..and THEN?!

Had my guitar "class" yesterday.  Paid for it (and a second one) with an extra Japanese Ibanez Tube Screamer I had accidentally won for a mere $70 (rather cheap, as I've seen them going for $500 on some sites).  A well-sought-after piece that any band that survived more than 10 albums undoubtedly own and use:  AC/DC, Rush, Iron Maiden, Queensryche, Tom Petty, this list is near-infinite, though early 80's TS9 Tube Screamers are finite.  Only a few exist in the universe with the sought-after JRC4558D chip.  No worries, I kept my TS9 Turbo Tube Screamer as the first-setting on it shares the exact same ceramic resistors and circuitry to even the same mines the gallium was extracted from, so it's not only a clone, but has 3 other settings as well.  It's not a re-issue or a copy, it's a twin.  There's a lot of religion based on guitar pedals and effects.  Re-issues, such as MXR's script-logo Phase-90 phaser are almost as good as the original 1970's version, but not quite, and you miss a bit of warmth due to carbon parts versus ceramic from Japanese mud despite their claim to exact parts used before.  Yes, even the location of the mud used in the making of a ceramic part makes a tonal difference. Only a critical, non-MP3-listening ear would notice the difference.  I suspect in a noisy, live environ you'd probably not tell the difference, but then again, it's a matter of soul.

Here's an example of a Tube Screamer TS9 distortion sound.  Two guitars are playing here, both using the Screamers, though one has the "Tone" knob cranked to full brite treble, the other is at the mid-way point.

Anyway, he liked my previous efforts (downgraded and uploaded on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikecronis?feature=mhee) and offered no criticisms.  John Mack (who looks like a Molly Hatchet cover) gave me some good criticism, however.  He mentioned the bass guitar was shaky (well sure, since I was only playing bass at the time for 3 days when I tried Tom Sawyer)  and vocals were pretty meh.  Interestingly, he didn't think much of my most recent release Where's My Thing? which I was sort of quite proud of, but I did use MIDI drums and bass guitar and didn't play the organic bass (though I could have, I just wasn't in the mood).  Fair enough.  He did say that I played the actual rock guitar well though, which is nice, and that 3 Pedal Mix which was a demo of 3 of my guitar pedals was insanely good, which is odd to me as I think it sort of blows and has no direction, just sort of a random mess of me messing around.  Hm.

Rick Green Master Bard insists I stop covering other bands and do my own stuff, this time with vocals and the like, though I might try an instrumental so as to not draw away from my playing.  When I sing, it's a bit.. distracting from the guitar work, put in a nice way..  I don't think it's horrible when I sing, I mean, I try to get all the notes.  I don't think I'm flat or sharp, I just don't have that "jois sais ne qois" that say, Master Bard Josh Groban has, though good luck Josh on a Ibanez Saber!  Hmph.

Up and to the right, I'm putting a poll where you can pick if you want me to do an instrumental or a full-on song below.  I'm more apt to do the instrumental but if people want me to sing with my voice and my own lyrics as opposed to emulating someone else's work, please choose so. It's fully anonymous, and you can vote as many times as you want and can pick more than one answer.