Spring time in Sweden - "Gorans Garage Band"

At last it seams that spring is on it´s way. House and garden need to be taken care of, cars need service after the winter. 

Me own band-project is set aside (as usual in constant coma) exept songwriting that seams like some kind of dicease. So I´ve been invited to be a part of "Gorans Garage Band"! First rehearsel went well so did second.

Have to admit that I´m very proud over me own very small studio, it suits me fine even if it is a mix between studio and storage room for all muysic gadgets. When Göran started his studio-rehearsel project I was partly stunned. On top of his large garage is this  6 by 8 square metres room, perfect for band rehearsal even a small party.

So I acted as an assistent to help him build this studio and so far it turned out just great.  Today it´s wednesday so it´s rehearsal evening and most of the studio is now in working order. A thought caught me mind. 

In 1963 a Liverpool band enter´d the stage in Gothenburg and play´d in front of thousands of screaming fans. the equipment used had a total of 800 watts output. Here in GGB studio we do have a lot more power output then they used at the time and I remember that during the Rockín 60´s each member had their own amplifier. For vocals an amp and a pair of cabinets was used what we today call a PA-system. 

WE are a band with our roots in the 50-70´s, also some kind of collectors. the PA-system we use must have been a dream for the Beatles. a 2 x 800 watt system, plus all guitar and keyboard amps! In total theres at least a 1000 watts of power to be used in the premesis.

In hope to save some music for the future a Stereo casette deck is used togehter with two microphones to record each session, with a bit of luck we would then find at least one song recorded with desent quality. 

So there we meet every wednesday for band rehersal. The man him self Göran who play´s his Burns guitar and enjoys singing, Kjell a master at his keyboards, Elisabeth who really enjoys singing all about everything and me who try to do what I can.

Göran the man himself with his Burns Double 6

As Kjell och keyboard player was on winter holiday way up north last wednesday, we used only guitars and vocals. One of Görans favorites was play´d over and over again. Harry Nelson´s - Everybody´s talking. In the end it didnt sound bad at all.

With the tape in me pocket I went home to me own studio, copied the tape to me computer and was able to make some kind of Master, now with some more channels included.

A couple of day´s ago I got this urge to do something about me old shitty archtop guitar. a guitar that was bought years ago for the sum of 10,oo £. Didnt even know what kind of guitar it was as every form of marking was gone. A bit of help from Facebook freinds revield that it was a Harmony. Genuine American cheap postalorder guitar but actually all those Harmony guitars was nice to play. 

this is how me Harmony look´d like in the early 60´s.

The same could be said  about my white with flowers archtop. Painted years ago with ordinary wall paint I set about to sand it down to wood.

white allpaint and flower.

Unfortinutly i took me a couple of hours to sand it down to wood. showing how they once made this guitar in the US. top is actually solid wood, but the backpanel is made out of plywood. Already when I got it several years ago holes was cut for two humbuckers. Didnt actually look at them earlier but realised that they was DiMarsio pickups.

sanded down

finally it was sanded down, leaving a layer of dust all over the basement. Next step was to give it a new paint. And as I didnt intend to make a resoration to new condition, just a nice looking player, I made my choice among a lot of different spraycans with carpaint.

new spraypaint in Jaguar Gunmetallic.

app 10 layers of Jaguar Gunmetallic was spray´d on the guitar. Both the body and the backside of the neck. I could hardly wait for the bloody paint to dry.

Di Marcio pickups, strings back in place.

At last it was time to put back the stringholder, tuners, string, pickups and controls. and as far As I can see it do look nice. By then I realised it was in need of a pickguard so this was cut out from a piece of plexieglas and fitted.

finally even a pickguard.

Theres still an extra hole in  the body and it´ll soon be filled with a rotating selector, making it possible to set up each pickup as either a humbucker or as a singelcoil, or even out of phase. Somehow I do find me new guitar much better and nicer then the old one with flowers.

Back to thought´s regarding GGB, some kind of planning has to be done about what kind of tunes we should and should not rehearse. Even before that we do have a need for a Drummer and maybe yet another female voice.

To pick out our favorite songs from the 60´s isnt easy already with only three members in the band. And what songs could be performed by GGB? Should we make an attemt to maker true covers, or try to arrange our own versions of old tunes?

Last night an idea struck me, a portpuri of those early Rocktunes would be nice, three chord harmonies in the same beat! 

The first rock tune I for one ever play´d was My Bonnie! Well not an original rocktune but that one was popular. So me mix of song would be - 

My Bonnie - Varm Korv Boogie (popular Swedish rock about a hotdog salesman) - See you later alligator - Blue Suede shoes - Johnny B Good - Papa o mow mow. They might last for 3 to 5 minutes. Three chord boogie rock.

.