Allédyne™ is the banner name I put on anything software or hardware I create or modify. In the beginning, I started throwing this name on modified software synth GUI's and DAW GUI's. As I began developing hardware mods; such as electronic drum trigger systems, 'partscaster' guitars and audio circuit designs. I adapted this name to those projects as well... **SEE VIDEO BELOW FOR FULL DEMONSTRATION** Since 1981, the Boss SD-1 has been found on the pedal boards and recording studio floors of a myriad of performing and recording artists. As Roland® Corporation's answer to the Ibanez® TS-9 "Tube Screamer", this pedal has become a classic in its own right. I first off have to give kudos to the person(s) at Roland who originally designed this pedal; even if they may have referenced the circuit design of the TS-9 for the SD-1 topography. Honestly, many, many pedal companies and boutique builders have copied or mused off the TS-9 circuit. Nevertheless I, of course, did not design this pedal. While It's been a fun challenge to come up with circuit modifications to the original design that enhance the pedal's capability for differing music genres; it is a different thing all together to create a workable electric circuit from the ground up. If it weren't for the engineer(s) at Roland and other companies, I would not have pedals to create modifications for. The Allédyne modification of the Boss® SD-1 Super OverDrive provides the recording guitarist/musician with a single affordable hot-rodded versatile overdrive pedal. With this single pedal, one has the ability to set up a tailored guitar sound for backing/rhythm guitar performance and bed tracking. While this pedal mod can certainly be used stacked with other pedals or alone for soloing, it is clearly designed to stay within the overdrive range. That being said however, turning the knobs up all the way will, without question, rock the house. . . It gets seriously meaty. Circuit modded features include:
Aesthetically modded features include:
**This pedal mod has great touch sensitivity and works well for setting up a 'dynamic' overdrive effect (Check out the segment 12:14 on the Full DEMO video.)** I exclusively use metal film resistors and high-quality capacitors in all pedal discrete component modifications. In the case of this pedal; Nichicon film capacitors and TDK Class I ceramic capacitors. The Allédyne modded SD-1 exhibits a wide ranging capability for crafting all sorts of tube like 'break-up' sounds, from punchy Vox/Fender like tones (Mode II) to burning Marshall JTM like tones (Mode I)... The tone control has been re-voiced to allow the response of the pedal to remain musical even with the knob opened all the way. No more fizzy, thin, or shrill top end. Two clipping modes work with the Level and Drive settings for honing in on that 'just-right' sound. Mode I: Symmetrical clipping using combination of LEDs and rectifying diodes. Mode II: Asymmetrical clipping using LEDs. More available gain with an extended low frequency response helps the pedal push a tube amp’s clean channel into an overdriven state by using the Level knob alone (boost configuration). Check pedal availability at: The information you submit above will only be used to provide news about Allédyne Mod™. You will not receive unrelated solicitations.
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Do You Have HDEPD? If you play electric guitar, you might want to read this and find out how I can help, maybe? Now that a remaster of my classic art rock album, SONCOMBER,REVISITED, has been released. The charity campaign associated with it is up and running. I'm able to start looking at the production timeline for the future. Coming soon for me, a new project is waiting. As always, it seems like yet another mountain I have to figure out how to climb... I wonder if Sir Edmund Hillary ever wondered how he would survive any of his expeditions? I'm not trying to complain. Certainly, I feel grateful for the opportunity to produce more music. Nonetheless, it does seem daunting at times. While I have survived, for now, my battle with Hairy cell leukemia, it's specter (until a cure is found) remains and my body is not the same as before... Again, this is not a complaint, just a statement of fact. I continue to make adjustments every day. As I have stated many times previously, don't we all have demons to battle? Let’s battle them... On that note, what better way to engage the darkness than with a little levity... In this case, with a lot of light-hearted nonsensical musings by yours truly but with some serious real world advice at the end. I once fought a certain little monster for quite sometime in my musical life. While It had no potential to end my existence, was really quite inconsequential, and was actually ridiculous; it still was "a thing" for me... Utilizing the many psychological degrees, I had obtained. . . NOT! I decided to diagnose myself with Hallucinogenic Dissociative Effects Pedal Disorder. Yes, this is totally preposterous and contrived, but it sounds good... or bad, depending on how you look at it. This is a disorder that only affects electric guitar players locked in a quest for 'ultimate tone.' More specifically, the ultimate tone when employing the use of effects pedals. . .The quest for tone with regards to guitar amps and speaker cabinets go beyond the scope of this writing so I will not be addressing that here. One is afflicted with HDEPD when you: 1. Dream of the ultimate effects pedal driven tone so much that you begin to see and hear things that aren’t there, 2. Dissociate different potential tones into multiple conflicting sound “personalities” at war with each other, 3. Collapse into complete hysteria due to the fact that you are unable to reconcile any of the sounds as 'your sound.' I use my Strymon Bigsky on all types of things other than guitar... synths, vocals, etc. Rightly so, because this pedal is not cheap. It's ability to store presets, produce studio quality reverb effects, is midi equipped, expression pedal controllable coupled with being able to handle a wide range of mono or stereo line level inputs/outputs justified the hefty price tag... at least to me. There are literally thousands of guitar effects pedals on the market today. The explosion of a myriad of 'boutique' pedal builders over the last decade has absolutely saturated the market with choices for guitarists... TOO MANY CHOICES! I have had the privilege to use and own a lot of different pedals in my personal hunt for the 'ultimate tone.' I have bought and sold more guitar pedals over the years than any other type of musical equipment I employ. It can become a bit of an obsession. I’m sure this sounds familiar to many a player reading this... It all came to a head when I realized one day that I had contracted HDEPD! Arrrg! As someone who has since learned to run from the madness of Hallucinogenic Dissociative Effects Pedal Disorder; I wish to impart three (3) points of sober advice to the budding or experienced electric guitarist searching for his/her 'ultimate tone.' This advice also comes from my many years experience as a recording musician, producer, and audio engineer. Here are three concepts to hold close to your guitar playing heart: 1. There is no such thing as 'ultimate tone.' It is as mythical an idea as Shangri-la... There are only good tones and bad tones. Honestly, the differences between the two are judged within the context of the music in which they are used. 2. Use what is affordable or available to you. I guarantee when making a recording. 