Vibrato

Here is the final tune by Bandwidth at Techapalooza, the battle of the bands fund raiser in Winnipeg at the Park Theatre on February 16th. On this tune I’m playing my Fender Custom Classic Stratocaster into the Tone King Metropolitan. The opening riff is the guitar straight into the amp set to the lead channel. For the solo, with the aid of my GigRig switcher, I hit one button and it switches my amp to the rhythm channel and engages my Fuchs Extreme Cream overdrive pedal in “hot” mode and the delay I’m using is the Diamond Memory Lane Junior. For the Wah portion of the solo I configured another patch on the GigRig that turns on my RMC Picture Wah and I boost the output just a little bit with the output buffer of the GigRig.

BandWidth is…

• Larry Laker – vocals
• Yvonne Burman – vocals
• Carl Strempler – guitar
• Greg Loeppky – bass
• Gary Brenner – keyboards
• Hal Ryckman – drums
• Karen Carlson – trombone and vocals
• Dean Clarke - trumpet
• Dana Neal – trumpet
• David Thistlethwaite – saxophone
• David Brown – saxophone

I love “The Thrill Is Gone”. It speaks to the human condition so well. I have so many versions of this B.B. King song. When we added it to the band’s set I was in a mind to approach it with a lot of dynamics ala Albert Collins “Cold, Cold, Feeling” so we really bring it down during the last solo. In blues as in life, sometimes if you repeat a phrase, you give it more weight and if you do that at lower and lower volume levels it has even more impact. The other device I use is to engage the rhythm section with syncopated rhythmic shots, not approach either B.B. or Albert would have used. The horn section with swells and a great trumpet solo really set this tune off nicely.

The signal chain is the Gretsch 6118 -> Fuchs Extreme Cream -> Tone King Metropolitan.

• Vocals and Guitar – Bill Kirkpatrick
• Guitar – Carl Strempler
• Bass – Adam Halstrom
• Keys – Gary Brenner
• Drums – Greg Boettcher
• Trumpet – Ryan Brouwer (solo)
• Tenor Sax – Chuck McClelland
• Trombone – Karin Carlson

The Thrill Is Gone

Techapalooza is a concert event that occurred in Winnipeg at the Park Theatre on February 16th, 2012 that brought together 5 bands comprised of talented musicians who work in the I.T. sector. The bands performed in front of an enthusiastic crowd who voted for their favorite band to be crowned champion. In 2012 BandWidth won the fan voting. While rockin’ the night away the event raised $25,000 for the CancerCare Manitoba Foundation. Here is a little highlight reel of footage for the event.

BandWidth is…

• Larry Laker – vocals
• Yvonne Burman – vocals
• Carl Strempler – guitar
• Greg Loeppky – bass
• Gary Brenner – keyboards
• Hal Ryckman – drums
• Karen Carlson – trombone and vocals
• Dean Clarke - trumpet
• Dana Neal – trumpet
• David Thistlethwaite – saxophone
• David Brown – saxophone

Friday March 9th a group of us from Price Industries are going to be playing a fund raising social in support of the Children’s Wish Foundation (8 pm – 1 am) at Gateway Rec Center, 1717 Gateway Road, tickets are $10 at the door. The band is called Noise Control and we’ve got a bunch of people singing from across the company. Here is a track with Dave Singleton (pictured here) singing CCR’s Green River. It rocks pretty hard, enjoy!

The signal chain on this tune is the Gretsch 6118T-LTD -> Diamond Boost-EQ -> Swart Atomic Space Tone. Just love that amp!

• Vocals and Bass – Dave Singleton
• Lead Guitar – Carl Strempler
• Rhythm Guitar – Shadley Davidson
• Acoustic Guitar – David Alpert
• Drums – Leith McLeod

Green River

At Yule Rock the Park, the closing set was by Network. Here is the opening tune of our set, the Pink Floyd classic, Money. One of the tricks about this tune is that there are so many small guitar parts all layered.

The signal chain on this tune is the Fender Custom Classic -> Diamond Tremolo -> Fuchs Extreme Cream -> Tone King Metropolitan.

Vocals – Yvonne Burman
Guitar – Carl Strempler
Keys – Gary Brenner
Bass – Greg Loeppky
Sax – Chuck McClelland
Drums – Hal Ryckman

Money

Yet another cut from “Yule Rock the Park!” at the Park Theatre on December 17, 2011. This is one of my favourite Albert King songs, Born Under A Bad Sign. The noise and interference at the Park Theatre can be a bit much with single coil pickups. Listening back to this I’m thinking maybe a Suhr Silent Single Coil backplate system would be a good upgrade for my trusty Fender Custom Classic.

The signal chain is Strat -> Fuchs Extreme Cream -> Tone King Metropolitan.

Vocals and Guitar – Bill Kirkpatrick
Guitar – Carl Strempler
Bass – Adam Halstrom
Keys – Gary Brenner
Drums – Greg Boettcher

Trumpet – Ryan Brouwer
Tenor Sax – Chuck McClelland
Trombone – Karin Carlson

Born Under A Bad Sign

Here is a cut from “Yule Rock the Park!” at the Park Theatre on December 17, 2011. This first set, the blues set, with Bill Kirkpatrick singing. We had the great privilege of having a 3-piece horn section for this event. I don’t think I want to gig without a horn section anymore, it was so fun. The arrangement is pretty true to the Albert King version, though I probably should have used something with humbuckers in it. The first time I ever heard this tune was on Eric Clapton‘s Money and Cigarettes album so the Strat tone on this tune stuck with me.

