Tag: Guitar

Volume: Lots of It

I played some guitar this morning. Judging by the above screen shot from my Apple Watch, I may have changed up the recording workflow a smidge.

Oh yes, yes I did.

I played through a speaker. Instead of using my Fender Bassbreaker 15 and my Vox MV50 Clean amps with their direct line outputs and speaker cabinet emulation functionality, I plugged into my Fender Deluxe Reverb. In the next photo you can see that the power light is on and it is glorious.

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I then did the craziest thing ever. I took the volume knob and turned it up. Way up. It wasn’t full blast, but it was close enough for a Thursday morning. In the next photo you will see proof.

12/365

The volume was a smidge under nine. Again, glorious. Spectacular. I had an overdrive pedal boosting the input signal as well and it was distorting nicely. Tube amps are just the best things ever. I should have actually brought the volume down a little as the signal was over compressing to the point of being a squashed, squirely mess, but that’s okay. I’m just making demoes, right?

I played my SG because it was out of the case and sitting on the stand next to my desk. I probably should have played my Les Paul Custom, but this was fine with me. I ended up adding rhythm guitars to one song and leads to another. Oh, and I also added vocals to two songs. Fun. I probably could have snuck in a little more 50/90 challenge work, but I had to get ready for work and didn’t want to risk being late.

The one question that remains to be asked: Are my ears still ringing (about an hour after I stopped playing)?

Why yes, yes they are.

Glorious

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2024 50/90 Challenge Day 70/90

70 days feels like a milestone. It also feels like THE END IS NIGH!

I’m so far ahead of things this year that I shouldn’t panic, but I also wouldn’t be me if I weren’t panicked over something stupid, right?

Yesterday I added two new song forms. Just bass and drums (both MIDI) and that puts the pipeline over 50. 51 to be exact. I also wrote lyrics and melodies for two songs. Progress was adequate for a work-in-the-office day.

2024 50/90 Challenge Day 67/90

I put rhythm guitars onto three songs. I really wanted to find the time to do more, but time was not my friend.

I am off work today. We have someone coming to check on our new windows from about a year and a half ago. If he comes early and I have time to do a bunch of errands that I put off all weekend then maybe I’ll be more productive today. Maybe.

Two Random Things

Here we have a post sharing two random things on this quiet Sunday evening that have nothing to do with anything anyone other than I would ever care about.

First, I watched an episode of The Trogly’s Guitar Show on YouTube today and accidentally learned something about my first Gibson guitar. It was a Les Paul Deluxe but I never learned what year it was made. Deluxes date from the late 60’s to the mid 80’s (I think). I bought mine in 1987 and always assumed it was from the late 70’s, but I had not learned how to get the manufacture date for a Gibson guitar until after my Deluxe was stolen in 1990.

Thanks to Trogly’s I can narrow the date down a little. The guitar had a Gibson chainsaw case. From a description on the episode I watched it was a version two chainsaw case. Trogly told us that Gibson introduced the version two chainsaw case in 1978. Therefore my guitar (assuming the case I had was the original case) could not have been built prior to 1978. That knocks about 10 years off of the possible dates. Thanks, Trogly!

The second item of note: The anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is coming this week. That means Jen and I are in now entering our annual 9/11 remembrance period where we binge a shit load of documentaries. We’re watching the first of the season right now. Things have already been super heavy around here due to my father’s passing. Now it’s going to get heavier still.

I just felt the need to share all of that with the wider universe. You’re welcome.

2024 50/90 Challenge Day 66/90

I made a little progress yesterday (on day 66). I had one song idea that was just a couple of simple bass riffs. I worked that into a full song form. After that I added two more songs. All three have (fake) bass and (fake) drums finished and are ready for rhythm guitars.