Inside Nashville's Favorite - ASK ZAC EP 32

we'll hollo friends and welcome to
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another Ask Zac I hope you are doing
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well today they were going to you know
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kind of tell the rest of the story on
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two episodes where we've had more
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information come in we're going to talk
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about the rest of the story on the mostortion
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then we're gonna do a little
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more picking fingers so kind of a good
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follow up first a little short pause for
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the cause if you've been enjoying the
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show I hope you will go down and
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subscribe and if you'd like to support
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the show I hope you'll go to askzac.com
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 and go to the the store and you
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can pick up one of these nice mugs right
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here or a nice t-shirt and I really
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appreciated also at askzac.com I'm
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releasing you know kind of interviews
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and things that I've done in the past
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for print and the latest on there is a
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interview that I did for print with
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Reggie Young concerning his album
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Forever Young and that was the kind of
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one and only solo record that he did and
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he released that just a couple years
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before he passed away and so that was a
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very special interview and I hope you
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will again go to askzac.com and check
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that out alright so I kind of opened the
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show doing some finger style stuff on my
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Dano caster I was just just had some
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touch of compression on it straight into
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the amp playing on the back pickup I had
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played it with both pickups and with
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with echo on and it got a little got a
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little out of control but anyway I
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wanted everything to be clear especially
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after last week's clean and clear
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episode so I wanted to show some more
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you know kind of finger style pick and
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fingers I should say licks and so I've
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played a couple of them in this and here
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is the first one and I love this one
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because the first time I heard it it was
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used
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for the key of G and my guitar teacher
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are actually calling my guitar dad Pat
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Grogan back in Corpus Christi Texas
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showed me the lick and played it over a
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G then I saw John Jorgenson play the
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same lick but used it an E minor and it
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was like of course I didn't understand
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relative minor and and such but here's
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here's the lick and I played it in the
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little opening piece it's this I'm gonna
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play it real slow starting on the B note
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on the high E string and then you're
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kind of playing alternating you know
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open strings and fretted notes so
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[Music]
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there's a nice bounce to it so that's
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the way I was originally shown it well
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then I saw it John Jorgensen use it
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it's like whoa that's cool
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you might even plate it you know over E
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at 9:00 or two or whatever you want to
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call that anyway so yes you can use that
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sing lick over E minor
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[Music]
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or over e seven
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[Music]
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so those are that's a really fun picking
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fingers lick here's another one that
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will get you they'll help you on your
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roll pattern and so this is a pick
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finger finger and in here I'm gonna I'm
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gonna play the lick and then I'm gonna
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show the right hand and then I'm gonna
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do the two together so here's the lick
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[Music]
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fun so here's just the right hand that
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seems pretty easy and again that's just
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starting with your pick on the a string
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and then doing the the finger fingers
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are doing the D and G and then you go
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down to the D string and then you're
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doing the G and B and then you're going
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down to the g string and doing the B and
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E so you get the okay but what you do is
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you have when you add the left hand and
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you have these hammer ons
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[Music]
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all right one more this one's a little
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more banjo e but again using you know
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good picking fingers here's the lick so
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you know we've got our first finger you
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know barring the you know the the G and
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B notes on your high E and B string and
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your pinky is you know playing this you
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know c-sharp note
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so that's number one then this and
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that's the your first finger playing
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this you know this b-flat note you know
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and then of course you know playing
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those open B and E strings and then you
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do the same thing move it up no no you
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don't don't do that because you go to
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the fourth fret on the D string and then
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fourth fret on the a string and then
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[Music]
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alright so those are some cool pic and
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finger licks to work on and so that's
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kind of a continuation of the pic and
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finger episode that I did and I hope you
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will continue to work on that now I did
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an episode on the MAS torsion pedal
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which is one of my favorite overdrive
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pedals and is quite popular here in the
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Nashville area and I tried to find the
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designer of the pedal and I could not
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track him down and of course after I did
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the episode which was released in early
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March he found me on Facebook and we
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ended up having a nice phone
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conversation I was able to kind of get
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the rest of the story on on the moss
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torsion so here she is of course I've
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got another one
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and my pedal board underfoot I've got a
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couple of these yes it's a sickness so
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yes so with the monstortion I asked him
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you know first you know how he started
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working for Ibanez and he started
