Mike Watt in feature film, Eddie takes a call
Hi, everyone! Just wanted to post a few quick updates. First, Eddie at Bass Northwest sent us this picture one of his team mates snapped while Eddie was taking Dave Garcia’s order for the first DNA cabinet sale. (See previous update.) Way to go, Eddie!
I also wanted to tell you the latest news about brother Mike Watt. He is featured in Guerilla filmmaker Brendan Toller’s I NEED THAT RECORD! The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store. Johnathan Perry, of the Boston Globe calls it “an elegy for a vanishing subculture…a lively, bittersweet film that examines - with caustic humor, brutal candor, and, ultimately, great affection - why roughly 3,000 indie record stores have closed across the nation over the past decade.”
| I NEED THAT RECORD! is a must-see for anyone interested in today’s music scene and the future of independent music.
You can pick up your copy for the pre-order price of $11.21 here. You can also watch the trailer here. Congratulations, Mike, and thanks for carrying the torch! |
That’s all I have for today. I’ll see you next week with more DNA news!
Meet our first customer, checking in with Traa Daniels, Sean O’Bryan Smith and Angeline Saris, new content
Greetings from the Deep End, all y’all! I’m in the middle of working on today’s upload, which is going well. However, this just can’t wait:
I’m thrilled to announce that David Garcia is our official Original DNA User (ODU for short)! David just sent me a text informing me that he just put a deposit down on a DNS-410. And since he emailed as I was writing this, here’s the scoop straight from Dave himself:
| I just got off the phone with Eddy over at Bass Northwest and put my deposit down on the first DNS410, sight unseen! They’re ready to take orders from anyone and everyone right now.
As always, it was a very good experience dealing with them as they’re knowledgable and put a big emphasis on their customer service. I absolutely cannot wait to receive that cabinet and make some serious noise! |
David knows how to make cabs better than anyone so I feel perfectly safe in putting the money down without even seeing one yet. Plus, I wanted to get in there before there’s a huge backorder on them.
To top all that off, I told them to let me know when they can take preorders for the heads, because I want the big one!
I was here first!
Sincerely,
Dave Garcia
Oceanside, CA
Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines…er, credit cards. Something. Dealers are taking advance orders.
Call an Authorized Dealer for Pricing
Back now at seven in the evening. Spent the afternoon calling and emailing dealers. It’s only fair to let them all know the gate is open. So. Moving on:
Speaking of dealers, please join us in welcoming Corner Music, Nashville, TN, as our newest dealer. David and I have known JD and the rest of the crew for a god long time, and we’re reaaly excited to be working with them again. Learn more here…
Had a great talk with Traa Daniels of P.O.D. yesterday. He’s been back in the states for a few days in between legs of their South American tour. So far, things are going really well, and they’re looking forward to continuing the festivities.
Another great piece of news is that P.O.D. is writing material for a new CD. Traa says everyone is pumped for the project and the songwriting is going really well. More on that as it develops.
Sean O’Bryan Smith had a total blast taping the Kenny Rogers 50th Anniversary Tribute special. And why not? What with all the legendary performers with whom he appeared. I’m hope ful that by next week I’ll be able to tell you more and maybe even show you pictures.
Late last week, I got an update from Angeline Saris. She continues to improve after surgery and hopes to be back playing by the beginning of May. In the meantime she’s keeping herself busy revamping her web site. She asked me to thank everyone for the prayers, good vibes and well wishes. If you sent her an email, she’s been working through a few a day, and promises to answer every one.
New Content:
Articles: Roy Vogt offers a series of articles on studio work
Practice Tip of the Week: Practice in Your Head
That’s about it for now. If you haven’t voted in our current poll, please do so now. And don’t forget to join us over at the forums to keep up with all the latest.
Poll Results, Roy Vogt announces clinic, WATT in the news
Welcome back, everyone! I hope you all had an excellent holiday weekend! I took most of the weekend off, mostly because I just needed the rest! (smile)
The results of our first Players Poll are in. Here’s how you voted:
Carpet came in first at 53%
Epoxy paint earned 37%
No preference came in at 10%
Our second poll has already begun; this time we’re asking which speaker cabinet you prefer. If you haven’t voted, please go back to the home page and vote now!
