Happy St Patrick’s Day

Happy everyone in and around Boston, Massachusetts pretends they are Irish day! Even those of us who actually are of Irish descent. It dawned on me yesterday that with all the weight loss over the last year, and all of the needing to buy new clothes, I don’t actually own any green clothing. After I had that realization it also occurred to me that I didn’t own any green clothing last year either.

We are not doing anything special to celebrate my national heritage this year. I floated the idea last week, but after having Harry home for spring break it seemed underwhelming and I didn’t pursue it. I’d like to drive to New York instead, but I haven’t floated that idea at all so it ain’t happening. Unless Jen reads this and jumps at the idea. Heh heh heh.

No stomach issues today. Yesterday I was dealing with stomach aches off and on all day. The day before I had a minor stomach issue at lunch and then a huge issue at dinner. Today, nothing yet. I had a protein bar and a little bit of chicken for breakfast. No problems. I am hopeful that I can keep this trend running for the day.

I’ve been trying to get into Mastodon (@RobJ_1971). I wrote there this morning that if I had my way my agenda for today would include playing guitar and watching The X-Files and nothing else. Obviously that ain’t happening either (thanks, adulthood). Tomorrow though… Sunday though… who knows. I might finally stop thinking about it and start trying to sell my Stratocaster and using the proceeds to make repairs on my ES-335 (frets and wiring harness) and Les Paul Custom (frets, wiring harness, and pickups). Maybe. Frankly, the idea terrifies me. Mostly because I don’t know what a 2000 American Series Stratocaster’s fair price should be. The used guitar market is constantly in flux and I don’t want to let it go too cheap. I also don’t want to try to gouge people either. I’m thinking $1,200, but is that fair? I don’t really know.

Okay. Get to work, Robert. Happy St Patrick’s Day, everyone. Happy Friday. Don’t drink and drive tonight. Be careful out there. Wash your hands and be safe.

Waiting List – Getting Close

This post is for guitar players who are in the know about guitar gear.

I added myself to the Analogman King of Tone waiting list on March 4, 2018. Five years and five days ago.

This is what is on the waiting list webpage right now:

Based on that, I should be coming to the top of the list in the next couple of weeks. Assuming they don’t have new supply chain issues or anything. I want to order a new Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal, but if I am going to have a chance to buy a new King of Tone at roughly the same time? I think I’ll hold out for the King of Tone. I mean, I’ve been waiting for five years so… yeah.

Still Going

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.

Is it Finally Time for Slide Lessons?

I learned the jist of slide guitar technique very early on in my playing days. Keep the slide parallel to the fretboard, don’t put it behind the fret like you would with your finger, put it directly over the fret and don’t push down into the fretboard. Use the fingers behind the slide to slightly mute the strings so they don’t buzz like nuts. Pick with your fingers and try to sit on the strings you’re not playing, again to keep them from ringing and buzzing in ways you don’t want to hear.

I was never that much of a fan of playing slide though for two reasons. One, because it sort of felt like I was wearing handcuffs. I mean having four fingers to fret with is struggle enough, now I want to play with effectively one? I think that’s a legit reason to not enjoy playing slide, but the bigger reason has always bothered me and frankly it pisses me off.

The second reason is intonation. For some reason my eyes looking at the slide’s position over the frets and my ears hearing whether I am in tune or not just cannot for the life of me get together and agree. The result is that when I try to play slide I end up horribly out of tune. It’s infuriating to me. Why? I bend strings constantly and my ear is always always always able to tell my fingers when to stop bending. I’ve always been able to do it. No one ever taught me how to bend and stay in tune, I have just always done it. If you hear me bend a string and it goes out of tune, 99% of the time it is because there is something wrong with my fingers and I am unable to put the string where it needs to be. I am able to stay in tune when I bend without any extra thinking or effort on my part. Why then can I not do it with a slide? What’s the difference? Come on, ears. Do your friggin’ job.

Over the last couple of days I’ve been thinking about trying to learn some new techniques on the guitar. Push myself a little, you know? Last night I started looking at slide tutorials on the youtubes. I figured I could learn some Elmore James tunes and see what happens.

Now I am not saying this is going to happen. It’s just a thought. More like just a fantasy. Failing to stay in tune with a slide pisses me off, and it pisses me off quickly which means I am unwilling (mentally unable?) to practice and thus get better. Playing in alternate tunings also tends to get under my skin and make me want to stop and do something else. So slide in an alternate tuning might be a double whammy that sends me packing right fast.

I don’t know. Maybe we’ll see what happens.

Random Photo Thoughts

I haven’t shown Bertha the Houseplant lately. We had to get rid of almost all of the plants because we weren’t sure if they would harm the new cats or not. We had to move Bertha to the top of a cabinet in the dining room. She’s not getting nearly as much sun as she was before but she seems to be hanging in there and staying healthy. I saw evidence of a new branch a week or so ago. I took a picture today that I can reference back to the next time I check on her to see if she’s still growing.

After last night’s post where I spit balled a new guitar pedal chain, I put together as close to that board as I could.

