December 19, 2007 - Happy Holidays!

Well, we're almost to it, aren't we? And, no, I'm not done shopping.

As you may have heard, last week I spent a couple of days testing new designs up at the factory. I'm still not at liberty to divulge the details, but I hope that once David returns from his trip this week, he'll let me say a little somethin' about it. For now, it's all hush-hush and don't nobody say nuthin'!

Speaking of the factory, let me introduce you to one of the people that build Eden amplifiers. Below is a picture of Kevin, or K-Dog as he's known on the factory floor. K-Dog does the final build and test on every Eden amp that comes off the line. And does a dang fine job of it, too! He's also one of the folks I go to when I need help with something, or to get info on production schedules and such. But the most important job K-Dog has is to be Eden's official Keeper of the Magic Smoke. That's right. He's the one that puts the Magic Smoke in each and every Eden amp. We'd show you the special equipment he uses, but then we'd have to kill you. Or something like that. And, NO! You can't SEE the smoke. It's Magic. Duh!

Anyway... Y'all. Meet K-Dog.

K-Dog shows off a recent batch of WTX-260s. These babies are all ready for new homes, having received their dose of Magic Smoke and passed the final testing that K-Dog does on every Eden amp.

Other than that, I'm doing what many do this time of year - namely, cleaning up outstanding stuff. So, I've waded through a ton of paperwork, getting many items crossed off the list. I'll continue this for the rest of the week, and probably keep working on it until the end of the year. Then it's time to get ready for NAMM and start all over again.

On the personal side, the Deeper Blues CD is on its way to the manufacturing house, and we'll release it as soon as possible. At this point, I'm not comfortable offering a concrete date, but you can bet I'll let you know ASAP. For now, you can hear some excerpts on our MySpace page.

Had our first real snow of the season this past weekend. Not too bad, and not nearly as bad as Chicago and other areas further north. But enough to mess up traffic for a day or two, and make me have to scrape my windows three or four times. But the payback is the view off my balcony. My building backs a small lake here in town, and watching the snow fall, dusting the tree limbs and the small island just off the shore line ... well, it was pretty OK. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was the highlight of my weekend!

OK, more coffee for me, and more cleaning up to do. Then, if I'm lucky, I'll get to mill about the mall aimlessly, with a lot of other aimless wonders, wondering what in the world do I get for someone who doesn't want anything?

I wish each of you a wonderful holiday, regardless of which one you celebrate. I hope that it's a happy, love-filled time for you and yours. And I hope you get that new head or cabinet you've been hinting about for Dognose how long! Til next time,

Keep Thumpin',

Lane on Bass.

---

December 26, 2007 - So What'd You Get?

T'is the day after Christmas and man am I beat
I'm stuffed to the gills and dead on my feet
The gifts were all hits, the meal was a feast
I'm hoping my the ache in my head will soon cease

OK, that's all I got. But it was spur of the moment and the best I can do on The Day After.

Actually, I am pretty tired, and I am pretty stuffed. No headache, though, which is a Very Good Thing. And I did get two REALLY cool presents.

The first one is a very cool folding luggage cart. Very heavy duty, and only takes up about an inch or so. I've already showed it to the rest of the band, and they agree that it is Ultra Cool and Useful. This is definitely something to get the musician who has everything - a way to load it all in!

What cracked me up about it was the fact that two days before Christmas, we were at OfficeMax, looking for desk accessories for the girls and I saw a little folding cart. It was a piece of ... well, let's just say it left a lot to be desired in the quality department. But it was all black, so according to law, I had to take a look. And then the Gift Goddess came around the corner and said "that thing will never last. Put that back!" So, laughing all the while, I did, and never gave it another thought. When I saw what a REAL musicians cart looked like, we laughed for a good while about it all.

The second Super Cool gift was a lamp. Yeah, a lamp. What? I've wanted a particular wall lamp for over a year. (I'm told the particular style is "wallchiere", which is pseudo-French for a lamp that hangs on the wall, but is bigger than a sconce. Ohhhhhhhhhhhh-Kayyyyyyyyy...) Anyway, I had told the Gift Goddess about this lamp a long, long time ago. Now, she'd never seen a picture, and had no way of stealing the in-flight catalog that all the airlines put in those little seat pockets with the barf bags without me knowing about it. And she really didn't want to ask, because then I'd know what I was getting. So... four hours of Internet searching and she found it! Not just "almost" or "close enough". It's the exact lamp I wanted. And it's going to be perfect for the wall behind my recliner, which is where I like to blob with a good book at the end of the day.

