I only had a little bit of time to play guitar today, and my hands felt pretty dead. Not sure what’s up with that, but it’s probably just down to me playing more than I’ve been accustomed to and I am WAY out of playing shape. Just a couple of tired hands is all. I put rhythm guitars on one song. Now I just need to write some more lyrics and do another car vocals tomorrow morning. Sounds like a plan-ish.
I didn’t go direct today. I played through my Deluxe Reverb and it was happiness.
Forgive the super click baity title, but I’m definitely going to try a few of these suggestions with my Deluxe Reverb reissue.
Jen and I were in Nashua, NH yesterday. We went to the Best Buy there to pick up an online order. On the way home we drove past Guitar Center, and my tiny little brain started spinning it’s tiny little wheels.
Back in 2020 as the pandemic was starting I had decided to sell my Fender Stratocaster. My original plan was to take it to a Guitar Center and trade it for something. I know there are probably 50 posts on this blog talking about this, but what can you do. Obviously the pandemic shut down put a temporary end to my plans, but as time passed I also decided to sell it myself rather than trade it. I knew I could get significantly more money for it if I avoided the big box music store.
I had considered trading it for another guitar. Maybe a Les Paul Junior, or a Firebird, or maybe a new amp. Something like a silver face Bassman head or maybe a recent printed circuit board Marshall tube amp. I don’t know. Eventually my Les Paul Custom and ES-335 Pro started getting to the point where the frets were so worn out that they are difficult to play and I hatched the plan to sell the Strat to pay for refrets and new wiring harnesses on the two old Gibsons. I even found a Luthier in Andover that I was hoping could do the repair work for me.
Then time continued to roll on and I never did anything. The guitar sat in it’s case in the cellar, unplayed since at least 2019. Yesterday when we drove past Guitar Center I wished I had the guitar with me because I just would have brought it in and traded it for whatever cash they would give me. I didn’t have it with me though, so I tried not to think about it anymore.
Then the item Jen bought at Best Buy didn’t work and we started talking about returning it today. I took that as a sign from the Guitar Universe and volunteered to drive back to Nashua so that I could take care of her errand and selfishly take care of my own. That’s what I did today. I returned Jen’s purchase and sold my Stratocaster. I got exactly what I expected Guitar Center would pay me for it, which is a lot less than I would have gotten if I had sold it on craigslist or reverb or ebay. The money aspect of this is filling me with a lot of sellers remorse. At the same time, I am seriously hopefully that my guitar will be sold to someone who will give it the love it deserves. I am hoping it will end up with some high school kid who will have his entire world opened up in a way similar to how my world changed when I took home my Les Paul Deluxe from Russo’s Music in Lowell back in 1988. That would make me happy.
I bought it in 2014 in Dover, NH and sold it in 2023 in Nashua, NH for almost the same price. I never gigged with it, though it did sit on the stage at Racks, unplayed, at one Lizardfish show. It is a great guitar, I just never really bonded with it. I loved it, I just didn’t LOVE it… you know? My advice to whomever ends up with it is to just switch on the neck pickup and leave it there forever. It’s a glorious sound.
Happy trails, my 2000 made in USA Fender American Series Stratocaster with a maple neck and an aqua marine finish. Thanks for the memories.
PS: That Luthier in Andover? I tried to make an appointment with them last month to have my ES-335 looked at so they could tell me if it needed a full refret job, or if the current frets would be salvageable. They told me they were booked solid through the end of the month and to try again in May. Okay. May starts tomorrow, right? Yesterday he posted online that he has an injury and will not be able to do full fret replacement jobs for a while until it heels. Oh for fucks sake, dude. I am now taking this personally and looking for alternative shops. Wish me luck,
I took my Z5 upstairs at lunch time to see what was going on. I also tried to guilt myself into playing guitar tonight by taking a picture of my amplifier… again. Weird how that never works, yet I keep doing it.
The RPM Challenge is over, but I still managed to play some guitar today. I’m up to three new song ideas. I was thinking of trying to do two songs per month for the rest of the year, but I just had to keep going today. I don’t think I am going to do 10 songs in March, but will I? Who knows. It’s just good to play.
I did a little comparison experiment today. Just cause.
I took this picture of me gitter using my DSLR. I set the ISO as low as it goes, put the camera on my broken tripod (it doesn’t tilt) with the legs closed all the way because otherwise I would have had a picture of the wall above the top of me gitter. I then used the light meter on my iPhone to figure out the aperture and shutter speed, used the auto focus and snapped.
I then put Dad’s film camera on the tripod and did the same. The ISO of the film in the camera is 100, which is lower than the DSLR goes so it’s not an exact duplicate test. I did set the aperture the same on both cameras but the shutter speed was a smidge lower on the film version. I manually focused and compared the light meter in the camera to the app and they were very similar. I then snapped the pic. The shutter was open for one second but it felt like 15 years.
Someday I will get the roll of film developed and in theory I will compare the two images. I say in theory because I can pretty much guarantee I’ll forget all about this by then and will never compare them at all. Oh well. I have a photo for the photo a day thing though, so that’s good.
I took a bunch of pictures of my Strat at lunch today. I ended up using the DSLR, the point and shoot, and the iPhone. I don’t know if I can use any of them. The color is too blue. The guitar finish is more green than you can see in any of the images. I tried flash, I tried no flash. I tried low ISO, I tried high ISO (even though ISO doesn’t have anything to do with color, I was just hoping more light would improve the look).
Oh well. We’ll see.
I need to play. I need to play. Did you hear? I need to play.
I need to play, to play. I need… to play.
I plugged the speaker soak thing into the Deluxe Reverb this morning. I also want to swap a pedal off of the board and plug it into an 18volt slot instead of a 9volt slot. Like ya do.
I need to play.
I need to play.
I need to play.
When worlds collide.
Oh yeah, there’s that film Instagram too, in case I haven’t mentioned it in the last four minutes…….
I played guitar this morning before work, and I played guitar tonight after work. My finger tips are burning agony. My kingdom for some calluses!
I am so happy my Deluxe Reverb is home. I am so happy!
Inside the Red Head's Head 