Two chains are better than one

Hey S.I.Q. fans!

I LOVE gear upgrades and all the tone-hunting that goes with it, so this week has been very enjoyable for me. I upgraded my pedalboard with two new pedals and a whole new signal chain set-up, and it's my favorite set-up yet! WARNING: Non-gear junkies, just skip this next paragraph altogether. It will just sound like technical gibberish to you.

Alrighty, here goes. My old set-up (immediately prior to this upgrade) had my bass running into my Rocktron Tru-loop pedal, with a Mesa/Boogie V1 Bottle Rocket in its effects loop (blended back pretty far). My signal would then travel to my Boss GT-6B effects processor, followed by my ISP Decimator, then out to my amp. I decided to make a change based on some rig videos I had watched lately, videos which seemed to indicated that split signal paths were the way to go in the hunt for great tone. So here's what my new pedalboard set-up looks like: My bass runs into the input of my MXR m80 bass DI+ (new), which splits my signal in two. Signal A is effected by the distortion and EQ of the DI+, and runs directly into the input of my Rocktron Tru-loop. Signal B runs into my ISP Decimator, then to my Boss processor, then out to the return jack on my Rocktron Tru-loop. The Tru-Loop then combines both signals into one WITHOUT EITHER SIGNAL AFFECTING THE OTHER. Lastly, the recombined signal hits my BBE Sonic Stomp Sonic Maximizer (new), then runs out to my amp. Benefits of the new set-up? Certainly. A split signal chain allows me to explore sonic options in one chain without affecting or being affected by the other. Meaning my distortion will not affect how my chorus might sound, or the EQ on one won't change how the distortion might sound. Honestly, this is some of the best bass tone I've had EVER.

Here's a video explaining it, as well as showcasing the rest of my gear:

I'm sorry the video is so tiny. Somewhere between filming and posting, it got shrunk.

But let's see, what else is new...

My studies in music are going quite well at Central Piedmont Community College. My Applied Music study is especially challenging; it is a one-on-one learning environment, in which I am taught more about the bass in a way that caters to me specifically. I am challenged to stretch my horizons as a player, playing difficult classical and jazz pieces. For example, for my midterm, I performed an excerpt from Paganini's 16th Caprice. Very fast, very difficult. For all the music nerds (like me), it's in 3/4, in presto time (about 168 bpm) and it's aaaaallll 16th notes. Yeah.

I have taken on a challenge of a different sort, outside of S.I.Q. or school, posed by my dad. The challenge was to write an album's worth of Jazz material, all original.

Challenge accepted. I am already working on track one, which will be a Latin-Jazz piece, yet untitled.

Rather than leave you with music, this time I will leave you with a video of Phil, James, and I playing Super Smash Brothers: Brawl (one of our favorite non-musical past-times). I promise, it's not just a boring video of us playing a game. We say some of the weirdest stuff while playing it, and there are plenty of nuggets in this video.

Heck, I'll leave you with music anyway. Here's Meshuggah.

Balls. What more can I say?

Take care, and have a great week!

Cole Millward
S.I.Q. bassist

Quick! What year is it?

Hey S.I.Q. fans!

Been a while, hasn't it? Almost a year in fact! Truth is, my time has been occupied rather continuously for the past year, what with the band, my education, my day job, and my home life. Still, I have missed writing these entries, so I figured, why not? Why not pull out the old Bass Lines blog and give some details as to the goings-on in S.I.Q. land again? Well here goes!

I'm not going to try to elaborate on everything that has occurred within the last year; if you have been following our posts on facebook, you probably already know what we've been through (primarily the release of our first album, A Constant Struggle, and the departure of our lead singer, Ashton Johnston). I will just start by telling you that now, we are at a comfortable position with lots of potential for growth and development.

In the way of songwriting, we have begun to incorporate new elements into our style and sound, not the least of which is the new vocals of our own rhythm guitarist, Phil Rich. Aside from that, we have begun to embrace influences of more modern progressive metal stylings, notably that of the sub-genre known as Djent. So to all you Djent lovers (or haters) out there, yes, that means we have been listening to Periphery. Also, our writing process has undergone a metamorphosis; lately, we have been starting with a simple idea that one member may have, and we jam on it over and over until something evolves from it naturally. We continue on a string of ideas until we have a rough idea of the structure of the song, then we take each of the simplistic sections and flesh them out, writing parts for each member based upon what each section seems to demand. This has already been working quite well; we have already finished a song that will be appearing on our next album, and many more are being written.

As for performances, we have been playing out since the beginning of August, when we decided we were ready for people to see/hear the new lineup of S.I.Q. They have been going really well, with great crowd response. Also, our live sound has never been tighter, thanks to the great sound guys that we have encountered lately. Our next show will be a return to The Bonu5 Room (where we played at Jortsfest) with The Coming Dawn, Fall of Ashes, and several other great bands. If you're lucky (and you come to the show obviously), you might be some of the first people to hear a brand new song. ;)

I have had a few gear changes during the past year (you know me, I'm a tone monkey), so for those of you who know (or care) about what my rig is comprised of these days, here you go:

I am still using ESP Ltd basses, notably the B-206SM model, but now I have two of them! I keep one in Eb standard tuning for S.I.Q. and one in plain E standard for any of my other musical endeavors (school, Bad Tuesday, jazz).

I am actually about to have a change-up in my pedal-board. For a while now, I have been using a Boss GT-6B for effects (chorus, delay & reverb, flanger, octave, any special EQs), a Mesa/Boogie V1 Bottle Rocket for distortion, a Rocktron Tru-Loop for regulating the Bottle Rocket, and an ISP Decimator for noise reduction. Lately though, I've been wanting to split the signal path of my pedal-board, keeping distortion and effects separate. Therefore, I will be adding an MXR Bass DI+ for distortion, EQ enhancement, and signal splitting, a BBE Sonic Stomp sonic maximizer for frequency retention, getting rid of my Mesa Bottle Rocket (shocking, right?), and re-purposing the Rocktron Tru-Loop for rejoining the two split signals at the end of the pedal-board. A bit complicated, sure, but I believe it will do wonders for my tone. (Also, I'm asking for a Boss GT-10B, the next step up from my processor, for Christmas! Fingers crossed!)

I have also upgraded my stack! I made the switch from my old Mesa/Boogie M2000 to a Mesa Big Block 750, and I traded out my old-school looking 1x15 Mesa cab for a newer Mesa Powerhouse 1x15. But of course, as you can see, I am still a Mesa/Boogie man.

Lastly, here's some music that I've been listening to lately:

Enjoy!

Cole Millward
S.I.Q. bassist