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Metal For Life Blog

~ The official blog of Metal Mike. I'm a heavy metal musician most commonly known as a long standing guitarist to Judas Priest frontman, Rob Halford. I'm a highly sought after heavy metal guitar and music coach. I am also a solo artist, an entrepreneur, a business owner, an avid car nut and a closet extrovert. I believe Heavy Metal should be lived loud & proud and it has been a highly motivating source in my life. I'm here to share my thoughts, pass on lessons learned and sometimes chew on big subjects. If you enjoy the content of Metal For Life, I only ask you to share my blog with one more person. Thank you & welcome.

Metal For Life Blog

Monthly Archives: September 2017

How To Restring A Floyd Rose Equipped Guitar – And, Stay In Tune

22 Friday Sep 2017

Posted by Metal Mike in Gear & Reviews, Guitar & Music

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Many guitar players complain that they can not keep their Floyd Rose (or Floyd Rose style bar system) in tune. Because of this, many write off the Floyd all together. I believe that a Floyd system is one of the greatest inventions on the guitar, so in order to fully defend the faith – I’m hoping to give a few tips to help with the 3 most common problems you might encounter.

1. When you are about to lock-in the nut saddles by the head stock (after all your new strings are on) you HAVE to make sure that your strings are ALREADY staying in tune. This is a common mistake. Many players get their strings pretty close, tighten up the saddles and by that time, the game is lost. Stretch your strings, tune and repeat until you can play your guitar with little tuning problems. You will find that once you lock the nut saddles your guitar will usually have no problems staying in tune.

2. As you are tuning up your guitar you might notice that the entire Floyd system tends to raise up and then it is no longer parallel to the guitar body and nowhere near where it was when your old string set was on. When this happens, lower the pitch of your strings again considerably and re-tune again. At that time, you will most likely see that the bar system is back in place and nice and straight.

3. And last, but not least – do not take all your strings off your axe at once. When putting on new set of strings, do it one string at a time. I start with the sixth string (low E) and put it first on the guitar. I tune it, stretch it and repeat it until the new string stays well in tune. As you might be imagining – yes, I DO NOT take off any other strings on the guitar. Just the one I’m putting on. I simply put one string at a time, get it in tune and move onto the next string. From my experience (and some do it otherwise), once you take all your strings off the Floyd Rose system, it is quiet difficult to get the guitar up and running. In the least, it takes way longer and can get pretty frustrating.

Hope this helps. Metal For Life!

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The Dilema of Collecting, Wanting and Adding More Guitars.

18 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by Metal Mike in Guitar & Music, Inspiration & Motivation

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The Dilema of Collecting, Wanting and Adding More Guitars.

Almost every guitar player that I know enjoys adding instruments to their stable. We have an emotional connection to guitars and let’s face it – we love the damn things. Reasons to look for new instruments vary from something that we truly need, such as capability to have a go to guitar for an extra tuning or a back-up guitar when we play a live show, all the way to finding an axe just because it would look good on our wall.

Are any of the reasons good enough? Sure. I won’t judge.

But, there is a deeper mental dilemma and torment at play when some guitarists obsess over which instrument to get next. It is the feeling of getting something new that is exciting for the sake of the chase that often results in nothing less than a one two punch to the brain.

When a need arises to truly have a new guitar, then let’s leave it at that. Go for it. But, what if we just go crazy while fueled with the greedy need of getting something new just because. Let’s talk about that. I will additionally throw a few tips on how to approach finding the right guitar you need.

I would like to share some tips that might help you when you are driving yourself crazy over what to get next. Yes, this loony cycle includes sleepless nights and spending hours upon hours looking on the internet.

Wanting Something Is Way More Powerful Than Having It

The anticipation and excitement of getting a potential new guitar are often more powerful than the satisfaction of having it in your hands. I think of it when a child orders something from the internet and he checks every hour if the mailman dropped it off for him. Once the package is opened and a couple days are spent with the new toy, a new prize appears on the horizon. Yep, even guitars are like that. The truth is that people are emotional animals and many lack the self-discipline to avoid traps that are set up by their mind.

If you are thinking about the next guitar you will get “after” the one you are looking at “currently”, you might be beginning to spin a little crazy. These days it is extremely hard to get away from having something you are interested in not find you. How about when you look at something online one day and a banner ad pops-up with this exact item when you least expect it a day after while you Google cat food. Yeah, it’s like dropping beer cans at the doorstep of a guy who likes to hit the brews a little too hard and tries to stop. Remember, my main point to get away from this spin cycle. Remember that the anticipation and excitement are very often more powerful than the product. If this point does not hit hard enough, follow below.

Do Not Accept Cheaper Substitutes

You know what is a real let down? When you buy something that is kind of what you wanted and then you realize it was a mistake. You end up selling it for the less than you bought it for and you go back to the guitar that you really wanted that is now more expensive. Double loss. Double frustration. Don’t do that. Yes, sometimes it is important to bleed for what you want. Get what you want. These days guitar manufacturers make instruments that are all over the price range with many of them looking very similar. Once you get the cheaper alternative you realize that the neck binding sucks, the guitar is not balanced right or that the hardware is cheap. This is a total waste of time. I would rather have 2 great quality guitars than 12 low budget beaters. No contest. Don’t accept substitutes. Remember, that your mind will play tricks on you and will try to give you a million reason why the substitute is better. You’ll hear things like it’s cheaper, you can get it now, it’s local. It’s all BS. Don’t do it. Get what you want.

True Progress Happens With Work and Practice

You are thinking WTF, I just want a guitar. That is my point. A new guitar will not make you sound great overnight – it still takes practice to play it well. Make sure that getting new gear is not your substitute for practicing. It is very easy to use guitar buying as a distraction to what the guitar was meant for, and that is to being played. So, if you are spending more time on the internet looking for new guitars versus practicing on them, then the priorities might be out of whack.

