Holy Cow! It's Sunday, Already. The Thread for October 12, 2024

[OldStrummer]

I'm up and no one has started the Sunday thread yet, so I guess it's up to me again. The curse of being an early riser. Plus the fact that I almost always have my first cup of coffee while I'm checking the news and email...

My daughter dangled a meal invitation in front of me for today, but we haven't firmed up the time or place, so I'm waiting on that. Next Saturday is my birthday, so I'm hoping she isn't planning on making today the event and leaving me to my own next Saturday. Well, it will be what it will be. Hey, there could be a song in there.

Some of you may have read that I've decided to sell off some of my guitars. I clinched the deal with the seller on a new Lowden S-35c, so to defray the cost I'm going to let some of my lesser-played guitars go. I might post one or two here just to test the waters, since TFF classifieds are free. I can't tell you how much I fell in love with the Lowdens I played in Ireland. More costly than I'm used to paying for a guitar (even more than the custom guitar I had built!), but when one calls your name... So begins the process.

Church, lunch, football, and closure on meeting time with family. That's my Sunday. How about for you?

[gibsonjunkie]

This was the first morning in a long time when my body clock was saying "Wake-up!" at 4:30 -5:00 am. The wife is dog-sitting at her son's house this weekend and me and Daisy are on our own. Of course, when Ann isn't home Daisy sits and cries the whole time. She also decided to get even by not pooping at the appropriate time but waiting until the dead of night to get even. So, instead of having a lazy morning, I was cleaning the carpet in around 12 different spots the minute I woke up. The dog only weighs 5 pounds!!!!!

Today I'll finish all the chores I didn't get to yesterday. Trips to Home Depot and Best Buy are anticipated, as well as remove the air conditioner from the music room window and hang some racks in the garage.

Moderately slow week coming up - can't complain about that!

[Laker]

Church, lunch, football, and closure on meeting time with family. That's my Sunday. How about for you?

My Sunday will be a quick breakfast after church and then a trip up north for an afternoon with my wife?s relatives where we will celebrate the annual kermis with traditional Belgian dishes like chicken booyah and Belgian pies of many flavors being served. It?s a fun afternoon with some really nice people.

[Tele-Bob]

Breakfast, Reflection Time, check on the results from World Superbike from Estoril. BWM is kicking serious ass this year for the very first time! They look set to win the championship.
Some guitar playing, writing, finger picking exercises, acoustic jam at 1:00, and maybe a hike it it's not raining later.

Hit the 1200 mile mark yesterday on my bicycle! Not sure if I'll match my 1400 miles from last year, but I lost 10 weeks this summer due to stupid medical stuff.

[DanTheBluesMan]

cool cloudy day, feels like mid fall and guess what, it is. Columbus Day weekend. When we kids were small and still agreeable to be around, we used to pile into station wagons with parents and their friends and their kids. Four adults, seven kids. Go sit in the traffic on the Kangamangus Highway, say 'never again' and the next year, we're there again. LOL. I can just imagine the crowd at Polly's Pancake Parlor in Sugar Hill, NH. Three hour wait is not unheard of. Insane but people do it anyway. This is probably their biggest day of the year. They will be closed by Halloween if memory serves.

Mice are making their presence known this year. My cat has been watching spots in the kitchen for months. So far he's killed 2 and my brother has managed to kill or find 2 in either the washer or dryer. 3 years we've been here and this is the first fall they're trying to get into the house. Makes me wonder if we have a cold winter coming.

I know they're getting in through the basement, yet brother is hell bent on building the room before addressing the bulkhead issue. I think he's making a mistake but it's not my money. Lumber and mason prep supplies were delivered this week. I have to empty my half of the basement again, part of the reason why I'm putting stuff up for sale, to try to reduce the volume of stuff.

[blackonblack]

Did a lot of work prepping for 2025 yesterday and today. Probably spent 10 hrs on it between Sat and Sun. I plan it should save us about 250-350 man hrs next year and bring the whole thing closer to error proof. Picked up the 000-28 EC from getting a pup install yesterday. Today did church, started prepping next weeks set list and now catching some football.

[Offshore Angler]

Played a late show Saturday night. Venue flipped us a few extra bucks because we did two encores, and I got a few tips on the side. Hotty quotient was sky high too, so that always makes the night better. Had a couple a people in the audience who partied a bit too hard go down but from what I've been told all are fine. Had a guitar player ask me for a rig rundown, he was amazed I played the show with a 15 Watt amp, LOL!. He gave me the old " We have a loud drummer so I use a 50W amp" story and I laughed. I told him " You don't have a loud drummer, you have a bad sound system, and if you feel you need to use a drummer with no dynamics then put him or her behind baffles." I told him my "Big Rig" is actually milliwatts going to the power amps so what's the big deal? My sound was on my for my monitor so I strummed my guitar and let him hear how it comes into my face through my monitor, I thought I could see the light bulb go off.

Drove home after the show, missed my exit and had to drive an extra bit to loop back. Dog was happy to see me, wife not too pissed that I was later than anticipated so all in all a good night.

Chuck

[Laker]

Mice are making their presence known this year. My cat has been watching spots in the kitchen for months. So far he's killed 2 and my brother has managed to kill or find 2 in either the washer or dryer. 3 years we've been here and this is the first fall they're trying to get into the house. Makes me wonder if we have a cold winter coming.
.

