Joe Bonamassa at Montreux Jazz....

    ...just looking at the concert on my TV (recorded from HD Suisse).... Wow!!!


    That guy is a freaking monster.....

    "Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" Serghei Rachmaninoff


    I'm more of a jazz player in favor of John McLaughlin, Metheny, Scofield etc., but I heard of JB a few years ago and I do enjoy his playing and as mentioned his singing. He also has great compositional ideas. I can play this when I'm with my wife or friends and they like it. If I put on my other stuff, they tell me to change the music. Like some others on this forum, I play rock/variety gigs as a one man band with backing tracks as well as occasionally jazz gigs. Where I'm from, playing jazz doesn't pay too well anymore. I was using an amp and effects set-up that I created after seeing Eric Johnson's and Joe Bonamassa's set-ups. Tons of stuff to haul around making the price I'd play for higher. I've since sold most all of that gear. All I use is the KPA and it sounds as good or better in my opinion. I wonder if we'll see these guys doing the same? I saw Eric Johnson in Vail, Colorado at a small club and he had his whole arsenal with him, buzzing away at times with his tech trying to isolate the problem. That's a lot of gear and complications to worry about to make a buck. Also, I keep wondering when we'll see John McLaughlin using one of these. It's a much better solution than his laptop set-up, except he likes the synths there as well. With Bonamassa and Johnson, it could be an endorsement thing.

    Quote from djazz

    I'm more of a jazz player in favor of John McLaughlin, Metheny, Scofield etc., but I heard of JB a few years ago and I do enjoy his playing and as mentioned his singing. He also has great compositional ideas. I can play this when I'm with my wife or friends and they like it. If I put on my other stuff, they tell me to change the music. Like some others on this forum, I play rock/variety gigs as a one man band with backing tracks as well as occasionally jazz gigs. Where I'm from, playing jazz doesn't pay too well anymore. I was using an amp and effects set-up that I created after seeing Eric Johnson's and Joe Bonamassa's set-ups. Tons of stuff to haul around making the price I'd play for higher. I've since sold most all of that gear. All I use is the KPA and it sounds as good or better in my opinion. I wonder if we'll see these guys doing the same? I saw Eric Johnson in Vail, Colorado at a small club and he had his whole arsenal with him, buzzing away at times with his tech trying to isolate the problem. That's a lot of gear and complications to worry about to make a buck. Also, I keep wondering when we'll see John McLaughlin using one of these. It's a much better solution than his laptop set-up, except he likes the synths there as well. With Bonamassa and Johnson, it could be an endorsement thing.

    Hey djazz! Could you share your EJ KPA rig please? Pretty pleeease?


    Pierre

    Hi Pierre:


    I don't have an EJ rig to share, I'm still working things out myself. But the possibilities are endless, especially as Kemper releases new features. You can get there if you take the time to understand how he gets those tones. I use them for inspiration and as a guideline. For example, EJ uses an Echoplex, Deluxe Memory Man, Tube Screamer, Fuzz Face, TC Electronic Chorus, Red Compressor, Marshall etc. all of which are profiled or somewhat available within the KPA. Same goes for Bonamassa's gear (so we don't get too far off topic). Browse around the internet and get info on their rigs, then try to get the sound you are looking for:


    http://www.mylespaul.com/forum…s-close-up-pics-more.html
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djya0Ii04D0
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys2Svvkpzd4
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZianLF_jUf0


    For example, for that signature clean sound, pick a nice clean Fender profile. Create a Memory Man style patch similar to his using an Analog Delay perhaps (notice the settings on his memory man, but use your ears), then add a Chorus (his TC sounds can be done within the KPA). Of course played on a strat sounds closest. Listen to the videos and I think you can get very close.


    Dave

    Thanks Dave! In fact I am near myself but what let me more or less satisfy is the violin articulation in the drive tone, I never really get this feeling to play a violin even if I play EJ licks.


    BTW, to get back in the topic ;) , yeah Bonamassa is a killer guitarist!

    ...Immense respect for the man and the musician, his talents and his career... but IMO shred has nothing to do with blues :P
    Too many notes for my taste, it always seems he's there to show off rather than saying something, which I personally dislike (it could be just me of course).


    And, as the immense Zappa said, "I got tired of playing for people always clapping their hands for the wrong reasons".

    When I saw JB I actually enjoyed his acoustic work better than the electric. I think he tries to play the role of guitar god to please the crowds, but I bet when he's alone you'd be surprised ... 8)

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

    Kind of agree on the "commercial strategy". But, as I said, I'm judging what the man chooses to give us, not his abilities or skills. I just happen not to like most of his officially performed music :)

    I think that you can express a lot with virtuosity. And there are things that you can express only with virtuosity, Virtuosity is one great tool, EJ, Tony Emmanuel, Paco De Lucia and Bonamassa (often) etc. use it in a real musical impressive manner IMHO. But it's one tool amongs a lot of others and what I dislike is that too much of the today shredders use it for itself, as a goal, focus only on it and use it everywhere without any musical meaning, and this way it becomes totally boring...


    Of course Bonamassa is show off, it's his personnality, but I don't think he is just that...


    Pierre

    Edited once, last by Pick909 ().

    Hey Pierre,


    completely agree on the virtuosity being just one aspect of performance! I have nothing against it. I love Vai for example, whom is a virtuoso to me. I also love virtuosos like Benedetti Michelangeli, O. Coleman, C. Parker... to name a few.


    I don't dislike Bonamassa because of his virtuosity, but because he seems obsessed with playing tumanynotes. I'd not put the two things in the same box!
    Bonamassa sells himself as a bluesman, but his solos don't "breath" IMO. That's all :)

    Hey guys! I love the music of Robben Ford in which every single notes has its weigh and say something, but sometimes more notes delivered in a fluid and impressive virtuosity can speak too. It is, IMHO, the beauty of the music! But I hear what you say :thumbup: and, as I said, I think too that virtuosity is useless if it's out of context, without any meanings.



    Pierre

    Edited once, last by Pick909 ().