Music + Technology = Pete Lacis

Being totally obsessed with how to make certain sounds (i.e. tone and timbre), for as long as I’ve been playing guitar I’ve been curious about which woods lend themselves to which sounds and tones. A common question that comes up is which is more preferable, alder or swamp ash?

The answer to this depends on what style of music you play and what kind of feel you’re going for. When compared with the exact same electronics (Suhr V60LP single coil pickups and the Suhr Silent Single Coil system) there’s plenty of difference in the tone of the two. The alder is all mids whereas the swamp ash is all low’s and highs. Alder cuts through the mix best whereas nothing has spank and twang like swamp ash. I would say that alder is a little more common for rock and blues (especially), and that swamp ash is more common in country and funk. To that point, if you want an even, round, warm and fat sound, alder is the choice. If you want something with more characteristic bite, growl and sizzle, then swamp ash is a great way to go. I LOVE the sound of the bridge pickup on my Suhr Swamp Ash Classic when using low to medium gain sounds on my Suhr Badger to go for a Robben Ford “Chevrolet” kind of thing. Nasty!

To help further this discussion I have recorded a short clip of each guitar, playing the same riff through each pickups configuration. All things are equal (amp settings, mic placement, etc). Hopefully this will help give a better idea about some of these wood combinations and their resultant effect on tone.

SUHR ALDER CLASSIC – ONE PIECE MAPLE NECK – V60LP PICKUPS

SUHR SWAMP ASH CLASSIC – MAPLE NECK – BRAZILIAN ROSEWOOD FINGERBOARD – V60LP PICKUPS

audio clips alder, strat, suhr, swamp ash

While I’ve never been much of a sports fan (and by much, I mean not at all), I have to say that I now understand why people like spending hours outdoors in the stands drinking beers and eating hot dogs in the beautiful afternoon sun. Its just awesome! Coors Field in Denver, CO is a beautiful park (not that I’ve been to any other ball parks, but I digress) and I thoroughly enjoyed taking in the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of a true

pro ball game. I’m now kicking myself for never taking those free Yankee tickets all those years back at my former agency, MWW Group. Better late than never, I suppose.

After the game we weren’t really of the mind to let the party stop. Add the fact that my sister-in-law Lisa was in town for the weekend and we just had to keep on rocking. Gotta lo

ve the consumption of delicious libations on the roof tops of find Denver establishments!

Uncategorized baseball, Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, Coors Field

A great thing about the Guitar Center’s in Colorado is that they are unlike any other GC’s I’ve ever visiting in that they actually let you play the fun expensive stuff. My buddy Kevin at the Arvada, CO GC totally hooked me up this evening in giving me some personal time with the $25,000 EVH Frankenstein guitar, the $2,000 5150 III amp and the corresponding $1,000 4×12 speaker cab. I have to say it was a real treat to check this stuff out for myself, as I’ve been hearing so much about these things. So here are my $.02

The amp was cool, but not what I was expecting at all. I was a fan of the old 5150 II amp (used to own one as a backup) and the new 5150 III is very different, IMO. As it has been reported, the resonance controls have been removed and I really missed that. I amp has a saggy low end that I suppose suits Eddie’s style, but not mine! The 5150 III is also no where near as aggressive as the earlier 5150 series amps. I guess at the end of the day, it does lend itself to sounds more similar to EVH’s old Plexi Marshall Super 100 (on channels two and three), but that’s about it. This is *NOT* a versatile amp. It does one thing fairly well, and this is lend itself to sounding like Van Halen. I guess that’s cool, but it was way more limiting to me based on my personal style. I thought the clean channel was better than any of the previous 5150′s, but that’s not really saying much. It does not have much headroom at all.

For comparison purposes, I brought along my Diezel Herbert MKII which is currently sporting 4 EL34′s and 2 6L6′s. What ever the 5150 III could do, the Diezel did it better……way better. I suppose that’s not surprising since the Herbert was around $3,800 new!

As for the guitar end of things, I brought my Suhr Standard with a basswood body, maple top and one piece maple neck to do some real EVH comparisons (it was the most “Wolfgang-like” of anything that I owned). I was shocked at how similar the Frankenstein felt and sounded to my basswood Suhr! The major difference to my ears was that the Suhr’s DSH bridge pickup was a bit hotter than that of the Frankenstein’s, but not by much. I bet Suhr’s DSV or SSV would suit that EVH sound just fine! That was really surprising. I was really expecting a lot more magic from that pickup. The best part of the Frankenstein was the neck. It was certainly wider than any of the previous EVH signature model guitars, and had huge frets. It was very comfortable to play……Van Halen licks on! Interestingly enough, with the whole “relic” thing going on here, the neck came complete with dirt and a slightly sticky feeling. I was happy to play my Suhr again after handling that guitar. Seriously.

