I have to thank my wife for making me a tuna sandwich for lunch today. I'll have that and a Coca Cola.
Travel Picture
My Instruments
By 2005 I have my complement of single coil and humbucker guitars, but I was interested in getting a semi-hollow jazz box type instrument. I kept my eye on Craigslist and one day I saw a Heritage H535 advertised for a very good price. I went and checked it out and found the guitar was close to perfect, but the case was not original and a bit beat up. The price was too good to pass up so I bought it. The person selling it was a local jazz musician and along with the guitar he gave me a couple of his CDs. He also showed me his studio where he does his composing for commercial projects. Turned out he had done some music for TV shows and even composed for movies. It was interesting to see his setup with his video monitor since timing the music to the action on a screen is essential for this kind of work.
I wanted to get a 'true' jazz sound out of the guitar and put flatwound strings on the H535. Bending is a bitch (but you don't bend much in jazz, do you?) but the smoothness of the strings make it cool to play. I've since read that lots of people choose to install other pickups rather than the Schallers which usually come with the H535 but I'm happy enough with its sound to keep them on.
After getting the Heritage my interest turned to acquiring a decent acoustic. Somewhat inflenced by Brian Tysinger who used to visit the old board I eventually bought a used Santa Cruz D/PW. It is actually the most money I've ever spent on a guitar. It does sound gorgeous, but I do have to admit I'm not an acoustics player and have generally not given enough attention to this fine instrument. I have even thought about selling it since it deserves to be played more than it is getting played.
Finding New Music
Last week El Fug (Scott) touched on how hard it is to find new music. That is really an irony seeing that the Internet makes everything available to everyone all the time, but I also believe that the shear volume of stuff out there is part of the problem: it's like finding the needle in a haystack. My teenage children will sometimes tell me songs and artists they like, but mainly I find my new music through the Internet. I read a fair amount of Internet threads on music and if something sounds interesting I either follow a link or Google to see if I can find some samples of the music mentioned. It is hit and miss, but sometimes I do find interesting music which then may lead me to other music. I also have found new music through Pandora. I have created a handful of Pandora channels and through them I have found a number of artists whose music I enjoy and have since bought.
With cheap recording technology today it is possible to create good sounding recordings with just a few hundred dollars of equipment at home, the problem is getting yourself heard if you are seeking the exposure. Your music can easily be drowned out by the hundreds of thousands of other people putting their music online.
Beauty Or The Beast (of an Instrument)
There are many outstanding features from the lines of G&L guitars. If you were to combine all your favorite features from G&L, what would you have come up with? Does it turn out to be something that's already in the catalog, or do you have the next G&L hit machine to be unleashed on the guitar-buying public?
Kit
