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p90jr

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About p90jr

  • Birthday 11/18/1976

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    South Louisiana

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  1. I started a thread about this list a few months ago... and yeah, it has little to do with anything other than generational hipness positioning by Rolling Stone, Inc. It reminds me of another thing that happened with "music journalism." First, The Village Voice fired Robert Christgau as its chief music writer because he refused to write "listicles," articles in the form of short and easy-to-breeze-through lists, which "research has determined increases web traffic and sharing and 'interaction (arguments)' on social media"... then right after that the "record of the year" on their annual Pazz and Jop Critic's Poll was a record by a band called tUnE-yArDs, and someone bemoaning the end of their relevance and music criticism in general said "in 2 years people will ask 'tUnE-wHo?' Not taking into account the possible merits and quality of that record... it is not a record that has captured the broader listening public's ears and imagination, just the insular world of music writers and bloggers... and it has no relevance to this year in history. So while we all love the Velvet Underground's records, and Big Star and Nick Drake and The Modern Lovers' first record and Television, they were not broad successes... they excited a small group of people who were musicians and writers and over time their reverence and popularity and influence blossomed and grew organically. The problem is in thinking you can determine that and force it, and claim credit for it... and you can't. Mark my words: 'tUnE-wHo?'" I know it annoys younger people that younger guitarists who aren't massively popular don't end up on these lists, but music is not as popular as it was from the early 60s to the earl;y 00s in general, and the guitar is not as popular in music as it was during that time frame... so... Best just to not have lists that rank people like it's a competition, because the only metrics we actually have - record sales and concert ticket sales figures and guitar magazine newsstand sales - will always put the same people on top. If you let the public vote it will reflect those same things... as a kid reading Guitar Player before I even played guitar, I remember Bill Wyman always winning the bassist category in the reader's poll, and letters to the magazine and people I knew complaining that Geddy Lee or Chris Squire or somebody was better... but I realized more readers of the magazine just probably were Stones fans... a public poll is always just a popularity contest.
  2. I am "budget-minded" too, and it's funny that a lot of people look at my set ups at gigs and say "whoa... someone is a cork-sniffer gearhead!" Even the prestige stuff goes on sale at some point... and this world is full of people who have to have every new thing that comes out, then sell it in a month or two because they've already ordered the next new thing... I buy that stuff at a discount from those people. And it is currently a buyer's market for music gear. If I just look at something on Reverb, not even add it to a watch list but just open the listing and view it, I start getting discounted offers from that store and other stores on that item.
  3. A guy I play with a bit at the moment... he has a couple of Teles with maple necks... he sprays the strings with WD40 before he plays... the first time I saw him do that I must've had a horrific look on my face because he laughed and said "works for me... what do you use?" and I showed him I was wiping my strings with Ernie Ball string wipes to clean and lubricate them right before we play. But also in about a year and a ha;f of playing gigs with him he asked how often I've changed strings... and the answer is "0," except for breaking a couple of high E strings and a B on the B-bender Tele. "I go through strings like crazy!!!" I don't know if spraying industrial lubricant on them might be a reason...
  4. This is also an old bass player thing for the picking hand, too... I used to steal a bit of the horn players' valve grease and dab it by my bridge so I could get some on my fingers when needed during long gigs with a jazz band, but an older bassist saw me once and said "you just use the oil from the skin on your nose, my man..."
  5. I'm glad you have good moral character and never decided on a hobby of crime!
  6. those snobby facebook groups and their gatekeeping... I understand they have to try to keep the groups free of spambots who will overrun it and post porn links or whatever, but on the other hand, they could come up with a way to vet actual humans that isn't so pretentious... but you can google for the answers, really. I have an Electromatic Pro Jet that I put the GFS copies of DeArmond pickups into... it sounds cool, but it's heavier than some of my combo amps... it is the one guitar that is too heavy for me to play onstage because it pinches something in my neck and makes my neck and lower back hurt. So it sits in the corner of my practice building. I've thought about taking the electronics out and planting termites in it for some weight relief.
