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As I write this I'm watching the light play on the Adelaide Hills as the sun sets on Saturday 23 June. The Negotiators play at the Finsbury for someone's fortieth later this evening. Private show.

I spent a couple hours this afternoon helping steve get the band's gear down to the pub. It's a pretty big job for one person so I was pleased to assist. I got to his place around 2:30, and the last of the gear was on the stage in the pub by just after 3:30. Yes, we get to play on a stage for the second gig in a row!

To give the uninitiated an idea of what's involved, the following is a bit of a list of what has to be moved into the van then into the venue then set up then dismantled then packed back into the van and then moved into its storage place until next used.

P.A. system

2 x front of house speakers (heavy) and stands
3 x foldback speakers
1 x mixing desk (heavy - fragile) and fold up table
1 x CD player and CD collections (fragile - for intervals)
6 x microphone stands
2 boxes of mikes and cables
3 bags of cords and cables

Lighting

4 x boxed lamps (fragile)
1 x light rig poles
1 x 'magic light projector' (fragile
5 x extension leads plus powerboard

Musical gear

2 x music stands
1 x guitar rack
3 x guitars
1 x effects box
1 x Marshall speaker box (wheeled)
1 x Marshall head
1 x Bass amp
1 x Laney guitar amp

Drums

1 x Bass drum assembly
1 x Stool
2 x cymbals and stands
1 x snare drum
1x tom drum

General

1 x 'Negotiators' sign

To give an idea of the contents of the boxes and bags - there's something like 6 mikes and associated leads. Terry once measured the length of cabling on stage when fully rigged. Came to something like 200m. It's a lot of gear!

Barry and myself each bring our own instruments, and I bring a crate of 'goodies' which also acts as a stand for the Laney amp.

And yes, I am aware that I put the drums under a different category to 'musical gear'!

Guitar - Blue Cort G210

Today, I went back to Guitarworks and purchased my newest musical companion. She is a blue Gort G210 electric guitar and cost $379 (set up by Brian in store, 3 year warranty). I went to six other music stores and looked at all of their guitars. I tried several to get the feel of them.

I did a crash course (internet) last night, after looking around a few music stores in town, on guitar makes, manufacturers, styles, electrics, pickups, materials, etc. I then did the rounds again this morning with my newfound knowledge.

I ended up back at Guitarworks, looking at what had been the cheapest guitar ($200) I had looked at the day before. I finally sat down with a guitar and amp, and then played several others which were within my capacity to pay. The Chinese guitar I played first DID hold up pretty well - but I liked one other better.

She is deep ocean blue stratocaster shape with three pickups, the closest to the bridge being a humbucker. Her machine heads are diecast. Her neck is maple, with a rosewood fretboard, and has 22 frets. Her body is alder (same wood combination as many Fenders). She has five pick up selections, and two control knobs (volume and tone). The jack is at the bottom of the guitar, and her upper strap 'button' is placed on the rear of the body in the upper corner, rather than the more usual side. She is strung through the body, and has a white 'tap' plate.

Her action is relatively low, and quite comfortable on the neck. The humbucker give a more meaty sound at the 'lead' end of pickup selection (so I probably won't use it much), the single coils middle and neck pickups give a fairly bright sound. Even sparkly - which could certainly never be said of the Squire and Fernandez!

She is made in Indonesia. Initially, this gave me the shudders. After I bought it I thought of the cheap wages which probably keep the labour force at subsistence level and shudder again (too late). I can't help the later now.

As for the quality issue of instruments built in Asia, it seems that a lot of the world's guitars are built here now. Even five years ago, quality was dicey (the infamous 'Monday and Friday guitars' which were an inevitable consequence of then production methods being a source of angst).

Now, by all acounts, there has been a massive improvement in quality as the industry tooled up with computer and robotic gear, to more closely replicate the manufacturing of the 'traditional' sources. Many 'name brand' guitars are being built there now. Ibanez guitars are built at the same plant my Cort came from. Be that as it may, too me she felt better than comparably priced american, chinese, mexican or japanese guitars.

I am looking forward to working with this instrument, it will be exciting to develop my relationship with this guitar.

Guitar - Classical Yamaha

My Yamaha G228 classical (nylon string acoustic) is my oldest musical companion. I got it in around December 1, 1994. I woke up one morning and thought, 'I'll get a guitar today and start learning to play'. I was a student at the time, and it is therefore some kind of a miracle that I had around $120 to my name. So I went into town to the smallest guitarshop I could find (Guitarworks, then on Flinders St) and had a yarn with the young bloke behind the counter.

I said I wanted a secondhand guitar. He said they didn't have any. I looked disappointed. He relented, told me they had just received one on a trade in but it still needed to be fixed up and this would take a couple of days. I had a look at it. He played it a little (scales). I thought it sounded beautiful. We made a deal, I went back in a couple of days and it was waiting for me, all set up (adjusted) cleaned and polished (I bought a book on classical guitar and borrowed a friend's old Yamaha classical in the interim).

She's my favorite instrument. It's now had a flamenco tappa plate added, and is a wee bit battered (having been around of most of south eastern Australia and accompanied many campfire singalongs), but it plays as sweet straight and true as when first purchased. Truly, my oldest musical companion.

To visit the rest of my band blog, click here.

Guitar - Black Squire

My backup guitar is a black Squire Strat Affinity (with white tap plate), made in China. I bought it second hand for $120, I've seen new versions for price between $300 - $500, with mine in the lower third of range.

I've never really had much of a go on it. In it's younger days it tended to saw through strings a lot and have very high action which was quite difficult after the low action Fernandez. Rob, who was with Requiem from mid 02 to 04, adjusted the action down, which made it more comfortable.

It has a harsher sound to it, good for long hard sustain power chord type stuff. It's main disadvantages are that it is a bit heavier, I don't trust it not to break strings, it's electrics occasionally have a bit of crackle and, most significantly, it goes through periods when it doesn't hold tune at all.

I've never really developed a relationship with it, but it's been good as a backup in gigs.

Guitar - Black Fernandez

As regular readers of this blog will know, I have had lots of problems with my guitars over the past year and a half. For the record, I have a black Fernandez (borrowed from someone called Allan six years ago, haven't seen him for years, am still waiting to return his instrument) and a backup Squire Strat ('Affinity series). Both of these instruments have done me fairly well, particularly the Fernandez.

The biggest problems with the Fernandez have been its stringbreaking history, the lack of sparkle in its sound, a certain flatness in the harmonics between the first and thirteenth frets and the output jack's connecting screws constantly loosening themselves, creating on at least one occasion a bird's nest of wires as the whole assembly left the guitar body when I tried to pull out the lead!

If you're wandering why I have persisted with Fernandez despite the above problems, I can only see because it feels good, is good to play and it has withstood a lot of use over the years. However, every guitar has its day, and its day has come.