A ‘straight blues’ on a pre-made backing track from:
www.bluesblast.com
It’s based on the ‘Rock Me Baby’ format.
The two guitars I used are both Epiphone Les Pauls [a black Studio, and a blue Standard], which I bought at a Pawn shop a while ago, hence the title of ‘Pawn my Blues’.
Cool idea to play these two guitars around each other.
The two guitars are similar, being Epiphone Les Pauls; but one had a raunchier voice, the other a sweeter one - but both closely related. I've always liked how in some forms of jazz or blues, the instruments solo collectively in way - not oblivious to each other - but kind of ushering each other in and out repeatedly - I think that gives an added interest to the ear. Thanks for your comments!
Yeah let it sing!
Right on! With this type of playing, it is very much 'letting' the thing happen
Your one talented Dude Bro.....happy Satuday from ya pal, Al super production....
You're too kind Al
Just love the colour of that axe hope it’s hanging on da walll it speaks da Blues....., Al
Yeah, there is some about a blue coloured guitar for the blues - it was last year that I saw this guitar hanging on the wall in my local pawnshop, and it was priced at the going rate, and because I already had a Les Paul I wasn't sure. But I popped in there most days and asked to try it - one of the girls in there one morning said, "it's sooo beautiful", and I'm hankering for it. I went back later that day just before closing time and they'd reduced the price by £150! One of the machine head keys had been knocked off, and one machine was skewed. It must have been dropped by someone in the shop that day! But I bought it there and then - easy replacement with some Wilkinson tuners. It has a sound that is total blues, unlike my other LPs which are great but not like this.
Reach out an take both ear drums with ya......wowza!!
Two Pauls wailing together - anyone say Duane and Dicky? You've got to love them, man.
Bring those Blues home Brother......am going back to school!!!!!, Al
There's only school worth going to - the school of Freddy, Albert and BB King, of Eric, Greeny and Koss - the school of the blues. That's where my roots are. I can only go on far out experiments once my blues roots are watered.
Amazing sound an tone wow I must raise my game by a country mile!!!!, Al
I love Strats, man - I grew up playing one. But to find a Paul like this, suddenly I understood the sounds that Slowhand, Greeny and Mick Taylor got with Mayall, and Koss with Free, of course. And how much like a good violin a Paul is - how the tone and sustain and playability encourage you to play the longer lines and flow. I know if I handed you this Paul you would be killing on it.
badabadabadoom
great how the two voices never clash..like a chorus of agreement, but ith different vocabulary
That was the initial thing on my part - the black Studio LP with heavier strings and open, uncovered pick ups - a darker more strident sound. And the blue LP in the track pic - a sweeter sound, a Beano kind of whine to it, and a totally slinky action and lighter strings. The black one gave some fight, but the blue one went with me on every move. Total tone machine. That has become the guitar against which I compare every other. It's 17 years old, so it has come of age. Enough of this LP fetishising!
I am going to have to succumb to a LP at some point..and it'll be an Epi..
Man, you need to look around and land a good one - the blue one is Korean made - I think they stopped making them there after 2001, and made them in China after ... Korean one's are good ... but try them out .... I'm so struck on Epi's, and you can mod like you wouldn't with a Gibson .... and I think the pickups being slightly weaker than a similar Gibson is an advantage for blues - just adds to the vintage sound ... the blue is light in weight too .... might be chambered .... a good Epi LP is a Paul right there ... it takes care of that end of things. Unless you want to concentrate on that, otherwise an Epi. At the moment I prefer my blue Epi to my red Gibson LP, but I'm having the bridge pickup changed on that, so I might think otherwise
love the effect you use here..really soars and shimmers
That long held note there - I don't think you would get that on any other guitar - it seems to hang in the air, almost frozen - there's no 'twang' that you get on other guitars [which can be nice, just sayin'] - That is my favourite note - I did add a post production tone filter to that passage, just to get a hint of wah, but the passage itself wasn't touched, it was just one of those spontaneous things which would be difficult to repeat with the same feeling.
oh! wonderful sliding bend at 3:33
That may have come from listening to Koss, and watching live clips of him. There's so much colour and subtle shades and nuance in the basic pentatonic that I could go back to being a straight blues guitarist - all the different ways to bend and trill, all the subtle adjustments of the volume and tone pots. Well, that's guitar heaven - and simplifying all the time, just trying to hit the main blue notes in a slightly different but very expressive way ... god I envy that ... I get breathless thinking of Koss and Peter Green when they were on - so much economy and power
I know..I struggle to get it sometimes. .that relentless search for nuance that blues purists have..then I go back to Kossoff..and I get it :)
great strong bends up the dusty end!
