How to bake bread and play bass at the same time...

Computer Recording Interface for $3.24…

2009-01-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

So I have been pondering getting a computer recording setup. Maybe firewire for my Mac… I was prepared to burn a couple hundred dollars, but I had a stroke of brilliance last night on my way home from work last night…

I went over to Radio Shack and purchased one of these: 1/4" Mono Jack to 1/8" Mono Plug Adapter

So the moment of truth was when I got home, and plugged my bass directly into the 1/8” microphone jack on the back of my laptop. Mind you, my basses are all passive with no electronics… I turned up the sound, launched Garageband, and voila’. Sound!!! The sound wasn’t half bad, and there was no latency that I noticed, and I was able to use all of the effects that Garageband has… Pretty cool. The only noticeable problem is that if I am playing too close to my computer, I can hear an electrical hum in my headphones, but that’s about it… This weekend, I’ll try adding my boost pedal into the mix to get a stronger signal, but I’m overall happy with my discovery and decision… Now I can start recording stuff on my own time just for kicks…

Now, my next question is does anybody read this silly blog???

Realizations for 2009

2009-01-07T09:42:00.000-08:00

Hope you all had a Happy Holiday Season, and a very Happy New Year!

So for 2009, I have made a resolution not to make any new year resolutions, for fear of breaking them in the near future out of laziness or forgetfulness…

Sometime late last year, or early this year, I read a blog entry from Bay Area bassist Jeff Schmidt on his Myspace page called: Not sucking Donkey Balls Isn’t enough for success. It includes a video of Malcolm Gladwell interviewed by Charlie Rose. Basically the gist of it is that in order to master something you need to do it for about 10,000 hours under the right circumstances… Watch the video and you’ll understand…

Also, last year, I was pondering selling my bass rig in order to get something smaller and less cumbersome to move around, and to get some cash back… Well that sort of happened, but not really… I ended up selling most of my pedals that I don’t use… So I’m left with the following:

Barber Electronics Launch Pad Boost Pedal (my preamp)
QSC PLX 1804 (power amp)
Dr. Bass 1580 (speaker cabinet)

Let me preface this by saying that my band Har Ik Zehr played a show on December 26th for some sort of Paki Cultural/Political Event in Long Island City, Queens… We had to bring all of our equipment, etc… We were promised a 30 minute set, but were cut off after not even the end of our 2nd song… Anyways, we as a band decided that this show never existed… But I came to the realization, that my amplification set-up is fine, it sounds good, it’s a little bigger than I’d like, but it sounds great, and is loud enough for most venues…

Also, to go off on another tangent, I had dinner with Yves Carbonne and his wife last night in NYC… It was so nice to actually meet him in person, and to see how passionate he is about music…

So anyways, more about Yves later… But I’ve come to realize that more gear, even better gear doesn’t make you a better player or musician… More life, more practice, and finding yourself and your own musical voice/style make you a better musician… So, to make a long story short, I better get on with those 10,000 hours of practice…

My Sweet Potato Pugliese Bread Recipe Featured on http://www.thefreshloaf.com

2008-12-27T17:15:00.000-08:00

Sweet Potato Pugliese Bread

This is an 85% hydration dough. Crumb is very light, airy, and moist.
Makes two approx. 500g loaves.

Time Required: 5-6 hours with 30 minutes active work.

Ingredients:
400g all purpose unbleached flour (70%)
100g bread flour (17%)
60g whole wheat flour (10%)
20g rye flour (3%)
493 grams of water (85%)
14g kosher salt (2.5%)
1 tsp active dry yeast (1%)
125g mashed sweet potato (see instructions) (22%)

Tools required:
Large mixing bowl with cover, or plastic wrap
Wooden spoon
Kitchen Scale
Baking Stone
Peel
Tea towels, or linen baker’s couches
Small pot
Immersion blender

1. Peel sweet potato and cut into small chunks and measure out 125g. Place sweet potato in small pot with just enough water to cover. Bring water to boil and cook sweet potato until it can be mashed easily with a fork.

