Tag: Guitar

Record Every Month for April: Complete

I have finished two songs for the Record Every Month Challenge for April. My mini-challenge of recording a single each month is still on track. My mini challenge of recording an EP in April crashed and burned. That’s okay.

The A Side is okay. The B Side is garbage. I used my SG and my Vox MV50 on all of the guitar tracks, and recorded everything direct into my iPad. I also mixed on the iPad, which might explain why the mixes are worse than the usual crap.

Here’s the A Side:

Here’s the uber crappy B Side:

Next month will use my Les Paul and my Deluxe Reverb, and my new King of Tone overdrive pedal which I waited over five years to get and still haven’t even plugged in. That changes starting tomorrow. Until then, enjoy this crap.

April Tracking is Done

I finished putting lead guitars on the two songs I still have going for April’s entry in the Record Every Month challenge. One song is terrible. The other is just weak.

Here is my “studio” for today. Note there are no Fender Stratocasters in sight.

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How about a selfie or two? How lame am I?

The Stratocaster Recap

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,

Recording Studio

What do you think of my recording studio?

Gibson SG standard into Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini into Vox MV50 Clean into IK Multimedia iRig split into iPad Air running GarageBand and an old pair of Bose headphones.

The only downside is the crew working on the bay window in the living room unplugged our router so my iPhone is now my only source of internet. Oh well.

Last Day Before Windows

The window replacement team is coming tomorrow. Today is the last day to get the house ready for them. Can I get it all done?

You bet your sweet ass I can.

The kitchen, dining room, and living room are all set. The entire exterior of the house is all set too. Today I’ll handle the bathroom, the bedroom, and Jen’s office. Beyond that, all I need to do is go to the pet store and pick up a huge bag of cat food, and maybe go somewhere to replace Jen’s coffee maker. Before I do anything I’ll need to finish breakfast (one serving of Brown and Serve frozen sausages. Yummy. Also, I need to finish watching the final episode of Star Wars Rebels. 19 minutes to go. I am a little embarrassed by how quickly I burned through this four season rewatch. Like… it’s alarming how nerdy I am.

One small change to the music project plan that I hope to work on over the next couple of days. I was going to use my Keeley Super Phat Mod overdrive pedal (which is a clone of a modified Boss Blues Driver) but I was just looking at the little pile of gear next to my desk and I saw my Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini pedal sitting there and I decided to use that puppy instead. I think I am going to use the Gibson SG for all of this too. SG->Tube Screamer->Vox MV50. That’s a signal chain that’s made up of all things that aren’t usual go to’s. Next month will be Les Paul->King of Tone->Deluxe Reverb and that signal chain could be worthy of gigs. We’ll see.

Right. The Rebels finale has reached the Deus Ex Machina moment. I know I’ve watched this before but I have zero memory of it. Weird. It’s almost time to get to work. The bedroom and the office are going to suck, but I’ll get it done.

Windows tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to all of this being finished.