rct

"This won't take long did it?" Never gets old! rct

I am of the Billy Gibbons and my buddy Eric Johnson schools of guffaw worthy guitar bullshite to explain how I do whatever it is I do. I have so many secret weapons I need an app to keep track of them. So I could tell you a couple, but you would be well advised to not believe a word I say. My main secret weapon? Three way switch on Strats. Don't do no 5 ways, take them out immediately, while replacing the pickups with my secret other secret weapons. There, you got one, free of charge. rct

If both guitar players tune down and use bridge cables for strings your band sounds like mush. Play away from the other guitar player. If he or she is singing and cowboy chording it, play up the neck further, get distance between the two of you and you will both sound gigantic. If you know the bass line, and you should, always capitalize on the roots, let the bass player carry the bottom, you keep the fifths going for hard rock and the majors going for the other stuff. Use that bass line to help you sound huge, not to stomp all over if you can avoid it. Distance creates width and depth. Not tuning to standard tuning limits all the other instruments and will cause you your very own set-up problems if you don't set your guitars up tuned down. It limits what you can do with others, if you get an offer to go and play with my band and we inform you immediately that sadly, for you, we do not tune down. If the singer can't sing it, play it in a funny key that they can sing. Someone in the band should know how to do that and quickly show the rest. Tuning down took on a life of it's own at some point in the 80's. Most don't know that nobody tuned down on purpose back then, it was the result of the master being laid down too slow. They were also put down to fast, but nobody ever tunes up do they? lolz rct

Every holiday season I look forward to The Waitresses and their big one Christmas Wrapping. It's got that horn lick you can't get out of your head. rct

From that great film Napoleon Dynamite, The Promise by When In Rome. rct

A band called Sniffin' the Tears, a song called Drivers Seat. It was a big one, at least on MMR and YSP in Philly. rct

You can't throw a rock and not hit somebody who does something with a guitar or keys or DJ equipment. Lots do it for tips or for what they think is exposure, we call that gratis. The space is full, way full, full of people willing to go out on Thursday night and play two hours for diners and take home 30 dollars in tips. Getting decent gigs that will result in decent exposure that will result in moving even a few more records than a handful is becoming nearly impossible. Costs are too high, return is too low. Beatles existed in what would be a competition vacuum compared to today. They grubbed around in underground rock clubs and humped it the old fashioned way, like everybody else did back then. The more you worked the better your chances. That just isn't true today. If your uncle does taxes or some side legal work for one of the few distribution chains left you have a chance no matter how hard you suck. Nearly every pop/rock/country "star" today is either related to the industry or had parents willing to take three mortgages, move to Nashville, and spend two years haranguing producers to get Taylor Swift signed to something. Anything. That's how it works now. There is no flopping on your cousin's couch while you wait for the big break. It's a weird business, a strange world, has been for a long time now. Yes, I know, there are the exceptions, the "genius"es we get every six months or so, I get that. They flash and usually vanish because the market is never interested in your last record or your next one. rct

Nope. rct

Dexy, yes. He ticked off Bowie on very first night of very first tour as opener. End of career. The Flock? No way! Space Age Love Song, Wishing, couple other pretty big ones. Great band, I love Space Age, I'd do that one any time! There was an old teevee show on VH1 where they try to get bands together again and they got Flock together. They stayed together! Still out there again still now I believe. There's a great set of them somewhere online with some Euro orchestra doing Space Age and a couple others with full string section. Great stuff. rct

I have thought about that! rct

Most any decent guitar through any decent Fender will do me just fine. I use a Blues Junior for quite a while now. I have all Teles and Strats and Esquire. Downtown I usually have a Deluxe or a Twin to plug my pedalboard into, they never fail. Haven't since 1971 for me. rct

It's in a popular television commercial currently. Made me laff hard. rct

Dickey and a Tele: I've seen pictures of his very early tele, and stills from a Super 8 of him using it as a late teen. rct

That was a good day! rct

I've never understood it. I used to work with a guy that spent a crap ton on a birth year strat, back when vintage was at the top. Serious POS guitar, half the frets shot on the treble side, like I couldn't get him a decent set up on it. Two pickups shorted or parted, but not at all in a good way. One rotten machine, one almost. Just in bad shape and he spent thousands on it because it was his birth year. I don't get it at all, never have. rct

Did you go by Hogwarts? rct

It would be fun. That's all that matters! rct

Brandy, yes. Golden Earring had a couple other hits, Switch being one, Twilight Zone, can't remember the others. They were a great band. rct

You would, and do, have my utmost respect and admiration. I don't, can't, do that stuff. Haven't had to much at all. If I get to that point I'll just have to try and catch up to more well rounded guitar players like you and millions of others. And in return, if yer in my band, I'll show you how to correctly play Smoke On The Water and pogo your way through the entire riff after solo without missing a 5th. And a bunch of other dumb old rock and roll songs that are constantly miss handled by otherwise competent guitar players. rct

One of our drummers for a few years in the late 90s/early 2000's was in that band, long after Ride Captain Ride. He was fun. We did that one once in a while. He long ago moved to FL, don't know what became of him. rct

Yeah, but they were no one hit wonders. They were pretty big early MTV darlings. rct

I'm kidding, I'm known for my lack of acoustic mavenry and constantly losing capos. Yes, some singers are persnickety, and if I was doing a The Highway(56 on SiriusXM), I'd probably be capoin it at times too. We tune standard and we change the key if the singer don't like it. On a more serious note, I don't keep anything in any of my cases but the guitar. No straps, no stems, no seeds that you don't need, just the guitar. That stuff'll get lose and scratch the bejesus out of them. rct

You can use a capo on a Les Paul? huh. rct

One Tin Soldier, covered by Coven, a weird devil rock band that hit it big with that one in Billy Jack. rct

Yup, it was fun and cool and I think I might have gotten a couple hundred bucks out of it. Just lucky though, no more. We all got guitar stuff here, no need to pal around with famous people to have any cred here. rct