Tuesday, December 31, 2013

How it is vs how it should be

I have Cerebral Palsy [I believe I've beaten this subject to death with a stick] and nothing sums it up quite like saying my normal is not your normal. Sometimes it's because it's just how my body does whatever, it doesn't necessary mean I can't do whatever they way you do, I just don't see the point of doing it a more difficult way. But there are random times I just do something the normal way, and it tends to bowl people over.
This doesn't really apply, but I love it.

Sometimes I do something because the situation calls for it [apparently the first time I did something like this is when I set up straight on a horse]. Playing bass is one of these situations. My frame is on the small side, so I have to throw my shoulders back in order reach the top frets on Igor. I also move my elbows away from my torso when I do this, which makes my wrist straight. With guitar I don't have to, so I don't, and the results kinda suck.         

Monday, December 30, 2013

there's no rattle in Rock & Roll


Demon rattles whenever I manhandle him. I hope it's just a piece of wood from his busted screw hole [which I did not cause!] finally broke off. I should take off the back and check it out. But I don't want to. I don't want to have another broken instrument.
[In some slightly related news I took the rubber band that was keeping Igor's wonky strap lock quite, and that rattling I don't give a shit about when compared to his shivering truss rod cover.]  

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Demon's Body

Is tiny. It's harder to have proper position with him since it's so easy for my elbow to be in my side even when I'm playing high on the neck [it's not like a guitar's neck is even that high]. I'm having more issues with my plucking hand then I've ever had on bass.
This looks actuate.
Demon's body is small, so I've found my left arm reaches around the bottom of his body [to pluck, actually it's more like barely touching his strings]. I have no idea how to adjust to him to get proper position.  

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Lord of the Rings

I decided to finally crack open a Tolkien book. If my halfhearted dream of becoming a Prog Rock writer was ever going to come true [right after that Historic Album] I knew I would have to finish the trilogy that the majority of my friends were raving about. Plus I think just about every self respecting band [I'd like to think] of the 1970s had a song inspired by it.
I'm about nine chapters in and personal opinion aside, I gotta say I shocked by how many song have been written about this trilogy. I mean these hobbits [and that Tom fellow] do nothing but sing. People act like hobbits naturally do nothing but eat, but it seem like they're singing twice as much as they are eating. I see how this book is the cornerstone for so many fantasy books I've read [Tolkien published this book in the 1930s] but I just find this book so bland. [Oops, that was personal opinion.] But I just can't see how someone would write a song about this,when there are already so many songs in it.         

Friday, December 27, 2013

Pinky

Upon attempting chords [on Demon] for the umpteenth time I noticed that one of the reasons I was struggling was because my pinky finger was turning in [and under] my ring finger. I immediately peg it on my CP and go posting on TB asking about what the proper position is.

As it happens most of the time, I didn't get the answer, but I did learn not to so quick to blame my CP. Someone else has the exact same issue and it went away with practice.     

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Playing Sick

You know how being sick can distort your sense of taste? Come to find out it can fuck with more then that. [i.e. hearing] Being forced to blow your nose every five minutes leads to alot of popping ears.
I came to realize this when I plugged in Igor and I automatically reach for the master knob [aka the volume knob, but that's what it's labeled, and that's what I will gleefully call it]. I never fuss with the master knob, I'm rather forced to fuss with the other knobs, but the master knob stays put at just audible.

Since I didn't want blow my ears, I just turned off my amp.         

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Fretting Hand Tone

There was a tread on TB about low action vs high action and how it effects tone. I've noticed I like it when I play a note while plucking it at the same time [in other words I come down on the fret while I pluck] instead of already holding down a string when I pluck. In order to do the former the action needs to be a little higher so that the string don't smack the fretboard or pick ups.

This is generally frowned upon because it's harder on the player's hands, so I'm currently debating whether or it's worth it. [I mean, hey, this could all be hearsay!]      

