Monday, January 16, 2012

HIGH TIME FOR A MUSIC RIG POST

WELL, it has, again, been too long since I posted anything on this, my blog that details the shit I build, compile, or otherwise cobble together. The past year or so, I've been focusing a lot on motorcycles, and the Yamaha XS850 project is still in progress: more to come on that soon.  But this blog has also focused, at times, on music; or, more specifically, the instruments I've built/repaired. Lately I've been pouring much of my creative energy into relearning (well, lets be honest- learning) to play lead guitar.  The old time band I was playing with for several years split up at the end of the summer, and about two days later I was sitting at the bar down at Terry's in A-Town with my buddy David who happened to be looking for a lead guitarist/multi-instrumentalist for his band which could best be described as, I guess, ''garage alt-country.'' It's been a LONG time since I strapped on an electric (hell, at the time I didn't even own one) but I was happy to give it a shot, so over the past few months I've been spending a lot of time putting together a rig on an incredibly tight budget. As I've been endlessly researching guitars, pedals, amps, etc, (most of which I'll never be able to afford) I've realized that there's not much out there in the way of helpful product reviews and honest evaluations, especially from the point of view of novice players who are really into trying for interesting sound (and also dead broke.)

Most reviews are written by illiterate assholes who don't take time to mess around with their gear before reviewing it online, or by the same sort of folk who scoff at anything inexpensive or less well known. These are the people with full Boss pedal boards, a Jackson seven string, and a Line6 modeling amp.  Fuck them. So I decided it was high time to share what little I've learned recently about playing secondhand guitars through a some pedals and amps I scrounged up and the sounds I've achieved. Much of what I've learned proves that I have a long way to go, but I think my recent quest to put an extra pair of balls in some alt-country songs has led to a few victories at least. So my next few posts are going to share what I've learned. Hopefully it helps. If not, you're welcome to close the page and go buy a double necked Ovation. Have fun at Guitar Center.

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