You know how a really good steak just seems to sit in your belly, warming your whole body? It's a unique and not all-together pleasant feeling, you've eaten more than you really should have, but it's oh so satisfying.

Allow me to introduce you to 'The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull', the latest album by the Seattle band Earth.

If you aren't familiar with Earth, they are a bit hard to categorize. Emusic.com lists them as Metal, which on the surface makes sense. They did, after all, choose to call themselves Earth, Black Sabbath's original name. And the music IS heavy. However, can you really call an instrumental album whose every song is so slow it makes Heinz 57 seem to rush from the bottle by comparison Metal? Allmusic.com took the easy way out and labeled it Rock. Fans of the band have taken to calling it Doom Drone, but I never like the idea of making up new genres to describe a particular band or two.

For me, this album is good ole psychedelia; and I love me some psychedelia.

'Directions to See a Ghost', the sophomore album from my favorite drone-riffic psychedelic band The Black Angels left me a bit cold earlier this year, so I was itching for some good trippy droning. And Earth delivers.

With songs like 'Miami Morning Coming Down II (Shine)' and 'Engine of Ruin' Earth succeeds in creating a dark, atmospheric world full of shadows and danger, all without singing a single lyric. This is certainly not an album to listen to on a sunny drive or to get yourself pumped up for work on a Monday morning, but if it's late at night and you feel like creeping yourself out a bit, you could do much worse than 'The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull'. This album is sprinkled with tasty twangy guitars licks that sound like they crawled out of some Louisiana swamp, stopped by a prohibition-era flophouse for a drink, curled up inside a cranked Marshall and are only making their way out after much persuasion. I think I've found the soundtrack to every horror novel I'm going to read this summer.

While the songs from this album probably won't be showing up in my iTunes Most Played list, they will be something I will return to like a bad habit whenever I am in that certain mood and feel the need for something ominous.

Bliss On,
PT

Bitmo Trio Mod Kit for the Epiphone Jr.
$49.95
http://thetubestore.com/modkits.html

When I purchased the Epiphone Valve Jr, it was mostly for the purpose of having a fun little tube amp I could experiment on and in the process learn a little more about how amps work.
When I started researching common EVJ mods, I kept encountering the references to Bruce Hutcheon and his company Bitmo. The consensus seemed to be that his mod kits were a great value and a non-threatening way to enter the world of amp modification.
That was all I needed to hear.

The Bitmo Trio mod is actually two mods that compliment each other packaged together. The first stage adds a tone knob that can be pulled for a what Bitmo calls a 'fat boost'. The seconds part adds a three position mini-switch that takes the voicing of the amp from Lo (a blackface Fender-style sound) to Mo (a British kind of crunch) to Whoa (modern-style rockin) .

So, to review this mod, let's ask two questions:
1) How hard is it?
2) How's it sound?

1) How hard is it?
If you know much about me at all, you know I am not considered by most to be handy. I knocked out the back window of my car with an amp. I cut off a chunk of my thumb with a pair of scissors. I once took apart my Boss DR-5 drum machine and have never to this day been able to get it back together.
When I went to the Bitmo site and saw this kit was labeled for skill level 'moderate' I definitely had second thoughts about my decision and started to think about how I might be able to get another amp after I wrecked this one. I have done a few basic guitar mods in the past, swapping out pickups and installing a mini-switch, but I had never before come face-to-face with the inside of an amplifier.

So you'll know how big a deal it is for me to day this: This mod was SO much easier than I dared hope. If you can read the English language, solder a connection and hold a drill, you can do this mod.
Probably the best surprise of this whole experience for me was how crystal clear Bruce's instructions were. Unlike almost every other instruction manual on the planet, there was very little room for interpretation in this guide. Bravo, Bruce!

