That place would be awesome to check out. Did you see this one? https://www.normansrareguitars.com/product/gibson-1941-sj-200-horseshoe-inlay-very-rare/
Nah, he didn't have that one out on display while I was there. He told us that he has a warehouse in downtown LA with 14 10x10 ish crates full of guitars. He has been finding them and stashing them for decades. Back when he got started, he'd find old/rare guitars in incredible condition, and then just put them in storage. He goes back from time to time and brings a couple out to the store.
Here are the ones I played: https://www.normansrareguitars.com/product/martin-1919-00-42/ https://www.normansrareguitars.com/product/prairie-state-model-557-fancy-inlay/ And this is very close to the one I almost bought: https://www.normansrareguitars.com/product/gibson-1965-melody-maker-cherry/ One of the younger dudes in there is apparently updating the inventory right now for the website, so they should have all the cool stuff I saw up in a couple weeks.
Had been slacking on practice time but I can now play a few songs without stopping to stare at the tab sheets. I was actually able to play something that sounds like music with my instructor this week. Very simplified versions of some traditional bluegrass tunes but still
My band has our first show since April coming up tomorrow. We have practiced exactly once since April
I know. I'm not happy about it, but I'm in a band with a bunch of young people with busy schedules. 4 of the 5 of us practiced together earlier this week but I won't see the drummer til showtime. I think it's better to not perform at all if you're gonna go up there and suck it up. I'm old and have sense though
The reality of being in a band with parents and folks with day jobs. The good news is that you’ll likely be playing in front of a bunch of drunks and folks who will have no idea. You’ll be mostly fine.
I know, but what about my personal perfectionist standards?? Also, you mean everyone won't hang on every single note I play in my solos?? I was really hoping to impress some girls!
Not sure if I’ve told this story before, but last year I was playing a show and a SUPER hot/drunk girl came bursting through the doors toward the dance floor and did a somersault. She was wearing a flowing dress. It got caught on a chairback. She was stuck upside down for like 15 seconds. She was not wearing underwear. I completely missed it because I was in the middle of a guitar solo staring at my fretboard like a total dipshit.
I find it pretty embarrassing if the band is making a lot of mistakes. Last band I was in the drummer was very mistake prone. The average listener probably won’t notice unless it’s a glaring mess up. I’d always tell my wife about parts that we messed us and she was like “really? It sounded fine to me.”
Recently bought a used Boss Katana Artist 100w. It’s pretty incredible the amount of tones you can program once you hook up your computer to the amp. You can also download other tone settings from users online, which is nifty.
Went all right, we didn't fall on our faces. Curiously, we had a second show two days after and we played worse at that one. For people at an amateur level I guess that's how it is -- inconsistent performances and you're not sure what you're gonna get night to night. Got a 1.5 hour gig coming up Saturday night that we only had 1 hour to practice for We're about to shut this band down after the next couple gigs I think because it's just becoming too hard to be on the same page. People only book us because we have a hot chick singer
Oh my god did we take an L last night. 3 band battle of the bands, we go first. We actually play pretty well and I'm feeling pretty good even though first spot is really hard to win from. Second band gets up, they're better. (4 part harmony, better originals...only question was gonna be which look/style the judges were going for.) Third band gets up there and mops the floor with both of us. And they're in HIGH SCHOOL. And it wasn't even fancy music. These motherfuckers were Nirvana reincarnated. Raw, melodic originals with tons of energy. And unlike Nirvana, they'd stretch the songs out to 5 minutes and go through more sections than Kurt Cobain ever wrote in one song. They were jumping off the stage, had a huge banner behind them matching their drum head, missed zero cues all night, it was ridiculous. Their parents were all there and I was like yeah, you guys should keep encouraging those kids.
Also embarrassing -- we covered Beatles "Come Together" and at the end I deadpan into the mic "Thanks, that one's starting to come together." ...fucking crickets. So I give a little shrug like eh? eh? And still no one's laughing. Tough to just be so far over average peoples' head sometimes.
