zenmindbeginner

Fucking terrific accomplishment! As enjoyable as it is impressive. One of the best Zep songs with lots of jazzy feels and beautiful textures which you deftly knocked out of the park! The phaser was killer! What did you use?

I think it matters what specific forum the problem occurs within. The Sound Lounge and the Pub are where everyone gets in the most trouble. I got into a pretty heated argument in the Recording/Live Sound forum just a week or so ago and didn’t get in trouble outside of a warning, posts removed but no “points”. Narcissists abound in TGP. Great place to buy used gear though... vintage pedals go for the cheapest prices on ththe internet there. So many boutique cork sniffers that the vintage gear has to be priced at market value and not a penny more. Also the best place to buy used boutique gear. Most members know the exact value of everything so it usually keeps the prices honest... I basically wouldn’t have a pedalboard if it wasn’t for TGP. I certainly would have never heard about the Zen Drive or about Warm Audio. Super information but not a friendly place... mostly just wankers, wannabes & blues lawyers.

Oh that gave me such a tone nerd idea... experimenting with a small rectangular piece of maple veneer between the cover and bobbins instead of wax or tape. I already take out the metal spacers and put tea tree oil toothpicks in their place. I’m always lookin’ for that woody tone. lolz

A8 is for death metal, Black metal or djent IMHO. If it’s the 16 or 17K Slammer... try a rough cast Alnico II. Alnico 8 is just overkill for most applications... this is a magnet that is avoided by most pickup manufacturers. The JB2 is a GREAT pickup... a JB with an A2 magnet. Totally saves the JB from being a nasally, bubbly and noisy pickup. The Alnico II magnet moves the resonant peak downwards... the nasal turns into the honk. With JBs... single notes are thiiiiiin but with the JB2, single notes have sufficient thickness. Don’t worry about losing the wax... potting is over rated. The unpotted Seth Lover is a wonderful pickup! If you DO lose too much potting and are worried... just solder a cover on there. That cover will protect the coils from mechanical vibration (which is the true purpose of potting IMHO, not in reducing feedback). That 16-17K Slammer is merely a JB with a brass baseplate FWIW. Baseplates DO affect tone, so it’s a little warmer than a JB with a nickel silver baseplate. Try a rough cast Alnico II... it might be exactly what the doctor ordered.

I heard the Buddha as being a bit smoother or maybe more compressed... had a real smooth upper midrange with gentle harmonics. The Buddha also was the muuuuuch better sounding lead amp. The Bogner’s up front upper mids gave the leads a raspier and almost harsh tone... the Buddha sounded like a whole different world. Buddha made me want to hear more. To my ears the lead tones were completely night and day. The Bogner has more presence and a dynamic quality to the lower strings... made the upper strings sound thin though. The Buddha has more even tone and the upper strings are beefier and more round... the lower strings sit nicely in the mix where they jump out of the speakers with the Bogner. Personally, I would use the Bogner for rhythm and the Buddha for leads with an AB switch. what are the speakers? I’d be curious to know... nice comparison!

Cool story! Hipgnosis for sure created some amazing album covers. Personally, I didn't really care for OTTN, High N' Dry, Hysteria or Euphoria... I only really liked Pyromania. and when it comes to covers...Andy AirFix's cover for Pyromania is one of the BESt album covers of all time.. looked like a panel from a GI JOE comic book which I was reading like a mofo in 1983. The 10cc cover from Hipgnosis is my favorite

His bass playing is friggin’ sublime. That little bass fill in Reminiscing is a classic! Lonesome Loser’s bass line is just sick... their next album after he left wasn’t quite as good as the others (although the ballad on it wasn’t too bad). I love the band... I include them in my Yacht Rock pantheon. I get to spin “Cool Change” at my DJ gig tomorrow... pretty rare request and I will be playing it a little louder than the rest of my set no doubt. Glad that band means a lot to you, as I appreciate them very much as well.

