Musician's Picture Thread

[Rick Marchand]

I have noticed many makers are musicians as well... let's see some pics of your instrument(musical) and maube shots of you on the gig.

I cleaned up my leather shop today and catalogued my drum gear, which takes up the other half of the room. Then I got the itch to set up the majority of my kit, minus most of my hand percussion stuff because it's in someone else's jam space.

On a local jazz gig...



On some not-so-local gigs...

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

Rick, awesome drum set! I really like the way you have it set up.

I'll have to get some photos, my current kit is as basic as it gets. 70's Ludwig 4 Piece (actually a five but set up as a four) with the Zildian cymbals that came with the kit, I think the Zildians are 1970's vintage as well and I use just a crash and ride at the moment. I alternate between quick beat and new beat hi hats. DW bass drum pedal and Gibralter hardware with RIMS mounts.

I have had up to a 10 piece set at times with 2 snares, 2 hi hats, etc but after traveling a lot for practices I have it down to 3 stands and 4 drums total. I do need to rebuild my old aluminum Ludwig snare drum, it sounds awesome.

Guitars... too many to even list but I'll try for some pics. My latest is a nice Japanese Squire Stratocaster I picked up for $40, it stays in tune for days on end! I picked up a 100+ year old guitar at the flea market last year with full on ivory binding and a 100% mop fretboard! Really cheap too.. my best guitar is probably my Gibson Nighhawk and I like my el cheapo Epiphone Les Paul Junior the best. I have a bunch of tiny tube amps and love old pedals like the Big Muff!

LOL I get carried away.... pics soon.

 

[Tai Goo]

The "Swillbillys".

Mark on the fiddle.

 

[Rick Marchand]

That is cool Tai... I dig the one string tub bass, if that is what i'm seeing.

 

[Rick Marchand]

I'll have to get some photos, my current kit is as basic as it gets.

You may notice that most of my gig shots are with a smaller set up. 4pc mostly... sometimes smaller or no kit at all. I played one jazz gig with brushes, a paper binder and a mic. Someone in the audience asked if we were using a drum machine... lol.

I hear you on the gigging gear, brutha... multi-clamps are a beautiful thing.

 

[Tai Goo]

Yeah Rick. That's my wash tub forge turned upside down with a few members of the original Swillbillys... about a dozen guys in that group now.

Me on the two string fiddle.

My new light weight electric bass practice combo,... Epi semi hollow body Viola bass and GK 200 watt micro bass amp. On the left up on the wall is my guitarone, (Mariachi bass), and up on the other side is my Jones long horn baritone guitar.

 

[Rick Marchand]

That is too cool.

 

[Tai Goo]

Sure wish we could jam Rick.

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

Awesome Tai!

I wish I was a little closer to your location so I could audition for your band!

 

[Tai Goo]

Dan, if you bring a case of cheap beer and can hold an instrument up and/or down,... you’re pretty much guaranteed a spot.

Why do you think they call us the “Swillbillys”?

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

I'm there, dude!

Here are some old photos I scanned back when I had more of my set in use. I have changed the setup a bit since then and now use a DW single pedal. At the time that I took these photos I lived in Austin, TX. I was in to buying and selling drum gear and repairing guitar pedals as a hobby and to upgrade my set. That's my old Ludwig snare in the one pic, I need to rebuild it at the moment but I have had that one since the fourth grade! It will take a ton of tension and I once used three of them as a convincing set of timbales and as tuned piccolo snares for backbeats and other fun stuff.

I haven't done much lately music wise, I was in a punk band earlier this year playing drums and had my own band playing and writing on guitar for a while. For a few years there I was really into programming music (like 60 hours a week) with a program called Reason, I make house and drum and bass from scratch that way. I currently have the drums in the shop, they are a lot of fun and always have an acoustic or a cheapie electric laying around the living room.

 

[Tai Goo]

Nice!

This is killing me because there's a shortage of drummers on my end.

 

[sunshadow]

Here's some of me



I do electric flute, vocals, fiddle, Keys, a bit of guitar (not good at guitar but I can hold down the backup while the lead player is busy) there aren't any pics I can find of me singing when I fronted the metal band in the 90s except a promo pic I put together of us in a graveyard

-Page

 

[Rick Marchand]

So which guy are you, Page? The Fiddler, Flautist, or Bald-Singer?


