The Off Chance’s ability to carefully sculpt noise into songs is certainly a talent, but getting followers to jump on their bandwagon in an age that is so digital is half the battle. “Just building a fan base is the hardest part right now,” Jason Differ explains. “Don’t get us wrong, we’ve definitely been reaching new people – especially considering we’ve been [playing gigs] for less than a year. It’s hard to pique people’s interest enough to actually come out, but that’s where good marketing comes in.”

Maldi Kellici is more specific when it comes to addressing grievances regarding the local circuit.  “The business model some of the venues operate under makes it hard to [grow our audience]. I’d love to see them move away from the ‘arena-like’ attitude – where people show up only for events – and focus on being reputable and contemporary bars and restaurants where people go regardless if they know the band or not.”

Even though he possesses a strong opinion on the topic, he still has a soft spot in his heart for a few familiar haunts. “The Foundation Room at the House of Blues and the Hard Rock Café were the most rewarding shows for me. We had them packed with fans screaming our name; it was a fantastic feeling.” Differ chimes in with his modest take on the matter: “It’s been a blessing to start our live shows here in Boston. We feel like we have an approachable enough sound so that everyone can appreciate our show.”

GENRE: Pop Rock
HOMETOWN: Boston, MA
ARTISTIC APPROACH: Blending hook-laden pop with grandiose rock.
MORE INFO: www.theoffchance.com

photo by Sam Haddix

Using gear such as  and ’70s Ludwig drums with ’50s and ’70s cymbals, an old Silvertone and a ’60s Gibson amp, The Will Callers produce a sound that can only be described as having swagger. When you hear it, you can’t help but feel like you’re the coolest person in the world, and you’re ready to waltz into any room with their newest album, What Else is Left?, playing in the background. What is made even clearer from their sound, however, are their influences. When asked, the boys explain, “We like a lot of rock and roll, blues stuff. We love bands like The Rolling Stones, The Band, Faces, Little Feat, and Gram Parsons.”

The writing style of these two is even more interesting. They explain that, as many do other bands, they write their music at the same time as their lyrics. However, the pair comments that some of their music comes from “sparks of frustration, especially when we can’t actually get anything out there, we get frustrated and sit down and hammer things out.”

Their favorite show was played at The Shed, in Maryville, Tennessee, and they would open for The Band if they could. They are The Will Callers, and their newest album is nothing short of fun, catchy, and addictive. Once you turn them on, you won’t even think about turning them off, and you’ll catch yourself listening to them all day.

GENRE: Country/Rock
HOMETOWN: Fort Worth, TX
ARTISTIC APPROACH: Writing music from sparks of frustration.
MORE INFO: thewillcallers.bandcamp.com

photo by Chris Skupien

The master luthier and pickup guru began learning his craft at the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in 1979, at a time when not many people were making pickups and Stewart-MacDonald was just a banjo parts supply company with a 10-page catalog!

As he states: “I was making pickups for the guitars I built and I did occasional pickup repairs. What led me to focus so much on pickups was that I was looking for a way to broaden my customer base so that I could get enough sales to support myself building and repairing guitars without having to work other jobs. I got really serious about making it happen in the early ’90s.”

Lollar continues, “I wrote and self- published a book dealing with all of the mechanical aspects of pickup-making…and all of a sudden people were asking me to build them specialized pickups and to repair vintage pickups going all the way back to the ’30s. I wound up selling several thousand books, hundreds of people got their start in the business by following the instructions in the book and because of the new demand, dozens of suppliers eventually began selling pickup making parts.” Our interview picks up there…

How do pickups actually work, and what makes one pickup stand out against another similarly designed pickup? 

A traditional electric guitar pickup is made of two or three basic components – a magnet or several magnets with a coil of wire wrapped around them, or a magnet or two and some kind of steel to make a pole piece with and a coil of wire wrapped around the steel pole or poles. The coil wire is actually called “magnet wire” and it is typically a very fine single strand of copper wire about the thickness of a hair that has an electrically insulating coating applied to it. On a typical Strat pickup, the pole piece that sits under each string is a magnet and then magnet wire is wound turn after turn around all of the magnets as a group. On a humbucking pickup the pole piece under the string is a piece of steel rod or a steel screw and the magnet sits under the coil. The difference is on a Fender pickup the magnets are in the coil and on a typical Gibson pickup there is a steel pole piece in the coil, and the magnet is under the coil touching the steel pole piece.

