Here is a vid from the Roland website - a demo of the Boss BD-2 Blues Driver - runs on 9 volt battery or with an AC adapter. Great Blues overdrive and gain. Should do the trick on an electric. I'm going to try it out, as I already have a Roland AC 33. I picked up a Baggs Gig Pro to boost the gain on my acoustics when I need to run the amp on batteries. The electric has a great clean sound, but this should dirty it up nicely. And the amp already has reverb and chorus.
Thanks for the advice. So far I have been lucky in that most of the songs that have been called when I was playing were fairly standard blues, and I've generally kept it simple. I guess the more I do this - both playing out and practicing - there will be a bigger bank of riffs and ideas I can call on. Overall, the jams have been fun (very loud though) and the musicians friendly and helpful.
One certainly can bend single notes while tongue blocking. I did it that way for many years when I almost exclusively tongue blocked. I still do it in certain situations though now I use mixed embouchers. I teach bending with "pursed lips" as I think it's easier to get the hang of it with this emboucher. However, once you have full command of bending with pursed lips, and also good tongue blocking technique, then it's certainly worthwhile to work on bending with your tongue on the harp.
Jams can be problematic for any number of reasons. Some songs may have changes with which you are unfamiliar and may not be "harmonically "friendly". I've often declined a solo if I didn't feel confident that I knew the "landscape" well enough to navigate the changes. At any rate, keep things simple, know where your root note is for the key of the song. If it's a blues with regular changes that you can anticipate, you can do fine even if you never played that specific song before.
I have one -- and I just picked up a baggs gig pro - as it has an unbalanced line out - which means you can use it to pump up the gain of your instrument and run it through the roland -- very helpful when you have to use batteries -- there are inexpensive tube preamps you can use too -- but they are not battery powered -- probably though you can find a battery powered fx pedal to use. I find that the electric sounds great through the roland if you want a clean sound and it does have reverb --
Vinny, great info ... thanks! The Roland AC 33 looks really cool. Love that last video when he starts using the looper. Only wish it had a nice tube distortion (for electric). Really appreciate your sharing your experience and introducing me to this Amp!
@Duke.....thanks for all your feedbacks!!!.I'm starting to find my way and Corey is a great teacher!!! Peter's video is definitely my favourite....there's a lot of creativity in it!! :)))
Hey Mike, Nice picking! Cool stuff, I fool with that style and will even have an album sometime in the next year of acoustic blues. You sound great! Duke
After seeing your open mic video I have a final recommendation for you. You will not be happy with anything that does not have the best acoustic sound. You have a great touch and so I recommend you save your money and get the Roland AC 33 -- runs on AA batteries and AC power. You can get rechargeable batteries. Has great battery life, but wattage drops from 30 to 20 on batteries. You can though pump it up by using a preamp, which you might already have in your guitar. It has great acoustic sound, automatic anti feedback, chorus and reverb and it's a beautiful sounding amp. Small and light weight too. But you want to retain that great sound you are getting in your playing. It is dual channel, with great mic channel. It is stereo, and you can get a foot pedal to control chorus, reverb and the looper. Pricey but you will not come close to this acoustic reproduction in any other battery powered amp. And it is a state of the art acoustic amp plugged in too. And as I said, if you need more volume you can use an external preamp like a Baggs DI and get a lot more volume. Here are a few demos you can appreciate the features. It also has line output, so you can use this in a small venue as is, or connect it to a large venue PA and use it as a monitor.
Hi Domenic, I agree with Mike, The point of these lessons are, after you learn and digest the material, the idea then is it should be in your arsenal of ideas, not there to play exactly like you were reading it. it's point is to help you learn to improvise. Don't lose faith, just keep working on it! Duke
High level, we provide tab and loop points for the lessons, but no printout tab. The goal is to have people learn the songs, riffs and melodies so they are in the students "head" ... as that's the only way for people to truly "own" them and come out in their playing. It's like learning to speak ... you learn to listen and speak before you read. We follow the same philsophy and if you were to interview blues, jazz, rock and folk musicians, you will find that most learn this way.
Glad you are enjoying it. Yes, it's amazing how much you can learn when you get a weekly lesson from an Artist like Duke. Duke's knowledge is so deep and broad at the same time. I know my playing has improved tremendously ... and I'm looking forward to where the coming year takes me!
