Let me preface this post with a simple truth:
I don't like seven string guitars.
I never have. I've played several over the years, but I've never found one that felt good to me. Ibanez? Nope. ESP? Uh-uh. Schecter? No.
On top of that, I've never seen a good reason for me to play one. I'm not generally a super drop-tuned metal machine, and I've never been a good Steve Vai type player either. On top of all THAT, I've spent the past 25 years trying to figure out what to do with six strings, so adding a seventh seemed almost silly.
Then work happened. This happens to me a lot.
I work for a guitar parts manufacturer, which is a lot like an alcoholic working at a liquor store. It's being constantly surrounded by temptation, tempered only by knowing that if I spend all my money on guitar stuff, I'm gonna be REALLY hungry in no time flat.
But I digress.
About a week ago, the powers that be did a very quick assembly of some seven string parts to test out the routing we did for the Original Floyd Rose seven string bridge. Being a wee bit on the obsessive side, when I see a guitar sitting around with strings on it, I have to pick it up and start playing with it.
Do you see where this is going?
I picked up the seven string and started playing with it. And damn it, I LIKED it. A lot. Our sevens are a 25" scale. Maybe that has something to do with it. I've always loved the back contours on our necks (in fact, that's why I work where I do). Perhaps that's it. I really couldn't tell you. All I know is that for the first time in my life, I picked up a guitar with that pesky extra string, and I found myself thinking "hmmm, this is cool, I wonder how much it would cost for me to put one together".
I'll be posting some sound clips of the guitar through various permutations of my rig shortly.
Right after I finish choking down this crow.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Monday, March 11, 2013
Album Review: Mark Tremonti - "All I Was"
This is my first album review, and I would like to start by putting out a quick disclaimer:
I'm going to be putting up album reviews periodically, and for the most part, they're going to be reviews of some of my personal favorite albums. This means some of them are going to be of older works. It also means I'm not going to pretend to be entirely objective about them. I intend for them to be more of a look at why these albums mean so much to me, the things I like about the albums, and some of the ways I think the artists maybe fell a little short. All of this will be MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION, so be sure to take it with a 5lb bag of salt.
All right, now that that's out of the way, on to the review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVfbosghkTg
Let's start off with the good stuff:
I've watched Mark Tremonti's career ever since Creed came out with the "My Own Prison" album, and a big part of what I've loved is watching him grow and evolve over the years. Now it's very easy to rag on Creed, and for good reason *coughScottStappcough*, but even given the posturings of that particular Jesus wannabe, I always loved both the riffs and the tones Tremonti and crew came up with. When it was announced that Creed was breaking up, and that the rest of the band was reforming as Alter Bridge with Myles Kennedy on vocals, I was thrilled. When One Day Remains was released, I snapped it up immediately, and was NOT the least bit disappointed. To my ears, it felt like everything I liked about Creed, only with their mediocre singer replaced with one of the great rock vocalists of the modern era.
Apparently, Slash agrees with me. But I digress...
The Blackbird album was even better. Heavier, darker, meaner, etc. And ABIII, while taking me a few times to really "get" it, was a classic. But the whole time, I found myself wondering, "what would happen if Mark had the opportunity to do an album with no restraints, and no having to worry about anyone else in the band?"
With The Tremonti Project's "All I Was", the question has been answered, and the answer is, in my personal opinion, one hell of an album. It has its pluses and its minuses, but overall, I think it's a fantastic rock/metal album. To put it mildly, it's been in constant rotation in my car's CD changer (yes, I still have a CD changer in my car) since I bought it. I haven't gotten sick of it yet.
So what are the pluses? Well, it definitely plays to Tremonti's strengths. The rhythm playing is phenomenal. From the beautiful clean playing on "The Things I've Seen" and "New Way Out" to the ridiculously heavy riffage of "You Waste Your Time" and "Giving Up", I think Tremonti covers the sonic territory better than he ever has before. The songwriting is solid, with melody never taking second place to the guitar playing, and the musical and emotional range of the album covers pretty much all the bases. And for anyone wondering how Tremonti handles vocal duties, well, he's very good. Myles Kennedy doesn't have anything to worry about (IMO, I don't think Kennedy has anything to worry about with any rock vocalist currently walking the Earth), but Tremonti shows himself to be a very very solid lead singer.
As for the minuses, again, strictly in my personal opinion, they're few and far between. There are a few moments where Tremonti doesn't sound entirely comfortable in his role as lead vocalist, mostly when trying to throw in vocal "fills". And while Tremonti is an amazing lead guitar player these days, I've never been a huge fan of his lead style. It always seems to be just a little over the top for the song to my ears. Does this mean he's actually over the top? Not necessarily. Again, and feel free to repeat after me, this is just my opinion. For others, his lead work may hit the perfect spot.
Over all, I love this album. I find myself singing along with the majority of the songs on it, and am genuinely looking forward to hearing the follow up, whenever that happens.
I'm going to be putting up album reviews periodically, and for the most part, they're going to be reviews of some of my personal favorite albums. This means some of them are going to be of older works. It also means I'm not going to pretend to be entirely objective about them. I intend for them to be more of a look at why these albums mean so much to me, the things I like about the albums, and some of the ways I think the artists maybe fell a little short. All of this will be MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION, so be sure to take it with a 5lb bag of salt.
