Music + Technology = Pete Lacis

This is the sort of story that we gearheads just love.  Being that I was heavily influence by the music of Phish and its guitarist Trey Anastasio in the 90′s, I became a big fan of hollow body guitars used in conjunction with a compressor pedal to achieve loud and clear sustain with a clean, undistorted tone.  Well in the last few years of Phish’s existence, Trey ditched his long-used compressor and his tone took on a darker, edgier and grungier sound which was far removed from its pristine and singing mid-90′s hey-day.

As fate would have it, I was not alone is my disdain for Trey’s tone of late.  The folks over at phantasytour.com had been discussing the demise of Trey’s tone and the discussion heated up once the band announced that it would be reforming for some shows this spring.  The conversation got to Trey via his long-time songwriter partner and lyricist Tom Marshall who had stumbled up these discussions.  The following is an excerpt from Tom Marshall’s conversation with Trey Anastasio:

I spent the last two days and last night in New York writing three cool songs with Red. In direct response to msharky’s request, I asked Trey what the deal is with this compressor stuff?.I explained the PT threads requesting that he bring back the compressor. He was very surprised that I was asking him this, because I’m not really a ‘tech’ guy…you know? I also don’t listen too much to old shows, and so the “tone change” was lost on me. I like writing new songs, and I don’t focus too much on the past. First i must explain that he found it funny that I brought it up, because he had been thinking the EXACT SAME THING: Phish is coming back, maybe the Ross should also come back. He’s thinking of the Mesa and possibly the cabinets too — but he does like that little fender.

Basically, he used the compressor differently than people normally do — often people will place it early in the effects chain to smooth the sound going into the other effects. Trey did it backwards, and had the Ross last — AFTER his two tube screamers. The Ross was always on. Always. His signature Squirming Coil “playable sustain” was the result of full volume pedal and both screamers on and pumping that signal into the Ross.

Me: and so you got rid of it?

Trey: I started playing without it after Phish and found that I could get an “edgier” sound that I can’t get with it.

Me: so it’s gone? or just off?

Trey: gone

Me: forever?

Trey: no, I’ve been thinking of bringing it back for a while now…if i can find it!

Well with the news that Trey would consider returning to his old sound if he could find his old compressor, the People for a Compressed Trey banded together to procure one for him!  The future just got a lot smoother!

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Sources: Relix, Rolling Stone, Phantasy Tour, Tom Marshall’s Picassa Album

amplifiers, guitar, music, musical instruments, musician compressor, phish, ross compressor, tone, trey anastasio

As I’ve been finding myself lately really gravitating to the sound of my VOS 1960 plain top Les Paul Standard, I’ve become curious as to why folks chose Les Paul Standards over Les Paul Customs and vice-versa.

Through my own observations, I’d say that most organic classic rock stuff (Allmans, Zeppelin, Skynard, Aerosmith, etc) tends to be played on Standards (with Fogarty & Framptom being the exceptions) while more metal tends to be played on Customs (John Sykes, Zakk Wylde, Adam Jones (Tool), Randy Rhodes, etc).

I also realize that there are a few different variations of the Custom including the fact that several were all mahogany (no maple top i.e. Black Beauty I believe) while others sported maple necks instead of mahogany (namely 70′s era Customs favored by Wylde & Sykes).

So to that point, what style of Les Paul would you use for which styles of music? I’ve been thinking about getting a ’68 reissue custom (black one at Wildwood), but I really love the organic nature of my VOS Standard and wonder if I would wander away from the tones that I favor by going the Custom route.

To help gain perspective on this, I’ve posted these sames questions along with a poll at Huge Racks Inc and The Gear Page.  Please visit the threads to cast your vote and participate in the conversation.

guitar, music, musical instruments classic rock, ebony, Gibson, les paul custom, les paul standard, mahogany, maple, metal, rosewood

I’ll be playing with Stone Blue on Saturday, December 27th at The Buffalo Rose in Golden, CO. Classic rock covers. Show starts at 9pm.

Check out more information at http://www.buffalorose.net/

music, musician, pete lacis classic rock, Colorado, gig, golden, live music

In an effort to decode the mystery between high-priced Gibson Les Paul’s and their lower-priced Japanese siblings manufactured by Edwards, we are comparing a Gibson Les Paul VOS 1960 with a Edward Les Paul LP130.

