Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
I've not posted in a while...
I realize it's been a few days since I've said anthing on this blog...I still know how to play guitar. That's about it right now. I'm focused on other things right now so I really don't have anything interesting to say. Hopefully I will tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Polish
I bought a new polish for my guitar and it's really shiny and I can't stop looking at myself in the finish because I haven't seen my guitar look like this in forever and it has me really freaking excited because it looks so awesome and OMGorgeous, and such...
The polish it called Guitar One and is made by MusicNomad. It's really easy to use (wax on, wax off), smells kinda nice, and makes my guitar look nice enough to start my blog with a run-on sentence. I put it on my Yamaha acoustic and my Switch Strav and they both turned out looking great. Good thing, too, because my guitars were starting to look a little off. Finger prints, smudges, unattractive stuff that would scare off a woman rather then attract her (which just plain defeats the purpose of a guitar) were all becoming a factor in my guitar's ability to rock like it should. When it's all said and done, I'm really glad I got this spray.
In other news, I'm finally back on my acoustic. I'm ready to push myself a little more and see how far I can get before August. I have over a month until I leave for Minessotta and I won't be able to even TOUCH a guitar, so I have to work up what I can now for the next semester. Why the time crunch? Well, you see...
I kinda got myself in trouble. I'm the choir director for the Sunday night Mass Choir for the Texas State Catholic Student Center. It seems I've scared away all of our guitar players, and I didn't want to play at the Masses myself because I'm so new to it, but I've decided that I am going to play the guitar anyways. I'm just going to play at the first two Masses of the year and we'll find a new guitarist to take over the role after that (hopefully) and I can resume my role as the pianist.
Wish me luck...
The polish it called Guitar One and is made by MusicNomad. It's really easy to use (wax on, wax off), smells kinda nice, and makes my guitar look nice enough to start my blog with a run-on sentence. I put it on my Yamaha acoustic and my Switch Strav and they both turned out looking great. Good thing, too, because my guitars were starting to look a little off. Finger prints, smudges, unattractive stuff that would scare off a woman rather then attract her (which just plain defeats the purpose of a guitar) were all becoming a factor in my guitar's ability to rock like it should. When it's all said and done, I'm really glad I got this spray.
In other news, I'm finally back on my acoustic. I'm ready to push myself a little more and see how far I can get before August. I have over a month until I leave for Minessotta and I won't be able to even TOUCH a guitar, so I have to work up what I can now for the next semester. Why the time crunch? Well, you see...
I kinda got myself in trouble. I'm the choir director for the Sunday night Mass Choir for the Texas State Catholic Student Center. It seems I've scared away all of our guitar players, and I didn't want to play at the Masses myself because I'm so new to it, but I've decided that I am going to play the guitar anyways. I'm just going to play at the first two Masses of the year and we'll find a new guitarist to take over the role after that (hopefully) and I can resume my role as the pianist.
Wish me luck...
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Nighthawk...it's awesome
This is going to be one of the higher quality posts I've done for this blog because this is gonna be one of the few posts I do on my computer. All but one of my previous posts have been done on my phone, so hopefully you'll see a difference.
Okay, so first thing I want to talk about is my fingers. They hurt. A lot. I've been playing a lot of guitar this week. So much guitar, in fact, that I've almost completely worn through my brand new strings in less then a week! I'm proud and feel like an idiot at the same time. Going through strings this fast isn't a new problem, but I may have a new solution.
At SXSW I saw a band called Greek Fire and their Bass player (who was amazing) put a string lubricant on his strings before the concert. I've never seen that before, and neither had my friend. I think we even asked him about it while he was setting up, which was easy because we were right by the stage. Either way, it was new. I hadn't thought about it since, but a few days ago, when I bought my Nighthawk, the guy behind the counter had cleaned up the guitar really good using a variety of interesting polishes. One such cleanser was the Fast Fret String Lubricant. So the guy behind the counter who helped me out, Jim, was nice enough to fill me in on a little secret. Slab on some Fast Fret before and after you play, and string life is double, apparently. I'm wanting to give this a shot so when I go in to buy new strings, most likely next week, I'll pick up some of that foreign substance as well.
