DIY Musicians thread

[dave1701]

I'm an acoustic guitar player. I've been playing for about 6 years. I stopped getting lessons about a year ago. I'm not big on soloing or anything, but I have been trying to teach myself more fingering. The most beneficial thing for me would be to join a band, but there aren't many bands who want a 16 year old dude who wants to be lead singer and play rhythm guitar. Plus, I like country music and don't like the typical metal/mainstream/pop that most folks my age play.

 

[devino246]

I dislike lessons for anything, but maybe thats just the DIYer in me:arf:

 

[anderkart]

The most beneficial thing for me would be to join a band, but there aren't many bands who want a 16 year old dude who wants to be lead singer and play rhythm guitar. Plus, I like country music and don't like the typical metal/mainstream/pop that most folks my age play.

You should research open-mics in your area. I'll bet there's some that have rock, blues and country players like yourself. Take yer parent or whatever along if needed but get out there and try a few different ones until you meet some cool players that are into doing what you do.

Good lead-vocalist/guitarist are truly difficult to find with any genre of music. I know, I'm a pretty decent bassist with several good drummer/Buddy's and we've all spent the last 20 years searching for truly talented frontmen (that aren't flakes) to lead our bands.

Its all about the lead vocals, If you can 'bring-it' you'll definitely find a band!

 

[anderkart]

I dislike lessons for anything, but maybe thats just the DIYer in me:arf:

I hated school, I thought music lessons sucked a$$ too.

 

[Fantic-guy]

Cool to read everyone's stories and experiences with music here, and see some cool instrument pics.

I've been playing guitar about 27 years I guess. Owned a lot of gear over the years and of course had a lot that I miss and kick my self in the a$$ for getting rid of such as a 74 usa strat, a 72 marchall jcm half stack, the list goes on (dang it).

I like classic rock and the blues mainly. Lately I've been on an acoustic Neil Young kick

I currently own around 12 electrics, 8 of which are playable and the rest in various states of repair/ mod.

I play through a 30 watt Peavey Delta Blues 115 tube amp right now.

Here's a pic of a Granada semi-hollowbody that I"m restoring currently. The Delta Blues 115 in the background as well as some other stuff

Washburn acoustic, had this since me and Jesus were kids

One of the many tele copies ( I think I've got 6?)

A couple of SX STL-H tele copies.

"91 Fender Strat

Agile Al-3100 tuxedo (this thing is amazing) ...my sons drums in the background.

Don't have pics of all of it, I've got another Squier acoustic, and old Pan 12 string, a '66 Harmony electric some place around here and various other strat copies. i build them and do setup and repair work so lots of guitar junk laying around

 

[anderkart]

Cool gear man! Welcome to our little musicians gang here Fantic-guy


I only own a few guitars/basses. My most collectible is a 1969 Fender P-bass, but I actually prefer playing my 99 Fender P-deluxe cause its got an active eq and fewer dead-spots on the neck...

Instead of collecting axes, I've always kinda concentrated on adding to my rehearsal/recording home-studio gear when I've managed to stumble across bargains on used gear I could afford, or swap for. I learned a long time ago that If I had a cool place well equipped for bands to rehearse/record and play party's, I could snag band mates that were way more talented than me...


This first pic is my current big stage rig:
1972 SVT/Bergantino NV610 rig (in sterio with a) 1990's Orange OR80/SWR Bass Monitor 12 cab.

Or I use this 1966 Ampeg B18n for small venues/low-volume gigs:

Or sometimes this 1972 Ampeg V4/HIWATT rig for medium size gigs/venues:

Some of these pics of my home studio are a few years old, I've added/sold or off traded off several items now.

I also look at collecting my vintage gear as a very good investment that's held and even gained In value even in this crappy economy.

I'm not rich! Its taken me working 60 hours a week and over 20 years to accumulate all this crap.




