New tie-up with brilliant acoustic guitar pickup manufacturer JJB Electronics

I’m very excited to announce a new endorsement agreement with the superb JJB Electronics, a relatively new (to me, anyway) company who, in my humble opinion, are making the finest acoustic guitar pickups I’ve ever heard, for a ridiculously reasonable price.

My relationship with JJB came about during my neverending search for a decent plugged-in acoustic guitar sound. As you know, I spend most of the year on the road, and I have long been tired of plugging in my beautiful Gibson acoustics and hearing nothing but the sound of a hollow, quacky pickup.

It’s no exaggeration to say that I’ve auditioned/bought/borrowed several dozen acoustic guitar pickups over the years, most models from all the major manufacturers and plenty from less well known makers. None have lived up to my hopes or expectations, be they soundhole pickups, UST (or ‘undersaddle’) pickups, mic-blend pickups, the lot-they all either sounded synthetic and harsh, or had horrendous issues with feedback (and I never leave home without one of my several trusty Feedback Buster soundhole plugs).

JJB Electronics’ products came to my attention recently after I acquired a beautiful Gibson Advanced Jumbo from my friend Glenn Sinnock at www.glennsguitars.com which featured a bridge design which procludes the fitting of a traditional piezo undersaddle pickup. I had to think outside the box with this puppy, so started to look at soundhole pickups. I tried two soundhole pickups (I’ll name no names, but the two biggest selling models from the two best known brands) and both sounded horrible, devoid of clarity, punch or anything vaguely “acoustic”.

So, back to the drawing board I went, until I stumbled across a review of the JJB Electronics Artist Series Prestige 330. This sounded too good to be true, a triple-sensor passive soundboard transducer pickup, USA made, customisable to my specs, shipped for free, all for under $50 (£32!!!).

I couldn’t resist, and e-mailed Jessie, the man behind JJB, with a couple of questions regarding sensor size and my bridgeplate etc. I received a detailed reply less than three minutes after sending my e-mail…the customer service that JJB offer is DYNAMITE, I have never been more impressed. I placed my order there and then, and my pickup was with me less than ten days later, shipped, as promised, for free despite the transatlantic postage costs.

I’m no stranger to guitar fettling, and this pickup is a very non-invasive install, so I was able to install the pickup and have the guitar gig-ready in under 15 mins. It should be noted that my Advanced Jumbo already had a drilled endpin to receive the strapjack of the pickup-drilling out the endpin hole would add another 15 mins to the installation process…either way, it’s quick.

I’ve gigged the guitar extensively since then, and I’m just thrilled to bits with this pickup. It is by far the most natural sounding acoustic guitar pickup I’ve ever heard, and its dynamic response is incredible-it sounds just like my big, bold, lush Gibson AJ…but louder!

I was so impressed with the product, price point and customer service, that I just had to get involved and try to spread the word about JJB Electronics in the UK, which is why I’m proud to say I’ll be endorsing JJB for the forseeable future, and installing their pickups in all of my acoustic guitars, ukuleles and mandolins.

If you’re an acoustic guitarist, you’ll know what a drag it is trying to find a decent amplified sound. You really do owe it to yourself (and your guitar) to audition a pickup from JJB Electronics.

JJB Electronics

I can’t wait to see you all on the road when I tour in April-May and September-October this year. I know my guitar sound won’t let me down…

Much love to all,
Jinder x

 

The new album is FINISHED at last…

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I’m thrilled, relieved and, frankly, knackered to announce that finally, after two years of toil, my new record is FINISHED!

That’s right, the last buttons have been pressed and the last faders have been fondled, and the dear old thing is off to be mastered this week.

Having spent so long making it, it’s hard to describe it in objective terms. I have fiddled with it obsessively for a very long time, and, without a deadline or a label breathing down my neck, I was able to continue to do so until I felt it was truly finished.

I recorded it in total isolation in various locations (often in houses and flats I was living in at the time, and, in the case of one track, in a hotel room on a four-track cassette recorder), and the only other human being who contributed to the recording was the wonderful Liam Bradley who recorded some tender and deeply inconspicuous drums and percussion on a few tracks.

Sonically, it’s not far from my first record, ‘Willow Park’, from way back in the mists of time, except a bit more weathered and a lot more grown-up. If ‘Willow Park’ was a freshly launched boat devoid of rigging and sea trials, my new record is the same ship, that has now spent seven years crossing back and forth across the Atlantic without a refit.

I’m still trying, in places, to arrange harmonies in the style of Brian Wilson…the difference is that now I’m old and wise enough to realise however hard I reach for Mr Wilson, I’m only ever going to fall somewhere between a community choir and The Swingle Singers.

Don’t let that preamble fool you into thinking I’m not proud of the new album, though-it’s unquestionably the best record I’ve made to date and is unswervingly honest…the songs were recorded without ‘drop-ins’ or any form of autotuning (I have NEVER used any, I should point out!), and the performances are largely ‘live in the studio’, warts and all.

I’ll have a title for you soon (I don’t want to announce it yet as the artwork isn’t finished, and although the title I’ve chosen is definite, there’s always the outside chance of change at this stage) and a tracklist, too.

Thanks for reading, and keep checking back-I’ll be blogging here every few days so don’t be a stranger!

Much love,
Jinder x

 

Beautiful things on ordinary days…

Hello all,
Yesterday was an ordinary early-Summer day in the Westcountry:sun shining, birds singing, the sky and soil humming with life and creation rattling along at its own peculiar pace, predestined by the ages.

