I went down a YouTube rabbit hole a little and ended up here. A live recording of Procol Harum playing Whaling Stories not long before Robin Trower left the band and stopped playing Gibson guitars.
I’ve never heard this recording before, but the song is from a record called Home and I knew that album like the back of my hand. So did everyone in my house and most of my neighbors. Not only did I play it a lot, but I played my guitar along with it a lot too. Loudly.
I could fake my way through most of the songs, and even learned a couple of them (poorly) on piano. This one was a favorite to play along with. Those double bends Trower did… damn.
The weather is spectacular today. Clear, sunny, mild temps in the mid-70’s. Perfect. Everything you want from June in New England.
I have the windows open and the AC off so it should be super quiet. It’s not though. The birds, man. The birds are being crazy loud. It’s like Bird Coachella or something. It feels like any minute now Roger McGuinn and David Crosby are going to tear into Eight Miles High*.
Didn’t I write something not long about about not writing about work anymore?
Work has been crazy for the last few days and today is no different. Lighten up, universe. So much stuff going on. All reasonable and handleable (is that a word?) but damn, gimme a break!
It’s Loki night. Harry is coming over and we’re going to have hamburgers for dinner and watch the new episode. I haven’t a clue what’s going on in the story but I’m totally into it and can’t wait for work to end so that we can all watch it together. It’s only going to be six episodes and tonight is episode three. Marvel didn’t prepare us for this. We wanted TV series and we’re really just getting movies spread out over a month or so. Okay… I’ll take it.
I really need to get my eyes checked. I don’t know if there will be time this weekend, but I have to do it soon. Jen got a pair of glasses just for use with a computer. I think that’s a good idea. I wanted to get a pair of reading glasses to go along with my progressives. Computer glasses is pretty much the same idea. I want to be able to use the whole lens when I know I’ll be doing up close viewing. I want sunglasses too, but that’s asking too much.
I really want to have a band practice.
Okay. Lunch break is over. Back to work, red head.
Interesting guitar question. How many do you actually need?
The video doesn’t really answer the question realistically. You need one, yes. But there are other answers too.
I only need one, but I need to keep looking and trying different guitars until I find THE ONE. Specifically, the one that makes me not want any others.
x = n + 1 where x is the number you need and n is the number you have.
For me, I need two. Two of everything. I play bars in a cover band. I don’t have a tech sitting off stage who can fix things if my equipment should fail. I need to get to the set break. If a guitar (or amp, or cable, or mic, or pedal) should fail I need to swap it for something that’s working immediately. I can tinker with stuff all I want in between sets, but while the band is on stage I need to be up and playing right now.
In the video he talks about needing different types of instruments for different situations. This song needs a strat sound, that song needs a Les Paul. I am guilty of that all the time. In fact, when I think about trading in my strat I think about picking up another guitar with single coil pick ups. The strat is the only single coil guitar I own, so I should get another instrument that fills that role even though that logic is bullshit. No one is ever going to call me up for a gig that requires single coils. That’s absurd. If they want me, then they’ll be perfectly fine with double coils, all day long.
So maybe the answer is just that your needs aren’t as important as your wants. Who knows.
I took a guitar pic yesterday that I didn’t post. I’m posting it now to symbolize the fact that I should have played tonight but didn’t. Or something like that.
Inside the Red Head's Head 