14 June 2006
All right! Let's record some guitar now! First we do Something to Believe in, which is only going to have a tiny bit of guitar at the end. But it's a good bit.
Although I am keen to use the new guitars (like when you wear your new shoes home), it turns out to sound best on the Rickenbacker (like when you're wearing a grey suit but your new shoes are brown so you should wear your old shoes). I have been looking forward to recording this part. It's great when you're only playing one note at a time.
We power on to try out the new acoustic on Glimmer, thinking it will bring some of its authoritative middle along, which it does, but it also brings along some terrible tuning issues. We spend a frustrating hour fighting with it and then decide to restring it and let it settle down for a few days and see if that makes any difference.
The fight with the acoustic has sapped some of our enthusiasm, but we continue with a return trip to Vapour Trail. Dan's theory that the SG would sound better than the Strat seems to be correct. It's funny, after all my talk of virtual instruments, that when you plug in these classic guitars it's like you're loading a classic preset. You instantly recognise the sound, and it's not even a specific song, you just know you know it. I feel like I've opened the door into an entirely different kind of guitarist's party, and there are all my old friends jigging about. The SG just goes 'rahhhhhhr' with a wide and thick tone, but feels quite similar to the Rickenbacker. The Les Paul is very Professional. With all that that implies. Not very likeable, but it gets the job done, and you only invite it to your party out of obligation.
Vapour Trail is all dressed up in new clothes, and it makes us wonder if the drums have suffered from being first. And the bass. Perhaps it needs an upgrade. It's not very spontaneous to keep going back and replacing
stuff, but it is very Professional. And all that that implies.