2. When sweet potato is cooked, remove from heat and separate sweet potato from cooking liquid.

3. Using a kitchen scale, add the sweet potato cooking liquid, and add room temperature water to make 493g of total liquid.

4. Add cooked sweet potato to the liquid and process with stick blender until there are no chunks of sweet potato. Make sure the liquid mixture is less than 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

5. Using a kitchen scale, measure out dry ingredients (flours, salt, yeast), place in large bowl and mix well with wooden spoon, then add sweet potato liquid mixture, and mix into choppy dough, and let rest covered for about 20-30 minutes (autolyse)

6. After rest, mix dough again with wooden spoon until dough becomes smooth and wraps around wooden spoon. Turn dough out onto heavily floured work surface, and turn dough using the fold and stretch method, returning dough to covered bowl between turns. Repeat at 20 minute intervals 4 times. At last turn, let dough rise in covered bowl undisturbed for another 90 minutes.

7. After final rise, turn dough out onto heavily floured work surface, gently stretch and fold dough into thirds with the last fold overlapping the first and divide into two loaves. (approx 630g).

8. Form loaves by gently stretching them out and folding them in thirds with the last fold overlapping the first, and place seam side down on heavily floured tea towels or linen baker’s couch with a wall between the 2 loaves. Be careful not to handle to dough to much to preserve the air pockets. Be sure to flour the loaves well so they don’t stick to the tea towels or couche. Cover with remaining couch or tea towels and let proof for about 45 minutes or until they are well expanded and barely spring back when touched.

9. Place baking stone on middle rack of oven and turn on to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and preheat for at least 45 minutes.

10. Turn loaves onto peel (seam side up) and place directly on to the baking stone. Turn oven temperature down to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, and bake for 40-45 minutes turning them 180 degrees half way into baking time. Loaves are done when they are a deep golden brown and the internal temperature is between 205F to 210F.

11. Let loaves cool completely before cutting and eating.

Baking Bread While Waiting For My Delano Pickups...

2008-12-08T16:18:00.001-08:00

So on September 11, 2008, I ordered a set of Delano pickups for my bass from Fearless Guitars out in Portland Oregon... Sometime in early November, Chance Walte of Fearless Guitars told me that Delano screwed up some of the orders, and had to remake some of them... My order was one of them... Anyways, it's December 8th now, almost 3 months, and still no word on the progress of my order... Funny thing is that Delano is from Germany... ETS is also from Germany... My custom order from ETS also suffered the same fate, but was much longer... Almost double what I am waiting for my Delano pickups... Anyways, there isn't much I can do other than wait, and send emails to Fearless Guitars, or try to contact then over the phone... It's almost like watching grass grow... But here in NYC, it's a luxury to have a lawn, so I bake bread instead...

So leading up to Thanksgiving, I decided to start up baking bread again, since the weather is cooler, or colder, so I can fire up the old oven without much worry... Pre-Thanksgiving, I decided to see what I could do in 5 hours, but that was a distaster that went straight to the trash... For Thanksgiving, I allowed myself much more time and had a pretty successful run baking 4 loaves, 2 plain loaves, and 2 caraway seed w/raisins, dried blueberries & cranberries... I will repeat the caraway dried fruit loaves very soon, however, I'm always up for trying something new...

So today, on Dec. 8th, I am working on the following:
3 loaves of a simple crusty bread
3 loaves of ciabatta

Each of the loaves I'm hoping will be about 500g.

Please see preceeding blog entries for the recipes...

For more in artisan bread baking, please check out the following books:
Artisan Baking Across America by Maggie Glezer
and
The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Rheinhart

I highly recommend these books, but what is most important including following the recipes is time and patience... If you rush, you will surely fail...