My wife, daughter and I did normal, everydau family stuff, picking up the week’s shopping, planting out potatoes in the garden and so forth, and in my case answering the incessant, nagging call of internal creative momentum…I’m always writing in one way or another. It’s the kindest drug, and, now I’m a thirtysomething and trying to be a responsible sort, the only one that fits the bill.

So, just another lovely but ordinary day in my life.

The day, however, found its fulcrum at around 1:30pm, when an overworked and heavily laden postman (struggling with the postal funnel in-between the oddly positioned dual bank holiday weekends) dropped a small brown parcel through my letterbox.

Inside this parcel was an album called ‘The Mad Straight Road’, the latest record by a seasoned singer/songwriter by the name of Patrick Duff. Patrick is a superb, deeply singular artist, who is one of the greatest cult figures to emerge from the UK music scene in the last twenty years…if you don’t know of him and his music, you really need to make it your business to seek out his output-he is a man with a deeply intelligent and richly rewarding back catalogue.

You may remember Patrick’s former band who were around in the mid-1990s, the Bristol-based group Strangelove-they released three superb albums of visceral-yet-melody-heavy indie rock with an intellectual lyrical inclination and a firm grasp on the rungs of the “dark ladder” that Joni Mitchell spoke of.

Strangelove’s records, particularly their final two (1995′s ‘Love And Other Demons’ and 1997′s eponymous album) were key records in the soundtrack to my turbulent late-teens/early 20s-they resonated with me in a peculiar and particular manner, and have stuck in my memory ever since, still visiting the stereo from time to time and bringing back memories of youthful terror, darkness and unrequited just-about-everything.

After 1997, Duff dropped off the map (well, MY map at least-a read through his expansive and interesting website

www.patrickduff.com

reveals that he was a busy man, initially with abortive New-Wave-Of-New-Wave band Moon and then with an ambitious collaborative project with African musician Madosini, which took him on a lengthy creative jag to her native country), before returning with 2005′s eclectic, demanding yet extremely rewarding solo set ‘Luxury Problems’ on EMI’s relaunched Harvest label, once home to Psychedelic Folk avatar Syd Barrett (the man whose second solo album galvanised my desire to become a songwriter) and his contemporaries such as Kevin Ayers.

As most intense, personal records do, ‘Luxury Problems’ seemed to fly in and out of the press and industry radar sweep in a breath…too complex for Radio Two, too mature for Radio One, too intense for the casual listener and packed with too much dark beauty for the music industry to take to its hearts.

The upshot of this is that Patrick once again was obscured to the public eye, and spent the last six years working on interesting projects involving Tibetan singing bowls, music composed through mathematical and physical equations and other such cerebral and, I’m sure, personally satisfying quests.

The album I received yesterday, ‘The Mad Straight Road’ was a bit of a bolt from the blue for me, I wasn’t aware of Patrick’s new music until I located him on social networking site Twitter and started reading what he’d been upto. I sent him a Tweet requesting he play a show in Bridport, the town I live in, and he sent me a charming and personal e-mail in return, telling me he’d listened to and enjoyed my music, and discussing the gig further.

Duff’s website,

www.patrickduff.com

, is a riveting read, and after listening to the brilliant ‘Dead Man Singing’ and ‘Three Little Monkeys’ on his Myspace page, I knew I had to get my mitts on the new record. It arrived yesterday, signed and with a handwritten note from Patrick promising to arrange the Bridport gig we discussed as soon as possible.

I had an expansive web of crisscrossing car journeys to make over the bank holiday weekend, so set off with ‘The Mad Straight Road’ on the best stereo I own-the one in my car. Unlike its predecessor ‘Luxury Problems’, this album is extremely immediate and a very approachable record, beautifully produced, arranged and performed, and positively littered with gem-like melody lines, imaginative and unusual chord progressions and arcane yet texturally perfect instrumental shading. I warmed to it immediately and have listened to it at least ten times in the last two days, it’s an album you can really lose yourself in, filled with story songs, character narratives and intense, dark and often humorous imagery.

The songs that touched me most deeply were, oddly enough, the simplest songs on the record…’Don’t Worry Now’ is a perfect, Beatle-esque slice of shimmering folky pop, ‘Wake Up Richard’ is a glorious plea to a friend to see the beauty innate in life and the jazzy, melodically limber ‘The Tourist’ appears to be an address to a former lover who has gone on to lose themselves in their own success.

There are too many moments of greatness here to recount them all-in fact, there’s not a single mis-step all album long-and the mind boggles as to why this fabulous record hasn’t been licensed by a major label and turned into a hit album.

Patrick Duff and ‘The Mad Straight Road’ are in the ballpark of being the Leonard Cohen and the ‘Songs Of Love And Hate’ for the 21st Century…the 21st Century just doesn’t realise it yet.

Jinder x

 

Welcome to my Blog…first time out!

Hi All,
Welcome to my new Blog, and thankyou for reading. This is my first go at running a Blog properly, so be gentle with me!

I’ll keep this updated at least weekly, often more. I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts, experiences and feelings with you all, both about my working life as a travelling songwriter and musician, and my personal life as a proud father, loving husband and motor racing enthusiast (although I’ll keep geek-outs about the latter to a minimum!).

As a musical artist and performer, it’s rare for me to get the opportunity to share any insight into my life offstage, other than in song and the short stories/novellas/encyclopaedii I am prone to recount in between said songs. I’m looking forward to doing just that here-sharing more of who I am, what I do and what drives me to do it.

Thanks again for reading this, and I hope you’ll join me in what promises to be an exciting adventure-for me, at least-sallying forth into the Blogosphere.

Much love,
Jinder x