90% of the time you can come up with something that works within the context of the song using the equipment you have at the time. This is the method your favorite guitar hero’s used. Especially when they were just starting out. It forced them to be creative. They fiddled around with whatever they had or were given to them until it worked. Sometimes this simply meant plugging straight into a channel of the recording console and overdriving it’s preamp. No pedals (or even guitar amps) there! If you take the time to learn to use what you have in creative ways (whether by playing technique or recording technique); you will find less and less need to go on a multi-thousand dollar pedal quest... 3. Other than to other fellow guitarists, the music buying (or streaming) public DOES NOT CARE how you got your sound and what you used to get it. Whether you used a $50 recycled, road worn, ProCo RAT2 or a $2,500 collectable Klon Centaur is of no importance to the public. They only care that it sounds good within the context of the music. The public is much more interested in what kind of guitar part you come up with than it’s sound. The public is very opened mined to different sounds. . . Only we guitar snobs care about 'proper tone' and what seemingly prestigious gear we use to get it... I freely acknowledge that there are many, many great guitar effects pedals out there from a seemingly endless list of manufactures. I’m not going to suggest you should only purchase budget pedals because that is all that is required. Or to only stick with much more expensive brands because they often offer expanded/exotic capabilities. Those decisions are entirely up to you. They are directly related to what kind of pedal you’re after, what kind of music you’re playing and what kind of budget you have. My reason for writing this article is to simply help bring some perspective and insight to the quest for 'ultimate tone.' Hopefully, these words will help keep you from spending thousands of dollars unnecessarily searching for something that does not exist... That will likely only end in a serious case of Hallucinogenic Dissociative Effects Pedal Disorder! My favorite multi-effects pedal. This pedal has many great reverbs, delays, and special f/x, I mainly use the the MS-70CDR for chorus pedal modeling... Whether using the model of the Boss CE-1, EHX Small Clone, MXR M234, etc. the modeled sounds and characteristics are very close to the original hardware, many of which I also own or have owned. The advantage here is to not have to deal with expensive repair and upkeep of vintage pedals. Spring, 1975, sitting in my father’s blue Ford F-150 I look out aimlessly onto the road as the vague blur of buildings and open fields whiz by. The balmy evening is a nice reprieve from the cold gusty Wyoming winter. Life in Cheyenne as a six year old brings a great diversity of activities, depending on the time of year. Dad smiles while unexpectedly slowing, pulling the vehicle into the parking lot of some unfamiliar retail building. Stopping the truck he hastily comments that he has some business to attend to at the “Trading Post” and opens the drivers side door. I watch him jump up the small step way to the entrance and disappear inside. My mother waits in the pickup with me. Some time goes by... In a soft voice I am reassured that it shouldn’t be too much longer. The door swings open suddenly and a man comes out taking careful but awkward steps toward our vehicle. Silhouetted against the parking lot lights I can make out the ever familiar shapes of drums being carried by my father; a bass drum with two tom-toms and a small cymbal attached. Dad opens the topper covered truck bed and loads them in, along with a floor tom, snare drum, and other various parts. He hops back in the driver's seat. My parents explain to me while traveling home that they have just bought me a used but professional quality drum-set, the price of which was 250 dollars (a lot of money at the time to be spending on something other than gas, food, and a mortgage). I am completely taken by surprise. Evidently, according to them, They felt I showed promise musically after 'Santa' had left the toy Mickey Mouse drum-set for me over Christmas, the set which I forthrightly played and totally destroyed in a short two week period. I’m amazed, I’m confused, but most of all, I’m excited... I still have those drums! They are Pearl™ model NC-4DL Deluxe. They were made in 1972 out of 9 ply fiberglass / mahogany shells with a sparkle blue wrap finish. I remember the drum shells had a discernible but pleasant aroma. I sometimes would just sit and admire them set up in the corner of the family room, their sparkly finish glistening like tinsel in the dimly lighted expanse. To my young mind, they were supernatural. They still do have a very distinct scent, probably due to the composite materials they were put together with. These were the drums I eventually started and continued my early musical career with. Soundcheck before a performance with CHIVALRY, Great Falls, MT. 1984. The Pearl drums had now been added to a new set of black colored TAMA drums and refinished to match. The Pearls are on the right side of the full kit as viewed in this photo. This is a picture I had given to my Grandmother, Kathryn. Many, many years later, after she passed, this print was returned to my possession. The handwritten note at the bottom reads, 'Grandma, To a good person who I love a lot. Thank you for all the support you've given me! Love, Jdj (Jeffrey David Jewkes).' I subsequently retired my revered Pearls from performing and recording service in the summer of 1987. Since then I’ve recorded and performed with many different drum brands. To name a few: Slingerland, Yamaha, Gretsch, Dixon, Ludwig, TAMA, as well as electronic drums from Simmons and Roland. All the while drums came and went, were bought and sold, the Pearls remained quietly sequestered in storage, waiting... In the fall of 2014, some 27 years after their official retirement and in preparation for new ventures, I woke these old relics up from their long slumber. I’ve restored and re-configured them. I’ve given them a contemporary color finish. In a modern twist I've installed custom designed and built (by yours truly) electronic triggers. My plan is to use them in two potential configurations for an upcoming production: 1. As an acoustic set. 2. As part of a hybrid electronic kit.
