31 May (Thursday) The Royal Georgian Theatre in Richmond, North Yorkshire. Tickets are on sale from at their box-office and by telephone now.  To book please call: 01748 825252. Further details here.

6 June (Wednesday) Global Sounds Festival in Camden Town, London. Details here.

24 June (Sunday) The Willowman Festival in North Yorkshire. Details here.

27  July (Friday) “Rally In The Square” Concert – A Glorious Return to The Midwest” – Lima Ohio, my American 2nd home, hosts one amazing show. Details here.

4 August (Saturday) Sportsmen’s Buffalo, NY. Details here.

In addition to these, I will be playing in Bristol, after presenting a MasterClass at Clifton College (dates TBA) – late June or early July. More London dates are in the works, as are some very cool festivals on mainland Europe.

Any other suggestions for venues welcomed.

Stay tuned.

If you have been a fan of popular (and tasteful) music since the ’60s, Chuck’s wonderfully musical playing has graced your ears, made you dance, made you smile, think and feel. From Steely Dan to Aretha Franklin, Grover Washington to Duane Allman, Shirley Bassey to Ringo Starr …the list goes on for miles.

Find out how you can help. Click here.

Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.

Long story short: After recording some incredible tracks, and “politics being politics”, the project was then handed to another production team, who did their best to emulate our original tracks. (Respectfully, I thought ours were infinitely more exciting).

You can hear it here:  http://soundcloud.com/elliottrandall/heartbreaker

Personnel: Paul Shaffer (keyboards), Elliott Randall (guitars), Allan Schwartzberg (drums), Neil Jason (bass); Harvey Goldberg (engineer).

This version is a bit more gritty and raw. We had an amazing time making this recording.

There was no “final mix” or mastering. Special thanks to Wes Maebe [GHQ Sonic Cuisine] for adding that little extra audio “oomph” for this presentation.

Photo courtesy of Bobby Bank (c) 1978

With the plethora of new gear making its way to the marketplace, I felt it appropriate to share my personal thoughts/feelings about some of the tools I’ve come across that have made noticeable impressions on me.

 PICKS

Stetsbar: “Vibrato Handle”, “Tremolo Arm”, “Wanger Bar”…call them what you will. In my early pickin’ days Duane Eddy had a most profound influence on my playing sensibilities. He used his Bigsby quite subtly and effectively; none of that “dive-bombing” stuff – which very few players (imho) do really well. Two spring to mind actually – they would be Jimi and Jeff Beck …but I digress. The Stetsbar was invented by guitarist Eric Stets, who also has a degree in mechanical engineering. His design is totally unique, and to my mind, it’s flawless. That said, even though the model for the Les Paul installs quite easily, I would recommend utilizing the services of a fine luthier for other installations. Such incredible sensitivity!

Seymour Duncan Pickups: Having known each other since our teens, it would be fair to say that Seymour knows my styles and sounds inside-out. When I recently “refurbished” my other ’63 Strat, it just made sense to ask Seymour’s expert advice on pickup replacement. I wanted this one to sound different. He came through with the most amazing combination of SD pickups for this lovely instrument. I’ve never heard a Strat offer this set of tones before – ever! [bridge - STK-S9b || middle - STK-S7 || neck - STK-S2n]. A few audio examples can be heard here:
D.I.
Amped

Amp-modelling – digital plug-ins for DAWs: There are two really cool ones in particular that I will briefly describe. The first is “cheap and cheerful”, and the other is not. Both are fine quality examples of the creative implementation of zeros and ones. And another bonus is that these both can be used as stand-alone modules – without needing DAW ”housing” – so you can bring your ‘puter to the gig – sans amp!

 - AcmeBarGig   iFace is a truly compelling set of amps, replete with cabs, fx, mics, rooms of various sizes & textural materials, at the whopping price-tag of of approx US$25. Yes, you read right. And the site offers a vast array of free plugs as well. Inventor Ken McLaren has an amazing set of ears – and the tech knowledge to make his visions a reality. The only caveat (albeit temporary) is that they are strictly VST, and run on the Windows platform only. This will be changing – but hey, if you’re handy enough, you can find ways around those limitations. AcmeBarGig rocks!

 - IK Multimedia   Amplitube 3 carries a much heftier price-tag, and gives you so many “famous” amps and interesting options, that you could lock yourself away in your studio for days on end, and still just be scratching the surface.

