I recently put a new tune of mine up on Myspace. Click here to listen.

It’s a work in progress, but I just wanted to get something up that better reflects what I’m doing right now. Some of the other songs are nearly 10 years old!

It was recorded on Ubuntu Studio, with Jack and Ardour. It was mastered using Audacity. The drums were a simple loop I quickly programmed in Hydrogen. Other than the drums, the song only has two additional tracks – lead guitar and rhythm guitar. It’s about as bare bones as it gets!

For this recording I used my Custom Guitar workshop LP Custom, Custom Guitar Workshop TE2, a Peavey Rage 158 Transtube amp, Behringer VM1 Vintage Echo, Behringer microphones, and my Epiphone Triggerman 60DSP Combo amp.

I’m pretty happy with the overall sound. It’s quite astounding what you can achieve in your own home now thanks to improvements in recording technology. I should mention, these programs are 100% free, which makes things a lot easier. Google their names to find out more and download them yourself. Ubuntu Studio is absolutely amazing. I use Linux as my general Operating System on my laptop, but also have a PC with Ubuntu Studio on it, just for recording purposes. The OS comes fully loaded with everything you need to record, master and burn music. It even has software like GIMP (an image manipulation program, like Adobe Photoshop) that you can use to make your own album artwork & covers. It’s like an artist’s dream. You can get more info here if you’re interested.

After - I had been lusting after a Gretsch for Rockabilly tones and I turned to the somewhat neglected Freedom axe to fill the void. In the pics below I have added GFS Memphis Retrotron-style Humbuckers + a GFS roller bridge + a satin black paint job via my airbrush + a Bigsby (licensed) + all new and more shielded electronics; full sized Alpha 500k pots, knobs are from Jaycar electronics. Head stock logo came from a German World War I model airplane kit’s decal sheet.

Here’s a few pics of my Custom Guitar Workshop (CGW) TE-3. I picked it up off eBay from Australasia Music Workshop for $199AU + $40AU postage. It’s turned out to be a great player with a nice piano-like clean tone and some real flutey dirt sounds. This axe sure looks the part – nice clear finish for basswood. I spent quite a lot of time setting it up but that applies to all guitars for me. As, it’s semi-hollow the sound is perhaps a little more breezy than the TE-1. The neck pickup is also a slightly different model than the neck pickup in the regular CGW TE-1. This one allows you to remove the metal cover for a brighter tone – I had it off at the time of this photo but have restored it in recent times. Here’s the general specs of the guitar:

Body: Semi Hollow Basswood
Neck: Hard Maple
Fingerboard: Maple
Inlays: MM Black Pearl Dot
Bridge: TL Vintage (Top Loader)
Finish: Natural Stain
Machines: Kluson-style
Bridge Pickup: GFS Alnico- Hot
Lead I06
Neck Pickup: GFS Custom Wound
Vintage Alnico
Controls: Single Volume
Single Tone,
3 way selector switch.
Scale: 24 1/2″

The Electro Harmonix Double Muff - Two Fuzzes In One!!

The Double Muff (DM) is a really cool dirt pedal made by Electro Harmonix, which there seems to be very little hype about on the net. I’m not sure why? I think this could be one of the best lower-gain distortion units I’ve ever played through; and I’ve played through lots of dirt boxes, from varying price points, many of which were useless for anything but recording. I guess someone famous needs to be seen using a piece of equipment in order for all the internet guitar gear fetishists to start raving about it. Oh well, my gain and everybody else’s’ loss.

EHX put two of their old 1969 Muff Overdrive circuits (not to be confused with the later Big Muff Pi circuit) in the same box and it allows you to choose between one or two of the circuits at once – the second Muff circuit apparently cascades into the first when the double mode is selected. I pretty much alway use it in double mode on top of an already dirty amp sound. It gives you more drive, an harmonically enhanced bottom end and slightly more attack and sustain. The cool thing about the DM is that it does a huge range of sounds – it walks the line between being a slightly dirty boost, an overdrive, a distortion and a fuzz. It’s true bypass (no tone suck that I can hear) and I run it first in my front-end pedal chain and power it by carbon zinc 9V battery (old school batteries are great for fuzz). I run it first so I can tap all of its dynamics from my guitar’s volume pot – putting it first, before buffered pedals, also seems to generate the best tone. In addition I also find I need to have the pedal before my modded GCB-95 wah so that the vocal quality of the wah sweep is properly articulated.