Vertigo/Mercury Art Director - I got an idea for your next album cover... I call it "Man in Speedo diving for the boys". Def Leppard- You had me at Speedo

I can't just do five... gotta do ten Bass and Drums is where it's at IMHO. I rarely if ever listen to music that has guitar in it as far as listening pleasure goes. 1). Jaco Pastorius 2). Paul Jackson 3). Ron Carter 4). Chuck Rainey 5). Anthony Jackson 6). James Jamerson 7). Chris Squire 8). Geddy Lee 9). Louis Johnson 10). Charlie Haden

To expect for things to keep going on and on and on and on over the years is a glitch in the human brain. The best stuff in life usually has a span of only a few years. Actual Punk music lasted for maybe four or five years... New Wave was the same, disco was the same, grunge was the same, thrash was the same... what is good and what is great is usually not sustainable. Kev needs the kindness and grace from the rest of the world to age, live and love without the expectation of: next albums, tours, appearances or interviews. That expectation can drive a musician into a cave for years... look what it did to Vito Bratta & Jake E. Lee! What he achieved with Hell was unbelievable! Most of us wankers never amount to a fucking thing and he actually DID it! I don’t blame him for constricting his social circle a bit while bowing out from the public eye for some rest, recuperation and regrouping. Hopefully he will take advantage of the wonderful NHS and get some treatment... or not and let things heal naturally on their own. Whatever he thinks is best. The dude is a star... made of light. Most of us are made of mud. lolz Cheers to a future with or without playing metal... either way, the mountain has already been climbed... no need to keep climbing more mountains. If one or two present themselves to him and he decides to take them on, I’m sure he will kick some ass and see the summit. Very impressive man and we are lucky he ever gave us losers the time of day. lolz

Shit, I forgot to mention that I think the song has some serious potential. Mix sounds great, drums sound perfect, vocal tone is spot on (performance is good too), solo is good... very promising. One easy trick that just might work is adding some sort of pulsing tremolo that ebbs and flows to build tension, develop the pay-off and establish the release. That could trick the brain into thinking that the beat is faster than it really is. Maybe even a different beat for the chorus? I could see the beat actually stopping for the chorus, where you bring in simple half note acoustic strums (exaggerate the strum). The drums could build back up halfway through the chorus with some busy fills bringing it back into the next verse or solo. Or switch to a lower volume cross stick pattern that is a busier sort of shuffle for the chorus? Song has mad potential!

I didn’t notice the rushed vocals... so maybe the tempo is indeed simply too slow and that’s the only issue?

Ahhh yes, Standels and Polytones were originally designed for accordion players but were quickly adopted by jazz guitarists. Wes Montgomery used a Standel later in his career. I think George Benson actually played Polytones and a Standel or two at some point.

I think the beat is lumbering and gives the impression that the tempo is too slow. The kick should be busier... with more accents. You are doing some snare accents every now and then... those snare accents have a '90s feel. I'd like to see some of those accents be kick-snare... where a fast accent kick falls where you currently have the accent snare hits... and then followed by a snare hit. This mimics your vocal cadence and should be your "hook". Maybe also include more of your existing accent snares as they are really well placed... accents are super important. So at the end, the drums are just there and the hi hat has two patterns... one is straight and the other shuffles. When are the two patterns used in the song? My mind only notices the straight pattern. Drums work better in the verses... it's the chorus and main riff where the kick needs to be busier. The kick drum is where guitar players reveal that they are guitar players... real drummers use accent kicks constantly. Frequent and well placed accent kicks, can really liven up the beat a good bit. Listen to the kicks on "Semi Charmed Life"... listen to the double kicks in 10cc's Not in Love. Bonham did great accents but his accents were a bit heavy handed... I think for what you need is a little more subtle but listen to what Bonham does with the kick drum in "Fool in the Rain" There are accents all over the place and the busy kick drum keeps the song's rhythm from lumbering along... the beat drives instead of shuffling. Maybe a busier James Jamerson style bass line? I feel like the vocals are straight time, the guitar is straight time, the rhythm and melody is straight time... it's the drums that should spice it up a bit. Also hear a strummy acoustic part that blends with a hi hat that is a bit more busy and louder... can you get the hi hat to be a bit splashier at times? Might not need to buy up the bass at all if you can add the eighth note acoustic strumming and beef up the hi hat. ... AND for the chorus , maybe make the chord stabs bigger with a fat & dark bass that sort of sounds Moog-ish like you are stepping on Taurus pedals.

Let’s face it, often the CDs our buddies, local acts in our town, weekend warriors and friends of friends make are fairly worthless as far as listening enjoyment goes. We buy their CDs mainly just to be “nice” but listen to them once or maybe even twice never to be heard again. Jakeboy’s CD is a total exception to that rule. His latest album is REALLY good... I mean fugging GOOD!!! Self promotion is super hard... I literally cannot do it for myself, yet I feel almost a compulsion to implore anyone who is a fan of 70s AOR electric-guitar-rock to give this latest AC Rev album a chance, The songs are fantastic, it sounds great and the guitar playing is AWESOME! Drums and vocals are really good too... this is the only CD I have been playing for the last two weeks!!