Hi everyone!
It’s been a year since I last posted any recordings, and while having a ton of songs to play, I can’t manage to sit and actually record any.
But earlier this evening I was jamming a bit and decided to record it. It ended up being 18 minutes long jam that didn’t feel that long at all. There are a few things to talk about here, a few sources, so I’ll start from the beginning.
I got a job at a music store at the end of August and it’s been great so far. One pretty cool thing about being an employee there is that I have easy access to any gear we have, and can also stay after hours. So that’s exactly what I did today, especially since there was a power outage at home due to continuous attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, but I digress.
The rig I’m playing through is very simple, it’s just a guitar, one amp and one pedal. But there’s no need to add anything else to it. It sounds absolutely phenomenal!
The guitar is a PRS Core Paul’s Guitar. A stunning guitar with amazing and very versatile pickups. Even though I prefer having dedicated volume knobs for every pickup, it wasn’t an issue adjusting it on the fly, as it’s located so conveniently under your hand, but not in the way like on a Strat.
A pedal is the Boss RC-10R looper, a pretty cool pedal that provided drums and looped my chord progression.
And the star of the evening (or any other time of day) is the amp, Bad Cat Jet Black combo. I don’t have enough vocabulary to describe how amazing it is. Hands down the best piece of gear I plugged a guitar into. It’s quite expensive (though that PRS costs more than twice as much), but it’s just… incredible. It sings and screams, the dynamic is out of this world as it responds to every little touch with gentle whispers or roars when you hit the strings harder. I fell in love with it the moment I hit the first note. Can talk about it for much longer, but think it’s better to stop here.
And a bit about what I’m playing.
The key is A minor, because of course it is. The progression is Am6 | Bdim7 | F7 | Dm7 - Em7 and is played using shell chords. I watched a recent Paul Davids’ video with Rotem Sivan, where he showed those, and it turned out to be quite simple and very fun. That’s actually the main inspiration for this jam, all the gear is not that important. Definitely recommend checking it out.
So I played this progression a few times, looped it and started noodling using mostly A minor pentatonic with the blue note and some bits of natural minor. Constantly switching pickups and twisting the knobs because it’s fun, but also I love getting that wide range of tones just out of the guitar and the amp. And there are at least a few pretty cool bits in those 18 minutes of noodling, so that’s a win in my book.
Great lesson video above that you linked. WIll have to watch this a few times!
And I loved your jam! Huge tone, and it sounded like lots of fun!
That volume knob sound-fading while playing must be difficult! Don’t know how many players use this, but I’m sure to have heard it with Mark Knopfler and you seem to be getting quite good at it.
I think you’re improving all the time!
For sure! I have it open in another tab, waiting for the 3rd rewatch as there’s so much in there to learn. One of the instances when the title may look like clickbait, but absolutely isn’t.
Could’ve been a bit tricky on some other guitar, but its position on that PRS is just spot on. So easily accessible. And thanks to the arched top it’s lower than the strings, so isn’t getting in the way. Too bad that guitar so damn expensive. But at least I can play it at work.
I liked it so much, I put it in my DAW and I just jammed a bit along. First, tried to get a decent guitar sound and tweak the reverb so I would be in the same room with you. Hey, you barely left space for the second player! (haha, just joking)
But this could be a nice thing also, playing half a jam and leaving space for a second player and a few others trying to put in the missing parts.
A delight to hear you play and write with such obvious enthusiasm and enjoyment Artem. Sounds like the perfect job too.
Kudos for continuing to enjoy life despite the constant attacks from your deranged and lunatic neighbour!
Though I’m afraid I don’t have enough musical ideas for too many improvs and they’ll start sounding exactly the same after the second or third one.
But I’ll think about recording some more from time to time.
I like the idea! Can be a cool community challenge. Have to think about it a bit more, but definitely gonna try to do something like that.
Well, I tried keeping at reasonable volume, but yeah, tube ams are so much louder than the digital stuff I’m used to. And even though Bad Cat has master volume, it’s still very loud. After switching to the second gainier channel I was keeping my guitar volume knob at around 4-5 tops for almost the whole time.