There were two times where I ran into a little difficulty. The first was mounting the Tone knob. the kit comes with a very handy drilling guide you tape to the front of the chassis to see exactly where to drill. I was rushing a bit at this stage and, as you can see from one of the above pictures, I did not have the guide lined up correctly. The result is that my tone knob brushes against the side of the amp a bit when turned lower than about 9 o'clock. No big deal, but I wish I wouldn't have rushed there. The second struggle I had was the wiring of the mini-switch. The lugs on that mini-switch are really small and my fat fingers had a hard time with them. That, coupled with the fact that I kept dropping the resistors on to my shaggy carpet, led to some frustration during the last hour of the project.

All told, the mod took me about three hours, bolstered my confidence to try some more complex mods, and was a hell of a lot of fun.

Now on to the big question...

2) How's it sound?


I'm not gonna lie; it was a scary moment screwing the chassis back into the cabinet, plugging in the power cord and flipping on the power switch. Was I about to see smoke rising from the amp? Would any sound come out when I strummed the open D chord? And, if so, would it sound any good?

First I tried the 'Lo' setting. Not bad. It sounded a bit like the original amp, but a bit brighter.

Next I flipped the mini-switch to 'Mo'. And the sound changed. It was louder and broke up a little more. That flabby distortion I had grown used to from the Jr was gone.

Then came 'Whoa'. Now we're talking! The gain is sweet and singing. I'm absolutely going to be using this setting.

The mini-switch definitely functions as advertised and adds some great voicings to the amp.

Then I pulled the tone knob and engaged the 'fat boost'. And with that one pull of a knob, the Epiphone Valve Junior went from a cool little tube amp to experiment on to the cool little tube amp I cannot stop playing. Seriously, the 'fat boost' adds so much the sound of this amp and the change is so drastic it left me speechless. The voicing mod is cool, but, for me, the tone knob with the boost is 100% the reason to use this mod. It is excellent.

If you are looking to get into the world of tube amp modification, you'd be hard pressed to find a better gateway drug than the Bitmo Trio. It's easy, fun and sounds absolutely killer. My only complaint is that the mod takes this already loud 5w amp and make it significantly louder.

Thankfully, Bitmo also offers the '10-uator' attenuator. Now where's my credit card...

As I type these words, it is still May for two more hours. Plenty of time to give you the May Guitar of the Month, right? Right. Good. So lets talk about one of the most prominent and popular designs of the last twenty years.
By 1986, Ibanez had been through plenty. Salvador Ibanez Acoustics was bought by Hoshino Gakki in 1929. Salvador Ibanez's workshop was destroyed during the Spanish Civil War, and Gakki was quick to purchase the name of well-regarded builder. Gakki began manufacturing guitars under the Salvador Ibanez name, eventually shortening the brand name to simply 'Ibanez'. The 1960s brought some wild designs. The 70s found the company producing copies in such quantities that Ibanez aficionados refer to this time as 'the lawsuit period'. The late 70s and early 80s saw Ibanez experimenting with new designs and trying to find their place in the guitar world, a place that didn’t involve so many Les Paul copies and court cases.
There was the Iceman. The Roadstar. The Universe. And the Jem.
The shockingly popular though shockingly pricy Jem.
Rich Lasner was the designer of the Jem and head of the Ibanez Design team in 1987. "After the huge success of the Jem guitar, we were faced with lots of pressure from dealers and the head office to make a less expensive version that more people could afford," Lanser said in an interview with IbanezRegister.com. "We’d had the Roadster Guitar and Roadstar Guitar series before, so we contracted those to RG. We wanted something like Gibson had with SG."
It’s somewhat ironic the guitar that would grow to become such an iconic instrument was originally intended as a sort of 'Squier' version of the Jem, a Jem-lite. Lasner continues: "Since we were really just taking the JEM idea down a couple of price levels, we had the JEM design to guide us. Except for some trim differences, the RG proto was much like the finished version."
The first RG, a 550, was more successful than the dealer could have hoped. In the years since there have been countless adaptations and variations. Pickguard or no pickguard? Prestige format? How about some wild body graphics?
So what is it about this guitar? While other giants of the super-Strat-soaked 80s like Jackson, Kramer and B.C. Rich have faded in to the background of mainstream guitar, the RG series has survived and florished. Metal players, 90s grunge-chunkers and jazz cats have all claimed the RG as their own.
Like all enduring guitar models, the RG has a deadly combination of features, an alchemy that somehow makes the whole greater than the parts. Superfast neck. Incredibly light body. The ability to hold a tuning like nobody’s business. Great distinctive tones. All that and an affordable price.
"I think we were very lucky," Lasner reflected. "The basic design of the guitar has aged well, and doesn’t look dated. The main elements of the guitar are still contemporary and have become somewhat of a classic design."
Amen, brother.
Coming in June: Our first non-pointy-headstock Guitar of the Month.