This just proves that you don't need to spend a ton of money on gifts... especially if you pick the right ones.

Other than that, not a lot going on. Everyone up at corporate is neck deep in completing end-of-year inventory, and that obviously slows things down. The rest of this week I'll be working hard to tie up all the loose ends I can, and prepare for yet another exciting and busy year. This is my normal mode of operation this time of year. It really helps to close up everything possible so I can start the new year fresh. If all goes well, I'll have a completely clean desk within the week. And, boy, won't that be nice?!?

I hope each and every one of you got exactly what you wanted for the holidays. I hope your gifts were all hits and the meal was a feast. More importantly, I hope you remembered the reason for the season, regardless of your beliefs. I'll see you in a week for my year-end wrap-up. Until then,

Keep Thumpin'!

Lane on Bass...

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January 2, 2008 - Happy New Year!

Welcome, all, to the Other Side. It's a new year, filled with new opportunities.

I really don't have all that much to talk about this time around, but that won't keep me from yapping a bit. (It never does; why should today be different?) So let's talk about New Year resolutions. I'm not one to get into specifics when it comes to resolutions. If I say, "I resolve to quit eating chocolate (I'm not REALLY doing this, it's just an example), I'd end up with a sack o' Hershey Bars by the end of the day. So, instead I'll resolve to eat better. With that in mind, here are my resolutions for 2008:

1. To do my best every day, no matter what.

That's it. Simple and to the point. And, you know what? If I pull this one off... even half way... it's going to be a better year.

In other news, the Deeper Blues CD is on order! Woo-hoo! Cue the marching band... bring on the clowns!

After many twists and turns, we're set for a January release, probably before the 20th.

Dig the Hole - The soon-to-be released CD from Deeper Blues

There are a TON of people to thank for helping to get this thing to market. Unfortunately I don't have time to mention them all, but there are some Eden (and Randall) brothers that I want to mention:

1. Wes Watson, bassist for Strangeland and an Eden bro, and his band mates Kevin Schmitt and Kevin Grose, all of whom were a part of the recording process. We used Noise Gate studio, in which Kevin G is a partner. Kevin S manned the board, with KG assisting, and Wes making sure everything we needed was within easy reach.

2. Rick Plester. I met Rick through Randall (of which he is an avid endorser) and we've been good friends ever since. Rick handled coproduction, mixing and mastering, and boy, did he do a great job! It's not easy to step in after all the tracks were recorded, but Rick was definitely up to the task.

3. Last but certainly not least, Polo Jones, bassist and musical director for Zucchero, who just happened to have the third highest grossing concert tour of the year. Polo also has his own independent label, Raven Records. And right at the very end, Polo came to our rescue to provide the last bit of financing necessary to bring the project home.

So, a HUGE, deeper Thank You to these great friends for helping us get to the finish line.

That's it for now. I'll be back next week. Until then, I hope you'll take time to reflect on the new year and get off to a good start!

Keep Thumpin'!

Lane on Bass...

---

January 9, 2008 - How did I get here again?

Hello, all. I'm back up in Mundelein and, this time, before they lock me in a room with lots of loud boxes, I thought I'd go ahead and scribble a few thoughts.

We are in NAMM Prep Mode. I did my part in creating a fiasco. (Let's be honest, it's always a fiasco, so you might as well enjoy it.) At the very last minute, I added a list of rigs I wanted, so I could take them around to other booths for use during the show. Oh! Did I mention we're getting a sound room this year? Man, that's going to be cool... and will probably keep me out of trouble with the Volume Police, at least for the first day or two.

So... I'm up here until Thursday (got here last night). Then, Friday morning, I should be picking up a bunch of heavy boxes with little plastic boxes in them. Yep! CDs... finally! So, I'll spend the weekend working with the team to fill the preorders, stock the shelves of several local outlets and send out a few dozen press releases.

Then, Monday, I pack it all up again and head for sunny California for a week of blood, sweat and tears. And really cool gear.

Gotta run... I have 20 minutes to get my quadruple espresso and get to the factory. So, this will have to do for now. Until next time,

Keep Thumpin'!

Lane on Bass...

---

January 16, 2008 - NAMM Week Begins

It's Tuesday night of NAMM week as I write this. This follows a week of travel up to Mundelein last week. And between the two trips, the first shipment of CDs arrived. Busy doesn't begin to describe it. Unfortunately, I don't have a whole lot of time to write about all of it. So I'll cut to the chase.

