Well it’s been a long and hard fought last few weeks. Lots of exciting business at work and just being around such talented awesome people makes the days fun and interesting. It’s also homework time, as i need to really dig in deep and get to know all the gear, pedals, guitar nuiances for the total gear heads that only understand gear speak. But they are completely dedicated to getting that perfect “Tone” and bless em, they’ll walk over coals and through Satan’s lair to get it.

This year, some of the blokes at Truetone have started a fun covers band, ala-the-Spoilers. The band is called THE TREBLEMAKERS ( Dave Jenkins on Bass & Vocals, Paul Flynn, Mark Pritchard, Kevin, Tommy Grim on Guitars/vocals, Doc Pat on keys and lap steel, Rusty Squeezebox on drums, vocals and ME on acoustic Gtr, vocals) and the next gig is at this cool Polish restaurant on Lincoln and Santa Monica Blvd called Warszawa (http://www.warszawarestaurant.com/), which has awesome grub and super cool drinks and spirits and nice bartenders and waitresses so get yer arses out there and see the TREBLEMAKERS May 5 from about 8pm to around 10:30pm. Although the Spanish name for May 5 is “Cinco De Maya” we here in Los Angeles refer to it as DRINK DE MAYA for obvious reasons…

I’ve been checking out a lot of guitars and pedals and amps and i think i have some serious faves. First off, I love G&L guitars. It’s Leo Fenders old company (after he left Fender and Music Man) and the guitars kick any strat/tele in the butt. Love em. Gretch always rules but the Hagstroms and Reverends are the Axes I love at the moment. And keep in mind, these are lower priced guitars made overseas. Still, the playability and craftsmanship and top shelf, methinks. Obviously, Custom Shop Les Pauls are the cream, as far as high end guitars go, but quite frankly, they don’t do it for me. I guess it’s a person thing. Some people cannot live without their strats/les pauls.

Now, i am not the pedal guy at Truetone so i won’t even start. Mark Pritchard, louis Castillo and most of all, David Jenkins, rock the pedal wars. Quite simply, i dig Hot Cakes, Red Snappers, the EVH Phase Shifter and any Intelligent Harmonizer. Oh, and any good Octavia. Other than that, I’m cool. Now where it comes to amps….well that’s a different story!

First off, I LOVE the Epiphone Valve Jr. amp. It’s like 5 watts and kicks more butt than the LAPD after a 3 hour car chase. CRank it all the way to “10”, slap a Shure 57 Mic on it and GET HAPPY. I think my fave Class A amps are the Divided By 13’s. They are, without a doubt, the best overall amps i’ve ever played through. But i think they are best/better siuted for the studio. they’re like Eva Longoria; you don’t take her to the bar. You take her to a nice restaurant. I should put in a word for Rivera Amps though, because, when it comes to striaght ROCKING, they are the ones to beat. A 50watt Rivera knucklehead through a 4×12 Cabinet is about all you need if you want to make a statement and have the sound guy worship you.

So that’s why i’m so damn busy, work and also working on songs at home with my little studio. People, all the time, come up to me and say, “We miss hearing LOVE!” Who knows what the future might bring? One thing I do know, if Arthur were hear I think we would have patched things up, if he were healthy. He used to tell me that when he was in prison he had re-occuring dreams that him and baby lemonade were performing and the band stopped and all of a sudden people belted me and him with tomatoes. right there on stage. part of him was afraid the people would forget him. but the biggest part knew that the people loved him more than anything and nothing brought them more joy than to hear the angelic swoonings of “Orange Skies” or the triumphant magic of “You Set The Scene.”

Yes, we are here, after so much time and so many faces and so many trips and travails and meetings and laughs and cries. We are all still here and so is the music. And we all have each other and the fun times that the music brought us. One day we should relive those times, if life permits.

All the Best,

Mike Randle