The magnetic field runs through the coil; when the string moves it disturbs the magnetic field, which induces an electrical current to flow that basically matches the frequency the string is moving at. The more turns of wire in the coil, the more electrical signal the coil can produce. In general but not always, a pickup with a higher DC resistance than another will have a little more output compared to the lower DC resistance. It’s like this: more resistance equals a longer length of wire (for our purposes now), longer wire length means more turns around the magnets or magnet. More turns usually means more output. Turn count can also affect the tonal qualities along with the output. More turns tends to create a pickup with more bass and or mids and less treble, also the attack can seem smoother; fewer turns can be brighter and clearer sounding overall with a snappier feel to the attack.

Oddly, a pickup that is brighter with less output than another can seem like it’s hotter than it is because of its tendency to cut through a mix better and its snappy and punchy attack can lead you to perceive something different than what’s actually occurring. Another aspect of resultant tone is the height of the coil. A Strat coil 1/32” taller than another Strat coil wound with the same amount of turns will sound a little brighter than the slightly shorter coil.

Magnets – a common magnet used in guitar pickups is called Alnico, this means Aluminum Nickel and Cobalt. Changing the amount of the various component metals will make the magnet weaker or stronger when it is magnetized. Using a stronger magnet is similar to having more wire added – basically you’ll get more signal with a stronger magnet.

What, from a technical standpoint, makes a lousy pickup sound bad? 

I am fairly sure some of the cheapest import pickups are never critically listened to. I have made enough different designs to know your first try is rarely the best-sounding attempt.

Typically you build it, listen to it, critique it, make changes and try something else. If you repeat this enough times, you come up with something special.

Bad sounding pickups could also be due to inconsistent product. Even if you listen to your product and come up with a specification set that you like, if you don’t know or care what the variables involved are then one pickup could sound very different than the next. There are many things you can change in an attempt to push some aspect of tone in a particular direction. Certainly not everyone bothers with it.

Is there a certain skill or process in winding that can affect the tone of a pickup, or is it more trial and error to achieve certain sounds?

Yes – it’s called Voodoo! Pickup humor again…There is far too much BS claimed, in my opinion. First, there is no handbook to tell you if you do XYZ you will wind up with 123. Of course there is my book, but it doesn’t give specific formulas, instead it shows all the steps involved in making a pickup from scratch and how to set up a machine to wind and how to run it. You have to learn by trial and error. Let me qualify that there are some charts of turn counts of various pickups that you can find…but the majority of the specs are nowhere near correct; it appears to be something that’s been copied over and over and handed down and passed around.

Let’s say you are attempting to make an exact copy of another pickup. Even if you have the various metals analyzed and you use the same type of coil wire and get the resistance and the inductance measurement the same (measured in henries), it doesn’t mean the two pickups will sound identical. The skill involved is knowing enough to make a reasonable prediction of the results, and also to know what you can do to take the design further.

The other part of winding skill is just purely mechanical; I have seen a lot of sloppy work in photos in advertisements! With someone who is really good at it, it’s kind of like watching a great blues player; they make it look so easy and it seems simple enough that people often say, “I could do that,” but then they get up there fall flat on their face.

If someone were interested in winding their own pickups, or learning to custom wire guitars, what would be some good starting points?

If you go on the Internet there are a lot of people who don’t know what they are talking about, so take at least half of it or more as suspect information. The first thing I would do is a Google image search on “pickup winding machines.” There are photos of hundreds of different machines people have made. They can be from winding on a hand drill to elaborate self-feeding machine assemblies. You have to have something to wind with.

Secondly, I can give you a hint about a common misconception and that is the spool of wire you use to supply the bobbin does not spin; you don’t have to figure out how to make a ten pound spool spin around at the same rate as the bobbin because the wire is just pulled off the end of the spool.

The best book I have seen so far is called The Guitar Pickup Handbook by Dave Hunter. It has an overview of how pickups work, they examine various models of pickups and at the end has several interviews with pickup makers like Seymour Duncan, Lindy Fralin and myself.