The Bonamassa signature Crybaby is at Mike the Bass Player’s house. This is the Gary Clark, Jr signature Crybaby which is really good, but not quite as good. I looked into ordering a Marshall Bluesbreaker reissue pedal last night. Everywhere I generally shop from is out of stock so I didn’t order one. The Blooze Maker is a copy of the original Bluesbreaker. I used the holy hell out of it on this year’s RPM Challenge. It’s super noisy so I kinda don’t want to keep using it, but until I get a real Bluesbreaker, this will be a thing.

The office has two candles burning again. Just ’cause.

Finally, in closing:

Robin…

…and Lily.

Thoughts on a New Pedal Board

I’ve been looking at the reissued Marshall overdrive pedals. If I were to order one it would either be the Bluesbreaker or the Guv’nor. If I got the Bluesbreaker I might make a new pedal board for low-ish gain stuff. I’m thinking it would be the Bonamassa signature Crybaby into the Bluesbreaker into the Wampler Tumnus and that’s all. Then I thought… what about sticking the Fuzz Face before the Crybaby. That way it’s a low-ish gain board with a blistering inferno of fuzz for luck.

Just a thought.

If I got a Guv’nor I would stick it onto the existing stay at home pedal board after the Klon KTR and use it as the paint peeling distortion sound.

Bluesbreaker into Tumnus though… that could be fun.

Oh woah is my gear acquisition syndrome.

Catching Up After a Couple of Off Days

The last couple of days have been weird, health-wise. First it was the headache issue on Tuesday, then it was stomach issues on Wednesday. Now here we are on Thursday and I am feeling a little like a wrung out face cloth. Here’s hoping today will be a quiet day.

We’re having some HVAC folks come and tell us what they need to do to replace the mini-split in the bedroom. We’ve had it serviced a couple of times this winter, but it’s just not working and we’re more or less unable to heat the bedroom without using a space heater as a supplement. They won’t actually replace it for another week or two, but they are coming for a fact finding mission.

So, television. Yesterday was the premier or season three of The Mandalorian and I could not be at a higher hype level. The first episode was excellent but… I think today’s third episode of season three of Picard might have been better. I did not see that coming, kids. I was just glued to the screen as I was getting this morning’s jogging (yogging) in. The captain vs admiral conflict seemed a little forced and out of character, but everything else? Fan-freakin-tastic. The bad guys behind the bad guy? Fan-freakin-tastic! I can’t wait for episode four. I also can’t wait for episode two of The Mandalorian, but that’s a given. In the Star Wars vs Star Trek debate, I come down on the Star Wars side, generally, but only by a little bit. Regardless of which franchise you prefer, it’s a pretty good time to be a space opera fan, am I right?

For the first time in a year, I am suffering from guitar gear acquisition syndrome. There are two overdrive pedals that I really want to buy, and I also really want to buy an amplifier simulator that I can use as a plug in through GarageBand. Last year I finished the RPM Challenge with a plan to do their Record Every Month challenge throughout the rest of the year. I had a goal of two songs each month that I could pretend were a single. I failed completely. I didn’t write a single song over the 11 months between the 2022 RPM and the 2023 RPM (with the exception of a few failed attempts in November). I am going to try again, but I am probably not going to record guitars through my amplifier on a regular basis. I am thinking I can do direct input more often and I want a good amp sim that I can use consistently. The one I am looking at is only $40, but I just don’t want to spend any money. We have a mini-split to buy after all.

Speaking of gear acquisition syndrome, I also really want to buy a new lens for my new camera. I adore the 40mm lens we bought for Disney, but I’d like a little zoom option. Possibly because the cats are suffering from The Zoomies every night and it just sort of inspired me, you know? I also really really want to buy a 35mm film point and shoot and I don’t know why. I want to buy a 35mm film camera with autofocus functionality too, but that’s going to cost some dough, and I think I can get a point and shoot for pennies. I want to go Nikon, as usual, but decent Nikon point and shoots are stupidly expensive on ebay. I looked for Pentax options yesterday and saw some with the starting bid of $1.00… so yeah, that could be a better option. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll hit the thrift stores more often.

Okay, time to get breakfast and get my day started. I have a lot of meetings today and need to be ready for a long day at the home office. Wish me luck.

Winner

I still have two songs to mix, but neither of those two songs are good enough to use on the final record… so I submitted it. I threw together a somewhat logical running order, created a playlist on alonetone.com, and sent it off to the RPM Headquarters.

Done and done.

There I am on the list of winners. I filtered it by people in Massachusetts so I’d be easier to find.

Now I just need to finish those last two songs and I’ll be done with everything for this month. I am pretty surprised I made it through. I’m happy I made it, even if I am not happy with the results.

11 Songs Down, Three to Go

This is song #11 out of 14. I think it’s the only song I’ve done this year that’s in 7/8 time. That’s sad.

At least two of the remaining three will be dropped from the final album. One of them is still on the fence but definitely leaning toward the drop list. I think I have enough time to mix one more before work. Let’s see if I can get ‘er done.

Tracking is Done

I have finished all of the tracking for this year’s RPM Challenge. I added really crappy lead guitar parts to the last two songs and I am done with the recording. Finished, babie!