A Timeless Poem By Don Creeper

(Untitled)

I am fighting you.
I don't like you.
You different than me, you different than me.
I don't wanna fight you.
I don't wanna fight you, but that's what I am.
I'm fighting you cause you're different than me.
Please don't fight me.
Please don't cut my teeth out!
Please don't cut my teeth out!
Please don't cut my teeth out of my face!
Please don't cut my teeth out of my face!
Just because I'm different doesn't mean you have to cut my teeth out all over the place.

Acoustic, Mics and Recording Hardware

For acoustic guitars, I'm playing on a celebrity round back. It's very basic, i don't even know the model number. I bought it in New York City in 2004 for $300. It's a pretty nice beater guitar, and sounds real pretty when it's plugged in. It has a built in 3 band EQ, which is the real reason that I bought it in the first place. For recodring, it's pretty decent, although I would rather mic a better sounding guitar.

I also have an old Ibanez, I think its a 92-94 that needs to have the neck fixed. It's a real sweet sound, and plays great. Once I get that going again, I'll be doing some mic experiments and recording more acoustic stuff, probably playing more acoustic as well.

For gigs and the occational practice, I have the Fender Acoustisonic 30 Ampliphier. I had been wanting one for years when my SLF got me one for my birthday this year. This amp has a built in vocal input. It is one of the original models, as has a chours built into the guitar channel, not the DFX sound that came with the later models. I probably won't use the chorus all that much anyway, as I have pedals for all the effects I like. From what I can tell, this amp would be great for playing an open mic solo show, but since I'm too lazy to play in the winter, we will have to wait till summer to see how she really plays.

I use mics for a lot of reasons. For live vocals, I use a Sennheiser e838. It has a natural mid range boost, which is great for me, as I have no mid range. I wsa previously using a Shure SM58 for vocals, but it became too muddy in the mix. This mic kicks ass live, and is decent for studio recodring, although I prefer a condensor, like my Behringer B-2. The B-2 has it's own case, and picks up EVERYTHING. Breath, scratches, house noises, it's range is incredible. I use this mic for recording pretty much everything I can. It's a little too sensitive for guitar at loud levels, but other than that, it's pretty good. It has a very accurate response, and that's what I like about it. It really magnifies sound around you. I recorded rain during a thunderstorm once by putting it near an open window. The thunder sounds sweet.

For other instrument recording I use a pair of Behringer c-2's. They are tiny little condensors that are pretty basic. The response is good for a guitar amp, or a loud room. They would work with drums as well I imagine. I also use them for acoustic mic's from time to time.

I have a handful of other various mic's I don't really use for anything anymore. They are good to have and give me comfort.

When playing with a PA, I have a behringer PA. It has 100 built in preset effects. there are about 50 kinds of echo/delay/reverb, and 30 phaser, flanger, chours. the other 20 are mixes, and pitch shifts. I have two "Pog" (Rouge) speakers for the sound to come through. This PA is good and can pack a punch. I would like maybe a larger speaker someday once I get a band rolling.


When recording, everything goes into an M-Audio mobile pre USB. It has built in phantom power, and sounds pretty good. (I have a behringer pre-amp that can produce phantom power, however I never really have a use for it, even though it is tube powered.) That goes into my mac, into whatever interface I'm learning, and out puts through m-Audio studiophile AV-40 speakers. I also use the M-Audio Keystation 49e. It's great.

I had a photo of my computer in here somewhere. It's an iMac g5, running a intel core duo 1.8 ghz processor i think? i have 3 gigs of ram. I like my computer. It's a good boy.

Gear Report- Electric Rig

I wanted to take this chance to show off what I'm currently using, what works, and what doesn't. Always open for suggestions...

I have a good amount of gear for playing out solo, which is awesome, as well as a guitar rig worthy of playing with a live band. Let's take a closer look at what I'm using.

This is my guitar, Caprice. It's a 1997 Fender Strat Plus. It has 3 gold lace sensors, a mod switch to activate the neck pickup, mid range boost, locking tuners, locking tremelo, and a sweet sweet sound. I've had this guitar since 2000. I love it, it plays great and I like the way it sounds.

My chain is going to be official pretty soon. I go from guitar, into a dunlap crybaby wah pedal, into the boss OC-2 Octave pedal, into the maxon OD-9,(the Johnson T-OD9 may be used with the Maxon, not sure about that one yet) into a boss PH3 Phaser, into a Boss DD-3 (Made in Japan) Digital Delay, into a Digitech Echo Park (which I may devote to vocals). I also have a digitech RP-8 which is a multi effects processor, that I really only use on occations when I need a compressor or want to warm up my tone with the built in tube.

That goes into my Fender Deluxe tube amplifier. It cranks out 40 watts or something like that.
The only thing I don't have that I want is a tuning pedal, like the boss TU-2.

Coming later this week, the acoustic rig, vocal set up, and recording station.

Jazz Mandolin Project

My SLF and I went to see the Jazz Mandolin Project last night. It was great. We paid $10 to get into the VIP area this time. We snagged a table right next to the stage, which was awesome. We were so close, it was an amazing show. I def got some kind of contact high from the bathroom. when I went in, it was like there was a fog machine in there, and people were standing on toilets passing whoever knows what around. Apparently later on in the night there were girls in there too. Soooo sketchy. I've never laughed so hard in a bathroom before.

Anyway, they had a harmonica player play with them on stage. I saw him next to us and I told him he had the best seat in the house. It made no sense.

After wards it was snowing outside and absolutely beautiful.