I really love them both. Just one other “by-the-by” thought to share about amp/modelling plug-ins. Times have changed. Technology rockets us forward. It took me a while to embrace amp ‘plugs’ as I’ve spent my entire life enjoying using non-virtual [read: real] amplifiers of all shapes, sizes, tones and characters. There is nothing like that feeling of standing in front of an amp and experiencing the waves of sound emanate from the cabinet. Realistically speaking, however, when making a quality recording, it’s often impossible to tell the difference between a good (and well-mic’d) amp, and a tastefully adjusted modern plug-in. Why? Because unless the guitar is totally alone and naked (no other instruments playing), I challenge anyone to do the “blindfold test”. Once your instrument is a part of the ensemble, it’s all relative.

sE Microphones: As I grew up in the studios enjoying all kinds of (what are now called) “vintage” microphones, I often find myself requesting mics that even the young assistant engineers give me quizzical looks about. I do have preconceived notions about what mic to place on what instrument. Those of us involved in engineering have our faves, our prejudices, and well… it’s like the surgeon favoring a particular ‘instrument’ based on years of having used it successfully. I have, of course, been turned onto the occasional “newcomer” that has delighted and surprised me – but not too often.

Then suddenly this autumn… I was introduced to the sE range of mics. To say that I was blown away might be a slight understatement. Apart from their being generally more affordable than purchasing reconditioned U-67s, 44BXs, C12s and the like, the relatively new sE products deliver a consistent set of qualities that rival the above. Of course, having Rupert Neve designing some of their range …well, speaks for itself. I’ve spent the last month immersed in the studio(s) – testing out these new babies, and am I sold? You bet! Just don’t ask me which my favorite is, because I’m enjoying the individual personalities of every one of them. If you peruse my Facebook Artist Page, or my SoundCloud page, you’ll hear some pretty impressive examples of them being put to good use.

Whirlwind: The other day, I noticed something pretty incredible – I haven’t bought a guitar cable in over 30 years! That would be because in 1979, when I opened my 1st ‘full-scale’ recording studio in New York City, I had Whirlwind supply me with a good number of their cables. They are as fresh, and are as reliable today as they were then. And my DI Box of preference? The Whirlwind Director. There is a difference – to my ears, it’s the best sounding box I’ve ever used, even with today’s ‘newer’ technologies. There’s a reason Whirlwind continue to be #1. A well-deserved reputation.

London Recording Studios: While many of the finest studios worldwide are shutting their doors (being squeezed out by the increasing use of home recording facilities), this lovely city continues to delight me with the following world-class venues:
RAK Studios
AIR Studios
British Grove Studios
—> These are FIVE STAR emporia.  Every day I get to spend in any of the above is a true ‘gift’!

PANS

Sorry, I don’t do “pans” (except in the kitchen). If I have nothing positive to say, I’d just as soon ‘not go there’

POSTSCRIPT

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed my personal picks and opinions. I’ll do another one of these in the upcoming months – because …there’s more to tell :-)

Held at AIR Studios (Lyndhurst Hall) on 26-27 November, the guitar recording masterclass will be presented by legendary producer Tony Platt and AIR engineer Rupert Coulson. It will feature performances, demonstrations and Q&A sessions with well-known guitarists, including: Elliott Randall, Phil Manzanera and Leo Abrahams.

In a couple of words: “what an incredible time!”

The attendees were a total delight, filled with curiosity - and armed with great questions! Working with engineers Tony Platt and Rupert Coulson was equally delightful.

Tony and I (we began working together back in the mid-70s) covered a lot of ground – from the varying ways we mic guitar amps, to multi-tracking acoustic guitars, including the “Wall of Sound”, which we recorded live on the day! I also brought a multi-track ProTools session with me, onto which I overdubbed various guitar parts, demonstrating my personal “ensemble approach”. We did microphone comparison – always a hot and even controversial topic, and ended the day with a very lively Q&A session. I will post some pics here as soon as they come in.

There’s never enough time (!!)

Here is the link to the event:
http://www.discoserver.co.uk/airstudiotraining.co.uk/index.php/guitarrmasterclass.html

Some very insightful and unusual questions. It’s here.

A favorite in clubs and frat houses, and a staple of classic-rock radio, Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ In The Years” has it all. There’s the hooky intro (dig those chromatic pull-offs and hammer-ons that jump start the song), great lyrics and vocals, sing-along choruses, and tightly arranged, harmonized guitar interludes-courtesy of Denny Dias, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter; and New York session ace Elliott Randall. Best of all are Randall’s fat, squawky solos.

