New incoming gear and a new series

This weekend, my wife and I completed our Christmas shopping for each other. We do things a little different than most people - we order our presents online, together. That means there are no surprises, but it also means there are no disappointments either. It works out quite well.

We usually get one big-ticket item, and this year, my big ticket item is a bass. Or more accurately, a Fender "Stop Dreaming, Start Playing" Bass Pack, complete with a Squier bass, a nice Fender Rumble 15 amp, and a wad of accessories like a gig bag, cord, strap, and tuner. I have to say, I haven't been this excited about a new gear purchase in a long time.

I decided to go with the Jazz Bass instead of the P-Bass, despite the fact that I think the P-Bass looks a lot better. There's just something about that shape that just looks right to me. Still, the Jazz Bass has the kind of tone that I prefer, plus Geddy Lee plays one, so what else do you need?

I'm also going to start a new series to coincide with the new bass that will chronicle my bass learning experience. I'm trying to think of a good name. I was going to go with something cheesy like "Bass Emotions" but I may just call it "John Learns the Bass." When I make my first post, you'll know what I picked.

Since buying the bass, I've also been listening to music differently. It's like a whole new world is opening up to me. I listened to my "guitar" playlist on my iPod - the one that has all the songs I can play on guitar - and the songs sounded different to me. I heard the bass, not the guitar. Sure the guitar was still there, but it moved to the background. I was locked into the bass lines and I heard things I've never heard before, even on songs that I've heard hundreds of times. I hope that my actual experience playing the bass is as good, because I feel like this may be My Thing. I feel like I may have missed my calling all these years. Perhaps that's why it has taken me so long to improve on the guitar. Perhaps I was meant to be a bassist. At least I'm a prog fan. I can't think of any other genre except maybe funk in which the bass is given such a prominent role.

The bass pack will arrive in the mail within the week, but I won't open it until Christmas. I really don't know if I'll be able to wait that long. Shortly after, I'll start the new bass series. I'm looking forward to re-learning the songs I already know on guitar, and beyond.

I was wrong. I do know that I won't be able to wait until Christmas. Help!

Gear upgrade report card

Since I've been filling up this blog with album reviews recently, I decided to change gears and talk about guitar stuff today. Over the past few years I've completely revamped my entire lineup of equipment - I have nothing that I had two years ago. Over this time I've bought and sold a host of gear for one reason or another. Now that the revamp is complete, I'm going to go through the list of things I've bought and sold and grade them, and at the end I'll tally them up and see if it was all worth it.

Things I've sold

Gear: Charvel Model 2
Reason sold: It sat in my closet for a long time collecting dust and deteriorating.
Proceeds used for: I traded it at Guitar Center for my Stratocaster.
Regret selling it: Yes. I had neglected it but I would have been better off taking it to a luthier and saying "fix it." The good thing is that I got my Strat for it, but I probably could have just bought the Strat outright because they didn't really give me that much on the trade anyway.
Grade: D. Not a failure because of the Strat but pretty close.

Retro Review: Marillion - Misplaced Childhood

When I first discovered modern progressive rock, the first band I found was Spock's Beard. This led me to Transatlantic, then to all the members' bands, starting with The Flower Kings, then Dream Theater, and then finally Marillion. Although maybe not quite as progressive as the other bands (you'll find much fewer odd time signatures and fiddly self-indulgent instrumental solos), Marillion still have many elements of prog, including poetic lyrics, strong musicianship and songwriting, and concept albums like Misplaced Childhood.

Not only is Misplaced Childhood the best of Marillion's concept albums, but it is, to me, the template from which all concept albums should be based. Many concept albums are buried under their own weight. They're just too long, too grand in scope. Many of the early ones span multiple LPs, and newer ones span multiple CDs, each one packed to their hour-and-twenty-minute max. It's just too much for one sitting, and the concept sometimes gets lost among the sheer magnitude of music. Not Misplaced Childhood. It was written as a concept album in two acts, each act fitting on one side of a traditional LP. The whole album clocks in at under 42 minutes, which can easily be digested in one sitting.