A Beatles Virtual Instrument

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 11:35 am

And how did George come up with that four-note descendinig coil at the end of the chorus? That's got to be one the most unusual (yet most effective) licks in a turnaround I've ever heard!

zed · Post by **zed** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 5:18 pm

Here I am, just now, getting the Unicornation notice of all the responses to this thread since the 19th. For some reason, 2 days went by and I was not informed of the exciting discussion taking place herein.

Frodo wrote:I discovered that the sound on Badfinger mixes to be quite tidy. I don't know that it's "too" tidy, but it is saturated with that late 60's/ early 70's British circuitry-- much closer to Abbey Road than earlier Beatle albums in sound. I'm going to have to go collect the complete releases of Apple Records, or as many of them that are available now. I really do like Badfinger's mixes a lot. They appear to be great references for using Fab Four and real guitars together.

Oh my god. I love Badfinger. Fantastic mixes indeed... and Pete Ham's voice is one of my all-time favorites. That is definitely a great sound to go for... it has a nice clean crispness to it, but has the magical quality of stuff that came out of Abbey Road, including great reverb on the vocals and other instruments... great presence and use of room sound. A lovely balanced between electric and acoustic guitars. They also had access to some Beatle instruments, and in Straight Up George produced four tracks and performed some great slide guitar in a couple of them.

But it is not limited to the Abbey Road years. Badfinger just had a great sound. Their first Warner Brothers album has some delicious sounding material on it too. Their demise is one of the truly great tragedies in rock and roll history... and yet the stuff that has built a legend.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 6:38 pm

I figured you might have been busy lately paying the bills or dealing with daily life, but I admit pondering your whereabouts.

Nothing earth-shattering going on, but has there been any buzz in the northern farthings of Fab Four world?

zed · Post by **zed** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 7:30 pm

Frodo wrote:Nothing earth-shattering going on, but has there been any buzz in the northern farthings of Fab Four world?

Nope... nothing that I know of. I have been spending most of my time playing with real guitars and a real amp... so the Fab Four VI is not getting much of my attention lately.

How is it going with your new guitars? Is one of them more of a favorite than the other? Which one are you playing the most?

I'm having fun with my Telecaster, getting more proficient in doing some of that country twang stuff. I've been playing along to Buck Owens dittys and also digging Charlie Pride's version of Act Naturally.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 8:10 pm

I've been only playing the Rickenbacker, to be honest. Even I find it odd not to have even touched the Casino just yet. Lots of reasons for that, though... people in from out of town, and today I'm surrounded by these brush fires and have been plotting an excape route and planning other evacuation plans just in case. Major fires are blazing to the east and west. Many common routes are jammed or closed, etc. For now, things in my immediate area are fine, but there are power outages and other mandatory evacs within a five mile radius. It's going to be w long night.

Hey- maybe I should play the Casino at least once tonigiht just in case!!

I know this is WAT off topic, but there's never a dull moment in these parts.

zed · Post by **zed** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 10:22 pm

Yikes Frodo. That sounds scary.

Frodo wrote:Hey- maybe I should play the Casino at least once tonigiht just in case!!

To hell with that! Those guitars should be among the important things that you take away with you!! But yes... play the damn thing too.

Maybe you should make sure you do a backup you could take away with you on short notice.

I'm up all night... let us know how it's going.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 11:26 pm

Just spent a couple hours on the phone with my sister and family-- a new brush fire broke out "sort of" near their place about an hour east of here (Ontario, California). So far things are okay. Winds are not as bad as they were, but that could change.

In any case, I've got a bit of work to do tonight so that should help stay me awake while keeping tabs on news reports.

And yes-- the Ricky, Casino, and Gretsch are now all near the front door!!

zed · Post by **zed** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 11:33 pm

Normally I tune-out the excessive heat that comes out from my Apple monitor... but I was just watching video footage of the California brush fires and I could feel the heat coming off the screen. I put up my hand to make sure I wasn't imagining it, but sure enough a lot of heat was coming from the monitor, as usual. Funny how images can make you aware of something that you normally filter out.

Speaking of filtering things out, I received a phone call about half an hour ago, from my neighbour downstairs, asking me to please turn down my guitar as he is going to sleep. I was playing at what I thought was a reasonable level, and not playing anything thrashy or distorted. The sound-proofing in my cement building is absolute crap! So damn frustrating.

So while you are thinking about evacuation in one way, I am thinking of evacuation in another. I cannot take this crap any more. I need to live in a sound-proofed space where I can record vocals, guitars, drums and bass at ANY hour of the day or night without worrying about keeping the levels low. I am so tired of holding myself back for fear of disturbing the neighbours. My music and my creativity are suffering because of it.