All right, now that that's out of the way, on to the review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVfbosghkTg
Let's start off with the good stuff:
I've watched Mark Tremonti's career ever since Creed came out with the "My Own Prison" album, and a big part of what I've loved is watching him grow and evolve over the years. Now it's very easy to rag on Creed, and for good reason *coughScottStappcough*, but even given the posturings of that particular Jesus wannabe, I always loved both the riffs and the tones Tremonti and crew came up with. When it was announced that Creed was breaking up, and that the rest of the band was reforming as Alter Bridge with Myles Kennedy on vocals, I was thrilled. When One Day Remains was released, I snapped it up immediately, and was NOT the least bit disappointed. To my ears, it felt like everything I liked about Creed, only with their mediocre singer replaced with one of the great rock vocalists of the modern era.
Apparently, Slash agrees with me. But I digress...
The Blackbird album was even better. Heavier, darker, meaner, etc. And ABIII, while taking me a few times to really "get" it, was a classic. But the whole time, I found myself wondering, "what would happen if Mark had the opportunity to do an album with no restraints, and no having to worry about anyone else in the band?"
With The Tremonti Project's "All I Was", the question has been answered, and the answer is, in my personal opinion, one hell of an album. It has its pluses and its minuses, but overall, I think it's a fantastic rock/metal album. To put it mildly, it's been in constant rotation in my car's CD changer (yes, I still have a CD changer in my car) since I bought it. I haven't gotten sick of it yet.
So what are the pluses? Well, it definitely plays to Tremonti's strengths. The rhythm playing is phenomenal. From the beautiful clean playing on "The Things I've Seen" and "New Way Out" to the ridiculously heavy riffage of "You Waste Your Time" and "Giving Up", I think Tremonti covers the sonic territory better than he ever has before. The songwriting is solid, with melody never taking second place to the guitar playing, and the musical and emotional range of the album covers pretty much all the bases. And for anyone wondering how Tremonti handles vocal duties, well, he's very good. Myles Kennedy doesn't have anything to worry about (IMO, I don't think Kennedy has anything to worry about with any rock vocalist currently walking the Earth), but Tremonti shows himself to be a very very solid lead singer.
As for the minuses, again, strictly in my personal opinion, they're few and far between. There are a few moments where Tremonti doesn't sound entirely comfortable in his role as lead vocalist, mostly when trying to throw in vocal "fills". And while Tremonti is an amazing lead guitar player these days, I've never been a huge fan of his lead style. It always seems to be just a little over the top for the song to my ears. Does this mean he's actually over the top? Not necessarily. Again, and feel free to repeat after me, this is just my opinion. For others, his lead work may hit the perfect spot.
Over all, I love this album. I find myself singing along with the majority of the songs on it, and am genuinely looking forward to hearing the follow up, whenever that happens.
Monday, March 4, 2013
A minor introduction
This is the first of what I hope will be many blog posts by yours truly. My goal is to turn this into a blog about guitar playing, music, stuff I like, reviews, etc. Kind of a "this is what I like" sort of thing.
So first, a little about me.
I'm just a guy that's been obsessed with guitars and guitar playing for the past 25 years. My name is Aaron Stultz, and I currently reside in Puyallup, WA. I started playing guitar when I was 12 years old after deciding that I needed to find a way to A) keep up the friendly competition with my best friend, who had been playing piano for several years, and B) to get the interest of the opposite sex. Since I was decidedly non-athletic, and could be most kindly described as a nerd (well before the term became cool), guitar seemed like the best way to do that.
It certainly helped that I had fallen in love with the hair metal scene, as the only thing that scene had going for it was a plethora of great guitar players. But it wasn't until an Uncle of mine sat me down and had me listen to Led Zeppelin IV that I decided for sure that this was what I wanted to do.
That's right, "Stairway" made me want to play guitar. Cliched? Perhaps. Did it work? Yep. So I ain't complaining.
Since then, I've played in a couple of local originals bands, none of which ever did a lot of gigging, and have spent the past 5-6 years focusing on recording my own stuff on my own terms. It can be, and has been, said that I don't always work well with others. Heh.
So that's pretty much me in a nutshell. At least what I'm willing to put out on the wilds of the intrawebs. I'm very much looking forward to moving along with this blog over the next several months and years, and seeing where it takes me, and anyone else that may be inclined to read it. Hopefully the journey will be a fun one for everyone involved.
--Aaron
So first, a little about me.
I'm just a guy that's been obsessed with guitars and guitar playing for the past 25 years. My name is Aaron Stultz, and I currently reside in Puyallup, WA. I started playing guitar when I was 12 years old after deciding that I needed to find a way to A) keep up the friendly competition with my best friend, who had been playing piano for several years, and B) to get the interest of the opposite sex. Since I was decidedly non-athletic, and could be most kindly described as a nerd (well before the term became cool), guitar seemed like the best way to do that.
It certainly helped that I had fallen in love with the hair metal scene, as the only thing that scene had going for it was a plethora of great guitar players. But it wasn't until an Uncle of mine sat me down and had me listen to Led Zeppelin IV that I decided for sure that this was what I wanted to do.
That's right, "Stairway" made me want to play guitar. Cliched? Perhaps. Did it work? Yep. So I ain't complaining.
Since then, I've played in a couple of local originals bands, none of which ever did a lot of gigging, and have spent the past 5-6 years focusing on recording my own stuff on my own terms. It can be, and has been, said that I don't always work well with others. Heh.
So that's pretty much me in a nutshell. At least what I'm willing to put out on the wilds of the intrawebs. I'm very much looking forward to moving along with this blog over the next several months and years, and seeing where it takes me, and anyone else that may be inclined to read it. Hopefully the journey will be a fun one for everyone involved.
--Aaron
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)