Informal Jam with Firends...

A little gettogether with friends Stumpy Pete, J.A.S., and Hunger Mehigh a drummer. Debut of the inverted 5th-tuned bass. Sick Rick was due but turned-out sicker than ordinary.

Set List: Pete's Jazz, Last Days, Dead Flowers, Yoshimi, Factory, Lucky Man, Helpless, Down By the River.

Classical Carlos Jam Video - BORKED!

I had a nice, long, video-taped (yes, actual tape) Classical Carlos jam at Ur-daughter's home with Tahoe the Cat. Unfortunately I dropped the camera setting up and scrambled the audio pickup. Dang!

Anyhow, here is the setlist: Creep, Heaven, Rain Dogs, There is a Light That Never Goes Out, Tender is the Night, Old Country Waltz, Her Diamonds, Yoshimi, Doolin Dalton, Sweet Jane, Waiting for the Great Leap Forward, Your Racist Friend, God's Gonna Cut You Down, Hurricane, Sedan Delivery, Dominance and Submission, Don't Cry No Tears, Desperado, Pumped Up Kicks, Soldier Sign.

Classic Carlos Jam re: Burn

Housesitting for omdaughter and her hubster during the Burning Man festival and had an opportunity to jam on the Classical Carlos! I must bring a tune book...

Beat to the Bass

While I have pretty much spent the past 2-3 years getting acquainted with the guitar, my background is bass guitar. Funny, I was jamming with a bunch of old mates back in April and everyone expected I would be playing bass guitar - which I hadn't practiced for years having given my electric 5-string bass off to middlin-son the Owl Man.

I kinda had second thoughts before the jam and was looking to find a decent bass on eBay hopefully for around $100, when I realized I had this $2,500 Takamine fretless acoustic-electric just cased-up down in my living room. There was no way I ought to spend any money when I have this expensive instrument existing as a mere conversation piece.

The Takamine bass entered my life more than 15 years ago (last musical instrument purchased PWI - Purchasing While Intoxicated), but I never was really able to use it because of feedback problems in the various loud bands I hung with.

So, while I jammed regular guitar back at April's informal gig, I resolved to figure out how to get this rig playable. The journey of the past couple months was basically #1 - solve feedback issue, and #2 - learn fretless.

Here is my first impromptu set (flubs and all) after about 6-7 weeks practicing: Jesus and Tequila, State Trooper, People Just Ain't No Good, Swamp, Dead Flowers, Jane Says, Keep the Glove, Corona, Moonchild.

Set the First

Soooo I finally paired down my song list to the first ever LRN "official" set list(!).

The advantage is that I can keep practice down to a manageable time period and work on specific things. The entire set is about an hour, so another bonus is I can swap material and still have the time be within the bounds of decency.

Ha, of course I am planning to go back to bass music now that I have my Takamine B-10 in stage-ready condition after 17 years...

Set List: Bigmouth, Dead Flowers, Don't Cry No Tears, Easy Wind, Helpless, Her Diamonds, Jane Says, Creep, People Just Ain't No Good, Pumped Up Kicks, Sedan Delivery, Dominance and Submission, There is a Light that Never Goes Out, Yoshimi, Death is Not the End.

New Puppy!

(My slowly evolving Ibanez 2383)

J.A.S. dropped a new el cheapo brand-Asia neck pickup into my Ibanez. Before I had strung up my Ibanez I heard the bridge pickup in one of J.A.S.'s guitars (an electric Takamine) where J.A.S. had replaced the stock magnet with a new ALNICO magnet.

I remembered I had the magnet from the original, non-functioning Epiphone pickup - so I did a mag-brain transplant! The original magnet turned out to be waaaay stronger than brand-Asia, and I am getting much more sustain. Very happy the pickup has a bit of the original in it and is truly a mutant!

PS The Gibson pickup covers I bought are a hair too narrow for brand-Asia, which is why that pickup is nude.
PPS A new roller bridge is on there too.

Anyhow, here is the weirdness, when I have 3-way switch in the middle, both neck and bridge pickups on, there is no volume unless I have the top volume knob right in the middle. It is not a sweep or anything like that, basically, once I hit 5 the pickups light up and the lower volume knob controls the volume.

Involuntary Acoustic

Old bandmate J.A.S. (Geo Pigs, Ripon, Scratch Elder) stopped by last night and helped me troubleshoot a dead pup in my Ibanez SG copy. Unfortunately the pup was dead, dead, dead. J.A. is gonna drop in a new one for me, but he took the electric home not to be returned until April 15th.

So I find myself with the residence to myself late Saturday morning and ended up running my Ovation classical guitar through my electric rig. J.A. Also gave me some advice on how to set the old bass practice amp for vocals. It's typically productive like that when J.A. visits.

Also, I paired down my song selections to a limited set list. I wanted to work on a particular variety of tunes and here it is. I just need to focus in getting through the set and not dilly-dally over errors

Set List: Bigmouth Strikes Again, Creep, Dead Flowers, Death Is Not the End, Desperado, Dominance and Submission, Doolin-Dalton, Don't Cry No Tears, Easy Wind, God's Gonna Cut You Down, Heaven, Helpless, Her Diamonds, Hurricane, Jane Says, Old Country Waltz, People Just Ain't No Good, Pumped Up Kicks, Rain Dogs, Sedan Delivery, Soldier Side, Tender Is the Night, There is a Light That Never Goes Out, Waiting for the Great Leap Forward, Yoshimi, Your Racist Friend, Farewell Ride, For the Turnstiles, Girlfriend in a Coma.