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Surf's Up in Newport and Monaco: Scott Totten Checks in from the Beach (Boys)

Today brought a nice email and some photos from my old friend Scott Totten. Scott is a mega-talented journeyman guitarist and is currently the musical director for The Beach Boys. Yep, for real. Can't you just hear his Newport 12 string on "Help Me Rhonda"? 

Or maybe the jangly tones of his Monaco III on "Surfin' USA''  all while singing five-part harmonies (without auto-tune)!

Here's what Scott had to say:

Hey Jol, The top on my Newport 12 string is about the most beautiful I've ever seen.  It plays every bit as easy as a 6-string! The Monaco III is an incredibly versatile guitar, there are so many tones it can get.  And plays so smoothly, I actually use heavier gauge strings and it still feels great.  All that PLUS a great Bigsby! 

Scott

This is all pretty cool stuff for those of us in the shop who grew up on that surf stuff. 

But Scott isn't just about surf music; he's a true guitarist's guitarist. He paid his dues playing every night on Broadway for shows like Rent and Les Miserables. One of the first times I got to hang out with Scott, he was in the touring band for Tommy  and he got to play some of the best power chord songs ever written, under the direction of Pete Townshend himself! 

Here we are with fellow Tommy band member and Hamer player, Rick Molina in the orchestra pit in San Francisco in the mid 1990s. So if you want to know every chord in every Beatles, Beach Boys or Who song, Scott's your guy. Thanks for checking in Scott.

Jon Herington Checks in From Steely Dan Tour

Since the last post about Jon Herington's Talladega Pro we've been on pins and needles. Despite the large number of tours and studio dates we've made instruments for, it's always hard to wait for the news. Jon is a great musician whose opinion we value highly; I think this quote from the Steely Dan website says it all:

"SD's New Guitar Guy" — arguably one of the most coveted slots in the annals of popular music. And also, potentially, one of the most intimidating; few musical roles receive the same amount of examination, discussion, and debate as does this one. But Jon is handling it all with "perfection and grace"

It's rainy and cold here in New Hartford today, but this email from Jon lit up our shop like the mid-summer sun.

Hi Jol,

The Talladega is awesome! I'm using it a lot, and not just to give it some playing time and to check it out, but because it feels so good to play and because it sounds so good. I can't believe how perfectly you guys nailed the neck specs - it's the most comfortable Fender scale guitar I've ever played. I'm using a great amp which is kind to all the guitars I've plugged into it, but I believe I can hear the quality of the chambers in the guitar - a little airy kind of openness to the tone which I really like. With the single coils, it will do the Fender Tele thing but with extra elegance; less "cheap" grit, maybe, but more beauty, which, depending on the context, I like going for. It's a big tone, though, basically, which again, seems to be a combination of the longer scale, the good wood, the chambering , and the great workmanship. We've been in some noisy spaces, electrically, and I notice the unbalanced Unbuckers tend to buzz a bit more than "normal" humbuckers, even in double coil mode, but I do like the availability of the single coil tones, and I'm using them at times. My hope is the wiring of the theaters will be better than these studios. All in all I'm loving playing the guitar, and I've been reaching for it first most of the time.

We'll stay in touch about it. I hope all's well with you.

Jon

Wow! Thanks Jon. The thrill of making a guitarist's day hasn't diminished over the years. High fives all around the shop were had, and another chapter in the Hamer book begins as Jon embarks on the SD tour. We'll be sure to check in with him as the Tally gets some road miles on it.

(More) Reports from the Road: Mark Spencer #2

We get a lot of calls and emails from musicians on the road. Sometimes it's a service issue or a request, but often it's a "thank you" or an invitation to a show. Other times, it's just to keep in touch. I like to keep up with the touring and recording artists that we work with because there's always something to learn, and that's what makes us better at what we do.

Here's the latest email from Mark Spencer out on the road with Aimee Mann. I've received a lot of positive feedback from the Hamer nutniks who have gone to see the show, so without any more flap...

