Casual rockers will probably see the event as political activism taking over music, but is the Tibetan Freedom Concert a watershed moment that would send rock guitar into the 21st Century?
By: Ringo Bones
Remember the September 1997 Guitar Player magazine cover story “Who Killed Rock Guitar?” At that moment in time, rock guitar was fast becoming staid and hackneyed when record labels were busy signing copycat acts of leading alternative rock trendsetters like they were going out of fashion. Thus diluting the impact of alternative rock where a few years before record label execs and the music buying public seems to have reached a consensus during the first half of the 1990s. So rock guitar became bland and boring during the dying days of the 20th Century and most rock guitar enthusiasts were wondering whether it too would pass away along with the 20th Century.
Then came the Tibetan Freedom Concert where a new generation of creative guitarists made a collective voice that rock guitar won’t go away as passively as the 20th Century – so to speak. Or more accurately, the concert’s popularity around June 1998 where even the most casual MTV viewer eventually got aware of the politics surrounding the Free Tibet movement – in a musical way during its duration between 1996 to 2001. This concert organized by the Beastie Boys and the Milarepa fund eventually made the cause of Tibetan independence no longer a mere trivial matter to America’s MTV generation.
On the rock guitar front, one of the guitarists that pointed the way of the guitar’s future in the 21st Century was Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello. Whose unique playing style had served as a very creative backdrop in their efforts of spreading an idealized version of Marxist-Leninist socialism like Eisenstein’s Potemkin did decades before. They are one loud rocking version of Revolutionary Idealism.
Fortunately for a generation of kids weaned on David Geffen’s brand of alternative rock, the Tibetan Freedom Concert served as a surprisingly popular introduction to Tibetan culture. And more importantly to their spiritual leader – His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet - into exile after the country was unlawfully annexed by the People’s Republic of China back in 1959.
The on-going popularity of the world music movement during the latter half of the 1990s eventually allowed traditional Tibetan musicians acquire a young American fanbase via the Tibetan Freedom concert. Like Yungchen Lhamo famed as the female voice of Tibet and Nawang Khechog, a famed Tibetan meditation music and world music composer and Grammy nominee. Chaksam-pa a non-profit traditional Tibetan dance and opera company based in the San Francisco Bay Area, California whose name means Bridge-Builder. And Dadon a three-member band being lead by Dadon Dawadolma – another female Tibetan singer who won the hearts of post-Cobain grunge. At least its better than that dog-and-pony show recently put forth by Beijing extolling how Tibet got better after they unlawfully annexed it back in 1959. Is the Tibetan Freedom concert music beyond rock guitar? At least it works like it says on the tin.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Mpingo: Viable Guitar Tonewood?
More famous in hi-fi circles as a resonance-controlling widget, does Mpingo qualify as a viable material to make good sounding guitars from?
By: Ringo Bones
The hype probably began in the 1990s where various widgets made out Mpingo seems to an inexplicable ability to improve the sound quality of hi-fi systems just by placing Mpingo made cones and other widgets strategically in various parts of your hi-fi. Some hi-fi enthusiasts have even suggested that a piece of Mpingo should be mortised into the bell of Miles Davis’ trumpet or he uses a mute made out of one. Maybe it works more being fashioned as a woodwind instrument like a clarinet to be played by Benny Goodman. With such impeccable credentials, does Mpingo truly be a viable source of tonewood in order to make a more musical sounding guitar for the 21st Century?
For those unfamiliar with the material, Mpingo is a dense African swamp-ebony hardwood that has been manufactured by hi-fi accessories makers – like Shun Mook for example - as a resonance-controlling widget like cones and LP record clamps. On their brochures, Shun Mook says Mpingo wood absorbs resonance, but I find this explanation somewhat inadequate. And as of late, there still is scant evidence that Mpingo absorbs resonance better than other hardwoods more commonly used in the guitar making / luthier industry like Honduran mahogany, ordinary ebony, or even nitrocellulose lacquered maple used in making Gibson Les Pauls.
During the early days when large-scale guitar manufacturing was at its infancy, Martin & Co. – famed for their acoustic guitars that are as expensive as entry-level South Korean made family sedans – used ordinary ebony as their original tonewood of choice back in the 1920s. But as time went by and due to the increasing scarcity of prized ebony, many luthiers / guitar makers shifted to using South American and South East Asian mahogany and other related tropical hardwoods. Currently, ordinary ebony had been dethroned by Hawaiian koa as the ultimate tonewood of choice. Mpingo, at present, is still untested as a guitar making material. But as you may know, both hi-fi enthusiasts and guitar makers probably already know by now that a prized dense African swamp-ebony hardwood called Mpingo is somewhat rare and a species has probably the fecundity of a great white shark. Which is probably the reason why it is not coomonly used as a guitar making material due to its rarity and expense. And also explains the reason why Mpingo is seldom seen in pieces larger than a bowling ball.
