Busy times ahead!

I figured we might get a bit busy over the Christmas break. Another gig at the White Star this Sunday, Matilda's Estate Winery on New Years Day, a wedding in early January and then back at the White Star at the end of the month. And in the middle of all that a grandchild will make his or her appearance! So the tag of Grandpa band that was thrown at me recently, because we don't play until late, will actually be true for one of us at least!

Blues in F at Calamaris

Max's mate Chris, a harp player from a former band, happened to be at our Calamaris gig with a Bb harp so he got an invitation to sit in. He is welcome back anytime. Such a lot of fun!

Maggie McGill at The White Star!

ReverbNation

Having created a page for the band on Facebook, I was then keen to get some of our music up so as people can get some idea of what we sound like. I did a bit of research in to Facebook music players and accidentally happened upon ReverbNation. It is very like MySpace but dedicated to music and the Band Profile created can be linked into the Facebook page which is great. It also has some useful widgets which I have added on the right of the page also so as you can listen to a couple of tracks recorded at rehearsal, find out where our next gigs are at and join our mailing list. I only got this happening yesterday and I have been a little stunned that we already have 13 fans and I have received personal feedback from some about the tracks I have uploaded.
"much respect....from SR......hornsraised-rick..."
"Good stuff guys"
"Really tight live work guys!!"
If your band is not on ReverbNation then I can recommend that you might like to consider doing something about that!

Albany gig done and dusted

Ramsnake in action at The White Star's Sunday session recently. It was a great gig with a good crew bopping along in the final set and the general feedback was that all who were there really enjoyed our offering. We had to handle our own sound for this gig with the help of Scotty, who created a basic set up for us. Thank goodness. I hate having to deal with the PA before a gig and really did not get my own sound dialled in and consequently had a poor night on the guitar. I really missed not having the band's 4th member Terry Dodd, our sound guy, who normally looks after things for us as my guitar always sounds great and I play far better. I think I will try miking up my amp next time as it seems to make a significant difference to the way I hear the guitar having something coming back to me from in front of the amp. Oh well! Looks like we will be at Calamaris before the end of the year possibly in September when the weather starts to improve. As well as this blog you can see more pics and catch up with what we are doing on our new Facebook page here.

An Albany gig finally and Max reveals his secret to great bass playing?

Another gig down at the Denmark Hotel in front of a smallish but most appreciative crowd. We are tweaking the set lists and have added some more up tempo tunes with the slower showcase style tunes reserved for concert style gigs. So our repertoire is growing fast with some other new repertoire in progress that we will introduce over time.
I have been chasing gigs in Albany and have finally cracked it and am able to announce we have a gig at The White Star Hotel's Sunday Session on the 7th of August starting at 6pm. So if you are up at Calamaris, where we hope to score a gig at soon too, you can come on down to the Star after the music finishes there so as you can carry on bopping!
I was delighted to see Kimbo from the Albany Blues Club turn up at our last Denmark gig and he was keen to get us down to the club in the future, so look out for an announcement about that sometime. Kimbo was the sound guy for my last band in Albany and always did a great job, so it was great to catch up with him again.

The Tele Deluxe has gone to a new home somewhere?

A surprise I know, but I just wasn't quite getting the sound I wanted from the Deluxe. I contemplated upgrading the pickups to Lollar Regals but in the end decided that the 12" radius on a Strat neck just wasn't quite as playable as I would like. My MIM 70's reissue Strat with a standard 7.5" radius neck, vintage frets and 11s plays fantastically in comparison. So I traded it for an MIJ Tokai LS98F Cherry Sunburst Love Rock! A what you ask? Yeh, I know, just an appalling name for a guitar but, a made in Japan Les Paul copy that many consider equal to if not better than Gibson's version. I have dubbed it the thinking man's Les Paul as it is beautifully built, sounds fantastic, plays wonderfully and was half the price of the equivalent Gibson!? I have loaded it with 11s also and it is providing a nice fat sound whilst still being very playable. I am really looking forward to bringing it out at the next gig as it will provide a great contrast tonewise to the thinking man's Strat!








Some nice sounds from a couple of Love Rocks on this demo.

Denmark Markets Gig Easter Saturday 2011

How good it was to get together again for a gig after a few weeks off while Max and Laurel visited the Mediterranean. I had such a lot of fun and I don't think we did ourselves too much harm doing this gig as there was a substantial audience both outside of and under the marquees that had been set up to either ward off the sun or rain. Well on this day it was the sun and hot it was and I was in a lather of sweat after our set. We really nailed many of the songs and are slowly getting it all as tight as it should be. Max and Todd are really starting to create a nice thumping tight underpinning for the vocals and solos. The new Strat has definitely taken over as the number one guitar - such a lot of fun to play. I remembered to give our 1st of May Sunday Session gig at the Denmark Hotel a good plug at the end too. See you there!