Monday, December 23, 2013

I Have These Other Forms of Media

Like this one [it's my favorite and it would make me very happy]

And follow this one [if you like, I really don't care].

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Grammy Nominations


The Grammy nominations are out, and checking them out is my guilty pleasure. I feel rather conflicted this year because Sara Bareilles is up for record or album [I don't know the difference, I've been wondering this for years] of the year. This is her third album, and like most third albums it's way different from the first two [and I'm not a fan]. I love that someone I think has a great voice is up for recondition, but I don't like the music that is.

Led Zeppelin is up for a few statues too, at first I was sure that someone hacked the site [and quite honestly I'm too lazy to see if someone did] but like I said above, I have no idea how these lists are made. I want to look at these categories as obvious runaways, but then I remember that the winners tend to be best sellers, and I don't know how they fall in their groups. I feel bad for everyone else that stand next to them in those categories, I mean how do you stand next to Led Zeppelin [and possibly] be declared better then them?      

Saw Taylor Swift's name on a list of "song of whatever" and as my eyes were rolling into my head I noticed that her song was the only one with a single writer [herself']. I gotta tip my hat to her for that.

For nostalgia's sake I checked out the Christian music categories, it was the same old people, people I've never heard of, and one person I've never liked.

Finally I noticed one of the categories at the bottom of the list: "Best Historical Album". I don't have the foggiest clue what this is, but I want my name next to it one day. Is it odd to put "obscure grammy" on your bucket list? [When you know your chance of getting it is below zero] Become a famous song writer is my Plan C, behind become a Nun [actually a Sister, but those are totally going to happen in order].             

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Hand Size

When people say girls should play short scale [because they're smaller] I laugh. I've never had an issue playing playing bass, in fact I have better posture in order to fit Igor [I don't think I've written about that before, I'll get on that]. Yes I do have shift when I play the first fret of the E [natural F] but I have yet to see a pro bassist not do the same.
My pointer has to reach to play the B string, forget E.
With guitar I'm simply not as lucky. Most basic chords are designed to be easily reachable when you're playing the right way around. Now I have to play a note and clear five strings with my pointer finger, and I just can't do that high on the neck without putting my wrist in [read bad] funky positions. If I wanted to look into straight up bazaar solutions I could just look into a different tuning...       

Friday, December 20, 2013

Old Time Help

I found this little paper [less then] booklet that came with Lula. For as crappy as Lula is, this booklet is a wealth of information. It has a handful of chord charts on the back [which I double checked on CB.com and it's totally right] and get this, with Demon's strings being flipped these charts make total sense in my head.

Perhaps the most amazing thing of all is that on another flap of the booklet is the note of every fret, on sheet music! You see how far the tiny E string is from the other one, it only goes up to the fifteen fret [kinda odd number if you ask me] but it's pretty obvious where the notes go from there.    

Thursday, December 19, 2013

I tried to study the master

A southpaw playing a right handed [guitar] upside down? it seems like falling down the Jimi Hendrix rabbit hole is a requirement. It's funny how when I started playing bass [properly left handed] I'd think of Paul McCartney for support when people gave me crap about playing southpaw; I mean if I get crap in the 2010s image what he must of got in the 1950s and 60s! [Or so I'd like to think, for all I know about him he may as well be a fictional character.]  

Somehow I can't take this same mindset with Hendrix, maybe it's super long fingers, or the fact nearly all his videos rarely shows him playing [see below] but I just pick out the musician from the player, He's just this huge ball of...him.
When you look at all my likes and dislikes in music you'd think I'd love Hendrix, and I've tried, I can recognize his stellar playing, but I've also noticed how much his guitar playing tanks when he starts to sing. Something about this just pisses me off to no end.   

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Dead Men

Some days I just go on a Youtube binge. Watching every interview and live performance I can get my hands on. This past weekend it was John "The Ox" Entwistle of The Who. He died in 2002 and the majority of his videos are "tribute" videos; and when you look up "interviews" all you get are [insert living person's name] reaction to [dead person]'s death.