[/I]

Here's my curent gear list:

Current Setup:
69 Fender P-bass w/77 Jazz neck

66 B-18n

1972 SVT
Bergantino NV610
___________________________________________


___________________________________________

Other Axes:

98 Fender P-deluxe w/flats
Aria fretless, scroll head, Hofner copy
Danelectro baritone guitar
Guild D-7e
Carvin CM140
59 Supro Special (lap steel)
Old (un-labeled) classical guitar
Old (un-labeled) mandolin
Old (un-labeled) semi-hollowbody Bass
___________________________________________

Amps and stuff:

Ampeg SVT-II
Ampeg V4
Mesa 400+ w/6-way tube switch mod
(Click home page link above for amp-mod info)
Mesa D-180
Mesa Buster 1x15 combo
Sunn Sonic I-40 head (200s)
1972 Ampeg 8x10 (squareback)
HIWATT 1x15 cab
Mesa sus-4 shock rack
Anvil EPI 5-space road case
Pearson 4-sp. short rack case
Mesa Studio Preamp
Mesa Powerhouse 1x15
Ampeg B-100r (a pair)
Sansamp RBI
Sansamp VT pedal
Ashly-GP40 preamp
SWR Bass Monitor 12 (a pair)
Orange Overdrive-80 head
63 Fender blonde Bandmaster
Fender (Custom shop) blonde Showmaster 4x12
Aims VTG-120
Vintage Rauland 15 w. tube p/a head (used as guitar head)
A bunch of cool but mostly unused pedals
Hamond C-3
Leslie 60
Early-60's Fender Rhodes (silver top)
Kustom 88
Old Elka stage piano
Korg DW-6000
___________________________________________

24 track recording gear:

Console:
Allen & Heath GL 2200 (24 ch.-10 bus)
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Recorders:

Alesis HD-24
Ampex 300-2,(1/4") transport
2-Ampex 351 electronics (black dot)
Tascam CDRW-700 (CDR)
Sony RCD-w1 (dub deck)
Sony TC-we435 (casette)
___________________________________________

Mic-preamps:

Groove Tubes "The Brick" (2)
FMR-Really Nice Preamp
Joe Meek Twinn-Q
Ampex 351-black dot (2)
ATI M-100
Symetrix SX 202 (2)
M-audio DMP-2
M-audio DMP-3
Yamaha MLA-7
Studio projects VTB-1
ART- tube m/p (2)
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Mics:

Beyer-Dynamic:
M-700
M-600-(sound star III)
M-88
M-69
M-400-(soundstar-II)-(pair)
TGX-480

Sennheiser:
MD-441
MD-421-U5 (3)
MD-421-II
MD-21-(2)
MD-531-(2)
MD-405s
E-609-silver
MD-512

AKG-3600

Shure:
SM-7
Unidyne-III 545-(6)
SM-58-(2)
unidyne A 5805a
Unidyne B 58sd
Unidyne c 5895
414a

E-V RE-11

Blue Ball

A/T 220XL

Oktava MK 012-(2)
Studio Projects B-3
Studio Projects C-1

___________________________________________

Compressors:

FMR-Really Nice Compressor
Joe Meek Twin-Q
DBX 128
Ashly CL-50
Behriger composer mdx-2100
Alesis CLX-440

___________________________________________

Reverbs, FX and EQ:

TC electronics M-1
TC electronics M-300
Lexicon Alex-(2)
Electro-voice EVT 4500
Rane MPE-14
Univox pro-verb
___________________________________________

Monitors, playback and PA:

Mackie HR-824
JBL 4311-B
M-Audio BX8
Carver Amazing silver
Bang & Olufsen beovox 545
DCX CM-17
EV-SH1502ER
JBL MR-825

Previously owned gear:
SVT-Classic
SWR Basic 350
SWR Bass 750
SWR Goliath II cabs (pair)
SWR Big Ben cab
Genz Benz 2x15 cab
Marshall 4x12 -1960 lead
Plush prb 100s guitar head
77 Fender twin reverb (135 w.)
Fender Pro Junior

My "Shoulda kept-it" list:
78 Fender P-bass.
Marshall JMP 50
Fender PA-135 (all tube P/A head)
Mesa 1516be road ready cab
Mesa Powerhouse 2x10
77 Fender twin reverb (135 w.)

 

[anderkart]

 

[Fantic-guy]

DUDE! I had to wipe the drool off my chin after seeing all that gear lol.

I love the vintage stuff, they just don't make gear the same now. Even just the look of vintage amps, cabs, etc ....they just mean business, let alone the performance.

My daughters boyfriend is an excellent guitar player and is collecting some nice gear lately. He's into metal so most of his guitars are pointy lol. He's got an awesome Randall Warhead full stack that is hard on his neighbours windows.


