hi from miami

guitarllew

hi guys - im really stoked to discover this site. My name's Llew. I'm originally from Randburg. Studied music at Pretoria Technikon, and after touring a while i settled down in Miami USA where i do sessions, gigging and of course, teaching.

i'm a gearhead as well - even though stuff is dirt cheap here compared to back home i'm always on the lookout for reasonably priced gear.

Current fave: if you need a "real" tele, get the squire vintage vibe telecaster. cost $300 us. Blows mexican tele's out the water. the closest US made tele in terms of spec's ('52 reissue) costs $1800 and the neck is not great imho. here's the big secret about this little squire: it's made of PINE. Huh? Well, the original Fender Esquires were all made of pine. Fender changed over to swamp ash to because of supply/cost issues. I love swamp ash tele's but this is the only commercially available pine bodied tele, unless you spend $6000 on a DeTemple guitar.

It is a fantastic funk, jazz and country guitar. I spent a further $38 for Callaham compensated saddles and can now comp with a jazz pianist high up on the neck. I showed up at a session with it and got a lot of laughs from the engineer until he heard it...

MikeM

Firstly, welcome Llew! I'm sure you'll enjoy the guys as you get to meet them.

Strangely enough... I was talking about making a Pine Esquire/tele today. Saw a pic of a RebelRelic. Specifically this

What kind of music do you like and what's your general setup?

Have you used any of the Callaham strat bridges/saddles/blocks?

Cheers
Mike

DonovanB

Welcom form Durban, the Miami of SA ?

be sure to give us more tips like that. it will save us a lot of GAS money...

Dirk

Welcome Llew, hope you enjoy the forum

mattayou

Wish I was in Miami ?

Welcome dude!

TomCat

Howzit from Jozi....Welcome to the forum.

Great to get some foreign interaction on the forum.

Squonk

Welcome ?

How are you adjusting to the American Culture?

inflames

Hi Llew,

Enjoy the forum, and say hi to all the pretty girls in Miami ?

CDee

Welcome to the forum. Enjoy!

Riaan

Hey Llew welcome!

Guy-Onraet

Good to have you here man!

aubs1

Hey Llew, welcome here man...... Randburg to Miami...wow..... now that's not cool, that's HOT!!!!!hahahaha ?

Guy-Onraet

Lol at Aubs. Btw, doesn't Yngwie live in Miami too?

guitarllew

I have not tried the callaham strat saddles, but the tele's are fantastic. callaham get's a lot of good reviews from pro's i know here.

Mike asked about what style i play - the answer is anything that pays the bills. at the moment i've been recording on hip hop projects. pretty easy stuff, but pays well. I'm by no means a master of any one guitar style (my mates from Pretoria Tech could tell you that lol), but i've found my niche making other people sound good. I love to play blues and Jazz and ROCKKKK ? and i lived in nashville long enough to fake country for about 26 seconds. Being able to play/fake the kwela and mbqanga stuff certainly helped me get my foot in the door. (all that time copping danny bridgens licks paid off)

I'm off to work, but i'll post my rig soon - i love to talk gear and hopefully i can help out with some money saving tips - prices are criminal back home in SA.

TomCat

guitarllew wrote: (all that time copping danny bridgens licks paid off)

You Know Danny? He's in LA now. A good friend of mine.

guitarllew

unfortunately, i have never met him. I just studied his playing from when i started playing guitar in 1992. I love his stuff on the "friends first" albums. I've always wanted to get in touch with him, if only to say thankyou for inspiring me as a guitarist. i truly would not be a working professional if i hadn't picked up his stuff since the ability to play that style is what got me my first break.

so tell him thanks from me the next time you guys chat ?

TomCat

Unfortunately I do not get many chances to chat with him but will do when I get the chance..

BTW I used to do a lot of the Friends First concerts years ago.

Great bunch of guys to have had the pleasure of working with...

Spyke

Ah welcome!

Man, I'm jealous - I'd love to be back in Miami, fell in love with it while I was there.

More of an inland (if such a thing is possible in Fl) person myself, Lawrence and I lived in Orlando for a while.