Bit late in getting here, so apologies and all that...
Love GF and think its great we all have a place to share our passions (and frustrations too). I've been playing on and off for 18 years. Bought gear, sold gear, joined bands, left bands, had fun, made some cash, lost friends and spent a lot of money.
When I started taking an interest in all things guitar back in high school I had a friend who was a couple of years older than me and by then he was already a pretty seasoned guitarist. His most endearing words to me were 'if you want to lose your friends, start a band!'
To some extent that was true as there were always run in's with drummers sisters, and the general discord that is inevitable when a bunch of broke muso's live in the same house!
Would I do it all again? hell yes! I still am if just a little less fervently than in the 90's. That was a strange period I remember well. Here we all were desperately trying to get a hang of myxolidian and phrygian scales and what not, when suddenly that enigma Cobain turned all our sweat into a heap of chordal dung. Man were some of us overjoyed though. I just couldn't get that stuff!!
So 15 odd years on, I'm still hacking away like some kind of deranged novice. It always seems like everyone else is better than me, but it's that that keeps driving me to...keep playing the way I do ?
If anything I learned the value of decent equipment. Those early days were just a mosh of solid state Peavey amps, Boss metal zones and the never ending on stage sound wars. Unable to ever cut through the mix I usually put it down to the drums being too loud, the mix just being horrific or too much beer.
As I grew older (I still don't concede to age!) I got hold of amps. Real amps. Tube amps. And that started to change it all for me. Suddenly I was there. That elusive place where I sounded like something. Out went the Boss multi effects, the crappy amps and the distortion.
I found my sound in a couple of old Elks as posted here, an Ibanez UE400 analogue multi effects and a couple of odds and ends. That said, it's all still a journey and one I enjoy every day.
Equipment wise...
Fender Aerodyne Tele with SD Hotrails in the bridge, stock P90 on the neck
'77 Ibanez Rocket Roll flying V with SD Pearly gates in the bridge and a '59 in the neck
Bog standard 2003 Epiphone Explorer
Elk Twin Amp 45 all tube 'jap scrap' beauty
Elk Stageman 30 (17 W all tube songstress)
Ibanez UE400 multi effects (won't blow it's trumpet but it's amazing)
Jim dunlop Cry Baby
EHX Memory boy (more for some weird effects than actual delay)
...and a penchant for good old fashioned hard rock about 10 miles wide!
Thanks for reading and rock (or pop, swing, groove...) on!
Cheers,
Cameron
Love GF and think its great we all have a place to share our passions (and frustrations too). I've been playing on and off for 18 years. Bought gear, sold gear, joined bands, left bands, had fun, made some cash, lost friends and spent a lot of money.
When I started taking an interest in all things guitar back in high school I had a friend who was a couple of years older than me and by then he was already a pretty seasoned guitarist. His most endearing words to me were 'if you want to lose your friends, start a band!'
To some extent that was true as there were always run in's with drummers sisters, and the general discord that is inevitable when a bunch of broke muso's live in the same house!
Would I do it all again? hell yes! I still am if just a little less fervently than in the 90's. That was a strange period I remember well. Here we all were desperately trying to get a hang of myxolidian and phrygian scales and what not, when suddenly that enigma Cobain turned all our sweat into a heap of chordal dung. Man were some of us overjoyed though. I just couldn't get that stuff!!
So 15 odd years on, I'm still hacking away like some kind of deranged novice. It always seems like everyone else is better than me, but it's that that keeps driving me to...keep playing the way I do ?
If anything I learned the value of decent equipment. Those early days were just a mosh of solid state Peavey amps, Boss metal zones and the never ending on stage sound wars. Unable to ever cut through the mix I usually put it down to the drums being too loud, the mix just being horrific or too much beer.
As I grew older (I still don't concede to age!) I got hold of amps. Real amps. Tube amps. And that started to change it all for me. Suddenly I was there. That elusive place where I sounded like something. Out went the Boss multi effects, the crappy amps and the distortion.
I found my sound in a couple of old Elks as posted here, an Ibanez UE400 analogue multi effects and a couple of odds and ends. That said, it's all still a journey and one I enjoy every day.
Equipment wise...
Fender Aerodyne Tele with SD Hotrails in the bridge, stock P90 on the neck
'77 Ibanez Rocket Roll flying V with SD Pearly gates in the bridge and a '59 in the neck
Bog standard 2003 Epiphone Explorer
Elk Twin Amp 45 all tube 'jap scrap' beauty
Elk Stageman 30 (17 W all tube songstress)
Ibanez UE400 multi effects (won't blow it's trumpet but it's amazing)
Jim dunlop Cry Baby
EHX Memory boy (more for some weird effects than actual delay)
...and a penchant for good old fashioned hard rock about 10 miles wide!
Thanks for reading and rock (or pop, swing, groove...) on!
Cheers,
Cameron