Why did I go through the trouble of getting these time-honored drums back in shape you ask? For recording reasons, it’s all about sound. They have a certain sound I’m after. For emotional reasons, it’s all about nostalgia...These new undertakings are defiantly going to have a reflective aspect of my earlier years. What better way to pay homage to those years than to utilize an instrument from the general era. Sure, I own other newer drums... Sure, I am able to obtain pretty much any kind, type, brand of drum-set I want. Doing so however, would not accomplish what is the most important angle to me personally, though. You see, using these particular drums once again is a nod and tip-of-the-hat to my Mom and Dad, two true 'pearls' who have ceaselessly admired my talents... Two true 'pearls' that believed enough in my young abilities to invest their effort (and a significant amount of money) to provide me with my first set of real drums. An act that laid the ground work for my path in music. So, ultimately, the motivation to reinstate these drums after all these years is to foster the hope that they might stand as a simple symbolic gesture toward my parents; that every sound they make voices my love and respect. History seems to show again and again inventions, born purely of good intent, can become victims of ignorance and superstition. Such is the case of Benjamin Franklin's Armonica; otherwise known as the Glass Harmonica. Already famous as a scientist, in 1757, Franklin traveled to London with the design to lobby parliament for the Pennsylvania Colonial Legislature. Franklin was also an accomplished musician, able to play several instruments and compose as well. An avid concert goer, he was inspired one night after hearing a colleague from the Royal Society perform on the musical glasses. The basic principle of this instrument was to collect a set of fine glasses. Tune them by adding or subtracting water and play them by applying one's fingers in a circular motion around the rims producing a soft resonant tone. Franklin set out to refine this idea. In a letter to Giambatista Beccania of Italy, he explained, 'I wish only to see the glasses disposed in a more convenient form, and brought together in a narrower compass, so as to admit of a greater number of tunes, and all within the reach of hand to a person sitting before the instrument.' AFranklin enlisted the help of a London glass blower named Charles James. Glass was blown in a hemispherical shape in varying sizes from small to large. Thirty-seven bowls were made in total, enough to facilitate a three-octave range. Each bowl had an open neck. This allowed them to be stacked, one partially inside the other, supported by an iron rod running through the center like a spindle. The spindle was then placed horizontally in a wooden case. One end attached to a disk, shank and floor pedal, to cause the bowls to turn like a spinning wheel. Franklin painted the inside rim of each bowl a different color to identify the notes: dark blue for A, purple for B, C was red, D orange, E yellow, F green and G blue. He then painted the bowls designated for sharps and flats white. The instrument was played by the performer placing his/her clean slightly wet finders across the rims of the revolving bowls, thus producing sound. Initial reaction among his contemporaries was ecstatic. Comments were continually made about the Armonica being a celestial, angelic, or heavenly sounding instrument. Franklin once remarked in a letter that the tones were, 'incomparably sweet beyond those of any other.' Franklin took his instrument around where ever he went and for the next two decades its popularity flourished, especially throughout Europe. Classical composers began publishing works written specifically for the Armonica. Among the most famous were Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig Van Beethoven. Indeed Franklin's creation seemed destined to become the next great instrument of music history, once again boosting his already genius status as a statesman and scientist. However, it was not to be. Over the course of time strange events began to take shape surrounding Armonica performances. Many known players and enthusiasts began complaining of unexplained maladies such as: dizziness, nervousness, spasms, swelling of the joints, etc. Superstitions started to abound that listening to the Armonica invoked spirits from the dead, drove people mad and possessed supernatural powers. It's interesting to note that Viennese psychiatrist Franz Mesmer, known for his theory of "Animal Magnetism' (now considered one of the pioneers of hypnotism) used the Armonica as a key element in his hypno-magnetic séances. A Belgian physicist named Ftienne-Gaspard Robertson later incorporated the sounds of the Armonica. In a series of frightening demonstrations he exhibited a devise called the 'Magic Lantern' from which modern slide and movie projectors where derived. There is at least one documented instance, in Germany, where a child died during an Armonica concert. Franklin himself never experienced any adverse symptoms and generally ignored the controversies respecting his beloved instrument. Franklin passed away in 1790. By the late 18th century the popularity of his invention was in serious decline. J.C. Muller in an instructional manual written in 1788 commented, 'If you have been upset by harmful novels, false friends, or perhaps a deceiving girl, then abstain from playing the armonica. It will only upset you even more. There are people of this kind of both sexes who must be advised not to study the instrument, in order that their state of mind should not be aggravated.' In the Allgemeine Muzikalische Zeitung of 1798 Friedrich Rochlitz further maintained that the reason for the 'scarcity' of armonica players was due to the opinion the instrument caused melancholy moods. Also, nagging depression and slow self-annihilation. He further sited comments from physicians explaining that, 'the sharp penetrating tone runs like a spark through the entire nervous system, forcibly shaking it up and causing nervous disorders.' Due to the immense paranoia established around the Amonica and including the fact that new instruments such as the Celesta, Pianoforte' and