In the end, it was certainly fun to check out the guitar and amp that everyone’s been talking about. However, I was certainly relieved to see that I was more than close enough to those tones with the equipment I already had. I think the thing I actually liked the best was the speaker cab…..it sounded GREAT with my Herbert. From what I hear, its basically a clone of a late 60′s/early 70′s Marshall 4×12 with original Celestian Greenback speakers. I heard the guys over a Wildwood Guitars did a comparison with a period correct 70′s Marshall 4×12 and they sounded practically identical. So I guess the secret speakers in Eddie’s new cab are re-engineered old Greenbacks. Wild.

Uncategorized 5150 III, Colorado, Eddie Van Halen, EVH, EVH Frankenstein, Guitar Center, musician

So I concluded my cross-country zig zag trip after playing a number of shows back east with Suspicious Brown. I was pretty excited that the pedalboard that I built just before the trip had held up so well. During each “hop” of the trip I would find a little “love letter” from the TSA stating that they had been inside my case. I suppose to a baggage screener all that wiring and electronics must look pretty darn odd. So to that point, I suppose I should feel some comfort in the fact that they’re paying attention. Well…..all good things come to an end, I suppose. After returning to Denver, when I picked up my pedalboard from baggage claim at DIA I noticed a distinct “rattling” sound coming from the case. Not good. I proceeded to open her up and found this:

My guess is the folks at Newark Liberty International thought my pedalboard required a closer look. I guess its just too much to ask them to put the thing back the way they found it.

In related news, I posted about this issue over on Scott Henderson’s discussion board and he had the great courtesy to turn me onto the world on 3M’s Dual Lock. Apparently people who fly a lot with their gear don’t use velcro. Live and learn!

Uncategorized Uncategorized

My new life in Colorado has been quite the change. Aside from the joys of home ownership (i.e. yard maintenance, cleaning, and all the time it takes), I was not prepared for the discipline that it takes to manage one’s own life. While that last statement may sound odd, take into consideration the fact that for as long as I can remember, I’ve had some sort of external structure in my life. Whether it was my parents, school or work, some external force was dictating where I have to be when, and what I had to do. Now I have to make all these decisions myself and do all the work myself (whereas in the past I could at least delegate some work to other people). In a sense, I had found myself completely overwhelmed with the number of choices to make on a daily basis. Something had to change.

I realized that in the past I had always worked well against deadlines. Now instead of working against external ones, I am now setting them for myself on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. I schedule when I work on music, business, the house, exercise, and when to relax and spend time with my family. All of these things are very important and time must be made for all of them.

So for now I’m happy to report that things have been going very well. I’m finally getting into the groove of things (literally and figuratively) for I’m making enough time for things, and I’m about to embark on a small tour with the Funk, Groove, R&B Sensation Suspicious Brown back east (actually posting from a friends house in Hoboken!). Stay tuned for more!

BTW – another reason why I ceased posting was that the WordPress template I was using was totally giving me grief and it was last on my list to fix (and blogs suck without pictures)!. That will not stop things again!

Uncategorized Colorado, starting over as a musician, Uncategorized

One downside to the move out west is all the time that is lost when traveling east (i.e. across multiple time zones). As Erin is now back on the road after a week off, we got to experience the joy of waking up at 4am so that she could make her flight en route to Jacksonville, Florida (via Houston, Texas). The good thing is that its a flat 30 minutes to DIA and I was driving slowly (still getting used to the 70+ mph speed limits out here).

All things considered, its been an insanely productive few days since we arrived in Colorado. We’ve purchased (and installed) much of our furniture and this place is really starting to come together. Next up is prepping the place to be painted, along with getting the local bank account and driver’s license.

On Saturday night I got to check out local band MFA at Trinity in Boulder with my brother and Chris. It was great to hang with them and begin my infiltration of the local music scene. I can’t wait to dive right in!

Now, about that WordPress photo problem….

Uncategorized moving to colorado, relocating

After a very short overnight in Lexington, Nebraska, we hit the road for the final leg out our trip. The landscape morphed from rolly-polly countryside and farmland to vast plans with the widest reaching horizon I’ve ever seen. This meant we were getting close!

With many, many hours on the road with nothing but the loud noise of a diesel engine and the vibrations of a poorly maintained Penske truck, one has plenty of time to be introspective about anything and everything. This trip has helped me realize just how big this country is, and how many different people there are throughout it. I’ve felt my perspective trapped very much in a northeast mentality for as long as I can remember (its all I’ve really ever known). I had taken for granted just how much there is to see and experience out in the world….outside an offices’ walls….outside a traditional white-collar career. I can’t believe what I’ve been missing.