Robin's gear

This is the first in a series of blogs about the gear the band members are using.
I will start the ball rolling with my set up.

The Amplifier
It has taken me years to find an amplifier that gives me the sound I want to hear on stage. I have had plenty of them that sound fantastic at practise sound levels but just never quite seemed to cut it on stage.
Like

• A 100 watt Fender Twin and there was just no way that I was able to turn the amp up enough to get it working and so the tone was always disappointing. 
• A Line 6 Pod XT Live that at practise levels sounded awesome but on stage was most disappointing. I am still using this but only as an effects board rather than for the amp simulations.
• Various solid state amps that have just never cut it. 

Finally, I seem to have found the answer by going back to basics and choosing a low output non-master volume tube amp. It is a Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb reissue that has been responsible for creating many of those great sounds you have heard on recordings over the years. It is doing the job magnificently even though it is only rated at 22 watts of output but I can tell you that there is plenty of volume available for the size of gigs that we are likely to do. Tube amps don't do what they can do until they are turned up a bit and the low wattage DR allows this even though I was still only running around 4 at the last gig.
Tube amps are super sensitive to the touch of the player, degree of treble and level of overall output from the guitar so they take a little getting used to. Once you are comfortable with the combination thought the scope for nuance and sound colour is wonderful by adjusting those 3 parameters. I had a great night on the guitar at the first gig because the sound I was getting on stage was so satisfying and it spurred me to take a few more risks and in the main they came off judging from the response at the time and following the gig.

The Guitars
My main guitar is an unusual choice but again the decision to do so was based on my previous experiences. In the past I have found that a Stratocaster with a 5 way switch and a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails humbucker in the bridge pick up position has been a great combination. However, I have missed having that really fat tone that a neck humbucker can provide and I am unwilling to change the neck pick up to a humbucker also on a Strat as the neck/middle pick up combination is so great for rhythm. Although I don't mind a Les Paul or a 335 I am not a huge fan of Gibsons so I initially decided on a Mexican made Classic Series '72 Telecaster Custom which has the humbucker at the neck and a standard telecaster pickup in the bridge.
Unfortunately, or fortunately as it eventually turned out, the shop I ordered the guitar from, sent me a Classic Series '72 Telecaster Deluxe by mistake. Now this is a very interesting guitar as you can see. It was Fender's answer to the Les Paul and has a Stratocaster neck with that wonderful big headstock. The neck is distinctly different as it has a flat 12" radius
rather than the original 7.25" radius. So I get this guitar and I am a little disappointed as you can imagine, but I play it and I am really liking the snorty sounding bridge pickup. Tele's are not the most comfortable guitars in the world but this model is different as it has a Statocaster style relief in the top of the back and I really like the feel of the neck. So I accept that maybe fate knows better than I do and I keep the Deluxe. This decision has been vindicated as it is a very playable guitar with wonderful sounds.
There is still a Strat lover in me though and I know that the band's sound would be further enhanced if I add one to the quiver. I have always preferred the look of the 70's Strats and so a Classic Series '70s Stratocaster was the only choice for me and it had to be Olympic White with a maple neck!

I searched all over Australia for one without success and ended up buying a 2006 model with Lindy Fralin picks ups installed with a case for less than $800 delivered right to my door from the States in 7 business days. Amazing! The bridge pick up of the after market Fralins has the output of a P90, so no need for a humbucker. Overall they sound absolutely fantastic with no hum as an added bonus. Whoever installed them however, also changed the selector switch from a 5 way to a 3 way as this was how 70s Strats were set up. I will be changing back to the 5 way as I particularly like the position 2 and 4 tones for rhythm. It has the thinner and lower vintage style frets loaded on a curvy fretboard which do take a bit of getting used to particularly as I am used to the Tele Deluxe with medium jumbo frets loaded on a flat fretboard. These Mexican made 70s Strat reissues have Ash bodies and when combined with the Maple neck produce a great scooped tone with highlighted lows and highs. The guitar sounds terrific even when it is not plugged in.

