Mesa/Boogie .50 cal.

Who knows, wuzzit the gin? The jalapeno and garlic stufft onyums? The picklet ‘shrooms? The tryptophan hangover? The memory of yer moms tellin’ me not to? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mesa-Boogie-50-Caliber-50-Watt-1×12-034-Guitar-Combo-with-Graphic-EQ-/174107125211

67.175.95.111 carpal diem! THD vlayman blog vlayman.bandcamp.com thehungrydrunx.bandcamp.com

2 Minnit Halloween Set List for next year

Frankenstein
Bela Lugosi’s Dead
Her Black Wings
Monster Mash
Friend of the Devil
Werewolves of London
See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

Awesome snark

Really, it’s not schadenfreude:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/22/prince-andrew-duke-of-york-sacked

That’s just pure bloodletting, altho’ a single line did the same job for Prince Mayberry:

“The bottle of whisky and the pearl-handled revolver were laid out for him. And they were laid out for him by his mother,” one source told The Daily Beast.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/prince-andrew-how-the-queen-forced-her-favorite-son-to-step-down-from-royal-public-life-over-jeffrey-epstein

Dear CNN ad morons

You do realize people stop watching the news vids if we have to see ads?

 

We’ll simply search for an ad-free re-pub, or skip it.

 

Shove that viagra in backwards, whydonchaz.

My weekend audition/jam

So I answered a Craigslist ad looking for a bassist to join a “jam band”.

Getta cuppla texts going and set a jam for Sunday and then it gets moved up on Sat afternoon to Sat eve.

In the course of the texts I get all necessary info like what music, what volume, addy, etc., but I forget to ask one important question.

About a hour before the jam the drummer I been texting with says he’s gonna use elec drums altho’ he has 2 kits at his parents’ house.

Uh oh.

I tell ‘im, it don’ matter to me none but I’m 59 and I’m sure you guys is likely younger.

He says c’mon.

So I show up and the guitarist is the leader and he’s 30’s, a full-time music teacher on guitar and piano. He has a PA set up in his living room, along with the elec drums and a full size Yama elec keyboard and what hadda be a 82″ monitor on his I-pad controlled computer what was awesome for charts.

The drummer is 25, 2 years older than my oldest whom he doesn’t know, but he does know some of her muso friends who are the kids of the lead guitarist in the cop band I was in a few years ago.

The third guy is 25, kinda a nut (Kurt Cobain was murdered, man) and he’s playing a Kaos pad, what is a kinda sound FX thing.

Anywhat, we :  and inhale and  and it was pretty fun but weird.

They knew no music newer than the 70’s unless it was by Phish, so we did a buncha improv (what was really good) and covered some Neil and Stones and Little Feat and Phish.

Oh, and the guitarist played a 335 through two massive Boss multi-FX (one was a GT10), direct into his Mackie 12 channel into the PA.

So at the end of the night, we all said we liked the tunes, and I did record us but the recordings are almost intolerably bass-guitar dominated as the recorder was on my amp (I played my Aerodyne for the first time – luved it! and had my pedals into a PF500 and a 1×12 HyDrive).

If they want me back, I’m thinking to decline, or mebbe offer to record ’em, but I just can’t hang with 25 year olds, and the music 30’s year old teacher guy wasn’t much better.

But it was a interesting Sat nite and I did cop a buzz, so there’s that.

Vlayman

This year’s axe purchases

 

 

Last iteration bass board

It’s changed again, but here it was:

bandcamp; vlayman;
THD; Geronimo Cowboys;
blog.
I mix with olive juice.

Some pedal reviews

Ampeg Opto Bass compressor: nice and round and kinda spongy on bass, not as tight as the BBE non-mustache or even the Meek racks, I really like it on funk stuff where it makes pick playing sound … funky.

BBE Windowpane: a silicon distortion pedal that never sounds clean, all the way to blown-out. Very cool in that no bottom is lost on bass, and it sounds great on guitar, also.