Jol,
Even though the Talledega is awesome, and I'm using it more and more, messing with the action, rocking some leads on it, the real king of the show for me is the Monaco III. This is really the first time I've been able to play it so much, in such an appropriate setting for it, that it's been easy to become one with it. Also much props to Aimee's guitar tech Rick Sanger for stringing it and STRETCHING the strings just right so that the Bigsby stays in tune and works perfectly. A lot of the tunes on the show are traditional xmas tunes like "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "The Christmas Song" (chestnuts roasting, etc...) and for these I had to look under my bed and retrieve what I refer to as my jazz "chop" (for chops would be too grandiose in my case). In the words of Chuck Prophet in San Francisco he only partially sardonically said I sounded like "fucking Joe Pass up there", and I'm pretty sure that a good portion of however real that is, is due to the Monaco on the neck pickup, sounding as authentic as a P-90 hollow body oughtta. Later it turns into a David Lynch / dark twang machine on the Grinch and other tunes, and also delivers the medium to crunchy rock, and sounds particularly lugubrious and decadent with a Leslie simulator.

My only real niggle (hey I'm a guitar player!) is the the switch. Although looking snazzy in a retro way, that rotary chicken-head I find almost impossible to make split second pickup changes with, a blade style switch, possibly placed in a different archetypal part of the real estate (say for instance where the Talledega switch is placed) might allow some more surgical pickup combos, (although there is that Bigsby arm to ponder) and as a further niggle I think any guitar with more than one pickup should feature the Neck/Bridge combo no matter what it takes, including getting rid of one pickup! But seriously, is there a way to wire it for this combination? One can only imagine what a 3-tone vintage sunburst Monaco III with Lollar humbuckers would be capable of. I can't wait to put the Talledega to the honky tonk twang test with Jimmy Ryan next time we do a gig in NYC, and square off against his new Creston electric mando.

Mark
(12.12.07, 3:26 AM, on the bus....wi fi!)

Reports From the Road: Mark Spencer

We get a lot of calls and emails from musicians on the road. Sometimes it's a service issue or a request, but often it's a "thank you" or an invitation to a show. Other times, it's just to keep in touch. I like to keep up with the touring and recording artists that we work with because there's always something to learn, and that's what makes us better at what we do.

Guitarist Mark Spencer

Recently, my friend Mark Spencer left to go on tour with Aimee Mann, and he's been using his Hamers along the way. Mark has been a busy boy over the years, recording and touring with people like Freedy Johnston, Kelly Willis, Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories, Cheri Knight, Jim Lauderdale, Chantal Kreviazuk, Wanda Jackson, Tammy Faye Starlite, Laura Cantrell, Jay Farrar and a ton of other people. He's excited about hooking up with Son Volt after the first of the new year, but in the meantime he's rockin' the Amiee Mann gig. But, enough of my yackin'... let me turn it over to Mark. This is the letter I got from him the day he took delivery of his Talladega at a studio in Manhattan.

------------

Jol,
Got it! And it was in tune! Started recording with it right out of the box.

I used the inbetween 2 p.u. sound... light overdrive into my oahu (new) amp.
Real nice. It's already on the Jim Keller record.

I did do some adjusting, man, that action was set LOW!

I had to raise the action about twice as high, and give a hair of relief to
the neck, it was dead flat. Now it bends way easier and more precisely!
Pretty nice how easy it is to set up, both the saddles and the truss,
precision feel to it and when you make a truss turn (I let it out about a
1/16th of a turn) it actually provides you with reliable, predictable
relief. Nice. My next fun time with it, when not working, will be seeing
what happens with pickup heights.  I have no idea how anyone can bend
strings with the action that low! I realize almost all my set up needs are
hard core, Fenderish, and somewhat contrarian, I guess that is what playing
guitar is all about.

Stays in tune great, tunes up easy...that is a super plus.

It JUST went to LA, I'll be using it on tour now, mon. Guess I'll be trial-by-firing it for the next month. Will update regularly.

Many many thanks again, Jol, you can count on me to figuratively play the
shit out of it.

m.

Here's a clip from the tour. The song is "Maybe I Could Clean Up for Christmas" a pretty dark song that feels like John Lennon could have written it. Mark kicks out some great fills and a nice little solo on his Talladega. Don't forget to push the pause button on the jukebox to stop the music over on the left before you play the clip.