We timed the arrival at our new home with a crack moving crew from the Denver area (who came highly recommended) – Two Guys and a Truck. While there were actually four guys, they emptied the truck that took us a day and a half to load in approximately 58 minutes. Seriously.

So we are moved in. We can’t find anything we need yet (still looking for my underwear and socks), but we are beyond happy to be here. Aside from traveling with two mattresses, a couch, a chair and a piano, we don’t really have much and the house looks ridiculously empty. In fact, I’m writing this from an ottoman as Erin is working on her laptop on the floor next to me. We actually just got cable, internet and voip installed a couple of hours ago, so we have a bunch of catching up to do.

Hopefully the next time I write, I’ll have a desk (or table) to write from…..that is if I can find the screws…..seriously.

Uncategorized moving to colorado, quitting day job, relocating

Well our proposed ten-hour drive turned into a thirteen-hour drive (a new record for us). To add insult to injury, Iowa is a series of foothills…..rolling up and down, on and on for hundreds of miles. Each time I would have to climb one of these hills the speed of the truck would duck down to 65, 60, 55, 50, 45 mph (get the picture). It was bad. Oh yeah, and there was something like a constant 30-40 mph head wind that kept knocking the truck all over the place. Not fun! In fact, this truck has been banged around so much that I’d be surprised if the majority of our belongings haven’t been pulverized by all the vibrations and jolts sustained throughout the trip.

But there is more to Iowa than just endlessly rolling foothills. It is also the home of the “Worlds Largest Truckstop” a.k.a “Iowa 80.” An interesting thing about this trip is that our journey marks two firsts for me: the first time I’ve driven a diesel powered vehicle and the first time I’ve driven a legitimate “truck” (vs. a box van). There is a whole “trucker” counter-culture that I was never aware of. These guys may look pretty gruff, but they are friendly, sociable and accomodating. They’re never short on stories and are happy to hold the door open for you as you enter a truck-stop. They are the back-bone of the supply chain of this country……something that I never thought of appreciating before, but I do now.

After Iowa came Nebraska, and I don’t have much to share about that since we arrived in the state of “Warren Buffet” under the cover of darkness. However, its considerably flatter than Iowa (read: easier to drive in), but also more boring (akin to its southern cousin, Kansas). The cool thing about Lexington, Nebraska, is that it is 4-5 hours from our destination! We are so excited to begin our new life in Colorado and now we can almost taste it! With any luck, my next post will be from our new digs!

Uncategorized moving to colorado, relocating

Monday we found ourselves traveling through the rest of Ohio, Indiana and into Illinois….our arrival into which (Chicago) was timed precisely for 5pm so we could once again feel the maximum impact of rush hour and add an extra 1.5 hours to the trip just for kicks!

Seriously though, the trip has gone well so far. Zoe (the pug) has yet to go postal nor has she needed any tranquilizers (yet). Erin has been soldiering on following me in the slow-ass Penske truck that won’t travel over 68 mph. That should prove totally excruciating, though, as today we embark on presumably the most ambitious and most seemingly mind numbing portion of the trip…..Iowa and Nebraska. Today is supposed to be a 10-hour day…..the end point of which I don’t quite recall but from what I know of Nebraska, should be somewhat obvious once we reach it. I’m a little nervous about finding places to fuel the diesel truck as I almost ran out of luck yesterday in Indiana.

The only real casualty of the trip (other than my rear-end as the truck has essentially a park-bench for a seat) has been my i-Car-Play or the “thinggy” that lets me play my iPod through the truck’s radio. Well, yesterday, unbeknownst (sp?) to me, said device became entangled in the trucks emergency brake. Like a guillotine, upon release of the brake the lever severed the cord to the i-car-play (and thus, delivered a serious blow to my sanity). Thankfully my wonderful wife is out at Best Buy as I type this so that I don’t completely loose my mind talking to myself whilst traveling through Nebraska this evening.

Wish us luck.

Also…..for the record, I have photos documenting all this fun stuff but WordPress is still giving me grief, and that little bit of trouble shooting will commence once I get to CO. I realize that most blogs aren’t nearly as much fun without pictures, and yes, I suck for not realizing this problem before I left. So fire me. Oh wait, I already fired myself….

Uncategorized moving to colorado, relocating

Well after a much later start than anticipated (i.e. 4pm), we made it to Youngstown, Ohio tonight. With only seven hours on the road, we’re running behind schedule, but since we don’t *have* to be anywhere at a specific time, we’re going to take it easy. Its so much less stressful to travel when you’re on your own schedule.

BTW – having some difficulty with Word Press and the image uploader (all the thumbnails just show the background of CSS page) so I need to figure that out. Not to worry, I’m taking plenty of pictures and will share them as soon as the problem is fixed.

Uncategorized moving to colorado, relocating