CLICK HERE TO SEE UPDATE (January 1, 2006)
CLICK HERE TO SEE UPDATE (June 11, 2005)
Music, food for the soul. No matter what genre of music you like, once you turn it on it gets your body moving. To me music is more than sounds coming out of a speaker. Music is a stress reliever, a place for me to dive into when I have had a rough day; a place for me to go when I don't want to be bothered.
My preferred genre of music is rock and roll, with all of its derivative genres. My journey through music started about 26 years ago when my brother played "Renegade" from Styx's "Pieces of Eight" album for the first time in our home. For the first 30 seconds my reaction was "Turn that thing off"; for the following 26 years it has been "Give me more!!!"
Since that day I have been an avid listener of all things rock. My CD collection just continued to grow and grow. Funny how one day, about twenty years ago, my father told me that rock and roll was a phase in my teenage life and that I would soon outgrow it. Well dad, for the first time you must admit you were wrong.
So, what did my big brother do to me? He cast a spell on me, that's what he did. My junior year of high school I got the bug. A group of friends asked me to front their band. I really think they asked me because I had less of an accent than anyone else in our school. Any way, I accepted and we were on our way to rehearsing three or four times a week. We played Black Sabbath covers and three or four original songs.
Our first and only gig was a disaster. We played at a junior high school. Our equipment was not the best and it would always overheat after a couple of songs. Once it overheated it shut down for a while. Since we knew the shortfalls of our equipment during rehearsals we would play two or three songs and let the equipment rest for fifteen or twenty minutes.
The school principal decided that he wanted to use our equipment as a PA for the event, so two and a half hours later it's finally time for us to plug in. To make a long story short, halfway through our first song our system decides to quit on us and that was all she wrote. We had our two minutes of fame, that was it. We stayed together for the remainder of our senior year but did not care for gigging anymore. After graduation I packed up and headed to Parris Island, the rhythm guitarist went to college on the west coast of the Island, the lead guitarist left the island for college, and the drummer . . . Mmmm, what ever became of the drummer; those darn drummers
During my tour in Okinawa I got bitten by another bug, the BASS bug. In 1985 I purchased my first bass, an Ibanez Destroyer II. That could have easily been the heaviest bass ever, but it looked cool. When I returned stateside and reported to my new duty station luck was on my side and I got to room with one of the best guitarist I have seen. We did some jamming on and off, but nothing too serious. The best time to jam was in between six packs and pizzas. In late 1990 I met some guys who were serving with me and we got something going. These guys were outstanding musicians, at times I felt intimidated and other times I felt lucky to play with them. That's when I really focused on playing the bass. One thing I must admit, I did play a Fender P-Bass, but not by choice . . . It was a loaner, you know - no cost to me.
My last two years in college consumed all my time and I disregarded the bass. Eventually came graduation, commission, marriage, deployments, long hours at work; and in a blink of an eye twelve years passed before I played again.
In March of this year I was watching VH1 "Bands Reunited." I was caught totally by surprise when I saw the chapter involving Dramarama. This just happened to be one of my favorite bands back when I had more hair and less body fat. I thought to myself "If those folks can still rock so can I." I managed to scrape up a few benjamins and put together, what I call, a nice little rig that serves its purpose.
My noisy line up is composed of an Ibanez EDB600GP with Elixir Nanowebs medium strings and a Fender Rumble 100. This I enhanced by adding a Boss GT-6B multi-effect unit, an Alesis SR-16 drum machine, and a Tascam CD-BT1 portable bass trainer.
I currently do not play with anybody; Does that mean I play with myself? Well . . . . however you want to view it. I have too much going on to be able to lock in scheduled times to jam with other people. Hopefully before year's end I can gather a few folks in their musical midlife crisis - like me - who are interested in getting together on weekends for margaritas, cigars, and a few hours of jamming to pure 80s heavy metal in my garage. Until then I will have to satisfy my needs jamming with my extensive CD collection and trying to reach the groove of my favorite bass players.
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UPDATE (March 24, 2005)
I finally broke down and sold the Boss GT-6B. Don't get me wrong, it is an outstanding piece of equipment, but I think it was overkill for me. I feel I did not get an adequate ROI (return on investment) from it. Of the possible hundreds of effects one can squeeze out of it I was only using two or three. For this reason I decided to sell it on Ebay. I got a good bid that went over my reserve price. I really hope the new owner treats her well. I decided to go with single effects units. I bought me a Boss BCB-60 and fill it up with the necessary pedals. So far I have a CS-3 (Compression Sustainer), a LMB-3 (Limiter Enhancer), a CEB-3 (Bass Chorus), a ODB-3 (Bass Overdrive), GEB-7 (Bass Equalizer), and a TU-2 (Chromatic Tuner).
UPDATE (June 11, 2005)
Ok, this time I think I got it right. I got rid of the LMB-3 and the ODB-3. My new set up is as follows: TU-2 (Chromatic Tuner), CS-3 (Compression Sustainer), GEB-7 (Bass Equalizer), CEB-3 (Bass Chorus), SansAmp Bass Driver DI, and Dunlop Cry Baby Bass. I am still GASsing for some other stuff, but the funds are not readily available. So, what's on the horizon for my Gear Acquisition Syndrome (G.A.S.)? I plan to get a Michael Kelly Phoenix 4-String Acoustic and eventually a ESP DF-404 (BEAD tuning). I think I'll get the acoustic first so I can play while on the toilet!!!
UPDATE (January 1, 2006)
I got the Michael Kelly acoustic . . . and already sold it. It is an excellent ABG, but it did not do it for me. I've been thinking about getting a Dean Pace (Electric Upright) to start delving a bit into jazz. Yeah I know what you're thinking "What the heck is this Metal Head saying??? Jazz???" I've listening to a CD Patrick Pfeiffer gave me of his group and I like it. Plus, I think it's musically healthy for (amateur) musicians to expand their musical horizons.
So, now I got myself into another one of those very time consuming projects . . . Home recording. I am using a PreSonus Firebox (hardware), Cubase LE (software), and Acrid Pro 5 (software). I just recently started and my skills are very, very, very minimal. I barely have time for it so in between homework and term papers I try to fiddle around with it. Hopefully, before I get too old, I'll be able to record something bearable to the human ear. As soon as I get something of a quality worth listening to I'll post it . . . Until then . . . Wish me luck!!!
