10/8/07

Let's Talk About Gear! My favorite pedal...
super fun portable good time rock and roll ROBOT JAMMING PEDAL!!!!!

A couple things have happened in the last week or so that have really changed things around here (in addition to the current NHL season starting).

First, due to time restraints and the need to make more money as well as spend more time with my kids and wife... I quit the band. Playing live was great, I loved it very much. Yoko was not involved and there are no hard feelings.

Second, I have discovered the COOLEST PEDAL EVER - The Boss RC-2 Loop Station.

Wow, what a great pedal - as I learn more about it, I am reminded of a recent Jackson post about Jamming.
The RC-2 is like having a little robot that jams with me when ever I want to. It plays the chord progressions exactly like you tell it to... The RC-2 (or as I like to call it the RC-D2 a.k.a. super fun portable good time rock and roll ROBOT JAMMING PEDAL!!!!!) has a 16 minute recording capacity and 11 channels for preset loops. Currently, all 11 of my channels are taken, but the GOOD TIME ROCK AND ROLL ROBOT set list changes every day

currently, the 11 channels go like this:

1. Blues in G
2. reggae progression
3. Shut your mouth and get your ass on the plane (a DBT song, basically a 1-4-5 blues progression)
4. Posetively 4th street
5. some riff in d
6. some Jazzy chord progression in g maj
7. Doctor Doctor Please (UFO)
8. rockin in the free world
9. goddamn lonely love (DBT song)
10. Avenues (old whiskey town song)
11. a g to a funky riff

Oh yeah, I forgot you can also loop stuff right from your iPOD onto this thing, That's what I did for "Doctor Doctor" and "shut your mouth".

Now whenever I get the urge to jam, I just plug into my robot and play with myself (great sentence).

Now I have only begun to scratch the surface of this thing - I am currently playing around with the drum tracks and what not, I'm sure I will be posting about this more in the future. Not sure how much I will use the drum tracks but it has a number of preset drum tracks playing numerous different styles.

Go get one of these things - definitely worth the money. Plug into your amp, or POD or whatever you play through and start jamming ANYTIME YOU WANT.

So much fun it should be illegal.

3 comments:

Jackson said...

Tony needs one, I have Chris and Machold.

Jackson said...

You need a good non-band. Guys like you who don't have time to gig and rehearse a lot, but get together every other week or so to do what you really want to, just play.

When you take the audience out of the equation, it can be very indulgent, satisying, and most importantly, fun.

The drummer is always the problem......well, maybe your pedal is the answer to that.

Mike Lewis said...

I don't think the pedal is the answer, but it's great for practicing my lame ass leads.

I won't miss playing live as I will just playing with others. I need to find a group of players who want to get together 1 or 2 nights per month - hell if I'm dreaming here... 1 or two nights per month in the back room of a brewery - scratch that, a vodka brewery - run by strippers!
It's funny how my rock and roll dreams change with my age, but still have the same ingredients.