By: Ringo Bones
The hype probably began in the 1990s where various widgets made out Mpingo seems to an inexplicable ability to improve the sound quality of hi-fi systems just by placing Mpingo made cones and other widgets strategically in various parts of your hi-fi. Some hi-fi enthusiasts have even suggested that a piece of Mpingo should be mortised into the bell of Miles Davis’ trumpet or he uses a mute made out of one. Maybe it works more being fashioned as a woodwind instrument like a clarinet to be played by Benny Goodman. With such impeccable credentials, does Mpingo truly be a viable source of tonewood in order to make a more musical sounding guitar for the 21st Century?
For those unfamiliar with the material, Mpingo is a dense African swamp-ebony hardwood that has been manufactured by hi-fi accessories makers – like Shun Mook for example - as a resonance-controlling widget like cones and LP record clamps. On their brochures, Shun Mook says Mpingo wood absorbs resonance, but I find this explanation somewhat inadequate. And as of late, there still is scant evidence that Mpingo absorbs resonance better than other hardwoods more commonly used in the guitar making / luthier industry like Honduran mahogany, ordinary ebony, or even nitrocellulose lacquered maple used in making Gibson Les Pauls.
During the early days when large-scale guitar manufacturing was at its infancy, Martin & Co. – famed for their acoustic guitars that are as expensive as entry-level South Korean made family sedans – used ordinary ebony as their original tonewood of choice back in the 1920s. But as time went by and due to the increasing scarcity of prized ebony, many luthiers / guitar makers shifted to using South American and South East Asian mahogany and other related tropical hardwoods. Currently, ordinary ebony had been dethroned by Hawaiian koa as the ultimate tonewood of choice. Mpingo, at present, is still untested as a guitar making material. But as you may know, both hi-fi enthusiasts and guitar makers probably already know by now that a prized dense African swamp-ebony hardwood called Mpingo is somewhat rare and a species has probably the fecundity of a great white shark. Which is probably the reason why it is not coomonly used as a guitar making material due to its rarity and expense. And also explains the reason why Mpingo is seldom seen in pieces larger than a bowling ball.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Does Guitar Based Classical Music Still Exist?
Given that most of us harbors several surprisingly “wrong” versions of the topic, but is Classical Music (Western European Classical Music) played on a guitar – for all intents and purposes – already dead in the 21st Century?
By: Ringo Bones
I used to think that it is so, but the funk metal band Scatterbrain playing WA Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca using electric guitar, bass, and a Rock drum kit on their Scamboogery album doesn’t really pass muster as true-blue Classical music played on guitar. Neither does Taylor Swift with her custom 12-string guitar played through a 10,000-watt PA system connected to a 130dB sound pressure level-capable speaker system so that she can be heard throughout the 10,000-acre venue of a state fair qualify as Classical music. Nor does Yngwie Malmsteen playing a heavily arpeggiated Nicolò Paganini piece through his custom Fender Strat and a bank of Marshall stacks when the same piece of music should be played through a “Balokovic” Guarneri del Gesu violin to qualify as true Classical music. And so does Jennifer Batten playing Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee using her electric guitar through a Marshall amp. Given that the Classical music previously mentioned will probably the only ones likely to be played on mainstream FM radio, is guitar-based Western European Classical Music really dead in the 21st Century?
When Andrés Segovia first popularized what is now referred to as the classical guitar more than a century ago, folk and Classical Music were only the genres of music played on such instrument. Most Western European Classical Music that were played on Segovia’s newfangled guitar were often compositions from previous great composers like Mozart and Bach (Bach Guitar Recital) are “rearranged” to be played on Segovia’s newfangled musical instrument. Even the Vivaldi Guitar Concerto in D Major music piece was probably composed way before the invention of Segovia’s guitar.
The first guitar virtuoso to popularize guitar-based Classical Music in the 20th Century is Julian Bream whose debut guitar recital at Cheltenham in 1947 aged 13 also probably made him as the first bona fide post World War II teen idol as he played with the London Symphony Orchestra. Influenced by Andrés Segovia and Francisco Tàrrega and recognized as one of the most important classical guitarist of the 20th Century. Julian Bream was also very successful in renewing popular interest in the Renaissance lute. Though from the perspective of today's teen-aged girl groupies, Julian Bream's post-war teen idol status is about as far removed from the Jonas Brothers as you can get.
During the early 1990s, Nicola Hall, a female Classical Music guitarist using an Andrés Segovia-style nylon stringed guitar did manage to briefly make guitar-based Classical Music register in the late 20th Century's music industry’s radar. With the release of her Virtuoso Transcriptions for Solo Guitar, some “brave” FM stations in my neck of the woods often played this particular Nicola Hall album on air after Yngwie Malmsteen popularized the high-decibel side of guitar-based Classical Music back in 1992. Given the dearth of “Classically-trained” musicians using the guitar to play Classical Music, is the guitar for all intents and purposes a “Rock n’ Roll” instrument?
From my point of view, I think it is unfair to blame the Rock n’ Roll musicians, given my rather very eclectic taste in music. Though it is safe to squarely put the blame on the music industry executives for not doing their part for popularizing guitar-based Classical Music. Maybe Classical Music lovers will just be resigned to hope that the suave, bearded Italian named Andrea Bocelli – who despite of having an excellent voice – is yet to pick up a Segovia-style guitar. Or maybe someone should give some half-Ukrainian half-Uyghur red haired green-eyed 13-year-old girl who plays a blisteringly fast version of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee on a Segovia-style Classical guitar a recording contract.
