Deja Vu (Project Serve Welcome Tea)

It wasn't so long ago that a fresh-from-Sydney graduate was introduced to a parachurch organization, and auditioned for a place in the performing arts ministry's Project Serve. I was mostly charismatic with little knowledge of the bible. I head-banged, jumped at least a foot off the ground, and believed that distortion and worship could co-exist....

Read More

Pedalboard Revisions (aka The Never-ending Story Part 20-something)

A moment of tonal dissatisfaction, a touch of OCD, and realizing that a compressor after the EP booster actually cuts out too much of the nice frequencies gave me the impetus to rearrange my pedalboard. And behold, I finally did it; I squeezed my entire overdrive section onto the first row. While having better visual appeal, the process flow is...

Read More

The Good, Bad, and Ugly

I had a rehearsal with the incredible Jordan Wei and Richard Tan, and took the opportunity to try out various combinations of my guitars/pedals/amp. I thought running the acoustic into my pedalboard, and running the compressor will help keep the acoustic in the mix. I also thought of running my Variax through the analog pedalboard to A/B against my...

Read More

Shredding on a Tele

God is gracious and good. Even in the midst of the wrist injury in my picking hand, He continually provides ways for me to continue playing the guitar, and even improve on my technique to be a player who can play more cleanly. I've only recently realized that my left hand is far stronger than I had previously taken notice of.  Its legato...

Read More

Snippets

Every weekend is a great time of serving, gigging, fellowshipping, and just living in general. Oh to treasure these days. Friday: Christmas Under The Stars, Poly Ministry Saturday: Shema live at Olive Vine Sunday: Playing at service feels like "Don't Forget The Solo" "You can either keep Jesus and lose the sin, or keep the sin and lose...

Read More

Dialling PODX3 Tones

The little black corner of the room I was a devout multi-fx user for a great bulk of my life as a guitarist. I figured that it was possible to get by with emulation While the stock tones were usable in only certain situations, they were nowhere near as organic as what the PODX3 clips were suggesting through my guitars (I suppose that's the beauty...

Read More

Simplicity

One guitar into one amp. The purest signal possible, with no pedals to suck tone, no power supplies to generate noise, and no patch cables waiting to die on you at the most inopportune time. I occasionally play with this setup when I know that the venue provides a decent amp (which is a pretty broad category in my book; I'm content with both solid-state...

Read More

Reviving Jennifer

My acoustic is getting old. As of this year, she's been in my possession for the past 10 years. I practically grew up playing this guitar; I learnt many radio pop songs from the Backstreet Boys, Savage Garden, Richard Marx and N'Sync. I learnt my first worship songs from Hillsong, Sonicflood, and Avalon. I got hooked on the alternative sound forever...

Read More

Tech Noob Moments

I don't know what happened. Poof! My top navigation bar just disappeared, and for an hour I just couldn't get it back. I must have mistyped something in the HTML (which, at this moment, has been modified beyond recognition from its original code), and now, no matter how much I try to use the Blogger menu to change the layout style, it just won't show. There...

Read More

Restringing Order

A quick tip for restringing guitars: the order you string them makes a difference in maintaining or derailing your setup, depending on your guitar. I have had the good fortune of owning guitars with decent necks that don't change with temperature fluctuations, and I keep them in a pretty dehumidified environment. Even my Yamahas, the cheapest of...

Read More

"Grace in Surrender"

Sunday Sermon 19Nov11 Pastor Anthony Lee "Grace in Surrender" (Luke 1:26-38) "The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to him" -Henry Varley A shoes salesman heard these words and eventually came to be a great preacher--this man was D.L. Moody. Do you believe that God can use you, an ordinary person? Lessons from Mary's life (Luke 1:26-38) Extraordinary saints 1. ...begin as ordinary people -God intends for the saints...

Read More

Analog in Disguise (Playing with Solid State Amps)

I got my hands on another EP Booster. Before labeling me as an excessive tone nut, let me justify why. Xotic came up with two versions of this pedal: Version 1 has a bright switch and a bass boost, while Version 2 replaces the bright switch with a +3dB boost (which in essence is a unity gain switch, because when disengaged, there's no boost). You...

Read More

Possible Band Names?

YFC's Performing Arts ministry band needs a name. I know my brainstorming sessions for band names don't really have a lot of scriptural backing to them (like attaching a verse directly to them), but I do keep them biblically sound. Here are my suggestions: Return This name came about after checking work emails for the umpteenth time, and thinking...

Read More

Do You Hear It?

The hallowed Paul Cochrane Timmy pedal. I've GAS-ed for one for many years, having read the reviews, watched the videos, and heard the audio clips. And when the right person came by with the right price, I pounced on it. I still remember peeling back the box and beholding the pedal in my hands for a while, before plugging it in and powering it up...