modern Piano were being developed, Franklin's instrument had become virtually extinct by the mid 1820's. Toward the end of the 20th century, in 1982, a glass maker from Boston named Gerhard Finkenbeiner began the revival of this once loved and then feared instrument. He established, independently, his own research and experimentation, beginning production on the new, modernized, version of Franklin's Glass Armonica shortly thereafter. The instrument retained many of the original design characteristics. The most notable improvement might have been the electric motor that spun the bowls instead of a foot pedal. Finkenbeiner once proclaimed, 'The glass armonica has always intrigued me. . .so eerie, floating, coming out of nowhere. And the look of it, the stories about its magic effects, have always interested me.' Tragically however in a strange episode, Mr. Finkenbeiner unexpectedly left work one cloudy afternoon in May 1999. He boarded his cherished Piper Arrow airplane and took off never to be seen again. No evidence of a crash has ever been found. A current statement found on the G. Finkenbeiner Inc. website states, 'G.F.I. has been producing Gerhard Finkenbeiner's patented quartz glass armonicas for nearly 30 years. In honor of Mr. Finkenbeiner's legacy, improvements continue to be added to the process in accordance with his dreams of breathing new life into Franklin's musical invention.' Claude-Ann Lopez, editor of Yale Universities Papers of Benjamin Franklin Project and an established expert on his life, claims the glass armonica was Franklin's favorite invention. "He was terribly proud of that. He delighted in it. . .It was something that gave him great joy.” Today, standing at the dawn of the 21st century, Frankin's glass armonica lives on. The instrument has received, thanks to Gerhard Finkenbeiner and a small consortium of enthusiasts, a resurrection; a feat that most musical instruments of antiquity never accomplish. It seems sadly ironic nevertheless that what was probably Franklin's most loved invention became, along side his many great accomplishments, the one least known. Particularly among the descendants of his own countryman. *** Preface - I like to name the guitars I own and use. The following is a post about one of them, presented with a classic b/w slideshow portfolio. Photographs by yours truly. *** Eurydice [yoo-rid-uh-see], a forest nymph from Greek Mythology; She was the wife of Orpheus, the fabled musician and poet. What a fitting name for such an exotic guitar, right? Exotic in the concept, that is. The guitar itself is just a Taylor® GS Mini™ set-up for an 'out-of-the-box' high string tuning. I want to use the word 'just' respectfully, though, because it is a Taylor®. The GS Mini™ is the one with a Spruce top and Sapele back and sides. I removed the pick-guard because I'm not in to the stock tortoise shell (Tortoloid) look. I’ve named my tuning concept and future planned from the ground up guitar build/design as, Guitar d’Amore™ (guitar of love). The real concept here is the peculiar “high-string” tuning of E3-G3-C4-C4-D4-E4. The C notes are a 'double coarse' (tuned in unison). The guitar, when strummed openly, sounds the equivalent of a Cadd9 chord with the D sitting inside the triad or like a Csus2 with the third included. Also, the open strummed voicing is inverted with the E and G notes below the tonic. I came up with this tuning awhile back and wrote a song specifically for it. The song is titled, L’histoire De Guerre. French for, 'war history.' It’s a beautiful 'folky' finger-styled song that I’ve yet to record formally. The music is similar, stylistically, to Annabel In The Moonlight. I originally worked with this concept on a cheap 'no-name' guitar but switched to the modified Taylor® for the benefits of timbre (pronounced tam-ber) quality and intonation stability. This basically means I’m now ready and serious about recording the song mentioned above as well as using this unique tonality for new material in current production.
*** Preface - I like to name the guitars I own and use. The following is a post about one of them, presented with a classic b/w slideshow portfolio. Photographs by yours truly. *** A fruity treat so cool and sweet . . . a lovely mix I like to drink . . . ~Jeff Jewkes (Yeah, I made this dorky stanza up for the blog. Watcha gonna do about it?!) When I first put this guitar in my hands and began to play I exclaimed, 'Now this one's smooth!' The image of a refreshing desert like beverage actually came later. It didn't take too long, however, to connect smooth playing feel... 3-tone sun burst...'Smoothie!' So the formula of naming a guitar often goes... Physical impressions multiplied by emotional response = name. Now days, I refer to this guitar as 'Calypso.' In reference to both the music genre and the sea nymph in Homer's 'Odyssey.' A Strat.. is a Strat... is a Strat, right? We'll, no, at least not in my book. I don't know what it is about Fender® No two guitars seem the same to me when it comes to feel, built, playability, etc. I'm not just talking minor variances. I really mean no two Fender guitars feel the same to me. I demo two Strats, the exact same model, with the exact same appointments. They'll feel and play totally different from one another. One feels good, the other, horrible . . . Sometimes, both feel horrible. Sometimes, every Strat in a store feels horrible! That has been my experience, anyway. I personally came to the conclusion a long time ago that if you're into acquiring your 'special' Stratocaster®; you're going to have to find a dealer with a lot of them in stock, walk in the door, sit down, play them all, take your time and 'cherry pick' one out. It is the 'Fender way.' I guess. If I were to compare two exact models of a Taylor® guitar, let's say. The result would be that they play, sound, and feel the same. There's a consistency with Taylor guitars that you can rely on... Not so with Fender. This 'peculiarity' with Fender has evidently been around since time immortal. To prove my point, let's examine the case of Eric Clapton's famous and most favorite Strat, 'Blackie.' It is not just a 'cherry picked' Strat, but three (3) hand selected Strats in one. Around 1970, Mr. Clapton purchased six (6) 50's era Stratocasters. He gave three (3) away to George Harrison, Pete Townshend, and Stevie Winwood respectively. He then 'cherry picked' the finest parts from the three remaining guitars and, with the help of luthier Ted Newman Jones, forged together 'Blackie.' There is no intended connection with the names 'Smoothie' and 'Blackie.' The similarities with the 'ie' in both is purely coincidental, or subconscious at best. Besides, 'Blackie' is a famous Fender Stratocaster. 