The trick to this unit is how you set the two knobs in relation to one another. Turning up one Muff circuit past 12 ‘o’ clock turns it into a gain knob and the other knob becomes like a master volume – I usually find an equal volume with my original signal around 9 ‘o’ clock on the selected master. I’ve found with this pedal that if I turn up Muff 1 and use Muff 2 as the master volume the pedal becomes smoother and more like an overdrive or a nice creamy distortion unit. If I reverse the knobs, making Muff 2 the gain and Muff 1 the master volume, the pedal becomes more like a nice sounding saturated fuzztone with some very sweet compression and some slightly raspy tonal artifacts that conjure up the sounds of the early 70s. Turning both knobs to around the 10- 11 ‘o’ clock region makes the pedal into more of a semi-clean/slightly dirty booster which is cool for lead boosts. Oh yeah, the pedal also has a lot of volume on tap, so it will really cut through in a band mix, as long as your amp has the headroom available. Also, the DM seems to really sweeten up the low end in a very musical way. And, even in single mode, where only Muff 1 is active, there is enough boost to push an amp already on the edge into a mild overdrive.

Using this pedal on top of a clean amp sound can be a bit disappointing at first, especially on a Blackface-Fender-voiced amplifier where there is naturally a lot of top end and little compression. The DM kind of sounds tinny, sharp and difficult to dial in without modifying your amp settings in this context – remember this pedal has no eq. I have found recently though that if I use it with a compressor on top of a clean amp sound it can give a kind of cool sharp edge that is good for a Robert Cray-style blues tones. It sort of sounds like a Fender Twin on 8, particularly when I have some reverb dialed in and a tremolo pedal engaged. But in my opinion the pedal shines in front of an already dirty amp where the natural compression of the amp’s overdrive smooths everything out. Unfortunately the video clips of this pedal on the net (including the official EHX video with Peter Stroud playing) don’t really do this pedal justice. It’s an absolute sonic masterpiece with a huge variety of tones that naturally enhance your guitar’s sound. It’s a pity that many others haven’t tapped this unit yet – it’s well built and isn’t ultra-expensive – I paid $100 AU S/H – more than I would usually pay for a dirt pedal but it was worth every cent just because of it’s amazing sonic versatility and musicality.

Here’s old faithful. The First axe I purchased from Custom Guitar Workshop through Australasia Music Workshop’s eBay Australia store. I paid $250 AU for it (+ $39 AU postage). I didn’t know what to expect at the time but I was really surprised with how great it played and sounded.

It was originally a top loader but I have recently drilled out the bridge holes and installed ferrules in the back and turned it into a backloader. Cost about $14AU. This gave a real lift to the sound which was already very good anyway but everything can be tweaked. I also did a set-up to get rid of some fret buzz – part of which was remedied by adding a small amount of relief to the neck – about a 1/8 to a 1/4 of a turn anti-clockwise on the truss rod. The neck feels great – maple with a maple fretboard sandwiched onto it. Plays very quick and the finish is nice and smooth.

The GFS pickups are great again, especially the neck which is real smooth and sweet sounding – nice for Jazz and mellow blues; but I’ve had some problems with the bridge PUP feeding back at very high volumes. I have repotted it but I’ve found that I get a low pitched feedback now, rather than a high pitched microphonic squeal. It may need to be replaced. Apart from this it’s a real rocking pickup with great articulation and it’s also reasonably hot for a single coil – it can really give a great overdriven sound. I’ve also done a full internal shielding job with adhesive-backed copper tape which has all but eliminated any of the dreaded single coil hum when you take your hands off the strings. To see how to do this go to: http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/tele.php

The tones that come out this baby are everything from classic Tele Country twang, To rockabilly, to Blues and Jazz, to out and and out Hard Rock. It does it all well; it’s like a jack of all trades and the master of all of them. A total workhorse and a real killer tone machine. I always go back to it as it just fits my body and seems so easy to play. Although I also have The Te-3 (looks great but needs some work) and the Te-Custom (amazing guitar); this one will always be a keeper for me. Here’s the specs:

Body: Basswood
Neck: Hard Maple
Fingerboard: Maple
Inlays: MM Black Pearl Dot
Bridge: Vintage
Finish: Ivory White
Machines: Kluson
Bridge Pickup: GFS Alnico- Hot
Lead I06
Neck Pickup: GFS Custom Wound
Vintage Alnico
Controls: Single Volume
Single Tone,
3 way selector switch.
Scale: 24 1/2″

Here’s a couple of pics of my Custom Guitar Workshop (CGW) ST-2 HSS (Humbucker, Single Coil, Single Coil) Strat copy. I picked up this little ripper about 8 months ago for $129 AU + $39 AU postage from eBay at http://stores.ebay.com.au/AUSTRALASIA-MUSIC-WORKSHOP

It was advertised as a fully-loaded body with a free neck. It was definitely not from the top of the pile as, this guitar did have some cosmetic blemishes – a pretty sloppy job was done on the internal routing – in fact it looked quite ugly inside. There was also a heap of polishing compound left in the interior – which has subsequently been cleaned out. The headstock had no CGW decal and the neck finish had not been polished. There was also a few frets right up the top of the fretboard that were not filed down enough and created some dead spots while playing past the 15th fret. I can’t really complain though, as I didn’t pay much for it and everything could be fixed with a bit of work.

The basic sound of the instrument was also very impressive when I first plugged it in – I use to own a 1995 Fender Standard Strat and I could tell right away that this ST-2 had potential to really sound great. Here are the specs for the ST-2 from Custom Guitar Workshop’s website. Note: that the body is described as being pine but I suspect it could actually be basswood, just based on the listing info I had from Australasia Music Workshop on eBay when I bought it:

Guitar Specs

Body: White Pine
Neck: Hard Maple
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Inlays: MM Pearl Dot
Bridge: Vintage Tremolo
Finish: Black
Machines: Wilkinson Factory
Bridge Pickup: GFS Alnico 5
Neck Pickup: GFS ’64 Staggers
Overwound
Controls: Single Volume
Two Tone,
5 way selector switch.
Scale: 25 1/2″

see this for more info:http://www.customguitarworkshop.com/

Anyway, the pickups in this guitar from the Guitar Fetish Site (GFS) are freakin’ awesome. Check out:
http://store.guitarfetish.com/pickups.html

The humbucker is hotter than a PAF-type but nothing like a super-distortion humbucker (i.e., SD Invader, Dimarzio etc). It really barks at higher gain settings but has excellent clarity with a nicely defined top end. It’s probably the most balanced humbucker I’ve played through – hot but not too hot. It is also very well matched with the two single coils, as there is no great volume inbalance when you switch between the three pickups. The other two single coils are very Fender sounding and are truly worthy of boutique status. The sounds are, in my opinion, 100% Stratocaster.

The tremolo does not have a full sized steel block, but it’s one of the better ones I’ve seen/heard on an Asian Strat copy – sustain is actually pretty good. I may replace the block with a drop in unit from the Guitar Fetish Site at some point in the future. But I’m in no real hurry because the on board tremolo is very nice indeed for a Korean unit.

I did a reasonable amount of work on the ST-2 to bring it up my standards. I first polished the back of the neck with Micro-mesh sanding pads, just because it was a little rough and my hand was gripping on it when playing horizontally across the neck. After the polishing job it’s now nice and shiny and my left hand slides across it easily. I also filed down and then reshaped some frets – from the around the 16th to the 21st. The 19th to the 21st needed the most work. While I was at it I also dressed and polished all the frets with a multi-grit nail file and some fine Micro-mesh pads.