The final guitar in the quiver is a very strange beast. The Peavey PowerSlide is an entirely new kind of slide instrument that incorporates all the standard functions of a lap-steel guitar in a six-string configuration. Sit Down, Stand Up :- Play it Horizontally, Vertically or Inverted - Anything Goes!
The Peavey designed pickup and patented tone/mode control gives the PowerSlide an extremely wide range of tones. As you adjust the control it alters the pickup from single-coil to dual-coil operation, hum-canceling mode, with high-end rolloff at the extreme counterclockwise setting. I picked this one up for a measly $270 from the local music store and it works very well with clearly a lot of thought put into the design.

The Effects Chain
My main pedal is a Ibanez Tube Screamer TS-9 modified to sound like the original TS-808. An absolutely essential part of my sound as the '65 Deluxe Reverb does not have a distortion channel.
The Tube Screamer sits in front of a Pod XT Live which I use for a half second digital delay, a little compression and a Leslie Rotary speaker emulation to capture some element of the guitar tone on SRV's Cold Shot.

The Keyboard

The S90XS is Yamaha's top of the line Keyboard Synthesiser and is an awesome piece of gear. Not only does it provide me with pretty well any sound I need but it is also a fantastic practise tool as I can plug a mic directly into it and record to a USB if necessary. It is very easy to set up splits and layers directly from the top of the keyboard and I have used the Master section so as I can easily access them at a gig.

So thats it. The next couple of blogs will feature Max and Todd's gear. Max has been around a long time and has some very interesting older gear.

A short break and then gigs, gigs and more gigs!

We are in recess for just a little while because bass player Max, and his good woman, are taking a well deserved cruise but will be back in April in time for our next appearance at the Denmark Markets from 11am to 12 on Saturday the 23rd of April.
The other equally important Max, publican at the Denmark Hotel, was obviously pleased with the takings resulting from our first gig as he has agreed to lock in bi-monthly gigs for the band.
So, for the rest of this year, we will be playing the Sunday Session from 6pm - 9pm on the first weekend of every second month on the following dates:

• 1st of May
• 3rd of July
• 4th of September
• 6th of November

I will create an event on Facebook, send out an email and Tweet as usual just to remind you in the week before the gig. Looking forward to seeing your face!

Someday Baby!

Not just someday but from the day we delivered our 1st gig at the local pub.
Max singing one of his offerings to the repertoire laying down a solid foundation on bass alongside Todd for Robin to wail around a bit on the guitar!
Apart from the expected odd Snafu or two or three it was a most successful first outing. Michelle did a great job getting some footage and although a little grainy and a poor sound it will give you a some idea how the band sounds if you didn't happen to make it to the gig. Enjoy!

Intimacy Blues

Max and I running through this piece I wrote a little while back. Very relaxed and blew the vocals on the stops but good fun to listen to!
Intimacy Blues by Ramsnake

A recent press release

Who are Ramsnake anyway?

Well, I am glad you asked.
Starting from the top of the pic and working back down.

Vocalist and bass player Max Jones who has many, many years of experience playing in blues bands in Perth (Trader Joe, Perth Rag band, Loading Zone) and down here on the South Coast (BopCats, Outsiders).
Max is solid as a rock on bass and has loads of songs tucked away in his memory banks to sing.
(Rumour has it that Max enjoys the occasional holiday on an ocean liner!)


Recently returned former Denmark resident Robin Thomson on vocals, regular/slide guitar and keyboard. Robin has been playing the blues on and off for 40+ years and was a member of seminal 90's Denmark blues band Mojo.
He also plays with The Dave Sims Collective, played guitar in the Rainbow Cast Big Band and was the founding member of the Albany band Floodgates.
You never know what Robin will offer up when he is playing!
(Rumour has it that Robin used to play a bit of classical guitar too!)


Todd Moore is everywhere, as the drummer for The Moondog J Blues Band and The Tracy Morrison Band as well. He was also drummed for Blue Manna and Xavier Brown. Todd drums with machinelike crispness.
(Rumour has it that Todd is secretly a Metal Head!)

1st gig coming up! Yay!

Yep, one more rehearsal and then finally the day of the first gig is nearly here.
I know that I am pumped and ready to go and I am sure Max and Todd are too!
We have got together a terrific repertoire which we intend to keep adding to so as we are always presenting something new for you guys at each gig!
As well as giving tunes to listen to and others designed to get you up off your butts and dancin'!, we are also intending to get you guys to join in and sing along with us too with a couple of fun Little Charlie & the Nightcats songs "Dump that Chump" and "Eyes like a Cat".
I think it is going to be a fun night for all.
Look forward to seeing you there!