Checking In

Howdy guys

Well the tour has been shortened by two nights ho hum.

Whats new? Well my my let me see now...err we've got new bits of kit, new songs, new recording sessions, new posters/artwork...it's a regular bonanza I tell thee!

I'll start with what I know - guitars. A new relic strat is wingining its way to me courtesy of my friends at Fender but I have a little mod planned for this sunburst beauty which I shall reveal once it's finished...I will hopfully use it next week on tour. Elsewhere I have discovered the joys of tweaking...yes thats right, the Dunlop Fuzz Face re-issue...what else!? The trim pots have allowed me to fine tune the little red circular blighter to my taste and I'm pretty satisfied so far, hang on, kettle's boiling....Thats better! A nice cuppa:)

Okay where were we, yes, FUZZ! You might notice this is not the first time I have mentioned Fuzz in a blog, don't worry its just me delving into these murky, 'fuzzy' waters. Hmmm what else..well the 'Jackhammer' seems to be acting as a good Tubescreamer type pedal so along with the Fuzz, Pickup Booster and Jackhammer I'm starting to nurture ''Distortion Corner'' just over to the right in my pedal board. How Quaint.

In other gear related news we've got some drum kit based fun and games happening so I'll hand you over to Tim ''Mark King'' Deal, Tim....

So there I was reading a rather wordy post by our resident cocktail maker and guitar tweaker Stevie K, when I was asked to continue.

Continue I must; continue I will.

So we spent the best part of two hours trying out hi-hats in Wembley Drum Centre last week. Joy of joys. Eventually we came up with some Sabian (controversial I know) X-Celerator hi-hats which sound like A-Customs but aren't quite as bright.

So I've expanded my drum set up, using my main kit with 10" tom and 16" floor tom but now with the ride cymbal where the crash was...here's a picture.






P.S. What a discrace I have made at not getting the size of the crash right. It is an 18" for which I shall be eternally regretful. Apologies to all who correctly thought that 16" for this sort of music would be woefully inadequate: you are right.

So two rides, an extra crash AND auxilliary snare, which I've tuned higher for some interesting moments. May also add a 10" splash in there, although I find they don't cut through that well. Good to have the options though.

Bit hungover from an awesome jam night last night (@The Goat, St Albans, every Wed's)
Laughed myself to sleep (very rare) because I was coming up with so many collective nouns. For instance:

A Vasquez of knife crime
A North Korea of flange
A brush with the law of golf apparell
A Tina Turner of fair trade produce
A Bill Gates of sleep deprevation
A nicotene of drunk shrimp explorers

See you on tour!
We will update the dates on our myspace asap.

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