I feel this is the most up-to-date and most accurate book [on the market]. Of course my book Basic Pickup Winding & Complete Guide to Making Your Own Pickup Winder will save you a lot of time and headaches; it’s still the only book out there dealing with the mechanics of assembling bobbins, winding them and finishing off guitar pickups.

Do you have any recommendations on aftermarket pickup selection for users who are new to aftermarket mods?

Learn to play first, then spend some time with your guitar “as is” so you can critique the set up. This way you’ll have an idea of which way you want to go with your tone. Use the amp you will be playing the most while you do this -

it does no good to change to a particular pickup then run out and buy a radically different amp.

Make an attempt to educate yourself a little by reading magazines and books, also watch some YouTube videos and talk to other people you know who’ve tried various pickups. It may be as simple as trying a buddy’s rig that has a particular set of pickups installed that knock you out.

If you need extra help, find a [store] that is willing to take a little time to advise you. Be prepared before you call; be specific about the guitar you have, the style of pickup it uses and the amp you’re running. You’ll need to decide some basic things: do you want more or less output?  Do you want more or less bass, treble or midrange? Do you want a tighter, punchier tone or a smoother attack and more sustain? Whoever you contact can take all this into consideration and should be able to guide you in the right direction.

One more thing – get a good guitar cable; it makes a lot of difference (particularly when you use the volume and tone controls on the guitar). With good cables and good pickups you shouldn’t be having a problem loosing too much high end when you roll down the guitar’s volume knob.

Do you wind by hand or machine?

To clarify, no one would wind 10,000 turns of hair-thin wire that is easily broken – let alone keeping track of the turn count- onto a guitar pickup by hand. The “hand winding” people refer to is whether you guide the wire onto the bobbin by hand or if you have an automatic wire feed that runs the coil wire back and forth onto the bobbin for you. I use both methods depending on what I am trying to do, and even the auto winders I do use were designed back in the 1940s or possibly the 1930s. The auto winders I use are set up so they have a lot more randomness to each layer of wire, which mimics hand-winding to a large extent.

The technology that these machines use to guide the wire is actually from knitting machines invented in the 1800s. There is a misperception that an auto-fed winding machine layers each turn of wire next to the last in an orderly fashion. This pattern of wire placement is claimed by some to kill tone. Maybe it could if the machines actually did that, but in practice- because of the unique shape of guitar pickups – even a computer-programmable winder is going to have variation from one turn to the next.

How many pickups does your shop produce in a given day, week, month?

Right now we have nine people who work in the manufacturing part of the shop, which includes the shop foreman and myself. Between all of us, we can make up to a couple thousand pickups a month, and have been for years. I have overseen the making of tens of thousands of pickups, if not more, and I have personally made thousands, if not more!

For the love of God, why is it so hard for manufacturers (besides yourself) to make a decent Jazzmaster pickup?

If you look at the side view of a Jazzmaster pickup, you would notice the coil height is only slightly taller than 1/8”. A Strat pickup would have a coil height closer to 1/2” tall. Imagine what happens to the width of the coil when you have a short space to wind 8,000 turns on it – it makes the width much wider than a taller coil, which would be narrower for the same amount of turns. Looking at the top view of a Jazzmaster pickup, where you would see the entire pickguard, you get a coil almost 1-1/2″ wide by 3-1/2″ long, where on a Strat it would be more like 5/8” by 2-3/4”. Obviously, this is much narrower than a Jazzmaster. These short coils are a lot harder to make for several reasons, one being it’s much harder to control the tension on the coil, which can warp the bobbin much easier than on a Strat coil. And if you make a mistake and have to cut the coil wire back off the bobbin, you only have 1/8” clearance to get a knife in the coil. Stripping a Jazzmaster pickup if a mistake is made takes way more time than usual, and they are extremely fussy about wire tension. Too much wire on a Jazzmaster pickup will quickly make the bass response too loose and flabby. It’s certainly not the hardest to make, but it’s easy to mess up.

Are there any final words of wisdom for either new custom builders, or guitarists looking to upgrade their instrument? 

