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"MegaTapper News"
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In This Issue:
Other Issues of this Newsletter (Link to MegaTapper News Archive)
From the EditorImmediate Shipping! From new EBay "Megatar Store"It's been a bummer. You want to buy a touch-style instrument. Maybe it's your first specialty tapping instrument, or maybe you're looking to upgrade. You've got the money. You call to place your order, and you learn ... that it takes WEEKS to get your instrument! Announcing the ebay MEGATAR STOREThe ebay MEGATAR STORE is an official outlet for instruments manufactured by Mobius Megatar.On the ebay MEGATAR STORE, we sell complete ready-to-play and ready-to-ship instruments, in the most popular tunings to make playing music easy.
News BitesSecret Megatar Laboratory has Moved to Mount Shasta!
Tappistry.Org Needs You!
Mobius Presents :-
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Mobius Megatar has moved! We have moved the office, the shop, and the warehouse to Northern California, to a small town on the side of a mountain. The City of Mount Shasta is quite small but very pretty, and quiet. It took a while to set up the office, and the shop, but we're now back in production, and in fact have set up our new "Almost Ready" inventory system, so that instruments can be custom assembled, and shipped, faster than ever before.
The Tappers Guild official website is located at http://tappistry.org/, and contains Articles about two-handed tapping, Resources such as links to tapping musicians and books and videos, and an online Forum for tappers worldwide. If you've not visited, please do.
One of our customers custom-ordered this particular combination, and we loved it! The creme-colored pickguard shows off the shiny goldcase pickups to advantage, and we've custom-installed straplocks on the instrument and the included MegStrap. The SuperBlonde harkens back to the "golden" years when jazz was strong and rock and roll was growing fast. This instrument will be an attention-getter, and you can look forward to years of fun and music! 
This instrument has been custom-finished using a rich and intense ppg automotive red, and topped with a gleaming clear gloss coat. Entire surface is finished except the maple fingerboard, with matching black dual Bartolini pickups and custom black straplocks installed on the red body. The pickguard is also painted matching red. This instrument will be an attention-getter and you'll stand out while performing, for years and years! 
This instrument has been custom-finished using deep midnight ppg automotive black, and topped with a gleaming clear gloss coat. Entire surface is finished except the rosewood fingerboard, with matching black dual Bartolini pickups and custom black straplocks installed into the black MegStrap (included with instrument). It's ... black. |
Now, refuting those doubting Thombasses, the Mega-Tapper News, with the kind consent of RJ Goos, can show you an actual picture of this rare instrument. Even better, you can hear the Double Contra Contrapassoondolin in action, in this rare RJ Goos performance of --
Caravan.MP3
[This item reproduced with permission from R.J. Goos from the Tappistry.Org forum.]
Mobius Megatar review in BackStage Magazine (Brazil)
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In the latest issue (Ano 10, Numero 109) of BackStage Magazine (Portuguese), columnist Jorge Pescara in his "Bass Set-Up" column gave Mobius Megatar instruments a nice review. Among his comments were "Sua criacao e bastante exotica, por conta do visual futurista. Os instrumentso que ele constroi nao possuem grandes variacoes entre os modelos."
Mr. Pescara then gave nice reviews of our ToneWeaver, TrueTapper, and MidiTapper instruments, and at the end even gave a nod to the MegaTapper News and our method book: "Traktor Topaz publica o informativo MegaTapper News e autor do excelente livro Easy Touch-Style Bassics com diversos exercicios para tapping rhythm bass."
With an internationally acknowledged talent, Jorge Pescara today stands out as one of the best Brazilian bass players, always keeping pace with the world music first-magnitude stars such as Ithamar Koorax and Dom Um Romão,and launchinig brilliant works greatly highlighted by the national and international music review. Downbeat magazine, in its traditional Year’s Best election, recently pointed out among the Top 10 World Ensembles, the Dom Um Romão sextet, commanding a group entirely made up of Brazilians: Paula Faour, Jorge Pescara, José Carlos Bigorna (ex-Barão), Marcelo Salazar, and Ithamara Koorax. The sextet ranked the seventh place, competing with names such as Kronos Quartet, currently the best in classical music, Santana, in rock, the Afro-Cuban All Stars, and ahead of names such as Tower of Power, in black music, and Los Lobos, in rock.
