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Archives for January 2007

My old HiWatt, 50 watt 1/2 Stack

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Boy was this HIWATT thing freaking HEAVY!!! It was such a bitch to lug around. But I loved my HIWATT 50 watt, !!!

I vividly remember being in the band for “GOD SPELL” at St. John’s College in Brantford. The music director for this production, who admitted to only be able to play the stereo, use to help us load the BEAST onto a dolly and moving it back and forth from the music room to the gym for rehearsals. He always said ” This big thing sure sounds great but, HIWATTS SHOULD HAVE WHEELS!!!” The cabinet and the head where the same weight I think.

I sadly do not have this beautiful piece of my history with me but ahhh, the memories! My parents bought this for me from the now defunked Brantford icon, “Music and Sound” run by Bruce P. He fled the country to the US because of some tax stuff, or so the story goes.

I had went and checked out amps and decided on this one. The sound was just HUGE! It also had a warm and soothing sound as well. Great from RUSH to Renaissance. With just a acoustic, it was wonderful. I used “Groove Tubes” in this with great results and changed them yearly, they were a bit pricey but you get what you pay for.

Check out this demo that I found on YOU TUBE

The morning after my 16th birthday was fuzzy and quite warm to say the least, the days before air conditioning in my house. I woke up and saw the sun coming into my basement bedroom. This was nothing new but this time I could barely make out a big fuzzie rectangular object sitting in the door way. When my eyes started to focus on this off thing, I realized that it was a FREAK’N 50 WATT, HIWATT, 1/2 STACK!!!!!! I ran over to this thing and plugged it all in, in a nano-second! I then plugged in my RD and let it rip REALLY LOUD! I think it was set to 11 on the volume control.

At this point my parents must have known that I was up and went on downstairs. They told me that God called over from next door (we lived around 100 ft. away from St. Pius X Church) and said he can’t think or something like that. Then came a knock on the door and the sound of a heard of guys flying down the stairs. Yes, it’s the boys from Gemini! They just stood their with their jaws on the ground, right along with me. I think that my parents did the same thing, not realizing how loud this new toy was.




My 1959 Fender Duo Sonic

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This is a picture of a Fender Guitar, not my 1959 Fender Duo Sonic (pre-CBS) but one that I found on-line. Unfortunately, I have lost the tail piece cover and the volume and tone knobs on my Fender. The 1964 Duo Sonic Manual is a blast to look at, check out those beatnik guys dancing around on the front page!

This guitar is like a “Student” model but it plays great if you are a speed freak! The guitar player in Steely Dan, (Walter Becker) and Scott Merrit from my home town of Brantford, Ont., use one!

The guitar is a Student model which is great if your a speed freak. The pick ups are single coiled that has a rich warm sound. The neck on it is fast and smooth flowing and very small. It’s well worn to the point where it practically plays itself.

I remember the day I first saw it. I was in my parents living room doing something when my mom walked into the house with this dusty old guitar case. I asked her what it was and she said that this was an old guitar that sat up in a friends of hers attic for many years. Her son was said to have had it forever and that he had just died and she wanted to get rid of it. Here we go, my mother was always looking for great deals in anything. She had brought some guitars home that would be great to break on stage but that was it.

So she plopped it down on the couch and she let me open it. My jaw just dropped and I proceeded to play this blast from the past and then asked her how much. She replied ” $130.00 (Can.)”, I said “YES!!!!”. I said yes just because it just felt so right! I didn’t even plug the thing into my “Hiwatt, 50 watt bulldog, 1/2 stack”( I will talk about that later).

I also remember vividly the day that i went to look at guitars from Steve’s Music in Toronto and took this with us to see what the price of it might be for curiosity sake. When we opened it up, some older guy came up to us and offered $2000.00 (Can.) right on the spot. We looked at each other and said ” No thank-you sir ” and acted like good country bumpkins that we were, that had just fell off the turnip truck.

In todays market it’s not worth that much but it sure as hell made my mom feel like one of those people on the Antiques Road that used a violin called something like “Stradivarius” to hold open the barn door only to find out that it’s worth just a few more bucks! I just loved that look on my mothers face that day!

Keep on Jammin’

My 1980 Fender Lead II

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This is the guitar that I have is to play more Rock and Roll tunes on. It’s a lot lighter then the RD Artist but heavier then the Fender Duo Sonic. The width of the neck is right in between both of the other ones. The intonation is perfect for the Ozzie stuff but it’s not as wide for the Jazz approach. I find is fabulous for playing the electric version of Neon that allows me to use my thumb on the upper E string.

The 1980 Lead II and the 1982 Lead II are both fine guitars. The Lead II Manual, which I wish I had the original, went missing somewhere in my parents house in the 80’s.

Not many scratches (I think that they’re character markings like the colour of the neck being worn down) on the body. The pick guard on the other hand has lotz of character, because of my aggressive NOT THRASHING style of attack in my playing. I use the D’Aaddario True Blue medium strings on this puppy.

My Serial # is E0009736 which makes it made in 1980. The guitar came with a brown shoulder strap bag and that was it, bare bones. I purchased in Hong Kong by a foreign exchange student but, his name eludes me right now. He live at Mr. Zryrini’s house down the street from my parents home in Brantford. I remember him being a great guy who could play the guitar not that bad but, he sure looked like he was having a hell of a lot of fun playing it!

