What am I playing at?

Well this week I'm mostly playing at this little ditty. I guess I may as well show my cards straight away, so here's a sample of how I'm trying to fuse rockabilly and reggae elements together. This is just a very short work in progress with no real structure, no vocal, only one chord, guitars are one take each, as with most of my stuff at this point it's just an idea I'm working up.



This will hopefully makes it way in some form or other onto the album I'm writing. Just for the record (sorry), I'm using Logic Express on a Mac with Addictive Drums. This track also has my Tele and a Precision bass. I don't wanna get too anal about recording stuff in as much as I don't want to bore you, but I'm up for any communication from any interested persons.

Tools of the trade;

As I'm hoping to diarise the actual process of recording the 56 Special album (as well as all the influences and inspirations etc, etc...) it seems to make sense to start with a brief introduction to my beloved collection of wood and steel and hi tech gizmos. i.e here's a list of me gear;

GEETARS;
Squier Telecaster in 'TV special' yellow (with Bareknuckle pickups)
Gretsch 6120 in green flame maple (2003 Brian Setzer model)
Martin J1 (6 string acoustic)
Simon & Patrick S&P12 (12 string acoustic)
Gibson Les Paul Deluxe (1974 - Sunburst)
Squier Precision Bass
Vintage Les Paul Special (single P90 pickup)

AMP;
Fender Blues Junior (15W valve. Limited edition tweed)
(although I don't use it for recording at the moment)

HiTECH STUFF;
Apple Intel iMac
Focusrite Saffire (audio interface)
Logic Express
BFD (drum software)
Addictive Drums (drum software - currently the drums of choice)
Line 6 UX2 (for amp sounds and vocal pre amps)
Rode NT1 Condenser mic (for vocals and acoustic)

A quick note about 'my drummer';
I programme every last drum beat and cymbal splash, I don't use Apple loops or the like. That's not say I'm against it, just that so far I've preferred to start from scratch. I started out using BFD but recently moved over to Addictive Drums cos I found a nice vintage sounding kit on there.

For no real reason other than to show off, I thought I'd stick a pic of me Gretsch on here. I'm finally getting it to sound ok in the recordings, so it's getting a lot more play lately... This one's a top of the range Brian Setzer 6120 model in green flame maple.
As much as I luv my Tele, when it comes to country or rockabilly there's nothing like a Gretsch to get 'that twang'.



This tune (another work in progress) shows the Gretsch in action.
Actually it is also a blatent example of reggae and rockabilly influences combining. It has a reggae intro and goes into a rockabilly verse/chorus. The guitars are pure rockabilly, however the bass part is reggae throughout, you can hear how they combine at 1:12 in this MP3 when the drums revert to a reggae pattern whilst everything else goes on as it was.