Tasty Tones

Midnight Rambler

Peter — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 09:55:54 +0000

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Roadhouse Blues – Live

Peter — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 01:01:46 +0000

The Charlie Hadden Blues Band, Live at Bamboo Place, Bohol, Philippines. Here’s our take on the classic Doors’ song, Roadhouse Blues.

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Bacchus BTE-1 Review

Peter — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 02:22:46 +0000

I’ve always considered myself a bit of a Strat guy and considered Teles to be kind of blocky looking and only good for country twang, which isn’t really my bag. I was at a gig about a month ago, however, and broke a string right before our last song. The end of the string was somehow lodged in the string hole making it difficult to quickly install a new string. Luckily, the other guitarist in our band was playing his 335 and loaned me his Bacchus Tele.

We launched into our last song, Midnight Rambler by the Stones, I was delighted at how great the Bacchus sounded through my warmed up Princeton Reverb 65 RI. In fact, I was so impressed that I spent the next day researching Bacchus guitars and looking to get one. I ended up on the Bacchus BTE-1, which is part of their Universe series.

Features

Body: Hardwood
Neck: Roasted Maple
Fingerboard: Roasted Maple
Nut: ABS
Bridge: TE Type Bridge
Machineheads: Rotomatic Type
Fret: Nickel Silver
Pickups: Original S-S Set
Controls: 1Vol, 1Tone, 3way PU Selector
Scale: 25.5inch
Width at Nut: 42.0mm
Fingerboard Radius: 400R
Finish: Urethane
Accessories: Gig Bag, Allen Wrench, COA

What I like about the BTE-1

Quality Construction

First of all, the overall feel and construction of the BTE-1 feels really good. Also, when I got the guitar, the setup was surprisingly good right out of the box. While the action felt a little bit low, I think this is because of the humidity coming to the Philippines. I loosened the truss rod about a quarter of a turn to give the fingerboard some relief, and it plays very well with low action and no buzzing.

Bacchus is a Japanese brand and while these Universe series guitars are manufactured in China, the quality control is done back in Japan. Having this extra set of hands on the guitar before is ships is probably one reason everything felt very straight and playable right out of the box.

Tuners

While I’ve become a big fan of locking tuners on some of my other guitars, I found that I do actually like the stock rotary tuners shipped with the guitar. While they won’t be as fast for changing strings, they feel solid and like there is really no need to upgrade them.

Pickups

The stock pickups on the BTE-1 also sound very good. Sometimes inexpensive guitars can sound a little sharp, brittle or thin, and this was a particular concern I had buying an inexpensive Tele where I was most likely to be playing the bridge pickup. No problem, however. The bridge sounds great, especially through a Fender style amp with a little crunch.

Roasted Maple Fretboard

Finally, the roasted maple fingerboard is very nice. Living in a humid climate, I’m always a little concerned about fretboards warping. The roasted maple looks and feels great, and is supposed to be a little more resistant to humidity. This is a great feature for such an inexpensive guitar!

What I Dislike about the BTE-1

Very Flat Fingerboard Radius

I have to admit that at first, I wasn’t super stoked on the fingerboard radius. Coming from the strat world, I’m used to anywhere from a 7.25″ – 9.5″ fingerboard radius. I had overlooked the fact that the Bacchus BTE-1 has a “400R” fingerboard radius which is approximately 15.75″ radius. It felt extremely flat at first. That said, I think we tend to like what we are used to and dislike what feels different. Now that I’ve been playing the 400R radius for a while, I don’t even think about it.

Nickel Frets

The other thing I didn’t like immediately is the nickel frets, which feel a little slow and “friction-y” to me. Again, I’ve gotten used to this, but I do think I will upgrade the frets to stainless steel sometime in the future, which is only about a $50 upgrade here in the Philippines. To me, stainless steel frets just feel a little more buttery. They last longer too.