Happy Post-Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T06:55:00.000-08:00

Funny thing I noticed last night... Just outside of the subway stop near my apt, I noticed that there are Christmas trees for sale already... Even just before Thanksgiving, I noticed that their stands were already set up, just waiting for the trees to arrive... There was some dude manning the stands, and freezing his *ss off... I guess you need to have a constant watch over your stuff here in NYC, or else someone will make off with it...

Anyways, I hope you are all still enjoying your leftovers... Dinner went off without a hitch, and the Turchicken that I attempted came out preety good along with the turky leg/wings confit, and fresh bread... I will start posting my bread experiments shortly... On a related note, I am on my 5th day of turkey, and variations on my Thanksgiving dinner... I have done about 5 loads of dishes in my dishwasher... There is 1 more load I think... I'll be very happy when my fridge is clear of all the leftovers, and my kitchen.

Finally, I have successfully resisted the "Black Friday" shopping frenzy... Actually, didn't do any shopping, so that means more money that I didn't spend... Yay...

Well, signing off for now... More updates soon...

Downsizing...

2008-11-18T12:45:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posts... I've been pondering a few things lately in regards to musical gear and stuff... Just trying to figure out what I really need to get the sound that I am hearing in my head... My conclusion is that less is more... Get that one piece of gear that you really want, instead of lots of little things here and there that sort of get the job done... So in light of this, I am pondering a new, simpler bass set-up, and am selling things that I don't use much... So in the coming weeks I will be selling stuff on eBay...

Currently up for sale is a Zoom PD-01 Analog Distortion Pedal, and a BBE Opto Stomp Compressor Pedal... Nice stuff, but don't seem to use them anymore... Maybe after Thanksgiving, I'll put up my 4 string bass, and jazz guitar up for sale... Also, somebody has dibs on my Dr. Bass 1580 speaker cab...

I have my sights on a powered speaker cabinet, which will get rid of the separate head/pre/power amp/speaker cabinet ordeal... I'm looking into the Roland D-Bass 115X powered extension cabinet. The Barber Electronics Launch Pad Boost Pedal should suffice as a pre-amp for a long time, and I'll be keeping my pedal tuner...

I think for me, this is an excercise in not getting too attached to material things... Basses, and musical instruments are just tools... When they have served their purpose, and are no longer useful, and are just taking up space and collecting dust, they should be sold... This is also the great thing about musical instruments... If they are cared for, they can be resold at very little loss...

Rediscovering Living Colour...

2008-11-13T13:37:00.000-08:00

Updates...

2008-11-10T07:03:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the long break between posts... Here's a quick list of what's happening on my end:

1. Rehearsing with my band Har Ik Zehr, and preparing for our 1st recording session on December 20th at Mother West Studios in NYC. We are working on our 1st full length album.

2. Waiting for Clint Searcy of Searcy String Works to put the finishing touches on a custom pickup for my next custom bass to be built by Matt Schmill of FBB Custom Bass Works.

3. Still waiting for my Delano SBC-6 pickups from Fearless Guitars for my main 6 string bass... I ordered them on Sept 11th of this year...

4. Doing some home improvement...

5. Having an itch to build stuff: speaker cabinet, bench, electric upright bass, anything I can dream up... Next stop, Amazon.com for some power tools...

6. Dealing with my injured back... It is slowly getting better...

Stay tuned for more posts...

For Sale: Dr. Bass 1580... (w/Beyma upgrade)

2008-11-04T09:29:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let you all know that I am selling my Dr. Bass 1580 speaker cabinet... It's got an upgraded Beyma G40 15" speaker, along with casters. It's in excellent condition and I have extra cabinet corners and casters that I will send with it... I'm not playing out much with my own set-up, and my back seems to be getting worse... Please msg/email me if you are interested.

Thanks.

Tim

JustStrings.com

2008-10-20T17:13:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite place to buy bass and guitar strings... Since I don't play in standard electric bass tuning, I need to buy individual strings because they don't exist in pre-packaged sets...