Thankfully, I can come here to vent.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 1:52 am

Yeah-- you must have a refuge-- not only to play the guitar but to also crank those Beatle albums whenever the spirit demands it.

I forget who it was that said: "When we say it's pretty, we mean pretty LOUD!" LOL!

For most neighbors, anything above a whisper is considered to be loud. To say it cramps a musician's style is a gross understantement.

Fires: yeah-- it''s pretty touch and go, but at nearly 2 AM live news coverage has stopped for the moment with no additional warnings posted. Streets appear to be quiet with no sound of emergency vehicles... which, ironically, is even spookier than just about anything else.

But the winds are not nearly as intense as they were earlier (40/50-100+ mph at times), but the dawn promises to change that: tomorrow's gusts are expected to reach or exceed 80 mph. If there's any good news, once dawn hits the "super scoopers" will be back in action. These are the large planes that dump thousands of gallons of water and fire retardants from the air.

And to think, all this is going on "while my guitar gently weeps".

zed · Post by **zed** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 4:04 am

Frodo wrote:Yeah-- you must have a refuge-- not only to play the guitar but to also crank those Beatle albums whenever the spirit demands it... For most neighbors, anything above a whisper is considered to be loud. To say it cramps a musician's style is a gross understantement.

The funny thing is, I am usually the one complaining, because this guy likes to play hip hop and rap at all hours of the night with his subwoofer. Pulsates right through the floors.

But I know, from going down there and visiting him (with my music playing loudly up here) that my regular stereo and studio monitors playing at a reasonable level do not travel through the floors. The guitar, however, seems to be a different story. He claims to hear my playing guitar all the time (including acoustic guitar when played softly).

Not his fault. But really a drag.

Well Frodo, if you have to evacuate, maybe we should rent a house together and start our band, and make it a psychedelic/Beatlesque tune factory. We can pool our resources and create a bunch of great albums and become famous. Whaddaya say?

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 12:26 am

zed wrote:Well Frodo, if you have to evacuate, maybe we should rent a house together and start our band, and make it a psychedelic/Beatlesque tune factory. We can pool our resources and create a bunch of great albums and become famous. Whaddaya say?

Sounds like a plan. I've got a great place at 3 Savile Row, London!!

And this EMI REDD is going to waste-- has your name on it as well!

zed · Post by **zed** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 12:11 pm

Frodo wrote:And this EMI REDD is going to waste-- has your name on it as well!

Apparently Lenny Kravitz has one of these 4-track REDD desks.

And hey... isn't there one of those in EastWest studio just down the street from you? Or maybe they just secured the 8-track version. Either way they said it would be available for rent in the studio space. Wonder what their rates are?

Have those fires died down yet!?!

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 1:31 pm

Well, here's a view as of 10 pm last night from my patio:

Happy to say that things don't look nearly that bad presently in that area, but we are experiencing new breakouts with stubborn hotspots here and there. A new one just broke a moment ago just 4 miles to the southeast of here-- currently 25 acres, but if the winds don't gust too much they may be able to hold it at bay. The various water-drop planes and helicopters have now been diverted to other trouble areas.

I'm currently keeping one ear on DP and the other on news reports which I've had on non-stop for a couple of days now.

Yep-- I hear that Lenny indeed has one of the remaining REDD consoles- hadn't hear about rental, but I'd suspect that one could almost build one for the price of rental, moving, and insurance.

Here's something drool-worthy for you-- another REDD citing in south Florida. In fact, this is Kravitz's console!
http://www.harrisaudiosystems.com/REDD37Console.html

It's fun to dream...

3rdpath · Post by **3rdpath** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:20 pm

wow, what a photo!

my studio is not far from there...drove up yesterday morning and stayed about 45minutes...then hightailed it back down the 5 to my home studio.

big rig crashes and fires...i've been working from home a lot lately...

glad you're a good distance away from the flames.

zed · Post by **zed** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:25 pm

Frodo wrote:Here's something drool-worthy for you-- another REDD citing in south Florida. In fact, this is Kravitz's console!
http://www.harrisaudiosystems.com/REDD37Console.html

On that page it says "Lenny supposedly refused a substantial offer from a former Beatle member for it."

That former Beatle must be a little bit frustrated. Wonder why he wasn't given first dibbs to buy the thing in the first place. It must be maddening to be a multi-multi-millionaire, and still not have ownership of your song catalog, and the opportunity to own some of the tools that helped make you famous.