Take your time and research what it is you are after before you go throwing money at it. Best way to check the credentials of whoever you have do the work is to ask guitar makers who use that company’s products, rather than relying on what you read on Internet forums. Forums have a terrible habit: when you ask about one [shop’s work], all of a sudden you get 20 different [manufacturer] names and no one has commented on the original shop in question.

Another way is to see if you have a pal that own examples of what you want to try; maybe there is a local store that sells them or maybe they have guitars that come stock with the particular pickup. Talk to the guy behind the counter selling them and talk to the guy installing them, because you’ll hear about the product from two different angles.

www.lollarguitars.com

photos by Rick Dahms

Where: The Middle East – Cambridge, MA

The grandiosity of The Features’ latest album lies deeply in their sophistication – and the melodic blending of a classic rock sound with scrappy, indie garage vocals. The members possessed a demeanor that could be best described as laid back. Whether it was working the merch table or haplessly setting up their equipment, The Features handled the challenge of lighting up Cambridge onlookers on a slow Sunday evening with grace. They kicked things off with “Golden Comb,” off of 2011’s Wilderness. Of course, newer tunes like “With Every Beat,” and latest single “This Disorder” were scattered throughout the evening. While the crowd was low in numbers, that didn’t stop them from belting out the favorites they were dying to hear – and they were the sole reason why “Blow It Out” from 2005’s Exhibit A was dug up from their archives. Packed house or not, it was clear The Features simply enjoy what they were born to do: deliver amazing music.

http://thefeatures.bandcamp.com

“Sonic Port provides an easy way for guitarists to make studio-quality music on their iOS devices,” said Max Gutnik, Vice President of Product Management, Line 6. “Customers can pair it with CoreAudio apps to record, practice, perform and more. For example, the free Line 6 Mobile POD app lets guitarists dial in their favorite artists’ tones in an instant, while the Jammit app is perfect for practicing. All in all, Sonic Port brings amazing audio quality and a great music-making experience to iOS devices.”

Sonic Port is a sleek, highly compact digital audio interface that connects to an iPod touch, iPhone or iPad 30-pin or Lightning connector, enabling guitar players to jam and record using CoreAudio music apps such as GarageBand®, and gain access to the acclaimed Line 6 Mobile POD® app. Unlike other devices that connect to the analog headphone jack of an iOS device, Sonic Port features an all-digital signal path resulting in best-in-class sound quality. With 110dB of guitar dynamic range and up to 24-bit/48kHz audio quality throughout, Sonic Port allows musicians to get the most from CoreAudio music apps.

For forward-thinking musicians who want to use an iPod touch, iPhone or iPad as the centerpiece of a mobile studio or as a performance tool, Sonic Port provides a variety of inputs and outputs for connecting instruments and outboard gear. A 1/4″ input makes it easy to connect guitars and basses, while keyboards, mixers, CD players and other iOS devices can be connected via the 1/8” stereo input. For monitoring, users can simply plug in their headphones or powered studio monitors and enjoy unparalleled audio fidelity. Musicians can also connect to a guitar amplifier via the 1/4” guitar/line-level output.

The companion Mobile POD app (available as a free download from the App Store) opens the door to an incredible collection of highly prized vintage and modern guitar gear. The app includes 32 amps, 16 speaker cabinets and 16 effects—all of which can be fully adjusted, mixed and matched to create a virtually endless range of tones. Mobile POD includes over 10,000 tone presets created by artists, Line 6 and other guitar players—and guitarists can also store and instantly recall their own custom tones.

Thanks to a partnership between Line 6 and Jammit®, Sonic Port instantly integrates with the award-winning Jammit app, allowing guitarists to learn, jam and record along with original multi-track master recordings of their favorite songs. When used together, Sonic Port and Jammit form the ultimate jam-along experience. Each track can be isolated for closer scrutiny, looped for extended practice or slowed down to a comfortable pace for learning. When used with Line 6 interfaces, Jammit loads amp and effect sounds that are custom made for the song, automatically changing the sound when appropriate as the song plays.

Sonic Port includes a detachable 30-pin dock connector cable and a Lightning connector cable for direct connection to iPod touch, iPhone and iPad devices. Mobile POD is a free download from the App Store. Sonic Port is compatible compatible with iPod touch (4th and 5th generation), iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPad (3rd and 4th generation), iPad 2, iPad and iPad mini.

