Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Community => Gigs => Topic started by: oddmetersam on June 23, 2013, 11:35:28 PM
-
My progressive fusion trio, SIZEMO, will be playing in Oakland, CA this coming Friday June 28 at the Loring Cafe & Bar on Grand Ave., 6 - 9pm. I'll be there playing Mary:
(http://alembic.com/club/messages/65124/166708.jpg)
You can also see and hear this one-of-a-kind, double-necked guitar/Starr Labs midi controller.
(http://alembic.com/club/messages/65124/166709.jpg)
Two old YouTube free improv jams will give you some idea of what you'd be in for; though in reality we're a lot more intense now than we were back then.
Micah Ball on the double-neck:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bqeXvK6plk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bqeXvK6plk)
Sam Markewich's crazy drum solo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jawOqzR55Hg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jawOqzR55Hg)
If you do see us play please don't forget to come up and say, Hi. Thanks!
-Sam
-
The address of the Loring Cafe & Bar is 37 Grand Ave., Oakland (less than a block from Broadway). 510-839-3700. Beer and wine, only (Bummer!).
-
Cool stuff Sam! Great tone on your bass! Have a great gig!
-
Thanks so much Rusty. Those clips are 2 years old and I'm still learning the subtleties of the Signature controls...
-
I have the same Signature controls, so I can relate!
-
Yeah, I find myself trying to get a fairly thick, meaty tone with about a 60/40 blend favoring the bridge pickup, then using the Q switches to get just the right leading edge snap. Finally, I've found the pan pot to be the most dramatic of all, with the most minute adjustments still having a significant effect.
But periodically I'll reset everything (50/50 pickup blend and roll both filters all the way off), then gradually bring the filters back into play incrementally while panning from one extreme to the other).
And some days my ears just hear things differently...and it's also volume-dependent. On live gigs I can get my bass to roar like an aroused animal, which is a little disconcerting at first. Rest assured I get over that fairly quickly, though!
-
Here's my typical settings.
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/65124/166739.jpg)
On some songs I will roll the pan just off center to the bridge pup & cut the filter back to about 1/3 open to get a nice midrange sound.
-
Rusty, your pic re-confirms how beautiful your bass is. I, too, take pictures of my settings -- either with my smartphone or use the photo booth feature on my Mac. Since I have a low B string, I also have to make sure that's evenly blended into the overall sound.
-
Sam:
That's right down the street from my office, but I've never noticed the place. Unfortunately, I'm out of town this weekend. Let me know if you play there again, I'd love to come and check you guys out. Have a great gig.
Bill, tgo
-
Thanks so much, Bill. Yeah, it's a few doors down from Vo's. There are a number of little shops/bistros/etc. crammed into that one block. Don't know how often you perform as either a solo or group act, yourself, but if you do you might want to check the place out; maybe during your lunch hour.
BTW, Sizemo may as well change our name to the Cicada Band cuz' we only play live about once every 17 years....
-Sam
-
Another reason to have knobs with lines so as to be able to reproduce your settings.
-
Mary is beautiful.
-
Thanks, Pauldo!
-
Wow, you're the guy with THAT bass oddmetersam?
SIZEMO is pretty good. One song was in 6..one in 12,; even the 4/4 tune(58) had a different spin to it.
My take on the Alembic settings...if you want extra harmonics, flip the Q switch.
-
Thanks for the compliment Sam! Mary is gorgeous too! I never touch the filter on my neck pup, I use it to provide the solid foundation for my tone, & use the bridge pup to color it to suit the venue or song. I use the Q switch on my bridge pup all the time & save it for kind of a turbo boost on the neck pup when I really want to cut through the mix.
-
Thanks for the compliments and info, Daniel and Rusty. It's always interesting to get other people's take or approach to the controls.
-
Very nice, Sam. I also watched your video from the Farmers' Market (apparently Farmers' Markets are different in Cali than I remember them from Iowa.)
Mike
-
Hey, Mike
The last Farmer's Market gig in nearby San Leandro was unusual for us cuz' we were asked to turn down several times, which was a major drag. Micah and I will be bringing smaller rigs to the Loring Bar. It's funny how when you play a lot of notes it invariably seems to be perceived as louder than it really is.
As I mentioned earlier, we are much more intense than the vids. In addition to the spontaneous open jams on YouTube, we have a number of set pieces with grooves in 5, 7 (including 7 against 2) and 9.
Through a slight mix-up, the Loring has listed us as Vintage Jazz. (Gulp!).