Watching Nik Kosmas [GC GARAGE] working on my 3-Color Sunburst, Highway One Fender Strat

I stopped in to see Nik today and get a first hand look at him working on my Highway One Fender Stratocaster.  He was getting it all cleaned up and preparing it for when the pickups  (Joe Barden S-Deluxe) come in. I purchased the GraphTech PS8000-00 String Saver Saddles and I brought a set of Fender Strap-Loks so that he could install them when he has the guitar on his bench.

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My NEW Classic Fender Strat/Tele Hardshell Case (Black with a Dark Orange padded poodle plush interior) that I purchased from www.Musician’sFriend.com arrived today so my better half (Anita from http://sewvintagesofun.blogspot.com/) has offered to drop it off to Nik along with my NEW Levy's Veg Tan Leather (Cranberry) Guitar Strap.

    

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My pickups should arrive early next week; when they get here, I’ll get them over to Nik right away so he can start the transformation of my  stock Fender Strat to a screaming, sweet sounding ax that plays like butter and has a beautifully outfitted, vintage guitar case much like that garage that you’d have to park your Porsche 911 Carrera S.

I wouldn’t trust anyone with my guitars but Nik.  I don’t know if you remember, I featured him and his company, GC GARAGE located inside The Guitar Center in Glen Burnie, MD.  He is a perfectionist; he handles each instrument with kid gloves.  Nik has experience with refinishing guitars as well as rebuilding them including all of the electronics.  During his tour in the US Air Force, he learned electrical engineering which has paved his way into becoming the best guitar technician in the Metro DC market.

Very soon, the plan is for Nik and I to take our music skills and merge them along with another guitarist/vocalist and/or a keyboardist/vocalist and hit the local market.  We have many plans including getting ourselves booked as an opening act for some of the big name acts coming thru the Baltimore/Washington area.   Hopefully we’ll have all of our guitars in tip-top shape before we are ready to play venues such as Rams Head in Annapolis, MD or the Blues Alley Jazz Club in Georgetown, DC. 

         

Once Nik finishes customizing my 3-Color Sunburst Highway One Strat for me, I may have another one in mind for him to start on.  I just stumbled upon a (blue) 2005 American Standard Stratocaster where the finish is all worn, scratched and nicked from heavy usage.  It reminds me of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Signature Strat.  I showed it to Nik and he said that he did some work on that very guitar a while back.  For now, I’d leave it as is except for changing the saddles to the GraphTech String Saver’s and having Nik checking out the neck and the electronics to make sure everything is A-OK and changing the strings to my favorite, D’Addario Chromes, Half Rounds (0.011 thru 0.052).

 

 

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I’ll keep you posted on my path to taking ‘MUSICIAN BY NIGHT’ LIVE along with Nik, who is an accomplished bass player/guitarist and another good friend of mine, consummate guitarist/vocalist, Chris Hauska.  Chris has played in a number of good rock & acoustic rock bands in the Baltimore/Washington Region.   I’ve even had the pleasure of filling-in at some of their gigs.  Chris’ voice is outstanding; a lot like Bruce Springsteen or Dave Matthews.

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Here is ADAMS EDEN playing at Tommy Joe’s in Bethesda, MD on July 5th 2008; a 3-piece band that rocked that local after work hangout for many of the office personnel in the Bethesda Marketplace.

   

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Now TGIF so enjoy your evening and especially, your weekend ahead.  If you’re into College Football, tomorrow night’s game will be a good one between #1 LSU and #2 Alabama.  The game’s on at 2:30PM EST; don’t miss it!  Of course keep practicing your scales and your chord patterns if you want to get better.

Until next time;

Musician By Night . . .

My Fender Stratocaster Collection

I’ve been in New York City over the past few days on business and I’m a bit behind on my posts so please excuse me and please be patient with me as I try to catch-up and get back in the swing of things.

Since I reconnected with my good friend, Kevin Bort, of our band JORDAN from back in the mid to late 70’s, he’s turned me on to playing Fender  Stratocaster’s.  Over the years, I’ve always played Gibson guitars and specifically Les Paul’s, ES-335’s or SG’s.  In the past, I’ve owned a Fender Mustang and a couple Fender Telecasters but never a Fender Stratocaster, which is by far the icon of the entire Fender guitar product line.

As we know, many of the Top 100 Guitarists of Rolling Stone’s Top 100 List favor the Fender Stratocaster in their own guitar collection. In my collection, I’m doing my best to stick with Fenders (American Made) product line, such as the American Standard, American Deluxe, American Vintage or Highway One Series.