And that's another beauty of the Paul - they give out so much up there. You have to fight a Strat or Tele up the top. But a Paul says - 'get up to the top frets - I am flat and wide and my string tension is so elastic there, but the resistance is perfectly balanced and musical - and I sustain so evenly and naturally that you'll hear every increment. It is the ultimate guitar for the Chicago Blues
such sweet singing tones..this is the straightest I've heard you play!
: I wound up with these two Epiphone LPs, and I was giving them both some TLC - lemon oil on the fretboard, polishing the bodies, putting contact cleaner in the pots etc., and I began to get very Paul fetishised. And there's that sound - the Beano sound. The Holy Grail of LP sounds. I get the chills when I hear that Mayall album with EC - something like All Your Love, Steppin' Out, Have You Heard? etc., so I thought, which of my two Epis could do that, get close?
Oh yeah! Got it going on in this!
That's what I like about straight blues - you can just ride the wave and hopefully get it tidal
Solid, guitars sound good, even if straight blues is not usually my speed.
As I said to JB here, these straight blues jams on backing tracks started a couple of weeks ago when I wanted to compare the sounds of some similar guitars that I have, thinking that I need to get rid of some. Two Epi Pauls? Surely one is enough! It's hard to make direct comparisons in experimental music [hence the joy of it] but a blues lick in A is a blues lick in A. I found here that the voices of the two Epis are sufficiently distinct to justify keeping them [I hate getting rid!]. I want to do the same with my Fender type guitars. Already done one with my Vs.
Fair enough, even as I consider getting a second of the same year LP I already have. :)
As a spare? Or to mod? My Gibson LP Studio, 2012 70s Tribute [for that is her full title] is having the bridge pick up changed. On my Epi LPs I've changed the bridge saddles to roller saddles. Thing is, what makes a great blues machine may not make a great space jazz vehicle and vice versa. I'm getting a LP fetish though, I can feel the signs coming on [I keep repeating 'Lester', and keep anointing the necks of LPs and polishing the carved tops ... ohhh!]
Mostly as a spare and to see if it speaks- doesn't help that Gibson discontinued the Studio versions of the High Performance stuff for 2018. I've fallen in love with the wider fretboard and Axcess neck joint, and the electronic options and autotuners ain't bad either. Doesn't help they're starting to inch down in price - $300-500 less than I paid for mine (still new ones available) and the clearances haven't started. I'm also not fond of the cosmetic changes they made on the '17s, but if I don't get a '16 it'll do the job admirably. They went chrome bling on the '17 versus the classic laid back Lesters.
Just seen the flame tops here and almost had a heart attack!
Yea, the '16s are nice, the '17s get better but color options go in the toilet, and the '18s are just more than I can possibly spend.
One of the things I loved on mine was the combo of amazing finish and "workman's wood" - there's a quad knot/figure behind the bridge that makes it for me.
Seriously matching up the grain there too!
Yea, they did a fine job, and I'd rather have something with a little character than not. This is subtle, you have to look hard for it - I could see somebody rejecting it because of it though, which would be a shame because the plank is just magical.
I may just have to try one of these. I doubt I could keep it interesting for this long, though.
- my blues playing has got more interesting now that I have simplified it! Really, these backing track straight blues things began as a way of comparing guitar sounds/set ups. With my experimental stuff i tended to acquire guitars purely as soundsources - I would often get a cheap guitar and put it straight on a track. Now I have a couple of really good guitars i thought I should set them up properly and A and B them. Blues is a great framework to do that in. So this one has my two Epiphone Pauls. The black studio really came through against the blue one, so I'm going to have to keep them both!
yeah, it's hot in here
Everything's pumping!
I see you through the smoke and the beer haze. Pass the frickin' tip can.
Yeah! It's that kind of jammin' feel!
with libélulas on the side
I had to look that up - dragonfly? Reminds me of Jimi's line - "if we travel by, uh, .... dragonfly"
it flows as a hot river
- the Les Paul guitar really helps to get that flow - if you want it!
now I feel like an earthworm..not bad..:)
Ha! I don't usually have that effect, Jan - but I hope you don't mind it too much!
