Line 6 Flextone III XL And Spider Valve: Gearwire MVP Candidate Spaceatl Rocks
Gearwire MVP candidate spaceatl grew up learning to play instrument after instrument to basically fit whatever gap needed to be filled. This became beneficial - now he's a multifaceted musician and engineer who rocks out on the Line 6 forums.
What is your background?
I am 39 years old and hail from Auburn, Alabama originally. I am married and have two children. I play with a cover band called DogHouse and have an original project going on. To support the family, I work as a Senior Software Engineer for Automatic Data Processing.
How did you get started in music and what advice would you give to someone who just started?
I started in music very young. My father played acoustic guitar and showed me chords at around 5 years old. My mother plays piano and flute - is accomplished in having given piano lessons and making first chair in the Auburn University marching band on flute. I played trumpet for the better part of middle school through high school. In high school I played standup bass my senior year (we needed bass players in Symphony) in Symphony and trumpet, standup bass, percussion, and electric bass (in) Jazz Band (I was a mercenary musician I guess).
I picked up guitar around the 10th grade outside of what I did in school. My senior year, I put a classic rock band together with some of the folks in jazz band where I played lead guitar. By the end of 1985, we had a house gig playing five nights a week and did fraternity parties etc ... I later joined a regional touring 80s metal hair band playing bass. That eventually got so heavy that we moved to Tampa to give it a shot. To make money I started working for a few production companies and mixing. When I came to Atlanta in 1990 I was a pro-sound engineer and began working house gigs in my off time but mostly touring working directly for international artists as a Monitor and/or FOH engineer. That lasted until 1996 when I left the music business, went back to school for a bit, got married, and started working (as) a software developer (then the kids came along).
I joined a band called Doghouse (http://www.dog-houserocks.com) in 2004 that is composed of a bunch of guys that are around my age that played back in the day and would rather play a few shows than play golf. They keep it fun and real. It is great for keeping the chops up and staying in front of a crowd on semi-regular basis. The best thing is that there is no drama! I am also working on an original project with a couple of folks that is showing some promise and allowing me to showcase my talent as a guitarist, bassist, songwriter, and producer. The only advise that I can give is stay persistent, practice, and stay persistent. If you truly love it, have a bit of talent and are willing to work very hard you can make your living in the music business. Just be honest about who you are ... ALWAYS. That can make for some tough decisions sometimes, but staying true to yourself just might keep you there for the long term. Of course, be realistic in that you might not make it in your first choice. I went to mixing because I actually made more money than I ever could playing, and it opened some doors for me.
Who are your musical influences and what genre do you listen to most?
There really are too many to list. Here are a few: Eddie Van Halen, Ace Frehley, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Setzer, Prince, Neil Melton (My brother: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeDZbTqEdCU ) SRV, Billy Gibbons, Ted Nugent, Steve Vai, Frank Zappa, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Chet Atkins, Bob Marley, Al Anderson, Hiro Fukai, Junior Marvin, Aston "Family Man" Barrett, Cat Core (Third World), Dave Mustaine, Tom Araya, Jaco Pastorious, Stu Hamm, Stanley Jordan, Andy Summers, Sting, The Edge, Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare, Vince Gill (wow!), and so many more that I could just run the page out...I love all styles of music.
What's your inspiration?
Just music itself - I love all styles although I think I tend to enjoy playing hard rock mostly now. Heck, I was in an all out Thrash Metal band that was somewhat like the Sepultura "Arise" era. I also love playing funk - Prince, James Brown, George Clinton - it's all great!
What's your motivation for helping people out on forums?
I have had a lot of experience. I think it would be nice if a few folks could benefit from that. Besides, it helps keep my troubleshooting skills in check. There are a lot of good folks on the forum and I think the biggest reason I enjoy it so much is that I am able to learn so much about how other people approach the guitar. Being a guitarist that came up in the very late 70s-80s, we did not have this internet tool and the pace for learning was much slower. Now there is so much information freely available it just blows my mind.
What's your favorite piece of gear and why? What gear do you use?
There are two. My Line 6 Flextone III XL and recently acquired Spider Valve 112. The Flextone III XL is the best live performance amplifier I have ever used as it enables me to cover just about every tone imaginable to a tee. The Spider Valve 112 that I just got is an astounding tone monster. It is the first moderately priced production amplifier to couple a digital modeler preamp (by Line 6) and a Class AB tube power amplifier designed by Bogner. This is a boutique quality amplifier at a price most aspiring guitarists could afford. It offers exceptional tonal diversity with the feel of a Bogner. I use the Flextone for live performance the Spider Valve for recording mostly but I have used them together and that is just righteous.