Backstage Magazine provides an ongoing review of Audio Gear, Music, and Instruments, published in Rio de Janiero. In addition to instrument and events reviews, it presents monthly columns in guitar set-up and bass set-up, audio mixing technique, home studio tips, and quite a bit more.
You can contact Mr. Pescara and BackStage Magazine, at http://www.backstage.com.br or by mail at Rua Iriquitiá, 392 - Taquara - Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brazil - CEP 22730-150.
"Easy Touch-Style Bassics" method book on EBay
As an attempt to introduce the wonderful touch-style or two-handed tapping approach to a wider audience, Mobius has begun the inexpensive marketing of the method book "Easy Touch-Style Bassics" on the EBay Megatar Store. Produced on a CD, the complete Book One is presented in the popular "Acrobat" format, so that the reader can print out the entire book or any pages of interest. (The free Acrobat reader is available via free download from Adobe.)
Included with this Book-On-A-CD is the Mobius Megatar User's Guide, which contains advanced instructions on how to set the action on any touch-style instrument, and an expanded description of the Buzz Feiten Intonation System and how it works.
Also include is the History of Touch-Style, and a gallery of large photographs of Mobius instruments. The method book on the CD is the complete version, containing legal copies of several standards suitable for learning touch-style technique, and MP3 recordings of several of these songs.
The Method-Book-On-CD is being sold through the EBay Auctions, at varying prices, currently 99cents up to $9.95 (though this may change without notice). A powerful and simple new method that dramatically cuts learning time, and is applicable to instruments from several manufacturers, and applicable to several popular tunings. As with most all Mobius products, it is sold on a 7-Day Guarantee of Satisfaction, with the right to return for a full refund of purchase price if less than completely delighted.
To learn more about the Easy Touch-Style Bassics method book, just go to EBay.com and do a search for "Mobius Megatar." (Note: There is no guarantee that the book will appear every single day, because of course, people do buy them!)
FATHER Knows Best!
Dino (aka FATHER) is Rockin' Out in German and English and Spanish and Seattle!
Tapper Dino Haak has emerged through several incarnations as one of the hardest-rocking touch-style musicians in Seattle, and regularly tours Germany as well (he sings and composes in both English and German). We asked Ms. Brita Rae Borough, bassist with Janie Worm and the Early Birds (Seattle), to interview Dino (currently performing and recording as FATHER - the artist) about how he started in tapping, and about current projects.
Dino, how did you first start with your two-hand tapping technique? A: Actually, I did my first "tapping" on the accordion.
Growing up in Germany, my parents thought it would nice for me to learn traditional alpine music on a traditional instrument, so they signed me up for lessons. I really always wanted to play the guitar, but my older brother was already playing the guitar and he would´t have been happy if I copied what he did.
How old where you? A: I was 6, but before that I had a tiny keyboard, so I always had the two-hand thing going on. But the difference between the keyboard and the accordion is that with the accordion you can't see the bass hand when you play. Now that I play the Megatar, I can get away with looking at just one hand. Since my bass hand is so used to doing the stuff from accordion, which I did for almost eight years, I find myself looking more at my guitar hand. My eyes switch back and forth, but generally I'd say I follow what my guitar hand does about 75% of the time.
How did you get into the two-hand tapping on a string instrument? A: When I was 12 or 13 years old I taught myself how to play bass, got together with a couple of friends and started a cover band, but I didn't tap then. I think what initially inspired me to tap was Genesis's "Return of the Giant Hog Weed", the intro on that song. It sounded like both Rutherford and Hackett tapped their parts, so I tried it on bass. I ended up working out this 4-minute tapped bass solo which I played at every show, but never anything that grooved.
