Banana does not wish to be modified
(For those who don't know, Banana is my 2010 Squier Bullet Strat. I call her Banana because she's banana-colored.)
I am a believer in the cosmic forces that keep this wacky world of ours put together, and yes this does extend to guitars.
I know a guitar is an inanimate object. I know it does not have feelings or desires. I understand all that. However there are certain times when a guitar will 'say' to you, "don't modify me". So you don't, otherwise the guitar will somehow ruin itself.
I just said recently that I bought a prewired HSS pick guard and an additional replacement humbucker for Banana.
Then I get this email (the parts with X's are things I commented out for security reasons):
Subject: Backorder Notice from GF Sales ********
*******,
Thank you for your order *****.
We are emailing you to inform you that the item you ordered "Alnico Fat Pat Boutique Humbucker Chrome Bridge Position - H14" is currently out of stock. Your order must have gotten through before the system took them down.
We can help you out in a few ways.
- You can exchange to a different item if you would like.
- We can place you on a backorder list, we will ship any other items on your order and ship the backordered item when it comes back into stock.
- We can also cancel the backordered item, or your order, and refund you.
Please advise on how you would like to proceed. We apologize for any inconvenience, and we appreciate your assistance.
-GFS Support Staff
First I'm going to say it was very cool the way GFS handled this. Instead of just blindly shipping out half the order and leaving me hanging out to dry wondering where the other half is while it was on backorder, they stopped the order, emailed me and waited for my reply before doing anything.
That's awesome customer service. Truly. Vendors ordinarily never do anything that would "break the sales chain" so to speak, but GFS actually cares about the customer and puts him first, so good on them.
My reply was simply this:
If none of the order has shipped yet, cancel the whole thing and please refund, thank you.
I didn't know at the time I sent the reply whether they'd gone ahead and shipped half the order out. I went on the assumption they did, so I mentioned that if none of it shipped, then cancel the whole thing, and if not, they would have emailed me back and said "HSS pick guard already shipped out but we can refund you the backordered part if you want", and go from there. Fortunately they did put a stop on the order and waited for my reply before doing anything, which again is great customer service.
Today I received the email that I was refunded in full. After a few days I should get my money back (it takes a day or so before the processing completes on a refund).
Anyway..
The message sent to me here by the cosmic forces that be is, "Don't modify Banana. Don't do it." So I'm not.
In my experience, whenever you buy hardware specifically to modify a guitar and have a really hard time getting the stuff you want, cosmic forces are telling you not to do it, and that you should listen. The last time I didn't listen, I ended up with the Surf Strat and hated the pickups in it. When you don't listen, that's what happens.
The same thing happens in reverse, by the way. If you walk into a guitar store one day, pick up a guitar that for some strange reason "called out" to you, play it and it's the best freakin' thing you've ever played, you should buy it. Right there, right then. If you can't afford it, put it on layaway. Do whatever you have to do. Just get the thing. If you say to yourself, "Well, I can't afford it now but another one will come along and I'll get it then when I have the money", that's a mistake. The next one won't play or sound the same.
Many guitar players buy guitars this way, and the story is always the same. "I went in to buy strings but I saw [insert guitar here], played it and just had to have it because it played so awesome."
The 'magic' of any guitar can be wrecked by modifying it. Some guitars are made to be modded and this is true. But others for whatever weird wacky reason just absolutely do not want to be modified. Whenever you go to buy stuff to mod the guitar, you'll always have a difficult time. Something happens that prevents you from going to the music shop that day. On an online order, something like what I described above happens. On the way to the music store you get a flat tire. Any number of things can happen. Again, that's the cosmic forces telling you not to mod the guitar.
Banana spoke, and said she wants to stay as is, so she will.
star trek
Oddly enough, I've never written a post exclusively about Star Trek, so I figured it's about time I did.
I have a confession to make. I liked ST:TNG a lot, but I hated ST:TOS for the longest time because I thought it was just stupid - and that's the one I'm going to talk about.
I decided to start watching this because it's a 1960s television show that doesn't outright suck.
The only things I really knew about the original 'Trek before watching it were the technical TV aspects of it. I do hold a college degree in TV & Radio Production and know quite a bit about television history. The entire reason everyone wears brightly colored uniforms on 'Trek was specifically to promote color television. It's the same reason sportscasters of the era wore very loud yellow jackets and had microphone socks that were oversized and in red, yellow, blue or green.
The television industry wanted people to buy color TVs to see the colors, and did everything they could to promote it, right down to what people wore. And it worked. Star Trek was no exception.
I've almost made it through season 1 of 'Trek, and I've learned on Netflix what you see is the remastered series. Any time you see an image of space, ship or planets, that's all CGI - but I have to admit it's very tastefully done.