'Smoothie', while great in my mind will likely never receive the admiration 'Blackie' gets. In case you haven't already figured out, I'm not Eric Clapton! Neither am I the next guy I'm going to talk about, Alex Lifeson of Rush. I'll use Alex's Strats as an example of what a lot of guitar players do with their Fenders. That is, modify them to fit their needs. Mr. Lifeson (Mr. Živojinović if you really want to identify him by his real last name, or you could just call him, 'Lerxst') modified his Strats so aggressively he dropped the Fender name off of the guitars and came up with his own. 'Hentor' was the name, the 'Hentor Sportscaster' to be exact. Given Alex's typical sense of humor, he came up with the name as a joke referring to the bands producer at the time, Peter Henderson. 'Hentor was the name that we had for Peter Henderson, the producer of 'Grace Under Pressure.' When he wrote his name out to leave us his number, it looked like Peter Hentor instead of Peter Henderson, so we nicknamed him Hentor The Barbarian. I got some Letraset and put it on this white Strat that I had. It has a Shark neck - these are unlabeled replacement necks - so I threw 'Hentor Sportscaster' on there. Amazing all the mail we used to get over that [laughs]: 'Where can I buy a Hentor? How much does a Hentor cost?'" - Alex Lifeson, in the April 1986 Guitar Player magazine Alex's Fender Stratocaster ('Hentor Sportscaster'), was modified with a 'Shark' neck, a Bill Lawrence L500 humbucking pickup in the bridge position, custom cut pick guard, re-worked electronics with a Gibson® toggle switch mounted in the lower body cutaway, Original Floyd Rose® 'non-locking' tremolo and, of course, the 'Hentor Sportscaster' logo on the headstock.
So, in the tradition of countless Strat players, known and un-known, I too have modified 'Smoothie/Calypso' (an American Standard™ Stratocaster®). Actually, this guitar is not so much 'modified' as it is 'hot-rodded' with upgraded parts. Such as: Super-Vee® vibrato bridge. Schaller® locking tuning gears in 'satin chrome' finish, 3-ply (black-white-black) pick guard, and my favorite volume / tone knobs I buy from Radio Shack®. *** Preface - I like to name the guitars I own and use. The following is a post about one of them, presented with a classic b/w slideshow portfolio. Photographs by yours truly. *** I like to say I first discovered Wechter Guitars through my many dealings with Sweetwater®. That would only be partly true though. In actuality, I came across my first Wechter in a Seattle WA, guitar store. I was there trying out various Larrivée® acoustic guitars. I remember seeing a guitar up on display with the name 'Wechter' on the headstock. I inquired about it. The salesman said a 'boutique' builder in the area made it. The salesman also told me the builders name was Ambraham Wechter and that he had a shop based in the cities 'University District.' When doing a little research for this post I discovered that Wechter started his Seattle shop in 1973. He then moved to Michigan in 1975 to study under master luthier Richard Schneider. I was in Seattle looking for Larrivées around 2001, which puts Wechter's presence there quite a ways back in history compared to the time I arrived. So, as I recall now, I'm not quite sure how I could have run into one of his early guitars. Maybe, despite the fact he moved away, he developed some kind of distribution deal with the Seattle based stores to continue to carry his instruments? Maybe, it was actually a used one left over from when he was active in the area? Maybe someone had traded it in? Hmmm ... Few 'boutique' guitar builders have national, or even regional distribution. If you want a guitar, you usually have to go straight to the source. Once doing so, there is often a several month to several year wait before you can physically acquire an instrument. It's part of doing business with a literal 'one-man-shop.' If you can afford to wait (and afford the price tag) then it might seem worth it in the end. By any means, I was at the store that day to buy some Larrivée guitars. So, I did. I purchased two (2) of them in fact. I didn't even take the Wechter off the shelf to strum it. Perhaps, I should have. Fast forward to 2009. I'm in Colorado looking through a nice fat full-colored sales catalogue Sweetwater had just sent me in the mail. Sweetwater, B&H Photo, Full-Compass and others like to send me these thick catalogues full of gear. because evidently I buy enough stuff from them that they think I'm worth the money they spend on printing and shipping the said catalogues; to try to entice me to buy even more stuff from them. I'm ashamed to say it but this strategy has worked well on me in the past. They dangle the candy in front of my face and I raid the jar in response. Dang! I guess that makes them brilliant and me a gear lusting sucker! Before you shake your head too much though, I humbly submit. How many of you also get those nice flashy catalogues in the mail? If you do, every wonder why those companies are spending the money they do sending it to you? G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome), We've all had to wean ourselves off, but I digress. To make a now long story short . . . er, after being re-introduced to Wechter Guitars via the Sweetwater catalogue, I purchased a Nashville Special Elite Cutaway. It was touted as being the worlds first 'purpose built' high-string production guitar. Meaning the wood choice, body style, soundboard thickness, bracing, etc., were specifically chosen to accentuate this type of instrument. Presumably (to cut down on the retail asking price) the guitar was 'factory built' under Wechters guidance, supervision and certification in a plant located in Guangzhou, China. I was comfortable