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working part-time as a repairman and
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just kind of doing odd jobs in the early
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1980s then you know went went full-time
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and was working when pedals and pickups
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electric guitars then one of the the
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real trends in the 80s was trying to
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have cuz transistor amps were really
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dominating in the 80s and everyone was
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trying to make a transistorized amp that
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sounded like a tube and so Marshall and
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others were using MOSFETs and they were
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calling them things like Maus valve and
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you know all sorts of different things
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and so John Lomas who is the name of the
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designer at high Bernays who designed
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the Maus torsion he was really
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interested in this MOSFET chip so he got
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one and the first thing he did was he
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took a tube screamer and jammed it in
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there and he said immediately he liked
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the sound better he said it was had more
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Headroom and it was more sensitive to
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pick attack and I would have to agree
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that the Maus torsion is more it does
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have more Headroom and better pick
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attack and it's more responsive to me
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than a tube screamer and and that you
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know from there he then decided the
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other thing he didn't like about the
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tube screamer was the EQ on it which of
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course was a single knob and basically a
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treble control so with that he started
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looking around and the amp that they had
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in in the test room at Ibanez was a
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little pv transistorized amp well
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looking at it of course it had bass
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treble and mid and you know it was a and
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Hartley had actually taken the design
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from Leo fender which Leo fender could
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have gotten that from a tube amp in or a
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tube you know book or something but
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anyway he took the the passive you know
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tone controls off that pv amp which came
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from like blackface fenders and i put it
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in the mas torsion so in essence this is
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a tube screamer that has the chip as a
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mosfet instead of the 45:58 and then you
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know and then has the eq
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from basically a Fender blackface amp
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and I asked him you know why did you
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come up with it he said well I was just
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trying to keep a job and he said and the
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MOSFETs were were interesting and I was
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just trying to make a good sounding
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pedal and he says a good sounding
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overdrive pedal so even though this is
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called a distortion it was never
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designed to be a distortion that's just
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who that's you know the higher ups at
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Ibanez named it that he said he wanted
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to call it the mas Drive which I really
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like that name I wish it would have been
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called the mas Drive I think it probably
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would have sold better you know but
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instead he got the name mas torsion and
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has MOSFET distortion on there and I
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think they lost a lot of customers I
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think if they would have called it the
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mas drive and as an overdrive I think it
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would have sold a lot better and if they
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would have put an emphasis on the
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powerful EQ you know that it has so it
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was a really interesting conversation
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and I'm very appreciative to John Lomas
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for reaching out to me and kind of
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telling me how this thing came about and
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he said that it sold terribly he said
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that they couldn't give these guys away
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and he was I think he was kind of
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worried for his job but John Lomas
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really redeemed himself by being the guy
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at I've been as that pushed for the
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tubescreamer to be reissued specifically
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the ts9 so Ibanez was not interested at
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all in doing a ts9 reissue and he kept
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pushing for it and pushing for it and
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finally they agreed to it and they sold
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thousands of them off the bat you know
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thousands of them and it was all because
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you know the everyone was you know going
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Stevie Ray Vaughan crazy and there was
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you know the only tubescreamer out there
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at the time was the little sound tank
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and the little t s10 and you know I even
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think that TS 10 was counting on its way
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out so anyway yeah so John Lomas are
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more than redeemed himself by
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you know by getting them to reissue the
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original ts9 of course with the original
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manual and box and everything so and
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those you know there was a great pedals
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and those were made by Maxon of course
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later on I had minute and Max on kind of
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parted ways and that's why you have
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Ibanez pedals and Max on pedals and I've
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just not to you know go down the rabbit
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hole but you know Ibanez is a name you
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know they don't really they don't own a
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factory and so they would have different
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factories make things for them and it's
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just that Maxon used to be the factory
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that made stuff for Ibanez and then they
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they parted ways and so then Maxon
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started making a lot of those same
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designs that they had some of them they
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had come up with themselves and you know
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I started putting them out there so
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there you have it so thanks to John
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Lomas for reaching out to me and it's
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nice to kind of know the rest of the
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story with the moss torsion which is a
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fun pedal know that it was a tube
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screamer with blackface tone controls
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and a mosfet chip alright well guys I
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hope you've had hope you having a good
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week
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I hope you've enjoyed this episode and I
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hope you keep working on your picking
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fingers and we'll see you next time
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thanks and bye bye