I currently own three Fender Stratocasters and two of them have been reconditioned, including new pickups installed in both.  The first is a 2007 Highway One model that has an Alder body with a Rosewood Fretboard and a satin nitrocellulose lacquer ‘Neutral’ finish with a white pickguard that has been upgraded with Fender’s Hot Noiseless pickups and Graph-Tech string-saver saddles and nut.  I still plan to add either the Fender Deluxe Locking Machine Heads or the Fender Schaller Locking Tuners. Both are used on the Fender American Deluxe Models.

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My second Strat is a 1990 American Standard Model with an ash body and a Rosewood Fretboard in an Aged White Finish with a matching pickguard and new  Seymour Duncan pickups.  I used the SD STK-S4n model for the neck, an STK-S4m model for the middle (Classic Stack Plus Pickups) and a SD JB Jr Humbucker at the bridge just like Jeff Beck’s setup on his classic white Stratocaster.  I left the original saddles and nut as they were but still plan to change the machine heads to the  Fender Schaller Locking Tuners that come standard on the Fender American Deluxe Models.

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My newest Strat is an American Standard version with a Rosewood Fretboard in 3-Color Sunburst finish. I’m having the Graph-Tech string-saver saddles and nut installed along with Joe Barden Pickups;   the S-Deluxe Strat 3-Pickup Set.

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Absolutely Strat in character, with expanded fidelity and frequency response.

The Joe Barden S-Deluxe Strat 3-Pickup Set models are the Strat equivalent to their dual blade Danny Gatton Tele pickups. Two models are available; one for the bridge position and the other for the neck and middle positions.
The tone of the S-Deluxe is absolutely Strat in character, but with greatly expanded fidelity and a balanced frequency response. Of course, hum and noise are completely eliminated. These pickups are incredibly sensitive, giving you a wide range of tones and output levels simply by adjusting the distance of the pickup from the strings.
With S-Deluxe pickups, the "in-between" positions are wonderfully hollow, and the bridge pickup has the strength, snap, and twang typically experienced only in Telecasters. The unique staggered double blade design of the bridge pickup, common to all Joe Barden single-coil sized bridge pickups, eliminates drop-outs on the outer strings.

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GC GARAGE

      

Of course my good friend Nik Kosmas of the GC Garage handles all of my guitar restorations, modifications and upgrades.  I wouldn't have anyone else touch my guitars but him.  If you have a guitar that you’d like to reinvent, give Nik a call at The Guitar Center in Glen Burnie and tell him that I told you to call.  His shop is located right inside that facility.

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I hope you enjoyed this post and use some of my ideas on your own guitars.  I’ll be back soon with another.  Remember to take care of your kids and give them a big hug to show them that you love them.

Until next time;

Musician By Night . . .

Looking Back ~ Looking Ahead

It’s been a while since I started my blog to document my journey back into the world of music after approximately 25 years.  Since my first post on June 28, 2011, I’ve covered such topics as the Professional Guitarists that I consider my idols and who have most affected my playing style, a complete rundown of my music equipment and specifically my collection of guitars ~ including those that have been customized with high output pickups as made by Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio or even the classic, Fender HOT Noiseless, single-coil type that are made for the Fender Stratocaster.

I introduced some of you to guitarist’s who I believe are very unique by nature and simply fabulous musicians by trade.  Jazz guitarist’s such as Lee Ritenour, Eric Johnson, Earl Klugh, Larry Carlton and Al DiMeola.

I’ve even introduced you all to one of my good friends, Nik Kosmas, who is the Electrical (Engineer) Technician  at the Guitar Center in Glen Burnie, MD, running his own GC Garage where he services instruments; specifically, electric guitars & basses, acoustic guitars, mandolin’s, banjo’s, etc.  Nik has personally customized both of my Fender Stratocasters for me.  My first Strat has 3 new Fender HOT-Noiseless pick-ups, Graph-Tech string saver saddles and a slotted nut, and the 2nd Strat has a Seymour Duncan JB-Jr (bridge) humbucker pickup,  STK-S4m (middle) and STK-S4n (neck) Classic Stack Plus pickups.

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I have a long road ahead of me, and many more things to learn about the different type of recording equipment available today, and other knowledge I’ll need to acquire to allow me to be able to start playing live music in and around the Metro Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD clubs and restaurant scene.  Playing my guitar each and every day is helping me further develop my playing technique. 

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I hope you’ll continue to follow my journey.  I’m excited to see where it will take us!   As always, remember to tell your kids that you love them.

