jason priestly strings story

tom lees on granville

so we guess the time is getting just about right to finally blog about our experience at Tom Lee’s Music store in Vancouver this past summer. the reason being that the GHS brite flats strings we bought that day are now in use.

we stopped at Tom Lee’s on Granville to check out the much ballyhoo’d store and perhaps buy a pedal (that ended up being the EHX bassballs that we dearly love). so as we are trying out the pedal in a soundproof room we spied none other than 90210(amongst many other roles) star, Jason Priestly(JP) shopping in the guitar section with his rather large body guard/personal assistant in tow. being much interested in the pedals we were trying out we didn’t give it much of a 2nd thought until we were ready to pay for our pedal at the one and only cash. there in the lineup right behind us was JP.

we had discussed with the store help that we needed strings as well as the pedal yet as we were ringing up the total the strings we had decided on were nowhere to be found. so a search for the strings ensued followed by a struggle to find out actually how much the strings actually cost. now the lineup had gone to 1 to about 6 ppl in this time. how much time had gone by was beyond us since we were in no hurry. no one was really bothering JP but the more and more a crowd developed around the cash, the more and more JP and his large ass. man were getting nervous. it was obvious they were in a hurry and wanted no part of an impromptu autogoof session.

the situation was out of our control. there were 2 sets of flat strings we wanted to purchase cuz according to the staff they were on sale. but what the actual sale price was proving difficult to locate. the tension in the lineup was building and building. the expression on JP and his ass. man were priceless.

finally the staff relented the cash to JP and the others so they could be served while we waited for the price. a few evil eyes were given by the large ass. man but really the situation was the result of the staff and not us. in our mind, we’re thinking yer not quite the big deal u still think u are. none of the tweens in the lineup had recognized him and in real physical life JP was actually super small. we doubt he reaches 5 ft. on a good hair day.

after they departed, the tension eased and we discovered our strings only cost $10 a set. worth making JP wait any day! what a bargain! we left the store and there was no sight of JP anywhere. a trail of dust was all he left.

now its a been a few months since we bought those strings and they’ve been on our gibson bass for about 2 months. the review is that we don’t like them and will likely not use the 2nd set. the tone and feel is just not suited to us. no matter how we tweak things we just can’t seem to get a sound we like out of them. the best way we can describe it in words is that it sounds as if the tone is being choked. we’ve been using the bass/strings set up for jams just so they get some use b4 we replace them. but nonetheless, we’ll never forget the day we made a hollywood star wait so we could get bargain strings for 10 bux!

in a totally unrelated note, here’s a pic we took of a streetfight later that same day. the suit actually kept talking on the cell as he tried to break up the fight. the fight started when the 2 guys on the ground bumped each other and then it just escalated from there. some nasty punches were thrown and then it got broken up by onlookers and every1 went their separate ways. stay classy vancouver!

even wks after the canucks playoff loss there was still fighting in the streets!

bassmorgasborg II

before we get to the bass, as we’ve stated previously we are keeping up with are drumming on a every other day basis.  we think its a good to keep tabs on the ol’ kit and tricks just in case and to help keep that sense of what its like going.  anyways, the other day we responded to an online request for a drummer to come out to a casual jam and play along to some songs by the Clash.  well, being that the Clash are our fave band of all time, this was a no brainer for us and we wholeheartly took up the challenge.  we blasted thru 15 or so songs in 2.5 hrs and at least 60% of those would have been stage ready IMHO.  it was crazy good and met all our expectations!  plans are to have another go at some songs in sept.  can’t wait!

peggy's buddy!

