How gig fit are you?

Is there ever any real substitute for getting out there and rocking out? Does rehearsal even qualify? How important is being gig fit to your playing?
Fact is, you play how you feel. I know when I feel rubbish I can barely play a note, but when I'm on form, well, let's just say I play alot better. I was invited down to the Music Man party at the London Guitar show to see my friend Brian Kellner perform. The guy exudes pure joy when you talk to him. He's one of these guys that says 'do what you love, and stuff the rest', and he loves playing the guitar. The guy is also incredibly physically fit. So at the end of a very long day the party begins and a few guitarists take the stage. The first two guys were great, I mean what do you expect from Music Man endorsees?, they knew their stuff. Then Brian gets up and is also great, but he takes a different approach. He wasn't their to impress or show off his amazing ability, which he has, he was their because he just loves to play guitar. The joy that was so apparent really made a connection with the people in that room. It just felt really good, and to be able to turn it on like that at the end such a long day of trade is no meant feat. Then i realise at that point, if I was to play right now, I would sound like a complete turd for the simple fact that i was exhausted. The experience has made me rethink my approach to being 'gig fit'. It's not just about sounding great on the third night of a string of gigs, it's about having enough in the tank so that even when you don't feel like it, you can just turn it on and connect with that part of you that wanted to pick up the guitar and rock out in the first place.

Great tone moves serious air!

We had a small moment of epiphany this weekend at the International Guitar Show in London. We had set up TheGigRig to do some EXTREME switching. We set up a Two-Rock Jet, Matchless Chieftain, 65 Amps London and my 62 Vox AC30, and had a Pro-14 switching all combinations of the amps + effects, wet/Dry/wet set examples, basically everything you'd expect from the best floor based switching system in the world. But here's the thing that really struck me. If you've ever been to a music trade show there's one common factor - ambient noise. Constant unrelenting noise. So, I start doing this demo, and people quite a way from our stand prick their ears up and head over to check out what's going on. At first I thought that it may be because we were 'shred free', but then a mate who was there with another company comes up and tells me that we could be heard clear as a bell through the ambient noise all the way over to his stand, about 150 feet away.
Hmmm, I thought, so I set up our young gun 'Handsome Dave' on our rig during a noisy period playing a Grissom/Mayer type feel which wasn't loud (you could still talk with no probs at our stand), and went for a bit of a stroll. Through all the noise and chaos, I could hear this tone beckoning. It was a revelation. It really moves air and those toneful frequencies that give us so much joy find their way through the contaminated void, into our ears. This is why great tone can always be heard in the mix.
It does kind of justify the ridiculous efforts many of us go to to get this right. Great tone does connect with people, and that's what it's all about, right?

Pin your ears back boys, we're going in!!! -LIMS

Once again we're be struttin our stuff for MB Media at the London International Music Show. 4 days of music and mayhem at the Excel centre in London from the 12th to the 16th of June. We're doing a pedal board exhibition showing people the stompers of our heroes and what's around today that'll get them there. Our stand is D44 so come over and say hi, and bring me a beer!

Can't sleep. Insomnia gives birth to DISTRIBUTOR

Many people lay awake at night unable to drift off due to so many thoughts nagging at them. I do suffer from this, and what do I think about? Tone. That's it. What can I do to improve your tone. Our latest offering to apease the insomnia deity is the Distributor. This is going to help alot of people, tidy up alot of congested boards, and hopefully I can now get a little bit of sleep.

Paul Stacey last at the 606 in London, OMG!

Once every couple of months Paul Stacey does a classic rock gig at the 606 club in Chelsea London which is where I caught up with Paul last night. What an incredible gig. Paul's tone was phenomenal. He's back from a long tour with The Black Crowes and is in truly fine form. Jeremy Stacey, Paul's brother was on drums and it must be said, is one of the best drummers on the planet. And how John Hogg on rhythm guitar and vocals is not world famous is simply an injustice to mankind. If your a fan of classic rock done the way it was meant to then keep an eye out for the next time they play at the 6.

Oh my...I think we've done it!

We've been working on the ultimate pedal board power solution for some time. Integrating our Generator and Virtual Batteries in a way that will power nearly every dc powered effect on the planet... and I think we've just done it! I'm a bit excited so watch this space for more news on this soon. All I'll say is that daisy chains are about to become obsolete!

Review for Deviever effects on the way!

Joe at Vintage and Rare guitars in London sent me a bunch of these Deviever effects to check out. I've ended up doing a full on review for Guitar Buyer Magazine for three of them. Really fantastic creative tools. These guys have arguably one of the most unique design takes on fuzz's in recent history. Stay tuned for the full review.