Later on, when I was 19, I traveled around the world for a year, and I brought with me a little Hohner/Steingberger bass guitar. I had a little headphone amp. During that whole time I did not meet very many musicians to jam with, so after a while I got bored playing just bass lines by myself and I started tapping melody lines with my right hand while holding down a groove on the bass with my left.
How did you incorporate the tapping technique on bass with the bands you were in? A: It happened like this. I joined a heavy metal cover band in Hawaii, and we did a number of David Lee Roth and Billy Sheehan songs. I ended up doubling most of the guitar solos with one hand while holding up a bass-line with the other. So that was the first time I really incorporated the tapping in a band setting.
I remember that you first started using a Chapman Stick in a band when you joined Skeleton & The Spirit here in Seattle. A: I actually joined this band after I had advertised myself as a bass and Stick player. However, I had just bought the instrument and was still figuring it out. It really was a challenge because they had a guitar player, keyboard player, two vocalists, and a lot of percussion -- the sound was just full -- so I had to find tapping lines that didn't interfere with the other frequencies. I used to double up on the octaves a lot, and played distorted power chords on the Stick.
So how did you start playing full-on tapping? You know, taking over bass and guitar lines? A: It happened that, during one of the shows with Skeleton & The Spirit, our keyboarder had technical problems, and the guitarist stopped playing to help him get things working again.
In the meantime the drummer, Todd Gray, and I did some jamming to entertain the crowd. I was using a little ART Bass Effect unit, usually used when I played bass, but I plugged in the melody side of the Stick and started grooving out to delays to make things sound fuller.
That´s the exact moment when I suddenly realized the potential of this technique.
When you started writing your first grooves, were you doing loop patterns or more echo stuff? A: More echo. From the beginning I wrote lines fully focusing on the delay while as much as possible trying to make it sound like I wasn't really using a delay. I learned to use the delay as a means to develop tight grooves, so I now mostly use a single repetition (or zero feedback).
Is that an integral part of your style, using echo? A: Yes. I now use it on both the guitar and bass side. Not all the time, but most of the time.
How did your band, Kevorkian Cannibals, get started? A: It came out of Skeleton and the Spirit. What happened was that, as a four piece, we were in the process of being signed with the Grateful Dead management. All our hopes were up, but then Jerry died. So things never happened. The guitar player and the keyboard player got discouraged, so practices were delayed, or they just wouldn't show up. The drummer and I ended up being alone together waiting for the rest of the band so we killed time by just jamming. At that point I exclusively used the Stick, no more bass, because it could produce more sound. After doing this for two months or so, we ended up with 5 songs ready to be recorded.
So it was just you on the Stick and the drummer? A: Yes, just the drummer and me. When we wrote songs with Skeleton and the Spirit we would focus on making them commercially viable. With this new project, we just played whatever came to mind, and the more off-the-wall the better. We ended up calling ourselves the Kevorkian Cannibals, a most unlikely commercial name. We went into the studio and recorded five songs, just the instruments, and then made up some lyrics right on the spot in the studio.
Troy Glessner, our appointed engineer at Spectre Studios, really dug what we did and saw the potential. From that point he stayed with the band as our producer, engineer, supporter and friend (and later played for me as the guitarist in the first FATHER line-up). Just for the fun of it, we sent a five song demo to festivals and showcases. Out of the blue, we were chosen to compete in the 1997 Diskmakers´Battle of the Bands, and we also got some shows at well-known local festivals, like the Fremont Fair and Pain in the Grass. We had six weeks to rehearse and get a 45-minute set down for a major showcase as a band representing alternative rock for the Pacific Northwest. Out of nothing, suddenly came a new band.
So you were the guitarist and bass player amd also the main singer? A: At that time we sang 50/50, with Todd, the drummer doing the upper harmonies. Since Todd left I am doing all vocals.
How did the name evolve into Instant Guru, and later into FATHER? A: We've had three different names, for three different incarnations. The name Kevorkian Cannibals started getting us recognized, and we created a fan base and got booked to play major festivals. But when we got signed to Flash Records, the label encouraged us to change our name to something more commercial. So we played as Instant Guru for a couple of years until Todd and I parted due to artistic differences.
