People often ask me about secrets of my guitar playing and I rarely talk about it, simply because I don't know what to say other than "Thanks! I like to play." Maybe I can try and make a dent with a lengthy journal entry. It's too damn hard for me to turn instinct into words and music lessons. When you see your doggie squatting and rubbing his/her bum on the floor, you don't ask the doggie why it does that - correct? Nope. Because you know they're doing it because it's instinct and it feels good - there's no other real reason (well.. other than glands with fluid in them, but that's a whole different journal entry altogether). Anyways, I'm bored out of my mind and am going to talk guitar for a bit here, simply because I feel like writing and have nothing else at the moment to talk about.
So, after nearly 20 years of playing geetars, I feel I have finally reached an important point with my abilities as a player: I am able to quickly and comfortably make my guitars say whatever it is my brain wants them to. Not necessarily in a guitar solo sense, because 99% of guitar solos are boring to me for the most part. These days it's way more fun for me to focus on seeing exactly how far I can push things beyond what you normally hear out of guitars. When I'm playing, I almost feel more like I'm holding a box of crayons than a guitar - and it sure is fun! If I want it to go "weeedily weedily weEEEEE.. shunk!", I put my fingers down and it happens. "Shikka shikka braaangangangang"? Consider it done. "Splink.. croing!" Easy peesy.
Granted yes, I have the 20 years of playing under me belt, but I still give most of the credit for this to the last 3-4 years of playing with Iced Ink (and the last 1.5 years with She Might Be A Spy - see links to both bands on the right side of this page). Not just playing in the bands, but the people I'm playing with: Joe B., VomitGod, Scara, and Big Johnson. Easily the most phenomenal players I've had the pleasure of dealing with, and the people who I feel are responsible for bringing out the mutated guitar noises that had been living inside of my head for so many years that I was never able to because I didn't know how. In the past I've always relied on effects to do the work for me. [Dear layperson: "Effects" = little expensive doo-dads you plug your guitar into in order to get cool noises out of it, sort of like when you add Tobasco to eggs, or jelly to toast to make it a little more exciting... or to cover up the fact that whatever it is you're eating tastes like shit]
In the early 90s, I started out with the typical effects: Flanger, chorus, Wah, and delay pedals. Those were fun, but I needed something with more dials and blinking lights on it, because dials and blinking lights are fun to look at, right? So I spent $900 on a box called an ART SGX2000 with red lights and a green LED display. It also had a lavender/pink paint job which was mos definitely a nice touch. After a few years, I sold the SGX2000 on Ebay and put the money towards a nice sleek new silver Digitech 2101. The brushed silvery-gold face on it reminded me of my Dad's cool old Marantz stereo receiver. A few years later I picked up a refridgerator-sized Marshall JCM900 half stack, because there is an unwritten rule somewhere in the world of guitar players that states if you're in a rock band, you have to own one at some point. After all those years, thousands of dollars, effects, and calories/time burnt hauling that heavy shit around and hooking it all up to play, I still found myself asking me "Good gawd, WHY do I sound like SHIT?!" I was spending more time pressing buttons and twisting knobs looking for The Sound than I was playing.
I have since sold most of that poot and stripped down to 2 simple teeny little amps and 1 volume pedal (Iced Ink observers know I still use the GT6 fx pedal, but that things days are numbered as well.. I give it a few more months before I'm ready to use it as a paperweight). Since I've adopted this new approach, I realized that all the cool sounds I've been looking for are in my fingers and guitar knobs/switches, NOT expensive pedals. The answer I had been looking for was right at the end of my wrists all of those years (and hiding inside of my Tech 21 Trademark 60 amp.. me + Tech 21 = match made in guitar playing heaven)
Another trap I fell into was the theory trap. I was strangled for many years trying to make music out of mathematical equasions. Once I let go of trying to be inspired by scales and modes and just let the music happen, ideas started pouring out of me like there was no tomorrow and continue to... and ironically they end up sounding like mathematical equasions. These days I couldn't tell you for the most part what chord or mode I'm playing, simply because I don't care anymore. Good stuff comes from the heart, not a mapped chord progression with a bunch of noodling over it.
The only other "secret" I have is that you are only as diverse as the music you allow yourself to listen to. If your tastes know no boundaries, your style is likely to as well.
So, that there is a great long story-longer secret for anyone that's ever attempted to poke and prod my brain for answers. I got to a point where I served my time, discovered less is more re: gear, found the right people, and it all allowed the floodgates in my brain to open and just let things happen. Not saying less is more would work for everybody, it's just what I found works for me. Not to mention less stuff = less time setting up, and less money spent fixing things.
Now go, get on with your bad selves. That's about all you're gonna get out of me, because it's all I know, I'm starting to bore myself, and I've got better things to do than talk about guitar all day.. like finding a galdamn job to pay off all those credit card bills I racked up paying for all of those aforementioned effects.
Four more words for you in closing: Jeff F'in Beck, baby!
p.s.- Before any of you go cringing and posting a comment on my food consumption habits, Tobasco on eggs is the shit.. don't knock it until you've tried it, punk!