Sonic Port is expected to ship in June of 2013. Learn more about Sonic Port and Mobile POD at http://line6.com/sonicport.

Our good friends at Audio-Technica are awesome. How awesome, you ask?

Well, last month they gave away a prize pack to our readers consisting of the AT2020USB+ Cardioid Condenser USB Microphone and ATH-M30 headphones.

This time around, for the 2nd giveaway, the winner gets a choice of the System 10 ATW-1102 handheld system, or System 10 ATW-1101/G body-pack guitar/instrument system:

-ATW-1102 (receiver and handheld microphone/transmitter)

-ATW-1101/G (UniPak transmitter with AT-GcW guitar/instrument input cable)

Wanna win? Simple – just enter a comment below before July 31, 2013 and you’re automatically entered to win. Multiple comments won’t raise your chances, and the winner must be from the continental United States.

Good luck!

John Butcher Axis
Axis 3

Boston, MA

“Vibrant and energetic”

When you typically think of a guitar slinging front man “rocking out” with a Fender Stratocaster, you typically think of someone like Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughn. One other name also comes to mind—Jon Butcher. Axis 3 is a great package that includes a variety of Butcher classics both old and new; kicking off with the lively “Ocean in Motion,” followed by familiar greats, “Holy War,” “Wishes,” and an enjoyable, comparable remake of the Jimi Hendrix classic, “Axis: Bold as Love.”

There is no question that Butcher’s abilities to deliver as a top-notch recording artist/performer have not lost any steps. Axis 3 is an electric vibration; Butcher’s robust vocals and silky, vibrant guitars are glued together by drummer Muzz, and bassist Chris Martin’s solid performances.

The virtual “side two” includes new songs “Sentinel,” a ‘Jeff Beck-ish’ instrumental; groovy, hypnotic “Dog Days,” and “Old Atlanta,” a melancholy country ditty that takes you back to early American folklore. The surprising twist is a pleasant finale of Butcher’s smoky/jazzy and intimate remake of the classic “Somewhere over the Rainbow.”

One might not expect to find Butcher on the other side of the curtain, but he is a definite candidate to pull the strings—all six of them, that is—with or without electricity and an amplifier. Axis 3 commands your attention as you find yourself reaching for the knob to turn up the volume. A must have, and highly delectable treat for any music lover.

Produced by Jon Butcher/Electric Music Factory
Executive Producer Dr. Chris Martin
Recorded at Q Division Studios Somerville, MA and Bang a Song Studios, Gloucester, MA by Tony Goddess, and Jen Morrison Mixed at Q Division by Matt Beaudoin
Mastered by Jeff Lipton, Maria Rice at Peerless Mastering, Boston, MA

Arthur Orfanos

www.JonButcher.com

“Super Fly,” of course!

Attention artists! We are planning a special print issue celebrating the diverse and wonderful visual art found in the indie/DIY music community.

If you are a musician who is also a visual artist, we want to hear from you, and potentially feature your work. Do you paint, draw, sculpt or create art in another interesting way? Let us know about it! Ideally, your art would represent something musical in nature, but this is NOT a requirement.

SUBMISSION INFO

To have your work considered for inclusion in this issue, please follow these 3 simple steps:

1. Email ben@performermag.com with the subject line: Art Submission for Performer

2. In the body of your email, you must provide answers to the following. Keep answers brief (1-2 sentences, max).

Your full name:

Band you are in (write ‘solo’ if you’re a solo artist):

Name of the piece you’re submitting:

Year it was created:

Medium (example: oil on canvas):

What does this piece mean to you?

How does your art relate to or influence your music?

Twitter username:

Your URL:

3) Attach a hi-res JPEG or TIFF of the work you’re submitting, or provide a link at the bottom of the email where we can access a hi-res version (this method is preferred over attachments).

Submissions of low-res artwork or incomplete questions will be discarded. All submissions must be received no later than July 1, 2013. Show us what you’ve got!

**Special thanks to Tony Hollums for permission to use his piece “Violin,” featured above.**