Filthy

My wife, who does not play guitar, just read my previous post out loud….

Taken out of context… boy do I sound like a super pervert! Holy crap is that a dirty sounding post!

Did I really mention a clean muff and not think it sounded X-rated?

Sounds So Good!

I did it. I plugged in the new amp. I expected to be overwhelmed with buyers remorse, but no. Instead I am overwhelmed with guitar flavored happiness.

I never turned the volume up above 2, so we all know my testing is not complete. You have to wind these suckers up pretty high to give them a full test. Still, at bedroom volume levels, this is the best clean sound I’ve EVER heard. I played all three of my guitars. The Les Paul with both pickups sounds the best. The Strat with the neck pickup is second. I need to get the switch on the 335 fixed so that I can try options besides just the bridge pickup, but even that sounded awesome.

I played all three guitars through the new Fulltone OCD pedal. I need to do some more research to find the sweet spots, but it sounded great! I was messing with gain and tone levels and everything I did sounded great. The Strat was a little harsh on the high end, but the Gibsons, especially the Les Paul, were just butter.

After the OCD things got serious. I plugged in the Muff. Oh. My. Goodness. I kept the fuzz maxed because I don’t particularly care for the cleaner end of the Muff. That’s more or less why I got the OCD. Even at low volumes, all three guitars absolutely roared. It was fuzz box heaven. You’d think by now I’d realize that the single coil pickups on the Strat are going to produce a lot of hum. I mean, that’s the exact reason why the humbuckers on the Gibsons were invented. Still, it always causes a bit of a double take. Even with the hum though, the Fender sounded wicked. The two Gibsons though… filthy. Just, filthy. I love it!

I stopped playing because my hands stared cramping and I didn’t want to push my luck, or spend the afternoon in pain. I’ll take a break for a while and then maybe go back downstairs and try to do some lower volume recording. Thursday, when I work from home and have a couple of hours free in the morning, will be the big high volume test. Something tells me the neighbors might want to watch out. (maniacal laugh)

Woah!

The pedals are for the stay-at-home/back up rig. The amp is more fluid. My 26 year old Fender Stage amp is dying a slow and painful death. That is one of the reasons I haven’t been recording much lately. It’s just not working all that well, and when it does work it is not very reliable. So I was definitely in the market for a new amplifier. I’ve been dying for a Fender Twin Reverb forever. Back in high school, the music department had a silver face Twin and that has always been my standard for clean tones. It was beat to hell and probably died a fiery death, but it was great. The problem is, the Fender reissue Twin Reverb is amazingly expensive. I could never justify throwing out that much money.

This week I started looking at the smallest of the reissue tube amps, the Princeton Reverb. It seemed like a smart way to go for a leave-at-home amp, but even that was seriously expensive. I started thinking about worst case scenarios though. If my Marshall should die, the Princeton would not really be a powerful enough replacement. The Twin would definitely work, but that damn price.

So I compromised I went with the Deluxe Reverb. It’s big enough to handle most of the places the band could possibly play, and it’s still small enough that it wouldn’t blow out the windows in the cellar if I wind it up while playing at home recording.

Now I just need to find some time to actually plug the bad boy in and play with it!

Happy New Pedal/New Tube Amp Day!

Uh Oh

There’s no way this ends well for my wallet.

Race?

Is there a crew race on the Charles River today?

Blood and Gore

I’m about to get stabbed for my health.

I’m getting blood work done ahead of a physical on Monday. I’d rather not, but when you’re and old fart like me you have to do these things.

Sad Ben

This may be the best video ever made.

Affleck knows that the movie is bad. Yes, he knows.

Statie

The building I work in is near the top of a hill that overlooks route 128 (that’s interstate 95 to you non-locals). There is nothing but a little stretch of grass on a steep slope between the building and the highway. My desk is on the top floor and I sit at a window that overlooks the road.

At this very moment there is a Massachusetts State Trooper parked in the Northbound breakdown lane, right in front of my window. I very desperately want to make a Super Troopers joke right meow, but nothing is coming to me. I feel so ashamed of myself.

Meow, I would be very surprised if the police officer, or officers, in that car are as clever and funny as the Vermont Staties in the movie, but I still expect those guys have some pretty funny stories to tell. I have very limited experience with social situations that include off duty cops, but if I have learned anything in my few encounters… those cats have some seriously funny stories.

They have been parked there for about 20 minutes now. What are they doing? Are they acting as a speed trap? Just lying in wait for some random unlawful behavior? Are they investigating a crime? Is it possible the state has dispatched them to solve the case of the tanking of the Boston Bruins who as of last night have lost five games in a row and seen their point cushion in the standings drop from 10 to one and who are now in grave danger of losing their playoff spot with only seven games left in the regular season? I’d like to think that Massachusetts’ finest are on that case, but I tend to believe that it is a mystery that we’ll never be able to solve.

Fin