Tag: Guitar

Guitar/Retail Therapy

I am sitting here thinking about retail therapy and guitar gear and all of that and I am trying so very hard not to do it. I want to, but I don’t want to, but I want to.

For the pedal board, I want an MXR Brick and an MXR Phase 95 and one of those cheap little Mooer E-Lady flangers.

I want to trade in my Strat and do… something. Trade it for a Les Paul Jr? Trade it for a ’68 Deluxe Reverb? The money won’t work out for either of those, but what about trade it in for money and then…

Take the ES-335 to a repair shop and redo the frets and the wiring.

Or take the Les Paul Custom to a repair shop and redo the frets and change the pickups to something nice and boutique and redo the wiring.

Or take my gorgeous new Les Paul Standard to a repair shop and change the pickups to something nice and boutique and see if there is anything else that a professional would recommend doing.

Or take my SG Standard to a repair shop and change the pickups to something either nice and boutique, or something high output and mean sounding and see if there is anything else that a professional would recommend doing, specifically to the height of the action.

AAAHHHH!!!!!

Straight In

I played a little today. Nothing serious. I just plugged straight into an amp and noodled. I did do a small experiment. I am thinking of taking my Vox AC15 to the next Lizardfish practice (whenever that might be) but I have never really pushed the volume. Is it loud enough to compete with the rest of the band? More importantly, if I get it up to band practice volume, is the tone still clean?

I dimed the master volume and then brought the channel volume up a little at a time. I got up to 92 decibels (according to my AppleWatch) and it was still clean as a bell. The band does get louder than that, but my channel volume (I was using the amp’s Normal channel, not the Top Boost) was only on about four, so there is still some room available. I don’t know when that channel starts breaking up, but I wasn’t even close. I think my band practice plans are good to go.

The question then is, do I use the Normal channel or the Top Boost channel? That’s still undecided.

Record Every Month

Remember the RPM Challenge’s Record Every Month challenge thingie that I did all last year but failed to finish anything in March or April this year?

I just threw together a simple, quick, and dirty little thing that could end up being a May submission.

Guitar Day

I went exactly two months without playing guitar…

…before I played today.

I played my SG because it’s the lightest guitar with the smallest body and I figured it would be the easiest to deal with against my recently sliced open gut.

There were no issues.

Life is good.

New decor?

Two Weeks

Two weeks ago at about this time, I think I was being moved from the operating room to the recovery room. I’m trying to find some way to commemorate this historic anniversary and I am coming up with nothing. I’m in the cellar, watching Breaking Bad again and surfing online music stores on my laptop. I don’t want to spend money on gitter stuff but what can you do? Pedal boards and random gear are just fun to daydream about. I have made sure to avoid looking at actual guitars though. Amps too. Just pedals and non-bank breaking stuff.

As for the post-surgical update, I had a weird experience today. I ate my delicious tuna fish puree at lunch time. When I was done I… well… it’s so odd… I felt… hungry. As in, damn I could go for another ounce of that fun stuff. It was just a weird feeling.

I am still not giving any details on the subject, but my mother is still in the hospital. I still can’t do anything about it, and likely won’t be able to for another 2-3 weeks. I feel less than useless. Again, no details are coming but I just needed to state that publicly for my own guilt ridden reasons. That is all.

Happy two-week birthday to my little baby stomach*.

* In his book Ghost Rider, Neil Peart, while dealing with the deaths of his wife and daughter, refers to parts of his recovery as feeding his little baby soul. My soul is okay, but my little baby stomach needs constant attention.

Fill the Space

I’ll take the Mooer E-Lady flanger off the big board, and the MXR Phase 95 that’s at Mike’s house and fill the space on the right. I’ll also take the MXR power brick on the board at Mike’s house and replace the daisy chained power supply.

Someday.

Day Nine

Hello and welcome to day nine post-op. What’s on the agenda for today?

Yesterday I had three one-teaspoon sized “meals” of pureed food. The goal is to get up to five quarter-cup sized “meals”. Based on yesterday’s success, I think that will be doable eventually, but not right away. Today, I’m thinking of bumping up from a teaspoon to a tablespoon. I think that’s a good enough push for myself for one Friday.

I also need to keep up with the liquids. Dehydration is the one troublesome thing over the last week. If I stay on top of it I’m okay. If I don’t I get a little light headed. It doesn’t sound like hard work, but damn, it seriously is. I’m doing okay, it’s just tough and I struggle with it here and there. I also need to continue to get off my ass for a few minutes each hour and move around and keep the circulation moving. That has not been a problem at all, I just need to stay vigilant. The Apple Watch Activity app’s stand hours goal is a help there. I think I’ve missed one stand hour in the last week. No troubles there.

I am turning into a television binge watching couch potato though. I mean, enjoy it while it lasts, right? I mentioned all the Star Trek yesterday, but I also got it into my pea brain to get back into Breaking Bad (I’m about to finish season two), and there’s a new horror show on Prime Video called From that looks okay. I watched the first episode yesterday. Today is also supposed to be the debut of the new season of The Kids in the Hall, the first in 30 or so years, also on Prime Video. I can’t miss that. Over on Netflix, I plowed through the second season of Russian Doll in world record time. It wasn’t as good as the first season, but it was still excellent. I’m also trying to stay connected to the guitar universe. I’m a little nervous about playing, what with the incisions in my gut to worry about, but there’s still That Pedal Show and Five Watt World and half a dozen other must-see YouTube channels.

Yeah… couch potato.

Before we get to any of that though… time to make myself a protein shake, then a tablespoon of pureed sweet potato. Later today, around lunch time, I’m thinking of maybe cracking open a little package of applesauce. Mmm, delicacy.

Heat

We are up and about today. Nothing on the agenda other than staying hydrated. I’m struggling a little this morning, but I’m slowly but surely getting on top of it.

Protein shakes followed by chicken broth followed by some sugar free Gatorade. That’s been getting me where I need to be so far. May it continue today.

It’s a bit chilly in the cellar today so…

My mind is a-wanderin’ today, and it’s wanderin’ to guitar things. Someday the band is going to play together again. I’m thinking of a new pedal board setup combined with a Vox AC15 amp. I’m watching the YouTube’s looking for tips for AC15 use.

Someday.