Category: Guitar

UPS is Just Screwing With Me

As of 8:07pm, my UPS tracking number still says out for delivery for today by 9:00pm. Yesterday they changed the delivery date from 6/22 to 6/23. I expect the same at this point. I could really have used a piece of good news today, even if it was something as stupid and pointless as a 50 pound package from UPS. Pretty safe bet I’m wasting my time and effort. Thanks

Guitar Gear Notes

UPS… come on guys. I mean, I used to be one of you! I worked in the Chelmsford Hub for a year. I loaded trucks bound for the Worcester, MA Center. I loaded trucks for the Portland, ME Center. That was a major volume belt. Come on guys, let’s deliver my new (used) amplifier. My June Music project Trello board tells me I have two songs waiting for lead guitars, and if you drop off that sweet little AC15 I can use it for those tracks tonight.

Come on, UPS. Let’s get ‘er done!

In other gear news, I was clued in to an independent pedal builder in Ohio who is selling clones of the Fulltone OCD pedal and donating the money to Black Lives Matter bail funds. How awesome is that? Seriously, that made me so happy. He did a very small run (looks like his business only does small runs. In fact, it feels like the business is just one guy in his house) and then did a second slightly bigger run (the pedals are named Black Lives Matter and that too is awesome). I sent him three questions on bookfayce. Are you going to make more, which version of the OCD pedal are you cloning, and how much are you charging. I know it’s going to be expensive, but if he makes more and I get a chance to buy in, I am totally going to buy one. I’ll do it for two reasons. First, I want to use all the arguments I had a few weeks ago as an excuse to donate some money to the cause. Second, I still want an OCD pedal and I want to stick it to Fulltone. Petty? Yes. I don’t care.

There are other companies making OCD clones because of this situation, but for some reason this is the one that’s calling out to me. The name of the company is Malaise Forever Customs. Here’s hoping they make more.

Home Recording Rig Changes

I spent my lunch break moving stuff around. The Fender Bassbreaker 18/30 is way too loud to play at home with other people in the house. At the last gig, back on Feb 1st, it was EPIC. At home it’s just too much. For the last 2 months it’s been used as a table to hold my Bassbreaker 15 which has been the only amp I’ve used since RPM ended on Feb 29.

I brought the 18/30 down cellar and stored it off the floor as we’ve had some moisture issues. It should be safe. At the moment, the 15 is sitting alone in my music nook in my bedroom.

296/365

However, changes will continue. The Vox AC15 is on a UPS Brownie and it is scheduled to be delivered by 9:00PM.

I don’t want to wait until 9:00. I want it now. NOW!

I WANT MY NEW QUARANTINE TOY NOW!

Ugh… patience, Robert. Patience.

Screw that, I WANT IT NOW!

Don’t Daisy Chain Your Pedals

My new Crybaby wah pedal is on my pedal board. My RYRA Klon Klone and Keeley Blues Driver clone are not. The board is powered by two MXR bricks. The two non-board pedals each have their own plugs.

I was using the two clones, but I wanted to use the crybaby with them and I didn’t have a third plug. I took it off the board and did what you shouldn’t do. I put all three pedals onto a daisy chain. I did leads for one song and then tore it all down.

Don’t daisy chain pedals together. My already noisy rig reached new, previously unimagined levels of awful noise. Just don’t do it.

The crybaby sounded great though.

I Broke My Rule

I broke one of my primary album-in-a-month challenge rules today. Twice. I think I might do it again too.

I mentioned before that I was a little unhappy with the first few rhythm guitar parts I recorded this month. Well, I have a rule that states once a track is done, it’s done. Today I kicked that rule to the curb and re-recorded all of the guitars on songs #1 and 2. I’m just out of control.

I also put lead guitar on both of those songs. That means I have two June songs ready to mix. It’s just crazy!

Sum Up Today’s Music

I took the day off from work today to be available for the dishwasher delivery. I was able to use the downtime before and after to work on some music. I was able to make a little progress on both projects.

For the album in a month thing, I wrote lyrics and melodies for two of the 11 songs. That’s it. I was hoping to get to more than that today. I might sneak another song or two in before bed tonight, who knows.

For the re-recording thing (tentatively titled Quarantunes Volume 1) I redid the rhythm guitars for one of the songs I did over the weekend. I didn’t like the tone. It’s better now, and I’ll probably keep it, but there’s something weird about it that isn’t happening in the other songs that used the same setup. I don’t know. I then added the guitars to the only one of the eight songs that I hadn’t touched yet. Some of it sounds good. Some of it doesn’t. I had an idea that didn’t really pan out.

Finally, I took the two songs that I put the guitars down a year ago and redid them. They both sounded pretty good already, but they both sound better now. I’m very pleased with how they turned out.

That means both projects are now fully at the stage where the next step is vocals. Crap.

Oh yeah, and the amp I bought online this morning will be delivered on Monday.