Sucked In

You know, whenever I get an "idea", it usually leads me to trouble.  Please note that "idea" is in quotes because it's one of those, the kind that, well, lead to trouble.  I'm pretty much famous for it.

Take this for instance.  I've been wanting a Lowden acoustic guitar forever.  I remember when I first started taking note of them, probably around 25 years or so ago.  I distinctly recall a friend of mine and myself watching Kristin Hersh play acoustically at Nita's Hideaway one night.  I think she had 2 guitars with her, one that was sitting next to her for quite some time before she picked it up.  I recall the first time she played it we both looked at one another and went "oh my gosh...".  The sound was just beyond belief.  Then, she switched back to the other acoustic, and then when she returned back to the great sounding one, again, we looked at one another and agreed that there was simply no comparison.  That was one of the first times that I realized the potential of a Lowden acoustic.

I actually heard the late and beyond great Michael Hedges play a Lowden during the one and only time I got to see him play live as well.  I think I actually even had a Lowden brochure way back in the 90's when I was trying to figure out what my first quality acoustic should be.  I ended up choosing Breedlove instead, of which I still swear by, by the way, although the switch in the company around 2012 has greatly changed their product line.  If you're going to buy a Breedlove, buy a Masterclass model used, pre 2013, in my opinion at least.  You'll never regret it.

So, why the heck do I need a Lowden?  Well, I don't.  Let's be perfectly clear about that.  But, anyway, back to my "idea".  Like I said, I've been wanting a Lowden forever and I frequently browse both guitar sites and sometimes Craigslist for good deals, amazing instruments, and what not.  About a month ago, I saw an ad on Craigslist by a guy in LA selling a lower level Lowden acoustic that was basically brand new.  Enter the "idea".

I emailed him, talked to him on the phone, texted back and forth, and so on.  I was pretty sold on it...and then I talked myself out of it.  I mean, the timing is terrible (as always), but, well, it was a decent deal (that's the 'gotcha').  So, then, I investigated what a new one of this model would be, with the thought that, if it isn't that different in price, well, nothing lost and I'll just order one new later.  Well, that backfired for the price on a new one was significantly higher.  Shoot.  This lead me back to considering the instrument after all.

And then, the "idea" really became the idea.  I started thinking...you know, shouldn't I get something a bit different rather than just a standard acoustic?  That's when I started investigating YouTube videos and so on, and just when I thought I had completely talked myself out of doing anything, I saw it - a video by a guy playing a Lowden Baritone Fan Fret.  Oh god.  Now, the one he was playing was worth a small fortune, like literally a small fortune (we're talking car pricing).  However, there was a pricey but shall we say more "affordable" model available on Reverb.com at a dealer in the UK.  And, it was brand new...and on sale.

This is how "ideas" go astray for me.  And so, I went from not wanting to buy the guitar from the guy in LA because the timing was bad to paying almost double for a brand new Baritone Fan Fret.  Ugh.  How I talk myself into these things, well, I'll never know.

In truth, though, I thought maybe, just maybe, I could finally do that more or less solo acoustic album that I've always dreamt of doing.  Am I a good enough guitarist to do that at this point?  Possibly.  Probably not but maybe I could fake it (that's how I think usually).

And so, the Baritone Fan Fret arrived today at last.  For anyone ever buying something like this from the UK, I can attest that the import duties/taxes are indeed right around 3.7% of the purchase price.  This is a fee that the US basically charges you for importing the instrument from overseas, and my understanding is that it can vary by country.  In my case, DHL sent me an email saying the delivery was on hold until I paid the import fees online.  The guitar was then delivered the next day.

First impressions?  It's pretty interesting, actually.  It's weird to think that just down tuning a guitar by 5 half steps can make it sound so completely different.  It is quite a stunning instrument, though, and I can see how you can really accentuate the bass notes when playing it.  Will I be doing that solo acoustic album?  Maybe.  One never can tell.  I'm also ashamed to say that I thought for a brief moment about calling the guy in LA and buying that one as well.  I really do have a problem (sigh).

Who's That Playing?!