I’m very excited to announce that Roy Vogt will conduct a clinic in Chicago on Saturday, May 8th. Times are being nailed down, but it will probably start mid-morning and run through at least mid-afternoon. The clinic is being produced by Jauqo III-X, an old friend of Roy’s and mine, and an outstanding bassist. I’ll be there until about 1, when I have to leave to get back home for a gig. More on this as it develops.
And speaking of clinics, Snow Owl will be offering his master class at Berklee next week. If you can find a way to be there, you’ll be glad you made it!
Got an email from brother WATT today, announcing some Stooges dates - a four-pack of shows in France and one in Spain, beginning this Friday. Check out WATT’s Hoot page for more Stooges dates throughout the summer, as well as other WATT performances.
In addition to being the Godfather of Punk Bass, WATT is also a photographer with a new show: Eye Gifts from Pedro. The show features WATT’s favorite shots of his hometown, San Pedro, CA. Read all about in this article.
That’s all I have for now. I’ll see you in a few days with more DNA news.
New Content:
Article: Be One with the I
Practice Tip of the Week: Hear it in Your Head
Angeline OK after surgery, checking in with Roy Vogt, Sean O’Bryan Smith and Snow Owl, more videos, testing update, forum news
It’s been a busy few days, and I’ve spent almost my entire morning on the phone, talking with endorsers and dealers. Man, I’m getting excited! Let me fill you in on some of the news:
Sister Angeline Saris has made it through surgery and is in good spirits. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to talk long, becasue right after she called they came to take her to her ultrasound checkup on her artery.
Angeline sent me a pair of pictures earlier today. I feel safe posting the one below, but I’m going to hold off on the other one and make sure it’s OK with her to post it, as it shows the drain, which only Gene Simmons could love. But it is a funny shot in an Oh, Gross! sort of way.
Angeline Saris recovering from surgery, with her friend Josh.
UPDATE: Angeline took a nap after the ultrasound, but called me a few minutes ago. She’s still really tired after the surgery, and I hate to say it, but the test showed she may not be out of the woods yet. I won’t say more until Angeline gets to talk to the doctors.
Angeline did say it was OK to post the second picture, so here it is:
Blech! A blood grenade! And it’s mine! Eeew!
By the way, we’re doing all we can to help Angeline raise funds to help pay for all of this. If you can pitch in a dollar, I’m sure she’d appreciate it. And I know that we would, too!
Spoke with Roy Vogt today, as he raced from one appointment to another. He’s been keeping extremely busy, even during Spring Break, what with extra sessions, preparing for the final stretch of this school year, and dealing with the launch of his own learning community, Thunder Row. I’m assisting over there as well, and Roy and I both have blogs. We’re also building a library of lessons, articles and videos, which will feature Roy’s and my current library of material as well as new content. I’m also reaching out to other bassist/writers to invite their contributions.
While all of that is open to the public, there is also a forum which is divided into a public area and Chateau Groove, a private area for owners of Roy’s course, Teach Me Bass Guitar. (You can read my full review here. Whether you’re just starting out, are have been playing for decades, Thunder Row is a great place to improve your skills and pass some knowledge to others. I hope you’ll join us.
And speaking of joining us, have you noticed that we launched the DNA Forums? Thanks to Roger Barlow, we got it up and running last Friday, just in time for the weekend speaker testing. (More on that in a minute.) We already have a couple dozen members, including many old friends. We’ve got over three dozen topics going, including discussions on gear and upcoming designs. If you haven’t registered, please do so now, and join us as we build our community!
Snow Owl and I had a great long Skype call and caught up on several fronts. He’s expecting to attend NAMM 2011, and we’re going to see if we can work a few days in Chicago into his schedule so he can do some in-depth testing with us. Of course we also talked about his upcoming master clinic at Berklee on April 15.
One other thing we discussed - and I’m just so grateful to Snow Owl for this - was the video he sent me. It’s of the Austrian band Rock Office, which includes Hans Baumgartner, one of Snow Owl’s students. The video is of the band’s cover of my song Time of My Dyin’, Part 2, from Dig the Hole. Man, I was thrilled, and honored, they liked the songs that much.