with this fact, at least in part, because I already owned other instruments, namely my Pearl River® studio upright piano, that had also been built from one of the Guangzhou factories. You can hear the Pearl River on the single, The Other Side. To this day, I still have my 'moral conflicts' when buying products made in China, the main issue being my suspicion of a Communist government exploiting it's workforce. But then again, in today’s world, how does one avoid buying anything that doesn't have at least one part of it made in China? American flags I've purchased for Independence Day celebrations have had the words printed, 'Made in China', on the spine for heavens sake! Talk about ironic... I named this guitar 'Little Wings' because it works agreeably with my Taylor 612ce (aka 'Wings'). If you look at the guitar, the Rosewood saddle block is shaped kind of like a pair of stretched out 'wings' as well. It plays great and sounds beautiful. It uses the traditional 'Nashville' (high-string) tuning of E3-A3-D4-G4-B3-E4. This, basically, gives you a six-string guitar strung-up with the 'high' strings only from a twelve-string set. The term 'Nashville' comes in deference to the long historical use of the 'high-string' concept. By musicians from the traditional Old-Time / Bluegrass / Country music scene found in and around Nashville, Tennessee. One of the advantages of using this instrument (instead of a single twelve-string guitar) is you can record a main guitar part with one set of chord positions. Then overdub the 'Nashville' guitar using inverted chord positions based off the original recorded track. Mixed together, this can produce some very pleasing richly stacked voicing in the music that would otherwise be physically unachievable with a standard twelve-string. Here's a Youtube link with Abraham Wechter himself talking about his path into guitar building: The Story Of Wechter Guitars. *** Preface - I like to name the guitars I own and use. The following is a post about one of them, presented with a classic b/w slideshow portfolio. Photographs by yours truly. *** "Iwis it is not halfway to her heart. But if it were, doubt not her care should be To comb your noodle with a three-legged stool, And paint your face and use you like a fool." (1.1.61–65) The Taming of the Shrew ~ William Shakespeare 'I have a love/hate-relationship with Fender®. I love the distinctive classic sound one can achieve with a Stratocaster® or a Telecaster® but I hate some of the idiosyncrasies inherit in these instruments. Some of these quirks I attribute to the modern Fender Co. apparent apathy, at times, with quality control and how these guitars are sometimes put (or seemingly slapped) together these days. Believe it or not; the worst offenders I've found are the top-end American made guitars. I've quite often been presented with "American Standard™" or "American Deluxe™" guitars exhibiting workmanship, fit and finish so shoddy I felt sick to my stomach; considering how much money they cost. Some model years are good. Some model years are bad. Fender is currently the biggest guitar company in the world. To be quite candid, I think that fact goes to their heads sometimes. I certainly applaud Fenders tremendous success. Nevertheless, I often feel the company slips in and out of what I call, 'branding syndrome.' Where the 'powers that be' seem more concerned with propagating the Fender name than continuing Leo Fender's tradition of building a quality instrument. Other issues lie with the original design itself. Although Leo Fender was a pioneer in the adaption of "electrified" instruments, some of his initial ideas, by today’s standards, seem strange and clumsy to me. In Leo's defense however, I do acknowledge that Mr. Fender could not have completely foreseen the direction...the type of playing demands future electric guitar virtuosos would require of his instruments. Hence, the introduction of the 80's "Superstrat" by Kramer®, Jackson® and Charvel®, to name a few. Over the years, Fender has quietly attempted to overhaul perceived “short comings” but seemingly does so at a "snails pace". The reason Fender can get away with such sluggish progress is due to the company's accomplishments with identity and branding, I suppose. There defiantly, however, exists a modern spirit (or opinion) amongst a section of guitarists that one should not re-think the Fender look or engineering. This, despite the fact there are often better ways to go about things today. An analogy might be like a Jazz musician who has learned to play off his/her mistakes while attributing the results to, 'improvisation', instead of going back and 'wood-shedding' the knowledge of scales and modes. I named the American Special Telecaster I own, 'Kate'. This name refers to one of the main characters in Shakespeare's famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) play, The Taming of the Shrew. In the play, Katherina Minola (aka, Kate) is a harsh and unruly 'shrew' that no man, so it is thought, wants to marry. Well, this is pretty much how I felt when I first acquired this Telecaster. I put down a pretty good chunk of change for this guitar brand new. Despite my initial investment it still needed the frets to be dressed properly, the nut cut properly, the truss rod adjusted properly and the neck angle adjusted properly. All of these things SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE AT THE FENDER PLANT! This was not a Korean, Japanese, or Mexican made Fender. This was an American made one. For the price paid, the problems I just listed SHOULD HAVE BEEN TAKEN CARE OF AT THE FACTORY! One cannot set the action and intonation correctly if these things are not taken care of first. 