More on Breeders Gear

I've been coveting  cheap gold top Les Pauls with open pickups over the last few months (like Kim's). I almost bought one in Indiana at the start of the year, but it sold before I could get to it. There's one available, a red quilt top classic (like Kelley's), available at my local GC for $299 right now. I'm basically waiting to see how much my car repairs are going to be (mechanic is mere blocks away from the guitar) before I go look at it (and maybe hoping it will sell before I touch it). I was trying to figure out how close it looks to Kelley's and stumbled across these excellent circa 2008 pedal photos by "dietspritezero."

At first I was just looking at the photos and didn't notice who's account it was. Then I saw and was like...right. Of course. I have a long history of bumping into "dietspritezero" online. She's the person who taught me (via youtube video) how to play Debaser. I think we chatted briefly about the fan-only Music Box Pixies show once on a forum too. It's fun to cross paths with the same super fans from time to time. 

UPDATE:

Found some good pics of the red les by searching under Cheryl instead of Kelley (photo in Kim's basement by Glass, natch):

And the one for sale, a "classic":

It isn't an exact match. Kelley's doesn't look like it is a quilt top and it has old-style tuners, but in my price range it might be close enough ($299 for this Epi. It's a discontinued model so no comparable price new).

For comparison, here's the gold Epi Traditional Pro I've been eyeing (they run ~$450 new or ~$350 used):

and Kim's below (she has one black and one white pickup as opposed to the zebra, but I kind of like the zebra. I suspect the pickups on Kim's have been changed out from stock):

In the end I think any gold top or red les that I can get for under $350 that has uncovered pickups will fit the bill so long as it isn't one of the super shitty models (100, studio, junior, etc). I know that newer models allow you to split the coils in all kinds of weird ways, but I really don't think I'd use that function.

And, as I find myself less than 20 songs away from finishing the tribute project (and unlikely to ever play the tribute project out live) this is all basically a waste of money anyway.

Breeders Tribute Gear

I've been going along doing this Breeders tribute without much concern for gear. I've used what I had access to...which is mostly a small battery operated VOX digital modelling amp, a knock-off telecaster, and a knock-off stratecaster.

Finally looked up today what exactly they play:

To my complete shock, the strats are 1991 Strat Ultras, which have a HSS pickup configuration...which just happens to be what the strat knockoff that I'm using has.

I've been considering picking up a les paul someday but the choices are so many that I didn't know what to get. Based on what they play and what I've heard and my price range...I think the choice to make is a Epiphone Les Paul Traditional Pro in gold top. ($499) I've heard before that "studio" models are for shit, and what the gals play have the humbuckers (P90s in their case, though that won't probably be in my price range) that have both parts showing (instead of it being one single plate cover). Either that or go with a standard plain in gold top ($399). I'm not running out to buy anything cause I have access to plenty of guitars, but someday maybe.

I have a list of pedals on the wishlist for the future (probably far ahead future) too:

Ibanez tube screamer (prolly TS9 with 3 knobs and the big foot switch, $99)

Boss super chorus CH1 ($99)

Boss digital delay DD3 ($129) or DD7 ($149)

EH nano Holy Grail reverb ($120)

Noting that today I saw reference that the gals use Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion ($75) ...but of course they are playing through Marshall half stacks too. Probably not needed with the tube screamer.

Boss RC-3 Loop Station ($199) sounds like fun, but doubt I'd ever learn to use it.

All of this ignores that I already have all the effects I need in the little battery amp (though they aren't easily switchable)...that I have no need to perform on guitar...and that I don't own a real guitar amp.  That's why none of this is a near term need or even want. It's all dreams in the useless ether.

PS: The below (from LSXX tour) is ridic.

UPDATE: I totally forgot to list the black and white telecaster with "Echo" written on it. They don't use this very often but it has started to show up in some of the new tunes. 

And, of course, Jo has played a Rickenbacker bass (Pod) and a Music Man Stingray (first Kim's red one and later a tan one that I presume to belong to Jo). Sometimes the red P bass from Pixies makes an appearance too and even the Thunderbird got played by Mando.

Behringer Ultrabass

For the Halloween show we used MR's boyfriend's Behringer Ultrabass amp.  It was a two piece. The cabinet was heavy as hell. I'm not sure of the wattage.

The head looked just like this (ULTRABASS BX4500H...450 Watt) though:

On Musician's Friend the head runs $250, which surprises me as cheaper than I'd of expected. I'm going to guess that the cab was a UltrabassBB410, which seems to be discontinued (I wonder if the head is on the way out too and hence why it is so cheap).

It was a nice rig other than the cabinet being a monster (listed as 100 lbs in specs)

That Disgusting Thing at Her Feet

So I've not really talked about the whole "new Kim" thing here. And I'm not gonna get into it now.

But a while ago the "new Kim" posted this photo online:

Which is this horrible thing:

And looks like this on stage:

Anyway, it implies that future live Pixies shows will feature bass effects either on old or new songs or both. I like to think that I'm open-minded, but in some things I guess I'm a purist, and one of the things that I like best about the Pixies is the simple, un-affected bass lines.

