newdilemma.com

So I constantly keep my head buried in Craigslist looking for good deals and what have you on music equipment. I can’t help it. It’s an addiction. So yesterday I was going through the music equipment ads when I see the weirdest trade offer.

A guy wanted to trade his 65 Fender Twin Reverb Reissue for a smaller old fender amp. I checked the specs and if the number of tubes in an amp are equivelent to a man’s penis size, then call me Schlong Dong Silver. This sports a total of ten tubes and pushes 85 watts. I read the reviews, and everyone said it’s loud. Sounded like the right amp for me.

So I emailed the guy and offered him my old school Blues Deluxe and my green Ibanez hollow body. (Never really got used to it.) Well whadayaknow? He wrote back and said it sounded like a good deal and to meet up with him to make the deal. I did and it’s finished now.

I will miss the Blues Deluxe, 45 watts was a good bit of power and it had one of the sweetest blues tones I have ever heard. Not to mention that the fact that it was wearing blond tolex which may infact make it a collectors item seeing as how almost all of them produced sport tweed. It was indeed difficult to pull some of the metal sounds out of it with my pedals because it just absolutely was not built for it. Though it can be achieved. ($$)

I got the Twin Reverb home and what they say is true. It has the most undeniable clean tone I have ever heard. It is indeed crazy loud. My crappy pedals seem to like it better as well, since the amp has no pre-flavored blues tones associated with it. Just a blank canvas of clean tone to color with whatever distortion pedal best suits it’s original tone. It was infact so loud that when I was playing it at volume level “8″ it shook the power adapter for my pedal out of the socket on the wall. Hell Yeah!

This is what is on the fender website:

This amp has seen action in every imaginable musical venue and continues its musical legacy today! Whether you play rock, jazz, country, or whatever, this is what a clean electric guitar sounds like! Or add an upside-down Stratocaster® guitar and a fuzz box …

Our 85-watt (at 4 ohms) Vintage Reissue of the ’65 Twin Reverb features four 6L6 Groove Tube™ output tubes, four 12AX7 preamp tubes, two 12AT7 preamp tubes, two 12” 8-ohm Jensen® C-12K speakers, dual channels (normal and vibrato), Fender reverb, vibrato, two-button reverb and vibrato on-off footswitch, tilt-back legs, black textured vinyl covering and silver grille cloth.

Hi everybody! See that dork up there, that was me when I was like twenty. Take a moment to laugh hard, and when your ready we can continue.
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Ok, ready? Good.

When I was twenty I really couldn’t play much on the guitar (not that I can now), just a couple of punk type songs to accomodate the three chords that I knew. I had a cheap Harmony guitar and a Fender 15 watt practice amp, and I would smoke as much weed as I could get in my system and just strum away on that guitar.

Now some of you know what I am talking about, and some of you don’t , but when you string a guitar, you usually have a length of string dangling from the tuning pegs. Some players like to clip them and give their guitar a nice and clean appearance, others just leave them dangling and don’t worry about them. I like to call these dangling strings whiskers. Below is my guitar with 5 strings clipped and one whisker from a recently changed string.

Anyway, one day I was high, a little drunk, and doing my strumming thing. I decided I had had enough and stood up to take my guitar off. Now back then, I didn’t worry about clipping whiskers, so as I was taking the guitar off, somehow I managed to let the whiskers touch the light bulb on the ceiling.

Holy Crap!

I lit up like a freaking christmas tree. The electricity ran down the fretboard, through my fingers and into the floor. I do not lie when I say that my lighter strings physically melted. And I had burns on my fingers from them. It blew my high, or harshed my mellow if you would, completely. Not to mention it signaled the death of that cheap guitar.

Now you have an electrifying knowledge of something from my past. Enjoy C-ya!

P.S. Check out the TV that you actually had to stand up to go change the channel.

I have been giving some thoughts to what to wear on stage when I finally do go. Do I want to be all pimped out like Kid Rock with fur coats and what not, or punkish with no shirt on and just cut the hell out my chest with a razor blade? Clearly the way you look can help you connect with the crowd, unless your name is Susan Boyle. (never been kissed, yeah right, we did it in the back of my car in 93, but that’s another story)

But while researching this I think I have come across some things that I simply could not wear on stage. Lets have at look:

Louvered Sunglasses

While it is true that Kanye West did wear these on stage, I am of the firm belief, that as a guitarist you should refrain from wearing these on stage. There may come a moment where you may have to look at your guitar, and imagine your shock when you only see your 1st, 3rd, and 5th string. Traumatizing. Unless you are PUSA.

The “Big Daddy” Four Finger Ring

The need to let the world know that you keep your pimp hand strong and your ho’s working long can be overwhelming for anyone. I often times find myself surrounded at social gatherings explaining the importance of this prophetic pimpology. But alas, wearing your Big Daddy four finger ring on stage can prove challenging. It can be done, but all your guitar playing must stay within four frets of each other. Very limiting indeed.

The Beer Hat

Ok, I don’t even know why this is on this list. As a guitarist I say this is a most handy invention. Being able to drink from two beers at the same time while shredding away is AWESOME. What is that you say? Oh, well I guess it could eventually lead to singing Sweet Home Alabama while extremely intoxicated. Ok, we’ll keep it in the list for now.

The Shocker Foam Finger

I am absolutely positive I don’t have to explain the awesomeness of shocker shaped foam fingers. But I really don’t know how long one could play a D# minor chord before the crowd gets tired. Maybe they will be entranced by the wonderful symbol of our times, maybe not.

That’s all I can think of right off the top of my head. Can you guys think of any others?

DISCLAIMER: I am not a paid blogger!(not that there’s anything wrong with that) Sometimes you read a blog where someone has written something about a product, but you don’t know if it’s their real opinion because someone pays them to do it, this is my real opinion.

Yesterday I wrote that I had bought an instructional DVD from a company called Rock House Method. I told you it was pretty good, and it is. For more insight, I want you to realize that it has been years since I bought an instructional DVD because most of the time the quality is appalling.

The DVD I bought Modes Demystified is clearly laid out,has a booklet that comes with it that kind of goes over what is shown on the DVD in tab. But this is not the end.

When I write about a company, I usually shoot that company an email to tell them. Nothing is expected in return, just showing them that people are thinking about them, be that negative or positive. A freakin T-shirt from said company would kick ass, but I digress. Anyway, I sent these guys an email, and guess what?

John Freaking McCarthy wrote back!

How cool is that? Most of the time companies are soulless shells. (How many of you remember the way MOTU treated me,lol?) But wait that’s not all! Some dude name Joe Rock House Palombo sent me a friend request to me in Facebook. Who The Hell IS Joe Palombo??

Holy Double Dropped D 6th String! He’s the co-founding partner of the place!

Now, can you think of the last time a company made you feel great about purchasing a DVD? Well? Can you? I’m not saying John McCarthy writes everyone who sends him an email back, Or Joe “this is all mine” Palombo friends all these people on Facebook, but it was a welcome change in my typical I email your company / you could give a damn response of most companies.

So here it is, I think any person wants to expand their knowledge on guitar playing should invest in the DVD that is suitable for what they wish to learn from Rock House Method. They also have great stuff on their website. These people are worth your $$ and your time.

Now if you’ll excuse me, some guy who looks like a former stoner with a blond surf wig on told me I had to go write down the major scales.