Chance Jones played a show Monday night in Kalamazoo at The Strutt then Mulligans in G.R. Tuesday night in support of Paleface. The Kalamazoo show was lower in attendance(Monday night will do that to you), but was still a really fun show. Tuesday night in GR was a much better turnout and was also a great time. For those unfamiliar with Paleface, check him out. Seriously. Better yet, here's a wiki page on him. Both PF and Mo(Drums) were really cool people to talk with and put on an amazing set.
On a separate note, Heavier Than Air Flying Machines have scouted out a couple of places to record the upcoming album and finally have a location and date lined up. It took quite a bit of planning due to conflicting schedules, but it looks like we will be going into Cold War Studios with Rick Johnson on November 10th. This will be a riot. Life is good.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Shows Aplenty!!!
Chance Jones will be playing tonight at the Strutt in Kalamazoo with Paleface as well as tomorrow night with Paleface again at Mulligans in Grand Rapids. We learned a Paleface cover and will be playing it both nights. The song is called Cruise Control in Manhattan. Look it up as it's a killer tune. Very excited about these opening slots.
Hopefully everything gets confirmed for Expunk to play with Pearl Snap Western Brown on Saturday November 6th. Pearl Snap are pretty cool guys and they rock.
Just got everything put together for a show on December 11th at Jukes in G.R. The lineup will be Moto, Total Blam Blams, and Heavier Than Air Flying Machines. This show may very well blow the doors off the place. Really looking forward to that one as well.
Even further down the calender we have the New Years Eve show at Founders featuring AB! & Coconut Brown, Chance Jones, and Cabildo. The three of us played a show there before and it was amazing, so this should be no less than mind blowing given the New Years factor on top of everything else.
On a side note, Heavier Than Air Flying Machines are still in the process of checking out studios to record our album at. Hopefully we can get a move on sooner than later. I'm itching to start the process.
Life is good!
Hopefully everything gets confirmed for Expunk to play with Pearl Snap Western Brown on Saturday November 6th. Pearl Snap are pretty cool guys and they rock.
Just got everything put together for a show on December 11th at Jukes in G.R. The lineup will be Moto, Total Blam Blams, and Heavier Than Air Flying Machines. This show may very well blow the doors off the place. Really looking forward to that one as well.
Even further down the calender we have the New Years Eve show at Founders featuring AB! & Coconut Brown, Chance Jones, and Cabildo. The three of us played a show there before and it was amazing, so this should be no less than mind blowing given the New Years factor on top of everything else.
On a side note, Heavier Than Air Flying Machines are still in the process of checking out studios to record our album at. Hopefully we can get a move on sooner than later. I'm itching to start the process.
Life is good!
Monday, October 18, 2010
Eric's Audio Repair & a Boss Dual Overdrive Mod
I own a Boss Dual Overdrive pedal.
I like a lot of the grit it has to offer. However, I am huge into mods for any and everything, so I looked up some forum topics in the mod world. There was a guy that had posted what he replaced and what the result would be. It was everything I wanted to fine tune on it, so I got the specifics on the mod from the guy himself. I then looked up a schematic for the stock pedal and sent both to Eric at Eric's Audio Repair right here in Grand Rapids to see if he could do it for me. He emailed me back saying he had everything in stock, so I brought it into him today at 1:45pm. He called at 3:50pm to tell me he already had it done. Wow. I'll be picking it up from him tomorrow and testing it out in the evening. Mainly, this post is about yet another local feature of Grand Rapids that is absolutely killer. If anyone needs electronic repair work done, Eric should be your guy. His fees are very reasonable, he does great work, has a pretty quick turnaround time, and is willing take time to explain a lot of things he has/needs to do. I have a permanent link to his website off to the right by all of the other local goodies. I have brought numerous pedals, a couple of amps, and other stuff to him with awesome results. Okay, advertisement over. Below is the message sent to me from the guy that listed the mod specifically:
I like a lot of the grit it has to offer. However, I am huge into mods for any and everything, so I looked up some forum topics in the mod world. There was a guy that had posted what he replaced and what the result would be. It was everything I wanted to fine tune on it, so I got the specifics on the mod from the guy himself. I then looked up a schematic for the stock pedal and sent both to Eric at Eric's Audio Repair right here in Grand Rapids to see if he could do it for me. He emailed me back saying he had everything in stock, so I brought it into him today at 1:45pm. He called at 3:50pm to tell me he already had it done. Wow. I'll be picking it up from him tomorrow and testing it out in the evening. Mainly, this post is about yet another local feature of Grand Rapids that is absolutely killer. If anyone needs electronic repair work done, Eric should be your guy. His fees are very reasonable, he does great work, has a pretty quick turnaround time, and is willing take time to explain a lot of things he has/needs to do. I have a permanent link to his website off to the right by all of the other local goodies. I have brought numerous pedals, a couple of amps, and other stuff to him with awesome results. Okay, advertisement over. Below is the message sent to me from the guy that listed the mod specifically:
Re: Boss SD-2 Dual Overdrive Mods
Mods:
C10: stock = .82uF, modded to .22uF (adds more bass to lead side)
D15: stock = LED, modded to 1N34A Germanium (smoother distorted tone on Lead side)
D7: stock = LED, Modded to 1N4001
D6: stock= 1N914, modded to 2 1N4148 in series. (Smoother dirt with less compression)
C12: stock = .022uF to .047uF (switched). Adds bass to crunch side.
C10: stock = .82uF, modded to .22uF (adds more bass to lead side)
D15: stock = LED, modded to 1N34A Germanium (smoother distorted tone on Lead side)
D7: stock = LED, Modded to 1N4001
D6: stock= 1N914, modded to 2 1N4148 in series. (Smoother dirt with less compression)
C12: stock = .022uF to .047uF (switched). Adds bass to crunch side.
I'm definitely a gear dork. Life is good.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Fall in Grand Rapids
As I walked downtown a couple of days ago to take that last batch of Artprize pictures, I snapped a few pictures of the leaves changing in Grand Rapids. I figure, why not? I should hopefully be getting more and better pictures up. We'll see if time and weather permit. Unfortunately this means the crappiest time of year(which seems to last about 4 months out of 9 at least) is creeping closer. Oh well, can't win 'em all.
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| Nice rig! |
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| In front of my place just starting the journey. |
Monday, October 11, 2010
HTAFM, Expunk, Chance Jones New Album Progress. Also, final Artprize pictures.
HTAFM has been wanting to record another album after our basement recording we did a while ago. That being said, Jaymes and myself are going to meet Matt Ten Clay(bass player of Nathan Kalish and the Wildfire and engineer/producer of Lazy Genius' album 'Strange Plains and Dark Grooves'). He has a studio space near downtown GR and we'll be showing him what we have so far along with details and ideas. Hopefully this will draw us nearer to starting work on the new album.
Expunk has a blueprint of what we need to do for the next album in the form of rough demos. Wednesday's practice will consist of reviewing what we have and seeing if we need to stop writing and sharpen everything up that we have so far to get ready for recording sessions. A lot of ideas will be bouncing around and it will be great to have a time of reflection and progress.
Chance Jones is moving right along. We have four or five songs coming along fantastically as well as another new one that already has a great tight vibe to begin focusing on. The battle continues...
I've been getting beat up by computers in the office today, making my brain a bit jelly-ish, so I guess that's it for now. Here's a final small batch of Artprize pictures:
Expunk has a blueprint of what we need to do for the next album in the form of rough demos. Wednesday's practice will consist of reviewing what we have and seeing if we need to stop writing and sharpen everything up that we have so far to get ready for recording sessions. A lot of ideas will be bouncing around and it will be great to have a time of reflection and progress.
Chance Jones is moving right along. We have four or five songs coming along fantastically as well as another new one that already has a great tight vibe to begin focusing on. The battle continues...
I've been getting beat up by computers in the office today, making my brain a bit jelly-ish, so I guess that's it for now. Here's a final small batch of Artprize pictures:
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| Mark Lavengood serving up a slice of Dobro for the crowd at the Plan B Artprize piece. |
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| Jessie's dog Jetset while spotting a fellow canine. |
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| Mark Lavengood gettin' down on some hot Dobro action at the Plan B Artprize piece. |
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Guitar Gear Nerd Alert!!!
