I suppose that title sounds like some commentary on workflow and working your way backwards through a song or something, but really all I’m saying is I’ve started lead guitar tracks, and (in part because I planned on using the same sunburst Strat I used for all my rhythm tracks, and in part because this was one of the last songs I finished writing so it was all fresh in my mind) I started with the planned album closer.

I’ll probably be posting a lot of updates without song titles in them, because most of these songs are all saved as things like “G#m moody song” or “Melancholy Song in E” and the like, but while working on the rhythm tracks I’ve been trying to feel out what the song titles here should be, and this one is pretty solidly named “First Light.”

This is a loose, bluesy ballad in a sort of Jimi/SRV vein, and it posed some challenges as I was working through it that I’ll get to in a bit, but for now, here’s the introduction – I decided to try to video the first couple takes in case one of them was any good, and sure enouhg one of the first couple takes was a keeper:

One quick note on gear here – I ended up doing some work to this guitar between the rhythm and lead parts, and replaced the nut (which was binding a little) with a Graph Tech XL, and the bridge (where I’d broken a stud, though thankfully the guitar was still playable) with a Gotoh 510 (Ironically, after offering to mail me a replacement, Hipshot went radio silent for a few months and then sent me a note apologizing and saying they had a replacement stud in the mail the day after I swapped – go figure. The last time I had an extra Strat trem sitting around, I ended up building this guitar to put it in, so…).

A couple thoughts on the tracking process, one song in:

• My earlier post about how my sense of groove goes to hell when I’m sick, still holds, and I’m also finding that the same is true when I’m physically exhausted. I’d planned on doing a lot of tracking after work, but on days – especially later in the week, after a couple days of this – where I’ve commuted into the office, the physical tiredness from a 20 mile round trip seems to make it that much harder for me to find the pocket. I think I’ll be using a lot of those nights to practice, and then mostly tracking on my lunch break during work from home days, and weekends.
• I was a little cocky, and thought that after a couple months of recording bass, acoustic guitars, and rhythm electric guitars, this prt would be easy. And in some ways, that’s true… but the main solo, it took a couple days, after months of not really bending notes, before I felt like my pitch control was really back where I wanted it to be.
• I also didn’t realize this earlier, but something’s a little off with the grounding or shielding of this guitar, and when I’m not touching the strings or metal parts, it hums audibly more than my other Strat. For the most part I got around this by just making sure I was always touching something, but there’s a few artifacts of hum I’m probably going to have to live with in the mix, and chalk that up to deciding to pull out a guitar at the last second I hadn’t been playing much, and not finding a problem until half way through the project. I do want to do a post on prepping a guitar for recording, which I’ll probably do for my other Strat, but that was a clear miss on my part.

I also, after overdubbing some feedback on the final note, did a few more takes on video afterwards, of the main solo. In a perfect world I would have gotten one so head and shoulders better than my existing keeper track that I would have gone with that, but at least this alternate take was a pretty good performance that I’m happy to share:

Going for a big, loose, “Life Without You” sort of vibe here, but with some shred at the end. That last picked run, a variation on the “Gilbert 6’s” pattern, was an absolute bitch to get right – I wasn’t practicing my fast alternate picking the last two months, either – and starting here was probably questionable as it’s one of the harder picked runs on this album. I butchered it in about a million takes before it finally started to click again… and then while this second take video wasn’t 100% flawless, it was at least pretty good, so “recording as practicing under the microscope” strikes again. As it was after repeatedly playing that final bent note again and again I ended up snapping the string and had to throw a fresh set of strings on the guitar, and then the next morning after what was basically binge practicing a challenging lick, with fresh hands suddenly it all clicked and everything went pretty quickly. Now, it’s flowing nicely. Turns out practicing works!

A final thought for now – in the past I’ve always improvised my solos, so a “good take” was one where I was in the pocket and the muse took me in musically interesting ways. Here, with everything written (well, the clean part wasn’t 100% note for note, but this distorted lead was), it was less about “does this solo sound cool,” and more about getting the right articulations and touch on the guitar. “Does this bend scream the way I want it to? Are the dynamic accents right here?” It’s kind of an interesting change for me.