we scored a bass cab the other day.  15″ that can handle 300w easily.  its pretty darn big and weighs about 60 lbs but the price was right and its not like we’ll be using it at every gig.  the plans are to use it mainly for outdoor shows.  we took the grill off as it was rattling and then took the Fender logo off that since the look of logo wasn’t that retro.  the rattle was the grill hitting the edges of the speaker so we added some weather stripping to the points where the 2 were touching and put the grill back on.  it bows out a bit but sounds great now and thats what matters.  we plan on taking the direct out of peggy the amp and feeding that into a PA amp(thats all we have for a head right now… ah, the search for a bass head is ON!) and enhancing the low end signal that way.  we plan to debut it next weekend at one of our outdoor gigs.

peggy's buddy with the grill on!

finally an update on our pedal situation.  we were not using our EHX bass big muff as much as we woulda liked and our BBE sonic stomp was always in use but we never quite 100% happy with what it was doing to our sound.  so we’ve been casually searching for a replacement for both and we think we found it with a Catlinbread SFT.   it not only add some variable grit to our sound but also is quite nice at allowing us to tweak our tones.  we took it out to our gig last weekend.  we had only really spent about 30 mins with the pedal to make sure it worked and sounded ok.  it took about a set to get used to her sensitivity(it responds to how hard or soft u play!) and once we locked in a setting that was right for the sweet reggae vibe it was perfect the entire night!  any pedal that inspires you and makes u anxious to get back to playing again just so you can hear it HAS TO BE GOOD! its also likely that her sensitive side will make us a better bassist in the future.  here’s a pic of the august pboard set up.  looking at the pic makes us think that less is more. the sft is a good step fwd in usefullness and quality so we can’t wait to enjoy it more!

august pedalboard!

bassballs!

july board

been busy.  just preppin for another weekend with TooNice and took a quick shot of the pedal board for this trio of shows.  welcome aboard Bassballs!  u sure are addictive!  next week we’ll post some thoughts on how the new pedal does!

lets do the disc as a setlist, k?

TooNice's debut, "Change"

So the idea for Friday’s CD release show with TooNice is to play the new album as a set.  That is… the setlist for the show is the CD in the order as it appears on the CD.  A different concept for us as usually setlists are put together with the thought of the live show and how we want the energy to flow.  The album track order was put together with the thought of the listener at home, kickin’ back and enjoying.  How will that order play out?  Well having reviewed the album the last few days as a set, it should do ok.  Maybe not the best set ever, but it will be fun “one time only event” nonetheless.  It will also be a different night for us, as we usually like to have a few covers sprinkled into the set.  If any of those come up, it’ll have to be as an encore!

In other news, the Bassmetaphors is off the pedalboard for good.  Too much noise and tone loss in our books.  We gave it a honest go for a few months and now with the BassPi on board as our distortion source, the cons were outweighing the pros of keeping the Bassmetaphors “on board”.  In its place, is ol’-reliable-first-pedal-we-ever-owned, the Tech21 sans amp bass driver DI. Reunited and it feels so good.

2 new additions 2 the pedal fam!

2 new additions to the our meagre pedal board setup to announce!

1. the addition of the Bass BIG Muff PI.  a few months back we had tried out a regular guitar muff and came to the conclusion that this pedal offers the most fuzz and distortion bang for its buck.  once we found ourselves with an hour in the big smoke and the cash to spare we headed down to moog audio on queen w to check out the prices.  despite the horrid service, the price was right and we patiently and gladly got the pedal onto its new home.  its only been a few days togther but so far, so good. its all we had hoped and we’ll enjoy tweaking it daily!  omg, the sustain!

our current november pedal setup

2.  we happened upon an unused case for a drill the other day.  we quickly sized it up and thought this might do nicely as a hard shell case for our small pedal board.  we got the thing home, gutted out the plastic inside that was meant for the drill and viola!  instant pedal case for free!  the gutting took about an hour but it was totally worth the time and effort.  it fits perfectly and snugs the board nicely so that nothing moves during transpo.  all we have to do at gigs/jams now is pull it out and plug in.  there is even enough vertical space to store some cords underneath the board.

gutted case with a cord

gutted case with pedal board & cords underneath