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The “What Wilton Said” Band’s instrument list

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Here is list of some of the equipment that Wilton Said used on stage live when they performed at this years Nuance 2008.

Here’s a list of some of the equipment of myself and the band members.

  • Wilton – Keyboards – Roland EP7 Digital Piano, Roland Sound Canves, Roland PC-70 Controller. Guitars – Lado Halk with Kayler floating Bridbe. Both have Semour Duncun distortion pick ups. Roland Jazz Chorus 77 Amp. Variety of boss pedals.
  • Chris Reid – Guitar: was playing a Gibson SG Deluxe with the Bigsby style Maestro bridge, a Traynor Custom Valve 40 amp, and effects: Dual Overdrive, Cry Baby Wah, Volume fade pedal, Delay, Tremelo, Flanger and Chorus pedals. The pedals are Boss, except for the flanger (Ibanez) and of course the wah. I also used an E-bow in a few parts.
  • Frank Heisler Bass: Music Man Stingray 5 fretless
    Amp: Euphonic Audio iAmp350 350 watt amp with a CXL-112 1×12 with a coaxial
    horn tweeter within.
    The rig provides a suitable level of power and growl while weighing under 60 pounds!
    …and then there’s the ubiquitous music stand..
  • Richard Rizzo – Drums (don’t know)

Now the amplifier that Wilton himself uses is really a thing to behold! The Roland Jazz Chorus is heavier then my car, but produces the best guitar chorus sound, this side of heaven.

It has such a full sound, that only other amp. I’ve tried, that really gives it a run for it’s money, is a Yamaha Leslie. Check out the link, it is so wild. The speakers actually swirl around giving it the ultimate chorus effect.

If you’ve even went to a church with a organ in it, and you saw a BIG BOX beside it, it probably was a Leslie Speaker amp. So if the opportunity presents itself, go back and ask the organist to show you how it works! Tony F, from my old band Pylis, had one and he said why don’t you hook your guitar to it and when I did, it was the best chorus I’ve ever heard. You can also control the speed of the speakers spinning.

The E-bow that Chris uses is something that has been around for years, but I have never known anyone to have used it. The link that I have attached to it, shows the diversity of this product. Next time I’m in my favorite guitar store, The 12th Fret, I’ll definitely try it out!

That’s all from the boys in the band!

Keep on Jammin’, Wilton Said so!





Daniel Johnston the modern renaissance man

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Daniel Johnston in some circles, is compared to the great music genus Brian Wilson. He is brilliant to some and insane to others (even though there is a fine line dividing both personalities).

My wife and I were relaxing, while watching TV, in our living room on the weekend and came across a musical documentary about Daniel Johnston. The documentary is called “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” and premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2005. We both have never heard of him before so we watched with great interest. If you are into indie films, then I highly recommend seeing it.

We saw a child like or even an autistic man who is different to say the least. As all brilliant artists feel that they have difficulties communicating with new audiences or that they feel that they might be slowly losing their mind, he seems to feel quite at home or even embraces it to a lessor degree.

“Everything is art”

(a young Daniel Johnston is heard saying on a cassette tape recorder with fellow art students at Kent State University in 1980.)

Daniel's shirt

Daniel's shirt

As the show moved forward, we were exposed to a brilliant middle aged musical mind that was just screaming to get out. But in the same breath, you would say that he was not interested in commercial pop success. To add to his obvious musical gift, he was a beautiful illustrator/painter. He really became noticed when Kurt Cobain started wearing this one shirt that Daniel made. Daniel also happened to be one of Kurt’s favorite songwriters.

His music is both errie and beautiful. It makes you sit up and pay attention to the words. I am known as a musician who does pay all that much attention to the words of a song, just the overall song structure and progression, but his songs rang an interest in his lyrics.

In this doc., he plays his old, beat up, low end acoustic guitar and when he is writing, his Westbrook 1/2 piano. His guitar playing style is, how can I say this without insulting his genus, simple and sloppy. In the sentence I should have used beautiful. I just can’t put this unique style into words to fully describe this experience. If some of you out there are familiar with his eclectic style, can you help describe it for me?

As my faithful readers know, I try to expose hidden musical artists to my blog. Some maybe questionable to some, but to others … they show the true essence of music.

Keep on Jammin’

Guitarist Dominic Frasca

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While on holidays at home this year, I’ve had a fair amount of time on my hands.

I read some fascinating books, did some odd jobs around the house, huge out with my loverly wife and puppy Midnight (she was 1 year old on the 25th) and looked for things to blog about. that is when I came across this guitarist called Dominic Frasca. This man is a monster on guitar!

He is around 41, from Ohio, lives in New York City and there is one more thing that I’m trying to remember about this guy … oh ya he’s a classically-trained guitar virtuoso.

He plays this 10 stringed guitar and has this very unique capo. For the life of me I cannot find out who makes this thing. If you look at this video below or at the 1:21 / 3:17 section of it, you will get a looksie at what I mean. Is it me or this a homemade capo that looks like a carpenter’s “C” clamp that has been modified? Can someone help me out here?

Yours “Sing”cerly, clueless in Canada!
Keep on Jammin’

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