“Hardwood” Body

Bacchus myseriously says that the wood of the BTE-1 body is “hardwood.” I don’t know exactly what kind of wood is used, and it probably only makes a minor difference in tone. The tone snob in me would prefer and ash body, though. But, hey, for $185, you do make some tradeoffs, and its hard to say how much difference tonewoods make. Some people care, some people don’t. Still, in a perfect world, I’d like the ash!

Conclusion

Overall, I’m super happy with the Bacchus BTE-1 for $185, and will definitely be keeping it. I think the playability will only improve with some fresh stainless steel frets. It’s not necessary, but I also found some used Fender VMOD-II Tele pickups on Reverb for $80. In a few months, I plan to swap out the pickups and do a side-by-side comparison to see if there is a really noticeable difference.

The Bacchus BTE-1 has definitely scratched my itch for a Tele style guitar, and you get a ton of bang for the back by skipping the Fender logo. Those in the know, know that there are great guitars coming out of Japan, and Bacchus is definitely flying under the radar. I highly recommend the BTE-1 if you want to have a great guitar and save a few bucks.

Bacchus BTE-1 Demo

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What Are Chicago Blues?

Peter — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 23:38:20 +0000

Chicago Blues grew out of the more classic Delta blues in the 1940s after millions of African-Americans left the southern United States in what was termed the Great Migration. At the time, the South was still plagued by intense racial segregation and discrimination. Many of those African-Americans ended up in cities in the northeast, midwest and west.

The Chicago Blues sound was developed by blues musicians who settled in Chicago, and became popular during the 1950s and 1960s. It was really the foundation for rock and roll and modern electric blues.

The unique sound developed in Chicago differed from the earlier classic Delta style blues in that it had a more gritty, urban feel. It was defined by the use of the electric guitars, amplified harps (harmonicas), electric bass, piano, and occasionally other instruments like saxophone. It used loud and often overdriven amplifiers. In contrast, the earlier classic or Delta style blues was acoustic in nature.

The lyrics of the Chicago sound also tended to reflect the struggles of life in the city as opposed to life in the country.

Chicago Blues Musicians

MUDDY WATERS
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WILLY DIXON
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HOWLIN’ WOLF
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ELMORE JAMES
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LUTHER ALLISON
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BUDDY GUY
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PAUL BUTTERFIELD
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CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE
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The Inspiration for Rock and Roll

Record labels like Chess Records and Vee-Jay Records helped spread blues music around the world. Early Chicago Blues musicians like Muddy Waters, Willy Dixon and Howlin’ Wolf were influential for the later development of rock and roll musicians such as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddly in the United States.

In Europe, Chicago Blues musicians similarly influenced bands and musicians like The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Peter Green and others. In fact, the Rolling Stones got their band name from Muddy Waters’ recording of the song “Rollin’ Stone.”

Many of the Rolling Stones chart hits were actually covers of Chicago Blues songs like “Little Red Rooste r“, “I Just Want to Make Love to You” and “I want to be Loved.”

More contemporary blues players like Robben Ford also took a lot of their inspiration from the scene that was happening in Chicago. For example, in this youtube video, Robben Ford talks about the huge impact the Chicago sound had on his playing in the 1960s, especially The Butterfield Blues Band.

Blues Guitar by Yourself: Electric & Acoustic Guitar Course w/Corey Congelio

Who this is for:

Guitar players interested in playing blues guitar.
Guitar players interested in self-accompaniment.
Guitar players looking to sharpen their blues vocabulary in both rhythm and lead.
Guitar players stuck in a rut.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Photos

“Muddy Waters 1979” by Kevin Dooley is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
“1979 Willie Dixon-010” by Len Carlson is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
“Howlin’ Wolf – Howling in the Moonlight” by comunicon.es is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
“Buddy Guy @ Beale Street Music Festival” by ConcertTour is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
“elmore james” by third uncle is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
“Luther Allison” by Christopher Losberger is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
“Charlie Musselwhite” by Bill Gracey is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

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