It was 1958, and Ted McCarty was on a roll.

58 had already been a landmark year for Gibson. They had introduced both the Les Paul sunburst Standard model and the first commercial semi-hollow body electric guitar, the ES-335. Still, McCarty was uneasy. There was a feeling in some circles that Gibson represented traditional and conservative designs. The Les Paul solid body design was a thing of beauty, with its tight curves and revolutionary functionality. But the Fender Stratocaster, with its slightly more free-form body, was seen by some as more in touch with the new generation of musicians.

But it wasn't going to stay that way; not as long as Ted was running the show at Gibson.

See, Ted had a plan. Gibson had been doing plenty to revolutionize the inner workings of their guitars: The block of wood running through the ES-335. The Tune-o-Matic bridge. As of 1957, they even offered the new 'hum-bucking' pickups. It was time the outside of guitars looked as radical as what was going on inside. So McCarty put out a call to designers to reimagine what an electric guitar could look like.

By some reports, McCarty received close to 100 designs before whittling the contenders down to three. The first, the Moderne, never made it to the production stage, though there are legends and whisperings of a prototype Moderne out there somewhere, waiting to be found like a Holy Grail emblazoned with the Gibson logo. The other two models featured identical electronics, but radically different body shapes. Flying V and the Futura, later dubbed the Explorer, both rolled out in 1958.

And quickly failed.

In this case, failed may be too weak a word. Less than 100 Explorers were produced. Some estimate that as few as 38 Explorers were sold before it was dropped from the Gibson line along with its V-shaped counter part in 1959. McCarty's experiment was a flop. And, frankly, its not too difficult to see why.

I mean, just take a look at the Explorer. What were the designers going for here? Is it supposed to resemble a lightning bolt? The letter Z? We're talking 1958 here. The year the ES-335 debuted. Even today, the Explorer falls into the category of 'nontraditional' guitar shapes; can you imagine how it must have been received in 1958? Thousands of guitarists were left scratching their heads while 38 or so people thought it was pretty cool.

The Explorer and Flying V both sported bodies made of the African wood White Limba, which Gibson purchased under the brand name Korina. Though not often used as a tone wood, White Limba is actually a very plentiful and inexpensive wood. It also has the nifty characteristic of turning a goldish color when finished in a clear coat.

The Explorer story might have ended there if not for some enterprising young guitar builders in the early 1970s. See, a few of those original Explorers had survived, and the times had finally caught up to the design. A growing number of 70s rockers wanted to get their hands on an Explorer, but that initial run of 38 sold copies just wasn't going to be enough to go around. So other guitar manufacturers stepped up to the plate. Like Hamer, who introduced their Explorer-shaped Standard, in 1974.

Gibson caught the hint fairly quickly, and the Explorer was back in production in 1975.

It's been 50 years since McCarty's experiment, and the Explorer has firmly planted itself into the soil of guitar history. There have been hundreds of variations on the original theme, from smaller 'studio' versions, to less expensive Epiphone models, to an Explorer-shaped controller for the Guitar Hero. It's found its way into the hands of guitarists like The Edge, Clapton and Billy Gibbons to name a few.

So happy 50th birthday from Six-String Bliss, Explorer! Keep pushing the boundaries and try not to poke out any eyes.

We'll be back in May with our next Guitar of the Month.

Bliss on,
PT

So this is my blog response to Jman's recent post. I would put a link to it, but I am far too lazy for that, so you will just have to click on the link to JMan's blog on the right.

Anyway, JMan was discussing how good of a song write PT is, as well as his own struggles with it.