Another favorite of mine is my 1987 Steinberger XM-2TT bass. It is by far the best bass I have ever played and it is 1 of 200 Trans Tremolo Basses ever made as XM-2s before Gibson bought the company. I also use an EMU 1820, Yamaha SPX-90 and 990, Delta Lab Effectron 1 & 2 1024s, ADA MP-1, BOSS Compact Pedals, Tech 21 Pedals, Ibanez guitars, Fender pickups, BC Rich guitars, DiMarzio pickups and Baker guitars (by Ed Roman guitars). Some people are put off by him, he can be a little overbearing, but he really knows his stuff and he builds some really great guitars. He's like Ted Nugent only shorter with slightly less hair...
What are your favorite sources for gear-related information?
I generally consult the manuals as I have a technical background - Line 6.com for any of my guitar amp needs!
What's the best music related advice you've ever given?
Turn down the gain in terms of advice I got on how to cut through with a heavy tone. Less is actually more and the gain crutch is a hard one to break when you are starting out.
What's the best music related advice you've ever received?
If it isn't fun then you should not be doing it. It is hard to realize what this really means until you have worked in the music business long enough that you reach a point where it isn't fun. The problem with that is the negative attitude shows in your work. Sometimes that has an advantage, but most times it doesn't, and it is impossible to sustain. This is a reflection of the advice I offered earlier. Be true to yourself. If you manage that then you will be content for the most part.
What's the best and worst thing about being a musician?
The women are the very best thing and the very worst thing about being a musician.
What is the best and worst thing about online forums?
The archive of information is incredible; more or less like a technical WIKI for the prooducts involved. It covers the deeper stuff that you generally don't find documented. But that's the problem, they can become difficult to manage just because of the amount of data and things start to get lost and hard to find.
What music-related topic do you think is most neglected on forums?
I am not sure. The forum I participate in we talk about just about everything. We do need a better way to capture and organize threads as there are some that are just great and would benefit a lot of folks if they could be made easy to find. However, that can prove to be difficult but we keep on trying.
What are the 5 forum posts/threads where you are most proud of your contributions? (Give actual URLs)
Although I did not start the discussion this particular thread it is a great example of the Flextone user group throwing down all the possibilities regarding speakers, mods, and cabinets; just great reference material for anyone that owns a Flextone. Myself and a bunch of other folks contributed to making this fine thread.
I posted this thread when I scored my tickets for the second show of the tour in Greensboro, NC. I also posted a review of the show as soon as I got back - see Van Halen IS BACK!!!
This was my attempt at getting some of the quality posts stuck at the top of the Flextone forum
WOW! Mr. Miller did put it up...
Every one of the links in there are great. Geodavejenk and tweakfreak actually have URLs of their own in here that I must mention. Geodavejenk has a very nice close-the-back mod for the Flextone Plus and tweakfreak has a site that contains EVERYTHING that you ever wanted to know about the Flextone III that you will never find in the manual.
This thread documents a modification that I made to my Flextone. It has worked great for me and is rather simple to do.
Might as well end this on a humorous note...(pun intended)...LOL!
Anything else you would like voters to know? Any interesting music related stories?
YOU MUST GO SEE VAN HALEN! I'M NOT KIDDING ABOUT THAT IF YOU PLAY GUITAR...
When I was working as a FOH Engineer in 1995, there was a festival that I was mixing in the streets of Rome, Italy. The band I was working for had been on about 20 minutes when out of the corner of my eye, I see my sound tech, with local system company, talking to 3 policemen. Since we are outside, in the middle of Rome with a 100,000 watt PA after 10 PM, I am suspecting that I am going to get the old "You need to turn it down" routine. Anyway my tech stalls as long as he can and I just ignore them until one of them comes in the booth. He doesn't speak English so I stall by just talking to him in English for a few minutes. Finally, I point to the master faders on the PM3000 desk an indicate to him that he can turn it down to where he thinks it should go. In perfect timing with him touching the faders I mute the System processor killing the house entirely without anyone seeing. He has a look of shock on his face and at this point the crowd has turned around (about 15,000 or so) and are glaring at this cop who is standing where I would stand behind the board. I step up behind him with my hands in the air and point at him. The booing starts immediately and it is the closest thing to a riot that I have ever had the honor of almost causing. I waited until he asked me twice and the crowd was starting to throw things at him before I unmuted the processor. The entire time my tech is trying not to laugh. After I restore the processor the cops leave, I turn it up some more and I do not see them for the rest of the night. It was a complete inspiration that just came to me and it worked - anything to keep music playing like it should be played. True story.
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