It would help if I was feeling better. I'm still sore after I took a fall two weeks ago in my home’s entryway, the night after I got home from my Seattle trip. The Seattle trip turned into a big Portland “trip”, as somehow I got my feet tangled up and went down on the concrete. It seemed to happen in slo-mo; fortunately I got my arm up to break my fall and save my face before it hit. Banged up my right knee pretty good, and I got some road rash on my forearm along with some other bumps and bruises, but I’m very lucky I didn’t break my damn neck. It’s a lot of mass hitting the pavement and it could have been worse. The USGS said it only measured 2.4 on the Richter scale.
The good news was two-fold: I wasn’t carrying my guitar when I fell AND…I got a score of 9.78 from the Romanian women’s gymnastics judge!
Yep, could have been much worse—the whole splat could have wound up going viral on You Tube!
Not sure what I’m having for lunch today, but I’m sucking down some coffee and a croissant while I’m typing this. I’ve been craving tuna, so maybe a good tuna salad sandwich lies in my future.
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Speaking of the future, anybody read their daily horoscope? I don’t take much stock in it, but I have to admit that I often read the one in the paper. I’m a Libra.
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You can get an app for your smart phone to give you your horoscope. Nowadays you can an app for just about anything. Got any favorite apps for your phone?
The one I have that I use the most is a free Craigslist app. I search the Seattle-Portland-Eugene area for Mesa, Gibson, G&L, Martin, etc., and it loads the ads into my phone as they come up on Craigslist. I also use the gStrings guitar tuner app. It’s really handy when I’m checking out a guitar at the store. I use it at home a lot too. Miss Leslie has a similar app on her phone that checks the Craigslist ads and tells her where all the garage sales are. Finally, there’s a game called Memory, that is kinda like the old “Concentration” tv show—finding two squares that match up. It’s really a kid’s game but I’m hoping that it will help with my memory and hold off the senility for a while. Knock on wood!
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Of course, lots of folks with smart phones use them as MP3 players. I’m not really smart enough to handle the MP3s, so I still use CDs for my music source. And I did something the other day that I have never done before: I ordered one of the Time-Life music collections. This one is the Singer-Songwriters of the rock era. It was a pretty good chunk of change, but should be good, and fill in some of the gaps that I have in my music collection.
When I want to learn songs, I have a Tascam CD-1 guitar trainer that allows me to plug my guitar in, get some effects and listen to a CD. I can slow the CD down without changing the pitch and loop various sections. Pretty cool gizmo, and makes learning licks and music much easier than it used to be, “back in the day.”
So MP3, CDs, tape or vinyl? Or is there some new technology I’m not aware of?
Another thing I find useful for learning songs is You Tube, a DVR, and concert video. Sometimes a song will have me scratching my head, but if I can SEE it, it really helps my understanding.
Do you have a process for learning new songs? What gear do you use to accomplish you goals? How many songs have you learned over that last few months? Working on anything now? Writing anything?
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Having a bit of a problem coming up with a G&L topic today, so I’m going to post a picture that caused a bit of controversy last time I posted it. Here’s a pic of my Tobacco Sunburst Comanche and my 3CSB S-500 that I call “Mom”. Now “Mom” is obviously ash, but some folks thought I was crazy in stating that the Comanche was also ash. I did a little more investigating and it turns out I was right; the body is ash. I don’t know what the technical terms are exactly, but I think the S-500 is flat-sawn and the Comanche is not. There is some typical ash flame under the guard that is also visible on a small section of the back. The body is at least two pieces and probably three, but it is very well-matched. I love the color of this guitar, too.
Ash or alder doesn’t really matter much to me. I do hear a difference. There is one song my band plays that I prefer using an alder Legacy on, because it has a slightly more open, airier tone than ash; which is what this song needs. (I’d do that part on an acoustic if I had two more arms!)
Ash, alder, maple, mahogany—which do you prefer?
And here's some porn of two of my favorite blondes and a redhead. The redhead is a alder Legacy in the Fullerton Red and cream parts with a GOT neck. The Butterscotch Blonde in the middle is a Legacy Special in ash, pearl guard, a heavy birdseye GOT neck and a delightful ebony fingerboard. The Transparent Blonde Legacy on the left is also ash. I've added some gold parts to make her look more like a Fender "Mary Kaye", which is one of my favorite color schemes. The pickups are Seymour Duncan Texas Hot Antiquitys. I really like these pickups, but I love the standard Legacy pickups for what they do, too. The Antiquitys have a slightly thicker tone than the stock pickups, and they really sing.
Again, thanks for posting. And don’t forget, we need someone to step up and commit to doing the Lunch Report next week.
C’mon! I double dawg dare ya!
Bill