Up in Mundelein, I had a rash of meetings with a number of people, interspersed with several rounds of speaker testing. Some of the meetings I've talked about on the forum; the rest I can't tell you about or they'd kill me. Same with the testing... it's all still Top Secret - Drop Dead Before Reading. Suffice to say that pretty much everything I can say has already been said.

I got home late Thursday night and was up at 6 the following morning so I could get a full day in catching up on email and such before turning my energy to receiving the CDs. I managed to get around to all of our local outlets, and to get things set up on our web store. For those that prefer downloads, we're on DigStation.

It all made for a pretty full weekend, especially when you consider I normally spend ten to fifteen hours a weekend on Eden stuff, checking the forum, catching up on emails, talking to endorsers, blahblahblah...

I spent Monday morning packing and dealing with some last minute emergencies and making sure we met some deadlines on some issues I've been shepherding. Then it was Travel Time, which is five times longer than Normal Time. And the airline lost one of my bags. No big deal. It was just a bass I was bringing out as a present to our coproducer and mix/mastering engineer.

NOT!

Thankfully, the bass had made it to the hotel by this morning, so all's well in the end... but it was bit stressful for a minute there. David and I spent most of our day unpacking boxes - and there are twice as many this year as last. One reason is that we have a sound room in our booth this year. This is WAY cool because it means I can turn up really loud and the NAMM Volume Police can't do anything about it! (insert big fat raspberry here) Another reason is that we have a lot of really cool new stuff to show off. Such as:

1. Rocco's new amp! Yes, folks, it's done and it's cool as all get-out. Switch between standard 3-band EQ w/ Enhance and Bass Boost, or 9-band graphic EQ. And 1400W RMS into 4 Ohms. Ya gotta love that.

 

2. The new E series cabinets. Eight Ohm, two-ten and single-fifteen, plus 4 Ohm four-ten and eight-ten configurations make up the line. All feature a new grill cloth front that goes perfectly with this series' old school feel and sound. As always, the speakers were designed and engineered by David Hisownself but are manufactured exclusively for Eden by Eminence. We're very excited about this new partnership as it will allow us to continue to faithfully reproduce David's design while also ensuring that we can keep up with market demand, no matter how strong.

 

3. Speaking of the E series, wouldn't it be Really Cool and a Very Good Thing worth dozens of Cool Points if we had an amplifier to mate with the E series cabinets? You know, something all-tube like the old-school amps, yet was affordable for mere mortals? Well, I wouldn't be writing this if it weren't true. David has designed and engineered a 300W (closer to 320, in fact) all-tube head with a straight ahead tone control set (3-band with Mid shift - 550Hz and 2.2KHz.) Don't ask me how, because I didn't think it was possible, but this baby is bench testing at 700 Watt real peaks. This is a no-nonsense amp that will kick your behind. Twice.

 

4. Neo combos. That's right. The neos are here! Our first pair of lightweight, super-cool combos feature a single ten or single twelve, both at 8 Ohms so you can add an extension cabinet. It's a No Brainer that they are both powered by the small but mighty WTX-260. And you've got to see the cool wheels and handle attachment (removable, oh, yeah...) that David has rigged up. WAY BAD and worth ten Cool Points at least.

5. Man, if you can't guess this one, you need to take up dru... never mind. NEO CABS! (break into Happy Dance here) David is just never satisfied with anything less than perfect. So, for more than a year, David has been secretly refining the neo design. And he's got a ten inch driver, and a twelve inch, that are virtually indistinguishable from the ten inch XST speaker and the 12 inch XLT. So... the first neo cabs available will be a 210XST4N (the last 4 designating 4 Ohms, the N means NEO!), a 410XST8N, and the D112XLT8N. What's very cool about all of them is that David continued to refine the driver design until they were direct replacements for the current 210XST, 410XST and 112XLT drivers. This is going to help a LOT for production smoothness. More Cool Points, please.

6. The N series Nemesis combos. We released these before NAMM, but this is the first show where folks can check them out. Check the product pages for more info on these little beauties. One thing we just added to the N11, N12, N28 and N15 is a detachable Positioning Wedge that allows multiple kickback angles depending on the user's need at the moment. You can actually stand the units straight up like a "normal" unit, then go through several tilt options, all the way to darn near flat on its back.

So, there's a whole bunch of stuff for you to drool over... and if our Web Guru is thinking on his feet... (I work sitting down, so I think on my... nevermind. - WG) you're looking at some pictures of all this stuff, too... not just reading about it. (To me, reading about cool new gear without the pictures is kind of like kissing your sister. Or your dog. It's just not the same as kissing a.... I don't know... human.