The signal chain is Strat -> Diamond Boost-EQ -> Tone King Metropolitan. As you can see from the picture the microphone is a Shure KSM-32.

Vocals and Guitar – Bill Kirkpatrick
Guitar – Carl Strempler (solo)
Bass – Adam Halstrom
Keys – Gary Brenner
Drums – Greg Boettcher

Trumpet – Ryan Brouwer (solo)
Tenor Sax – Chuck McClelland
Trombone – Karin Carlson

Crosscut Saw

If you’ve been following my blog for any amount of time you will know that I’ve got a pretty good collection of guitars going. I don’t “collect” guitars, rather I expect that every guitar will be a working guitar to be used in live or recording situations.

I love the sound of a good Gretsch and I’ve never had the privilege of owning one. You just can’t beat the shimmer of a Bigsby tremolo. I’ve played a lot of Gretsch guitars that didn’t meet my expectations. On one occasion I borrowed a Gretsch, gigged with it, decided it wasn’t for me. A few months ago I was browsing Kijiji and noticed a guitar that might fit the bill. I offered to trade a Fender Nocaster for this Gretsch 6118T-LTD 125th Anniversary. The 6118 was just a few weeks old. The plastic was still on the pick guard. The Fender wasn’t being used, and while it was a great guitar, it just was not a unique voice as I have a Fender Custom Classic Telecaster I preferred to play. I made the offer for a straight trade and the deal was done.

When I received the guitar it played wonderfully. It is a very solid feeling Gretsch with a pinned bridge, locking tuners, and TV Jones PowerTron pickups. I found the pickups to be a bit too powerful with a bit of a mid-range hump. I switched them out for a TV Jones Classic Plus for the bridge and a TV Jones Classic for the neck pickup. The results are superb. Exactly what I was looking for. The guitar has a nice balance between the pickups and retains that Gretsch twang.

This year’s Christmas bash is on December 17th at the Park Theatre (see my Gig Calendar for details, a small number of tickets were still available at the time of this post). I have the opportunity to play a set with the Bald Billy Blues Band and one with Network. In the blues band set I’ve added Sleepwalk, a perfect tune to bring things down a bit and play a tune that has been a mainstay of so many great guitar instrumental bands of the past 50 years. I recorded this cut at last week’s band practice. The signal chain for the lead guitar is a Gretsch 6118 -> Durham Sexdrive -> Tone King Metropolitan.

Lead Guitar – Carl Strempler
Rhythm Guitar – Bill Kirkpatrick
Keyboards – Gary Brenner
Bass – Adam Halstrom
Drums – Greg Boettcher

Sleepwalk

In October we (the Network band) had a chance to reprise our gig for Wellington West as IROC and the Regulators. Last year the gig was in Kananaskis, this year it was in beautiful Montreal. One of our sets was video recorded. The sound from the microphone on the camera so the mix varies depending on where the camera is on the stage. I love how Kat sings this tune.

Since this gig was in Montreal and we were flying in for it we had to use gear sourced locally. I was able to bring theGigRig and my favourite Strat. I had arranged with Boutique Tone to rent a Divided By 13 RSA 31 and I was pretty excited to try it out in a live setting. When I arrived I found they had just sold it. Jeremy at Boutique Tone was apologetic and recommended I try the Jackson Britain 3.0 combo. After viewing this video Jeremy wrote me back saying “Seriously, I don’t think tone gets any better than that.”

The amp has two channels that you mix together and a foot-switchable boost that I connected to the GigRig. You can set the amp to 12 watts class A using EL84′s, 25 watts class A using EL34′s, or 50 watts class A/B using EL34′s. The amp was loaded with a Celestion Gold, fast becoming a favourite speaker of mine. This is a LOUD amp and it has incredible addictive muscle. You hit a note and it projects it. Listen to how thick this amp sounds. All I’m using is the amp with some delay. The signal chain is a Fender Custom Classic Strat -> Diamond Memory Lane Jr -> Jackson Britain 3.0. For the solos I’m kicking in just the boost. The sound of the amp is retained by the use of theGigRig. This switcher is what allows me to bypass all pedals not in immediate use, and do switching on the amp at the same time. I don’t think I was in the PA for this gig because the amp was so loud and it was set to the 12 watt setting. Incredible.

As our band, Network, has been preparing for a private function next week in Montreal I’ve been recording the practices with my Zoom H1. Here is a little gem from this week’s practice that I think is pretty good.

Gravity

Katherine Penfold – Vocals, Gary Brenner – Keys, Hal Ryckman – Drums, Dave Christianson – Bass, Yvonne Burman – Backing Vocals, Carl Strempler – Guitar.

Guitar Chain: Fender Custom Classic Stratocaster -> Fuchs Extreme Cream -> Diamond Memory Lane Jr -> ToneKing Metropolitan