Tube Amp!

Yup, I spent that 50 dollar gift certificate on a tube amp. A Bugera V5, a 5 watt little tube amp with digital reverb. It sells for 149 and I paid 99. Pretty good deal. I got it tonight and have only played it a little, but it sounds good. Tubey, like it's supposed to. It's got a power attenuator so it can be set at 5 watts, 1 watt, or .1 watt. I use .1 watt so I get that good tubey vibe without a lot of volume. the Gibson sounds pretty good in it.

Chords!

yup, I'm no longer afraid of chords! My rhythm playing has really improved lately (from nothing to something!). It just started clicking. My chords are for blues 12 bar, like a7, d7, b7, g7, e7, etc. I'm expanding my call-response form and getting better at jumping from chords to lead. Much fun! This is the kind of blues I wanted to play!

Garage Band figured out

OK, with a little help I can now use Garage Band. Wow, what an improvement! No mics to worry about, and much easier multitracking. This is the way to go from now on. Luckily I had an adaptor from the 90s or 80s so I could plug in the guitar to the laptop. So now I can make rhythm tracks and then put various leads over them. go to my youtube channel and take a listen!

2 track test with mime video

OK, here I tried out 2 track recording:

youtube video

I recorded the rhythm track using Audacity software on the little mac laptop and a cheap microphone. Then I put that file on the big mac laptop and ran it through the amp while playing the lead and recording it on the little mac. Finally, for visuals, I made a video of me faking it, using the photobooth app that comes with an apple. It's all crude, but an experiment. I need some real recording equipment!

new pick: Dunlop 88s

OK, so I'm trying the Dunlop .88 mm pick, the one just below the 1 mm. I tried the .73 mm, but it was too thin. One too thin, the other too thick, so the 88s should be just right, using Goldilocks logic. I'll work with them for a few days and let you know how they feel.

blues exercise on ootoob

OK, here's a sample of the blues piece I'm working on:

blues exercise in A

new recording method with external mic in front of the amp. it really picks up the great sound of the 339.

new mic set up for youtube vids

OK, I got tired of the poor audio quality in my youtube vids. Yes, the guitar is unplugged, but it's too much of a hassle to bring the amp over here or the laptop over there. I just wanna plunk out a few phrases for my licks library.

So I went upstairs and dug out the rocketfish external microphone I bought a few years ago. It took a few attemtps -- I had to max out the mic level on the youtube set up and change from built in mic to external mic, but this video shows the improvement. Not super great, and not as good as I hear it, but better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5rGmNhRE6Q

so now my audio notebook will be easier to listen to.

50 dollar gift certificate

OK, so I bought the 339 at a Guitar Center, and today I got a 50 dollar gift certificate from them, good for any purchase, one use only, no leftover dollars allowed. So what do I buy? a new amp? I've been looking at the fender g-dec 30 for 300 bucks. a tube amp?

Gibby is back!

on Tues. the 3 year old left with his mom, so the Gibson, Gibby, is back from its undisclosed location in my closet. Gibby is a GOOD guitar, by the way. Usually I don't even plug it in -- it sounds so good unplugged. The notes ring out clearly; it just sounds great. And it feels so good to play, as if it's easier to play and the strings are easier to work with. My epiphone Dot now sounds gritty and muddy.

Gibby! My guitar! I don't even want any others!

And I'm really loving this call/response blues thing I'm working on. It sounds like a full blues piece -- what I've been striving for.

working on a solo blues piece

I'm working on a solo blues piece in A that will include both strumming the I IV V chords and single note leads. Kind of a call and response thing. It's one of my goals to play a complete work that doesn't require a second guitarist or a backing track. I'll youtube it when it gets better.

dunlop heavies are out

I tried the dunlop heavy picks again and the joint pain in the thumb started coming back. So I'm back to Fender mediums. I wanna try a dunlop medium; I like the grip area, but the heavy has no flex and it puts too much pressure on my thumb.

a guy like me in Japan

Here is Kerry's youtube channel:

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

He's a guy in Japan, about my age or younger, with a red 339. He plays in a band, and he's got videos of himself at home playing with backing tracks and videos of his band. I wrote a note on one video -- I hope he can read English! Yeah, he's like a Japanese version of me!

back to fender medium picks

yup, I"m back to fender medium picks. Why? I still like the Dunlop heavies, but it felt after a time that the stiffness put pressure on my joint in my thumb and it began to hurt. The fender medium pick has enough give in it that it flexes so that I don't get that joint pain. So, the switch. Who knows, someday I'll switch to something else. I'd like to try different picks and see how they work out. Cheaper than buying new guitars!