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(photo cred: TMZ.com)

Wow, I just found out Adam Goldstein, AKA DJ AM died today. You know he survived that plane crash like last year. 4 other people died. He and Travis Barker (Blink 182 drummer) were the only survivors. I thought what DJ AM and travis Barker were doing was incredible. Aside from rock music, I love seeing DJ’s ripping up vinyl. It really is like a bad rerun of the movie Final Destination where the kids can’t escape there death. He got away from it last year but couldn’t get away from it today. Sad.

R.I.P. Adam Goldstein

So I have been looking for a dual humbucker configured guitar ever since I got rid of Damien. There is just something in them that is geared for hard rock and metal. A very special something indeed. Well anyway, yesterday I got the opportunity to get a guitar in an amp deal I was doing, so I got it.

It’s an Ibanez RGX220B. It was in absolutely horrid condition. I mean terrible. Three of the fine tuners on the damn Floyd Rose (liscensed, I hate those) bridge were completely snapped off. There is no way to replace those. Then everything had rust and corrosion. You have got to have either alot of money or more guitars than you know what to do with to let a guitar get in this shape. But no matter.

I woke up this morning, drove to the repair shop, picked up knobs, a new bridge and some black paint, then I got to work. Below are the results. Now it plays great!

BEFORE

AFTER

I am going to play it for a while and if I like it I will change the electronics and pickups. Oh by the way, I picked up the amp head on the cheap too. It’s a Crate Blue Voodoo BV-120H. Didn’t need it, but the guy sent me a message saying he had dropped his price considerably and he did. So now I have two amp heads. I guess it doesn’t hurt to have a backup right?

Sometimes your the windshield. Today I experienced something I have never ever experienced before. Firing someone from a band. I mean I didn’t do it, but it was a general decision involving everyone in the group. Minus the one we let go.

It is a really tough feeling, especially when you have become a friend of that person. But we were stuck. I don’t know how else to put it. We needed a bump. We needed to figure out what was wrong and some of us in the band pinned that on that one person. I only hope that we were correct.

To me it feels roughly like breaking up with a girl that you still like. It kinda hurts but you hope that in the end everyone can still be friends.

If you, Mr. Freshly Released Band Member read this, I want you to know I had a great time working with you. Lots of fun, and in the end, you have to have some fun in a band right?

And I’m a Craigslist addict. I can’t stop looking through the ads and every so often I run across some pretty good deals. Today’s find was of course in the Musical Instruments section.

Two practice amps, a Peavey Rage 158 15watt practice amp and a Fender Frontman 15R 15watt. Two practice amps for $35 dollars. They both work great and I have been fooling with them all day. I will mess with them for a day or 2, see which one I like more and then I will give the other one to my dad. He needs something to noodle on, after all, I think I got this guitar playing gene from him.

Now if you excuse me, I have to go and eat some chocolate, I got that gene from my mom.

So yesterday the world lost a great influence in the lives of many musicians. Les Paul (Lester William Polsfuss) died at the ripe old of age of 94. His greatest attributes are etched permanently on the guitar world. He receives credit for making the first electric guitar, “the log”. That fact is often screwed up with the first production electric guitar, of which Richenbacher and Fender had beaten him to that.

After that he approached Gibson and gave them his suggestions and they created what would famously be known as the Gibson Les Paul (Standard). That folks is a seriously popular guitar, with many notable artist having owned one, and many guitar aficionados aspiring to own one.

Gibson also wanted to put his name on another guitar that had two cut away horns but he did not like it, so they called that one the SG. (Solid Guitar) That guitar went on to have massive fame as well, my favorite being the one Carlos Santana played at Woodstock.

So there you have it, guys like that are hard to come by and I hope the last of his breed are not all gone, where would the music world be without the Leo Fenders and Les Pauls.

On a side note, there is two reasons why I have never owned a Les Paul. One is the price. Holy cow, those things are crazy expensive. Another is the problem with cracking headstocks. Les Paul fixed this design flaw in the seventies but it didn’t look as pretty as the original model so Gibson reverted to the vintage look. Now me with my easy to boil Puerto Rican temper would not be able to mentally handle buying a $2000 guitar and having the headstock break, thus killing the guitars value considerably and scarring it for life. No I am the kind of guy that would walk into the Gibson Headquarters and beat the CEO to within an inch of his life if he did not exchange it for a new one every time it broke or refund the full purchase price.

Yeah, I think I might want to leave them alone for my own good and to preserve the freedom I have, I think I would look terrible in an orange jumpsuit with flip-flops.