Lap Steel Synth

I've been curious about getting a guitar synth setup and putting it on a lap steel for a while. This shows me that it'd be everything I'd want and more. The "Crazy Vibrato Opera Singer" patch, if used with single notes and not chords, seems like it'd be all the setup you need to simulate theremin playing.

That is, if you're playing it like Clara Rockmore, not Jimmy Page.

Tommy, John and Pedro: Sultans of Swing

I have always loved this song, from the first I heard it. I've not heard of Pedro Javier González before, but I know that John Jorgenson is a Hellecaster and that Tommy Emmanuel was given the coveted by c.g.p. by Chet Atkins himself, so he's among great company and acquitting himself well. 

Shiny!

Totally metal! I love the tone for shred, for blues and fingerstyle. Santa! I'll be good the rest of the year!

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

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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.