• Tag Archives j yuenger

  • Teese RMC3 – Settings (Your Mileage may Vary) **The Best Wah Pedal in the World**

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    I have to again give props to J Yuenger because one of his posts led me to a pretty killer Wah Pedal.  After (painfully) trying to record with my chrome Morley, I realized that I was going to have to pick up another Wah. After doing some research (and judicious ebaying), I ended up with an Teese RMC3.  The newer models (RMC3FL) have knobs on them that make it pretty easy to adjust – the one I picked up is older (RMC3) and all the components have to be adjusted on the interior.

    This led me to somewhat of a conclusion. While I really like having all the options and a truly flexible pedal, I have NO idea where to start when it comes to setting it.  Since I got the pedal used (of course), I was at the mercy of the guy who owned it before me.  So I looked high and low for some setting information on the Teese site – which for some reason didn’t have any setting information anymore. I then found a forum posting from Teese himself saying that he took it down.

    Well, darn.

    Yes, I understand that there’s a reason he didn’t want it up there, and there is definitely something to be said for “finding that sound out for yourself”.  As a custom builder, you don’t want people to just stick to any one preset setting because then the flexibility of the pedal is just wasted. I imagine you’d want people to explore, and create, and make their own sound…..

    I get it. I do.

    BUT, when I’m confronted by that many switches and adjustments (6 trim pots and 9 dipswitches!!) I’m a little lost as to how to start.  Finally, I freaking remembered that I had a way to find that information out.  So I found an old article “Tuning your RMC3”. I’m not going to repost it in it’s entirety, although it’s a great read on how to set all the knobs on any version of the Teese pedals.

    I do however want to post the baseline settings that were previously posted – because having these as a baseline is really helping me tune my Wah to the way I like it. I’m still tuning it (as Teese himself wants) but if I’m already closer to my goal using a baseline, then taking that shortcut is AOK with me. Some of these settings I can definitively say that I DON’T like, so I’m ahead of the game.  I was going to make a nice graphic for this, but I didn’t.

    As always, Your Mileage May Vary and Objects may be Closer than They Appear.

    📂This entry was posted in Guitar 📎and tagged

  • “In general there’s a lot of sameness in the songs and videos today. It all runs in to one mishmash” ~ Christine McVie

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Since it’s obviously been a while, there’s quite a few things I guess I can cover.

    Click for article @ Dallas Observer
    Photo Credit: Alison V. Smith ~ Click photo for article @ Dallas Observer

    * Fairly recently, I was shocked to see that someone I had met had passed away. Frankie 45, lead singer/guitarist of Spector 45 passed away on New Year’s Eve/Day. I had met him at Club Dada, when Unknown Hinson had swung through. Or at least I think that’s when I met him….

    He was tending bar, jumped from behind the bar to play a set, then jumped back behind the bar. I asked him how he liked his Electromatic 5120 – he said that he loved it. I was tremendously impressed that he did that – returning to tending bar covered in sweat after frantically jumping, singing, and soloing all over the stage.

    One of the things that struck me about his passing was my reflection about how I’ve never really accomplished what I wanted to do in a musical setting. Here was this kid MAKING it HAPPEN. Seems that all my musical heroes had the drive to get it done – it’s what they pursued. While Frankie wasn’t a hero of mine per se, I gave the guy a lot of credit for getting out there and doing what he obviously loved. I now wish I had that kind of drive at his age. Until he passed I didn’t realize what a fixture he was in Deep Ellum.  Extremely nice guy, and a loss to the Dallas music scene.

    That being said, I look back at the wasted years of much of my youth and wonder what I could have done with myself had I pushed myself.  Did my upbringing contribute to my lack of focus? I’m sure it did, but quantitatively, how much – and how little?  My limiting thought process holds me back, as I’m sure it did back then too.

    * We’ve been working on a bunch of different rooms in the house, but because we’ve spread the work around, there’s no one “complete” room ready for photography.  My house is definitely becoming a very swank pad (thanks babe!). My daughter, who is typically the one who has seen the worst then the “big reveal”, has also been tremendously impressed. Of course, she’s also semi-patiently waiting for me to finish reworking her bathroom – which is taking some time while I strip some more tile out.

    * I’ve been doing a ton of work on another portion of my blog, “So you wanna be in a band?” – in which I’ve reworked a lot of graphics and images and cleaned up formatting at least twice over. I contacted J Yuenger (the writer of the material) and he kindly linked his blog to mine – his original plan was to scan the magazines in after retrieving them from storage. I personally know how much of a pain that is, so I’m glad this ended up being helpful to him. I added some scans of Tattoo Magazines that made an impression on me around that time too.

    * The Wanda Jackson/Jack White album is pretty cool. I dig it.

    * Lastly, I had a hernia check by my General Practicioner when I was eight or so. I then some twenty years later stood behind him in the Montrose Disco Kroger in Houston, trying to figure out where I knew him from. It’s a little disconcerting when you realize that the dude you’re standing behind had his hands on your scrote at some point in your life.


