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No Pain, No Gain

by Craig Smoot (906)

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Size 3 MB
Style Rock/Pop
Gear Epiphone Les Paul standard w/ 2-EMG 89s
Rivera BoneHead stack
Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus, post-tracked T.C. Electronic delay via Pro Tools
Another 80s-style riff from our "80s guy" Chris, this one is another example of how everyone's input helps to shape the final outcome into being something more of our own. Whereas he's the power chord type, I go for a more layered approach using chord inversions or octaves, etc. So, in the right channel you can hear my occasional embellishments and how we try to make an already phat sound even more rotund. The muted raking in the 2nd verse and during Chris' solo is my little nod to Dishwalla and how they made great use of this killer sound on their "Pet Your Friends" album.

The solo section starts off with Chris wailing away in his usual grandiose and oft haphazard style, and then my solo breaks in with what sounds like some cheesy 4-note repetitive alternate picking exercise in Bb minor ending with a snazzy little raked lick. Then I got a little crazy with it and decided on the fly to add two notes below and two notes above the next set of licks' sustained notes to make them into chords (and I panned the added notes to opposite sides each time just to add to the confusion). That section is followed by a little tapping lick into the ending section which finally shows off some of the feel and emotional playing that my solos are usually famous for. The solo section outro is me playing the high harmony to the vocal melody going on at the same time -- thought it would make for a nice finishing touch.