extra punch, even with the Screamer's overdrive set all the way counter-clockwise.

So what's going on with all the people who say it has to be used with an amp on "the edge of breakup?" It's worth noting that Boss themselves say otherwise ("It's great as a prime distortion for clean and mildly driven amps and works equally well with higher-gain amps."). My take is that this statement comes from people who don't like the general tone of the DS-1, and thus find it works better as a boost into their preferred tone. This will add some frequencies that their main tone is lacking. It also adds compression, which will favorably accentuate certain aspects of their playing. Single note riffs, which previously felt a bit lifeless, will now be punchy.

I knew back in 1993 that Dave and Kurt didn't like junk. If you take all that I've written here into account you'll likely conclude the same thing. Happy riffing!

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This video from Andertons, which blindly tests various fuzz pedals to see which is most pleasing to a guy who enjoys playing "doom metal," does a good job showing how expensive is not always better. It's not a large leap to my contention that once you have a base amount of gear, you can get just about any sound you want. Has JHS's video on the Bad Monkey taught us nothing (hint: spend less time trying to achieving a specific sound, and more time nailing the performance)?

To help prove my point, I quickly recorded myself playing the main riff of Black Sabbath's "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath." I started with my Triangle Big Muff Pi clone (Azor AP-303 Fuzz, $24.50) as a base, boosted it with my Tube Screamer, and EQ-d it via my Boss GE-7. Main gear used is my PRS CE-24 and Fender Twin Reverb, recorded with my iPhone. It sounds great!

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"Fifth Gear (Kowalski's Journey)" is now released. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed writing, performing, recording, and producing it!

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It's been a while since I've posted new music, but those days are coming to an end. I've been busy polishing my songs, and the first to near completion is "Fifth Gear." It now exists as a proof of concept: all parts are completed. It will be tweaked until...I'm tired of tweaking it! To hold you over until that day comes, here's a tiny sample for your listening pleasure.

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A few years back John Mayer had JHS Pedals reverse engineer his a box later effects loop pedal by Dumble, then build a clone, so he could gig with that instead. JHS recently took this schematic, added a clone of the Zendrive (which models an overdriven Dumble amp), and put it all in a pedal for the public they christened the NOTADÜMBLË. And that's where the fun begins…

It seems that Josh Scott didn't remember that they actually reverse engineered two pedals for Mayer, and the design they put into the NOTADÜMBLË isn't the coveted one that Mayer uses on his effects board. The video above details how this mistake occurred.

Because of this, JHS will be discontinuing this version of the pedal. If you are desperate to get one, the remaining stock goes up for sale on Friday May 23rd, 5 pm Eastern.

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He Spent $12,495 to Be Gene Simmons’s Roadie (and Got More Than Expected)

A father-son pair ponied up for the V.I.P. experience last week and got a glimpse behind the scenes of a rock ’n’ roll show, and into a noto

My good friend Mark Yarm recently interviewed Gene Simmons and a dude that paid over $12k to be his "roadie for a day." Have a read over at the New York Times.