  7. I grab a sheet of paper and make a list... my wife makes fun of me for doing it... but I still will manage to leave something right by the door sometimes....
  8. I'm the same... when I had a gigging/touring van for my band, it had everything I could think of to keep a gig/run of shows from being derailed on the road wedged into spots in the back: mics and mic cables and stands on collars (indie/punk venues... you'd be surprised), used but usable snare and kick drum heads, spare kick drum pedal, hi hat clutch (a VERY big one) extra drum sticks, bass strings, a soldering kit, a 6 pack of GC house brand guitar cables, a big pack of 9v batteries, old spare tubes and a spare amp head for guitar/bass (the Crate Power Block ended up being a blessing for this when it came out)... the bad thing is that my band members starting thinking they could not bother with having stuff because they depended on me having it, but they also would not return it after they used it, necessarily... but being the guy who got paid and dispersed the money I just started factoring in replacing all of that and keeping track.
  9. I probably have about 6 of them... but after the first two the reason for that was a bunch of times of loading up, hitting the road to play a gig in New Orleans... realizing I'd forgotten the bag where accessories are kept so darting to the Guitar Center or closest music store before they closed and buying another one and a couple of cables and picks. Eventually, one of them and a couple of cables just got zipped in a big ziplock bag and put under a seat in the car.
  10. I was being jerky... but it is all about what style people are playing. Americana/country/blues/roots/classic rock-influenced people will want traditional response and sounds. Modern rock-influenced people will want a different thing, usually more saturated. My brother had a Dual Rectifier half-stack... I used a Dual Rectifier combo for a bit when a bandmate left it in my van when he left the band and then promptly moved away... you can get sounds I like from them, but the way I hear most people dial them in the clean sound is lifeless then the overdrive sound is just a loud indistinct roar... tastes... just not my personal thing.
  11. Ooops, yes, you're correct... I was confusing/conflating ma s with volts.
  12. I was actually thinking about this after leaving this thread: A bandmate/buddy is a Kemper devotee... constantly kind of telling us we need to ditch our amps and "get with the future." He was originally a bassist but he plays keys and synths more than anything, usually... he wants bass and guitar to respond like synths, if that makes sense... that's kind of how he approaches them. And when I think of the younger players I know who are devoted to digital sims, they're kind of the same way (they pride themselves on not bending strings like "some 70s boomer") and they kind of play guitar like they're synths... touch dynamics are not part of what they do... but then, if I feel like being a jerk, they've grown up listening to horrible digital music formats compressed to hell with music recorded to be soft one moment then kick to really loud with no subtlety in between...
  13. don't want to seem too "SPAMMY" but this one got me, too...
  14. This amp model was designed for knob surfing and touch dynamics, due to its pedigree as a Matchless/Mark Sampson offshoot!!! And that's how I'm playing it at the moment... and usually how I play around the house (and a volume pedal gets used onstage to the same extent for some things). The original Cub design back in the day had 12ax7 and EF86 preamp tubes that you could switch between... as I understand it, for this they just stuck with the 12ax7 but added a "tuned tube gain stage" for the overdrive setting... still trying to dig into what that is and how it works, but it sounds wonderful. I have it plugged into my Komet AmbiKab, just using the 2 x 12" section and not the 2 x 10" stereo effects section at the moment. I can't remember exactly which speakers are in it... I'll take off the back panel (not easy) to check... I know they put Celestion Classic Lead 80s stock in them, but the one I have was a demo prototype that got dragged around to trade shows and used in the shop when people stopped by (the idea of which I love... the mojo from people playing through it, especially since I think that was people like Sonny Landreth) so it might have one of their upgraded/preferred pairings of speakers... it just sounds so good I forgot what they told me, ha. This is the demo vid that pushed me over the cliff (I just love listening to R.J. play in general)
  15. Zevon is one of my favorite songwriters... My stepdad has hit his 70s, and was born a Type A diabetic (both of his parents were Type A diabetics and all 14* of their kids were, too)... 70 is the "average life expectancy" of a diabetic so he's beaten the odds but his health has deteriorated rapidly - especially his vision, meaning he can't drive anymore - and for someone who is naturally fiercely independent that means he's bummed out... So I pulled up this song to play for him to cheer him up, he laughed all through it and then said "that guy wrote the most true and profound song I've ever heard!" * yes, 14 kids... as my stepdad says "my parents did love us... but we were born as much to be free farmhands as people."
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