They have strings for just about any stringed instrument imaginable...

Anyways, I bought some strings a few weeks ago, and needed to make a return because the strings I chose were too heavy for my tuning... I called them up and they said to just send back the unopened strings that you don't want along with a note that describes why you are returning then, and then original invoice... That's it. When they receive the strings back, they will credit the credit card you made the purchase with, minus the shipping... So simple, no RA authorization # needed either...

JustStrings.com rocks!

Barber Electronics Launch Pad Boost Pedal...

2008-10-16T16:05:00.000-07:00

My Barber Electronics Launch Pad Boost Pedal just arrived today... Ordered it from Tone Factor earlier this week. This is my "cheapie" attempt at using a clean boost pedal for a preamp for my bass...

So far I am very pleased with it. It boosts my signal quite a bit, and it actually clears up my bass.

My signal path is now as follows:

Bass=>Launch Pad=>QSC PLX1804 Power Amp=>Dr. Bass 1580 Cabinet...

Now off to rehearsal to test it out some more... So far, so good...

HAR IK ZEHR Presents: Concert To Help Us Record, Sat, 10/25 @ Connolly's, NYC @ 9:30pm

2008-10-15T10:53:00.001-07:00

Jean Baudin's Solo Bass Album "Solace"

2008-10-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

So last night I downloaded Jean Baudin's solo bass album "Solace"...

If you don't know who he is, or have not heard his music you owe it to yourself to...

It is some of the most beautiful and peaceful music I have heard in a very long time...

Please go here to download: http://jeanbaudin.com/store.html

Or check him out on Myspace at: http://www.myspace.com/jeanbaudin

Searcy String Works...

2008-10-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

So for the 2 people that know about my blog and my bass playing...

I have been designing a new custom bass to be built by Matt Schmill of FBB Custom Bass Works. Matt built my 1st custom bass between 2001-2002. This is my main bass...

For this next bass, I need to enlist the help of many people... Clint Searcy of Searcy String Works. He has been working on a custom pickup for this bass for the past few months. Please check out his blog at: http://searcystringworks.blogspot.com

Over there you can check out some progress pics and find out what the heck kind of bass I'm designing...

Pickups…

2008-10-13T10:42:00.001-07:00

So my main 6 string bass built by Matt Schmill of FBB Custom Bass Works started out with Bartolini P4 Quad Coils, and a Bartolini NTMB 9V Active preamp…

A few months back, I got frustrated with the preamp, and had my guitar tech take it out and convert it to passive VVT with coil-taps for each pickup and a passive tone control (500k pots).

The P4’s sounded ok in humbucking mode, and better in coil tap mode, but the output was not to my liking…

So I ordered some Nordstrand Big Singles 6 string model from Brian Ristola of Best Bass Gear… Great guy! I put them in, and had high hopes for them, but wasn’t sure if I liked them or not… At this time, I had Ken Smith Stainless Steel Strings on… They sounded sort of muddy for some reason… Oh, I still have 500K vol/tone pots in… I was hoping for a jazz like tone from my bass, but it ended up woollier than I had hoped…

In the meantime, I ordered some Delano SBC 6 H/E pickups from Fearless Guitars out in Oregon… I’m still waiting for them… It’s been about 4 weeks… I hear they take a long time to make, and arrive from Germany…

Then, about a week ago, I decided to order some D’Addario Pro Steel strings… Please see my previous post about strings… The Nordstrands along with the Pro Steels seem to be a happy combination for now… Still not the output level that I would like, but they sound pretty good…

Then, this morning, I ordered a Barber Electronics Launch Pad Boost Pedal from Tone Factor… Should be here by the end of the week… I’ll hopefully have something to report back to you all…

That’s the story for now… I should really get back to playing bass instead of messing with all this tech stuff…