People got day jobs. hard to maintain a steady coke habit night-giggin when you gotta adult during the day
hit my semi-annual piano phase. learned Kygos "piano jam" 1 2 & 3. There's a Melody VR concert with him sitting next to you playing on a rooftop deck. real cool and could see the chords/notes pretty easy. also did a idk "arrangement"? for piano of Nothing Else Matters to kinda test the waters. I think there's a lot of rock songs that would sound really good as a solo piano. just using fuller chords instead of the piano bar style. made a shitty iphone mic recording of one piano jam and NEM and trimmed them into instagram story length. got some pretty good response. couple of missed notes in both vids but wasn't tryin to do multiple tries and I just learned them this week. be gentle. Spoiler had to splice this one to 2. workin on a pretty damn good version of Under the Bridge that just needs transitions and a solo at the end but the chorus kinda went dark and personally think its dope. also wrote down a rough draft for Plush and Elizabeth Reed.
Sounds awesome man, I wish I knew how to play piano. Having a kid four weeks ago has really put a damper on my bass and guitar playing. It is exciting to think about getting my son into music in a few years. Thinking I want him to focus on drums. If he’s into it of course. Good drummers are always in demand.
Cool videos Lank. I never thought about trying Nothing Else Matters as a piano song before but it sounds pretty cool
I didn’t listen to all 9 minutes. Your tone is pretty killer though Love the Zakk Wylde finish on that Kramer
My personal approach to lead is slightly bluesier, though I do love humbuckers and palm muting and pinch harmonics
All the cliches...I learned from reading guitar magazines in the 1990s haha. Hendrix, Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, Stevie Ray Vaughan but of course Kirk Hammett, Dimebag Darrell, Randy Rhoads etc too. And the 90s school of anti-guitar heroes like Kurt Cobain and Billy Corgan. I guess I would want to have the melodicism of a Gilmour, the feeling of a SRV, the inventiveness of a Hendrix, and the "fit the song" based approach of a Cobain?
For those Floyd Rose haters, I haven’t played much guitar since my son was born almost 3 months ago. I took my guitar off the wall hanger last week and it was in perfect tune. My non-rose guitar was out of tune.
been throwing record on in Logic Pro whenever I do a high ass piano session. lets me listen with studio headphones and maybe somewhere in that 30-45min there'll be parts to chop out and put in a project for later. was tryin to cook up an eminence front cover and zoned out messing around in Fm. ended up with something that sounds a little EDMey but I pieced it into a song and gave a couple shots recording. few slip ups but fairly clean take. Spoiler probably going to throw in some guitar and see what kind of drum beat I can cook up.
Jared Dines put out his giant shred collab video (mixes huge players with youtubers playing solos over a 10 minute track). This year’s version had freaking Tosin Abasi, Kiko Loureiro, and Angel Vivaldi, but the dude from Polyphia stole the show with this one: Full vid if interested:
PRS has introduced their "Fender" series of guitars. I love PRS and I love Strats but something about this is garish to me
I just saw this post on FB and thought it was news. Guess they are introducing new colors or something
Lots of boutique builders and other companies have sold strat and tele copies for years. Why can't PRS? Note - there is no way I would buy that.
They definitely can. Just startles my eye. Subtle flex but I've been playing a PRS for 20 years and looking at their designs
For sure. Definitely a pivot for them. I've never followed PRS too closely, but I've always thought about them as double cutaway, set neck, humbucker equipped guitars. Have they done much with single coils in the past? They certainly could have stayed closer to the aesthetic of their previous designs if they wanted to, even if they did want to make a bolt on neck single coil guitar
Their big thing originally was coil tapping -- put humbuckers on the guitar, but have controls that allow you to play them as single coil or double coil. Either a push-pull tone knob and a three way switch, or a five way rotary switch. I loved the single coil sound in the store but actually ended up never using it live because it's too thin to cut through the mix. The neck humbucker has a beautiful clean tone though so that's what I use for rhythm when playing that guitar.