It’s a work in the office day today so my morning is all messed up.
I did manage to get caught up on Star Wars: The Bad Batch though. Sigh of relief, kiddos.
I also have a photo-a-day pic, but only because I know I’m not likely to make any progress on the RPM Challenge today.
Working in the office tends to mangle my plans for the full day, not just the morning. Worse? Starting next week I’ll be in the office twice a week instead of once. Insert the sigh of frustration here.
I can’t wait to play this guitar with the band again. It’s been ages and ages.
Welcome home, my 1979 Gibson ES-335 Pro!
I just got home from picking up my Gibson ES-335 from the guitar shop. I played it a little while I was there and my happy is happy.
I’ll post pictures later. I don’t have time to take any right now. Happy New Frets/Bridge/Nut/Volume Pot day!
Today is February 20th. For me, personally, in RPM Challenge terms, the 20th is officially the day that I start to panic. Enjoy!
The 20th is the day where the end suddenly feels very close. We get an extra day this year, thank you leap year, so it’s not quite as bad as usual, but I definitely feel a sudden need to get off my ass and get shit done. I have nine days left after today. I need to get busy.
I put rhythm guitars onto one song and lead guitars onto another this morning before work. My playing was terrible. Absolutely awful. I am so rusty it’s silly, and what playing I have done in the last couple of weeks has not been enough to shake off any of that rust. I feel like I am getting worse… probably because I am.
Where do we stand with the album in a month project as a whole? There are 20 songs in the pipeline. I have not mixed anything yet, so no songs are 100% finished. Six have been completely recorded and are ready to mix. Five have their vocals done and are ready for lead guitars. Two have lyrics and melodies written and are ready for vocals. Five have rhythm guitars done and are ready for lyrics and melodies. Finally, two have their song forms worked out and are ready for rhythm guitars. In addition, the song that I put the rhythm guitar tracks on this morning needs to have the bass guitar (MIDI) rewritten because the bass and the guitar don’t really work well together. I need to change something so they lock in. That sort of goes against the RPM Challenge ethos (is that the right word?) as I don’t like going back and redoing anything. It takes time that I don’t have. In this case though, it sounds worse than dog shit so I have to change the bass.
There you have it. The state of the RPM Challenge project at this point in time. The minimum goal is 10 songs or 35 minutes of music. I am shooting for 20 songs, and then I’ll pick the 10 best and use them as the album I “submit” to the RPM website. Just as a heads up for the future, I really don’t think there are any good songs this year. The best of the best is very much meh. This is not going to be a good album. It’s feeling like my worst ever. Blah, indeed.
Logically I think I am an a good place to finish everything off by midnight on March 1st. Logic does not really apply here though, so my feeling is that I am currently buried under an avalanche of things still to finish. Oh good.
Anyway, here are a few pics that I took as I was listening to a playback of a terrible sounding guitar solo this morning. Ugh.
I’ve used my Les Paul Custom for every note of guitar that I have recorded this month. There’s a good chance that everything I put down after I get home from the guitar shop tomorrow will be played on my ES-335. We’ll see. I might sneak my Les Paul Standard into a few things too, if I can.
I heard from the guitar shop. My guitar is ready. I am going to pick it up tomorrow during my lunch break.
Can I get a, WOOHOO people?
WOOHOO!
Two days in a row. I’ve played guitar two days in a row. It feels good, except for my very sore, callus-free fingers. Ouch, babie.
I worked on four songs. I put rhythm tracks onto two songs and leads onto two others. All of that plus the four vocals this morning makes it a pretty good day, RPM Challenge wise. I have a lot more that I need to get to today though. With tomorrow being a vacation day for me, I want to do more vocals in the car in the morning. I don’t have any songs that are ready for that yet, so I want to try and write lyrics for 3-4 songs before bed.
In closing, the obligatory pics. This time with Hipstamatic and shake-to-shuffle.
How’s your Sunday going? Relaxing? Nice weekend day off? I hope so.
I am finding motivation very hard to come by. I got up a little late, did my exercise, ate my breakfast, wrote my daily writing prompt post, recorded a bunch of songs worth of crappy vocals, made the bed, and…
Apart from making lunch for me and my wife (burgers in a frying pan and french fries in an air fryer) I haven’t been able to push myself to accomplish anything else. I am going to try and play some guitar right now. Maybe for an hour or so. I am going to make dinner later, another Dinnerly meal like last night only hopefully my wife will cook it with me. If she does, she does. If she doesn’t, that’s okay too. I just wish I had a little more pep in me step, so to speak. I slept okay last night. Not great. I woke up at 3:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep right away. Eventually I did, and then I overslept a little. Funny how that happens on the weekends. Tomorrow is a vacation day (not related to the presidents day holiday which post-trump I will no longer capitalize) and I am wondering if the oversleeping will happen again. Who knows. Who cares.
It’s been an hour since I ate anything which means (by gastric bypass rules) I can drink something now. I think I’ll top off my water bottle with some sugar free Crystal Light lemonade and trek down to the cellar to play some guitar. What do you think? Good plan?
Get to it, red head.
I haven’t played enough guitar lately to rebuild my lost calluses on the tips of the fingers on my left hand. That didn’t stop me from playing today for almost two hours. My finger tips are killing me!
I put rhythm guitars onto three songs for the RPM Challenge, and then I put lead guitars onto three more. Do you know what that means? It means I have three songs that are finished recording and are ready to mix. Finally!
The Luthier I took my 1979 Gibson ES-335 Pro to one week ago today posted two more updates on his bookfayce page. Lots more pictures.
The guitar got new frets yesterday. Today it got a new nut, a new bridge, and a new volume pot. Damn if I didn’t know there was something wrong with the wiring beyond it just being old and dirty. I feel vindicated!
Here’s hoping I will hear from him soon and I’ll be able to set a time to go and pick my semi-hollow baby up and bring it home!
I’m getting excited, folks!
I have a co-worker with me at my desk right now.
In other news, my stomach is in revolt at the moment. Fun. It’s a gastric bypass side effect kind of thing and it will pass, but I just gagged up some icky stuff and had a full blown case of “the foamies” (look it up). Having said that, there is no complaint here. I ate my lunch too fast and my new redesigned digestive system slapped me on the wrist for it. Post operation side effects like this are 100% worth it, I promise you. Trust me, it’s not an issue at all.
In other other news, I checked the bookfayce page of the Luthier I brought my guitar to last Saturday and earlier today he posted a bunch of pictures showing the progress he’s made. There are pictures of my beloved Gibson ES-335 Pro without any frets, pictures of it with some new frets, and a picture of the neck with a full boat’s worth of lovely, shiny new frets. It still needs a new nut and a new bridge, and he didn’t mention anything about cleaning out the electronics (which is a major bitch of a job to do on an ES-335 as you have to squeeze everything in and out through the F-hole), but the new frets are in! I don’t know if I will share any of the photos he posted. I think I did when he worked on my Les Paul Custom, but not until a few days had past. We’ll see.
Try to picture this guitar with shiny new frets:
In other other other news, I am listening to Steve Hackett’s new album, which was released today. It is called The Circus and the Nightwhale. I am listening while I work and therefore not able to give it my full attention. My initial gut reaction though is this: Steve Hackett’s guitar playing gets exponentially better with each passing day. His songwriting improves in a similar manner. His singing… yeah, he’s better than he used to be but sometimes I still wish he’d hire a full time singer for his recording line up. I’m enjoying the new album. Check it out.
Okay, that’s it for this post. Lunch break is over. My stomach is settling down. Get back to work, Red Head!
Inside the Red Head's Head 