As you may be aware, my band The Nightwires, released a new album a couple of months ago. “Life of Sound” has been going down well with those who have heard the songs and purchased the CD.
However, in this digital age, you need to have your music available on the web (mores the pity in some ways) so to that end, you can now listen to all of the album on our Soundcloud page. If you like what you hear, you can follow the “buy” link to purchase a physical copy.
Here is my set up from last nights rehearsal, for The Nightwires upcoming show in Cromford:
PHEW!!
This is the “big” setup for when we do longer sets. Our next gig is 2 x 45 minute sets, so I have to play electric, acoustic and ukulele. Its a lot to transport about but needs must.
Its a setup I really enjoy playing through and I can get some great sounds.
Here is my latest playthrough video. This time its “Sidetracked” which is one of my favourite tracks from The Nightwires new album. I think this is probably the shortest song that Russell and I have ever written!
Here is the second of my playthrough videos. This time, its “The time that we have” which is the first track on the new album.
Here is a live playthrough, of the title track from The Nightwires new album.
I’ll be doing a playthrough of each track from the new album, over the next few weeks.
“Life of Sound” the new album by my band The Nightwires, is available to buy now from our website. Head over to our store page to buy a copy:
http://www.thenightwires.co.uk/store/
We recently held a Launch Party in Derby. Here is a little video of the track “Hey James” filmed by Linsey Bancroft and shared by our esteemed drummer Rob Reeve…
The Time That We Have is the first song to be released, from the new album by my band The Nightwires.
The album is released on Friday July 24th, at our Album Launch Party in Derby.
Here we go, the July 2015 pedalboard build.
The Greer Amps Southland Overdrive has been added and the Keeley Aurora Reverb has been taken off. There is nothing wrong with the Keeley Reverb, but I just wasn’t going to use it, as my Strymon El Capistan Tape Echo does all the spacey effects I need! The Aurora was a bit of an impulse purchase really, so it will be moved on soon.
I’ve rewired the whole thing using an Evidence Audio Monorail patch cable kit, which I purchased from thegigrig. They do patch cable kits specifically for each of their Quartermaster switching strips, with the correct number of jacks and length of cable, depending on which Quartermaster you have.
I have been using George L’s patch cables for years but I kept reading how much better the Evidence Cables sound, so I thought I’d give them a go. The USP is that once you have stripped the end of the cable, the solid inner wire screws into the jack socket, making the connection much stronger and firmer than other solder-less systems. The hard part is that, to fasten the end cap on properly, you need fingers of steel! My index fingers and thumbs are still sore two days later. However, Evidence got in touch to say that they will stay in place, so fingers crossed (or not in my case!!)
The Southland will provide my main overdrive sound with the EP Booster and Wampler Euphoria providing differing levels of boost. I’m not sure which pedal will stack better into the Southland, out of the Euphoria or my Wampler Clarksdale. As the Clarksdale is a TS type pedal, that might be better at boosting for solos, as it has more mid range. However, the Euphoria is so good, I’ve decided to try that first.
The black footswitch at the top, is for My Victory V50 head, but when I’m using that head, I still generally use it with a slightly over driven clean channel and then use the drive pedals.
I’ve resisted re-instating my phase 90 in favour of retaining the TC Electronic Shaker. That pedal does such a great Leslie type sound, I can’t take it off.
I’m looking forward to rehearsing with The Nightwires this weekend, so I can try the board out and then gig it in Belper on July 12th….
I am now offering lessons on a full time basis! Therefore, my availability has been much increased. Head over to my Lessons page, to get all the information you need on the services I offer and for details on how to contact me.
Today, has mostly been about burning the final Red Book master for the new album by The Nightwires. Having listened to it a couple of times to check all was ok, it occured to me that all of the guitars have been recorded using DI and speaker simulation. The majority of this involved using my Morgan and Victory heads into my Palmer PGA04 rack unit, with a few bits and bobs recorded with my Guitar Rig software.
To be honest, I really dont think that any casual listener will be able to tell that I haven’t mic’d up any cabs. Granted, a few tone snobs may CLAIM they can tell, but in the context of a band mix, I think its impossible to tell. The beauty of the Palmer unit is that you can use a 50 watt valve head at full power, silently! With a subtle bit of post EQ and compression, you can get a great sound very quickly.
However, I cant see me going down the Axe FX or Kemper route any time soon for live work. Partly because I have so much money invested in my stupidly expensive boutique amps, but mainly because I still dont hear any digital modeling units that can truly compete with a proper tube amp at decent volume. Yes, digital is getting close, very close, but its not there yet.
So in the studio, I shall continue to do whatever gets a decent tone quickly and painlessly, but I wont be giving up on tubes any time soon.
guitar geek 