By: Ringo Bones
I used to think that it is so, but the funk metal band Scatterbrain playing WA Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca using electric guitar, bass, and a Rock drum kit on their Scamboogery album doesn’t really pass muster as true-blue Classical music played on guitar. Neither does Taylor Swift with her custom 12-string guitar played through a 10,000-watt PA system connected to a 130dB sound pressure level-capable speaker system so that she can be heard throughout the 10,000-acre venue of a state fair qualify as Classical music. Nor does Yngwie Malmsteen playing a heavily arpeggiated Nicolò Paganini piece through his custom Fender Strat and a bank of Marshall stacks when the same piece of music should be played through a “Balokovic” Guarneri del Gesu violin to qualify as true Classical music. And so does Jennifer Batten playing Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee using her electric guitar through a Marshall amp. Given that the Classical music previously mentioned will probably the only ones likely to be played on mainstream FM radio, is guitar-based Western European Classical Music really dead in the 21st Century?
When Andrés Segovia first popularized what is now referred to as the classical guitar more than a century ago, folk and Classical Music were only the genres of music played on such instrument. Most Western European Classical Music that were played on Segovia’s newfangled guitar were often compositions from previous great composers like Mozart and Bach (Bach Guitar Recital) are “rearranged” to be played on Segovia’s newfangled musical instrument. Even the Vivaldi Guitar Concerto in D Major music piece was probably composed way before the invention of Segovia’s guitar.
The first guitar virtuoso to popularize guitar-based Classical Music in the 20th Century is Julian Bream whose debut guitar recital at Cheltenham in 1947 aged 13 also probably made him as the first bona fide post World War II teen idol as he played with the London Symphony Orchestra. Influenced by Andrés Segovia and Francisco Tàrrega and recognized as one of the most important classical guitarist of the 20th Century. Julian Bream was also very successful in renewing popular interest in the Renaissance lute. Though from the perspective of today's teen-aged girl groupies, Julian Bream's post-war teen idol status is about as far removed from the Jonas Brothers as you can get.
During the early 1990s, Nicola Hall, a female Classical Music guitarist using an Andrés Segovia-style nylon stringed guitar did manage to briefly make guitar-based Classical Music register in the late 20th Century's music industry’s radar. With the release of her Virtuoso Transcriptions for Solo Guitar, some “brave” FM stations in my neck of the woods often played this particular Nicola Hall album on air after Yngwie Malmsteen popularized the high-decibel side of guitar-based Classical Music back in 1992. Given the dearth of “Classically-trained” musicians using the guitar to play Classical Music, is the guitar for all intents and purposes a “Rock n’ Roll” instrument?
From my point of view, I think it is unfair to blame the Rock n’ Roll musicians, given my rather very eclectic taste in music. Though it is safe to squarely put the blame on the music industry executives for not doing their part for popularizing guitar-based Classical Music. Maybe Classical Music lovers will just be resigned to hope that the suave, bearded Italian named Andrea Bocelli – who despite of having an excellent voice – is yet to pick up a Segovia-style guitar. Or maybe someone should give some half-Ukrainian half-Uyghur red haired green-eyed 13-year-old girl who plays a blisteringly fast version of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee on a Segovia-style Classical guitar a recording contract.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Gregg Wright: The Forgotten Great Guitarist of Michael Jackson?
Once famously known for almost upstaging the King of Pop, does Gregg Wright still register in the consciousness of most Michael Jackson fans and guitar enthusiasts?
By: Ringo Bones
Yes, there’s truth behind the legend that Gregg Wright almost upstaged Michael Jackson – the undisputed King of Pop – on one of the dates of the “disastrous” Don “Bride of Frankenstein” King backed Victory Tour of the 1984 Jackson 5 / The Jacksons reunion concert. But does anybody – especially Michael Jackson fans and guitar enthusiasts – still care about Gregg Wright and his former adventurous guitar sessions with the King of Pop this day and age?
More famously known for his guitar work with Michael Jackson and Mick Fleetwood / Fleetwood Mac, Gregg Wright is an artist in his own right, despite of a number of critics shelving him as a mere Jimi Hendrix clone. And sadder still – especially in my neck of the woods – Gregg Wright’s music, be it in CD or vinyl form, are few and far between. Only working musicians – all of them older than 40 - knew him in my neck of the woods, reminiscent of the popularity of Lonesome Crow era Scorpions in America.
The only “album” of Gregg Wright that I’m lucky enough to acquire is his Gregg Wright’s Left Hook album titled “Round One”. As luck would have it, I managed to find this CD being sold in our local garage sale about a month ago. Round One is Gregg Wright’s self-produced debut CD, which Wright also originally sold during his concert tours in the UK and Europe back in 1995. After being well received by his fans, the debut CD managed to sell thousands of copies – which sadly is mere peanuts in comparison to the millions sold by Britney and those Boy-Bands. Ironic being it was Michael Jackson who made the concept of Boy-Bands a very lucrative music biz proposition.
