My guitar rig wants to kill your mama

As any aspiring pro guitarist, I too, have got wet dreams about my very own pro guitar rig. Today, I am proud to say that I've realized a life-long dream. Ladies and gents, I present to you, Trabye's very own guitar rig!

My trusty Ibanez JEM555WH is hooked up to a dB Technologies 150R wireless guitar system and routed to a Morley George Lynch Tripler to split the signal into two amps. Channel 1 feeds a Line 6 Pod Pro, which is in turn sequentially routed into a Korean-made Rebel KEQ-31M 31-band mono graphic equalizer and finally through an Alesis 3630 2-channel compressor/limiter. Channel 2 is routed directly to the Line 6 Spider II 150 head, driving the Line 6 Spider II 412 cab.

The two amps are controlled by their respective floorboards: Line 6 Floorboard for the Pod Pro and Line 6 FBV Shortboard for the Spider II. On occasion, I would add a Boss GT3 multi-effects processor and/or a Yamaha MBD-1 multi-band distortion pedal in between the wireless and Morley Tripler.

Now the only missing links in the setup are an effect processor for the rack section to enable MIDI switching of effects programmes via the floorboard (thus eliminating the need for the GT-3) and a power amp to drive another 412 cabinet, which I am seriously considering. Kiasu? Apa boleh buat... barang cari makan... (ni mesti ada yang akan buat comment yang penuh dengan ke'jaki'an nih).

Lama hilang...? (Part 2)

APRIL-JUNE

Come March 31st, I was called once again to perform with Metalasia. The band, being one of many AIM alumni, (along with May and Def Gab C) was invited to perform on a live TV broadcast of Prelude to AIM 13. It was aired on NTV7 from KL's Hard Rock Cafe to an audience of a million or so. It was an easy gig: 2 songs and a few free meals, and we were out of there. At least not for me... me and the missus spent a night at Concorde... a little treat in sampling the rock 'n roll lifestyle, at least for a couple of days.

The place was packed and friends came down to show their support. M'Pire came down, Man Kidal was there, and so were a few other fellow alumni. Majority in the crowd came to see Metalasia. Despite the crappy sound and short setlist, we could see they enjoyed themselves. The band blazed through Silantra, Mozart's Sonata in C (of course we distorted it and played it break-neck speed) and closed with Puspasari Penawar Putri featuring Ning Baizura on soprano. Some said my bass had the fattest low-end amongst the three bands that performed that night... I wasn't sure if they were referring to my sound or my butt... A regular rock 'n roll party. It was a good night.

Come May. M'Pire begins production of their debut album. The entire process was supposed to be executed at Matahati in King Studios, PJ but dissatisfaction on my part regarding the staff's commitment towards the project has prompted us to finish the album at Karya Enigma. We had a good two weeks at King's where we tracked all the drums and rhythm guitars. I brought my Spider II half-stack, Ali brought in his Marshall: plugged a Gibson X-plorer into a splitter, feeding both heads... and put up the Richter scale. I was ecstatic that we got the heavy chug-chugga distortion that we wanted... I mean, it was FAT!

Throughout the sessions, we had a lot of guests (which reads like who's who of Malaysian Rock revolutionaries). Among the first to drop by were Joe Wings, Lan Lipan Bara, Aan Kevin (a.k.a. Ozen Aan - arwah J.S. Kevin's sidekick), Tajol F.T.G., Kia Vagrant (came down all the way from Kuching), Bagio Damasutra, Miji Cromok, Zack from Budak Kaca Mata (selamat pengantin baru, bro!), Loloq and even Papa Rock himself, this year's AF principal, Ramli Sarip came down. We did get the occasional groupie type 'pompuan', and since yours truly was hard at work, I totally obliterated them by blasting the music up, I mean, really loud! Haha... padam muka, buat menyemak aje datang studio.

As of this writing, I am tracking Ali's vocals over at Karya Enigma. Still a lot of work need to be done... This project is really taking it's time to come to fruition. I even managed to complete three small projects for Helen Yap, TNB and TV3 in between... talk about hectic! I can't wait till all this is over. Off to an island vacation with the little lady... ah! Bliss.

Lama hilang...? (Part 1)

Yes, yes... I know. Mentang-mentang baru kahwin, takde masa nak update blog. Sorry to disappoint some of you, I was genuinely hard at work with various projects. After tying the knot and buying lunch for about 500 people last December, I just had to revitalize the bank account. This is what I was up to for the last 6 months...

JANUARY-MARCH
Upon my return from the honeymoon, work immediately began on the construction of Hijjaz Records' recording studio in Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara. Long 5-day weeks they were and had to deal with a lot of difficulties: absent contractors, no electricity, communication breakdown, arguments over plans, late supply deliveries and such...

Still in the thick of the construction, I was called upon by Ali (ex-XPDC) to fill in the bass spot for M'Pire (his new band). Two shows were lined up: Sungai Besar in Selangor and Tuaran in Sabah, both a week apart. As usual, had some fun, kicked some ass... We had to prolong our stay in Tuaran since we were told by the organizer that we didn't make the projected figures, no thanks to the weather and a certain award show finals.

Upon returning to KL, I received a call from an officer in the Prime Minister's Department, to acquire my services for a Nasyid festival to be held in April (which was later postponed to May). I was requested to coach a team of 10 civil servants from the PM's department and provide the music for their performance. This means I had to commute daily between TTDI and Putrajaya for the next couple of months or so. It wasn't that bad, the money's good and I got acquainted with the nation's administrative capital... I didn't realize up to now, Putrajaya is a beautiful town!

The competition day arrived, the group gave an 'ok' performance and much to my disbelief, the group actually won first place! The victory was bittersweet for me: I was delighted that we won but that means more commutes until the Inter-ministry round... *sigh* (more on this in the next entry) .

Meanwhile, the studio was still under construction, and I was called upon to pick up my trusty 6-string bass for another gig... the story continues...