First off, PT is a great song write. I should know, I played in a band with him for two years. He has this uncanny ability to convert his thoughts into song. I remember one occasion. We had just endured 3 days of a living hell journey to California. finally arriving to Huntington Beach we had spent a long day of surf. I stayed out a bit longer then anyone else. I sat there in the middle of the ocean while the sunset. It was an amazing experience. The whole trip was very eye-opening an experience that left me in awe. As I walked back to our hotel after this mind-blowing sunset. There was PT sitting beside the pool of our hotel with his guitar in hand. What was he playing, but a song he wrote in about 5 minutes that just seemed to sum up all of the joy of that trip. It was amazing, and it is truly a gift.

I on the other hand have never seemed to posess this gift. I have tried, but been unsuccessful. However that does not keep me from trying. Musically I have always past off my inability to compose on my lack of technical ability with the guitar. However, while I still can not compose this mind-blowing song, I can at least begin to put music to my feelings. Now I face a much more difficult task, writing lyrics. It is kinda funny I can write, but not to song. I can scribble lyrics, but then not find a tune to work with them. It is always just a bit off.

I have always kind passed this inability to song write as simply there was nothing I felt like writing a song about. But in reality that is far from true. I mean from the strongest emotions I have felt to forgettable walk down the street, there is a song everywhere. In reality I think this excuse was simply a way to pacify myself. So what then is the reality? On the surface there are a few things from laziness to lack of dedication. But those are simply excuses and nothing more. I have been dedicated, and I have worked at it. Yet there are no fruits of those labors.

For me I think the problem lies within myself. It has nothing to do with lack of ability or lack of desire or passion. It is fear. Fear of what, I don't even know. When I play guitar, I am protected, shielded from the guitar itself. The guitar especially in the way I normally play shows emotion but not specific emotion. Don't get me wrong, the instrument itself is certainly capable of show the deepest emotions but I am not good enough at it to do that and the bare/bones style I have developed tend to convey very vague emotions. See, then I look at writing a song, lyrically I am really just opening my soul within the song. This exposure creates a place of fear within me. Not fear of wearing my heart on my sleeve, but fear of it not being right.

I become a perfectionist. I cannot just write a song, I need to create the song that perfectly captures all that I feel. With mediocre skills both musically and in words that is a huge task. Every note, every word, every rhyme needs to be right. I talked with PT himself on a recent episode of the Bliss. His response was really simple, it was don't try to write this perfect beautiful piece of music, just put some words to music and there you go. Perhaps he is right. I have probably set this bar far too high. However breaking myself of this perfectionism is not an easy task either. Musically I have this side too. For example years ago I recorded a track with PT. IT was my favorite song to play, I really liked that song. When we recorded in one of the chord transitions I moved to the wrong chord. I corrected it as fast as I screwed up, I kept my timing on and continued. In the final mix, 90% cannot even notice, some can't even if I point it out. I however cannot even listen to the track.

So how do I break out of this annoying perfectionist shell? Not really sure at all. BUt I am just trying to do more, from playing to recording, to singing...in hopes that I can loosen that bind a bit...and finaly come to place where I can write some words put them with a tune and be able to look at it and say "you know, it isn't perfect, but it works." Then as I work it more I might be able to alter it to make it better. Really I think it is just something that requires a lot of practice. And sitting here waiting for the perfect song to pop in my head just isn't gonna get me anywhere, is it.

Alright, you know I have no idea what I even talked about in this, so I apologize if it makes no sense whatsoever. See, why can I live with blatant imperfection here and in the Bliss itself without freaking out but not in song? Man it is really an annoying little personality quirk I have.

Anyway...

Currently listening to: Shout at the Devil - Motley Crue

Talk Hard, Play Harder! This is Pipes signing out!

Hey everyone...I havn't been here in a while...is anyone still out there?

So yeah, life combined with this whole Christmas song have kept me from this blog thing for a while. Sorry. But the good news is the Post Office gladly accepted my $16 in exchange for getting the CD of my fine Christmas song to the Searcy-Buchholz Track Works World Headquarters in time for the deadline. Looking back on it, being that this is really my first real attempt at recording a track myself, I made a few observations that I am gonna share.

