barrymclark

That is very cool! I had a Fender HR Deville 410 once when I didn't care what happened to my back. haha. It was a decent sounding amp... but hissy for sure... and that was on one in working order! I am not working towards gigging but I am learning songs at a decent clip now. Instead of taking months to work out A song... now I tend to get a few songs going at once and just work on the one that I have momentum with at the moment. I found the hold up before was writer's block. Now, if I have writer's block on one tune, I might not on another and I continue with that one. I have maybe 7 or 8 solo guitar arrangements done and more being worked on. Maybe Baby (slight swing to it) White Christmas Summertime Autumn Leaves All of Me Sleep Walk My Life (yes, Billy Joel) She's the One (Ramones) Work in progress: In the Pines (Appalachian folk tune) Work in progress: Just the Way You Are (again, Billy Joel) Work in progress: Beyond the Sea Work in progress: Georgia on my Mind Work in progress: Wonderful Tonight I've found that I get more out of my arrangements if i get the piano/vocal music to versions of tunes. Something about guitar books makes me try less hard. That... and I find tab distracting.

It really is a balance of things. I like very, very low action. I mean... 'not many people can play it but me' low. With this, you have some choices to make. How much neck relief do you want? For me, I want no relief or as close as possible. I want the nut cut and bridge dropped as low as it can go. Beyond that, I have to experiment with string size. The bigger the string, the less wobble it gets for to make a note relative to a smaller string. With the less wobble, the lower I can get the strings to a flat neck.

While on vacation this week, I realized that I had strayed a great deal from the intent of the blog starting with the ending of lessons with Sal. From there, I got more and more into learning songs than practicing theory (although I still do this fairly regularly). Throw that in with engineering school starting for me and I just simply don't have the time to invest in this as I want to and once had. Thanks to all that followed it!

Been a couple weeks. I have a ton going on now. Between work and the baby and the girls, I have school now. Yep, back at college for my BS in mechanical engineering. Very good school for it, too; so, I am excited. I was seriously bummed when I heard they didn't have a jazz band anymore. Oh well. I do have a jam prospect coming up though. A dude who is a Berklee grad says he'd like to put something together for small cafe gigs and what not. I am nervous at the prospect for sure but I know this is the only way to get better: experience. This past week did see some changes in my gear for sure. Mark (mgoetting) here on the Heritage Owners' Club sold me his Cube 80x and I gotta say it is the bee's knees for me. I keep saying that I will dial in some good tones for other genres but the moment I hear that wonderful JC tone, I never get past it! haha. One of these days, I am sure I will get to it. The H575 and the Cube together are just something! I couldn't be happier! Thanks again, Mark! I'd also like to add that I picked up a slick leather Heritage strap for the H575 from Bob (GuitArtMan). Thanks, Bob! Playing wise, I am spending time still with Why Don't You Do Right as made famous by Peggy Lee. I love the way she sang some of her most popular tunes. I am also revisiting some of the older tunes I have picked up such as Autumn Leaves, Beyond the Sea and All of Me as well as some not so standard tunes such as Sleep Walk. I am also still working on Georgia on my Mind but I will admit there is no progress in the past couple of weeks on it. I have found that I really like Why Don't You Do Right as a playground for someone learning. Nice and easy and slow changes make it easy for me to tryout the new techniques I am picking up such as adding the walking bass line into the chordings as well as trying improv as well as melody and melody imbellishment.

If the Tokai does the trick, it does the trick! +1 on the paid to play comment... that is why so many guitarists in the US at least are NOT getting paid to play in my opinion.

Been a couple of weeks. Been playing a good bit. Of course, still playing All of Me but I also picked up a new tune: Why Don't You Do Right as made famous by Peggy Lee. Simple changes: Dmin7 (4 beats)- Bb7 (2 beats) - A7 (2 beats) - Dmin7 (4 beats)- Bb7 (2 beats) - A7 (2 beats) - Gmin7 (4 beats) - Bb7 (2 beats) - A7 (2 beats) - Dmin7 (4 beats) - Bb7 (2 beats) - A7 (2 beats) - Gmin7 (2 beats) - A7 (2 beats) - Gmin7 (2 beats) - A7 (2 beats) .... and repeat. I added a bit of rhythmic flair to it. I also am using this to learn how to walk the bass line while chording. Sounds VERY cool... even in my skill's infancy.