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Post by Cams on Apr 5, 2015 8:28:16 GMT
Nice bits of kit. I use the Baggs PADI and a D-TAR Mama Bear, both of which are great bits of kit. I did consider adding a Baggs Venue DI, mainly because of its boost button. I do fingerpicking and flatpicking and I saw Tim May using one to great effect. Although of late I and the other guitar player have been using condenser mics because our pick-ups need replacing!
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Post by Cams on Apr 4, 2015 19:03:44 GMT
Ah, just saw the rest of the thread. Congrats on the Fylde. I played an Ariel at TAMCO once and loved it!
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Post by Cams on Apr 4, 2015 18:53:47 GMT
It's an interesting question. I played a Kim Walker guitar for five minutes and knew that I just had to have one. I put my name down on the list and, 10 years later, I picked it up my SJ in February. The guitar has exceeded my expectations. Whilst at Kim's shop, I played an OM and an L-00. And later, I got to play three more belonging to the guy who owned the one I played for five minutes 10 years ago, including an SJ from the same batch of maple. All of Kim's guitars were quite clearly Walkers, even though they were all different body sizes and tonewoods. It's a difficult thing to describe a luthier's signature, but it's clearer when one comes across it in real life. And now, having had more experience of Kim's guitars than ever before, including spending a night at his house and experiencing some of the best hospitality, I've put my name back down on the list. I have a vague idea of what I'd like, but I've got plenty of time to change my mind! I've had two Brook guitars and, again, they were obviously Brook guitars, even though one was a Tamar baritone and the other a Bovey, possibly as far apart in size as you can go! The walnut on the baritone was stunning by the way; I think of that guitar often! I've played many more too, and visited their workshop twice. Visiting luthiers adds so much to the experience I think, especially if you can visit their workshops. My Santa Cruz was a custom build too. I knew I wanted a nice mahogany dread, but had trouble pinning down the exact model. I went for the Vintage Artist model in the end, and I've been playing that guitar regularly now for coming up on 10 years. My Dreizehnter was a serendipitous meeting. Heiner was displaying it at a festival in Germany and I played it many times over that weekend. Then I went home and couldn't forget about it. I was still thinking about it a year later, so I called and asked if he still had it. He did. So I sold my Brook Tamar to fund it and it was one of the best purchases I've ever made. So whoever said if you find one that you like, buy that one was right in this instance! And to prove that, I owned a Gibson J200 for half an hour. It was in a shop in Luxembourg and I went in to play it as often as I could. Eventually I bought it and didn't notice a crack right across the bridge until I got it home. So I got a refund on it and later bought a J150 from a shop in London. It wasn't even close. I should've kept that J200 and had the shop repair it. It's all fun though and hand-made guitars generally don't lose much in value if they are looked after, as long as you haven't gone crazy with the custom inlay! Enough chatting though. I'm away to pick some tunes on that there Kim Walker of mine and smile
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Post by Cams on Apr 4, 2015 16:55:33 GMT
Pre-aged braces? Hmmmm. Interesting. At least they've got a clever abbreviation for it. Makes it sound like car! I can't imagine that it would make all that much of a difference, but I'm no luthier. Whatever. It's a pretty guitar and I'm sure I'd enjoy playing it. I do like me a hardwood top.
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Post by Cams on Apr 4, 2015 16:31:57 GMT
"40-something" - so you're 49, right? Not quite yet! I'm 43.
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Post by Cams on Apr 4, 2015 16:30:39 GMT
Thank you for the feedback my friends. I'm done with posting the SCGC Vintage Artist. It took a bit of research because of the tonewoods' having been picked out specially by Richard Hoover. So that's all my current guitars listed and the framework of the site done. It's just down to adding new video and audio content now. I'm hoping that having a site will encourage me to do that. Finding this forum certainly has! camsmusic.net/portfolio/scgc-vintage-artist/
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Post by Cams on Apr 4, 2015 6:41:21 GMT
Nice clear website, Cams - and good to see you're on social media, too. I spotted (as is my wont) a couple of typos ... or maybe you were just being hip? I have that wont too, and I'm not hip. Would you be so kind leoroberts?
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Post by Cams on Apr 4, 2015 6:40:37 GMT
Very clear and easy to navigate site Cams. Bonus point for not talking about yourself in the third person. Keith Ha ha. I actually did start doing that and then thought it was just silly, which of course it was!
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Post by Cams on Apr 3, 2015 22:01:17 GMT
Still got the Santa Cruz Vintage Artist to add to my instruments page yet. Can't believe I forgot that! She's my DADGAD ceilidh band rhythm guitar and is a real workhorse!
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Post by Cams on Apr 3, 2015 21:37:03 GMT
Seeing as I'm out playing so much more, I figured it was time I set up a website to push my 'brand'! I spent the quiet time at the Post Office working on camsmusic.net. Have a wee look and see what you think. Constructive criticism will be gracefully received.
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Post by Cams on Apr 3, 2015 21:32:46 GMT
I like that mandovark. I'm going to keep that in my mind.
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Post by Cams on Apr 3, 2015 21:04:59 GMT
Great advice here. I played intermittently up until about a year ago, when I was asked to do a weekly residence at a local bistro run by my pals. It was the fact that I was saving hard for a new guitar that helped me to swallow my fear and go and do it. I would dread it all day long and it was a day for not going grocery shopping after work, making an easy family dinner and basically keeping as much of my time free so that I could get to the venue with at least an hour to spare so I could set up and be ready before the kick-off time. And even when I began to enjoy it, the dread was still there through the day. I slowly got better at it and the dread began to diminish. Now, after just over a year of weekly gigs, I look forward to it. I've had time to tweak my day, my set up, my set list and, the hardest thing of all for me, the banter with the audience. I find that sooo difficult. But I'm told now that I seem relaxed and I really enjoy ever gig.
One of the things that has really made a difference is my sound; it's taken a while to tweak gear and settings and I've come to realise that if I'm happy with my sound, I play soooo much better. So the gear is important.
Each of the components of making it enjoyable for me has improved over time just by continuing to do it. And now I've got my new guitar, naturally I'm putting my gig money away for another one! That incentive really did help me, although I do realise that getting paid to play is far from being the norm!
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Post by Cams on Mar 29, 2015 0:08:24 GMT
I played In the Long Run with the alternating thumb thing at a gig tonight and it went really well. Thanks again Keith for the pointers!
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Post by Cams on Mar 25, 2015 15:18:30 GMT
I heard them on Lauren Laverne's show and it was fantastic. I actually have 6 on most of the time at work. Love that station!
The picking style of In the Long Run reminds me of Jackson C. Frank and it has inspired me to turn of 6 and put on the Blues Run the Game. First time I heard that track was on Acoustic Routes, the documentary about Bert Jansch. I bought my first guitar the first weekend after I caught that documentary. So from Jackson to Bert and the Staves. There's a certain thread to the style of acoustic music that moves me so much!
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Post by Cams on Mar 24, 2015 23:21:58 GMT
Thank you Keith. We don't have recordings with the 3-piece, but the same three people are in the five-piece Arran Ceilidh Band with two others (see how good my arithmetic is?!) and we're just about to finish our first CD. I'll post something up when the mixing is finished. Thanks for asking!
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