Hudson's Tools Through Time

ToolsThroughTime

Ernie "K" Doe (L) & the Drum Buddy (center)

Ernie knows: Right tool for the right gig.

I've managed to land upon some great instruments as I've meandered along, and some folks have even asked me about what I'm using now or had used in the past. Some things were acquired after much thought and investigation, review of specs, and assessment of "bang-for-buck", but, like my life, there was a heavy portion of dumb luck.

After 3 years of piano lessons (grades 2-5), I began the trombone, the same Olds that I have today. That horn & the school band program helped bring up my grade point average through my 1st year in college.

In 6th grade, I got my first stringed instrument: a plastic Ukelele.

I learned "Thunder Road" & "Carry Me Back To Ol' Virginny". My folks bought me a larger "Baritone" uke in 7th grade (a babe magnet), which I used on my first "gig": My pal, Tom Bates & I did a couple of Smothers Brothers songs during band breaks at the 7th grade dance and then again at the 8th grade dance..we were "Some-Other Brothers". Tommy went on to become, among other things, tour manager for Foreigner, Dan Fogelburg, and is now right hand man for Don Law concerts out of Boston.

I got a Kay 5-string banjo for Christmas in 8th grade. I learned frailing from a Pete Seeger instruction book. This style was not nearly as cool a Scruggs-picking, but it was a style I drew upon once I started playing acoustic guitar, about 10 years later...so...cool at the end.

During my freshman year in high school, my parents had a unaccountable lapse in judgement. I entered the world of rock `n roll with my first electric bass guitar: a Tempo bass and a Sears Silvertone 1 15" amplifier. The Tempo taught me how to endure hours of torture, bad sound, muscle & blister pain...this ability would serve me later, in my comedy career.

After 6 mos. of sporatic gigs with my first band "Alfie & The Others" (there was, after all, no real "Alfie"...my first scandal), I got a Univox copy of a "Beatle Bass"...

and, with the help of my folks, an Ampeg B-15 flip-top...

...that was a cool little amp and the rig
would last me through the balance of highschool.

My folks never took my instruments away or forbade me to play a gig...no matter how "grounded" I might have been. I've always appreciated that of them and admired them for it; to know how disappointed they must have been with my grades but still let me play those dates...very cool of them.

The summer after graduation, I bolted the neck and hardware of a second rate 6-string electric onto the body of the old Tempo Bass...it was a true Frankenstein. I routed channels for the 3 pickups into the body before I checked for bridge place- ment...so, of course, to be in-tune, the bridge had to sit on top of the 1st pickup.
...predating the Ovation, by the way. Man, I wish I had a picture of that thing.

I found my
`58 Fender Precision bass for $150 at a music store in Richmond, VA, while I was at VCU in 1970, majoring in Painting & Print-making and playing in "Farmyard" with Russ Hanchin/guitar, Mike Mays/drums Ron Bott/congas & Harmonica.. and a keyboard player whose name escapes me...c'mon; it was college.

Russ says, "His name was `Dave'.".

I played that through my amazing Acoustic 360...

...an 18" speaker, folded horn (speaker faced the rear of the cab). Very cool. It was stolen out of my place in New Orleans in 1975.

Later that same year, I bought a `65 Gretsch Nashville. This newer model had painted f-holes and the 'Marquis" tuning keys.

I sold this 4 years later (`74) when I was living in New Orleans, deciding that the darker, humbucker sound was just not me.

No padded-back guitar for me...
...I was a Tele player.

My `62 Telecaster.
Originally Lake Placid Blue when I bought it
after joining Richmond country artist,
Donna Meade and Country Road.
Donna was and is a great singer/musician.
I was a long-hair liberal baby thrown into
the C&W pool and she and that band
taught me to swim.
Thanks, Donna.
Thanks, Ryland, Shorty, and Bobby.

Refitted with Joe Barden blade pickups
Joe's shop was right here in Vienna, VA, and he let me try these saying if I didn't want 'em, to bring `em back"...and I never took them back.
His p-ups are humbucking, just about noiseless,
but clear and hot, with a warm neck pickup, while
keeping that beautiful Fender single pole sound
but with increased dynamic picking response. Yeah.
He'd work with Danny Gatton on getting them right,
and when Fender issued a Danny Gatton model,
it came with Bardens and the zircon side markers
on the neck (so you could see them in the stage lights).

`76 Ibanez Custom Agent
Model 2405
...my brush with humbuckers.
I was really lured by the inlaid
mock Bigsby Tailpiece & the
headstock's nod to The Gibson mandolin,
but it's got all the heft and tone of a Les Paul
and plays easier.

I'd played a Takamine acoustic with a cutaway
during the touring years because the eas of playing
and I could carry-on or "gate-check" it when flying.
But, when I wanted an acoustic that sounded like
an old Gibson J-45 with it's warmth but with the right
bite when you flatpicked it, I happened upon my
Larrivee D-05e

with it's Fishman Blender pickup system
(piezo under the bridge plus a condensor mic).
I use Elixer Medium/Lite strings and keep the action
maybe a little too high so that it rings like a bell.
It's beautifully simple with mahogony sides and
back, maple binding, ebony fingerboard with
microdot markers, and a clear pickguard (tap plate).

It sounds very acoustic plugged straight into the
PA and I even record it straight into the board
along with a mic for some room ambience.
I bought a Calton case for this one.

Line6 Variax 700
Modeling Guitar
Just unbelievable..
I've packed the Tele away.
This great playing instrument
has a chip in it that reproduces
the tonality and picking response
of a wall-full of classic electric guitars:
Tele, Strat, Les Pauls, Riks (6&12), Gretsch,
Gibson 335 & Jazz boxes, plus pretty cool Dobro,
Danelectro, Acoustic 6 & 12 string models.
With the Variax Workbench software,
I've "built" some guitar models of my own,
including some software drop/open tunings

I played this thing through my Line6 Ax2 2x12 Amp-modeling combo amp, but now use the speaker-less Line6 "Pod Live" floorboard straight into the PA (just using the monitors)
and get hours of smiles from innumerable tones.

Exaggerat!ons bassist, Jerry Kelleher, got the Line6 Variax 704 Bass. When Line 6 dicontinued the 5-string model (705), I snagged one off of eBay.
Now, the P-bass is in the attic.

It's a new world, kids.

Keys...

CX-3 is another recent life changing experience...
Korg used modelingalgorhythms to clone the Hammond B-3, copied the front panel control surfaces

2 sets of drawbars
Percussion key switches
Vibrato & Chorus knob
and
incorporated a Leslie Off/Slow/Fast switch

allowing the operator to change parameters and work the instrument...just like thereal 350 lb. thing...
then store that patch in 128 user-defined presets.

This thing makes me sound like I know what I'm doing.

Yamaha P-80 graded-hammer action, 88 keys, with beautiful grand
piano & Rhodes Electric samples. Yamaha knows what they're doing.

The Korg T-3 Synthesizer was another milestone in musical technology
for me. 8 tracks, 16 note polyphony, great sounds, fairly easy to tweak
the programs, midi, and a great midi controller when I used it with my
Cubase sequencing software on an Atari 1040e platform....YIKES!.
I played all of the music on "Air, Land, & Sea" & "Willy J. & The Werebunny"
with this instrument, sequenced with Steinberg Cubase.

My recording rig is now Cubase 5 64-bit (audio & sequencing) with
a Presonus FireStudio Tube 10x6 firewire a/d interface and an AKG 414.

FastLane
End

Thanks for playing along.

Steven D. Hudson

-=[H]=-