Jon Fishman before the show.

Gear Update

New speakers (B+)
M-Audio Studiophile AV-40
Pretty tight, full sounding. There is a definite sweet spot in front of them, but the sound fills the room like no other speaker I have ever owned. I'm almost done getting everything I need ever to record, at least for now. I just need a TB hard drive to put all my junk on and free up my internal for recording. Seriously thought, these things sound bad ass. I'm very pleased. For the size of the room, nothing could be better.

New distortion pedal(A++++)
Maxon OD-9
For years I have wanted an Ibanez Tube Screamer and never could justify buying it for myself. On V-E day my SLF surprised me by getting me the Maxon OD-9. Maxon was the company that first made the tube screamer for Ibanez. in 2004 their contract ran out and they started making the pedals under their own name. The OD-9 is upgraded significantly from the Tube Screamer. The tone is amazing, and it has true bypass built in. It also is made with a chip that many people were paying to have added into the Tube Screamer. In short, it's the best distortion pedal I will probably ever own. Totally bad ass, kick ass present.

This weekend I'm going to archive all my gear in photo form, to be posted soon.

Derek Trucks Band

Last night my SLF and I went out after work for $2 pints at the Stadium. It's a great deal, every day, from 4-7, all drafts are only $2 and all apps are half off. Our waitress was amazed that we left a 100% tip, and she thanked us when she got the check. We had 7 pints and an app for 15 bucks, so we left 30. Anyway, Derek Trucks was playing right next door to where we were, and my SLF was keen on going. I wasn't all that into the idea till we got out front and there were 500 people waiting in line to get in. 

We had no tickets and walked up and down the line a couple of times.  I was asking people for tickets when I saw two get sold for $50 a piece. That was not good. Fortunately, I managed to snag a ticket for 30, however we still needed one more. My SLF got lucky and got another! We were in! 

This venue was awesome, you can read my review of the place HERE.

There was a VIP section next to the floor in front of the stage that we needed to get into. Somehow, through

 constant nagging, we managed to get in there.  It was raised a couple of feet above the floor, which made for excellent viewing.  

It was an incredible show. Derek tore up the place, and was joined for a couple songs by Portland's own Nigel Hall, who is by far my favorite Portland musician right now. 

All in all, the night was fantastic, and I can't wait to see more shows at this awesome venue. 

The Superbowl

For the past month or so, I’ve been trying to eat better, work out and what not. I’ve dropped about 10lbs, give or take, and gained a lot of muscle back that I had lost from lack of any kind of physical activity. I have also limited my alcohol intake to 1 or 2 days per week. I try to make it only one, but you know, things happen. I have recently discovered the joy of a new beer. For a couple of years, I have been a big Beck’s fan, as it is affordable ($5 for 4 pounders), and it tastes great. I’m a big fan of pilsner style beers. I tried Beck’s light the other day and was quite impressed. It’s uber light, packing a whopping 64 calories and 4 grams of carbs. I can drink them real fast. Last night for the superbowl I drank 4 in about 10 minutes. Ended up having 10 total, a large stella, and a La Fin Du Monde. All in all it was fun, sketchy, and great. I give Beck’s light an A for being so drinkable. And still having 3.8% abv.

Now, onto the big game.

The superbowl was great to watch last night. Fantastic game overall, really exciting, down to the last minute. Nice work preparing on both sides, good coaching, I’m glad Dr. Foreman has finally come out from under the wing of his mentor Dr. House, and won his first title. I managed to make some notes last night, which for some reason are more cryptic as the night goes on.

“Oh I Gotta Pee So Bad”- just rolls off the tounge? The words, not the pee. It’s going to be the next Don Creeper single.

I clapped when the Star Trek commercial came on. Literally. I clapped. I don’t know why. But I loved it. I can’t wait to see it.

The Bob Dylan commercial was pretty fun, yet very stupid. I would not drink Pepsi because of it. If they used Aesop Rock instead of William, it would have made my head explode, as I often draw the comparison between the two. I agree with the gumby/shreck reference, but belushi/ jack black? I don’t know about that.

There was a 3 second commercial that many probably missed, but it was pretty sweet. Just a big dude yelling HIGH LIFE into the camera.

Cars.com made my a monkey commercial, which I ALWAYS hate, but this one was okay, and made me laugh.

Hulu had a great commercial with Alec Baldwin, till the animation at the end.

It’s funny that Visio took a crack at Obama for taking too long getting the stimulus checks out. Funny how new tv’s cost just around the amount of each persons check.

I would feel bad for Larry Fitzgerald if he weren’t so rich. His dad diddn’t even clap when he scored a touchdown. WTF? How is that even possible. His second TD of the night was spectacular.

When Holmes caught the game winning touchdown, I meowed, several times. I’m still not sure about that.

Of course the big star of the night was Jeff Goldblum, who was in a promo for USA networks. I was wondering if we would see Jeff for the next 4 years. Number of public appearances since Obama was elected= 0. Yes, I’m saying that Jeff Goldblum is the president. Think about it.

I nearly forgot the awesome vat of Superbowl chili made by my SLF. It was awesome.

On a completely unrelated note, Michael Phelps got photographed taking bong hits. Big deal. No wonder he smokes weed… look at what he needs to eat every day!

Breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. Two cups of coffee. One five-egg omelet. One bowl of grits. Three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar. Three chocolate-chip pancakes.
Lunch: One pound of enriched pasta. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread. Energy drinks packing 1,000 calories.
Dinner: One pound of pasta. An entire pizza. More energy drinks.