ETA: Nevermind... looks as if Flautist-boy and Fiddle-man might be the same dude... and most likely you.

Page, rockin the hat and pants..... sweeeeeet.

 

[sunshadow]

Fiddle and flute. The rock show is in 1999 when my hair was long, the schooner cruise with the fiddle was 2006

-Page

 

[Tai Goo]

Wow that's a shocker!,... had Page pegged more for like "Alvin and the Chipmunks" than "Jethro Tull".

Too bad we don't all live closer,... a BF band would be cool.

... don't have any good vintage stage shots of myself in my mullet. I think my X has all those.

One time me and a couple friends did a sound track for a porno flick called... wait for it... ... "Bursting Tits and Hot Clits". Terrible movie in my opinion, (though apparently doing quite well), but the music is good. Although, a few of the tracks aren't us, just some extra filler. One of the few things of mine still being published... under the name of "The Boner Brothers with Madame Goo". Of course, we were not involved with anything but the music... just recording artists trying to get paid.

 

[Tai Goo]

Here's a shot of me and the incomparable "Brother" Jefro out back of the shop.

Ghost artists.

 

[sunshadow]

Wow that's a shocker!,... had Page pegged more for like "Alvin and the Chipmunks" than "Jethro Tull".

If you only knew. That electric flute has gotten me on stage with more "household name" musicians than anything else I play, starting with Buck Dharma from Blue Oyster Cult when I was 19 (nicest guy you could ever wish to meet, the gig was a benefit show for the owner of Hot Rod Road Cases who had lost everything in a fire, imagine my surprise when I found out that the guitarist I had just been working with for an entire set was the lead guitarist for BOC! and I wasn't even old enough to be in the bar) I bought my Strat from Bobby Comstock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHvGB2KCNz0&feature=related
when his band and mine were double billing a biker party in Trumansburg New York, and I got instructions for setting my Hammond D6 up to match the sound Jon Lord had with his Hammond B3 (same generator) on the Deep Purple "Made In Japan" album from Dawk Stilwell who originally rebuilt Jon's Hammonds and Ritchie Blackmoor's Marshals and Strats.

When I moved to Rochester I went from classic rock and metal to blues and Celtic rock, then I married and moved to Syracuse, and the scene is dead here. Most of the bars in this town are sports bars and it there is music it is usually hip-hop from a jukebox for the college basketball fans. The notable exception is The Dinosaur Barbeque, but while I used to play the Rochester Dinosaur regularly, I can't get a band together in this town to save my life.

-Page

 

[Tai Goo]

I'm impressed! I had no idea you even played.

Music has always been a part of my life, seems like. Been playing longer than making knives, since I was 12... got to play/record with a couple famous dudes myself. Tucson isn't the greatest town for music business, but do have a lot of friends that play. We mostly just goof around and have fun. I never was serious about making money at it, but looking back probably should have been. I still write an occasional song, do some recording and play out once in a while.

 

[Rick Marchand]

Page, you have some cool stories of past gigs. I had no idea you were a musician, let alone a proper good one! Jon Lord's Hammond sound is amazing. My buddy had a B3 with two tall Lesleys(sp?). Picture 2 guys trying to bring a B3 up three flights of stairs.... not fun.

Our flautist is better lookin'!...
Sachi Angel

The most famous musician I ever played with was a fluke. We were doing a jazz gig at the "Bird of Paridise" in Detroit, when Herbie Hancock walked in. I thought my keyboard player was going to curl up and die! He had a layover flight in Detroit and wanted to check out the scene. He sat in and we played "Everything in its Place" by Radio head. There are little drums in it but I didn't give a shit... It's JAZZ and I played something with a linear latin feel. Herbie kept smiling at me and nodding his head. He took a 10min solo and traded fours with me at one point. Herbie told me he loves it when drummers play their own take on traditional rythms. I said, "What... you mean that WASN'T traditional?" He laughed. Needless to say I haven't gotten any calls from him for gigs... lol.