Stan Lassiter Website: http://www.stanlassiter.net
Jack Pearson Website: http://www.jackpearson.com

Saturday night it was time for some live music in the form of a VIP jam session (video clips below). Creation Audio Labs had brought in Stan Lassiter and Jack Pearson to kick things off.  I’ve been living in a cave for the past 30 years, so I had never heard of either of them, so I didn’t know what to expect.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that Stan was a very different guitar player than what I had ever seen before.  Within seconds of starting his first song, I already had a perplexed look on my face, as if to say “what the… wait… how do you do…wait…huh?”.  He did things on the guitar that I’m not sure are technically possible without 7 fingers, or a third hand.  And just when you thought you had seen everything, he’d do something else that was just as baffling.

Every once in a while he’d toss in a lick that everyone could play, and I’d get that feeling of “ok, now  that, I understand”, but then it was right back to being confused, but in a good way.  All together, a very entertaining set by an incredibly tight, responsive group of musicians.

After Stan’s set, Jack Pearson took the stage, and just killed it right from the first note.  The style could not be more different than what we had just heard, but it seemed strangely appropriate to follow Stan’s mind-boggling performance with Jacks virtuosity in several styles of blues.  Mixing slide guitar with regular playing that was both tasteful and powerful, Jack moved from one song to the next, never missing a beat, and holding my attention with every note.

After Jack’s set was done, it was time to jam, and two of the event attendees took the stage with their guitars, while the house drummer and bassist held down a groove. Unfortunately, it was time for my downtown Nashville tour, so I only caught a few seconds before I left, but those few seconds are at the end of the video clip.

And about the sound in the video, I know it’s awful.  I was only holding my Digital SLR at this point, and while it shoots decent video, it’s microphone is horrendous, and overloads very easily. I was standing right in front of a speaker, so that explains the mushy distortion when the volume gets too loud.  I’ll do better next time I promise.

I stepped into the Creation Audio Labs room just as Brandon was showing off the Holy Fire pedal.  I kept the camera rolling as he explained the features of the pedal to those in the room.

Creation Audio Labs was the company that made this event possible.  I know that putting on this event was a financial risk, not knowing how many vendors would come, or how many people would show up, but I think the event went great.

Creation Audio Labs is primarily a Pro Audio company, who brings some of that experience to the world of guitar effects. They are the only company I know of that offers a 48v power supply option for their pedals, giving them massive headroom.   And as I mentioned in my demo of the Holy Fire OD pedal last year, their overdrive circuit is not built like most pedals, using old wave-shaping technology to compress the waveform, more like what a tube does when it starts to get pushed close to it’s limit.

Brandon, the guy in the video. also took me for a little tour of Nashville while I was at the show, and I even got a chance to walk up and down the main entertainment Strip.  Talk about country music.  There was a different country band in every bar.  Not exactly my cup of tea, but a very lively atmosphere to the whole place.

I spent about 10 minutes playing through two of the amps in the Nolatone room (video clips below), and they offered to run the camera while I played. I first played through a 5 watt combo called the June Bug. As with many other tube amps, the volume seemed way bigger than what you’d expect from a 5 watt amp.  It’s got a clean channel, and an overdrive channel.

The overdrive channel has two different preamp gain knobs (Sweet, and Hot) allow you to mix two different voicing together in any ratio.  A single tone knob and a master volume work on either channel.  The amp was a lot of fun to play, and has a good amount of versatility.

I also played through a prototype amp called the Super Bug, a larger, more powerful version of the June Bug, with some additional features.  Foot pedal channel switching, more controls on each channel, and the option to use either 6L6 power tubes for roughly 25 watts, or 6V6 power tubes for about 15 watts.  The Super Bug was created in response to demand for a more gig friendly version of the June Bug.

At the last NY Amp Show, I first saw Sommatone amps, and I also had a chance to hear Jimmy Somma talk about what it takes to be a boutique amp builder as a part of a panel with some other builders.

So it was nice to see them again at the Nashville Amp Expo, and aside from playing through the amps myself this time, I also had a chance to hear Jimmy play some slide guitar. I’ve got a great clip of him playing through one of his amps, and it sounds even better than what you hear in the video.

I dig Sommatone amps, not just because they sound good but because they’ve got a very cool look. The amp that I played through was a 40 watt amp, with a half-power switch that would take it down to 20 watts. The most interesting thing about it was that it had two input gain knobs.

One was a normal gain and the other was labeled “Bright”. Both knobs would increase the volume, and the ratio between them could give you all kinds of tones. I’m not clear on what the difference in circuitry was, but the two gains definitely had different tones.

It may sound strange, but one of my favorite parts of the Amp Expo was meeting Manuel Delgado, a 3rd generation, old world luthier. The title? That basically means that guitar building has been in his family for a long time, and he doesn’t take shortcuts.

Manuel came to the show armed with some gorgeous finished instruments, and some works-in-progress. I began asking questions, knowing nothing about acoustic lutherie, and even less about ‘old world’ methods. Lucky for me, Manuel had more answers than I had questions.

He must have known that I was enjoying my state of disbelief because he then described how he creates the intricate, detailed patterns around the sound hole of his guitars.  I can’t tell you what I would have said if you had asked me how something like this is made, but I could hardly believe it when I learned it is exactly as complicated as it looks. Hundreds and hundreds of tiny pieces of wood, all glued into place by hand.  No paint tricks, just hours, upon hours of painstakingly detailed work.

On Sunday, I caught the very end of a workshop where Manuel was talking about tone woods, building techniques, and other assorted topics related to his craft.  And I also learned the roots of the word capo, and how we’ve all been saying it wrong.

It doesn’t make sense by any business metric to build guitars they way he does.  His production is limited to about 12 per year.  The resulting prices make his instruments only accessible to a certain kind of player or collector. He is well aware that he could build guitars faster, cheaper and sell many more of them, but seems about as interested in that business model as I am in learning to play jazz.

To this end, I asked him before I left if he had ever taken on an apprentice, to teach the skills that he has learned from his father and grandfather.  The answer, of course, was sitting on the other side of the room.