Wichita Lineman
 
Unfortunately my singing ain't getting much better. Well, any song from me is just an excuse to play the guitar anyway since I don't know how to do much else.
 
Gear used:
 
The guitar is a Telecaster I put together from parts that I mostly got from eBay. It has Dimarzio Area T pickups (first generation), vintage 3-barrel brass saddles (the only ones I'll use), a custom made neck I got from a guy in Canada that's 1 3/4" wide at the nut (the same as most acoustic guitars) to accommodate more intricate chords, and linear pots to facilitate quick, staccato volume swells and wah-wah sounds by simply manipulating the volume and tone controls on the guitar. (I do some swells toward the end.) I'm the kind of old fashioned guy who likes to plug straight into the amp. Oh, and a Golden Gate thumbpick of course! 
 
I don't mic an amp very often, but the amplifier here is my Laney VC30. I had this customized to sound like a mini Twin. (It's 30-watts.) The tone stack from a Twin was duplicated and some coupling caps were lowered in value to get more lower mids. I also had a resistor changed that gave the gain control more overdrive on the dirty channel, but you won't hear it in this recording, which is all clean front pickup stuff.
 
The vocal mic is an old MXL V63M and a brand new Shure SM57 wa used on the amp.
 
I use a cheap Behringer XENYX X1622 mixer (I don't use the USB on it though) into an ancient Echo MIA Midi 2 x 2 sound card.
 
Tis it!
 
Bill

My favorite song - good job I sang along with you

Great cover of a great song.  I've always loved the chords to that one. It was written by a home town boy Jimmy Webb, and the lyrics were originally "Wa s h i t a Lineman" because Jimmy was driving through Wa s h i t a County in South Western Oklahoma when he saw a lone lineman in an endless array of telephone poles down the highway. When he and Glen Campbell started working on it to record, they decided that "Wichita Lineman" sung better and changed it.
 
Have you ever heard Johnny A's version of that song? I got to open for him and his band and they do a bang up job with that tune. Johnny had one of the prototypes for his signature "Johnny A" Gibson guitar at that gig, and I got to pick his brain about what things they tweaked in the design that ended up being the production model.
 
 Edit: I can't believe that the potty mouth filters wouldn't let me type "W a s h i t a" county. It's a "F * c k i n g" real place!!!  ;)

Lovely volume swells at the end :) And great guitar playing on a smooth smooth, harmonically complex song. Always loved me some Jimmy Webb. My first exposure was the Art Garfunkel album Watermark, which is all Jimmy Webb songs save one "Celebrity friends come visit the studio for one track to insure some album sales" track (a cover of "What A Wonderful World" w Paul Simon and James Taylor.) 
 
Jimmy Webb has that classic American songbook ideal of "melodically sweet, harmonically rich". And always great lyrics!
 
Anyway, would love to hear a bit more "space" around your guitar next time. Maybe tracking with a distant mic as well? Or a distant stereo pair? Or even some very short delay, hard panned, to give a bit of illusion of space? it's obviously a beautiful instrument, beautifully played, but it'll really shine with a bit of space around it. IMHO anyway!

Quote :-
 
(Unfortunately my singing ain't getting much better. Well, any song from me is just an excuse to play the guitar anyway since I don't know how to do much else.)
 
I don't agree with you Bill ... your vocal work is much better here, and this is born out with the ability to hold the note without it going sharp or flat.
It's only when your not thinking of the next phrase ( possibly due to preoccupation with the guitar work),  you wander a tad or pause to take a breath.
I have found that often a vocalist doesn't take enough air in to produce a relaxed phrase, so try breathing patterns to overcome this problem.
Also try recording the music you want to use first (guitar in this case) then adding a vocal track so you focus on your singing.
The mix could do with a little more EQ'ing and reverb to bring out the whole song.
 
For what it's worth I really enjoyed your rendition of this song, bloody good guitar work and feeling
 
Stay well
Steve

Nice one Bill, sounds nice and intimate the way this is recorded. The guitar does mask the odd vocal like just after the solo at the 1:50 mark. Don't beat down on your vocals they sound okay this end and at least you are brave enough to put them out there, unlike me.

Bill, I thought you did a great job with the vocal, esp holding a note without wandering into a neighboring note's territory.
I suppose there are some recording engineer type issues in there but to me the important thing is the song - the melody and the supporting accompaniment which you do very well. I'm always impressed with your guitar playing.

One of my favorite songs. Sounded like you were sitting here in my studio singing to me. Maybe not the greatest voices - but man you have some emotion going on. Nice playing. Enjoyed this very much.

Thanks fellas for indulging me. I'm just an acoustic fingerpicker (the only thing I've ever been any good at) who merely dabbles with electric guitar and tries to sing a song once in a while. I wasn't worried about the mix. It will never be heard outside of this forum. It was just for kicks. I always liked Glen Campbell and even though I don't sing or perform vocal tunes live, I'm a big fan of good writing whether it's books or song lyrics, and I think Jimmy Webb was one of the very best songwriters back in the 60's. Chris Smither is still my all-time favorite songwriter though.
 
Cheerio good people.
Bill

Yep, a song should tell a story and take you on a journey. Most of the ones on the radio these days seem to repeat lines endlessly or you can't tell what's being sung.