Rowin slow hand: a really cheap (but true bypass) take on the classic Slow Gear, what I wanted for when I get all shoe-gazey.

EHX OpAmp Muff: i am totally loving these nano muffs, so cool to just change out a pedal and get a different but compatible sound when stacking rhythm guitar tracks, and they all (I also have the Triangle and my fave, the Green Russkie) feel different but sound great. This is the one they been callin’ “Corgan inna box”, and I hear why.

=====================

TWA envelope filter – pretty good auto wah, better on guitar than bass, but switchable for each
Aguilar Octamizer – went immediately on my main bass board, knocking off the Meatball
EHX Nano Green Russian Muff – best muff I’ve heard on bass
Wren&Cuff Pickle Pie – pretty good GR muff with a blend, but the EHX is better on bass (not as smoove) so it’ll be for guitar*
Triangle Big Muff: just now got it

*a collateral observation: the W&C can fully cop the EHX, and do tons more, besides. But I like the EHX for a live board better, because it defaults to the sound I want, so tho’ it is significantly less flexible, it is much easier to use, what lets me drink more when I play** – It’s a science, see. 

**these was all ordered re a certain band and recording project, and we never got a set drummer, and now one of the guitarists left, so, well, I’ll be recording most of it meself (some with anuvver guitarist), and that also lets me drink more when I play. 

=====================

BYOC Envelope Filter/Fixt wah – you build it and I’ll mebbe buy it! Very nice on guitar, I’m considering the mod for bass. Or not. (I have the 5 knob BYOC multi-compressor, also, and it’s a treat.)

Pigtronix Envelope Phaser – now this is what I been looking for! No severe volume shifts, great sound, totally controllable and useably subtle or deeply funky. Hadda a buy a 9@18v. converter to not have to use the wall wart when it’s on my daisy-chain powered board, so that added US$20, but it’s worth it.

Yeah, I love it at like 8-10:00, tone at 8-9:00. It has just the right amount of SVT-ish grind without becoming fuzz right there.

Yesterday I made a board of the Green Russian amd Triangle Nanos along with a Mastrotron.

The Triangle is much hotter than the GR, and also sounds good on the bass, but can’t get the subtle grind.

The Mastrotron is anuvver Zvez craziness-incarnate, tho’ not as wild as say, the Wooly Mammoth or Fuzz Factory.

I used the board with a looper into a clean SS amp (Trademark 10) and was wankin’ with a Xavier semi-hollow LP-type guitar with P90-types.

Running either nano into the Mastrotron was pure bliss – just so cool.

The nanos did not stack well into each other.

But that GR – I’m really thinking of swapping out the Pork Loin I replaced the Hot Tubes with on my bass board …

“Art”

Inna a discussion with Nick at LO, I was caused to reflect:

 

Yeah, I usually prefer live stuff, even when it’s tweaked.

Prob’ly told the story before, but back around ’95 or so, having been in bands since about ’83, my then-bassist said to my kinda amazement, “you are a musician”.

I mean, I was inna rock band, y’know?

But the thing was, when I heard that it was a revelation of sorts, that I could actually do what musicians do, as opposed to just playing inna garage band – I could create music as art, as opposed to just copying it.

Of course, my aesthetic is garage band anywhat, but I fully embrace the title of, “musician creating art”.

Vlayman: *Coffee Boy (a e.p.)*

1. Big Gurl 04:40
2. To The End 04:28
3. God’s Six 03:57
4. Dull Yer Shine 03:18
5. Coffee Boy 03:44

What happens when yer daughter works at St*rb*cks.

released November 10, 2019

All by me, with the integral assistance of a lotta caffeine and booze, except drums on 3 by Snarl, drums on 4 by Ken D-S, drums on 5 by Kris,
Everything done at FetaCentralRecording DDL, souf of Chi.
Fartwek by Jose Jones.

bandcamp; vlayman;
THD; Geronimo Cowboys;
blog.
I mix with olive juice.