OK... it's midnight. David gets up at insanely early hours. Dang farm boy. It's time to turn out the lights and get some rack time. Tomorrow, we have to set up all the Cool Stuff, hook it up, test it out, and see how loud we get to go in the sound room without upsetting our neighbors. Just like at home.

Next week, I'll have a few pictures from the show and (I hope) some Cool Stories to pass on. Until then,

Keep Thumpin'!

Lane on Bass...

---

January 23, 2008 - NAMM, I'm tired...

Well, another NAMM show is in the can, and I'm home alive. Before I get into the report, I want to thank Web Guru Bill profusely for doing this week's web load from sunny California -- while on vacation. That's dedication. That's professionalism. That's pretty darn cool. That's enough for now. Seriously. Thanks, bro, for making sure everyone got their weekly dose of Vitamin E(den).

Now, about this whole show thing. This year was the best hang I've had at NAMM. And I'm not the only one to notice. Every Eden brother and sister agreed that this year was something really special. The core group included Uriah Duffy, Snow Owl and his bro Joe Sanchez, new bro Francesco (when I find his card, I'll be able to spell his last name!), Angeline Saris and Ariane Cap. These are the folks I spent most of my time with when not in the booth. On top of that, we had some really cool jams going on throughout the show. Man, we even had Victor Wooten hanging with us Sunday. (No pictures of this yet, but I haven't hooked with everyone who had a camera, so there's still hope.)

Check out the cool new HUGE booth graphics. You could see the big E logo all the way down the aisle.

In addition to fellow Edenites, I got to spend time with my very good friend Barry Pearlman from Renaissance Guitars, and Rick Plester (Black Symphony). I call Barry my slightly older and much wiser brother, which tells you everything you need to know on that one. I met Rick through Rev Jones; he's a Randall endorser, but we managed to overlook our difference in string sizes so well that we've become fast friends for life. Rick co-produced, mixed and mastered the Deeper Blues CD, and is also working with me on a long-term project I'm not ready to talk about yet. (But I'll hint and tease like crazy in the coming months.)

Side note -- Rick is one of the producers that use our EM-5 monitors. And he loves them. In fact, he loves them so much that he's now an official endorser of them. Yeah, Eden ain't just for bass players anymore.

Francesco, Lane, Polo and Uriah.	Polo and Lane get a few minutes with Seymour Duncan.

Speaking of that, check out Larry Coryell and a young protoge, both playing through Eden bass rigs. You'll probably recognize the WTX-260 and D112XLT cab. The combo is the new DXC-112N(8). We changed the model designations at the last minute to more clearly reflect what the unit is, and where it fits in our line. D for David series, X for WTX power, C for combo, N for neo. The numbers continue our practice of number and size of speaker(s), and impedance of the cab.

	Everyone wants to get a shot with Seymour, including Rick Plester, Polo Jones, some guy, and Lane.
Jazz great Larry Coryell and a protégé, playing through bass rigs, which also happen to make excellent jazz guitar amps.

And let me tell you, the DXC RAWKS! We all had a blast playing through it. Uriah loved it so much he used it for two of his performances at the X2 Wireless booth. And everybody that heard him was amazed at how big this little unit sounded. U-Dawg also loved how easily he could pull it through the crowds. And, like a bunch of grade-school kids, we had fun removing and reattaching the handle/wheel thingie.

Angeline Saris and Lane. "Man, hanging with a sweety like her, even I look cool!"
	Polo Jones and Angeline Saris cop a pose.

Let's see. What else? Oh! Rocco had to rearrange his schedule at the last minute, so he could only be with us on Thursday. He spent almost all of his time playing his new ROC-1500 head. And he LOVES it!! (Wipe forehead, cue band, release the doves.) Man, Rocco doesn't smile much. But the grin he was wearing throughout the test barely fit on his face. His manager came back Friday to spend twenty minutes telling us how much Rocco loved the amp, and that even he hadn't seen Rocco smile that much in a long, long time.

E series madness prevailed throughout the show. Man, David has built a tube head that even I can love. And I hate tube heads, OK? Not just don't care for them. I've always hated them. Not this one. It's a beast. Wow. Just -- wow! It sounds wonderful and is insanely loud. Everyone that heard it wants one. Or three. Yeah, three. There's a new Edenite that wants to take a trio of them on a world tour with this really, really famous band. I'll tell you more when the paperwork is done. Francesco wants one for home and another for touring.