Gregg Wright’s Left Hook is the name of the band on the “Round One” album with Gregg Wright himself performing the main guitar and vocal duties; Backed by Mick Broadbent on bass guitar and backing vocal duties and Keith Line on drums and backing vocals. The “Round One” album is rather short at just about 29 minutes long – an EP would have been more apt. On first listen, the songs may sound fairly ordinary. But it does possess a habit of pointing to the future of Modern Blues / Rock Fusion. Especially when you consider Gregg Wright’s guitar playing, which sounds like what kind of music Jimi Hendrix would be doing if he is still alive.
Although Gregg Wright’s very “enjoyable” mimicry of Jimi Hendrix – especially the flamboyant stage costumes and the signature upside down Strat - will only irk further the critics who labels Wright as just another Hendrix clone. Yes, Jimi’s influence is unmistakable, but Gregg managed to add his own vibrant punch into this veritable musical slugfest and therefore can’t be accused of just being another run-of-the-mill Hendrix clone.
Given the band’s overall performance on Round One, Gregg Wright’s Left Hook – to me – is a band worthy enough to go through an 18-hour 2,000 US dollar plane ride just to experience them live. And Gregg Wright’s stint with Michael Jackson and the rest of the Jackson 5 on that ill-fated Victory Tour is probably the closest thing we’ll ever experience of the Jackson 5 playing at the 1969 Woodstock or a Jimi Hendrix collaboration. Gregg Wright could have been the “It Factor” of Michael Jackson’s This is It Tour. Sadly, the untimely passing of Michael Jackson back in June 25, 2009 put an end to that and Gregg Wright could suffer that terrible wasting disease that affects a sizable number of great artisans known as anonymity.
By: Ringo Bones
Yes, there’s truth behind the legend that Gregg Wright almost upstaged Michael Jackson – the undisputed King of Pop – on one of the dates of the “disastrous” Don “Bride of Frankenstein” King backed Victory Tour of the 1984 Jackson 5 / The Jacksons reunion concert. But does anybody – especially Michael Jackson fans and guitar enthusiasts – still care about Gregg Wright and his former adventurous guitar sessions with the King of Pop this day and age?
More famously known for his guitar work with Michael Jackson and Mick Fleetwood / Fleetwood Mac, Gregg Wright is an artist in his own right, despite of a number of critics shelving him as a mere Jimi Hendrix clone. And sadder still – especially in my neck of the woods – Gregg Wright’s music, be it in CD or vinyl form, are few and far between. Only working musicians – all of them older than 40 - knew him in my neck of the woods, reminiscent of the popularity of Lonesome Crow era Scorpions in America.
The only “album” of Gregg Wright that I’m lucky enough to acquire is his Gregg Wright’s Left Hook album titled “Round One”. As luck would have it, I managed to find this CD being sold in our local garage sale about a month ago. Round One is Gregg Wright’s self-produced debut CD, which Wright also originally sold during his concert tours in the UK and Europe back in 1995. After being well received by his fans, the debut CD managed to sell thousands of copies – which sadly is mere peanuts in comparison to the millions sold by Britney and those Boy-Bands. Ironic being it was Michael Jackson who made the concept of Boy-Bands a very lucrative music biz proposition.
Gregg Wright’s Left Hook is the name of the band on the “Round One” album with Gregg Wright himself performing the main guitar and vocal duties; Backed by Mick Broadbent on bass guitar and backing vocal duties and Keith Line on drums and backing vocals. The “Round One” album is rather short at just about 29 minutes long – an EP would have been more apt. On first listen, the songs may sound fairly ordinary. But it does possess a habit of pointing to the future of Modern Blues / Rock Fusion. Especially when you consider Gregg Wright’s guitar playing, which sounds like what kind of music Jimi Hendrix would be doing if he is still alive.
Although Gregg Wright’s very “enjoyable” mimicry of Jimi Hendrix – especially the flamboyant stage costumes and the signature upside down Strat - will only irk further the critics who labels Wright as just another Hendrix clone. Yes, Jimi’s influence is unmistakable, but Gregg managed to add his own vibrant punch into this veritable musical slugfest and therefore can’t be accused of just being another run-of-the-mill Hendrix clone.
Given the band’s overall performance on Round One, Gregg Wright’s Left Hook – to me – is a band worthy enough to go through an 18-hour 2,000 US dollar plane ride just to experience them live. And Gregg Wright’s stint with Michael Jackson and the rest of the Jackson 5 on that ill-fated Victory Tour is probably the closest thing we’ll ever experience of the Jackson 5 playing at the 1969 Woodstock or a Jimi Hendrix collaboration. Gregg Wright could have been the “It Factor” of Michael Jackson’s This is It Tour. Sadly, the untimely passing of Michael Jackson back in June 25, 2009 put an end to that and Gregg Wright could suffer that terrible wasting disease that affects a sizable number of great artisans known as anonymity.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
United Airlines: Unfriendly to Guitars?
Ever since that “unfortunate” incident with Dave Carroll’s guitars a few months ago, are most airline company’s unfriendly when it comes to guitars and other musical instruments?