'Fender must consider themselves too big and too busy to concern themselves with trivial things like...workmanship!' I remember thinking to myself. At the time, I needed to get a hold of a telecaster ASAP to keep up with recording production demands. So, I put even more effort and money into 'Kate' to tame all the unexpected 'wildness' out of her. I suppose I should have just returned the guitar and asked for my money back. I'm a romantic kind of guy though. Once I succumb to the charms of an instrument, even if it has issues, I tend to 'see it through.' Besides, maybe 'Kate' initially considered me to be rough and ill behaved too! Not so long ago I was recording at one of my favorite places, Wavelength Studio. Charles Thompson (aka - Frank Black / Black Francis) let me barrow one of his vintage '50s 'Broadcasters' to record with ('Broadcasters' were renamed 'Telecasters' by the mid-fifties because of a trademark violation suit pursued by Gretsch®). The guitar happened to be sitting in the studio. So, Charles graciously let me try it out. You can hear this guitar in the single, My Animal. It's the really aggressive sounding one panned to the left of the stereo field played in groups of three chorded eighth note bursts during the songs bridge section. Jason Carter, who engineered and produced the recording session, felt that its sound contrasted well against the other tracked guitar ('Smoothie', my Stratocaster). I agreed. Jason has a very good ear for these kinds of things. While I absolutely appreciated the special sound and quality of the Broadcaster, I was amazed at how well 'Kate' measured up to Charles' classic guitar; when Jason and I compared them against one another. I was delighted to discover my efforts to tame 'Kate' were not in vain after all. Despite what I considered the Fender factory's initial incomplete treatment of this American built Telecaster, 'Kate' had none-the-less been transformed into a beautifully refined instrument. This was the Tele I used for the single, Real Magik, as well as other recently released songs. *** Preface - I like to name the guitars I own and use. The following is a post about one of them, presented with a classic b/w slideshow portfolio. Photographs by yours truly. *** I wandered one fine day into a music store called Music 6000 located in Olympia WA. I don't remember anymore what exactly brought me in. I was probably needing to purchase something trivial like guitar strings, cables, drum sticks, drum heads, etc. Anyway, I ran straight into this Taylor 612ce set up front in the guitar dept. Destiny, fate, love at first sight? One look, I knew I had to have it . . . What ever 'vibe' you want to call it, that's what hit me square in the face. When it comes to big (and expensive) equipment purchases, I'm usually pretty cautious. I do a lot of research on the gear I'm interested in. Build a list of potential candidates from different manufactures. Compare features, costs and reviews. I generally spend quite sometime narrowing things down until I reach a final conclusion. In this case, however, I was 'three sheets to the wind.' Because all of my normally heedful modus operandi... my checks and balances... went sailing recklessly out to sea. I had, by this time however, begun to develop some faith in the Taylor® brand and so assumed (naively or not) this would automatically be a great instrument. Luckily for me, it proved to be just that. The purchase of this guitar brought me out of the, "Martin camp", and into the Taylor one. Not that I have any problem with C.F. Martin & Co.®. They have a long-standing tradition of excellent guitars. This was the time though when Taylor was the emerging upstart ; about to kick the established lord off the thrown. I was ready to be part of a guitar 'renaissance.' To simply say, 'I have come to love this guitar', would be a gross misstatement. It has become much more than that. This instrument is literally a part of me. The only other guitar I can say the same thing about is 'Engedi 1.' I will have this instrument until the day I die! And then it will be passed down to my progeny. All you have to do is listen to it applied in the setting of a song like Divin' Down or Annabel In The Moonlight and you will understand. I named this guitar 'Wings', referring to its wing shaped fringerboard inlays. Also, because playing this instrument feels like flying...
This is kind of a follow-up to my blog entitled, 'My Simmons Drum Inspiration.' I’m going to do something that I rarely do, post an audio-stem of a song currently in recording production. More specifically, I’m posting the 'bed-tracking' to the drum part of this song (along with a scratch guitar and scratch vocal track). So one can get an idea of how I am utilizing the Simmons inspired electronic drum pads I hand-built. For those less acquainted with my drumming approach, I don’t use electronic drums in a song all by themselves. Rather, I trigger sampled percussion or synth drum sounds as part of a drum-set arrangement that corresponds with my acoustic drum part. I’m 'old school' (I guess) in the fact that I play all of these said parts at once when I record my drum-set. In other words, I don’t overdub the electronic drums separately from my acoustic drums. Not that there is anything wrong with overdubbing auxiliary electronic drum parts, it’s just not particularly what I’m after performance wise. I treat the electric drum pads (triggers) placed around my kit in the same manner that a drummer might place a cowbell; playing a syncopated line along with the drum beat. I do this simply because I find it a satisfying challenge, musicianship wise. I’m certainly not the only drummer who performs this way. There are many who do this sort of thing and do it very, very well. The song I am working on is titled, 'Alisoun.' It’s a song I wrote which uses characters from Chaucer’s, The Canterbury Tales, as a muse. I’ll post the lyrics at the end of this blog for those who are interested in reading them. The acoustic drums I used are Gretsch® birch shelled drums in the following sizes: 18”x22” bass drum, 8”x10” tom, 14”x14” floor tom. I used a (now vintage) 5.5”x14” Tama, chrome over steel, snare drum. The snare is the same model used by Stewart Copland on most the albums he recorded with The Police. The Cymbals used are all Zildjian®: 17” K Custom Dark Crash, 16” K Custom Dark Crash, 8” K Splash, 8” A Splash, 9” K Custom Hybrid Splash, 13” K/Z Hi Hats, and a 22” Mini Cup Ride. I used four (4) hand-built Simmons SDS-V® inspired drum pads placed strategically around the acoustic kit. I fed the outputs of the electric drums to a Roland® TMC-6 trigger to MIDI interface. For those not familiar with MIDI, it stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It is a protocol invented by electronic