The Les Pauls that got away

I've owned guitars since I was about 11 years old. That's 26 years for those who are counting (like me). I've had many guitars during that time, and of course I don't still own all of them. Over the course of those 26 years, I've thought back to my guitar decisions and regretted some of the transactions. There are three guitars, in particular, that I wish I still had. Ironically, they're all Les Pauls of some sort.

Here they are, in chronological order:

1. My first guitar - I've posted many times about my Hondo and how it was my first ever guitar, but that's not entirely true. It was my first brand-new guitar ever, the first guitar that was mine and mine alone, but it wasn't the first one my parents bought for me. I usually don't count this one because I only had it for a few months, but the first guitar my parents bought for me was a no-name Les Paul copy that belonged to the father of one of my friends (who I haven't seen since junior high school).

Review: Spock's Beard - X

Spock's Beard has been a band in search of an identity ever since founder, singer, keyboardist and songwriter Neal Morse found religion and left the band in 2001. With their tenth album, X, the band has finally emerged from his shadow and crafted a release that stands as not only the best album of the post-Neal Morse era but one of the best of the band's entire discography.

X is more of an evolution of their previous self-titled album than it is a revolutionary album, which is fine because it builds on the strengths of that album - which was, at the time, their best second-generation effort - and removes the weaknesses that have appeared since Feel Euphoria, namely weak lyrics, uneven songwriting, poor track placement and occasional filler. There are no weak points on this entire album, which consists of two long-form epics, four lengthy stand-alone tracks ranging from 5 to 10 minutes in length (five on the limited-edition CD) and one instrumental. The band has thankfully abandoned the practice of splitting up the multi-movement pieces into separate CD tracks, which caused some confusion, especially when they put unrelated, stand-alone tracks after them. The album flows remarkably well from beginning to end as if a lot of thought was put into the track order. Well done.

Be a part of guitar history, part two

Here is your chance to be a part of a collaboratively designed guitar, courtesy of Chapman Guitars, the company run by Rob "Chappers" Chapman of YouTube fame. The process is in its final stages and the last major vote is now on.

To make your picks, click here and vote. To sum up what was already decided, it's going to be a singlecut design (similar to a Les Paul) with a mahogany body, maple neck and ebony fretboard, with a 25" scale. This is the second affordable guitar from Chappers, the first being the ML1, a Superstrat design which is still available to buy (they are limited, though). Check out the Chapman Guitars site if you're interested in buying one. I'd have one already if I could.

No more guitars

This may be redundant for my regular readers (all one of you) but I'm declaring an official moratorium on guitar purchases for the foreseeable future. This means no more looking at guitars in music stores, no more looking at guitars online, no more thinking about new guitars... Well, maybe I can still do that. But no more situations in which I find myself wanting to purchase a guitar.

I came to this epiphany for two reasons.

First, I've been exclusively playing my Stratocaster over the last few weeks and I realized that I really don't need another guitar. I am Stratocaster. Everyone has their own sound, mine starts with a Strat. When I play my Tele or my Les Paul Special I just can't get the same sound, for as nice a pair of guitars as they are, they can't sound like a Strat. I'll play my other guitars, but if I could only choose one, I'd choose my Strat. The tone control change really made the difference, I think, because without tone control on the bridge pickup, it's OK, but with it, it's perfect. All Strats should be made this way.

Second, I came to the realization that I need to upgrade the rest of my stuff first. My entire guitar rig consists of a Line 6 Spider III 15 amp and a Dunlop wah/volume pedal. That's it. Good for bedroom noodling, but not so great for recording. I want to get a nice small tube amp - Blackstar makes a nice, affordable 5-watt amp, just gotta figure out if I want the combo or the half-stack version. I want to get a digital processor, most likely a Digitech RP55 or RP90, just gotta decide if I want the expression pedal built-in or if I want to use my Dunlop. Then there's the recording stuff, which may or may not consist of a Mac laptop, but will consist of a MIDI interface, a MIDI keyboard (the piano kind) and a microphone or two. I just need to figure out if a gently used Windows tower will be powerful enough to serve as a recording platform or if I need to get a Mac.

The fact that all this will cost money - real money - and the fact that I don't have a lot means that it will probably take me years to get all the stuff I need. So, of course, that means no more guitar diversions (I could've at least got the amp, the effects processor and the MIDI interface for how much I spent on my Tele). The only way I will buy a new guitar is if one of them gets lost or stolen or irreparably damaged, and even then I'd probably only replace the Strat.

Did I mention I was a Strat guy?

New look

I changed the look of my blog. Kinda by accident, really. The old template was one I had customized so it was a little more personal. I still have it and I may change it back.

I was editing my blog when I noticed the new template builder (must've been an update somewhere along the line) and I had to check it out, the geek I am. So I started clicking around and I actually found a theme I really liked. I contemplated it for at least 10 seconds before deciding to change it. I had to make a new header image (the old template is about 50 pixels narrower) but apart from that everything else went smoothly.

Let me know what you think. Do you like it? Is it better or worse? Should I go back to my old template?

Be a part of guitar history

My man Rob Chappers is adding another collaboratively-designed guitar from his company, Chapman Guitars. I didn't have the opportunity to help with those, but I'm definitely going to be a part of this one. You can, too. Click here to go to the voting site and watch the video below to get an idea of what the project will be.