A new Telecaster to add to my collection. Every year, the Fender Custom Shop, take the most requested specs of the year and put them all together in one guitar: The 2011 Telecaster Pro. It has a 100 Year Old Pine body & a large ‘C’ shape neck of quatersawn maple. It’s got two Fender Custom Shop pickups, one of which is a ‘Twisted Tele,’ the other a ‘Master Design’ by Paul Waller. It has a Closet Classic finish, but most of all it just sounds good!! It has amazing feel and a little bit of its own distinct ‘mid-range’ sound while still been fully capable of taking the enamel off your teeth, as a Tele should;)
I have a pretty decent guitar-boner now;) A huge thank you to Fender and Music Connection for this!!!
The sweetest sounding guitar amp ever made?! Man alive I love this thing…with pedals, without pedals, soft or deafening, Full-Power or Half-Power…it just sounds amazing! Just like a real Plexi but better; check out the specs:
Dr Z Remedy
Power Output: 40 Watts/20 Watts switchable
Output Tubes: 4 – 6V6
Preamp Tubes: 3 – 12AX7
Rectifier: Solid State
Controls: Volume High, Volume Low, Bass, Middle, Treble
I love Telecaster’s so damn much!!! These are my favorite of what the Fender Custom Shop in California is currently offering: (the ‘Boracha’ is technically a Jazzmaster, but is inspired by a ‘La Cabronita’ Tele® & has the headstock;)
Someone asked me today, “how come i’m 25 years old and i work in a coffee shop?” The answer is simple really. Or not. I am a musician, a barista, a video editor, and a studio/producer manager. I would not want to give up any one of my above ‘loves’ to be confined to one thing! Being able to play music all the time, is something which i am truly honored to do. Being able to work in a coffee shop/deli and enjoy the finer things in life, like amazing coffee and fine food, whilst meeting some of Joburg’s most interesting people is so much more than rewarding! Being able to create, edit, distort and recreate reality in an edit suite, has taught me patience, and a love for a medium which i knew little about. Managing a professional recording studio, means I get to be directly involved with other like minded individuals on a daily basis, who are passionate about creating & sharing music, in an environment that is a business, however a creative business, a business of creative thought. There are no boundaries as to what I am prepared to do, to live and enjoy my life. So my question to you, Anonymous, is: “Why are YOU, NOT working in a coffee shop at 25?”
We all like to believe “we are what we do” until of course we do something completely out of character, and furthermore get caught up in this. Point fingers if you will, I know a time will come when everyone does something out of character. I’ll be the first to make sure I don’t point a finger at you.
It’s that time again… after spending 2 years touring non-stop, i am finally in the other place that i love so much; The Studio. “Second Album Woe’s” you might think, but really it’s turned out rather different i’d say. I have always said that making music, is the most fun a person can have. While this obviously excludes a lot of other of my favorite things to do, when it all comes together, it is in fact a wonderful feeling. We have been working full time since early 2010 on what is to be the follow up album to Collected Memories.
Yes, it’s different. It’s no longer just one, but now five. Five minds, ten hands, & ten ears. Im about to spill over with excitement for these songs to be out there, on the interweb, in your car’s, and on your iPod’s. It has happened before, where great albums are capable of dying a horrible death. And how will our’s be different? It won’t, we can’t guarantee listenership or a fan base bigger then what we have already…but we can guarantee that we have put absolutely everything into making this album, and i hear that very same sound in my favorite albums.
Where do we go from here? We can’t come out the same, no surely not! We have to do more, better and with a difference. This is what i am going to spend the next few months thinking about.
I’m not sure if you have ever been in an Anechoic Chamber of sorts, but its basically a room that is without (ane) any sort of reverb or even ambient sound (echoic). In other words, it is completely DEAD in there. There is absolutely NO room noise. It’s purpose is for testing microphones and speakers. I can’t really explain it, but it sure is the craziest place you will ever be in. Anyway, it’s a great place to hang out when we’re in studio and feeling like disappearing for a while. I like it there. Here’s the proof, by Greg Carlin:
What an unfortunate start to a possibly super rad year. My favorite company, Apple, failed me horribly. On the 3rd of January, my brand new iPhone 3GS died a horrible death, logic board died… i was in Durban. Two months later, the logic board of my MacBook Pro, also died…….. in Durban. WTF?! Thanks to my insurance, i now have a rad brand new uni-body MacBook Pro and iPhone 3GS. I say, if you can afford to buy expensive stuff, you can afford to pay the insurance on it. So now that im all back up in the interweb, its time i blogged…about something, about anything.
I’m a thinker, constantly thinking… what does that person think, how does that person see me, how do i see that person. Is my perception only capable of negative perceptions? Or do most people just seem to disappoint us all the time? When asking someone to work with us on the artwork for our new album, they reacted…overjoyed, amazed and completely crazy about working together with us on something, and are still jumping with excitement. That’s the kind of response we want from people all the time…but how-come we don’t get it? We constantly interact with people that appear so lifeless, and it’s got me thinking about the times we live in.
There was this uber clever cat on Radio 702 (yes, i hear enough music to actually listen to talk) the other day speaking about social networking, and how our identity’s or perceptions of ourselves are formed through social networking, and not through real interactions. Be aware, this is not a negative… its just a crazy adaptation, evolution if you will. It’s really interesting because, it made me wonder if these perceptions of our selves, and the mediocre responses we get from people have anything to do with each other. And I’m thinking they do and don’t. Some people react. Some people retract. Some people’s perceptions of themselves help them react, whilst others help them retract. Then it got me thinking, this has nothing to do with it at all. The bottom line is passion. Every now and then we meet people who are passionate about something; Music, Clothing, Artwork, Running. These things, these people, and their passion are truly what makes life interesting for me. Some believe in something so much, and some people believe in nothing.
Back to my favorite company, Apple. They made this ad in 1997, and it is still such a powerful ad. The Crazy One’s. The Crazy Ones, are passionate people. The Crazy One’s…. they REACT!
Wow, i am continuously amazed at the beauty of South Africa. Claire and I drove to St Francis Bay today and it is so so beautiful there. It was a nice way to finish our mini holiday. Now its… J-Bay – Port Elizabeth – Johannesburg – Rehearsal – Cape Town – Assembly (Z&G Live on the 29th Dec) – Durban – Ballito (Z&G live on the 31st Dec @ The Ballito Street Party – Johannesburg! xxx
Zebra & Giraffe were asked to open for The Killers on their South African tour… it was an awesome experience and we love how professionally these gigs are put together! It sucks that some people forgot how to have a good time despite the traffic issues in Cape Town…but either way, we had the best time & that was my favourire gig ever!!! This is one of Marcus’s photos…check the rest out here: Marcus Maschwitz
