As you know, I’m a Fender player and the Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster is my main go-to guitar. But I do play some other guitars regularly onstage with my live band. I also believe that there are just some instances where a Gibson Les Paul is the best guitar to get a particular sound that the Fenders can’t do well. The Gibson Les Paul sound to me is buttery and creamy without a lot of the pop that you can get with a Fender. Today I’m going to discuss my Les Paul BFG.
First, The Les Paul Custom
About 10 years ago I added a Gibson Les Paul Custom to my collection of guitars. I love that guitar but because it’s price has continued to climb over the years, I just can’t risk taking it out onstage anymore. I could never afford to replace it at it’s current market value so it stays home, cased up most of the time. I think that’s a sad, sad commentary on these outrageous guitar prices from Gibson and now Fender. It’s just a bummer to have an instrument that’s so expensive that nobody will ever see it played live onstage except in an arena.
All of us Fender fanatics can save some serious scratch on Fender equipment right now at Musician’s Friend. They are featuring rebates and free gear on guitars, amplifiers and Fender Passport PS Systems. You can outfit your live band with the best Fender equipment while saving a bundle. With the rebates and free equipment you can score big savings with double discounts on top-of-the-line Fender equipment
For Bass players you can get a free Fender B-Dec Bass Amplifier with a wide selection of Fender Basses. B-Dec amplifiers are modeling amps built especially for Bass guitars. I have heard them and they can really bring mounds of excellent tone to your already great sounding Fender bass guitar. (more…)
Here’s a great deal for all you guitarists and bassists out there who are working hard to earn some cash in your live band. Fender is offering a $100 rebate on their American Standard guitars and basses. So if you’re looking for a Stratocaster, Telecaster, Precision Bass or Jazz Bass then now’s a very good time to save yourself $100. All you have to do is download the rebate form and get shopping.
Where can you find the rebate form you ask? Just click on any of the links below and you will have the option to print out the rebate form for these excellent guitars and basses. (more…)
Fender Deluxe Player’s Stratocaster – Transparent Blue Finish
Even though I’m a skilled keyboard and bass player, I play electric guitar in my live band and the guitar is my main instrument. If I could, I’d buy a new guitar about every month. I can’t afford that so I get out and shop for them always looking for that next great instrument. The Fender Deluxe Player’s Stratocaster really caught my eye!
I like brand new guitars and I certainly haven’t bought into this whole “vintage instrument” craze. I believe that new guitars are being built better than ever before. It’s a lot more fun for me to get a new guitar and play it than to collect a vintage guitar and keep it in it’s case, un-played.
For all you drummers out there that play in a Live Band, Musician’s Friend is having a big sale on Zildjian Cymbals right now. You can pick up some killer cymbal packs at very low prices. They’re even throwing in some free cymbals during this sale.
I personally feel like a good selection of cymbals can turn a good drumset into a great drumset. All the drummers I play with have a large selection of cymbals and they really add to the overall sound of the band. So if you’re looking to flesh out the cymbal selection on your drumset, now’s the time to do it.
The top selling Zildjian A Cymbal pack includes a 20″ Ride, 16″ Crash, and 14″ hi-hats, plus a free 14″ fast crash. It’s on sale for the low price of $599.95. That’s just too good of a deal to pass up! You can find many more deals just like that one during the big Zildjian Cymbal sale at Musician’s Friend. Hurry, because this sale is only going on for a limited time.
Musician’s Friend has lowered prices on lots of Fender gear and that’s a good thing, I think. What I mean is, I was looking into these supposed “price drops” and sure enough Fender has dropped prices on certain parts of their gear lineup. I don’t have good list of Pre-Price Hike prices but I do know that the Highway One Strat was $750 pre-price hike and is now $699. So that is indeed a real price drop, but what about everything else you may need in your live band?