Thanks to today’s technology, I have a video of them doing it as an internationally-sharable keepsake. You can watch it here, if you’re so inclined.
And just HUGE thanks to Hans and the rest of Rock Office - who did an excellent job! - and to Snow Owl for helping it all happen.
Now we get to the really fun stuff. If you haven’t noticed, there are four more videos (five total) from last weekend’s field testing. One word: amazinglyinstenselytotallyawesome. Check out the written report, including Jeff Carlson‘s toughts, on the SEAL Team report page. I haven’t heard back from Mark yet, but I’ll post his comments as soon as he weighs in. By the way, we also kept touch with the forum during the test. It’s in the report.
While the schedule is not set, I can tell you that the first Road Trip for field testing will be to Nashville. In addition to Roy and Sean, Abe White will be taking part, as well as a new member of the family, Marc Williams. In fact, Marc is so new that he and I haven’t met face to face yet, much less have his fake tooth with the cyanide capsule inserted, so it will be an event-packed trip for him. Of course, I’ll be shooting video and stills (of the testing not the insertion of the … never mind) during the test. If there’s time I’m going to try to get each one of them to sit for a shoret interview.
OK. That’s pretty much everything that’s going on… or at least everything I’m allowed to talk about. I’ll see you in a few days, with more.
New video, Snow Owl clinic, Surgery for Angeline, more testing soon
Wow! What a weekend! I’m still recuperating from the trip, but I did manage to get one interview video done, and another almost there. The video is back on the front page.
To quickly bring you up to date in other areas:
Fellow endorser and good friend Snow Owl announced today that he will offer a master-level clinic at prestigious Berklee on April, 15, 2010. For those who don’t know, Snow Owl is bass professor at Graz University in Austria. More details on the event here, and on Snow Owl here. If you have any change at all of attending, get there! You don’t want to miss this special occasion.
If it fits for you, please offer good energy, thoughts of healing and prayers for sister Angeline Saris. As I reported some time ago, Angeline is dealing with a serious issue involving her left arm and her ability to play bass. Today, she undergoes surgery to hopefully correct the problem. She will be in our thoughts all day today, and I hope you will join us.
Finally, it’s not definite yet, but it appears as if I’ll be heading out on the road to do further testing with our SEAL Team. When I nail down the schedule I’ll tell you more.
OK, it’s already after 1 p.m. my time and I’ve got tons to do, especially if I’m traveling soon I’ll see you in a few days with more news.
DNA Forums go LIVE!
Hey, all y’all! To say I’m excited is a serious understatement. I am thrilled beyond words to announce that the David Nordschow Amplification Forums are now LIVE!
Spydah, AKA Roger Barlow, has completed his work and done an outstanding job. We just loaded the forum to test. Everything looks good, so we’re open for business.
Please join me in a HUGE Thank You to Spydah! Then, go tell all your friends, and join us for a great new hang.
More intel from Sean, Traa on tour, Wes comes home, new video, new content
Here were on Hump Day again, and so far it’s been a productive week. It also appears as if I’m going up for further speaker testing. We’ll get to that in a minute. First let me catch you up on some other things.
For starters, if you haven’t voted in our first Players Poll, please vote now! I’ll wait while you run back to the home page, OK?
(humming)
Cool. Thanks, we really appreciate it. You see, we’re very interested in your thoughts. We’ve got lots more of that kind of thing coming and we hope you’ll take part in each one.
Now for some endorsers news:
Sean O’Bryan Smith tells me I can finally let the cat out of the bag on his participation in what looks to be a killer gig: The 50th Anniversary Kenny Rogers Tribute. The all-star homage features a wide variety of top names, and not all of them are country… not by half from what I hear.
Among other things, Sean will be performing the opening number featuriing Wynonna, The First Edition and a 40-member choir. More info to follow as the production company authorizes its release. If you want to keep tabs on the updates yourself, check out this web site. Scroll down and read just how successful Rogers has been. The man must have a small warehouse full of awards.
Traa checked in yesterday as well, but by email. He’s down in South America with P.O.D. kicking off their tour plans for the year. The band always has a blast down South, and this time looks to continue the tradition. We should get a full report when the band returns Stateside. Catch his tweets here.
