Music And Guitar Practice Plans — • 25b96f8
I’m doing a multiple pronged attack for creating music and getting my guitar skills back. I’m going to learn songs from the Van Halen1 album and King’s X2 self titled albums. Not sure how I’m going to deal with the strange King’s X tunings. Al least Van Halen should be E-flat. I’ll be doing general exercises as well. I have “The Guitar Grimoire” exercise books3. I have a couple of other books, but will try and get through these first.READ
Project Updates & Staying Focused — • 7116f6f
Redirections I’m gonna start some projects on my own while I’m on hiatus from work. This is in part to figure out what I really want to do as well as try an find some life focus. Its really missing in my head at this point. Seems like I feel like I’m mostly just being dragged around. So in an effort to figure out what’s really happening, I’m going to give a bit of a push and see what happens.READ
2023 Update — • d3a1640
So a bunch of updates for this year. I haven’t posted anything here for a very long time. I sold most of my guitars. I only kept the ones I actually play and have sentimental value. Been going through my camping equipment. Inventorying and fixing things. Gave a bunch of clothes away. Fixed my trailer, so I can start hauling away yard refuse. Ongoing upgrades to the Wrangler. Got rid of my Linode server.READ
Upgraded my Fender Strat with Fishman Fluence pickups — • c43575f
Just upgraded my Strat with Fishman Fluence single space pickups. I wanted a no-hum pickup that still sounds like single-coils. I really liked the Fishmans I installed in the CT6M and bought a Strat kit. Here’s the result: I also upgraded the tuners to Fender staggered locking tuners. I also replaced the bridged with a Wilkinson/Gotoh VS-100N Tremolo. Everything together has been amazing.
Got the mother of all amplifiers — • 63b7582
I got a new amplifier. I wasn’t expecting it this quickly but Dan at Sweetwater gave me a call and they managed to get it sooner than expected. I present to you the Soldano SLO-30… And yes, it sounds like all the good parts of every other amp people praise. I’ve heard the original SLO-100 in person and its exactly like a small version. Soldano amps are like all the good parts of legendary hi-gain American amps in one unit.READ
Upgraded the Carvin CT6M with Fishman Fluence Pickups — • c27a811
I upgraded my Carvin CT6M with some Fishman Fluence modern humbucker blacks. The original pickups where the Kiesel/Carvin Allan Holdsworth HH2 model. The new Fluences are the modern ceramic for the bridge and alnico for the neck. The bridge sound like a typical modern high-output humbucker. The alnico one sounds really interesting and very vocal. I enabled the second voicing using the push-pull tone knob. The volume push-pull controlls the coil-spit which enables the out-side cores on each pickup as single-coils.READ
New (kinda) Jeep Wrangler — • 63b7582
I bought another Jeep Wrangle. It’s been a while since I got it, but I haven’t put anything about it here. It’s a Gobi desert color Wrangler Rubicon. I used to have a 2-door forest green Wrangle. It was great, and I traded it in for the new Cherokee, almost immediately regretted it. The Cherokee had all the bells and whistles. I like the new one as soon as I sat in it.READ
Research in the Humanities vs the Sciences — • 62e45c1
The major difference between research done in the sciences and humanities is the kind of information being referenced and how an assertion’s veracity is measured. This is more obvious in the “hard” sciences associated with STEM degrees than in the “soft” disciplines. In the humanities, research is done to construct a consensus on the subject and assertion of the thesis. The veracity of a thesis is the degree and authority of references supporting it.READ