Preamps and Amplification…

2008-10-13T09:09:00.000-07:00

Here’s another installment of Bass Geekdom…

My main bass started out with an active preamp… I have since taken it out and am left with 3 empty holes on my bass, but no matter… My bass is for playing, and not for just looking pretty…

I am rather anti-EQ, and currently play my bass through the following rig at home:

Bass => QSC PLX1804 => Dr. Bass 1580…

I figure that if the bass doesn’t sound good on it’s own, it’s not going to sound better with more junk in the signal…

I am not against the right preamp though… I just don’t think that on-board preamps are all they are cracked up to be. For me, it’s one more think to worry about/fail… Is your battery fully charged? Besides, if you get a good out-board preamp that you like, you can use it with all your passive basses, right?

Anyways, my favorite preamp of all time is the A-Designs REDDI… It’s just great sounding and great looking. It’s sort of a fire engine red brick with 1 gain knob, and a very bright blue light… If it weren’t for the weird form factor, I’d still have it…

I tried out the Tech 21 RPM, but wasn’t too happy with it as it got in the way of my bass signal. There was a magic that was lost when I turned on the pre… The sound sort of became less open…

I just ordered the Barber Electronics Launch Pad Boost Pedal… It’s got up to 20db of gain, and 2 outputs, one of them is balanced… I have high hopes for this one. I just need a boost before the power amp… I’ll keep you posted…

Timothy Leung Interview in Oct/Nov 2008 Issue of Bass Musician Magazine

2008-10-13T08:31:00.000-07:00

Please check out my interview with Brent-Anthony Johnson in the Oct/Nov 2008 issue of Bass Musician Magazine.

Here's the link: http://www.bass-musician-magazine.com/General/bass-musician-magazine-detail.asp?article-id=923464836

Full Circle With Strings…

2008-10-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not posting for such a very, very long time… Many things have happened since I started this blog earlier this year… I will try to start posting more regularly these days. I just have to start getting into the habit…

So first off, I would like to announce that I am right back where I started with respect to strings… I have pretty much used D’Addario ProSteel bass strings ever since I started playing bass about 7 years ago. They stainless steel with a hex core, and have that very bright, piano like tone… Also, they are cheap, and available in many single gauges and lengths at juststrings.com. Since my main bass has a 35” scale length, there are a limited number of strings that I can use as most strings are made for 34” scale length and would be a too short to clear the nut… Some of the strings available that fit 35” scale length basses are Ken Smith, and DR. There are a few others, but you will have to do some research on your own…

So I haven’t played in standard 6 string bass tuning (BEADGC) for many years now. I flip between (ADGCFA#) and (E0/ADGCF) in which the E is one octave below standard E on electric bass. I will be switching back to ADGCFA# very shortly as I have come to some realizations about strings, scale length, and tunings in the past weeks… Here are my findings:

I am currently using the Warwick Black Label Stainless Steel .175 string tuned to E0. This is an expensive string that is about $30.00 each on eBay. I think it was developed to be tuned to low F# on a 35” scale length bass (Warwick Vampyre Dark Lord)… Here’s what I like about the string: It fits a 35” scale length bass, it’s readily available, it has a taper core with one heavy wrap on the part that goes over the bridge… What I don’t like is that it is dark sounding for a stainless steel string, and it really sounds better tuned to D0 (18.35 hz) rather than E0(20.6 hz) or F#0 (23.12 hz). Tuned to E0 on my bass the string reaches about 33.39 lbs. This seems for me to be too tight because the open string does not sustain for very long, and feels and sounds like a choked thud… When I tune the string down to D0, the string tension goes down to about 26.5 lbs, which allows the note to blossom and open up… I think this string could work well on a 34” scale length bass tuned to E0. It should reach about 31.5 lbs of tension tuned to that pitch… I have yet to try this as I don’t have another bass I can set up that way yet…