Read More

Strings and Things

I recently stringed up my Fender Stratocaster with 11's in an attempt to test out the myth surrounding different string gauges and its effect on tone. The myths do somewhat correspond logically; higher gauges mean more string mass, and more string mass means larger vibrations, which in turn, ultimately leads to beefier, heavier tone. I tried it out and got myself really frustrated pretty quickly. Not that the tone was disappointing--in fact, I felt a rather pleasing change in tone. Somehow, the...

Read More

"A Transformed Life" (Laity Sunday)

Laity Sunday Sermon: "A Transformed Life", Matthew 5:14-16 Light takes away darkness. It exposes hidden deeds. It brings truth to those in sin, and brings hope to those burdened (John 3:19-21) As Christians, we must a life that shows the light of Jesus to an unbelieving world. There is no reason to hide our identity as Christians. If we as Christians...

Read More

(Struggling to) Tithe

It's difficult to pin-point when it started, and even harder to decide where and when it must end. Gear Acquisition Syndrome. It's a disease rife amongst musicians, and particularly electric guitarists. I seem to have a need for 3 amps, 14 pedals, 2 multi-effects units, and 8 guitars. I seem to be able to justify the need for more gear; a Palmer DI...

Read More

The Evolution

13 years ago, I was in a class that wasn't working out well for me. I was practicing the same song for 4 months, and I threw the towel in, seeking to learn the guitar myself. This did not bode well in the ensuing months. None of the tab stuff made sense to me, my fingers were too chunky to be making those "insanely fast chord changes", and my calluses...

Read More

Why Did You Laugh?

Genesis 18:1-15 Theological comedy: When God surprises man with His methods, where we think they are ridiculous or silly. God's ways are not for the amusement of the idle nor is it for the fascination of the curious. He works wonders an in unexpected ways 1. For people who wonder how they will survive 2. To challenge our common assumptions we have...

Read More

All Things New

I pray that in Your good time, You may reveal Your glory to these precious on...

Read More

Massive Unboxing!

A clearance sale is bound to strike a good chord in a guitarist. I've always dreamt of owning a THD amplifier for years, having seen small blurbs of it in guitar reviews, and hearing raves amongst my guitarist friends. Reading about the features was enough to convince me that this amp was worth the boutique price tag that it carries. I finally...

Read More

Pedals: The Essentials

Before rushing out to buy your ten distortion boxes, I hope to provide some insight on things that you'll need (and truthfully need, mind you). A few important points to note: Pedals require power, either from batteries or from an AC/DC adapter. Powering pedals is a huge topic in itself, so I'll be brief in this post. Every pedal you want to include...

Read More

Bleed and Open-back Combo Amps

I played for RBC's worship conference with Brian Felten (who is absolutely amazing as a teacher and as a musician; I was so honoured to work alongside him!), and the venue we played at was small and enclosed. The placement of the band right next to the audience meant that we were going to have big problems with bleed from the amps. My amp was facing...

Read More

BECK (2010)

 I'm an avid fan of BECK, mostly because it's a manga that chronicles the struggles, trials and tribulations that a band goes through in their quest to "make it". Which aspiring musician hasn't thought of making it to a festival, to play for a massive crowd, playing your heart and soul out (in the rain, no less, which is a really cool idea but...

Read More

Why Like That!? Episode 2

Multi-storey carparks are difficult to park in; they're tight, they're congested, and they need quick hands to navigate the bends around corners to reach the next level in a bid to find an available lot. I can understand the level of agitation one may feel at the end of the process, but that's not an excuse to be inconsiderate to other drivers: I may...

Read More

Why Like That!? Episode 1

A brand new segment of this blog to commemorate the moments that make us drivers go, "Why like that!?" For this inaugural post, I present to you a parking specimen: I hope my tone of exasperation is warranted when I say that this guy is too far from the kerb! Private estates have narrow roads to begin with, so it is imperative to park as close to...

Read More

Pedals: An Introduction to Analog

I'll make an honest admission. Even though I've been playing guitar for over 12 years, I only started on analog pedals and amps this year. I've been relying on solid state for all of my tones, from my first 10W practice amp to my present Line 6 PODX3. Of course, it's not like I'm a complete newbie at it; I've gigged with all sorts of analog gear, courtesy...

Read More

All Tied Up

When your power cables are kept in this manner......you're only inviting disaster the next time you unravel it. The first step to a nicely, naturally-coiled power cable is getting rid of the over-coil.Next, follow the natural coil of the power cable and use a cable tie to secure it in the middle (I use a velcro cable tie, which can be purchased really...

Read More

Take Your Pick

Thanks Aunt Nancy for this awesome pack of picks from Hard Rock! It's good to have picks lying around--in your gig bags, in the accessory pockets of the band duffel bag, in your wallet--you never know when you'll have a guitar dropped in your lap and requested to play a song. Here's an example of what happened over New Year's Eve dinner, where the...

Read More

Tools of the Trade

It's really convenient to blog these days. Remember the days when Blogger didn't have the ability to do rich formatting, upload pictures and link to videos? I survived on Scribefire for my personal blog (which is still alive to this date, with almost 7 years of history!), but now the basic Blogger interface has proven to be just as convenient....

Read More