By: Ringo Bones
Growing up in the 1980s, I’ve often viewed United Airlines’ corporate slogan “Fly the friendly skies” with such surrealism after a number of incidents of passenger jets being hijacked by “PLO-sponsored terrorists”. Fast forward to 2009, the same surrealism returns again after the unlikeliest of songs by David Carroll titled United Breaks Guitars, retelling his “ordeal” with United Airlines’ baggage handlers became a runaway success. Noting that the only other song in existence that recounts about broken guitars is Broken by NY Loose where Brijitte West sings an ode to her broken Gibson SG that also became a hit back in 1997. But is United Airlines really at fault? After all if the prominent Blogosphere journalist Arianna Huffington harbors doubts whether Dave Carroll’s damaged guitar and mental anguish is really worth 180 million dollars, then how airline companies handle our fragile baggage – like musical instruments – should be looked into.
One of my audio-buddies who was fortunate enough to be a touring Classical Music cellist – though not fortunate enough to afford his own touring plane – has told me that as far as 1999, airline companies are not really that friendly with touring musicians and their “fragile” musical instruments. My cellist friend had a first-hand experience with Southwest Airlines’ baggage policy. Southwest Airlines’ baggage policy states that they would not guarantee safe arrival if the instruments were checked: they call it a “conditional” guarantee. Meaning Southwest is responsible for loss only, not damage. No wonder why most musicians – especially guitarists - buy their own touring plane as soon as they can afford one. But – in defense of David Carroll’s recent incident - have you seen a typical musical instrument case lately?
Most budget guitar, cello, and violin travel cases / flight cases that are made with ABS thermo shell and other high-strength exotic fiber composites that I have personally examined. Like those from Bam and the Gage Case are sturdy enough to withstand a direct hit with a 9-mm parabellum automatic pistol and sub-machinegun rounds. While up-market flight cases designed to protect musical instruments with pedigree – like a 1724 “Ludwig” Stradivari or a “Balokovic” Guarneri del Gesu, even your typical eight thousand dollar CF Martin & Co. acoustic guitar – will more than likely stop a 7.26mm X 39mm Kalashnikov round fired from 30 meters away. Maybe Mythbusters will test my hypothesis someday.
Given the “workmanship” that goes into a typical musical instrument flight case, United Airlines’ baggage handlers must be doing their very serious Sylvester Stallone and Jean-Claude Van Damme impressions to have damaged Dave Carroll’s guitars that are safely tucked in into their respective guitar flight cases. Even a newbie lawyer can safely say, “case closed” - but is Dave Carroll really 180 million dollars richer? Maybe that’s a question only he and his travel insurance provider can answer.
By: Ringo Bones
Growing up in the 1980s, I’ve often viewed United Airlines’ corporate slogan “Fly the friendly skies” with such surrealism after a number of incidents of passenger jets being hijacked by “PLO-sponsored terrorists”. Fast forward to 2009, the same surrealism returns again after the unlikeliest of songs by David Carroll titled United Breaks Guitars, retelling his “ordeal” with United Airlines’ baggage handlers became a runaway success. Noting that the only other song in existence that recounts about broken guitars is Broken by NY Loose where Brijitte West sings an ode to her broken Gibson SG that also became a hit back in 1997. But is United Airlines really at fault? After all if the prominent Blogosphere journalist Arianna Huffington harbors doubts whether Dave Carroll’s damaged guitar and mental anguish is really worth 180 million dollars, then how airline companies handle our fragile baggage – like musical instruments – should be looked into.
One of my audio-buddies who was fortunate enough to be a touring Classical Music cellist – though not fortunate enough to afford his own touring plane – has told me that as far as 1999, airline companies are not really that friendly with touring musicians and their “fragile” musical instruments. My cellist friend had a first-hand experience with Southwest Airlines’ baggage policy. Southwest Airlines’ baggage policy states that they would not guarantee safe arrival if the instruments were checked: they call it a “conditional” guarantee. Meaning Southwest is responsible for loss only, not damage. No wonder why most musicians – especially guitarists - buy their own touring plane as soon as they can afford one. But – in defense of David Carroll’s recent incident - have you seen a typical musical instrument case lately?
Most budget guitar, cello, and violin travel cases / flight cases that are made with ABS thermo shell and other high-strength exotic fiber composites that I have personally examined. Like those from Bam and the Gage Case are sturdy enough to withstand a direct hit with a 9-mm parabellum automatic pistol and sub-machinegun rounds. While up-market flight cases designed to protect musical instruments with pedigree – like a 1724 “Ludwig” Stradivari or a “Balokovic” Guarneri del Gesu, even your typical eight thousand dollar CF Martin & Co. acoustic guitar – will more than likely stop a 7.26mm X 39mm Kalashnikov round fired from 30 meters away. Maybe Mythbusters will test my hypothesis someday.
Given the “workmanship” that goes into a typical musical instrument flight case, United Airlines’ baggage handlers must be doing their very serious Sylvester Stallone and Jean-Claude Van Damme impressions to have damaged Dave Carroll’s guitars that are safely tucked in into their respective guitar flight cases. Even a newbie lawyer can safely say, “case closed” - but is Dave Carroll really 180 million dollars richer? Maybe that’s a question only he and his travel insurance provider can answer.