This is one of those ultra-rare instances where I actually prefer the remastered over the original. The ship models used and the space scenes created back in the 60s for 'Trek were awful and this is a well known fact. The technology was primitive and the budget simply not there, so they had to make do with what they had. That being said, I have no problem at all watching the remastered version.
Only in very tiny instances did they throw CGI into the live action scenes, but I can tell whoever did the remastering was really careful about it. It's obvious that great care was taken not to tick off the fan base by "pulling a Lucas", so to speak.
I watch 'Trek for what it is - a 1960s sci-fi show. Since budget was at a minimum for effects, concentration was placed on making good stories. And for the most part they are.
The thing that strikes me most about 'Trek is the obvious 60s influence, because that's when the show was made. 1966 thru 1969 to be exact. That's before my time and it was a very different world back then. As cliché as this sounds, men were men, women were women, each knew their roles and everyone was okay with that. You also see several instances of the show taking potshots at hippie culture of the time and showing a resounding disapproval of it. Whether that was Gene Roddenberry's (the show's creator) idea or not I don't know.
Star Trek is just a quirky 1960s television show. Visionary to some, groundbreaking to others, but to me it's just good television. I feel for some reason that I owe it to myself to watch it through, so I'll do it. Yeah, there are some scenes that are just beyond stupid (like Kirk vs. Gorn), but with sci-fi sometimes you get that. It's okay, I can deal with it. :)
brain candy
Brain Candy is a movie from 1996 that came about as the result of The Kids In The Hall television show. This is one of those movies that has cult status to it and nothing more, because in all honesty, it's terrible.
The first reaction to this movie is usually, "KITH made a movie?" Yep. It's that forgettable.
There are many problems with this movie. It was scripted like a TV show, you can tell it was rushed, there are things in it that just shouldn't be there, and the list goes on and on. And as is the case with most TV-to-movie films, television actors usually don't translate well to the silver screen. This is not to say they can't act because they can - but there is a huge difference between TV acting and movie acting, and what works on the small screen usually doesn't on the big screen.
When watching this you're waiting for the funny to happen, and it just doesn't. Well, almost doesn't. Just about all of Scott Thompson's scenes are funny at least for a moment. But those happen really early in the movie and the rest of it just drags along until the dumb ending.
A lot of times this movie tries way too hard to be funny and you can totally see right through it. And then the movie just does weird things that make no sense. Like in the beginning, you think the entire movie is going to be narrated by the cab driver, but that doesn't happen. He's there, then not there for a really long time, then there, then he's at the end again. There's many areas where things are just really disconnected, because like I said, it's scripted like a TV show with a weak movie plot thrown in.
Some people swear this movie is very funny. I don't think so. It has awkward humor that doesn't work, plot holes everywhere, almost zero pacing and it's a chore to get through it.
Give this one a pass. You won't be missing anything.
Guitars and synths don't mix, but I do both
I posted a video an hour or so ago on the used BOSS DR-3 I just received. The first rating on the video was a thumbs-down, so I disabled ratings because there will be a bunch of negative ones, and I know exactly why - because my guitar fans will go "Eww!" and the synth fans who are into Roland drum machines will also go "Eww!" all at once.
I was a synth player way before I was a guitar player. It started with cheesy Casio keyboards as a kid, then up to a Roland Juno-60 (the heaviest synth I ever owned), then to an Ensoniq SQ-1 Plus, then a very brief stint with a Korg N364 (which I hated and got rid of quickly), then the purchase of another Ensoniq SQ-1 Plus which I still own, and then an Alesis Fusion 6HD - also which I still own.
I am an Ensoniq guy primarily, and I was never one of those dance/house/trance guys. I'll put it another way in a term synth guys would understand. You have no idea how bad I wanted a Yamaha DX7 because I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I never got one because after a while I realized how inferior it was compared to the Ensoniq. But there's still a little part of me that even now still wants a DX7. Even the name of it just sounds cool.
There are synth guys out there to this day that wish I would go back to producing synth music and making synth videos, because I can tear it up on the keys quite well. However I find the electric guitar simply a cooler instrument to play. It's much more physical, much more "earthy" as your hands are on steel and wood instead of nothing but plastic, and I genuinely get more enjoyment out of it.
On my YouTube channel, almost every single video you see - or should I say hear - that has backing music, that was composed on my Ensoniq. Just bass and drums in all their FM synthesis glory and nothing more.
