K.K. Downing Auction

[Steve Haynie]

16 minutes ago, DeVai said:

Unfortunately, you mean the drum machine.

Huh?

[BubbaVO]

20 minutes ago, DeVai said:

Unfortunately, you mean the drum machine.

 

[DeVai]

The Painkiller recordings were already done when Scott joined the band. When he heard them he informed them it was humanly impossible for any drummer to duplicate that live.I know it is disheartening sometimes. Many times I here people commenting on guitar solos on records , when actually they were done by hired studio musicians. Tri-C in Cleveland has a state of the art recording school . Housed in the same facility is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame archives in which I have access.They have everything from contracts to studio notes. 

 

 

[Dave Scepter]

 

On JUDAS PRIEST's "Painkiller":

"A really brutal but clear sound. When I heard the original "demo", it was just guitar and a little drum machine. The song is very fast. And I said, 'Where the heck are we going to get a drummer to do this?' They said, 'Well, we got one.' And I said, 'Oh, yeah?' And there was Scott [Travis] and yes, he could do it very well. With that, having such an amazing drummer, he set the level up that much we could reproduce the speed that was on the "demo". And we set out to do a very focused; I told them we have to focus on this record. You have to be… If it's heavy metal it has to be heavy metal from the beginning till the end

[Hamer95USA]

On 11/29/2018 at 7:56 AM, BubbaVO said:

 

Scott Travis joining Judas Priest in 1990 made JP a full on modern metal band with his musical approach/technique/aggressive drumming similiar to thrash/hardcore metal drumming, taking JP into a new fresh direction. Painkiller and Touch of Evil caught my attention when it came out and it floored me. I was disappointed that Rob Halford left JP in 1992, but his solo projects with Fight/ Two/Halford were new, fresh, and showed his musical diversity beyond what JP could have written or recorded. I really liked the Fight CDs and we played those songs in our Judas Priest tribute band and it went over well with the audience at our shows who knew what those songs were.

 The way that Scott played on that CD along with Glenn's guitar woodshedding incorporating modern shred guitar techniques gave JP a new refreshed sound that allowed them to create new metal music that was equal to their contemporaries without sounding like a dated '70s metal band. I didn't care much for Turbo even though I went to the concert. The Painkiller and Resurrection ( Halford ) CDs brought me back to listening to JP as a fan and am glad that they put out that CD with their revamped lineup. 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Guitar George

[Disturber]

Funny. I like priest up until Dave Holland left the band. Haven't been able to listen to anything they did after that. I find him to be a much groovier and musical drummer. Scott or a drum machine makes no difference to me. They sound kinda the same. 😄 No rights or wrongs though.

[tommy p]

1 hour ago, Disturber said:

Funny. I like priest up until Dave Holland left the band. Haven't been able to listen to anything they did after that. I find him to be a much groovier and musical drummer. Scott or a drum machine makes no difference to me. They sound kinda the same. 😄 No rights or wrongs though.

I like some of the later stuff but with the exception of Firepower, I don't own anything past Ram It Down.  They were a much different band after that.

[zorrow]

Scott Travis came straight from Racer X, the band led by Paul Gilbert. His aggressive drumming propelled Judas Priest into modern metal territory. In addition, Glenn Tipton had sharpened his guitar chops —I’ve heard he took lessons with... Paul Gilbert, actually! So, that “Painkiller” album did kill big time. Even today, it still sounds relevant to me. You might say now there were drum-machines involved and all, but I will still like it the same. What a great album!

[devrock]

9 hours ago, zorrow said:

Scott Travis came straight from Racer X, the band led by Paul Gilbert. His aggressive drumming propelled Judas Priest into modern metal territory. In addition, Glenn Tipton had sharpened his guitar chops —I’ve heard he took lessons with... Paul Gilbert, actually! So, that “Painkiller” album did kill big time. Even today, it still sounds relevant to me. You might say now there were drum-machines involved and all, but I will still like it the same. What a great album!

Bingo. To this day, Painkiller, IMO, is Priest’s greatest album (along with DOTF and SFV, it’s a toss-up). Scott took the band to a level they were never at before and Glenn has, arguably, two of the greatest guitar solos ever done on that one album (All Guns Blazing and A Touch of Evil - I dare anyone to attempt the Guns solo...). It’s an absolute monster of an album from start to finish. I refuse to believe they used drum machines for that album, as Scott is more than capable of doing everything that was recorded. 