He was a bit strapped for money at the time so I bought it off him. He was always at our house that summer and i showed him tons of stuff. I really felt bad for the guy because he no did not have an axe to jam with at home so I lent him the one he sold, weird eh? I had to because there is nothing worse then stunting the growth of a guitar player!

Tone Port by Line 6

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Last night I went over to saw Rick and Steve at G-Force Media Productions and was re-acquainted with this little toy that Rick picked up at a Long and Mcquade year end sale.

Rick, the man with his eyes always open to new innovative electronic support equipment, had heard of this device called a Tone Port by line 6. He had done his research on line about this product and had heard from other people in the industry that had used this product with great results. With the event of last years “year end blow out sale on all in-store products” fast approaching, he went on their website to see if it was on the list of items on sale. He found that this product, along with other equipment that he had his eye on, was on sale and knew that he just had to have this in his arsenal, so he went and stood in line for 12 hrs before the doors had opened and was 3rd in line. And thank God he did!

He had came to work at the Hospital, where we work, the next day I think and, told me that he had snagged this for a steal at $130.00 (Can.) Weeks later after completing their reno on the studio, he finally installed this beast. I went over one day and he showed me just how it worked. I was totally amazed at the diversity that this thing had. I had so many sound tabs to chose from, that I didn’t know which one to target on first.

Rick then told me to just start jammin’ and that he was going to record whatever I was playing, just so he could get use his board again after a short hiatus from it. I know that ‘m far removed from my RUSH days but, I started off with Working Man(1st album called RUSH,1975). The sound was very fat as well as raw, with sustain that went on forever with this effect peddle! I was using this electric guitar that he had bought, can’t remember the name, that had a wammie bar on it and said that no one liked it because it’s too hard to play. Those guys must have been joking, the thing soared like a dragon, really. I’ve never owned a guitar that had a wammie bar so I just went nutz. I had the honour of breaking in his studio by being that first guitar player to play in his studio as well as the Tone Port, thanx Rick!

I truly hope that you jump to their(Line 6’s) site and check out for yourself the versatility that this item has. The site has a video of how it works and it’s an eye opener. Rick just has the 1st version but, still it’s nothing to sneeze at, trust me. If anyone picks this thing up, can you write to me about the pro’s and con’s of it? I want to see if there are any improvements to the first that would make it worth my will to pick it up, besides the price. But I’m really lucky cause, I’ve got Mr. Jones and his Tone Port on my side!

Keep on Jammin’

Humidity issues

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This is the most important part of guitar maintenance that you always forget. I know that this is a problem that I have from time to time.

I just can’t resist the look of my Larrivee in the morning when I wake up and walk on down the stairs! When the sun bounces off it’s beautiful finish and refracts the light into our living room. We do use a cold mist humidifier and have the furnace humidifier around 35%. I also use a “Damp it, Super” with my guitars as well.

The Humidity Levels on acoustic guitars should monitored more closely now that you are aware of it, there are NO EXCUSES! I wish that I payed attention to this when I first got my Sitar. Now, the damage to this fragile instrument is irreversible. Don’t let this happen to you!

The hardest tune I can’t play … yet

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Well, the song that I would die to play live is ” The Clap” by Steve Howe from YES, (search you tube under, “YES, the clap” or “Steve Howe plays Clap”) is the one to go for,for me! I’ve played mood for a day and other standards to good response but this song is in a league of it’s own.

This next one is something that you can get a better view of how to play this one the way he plays it.


Happy New Year from the May’s house

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Well I had the honour of stumbling into the house of Bob & Laurie May this year, with my brother Tim, his son Brian and some of the members of Gemini. We were only going to stay for a while but when the guitar came out and other guitar players and harmonica players showed up, the guitar gods said that, this is our destination! We honestly wanted to wish them the best in the new year but our gracious hosts made it impossible to leave. Real salt of the earth people, if there were more Bob and Laurie’s in the world we would not have wars!

Bob is the type of guitar player who, like most of us, underestimates his abilities on the axe! He is a basic, no nonsense kind of player. When we got our our destination, we were thinking of going to a private party with lawyers and politicians (honestly we were), but thank God we found the Mays! Their home is literally a hop, skip and a stagger from my parents home that we were staying/passing out this night.

When we arrived, we were greeted by the May’s in true Brantford fashion, having a beer and a shot before our ass’s hit the chair. I had brought my Larrivee with me to show Bob because he had not seen/heard it yet. After burning one, I had told him that I had been working on this piece from John Mayer called neon and asked if he wanted to hear it, either that or I had just informed him of this difficult tune that I wanted to play for him just trying to hold back all of my enthusiasm, I can’t remember? He was the first guitar player to hear me attempt to do justice to this song.

After that, all hell broke lose and people started to pile into their house. We went on down to the basement of “Franken Wine” (long drunkin’ story best told when sober) to just jam and a jammin’ we would go. Steve, John, Bob and the guy that I called “the guy with the black cowboy hat” (i still can’t remember his name) started to play songs and it was truly a night for some fun!

Thanx Bob and Laurie for the blast we had that night.

Cheers, to the nicest people on the planet!!!

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