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ledeuxieme
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Country: United States
State: California
Metro: Davis
Birthday: 2/17/1979
Gender: Male
Interests: God, my wife, guitar, some other stuff.
Occupation: 5th Grade Teacher
Message: message me
Member Since:
9/16/2003
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| so, this past weekend i had a lot of fun playing for dccc worship teams. i especially had fun because i got to play electric guitar. i don't know what it is about this instrument, but it's just so hard to put down. even at home i just have it in my lap all the time. it's like a growth on me. a strat shaped growth! yea, it's true, just ask jenn. haha as most of you know... i'm soooo done with drums! i don't know why, but i just totally don't want to drum. i've never had this sort of feeling before. i don't like it... hopefully i'll get over it though.
anyways, so the college students at dccc are all back. it seems like a blink of an eye and suddenly the church is packed with people again. well, chris wong asked me to play for compass. i was happy to do it. for that set i decided to use my les paul. my les paul was my go to guitar for the longest time. i haven't used it too much recently though. i think i've just fallen in love with the chime-y and bright strat tones. well, the paul worked out pretty well. i didn't play any clean stuff for chris' set until the last song. for most of the set i was set up with a pretty gain-y overdriven sound to play lead stuff. originally, i wanted to go with my blackstar pedal hooked up with my line 6 m13, but it just did not feel comfortable to me at practice. plus, my blackstar's green channel started crapping out on me big time.
i really believe that les paul's work well for rockin' high gain stuff like what chris did with his set. we played this song called 'revelation song' by kari jobe. it's pretty mellow in the beginning but picks up steam as the song goes on. i was able to put in a lot of atmospheric type sounds into it to fill it up a bit. i also put in a lot of guns n' roses type sounds in it too. the song reminded me of the gnr song estranged. i guess i have a bit too much slash influence. we also did the song 'bless the lord' by jeff deyo. it was a slower song, but it had a lot of loud moments in it. i think these two songs really typify a 'chris wong' set. he likes big sweeping songs.
for sunday, i got to pick the set and we ended up doing: holy moment, hosanna, prince of peace, our god saves, and speak o lord. i didn't think holy moment was going to be our biggest and most difficult song to pull off. we ended up doing a funky breakdown towards the end of it after an electric guitar solo. this song took us a lot of run throughs to get right. i think on sunday it worked out well though. jenn and i didn't see too many awe struck faces. that's a good thing. hosanna was 'ok'... but i messed up the beginning because i couldn't keep up with the turnover from the first song. sometimes i feel like lord of the dance switching all my pedals on and off. one of the songs i really liked and learned over the summer was our god saves. i learned the little guitar riff thingy for it and really enjoyed playing that part.
all in all it was a great weekend of worship team. both of the teams i got to work with were big so we had a nice full sound. i'll end with a few pictures that jim (our sound guy) took during practice! thanks jim!
 here's me playing my strat. i'm wearing my new august burns red shirt!
 this is a nice shot of jenn and chris doing the praise thing.
ps. the engater amp i got from musiciansfriend stopped working AGAIN. the channel switching didn't work on it. arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! i ended up returning it. sorry bruce egnater, your amps didn't work out for me. i ended up exchanging it for the surf green blues junior in the post below! hahahah! surf green baby!
pps. i'm playing the new halo game on the xbox360. it's fun! different, but fun!
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| so jenn and i just got back from the august burns red concert at club retro in orangevale. it's too bad you couldn't join us! lemme see... none of our friends could join us! haha. well, we are kind enough to bring you a little taste of what you missed. august burns red played with impending doom, my children my bride, and the acacia strain. all the bands were AWESOME. this was definitely one of the better shows jenn and i have been to.
before the show, jenn and i were feeling very much under the weather. we had our tickets and were not about to skip out on this. we made our way to club retro and went inside the most hot and humid room we'd ever been in. well, at least we only had to stay in there for like 4 hours. during the concert, i pretty much just stood and watched... but i was sweating like crazy... and i wasn't even doing anything. jenn, as you'll see in the clip, was much more energetic than i and was totally wiped by the end. everyone else who went was practically drenched in the sweat of each other. girls, guys... all stained with the sweat of each other. and you missed it!
but anyways, i have to hand it to club retro. every time jenn and i see a show there they have horrible sound tech and horrendous set-up times. not so today. everything was smooth as butter. bands took like 10 minutes to set up and the sound was perfect.
hopefully, the next time we go to a show at club retro we can enjoy the experience a little more than today. without further ado, check out what you could have seen and experienced!
