háromnegyed band
zenekarvezető
művészeti vezető
Első dobosom, Kaszi felbukkant a sötét múltból. Igaz, valami basszusgitárt próbál visszaszerezni tőlem (rég eltűnt) de saját szavai szerint "megjött az esze", jobban dobol, mint valaha, sőt, már egy tanítványa is van! napjainkban Szolnokon de ha szállását és/vagy utazását megoldjuk, szóbajöhet!
A sokadik korszakhatárhoz értünk: úgy tűnik, egy időre ismét trióvá egyszerűsödik a formáció. megszokott trend, hogy ha a banda szekere nem fut eléggé - zenekari szlengben: "nincs előrelépés" az agilisebb vagy egszerűen kevésbé elkötelezett tagok elszállingóznak.
Nagy várakozás előzte meg az eseményt, sajnos csak a banda részéről. A meghívott közönség zöme távolmaradásával tüntetett, ezért a felsoroltak alapból is minden tiszteletet megérdemelnek, amiért hajlandóak voltak péntek este egy álló óra hosszat elviselni az élőzenét egy viszonylag normális helyen - különösen Barbara és Bence, akik tudják, hogyan kell egy rockandroll koncerten viselkedni. A zenekar kissé zilált idegállapotban állt színpadra- Viktornak bruttó 10 perc állt rendelkezésre hogy összeszerelje az esőcsináló hangszereit, de a Stomegnél debütáló techikusgárda ezt másfélórás csúszássá növelte. Géza nem látszott, Benedek nem hallatszott, Ella pedig valószínűleg vizsgadrukk által okozott lila ködben töltötte az este jó részét, szerencsére a hangja nem hagyta cserben. Engem viszont a közönség döbbent csendjénél csak a saját erősítőm rikácsolása sokkolt jobban....
Aszzem Szolnokon volt az utolsó vidéki koncertünk. Most itt az idő, a Férfiak újra turnéznak, egy ezüstösen csillogó Mercedessel, és sötétkék Opellel vágunk neki Dél felé, a szabadság felé a route 66 helyett az M6-os útnak, bár ezt a fogalmat a GPS nem ismeri, ezért látszólag fekete pusztában hasítanak a turnébusz szerepét betöltő járművek. A Merdzsóban ritmusszekció, az elegánsan lepattant Opelben stilszerűen a gitárosok foglalnak helyet, a kormány mögött én hunyorgok az éjszakába, az anyósülésen Géza osztja a kexet és észt, próbál rávenni, hogy ne törődjek semmivel, csak nyomjam overdriveig a pedált, majd ő néz helyettem. Az utat egy harmadik gitáros, Jimi hangos és spirituális jelenléte teszi még különlegesebbé.
Azazello is my Chandler Austin Special guitar, designed by legendary luthier Ted Newman-Jones, and made as No.23 from 1992. There ‘s no “made in” tag anywhere on the guitar, but I doubt that any of the few copies of this model were made outside the
The body design is the most original thing of this guitar. It is a simple, contoured black body with silver hardware, and a pearl binding and the extremity of the shape suits well its simple and elegant layout. I’ve seen a few “distorted/stretched’ tele style guitars, which I usually like, but no doubt this is the nost elegant. The tele connection is obvious due to the electronics and hardware, but apart from the narrow tele- story this most resembles a wide Gibson, more of an LS5, hence the binding, than a Les Paul.
The body shape suggests a tele in “action” , had it been recorded in movement by a slow speed camera. I’ve never seen a Newman in action, but it would perfectly fit Keefs seventies stage routin, as judged by the pictures…The body is nicely contoured, and has a few bumps and scratches. I've read at a seller’s page that it is made of alder, but the nature of the bumps suggest a more lightweight wood, they are similar to those on my jap strat, which is poplar. It seems like accidents can easily cause small bumps on the body, just like the poplar-strat, unlike my american telecaster, called Behemoth, which is rock solid and heavy.
The two-piece maple neck is scarf-jointed at about 2/3 of its lenght, closer to the tilted headstock, otherwise it is very similar to my tele's, which is a thick, strong U shape. I have big hands and I like that, it's confortable , feels and sounds good. The headstock is strongly tilted backwards, and feature vintage style Kluston keys, that I like the best. Not only they are easy to install strings on, easy to turn, but holds well, and on top of all that, they are not dangerous to the kid (he always goes for the headstock and machine heads of a guitar first, maybe cause they are the shiniest part.) When I first saw this guitar at a vintgae shop, I remember I felt I would have had to replace the tuners with decent ones, which might as well held me back for puchasing it back than. No I know I’ll never-ever replace classic Kluston tuners, they are the best. The neck has a nice, vintage satin lacquer finish and feels good to touch.. having read these reviews I was a bit worried about finish, before I bought this guitar, cause I absolutelly hate shiny sticky finishes. This is definitelly not that kind.
The bridge humbucker is in fact two singles in a line, of which one can be muted by pulling the tone control. I tend to use this feature: I play single most of the time, and only push it form more gain when necessary. This forms a H(S) / S arrangement, that consists of all the beautiful chandler lipstic PU’s. The bridge is hard-tail strat syle with string through body and provides excellent sustain. You can play and hold a note for long wiothout an amplifier.
