So, in mid-November, no doubt buoyed and encouraged by the spectacular results of my preset work with Sam Finlay and David Gage ("Sam and Dave") and Ned Steinberger/NS Design, I decided to do the same with Rick and Lloyd. (Click HERE for a description of Ned's visit to Bose, and HERE to read about David Gage and Sam Finlay's visit). Actually, both were highly recommended for such work by Ned Steinberger. I was struck by his admiration and respect for their work (and visa/versa). So I visited both. We worked hard, were exhausted by the concentration required but elated with the results of our work without exception. Now, both companies have these presets for their main products (Renaissance "Ampli-Coustic" guitars, D-Tar pickups and LR Baggs pickups) installed in their PS1's and are as enthusiastic about them as they were when we created them. If you go to the NAMM show, go have a listen.

What we are doing together is creating complete systems that will deliver the intended tone through a Cylindrical Radiator(R) speaker. One major problem for such "electric luthiers" is that when their customers plug in, all bets are off. It could be a stage monitor, a backline amp, a studio monitor system or a concert PA. In all cases, the customer has lost control of the tone. With this collaboration, the intended tone and sonic beauty is preserved and guaranteed, anywhere in the world.

Right now, we have 4 sets of "custom presets" developed for specific instruments. We have set aside presets 90-99 for "custom instruments" and any customer of David Gage, NS Design, LR Baggs, Renaissance Guitar and D-Tar can load presets that will over-write presets 90-99 for their choice of instruments. I'll list these in a separate post.

Meeting and working with Lloyd and Rick was, for me, one of those special personal events that become an indelible part of one's life. These guys are true lovers of their work and of the power of music's beauty. They know that it's the work of anti-terror, a path to world peace. And they love guitars and the sound they make. Because of this, they are students of guitar and of how guitars and other string instruments make their tone. As a result of my experience, I must say that I am starting on a brand new education for myself in learning about all this, which they shared with me in the most generous way anyone could imagine. They welcomed me as a brother and the whole experience was, for me, inspiring and fulfilling. Plus, they're funny as (insert your term here) and we all laughed a whole lot.

Rick's business is in Santa Cruz, on the coast just south of San Francisco and home of "Steamer Lane", the famous north Cal surf mecca. The LR Baggs Company is in the small coastal town of Nipomo, a little north of Santa Barbara. To get from the first to the second, you must endure a drive on the Pacific Coast Highway, possibly the prettiest drive in America, next to the Kankamangus Highway in New Hampshire (not at the moment that drive-able). And so, I flew into San Fran, got a bite of lunch and drove the rental out to Half Moon Bay (no big surf at Maverick's that week) and headed south on the PCH to Rick's. Such a "work"-week, eh?

So, you'll hear more about the presets later. Right now, I thought you'd enjoy seeing some pichz I took on this trip. I think you can only get one shot per post, so I'll do it in multiple "reply" postings.

Here's a photo I took of Rick, playing one of his creations. The "ampli-coustic" guitars are a concept ripe for today's music. They are basically electric guitars that produce traditional "acoustic guitar" tone. The presets we created bring out all the quailities of the instruments that Rick had in mind. At the time, I think we were taking a little break in the action and talking about cars; Rick about "weird fun" with a Morgan 3-wheel he is lusting for and me about wishing I had my little Cobra for the motor-trip south.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Col. Cliff-at-Bose,

Leaving Rick's, passing thru Big Sur, here's a view north on one of the numerous little turnoffs. Like photos of the Grand Canyon, it's pretty but you had to be there:

I drove south to a hotel in Pismo Beach, near LR Baggs' business. The last hour of the trip was in darkness. Stopping at another turnoff, a bit south of Big Sur, here's the sunset I encountered:

The morning I was scheduled to visit Lloyd and Ryan at LR Baggs, I was up way early and went down to Pismo on a beautiful and sunny morning. There must be clay in the beach sand because, like Daytona, they let you drive on it. So I took the rental out to the ocean. I really can't tell you what kind of car it was. More like a toaster, although it was fun putting the whirring little thing to The Test on the ultra-twisty PCH. Probably scared it. Nevertheless, I parked 20 feet from the Pacific and got out for The Inhale We All Love. Mmm, salt water and oxygen. I was intriguted with a complete crowd of little bulbous birds skittering around on rapid-moving spindly legs. Turns out they are "plovers". There were about 200 of them and they were all hanging out together. I learned about them from this guy sitting on a beach chair next to his car, reading a paper. A really sweet guy. He told me they congregate at this one little place on the beach every day. "Must be some kind of spiritual center for them" he said. So I had the best time talking to him, told him I worked at Bose and what we were doing. He told me his parents were migrant farm workers, coming from Mexico, and he had his own landscaping business. We talked about our families and our lives, about as great a time as you could have. As we left, he said "wait; here, take this" and pulled this giant, perfectly-proportioned cluster of purple grapes from his car. "My father-in-law grows these". I thanked him and we went our separate ways.

