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BOB
SEMANCHIK |
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MUSIC
WEB EXPRESS 3000 presents I started
out at about 11 years old with a local guitar instructor and Mel bay
Book 1. Since that was 1966, I’ve been playing guitar for over
40 years. After less than a year I thought I could teach myself and
learned to play by ear listening to my favorite rock guitarists. At
age 16 I began lessons with Paul Gabriel who was a big help in showing
me some basic theory and blues techniques, not to mention giving me
my first exposure to vintage guitar acquisition syndrome. I had a
year of lessons with jazz great Joe Puma at Housatonic
My new
CD is called Standard Interpretations. It’s mostly my
take on jazz and pop standards with three originals. The bass, drums
and guide guitar parts were recorded at Horizon and Red Barn studios
in Ct. Roger Arnold engineered, mixed and mastered everything. Ninety
five percent of the guitars and all the vocals were recorded at my
home studio. I feel this album is a good representation of the many
different styles of music I like to play. Even though rock guitar
is the backbone of who I am as a musician, this CD shows that I have
grown in the 40 years as a player and am happy and capable to play
a variety of styles. I originally intended this CD to be a very simple
recording of just one guitar, bass and drums. But decided that some
of the tracks would benefit from additional overdubs to round out
the sound and make it a more interesting listening experience. We
used Pro Tools for basic tracking and mixing but all my home overdubs
were done on Digital Performer. The acoustic guitars were recorded
with a matched pair of Neumann KM 184s with a Presonus ADL 600 mic
pre and for the vocals I used a Neumann 103 with a UA LA 610. The
electric guitars were recorded with Shure SM57, Neumann 103 and Royer
121 microphones.
My Lowden
S32J and S32c acoustic guitars were big inspirations for the sounds
that originally fueled the desire to begin work on this project. Most
of the guide tracks were recorded with one of those guitars leading
the way. I also made good use of a 1975 Del Pilar classical guitar
and a mid 70’s Martin D28. As far as electric, I used a variety
of Fender and Gibson models.
The Beatles
would have to be my biggest influence since they were the first. After
learning the basics I really learned to play by ear. Duane Allman
and Dickie Betts were a huge influence. I wore out the Fillmore
East album learning every song. Leslie West was very important
as well. I’m also a big fan of Peter Frampton and of course Eric
Clapton has to in there too. Lately I have been listening to Wes Montgomery,
Kenny Burrell, Les Paul and Django. Classic albums that have had a
big influence on me include: all the Allman Bros. recordings, all
the Beatle albums and also recordings of Frank Zappa, Yes, Johnny
Winter, Led Zeppelin and John Lennon. I have been also listening to
John Mayer’s Continuum and Paul McCartney’s last
few studio CD’s.
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He
may have been raised on rock as a big fan of giants like Allman, Betts
and Page, but on his 2008 CD Bob Semanchik displays a keen grasp of
musical concepts that will impress guitar fans of all persuasions.
Too guitar-centric to be simply filed under the mainstream / smooth
jazz banner, the 15 track Standard Interpretations features
Semanchik in the studio backed up by Don Wallace (bass) and
Sal Ranniello (drums). A guitar lovers dream that blends jazz,
pop and even Les Paul style hot jazz, the mostly instrumental set
also features Semanchik’s skillful, subdued vocals which at times
recalls a laid back Eric Clapton style of singing. Several Semanchik
originals rub shoulders with his tasty covers of classic standard
instrumentals like “Black Orpheus,” “Take Five,”
“Corcovado,” “Here, There, Everywhere” and the
set closing “Over The Rainbow.” Whether backed up by his
rhythm section or taking center stage with his keen chord melody solos,
Semanchik’s easy going guitar style makes for a relaxing way
to spend an hour. With a wide repertoire of musical tricks up his
sleeve, he can rock out when he wants to—check out his acoustic
/ electric wah-wah flecked spin on “Take Five” and his Santana
flavored “Hot Rain”—but on Standard Interpretations
the sun shines on Semanchik’s refined, jazzy guitar style. 
A masterbuilt 1996 Jay Black Strat saw a lot of action as well as
a 1964 Sonic Blue Strat, featured on the CD cover. I also used my
main gigging guitar, a 1993 custom shop 54 Strat. Gibson’s included
an ES 335, ES 175, 59 reissue L.P. and ES 330, You also can hear some
Telecaster on “Blue Lobster” and last but not least an Eastman
John Pisano is featured on “Here There, Everywhere.” I used
a Fender ‘61 Princeton, ‘66 Pro Reverb and a Dr.Z. Maz Jr.
for amps. There is also some Line 6 Pod mixed in for overdubs. As
far as effects, I tracked many parts with an early ‘60s green
box Echoplex or a ‘70s black box model. I’m a big fan of
Fulltone effects and made ample use of a Fulldrive 2 and a Clyde wah
pedal. Halfway through the project I switched over to Klotz La Grange
and Sommer guitar cables and noticed an improvement in sound quality.
A far as strings, I prefer D’Addarrio EXL110’s for electric
and Elixer Nanowebs for acoustic. My ES 175 set up with medium wound
3rd flatwounds.