Wednesday, December 10, 2008

I'm not dead!

Does anyone still come here? I can't believe I haven't updated this blog since August 8th! I have some excuses...
  • Life decided to kick me in the face repeatedly starting near the end of August.
  • I started college in September.
  • and uh... I forgot the password to my Blogspot account. Oops.


Howeverrrrrr! I'm here now, and I grabbed the new CD/DVD yesterday. It's pretty phenomenal. Some good info was tossed out during the interview portion, and through watching the show. I'll have a little compilation of that stuff up here soon.


Another thing, since I obviously can't update this page like I used to- I'd like to "pass on the torch", at least partially, to someone who wants it. If you feel like writing an article or some articles here, I'd be glad to give you the login information. Just leave a comment or something and I'll get back to you. I'd really like to see this blog continue, but I'm not really in a position to do it myself anymore.

5 comments:

CAK said...

I still read this.

PS: Teppei is selling off some of his gear on http://www.alchemyindex.com/.

I got this as a response when I emailed him about it. (feel free to repost this)

Hi there,
I hate to do the automated response thing, but I've gotten WAY more
interest than I anticipated and I just can't keep up.

I'll list the stuff I'm selling below. I think I'm gonna have to go
the eBay route...I can't possibly pick who to sell what to at this
point, as I've gotten an overwhelming amount of response. My ebay
name is theraindogg so do a search under that username and whatever
I'm selling should come up, and I'll start putting stuff up in the
next few days. I may end up selling some more stuff other than what's
listed below, if I can convince myself to do it. I guess if you have
any further questions about the gear you can message me through eBay,
or try through this email address. I'll try and at least read what
you are writing. Once again, I apologize for the impersonal automated
reply. Thanks and cheers.

Teppei

Guitars

'85 Fender Telecaster Custom '61 Reissue - Candy apple red, maple
neck/rosewood fingerboard, white pickguard. Everything original
except Gotoh tuners.
I got this guitar in Woodstock when we were recording Vheissu. I
wanted to use my Tele on a few songs, but Steve, our producer, hated
the way it sounded so I went into town and picked this up. To be
honest, I can't remember where it ended up on the record, but it's
there.


'99 Gibson SG Standard - Black, EMG 81 installed in bridge.
I got this guitar probably around 2000 or 2001. I know I recorded
some of Illusion of Safety with it. The only thing I distinctly
remember using this guitar for is the solo on The Red Death. It may
have been used on Artist in the Ambulance as well. I toured with it
for a couple years, playing it once in a while, but mostly as a back
up.

'92 (or '93?) PRS CE24 - Wine Red, maple neck/rosewood fretboard. All Original.
I got this guitar in '98 right after I graduated high school and
right when Thrice was starting up. It was my "nice" guitar so I
didn't play it that often, and soon it got lost in the mix when I
started playing Les Pauls. It's literally been collecting dust in
various storage spaces for the last 10 years. Great sounding guitar,
I've just never played it. Actually, if I remember correctly, I
recorded a fair amount of Identity Crisis with it.

"05 (?) Gordon Smith GST - Natural, rosewood fretboard, all original.
This is an interesting one. I stumbled upon Gordon Smith guitars
and liked the way they looked. Sort of like the old double cut Melody
Makers, but better looking. They are a small company from England, so
I contacted them about making me a guitar but customizing it somewhat.
We talked and came up with this guitar. It's basically their GS
double cut, but I had them put contours in the body like a Gibson
Grabber, added a white pickguard, and a single coil in the neck. They
were talking about making more and calling it the GST (GS Teppei, I
guess), but it looks like they're just including it as part of their
GS line. In fact, it looks like all of their natural double cuts are
contoured now...interesting. This is almost exactly it
http://www.gordonsmithguitars.com/products/pics/large/30.jpg except
I'm pretty sure my single coil has a white cover instead of black...I
have to look at it, but it's in storage.

'00 Les Paul Special - Stripped to natural wood, Sperzel Locking
Tuners, non-stock pickups
I got this thinking it could be a touring/beater guitar but I never
put down my other guitars so it never got played. I stripped the
paint off and put a light coat of tung oil on it as a finish. I did a
pretty crummy job to be honest, but the guitar feels great. I love
the feeling of a non-laquered guitar. The locking tuners are a plus,
and the pickups sound awesome...not really sure what they are, I'll
have to take them out and look.

Amps


Mesa Boogie 4x12 Slant Cab w/wheat grill
I got this super early in the band...probably '99. I saved up all
my money to buy this and a head. It's been toured on pretty hard,
though it's been in a road case for most of it, it definitely shows
it's been on the road. I used this a lot with Thrice. Lots of tours
and a majority of the records. I know it was used for all the guitar
tracks on Illusion of Safety, Dustin's and mine. It was used probably
for 90% of the guitar tracks on Artist in the Ambulance and a good
amount on Vheissu as well. The cab was knocked off the side of the
stage and landed face down onto some cymbal stands, resulting in the
grill and two of the speakers being non-original, but you wouldn't be
able to tell. It sounds pretty uniform. I'm only selling it because
I've been using combo amps as of late, and have a 2x12 version of this
cab that sounds the same to me. I'm in a minimalist phase I guess, so
no big cabs for me. Oh, and I bought it off a guy in LA that was part
of Weezer when they were writing their first record, but got kicked
out before they released it. He claims that a good portion of those
songs were written using this cab...who knows.

Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Rackmount
For some reason I'm really attached to this but I'm facing the fact
that I don't need it and probably won't use it so here it is. This is
the first real amp I saved up all my money for and bought when Thrice
was first starting out. I toured with it for years, and I used it
exclusively on all my tracks for The Illusion of Safety, and for a
good amount of tracks on Artist In the Ambulance. So if you're
looking for that heavier sound, than this is it (and if you're looking
for the Illusion/Artist sounds, then quite literally, this is it).
Everything works perfect and it sounds amazing. The tubes should
still have a lot of life left in them. This is just like any of the
older Dual Rectifiers (with a myriad of options), except it's made to
fit in a rack. I'm having trouble parting with it, but what the heck,
might as well sell it while I'm at it.

Keys


Yamaha CP70 w/Road case
If you don't know what these are, look it up. They're amazing. In
short, it's a real baby grand piano with real strings, but made to be
portable and plugged in. I love this thing, but I don't have room for
it in my house and I just got a CP60 (upright version) to replace
this. Super cool instrument. It's slightly out of tune, but that's
not a biggie. I used it as is, out of tune and all, for Lost
Continent on the Water record. I ran it through some fx pedals and an
amp. I've got road cases for both the top and bottom assembly for
this, so it's ready to go on the road if you feel like lugging it
around. You'd be surprised at how many bands actually travel with
these.

Rhodes bottom assembly from a Mark I suitcase model
Just the bottom half of a Rhodes, so basically the whole Rhodes
minus the harp assembly. In good condition other than the fact that
it's not complete. The keys are the later plastic ones. If this is
confusing to you and you want more info, let me know.

Unknown said...

I still read this as well!

Mike said...

Thanks for that .CAK! I got the e-mail, but without the list of stuff. That Tele looks nice!

Also, he's confirmed that the Dual Rec was the amp used for Illusion/Artist. I was pretty positive, but that sets it in stone.

Thanks Kenneth, good to see some people still hanging around!

Anonymous said...

Well, I do still check from time to time, just not as often as I'd like. Glad to see you're still alive mate.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the list, I am very glad to get a confirmation for the Dual Rectifier on IOS and TAITA.

This blogs seems dead but I got some good info out of it, so much thanks!