I am scared. I am nervous. I am sure nothing will go wrong but it doesn’t matter.
My baby, aka my oldest guitar, is going to the doctor, aka a repair shop, tomorrow.
I think it needs frets. We’ll see what our friendly neighborhood Luthier says about it, but on the phone today he agreed that it probably needs frets.
Yikes!
I’ll be dropping my baby off at the doctor tomorrow at 11:30. Fingers crossed.
Enough talking about it. Enough thinking about it. It’s time to actually do something.
I have two 40+ year old guitars that need to be taken to a luthier for a consultation and possibly some scary repair work. I’ve been thinking about it for years. I’ve been talking about it for almost as long as I’ve been thinking about it. The work that needs to be done is terrifying. Assuming of course that the two guitars actually need the work that I think they need.
I am going to try and schedule something for this weekend. Failing that, next weekend. It is time to stop thinking about it and actually do something about it.
I am scared for my two babies.
My 1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom that I bought in 1990… does it need new frets?
My 1979 Gibson ES-335 Pro that I bought in 2000… does it need frets along with a wiring harness?
Like I said, I am scared for my two babies.
It’s November 1st. Welcome to National Solo Album Month. Am I going to take part this year? Probably. I started a Trello board and today’s photo-a-day picture is a guitar. The signs are pointing to yes, but I am not feeling terribly motivated yet. We’ll see how it goes.
I took a few pics this morning but I couldn’t decide which one should be today’s photo-a-day challenge pic. These were the front runners.
I went with the guitar. I probably should have gone with the hand weights because it would be something different. I did use the weights today. First time in a long time. I need to make it a daily habit. Get to it, Robert.
I’ve only seen Jimmy Page live once. He was one of the guys who made me need to learn to play guitar. Led Zeppelin was very important to me as a young musician, but as I got older they sort of became less relevant. Every now and then I can put on a record and feel much of what I used to feel when I was a kid, but they don’t persist for me the way Cream or Jeff Beck do. Of the three ex-Yardbirds, Page became the least import to me.
He did a tour in 1988 and I was a little nervous. His guitar playing through the 80’s seemed like a mere shadow of what it was in the 70’s. Was he losing it? Maybe. There was no way I was passing on the chance to see him when his band came to the Centrum In Worcester though.
I was really surprised by not only how good the band was, but by how good his playing was. He was outstanding. It was so good that the cynical part of me wondered if I had just gotten caught up in the moment and it wasn’t as good as I thought.
Jimmy Page posted this on Instagram. Maybe the cynical part of me should just shut the hell up, right?
If you are looking for a gift to give me and you have a couple of million dollars burning a hole in your pocket, might I suggest bidding on this:
It’s a 1964 Gibson SG that was originally owned by Eric Clapton. He played this guitar with Cream. It is named The Fool, after the art team that painted it. It is probably the guitar that you hear when you listen to Cream’s second album, Disraeli Gears.
It is going up for auction soon. If we win Powerball tonight I will be bidding on this puppy. That’s a financially idiotic promise that I make to you all right here and now. Win the lottery tonight… bid on The Fool next month. Bank on it.
I only played for a few minutes this morning. I noodled on a song idea. It’s not much of anything and I don’t know if I will even do anything with it. I’m feeling a little creatively brain fried right now. Not sure why.
I’m about to punch in to work. We’re going to be at half strength today. Hopefully being Columbus Day means that most people will have the day off and we won’t have a lot of issues to deal with. There were a few things going on over the weekend that some of my staff may have been pulled into. I will get a status update on all of that shortly. Hopefully it stays quiet.
Okay then, let’s get this Monday started. Duck and cover, folks… here we go!
It’s almost time to punch into work for the day. Care to take a guess at how much guitar playing I was able to get in this morning?
Go on… take a guess.
None. Zero. Ugh.
I broke out my 12-string today. The only acoustic guitar I currently have. I had a six string too but I loaned it to the singer in my band years ago and I don’t know if I’ll ever see it again.
I’m worried about my 12-string. Is the neck starting to warp a little? I hope not.
I was thinking of making any new songs I work on this month be acoustic guitar focused, but after playing for a few minutes this morning… this thing is hard to play. I might be changing my mind a little.
Addendum: For future reference, this is a Takamine F-400S and based on the serial number on the neck block inside the guitar it was built in March of 1978.
I talked it over with my boss and I am not going into the office this week. For the second week in a row Covid is making me work from home for the full week. Even if I test negative I am still working from home this week. Wednesday is the in the office day, and the rest of my staff (with the exception of the guy who is on vacation) is going in, but I am staying home. We’re all in agreement that it’s just not worth the risk and we’re all more comfortable with me staying away, even though the CDC tells me I am not contagious.
So that’s good.
What about music? I’m feeling better so I should get back to that, right? The 50 songs in 90 days challenge ended on October 1st, two days ago, and I was very far from finished. I have a bunch of unfinished songs in the works that I plan on finishing, but I am sort of thinking that 50/90 should become 66/121 this year and I should just keep going through October. Either that or I will just add a 10 songs or 35 minutes of music album in a month on top of finishing off what’s still in the works from 50/90. Something like that. I just watched a bunch of Mahavishnu Orchestra concert videos on YouTube and watching John McLaughlin tear a 12-string guitar a new asshole (figuratively speaking) is making me want to put the focus on any October songs onto my acoustic 12-string… which really would be as far removed from anything McLaughlin did on his electric 12-string as humanly possible, but really the idea of me and John McLaughlin being mentioned in the same paragraph is utterly absurd given that he is possibly the most talented guitarist in history and I am a complete and utter hack. Whatever.
I’m on season 16 of the original Doctor Who. That binge watch continues at a break neck pace. There is also a concurrent binge watch of Good Omens 2, Futurama, Archer, Daryl Dixon, and Ahsoka (which is going to be over before I sleep tonight) with binges of Severance, Silo, and Foundation all being finished within the last few days. There is so much TV out there that needs to be watched. Also, Jen and I are about to finish 90210, which is amazing given how many thousands of episodes of that show there are. Unfortunately, Amazon Prime Video’s license of the show is dreadfully incomplete and nearly half of the episodes of the last few seasons, including the series finale, are missing. Something to do with not being able to secure the music rights? I don’t know. All I know for sure is that the writers and actors strikes are going to push all new shows back for a long time which means we have to enjoy what we have while we have it. Oh yeah, and Loki season 2 kicks off later this week, so that’s yet another show to add to the list. There is so much TV!
Okay, time to hit publish and watch the last episode of Ahsoka. I bet I am going to love it. How can I not love an episode of a Star Wars show?
Right then, see you tomorrow while I work from home and dig my 12-string out of the cellar closet. Good night, friends and neighbors and kind readers.
Inside the Red Head's Head 