Hello everyone!

Guitar Idol entry on vox standard 25 for Uk Oxfordshire based guitarist Daniel Young, 31 years young!

Im sure after you read this (if your a guitar nut) you should be able to relate to it!

One thing for sure, my partner Jody doesn’t like to hear about it! Its like, my guitar may as well be another women! In fact, about 10 years ago after a particularly nasty barny, she took a hammer to my Vox standard 25!...took me ages to restore it.

Guitar idol has announced its live finals will be held on the 4^th December 2011 and will be hosted by licklibrary.

The guitar idol live finalists are to be announced soon so keep watching this space! Who do you think is going to be in the guitar idol live finals? One thing is for sure, its going to be a great evening at the live show!

From the beginning, before guitar idol!

Long before guitar idol Due to an accident at 14 that left my left arm badly damaged and my left hand half paralyzed, I was instructed during physiotherapy to exercise my hand using dextrous tasks to try and regain function. The consultants wasn’t sure if I would ever be able to properly use my hand properly again.

My father Colin Young (who is a fantastic guitarist) quickly suggested learning the guitar as this might improve function.

I practiced for exactly 1 hour a day, no more and no less! I don’t know why but I heard my Dad, Uncle Bob and Cousin Terry agreeing this at one of there band rehearsals.

I always wanted to be able to play like the three of them as they are all pretty damn good!

After 3 weeks of practice, the improvement in hand function was fantastic! After 3 months I had learnt my first song, Pink Floyds “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” after watching and recording onto VHS (1994 live at Earl’s court) can you remember!

I was suddenly obsessed with David Gilmour’s red Strat and playing style which game me the bug. You know that feeling like in Wayne’s world over the 60’s Strat!

I worked for a few years in various guitar shops on the floor and doing setups/repairs which was tremendously good fun! SUPORT YOUR LOCAL MUSIC SHOPS!!

I organised Banbury’s first Marshall road show and helped organise Fender road shows that featured Fenders rep Eddy Allan. All good industry stuff!

What else besides guitar idol?

Along with entering guitar idol, im currently working as a guitar instructor at unison rock academy. Google “guitar body”  I should be first (or second).

Anyway, after 2 operations, I still have very limited function of the left arm and my hand although still a bit numb is much better!

My brothers own and run Northgate Recording Studios in Banbury where I am often called upon as a guitar tech.

We have some pretty big rooms with high ceilings and wooden floors, great acoustics!

The Vox standard 25 I’m playing is the guitar I learned to play on that my Dad gave me in 94. Although I have owned and played many others this will always be my number 1 axe.

It’s seen the good and the bad times!

I have modified for recording.

I have insulated the body cavity with copper tape; run the grounds to a single ring (earth loop removal) Wax dipped the pickups (paraffin and beeswax) as they were a tad microphone from getting old!

The neck has the standard USA Dimarzio single coil and the Bridge has a Seymour Duncan Hotrail. I have removed the mid Pup as it’s not needed at the moment.

The output of the guitar has a stereo Jack socket so the two pups can be split into two separate feeds using a Y cable.

Each separate pickup feed is then sent to separate active DI’s with the earth lifted on one (to remove loop)

Each DI splits the signal into two. One DI signal goes balanced to the Motu (sound card) The other goes into a JCM2000 TSL.

The other Di box (feed from the neck Dimarzio) does the same except instead of going to a JCM2000; it goes into an Orange AD30

Why all this?

If I record this way, it means I can go back to the project in the future and independently remap the same takes from the separate pickups.

You can get some crazy tones when reamping but you do have take phasing into consideration!

You can have fun with automation as well.

If you have two amps running in separate rooms from either split signal or stereo output, try a mute automation on the two recording tracks so when it comes to the middle 8 you can go from bridge pickup screaming out of a TSL to your neck pickup out of an Orange AD30 without touching a single button!!