Searching for the Gold

Today I played with Kris Stipech, Phil Siems and Ryan Allshouse at Calvary slo. It was fun to play with those talented lads.

I felt a bit rusty today, I haven't played on stage much in the last few months. It took me a while before I felt like I was able to lock in.


It's funny how with certain styles of music it is all about getting the right sound, and not so much about the notes you play. The difference between the right sound and the wrong sound might be as small as the turn of a tone control or a tiny volume adjustment, but you know when it is just right because you hit that sweet spot and you can just feel it. It took me a while to get the right sound today, finding the right balance can be tricky.

For my sound today I was using a zvex booster, into a memory man deluxe, into a choral flange, then in a separate loop, I had an MXR distortion 3, into a tc nova delay, into a Electro harmonix Holy grail. All the pedals were on most of the time and I used my volume control to vary the amount of distortion,
Even when you are using a bunch of effects, you still have to focus on the way you project the notes and interact with the guitar. Today I found that I was able to get a better sound by turning my amp down abit and hitting the strings harder. That doesn't always work, I think you have to have and open mind in every situation, sometimes it sounds better to turn the amp up and play softly. It's like searching for that little bit of gold that is gonna get you inspired.