Water Rats April 19 - Song List

Jonathangus

Excellent day yesterday!  Many thanks to @munckee for organising and also to @peteri for his generosity in bringing along his lovely vintage guitars and letting all and sundry pick them up and play them.

Hmm - Bristol...

mrkb

Jonathangus said:

Excellent day yesterday!  Many thanks to @munckee for organising and also to @peteri for his generosity in bringing along his lovely vintage guitars and letting all and sundry pick them up and play them.

Hmm - Bristol...

Go on, we could try “caffeine bomb”!

soma1975

munckee said:

I have sent back @customkits money today as unless he is very small or was hiding in @soma1975 marshall combo then he didn't show.

That would explain the weight of it. 

That 54 Les Paul was absurd. Bit scared of something that old to begin with but when you hit it with conviction it had a gorgeous bloom on the notes. I think it is genuinely worth the money it would cost to buy, it's that much better than my les paul standard. 

Danielsguitars

munckee said:

Following the blood letting over money which followed last years jam I said I would publish accounts, we took £312 in total and everyone paid, @mctoot you paid on 7th december, thats my birthday perhaps I thought it was a gift : ).  

I have sent back @customkits money today as unless he is very small or was hiding in @soma1975 marshall combo then he didn't show.

I paid the drummer with the rest meaning overall a loss of £4 which I have deducted from munckee jr's pocket money to teach her a lesson - kids need lessons.

Thanks for the refund, i wondered what that was, I'll definitely make the next one, sounds like it was a great day

Jonathangus

mrkb said:

Jonathangus said:

Excellent day yesterday!  Many thanks to @munckee for organising and also to @peteri for his generosity in bringing along his lovely vintage guitars and letting all and sundry pick them up and play them.

Hmm - Bristol...

Go on, we could try “caffeine bomb”!

Well, we could try it.  We'd likely fall on our arses, but we could try it...

soma1975

I think when I do it again I'll definitely pick some songs the drummer might have heard of. 

Young people  

EDIT: Although when I asked him what his regular stuff was he said amongst others - the Human League!

Winny_Pooh

Nice guys and great day! Peter's guitars were a highlight, @grappagreen had a great 60's strat and it was fascinating comparing two handbuilt 5E3s. 

Fuengi

Thanks to @grappagreen for walking me through 29 X The Pain, fortunately the take was loud enough to drown out even my incompetence and Fuengi Jr's college fund ensured the destruction of the recording. 

soma1975

Winny_Pooh said:

Nice guys and great day! Peter's guitars were a highlight, @grappagreen had a great 60's strat and it was fascinating comparing two handbuilt 5E3s. 

I didn't realise they were handbuilts. What were they? 

Once again you play beautifully. Not sure many of us would have kept up with you in a jam as it sounded like your guitar had more notes on it that 5 us lots' had!

peteri

Really glad to hear all the positive notes on the guitars I brought along, honestly it was a highlight for me to see people play them - firstly because I get to hear what they sound like (sounds funny I know, but it's different) - but also to see how people see how different they can be (not saying better, but different neck profiles etc.)

And how many people played 11-52s without noticing it! I'll make men of you yet!

Would have loved to have heard the hand-built amps - next year must do more of that, but thanks to @Winny_Pooh agreed that Plexi was amazing, and much fuzzier than I expected.

My guitars will come and go to fund others (incoming 56 Esquire will take out some of them) but the memory of seeing people play and enjoy them will stay with me.

Thanks all, and I'd love to do this again in the summer maybe?

springhead

soma1975 said:

Winny_Pooh said:

Nice guys and great day! Peter's guitars were a highlight, @grappagreen had a great 60's strat and it was fascinating comparing two handbuilt 5E3s. 

I didn't realise they were handbuilts. What were they? 

Once again you play beautifully. Not sure many of us would have kept up with you in a jam as it sounded like your guitar had more notes on it that 5 us lots' had!

I built mine from a collection of parts from various places.  Notably the cabiner is from Rift which I then lacquered.  The mains transformer is a Hammond from Bluebell audio.  The output transformer is a Mercury Magnetics from Martin at Gartone.  It was one of his 5E3 inspired amps that led me down the path of building my own.  The valves are a mixture of new and NOS.  I built a variable HT supply into mine which works a treat to reduce the output level whilst preserving the distortion and tone, at least until you take it right down.  Very handy at a gig to knock it down a bit.

@peteri - I'm regretting not trying your goldtop through my amp.  That would have been good.

soma1975

Oh man I wish I'd given it a go. That's basically what I'm looking at to take the place of my current combo. 

grappagreen

All,

Just wanted to say a massive thanks to everyone involved in this. Was a hoot; I had a great time, met some really nice peops and got to play through some ace gear.

The sessions were great fun and without masses of pressure - plenty of time to get sorted/settle and dial-in. I played bass for the first time ever after a week of practice so was really pleased. Can't say my timing was rock solid but it was better than I thought it would be - It's inspired me to put some time into learning how to play bass and maybe get some gigs in the future.

In no particular order just a couple of special mentions..

@peteri  ;- thanks for letting me play though all of your stuff. Sort of dream come true.. was great to compare my '61 to your '64 Strat - similar look and feel but very different sound. Not better or worse, just different. The LP's were fab but the Goldtop was the one for me! Playing the SG into the 1959 hit the spot for a few classic sounds  

@Winny_Pooh - great fun with the Marshall! Great playing and (surprisingly for me) I loved the PRS and the Musicman.. quite an eye opener. Looking forward to comparing my SL68 to your Plexi at some point

@springhead - good to compare the 5E3's and to hear the differences... proved without doubt that they are just killer amps..

And finally

@munckee - organising something like this is like herding cats.. you did good and it's appreciated.

Looking forward to the next one.

Si

lovestrat74

sev112 said:

Sorry had to go just before the end. My energy levels hit a rapid drop, and I knew I had to get home.  

peteri said:

Thanks all, and I'd love to do this again in the summer maybe?

Me too @peteri - Especially if there will be a 56 Esquire there   Not sure @munckee will recover from this one in time tho..

@sev112 - Not surprised with all that dancing you were doing with that bass on your back! - a joy to watch, you were in your element!

Would definitely be up for another one this year - maybe late summer early autumn. Keep the numbers down too as it worked well with less people. Would be happy to pay more for the privilege to cover the costs
 

soma1975

Same 

Edit: not really too fussed about he recording though. Might have been more fun running it through in a band environment a few times and then us all doing ‘the set’ at the end which we can record ourselves. So we are playing each other our gig. Or something. 

grappagreen

Me too..

sev112

Just as a scoping idea, would anyone be interested in an acoustic day at some point?  I guess it would be more like a private open mic, but would be nice to try out each others’ guitars, encourage people to sing and play together, learn some different styles etc.?

peteri

Yeah I’d have a go - I’ve got an old J-45 I should play more 

lovestrat74

Sounds interesting, even tho I don't own an electro-acoustic

Fuengi

peteri said:

Yeah I’d have a go - I’ve got an old J-45 I should play more 

Why doesn't that surprise me? 

I was surprised I was the only one with an acoustic, but as Fuengi Jr pointed out - "didn't you look at the song list?". 

Would be up for an acoustic session, but our song choices were based on having an acoustic and lead part anyway and I think we'd go along those lines as they are great to learn together.