rockandroll
Member
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2024
- Messages
- 15
- Reaction score
- 44
Howdy!
Joining from Manitoba, Canada - long time musician getting back into playing/recording after a long time away.
I am originally a drummer, started playing in high school back in the late 80s. Ended up joining a "band" - a 3 piece unit that just played cover tunes in practice rooms and at friends' houses. Although we did play one actual gig, a Quinceanera. I was the only non-Mexican in the band, so I was the odd one at this show. We had, I think, 5 or 6 songs... Sunshine of Your Love, Iron Man, Cocaine ... the only other song I remember was Wipeout. My drum solo was banging, too. That song got requested twice more, and we played it and felt like rock gods because people were asking us to play [someone else's] song LOL. Great night... I ate menudo for the first time, got flirted with by a few pretty senoritas, and was able to sneak some beers with the guys shooting shotguns in the parking lot.
One of my aunts heard that I was in a band, and I'd expressed interest in learning guitar, so she gave me her old Tiesco guitar and 10-watt amp. Her and her husband had just bought a brand new Les Paul Studio, so had no need for the "cheap" Tiesco. I picked up some chord books and found that I didn't like them. I started figuring out how to play the songs I listened to, by ear... basically, bass lines on a guitar at first LOL. But I learned a couple easy chords, and got to where I could play along with most things. I wrote my first song on that guitar.
Fast forward a lot... I went to join a band that was being put together by a guitarist and bassist/vocalist. They were looking for another guitarist and a drummer. I didn't have a kit at that time, and was doing quite well at guitar, so I went down to jam with them. They had a kit there that the guitarist had bought for the band, since most drummers around us at that time were just like me... no kit LOL. [By the way... a driver without a car is actually a walker - a drummer without a kit is just someone who knows how to play drums, amirite?] I was trying to show them a song idea that I had been working on, and was describing the guitar part I played, as well as the beat I was hearing in my head, and they just didn't get it. I showed the guitarist something that I wanted him to play, and then sat down at the kit to show them what I was talking about, and we started jamming it. A few minutes later, we stopped... they looked at each other and each said some version of "...and you want to play guitar?!" That settled it, I was their new drummer.
I kept playing the guitar, recording my own music through the 90s on my Tascam Porta07. I didn't have a drum kit for part of that time, so I'd improvise... mic'd drumsticks on books, pillows, carpet... whatever sound I needed. I'd sample drum fills from music I listened to and (on cassette tapes, which is super difficult and time consuming) build out a loop that was like 5 minutes long so I could jam my songs along with it. I did this with the drum beat from Enigma's Sadeness.. used that on a few songs, actually. But I always kept playing the guitar in my experimentations.
Back then, I had a Charvel CX-291, in red, that seriously needed a setup (although I didn't realize that at the time, being too uninformed). Someone stole it, and I've always missed that guitar.
Fast forward to now, I've started getting back into making music, and back into guitar with a vengeance. My "family" presently consists of:
- 2010 Epiphone Limited Edition Dot (vintage sunburst) (swapped pickguard and Tusq nut)
- Epiphone Les Paul Classic (honeyburst)
- Kramer VT-211S (teal) (swapped pickguard, etc)
- Squier Sonic Tele (California Blue) (swapped pickguard)
- Epiphone SG Standard (cherry)
- 2006 Gretsch Electromatic Pro Jet G5238T
- 1969 Framus Texan 12-string
- Denver 12-string
- GWL acoustic
- Jay Turser acoustic (campfire guitar)
- Jay Turser 3/4 P-style bass
Super happy to be here. Now, let's get to the pictures!!
(didn't bother w/ the GWL, Denver, or Turser models)
and finally, a picture of my long-ago stolen Charvel and I, "back in the day":
Joining from Manitoba, Canada - long time musician getting back into playing/recording after a long time away.
I am originally a drummer, started playing in high school back in the late 80s. Ended up joining a "band" - a 3 piece unit that just played cover tunes in practice rooms and at friends' houses. Although we did play one actual gig, a Quinceanera. I was the only non-Mexican in the band, so I was the odd one at this show. We had, I think, 5 or 6 songs... Sunshine of Your Love, Iron Man, Cocaine ... the only other song I remember was Wipeout. My drum solo was banging, too. That song got requested twice more, and we played it and felt like rock gods because people were asking us to play [someone else's] song LOL. Great night... I ate menudo for the first time, got flirted with by a few pretty senoritas, and was able to sneak some beers with the guys shooting shotguns in the parking lot.
One of my aunts heard that I was in a band, and I'd expressed interest in learning guitar, so she gave me her old Tiesco guitar and 10-watt amp. Her and her husband had just bought a brand new Les Paul Studio, so had no need for the "cheap" Tiesco. I picked up some chord books and found that I didn't like them. I started figuring out how to play the songs I listened to, by ear... basically, bass lines on a guitar at first LOL. But I learned a couple easy chords, and got to where I could play along with most things. I wrote my first song on that guitar.
Fast forward a lot... I went to join a band that was being put together by a guitarist and bassist/vocalist. They were looking for another guitarist and a drummer. I didn't have a kit at that time, and was doing quite well at guitar, so I went down to jam with them. They had a kit there that the guitarist had bought for the band, since most drummers around us at that time were just like me... no kit LOL. [By the way... a driver without a car is actually a walker - a drummer without a kit is just someone who knows how to play drums, amirite?] I was trying to show them a song idea that I had been working on, and was describing the guitar part I played, as well as the beat I was hearing in my head, and they just didn't get it. I showed the guitarist something that I wanted him to play, and then sat down at the kit to show them what I was talking about, and we started jamming it. A few minutes later, we stopped... they looked at each other and each said some version of "...and you want to play guitar?!" That settled it, I was their new drummer.
I kept playing the guitar, recording my own music through the 90s on my Tascam Porta07. I didn't have a drum kit for part of that time, so I'd improvise... mic'd drumsticks on books, pillows, carpet... whatever sound I needed. I'd sample drum fills from music I listened to and (on cassette tapes, which is super difficult and time consuming) build out a loop that was like 5 minutes long so I could jam my songs along with it. I did this with the drum beat from Enigma's Sadeness.. used that on a few songs, actually. But I always kept playing the guitar in my experimentations.
Back then, I had a Charvel CX-291, in red, that seriously needed a setup (although I didn't realize that at the time, being too uninformed). Someone stole it, and I've always missed that guitar.
Fast forward to now, I've started getting back into making music, and back into guitar with a vengeance. My "family" presently consists of:
- 2010 Epiphone Limited Edition Dot (vintage sunburst) (swapped pickguard and Tusq nut)
- Epiphone Les Paul Classic (honeyburst)
- Kramer VT-211S (teal) (swapped pickguard, etc)
- Squier Sonic Tele (California Blue) (swapped pickguard)
- Epiphone SG Standard (cherry)
- 2006 Gretsch Electromatic Pro Jet G5238T
- 1969 Framus Texan 12-string
- Denver 12-string
- GWL acoustic
- Jay Turser acoustic (campfire guitar)
- Jay Turser 3/4 P-style bass
Super happy to be here. Now, let's get to the pictures!!
(didn't bother w/ the GWL, Denver, or Turser models)
and finally, a picture of my long-ago stolen Charvel and I, "back in the day":
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