So with the recent addition of a BBE Sonic Stomp pedal, my guitar effects board is coming along nicely. My current signal path in order is as follows:
Guitar--->Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner--->Boss SD-2 Dual Overdrive--->1998 Russian Big Muff Pi--->Digitech Whammy Reissue--->Ernie Ball Volume/Pan--->Boss DD-3 Digital Delay--->Hardwire RV-7 Reverb--->BBE Sonic Stomp--->Amplifier
Hopefully I will be getting a Blackheart Killer Ant guitar amplifier soon. This little guy isn't even 1 watt! Even better is that the one I will possibly be getting has been modified with a kit from Bitmo Mod Kits. This means that there has been a knob installed that allows adjustment of the amps tone. The stock amplifier has an input, a volume, and a power switch on the front. That's it. With the modification, it now has a tone control, pull boost, and line output as well. This brings me to my next point. With this mod, I will actually be able to route my effects pedals through that and out into my main amplifier, thus using it as a tube preamp. Also, I'll probably swap out the stock 12ax7 in the preamp section of the Killer Ant with a 12au7 to gain a little headroom and boost. The gear plot thickens. I wonder if I can take the chassis out and rig it with rack spacers to fit in my rack case...
I still need to get a buffer to boost my signal through my ever-growing pedal chain. I'll be picking one of those up from the good folks at Cmatmods. They make great and affordable boutique effects and this buffer will do a great job at reducing signal loss due to the poor buffers usually found in most commercial pedals as well as the amount of cable connecting everything. Plus, it's so tiny that it won't take up any valuable real estate on my board. I will also be needing a T Rex Fuel Tank Jr. for some clean power to run the pedals off of. This will take care of some low cycle hum and background noise generated by all of the pedals. Way down the line on the wish-list of gear domination will be an OEM point to point wired board from the sweet dude at Revolver Amps to replace the PCB in my Epiphone Valve Junior. I'd also like to get the power and output transformers swapped out with ones from Mercury Magnetics. Let's pile on top of that, a Catalinbread Semaphore Tremolo and a BYOC OD2. With too many expensive hobbies, methinks this all will take some time. Life is good.
Guitar--->Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner--->Boss SD-2 Dual Overdrive--->1998 Russian Big Muff Pi--->Digitech Whammy Reissue--->Ernie Ball Volume/Pan--->Boss DD-3 Digital Delay--->Hardwire RV-7 Reverb--->BBE Sonic Stomp--->Amplifier
Hopefully I will be getting a Blackheart Killer Ant guitar amplifier soon. This little guy isn't even 1 watt! Even better is that the one I will possibly be getting has been modified with a kit from Bitmo Mod Kits. This means that there has been a knob installed that allows adjustment of the amps tone. The stock amplifier has an input, a volume, and a power switch on the front. That's it. With the modification, it now has a tone control, pull boost, and line output as well. This brings me to my next point. With this mod, I will actually be able to route my effects pedals through that and out into my main amplifier, thus using it as a tube preamp. Also, I'll probably swap out the stock 12ax7 in the preamp section of the Killer Ant with a 12au7 to gain a little headroom and boost. The gear plot thickens. I wonder if I can take the chassis out and rig it with rack spacers to fit in my rack case...
I still need to get a buffer to boost my signal through my ever-growing pedal chain. I'll be picking one of those up from the good folks at Cmatmods. They make great and affordable boutique effects and this buffer will do a great job at reducing signal loss due to the poor buffers usually found in most commercial pedals as well as the amount of cable connecting everything. Plus, it's so tiny that it won't take up any valuable real estate on my board. I will also be needing a T Rex Fuel Tank Jr. for some clean power to run the pedals off of. This will take care of some low cycle hum and background noise generated by all of the pedals. Way down the line on the wish-list of gear domination will be an OEM point to point wired board from the sweet dude at Revolver Amps to replace the PCB in my Epiphone Valve Junior. I'd also like to get the power and output transformers swapped out with ones from Mercury Magnetics. Let's pile on top of that, a Catalinbread Semaphore Tremolo and a BYOC OD2. With too many expensive hobbies, methinks this all will take some time. Life is good.
Monday, October 4, 2010
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