First off, I need to say that I attempted this last year. Failed miserably. I recorded my self playing take after take after take. Nothing was right, I was frustrated. After that I spoke to a very good friend of mine about it. He said to me, that my problem was obvious. That once the mic turned on my focus was on my playing. The fact that I could nail it blindfolded when I was just hanging out on the couch but not with the mic on was telling. See for whatever reason when the mic came on I lost something. Mentally I was in a different place and I was playing with my mind, not my heart and soul. It was about not worrying about the mic, and just playing from the heart.

This year however, this came back to haunt me albeit in different ways. My approach was simple. I wanted to practice the harmony of the piece so much that it became second nature to me, therefor when it came to recording it I had nothing to worry about. The rhythm though I took a different approach. That was simply rhythm is my thing...I can play rhythm with not a care in the world, it is really my comfort zone. So I figured that the rhythm would take care of itself so to speak.

So I played and played. Typical life kept me from recording simply because it was certainly easy to find something far better to do with my time. Then being distracted in life, I lost track of time. All of a sudden the deadline was headed at me like a runaway train. So I decided that Monday was the night. I got home from work, bought a fresh set of Ernie Ball Power Slinkys 11. Restrung ESS, shut the door and went got ready to do this thing.

I started with the harmony. I turned up the backing track and started playing. I took a couple takes which was really just getting my fingers warmed up. Then came the next 5 takes. I kept screwing up and felt much like I did the year before. So I put ESS down, went and got a drink of water. Sat there for a moment and thought back to the conversation I had the year prior. I had once again lost my focus. So I stopped for a moment. Checked my email. Then I found something that takes my mind off of life. Just a photo. So I threw that up on the screen. Picked up Ess, hit record, closed my eyes and just played from the heart. To my surprise, I nailed it...perfect. Hit stop and saved the file out.

Now onto the rhythm...this was a different story. I knew the chords but not how I was gonna put them together, I had a sound in my head, that is it. I put ESS away, spent sometime on my email and such, just not thinking about the song much. Then came time to put this thing to bed. I picked up Samantha, buffed off the fingerprints on her finish and tuned her up. I turned up the backing track and started playing along. I had something I thought might work so I fired up Amplitube to find my tone. Hmm, nothing was really coming close to the sound in my head. Then I came across the JCM 800, a favorite amp of mine. I liked what I heard, albeit very different then what I originally planned. So now came incorporating the new tone with the song. I changed my strumming a lot. and came up with a solid rhythm I loved.

Now the rhythm timing of this song is anything but simple. So while I found a pattern I really liked, it was dependant on impeccable timing. This was not easy...First 10 takes I got my feet wet...and got myself a bit frustrated. Another 10 takes or so no luck, but I was getting closer. By this time my fingers were starting to scream at me....every chord just plain hurt. My wrist (which is weak from being broken when I was dumb and had a skateboard) was aching badly. It was then that I realized that I had yet again lost my soul on this. My concern was the clock. The looming deadline, the need for sleep. So I stopped. I went out side for a bit in the cold and strummed my old tune that I just love to play under the starlight. I came back inside and sat down. Now with a clear head I smirked a bit as I cued up the backing track and took a look at my picture. And I played. It came out great. Except upon listening to it playing back I realized there was some issue with the recording and there was this strange buzz over the the track. But now, I knew what I had to do, forget about the deadline and the time and even the pain in my fingertips and play. So I tested out everything listening for any sign of the offending buzz. It was gone. So I recorded again. The take was great. Not perfect, but something I was proud of.

2:00am and I had finished!

Ironically the rhythm in which I struggled through ended up not working with the track at all and was dropped at the production level. The song turned out great. Very different then what I had ever envisioned but again, I am proud. In the end, it doesn't matter that the rhythm was dropped, or that I even met the deadline. In the end it was a learning expirience for me. I learned what it means to play with your heart and how you cannot just play when your heart is not behind you.

