Quick Musical Thoughts

Just jotting down a couple of quick music thoughts.

Car music tomorrow? I have three songs ready for vocals so why not? It’s the last day of my sick leave too so again, why not?

The day after tomorrow is the day I go back to work. I think it’s also the day I reach out to the guys in the band and tell them I’m feeling ready to get together. I mean that from both a recovery stand point and a Covid standpoint. I just think it’s time.

If a practice is in our future, I think I’ve changed my mind on what gear to bring. I was going to bring the new pedal board but now I think I’m going to bring the old one. I might add an extra dirt pedal or two as well. We shall see.

Okay, it’s time for bed. I need to get some sleep if I want to car music in the morning. G’night, folks.

I Am Just Awful (on guitar)

I worked on four songs today! Woohoo!

I put rhythm parts on two songs and it went okay. Certainly not good, but okay.

I put leads on two songs and oh my god was it awful! Just atrocious! Train wreck-esque. Wow. I might have to redo it all but I’ll probably just live with it.

What fun!

Tube Amps are Heavy

There was some talk between a couple of us in the band of trying to get everyone together sometime in June and seeing if we can have a band practice or something. I’m really hoping we can make that happen.

I started figuring out what to use for gear for this hypothetical jam. My new Les Paul is a given. The new pedal board I put together a few weeks ago is a given too. For the amplifier I was going to bring my AC15. There’s a problem with that though.

I’m under doctors orders to not lift anything heavy. I’m maxed at 25 pounds. That continues at the minimum through mid-June. Unfortunately tube amps, even little ones, are freaking heavy. My AC15 weighs about 50 pounds. Okay, so that’s out. I’m now planning on taking my MV50 and my Fender 1×12 cab. That’ll work.

Once we get into July I’ll bring the AC15. I want to bring my Deluxe Reverb home from the rehearsal room so I can use it on home demo goofiness. That amp is even heavier, so it’s going to stay where it is for now. I could use that at the first practice, but I’m afraid something might have happened during the 2+ years it’s been sitting and I don’t want to rely on it.

So NuTubes it is.

Lester Lives

I played my new Les Paul today. First time in over two months. I had two songs to work on and I only got to one, but it was awesome. I love that guitar. I celebrated a wedding anniversary with the woman who bought me that guitar for my 50th birthday last year and somehow that makes it all that much cooler.

Musical Progress

I put rhythm guitars onto two songs tonight! The playing was rotten but I feel so good about it I could burst! It’s been too long. Way too long.

I played my SG through my new pedal board. I also tuned down to Eb for some reason. It felt good.

The Les Paul might come out tomorrow. We will see.

Get with it Robert

Two nights in a row.

Two nights in a row I had the opportunity to play the guitar and work on some recording. Harry was at work, Jen was in the office playing World of Warcraft. I could have gone downstairs and mic’d up my AC15 and tracked some guitar parts. I have one record every month song and three great re-recordings going. There’s plenty to do.

I didn’t play though, I just stayed upstairs watching television. I very much want to play. I very much want to get back into the swing of it. I very much want to start being me again. I very much want to be musical and creative again.

If the opportunity arises tonight, I will try and make myself go for it.

Guitar/Retail Therapy

I am sitting here thinking about retail therapy and guitar gear and all of that and I am trying so very hard not to do it. I want to, but I don’t want to, but I want to.

For the pedal board, I want an MXR Brick and an MXR Phase 95 and one of those cheap little Mooer E-Lady flangers.

I want to trade in my Strat and do… something. Trade it for a Les Paul Jr? Trade it for a ’68 Deluxe Reverb? The money won’t work out for either of those, but what about trade it in for money and then…

Take the ES-335 to a repair shop and redo the frets and the wiring.

Or take the Les Paul Custom to a repair shop and redo the frets and change the pickups to something nice and boutique and redo the wiring.

Or take my gorgeous new Les Paul Standard to a repair shop and change the pickups to something nice and boutique and see if there is anything else that a professional would recommend doing.

Or take my SG Standard to a repair shop and change the pickups to something either nice and boutique, or something high output and mean sounding and see if there is anything else that a professional would recommend doing, specifically to the height of the action.

AAAHHHH!!!!!

Straight In

I played a little today. Nothing serious. I just plugged straight into an amp and noodled. I did do a small experiment. I am thinking of taking my Vox AC15 to the next Lizardfish practice (whenever that might be) but I have never really pushed the volume. Is it loud enough to compete with the rest of the band? More importantly, if I get it up to band practice volume, is the tone still clean?

I dimed the master volume and then brought the channel volume up a little at a time. I got up to 92 decibels (according to my AppleWatch) and it was still clean as a bell. The band does get louder than that, but my channel volume (I was using the amp’s Normal channel, not the Top Boost) was only on about four, so there is still some room available. I don’t know when that channel starts breaking up, but I wasn’t even close. I think my band practice plans are good to go.

The question then is, do I use the Normal channel or the Top Boost channel? That’s still undecided.

Astral Traveler

I’ve seen a couple of things online over the last few days that reference a Yes song from the second album that I’ve always wanted to figure out but I never quite nailed.

It’s time.