Gone but not forgotten

It's been over two months since my last blog post. I guess it's about time I write another one.

So why the long break? I got a new job. I'm not proud to admit that I composed a lot of my previous posts at my last job. Even though I wrote them during break times, I wrote them so I had something to do throughout the day that I actually liked doing. See, I hated my old job. I moved from administrative IT work to programming because I thought that was the next logical step after finishing my degree. I was wrong. I hated programming and longed to be back doing server administration, network administration, hell even help desk would've been better.

Fortunately I found another position with a great company as a systems administrator. It's work I love doing, and there's a lot of it to be done, so I haven't felt the need to spend my breaks writing blog posts. To be honest, I really haven't had a lot of break time at all.

So the blog has suffered. I still enjoy it, but since I would rather spend my free time playing guitar instead of writing about it, it's sat idle for some time. I have no intention of abandoning it, but the posts will be fewer and farther between.

Even though I've been neglecting my blog, I haven't been neglecting my guitar playing. In fact, just today, I accomplished one of the goals I set for myself last year - I can play the entire first side of Rush's Moving Pictures. I've known how to play Tom Sawyer forever, but now I can go right through Red Barchetta to YYZ to Limelight. There are some rough spots but the fact that I can just start the album and play along is a tremendous boost to my playing confidence. Sometimes you go along thinking you're not going anywhere with your playing, then one day, things just click and you know you've reached another level. Today was one of those days for me.

I also got a new guitar stand. I know it seems like a simple purchase, but now I can have all five of my electric guitars out at the same time, so whatever guitar I'm in the mood to play is right there, ready for me to just grab, tune and play. It's important to match guitar with mood - anything to get you playing more is a good thing. Now I don't have to waste time putting one guitar away and taking another one out before I sit down to play. Sometimes I just didn't feel like going through the hassle and ended up either not playing or not putting my all into my playing time. Now I don't have to worry about that at all.

I also don't have the urge to buy new guitars anymore. Sure, there are tons of guitars I'd like to have, but none that I feel I need to have. There's a difference. With my current rig I feel like I have everything I need. The latest Ibanez purchase is going well. I don't miss my Gibson at all - in fact I never think about it. The only thing I need to do now is update my amp. I've outgrown the Line 6 and I want to finally have a good amplifier. I've always had nice guitars but I always had crap amps to go along with them. My wife and I talked about it and when my 40th birthday rolls around (it's a lot closer than I'd like it to be) I'm going to get a good amp. I have a few in mind that I'd like, plus something new might come out in the next few years. I definitely want a tube combo amp, nothing too powerful but not a lightweight, either. The ones I like now are the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and the Blackstar HT20.

I don't know how many watts of power I'd need - the Fender is a 40 watter and the Blackstar is a 20 watter (hence the name). Tube wattage is much different from solid state wattage - a 5 watt tube amp can blow away solid state amps up to about 60 watts depending on the amp. All you get with higher wattage tube amps is more headroom - the higher the wattage, the louder the amp can go and still sound clean. Who knows, maybe a 5-watter is all I'll need, in which case I'd be looking at either the Blackstar HT-5 or the Marshall Class 5. When the time comes, I'll have to just play as many as I can and see which one speaks to me.

Sounds like fun.

Trade made, Ibanez no. 2 comes home

The new Ibanez RG3EXFM1.

Last weekend, I finally got around to taking a trip to Guitar Center to see about trading in my Les Paul Junior Lite for a new Ibanez. Well, as you can tell from the title and the picture on the right, the trade was a go and the new guitar came home with me.

My original goal was to come out of there with a guitar, a case, and a strap. Luckily I was able to do that, but not without a little help from some dead presidents.

You see, it was President's Day weekend here in the good ol' U.S. of A. which means, in the proper American tradition, that retailers everywhere held sales and specials in order to separate the masses from their hard-earned cash. Guitar Center was no exception, and fortunately for me, the very guitar I wanted was on sale for the ridiculous price of $279, a whole $70 off regular price.

It's fortunate because I ended up not getting as much as I'd originally hoped for my Gibson. Originally I thought I could get about $500 for it, but I noticed right away when I was cleaning it up for the trade that it had a lot of dings and scratches on it. I knew I probably wouldn't get what I thought, and I was right - they offered me $390 for it. Now normally I might not have went for the trade, but because of the serious sale, I pulled the trigger and was able to get the guitar, a hard case and a strap, plus about $24 in my pocket. Nice.

The two Ibani.

So I've been playing it a lot since then and I have to admit it's probably the best guitar I've ever played. Even though it's almost identical to my other Ibanez, there are two major differences - first, it has a hardtail, which I like better, and second, it has different pickups. Instead of the HSH setup on Triumph, it has an HH setup with Ibanez' V7 and V8 pickups. These are the same pickups that were in the purple Ibanez I played last year and they sounded as good as I remembered. The V stands for "Vintage" and they are voiced much more like a vintage PAF but with a little more power. Suffice it to say, I like them much better than the INF pickups that Triumph has.

I haven't named this guitar yet, but it has quickly become my desert island guitar - the one guitar I'd pick if I were stranded on a desert island. If I were to have a signature Ibanez, this would be it. I can easily say it was the best trade I've ever made.

And yes, I picked the transparent black one. It looked so much better in person than on Guitar Center's Web site.

Some practice videos

I've had some spare time this week so I've been making practice videos. I made three, each one with a different guitar. The first one is me playing Jacob's Ladder by Rush with my Ibanez, the second one is me playing Pigeon Camera by The Tragically Hip with my Strat, and the last one is me playing The Trees by Rush on my DGW Contender. Enjoy!