So, I want to thank Jman for his production help on this...without him I would have nothing but an empty sounding guitar.

I thank those who have given me the desire to do this and the drive to truly play with my heart without you none of this would have been dreamed let alone accomplished.

So now a bit humbled by the expirience I put the Christmas song behind me and focus my eyes upon the bright future of playing and letting the guitar be the voice of my heart and soul.

Currently listening to: Bitchin' - The Donnas

Talk Hard, Play Harder! This is Pipes, signing out!

Okay so this is my second full day back in Chicago, so I figured it was a good day to blog a bit. I spent the last week in Orlando, FL with my family. That is right, the big trip to Walt Disney World. Now I have been there probably 10 times so there was no big surprise with the park. Although in thinking about it more I find my impression of it a bit surprising.

For the record I am a bit of a Disney freak....I mean not all completely freaky in a Star Trek kinda way. BUt I have always been a fan of Disney in general. I remember and still have my first stuffed Mickey Mouse. Infact for a long period in time I was contemplating getting a Mickey Mouse tattoo...well still am a bit.

So anyway, there I was at the gates of the Magic Kingdom. Now being completely honest there are a ton of negatives about the Disney theme parks. First off they are outrageously expensive. I mean the cost for a family to enter the park for 2 days is enough to buy a stellar guitar. But that isn't the end of it. Parking, not cheap, food again not cheap. Souvenirs everywhere you look that are so outrageously overpriced it is sickening. Then there are the parks themselves. Huge and spread out. Literally you need a week to fully explore the parks and that is by yourself, not with kids. The waiting sucks. You wait for everything from getting from the parking lot to the park to every ride, to buying a bottle of water. People everywhere who for some godforsaken reason walk so incredible slow.

Yet despite all this, it is an amazing place that truly does overpower you. The rides that I have ridden countless times that still impress me in an amazing way. The staff everywhere is absolutely top-notch. The parades are impressive and flawless. The roaming people dressed up like Disney characters that despite the fact that they have smiled at 10,000 people already that day still pay attention to you....an honest attention. The parks are immaculate, never do you see an ounce of chipped paint or a burned out light bulb. There is never garbage laying around.

But it is more then that. I mean what I have said describes a well run theme park. This is something more...something dare I say magical. There is something in the air, a feeling an aura, I don't know what it is, but it is there. It takes the toughest guy out there and still makes them in awe of the Princesses and at the same time will take the girliest of girls and have them dueling like the mightiest of pirates. It is imagination without boundaries. It is a chance for a kid to be a kid and let there imaginations run wild while it is a chance for the adult to become a kid again.

Disney is a world to it's own. It is an amazing experience.

You know, for a long time I believed and still do that the Disney company is the absolute best at propoganda. I mean they do such a phenomenal job at marketing themselves without ever really marketing. It is subtle but at the same time overbearing. It is very easy to be swept up into the world of Disney. Is it genius marketing and calculation, without a doubt. I know this and still succumb to it with a smile on my face. Why? Because while my wallet may be thinner and my legs tired of walking, etc. In the end they deliver. So many things, places, and people will sell themselves to you under false pretenses...maybe even not intially, but yet when you reach the end you are disappointed in some way. Whether it is buying a guitar and realizing that the pickups are not exactly what you wanted. Or buying a house that just doesn't seem to be all it was when you looked at it. We are all accustomed to disappointment. Everywhere we look there is disappointment be it small and forgettable to major life-changing disappointment. Here it the thing, Disney does not disappoint. In life I am sure you have come across a person that doesn't disappoint you. You hold on to them in your heart and never let go of them. That is the true genius of Disney, they do not disappoint. The world would be a much happier place if everyone strove for such excellence in themselves and in every aspect of their world. Although, if that were the world then the things that don't disappoint would never be as special to us.

So to Disney, I tip my hat to you for you do exceed every expectation. May we all live our lives in that same fashion.

Currently listening to: Pirates of the Caribbean III Soundtrack

Talk Hard! Play Harder! This is Pipes signing out!