It looks like the bulk of the price drops have happened on the Made-In-Mexico equipment such as the Standard line. But the top-of-the-line premium guitars such as my beloved Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster is still 30% more expensive than last year with no price drop in sight. The top amplifiers are still just as expensive as well so there’s no real savings on Fender’s premium equipment which is what I recommend when buying equipment to use when you play live. (more…)
Last week I picked up the new effect pedal from Pigtronix called the Philosopher’s Tone. It’s an analog compressor/sustainer that gives you the ability to sustain your held notes for a very, very long time. I had the opportunity to use it in my live band at a gig this past weekend and figured I’d let you all know how the Philosopher’s Tone performed.
I picked up my Pigtronix Philosopher’s Tone from a webstore called GuitarX. I worked with Gary and the customer service was excellent. E-mails were responded to very quickly, shipping was super fast and the pedal arrived in perfect condition. It was a very good buying experience. (more…)
Not only do I play professionally in a live band but I’ve also been a home recording enthusiast for many years. My first piece of recording equipment was my good old Tascam Portastudio 4-track which came with microphone, mic cord and a box of good cassettes. I made a lot of great recordings on that old Tascam and eventually wore the recording heads out. After the Tascam died I moved to a Fostex hard disk based recording setup that I built up to create a 24-track studio. But to get in line with the rest of the recording industry I had to build a Digidesign Pro Tools based recording studio.
I now have a Digi 003 rack system running Pro Tools LE in my home studio. It has been a great system to work with and I’ve become really good with computer based audio editing. It would be really difficult to go back to editing tracks without the ease of being able to edit audio on the computer. Pro Tools is a very powerful program that is fairly easy to learn but can be a challenge to master. If you’re going to get into home recording, I recommend starting with an entry level Pro Tools LE system. (more…)
Gibson Les Paul Studio – Now Faded Cherry Only $799!!
I am a Fender instruments player and a really big fan of all their musical equipment. But I must say that I’ve been truly disappointed with Fender jacking up their prices resulting in a huge price increase. Don’t get me wrong, I think any company is fully within their rights to charge what the market is willing to bear. I also think it’s fully within the rights of the consumer to shop around for the best deals.
As you know, I primarily play my Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster’s in my live band. I also own a Gibson Les Paul Custom which I used to play in my live band until they jacked the price up so high I knew I could never replace it if it was stolen or damaged. Now it sits safely in it’s case, un-played and increasing in value which I think is a complete waste of a beautiful guitar. I also have a Gibson Les Paul BFG that is a fun instrument to play but still doesn’t see a lot of stage time. It’s just a little too poorly constructed to stand up well to the rigors of regular live use.
Still with Fender putting the markup on their best Stratocaster’s so high, I’ve been looking into Gibson again. While checking the current deals at Musician’s Friend I ran across their add banner that Gibson has reduced prices on their American made guitars. So naturally, I checked into it. (Here’s the banner for you to check out)
As it turns out, you can save a bundle of money on a Gibson Les Paul Studio or a Gibson SG guitar. They’re both American made and possess the legendary Gibson sound that they’re famous for. Now for why they’re so affordable, the finish is crap! The best deals are on the “Faded” finish or as I like to call it, the “half-can of spray paint” finish.
Before you think that I feel like the faded finish is a bad thing, I really don’t. Because these guitars are intended to be working guitars. They’re meant to be played live in your band. A finish is just going to get beat to hell with regular live playing use so why not start out with a more affordable finish? That’s why I’m recommending these guitars as potential candidates to become your onstage, working guitar. They’re both definitely worth a look.
If you have more money to spend, you may as well check out the Gibson Les Paul 1959 Reissue. Just follow the banner below to check it out.
Today I’m posting another of my custom programmed preset patches for all you guitarists using the excellent Fender Cyber-Twin SE amplifier in your live band. The Fender Cyber-Twin SE is my current stage amp. I’m very particular about my live sound so I spend some good time programming my Cyber-Twin SE until it sounds just like what I’m hearing in my head. Today’s patch is called “LMC Twang” and as the name suggests, it’s a twangy clear tone sound preset.
There’s not a lot to say about this preset patch. It’s a bright, clear and twangy amp sound which uses a Blackface tone stack. I use this sound when my band plays Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash. I also used this sound on Shufflin’ Noah’s album “Fudgie The Dog”. I used it on track 1, “Fudgie The Dog (intro)”. (more…)