    📂This entry was posted in Main 📎and tagged

  • “There are just two people entitled to refer to themselves as “we”; one is the editor and the other is the fellow with a tapeworm” Bill Nye

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    In case anyone was interested, my blog visits spiked on December 6th, when J Yuenger wrote a piece on his website about his Guitar World Columns that I’ve posted here.

    Visuals – which either let you know how awesome that it was that I got more visits thanks to him, or how lame my visitor count was before he mentioned it.


    📂This entry was posted in Main 📎and tagged

  • “She’s a killer, she’s a thriller, Spookshow Baby” ~ Rob Zombie

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare

    I wish I could find the Youtube video I saw a while back. It was  a vintage interview with White Zombie, in the early days. Rob ends up talking about “Lead Singers Disease” – meaning, the singer gets too “big” for the band. In the video – he seems to scoff at the notion that would happen to White Zombie.

    [Edit: Found it]

    Watching the White Zombie videos – from the box set, consecutively……..it does kind of appear that way. I mean, by the time you get to (I’m Your) Boogieman, if I recall, is the rest of the band even in the video? Unless maybe it’s subliminal? It’s all Rob.

    To me, it’s funny because from down here (in the pit, or better yet – in the back by the bar), it looks as though LSD is exactly what happened.  Now, I’m going to disclaim – I know bands are like marriages. There’s sides to every story, and sometimes, you just fade apart.  Being in a band means compromise. Each member has their own compromises to make in order for the “whole” to work.

    I am of the opinion that White Zombie was always a much better band than Rob’s solo work – and I’ve spent the last two days listening to Hellbilly Deluxe to see if I can understand why.  There are parts I think I understand now. White Zombie had songs, grooves and riffs. Rob Zombie (solo) has riffs, and establishes an almost disco/metal rhythm. I haven’t seen them live, but other than raw blasting low E (or D, or C, or whatever they’re tuned down to) chords it seems to me that it would be more or less….uh….boring to play? There is much more dynamic movement in the White Zombie stuff – although Rob’s vocal style seems less dynamic.  WZ has more of a swing, or groove, while the RZ stuff is just…..crushing? Relentlessly crushing? I bought Hellbilly Deluxe probably in 2005? Listened to it once and put it away. I’ve been cruising and listening to it yesterday. All the songs have their interesting sample hooks, and (again) crushing guitar.  Horror-themed lyrics that make me want to grow dredlocks and wear sunglasses all the time. But I digress.
    Not super odd or anything, but I like Scum of the Earth better. So does my twelve year old daughter. SOTE, to me, is the best substitute to WZ that I can find. Their first album is killer, but the second I’m so-so on.  Is it because I’m a guitar player that I like more dynamic songs?

    Edit: 1/29/11 – I wrote this post well before Sean’s book “I’m in the Band” came out, and since it has, my thoughts were more or less confirmed. (Great book by the way.) For the end of White Zombie, it was mentioned in multiple interviews  that more and more samples were brought in (ala Charlie Clouser) and less focus was on the live music . Though I didn’t say in my original post, with his solo career, it seemed like Rob Zombie wanted to be the Trent Reznor of low-brow metal. Put most simply, I guess I was right.

    Edit: 5/15/16 – So now that I’ve read the (excellent) notes included with the really early recordings (remastered) from Numero Group, I’ll revise my stance on the whole L.S.D. thing. What I got from those notes is that White Zombie as a band was always a struggle. Even when they were super successful, it’s not like everybody was buddy-buddy. I read the liner and immediately thought to myself, “Well, the Ramones hated each other too, so I guess it makes sense”. Check out the set, the audio is EXCELLENT and the book is a great read – Numero Group. White Zombie was an amazing band, a band of its time. I doubt they could have made a third album without imploding in some way so I think it worked for the best.


    📂This entry was posted in Main 📎and tagged

  • “I thought that our defense stymied them all day, and really played extremely well,” Les Miles

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Never underestimate the power of outside influences to screw things up.

    My sleep schedule has been inconsistent, to say the least. I was up until four last night. Knowing that I was expecting a delivery from Fedex today, I slept on the couch so that I wouldn’t miss the delivery. Unfortunately, rather than being a regular delivery, it’s a no-longer-available out-of-stock youth sized snowboard for my daughter. So, I needed to receive it today. With my impending travel plans, I couldn’t risk missing it.

    So, I awoke at one, and checked the front door. No delivery. I would have heard if someone knocked and even had my home alarm off so that I wouldn’t set it off when I yanked the door open (as I have often done).  So, I checked FedEx’s website and sure enough, it said it had been delivered!

    The FedEx lady is usually pretty good. Long story short (and an hour later), I retrieved the snowboard from the house two doors down.  *sigh*

    In other news, I found a completely gorgeous neck-through Robin Machete – for a great price! But unfortunately, I’ll need to liquidate all my guitars (except two) to justify buying it. It’s a gorgeous guitar, but ….now….is….not…the….time. Must….resist!