We recorded four clips with each guitar, playing essentially the same riffs/changes through the exact same amp & volume settings in order to get a truly fair comparison. To that point, example 1 is a riff (same one that I used to demo the Egnater seminar head last February for Premier Guitar), example 2 is a series of distorted chords, example 3 is a brief solo/lick and example 4 features some changes played clean through the neck pickup (all other examples feature the bridge pickup). Each clip is short so you can go back and forth between them for comparison purposes.

Edwards Les Paul

http://www.petelacis.com/music/gibson-vs-edwards/Edwards-1.mp3
http://www.petelacis.com/music/gibson-vs-edwards/Edwards-2.mp3
http://www.petelacis.com/music/gibson-vs-edwards/Edwards-3.mp3
http://www.petelacis.com/music/gibson-vs-edwards/Edwards-4.mp3

Gibson VOS 1960

http://www.petelacis.com/music/gibson-vs-edwards/Gibson-1.mp3
http://www.petelacis.com/music/gibson-vs-edwards/Gibson-2.mp3
http://www.petelacis.com/music/gibson-vs-edwards/Gibson-3.mp3
http://www.petelacis.com/music/gibson-vs-edwards/Gibson-4.mp3

A few interesting points to note. First off, the Edwards was considerably lighter in weight and rang much more loudly when strummed acoustically. The body seemed to just resonate much more than the Gibson. To that point, when I bought the Gibson, it was after playing about 30 Les Pauls and this one was the lightest and most resonant of the bunch, so take that into consideration. The Gibson did feel more solid to the touch…..but dare I say it was like the “solid” you feel from late 70′s and early 80′s Les Pauls by comparison…..they’re solid, but they don’t sustain well acoustically. Point for Edwards.

The stock Burstbucker 1 & 2 pickups in the Gibson are clearly hotter than the Seymour Duncan Antiquities that are features in the Edwards, but I think that was certainly a plus for the Edwards (for my tastes), especially when the neck pickup was concerned. When plugged in, the Gibson appears to have more “ass” to the sound (i.e. low-end) which I found surprising, because I’ve found that guitar to sound much brighter and less “thick” than many other Les Pauls, and I have since been interested in finding a LP with more “ass.” I had recently played a Warren Haynes model that had the same pickups as my VOS 1960 and it just sounded so much thicker…..still kicking myself for letting that one go.

From a playability standpoint, the action and set up on the Edwards (out of the box, actually) was fantastic. The fretboard radius on the Edwards appears to be flatter than that of the Gibson. As a result, I’d dare to say that the Edwards played better with lower action than the Gibson could. At first glance, one concern about the Edwards was that the tune-o-matic bridge was set up rather high. However, after close inspection, it appears as if the neck angle on the Edwards is considerably more steep that that of the Gibson VOS. Not sure what that means….just found it interesting. You can see examples regarding this in the pictures which will follow below.

Bottom line is that I would be impressed with the Edwards if it was as $2,000 guitar…..but its a $800 – $1,200 guitar and that’s just fantastic. If anyone was hesitating to give these guitars a try, I don’t see what could possibly be stopping you now. I wonder if they make a non-reverse all mahogany Firebird!

[Show as slideshow]

audio clips, music, musical instruments comparision, Edwards, Gibson, les paul, VOS

During the mid 90′s when it wasn’t cool to be good at guitar, I eschewed the grundge movement and threw myself into the world of jazz. Being a big fan of “Birth of the Cool” music up through the heavy, funky grooves of Medeski Martin & Wood, I decided to focus my efforts on playing bass with my organ trio (sometimes quartet and quintet), Thique. It wasn’t long before I discovered the power of the bass in music, and the bassist among musicians. Truly, the bassist has the power to subvertly (or overtly for that matter) influence the entire rest of the band through changes in groove, rhythm or harmonic structure. I was truly in awe of this awesome responsibility.

Fast forward more than 10 years later, I found myself looking to influence the music and the musicians I play with in a new way. I wanted a way to extend the range of what I was doing without playing a completely different instrument. I like the way guitar can influence harmony and rhythm. But I wanted a little of that subversion back. Enter the seven string guitar.

