April and the Summer Music Project Gig

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Summer Music Project - SOL Food Festival gigWell, April just came and went, didn’t it?

It’s been a super busy month at work, and what free time I had was filled with preparing for a gig with my band, The Summer Music Project.

The set list ranged from some classic rock, right up to the present:

  1. Shine On – Peter Frampton
  2. Get Back – Beatles
  3. Penny On The Train Track – Ben Kweller
  4. Taste of Danger – Jonatha Brooke
  5. Stop – Joe Henry
  6. Wonderwall – Oasis
  7. Animal – Neon Trees
  8. Cough Syrup – Young the Giant
  9. Perfect Situation – Weezer
  10. I’m Sorry – Charles Besocke (original)
  11. Don’t Take It Easy – Laura Whitmore (original)
  12. The Only Exception – Paramore
  13. Help Me (She’s Out of Her Mind) – Stereophonics
  14. Level – Raconteurs
  15. Revelry – Kings of Leon
  16. Chocolate – Snow Patrol
  17. Loving Cup – Rolling Stones
  18. Had Me A Real Good Time – The Faces

I’m playing lead guitar on all of these, and some definitely push the limits of my abilities- so it’s been a great challenge.  Also, and rather more nerve-wrackingly, I sing on most of the songs- mostly harmony with our lead singer Laura Whitmore, but I also had to sing lead parts on a couple songs.   I’ve never been thrilled with the timbre and range of my voice, so I spent a lot of time working on the songs. As with anything, it’s definitely true that the more you practice, the better you get, but I have a looooong way to go.  I’ll be writing more about voice training in another post.

Current Pedalboard RigAnother thing that was filling my time: I’m using two of my home-built pedals in my current pedalboard rig- the Under Pressure compressor, and the Speed Racer overdrive (the unfinished one in the picture).  I was tweaking the electronics here and there throughout the month, right up until the last minute. It was literally on the afternoon of the gig that I finally resolved a low-volume issue with my overdrive- it turned out to be a solder-bridge at the output of the second opamp gain stage.  More on pedal electronics, another day 🙂

Overall, it was a great month of accomplishments and improvements.  But I had no time at all to do anything here on planetz.  So, in the coming month, I plan to finally finish and release my videos on the Riviera roller bridge replacement, and then kick off the series on DIY pedals, starting with a tutorial on modeling a pedal enclosure in Google Sketchup, then drilling, painting and applying artwork to the enclosure.

Onward forward!