Legendary: Hunterburst and day 55

The Mighty Hunter-burst Les Paul

Before playing his Appetite for Destruction Les Paul, Slash had a Les Paul that the whole band remembers as a turning moment in their careers.  It was a sign that they were "making it" in the world of music.  It inspired them to work harder, player better, and get stuff done.  But this Les Paul did not make it with them to their debut album.  What was with this Les Paul?

To start talking about the Hunterburst, we have to go back to the time.  Today Les Pauls of all periods are coming out in droves, there are Les Pauls at every notch in a wallet.  In the late 70's and early 80's, the only way to get a Gibson made "like they used to" was to find a Gibson made back then.  I've said here before, for years Les Pauls were mistreated and thought of as lesser guitars.  They went through periods where they were hated, periods where they cost dirt money, and periods where they sat on pawn shop walls for years.

Steve Hunter of Alice Cooper was tired of looking for "that perfect 50's Les Paul".  He was not the only one.  Los Angeles' music scene was a hub of custom guitars.  Cheap customs were a way for a luthier to get skill for when that big dog comes knocking after hearing one of your guitars in a hip, new band.  Steve was one of these big dogs.  He got a Les Paul 50's copy made in the shop of Max Baranet.  Max rented luthier space in his shop, and there were several working there at the time.  Roman Rist, Max's apprentice, claims he spots several hallmarks that Max put into guitars, and that Max himself made it.  Max did well over 150 instruments a year at the era, so its easy to see how he could not remember it.  In pictures of the era, you can tell the Hunterburst from the AFD by the fact that the Hunterburst is a wider "quilt" maple top, while the AFD is more pinstripe flame.

Like many great Legendary instruments, the story of them starts with someone else not keeping it.  Steve Hunter got into the Super Stratocaster scene that Eddie Van Halen fostered, and decided to be rid of his custom Les Paul copy.  It went to the store of a guy named Howie Hubberman.  Howie was notorious for giving struggling bands deals on credit and trade ins.  Slash traded in a few of his guitars and was able to get The Hunterburst on credit.  Howie says that Slash was always good for the money, but probably payed it off well after getting rid of the guitar.

Now why is this guitar legendary if Slash got rid of it?  Well, Guns N Roses was not popular over night.  The image that Slash created and still performs under today was not yet established.  When he got the Hunterburst, that's when the band blew up.  Everyone that was a part of the LA scene in the mid 80's saw Slash playing this guitar.  Guns N Roses got their record deal on the back of the skill used with this guitar.  The AFD guitar gets the glory, but when GNR was struggling, hungry and playing their hearts out as a means to make a living, it was the Hunterburst in Slash's hands.

The Hunterburst currently resides in a museum.  Sadly it goes unplayed.


Day 55

If you are a musician well versed in theory, you're going to be bored by today's post.  If you are not a musician, you'll probably be bored by today's post too.

I am redoing and fleshing out my rough pages before putting them in my notebook and today I did a diagram of all the parts of the Minor and Major Pentatonic scale.  It hit me today that they overlap because they both use the same shapes.  Maybe I'm under representing this somehow...  I realized that a Major C Pentatonic in the first shape, is the same as a shifted Minor A.  Now, the chord tones are different, but the shape and place, and notes are exact.  This opens up my improving soooooooo much.  Also, this means I can find any key in minor or major using the same shape.

Its kind of like finally seeing the forest for the trees.

I used the session mode to map this out.  Again, it is so good for visualizing concepts that can be told to me, but sometimes I need a visual way of seeing it, which is why I have a habit of diagramming things on paper and in notebooks.

I am seeing the relationship not just the math of the theory.  This is like the next step for me to be able to hear something, know what is being played, and being able to solo or rhythm over or under it and be "correct" and not just "noodling around till something sounds right".  I could do it on paper, not just in practice, and other people will be able to look at it and say "yea I see what you're doing".  It makes me feel like I'm becoming a musician, not just a guy that can "play some bass and guitar".

Legendary: The Funk Machine and day 44

James Jamerson.  Electric bass pioneer.

Some time in the 1960's, James Jamerson's 1957 precision bass was stolen.  By then he had been making money through his studio work, so he was able to purchase a stock 1962 Fender Precision bass.  It was a sumburst '62 with tortoise shell pickguard and a rosewood board.  To help deter any further thefts, he carved the word "Funk" into the heel of the instrument and filled it in with the ink from a ball point pen.  He dubbed it The Funk Machine.

James Jamerson was a studio working musician that played on more number 1 hits than Elvis and The Beatles combined.  Much of his work is uncredited, and a few other prevalent players of the time argue over who did what since the Motown powers that be used multiple takes from any number of  "in house" musicians.  The Funk Machine would be his favorite and most used, and many believe were used for The Temptations, including "My Girl", and  "I heard it Through the Grape Vine" by Gladys Knight.  It was used on virtually every song that Marvin Gay released.

Like any great story of loss, there are conflicting reports about how many basses Jamerson owned, and even when The Funk Machine was lost.  Some say before he went to L.A. and some say after.  Some say the bass did not even make it to the 1980's, and that he had replaced it long before he died.  Like Jaco's Bass of Doom, the Funk Machine was the most common color of its era, and because of its fame among bassists, many copies have been created.