The intro, chorus, interlude, and solo sections are built on shifting G-to-A triads. These chords create an A Mixolydian tonality, hence the relative D major key signature. Randall’s opening solo-guitar 1-is flanked by guitar 2′s rhythm figure, which uses single notes to outline G and A. A clean guitar 3 enters and exits with each verse, paraphrasing Donald Fagen’s piano – a high A, pedal-tone figure. (Check out the bluesy turnaround (A7/5, Ebdim7, Dm, A/C#) that drops in halfway through the verses.

Though sprinkled with a few tasty whines, Randall’s killer solo relies more on jazzy phrasing and chromaticism than bluesy bending. Exhibiting masterful control of time, touch, and tone, Randall plays off the changes, and also derives lines from A Mixolydian and A Dorian.

Following a third verse and chorus, the guitars begin their second interlude, harmonized in thirds. Randall’s outro solo commences with a simple, four-note motif, which he displaces rhythmically before whipping up a sax-like frenzy of legato hammers and pulls. His bends are intensified by their previous absence, and you’ll want to crank the volume on the fade out to catch his sly octave work.

-Jesse Gress

- Guitar Recording Masterclass at AIR Studios  I will be appearing on the 26th of November, early afternoon – lots to talk about and demonstrate.

Their blurb: ”Held at AIR Studios (Lyndhurst Hall) on 26-27 November, the guitar recording masterclass will be presented by legendary producer Tony Platt and AIR engineer Rupert Coulson. It will feature performances, demonstrations and Q&A sessions with well-known guitarists, including: Elliott Randall, Phil Manzanera and Leo Abrahams.”

- The Norwegian Adventures & Rockin’ at RAK (again)

I have been mentoring a young group of Norwegian musicians, who are backing up an incredible young singer (songwriter and actor). Then a few weeks ago the opportunity arose to produce a recording of one of his tunes. We recorded at RAK – a great artist, a great song, and a rhythm section from heaven.

-  The world of Commercial Advertising & “The Industrial”

Since I moved to London, my principle focus has been on artistic projects, and so I’ve really left the above “in search of the lost chord” – but never say never (or mix metaphors)! My pal Raphael Ravenscroft (remember that haunting tenor sax on Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street?) asked me to come up with a bunch of different & unusual arrangements of Debussy’s Clair de Lune for client Asus Computers. Then an assignment from Mixology Post (NYC) for custom music tracks for American Express’ Annual General Meeting rounded out and delivered a lovely ending for the month of September. We did that one via Skype (with some custom-built hardware courtesy of ELZ Music). Ah technology!

- Catching up with Tas

Spent a bit of time in the delightful company of golden-voiced Tasmin Archer, and discussed doing a few shows together – a marvelous idea!

-  Guitar Player Magazine Interview

Associate editor Barry Cleveland conducted an excellent interview – with some pretty cool and insightful questions. It’s here.

- The hottest selling CD so far

And finally a big thanks to all of you for making HeartStrings my most successful CD release ever (!)

More info coming soon. Thanks for tuning in.

E

T’was time once again to give Fender-World a try. This time it came in the form of a 1963 Fender Stratocaster. It was a beautiful factory sunburst, played and sounded/responded beautifully, and the price was an extremely fair $175 (including hard Tolex case). We immediately bonded, this instrument and I. I wasn’t fighting it in any respects. Well, maybe one: The pickups, which were beautifully responsive, were single-coil, hence when the electricity and grounding in a joint were not the greatest, they’d buzz. We’ll get around to remedying this a little later…

On the acoustic guitar front, I’d purchased an Ovation. I also owned a Gibson Firebird for a couple of weeks. That was a short-lived romance, and the ‘Bird soon found itself a proud new owner. For the record, I won’t ‘dis’ any guitar—if it works for you, then it’s right for you. Personal taste in instruments is just that—personal. After all, it’s just one of a set of tools in the palette of the music-maker.

So back to The Strat. I won’t go into a full-in-depth now; you can find that info here. This magnificent instrument has seen me through my entire career, and has probably been on 75% or more of the recording sessions I’ve ever done. I’ve often said that while I’m not attached to any real-world physical piece of stuff, The Strat would be the one object I would feel truly sorry about having to part with. So I guard it like a hawk. If it ever finds itself in the trunk of a car, you can bet that I’ll be in that car!

