Saturday, March 27, 2010

great jam session and jazz tracks!

had a great jam session today; about 2 hours.

found out that i can improvise with jazz backing tracks with pentatonic scale! Wow, that opens up a whole new world. it works most of the time, except when the song changes key, but that's usually only a brief section. We'll see how it goes. But, jamming with jazz tracks.... that's great!

And my epi dot's tone is really well suited for jazz; better than for blues, actually, since I don't use any overdrive.

jazz!

current amp and guitar settings

for my current tone (good for jazz and blues!)

amp:
gain on 0
volume on 2
tone on 5
amp modeling: tweed 2/2
effect: reverb 3/4

guitar:
neck pickup only
volume on 10
tone on 8

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

2 more robert's riffs online

2 short robert's riffs were put online today. check 'em out!

http://www.youtube.com/user/robfilmer

Sunday, March 21, 2010

play that guitar!

still playing the acoustic a lot. it's so portable, light, and easy. no plug in required. i sometimes bring the laptop to the kitchen so I can sit and play the acoustic with a blues backing track on youtube. of course when I play the epi dot it's immediately apparent that it's a significantly better sounding guitar. gain on zero and lots of reverb is the trick; plus the amp is modeling a fender tweed. and use the neck pickup only with tones on 5-7 on guitar and amp.

it's spring break week so i hope to get lots of practice.

when will i get a 339? summer time, maybe. no real rush. i like my epi dot.

i've been making more videos, too. check 'em out!

another thing i like to do is to use the amp's loop station to play a 12 bar blues while i play the acoustic. good times!

the yamaha is upstairs. two guitars at a time is about all I want, or have room for in my room.

if i did get a fender someday..... i like the idea of a thinline telecaster. semi-semi-hollowbody. i wanna play one at a music store again; it's been a while. it's possible i could end up with the thinline before the 339, or even instead of it. depends on another sound check to see it it's good enough unplugged. i got the fender case already. and i'm not afraid to use maple neck.

the line of telecasters has more variety than the strat line. more variations in pickups than strats.

i can handle both scale lengths, too.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

acoustic is de-gluing itself!

yeah, this guitar is about 12 years old. Today I found that, at the base, the top is starting to separate from the sides. The separation is about an inch long, right at the middle. Probably the glue is starting to decay. It's still a narrow area of separation, but I suppose it will get worse. I doubt it can be re-glued very easily, or cheaply. More likely I'll get a new acoustic someday. But this little guy could hang on for a while -- a year or more. who knows? It still sounds OK -- it never sounded great anyway.

I will play it until it falls apart. Already the fretboard has numerous wear spots -- it's so cheap and not rosewood!

Well, i will keep on playing it!

Sunday, March 7, 2010

the acoustic is back!

OK, so I put the Yamaha away -- I felt I didn't need two electrics in the room. Instead I took the old 3/4 size classical guitar I got in Japan in the late 90s from upstairs. I put it beside the computer desk and I'm using it to sketch, noodle around, browse and play. Good so far. Then today I (duh!) tried something new. Turned on my amp and got the loop track going, and boom! I'm jamming with my little classical guitar! It's fun, it sounds decent... it's like having a new guitar. I don't have to plug in or anything, just sit and jam.

Too bad it doesn't have the things for a strap. Makes me think of getting a folk guitar so I can stand and play.... well, no rush for that.

The little classical is a no namer I got in Japan for about a hundred bucks. It's tiny, but it stays in tune really well. Still using the original strings!

So, playing the blues on a 3/4 classical guitar..... today's update!

Friday, March 5, 2010

robert's riffs

http://www.youtube.com/user/robfilmer?feature=mhw4

Here's my utube channel, with my new playlist, robert's riffs. it's my sketchpad for little blues riffs, melodies, and other things I discover on the guitar. enjoy, and look for updates!