The reason I haven't been using the Ensoniq lately is just from the fact it's suffering from the ravages of old age. The sensors on the keys are simply wearing out, and missed noted happen a lot. And I'm pretty sure the circuitry is two steps away from total failure because the indicator lights are doing weird things, and the synth is crashing a lot. Synths just don't work too well after 20 years I guess (it was made in 1990 originally). Yeah, I could take it to a guy for it to be repaired - but guess what - try finding the electronics schematic for an SQ-1 Plus.
I basically only needed a synth with an on-board sequencer that could do drums and bass. Well, that's the DR-3. I hate software-based sequencing/composition and absolutely won't go anywhere near it. Way too much hassle.
The DR-3 basically operates just like an old-school synth workstation, and that's exactly how I like it. If you know older style pattern sequencing at all, the DR-3 is a breeze to use because it is a synth workstation in the form of a drum machine. Very cool little device, I must say.
Sometime in the future I plan on purchasing another synth, but it's going to be funny how I'm going to go about it.
All the expensive workstation synths are basically nothing but overkill and designed to connect to computers. I don't want that. All I want is something with a simple on-board pattern-based sequencer where I can string sequences into songs - just like on my old Ensoniq.
Synth guys will laugh their asses off at this one, but the Casio CTK-7000 works. To "serious synth guys", this thing is a joke, because no "true" synth would ever have on-board speakers, but it gets the job done.
It has an pattern-based sequencer capable of 16 tracks in song mode (8 in pattern mode). Oh yes it does. And you can use it just like the old-school workstations where you can do everything manually without any auto-accompaniment.
You'll be amazed how cheap it is. It's a basic workstation cleverly disguised as a portable piano, and I could do some seriously amazing things with it.
The unfortunate part is that is has full-weighted keys, and I can't stand those - BUT - I'd deal with it just to get what the CTK-7000 has to offer. And if I hated the key feel, I'd just hook up a MIDI controller.
Get this - it has the ability to record songs digitally to an SD/SDHC memory card. HOW COOL IS THAT on a synth priced this low? Seriously, it's frickin' awesome.
And get THIS - there's an arpeggiator in it too! This Casio is LOADED with synth goodness!
Guitarists hate synths - and that's okay
Guitar players are not synth guys - yet I am, and I know I'm a rare breed. I know my DR-3 video won't get anything for views because it's not the normal type of guitar video I post. And I'm not even going to post a link to this post on my Facebook page either because I know all the guitar guys there will hate it. The attitude will be "STOP TALKING ABOUT THOSE GEEKY SYNTHS, MENGA.. PLAY YER FRICKIN' GUITAR!", so I'm not even going to bother.
Many guitarists out there are secretly synth guys also. They have to keep it secret because otherwise two worlds collide - electronics + programming vs. wood + steel. Both guitar guys and synth guys are of the attitude "PICK ONE OR THE OTHER!" No, and screw you. I do both. Deal with it.
Songwriting: Drum Machines (or Screw the Computer)
By next week (or late this week if it arrives early), I'll be in possession of a used (at a really good price I might add) BOSS Dr. Rhythm DR-3. That's a drum machine. I bought it for two reasons. First, my old Ensoniq SQ-1 Plus workstation synthesizer, which is over 20 years old, is wearing out. Second, I can't stand composing anything on the computer.
There is a distinct difference between recording and composing.
Concerning recording, my first mulitrack machine was the 100% mechanical cassette-based Tascam 424 (as in the original first-generation 4-track which was light-gray colored and not the "MK" series which had a darker gray and had more tracks). Yep, we're talking linear recording here. I learned everything I needed to know about basic multitracking from my 424 days, and used it so much I wore it out and had to buy another one. When multitracking for the PC became available, yes I switched to that because it made complete sense and it was easier. As a recording device, the PC or Mac is top dog. No question about it.
When it comes to composing however, that's a different story.
Music arranging and sequencer software is not songwriter-friendly and never has been. From a DJ or producer point of view, sure, software is the only way to go. But I'm not looking to emulate a full studio environment here. All I want is a stupidly easy way to create drum tracks, and the DR-3 is it.
The DR-3 is built for one thing - drum patterns. That's it. That's all it does. It doesn't do anything else and it never will. It is a device made for a very specific purpose and is designed out of the box to be easy. As a songwriting tool, easy devices like the DR-3 allow me to write songs much faster.
I'm fully aware that producers see drum machines such as the DR-3 as "toys". But I see it as the fastest way to create drum tracks when I'm writing songs.
I'm not saying that the way producers compose is wrong and that my way is right or vice versa. I'm saying that the way I compose is more songwriter-like than producer-like, and I will use tools better suited for songwriting.
On a final note, non-musician/non-producer people (as in your average music listeners) do not care where the drums came from in a song as long as they're in time and sound good. The DR-3 can be made to sound amazing; I know this and I look forward to receiving it so I can kick my songwriting into high gear.