I also want to give a major shout-out to Wes Watson, who is finally back from Germany. Wes served a tour there with the Air Force National Guard. Not long ago, he served in Afghanistan. We’re just glad he’s home safe, we’re betting his wife is, too!
The Homecoming party is this weekend, then Wes and his Lovely Bride head off for a delayed honeymoon before Wes settles back into his Civilian Life.
Today I posted a third video from the last field test. This is another interview with David, discussing ports and cones. There’s a little more interview footage, but I think I’m going to wait until I’m back up there so we can go over those points again, and add a little more info.
As it turns out, I’ll be heading back up North again this Saturday. David has the DNS-410 reay to go, and we’re going to revisit the DNS-110 and DNS-210. Waiting to hear back from Jeff to see if he can make it. Also put a call out to a few others, in case they’re in town.
Roger is putting the tweaks on the next major section of the web site. I’m being a pain in the neck about nitpicky little things, and he’s being really patient with me!
No, I don’t know when it will be done, and I’m not going to guess. Let’s face it, any date i give you will be part hope, part wish, ad part dream. Instead, I’m going to stick with my “when it’s ready” line and leave it at that. But, boy am I excited!
OK, that’s about it for now. I’ll see you in a few days. Until then, keep an eye on the Twitter stream, and don’t forget to Subscribe and Friend Up with us over at You Tube.
New Content:
Lesson: Proper Hand Position, Part 2: Four Fret Warm Up Exercises.
Practice Tip of the Week - Build a Riff Encyclopedia
First Players Poll launched
We are thrilled to launch our first Player’s Poll today. Many thanks to our good friend Spydah - aka Roger Barlow to “civilians” - for doing such a great job assisting us with the code! (May his strings never rust!)
All kidding aside, David and I have long wanted to do this. David had his first team of field test bassists two decades ago. I know many of the players who took part in those tests back in the beginning - and the many tests since. Back the Dark Ages, when we built our first forum, we asked a lot of questions; we gathered a ton of useful info, but were unable to act on the bulk of it.
If you’ve been keeping tabs on us since we launched, you already know we’ve been talking to a lot of our endorser family. We’ve also been talking to a few other select people who can keep thier mouths shut. But we wanted to take the next Giant Step and talk to all of you directly. We want to know what you think.
While polling and meaningful surveys weren’t possible in our “past life.” they are now. The only thing holding us back was me, or rather, the fact that I don’t do much pure code. Enter Spydah, whom I’ve known for quite a while, both through our mutual respect for David, and our mutual love of Spector basses.
See, Spydah does do code, and he’s the one who built the poll. He’s also going to teach me how to manage them so we can do more of them. Everybody shout out a huge Thank You!! for Spydah…
We’ve got more things in store, so keep an eye peeled and check back often. And, please, if you haven’t already done so, go back to the Home Page and VOTE! Your future may depend on it.
Seal Team report and video, Polo working an earthquake relief
I had a great talk with brother Polo Jones. He’s been extremely busy producing a project for earthquake relief. Joining with NFL alumni from the Bay area, as well as Bay Area Celebrities for Earthquake Relief, Polo has cowritten and will produce the single When the Earth Shakes. The song will be a key element in the charity’s efforts to raise awareness and funds.
Polo wrote the song with Zad Magau, with whom he has been working recently. “She’s a phenomenal vocalist,” Polo says, “and we have this great brother-sister relationship.”
Polo is gathering many prominent Bay Area musicians, and hopes to shoot the video in about three weeks. If you think you’ll be in the Bay Area around that time, send me an email and may you can be an extra in the video.
New Content:
SEAL Team Field Report 031310 and second video
Practice Tip of the Week - Build a Scale Encyclopedia
SEAL Team Video Report
Greetings once again from the Land of Low. This is just a quick note to document the addition of SEAL Team Video Report #031310/A to the web site. A written report will follow soon. This report is an interview with David Hisownself, as he discusses crossovers and tweeter design.
To watch the video, return to the Home Page.
To review the Twitter stream during the test, visit our Twitter page.