 |
| Nice rig! |
 |
| In front of my place just starting the journey. |
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.
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:
 |
| Mark Lavengood serving up a slice of Dobro for the crowd at the Plan B Artprize piece. |
 |
| Jessie's dog Jetset while spotting a fellow canine. |
 |
| 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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)