The TCBB Goes Unplugged (At Our Maiden Gig)

That's right. The Terence Chong Blues Band (TCBB) played at Daikanyama Restaurant & Sake Bar in Changkat Bukit Bintang last Wednesday by privileged invitation. The theme of the performance was RAW Acoustic Sing Along No.2.

As Paul McCartney once said. "Well, this is Unplugged, where everyone removes their plugs and go crazy..." Ha ha, but truly I reckon only a seasoned musician like Paul would dare say that :-D... we sure had a lot of fun on this one tonight.

Nice atmosphere at this fancy fusion Japanese restaurant. The lower floor houses the diner and the bar while the upper floor was where most of the action took presence. The bar and couches there felt really comfy and perfect for acoustic sets. The TCBB started off the 1st set at 9pm with blues standards, paying homage to Howlin Wolf, Robert Johnson, and Eric Clapton. While I must personally admit that this genre may be quite primitive to some of our audience that night, nevertheless, we managed to add touches of foot-tapping and percussions (courtesy of Salahuddin) to contemporarise the music further. We were pleasantly greeted with shouts and claps from the supportive audience which paved way for us to play even more spiritedly in the next 2 sets till the stroke of midnight.

Both Imran and Ivan were in super form that night, and played one of their best performance together in the band. Occasionally Imran would awe the audience with his tasty and bendy blues licks while stunning them with his cool Chris Cornell-like vocals, such as on 'Something' & 'Bell Bottom Blues'. Those SM57s surely made the acoustic guitars sound larger than life in the performance hall. He also belted out a spontaneous rendition of Soundgarden's 'Black Hole Sun' at the end of the 3rd set which I thought was splendid. Great job!

Between breaks, our trump card Ivan would both nonchalantly and wantonly tease the crowd with either exquisite snippets from Richard Clayderman's piano catalog or with some extremely complicated finger pinched harmonics which one imagined only Eric Johnson could do. All this was accomplished via his Godin nylon stringed semi-acoustic electric guitar thru a MIDI controller capable of any sound one could imagine, except the acoustic guitar :-p Ivan, IMHO stole the show for the evening with his fine cheeky touches :-)

Salahx our passionate blues based drummer made his presence felt with a djembe (a conga-like instrument), a cylindrical shaker, bottleneck slide guitar, and his new found talent: the kazoo. The crowd went bonkers in the middle of the 2nd set when Salahx gave them a taster of this wind instrument to the tune of Jesse Fuller's composition of 'San Francisco Bay Blues'. Definitely the crowd pleaser :-D

While the 2nd set concentrated on assorted love songs, the 3rd set was completely an opposite. From Muddy Water's 'Hoochie Coochie Man' to Big Bill Broonzy's 'Hey Hey' to Robert Johnson's 'Crossroads Blues', it was definitely rockin' (even by my bluesy standards). Most of the songs here we normally do electrically, so you could imagine how the acoustic guitars had sounded.. :-) Rizal Ross sportingly sang Bob Dylan's 'All Along The Watchtower' and the Cream classic 'Sunshine Of Your Love' to add mojo to the night.

Our other blues brother Ali also took the stage with his anthems: 'Wonderful Tonight' and Freddie King's 'Have You Ever Loved A Woman'. Powerful and beautiful solo on the Godin mate!

Just before we concluded, Prema Yin (a friend of Bari, the manager of Daikanyama) graciously stunned the audience once again with her Memphis R&B vocals on Etta James' 'At Last', CCR's 'Proud Mary', and Whitney Houston's 'Greatest Love of All'. A lovely and potential knockout in the local scene, for sure! What a diva!

We're definitely yearning for another gig pretty soon. Stay tuned bros and siss!

Thanks Bari! :-)

My Acoustics

Here's the long due writeup on my acoustic guitars. I have in the first installment the Martin 000-28EC model. The specs. are pretty straightforward; being a Martin style 28 model, it has the spruce top with rosewood back and sides, primarilly. As Brazillian rosewood had been embargoed since the late sixties, most modern Martin acoustic guitars with rosewood models today are made from the Indian or Madagascar origin. This particular EC model is of Indian rosewood. I am aware that some limited edition EC models were even made with rare Brazillian leftovers and priced very 'richly'...

Let's see.... Sitka Spruce top; scalloped 5/16" bracing; Ivoroid binding on the body; herringbone top purfling; 1-3/4" nut width; 24.9" scale; modified V-shaped neck; 28-style rosette; Ebony fretboard with diamonds & squares inlay and Eric Clapton's signature at the 19th fret; Rosewood peghead overlay; nickel butter bean style tuning machines; Ebony belly bridge with bone drop-in saddle; 2-1/4" string spacing; tortoise color beveled.

