Shaun Groves
I promised the tens of you who read this here blog that I would let you watch every bit of the recording process I’m in right now. I did that for the first two days – streaming live from my channel over at mogulus.com. But, yesterday was day three, and I forgot my laptop. I live an hour from Monroe’s home/studio or else I’d have gone back for it. Sorry.
But because I know those most interested in this process are the musicians in my audience, I think I’ve thunk up a way to at least partially make it up to you: gear porn.
Specifically, here are some pictures of a few of George Cocchini‘s actual guitars, the actual pedals and other doo-dads he’s playing through, taken while he’s actually playing on my song. So lock the door, silence your phone, and set aside the next few minutes to lust.
George played all but one electric part on my first album Invitation To Eavesdrop and let me borrow his acoustic guitar (Gibson J-45) for all my parts.
Some people put their cash away in 401Ks, hire an investment guy and whatnot. Not George. George buys guitars. His house burned down a couple years ago I guess it was. He lost 11 vintage guitars worth, well, a lot. I cried that day. Studios closed down out of respect for the “dead.” I’m choking up just thinking about it again. A moment of silence, please.
George uses amplifiers made before I was born. Yesterday he played through three different amps, one of them made in 1968. He swears you can’t get a new amp to do what his old amps can. I wonder if that’s true, or if it’s more that you can’t get young fingers to do what his can. “Everybody’s hands sound different,” he said. I’ve never thought about that – not in this age when so many musicians are so much about buying the newest greatest toy. George has great gear but there’s something in his hands and brain that makes it sound so much better than I could.
Get this: Sometimes George gets paid by producers for not playing. Instead, he’s brought in as something called the “Tone Chaperone,” which means he turns the knobs, tweaks the pedals, loans gear, does whatever is needed to get the guitar player in that band to sound, well, good.
I’m not an electric guitar player. It’s so much more than fingering and strumming the right notes. It really requires both an artist’s and an engineer’s brain inside the same skull…and the cash to buy those killer guitars, pedals and amps. So I didn’t hire George to help me sound half as good as George. I hired him to be George. And he was George all over my song. It sounded at times like Radiohead went to church. Eerie in the best way.
Next up, Monroe is editing my vocals. I sang the song through six times I think, and he’s going through and taking the best parts of each pass and Frankensteining them into one. Then, he’ll get in touch with the mix guy we both want to work with and see if he’s available and interested. If so, then Monroe will send him the files and the mixing will begin, which will only take a day. If he allows it, I’ll broadcast from the mix guy’s place when we go over at the end of that day to make any tweaks. Almost done.
Bonus: Here’s a video interview with George I found over at artisthousemusic.org
Kenyon says:
Wow. I’m not a musician, but I am impressed. Not really by the equipment but by the passion to be so devoted to something that you notice the little nuances and intricacies that the casual observer glosses over…wonder if there’s anything to be learned from that…
Thomas says:
One of the reasons why I like to read Andrew Osenga’s blog is because he writes about his pedal boards and other gear he uses to make music. As someone who has little to no music ability, I find this all this stuff interesting even when I do not understand what he is writing about.
Thomas
Paul Mitchell says:
I definitely envy his level of skill. I love rocking out on my acoustic, but I’m honestly too scared to even pick up an electric guitar. There’s something about all those pedals and knobs that totally freak me out.
Pat Callahan says:
Gear porn indeed. Thanks for the titillating post!
Jim C says:
Thank you for the nice look at someone who takes tone seriously. Our wonderful amazing church has gone to ‘amp modeling simulators’ in place of real amps, some junk made by Line Six. ( replace the ‘i’ in six with the letter ‘u’ at will ) It has a synthesizer that makes you almost hear an amp older than SG. ( by the way, the first photo has a guitar called an SG) In front of my non-amp, I have five or six pedals at any one time, because real pedals don’t sound like a synthesized pedal. My Les Paul deserves more than a synthesized amp . . .
OK I’ll shut up now. Thanks for showing the world why some guys take tone so seriously. Because they can.
Tim Bailey says:
I feel so dirty.
Mike P says:
Yes. Because making music is so much more about listening than playing. Good thoughts, Shaun.
cool dad says:
i miss my gear, a casualty of a pack-up-and-go move to New York. i have a heritage cherry SG standard like the one the first picture (though his may be vintage, super-expensive of some sort). a gorgeous guitar that i plan to bring up here on my first opportunity.
george cocchini says:
Hi Shaun, It was a great experience playing on your song. I have equal respect and admiration for your singing and writing. come on, let’s writi a country hit! gc
eric says:
Gorgeous guitars, George.
Pedalboards are always something I enjoy pondering over. Those little analog gadgets are tiny nuggets of sonic intrigue to be savored.
As for the new fangled amps, yeah, for the most part they emulate sounds well, but that’s just it- they emulate. There’s no way they can be programmed to produce every nuance a classic old analog tube piece can do. My favorite amp is a 1961 Magnatone amp with tube Vibrato my Dad bought me for $27 at an auction in 1993. Its tone is so seductive. It’s so old it has poor grounding, and every once in a while the old metal switched give me a shock. I’d like to see a modeling amp do that!
Best of luck in the studio, can’t wait to hear the record. Simply love your writing, Shaun. Blessings.