The Funk Machine, to this day, has not been found.

Link to one possible list of Jamerson recordings.


Day 44

I'm on ACDC overload.

My solid state amp is not good at doing the slightly overdriven blues stuff, it pretty much goes into mild distortion, crunch right away.  Which is fine for almost everything ACDC does, but then there's the more bluesy sounding stuff, particularly "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution".  Well recently I dialed in as low gain as would click "on" in the crunch section, lowered the volume to around 8 o'clock, and cranked up the master volume.  It really really nails that Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution tone and I am just in ACDC playing heaven right now.  I can cut the volume on my neck pickup and boost it on the bridge, and go from that to Back in Black very easily.

Hmm.  Maybe I should do a post tomorrow explaining channel volume and master volume.  Its pretty much simulated in a Solid state amp but its necessary to know this stuff with a tube amp.  Maybe I should do a series on basic tone sounds and how to get them?  That can quickly escalate.  I have noticed, growing up, I rarely if ever saw people I knew that sort of played mess with amp settings.  They pretty much just guessed at a spot and stuck with it.  I change my gain and bass knob settings all the time.

As much as I love me some Black Sabbath, if I had to choose one band that I could play and be banned from ever playing another band's music aside from this one, I'd choose ACDC.  I guest that's why my best guitar friend bought me my AC/DC hat.

Protip: ACDC branded merchandise is a rock-boost of +15 db.

Legendary: Bass of Doom and day 32

It is no secret that Jaco was a troubled man.  Mentally unstable and an abuser of drugs, Jaco's reputation for being troubled was only matched by his virtuosity as a bass player.  In a spark of this inspiration, he pulled the frets out of his Fender with a butter knife, filled in the holes with plastic wood, and then coated the board with epoxy.  He had just invented the modern Fretless bass.

I waited to talk about this bass till after I had said something about the "Tool" vs "Art" views people have on instruments.  Jaco definitely fell in the "tool" category.  All he cared about was the sound that it made, and so he had several basses over the years depending on the sound he wanted.  His most famous though was a 1962 jazz that he defretted, now called "The Bass of Doom".  Jaco was reported to have drug it around by its headstock, letting the body scrape on concrete and tile floors.

In the mid-60's, the broadcast company CBS bought the Fender company and started running it like any other business.  They started gutting out the higher quality parts and started substituting bulk supplies of wood, cheaper grade hardware, and cutting corners on assembly.  The 1962 that Jaco played was a Pre-CBS Fender, of which the Jazz bass is the rarer type, as the P-bass, Stratocaster, and Telecaster had been made in the 50's, and in higher numbers.  It is of the most valuable and expensive bass types in the world.


Shortly before Jaco met his death, his bass was reportedly stolen from a park bench in New York.  Jaco was never one to cherish the instrument, and simply left it there while he did other things.  The bass disappeared for many years until someone brought it into a shop in 2007 to sell it for some cash.



How did the bass disappear so easily?  Well it was almost always photographed in its 70's and 80's condition.  In 1986 the bass was broken into chunks.  For five months a luthier put it back together.  They had to use maple vaneers on the top and back of the body to add stability.  This radically changed the look of it.  There were also other rumors.  There was confusion over if the bass had been lightly spray painted purple by the mentally unstable musician in his later years.  Also, there were many look alikes by the early 90's, as the color was common, and so were the modifications that Jaco had popularized.

The guitar resurfaced and Jaco's family went to court to get it back.  The most recent bassist for Metallica was a huge Jaco fan, and spared no expense to help the legal proceedings go toward the family of Jaco.  It is still owned by him, though the family can buy it back at any time for the price Robert Trujillo payed the family.  It is reported that Robert has let many of Jaco's famous followers come over to admire and play the bass.

Day 32

I"m continuing to make progress in my chord work.  I'm picking up the chords fast, but being able to switch between them accurately or fast enough for a song is taking time.  I am doing better than I ever imagined I would, but then again chords have always been the bane of my music progression.

I have an envelope filter that I bought for use with my bass guitar.  It is a cheap one, but regarded well among several people since it can be used for bass or guitar.  Years ago was the last time I plugged it into my guitar, and I don't think I got a single usable or musical sound out of that combination.  That's why it took me years to try it again.  I'm happy to say that my skills have definitely improved since the last time.  I had a lot of fun with it, and its definitely something I plan to do more often to lighten my spirits.  An envelope filter is sort of like an auto-wah.  It is dynamic in its execution, so if you pick hard, you get a quick and snappy "womp" but if you pick lightly and slow you get a "woooooooomphh".  If you mute the strings, you get a sort of poppy sound like opening a wine bottle.  Its an essential sound for funk.

I have begun to find power chord areas on the neck that I really like and sound decent through a clean, kind of acoustic setting.  I'm mainly saving these sounds in my head for when I don't have to substitute power chords, and use real chords.  Its a kind of "saving for later" thing I guess.  I have a few sound recordings of things from before this Rocksmith challenge started, and as I have progressed, so too have these sound recordings progressed.  They've gone from a wide open, tons of incorrect notes, to a more focused, smaller amount of incorrect notes.  Still, I think they are sounding better as time goes.