Need a room-mate? lol I'd love to play with that stuff.

 

[anderkart]

Thanks, yeah I'm kinda into all kinds vintage stuff too, It matches my age so well...

Lol, pointy heavy metal guitars, I hear ya bro.

My first really good bass rig was a Randall. That Aims VTG-120 4x10 combo in my pic above was made by a company right here in good-ol Phoenix that later went on to become Randall. My Aims combo was once owned/gigged by the band Generation X.

Yeah my neighbors used to get kinda piss-ed at me too, but I just learned to turn it down a bit after 10pm on weeknights/midnight on weekends, and then I also just keep inviting them to all to my party's. They're cool now.

Yeah come on over sometime, I'll grab my drummer and we'll jam! You can crash on my couch man (Arizona's just a short quick drive from Canada isnt it?

When I'm not here on DIY talkin-karts, I hangout on a bass players forum called talkbass talkin-amps. If your into modding tube-amp's, check out my amp-mod thread here:--> http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f15/switchable-max-output-mod-300-w-tube-amp-238662/ (i'm anderbass)


Here's some more gear-porn fer-ya man, I'd missed a few, enjoy:

 

[Orange Krate]

I cleaned out the garage last weekend. It is suitable for go-kart work and jamming again! Found out that it is already insulated. Insualting the door and ceiling now. Gonna paint and run some electrical next.

The 9 or so other musicians from the hood are offering up equipment for community jam sessions. Gonna be nice, uh-pretty nice.

 

[anderkart]

Sounds awesome Krate!

Yeah, like they said in that film: "Build it, and they will come"

Will those dudes from Slobberbone be jamming at yer place? I really dig their cool tunes man!

 

[Fantic-guy]

Arizon...yeah, bit of a drive lol.
I'll check out that amp modding thread. My Peavey DB doesn't have the original tube in it. i bought it used. I eventually want to change out the tubes at some point but don't know a lot about that stuff yet. It's got 4 EL84 power tubes and 3 12AX7 pre amp tubes. I've heard good things about JJ power tubes, so might try them.

 

[Orange Krate]

Will those dudes from Slobberbone be jamming at yer place? I really dig their cool tunes man!

Well let's see, while cleaning out the garage I found a 6 pass sealed in cold plate that I gave to Jess Barr for his new bar. Tony Harper is going to rehead and shore up my old Ludwigs for me(he refurbished classic drum sets as a side business) and Brent Best's go-kart is currently housed at my place since he got married and moved to town. So, I'm hoping so

 

[anderkart]

So... I just booted my lead singer and drummer out of my new band, that was quite a experience.
You guys wanna hear all about our big freakin soap opera that's been building up for a couple months?

Arizon...yeah, bit of a drive lol.
I'll check out that amp modding thread. My Peavey DB doesn't have the original tube in it. i bought it used. I eventually want to change out the tubes at some point but don't know a lot about that stuff yet. It's got 4 EL84 power tubes and 3 12AX7 pre amp tubes. I've heard good things about JJ power tubes, so might try them.

Cool, I'm running JJ power tubes in my mesa 400+. They're dam good, but maybe a bit too pristine/clean sounding for my tastes... I'm all into vintage (nos) General Electric powertubes and experimenting all kinds of bizarre preamp tubes nowadays.

Well let's see, while cleaning out the garage I found a 6 pass sealed in cold plate that I gave to Jess Barr for his new bar. Tony Harper is going to rehead and shore up my old Ludwigs for me(he refurbished classic drum sets as a side business) and Brent Best's go-kart is currently housed at my place since he got married and moved to town. So, I'm hoping so

Swheet, sounds like yer gonna have some cool jams in ye-olde garage!

 

[Imbo]

Ive been actually in a new band for a little while and weve got a solid drumme, amazing leadsinger/guitar, i rock the Lead Guitar, but our bassist isnt to great but its gunna be tough for a bunch of 16 year olds to kick one of our own outta the band. Were more of a hard rock band but we have a little punk in us.

Lately ive been switching between an Ibanez Rg series, and my Gibson SG.
Ive been using an Orange Tiny Terror 15W head on a Marshall 4x12 cab.