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| so... the egnater rebel 30 saga continues! i have gone through FIVE egnater rebel 30 amps. here's the run down:
1. ordered from musiciansfriend.com (returned b/c it was a lemon) 2. floor model from guitar center sacramento (horrible speaker - maybe blown speaker) 3. in-box model from guitar center sacramento (messed up grill-cloth) 4. floor model from guitar center roseville (horrible rattle from inside the amp and loose handle) 5. second rebel 30 from musiciansfriend.com
as i said before, i REALLY want to like this amp. and i think this one's a keeper. i am still hearing a little rattle when the clean channel is turned up a little higher, but i guess i can live with it. i'm thinking this amp will be one that i use at church on sundays when i play electric guitar. the best feature of this amp is that it has two useable channels (one for clean and one for distorted tones) and a balanced line out. the balanced line out thing is really cool. i can just plug an xlr cable into the back of it and send it to the pa. then the sound guy can control the guitar mix. usually at church it is really hard to get a handle on the electric guitar. it is either way too loud or way too soft. usually, the guitarist likes to hear the amp - so he'll/she'll turn it up. everyone else in the worship band will not want it and ask it to be turned down. haha. well, the line out solves that little problem. it's also great to record. the line out features speaker emulation so that's an added bonus. i'm also a big fan of the size of the amp. it's not too big, but definitely not small. it has a nice big, non boxy, sound to it. i've read a lot of forum posts on this amp about the ability of it to mix different kinds of tubes. i think it's a cool feature, but at the volume levels i'll be playing it at, i don't think it'll come into play too much. also, this amp has the ability to go from 1w to 30w and anything in between. again, at the volumes i'm playing at, i don't think it'll matter too much. i'm hoping this amp will pair nicely with my pedalboard or line6 m13.
if this amp doesn't work out, i might just have to give the blues junior a try again. i've found in the past that the blues junior has a smaller, more boxy sound to it. i had one once and i sold it. a couple of years ago, when i still lived in davis, we had a block party and a band played there. the guitarist used a blues junior. it sounded huge and filled up the whole block. he didn't even have it turned up fully! right now americanmusical.com has limited edition blues juniors coming in. i'm crazy but i pre-ordered one. i REALLY want to surf green one... it's SOOOO COOOOOL looking... but it doesn't really match any of my gear. argggghhhh. i'm really anal about that sort of thing. anyways, i ended up pre ordering a white blonde one. i guess i have a thing for blondes! hahah.... at least blonde amps. i'd like my friends rob, chris, raymond, and all other guitar players to buy the surf green one so they can be cool. ultimate respect for the buyers of it! here it is. DROOOOOOL over it.  i will envy you if you buy this amp.
in other news...
i'm suuuupppeer excited that next week jenn and i will be going to see august burns red at club retro in orangevale. i checked club retro and it looks as if they are no longer pre selling tickets.  so... too late for all you suckers who didn't buy tickets earlier. it'll be an awesome show. i'll try and take some pictures. unless i get beat up by all the moshers.
and one final thing...
jenn led an all hymnn set this past sunday. i played drums for the set. i think it turned out pretty well. it was challenging though. those songs have some pretty crazy ranges for singing. the team did a nice job. anyways, here is a hymn done by a death metal band called becoming the archetype. i'm not a big death metal fan... but it's a unique take on the song i guess. here's to christian death metal! enjoy.
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so, the video above is the culmination of a long weekend of fun, stress, merriment, and fatigue. it was an honor to be able to help out in the worship aspect of george and lisa's wedding. i personally think everyone who helped out with it did a spectacular job. one definite unsung hero was jim, who ran sound after only just learning how to a few weeks ago. there was a lot of thought that went into making the worship time work at the wedding. making sure it sounded right was no easy task. most of the instruments that we normally use at dccc were moved to a different location on the stage. this made sound monitoring very awkward and difficult. in my case, i really didn't get any monitoring. so basically, imagine that you are playing the drums and you can't really hear anything else well. that's how i experienced the worship set. it's not a big deal - but it makes the musical experience a little less enjoyable. the drums were moved to the far left of the stage. because of its location, they sounded much louder than usual. i knew i couldn't play full on because i'd basically make everyone around me deaf. if you watch me in the video, i'm playing with a very, very sensitive and light touch. i definitely don't look the part of a rocking rock star drummer - but i think the drums mixed in well with the other instruments when all was said and done.  if i lean back i'll pretty much fall off the stage.at the practice, the electric guitar presented a problem because it was not controlled by the sound person - and it was very loud. we solved the problem by micing it with a shure sm57. we turned the volume on it WAY down and miced it. i think it turned out to be a great idea. we usually don't mic the electric guitar at dccc and have a difficult time getting it at a good level. i think from now on we'll just have to mic the electric OR use the amp's direct out to the board (if it has one - egnater, i'm looking at YOU!)  micing the deluxe reverbto top it all off, on the day of the wedding i started feeling super bad - in a physical way. i think i'm getting like anxiety disorder or something. anyways, i was feeling pretty good until the wedding started. my stomach started tightening up and i basically felt super nausiated and bloated. i was miserable during the first part of the wedding. i only started feeling better after i got on the drums to start the worship (thank GOD!). after that i felt a lot better. thanks a lot nerves!
