Acoustic Jam

I got together with my good friend John Goggin (bluesman extraordinaire) last night for an acoustic jam. It was a lot of fun. I'm definitely a fish out of water on the acoustic. It was really cool observing our strengths as players. John knows so many cool songs and can play and belt them out with the best of 'em. He's not going to be blinding anyone with flashy licks, but he's got the whole song package. Then there is me -- much more technique than "whole song playing." I guess that's the difference between the rhythm player and the lead player, but I have always preferred rhythm over lead. All those years being the only guitar in a very electric band has made me into a "lead guitar player."

So I am going to work on becoming more of a solid rhythm player that can hold my own all by myself on an acoustic guitar. It's a long road, but one that I'm excited to go down. Playing with John is going to help. We're going to try to put a set list together of cool songs, learn 'em, rearrange 'em and see what happens. Hopefully teaching each other along the way. We'll see what happens.

In electric guitar news, the Ibanez Artcore archtop (see last post for pics) finally arrived yesterday. It was definitely worth the wait. What an amazing guitar! I don't feel worthy. The only thing keeping me playing it is the fact that it was so cheap. Otherwise, my jazz (and even rockabilly) chops aren't strong enough (yet) for such a bitchin' guitar. I'll be working on that too. The guitar should keep me striving to be a better "studied" musician -- something else that I really want to be.

Finally, I was checking in on The Who, just because they were childhood heros of mine and I came across Pete Townshend's blog on Blogger (same service that I use for this page). The internet has really made the world a lot smaller. It just seems weird that Pete Townshend and I are hangin' out in the same corner of cyberspace. Very cool though...

Slacker, But Playing...

I'm a total slacker as far as this blog is concerned. The good news is that I've been spending more time playing guitar than I have been writing web content. I've been going to two blues jams a week at a blues bar called Ziggies in Denver (Lakewood). It's definitely a dive, but a cool dive and it's forced me to get my chops back. A band called The Shaman's hosts the Thursday night jam. It turns out that the guitar player and I met about 5 years ago and exchanged CDs. It's a small world. He's an incredible guitar player and I have been learning a lot from him.

I have also been buying guitars like they're goin' out of style. I think I have a problem! I sold some stuff on eBay and have picked up three guitars using what I made from the sale. They're all cheap guitars, but super cool. The quality of entry level guitars has never been better. I guess the technology available has brought quality way up and prices way down. Here are the latest editions to my guitar collection:

Ibanez Artcore AF-75 (photo)
This is definitely the coolest of the new purchases. I have been playing these guitars every time I go to a guitar shop and I'm always blown away, so I finally broke down and bought one. The quality, workmanship and tone are totally unbelievable. I got it for $250 (shipped) on eBay. I can't wait for it to get here. I guess a lot of jazz players are leaving their expensive archtops at home and gigging with these. I've been learning a bunch of rockabilly tunes lately and baby steppin' into jazz, so this guitar is going to get a lot of use. The guitar is getting great reviews and recommendations (another Guitar Player Editor's Pick Award winner!) from all of the guitar magazines. It's going to be a perfect partner for my DeArmond M75T (which also won a Guitar Player Editor's Pick Award -- a good guage for the best of the best). Two big, bad blue rockabilly rockets.

Fender Squier '51 (photo)
Super cool hot rod hybrid of a Stratocaster, Telecaster and the looks of an old P-Bass. Plays like a dream. The coil-tapping of the bridge humbucker is especially cool. All kinds of tones. Won a Guitar Player Magazine Editor's Pick Award. It's damn cool to be able to play hard and sound great on a guitar that cost less than $150!

I bought the Squiers to teach myself basic guitar repair. No big deal if I screw up a cheap guitar. So far it's been cool. I smoothed and dressed the frets (not hard at all and expensive to pay someone to do it), adjusted the truss rod, set the action and intonation and now it's playing perfectly. I'm also upgrading it with a vintage Alnico Strat neck pickup and a vintage Fat PAF humbucker. The guitar is a top-loader (strings feed through the bridge), so I'm going to get a new hardtail bridge and drill it for string-through-body. I'm eventually going to get ambitious with this guitar and the Telecaster and refinish the neck in a vintage amber. Should look way cool...

Fender Butterscotch Blonde Squier Affinity Telecaster (photo)
I've always wanted a Telecaster, but never was willing to spend the money on one. It's the original meat-and-potatoes workhorse guitar, so it makes sense to get one cheap. The body is solid Alder (unheard of for a guitar this cheap) and the Butterscotch Blonde finish has tons of vibe, the neck is straight and plays well and it's built like a tank (all Teles are). The pickups are definitely weak, so I'm replacing them with GFS Vintage Telecaster pickups (I got a screamin' deal on them -- about $20 each). Awesome Alnico pickups wound just like they were in the old days -- cloth covered wire, etc. I picked up the electronics (pots and switch) and wiring to a Muddy Waters Telecaster on eBay for $12, so that will replace the cheap Squier setup. I also found a vintage 3-saddle Tele bridge with the proper string spacing (2 1/8"), so I'm going to drill it to string through the body (also a top-loader) and use the new bridge. Like I said above, I'm going to refinish the neck with Fender Neck Amber laquer and nitrocellulose clear, so it'll be 50's Fender approved.

I also picked up a Zoom PS-4 Palmtop 4-Track recorder for cheap on eBay. More amazing technology. It records up to 40 takes on 4 tracks, has a built in drum machine and bass sequencer and is about as big as a Walkman. It's killer. There is a little bit of a learning curve, but I've been noodling around and getting some super cool results. If I record anything that is worth listening to, I'll post it here.

That's it for this big update. There is a lot of musical activity happening -- it feels good. The next eBay sales purchases are going to be motorcycle parts. I need to make some Winter upgrades on the Drifter...