Soon im planning on buying a Hughes and Kettner TriAmp MKII which ive had my eyes on...but i need to gather $3000. It sounds just beautiful with everytone and i could use the 100watts over 15w at the gigs im playing. 15w sounds like my amps on 1 meanwhile the volume and gain are pushing on 10.

 

[Doc Sprocket]

You should research open-mics in your area.

Open-Stage Jam Nights are a gift from God. Even as a full 5-piece band, we took advantage of any stage we could find. It's a great way to get out and play a little without trying to "book a gig", and it is also how I got used to the exposure of being before a crowd. I was kind of stagefright-prone, but the repeated, short bursts of exposure to an audience that really didn't give a dang (not paying for the show) built up my confidence enough that for my first real gig, I was fine. Good thing too, 'cause my first gig consisted of three one-hour sets! That's quite a haul for a newbie!

One thing, though- All the places we ever did jam nights at were drinking establishments and you had to be of legal age to enter. Do they make exceptions for the performers? I was already in my 20's so I have no idea...

truly talented frontmen (that aren't flakes)

Good luck with that!!! Our vocalist was such a headcase, I ended up leaving the band- I just couldn't take him anymore! And if his mental state wasn't enough, he'd regularly butcher my tunes. I wrote my fair share of the music, but I wrote almost all of the lyrics. So we'd start working out the music for a new tune, and once the band got the music halfway straight, I'd grab the microphone and sing it thru a few times for him to get the feel of it. Then he'd pick up the mic and rape it.

 

[j.concepcion54321]

Do any of you guys listen to dream theatre? im starting to like them alot now. lol

 

[anderkart]

Nope, I never got into their music but a few years ago I attended a musicians clinic hosted by their bassist. That dude is an amazing musician!

 

[dave1701]

Open-Stage Jam Nights are a gift from God. Even as a full 5-piece band, we took advantage of any stage we could find. It's a great way to get out and play a little without trying to "book a gig", and it is also how I got used to the exposure of being before a crowd. I was kind of stagefright-prone, but the repeated, short bursts of exposure to an audience that really didn't give a dang (not paying for the show) built up my confidence enough that for my first real gig, I was fine. Good thing too, 'cause my first gig consisted of three one-hour sets! That's quite a haul for a newbie!

One thing, though- All the places we ever did jam nights at were drinking establishments and you had to be of legal age to enter. Do they make exceptions for the performers? I was already in my 20's so I have no idea...



Good luck with that!!! Our vocalist was such a headcase, I ended up leaving the band- I just couldn't take him anymore! And if his mental state wasn't enough, he'd regularly butcher my tunes. I wrote my fair share of the music, but I wrote almost all of the lyrics. So we'd start working out the music for a new tune, and once the band got the music halfway straight, I'd grab the microphone and sing it thru a few times for him to get the feel of it. Then he'd pick up the mic and rape it.

What is your method for writing lyrics/music? Any tips? I have been trying to write my own song for months now. Haven't gotten anywhere. I guess a little something doesn't feel right playing someone else's songs.

 

[Doc Sprocket]

I really have no big secret to share with you.

Sometimes I had a musical idea (or the band had a song with no lyrics yet) and I wrote something to suit. Sometimes, I just wrote a set of lyrics off an idea and we had to try to write suitable music or mothball the lyrics until the right tune was born.

I did find it tended to be easier to form the lyrical structure if I already knew the music or had a very good idea in my head what I wanted to hear (in terms of phrasing, tempo, tonality, etc). Then, it was a fairly simple task of working my thoughts into phrases that physically fit the music (ie the beat, tempo, rhyming phrases etc.)

Some stuff I wrote was simple enough "mathematically" that you could work it into nearly any common beat and tempo. Let me draw you a theoretical example.

Got home from work today, logged onto DIY
Handed out some sage advice to a budding musician guy
I hope he learns something, and finds his little part
But if I made no sense, then go and ask Anderkart!

Now- that took only a minute or two to compose. Since the structure is pretty basic and doesn't get into any weird timing or phrasing, it'll fit just about anything from Delta Blues to Pimple Pop. It's just a matter of how it's sung, at that point.

I know this is going to sound really retarded, but go ahead and try it. Take the verse above and try singing it to various musical passages. You shouldn't have too much trouble making it fit somewhere.

As far as how to use language to convey your thoughts into a chart-topping hit- sorry- that's all you!