Hello from Boston

[ChrisF]

Hello Everyone,

My name is Chris. I started playing classical guitar as a kid in NJ back in the 70s, and eventually wound up at USC studying studio techniques with Duke Miller, Mitch Holder, and Lee Ritenour. After that I was in road bands for a number of years playing rock and top 40 with home-made pedal boards (featuring the original stereo Boss Chorus) and a Yamaha G100-112 that I saw Mitch play at Donte's one night. For a guitar I used a Gibson ES-347, which was modeled after some mods that Mitch and some other LA studio guys had done to their 335s. Those guys were my heroes!

In the 80s, back in NJ, I started using a custom Strat made by my friend Tim at the old Grand Guitars in Englewood, with a Roland GP-8 and a Yamaha SPX-90 for effects.

In the 90s, got married, moved to Boston, had kids, and more or less got out of music. So all of that gear was just collecting dust in the basement!

But in the 2000's the kids started acting and singing in musicals, and through them I got back to playing... in musical theatre! This stuff called on everything I had learned at USC... reading, multiple instruments and effects. It was a blast! But I was going crazy carting all of those instruments (banjo, mandolin, multiple acoustic guitars, electric guitar, effects, etc. etc.) I think the show "Spring Awakening" finally broke my back. This show has stuff like distorted electric tuned to DADGAD capoed on 3, acoustic tuned to this bizarre low C tuning, 3 or 4 other guitars, all switched very quickly, etc. I complained about it to my old friend Tim (who by now had his own studio) in NJ and he said "Dude, you need a VG-99!". He knew that another old friend, Bruce, actually had one with all of the fixin's (stand, bag, FC-300, Strat w/hex pickup) and he was willing to sell!

The rest is history, and I am a very happy (though still very ignorant) VG-99 owner. Right after I got it I played my first show with it, "Annie". This show only has two sounds required, clean electric and banjo. I had fun with the banjo patch – found the stock 5-string patch, got rid of the alternate tuning and the 5th string, and it sounded great! (though not as good as a real banjo). I'm still using the Yamaha G100-112, and it sounds OK, though I'll probably experiment with PA-type speakers when I get a chance. Mainly I want credible reproduction of the acoustic instruments.

I have learned much from reading this forum, especially posts from Elantric. Thank you all! By reading these posts I was able to actually get the VG-99 Editor to work on my Windows 8.1 laptop.

So I'll be lurking a lot here, and hopefully will be able to eventually contribute something useful. Maybe those of us who do musical theatre can open a section for that!

[Brent Flash]

Welcome to the group ChrisF! 

[Frankster]

Hello and welcome, you'll find there aren't many questions you can ask about V-guitar that can't be answered by someone on this forum

[Elantric]

Welcome to the forums Chris!

You drop some heavy names in your education at USC, as I had the good fortune myself to work on Mitch Holder's guitar and gear  1980-1986 while employed at Valley Arts Guitar, which was the former Duke Miller Guitar Center in Studio City,CA. Mitch was at Valley Arts daily.
http://www.google.com/search?q=wiki%20mitch%20holder
Glad you joined us here and hope you find paths to optimize use of your 13 pin gear.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fIQyRk3oGkw&list=PL5A9BDC6B85B8CF01

[mbenigni]

Cool bio!  You sound like exactly the kind of player the VG-99 was designed for.

[ChrisF]

Thanks for the welcome, everyone! Elantric, thanks for the Mitch Holder links. It's very cool that you were at Valley Arts during that time period. I was in there a few times back in the day – who knows, our paths might have crossed. Though I haven't set foot in California since 1982, to this day Mitch is the teacher who has had the most influence on my playing. I remember that there was an explosion of effects in the late 70s (they were novel back then) and he was right there in the middle of it, with a pedal board that said "Toys R Us" on the side. But when I would ask him about all of the technical aspects of his sound, he always said that the most important part of your sound was in your hands. And it's true. When Mitch plays a whole note, he does this sort of bi-directional vibrato thing with his left hand that I'm still trying to replicate. And he does this solid "chunk" thing when he comps that I am also still trying to get!

Duke Miller taught us all to read melody lines using a 19th century clarinet book (H. Klose), and he had a system of scale forms that I use to this day. He believed that jazz improvisation was not a gift that you were born with, it was a skill that could be learned. I might have remained a classical player if not for him.

Another teacher I neglected to mention at USC was Eddie Arkin, who was really more of a composer and orchestrator, though he was a great jazz player too. I learned a lot of great ways to harmonize chord voicings from him.

Anyway, thanks again, see you around the forum!