[Hamer_SS_guy]

I got into Judas Priest in 1981 and listened to the stuff when Simon Phillips (on the Sin after Sin album) and Les Binks were the drummers. I really loved the playing of Simon Phillips. I also liked Dave Holland's playing when he was with Trapeze. When the PAINKILLER album came out I really wondered what happened to them. Sure, it sounded like a modern metal band. But I was a guy who loved the 70's hardrock/metal music. In the 80's I mostly listened to the stuff by the old bands. I liked the first two albums by Ratt, the Michael Schenker Group was great, Black Sabbath with Dio and Gillan, King Kobra I also liked. And I liked Alcatrazz (I was a big fan of Rainbow), my first album by them was DISTURBING THE PEACE though, with Steve Vai on guitar. I knew Malmsteen from his solo album only at that point. Vai was the one who made me check out other non-metal stuff. That led me to listen to Zappa and more jazzy stuff. Bands like Judas Priest did what they always did. To me, the whole music changed when the 90's started. Many older bands struggled, the new "Grunge"-scene took over, in Europe (well, at least in Germany) the Techno-/Dance genre was big, rap was established by the time, and casted boybands were big. I felt that several of the older bands "modernized" themselves, and two of the old bands that came up with a fresh metal sounds were Judas Priest with PAINKILLER and Black Sabbath with DEHUMANIZER. I thought "okay, nice" but I was still more of an old-school guy and when Toto came out with KINGDOM OF DESIRE and Deep Purple with PURPENDICULAR, that was more the kind of stuff I liked. Funny, how I nowadays still listen to all kinds 70's stuff but mostly ignore 90's music.

[BubbaVO]

Many people can appreciate Scott's drumming...

 

[zorrow]

1 hour ago, BubbaVO said:

Many people can appreciate Scott's drumming...

 

They appreciated the whole thing, not only the drumming! “Painkiller” is indeed one of the most energetic, frantic albums I’ve ever listened to. In addition, it exudes this spontaneity, like if they were pushing themselves to go higher and faster, but without faking it, without getting uber-technical... I mean, it’s freaking aggressive, but you bet there’s also groove and soul in there. WOW! 

Now, my side, well... going through the song with these guys, it has given me a new chance to appreciate K.K. Downing’s soloing a bit better. I think I’m going to listen to the whole album later today. Hell yeah!🤘

Thanks for sharing!

[Steve Haynie]

The Jugulator album was where Judas Priest missed the mark.  They tried to sound like everyone they influenced, chasing the trends that grew out of the metal they established. 

[devrock]

10 hours ago, Steve Haynie said:

The Jugulator album was where Judas Priest missed the mark.  They tried to sound like everyone they influenced, chasing the trends that grew out of the metal they established. 

I think that’s over-simplifying things a lot. The chemistry that made Priest such a monster of a band was Rob & Glenn, along with some KK. When Rob left, the balance was completely out of whack and Glenn took over completely. While he’s an incredible player, he’s a terrible song-writer and producer on his own (his solo album was pretty bad, if you’ve ever heard it). Everything he produced for the band sounded terrible, IMO. There’s only one or two keepers from that era, but it’s primarily forgettable stuff.

You look at the difference between Rob’s solo work and Priest w/o Rob, you see where the primary magic came from. 

[devrock]

That all said, I am bidding on the Hamer V. So, dibs!!!!!!!!!

[zorrow]

2 hours ago, devrock said:

That all said, I am bidding on the Hamer V. So, dibs!!!!!!!!!

I’m a V guy, but she’s all yours. Not interfering at all, and I encourage all the other HFCers to step out the same, while really hoping you’ll get it. Good luck!

[devrock]

14 hours ago, devrock said:

That all said, I am bidding on the Hamer V. So, dibs!!!!!!!!!

 

I canceled my bid this morning. The auctioneer is adding a whopping 25% BUYER'S premium to every sale AND you have to pay VAT (although, since it would have been coming to me in the US, that may have been waived). Even if I scored it for the $5000 I bid for it, I'd have to cough up another $1250, at least. That's just absurd. Why the hell should the buyer have to pay the fees???

I want that axe BADLY, but I'm also not that crazy.

[Steve Haynie]

Big auction houses have always put "buyer's premium" add on fees on auctions.  Sometimes they let you know what your bid will add up to with fees. 

[cmatthes]

If a direct seller in the US had it for $7k, would you be interested?

[devrock]

2 hours ago, cmatthes said:

If a direct seller in the US had it for $7k, would you be interested?

No, I couldn't go that high. 

[Dave Scepter]

7 hours ago, cmatthes said:

If a direct seller in the US had it for $7k, would you be interested?

Abso-fukin'-lutely!.. I would GLADLY sell a few of my guitars to own this!.. not sure about the cites regulations though

 

[kizanski]

Why would I wanna buy anything from the broad who wrote those annoying nerd books?

[Steve Haynie]

1 hour ago, Dave Scepter said:

Abso-fukin'-lutely!

 

That is a different Hamer in the video.  It has K.K. Downing on the headstock instead of a Hamer logo.  The guitar in the auction has a large Hamer logo.

[Dave Scepter]

41 minutes ago, Steve Haynie said:

That is a different Hamer in the video.  It has K.K. Downing on the headstock instead of a Hamer logo.  The guitar in the auction has a large Hamer logo.

Yuppers, I did not post the video to imply that was the same guitar but only to bring some excitement to the topic~ good eye though... RAWK ON! 😆

http://kkdowning.net/steelmill/k-k-downing/k-k-s-gear/

[DaveH]

On 12/2/2018 at 9:09 AM, BubbaVO said:

Many people can appreciate Scott's drumming...

 

Thanks for that, he said... nearly 6 hours and many videos of theirs later. 🤣