The first impression I got from this beautifully made acoustic flattop is how balanced the tone is. From the 1st to the 6th string, every single one rings uniformly and with precision. For fingerstyle, notes are both dynamic and bold. For strumming, all tones envelop into a beautiful harmonic 'togetherness' (think orchestra). The strength of this guitar is essentially suited for the blues or folk music either by fingerpicking or flatpicked. For advocates of volume, one should look towards the D models which have a bigger slope and bout size.

The scalloped braces of this 000-28EC model makes it different in tone with a regular Martin 000-28 model. This is suppose to elevate the EC model closer to pre-war Martins when this manufacturing technique was first widely used (30s?) and greatly appreciated by most acoustic guitar players. Furthermore, this signature Martin is supposed to replicate what EC played some years back before he auctioned off his entire vintage Martin collection for his Crossroads Foundation. Well what the luthier does is he shaves off the edges of the braces under the guitar's top and shapes them like a suspension bridge. This make the braces lighter and vibrate freer thus 'turbo-charging' the tone and dynamics as well.

There's no pickup installed for this guitar. I may do so in the future but as is, I'm overly satisfied with what Martin made in conjunction with EC's taste. Great sounding and playing.... Try one and you'll agree too.

Playing With My Friends

The TCBB at BBB Studio A (4th October 2009)
Mr. Ivan on the ESP bass
Yours truly
Salah on the DWs
Imran on the Tokai Stratocaster
Session 4th October 2009
Akarkarya Studios, 27th Sept 2009
Ali A. Sani - BB's great cover
Salahuddin - Our passionate and soulful drummer
Ivan on the bass
Asrif of Fed Hi joining in the blues fraternity on the keyboards
"Sweet Little Angel"
Too much mojo, definitely... :-p
The TC Blues Band
with Rizal Ross @ Guitar Pro Shop
Reunited with the Blues Brothers
Zhin Wong, the diatonic harmonica player

I'm still blur this morning... but these photos bring joy to my sight... Will blog later :-D

The Unprecedented End

The past few months have been testing times for the band, especially since our last gig at the TSB. Formed sometime in 2008 and based upon our common love for the blues and rock music, the Bluestankers shared many great times and enjoyment of the same genres together. However, I must admit, the gravitation towards blues, in particular; Chicago, Texas, and Delta styles by yours truly lately, have somewhat shifted the paradigm of my other two band members out of the usual jamming circles.

Both band members have now chosen to become session players for other alternative music bands in their own rights, with gigging privileges (of course). While I am happy that they have expanded their repertoire of music outside of the usual mundane blues circuit that they are constantly subjected to :-), I'm also somewhat sad at the same time that the younger genre's appreciation and understanding of the blues music in the Klang Valley is constantly being overshadowed by heaps of other newer and more engaging modern music. I for one, am a fan of root music, which the blues is, for the American culture in modern history. I guess it takes some mellowing down to understand root music. It took me well into my 30s to understand that. I assume most will see the light at the end of the tunnel when they approach this age group as well. Fingers crossed!

Perhaps soul searching is every musician's right to do. One definitely cannot stop another fellow musician from pursuing his goals for his love of his choice of music. So, for Shahreza and Najip, I wish you both the best in your musical pursuits. It was enjoyable playing with you guys. You guys definitely have all the grooves and ingredients for commercial musical success. Maybe our destiny as a blues trio was not made to last, but hey, I sure enjoyed all the times we jammed and performed together. He, he, maybe we'll have a reunion sometime :-)... Keep on rockin' guys :-)

Well, enough of whining :-), the search for serious blues music members continues for 'The Terence Chong Blues Band'. Yup people, that's the new name for the latest band reincarnation. Interested drummers/percussionists, bassists, guitarists, vocalists can email me at thetcbb@gmail.com for the ice breaker.

Ok, back to some Lightning Hopkins... and some Sonny Boy Williamson...

Amplification Choice

1978 Fender Pro Reverb
Pro Reverb (Rear View) showing service dates
1978 Fender Twin Reverb
Front View (Twin Reverb)
Rear View (Twin Reverb)

My current amplification consists of two legendary American made valve amplifiers. Fender amps are my amps of choice these days; (I've also used Marshall, Laney, and Mesa/Boogie in the past) giving me the array of clean tones I'm particularly after, especially in the realms of Chicago blues / English blues domains.

