Nice tune, do I hear you playing slide? I originally wired the tele vintage style only to plug it in and found it was way too muddy/flabby for my tastes. Rewired it modern, now I have a nice separation between the neck and bridge pickups.
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And I think this is the proper place for this.
ZZ Topp was playing a gig on my birthday.
Turns out it was Dusty’s last show, and I was there.
Iroquois Amphitheater, Louisville Kentucky.
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Yes sir. I play lots of slide but the only other I see in what I posted above was one with
a country feel titled “I Pick Blake”.
RIP Dusty, who never got the recognition that the Reverend did. Billy’s guitar collection
is massive and amazing. We saw them years ago doing the Recycler Tour with Extreme
as the opening act for them.
At one point an electo-magnet picked up Frank Beard who was drumming mid song and picked up the metal framework holding the drum set and him about 10 feet in the air and carried him in the air to stage left and without missing a beat, dropped him and the drum set into a large dumpster on stage. The drums continued while he was missing from the stage, but soon, he and the drum set which he was still playing came back to the stage on a stage length thread mill. Coolest damn stage show I’d ever seen.
Then to make it better, toward the end of the show, they had a whole line of hot chorus girls
doing the can-can kicking their legs high up in the air while their arms were wrapped around the girls shoulders standing next to them.
The band that opened the show was Extreme with Nuno Bettencourt who is
a phenom on the guitar. Their opening song was “More Than Words” which is a brilliant song. You could hear a pin drop when the song ended as the crowd was not very enthusiastic. The crowd warmed up to them as they ran through their set list, but I could see the disappointment in Nuno’s reaction to the crowds lack luster applause.
Later, when ZZ took the stage, Nuno was walking on stage left to stage right below the stage and bewildered at the crowd’s reaction to the show ZZ was putting on. They put on
a great show. I remember a quote from Billy from quite a few years ago. “Never give them
more than three chords”.
Nuno’s reaction was that of one whose eyes had been opened to the show one puts on,
and not the complexity of the musical arrangement. Nuno played a drum solo on his guitar
with a synth that was brilliant, and many of Extremes songs were complex arrangements, just like “More Than Words”. I was a fan of both bands, but felt sorry for Extreme as the were not getting the applause that ZZ did. It was the show that ZZ put on that made it great. Probably one of the top 3 shows I’d ever seen. Queen’s “We Will Rock You” Tour
was probably the best. Satriani is also in my top list of great concerts, not so much for the show, but for his way of making melodies on an instrument like no other. Satch is one of the best imo.
Gibson Les Paul and Agiles
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Lmao funny stuff!!
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Agiles are nice. I just passed my 50th anniversary of playing, I still try to practice daily, although these days it often turns into dinking around. Not today’s pic, but been jamming on this lately …
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More Agiles. I have 7 of them from LP style to hollow bodies, and even a couple of pointy
shredders. I agree with them being great guitars. Great value pricing and nice quality.
One of my faves from Kirk (Rondo Music) is a semi-custom AL 3xxx that I opted for all of the bells and whistles on when I bought it 12 years ago.
Here it is side by side with a Gibson Les Paul Axcess. The Agile I like more, not just because of the 2 extra frets but the feel and tone I can get from her. Many of the SC songs I posted above were done with her.
I love my Tele. I’m surprised that I had not bought one before my recent relapse of
buying yet another after going 7 years without buying any. I thought I was getting better
and then had a relapse when I bought the one I have Christmas of '23. Great guitar.
On some guitar forums I’m a member at, someone will post a downloadable backtrack
that anyone can download, and then the other members of the forum that want to participate will add their guitar track/s to and then re-post it for others to listen to.
I’m always amazed when doing these how even the most simple song can have different melodies from everyone. Sure there are a few similarities between the members that participate, but more so were the totally different melodies that each member could conjure up. Kind comments exchanged, the like button of course, but some even had great constructive criticism for all of the participants. From session players to beginners, it was all good and great fun.
Of course one needs a DAW (digital audio workstation) to record on. I’ve tried many from
free (Audacity) to very expensive, (Pro Tools), and a bunch in between. My go to for all
of my recordings is Reaper by Cuckos. Great platform, small pc footprint, and many different fx for pre and post processing recordings.
I bought the version I have in '06 and 18 years later can say it was the best $40 I’ve ever spent. I believe the equivalent nowadays is up to $60 but it’s a great way for making home
recordings. It has enough goodies to please beginners to pros. The plus side to Reaper is
that they are always tweaking it with upgrades.
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Are elixers coated? If so, I hear coating wears off.
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Yes they are coated. And yes. The coating starts to come off after a good while. I personally like Elixir Strings. Regular nickel strings last about a week and a half for me. I have really acidic sweat tho.
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I keep mine on until they won’t stay tuned which depends. Could be 6 moths or 2 years. I like the smoother blues/jazz sound rather than the twang and clang of hard rock. Just my choice.
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Nice. I recently set back up all of my recording equipment. I run Studio One and all of my control surfaces and plugins are SSL. Excuse the crappy temporary table …
I’m not adverse to chopping and fixing things, but I’m still a bit of a dinosaur in that I usually hit “record” and let it run, like a tape recorder. If/when I screw up, I go back to the beginning and start over. It’s not the most efficient way of doing things, but it’s more rewarding to me.
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With Reaper, I arm track two for my guitar and have it set to loop. This means as the track
I’m jamming to ends, it starts over at the beginning without me have to hit stop. I can
then continue recording multiple times until I’m tired or bored with what I’m doing.
I can come back to it later, sometimes days or weeks and continue with more takes on track two of me and the guitar, or another instrument sometimes. Having multiple takes to choose from allows me to pick which take or parts of it I like.
Sometimes the take I like best for the intro, eventually has me making a mistake or sour note, which will then have me making an invisible mark in the track called “split item as cursor”, and then jumping from the good intro take to the other takes to see which one I like best and which one blends with the intro take. This jumping from take to take to get the best of, is how I do many of my recordings.
Sour notes are kind of like Aunt Bees Pickles. 
Satriani cover - Ten Words. Joe wrote this the day after 9-11,but it
was such an emotional piece for him, that he shelved it for a few years
before releasing in on his Super Colossal album.
Another cover I did by Gary Moore. The Loner. I did this one right after I
learned of his passing. RIP Gary.
I generally don’t do covers, as I’d rather spend time on my originals, but there
are times…
I did this one yesterday, although it still needs some work. I need to punch in record something just past the one minute mark where there are a few seconds I’m not happy with.
My two favorite amps are a Marshall 6100, also called the 30th anniversary model.
It has the blue tolex and is considered by many to be one of the best Marshalls ever made.
The other is a Fender Twin Reverb that used to be owned by a famous Nashville
artist everyone knows.
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Who is this famous Nashville artist? It’s not Waylon is it?
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It’s a blackface reissue that he had Fender convert back to blackface specs.
Since the arthritis hit my hands iv been playing more slide
So my daughter went out and got me
This for my birthday this month
It just arrived and I’m trying to figure it out
Lol
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A budding David Gilmour in the house. Wish I could play one of those.
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You would think me playing bottle neck slide for a lot of years on the standard guitar the transition should be easy , like hell
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Blast from the past! I road tripped with the girl I was dating at the time to see a show there in 2018. It’s a really nice spot! Sorta tucked away in a residential area.
I made an audio recording of the show (with the band’s permission) which can be streamed here. Umphrey’s McGee is the band. They play prog/jam/metal and have been together for decades so they’re tight. Jake Cinninger is among my all time favorite guitarists…
I got the poster from this show framed and it hangs on my office wall.
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