One for ze kölleckshün ...

[Chris P.]

And if you visit the other brands forum, check the Harmony thread too. As a Britpop-lover you have to like the Muff/Plonk Harmony reissue!

[uwe]

It is no secret that our dear German business lawyer is a dedicated Ritchie Blackmore fan. I once sort of mentioned me enjoying his I-can-play-sloppy-whenever-I-want-to attitude and Uwe's reaction was kind of ummm..defensive.

Good memory, Daniel, though Blackmore can be sloppy (or drunk) too. I know it's uncool to still like Blackmore the way he has made himself laughing stock with his travelling minstrel show in the last ten years, but his guitar playing, which is as "Yuropean" as a vampire movie, speaks with me.

Slash I like for his tone on the Les Paul as well as for his idiosyncratic riffs and nice little melodies in the "Sweet Child of Mine" vein. Technically, he's probably worse than most heavy metal shredders (his guitar solo piece did not really evidence him as someone who knows more than one scale in various keys, certainly not Blackmore's "all-over-the fretboard-in-any-key" dexterity) but he has style and soul which you can't learn from an instruction DVD.

Anyway, my son was in awe!

Duff, otoh, (at least when he's playing with a pick!) is technically very precise. He has this weird habit of always having all four fingers on the fretboard (don't think he mutes with them, his bass sound is very unmuted) when fretting so it looks like he's always playing with his pinky and sliding up and down. Moves around on the fretboard quite a bit, the type of bassplayer who slides to higher notes on the same string more often than staying where he is and hitting the note on a higher string. Immaculate timing.

Uwe

 

[Max Soren]

Velvets are darn loud tonight. And Slash endearingly sloppy. Duff is iconic, imagine a tall David Bowie playing bass, but he actually sounds best whenever he gets out that warm-sounding Duesenberg Les Paul shape rip-off and stops clanking and clicking all over. Still, a compelling overall performance. Weiland is a much better singer live than I expected!

Your faithful scribe live from Velvet Revolver!

According to what I'm just now reading, Velvet Revolver has just kicked out Scott Weiland.  As far as I know, this isn't an April Fool's joke even though the statement was released April 1.

[Chris P.]

That would be breaking news!!

With the drug history of Scott an april's fools joke would be really inappropriate, but it could be just a bad rumour?

[Nocturnal]

Stone Temple Pilots just announced a summer tour, so maybe it's true?

[Dave W]

Stone Temple Pilots just announced a summer tour, so maybe it's true?

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1584615/20080402/velvet_revolver.jhtml

Sounds like it wasn't an April Fools joke, and that he will be touring with STP.

[Chris P.]

Both items are on Dutch sites tooo now.

[uwe]

The Stone Temple Pilots reunion is old news and not supposed to interfere with VR's touring commitments. Weiland was in fine voice and in alert mode at the gig I saw, he also looked healthy. It was Duff who fell down during one song, he might have dripped though. With the collective drug abuse track record of all the guys of VR, kicking anyone of them out for that is a joke. They hired Weiland knowing he was an active junkie. And Duff just had a relapse into addiction too.

Uwe

[Chris P.]

Uwe's right. In interviews they always talk about Weilands past and drugs habits. But maybe there's more going on we don't see.

[Nocturnal]

On the radio yesterday there was a story about Weiland being kicked out of VR and his statement to them for kicking him out. The DJ's were speculating that it was all just to draw attention to STP's reunion. They also said that Duff mentioned getting Sebastian Bach as a new singer.

[Blazer]

I've played a Duesenberg once, but I can't remember how it sounded or felt! With VR, Duff plays mostly Fenders, a black Aerdodyne one,  his signature one in white and I think another signature one in black. They all sound similar, deep lows and snarling highs, hardly any mides so as to not get into the way of the guitars, he picks right over the splitcoil and must have the pups close to the strings, so its clacke-dee-clacke-dee-oooomph-oooomph all of the time. He probably switches basses because they have different tunings (they're all four strings). When he played the Duesnberg, he suddenly had rich mids and a more subtle, less focused low end plus the snarling highs were gone. He used it for the more ballady stuff only.

I read in an interview how he is - when he's not rehabbing or doing martial arts - currently taking bass lessons because he wants to play finger style rather than pick style. He attempted that a few times during the gig, chucking away his pick and playing - a little awkwardly - with his fingers. It hugely influenced his sound. Since he's not a seasoned finger player, his signal became very uneven, lost focus and volume and all that clacke-dee-clack attack was immediately gone, all you could here attackwise  was the strings hitting the pups now and then. He soon reverted to pick playing, but tried finger style again later. He'll get better over time I'm sure  (as a non finger player all my sympathies are with him, my finger playing is ghastly too).   

Uwe

Hey Uwe, check this out.

The Stray Cats Performing "Double talking baby"
Listen how Lee Rocker's sound changes after the first guitar solo when he stops playing slap style and plays fingerstyle.

[Barklessdog]

Getting pricey, still in the running?

[Dave W]

Over $2K and more than a day left. 

IIRC that's a lot more than Uwe paid for the early 90s Phil Jones prototypes that Gruhn had for sale.

[OldManC]

Getting pricey, still in the running?

Hell, with the exchange rate it's still at pocket change level. 

[Dave W]

You're not that far off, George. I think the Euro is at least 50% stronger than when he bought the Phil Jones prototypes. And it's probably going to stay that way for a while.