I'll start with the Pro Reverb. I got this amp about 10-11 years ago from a local collector in PJ. Being a fresh graduate at that time, I lusted for vintage Fender amps after amassing a large collection of vintage electric guitars I had acquired from the States. After all, justice could only be done to these beautiful instruments when you pair them up with their 'old friends'.

Due to logistic and obvious reasons, one could not simply 'hand-carry' amplifiers as opposed to its six string cousins on long haul flights, yeah planes... Plus, the difference in North American voltages compared to the Asian voltages meant I had to always plug in a step-down transformer whenever I were to play through a US sourced amplifier. The hassle and all....Hence, the only way I reckoned, was to procure it locally. This I had to do, for the sake of the beloved instruments I brought in...

So I got it. The difference? Well, my ears could not really differentiate at that time (due to my nature of playing at that time; heavy distortion, 20 something alternative rock, etc. thru the Boogie amp). My desire of just wanting a vintage Fender amp really outweighed all other factors, seriously. It really sounded OK to me as an overly tone-insensitive player at that time. However, as the months and years passed by, I realised that the Boogie amp, while great and all that, was really more of a heavy rock/alternative music guitar amp. than anything else. The tones while thick and saturated, were often single dimensioned, largely due to the single 10" speaker configuration housed in a small enclosure. On the other hand, it's great for Santana stuffs, especially with humbuckers and solid bodies.

It is during this period that I played through the Pro Reverb more and more and slowly finding its character and persona. It was during this period too I was digging Eric Clapton's repertoire and gears in a fuller dimension. Gradually, the pieces all came together like a jigsaw puzzle... :-)

Well, I could go on and on.... To cut the long story short, if you love the blues and play electric guitar, you'll need a vintage Fender Stratocaster and a vintage Fender valve amp. There's no two ways about this. Well, you could opt for a vintage Gibson / Marshall / Boogie combination, but if you want clean and no-nonsense performance, nothing beats this combo. The purity of tone this setup gives you elevates your status and personality because it showcases your actual guitar playing and touch. Your tone and style is easily recognizable with this combination. Having said that, this setup is also very unforgiving, revealing any mistakes and shortfalls you may have and may embarass you in gigging situations if you're not up to it. Caution especially when using maple fingerboard Strats... Any mistake whatsoever will be instantly (i mean, literally the speed of sound) amplified.

For players who prefer the muddy tone zone, it is suggested that the humbucker / marshall / boogie combination be sought instead. Not that it is wrong to do otherwise, I guess it's a matter of choice and preference. The Pro Reverb I have is a 70 watts RMS model with two 6L6 power tubes supplying enough juice for the many gigs to come. With a moderate power section, it overdrives pretty easily, especially with a Master Volume control and even easier if you own a humbucker equipped axe like the Gibson Les Paul, 335, or a PRS Custom 22. Simply because, they pickups are often hotter and higher output than a single coiled bell tone Strat pickup.

Some years later, I got hold of a Twin Reverb amp. In similar chassis and footprint with the Pro Reverb, this amp is however, a totally different animal altogether. For one, it's more powerful; 135 watts RMS with four 6L6 power tubes through 2 12" Fender speakers. With the additional power it has, the top end of the tone frequency seem to shine more than the Pro Reverb. The shimmers I get especially with George L cables and a Stratocaster through this amp is really satisfying. The reverb..... man.... is really great too, like halls in concert. With my EC strat, I could get real clean sounds with the TBX fully open, and with the 25db boost of the EC's active circuit, the sound suddenly becomes mid apparent 'Marshall' like. So, it's best of both worlds with this amp. Highly recommended for versatility and robustness.

Sadly, this amp is just TOO fine, I'm trying not to gig with it so often... but heck, you only live once :-) What say you? Ha Ha

Strats Rule!

Indeed they do. Here's my collection to date (L-R: 1966, 1974, 1978, and 2008 Eric Clapton CS)

Despite being the same models, all of them vary individually in feel, tone, and playability. I guess that's the great thing about these guitars; they feel very personal and sometimes conjure up soul (think blues music and how you treat 'em). The various features of Stratocasters are also interesting to tell. The evolution of these fine instruments from day one till today showcase many fine engineering feats and most of these features have outlived many other brands and makes of guitars today (and I reckon, many many years ahead as well). The Stratocaster's design indeed, is one of the most future proof designs ever substantiated. Goes to show that good practical ideas are hard to beat and are here to stay. It further cements my view on "doing it right the first time" much alike automotive engineering principles. A big thank you goes to the legendary and late Leo Fender, creator of the Fender Stratocaster.