It's clear to me now that Rosewood is gonna be a lot more annoying to take care of then I had originally anticipated. My acoustic, Juli, has an Ebony fretboard and that stays for a long time. But I'm gonna have to keep the Rosewood moisterized constantly. I'm seeing it's already needing a fretboard polish. With new strings and decent polishes, my guitar will stay pretty for a while. This is very unlike my previous guitar, Ol' Blue. Ol' Blue was all resin (or plastic, as some called it) meaning there wasn't much need to buy a polish or anything, even for the fretboard. My fretboard on my Switch is made of a type of resin/plastic called ebonite that's made to resemble the sound and effects of an ebony neck. All I needed to do was wipe that sucker down and *Bam* it's good as new.
There's really only one issue I'm having with the guitar. I don't have a hardcase. This is gonna be the heavy hitter of all my guitars for a while so getting a good case is a must. I don't want anything happening to this guitar. It's...my child (creepy, right?). Honestly, there's not a single other thing I want. I wanted certain pedals, and I got them. I wanted certain guitars (acoustic and electric) and I got it. Maybe a better amp eventually, but honestly I really don't care that much right now. I'm really cool with everything I have right now. All that's left is to not suck so much, and I've actually come a long way in that department. I am in a lesser level of suck then I used to be which is great, especially for my parents!
I'm not really working on anything new, I'm just working up the old stuff up to speed to finally be able to play something at a decent level. Kinda regretting not taking my acoustic home, but right now I'm trying to work things so I have space for it all. It's kinda ridiculous how little space there is in my room right now and I haven't even finished bringing everything home so this is gonna be an interesting summer. In a nutshell, I have fun new gear, lots of time on my hands, no money, no wants, no problems. Peace!
Okay, so first thing I want to talk about is my fingers. They hurt. A lot. I've been playing a lot of guitar this week. So much guitar, in fact, that I've almost completely worn through my brand new strings in less then a week! I'm proud and feel like an idiot at the same time. Going through strings this fast isn't a new problem, but I may have a new solution.
At SXSW I saw a band called Greek Fire and their Bass player (who was amazing) put a string lubricant on his strings before the concert. I've never seen that before, and neither had my friend. I think we even asked him about it while he was setting up, which was easy because we were right by the stage. Either way, it was new. I hadn't thought about it since, but a few days ago, when I bought my Nighthawk, the guy behind the counter had cleaned up the guitar really good using a variety of interesting polishes. One such cleanser was the Fast Fret String Lubricant. So the guy behind the counter who helped me out, Jim, was nice enough to fill me in on a little secret. Slab on some Fast Fret before and after you play, and string life is double, apparently. I'm wanting to give this a shot so when I go in to buy new strings, most likely next week, I'll pick up some of that foreign substance as well.
It's clear to me now that Rosewood is gonna be a lot more annoying to take care of then I had originally anticipated. My acoustic, Juli, has an Ebony fretboard and that stays for a long time. But I'm gonna have to keep the Rosewood moisterized constantly. I'm seeing it's already needing a fretboard polish. With new strings and decent polishes, my guitar will stay pretty for a while. This is very unlike my previous guitar, Ol' Blue. Ol' Blue was all resin (or plastic, as some called it) meaning there wasn't much need to buy a polish or anything, even for the fretboard. My fretboard on my Switch is made of a type of resin/plastic called ebonite that's made to resemble the sound and effects of an ebony neck. All I needed to do was wipe that sucker down and *Bam* it's good as new.
There's really only one issue I'm having with the guitar. I don't have a hardcase. This is gonna be the heavy hitter of all my guitars for a while so getting a good case is a must. I don't want anything happening to this guitar. It's...my child (creepy, right?). Honestly, there's not a single other thing I want. I wanted certain pedals, and I got them. I wanted certain guitars (acoustic and electric) and I got it. Maybe a better amp eventually, but honestly I really don't care that much right now. I'm really cool with everything I have right now. All that's left is to not suck so much, and I've actually come a long way in that department. I am in a lesser level of suck then I used to be which is great, especially for my parents!
I'm not really working on anything new, I'm just working up the old stuff up to speed to finally be able to play something at a decent level. Kinda regretting not taking my acoustic home, but right now I'm trying to work things so I have space for it all. It's kinda ridiculous how little space there is in my room right now and I haven't even finished bringing everything home so this is gonna be an interesting summer. In a nutshell, I have fun new gear, lots of time on my hands, no money, no wants, no problems. Peace!
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