littlebitlater

territorial pissings

 

every show I went to was the best show.

that seems to be the sentiment. i'd been looking at set lists and having been at iowa city and des moines, i feel like des moines was really at the top of the list, regardless of what jeff said about his voice because

1) his voice really was not bad

2) i liked what the guys have been doing switching amps and a few arrangement tweaks since last fall

3) the sheer number of songs played and the bands enthusiasm to keep playing

4) the acoustics in the val

5) the set list included so many rarities

so basically it seems i caught myself doing what everyone else here has been doing.

also, i really love the way territorial pissings sounds

let the terrible jokes ensue...

one thing i would add that i don't think has been mentioned would be using your amps effects loop. many of the effects listed sound different (better or worse always being subject to opinion and taste) when run through your effects loop. conventional wisdom says, as most here have posted, to put anything that changes your dynamics first: volume pedal (run tuner aside this if possible to keep it out of your loop all together), compression, boosts, overdrive, distortion and then into amp. i run delays and modulation in the effects loop, that way the signal has been treated by the preamp stage and to my ears blends easier with the signal before hitting the power amp.

modulation wet/dry mixes get really increase and decrease with big changes in dynamics of the signal entering them. that can be good and bad, but to keep a more consistent and easier to control overall volume i like using the effects loop. also, +1 to the cabling. soldering is not too hard to learn and pays for itself quickly. a simple, yet sufficient home soldering setup can be had for less than 50 bucks. the markup on cabling is ridiculous and there are many places to buy jacks and cable in bulk and do the labor yourself, like i said it will take a bit to learn but pays for itself almost immediately.

play on

i've been playing with slide for the last 3-4 years now and have settled on glass. i am not much for books, but in my opinion, the most important aspect of slide playing is keeping strings muted with both your left and right hands. unless you are playing chords in an open tuning, playing single notes in standard tuning really requires a lot of muting discipline to keep buzzing and rattling down.

i put the slide on my left pinky and mute the strings behind the slide with my other fingers, putting the slide on my pinky lets me play a variation of every chord i would need; on the right i cradle the pick with my middle finger and play with my index while the thumb and others mute the strings i'm not playing.

i'm not the best player in the world but i have fun and it works for my gigs and recording. best of luck...

one more happy cij owner here. something has changed in the last few years and the serial numbers all now read with the crafted in japan label. mine is antigua green, which is a great rare color scheme with the matching pickguard. when i went to buy a tele i was initially interested in the highway one, but after playing an american standard, an american highway one, and the crafted in japan, the clear value for the money was the japan.

i also just put a lindy fralin blues special in the bridge and an adder plus pickup in the neck (the brad paisley set up) and the thing is so much more versatile. my favorite guitar right now, best of luck with your search

the request feature was great, i'm sure i was not the only guy to request Ashes, but that really was a perfect opener. i was straight out from jeff about 10-12 rows.

i made a comment in one of the boxes asking if the feature was their idea, if they were really using it so it was nice to hear Jeff explain their plan, he had some great moments last night. my favorite was the line saying something along the lines of "the first half of the set will be a bit introspective and the rock will be forthcoming."

being from des moines, it does remind me a lot of the last show at the val air, the guys like the venue and iowa in general. again, Jeff had great moment talking with the crowd about no one really liking our state but how the band loved the venue. i'm always blown away at the iowa city and des moines shows. also saw a taper who said it would be up by the end of the week, can't wait.