What If You Are Over The Mountain

Ok, so what happens when you are spinning, just want anything, want something new and you don’t know why the heck you are looking for a new guitar anyways. My tip is to get busy with something else. You are not in a productive space because your emotions and lack of reason keeps you spinning. Focus on something else, a new project or something else that you can get your hand or mind on. One of main reasons for failing at anything is a broken focus. You can use this to guitar buying as well. If you want to fail at buying a new guitar, break the focus of thinking about it. Eventually the urge will get smaller and smaller. You can use this usually negative principle of losing focus to actually gain potentially positive outcome.

These are the main points that I wanted to share. I am sure that there are several others, but I hope that above does help you in your decisions while chasing that holy-grail. And, remember guitar shopping is still cheaper than fast horses and big boats, so take your time, enjoy a nice axe every so often, don’t spend every penny you have, breathe a little and try to enjoy the process as it should be a fun one. Once guitar buying or collecting is stressful and not fun, the point is completely lost and is a dead ringer that you should probably rethink your approach. Horns Up!

 

Give Yourself The Permission To Be A Musician .. (Or, Whatever Path May Call Your Name)

07 Thursday Sep 2017

Posted by Metal Mike in Guitar & Music, Inspiration & Motivation

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Some of you might find this story’s headline (Give Yourself Permission to Be a Musician) a little confusing. Most of you play an instrument, and many of you are serious about following your passion — making guitar playing your profession. So what’s this about permission?

Let me explain.

Since I was 16, I’ve been on an interesting, but not very unique musical journey. Starting in my early days, I strongly believed playing metal was my ultimate passion in life and that I wanted to pursue it as a profession. On the other side of the coin, although my parents were supportive, I remember them asking me to consider some other, “safer,” professional choices, be it computer programming, obtaining some sort of an executive job, etc. I always believed that if you give something your all, there’s a chance you’ll be successful. I never had fear that I wouldn’t be what I considered successful at playing guitar. But something was still nagging at me. Subconsciously, I still had layers of guilt about not making my parents feel secure about I was doing. This is partly because when we left Poland in 1984, my parents sold everything they had in order to move to the US for a better life for me and my sister. And then their son decides to be a metal guitar player. Writing it down makes it sound kind of insane.

There was a stretch for about five years after I graduated from Berklee that I started teaching full time. I did not play out, I just taught, a lot! Many of my private guitar students were business professionals, lawyers and dentists … and so my interviewing began. I would drill them on why they became who they are professionally and if they would trade it for becoming an artist, guitar player, etc., if they could make a living at it. You would not believe how many thought being a musician was the ultimate way to lead a life.

Now, I’m all for anyone becoming whatever they want, but at the time, it made me feel great that even the people with what we call “respected” and “admired” professions thought playing guitar was the coolest thing in the world. About that time, a shift happened in my life. In my mind and probably out loud, I said to myself, “I give you permission to be a musician!” That’s it. That’s all it took. I stopped eyeing local publications for jobs that might give me relief from teaching, and I said to myself, “If you are a musician, concentrate on using your talents as a musician from this point on. And, while you’re at it, refuse to be broke because of it.”

Even though I made an album and taught music, when asked what I did for a living, there was some hesitation. After the shift, I simply told people I’m a musician. This translated to the clothes I bought, and well, the list goes on. When you allow yourself to do something, sometimes another world of possibilities opens up. Things appear in front of you that were always there, but your eyes weren’t open enough to see them. Think about this.

After that moment, I put a metal instrumental band together and started opening shows for Yngwie, Steve Morse and Ronnie Montrose on the East Coast. After three years of being caught captive via digital 0’s and 1’s, the music from my self-financed CD, Isolation Chamber: Grind Textural Abstractions, eventually ended up living again. Eventually, a tape of one of those shows landed in the hands of The Metal God, Rob Halford, and my dreams started to be become reality.

Of course, once you are showing serious results for your work, it becomes easier convincing relatives and friends about your life path. But here’s the deal: It doesn’t matter. Give yourself permission to do what you believe in, and silence the limiting beliefs. Things seem to align themselves when you are ready, including relatives. Thanks for listening, everyone. Horns up!

The Jedi Trick Of Using An iPhone In The Studio

04 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by Metal Mike in Gear & Reviews, Guitar & Music

≈ Leave a comment

I want to share a quick tip with guitar players that will make things easier in your search for the perfect guitar sound when recording.

Most of you will probably agree that you often start with an amp setting, tweak as you go through a few other options and then tell yourself that some of the initial settings sounded the best. However, you realize you have a hard time pinpointing exact previous locations of the control knobs. You can get it close, but not exact. Once you start adding pedals and studio gear, things can run away from you pretty quickly.

Here’s what you do.

You use a small digital camera or an iPhone to take pics and document your favorite settings or useful sounds on amps, pre-amps or whatever you choose to recall in the studio. Taking a look at a pic of your prior settings makes recalling things super easy.

I keep a small camera handy and scroll through it if I’m looking for a particular sound I might’ve gotten in the past or if I want a solid starting point to build on. You can focus in on your pics and get the exact location of your previous moves.

This becomes especially helpful if I try to recall settings I’ve used to record different instruments such as bass, guitars or vocals through a single-channel pre-amp that I love to use. Instead of starting from scratch to set up a sound, I can quickly get into the ballpark and build from that point.

Of course, this doesn’t have to stop at the recording studio. Live amp settings, pedal board setup all the way to a correct way to pack an equipment trailer can be easily be recalled with a digital camera.

So, there you go! It’s a simple solution to a big problem. I must give credit to Judas Priest producer and my Halford bandmate Roy Z, from whom I picked up this idea.

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