Now, back to the D’Addario ProSteels…
Their .145 Pro Steel tuned to A0 (27.5 hz) is a think of beauty. It is very bright and piano like, and the tension is very nice at about 34.83 lbs. Please check out the string tension chart on D’Addario’s website to see where I’m getting all these numbers from…
I am in the process of changing my strings to the following: .145, .105, .080, .060, .045, .032 tuned to ADGCFA#.
I had experimented with a .110 for a D string, and .090 for the G string, .065 for the C string, and .050 for the F string.
The .110 tuned to D (drop) reaches about 38.72 lbs, the .090 tuned to G is about 45.34 lbs, and the .065 and .050 are over 40 lbs of tension. I think these feel OK, but a little harder to play on, but they also again choke the string and don’t allow the notes to blossom and sustain for as long as they should.
As for optimum string tension, they should range from low 30 lbs for the low strings to mid to high 30 lbs for the higher strings…

As for other strings, I thought I liked the Ken Smith Stainless Steel Strings, but they didn’t sound so good on my 6 string bass with Nordstrand Big Singles. They sounded a bit weak and mushy for some reason… Then I tried them on my cheapie 4 string P/J bass and they sounded worse… DR strings just seem expensive to me. I am in the process of changing my 4 stringer over to drop tuning DGCF. I had it tuned normally, EADG and used Ernie Ball Slinky Nickel Round Wound strings which sounded great. I will probably continue to use those on the 4 stringer…

So that’s it for now with regard to strings…

Del Posto...

2008-01-13T20:33:00.000-08:00

This posting has nothing to do with either playing bass or baking bread... So my brother and his wife were in town this weekend. For any of you out there who know about us know that we love food, and anything to do with food... They had made a reservation them + my girlfriend and I for Mario Batali's new restaurant Del Posto for this evening. So to make matters simple, I'm just going to list everything we tried. We all decided on the "Del Posto" menu which includes your choice of an antipasto, secondo, dessert, and tastings of 2 primi (pastas) for the table...

Our consumings:
Antipasti:
"Cauliflower SFORMATO with Poached Lobster, Pressed Melon & Amaranth"
"Lamb CRUDO with Warm Mussels Mare e Monte"
"Insalata SALUMI Misti with Erbazzone and Stuffed Peppers"

along with amuse bouches complements of the kitchen:
"Spiedini of broccoli, pork sausage, and olive"
"Pasta e fagioli soup shooters"
"Zeppole alla parmigiano"

Breads:
Mini baguettes, herb rolls, olive rolls, walnut rolls served with butter and lard spreads...

Primi:
"Carrot CAPPELLACCI with Almond Milk and Black Truffles"
"SPAGHETTI with Dungeness Crab, Sliced Jalapeno & Minced Scallion"

Secondi:
"CACCIUCCO with Hand-Rolled Fregola and Gambero Rosso"
"Seared DUCK Breast, Apician Spices, Savor alla Francescana & Lovage" with a complementary side of foie gras mousse...
"Roasted LAMB CHOPS with Salsa Madre & Sauteed Basil " with a complementary side of sweetbread and liver stew...
"Sliced VENISON with Grilled Cabbage, Riso alla Santini & Ginseng Elisir"

Wines:
A bottle of Lambrusco
A bottle of TERREDORA Fiano di Avellino 2005

Desserts:
"TRIS di Limone, Meyer Lemon Meringue Tart, Lemon Chiboust & Lemon Verbena Sorbetto"
"SOUFFLE di Cioccolato, Chocolate Souffle, Hot Chocolate, Brandied Cherry-Chip Gelato"
"BUDINO di Cioccolato, Chocolate pudding, Chocolate Streusel, Whipped Cream"
"Sheep's milk PANNA COTTA with red wine jelly, red wine braised pear, and meringue cigarettes"

Surprisingly good decaffeinated coffee along with an amazing selection of mini cookies, chocolates, etc...

It's late, but stay tuned for my scathing review...

Welcome to my blog...

2008-01-08T17:43:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog. Please bear with me while I figure out how this blogging business works and think of something intelligent to say...