Lunch Report for Thursday, July 15, 2010

Went to bed late last night and had a lot of trouble waking up this morning But I think my trip to the chiropractor is helping--or perhaps it just helped me relax. Been a pretty stressful two weeks.

As you may remember, my friend Tracy is in the hospital in critical care. He had complications from gastric bypass surgery. Talked to his wife last night and he is showing signs of improvement, but he is by no means out of the woods yet with the odds only 50/50 that he'll make it. Thanks for all your concern and your prayers; just keep 'em coming.

Well, I talked about hot dogs yesterday. I think for lunch today I'm going to have a salmon sandwich, made with Costco-brand canned salmon. We just add mayo and a few secret ingredients and mix it up like tuna. Really rich and filling, and hey, it's filled with Omega3's!

Got flyers out for my gig yesterday, a few days late, but that was the best I could do. Part of my preperation for the gig is mental, and I am already doing some mental affirmations to get me thru the gig. I tell myself that I'm a great singer, entertainer and guitarist. (Okay, this is basically lying to myself, but bear with me!) I tell myself that people will have a good time; that the gig will go smoothly; that if there are any hitches, I will be able to handle things easily. I tell myself these positive reinforcing affirmations in spare moments throughout the week. I've been doing it for thirty years, and it seems to work. I go to the gig with assurance and confidence, and from a performance standpoint, that's half the battle right there.

I have some physical things to work through, too. My physical conditioning is very poor at the moment, so I'll probably do some light mall walking to help increase my stamina. And I fell two weeks ago and sprained the proximal joint of my left ring finger. I was lucky enough to be able to play a gig just seven days later, but it is still sore and stiff. (You have no idea how much fun I'm having tying the LR!) I'll continue with the ice, heat and Ben-Gay at night. I can't remember ever injuring my hand like this, and I hope I never do it again.

There's gear to take care of too. The gig we did on the 6th was an outdoor gig in 88F degree heat. As soon as I got home, I went over the guitars with a damp rag to remove the sweat, and then wiped them dry. I use the Dunlop 65 String Cleaner on the strings to remove the junk, and that helps preserve the tone. So, I've already gone over those guitars that I'll use for the gig, but I will check them again on Friday night.

My big project for today is re-wiring my pedalboard. We apparently got some bad juice at the gig, and smoke rolled out of it. Don lost three pieces of gear in the rack, too. We are going to bill the market organizers for the damage. But I need something NOW, so I found a used Furman pedalboard for sale locally and bought it to use until mine can be fixed. I got a really good deal on it, and might even be able to sell it for a few dollars more when I'm done with it.

Here's what it looked like, before I toasted it.




It will probably stay the same, though I may experiment with a different delay pedal(s). The signal path is:

DOD FX10 Preamp
Boss Compressor
Boss TU-3 (just got this one)
Real Tube 901 overdrive
Thomas Organ Crybaby
Boss Chorus
Boss PH-1r Phasor

I have the Rocktron Short Timer and Echo Park Delays plugged into the Furman's patch bay, I can simple connect the patch bay to my amp's EFX loop. It's worked pretty well. And the cool thing about the Furman is that while it croaked and smoked, apparently all of my pedals were undamaged.

I do have a guitar question for you today. Would you rather have a bunch of inexpensive or mid-priced guitars (under $700), or would you rather have just ONE really great showpiece guitar? Which would make you happier?

I've just decided that what I want is a bunch of really expensive guitars!!! LOL!

Have a good one.

Bill

I buy 'show piece' guitars. I don't usually buy mid priced gear at all, unless it is particularly grabbing and something I would deem 'permanent'. I think of it in terms of utility, what does what I want it to, and feels the best. So generally I save until I can get 'that piece'. No compromise, which leads to no wishing it was better. This can be seen with my Carvins, Mesa Amp, home made patch cables, and soon my G&L. There is no need to compromise what I want from my gear, as that will only leave me wanting more than it. Good is not good enough for this cork sniffer

Have fun at the gig!

Your discussion of southern fried pedal boards and all of the pages of software I see in music catalogs today keeps binging it home more and more that today's hip musician needs to be as much a tech head as a player. I feel like a flippin' cave dweller.

One exquisite instrument or a gaggle of lo-fi cool guitars?

Can I have both? If not I will go for the house full of el cheapos (and I say that with great affection) - Kay Speed Demons, Teiscos with those Gold Foil pickups, Harmony Stratotones (which by the way are getting pretty pricey). If it has six strings and is playable I can generally coax a sound I like ouf of it and have a blast. The last electric I ran into I really wanted was one of those what they call Chris Isaac Silvertones - the ones with Bigsby and Gibson mini-humbuckers.

