Welcome 2010 - Search for the Elusive "Tone"

As I welcome the New Year, I ask myself what have I accomplished in terms of my search for the elusive "tone".  I have tried different amps, guitar, effects, rack gear and what not but ultimately, tone is subjective and there is no "be all end all" tone.  What is important is the holy grail sound that you hear in your head and be happy with it. 

Of course if your chops is not that good, you may still end up with sloppy technique but awesome tone.  Happy New Year to all and good luck on our gear whoring in 2010.

Metallica at the Shark Tank

After a year long wait, I finally got to see Metallica on December 12, 2009 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. It's almost been a year since I last saw them in Oakland last year and I needed my Metallica fix soon. The commute from North to South was horrible since it has been raining non-stop in the Bay Area for almost a week.

After standing for almost 2 hours at the metclub line, I was able to enter the venue and headed to the GA (General Admission) floor and waited by the rail in front the stage. I was really excited in seeing Volbeat for the first time since I heard a lot of good reviews about them and their music. I really liked the energy that Volbeat brought to the crowd.  Their music was heave and melodic.  There was really good vibes all around and the crown often sang with them.  Next to take the stage was Machine Head.  They were awesome as well and the crowd loved them due to the fact that this band is local from the East Bay when they started back in the 80's.

9:15 PM is Metallica time.  Intro - Ecstasy of Gold and the crown went wild.  We all knew it's going to be a hell of a night.  Metallica are road dogs.  They have been touring non-stop for the last 25 years and this night is a special night in front of their hometown - The Bay Area.  I'm not going to go into details on to what happened afterwards but it was an AWESOME show by the boys.  They played mix of old and new songs.  Crowd was into it all the time.  James tone was pretty massive sounding with his Diezel VH4 and Mesa Boogie Triaxis.   It was a night to remember - I heard Ride The Lightning live. 

Setlist

That Was Just Your Life
The End of the Line
Ride the Lightning
Harvester of Sorrow
Fade to Black
Broken Beat and Scarred
Cyanide
Sad But True
One
My Apocalypse
The Day that Never Ends
Master of Puppets
Fight Fire w/Fire
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
Helples
Motorbreath
Seek and Destroy

First Time Post

Greetings to my fellow gear, metal and rock lovers. I've started this blog to share my ideas, experiences and all things guitar gear oriented. I would also be blogging just about anything that crosses my mind depending on my mood. Rock on and Rock hard. \m/