I?ve been setting traps outside along my basement wall since spotting a mouse or two while mowing the lawn. So far I?ve bagged 11 of the little furry buggers. Never had any in the house and don?t want to find them there so I?m looking at this as a preventative measure.

[gibsonjunkie]

It got so bad in our house that we contract with an exterminator to come in quarterly and switch traps and such all over the house. We also get squirrels in the attic (which he gets with glue traps - camn't find where they are coming in) and in our generator box outside and our strage shed. It's like an epidemic.

[Offshore Angler]

Mice and PEX plumbing is an extremely expensive disaster waiting to happen. Ask me how I know.
And if you have mice and squirrels- you have ticks.

Chuck

[gibsonjunkie]

Mice and PEX plumbing is an extremely expensive disaster waiting to happen. Ask me how I know.
And if you have mice and squirrels- you have ticks.

Chuck

Chuck. As a former plumber, there are a lot of reasons I didn't like PEX, but mice was never on my radar screen. Thanks for giving me yet another reason I'm glad we opted for copper in my last house.

[S. Cane]

Played a late show Saturday night. Venue flipped us a few extra bucks because we did two encores, and I got a few tips on the side. Hotty quotient was sky high too, so that always makes the night better. Had a couple a people in the audience who partied a bit too hard go down but from what I've been told all are fine. Had a guitar player ask me for a rig rundown, he was amazed I played the show with a 15 Watt amp, LOL!. He gave me the old " We have a loud drummer so I use a 50W amp" story and I laughed. I told him " You don't have a loud drummer, you have a bad sound system, and if you feel you need to use a drummer with no dynamics then put him or her behind baffles." I told him my "Big Rig" is actually milliwatts going to the power amps so what's the big deal? My sound was on my for my monitor so I strummed my guitar and let him hear how it comes into my face through my monitor, I thought I could see the light bulb go off.

Drove home after the show, missed my exit and had to drive an extra bit to loop back. Dog was happy to see me, wife not too pissed that I was later than anticipated so all in all a good night.

Chuck

I played the last gigs of my live player "career" using my Blues Jr and my drummer thought It was quite loud.

[Offshore Angler]

I played the last gigs of my live player "career" using my Blues Jr and my drummer thought It was quite loud.

Blues Jr's are pretty loud. They usually don't get to the hiss before they are overly loud for stage volume. Decent little amp for clean headroom, but IMHO if you want one to be in it's happy place then it's too loud for stage volume unless baffled.

So here's a pro trade secret for using a tube amp: Turn it on with nothing connected to it. Turn up the volume knob until you hear the hiss, and then back off one number. That's where the amp is doing it's best work. After a certain amount of volume a tube amp ceases to get louder, it just gets fatter. Too much and your notes become blurry and won't cut the mix. Too little and it will be strident and hollow. When properly set, a tube amp responds exceedingly well to changes in the guitar volume and tone controls.

Once you know where that volume setting is you can evaluate whether or not it's the correct amp for the venue. The number one, most common mistake I see guitar players making is using too much amp. The result is a thin sound or playing too loud, usually the latter. These guys always seem to be of the old "leave the guitar on 10 and use a pedal for a lead boost" ilk as well.

You want your notes to bloom, not to have to be forced through the mix.

And I will never understand why you never see local musicians using baffles. They'll spend thousands on their pedals when a $20 baffle would let them get the amp singing and eliminate the needs for said pedals. It's the cheapest, best thing you can do with a tube amp to improve your band's sound. Keeps the bleed over into the vocal mics down too, which always results in a cleaner mix.

Chuck

[Laker]

Pro Jr's are pretty loud. They usually don't get to the hiss before they are overly loud for stage volume. Decent little amp for clean headroom, but IMHO if you want one to be in it's happy place then it's too loud for stage volume unless baffled.

So here's a pro trade secret for using a tube amp: Turn it on with nothing connected to it. Turn up the volume knob until you hear the hiss, and then back off one number. That's where the amp is doing it's best work. After a certain amount of volume a tube amp ceases to get louder, it just gets fatter. Too much and your notes become blurry and won't cut the mix. Too little and it will be strident and hollow. When properly set, a tube amp responds exceedingly well to changes in the guitar volume and tone controls.

Once you know where that volume setting is you can evaluate whether or not it's the correct amp for the venue. The number one, most common mistake I see guitar players making is using too much amp. The result is a thin sound or playing too loud, usually the latter. These guys always seem to be of the old "leave the guitar on 10 and use a pedal for a lead boost" ilk as well.

You want your notes to bloom, not to have to be forced through the mix.

And I will never understand why you never see local musicians using baffles. They'll spend thousands on their pedals when a $20 baffle would let them get the amp singing and eliminate the needs for said pedals. It's the cheapest, best thing you can do with a tube amp to improve your band's sound. Keeps the bleed over into the vocal mics down too, which always results in a cleaner mix.

Chuck

A really great guitar player I worked with back in the late ‘70s used an old Fender Bandmaster amp and got got killer sound with it playing an old Epiphone Riviera guitar through it. He ran the volume and treble at 10 and the bass boost at zero controlling the volume with the guitar controls. No pedals of any kind and that rig just sang.