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