Steve Vai can be thanked for bringing the seven string solidbody (seven string guitars archtop hollowbodies have been popular with jazz guitarists for many years) to the masses in the early nineties via his solo album “Passion & Warfare” along with Whitesnake’s “Slip of the Tongue” (the latter gig which he took to fund and promote the prior). The seven string solidbody then experienced a renaissance in the late 90′s/early 2000′s when nu-metal bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit. However, because of its extended range and ability to be significantly down-tuned plus the addition of more modern amplification options with solid state rectifiers, most seven strings found their way into metal, nu-metal, nu-nu-meteal, etc.

Since the music I enjoy and play is more of an extension of jam bands (fusion of rock, funk, jazz, electronica, etc), I thought it would be really cool to bring the new sonic capabilities of the seven string to that sound…..to the best of my knowledge it hasn’t been done before. Only problem was most seven strings were designed for extreme metal. That certainly wasn’t going to do.

So enter January 2008. At the NAMM Tone Merchants party I had an opportunity to play a seven string Vigier through a Cornford MK50 II. Wow! What a sound! OK, now I confirmed that I wanted to explore this further. Then, after Suhr Guitars debuted their new “Modern” 24 fret model, there was talk that they might offer a seven string model. Being a fan of Suhr’s work, I was very excited about the prospects. However, that hope was short-lived as the Suhr guys soon found themselves overwhelmed with demand for their new products that had been developed, let alone any items that they might develop. So my dream of a seven string Suhr would have to wait for some time.

Based on my own tonal explorations, I knew I wanted a guitar with a mahogany body, mahogany neck, maple top and Brazilian rosewood fingerboard. The trouble was finding one. There weren’t any mass-produced models that met my needs. Ibanez is probably the most well know main stream seven string manufacturer, but there guitars always had maple necks and I can’t say enough about how much I dislike the sound of a maple neck on a mahogany body. That, and well, I’ve never cared for Ibanezes. I soon realized I would have to go boutique if I wanted anything that was of quality and with the woods that I wanted. I new Gene Baker make a few sevens years ago, but his old company was since out of business and his new pursuits were focusing on more “conservative” models. Luckily I’ve been following the muses of Matte Henderson for some time (extreme seven string enthusiast). I’ve kept in touch with him over time in case he ever wanted to sell any of his custom seven string beauties and he had one for sale…..but it was korina. I learned not too long ago (through a couple of Gene Baker BX3′s) that I greatly preferred the tonal qualities of mahogany over korina…..though they are within the same ballpark. However that interaction brought to mind another Baker seven string that I became aware of at least a year earlier.

My friend Dave Kaplowitz had acquired a fine Baker B1 7 from Joe Gamble (in of all places, about ten miles from where I live in Colorado). As fate would have it, Dave wasn’t really playing the Baker and a deal was struck to bring her back to CO.

While I would have preferred a trem and 25.5″ scale length, I’m more than happy with the quality, sound and playability of this 25″ fixed bridge Baker B1 7. I’m going to experiment with new pickups (the stock Dimarzio Airbuckers are way too dark and hot for my tastes) and some different string gauges (the low A is an .080!), but all in all, I’m very excited about the prospects of developing some new sounds with this guitar. Look out jamband scene of Colorado! This is not Jerry Garcia’s kind of guitar!

music, musical instruments, musician, pete lacis b1 7, baker, Colorado, jamband, matte henderson, music, seven string, suhr

This past weekend I had the priveledge to attend the Egnater amp building seminar outside of Detroit, MI. It was an amazing experience to build my own JTM 45 – inspired amp, let alone to learn about all of the theory behind how and why these things work. I was amazed at seemingly how few of the amp’s components actually let to it sounding like a Marshall, Fender, Vox, etc. The amp sounds great as is, but I’m psyched to get back under the hood and start some tweaking!

In related news, Premier Guitar Magazine’s Joe Coffey was in attendance to participate and document the class. Afterward he asked be to demo my completed amp (with my Suhr Standard). I just learned that the magazine decided to put that video up as a feature on their site! Check it out:

amplifiers, audio clips, music, musical instruments, pete lacis, technology amp building class, egnater, pete lacis, premier guitar magazine, suhr

I received an interesting lesson regarding free syndication of content today via Google Alerts. Apparently Blabbermouth.net chose to post some of my videos from my NAMM coverage. Fine, but not only did they not give any credit, they even posted my descriptions verbatim from my YouTube entries. I set the content up to be freely distributed in an effort to help spread the word about certain artists and manufacturers. That said, posting someone else’s content without citing a source or giving credit is totally wrong in my book.