I do own some guitars that many folks would consider pretty darn desirable. Many started off as just "used" geetars but over the years have magically transformed into "vintage" instruments. The one guitar that seems to spend a whole lotta time out of its case is that Harmony Sovereign. Paid $100 for it and when all is said and done I will have about $400 invested in it. But I like that guitar better than others costing 10 times as much.

I hope your friend, Tracy, recovers. Gastric bypass is a major operation and a lot of people don't appreciate the risks involved.
Lets hope for the best.

Answer to question:
I think that I would rather have one really great guitar, although in considering my collection, I have a lot of low to medium priced guitars and I enjoy playing them as much as the high brow stuff.

Good luck on the gig, Bill.
I hope you feel better.
-bassman

I'm putting in good thoughts for your friend Tracy.

You mentioned that you got your flyers out for your upcoming show. How do you get them distributed and what exactly did you do with them to get people to see them?

You guitar is phrased saying do I prefer "one great showpiece guitar." I interpret that to mean an expensive guitar probably because it has nice looking wood and fancy ornamentation, beside sounding good and all that. If that is the interpretation then, no, I never buy a guitar for those reasons, I buy it because it plays and sounds good. I have one boutique guitar, a Melancon, but it is likely the plainest Melancon that can be found, and I bought it used so the first owner absorbed the depreciation. All my favorite guitars are plain, not expensive, and they are my favorites because I like how they play and sound.

Kit

Boss TU-3 (just got this one)
Can you see this version better? That's one of the claims their making.

Would you rather have a bunch of inexpensive or mid-priced guitars (under $700), or would you rather have just ONE really great showpiece guitar? Which would make you happier?
I only paid more than $700 for 4 of my 13 and 3 of those were between $750 and $900, all G&L's, and one was my Martin D-41 (whole nuther world). So for me gotta go with a bunch of mid-priced. Quantity makes me happier I guess, especially when you can get a used ASAT for around $700.

Thoughts for Tracy and a stress free Friday and weekend for you.

I hope the sun that finally hit Seattle the last 2 days will also brighten up Tracy's outlook on a successful recovery.

Would you rather have a bunch of inexpensive or mid-priced guitars (under $700), or would you rather have just ONE really great showpiece guitar? Which would make you happier?

Tough question. My answer, I would get just a single, great sounding guitar, irrespective of the cost (but more than likely also a showpiece guitar since I don't tend to gravitate toward the inexpensive stuff).

As you may remember, my friend Tracy is in the hospital in critical care. He had complications from gastric bypass surgery. Talked to his wife last night and he is showing signs of improvement, but he is by no means out of the woods yet with the odds only 50/50 that he'll make it. Thanks for all your concern and your prayers; just keep 'em coming.

I really hope he pulls through, Boogie Bill.

I do have a guitar question for you today. Would you rather have a bunch of inexpensive or mid-priced guitars (under $700), or would you rather have just ONE really great showpiece guitar? Which would make you happier?

I have only two electrics and one acoustic, and I get by quite well with these --- my Comanche and a Peavey T-60 as a backup. That's it. I got the Comanche for just a little over your mid-priced cutoff --- got it used for $875, so's I guess I have to go with "ONE really great showpiece guitar," that is, if my Comanche qualifies. Though I would really like to get a nice hollow bodied Gretsch or similar at some point. Really, though, all I need is my Comanche and my Victoria. Very good pair, these.

I'm putting in good thoughts for your friend Tracy.

You mentioned that you got your flyers out for your upcoming show. How do you get them distributed and what exactly did you do with them to get people to see them?

Kit

Well, I'm not as good about this as most folks. I do make up flyers on standard sheets of paper and copy them 4-up on hot pink paper. Leslie will give these to clients and her networking group, and we'll pass them out to store clerks, waitresses--whomever we might come into contact with during the day. Got the kids at the Costco Pharmacy interested, and gave them a flyer to post; and then my hairdresser; and then some for the club.

It is so hard to develop a following these days. You really have to work at it.

Bill

Boss TU-3 (just got this one)
Can you see this version better? That's one of the claims their making.

Thoughts for Tracy and a stress free Friday and weekend for you.

Yeah, I was having trouble seeing the TU-2 in bright sunlight, and that's why I bought the TU-3. It is more visible in direct sun in the BRIGHT mode. It is supposedly more accurate than the TU-2 as well, so it is a little more fussy in terms of getting a string in tune. But so far, so good.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers for my friend.

Bill