overall it was a great experience. i'll let jenn tell you about staying up until 3am and waking up at 6am the day of the wedding. that's another story entirely! i'm happy that we made it through and i'm glad that george and lisa are now married! a second married couple in acacia! sweet.
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| so... here is my beloved new egnater rebel 30 amp... i hate it! ... at least right now.
here's the story behind this amp. a few weeks ago, i sold my blonde fender hot rod deluxe. i had a hard time giving up that amp since it was my first tube amp ever - but i put the old gal on craigslist and it sold in a snap! apparently, fender is no longer making blonde hot rod deluxes. i met the guy who bought it and it seems like he'll really like it. i'm happy for him, and happy for my amp. yay!
anyways, so i have some cash now and i had been eyeballing the egnater rebel 30. i think they look kind of cool and have an AWESOME feature set. this amp can go from 1 to 30 watts and anything in between on both of its two channels, it can also go direct to the mixing board silently or with the speaker engaged, as well as a ton of other features. i won't go on because i know you're already bored reading this. if you're really interested you can go to egnater's website and learn.
so i pre order the amp from musiciansfriend.com. well.... their ship date keeps moving back and back because of delays from egnater. lo and behold, the week it comes i'm in san diego. great. well, at least i know my neighbor and they get my amp for me until i get back. otherwise, it'd be sitting outside on my front porch waiting to get stolen.
i get back from san diego and retrieve the amp from my neighbor. i plug it in with my les paul and am LOVING it. sounds soooo great! i go to bed a happy man. the next day i plug in for some more tone bliss when the clean channel totally craps out on me. i call egnater and they think it's a bad tube. they contact guitar center in sacramento and have me go over there to get new tubes.
the boys at guitar center swap out the tubes and my amp is not fixed. they offer to sell me a brand new in box rebel 30. the only inconvenience for me is to return to amp to musiciansfriend. i really just want the amp so i go for it. i take both my old egnater and my sealed egnater back home.
at home i contact musiciansfriend for a free ups return slip and package my old amp for them for shipping. i open my new amp and discover that there is a tiny tiny imperfection in the grill cloth. i'm a bit annoyed, but if it sounds good i'm willing to overlook the infraction. i plug in my 'paul and so far so good. i start cranking the volume up a bit and then i hear it... a loud rattle from within the amp. the components on the inside are rattling! this annoys me to no end.
i go back to guitar center and ask for a new amp. i bought their extended warranty so i can do this. they floor model rebel 30 is WORSE than the one i currently have. not happy. i decided to drive 15 more miles out to roseville's guitar center and see if i can get the one model they have out there. i get there and they honor the extended warranty. i walk out with another rebel 30 and bring it home. cosmetically it looks good. i cross my fingers and plug it in.
low volume sounds great! i begin cranking the volume knob a little. at about 2 on the amp, i hear a LOUDER rattle than before. turns out the metal handle is loose and rattling. i take it off and that issue is (sort of) resolved. i turn the volume up a little more and i begin to hear that dreaded rattling noise again from the inside of the amp. i am seriously not happy at this point. i begin to wonder if it's just because i'm playing in a small enclosed room at my house.
i bring the egnater to church to give it a try since i'm playing electric guitar. the line out worked great and at low volumes, the amp was fine - but once i started it turn it up even a little... it was just TOO rattle-y for me to bear. right now i don't know what to do. i'm thinking of taking it back for another refund or exchange. the sucky thing is that i really want to like this amp. no other amp i can think of has what this amp offers. it has tubes, is light weight, has variable wattage, has a line out, silent recording, looks nice, and a lot more.
i just want a rebel 30 that works with no noise issues!
if not, there are a few other amps that can fit the bill... but they are not exactly what i want. there's the 40 watt marshall haze that has a line out but no silent recording function (at least not to my knowledge). it also doesn't look as cool. there's also the marshall jvm 215c... except it's like a thousand dollars more expensive.
well, i'm going back to guitar center and i'm going to see if they have any more new rebel 30s. they can't all be lemons, right?!
ps: i can't believe everyone wants to go check out cats or yo yo ma and not august burn red!
whatever.
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