Plus, this fucker costs TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS.

The boys can go any direction they want and go with god. But I don't think I'm ever going to want to play this thing and I hope no one asks me to.

Wrapping Cables

This weekend a boss-sort-type-of-person-of-mine-but-not-really said "If you don't know how to properly wrap a cable, ask D or another staffer" Me being D. The funny thing is, I know there is a proper way to wrap a cable...but I've never done it before in my life. And I'm 99.9% certain that none of the other staffers had any idea the proper way to wrap a cable. I watched a video about it once and got thoroughly confused and gave up. Since then I've done the..."I'll be careful and neat but I know this is still wrong" route.  Being called out as the expert...I did some research today and came up with a simple, short video that gets it right. I tried it and it isn't as hard as I'd thought. But it IS totally different than I've done it in the past and I've never seen another staffer do it correctly.



 It's nice that my boss has faith in us...but probably better if she verified that we know what we're doing before asking us to teach others.

Princeton Chorus Amp & the Red Bass through Tubes

I manage gear for a girls music camp. Most of what gets donated to us is entry level gear or very old semi-functional gear of no real value.  We do have one decent drum kit and a collection of very nice mics.  This year someone gave us a Princeton Chorus amp...which I was pretty excited about...but then it turned out to have an intermittent problem. A pro guitar player amongst us suggested that the inputs on those amps go bad, so we sent it for repair. It came back and now seems to be working, though I find it a little buzzy. Last night I played through it for a while cause it is sitting at my house waiting to return to storage.

It certainly is better than most amps we own, but I gotta say that I still prefer the teeny-tiny little Vox amp. That thing kicks ass.

The red bass, I think I said earlier this week, sounded better through a tube amp. Someone also told me that the Squires are notorious for shitty wiring and that I could easily upgrade the whole thing. I'm not sure it is worth it. The whole raison-d'etre for having the red bass is Pixies aesthetics. That, of course, becomes sort of ridiculous what with the makeup of the band changing. And who knows how many more years we'll even keep the schitck up? I'm reminded that '62 reissue replacement pickups are $70-90 if I ever want to try and upgrade.

Next Round of Purchases

I keep thinking/hoping that I'm approaching the end of my major music purchasing...but it kind of seems to never end.

I've got $40 credit at GC I need to burn by end of August.

The next things on the list:

• I want a compact and lightweight RELIABLE alternative to my heavy 175 W combo and my unreliable 600W combo. A friend is selling a used like-new condition 2x10 350 Watt bass cabinet. I kind of want it, though I think she wants more money for it than I want to spend (like $350...new it would be $399). 
• If I get the cabinet, I'll need a head to go with it. I'd be looking for a lightweight (hand-held) head in the 200W-350W range. New or used. No rush on getting it though. I'd like to spend in the $300 range.
• I would like a lightweight set of good drum hardware. Snare, hi hat, and probably a straight cymbal stand. Looking to spend less than $150 for the 3 pieces. I want to be able to pack everything down and put it in a smallish bag and not break my back. Still looking for the right brand/model/price-point combo.
• I'm actually good for heads and sticks at the moment, but I could always use the credit for those things too. At some point I should put a full new set of heads (top and bottom) on the Sonor kit (for about $150)...but I'm really not playing it out much these days so there's no urgency to that.

Note that lightweight is my overall life theme.

Repairing Snare Drums, Etc

So I volunteered to take care of the gear for GRC.  We have about 1,000 pieces of gear. I'm not kidding. About 800 or so of those are things like cables, stands, etc. The rest are larger pieces...guitars, basses, amps, pas, drumkits, cymbals.

Most of the stuff is in ok shape. Beginners instruments, but decent. I have some goals, like changing the strings on every guitar and checking the setup. That takes time. I'd also love to put a new set of batter and resonant heads on all ten drum kits...but that costs some bucks. So I'm triaging for now.

I note all this here because I'm learning some stuff. My first repair project is to install new snare throw-offs on two of the snare drums.  And this is where you learn that the spacing for the mounts is important. So far it seems like standard spacing is about 2.5 inches...but some are more like 1.5 inches. And there's probably everything in between. And there's the whole...you can buy anything you want online but can't really look at it and see if it is the right thing...versus...you have coupons for brick and mortar stores but they don't carry every weird size thing that you might need.

With cheaper student instruments...things are built cheaply...and not always a standard size.  Another thing I'm taking on is getting proper cymbal sleeves and wing nuts on the cymbal stands. And, well, crappy drum stands don't always match up to the 6mm or 8mm standards. They get them as thin as possible. I may just go to a hardware store and see what I can rig up.

It's like the old 7/8", 3/4", 1" tom mount tube standards...which break down when you kit is none of those. So there are some challenges ahead in maintaining a fleet of el cheapo instruments for sure.

I'm also thinking about going to the SWAP and buying like a dozen power cords for amps. They are the same kind that computers use and I bet they are like a dollar each at SWAP.