I went solo for a while, hiring various musicians to fill the spot. Without Todd it didn't seem right to perform under the old name. That´s how FATHER (my name as a solo artist) came into being.
Your music is high energy and quite upbeat. Who is your audience? A: (Laughs) I think it speaks to athletes, and people into extreme sports. We had a song that was almost chosen for the NFL theme ... it was down to our song and two others. I know that a bunch of skateboarders, snowboarders, skiers and some surfers and windsurfers listen to my music to get pumped up.
I also hear a progressive/art rock influence in your music. The songs are short and hooky but the structure of the songs reminds of prog bands such as YES or Genesis. A: Right, it's kind of like 3-minute hooky prog songs. Or perhaps actually more like pop songs with a full-on prog progression or event somewhere in the middle. The song "Megastar" [on Retro Sounds of Tokyo] is a good example. It seems that the mix works for both the young skateboarder as well as the 40+ prog-head.
Would you say, that your music, though not totally like Dream Theater, is in that vein? A: No, I wouldn´t say Dream Theater, way more humor than that. More like King Crimson meets George Clinton with some Weezer-esque choruses. We have also been compared to System of a Down and Rammstein. Somebody even heard an angry Ricky Martin in there.
I also hear some World beat in your music. A: In college, I did my Masters in Geography, and since I am not using it for anything else I might as well incorporate it into my music! I was also fortunate to be able to travel a lot and spent a lot of time in Spain and South America.
What equipment are you currently using? A: I play a Mobius Megatar "Max Tapper-Quad" model tuned with inverted 5ths bass, through an Art SGX 2000 for the melody side, and a Korg DL8000 for the bass side, with a DBX 163A compressor, 2 SWR Basic 350 bass ampheads, and two SWR bass cabinets 10/15 plus horn, plus several effect boxes for distortions and a whammy pedal for either side.
Where is it you want to take your technique and career in the future? A: Right now I am rehearsing with a new line-up of musicians. I have already written an album´s worth of new material and we are going to incorporate songs from the past 4 records. Simultaneously, I am doing a hardcore latin salsa funk thing, all in Spanish and pretty off-the-wall. We'll just have to see where all this is going; I'm having a great amount of fun with what I am doing right now. Both projects will be ready to go on stage sometime in late summer or early fall.
Thank you for the interview, Dino. A: Thank you, Rae.
Dino Haak (FATHER) on the Mobius Megatar
"Der StadtSoldat" (English and German, 3:34 min, 3.4MB)
"State Trooper" (English version, 3:24 min, 3.2MB)
Dino Haak discography (using Touch-Style instruments):
The Kevorkian Cannibals EP (1997)
Live Guru EP (Flash Records, 1998)
Behold the Glory (Flash Records, 1999)
The Retro Sounds of Tokyo (2001)
FATHER (2003).
Dino can be reached via email at dinohaak@hotmail.com.
Brita Rae Borough began playing guitar at age 12, and studied jazz and classical guitar at Cornish College of the Arts. After graduation, she formed the prog rock group Astoria, and Talamasca, and the classical guitar duo, Four Hands Twelve Strings. Since 1999, she's been a songwriter and bassist for Janie Worm and the Early Birds. She also teaches, in Seattle, privately and through Mills Music. She can be contacted via email at raeborough@yahoo.com.
Free Music Lesson: Los Otros Chordos ("the other chords")
Left-Hand Chords, Part 3 of 3
In part one of the Left-Hand Chords series ("Gordo Chordo") you saw how easy it was to play a minor-seven chord up and down on your bass strings. In part two ("Five Chords to Rule the World"), you saw how to turn that simple minor-seven chord into five different chords, and how, with these five chords, you can play nearly every song all the way through.
But of course there are other chords, and probably you'll want to play some of these other chords, to add additional flavor and variation and richness. In this concluding part, we'll do just that.