Well, it finally happened...  I can honestly say that, if I had reached this point in guitar playing at, say, 20 years old, I'd probably eventually become an amazing guitarist.  Hmph.  Yeah, little too late but what can you do.  I am pretty pleased with my progress over the past 2 years, most of which is partly due to my working on the "I Miss You Most..." album.

Speaking of which, I believe that I just put the finishing touches on my changes for "Some Kind of a Man", which provided I still feel this way in a couple of days, it means I can finally get it mastered and then have the CD's printed.  It's taken an incredibly long time and I feel quite bad about that.  I have been feeling fairly lousy, though, for the past 2-3 months and so trying to get any motivation at all has been few and far between, especially on something that I thought I had officially closed the book on back in October.

On the plus side, I pulled out my Breedlove Celtic this afternoon which has an alternate tuning on it and I think I may have come up with a part for the new Jazz Machine album.  I want something pretty different and rather triumphant for the opening track, one of the few slots that I didn't previously have any jams or ideas for, and I may have stumbled upon something rather interesting.  I guess we'll have to see how I feel about it after I listen to my demo a few times.  I also went through my other more recent demos on my handheld recorder and was quite impressed.  I think it was also the very first time I've ever heard myself playing completely off the cuff and I didn't even recognize that it was me that was playing.  Yes, progress.

That's all the news for now.  Provided things go well, there's a possibility that the CD's could be printed by the end of the month.  One can only hope...

It's Already March?!

Things have been pretty quiet for me since the new year began due to various home duties and other items.  In truth, I've barely even picked up a guitar or turned on my Pro Tools rack.  Perhaps I needed more of a break?  A little bit, I guess.  First, there was the tennis tournament which basically took up an entire weekend, then there were home items to check off, a birthday, and lo and behold...now it's March.  I've also not been feeling well again with my recurring mystery 'illness' and so finding any motivation is rather difficult.  The gears in my head have been turning, though, and many mental notes have been made, which isn't completely bad in itself.

Strangely, my mind drifted this morning to the Screaming Blue Messiahs, a band that I liked quite a bit back in the mid to late 80's.  I remembered that the very first recording that I ever made in my life was an attempt at covering "Wall of Shame" off of their "Totally Religious" album, the last that they ever made.  I had recently acquired my very first recorder which was a 4 track Tascam cassette multitracker, the very bottom of the barrel, probably right around $300 at the time.  I believe my parents had purchased it for me as a graduation present from high school.  My parents were not particularly supportive of me in musical endeavors (more often than not, they'd yell at me about it) but every once in awhile they'd float the other way and buy a piece of gear that I couldn't otherwise possibly afford.  Of course, I didn't really know how to use this thing and I was pretty much on my own to figure it out.

These multitrackers were beyond awful.  They basically allowed you to record 4 separate tracks, overdubbed if you will, and it divided a standard cassette tape into 4 quadrants accordingly playing in only one direction (if you flipped it over and played it, it would play in reverse, just like running a turntable backwards).  I remember laying down a very bad guitar part miked through most likely a Peavey practice amp at the time, and then a terrible sounding vocal using a beyond awful $50 Peavey vocal mic which I actually still have in my possession, as a sort of bad memento.  I remember listening to it back that first time and feeling beyond disheartened, and thus began my endless search, still going to this day, of 'how do you make this sound good/better'?  It was in that instant that I learned a) you can't use bad mic's, bad recorders, etc. and b) you can't record and playback music dry without effects.  Strangely, bad guitar playing wasn't that high on my agenda for fixing ;)  It all added up to one thing in my mind:  money, of which I had none, and hence a lifelong pursuit started down an endless journey.

It's strange that I haven't thought of or remembered that this was my very first recording in probably over 30 years.  Odd.  I may even have the recording somewhere in my old cassette files, although I'd have no way of playing it now since I no longer have that multitracking unit (on a standard cassette deck, it'll only play half the track).  Of course, why I'd actually want to hear this is beyond me.  By all rights, if it does still exist somewhere, it should be burned.

That's all for now.  I'll hopefully have some actual news in the near future since I'm way overdue for it.