Until next time;. . .

Musician By Night

New Addition to my Effects Pedals: BOSS RC-30

Just yesterday, I purchased a BOSS RC-30 Loop Station with three hours of recording, stereo I/O, and many other features that will allow me to create the sound of a complete band playing along with me.  

The BOSS RC-30 Loop Station is the latest addition to the company's industry-leading lineup of pedal-based loop recorders, featuring high-powered digital signal processing, stereo operation, and cutting-edge features. Powered by the ESC2 DSP chip,the RC-30 Loop Station offers musicians one of the most powerful and best-sounding tools yet for recording and manipulating loops, both live and in the studio.

Housed in BOSS' popular twin-pedal chassis, the RC-30's new features include true stereo ins/outs and up to three hours of onboard stereo recording and loop storage. The new dual-phrase loop feature lets you create and play two completely independent stereo loops in perfect sync.

LOOP FX is for processing your loops in real time, with 99 memory slots for storage. The RC-30 also boasts a USB 2.0 port for swapping and managing WAV loops with your computer. A mic input with phantom power, aux in jack for portable devices, and a key selection of onboard rhythms, including real audio drum loops, come standard.

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Now, as I’ve detailed in  two previous posts here; Monday July 11, 2011 ~ Pedalboard- ,and Thursday, July 14, 2011 ~ Pedalboard . . . Part 2-, below is a photo of my effects pedal board before the Boss BF-3 Flanger and the Boss RC-30 Loop Station are installed.

 

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Today I went to see my good friend, Nik Kosmas, at the GC Garage (Guitar Center in Glen Burnie, MD), to get his professional opinion of what I had assembled and to have him confirm that the signal path is running correctly.  He suggested that I leave my effects pedal board  with him so that he can spend some time tweaking what is there to get the best possible sound out of each pedal.

Nik also suggested that I separate the BOSS DD-20 Giga Delay and the RC-30 Loop Station, because they are time sensitive effects and they should run directly into the effects loop in my Fender Hot Rod amplifier so as to get the best sound quality out of those effects.  I can then run the balance of the effects pedals as originally laid out, effectively creating two effects loops without having to add a rather pricey device such as a Tonebone – ‘Loopbone’ to my effects board.  I am very excited to see what Nik does and ultimately hear everything all plugged in and turned on. 

Once my equipment is all complete and ready for road use, I’ll need to start developing our repertoire and begin rehearsing so that we can take the show on the road to the local restaurants, bars and hotel lounges.  It looks like Nik and I will be putting this act together, so we’ll be able to do a wider variety of music than if I was doing it alone.  It’s been over 25 years since I’ve been on stage, entertaining the crowd with my music; I look forward to that feeling once again.

We are experiencing our first taste of the cooler weather to come here in the Mid-Atlantic, and I am looking forward to the coming Autumn.  Don’t forget to hug your kids tonight, and to help them with their homework if they need it.

Until next time,

Musician By Night

A little face-lift never hurts;

Often I’ll take an afternoon like today, after doing some yard work, and go through all of my guitars and clean, tune, tweak and even perform a little face-lift on some if I’m in the mood.  Today I decided to do a little face-lift on my Hamer Sunburst Quiltop guitar to give it a little class.   (let me know what you think . . . . )

                 

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The guitar plays like a dream now since my buddy, Nik Kosmas worked on it.  I think you’ll remember me talking about Nik before; he runs the GC Garage in Glen Burnie, MD inside the Guitar Center.  Before Nik got his hands on my Hamer, it was constantly going out of tune and the lower frets would buzz on almost every string.

Next I plan to switch-out the pickups with some hotter models.  I’m doing some reading up on what’s available.  I am most familiar with the DiMarzio after-market pick-ups.  I used them {many} years ago in my Gibson Les Paul and they rocked the house.  Now, I know that they have had to improved upon their models since then and the same goes for Seymour-Duncan and custom (hand-wound) WCR Guitar Pickups out of Soulsbyville, CA. 

     

      

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When I make my final decision on which pickups to use, I’ll let you all know.  I would welcome your input.  The same goes for the pickups on my Fender Stratocaster.  I’m a novice when it comes to single coil pickups, so please share your opinions with me.  I certainly could use the input.

Well, another weekend has come to an end.  We head back to our lives in the morning and back to work.  Again, looking forward to next weekend when we can spend the little extra time with our loved ones and of course, that includes our axe. Ha Ha !!  Remember to give your kids a big hug.  Until next time !

Bob