Tim Scott - Dirty Electro/Funky House Gigs

Forthcoming Guitar Mashing Gigs
Tim’s Exceptional Live Guitar at your night
Quotes about Tim’s Guitar Mashing Performance
Guide to Mashing Live Guitar…
Do's and Don'ts when playing with a DJ

‘Each week I also play a backroom funky set, accompanied by Cuban live saxophonist Roque. On this occasion my guitarist friend Tim Scott replaced Roque, playing a flashing pink guitar straight out of the glam rock era along to the tracks I was spinning. Guitar works well with a vast range of different music styles- assorted pedals and effects can make the same instrument generate a huge spectrum of sounds. Tim’s guitar playing was very well received to say the least.'

Excerpt from:
Judge Jules' on-line diary of 23rd August 2005.

5 mp3 samples of Judge Jules Dirty Electro Funky House set during the Radio 1 week, Ibiza 2006, Feat. The live guitar mashing virtuosity of Tim Scott:

mp3 sample 1 | mp3 sample 2 | mp3 sample 3 | mp3 sample 4 | mp3 sample 5

mp3 sample of Tim live on Galaxy Radio

Tim's sparkly 'Pink & Chrome' Fender Telecaster guitar was customized to his exacting specification especially for this kind of performance with pink LED's in the finger board and three lasers in the headstock all connected so they react to Tim's playing. This radical customization was performed by the world-famous luthier Martin Sims who has customized guitars for the likes of Prince, Matt Bellamy (MUSE) and Steve Vai, to name but a few.

See Tim playing live at the following venues

Funky House Guitar sets
Date	Time(s)	Place
30/05/2008	4:30am - 5:30am	Ministry Of Sound - Club, London, Judgement Sundays Tour live alongside Judge Jules. http://www.ministryofsound.com/
Previous Funky House Guitar live dates
Date	Time(s)	Place
23/03/2008	4:30am - 5:30am	The Syndicate, Blackpool, Judgement Sundays Tour live alongside Judge Jules. http://blackpool.thesyndicate.com/
31/12/2007	10:30pm	Samphire Restaurant, Hale
28/07/2007	10:30pm - 2am	Label, Deansgate, Manchester
06/05/2007	1am - 2:30am	Plush Dafunk, Sunday 6th May, At Pachas London.
07/10/2006	1am - 2:30am	Plush Dafunk's 3rd Birthday Saturday 7th October At Pachas London
13/08/2006	4.30am - 7am	Eden, Ibiza - Judgement Sunday during Radio 1 week alongside Judge Jules
09/03/2006	11pm - 2am	Faces Night Club - Ilford, Essex
26/01/2006	11pm - 2am	Faces Night Club - Ilford, Essex
29/10/2005	10pm - 2am	The New Revolution - Leeds
19/09/2005	4:30am	Eden, Ibiza - Judgement Sunday alongside Judge Jules
27/08/2005	11pm-2am	Revolution, Deansgate Locks, Manchester.
15/08/2005	4:30am	Eden, Ibiza - Judgement Sunday during Radio 1 weekend alongside Judge Jules
09/07/2005	11pm - 2am	Revolution, Deansgate Locks, Manchester
05/06/2005	10pm - 4am	Plush Funky House live at Ampersand, Manchester. Live on Galaxy Radio
28/05/2005	11pm - 2am	Revolution, Deansgate Locks, Manchester
18/02/2005	10pm - 3am	Plush Funky House at Ampersand, Manchester

The Technical Logistics of Tim Scott playing live at your Night Club. 

Tim's guitar connects directly to the P.A. system via the XLR microphone input on the DJ mixer.

His guitar effects board takes up a small amount of space and is best located in a convenient corner of the DJ booth for easy accessibility, in order to make the slight adjustments that maybe necessary during the set. The guitar sound in the venue is created using the very finest guitar effects: Sans Amp guitar amplifier simulation, BOSS digital reverb, BBE compressor and BBE sonic maximiser; this set up generates unsurpassed clarity to Tim’s guitar sound for the night no matter the Club or Bars particular sound system.

