Got to check out two reso-enabled acoustic ensembles last night @ Ziggy’s in Winston-Salem, NC.

Hit And Run from Colorado was in town sporting a new hub-capper named David Richey.  David attended ETSU’s Bluegrass program and is an exciting modern-style player.  He’s a lefty, which interestingly aided in tracking his movements due to the mirror image effect.  He plays a great sounding Meredith Maple (sounded great through an SM58).  He played most of the night sans-capo (well, might I add).  Great singer too.  Keep an eye out for David.  He’s a great addition to an already entertaining and exciting band.
The next set was The Biscuit Burners.  Bill Cardine was a joy as always.  He and Dan Bletz fired off a new reso/guitar duet that I really liked.  I hope they record it.  BC was rigged up with a KSM44/Schertler combo with the pickup running into a Schertler Unico amp.  He was mic’ing the amp, but I didn’t recognize the mic.

Fun reso night indeed.

-bh

I finally crumbled to the desire to rack up a pair of Telefunken V72’s. I got my first taste of these vintage pres in Randy Kohrs studio a few months back - I’ve not been the same since. The tone seems to be custom made for reso. Smooth, thick and sits very well in a mix. I plan on using the V72’s for reso and vocals on my current project - with the remainder of the tracks going through a Presonus ADL600 (more on this later) to avoid noise accumulation.
The 72’s are housed in a rack made by Boutique Audio and Design. It’s a rugged chassis that’s seems to be well built. I haven’t popped the hood on it yet but plan to in the near future. There’s quite a market for vintage gear and the Tele’s are very sought after. The modules themselves are selling upwards of $800, then you have to have them modded. I’m glad I got hold of a pair when I did. I was also able to find a pair of NOS EF804S tubes for spares (the price of these is also escalating). I love the vibe surrounding vintage gear in general and Telefunken in particular - right down to the logo.

Oddly enough, it’s somewhat inspiring to me. I suppose the notion that my tone will sound better on the recording is a very positive thing. I’ll post sound samples soon.

I recently found this audio online. This marathon dialogue is much easier to listen to than to read.

Galt’s Speech