music, musical instruments, technology blabbermouth.net, content, NAMM, pete lacis, videos, YouTube

While I’m still combing through all the footage, I’ve compiled a playlist on YouTube of some of my favorite Suhr Reb Beach moments from the show (c0nvention at Tone Merchants party).

amplifiers, music, musical instruments, musician NAMM, playlist, reb beach, suhr, tone merchants, YouTube

Highlights:

• Suhr Modern – new 24 fret model with new body shape, neck joint and neck carve – will own one!
• Suhr Badger 40 watt – with EL34′s  -  different “flavor” of the original badger – less chime, more midrange snarl – has a solid state rectifier (original Badger has tube recifier)
• Custom Audio Amplifiers – OD100 Standard and OD100 SE Plus – now I understand what all the fuss is about regarding the current version of the standard.  The SE Plus is certainly an improvement over the SE, put I think that the current standard suits my tastes better.  Still love my OD100 Classic Plus
• Scott Henderson playing in the Suhr sound booth.  That was a  treat!  Scott’s a cool, wacky dude.  He brought his Suhr SL100 and played that and a Maxon overdrive to get his sound.
• Reb Beach playing in the Suhr Booth.  He actually wound up using Scott Henderson’s amp for his demo.  Wild hearing those two players through exactly the same gear!  No surprises though in that Scott sounded like Scott and Reb sounded like Reb.
• Enjoyed hanging with John, Steve, Ed, Mike, Chris, Josh and Jarod.  These guys are up to something good.
• Soloway Swan – hung with Jim Soloway and got to play one of his Swan guitars at the Fargen booth.  Really cool long-scale guitar and great sounding amps.
• Tomo Fujita playing at the Fuchs booth.  Always a treat to see Tomo.  Need to spend more time at that both on Friday.
• Tim Pierce at the Anderson Guitarworks booth. In speaking with Tim, he revealed the fact that he owns 60 guitars and really doesn’t know what woods are in which guitars.  He doesn’t even think about that.  He just grabs some guitars when he’s working on a project and sees what works.  That surprised me!
• Anderson has a new “thicker” version of the Atom.  Looked beautiful.  Hope to play it tomorrow.
• Alleva Copolla Guitars – Jimmy Copolla has a beautiful display of his fine craftsmanship.  Expect to do a video interview with him tomorrow as well.  His bass pickups are sick.
• Diamond Amplification – never tried the amps but the girls were ridiculous.
• Paul Reed Smith – saw David Grissom, the DGT and the new McCarty II.  Not quite sure that its all about (PRS booth not demo friendly).  Their product line appeared somewhat scaled back.  Did get to hear a bit of Johnny Hiland.  That guy smokes!
• Marshall Randy Rhodes limited edition amp.  Looks cool, never got to hear it.
• Ernie Ball Music Man – nice representation of existing line.  Nothing new other than nice display of Family Reserve guitars.
• Saw lots of seemingly foreign vendors.  Most looked unhappy that their booths were empty.  Saw one guy asleep in his booth – his product was a PA speaker that you could slide a pull-out car radio into.  I think that product might be about a decade too late.
• Tone Merchants showcase and jam – Jose Decastro, Robert Marcello, Guthrie Govan and Reb Beach.  Each were amazing in their own right.  Jam with all the above plus Nick Sterling was total fun!  Got to hang with all of them – good times!

I have an extensive amount of video from the day and the Tone Merchants show that I’ll edit an post once I’m back in the office.

amplifiers, music, musical instruments blog, coverage, guthrie govan, january 17, NAMM, NAMM show, pete lacis, reb beach, suhr, suhr guitars, tone merchants

After six months of waiting and false starts, I’m on the quest for a new drummer in Colorado. Specifically, I’m looking for someone that’s into groove-based music that wants to invent something new. Starting points include Medeski, Martin and Wood, Soulive, Stevie Wonder, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Allan Holdsworth, 70′s fusion, Phish, John Scofield, Thievery Corporation, Telefon Tel Aviv and Led Zeppelin. Ideal candidates will be fearless, and embrace old school methods as well as today’s technology (specifically Ableton Live 6).

For examples of what I’ve been up to most recently, check out http://www.petelacis.com/music/tds/

For examples of past work that spans a wide variety of genres, check out http://www.myspace.com/petelacis

music, musician, pete lacis Ableton, Boulder, Colorado, Denver, drummer, funk, jam, live, MMW, Soulive