So in 66-67, it lived with me in Lima Ohio, where I became a full-time guitar teacher by day, while remaining a full-time gigging musician at night. It was a remarkable year. When The Druids Of Stonehenge (my first psychedelic group) came to “rescue” me from America’s heartland and bring me back to NYC, ol’ Strat was right there with me, learning how to be psychedelic, to produce all kinds of wild feedback n’ things (thanks, Jimi).

In 1969, I was faced with one of the toughest decisions of my still early career. As resident bandleader once again at The Headline Lounge, I was approached twice in one evening with two mighty interesting job offers. Don Covay, who frequented that club (and with whom I’d become friends and his #1 studio call) was about to head down to Muscle Shoals to produce a new Wilson Pickett record. He offered to fly me down to play the sessions. Wow! Then later in the evening, A&M recording artists SeaTrain came into the club to ask me if I’d be interested in joining the band, moving out to Northern California, and playing some very inventive and unusual music. Tough decision; SeaTrain won.

So Strat and I made the 3,000-mile move. These were very heady & exciting times; we were playing at Bill Graham’s Fillmore West, L.A.’s infamous Whiskey Au Go Go, and a rather ample supply of venues alive with the sounds of cool “new” music, and dotted all along America’s West Coast.

At the end of that year, I found myself once again playing at The Whiskey, this time opposite incredible guitarist Domenick Troiano, who was sporting an old Tele with a pair of Gibson Humbucker pickups. There was a special richness about that Humbucker sound that I just had to incorporate into my own. So Donnie took me into the shop that did his guitar work, so I could have one fitted to the neck position of my Strat. The operation was a success, and the sound that’s been heard on many of my recorded solos is that combination of Strat & Humbucker. Thank you Donnie, and thank you Barney Kessel Guitar Shop for the beautiful job.

Throughout the period leading up to my association with Steely Dan’s first LP, there were really no other guitars in my life that I can recall. When doing recording dates that required a good acoustic, I would have my clients rent them for me. CMIS (Carroll’s Instrument Rental Service) in New York had some very nice acoustics, and they always “did me right.”

Once “Reelin’ In The Years” became a success, the telephone rang off the hook with job offers, many of them incredibly interesting, fun & lucrative. I was also playing on hundreds of jingle dates – one- and two-hour sessions for clients including Coca-Cola, Miller Beer, GE—and the residual payments were now putting me into a position where I just might buy another guitar or two.

The first was a handcrafted Giuliano Vulcan New Yorker. The body of a Telecaster, the neck resembling a thinner Gibson (meaning not a Paul), a Humbucker neck pick-up with a push-pull switch for single-coil/double-coil—and it sounded really nice. Having never owned a Telecaster, this instrument increased my sound palette considerably. I used it on some recordings, and it was such a beautiful-looking instrument, I took it onstage with me frequently, although it was still “playing second fiddle”.

* * *

On the studio front, the frequency of recording sessions now required me to have at least two sets of instruments deliverable to the studios, so that I could piggy-back dates and not need to lug guitars, amps and FX. Maybe another ’63 Strat or two to replicate my original? I found them on 48th Street again. This time, I went to the We Buy Guitars stores, specializing in older instruments.

It was a two-step operation. As used guitars moved relatively quickly on 48th Street, I was able to locate my first ’63 with no fuss. It looked just like my original, but I soon remedied that, bringing the finish down to bare wood and giving it a couple of thin-ish coats of lacquer, replacing the pickups to match numero uno, and I was partway there.

The acquisition of my next Strat came as a bit of a surprise. I’d made the trip downtown, but this time in search of what was to be my first really fine acoustic guitar. In the We Buy Shoppe, I spied an exquisite 1947 Martin D-18. It was beautiful in every way, not just the classic Martin woods—the sound was absolutely heavenly. I asked Larry (the proprietor) how much, and he said $1,000. (That was not a small price in those days). I said: “OK.” A few minutes more perusing uncovered a 1960 Fender Jazz Bass—and since I’d wanted one of those since the early ’60s, the next question to Larry was “How much?” His reply was “$1,000.” I responded “OK. Mind if I look around a little more?”

——————-

In the next installment I’ll tell you about my other six-stringed tools (not to mention my 4-stringed uke).

And speaking of live/en vivo, I am planning a series of duet concerts in the U.K. I’ve asked long-time friend, collaborator (and killer guitarist) Jerry Crozier-Cole to join me as we perform selections from HeartStrings as well as newer …and older tonal surprises.