Furthermore, I took the time to shield and rewire the guitar – this all but eliminated the nasty single-coil hum. You can often hear this on Strat-style guitars when you take your hands off the strings – the guitar will emit a dirty type of sound which suddenly disappears when you put your hands back on the strings. There is a great website where you can learn about how to shield a Strat right here:
http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/shield3.php Even USA Fender Strats usually don’t have proper shielding and this is a great way to quieten down some of the background hum which can actually mask some of your guitar’s faint harmonics while playing. If you can use a soldering iron, have some heavy duty aluminum foil and some contact adhesive (or even PVA [white] glue) hanging around you can do this job – it’s even easier on a Telecaster-type guitar. Guitars with with humbuckers only don’t really require shielding as badly as single coil equipped axes – just because humbuckers are quite by design. Anyway, the net result, after I had completed the shielding, was a much quieter guitar with less background noise.

Although the ST-2 came to me with 3 springs I tried it for a while with just two springs in the tremolo block, ala K.K Downing or Jimi Hendrix, but it was just a tad loose (I set my trems to float), so I put the extra spring back in there. This actually dramatically improved the tone – it seems to be helping transfer more sound to the body. I also set up the springs so they run horizontal rather than in the stock triangle formation which often leads to tuning problems in my opinion.

After a bit of work this guitar has really turned into a great sounding workhorse that really does sound very Fenderish. Played on the clean channel of my amps with middle and/or neck pickups I can get all those sweet Hendrixy clean sounds. Played dirty with the Humbuckers I can dial in Eddie Van Halen-type high gain tones. Oh yeah, I play this guitar quite a lot. It also feels pretty good across the neck now – thanks to a bit of fret filing. I still can’t believe the price I paid for it – less than 10% of the Fender Standard I bought for $1795 in 1996. Sure the Fender was better but it wasn’t 90% better than the ST-2.

Shown in the pics above is my recently purchased Custom Guitar Workshop (CGW) K7 Jet II. I’ve bought a stack of these CGW guitars and will be posting on every one of them as time allows.

The Jet II is an absolutely fantastic guitar with a huge meaty tone, massive sustain and also pretty hot pickups. It sounds a lot like a Les Paul Standard (yes I have owned one of those in the past); but you also get a hefty Wilkinson Tremolo with a full-sized sustain block. All the hardware has a flat aluminium or maybe satin chrome type of look to it – very anti-bling and it makes the woods stand out even more. The Jet II has some serious sonic thickness going on. It’s also weighty and looks like a boutique, imported African coffee table. Very cool guitar for hard rock, blues and does some nice Jazz tones too when you run it clean with some echo and chorus. I picked it up on eBay a few months back for an incredible $400-$450 at http://stores.ebay.com.au/AUSTRALASIA-MUSIC-WORKSHOP_Guitars_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZ2295368QQftidZ2QQtZkmI should point out too that these guys at Australasia Music Workshop quite often put guitars on special and you can pick up some incredible bargains. They may have some small cosmetic flaws, but nothing that affects the playability of the instrument. My Jet has no flaws that I can detect.

The Custom Guitar Workshop site is at http://www.customguitarworkshop.combut the prices are higher, presumably these won’t have cosmetic flaws.

K7 Jet II specs:

Body: Solid Bubinga top and Carolina back
Neck: Nato Neckthrough
Inlays: Opal Dot
Bridge: Wilkinson Tremolo – has a full sized steel block
Finish: Natural Satin
Machines: Wilkinson
Pickup: GFS Lil Hot Blade Humbucker (not sure if these are stilll made by GFS – not listed on their site)
Controls: 2 Volume
1 Tone,
3 way selector switch
Scale: 24 3/4″

I also recently installed a phase reversal (DPDT) switch in between the volumes and tone knob so I can throw the humbuckers out of phase with one another when both pickups are selected. It’s a simple and useful mod, especially on a guitar like this where the tone is so thick. Reversing the phase of the pickups subracts some of the bass harmonics from the sound, and provides a nasal trebley sound – it’s an almost Fender-like twang. You get one extra sound and it only costs about $2.50 AU for the switch and about 45 minutes of your time. I drilled a hole in the guitar’s body smack in the middle of the tone and volume knobs to mount the switch but all went well and it looks cool. If you’re interested in how to do this see:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=2h_2v_2t_3w_phase
and:

http://www.1728.com/guitar.htm

I have just launched my own Myspace Music page – http://www.myspace.com/canaanperry .

There are 6 new songs uploaded in the player.