Once I actually found some videos of him playing, it was actually really cool. They say that he was the only member of The Who who was unmoving on stage [when compared to Moon, and everyone else] but whoever said that failed to look at his hands.          

Do you see his hands?!? They don't stop doing whatever awesomeness they're doing! The closest to this I've seen was that dude from Primus and that just pales in comparison. 

Friday, December 13, 2013

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

With my Pinky Finger

I've figured out how to play pain in that ass chords like A major and the like. Instead of using my rather large pointer fingerpad, use my pinky! Thank god, my pinky is plenty strong enough from my bass playing.
  

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Fingertips

I've been playing bass for almost two years now and my fingers have never gotten calloused  or blistered like you hear about from guitar players. Some rouge thread on TB said it's actually pretty rare to get rough fingertips because the strings are so thick on basses. Some part of me hoped that my bass playing prepared me for callous free guitar playing. [That was very wrong, and very stupid].

There are track marks left by Demon's strings, and peeling skin, which happen every time I pick him up. Also my fingertips seem to be huge, I have to kinda maneuver my finger pad and nail under the string next [to what I'm fretting] so there won't be unintentional muting.      

Thursday, December 5, 2013

There Be Buzz

Since lowering Igor's action I've noticed that this kinda fret buzz has popped up on the middle strings [kinda meaning that it's actually the string smacking the fret board that is causing the racket]. I don't have time to raise the action by hand with finals around the corner [and yet I type this] but I have to say it's annoying to have what basses that consistently need fixing.

I'm really trying to be a good Madam. 

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Something I Just Noticed

I've had Demon for about a week, and I just noticed he doesn't have fret markers on the side [on the side I see since he's really upside-down].

I have no idea what this says about my playing, I have [for the most part] been paying attention to where I'm fretting, but just to figure out what note I'm playing. It's also really straight forward by looking at the frets/counting the frets/noticing where the nut is. [I mean all the basic chords are around the third fret.]     

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Is He Worth it?

Demon has serious structural damage, and I'm not sure if he's worth keeping. I wanted a guitar that would last me, but I'm not sure he will. My mom is willing to pick up the shipping cost so I'll walk away from this at no cost.

PRO/KEEP                                                                                                              CON/RETURN
Finish                                                                                                                              Damage
Fretboard wood I wanted                                                                                              Wiring What
Bridge PUP is Awesome                                                                                               Screw Holes
Cost
Will owe mom
[Can I say color too?]
Good Neck...



I'm honestly kinda 'meh' on the other two PUPs, but that might change when I get his innards figured out. And honestly I can keep the back on snugly just by using the two good screw holes. I guess I'm keeping him.     

Monday, December 2, 2013

Wiring What.

I thought soldering on a wire would be straight forward, until I noticed two possible places the wire could of come off of. This made me decide to pull up a wiring diagram.

Demon was made just outside of Ibanez's ten year backlog of wiring diagram, so I decided to pull one up from the internet. The one I found was made by someone replacing the pick ups on a GSA60, and it didn't match up to Demon [at all]. Being that the guy was replacing pick ups it would make sense that he'd be using different color wires and such, but he listed all the old wires too, and they weren't running in the same configuration as Demon's innards. [Like the red wire on the third branch of the PUP switch was running to the PUPs not the volume pot like in the diagram.]      

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Solder On

I decided to solder the green wrapped wire back on the tone pot. I've never soldered anything before [but I watched my mom's boyfriend do it a couple times] but how hard could it be? Ignoring that little voice in my head reminding me that I burn myself ever time I handle a glue gun [and what is a soldering gun, if not a worst glue gun?] I gave it my best shot.

I only burned myself twice [and only one mark hung around for a week] but I couldn't actually get the solder to stick to anything. Plus the gun kept burning the little plastic thingy on the tone knob. So it didn't work out.