Friday, October 9, 2009
BBE Sonic Maximizer: Guitar Tone Friendly?
Despite of being endorsed and used by high-profile Heavy Metal guitarists and bassists during the late 1980s and early 1990s, does the BBE Sonic Maximizer really improve your guitar’s tone?
By: Ringo Bones
After listening to Liz Phair wring out righteous tones from her Fender Duo Sonic guitar on Red Light Fever from her eponymous 2003 album for the umpteenth this past few years. I can now safely conclude that a) you don’t need to play at warp speed to perform a really beautiful guitar solo and b) gorgeously loud midranges are a guitarist’s birthright. Given my recent experiences on how the BBE Sonic Maximizer tends to make those very midrange tones sound like the visual equivalent of an airbrushed photo, I now wonder if the guitar world still really needs this quirky black box. But when it comes to Liz Phair’s guitar playing, I just couldn’t airbrush her already excellent tone - Especially not somebody with that kind of soul. Thus the question now is why did the BBE Sonic Maximizer ever gained inroads into the tone obsessed world of electric guitar playing?
After being endorsed by Megadeth and Skid Row during the Golden Age of Heavy Metal – i.e. the late 1980s and early 1990s. Almost every guitarist around the world coveted of using a BBE Sonic Maximizer just because a growing number of guitarists with a major label deal had began using one. Plus given the growing number of boom-boxes and as an audio system ad-on in both pro recording and domestic hi-fi setting, one could safely say that this is one piece of kit that’s aggressively marketed. But how did it sound?
After obtaining one rather cheaply from our local pawnshop that accepts electric guitars and related pro audio gear. All I can say that the BBE Sonic Maximizer – though can do wonders if you are recording into cassette tapes and intend to use cassette tapes as master tapes – is one of those technologically driven products that can sound mediocre, even awful, in its intended application. Its ability to boost the bass and treble ends of the spectrum tends to ruin the sound of most – if not all – applications related to electric guitar recording and / or connecting your axe to a concert PA system.
One of the main reasons that a very distorted guitar tube amplifier sounds so good is that guitar amp speakers can’t reproduce the higher-order harmonics generated as the guitar player overdrives the tubes by cranking up the amp to 11. If it does it tends to make your guitar rig to sound very shrill and somewhat weak. And there is a surprising amount of infrasonic to low bass energy put out by a typical guitar amp. Due to the guitar strings reacting in a resonant manner with the magnetic bias of the guitar’s pickups. And probably the only time when the BBE Sonic Maximizer produced a righteous guitar tone on the intro of Megadeth’s Train of Consequences from their Youthanasia album. But most of the time, the BBE Sonic Maximizer when used in electric guitar applications tend to make your guitar tone shrill and overly weak while making the bass frequencies honk like a drunken tuba player during Oktoberfest.
While I never compared one side by side, there was a similar audio processor intended to enhance the high and low end of the audio spectrum that came out during the height of the BBE craze. It was called the Aphex Aural Exciter Type C² with Big Bottom. It was supposedly claimed to enhance the high-frequency region of your recordings or electric guitar while making your 8-inch woofer sounds like a 15-inch woofer without making your rig and recordings sound muddy due to tape saturation and / or system overload. Though it was favorably reviewed in some forums by a number of guitarists for improving their tone, I haven’t yet heard it being compared in a side by side showdown with the BBE Sonic Maximizer.
From my point of view I think the BBE Sonic Maximizer and the Aphex Aural Exciter Type C² with Big Bottom were probably produced as tone enhancers by their respective makers - Probably because during the time of these products release, vacuum tubes were getting very scarce. And their respective manufacturers probably decided that since vacuum tubes – and their tone enhancing properties – are going the way of the dodo, it is only logical to create a solid-state based replacement. I can only guess how a BBE Sonic Maximizer could sound – tone wise - if the folks at BBE Sound Inc. decide to make one using Electro-Harmonix 12AX7 preamplifier tubes or equivalent.
By: Ringo Bones
After listening to Liz Phair wring out righteous tones from her Fender Duo Sonic guitar on Red Light Fever from her eponymous 2003 album for the umpteenth this past few years. I can now safely conclude that a) you don’t need to play at warp speed to perform a really beautiful guitar solo and b) gorgeously loud midranges are a guitarist’s birthright. Given my recent experiences on how the BBE Sonic Maximizer tends to make those very midrange tones sound like the visual equivalent of an airbrushed photo, I now wonder if the guitar world still really needs this quirky black box. But when it comes to Liz Phair’s guitar playing, I just couldn’t airbrush her already excellent tone - Especially not somebody with that kind of soul. Thus the question now is why did the BBE Sonic Maximizer ever gained inroads into the tone obsessed world of electric guitar playing?
After being endorsed by Megadeth and Skid Row during the Golden Age of Heavy Metal – i.e. the late 1980s and early 1990s. Almost every guitarist around the world coveted of using a BBE Sonic Maximizer just because a growing number of guitarists with a major label deal had began using one. Plus given the growing number of boom-boxes and as an audio system ad-on in both pro recording and domestic hi-fi setting, one could safely say that this is one piece of kit that’s aggressively marketed. But how did it sound?