I'd like to share the many different traits of my Strats as I favour them:

(a) 1966 - Light, resonant alder body with a remaining 2-tone sunburst finish. Apparently, the red layer (3rd tone) was to have faded away to due to UV exposure over the last 42 years of existence in this planet. Got a medium U-shaped neck stamped "13 JUN 66B" which is fast yet comfortable. Mine has been refretted with jumbo frets. The bridge pickup reminds me a lot of the Albert King bending tone. This characteristic has to be the hallmark of this guitar. I mostly pickup this guitar if I want that particular tone exclusively. Great CBS era axe.

(b) 1974 - The rawest Strat tone of them all, possibly the lightest body among the other Strats here as well. Finish is fair, as you can see from the photo. Definitely a player's guitar with good tone and playability. The original owner(s) were probably profesionnal musicians in their own rights. This guitar looks and feels like it's been played and loved all these years in a pub or something. Twang factor is mild, but present. Great for all the Hendrix era tunes. All pickups from this axe have the "70s"vibes; well obviously eh :-) . My current favourite vintage Strat.

(c) 1978 - Huge baseball maple neck on this swamp ash body guitar. Classic maple Strat sounds and a great utlitarian more than anything else in the collection. 5 way switch brings out the best in this medium weight Stratocaster. The finish on this guitar is quite good, considering her age. Clear finish appears to have been stripped off from the neck by previous owner., leaving only a faint of original clear on the headstock covering the decals. Other than that and a refret, she's all original from 1978. Nice twang factor especially on the in-between pickup selections.

(d) 2008 EC CS - My current jam / gig guitar. Very versatile; active electronics ,25db mid boost, and a TBX control. Very nice soft "V" neck with mild satin finish. Goes from a traditional single coil twangy tone to a searing P90 and humbucker spectrum with just a turn of the tone knob (which activates the mid boost) Oh, an instant EC tone for sure :-). It says "Eric Clapton - Blackie" at the back of the headstock. Comes complete with a tweed case and case candies, oh, and the custom shop certification too. Very pleased with this purchase.

Next up, amplifiers and acoustic boxes... stay tuned.

World Music Day 21st June 2009

As part of The Bluestankers yearly residency at this fabled event organised by the Alliance Francaise Malaysia chapter, we played at happening Telawi Street Bistro's Timeout KL Stage last night. Set in a bar atmosphere, I would say this year's sound and equipment setup is much much better compared to the open air concept of the yesteryear events. Firstly, being indoor keeps the music levels and dynamics intact, and the PA easier to control too. The turnout was pretty good, mostly college kids, some 30 somethings and expats were also within the crowd. Our setlist was among the odd ones as we were kinda traditional compared to the rest. TJ is the new addition for rhythm guitars to our outfit with both Shah and Jeeby manning the bass and drums respectively. Great playing from all members. Especially intense on the classic Cream tunes... TJ you were excellent on the rhythm chops for a start, Shah the bass stomper as usual sounding very well on the left handed Fender bass thru a Hartke amp :-), Jeeby played his heart out as usual, without missing a beat, even though the ambience was quite noisy. Thanks to Rizal Ross for being there and blackberrying our performance the entire evening. Also to my mentee Justin and his dad 'Jacky' for being the official photographer and videographer 2 years in the running! I really appreciate it Justin... Warm regards to your ever sporting dad man too! How lucky you are! Thank you again for the medias provided! Ha Ha... Here's the complete 30 min set list:

1. Strange Brew
2. Born Under A Bad Sign
3. Outside Woman Blues
4. Driftin' (shuffle)
5. Crossroads Blues

The complete line up:

Time Out KL Stage @ Telawi Street Bistro

6pm: Bus Company (pop/rock)

6:30pm: Bluestankers (blues/rock)

7:00pm: An honest mistake (emo pop)

7:40pm: Army of Three (rock)

8:10pm: Tony Leo Selvaraj (alternative funk)

8:40pm: The Metaphor (rock)

9:10pm: Pasca Tragedy (symphonic metal)

9:40pm: Minotaur & The Labyrinth (pop/rock)

10:10pm: The Padangs (metal)

10:40pm: The Textbooks (pop/rock)

11:10pm: Mustard (indie rock)

11:30pm: Unexpected Mercy (metal)

For a more in depth write up on the event, click here :-)