It hardly appears to be September here in the Inland part of So Cal, and there are absolutely no hints of Autumn to speak of. The first hint in general for southern californians is usually at the end of October with evenings finally cooling off with a slight chill in the early mornings but oh no, not this year.. Its hot and muggy as hell.
Instead of the leaves of the trees turning to their yellow, scarlet, and rusty orange our trees are putting out more robust green foliage and the insects are multiplying instead of hiding. Despite all this it is gonna be officially Autumn very soon and when the kids go back to school I always pull out the very first BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA cd (self titled 1994) and go straight to the best song on the album "SEPTEMBER SKIES".
As I listen to its beautiful velvet swing, the old memories and feelings of a lifetime pass through my heart especially when I flip the CD over and see that glorious orange gretsch
I used to dream of owning. The G6120SSU Brian Setzer Signature model Nashville Gretsch guitar in orange flamed maple with gold hardware.
I wanted so bad as a kid in my own band to figure out how he got his sound and I couldnt find it with my fender coronado II and magnatone amp. For me then, I just chalked it up to his fingers and that magic gretsch guitar.
That mystery remained in the back of mine until I heard Brian Setzer's Big Band on a live local radio morning show ( Kevin and Bean of KROQ). My mind was blown that Setzer had reinvented himself and it was like James Bond met the Stray cats. Obviously I had to have this album and then when I saw the guitar on the back of the CD I had to have that too. Everything Brian Setzer was back on my radar and nothing else mattered in my musician world except to get his guitar, get a blonde 63' bassman and get his TONE! In 98' Dirty Boogie came out and in 99' Gretsch guitars made my very first Brian Setzer Signature guitar!
Thats another story for another time but if you are curious about such details to Brian's gear I helped a friend out by sharing my deviant obsession about his rig here on GAD's Ramblings where he expounds in detail about How To Capture Brian Setzer's Tone and he is kind enough to mention my Nocturne Dynobrain preamp pedal and says this about it "This pedal has one purpose: to replicate the preamp from a Roland RE-301 Space Echo. He has done so brilliantly and packaged it up in a dead sexy stomp-box. This pedal alone adds it (whatever it is) to a Gretsch plugged into a Blonde Bassman. Even if you leave the knobs at noon (which I recommend), the Nocturne fattens up the Gretsch in a way that’s tough to describe. It’s louder, fatter, meaner… Gretschier. If you want that Sezter tone, but don’t want a giant Space Echo to deal with, you need this pedal "
Click here for all the info:
http://www.gad.net/Blog/2011/06/07/how-to-capture-brian-setzers-tone/
As final and important note to all this listening of Brian Setzer's September Skies, I was inspired to make this current run of my Nocturne Atomic Brain in Satin Tangerine Metallic with creme pinstripe graphics and vintage blonde bassman style creme blonde. Its available to order now in the dropdown menu to the right of this or directly from our
website.
http://thenocturnebrain.com/atomic.htm
here's Brian Setzer in a solo television performance singing September Skies from his BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA
album using that beautiful Gretsch
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