After obtaining one rather cheaply from our local pawnshop that accepts electric guitars and related pro audio gear. All I can say that the BBE Sonic Maximizer – though can do wonders if you are recording into cassette tapes and intend to use cassette tapes as master tapes – is one of those technologically driven products that can sound mediocre, even awful, in its intended application. Its ability to boost the bass and treble ends of the spectrum tends to ruin the sound of most – if not all – applications related to electric guitar recording and / or connecting your axe to a concert PA system.
One of the main reasons that a very distorted guitar tube amplifier sounds so good is that guitar amp speakers can’t reproduce the higher-order harmonics generated as the guitar player overdrives the tubes by cranking up the amp to 11. If it does it tends to make your guitar rig to sound very shrill and somewhat weak. And there is a surprising amount of infrasonic to low bass energy put out by a typical guitar amp. Due to the guitar strings reacting in a resonant manner with the magnetic bias of the guitar’s pickups. And probably the only time when the BBE Sonic Maximizer produced a righteous guitar tone on the intro of Megadeth’s Train of Consequences from their Youthanasia album. But most of the time, the BBE Sonic Maximizer when used in electric guitar applications tend to make your guitar tone shrill and overly weak while making the bass frequencies honk like a drunken tuba player during Oktoberfest.
While I never compared one side by side, there was a similar audio processor intended to enhance the high and low end of the audio spectrum that came out during the height of the BBE craze. It was called the Aphex Aural Exciter Type C² with Big Bottom. It was supposedly claimed to enhance the high-frequency region of your recordings or electric guitar while making your 8-inch woofer sounds like a 15-inch woofer without making your rig and recordings sound muddy due to tape saturation and / or system overload. Though it was favorably reviewed in some forums by a number of guitarists for improving their tone, I haven’t yet heard it being compared in a side by side showdown with the BBE Sonic Maximizer.
From my point of view I think the BBE Sonic Maximizer and the Aphex Aural Exciter Type C² with Big Bottom were probably produced as tone enhancers by their respective makers - Probably because during the time of these products release, vacuum tubes were getting very scarce. And their respective manufacturers probably decided that since vacuum tubes – and their tone enhancing properties – are going the way of the dodo, it is only logical to create a solid-state based replacement. I can only guess how a BBE Sonic Maximizer could sound – tone wise - if the folks at BBE Sound Inc. decide to make one using Electro-Harmonix 12AX7 preamplifier tubes or equivalent.
Remembering Woodstock: Which Woodstock?
It’s been 40 years since that fateful day of August 1969 when the first ever Woodstock was born, but which Woodstock made the best impression in the minds of most of the world’s guitar slingers?
By: Ringo Bones
Whether you’ll agree with then or not, many of us guitar slingers see the 1969 Woodstock as that historic moment that raised the electric guitar to its present – and probably it’s future - iconic status. Even though I’m born a few years after the original Woodstock, I’m somewhat old enough to own a brain that automatically defaults to that iconic summer of 1969 event whenever the topic of Woodstock springs to mind. Thus further reinforcing the belief that: “If you remember the 1960s, you’re not really there, man.” Given the relatively low-key festivities commemorating the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock in 2009, I wonder if it still registers in the global consciousness of guitar slingers everywhere.
When Jimi Hendrix played Woodstock back in August 18, 1969, he had really made it to the very top of a musical mountain that has become ever tougher to climb as the years went by. Having just disbanded The Experience – Hendrix’s then iconic trio – Jimi has thus started to explore fresh musical horizons. Hendrix assembled his new band for the Woodstock gig – Gypsy Sun & Rainbows – while a hastily scratched out set list forever made him a musical icon in the guitar world. Sadly, only hardcore “Hendrixphiles” ever remembers second guitarist Larry Lee and the two percussionists, Juma Sultan and Jerry Velez - The almost “last minute” additions of his now iconic 1969 Woodstock lineup. With the sun rising over Yasgur’s farm – it was 9:00 Monday morning when Hendrix, the festival headliner, actually took the stage - fortunately for us.
Chances are there are probably more guitar slingers out there who remember the 1994 “Seattle Grunge” Woodstock supposedly commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the iconic musical event. Instead, it projected the impression of a mud-drenched and psychotropic addled marketing ploy of David Geffen and those two guys who owned Sub Pop records doing their damnedest to make Seattle Grunge a global phenomenon in the wake of Kurt Cobain’s untimely passing. While the 1999 Woodstock that supposedly commemorates the 30th Anniversary of the original event will forever be remembered for the 12 ounce of bottled water being sold for eight dollars each - Not to mention the misogynistic grope-fest.
Even though our supposedly grandiose 40th Anniversary festivities slated for celebrating Woodstock this 2009 has decided to become low-key. Is it because that we are currently in a global recession? Or is it because of the untimely passing of someone who should have been performing in the original 1969 Woodstock – i.e. Michael Jackson with the Jackson 5? Who knows, maybe Ang Lee should have done something better than that somewhat quirky 1969 Woodstock based comedy?