Here's the really cool thing. You know how you can bias a tube amp to the perfect sweet spot to get your individual tone? But then you take it to another location and, because the power is different, so is the bias? And you know how when you break a tube, you have to replace several (anywhere from half, to ALL of them) instead of just the one that went down? Not with this baby. See, we put the bias controls and test probe points on the back of the amp where you could get at them very easily. So, load in to the venue, heat the amp up during sound check, and rebias to your sweet spot. Break a tube? No problem. Replace it; heat up the new one; bias it to match your tube set. Done. That, my friends, is beyond Cool. It's UltraCool. It's MegaCool. It's ... never mind. It's just cool, OK?

The N series combos impressed everyone as well. The positoining wedge (on larger models) allows for multiple kick-back angles, and all of them sound great. We used them several times for bass jams, three and four of us at a time using all the different models.

	Getting seriously down -- Uriah, Lane, Snow Owl and Joe Sanchez jamming on the Blues.
The N series line-up. This is where most of the bass jams took place.

I blew my voice out Saturday, trying to sing unamplified over four basses. It was a really cool version of Stormfront, a slow Blues of mine. But, man, next time, I'm bringing FOH with me! The Sunday jam included none other than Victor Wooten, a long-time friend of Uriah and Joe. You want nerves? I'm standing there, listening to all these jazz cats and kitties, wailing and flailing, doing all the cool stuff -- slap, tap, harmonics, chords, blinding runs that use up a whole song's worth of notes in a second flat. And I'm loving it, and so is Vic. Then Snow Owl turns to me and says, "you gotta play, man."

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do."

"No, really, I don't."

"What? You don't like me anymore? You won't jam with me?"

Now, I can't really say, "bro, I'm intimidated as all get-out and I don't want to step on my own feet (yeah, feet...that's it) in front of Victor." So I borrow Joe's 5-string (E-C, just like mine), and Snow Owl and I do a duo version of Bass in the Hills. Even though Joe's bass isn't black, it felt and sounded pretty darn good, even with me playing it. Everyone made nice afterwards, even Victor, who listened with eyes closed and grinning. "Nice. That was really nice," he said. OK. I can die happy now.

Uriah, Lane and Snow Owl. Uriah and Snow Owl cracking up at Lane's lampoon of himself.	Uriah, lost in the Blues while Lane looks on approvingly.

And, yes, that's a suit. Shut up.

I wore the full deal on Saturday... more to have fun with our COO than anything. He called me David's Haberdasher and asked if it was for a wedding or a funeral. I asked him if he planned on dying that day. I'm not sure if he got that one.... but it was fun anyway. And he didn't fire me, so I guess I'm OK.

Man... what else? I hooked up with Mandy Lions again for a bit. Mandy started the whole grunt vocal heavy metal thing that Rob Zombie and Pantera have made famous. Both bands credit Mandy as the father of grunt. Mandy's a larger-than-life character that you'd expect to be as difficult as an upset bear to deal with. But he's a teddy bear inside, and a wonderful person to hang with. I gotta say, it's pretty cool when someone of that stature -- who barely knows you -- asks about your CD and your band. And says, "man, call me more often, will you?"

"I love you, man!" Lane and Uriah totally waste a perfectly good photo op. Mostly Lane.	Say Cheese! Lane plays photographer for Rick, Seymour and Uriah.

Speaking of the CD (and yeah, I know I'm jumping around a lot), everyone had nice things to say. And most offered to help get the band out on stages around the world. As Al Turner says, it's good to have friends. SHAMELESS PLUG -- but the CD here, and download it here.

Got to hang with Lizzy Borden and his band, including Eden user Marten Andersson. Also Seymour Duncan, Steve Lukather, Billy Sheehan and about 90 other players. It's all a blur. Every time I turned around there was someone else cool to meet. But, again, the best part was the hang with my brothers and sisters. It really is a family kind of thing... everyone catching up, showing vacation pictures, the whole bit. Lots of great one-on-one talks in the dead of night. And, to me, that's a big reason I'm proud of our roster of endorsers. No matter the style, no matter what level a player is on, we're all brothers and sisters looking out for each other. We even had one conversation about acting as backline support for each other when all else fails. I mean, man! That's pretty cool.

Thin Lizzy Borden. Marten and Chris of Lizzy Borden, Uriah, and Francesco of Thin Lizzy.

OK. I'm still catching up on stuff I missed while out at the show, so I'll close for now. Next week, I hope to have more pictures, and remember more stuff. Right now, it's time for another cup of coffee and a couple dozen phone calls. So, until next time,

Keep Thumpin'!

Lane on Bass...

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