engineer and synth designer Dave Smith and Chet Wood as a way for electronic instruments to directly communicate with one another. In this case, the MIDI signal was sent to the EXS24 digital sampler incorporated into Apple’s Logic Pro® digital audio workstation. The electronic drums trigger samples of sounds I custom programmed with my Prophet 08’ PE® analog synthesizer. Ironically, Dave Smith also designed this synth. This particular song doesn’t exhibit the 'fanciest' auxiliary electronic drum arrangement I’ve ever done. It rather demonstrates how I use electronic drum sounds to accent certain phrases in my acoustic drum-set part. This method gives a certain flare or 'ear candy' to the drum part as a whole. To reiterate my technique, I performed the electronic drum parts at the same time I played my acoustic drums. The audio-stem you will hear is the original drum part I performed and recorded; along with a 'scratch' guitar and vocal line I previously performed and recorded but in a haphazard manner. The scratch tracks provide a 'guide track' for the drum take. The drum take is the only thing I will keep for the eventual finished recording. The scratch guitar and vocal will be re-recorded at a later date when I turn my attention to vocal and guitar arrangements. Again this audio-stem is unprocessed. It is not mixed, edited, equalized, etc. It is raw and sounds exactly how it did when I recorded it. As such, you will be listening to something that is in the process of being produced, it is not a finished product. Please forgive me if I’m over emphasizing. The reason I don’t show 'works in progress' very often is because when I preview audio such as this, despite my disclaimers; there are those who still think I am showing a 'finished work.' They then complain about it sounding 'unfinished...' Am I going crazy here? Maybe so... I trust, however, that you, the reader, will understand. The following is the audio-stem drum-set take for 'Alisoun': So, there you have it. An example of how I’m utilizing the custom electric drum pads I hand-built. Hopefully, you have found this interesting, informative, or, at least, had a good time reading. For tech junkies out there, here is a small explanation and list of the recording equipment used on the drum-set... How I record drums at my private studio (Curia Studios): When I’m working in my personal studio, I usually operate, not only as a 'one-man-band' but as a 'one-man-recording engineer/producer' at the same time. In short, I’m on my own most the time... Since I don’t have the luxury to sit behind my drum-set to play and sit at the recording control/console tweaking sound at the same time; I focus my recording method on getting the best natural sound from the drums as I can first. This means selecting drum-heads that will give me the type of tonal response I’m after and properly tuning the drums. Which, by the way, is always a good idea no matter what recording situation you’re in. Secondly, I focus on mic selection, mic placement and preamp selection. Again, depending on the sound I’m after, these selections can change session to session. Since I can’t be in two places at once, I do not incorporate eq, compression, limiting, etc. coming into the recording system. I run my signals 'au natural.' Relying on the right mic placement, pattern selection and preamp gain staging to give me the closest to a flat frequency recording as I can get. The goal is to capture audio that can be 'tweaked', 'shaped', 'cut', or 'boosted' with little problems later at the mixing stage. {A little tip to those interested in becoming an audio engineer; it is better to record things 'darker' than 'brighter.' It is much easier to brighten things up with filters or e.q. after the initial recording than to tame overly 'hissy' or 'sharp' recorded transients... This is especially applicable for the mastering process... Mastering engineers DO NOT like overly bright mixes. To them, an overly bright mix means a session filled with fighting 'little monsters' in the frequency spectrum... If you're looking for some world-class mastering, I recommend Atomic Mastering™.} Now you know why the drum-set bed-track recording to this song sounds very 'neutral.' The character is in there, but will be brought out fully during the mixing process. Bass drum mic: AKG® D112 Bass drum preamp: UA™ 4-710 -15db pad on. Snare Drum mics: AT Pro37r – top, Shure® Sm57 – bottom. Snare Drum Preamp top: UA 4-710 -15db pad on. Snare drum preamp bottom: RME® Fireface 800 Tom mic: CAD® E100 -20 pad on. Tom preamp: UA 4-710 Floor tom mic: CAD E100 -20db pad on. Floor Tom preamp: UA 4-710 Room mic: AKG C414 B-uls – figure of eight pattern. Room mic preamp: Millennia™ TD-1 Drumheads: Snare batter – REMO™ “Vintage A” Coated Ambassador, Snare bottom – REMO Ambassador Snare, Tom – Evans™ EC2 clear, Tom bottom – REMO diplomat Clear, Floor Tom – Evans EC2 clear, Floor Tom bottom – REMO diplomat Clear, Bass drum batter – REMO Coated Ambassador, Bass drum front – Gretsch logo black with mic port hole. Drumsticks: VicFirth® SD10 'Swinger.' Bass drum pedal: DW™ 5000 Turbo double pedal. Alisoun
©Jeff Jewkes / ASCAP She is gone You will not find her Gone. . . Like a wisp in the wind Gone. . . You can't confine her And she's running in the wild again Alisoun has her desires Alisoun has long required her sovereignty She'll be who she wants to be. . . Na, na, na, na, na, na. . . Is your heart looking for answers. . . to a charm, all faded and grey? See, my friend, haven't I told you?. . . Haven't I?. . . She is one with whom you can't pretend Alisoun. . . Alisuon. . . Alisoun has her desires Alisoun has long inspired a lovely view But you'll be who she burns through What are you gonna do? Na, na, na, na, na, na. . . You spin in seasons You search for reasons Hoping that she might change Na, na, na, na, na. . . Alisoun. . . Alisoun. . . Has her desires. . . Alisoun. . . |
Jeff JewkesProfessional musician / composer / audio engineer who also ventures into fine art photography, geometric design, lutherie, artisan bread baking, electrical engineering, blogging, charity drives, and other things that keep life crazy and amazing. . . Article Quick Links:
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