In the previous two lessons, since some of you are playing your left-hand strings tuned in fourths, and some of you are playing your left-hand strings tuned in 'inverted fifths', we laid out these left-hand chords separately for fourths and for fifths tunings. We'll do the same thing here. First we'll present the lesson for fourths tuning, and then we'll present the same lesson for you folks playing with inverted-fifths in the bass strings.
Rooting Around (in Fourths Bass)
As mentioned previously, you'll probably find most flexible to lay out the roots on two adjacent low strings, as shown here:
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As you will see, this will enable you to play low roots, and will give you enough higher strings to play all the chords that we will need on these eight roots. This position will give you the lowest notes for your roots while keeping you out of the string damper at fret one. And lastly, the position chosen for these roots will always leave you with one string lower which will be handy later for grabbing the fifth to make lots of rhythmic things possible. So, if you need to, please review Graph A above and make sure you know where these eight roots fall on your fourths-tuned bass strings.
As mentioned in the previous article, one secret to gaining masterful control is to practice, at first, very slowly. As you learn how to do that, you are training your body how to respond, so that when you're traveling too fast to think, your body knows what to do. So try to go from chord to chord by moving smoothly and making each chord note sound clear and sweet.
When you can play a chord as shown in the chord diagram, then move it up and down the fretboard. For example if you're given a chord with a root of C, then also try it on D, E, F, G, A, and B. And now, the "other" chords ...
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Now that you can play these additional left-hand chords, try playing them in different ways. Try arpeggiating them in any way which pleases you. Or try 'comping' them.(Comping chords was discussed in the previous "Five Chords" lesson.)
What to do with these Chords?
Well, firstly, remember that the "Five Chords to Rule the World" will provide 98% of all the chords you'll need to play almost any song all the way through. And that doesn't change just because you know some more chords!
However, as you play from leadsheets, which show the chord symbols, then you are going to run into these other chords. For example, if you're playing a song which calls for the simple C chord, meaning a major triad, yes you can probably play CMaj7, but now you can play the simple triad, and it will sound simpler, and probably sweeter.
The leadsheet you're playing will tell you what to do!
Rooting Around on Bass Strings in Inverted Fifths
If you're playing an instrument whose bass strings are tuned in the popular 'inverted fifths' tuning, you can play left-hand chords just as easily. As mentioned in the last issue, you'll probably find it most flexible to lay out the roots on two adjacent low strings, as shown here:
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As you will see, this positioning will enable you to play low roots, and will give you enough higher strings to play all the chords that we will need on these eight roots. This position will give you the lowest notes for your roots while keeping you out of the string damper at fret one. And lastly, the position chosen for these roots will always leave you able to grab the fifth to make lots of rhythmic things possible. So, if you need to, please review Graph AA above and make sure you know where these eight roots fall on your inverted-fifths bass strings.
As mentioned in the previous article, one secret to gaining masterful control is to practice, at first, very slowly. As you learn how to do that, you are training your body how to respond, so that when you're traveling too fast to think, your body knows what to do. So try to go from chord to chord by moving smoothly and making each chord note sound clear and sweet.
When you can play a chord as shown in the chord diagram, then move it up and down the fretboard. For example if you're given a chord with a root of C, then also try it on D, E, F, G, A, and B. And now, the "other" chords ...
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Now that you can play these additional left-hand chords, try playing them in different ways. Try arpeggiating them in any way which pleases you. Or try 'comping' them.(Comping chords was discussed in the previous "Five Chords" lesson.)
What to do with these Chords?
Well, firstly, remember that the "Five Chords to Rule the World" will provide 98% of all the chords you'll need to play almost any song all the way through. And that doesn't change just because you know some more chords!
However, as you play from leadsheets, which show the chord symbols, then you are going to run into these other chords. For example, if you're playing a song which calls for the simple C chord, meaning a major triad, yes you can probably play CMaj7, but now you can play the simple triad, and it will sound simpler, and probably sweeter.
The leadsheet you're playing will tell you what to do!
Contact us:
Mobius Megatar USA
Post Office Box 161
Weed, CA 96094 USA
http://www.megatar.com/
Business Office (530) 938-1100
Member Better Tapping Bureau
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