What's In A Name?

After a lot of thinking and considering, I have decided that the name I like most for the new band is: Harting Hill.  I wrote a narrative poem around 10 or more years ago.  I simply saved it and filed it away, like a lot of my other short stories.  It was about a man that gives a lift to a girl, whom may or may not have been a ghost. 

Well, I am currently reading through 'The Mistletoe Bride And Other Haunting Tales' and to my great surprise her story 'On Harting Hill' is almost exactly like a longer version of a poem.  I found the story very captivating and as a result I thought that it would make a good name.  It doesn't pidgeonhole the band to any one style and it has a nice air of mystery.  So there we are - Harting Hill will be rocking your socks off soon.

How did you come about your own band name?  Did it last or did you change it a few times before you felt happy with the moniker?

A New Band Emerges!

So here we are guys, this is the first track that the new venture has written.  It is called Animal Carcass and it was designed to be just a straight up blast of thrash for a minute or two.  It was a lot of fun to play and the recording is totally live with no post production.  Let me know what you think!

My experiences with a looper pedal (early days)...

I recently bought an EHX (Electro-Harmonix) 720 looper pedal.  It is a hugely impressive product that has a whole lot of power under the hood.  It can however be as simple as you like, with a single button press and recording straight away.  What have I learned so far?

1. Timing your loop is hugely important
2. You must ensure you end the loop correctly or it'll be totally off
3. It's actually quite hard to ad lib an overdub of lead guitar over some rhythm guitar you have laid down

I'm thinking that for a future YouTube video I'll take a look at some hot tips on how to get the most out of a looper.  In the meantime, I'll be devouring loads of content to make sure that I have a grip on how to do exactly that.

My coverage of the North East Guitar Show 2017

Hi guys and gals!  So I realised I have been neglecting my blog a little and as a result this is my update.  My previous post mentioned that I was attending the North East Guitar Show 2017 and I did.  Happy days.  As a result, I produced this little slideshow of some of the rather cool stringed instruments that were on display.  I also had a go of a cigarbox (or cigar box?) guitar.  As a result, I might invest in one in the future, we shall see.  I hope you enjoy the coverage.

I am going to the North East Guitar Show 2017!

The great news last week was that I got the 19th March 2017 off work.  What that means is I will be going to the North East Guitar Show (http://www.guitarshows.co.uk/ARPages/NorthEast.html)!  I went last year (or was it the year before) and there was some fantastic new gear being demoed, some cool bargains and much more.

If you see me there, please do say hello and let me know what new videos you'd like to see on my YouTube Channel!

-Gary Stephen Shaw

Stone Deaf FX Warp Drive high gain pedal

There's nothing I like more than a new effects pedal.  Stone Deaf FX are producing some seriously hot products at the moment in that vain and so I'm considering the Warp Drive.  Why is that?  Well, at the moment I can't get out of my head that I need a VERY high gain pedal.  Few things seem to do what I'm after - the sound in my head if you will - but this certainly does.

There are a huge amount of controls on board this pedal as well as an in-built noise gate (making is very similar to the Precision Drive from Horizion devices, which you can buy at Andertons https://www.andertons.co.uk/p/PRECISIONDRIVE/overdrive-pedals/horizon-devices-precision-drive-overdrive-gate-pedal).

So you're probably wondering what all of those wonderful knobs do?  A lot of them are actually filters.  This is useful for shaping your tone to a very exacting fashion - again very good for achieving the sound in your head that will otherwise be hard to pin down without this level of control on board.

Lastly this pedal works with the Stone Deaf EP-1 expression pedal, meaning on the fly manual control.  I'm hoping to test this pedal at a dealership soon but unfortunately it seems nowhere has any in stock at the moment.  Watch this space for more on this epic high gain pedal.

Andertons is, at time of writing, taking pre-orders for this pedal but does not have stock:
https://www.andertons.co.uk/p/WARPDRIVE/overdrive-pedals/stone-deaf-warp-drive-high-gain-distortion-pedal.

Hotone Heart Attack - a great amp that photographs really well!

Hi guys and gals.  You can tell from my most recent videos that I am a hugely proud owner of a Hotone Heart Attack.  If you don't know what this little amp is, the easiest way to explain is to say it is a very small solid state amp head designed to sound like a Mesa Boogie Rectifier.

I love the form factor of this thing and the build quality is excellent.  As a result I decided to ask my photographer wife to take some photographs and put it the resulting slide show on YouTube.  Please take a look and see what you think.