    *Edit* Couldn’t resist….now here.


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  • “The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing” John Adams

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    Ow.

    My TMJ is kicking up a storm.

    I was clenching my teeth while figuring out a solo. In fact, the solo that had quite a hand in beginning my interest in guitar.

    Among the many guitar players that I’ve spoken to, the scene in Back to the Future was one that inspired many guitar players. I’m sure Chuck Berry is pissed. Granted, Chuck’s been shit on pretty much since the 50’s, so his bitterness is well earned.

    Finally, thanks to the magic of YouTube, here’s the infamous Chuck Berry vs Keith Richards:

    I really wanted to go to VLV 2010 to see Chuck, but I can’t swing it. He’s truly a rock and roll legend.

    Here’s some (more) random recent pics of my office…..er….music room.


    📂This entry was posted in Guitar 📎and tagged

  • “It’s a labor of love,” Mark Franz

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

    I managed to get my hands on some material that I’ve been looking for – for quite a while.

    Originally, I had only caught two columns in print – then ran across them while running some searches. I thought, “I’ll get back to them”. I never did and they pretty much disappeared.
    Rescued, reformatted and reposted.

    “So You Wanna Join a Band? by J Yuenger”


    📂This entry was posted in Guitar 📎and tagged

  • Astro Ink XXI ~ more on “More Human than Human” and pedals, plus some listening advice

    Posted on by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment
    J Yuenger Photo Credit: http://www.lisajohnsonphoto.com/

    In my last column, I answered a question from Curt Pazz, who asked me how to play “More Human Than Human,” but I didn’t have enough space to finish showing you all the riffs. So here they are…..

    Apart from the main slide riff we covered, the rest of the song is basically one chord (the E5 power chord shape near the nut) played in a few different ways. FIGURE 1 is verses 1 and 2; FIGURE 2 is verse 3; FIGURE 3 is the bridge (the “…Yeah…Yeah…Yeah” part) and FIGURE 4 is the chorus. That just leaves the outro section which combines the E5 chord with an ascending slide part, as shown in FIGURE 5. Once again, I doubled all the guitars to make everything sound as fat as possible.

    J.,White Zombie is my favorite band in the world. You guys are great, and I’ve been listening to you every day for years. My question is: what brands of pedals do you use? I find that the guitar part at the beginning of “Welcome to Planet Motherfucker” sounds good with an MXR Phase 90 pedal, but what are you using?

    -David Yourk,

    Seattle, WA

    I’ve been getting a ton of gear questions lately, so next month we’ll look at my guitar gear. For now, let me say that it’s interesting that you bring up the Phase 90 (more on this in a second), but you’re way off base. To get the phased, chugging sound that starts off the song (at about 0:57 on the CD counter), I used a Dunlop Crybaby wah pedal. Actually, the only things I had at the time to create effects with were my wah and the whammy bar on my guitar, so I tended to use them a lot-I guess you could say that poverty is the mother of invention! Anyway, to play that part, I strum a three-note E octave (see Figure 6) using all downstrokes while rocking the wah pedal back and forth to slowly sweep through all the frequencies. As with the slide riff in “More Human…,” I doubled the part almost exactly to give it that kind of phased, throbbing sound.

    Don’t get me wrong here-doubling a part sloppily may be good for getting weird sounds, but being able to double rhythm parts as precisely as possible is a skill you’re going to want to develop, especially if you play heavier music. Sound simple? It’s not-even if you don’t have a four- track recorder, you can get a feel for how good you are at it by taping yourself playing a riff (try a low chordy one), then playing along with what you just recorded. Does it sound like you playing along with yourself, or can you get it to blend into one big, fat sound?

    Another cool trick is to try to double solos. This can produce a distinctive chorusy sound that you can’t really get with a pedal or effects processor. Check out Randy Rhoads’ work with Ozzy (the solo from “Crazy Train” is a big favorite of mine) to hear what I mean.

    Getting back to your question, I have an old MXR Phase 90 pedal from the Seventies. It breaks all the time, and I haven’t taken it on the road in years, but I’ve used been using it on every White Zombie session since we recorded La Sexorcisto. I have lots of phasers, most notably an Electro Harmonix Small Stone which has a really good sound. But I always go back to the MXR. For another demonstration of why I love this pedal, check out the verses to “Blur the Technicolor” on Astro Creep 2000.

    I don’t use any one brand of effects exclusively. My advice to you is to listen for what sounds good (and that doesn’t necessarily mean the most expensive thing), and make the most of what you have. If you can only afford one pedal, I’d say get a wah (I like the ones Dunlop makes, and the Vox reissue is pretty nice too). Not only will you be able to play some of the coolest riffs ever (I’m talking about “Voodoo Chile” and the “Theme from Shaft,” of course), but you can produce a wide range of effects and tones in time with the song you’re playing, which is something not a lot of other pedals can do.

    Well, that’s all the space we have this time. More on gear next month!

    End of Transmission

    📂This entry was posted in So You Wanna Join a Band? 📎and tagged