From my perspective, the 1969 Woodstock has always been about my two favorite musicians / guitarists – namely Richie Havens and Jimi Hendrix. While Jimi Hendrix’s lasting legacy was establishing the artistic and technical how-to in playing electric guitar in front of thousands of people. While Richie Havens – after opening for the 1969 Woodstock - still made the acoustic guitar relevant in the time of man walking on the Moon and other scientific advances - if you play it right by the way.
Richie Havens was probably one of the first “celebrity environmentalist” after he promoted environmentally sustainable living. Havens is probably the most famous resident of Arcosanti, an environmentally sustainable village designed by architect Paolo Soleri. This was in the early to mid 1990s, at the time when then US vice president Al Gore speak about the dangers of excessive greenhouse gases produced by industry, the extreme Christian Right of America were still too clueless to deny about global warming in the vice president’s face. Not to mention Richie Havens’ talent for making remakes of other people’s songs sound like his own. His remake of James Taylor’s iconic Fire and Rain is still often mistaken as being originally done by Havens himself – a perception often harbored by novice James Taylor fans.
Despite of being the venue of America’s first “boy band” – i.e. does Sha Na Na count? The1969 Woodstock will forever be remembered as the venue where high decibel electric guitar playing came of age. Not to mention this is probably the first venue where cultural diversity through music first became cool to the under 25s.
By: Ringo Bones
Whether you’ll agree with then or not, many of us guitar slingers see the 1969 Woodstock as that historic moment that raised the electric guitar to its present – and probably it’s future - iconic status. Even though I’m born a few years after the original Woodstock, I’m somewhat old enough to own a brain that automatically defaults to that iconic summer of 1969 event whenever the topic of Woodstock springs to mind. Thus further reinforcing the belief that: “If you remember the 1960s, you’re not really there, man.” Given the relatively low-key festivities commemorating the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock in 2009, I wonder if it still registers in the global consciousness of guitar slingers everywhere.
When Jimi Hendrix played Woodstock back in August 18, 1969, he had really made it to the very top of a musical mountain that has become ever tougher to climb as the years went by. Having just disbanded The Experience – Hendrix’s then iconic trio – Jimi has thus started to explore fresh musical horizons. Hendrix assembled his new band for the Woodstock gig – Gypsy Sun & Rainbows – while a hastily scratched out set list forever made him a musical icon in the guitar world. Sadly, only hardcore “Hendrixphiles” ever remembers second guitarist Larry Lee and the two percussionists, Juma Sultan and Jerry Velez - The almost “last minute” additions of his now iconic 1969 Woodstock lineup. With the sun rising over Yasgur’s farm – it was 9:00 Monday morning when Hendrix, the festival headliner, actually took the stage - fortunately for us.
Chances are there are probably more guitar slingers out there who remember the 1994 “Seattle Grunge” Woodstock supposedly commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the iconic musical event. Instead, it projected the impression of a mud-drenched and psychotropic addled marketing ploy of David Geffen and those two guys who owned Sub Pop records doing their damnedest to make Seattle Grunge a global phenomenon in the wake of Kurt Cobain’s untimely passing. While the 1999 Woodstock that supposedly commemorates the 30th Anniversary of the original event will forever be remembered for the 12 ounce of bottled water being sold for eight dollars each - Not to mention the misogynistic grope-fest.
Even though our supposedly grandiose 40th Anniversary festivities slated for celebrating Woodstock this 2009 has decided to become low-key. Is it because that we are currently in a global recession? Or is it because of the untimely passing of someone who should have been performing in the original 1969 Woodstock – i.e. Michael Jackson with the Jackson 5? Who knows, maybe Ang Lee should have done something better than that somewhat quirky 1969 Woodstock based comedy?
From my perspective, the 1969 Woodstock has always been about my two favorite musicians / guitarists – namely Richie Havens and Jimi Hendrix. While Jimi Hendrix’s lasting legacy was establishing the artistic and technical how-to in playing electric guitar in front of thousands of people. While Richie Havens – after opening for the 1969 Woodstock - still made the acoustic guitar relevant in the time of man walking on the Moon and other scientific advances - if you play it right by the way.
Richie Havens was probably one of the first “celebrity environmentalist” after he promoted environmentally sustainable living. Havens is probably the most famous resident of Arcosanti, an environmentally sustainable village designed by architect Paolo Soleri. This was in the early to mid 1990s, at the time when then US vice president Al Gore speak about the dangers of excessive greenhouse gases produced by industry, the extreme Christian Right of America were still too clueless to deny about global warming in the vice president’s face. Not to mention Richie Havens’ talent for making remakes of other people’s songs sound like his own. His remake of James Taylor’s iconic Fire and Rain is still often mistaken as being originally done by Havens himself – a perception often harbored by novice James Taylor fans.
Despite of being the venue of America’s first “boy band” – i.e. does Sha Na Na count? The1969 Woodstock will forever be remembered as the venue where high decibel electric guitar playing came of age. Not to mention this is probably the first venue where cultural diversity through music first became cool to the under 25s.
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