Matching the guitars tuning to the pitch of the records is done by tuning one string by ear and using an electronic tuner to dither the rest. This process takes approximately 30 seconds or so with the guitars P.A. feed muted during this time.

Tim's guitar is wireless via a Sennheiser radio system so there are no wires for the DJ to trip over. Also this allows Tim to go out into the club to deliver personal performances. On occasion he's stood on the bar, which goes down very well with any crowd. For more details on Booking Tim Scott for one of his outstanding guitar mashing sets at your Club Night, please get in touch via the contact page.

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Quotes about Tim’s Funky House Guitar Mashing Performance:

'Fuckin wikkid'
'LOVED IT is the only way to describe Sunday.'

Judge Jules' reaction to Tim's live guitar playing over his dirty funky electro set during the Radio 1 Weekend, Judgement Sunday, Ibiza 2005.

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Guide to Mashing Live Guitar with Dirty Electro or Funky House:

To beat match the tunes the DJ changes the pitch of the records or CD's, blending them together seamlessly, which leaves the live musician without a fixed tuning. This means that you have to retune to every record.

The way round this problem is to dither out one string, tuning it by ear to the right pitch, and then matching all the others with an electronic tuner.

Most dirty electro/funky house records are made to a tempo of 125 to 128bpm. The DJs hot them up for the club by increasing the speed to 130 - 134bpm. The ideal "hot tempo" is probably 132bpm.

Most nightclub sound systems run in mono so, I would recommend that you run your FX setup in mono using the XLR mike input on DJ mixer. It is preferable to perform in the DJ booth as this delivers the most intuitive performance.

Your sound needs to be able to cut through the heavy bass applied by the DJs, as this leads to partial cancellation of the mid and transient frequencies. So you must be able to alter your EQ to fit with the venue and DJ to achieve the sound required.

If clubs played the music at a slightly lower volume, maybe had less bass bins and ran the PA in stereo, the integrity of the mix would be much smoother. This probably won't happen, as it's not a practical solution for covering the whole venue with even sound coverage.

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Do's and Don'ts when playing with a DJ:

• Do copy the repetitive riffs and melodies of each record, and use that as a basis to improvise around.

• Don't play over the vocals; in radio if their talking overlaps the vocal they call this a "Crash!"

• Do "Mashing" with care. Play a famous riff from another song over the current record (this may cause the DJ to stare at his record in disbelief, wondering where the tune is coming from) be careful with this as it may spoil the DJs set; so be careful what you mash!!

• Try not to play, as the DJ is beat matching one record to the next, as this can put him off and create a clashing key change for your playing; i.e. you are out of tune with the next record as it comes in.

• Make sure you learn the current repertoire, and keep yourself up to the minute with any important new tunes.

• Remember Club land is very sharp; they don't mess about like they do with amateur cover bands in the pub scene. If you're not up to it you won't get paid, and you won't get asked back!

• Don't play over any intricate instrumental solos trying perhaps to out do it, just be cool enough to stand back and let it roll. Learning to take your turn to show off when there's space in the record is fundamentally important.

• Ask the DJ for some dub mixes during his set, these are a lot sparser vocally and can give you room to shine.

• Don't try to upstage the DJ by playing over every record, stand back for 2 or 3 records, and then play over one. Work with them, they will be far more willing to let you rip now and again.

• Remember, unlike the local pub or live music venues people are queuing round the block every weekend to get into Clubs and paying from £5 to £20 to get in. These places are often packed, so there is enough money to pay you if you are good, maybe more if you become a crowd draw.

• Featuring on, or writing for a released record, is one way of attaining more from this type work. As well as the possibility of live PAs, your name on the flyers and better remuneration, but only if your reputation is held in esteem.

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