UPDATE: At the time of purchase I thought this guitar hardly needs any further feature apart from a little cosmetics. I replaced the vintage strap holders to schaller straplocks for more confort. In addition, I added an EMG afterburner push/pull booster for extra gain. Due to the low signal of the lipsticks, whom I mainly use in single mode, this has proved to be very useful, whenever I need to boost solos or just a thicker sound without pedals (e.g. playing at rehearsals on amps I'm not familiar with). However, it also caused some usability issues, as i also wanted to keep the humbucking feature - which I re-located to the volume knob (push to humbucking) and the EMG afterburner was installed at the tone knob. (pull to boost). This virtually makes it a 4-speed guitar (single>single+boost>humbucker>humbucker+boost), but changing "gear" is somewhat tricky - you have to notice that a pull-action causes a reverse effect on the two knobs, and due to loose chickenhead knobs it is hard to keep the intensity of boosting at one position. Hence I can only use maximum boost, instead of having a single tone knob.
Sound
I play blues to relax, and mostly my own stuff, I’m sort of a songwriter who apart from the lyrics., has never went too far from blues ,rockandroll and country basics. That’s what I call music. It absolutelly fits my style, it has a unique, very bright, almost metallic sound, just like an amplified dobro guitar might have. "vibe" is a very good world, it definitelly has a vibe, that i like the most. Maybe its the lipsticks, maybe the guitar is just rightly built. I've seen John Myer playing a strat with such lipstic Pu's at the crossroads fest. Also, i have to admit, that this is the quietest guitar in my collection. You have to turn up the volume a little bit. I play mostly a hybrid fender amp (performer, which I love) and a bunch of pedals, but this one sound the best without pedals. Somehow they kill its tone more than any other guitars tone. It has a very natural acoustic sound, and sounds unnatural with most stompboxes. I tend to use a bit of tremolo and tubescreamer with it.
I play a lot of slide and hammering, when I bought the guitar, the first thing i didm was replace the strings, cause i thought they were .9's. Wrong. It was good old .10 ernie ball, just the strings feel softer on this baby than on the fenders, since it has a shorter scale (menzura?) of the neck. Which is good in a way, I can play faster solos, but makes it impossible to play slide with a medium action. take it like this: its a lead guitar and you dont play slide OR go for higher action, than you dont play lead OR go for stronger strings, medium action, and apart from a decent slide sound, you'll be able to play quite fast, whithout breaking your fingers, which is quite rare for a slide setup. I do this: .11 earnie ball strings, and open D or standard tuning.
I never gig without a backup, if I ever did, even the most durable stuff broke off. I cannot really comment on durability, as i've only own it only for a few monts. This is an old guitar, and it looks solid, thats enough. Under reliability I note something that might be more of a usability problem. The chickenhead knobs turn easily, and I tend to turn down volume accidently when I strung a big chord. Also, the push and pull mechanism easily turns the tone flat. I usually turn the tone midways between flat and sharp, since the guitar has a trebly sound already.
I hate to destroy originality, but i seriously think about replaceing the nice chicken knobs to something more practical. i have to confess, that i never played this guitar live as yet, but I am preparing...
Never tried to reach them, but since the company failed to mention this model on any of its resources, I tend to think, that theres no costumer support, it they admit that they produced this model atall. Furthermore, this is very hard to find any info or pictures on this model on the internet, which suggests that it is in fact a very rare guitar... if I'll have the time, i1ll put together a page dedicated for this beauty on my blog, until then I created a yahoo group for it. Anyone owning, or interested in it, would up or download pic or info, please join, currently I am the only member.
I’ve been playing for 20 years now in the gigging and occasionally recording amateur league. I play a Fender telecaster (am. Stand, 1990) as my main axe, and a japanese strat (1986) , as well as a squier standard tele which I tune in open G-5 strings. I thought this might naturally replace the 5-string Squier, but this sounds so damn good in standard tuning and full-open E slide, that I have never felt like trying it in open G. fact the Squier sound pretty demanding in 5 strings, so I tend to believe that anything would sound good in open-G.
I first saw them, mass produced in a
"Here is a picture of Keith and I with my NEWMAN. My guitar was the one that was used to design the Chandler model. There were Black ones made, and white ones that we agreed to have made in 6 string. Apparently Paul made a few 5 strings and a few basses as well. Don't know where those are. I put the deal together between Newman and Chandler. It didn't work out great and the deal sort of ended after about a year. Nice guitars. Paul did a great job of having them built, and I do believe that Keith saw a production 5 string but I have no way of knowing for sure. One was sent to Rich Robinson and Joe Ely had one. I had a white one with maple board, and a black one with a rosewood board.If anyone ever comes across a 5 string for sale let me know..."
The official company page... does not offer any information on this model.
Chandler guitar forum on the gear page... featuring the guy who put together the deal between ted and Chandler!
Keith's custom guitars... Really rare and nice guitars, including some Newmans
An oldschool windows theme... remember Windows 95?
Stones forum on the disappeared designer... but of course there's a guy who saw him in Texas... British guitar galllery (sold) you know it is priceless
Look at this weird mod... meet the instrument formerly known as Chandler Austin Special.
E-bay search...catch as catch can
User reviews... nice reviews, not including mine for some reason
Meet my band ... from now on also powered by Chandler Austin Special. Check us for friends, or we will find you...
My yahoo group .. yes, you would not want to be part of it, if they accept you for a member
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