Tag: retail therapy

Gibson Firebird

That Pedal Show on YouTube released a new episode yesterday and it is about 90 minutes exclusively on the Gibson Firebird.

I haven’t quite watched all of it yet, but I’m down to the last few minutes.

Seriously… for the good of society (as well as my bank account) please… whatever you do… don’t let me go near a music store for a few days at least. If I walk into a Guitar Center (or something similar) I am absolutely not going to be able to stop myself and I am 100% walking out of that store with a Firebird.

For the love of all that is good in this universe, don’t let me go into a music store.

Stuff

All this talk of the new Pentax half frame camera has me wanting stuff. What kind of stuff? I don’t know, stuff.

I’d like a bunch of new lenses for my mirrorless camera. I’d like a bunch of new lenses for my two film cameras. I’d like to get my hands on a decent medium format camera. Rather than stepping down the resolution with a half frame camera, let’s up the resolution with a great big honkin’ 120 film. Maybe a Pentax 67 or something. I think an old (ancient) folding camera would be cool. Maybe a Zeiss Ikonta. The downside being that these cameras were initially manufactured in Germany prior to World War II which means there may have been slave labor involved. I would have to make sure the manufacture date of any camera I bought would be post-war. Just for my own piece of mind.

I want a new guitar. A Les Paul Junior. A Les Paul Special. A Les Paul Deluxe. A Firebird. An ES-135. An ES-125. An ES-355. I want a new amp. A Marshall 1962. A Marshall Plexi. A Mesa Boogie California Tweed. A tweed 4×10 Fender Bassman. A tweed Fender Deluxe.

I want a new MacBook Pro. I want a new iPhone, but not a 15. I’m willing to wait for the 16.

Forgive the conspicuous consumerism. I am just in a retail therapy kinda mood for some reason. Not honestly though. I’m saving my pennies for not one but two future trips to Disney World. Well… that and getting film developed. There won’t be any money left over after those two things.

Still…

I want. I want. I want.

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!!!!!

Lunch Time Brain Dead

I feel like I should be posting something as my Tuesday lunch break comes to an end. I can’t come up with anything though. There are a few little things. Today hasn’t been the painful day I was fearing it would be. There have been a couple of annoying things at work, but nothing we can’t handle. Bellana left us yesterday and won’t be back until Summer. We still have Harry around for a few days, but we’re driving him back to school on Sunday and then we’re kidless for a couple of months.

I have avoided using retail therapy to cheer myself up, but junk food is another story. We had ice cream last night. I’ve had a lot of chocolate today. I need to stop this crap and start being more careful. The first weight loss surgery appointment is next week, but it’s only to drop off paperwork. The real first appointment is next month. Sigh.

I am off work tomorrow. That’s nice. I took the day off just in case Bellana ended up needing a ride to the airport. She doesn’t, so I am free. Patches has a vet appointment and I still have to get two Christmas presents for two of my nephews over to my sister’s house. I am trying to stay as Covid safe as humanly possible until Harry is back at school. I think the vet appointment is a curbside thing but I am not sure. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow, huh?

Okay. I guess I came up with something to talk about after all. Time to get back to work. That bug ain’t gonna fix itself.

Retail Therapy

It took me 50 years before I had a year where there wasn’t a christmas. This is it, folks. The year without a santa claus for reals.

On Saturday it will be pretty much a normal Saturday. Jen and I are planning on a nice dinner together. Maybe we’ll play some Mario Kart and watch a movie or maybe binge watch some TV or something. We’ll just spend the day together.

I was going to write this post about how I wanted to take my frustrations out on capitalism by buying a new guitar. A Les Paul Junior to be exact. I jokingly asked the love of my life if she would be okay with me buying yet another guitar and to my shock and amazement she said yes! That’s twice she’s said yes to me! Once in the backyard at the duplex when I was on my knee, and then again today. How wonderful!

That’s when she told me she was doing the same thing. Maybe a Nintendo Switch or a PS5. We had a good laugh. I’m not going to buy a $1,600 guitar, especially when it’s only a few months after Jen bought me a much more expensive guitar for my 50th birthday. There is a chance though that I might magically (though probably not christmas magic, given the circumstances) upgrade a pedal or two in the coming days. You know… magically.