Before this thread goes off the bottom into obscurity, there were a couple things I learned from the jam that I should pass on for what it may be worth. Haven’t tried either one yet, but makes sense.
We had promised Chelsea thru her father we’d not start the party without her, as per her pretty please request.
She already had us irritated having to hide the booze in Coke cans. Then she showed up late because her finger nail polish had to dry.
When she came into the room, first thing she did was go around clapping her hands. I thought, the little twit, applauding already and I haven’t even started to play. Then she asks the drummer to move his set so she could play where he was.
She later explained that she was testing the acoustic response of the room to allow for maximum guitar feedback. The first sweet spot was where the drummer was, where there was max reverb response from clapping. She had to locate a second sweet spot equal or only slightly less than the first to place her amp facing directly at her. She would have preferred an off axis mic going thru a monitor to not impede the amp to pickup communication. Amp location had to be 10 feet or less away in a normal room without acoustic tiles. Any further and she would need her big amps for excess volume, and she only brought her 10 inch Crate in the car. She said the more open air environment or dead the reflections, and the amp has to be closer or louder.
She showed me her preferred method of finding resonance spots. It was one of those metallic Halloween clickers. She said she sensed that she was under the gun for being late and didn’t want to freak everyone out and it would take too long to explain what she was doing. She shared that when the drummer moved his set, the room acoustics changed and the sweet spot shifted with him. She was too shy to ask for another adjustment and said she took it as a loss and played with a handicap.
Result of her positioning was incredible. E-Bow without an E-Bow and surpassing the one string limitation. She had the ability to take any note or combination and get infinite sustain. The child would do a kind of dance into and away from the amp to get max feedback. I have only seen two other guitarists who could do this. Ted Nugent and a late backwoods savant from our here. Interestingly, they all had one thing in common. Guitar, a cord, an amp. No effects. Playing the room acoustics was the effect.
She said she always played with her amp turned up to maximum, tone controls in the middle. She let fingers and room acoustics do the rest. Had to rely on the guitar volume control if in a sonic crisis, though I saw her use the volume to swell up incredible string ensembles. Her Jackson had one modification, which was a phase inverter for the neck pickup. Chelsea said she had little use for the bridge pickup and rarely used it because the feedback was less responsive, and did not like the sound of the mixed pickups. The inverter was to minimize noise or help with the feedback depending on where she was playing.
Goodwill stores here are doing a pre Halloween sale, so plan to pick up one of the clickers and experiment.
Her second tip was on her finger nail polish. Part of her style was to “scratch” the strings into resonance. Fingernails could take a serious hit, so she used a home made mix to render normal nails into concrete for the task. Artificial nails a no no because they interfere with the sense of touch way more than the polish.
One part normal finger nail polish, but has to be metal flake for structural stability. Does not have to be her favorite bright pink color. Mix with one part super glue gel. Note, gel only, not the liquid as per her recommendation. Paint on fast because a detail brush quickly turns to stone and is expensive.
Looking back, I’m scratching my head more than the strings trying to understand what came down, so will put Chelsea’s macho finger nail blend on the back burner until I too can give up the pick.
John