Dasein

that is positively bad ass! Like hurt-me momma bad ass.

Thanks @Bass Guy Dave After doing some reading and knowing I was at the top of my singing range with this song, I decided to do what King's X does and tune down from drop D to drop C. That meant restringing the Hamer Cali with some big ass thick strings and going through the whole Floyd setup and acclimatization with a new set of 11-56. I can't tell you what a pain in the ass that was. It took me 72 hours to get it to hold pitch and I was seriously regretting it. I also dropped the BPM to 88 from 90. The good news is that It makes it much easier to sing - but transcribing the harmonies and the parts is now much harder. It's also much harder to play the Hamer now - and I'm not sure what I'll do when I come to the guitar solos... these strings are seriously thick..... I should have gone 10-52.... Here's a quick sample so you can hear the difference Drop C makes - it's certainly easier for my vocals. I think this will take me the better part of a month or two to get down proper with solos etc... I've really got to work on the drums as well - they are not great at this point.... basically I'm just building the template with scratch tracks - and tweaking things as I go to figure out how I'll tackle this proper. That includes experimenting with amps and models and various signal chains ITB to see how things sound. I wont post any more samples here until I'm finished but I wanted to lay this Drop C on you. It's heavy. Thanks again everyone.

Guitars that are listed from Japan are often the same guitar listed by multiple different vendors. The guitar exists for sale somewhere in Japan -- and these guys have access to the list of available goods (like car dealers do) and they then try to sell to you on spec -- hoping that they can then buy the guitar (with the money you sent them) and ship it to you. Just a note to add: Guitar center does this too (in a way). All their stores have access to the guitars in their inventory for sale, and they are all actively trying to sell these guitars... sometimes you can buy one and it just isn't available - or got "pinched" post sale by another store who had a customer with cash in hand and walked out the door with it.

Thanks @tommy p I decided to go all out on this, so in order to get the chorus in my vocal range I bought a set of 11-56 strings and am going to de-tune to Dropped C like KIng's X do today -- but I made the mistake of stringing the Hamer Cali (instead of my Fender) so I'm going to have to setup the Floyd from scratch again and let it acclimatize to the new equilibrium point -- I hate that! I just hope I wont have to mess with the neck. This will delay the completion of this but has allowed me more time to dig a bit deeper on the arrangement. The Solo: Ty has such a signature musicality to his solos -- this one is deceptively easy (but actually quite hard). There's little micro tonal bends, and bend release picking and slides - all kinds of subtle goodness. You want to really nail those inflections because they open up a whole new vocabulary to the guitar so I'm going to spend my time while the guitar sorts itself out to learn this.

Thanks guys — got a bunch of originals in process.... trying to tighten up vocal passes and harmonies for those - this little quick interlude is an exercise in harmonization for me — plus I just love the song but I’m hoping it helps me develop some of my own harmony chops. This is a super fun song to play - particularly when you’ve got that rhythm down - the syncopation is so cool I just get so excited listening to it.... I’ve been writing and playing in drop D a lot and had my guitar in hand when the song came on - have not played this since 1992 - it came back pretty quick. I’m definitely going to do it, but I’m really going to work on the vocals and make the production as clean and silky as I can. Thanks for listening and the encouragement.

Me too, but I can clearly remember me and a buddy (also born '69) telling our school friends in 1977 that we were at Woodstock when we were young children and had mini-bikes to ride around the fields...... We were both born September '69..... (after the festival). But I like how the mini-bikes really sold and doubled down on the lie. In 1977 Mini-bikes were the currency of cool and for suburban Canadian kids almost "un-obtanium"...

Ya -- I love Zen -- His playing is inspired. I wish he lived close to me because I'd be telling him in person every day..

1st.. -- May 1, 1984 --- Van Halen 2nd. -- Nov 1984 --- The Jackson's Victory Tour

Did this quick proof of concept workup to see if there was anything there -- I think I might need to do two things: thicker string gauge for the drop tuning, and maybe even drop the tuning a whole step beyond so it's in drop C or C#... the Chorus is a little out of my range to sing.... here's a quick sample of me playing around with it yesterday to see if I had any affinity for laying it down and if the arrangement would yield up easily... I think I might do this.

Lol -- Nice Luc! My worst experience with this was after a festival performance when I was 14, where my parents had already left and taken my gear home, and I was approached by the festival organizers to play lead for a band that for whatever reason had the audio/video recorder "fail" during their performance and they wanted at least to have a video to send home with them per the festival contract. The band's lead player had already gone home so they were stuck. I said sure but that I'd need a guitar -- the songs were (and I still remember vividly) "What's Love Got to Do With It" by Tina Turner and "That's All" by Genesis... The festival organizer said - no problem and brought me her personal guitar - I think it was a Japanese neck through body Aria... I get on stage and start tuning up.... I realize right away I'm in trouble. Tuners are slipping - it just won't stay in tune - I quickly rewrap the strings and get some stability - but the action is bad -- like a mixed bag - high and low - some strings bottoming out - others floating high..... but the worst part -- intonation -- like there was none. I couldn't even play a pentatonic box without sounding horrible... NO rehearsal - count in and go.... lights camera action.... It was a horrific disaster --- and it's all on video somewhere ( I never saw it but you know some family would queue it up every Holiday)

I almost always refuse to play anyone else's guitar when it is handed to me... too many memories of middle school and high school parties where some kid would find an old guitar in a closet and seek me out and thrust it in my hands to play in front of 100's of kids --- guitars that looked like they were bought in Saigon or Bangkok during the Vietnam war.... I just couldn't do it. Funny - was at a buddy's 49th the other day with some high school friends I have not seen for 30 years ---- they remembered those times different --- "Remember when we'd hand you a guitar and you'd just start playing Eruption or some crazy Malmsteen shit...?" My answer was "uh? -- sure!".... So who knows. Maybe 30 years from now when you are an old man some guy will come up to you and say - "Dude -- remember that time you knocked it out of the park when they called you up on stage...?"

Cool Darren -- I spent a few months in Vietnam in 1995 and traveled from Saigon all the way to Hanoi with my Yamaha acoustic (that I still own today). I attracted lots of attention traveling with a guitar - they were really excited to see a westerner but more excited to see and play my guitar. Great country, and great people -- but hot man -- holy cow - Saigon was a cooker -- Hue and Hanoi were much cooler but Saigon was brutal. Any photos you can share with us?

Quality! ---- Absolutely.

The Silverchair singer dude lost his mind though... like seriously lost his mind.

Two more from another Canadian band of the same era -- Our Lady Peace -- same idea - STP meets Pumpkins meets AIC w/ a little PJ...