TBP

Clutch - Psychic Warfare. First day of release album I've bought in a very long time. For those familiar with Clutch, it's pretty straight forward rock, along the lines of Earth Rocker, with a bit of funkiness and the like in places. I tend to prefer the Blast Tyrant and Elephant Riders stuff more, but the album still rocks while Tim Sult's tone and playing are sublime.

I like my maple-topped Hamer but that's the only one I have, and I also tend to dislike the look of heavily flamed or quilted maple (or maybe it's because the guitars that have it are typically heavily ornamented). I did recently buy a PRS, however: a used, solid mahogany, fairly bling-free Mira. Oddly, I was thinking of getting a 335-style guitar, realized I love the sound of a solid slab of mahogany and came across the Mira. So, I don't think anything's wrong with you. For some more blasphemy: I've gone acoustic shopping twice, once with a fairly modest budget and once to find "the one." While listening to and reading reviews and tonal descriptions I was nearly convinced I'd want a rosewood/spruce guitar, especially while searching for "the one" as my modest budget choice was all sepale. The one I wound up choosing is mahogany/spruce and has very little ornamentation. (But for possibly the true blasphemy: I haven't had acoustic GAS since getting it).

I was considering Buffalo or Columbus (both a little under 3 hours away) but it looks like it'd be an fairly pricy evening, so I'm not planning on going. And here the only arena rock show I've been to was for Rush. But I'm glad they can still demand high prices at huge venues instead of getting by with Rocksino gigs.

Well, I thought I would buy something in 2014 but didn't. (Although I did buy a camera and tires). But I can sign up for this challenge, as I just ordered a used PRS Mira (the pre S2 version). I've not owned a PRS before, so this should be interesting. And the price was pretty good with an option to return it. Sounds like I'm justifying, doesn't it?

Sorry that it's come to that. I also posted over there on occasion and found some good information there. Until the last few weeks there seemed to be a strong community as well, but I've been kind of an irregular/outsider so I wasn't privy to all the personality dynamics (with which I was okay).

I may ask for a Line 6 Sonic Port. If it helps anyone, last year I asked for and received a Couch strap: https://www.couchguitarstraps.com/ . I got the Mustang trunk liner. And I'm seeing if I can find an excuse to buy a Little Bits synth kit for someone: http://littlebits.cc/kits/synth-kit . Other than that, I don't know, but I just bought myself a set of tires.

Opening this thread may have severely damaged my preference for buying used. I already took an amp I bought off eBay, cleaned it while outside, in winter, then put it in a plastic bag and kept it outside for a few days. I never saw signs of a bug problem, but the overall condition of that amp made me suspicious. (And I haven't bought an eBay amp since). But no, I've not had this happen.

Glad I opened this thread for that story. Feel the same way about my first turntable. Although with me it was also the first time I heard Charlie Parker, Led Zeppelin, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, BB King, Miles Davis, ZZ Top and Rush. Mine died some time ago, though (it wasn't as good). I keep thinking I should get another, as I still have a lot of vinyl just waiting to be listened to.

Cool article, but the Geddy Lee quote, "“In the past, I wrote bass patterns that were connected to the vocals in a way that allowed me to do it live without killing myself or tying my brain into a pretzel," makes me think he must be especially brilliant if he believes those bass lines are easy on the thought process. Well, unless "in the past" only applied to their time period I never really listen to and may be different. Edit - But I'd probably replace Simmons with Suzi Quattro just for the fact that I think she's better at wearing leather pants.

Yeah, I guess I didn't help with my response. But I once spent a summer in a pit orchestra with a clarinet, bass clarinet, alto sax, tenor sax and flute, so the appeal of having a multitude of instruments at a single gig may have gotten lost on me, even just switching between them all during the performance. It felt like there were more at the time, but that may be because I went through a lot of reeds. But that was also an extremely fun summer. I had a steady three month gig and stage actors throw great parties.

These days I'm thinking I could keep my Hamer Artist Studio, my Strat, one acoustic and the 5F1 champ-based amp and sell everything else. Then I look at other stuff and think, hmmm, one more... But for a perfect gig set up I'd probably go with the Hamer Artist and Strat (or maybe one of those PRSs with a coil tap, like the DGT, McCarty or Mira, but I've never owned a PRS) and either a Princeton Reverb or Vox AC30.

I paid a bit under $2,500 for my most expensive guitar, which is an acoustic Collings OM1. I bought it used, but it still took a lot of internal justification to part with that much for a guitar, but I wanted to reward myself for getting through some things with that one, special "lifetime" acoustic. My other guitars have been between $400 (Strat) and $1,200 (G&L). The Hamer's in the middle.

Very sorry to hear this. Hope everyone is able to find jobs they love very soon.

Thread resurrection! I remember those kinds of ads when I was pretty active playing or recording/mastering (used to work in a mastering studio). After a while I noticed a pattern in that the ads with the most "don't bother unless..." and gear requirement attitudes were put up by people significantly lacking in skill. But I have to admit I developed my own stereotype based mostly from jazz saxophone gigging: musicians who tended to carry all of their gear on one trip almost always turned out to be amazing, and most of them had fairly modest gear. On the other hand, those who had to keep going out to bring in more stuff were often--but not always--less than inspiring when they played. For a while my expectations for someone I hadn't yet heard play went down a little with each addition to his/her setup.

Wow. It kind of makes me want to get in on the 2014 challenge. But then I go and click on the for sale board...