When I arrived at Baggs, I offered them as a treat for everyone and had the first one myself. I'm tellinya, these things were the Ultimate Grape. So yummy.

Anyway, here's the plovers on the beach at Pismo.

Here's the last one in this series. Arriving at Baggs' business in Nipomo with the amazing grapes, I was greeted by Lloyd His Very Self and Ryan, marketing manager. Our preset work involved a wide variety of pickups that Lloyd created using a wide variety of guitars. This work is Total Tone Immersion. Nothing like it. But with great concentration comes great revalations and results that make beautiful sound. Like with Rick, we were exhausted and elated. One of Lloyd's employees played for us, all kinds of styles and we were treated to some fine guitar artistry as the icing on the cake.

Ryan took the following photo of Lloyd and I. The guitar was my instant choice. It was a hideous science project of all kinds of pickups, wires, tape and assorted electronics, all dangling and sprouting from this poor lab-rat guitar. Lloyd agreed instantly that, yes, this was the instrument required for our photo. My wife Bonnie looked at this one and the first one of Rick and said "My god: they're just like you!".

Thank you Cliff,

What a great peek behind the scenes into minds of genius.

This is a stunning breakthrough... end-to-end from creation to propogation of tone. It took awhile for it to sink in. That 'all bets are off' comment was another one of your great whack on the side of the head inspirations.

With great respect...

Cliff,
Thanks for the ride.....it was a great journey. A quest in pursuit of tone.....simply awesome!

Jeff
http://www.theunmentionables.com

Forgive me while I light a candle and wax poetic.

I'd guess that most of us here have a creative bent, and consciously or otherwise - we come to an sense of

"beyond this point, it is no longer mine".

It's a case of boundary management or begrudging acknowledgement.

Cliff, it seems that you have freed us (musicians) from (most of) the terrors of room acoustics. Now you have beaten down the boundaries for the creators of our instruments.

So then, ST: what's left?

Hint: "the tune"


Many thanks for the encouragement, guys. I love this game.

quote:

Originally posted by Cliff-at-Bose:
Hint: "the tune"

O.K. -- what do you mean by "the tune"?

... as in "what is that tune you're playing?"
or
... "how do I get this durn bassoon to play in tune?"

Hi there Dan

Nah, it's just the old story about how you can have a room full of perfect equipment, solve all the musicians' problems (like the terrors of room acoustics and the boundaries for the creators of our instruments) and so on. But we'd all be nowhere without great songs ("the tune"). It's a vague word of appreciation to all the composers of all the music we play. (A conversation I had recently with ST.)

Amazingly, the new music never stops coming out. It's the endless conversation of musicians with the rest of the tribe.

Hey Cliff, I am an LR Baggs dealer and just received one of their NAMM special flyers in the mail. It has your picture and the story of going there to do some Bose preset work for various Baggs pickups. I personally use the iBeam and will be trying the M1. I love their products. The flyer says the new Bose/Baggs presets are available on the Bose web site, but I don't see them. Please tell me more!!!

Hi KWade,

Here's a little more information about the Custom Instrument Presets

I haven't noticed an announcement about availabilty yet, but you can a little more about them at the link above.

quote:

he flyer says the new Bose/Baggs presets are available on the Bose web site, but I don't see them.

Ooops, we don't have any plan to post them yet. I'm not sure where the communication fell apart. We hope to have something down the road. I'll look into what we can do in the short run.

For now, if you're interested in the presets please send an email with your mailing info to musicains-at-bose-dot-com and put in the subject line "LR Baggs presets".

Steve

Hi Cliff,
Great story and great pics! I was wondering when a PAS was going to show up in there. It would have looked awesome in the foreground on the beach in the sunset shot!