If I Had Just A Little Time, I Could Speak Seven Langauges

Camper Van Beethoven, "Seven Languages". 

I Am Gear Batman

First, don't leave your gear where anybody can get to it and nobody is watching it.

I play at a church, and when I started playing there, I was told a story about how the pastor had left a 12-string Ovation in the sanctuary, and one day found that it had left him forever.

See message at the top of the post.

When I play, I plug my Tele into a Roland GT-6. Very portable, and I port it when I go. 

This year, we recruited a third guitarist (fourth if you count the worship pastor, who plays guitar and sings, and we've since found a fifth), and he has a big pedalboard, a DI connection to his mic'd tube amp in the rafters, and since he has a tour-ready case for his pedalboard, he tended to leave his pedalboard at church.

And he lost two pedals, including a ZVex Fuzz Factory.

He started carrying his gear home after that. This is spring.

I watch the local musical instruments feed on craigsist, because every so often there's a pedal or something I can afford, and I saw a Fuzz Factory, and I start thinking "ZVex has unique paint jobs for their pedals. Maybe the third guitarist can recognize his pedal", and I pass it on. He, in turn, has someone call and ask about it. I don't know who the culprit is, and I don't know what happened to him (hey, guitar gear theft; I might be stereotyping, but it trends male to me) but I do know the third guitarists got his pedals back.

After-Action Report

s
This is my #1 Tele, in the middle of a string change. Mid-song, I popped the high E off the set of D'Addario .009s they put on at GearFest at Sweetwater. I think that five months is pretty good for a set of strings. Thing is, I had one set of Ernie Ball Slinkys (.010s) and four sets of Extra Slinkys (.008) in my gear bag, so I couldn't really just go back and grab one string.

I took my advice and worked through it, and when I got done playing, I got ready for next time and switched sets to an .008 set. I'm trying out B.B. King's advice to Billy Gibbons, that you don't need to work that hard. I tried .008s before and liked them, so I'll go again.

Lessons Learned:

• I need to stick with a string gauge. I do, except here I was scheduling a change at an inconvenient time
• I need to keep a string winder in the gear bag. I thought I did, but I don't. They're cheap.
• I need to keep a tuner in the gear bag. I pulled one onto my phone, and it worked, but it would be better to plug it into the guitar. 
• I think I need a spare guitar. My #2 is in desperate need for a level, crown and polish, and that could work, but there's a guitar at the guitar shop that I desperately love.

While I don't like the guy's potty mouth, I do like his very sitar-like fretless Tele.

Don't let the video title fool you, it isn't a Fender guitar, much less Fender Custom Shop guitar. Plus, Yakkety Sax.

So, what's all this compression about anyway?

Just Nick explains it, using his wonderful seafoam green Telecaster.

"You Were Probably Going To Mod It Anyway"

So, I was on TDPRI, looking around, and someone posted that he was thinking about getting an Esquire.

An Esquire is in essence a Telecaster with no neck pickup. It was wired with three setting: a bassy setting to cover the the low-end (not really a common position), a standard volume-and-tone setting, and one where you bypass the tone knob and go right to the jack. This is a bit of a hot-rod wiring.

My suggestion was to get a Squier Classic Vibe '50s Tele and mod it, because TDPRI is all over these things as being very good early Tele repros for not much money, so you can get solid standard hardware and change what you want.

I'm not really in the market for that, but I'm always curious, so I started searching and saw this:

Sweetwater created the FENDER® Sweet-Mod Classic Vibe '50s Telecaster® to give you a hot-rodded Fender experience right out of the case. We start with the tried-and-true Fender Classic Vibe '50s Telecaster®, supercharged with DiMarzio Area T stacked humbucking pickups for big, fat, aggressive tone. You get the iconic look and feel of the Classic Vibe '50s Telecaster, with a seriously upgraded sound courtesy of Sweetwater's factory-authorized guitar workshop. You were probably going to do these modifications anyway, and our expert guitar techs have already done the work - for less than your local guitar tech would likely charge. No other retailer has the Fender Sweet-Mod Classic Vibe '50s Telecaster, and it's made to pack an amazing sonic punch. 

"You were probably going to do it anyway."

There's a number of different choices. Teles get either Fender Noiseless or DiMarzio Area Ts. (Stratoblogster can tell you the Strat options. That's his job!) No Esquire options (because you'd have to swap out the pickguard, too, I think). I must say, I'm wanting.

Double Stops from Scotty Anderson

Scotty Anderson is easily the best guitarist you haven't heard of. Or, maybe you have heard of him. Lucky you, then. This is taken from Arlen Roth's old Hot Licks video series, which included two great mindbenders from Danny Gatton.
Video re-added