Reminder to Jamming group: Jam is ON on Sunday

For those of you on my jamming group’s mailing list, if you haven’t already seen the reminder I sent earlier this week, don’t forget that we are JAMMING on Sunday at the Murkworks! Be there or miss out on seeing my shiny new guitar. Not to mention nomming of tasty, tasty pie!

Please sing out if you haven’t already told me you’re coming, so I know how much tasty, tasty pie to get!

More guitar geeking!

So unless a more awesome name presents itself, my shiny new guitar is going to be henceforth known as “General Taylor”. I am, yes, quite cognizant of the irony of naming a guitar for a song performed without any instruments whatsoever.

I have also realized that as I was grabbing shinies to go with the General at Dusty Strings, I forgot to get one other critical thing: a capo. The capo I bought for Rags was intended for nylon string guitars; it works okay on the new guitar, but isn’t optimal and I keep expecting it to pop off. So I’ll need to pick up another one. Oh DARN, I’ll have to go into a music store again! Twist my arm. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Meanwhile I have retuned Rags to DADGAD tuning. Poor Rags really sounds kind of feeble compared to the Taylor, but going into that tuning adds some really nice complexity to his tone. I’ve printed off a chord chart to see what I can learn, and also went and re-printed the chords to “Boston and St. John’s”–which is played in said tuning. It’ll be fun to properly learn that song.

Awesome Guitar Acquisition of Awesomeness

Closeup with Strap

Ladies and gentlemen, as promised, today I went with my beloved to Dusty Strings and got myself a shiny brand new guitar! It took a bit of deciding, especially given that the place was a madhouse (they were having an open house and concert and they were packed wall to wall with people), but I ultimately settled on a Taylor 210.
Description of the afternoon–and most importantly, PICTURES–behind the cut!
Continue reading “Awesome Guitar Acquisition of Awesomeness”

Speaking of the guitar pick of awesomeness

There’s a ridiculous amount of fangirly glee I can get out of something as simple as a well-used guitar pick!

I am not a professional guitarist by any stretch of the imagination; I’m barely at the level of competent amateur, really, and then only because I can play decent rhythm on a small set of songs, and slightly more complex stuff on exactly one song so far. But, that said? I know just enough to be able to make some fun guesses about the guitar pick snagged for me at the GBS show!

I don’t know how fast The Doyle goes through his picks, or whether this one was new going into the show–but if it was, he played the hell out of it. The tip of it as well as a good bit of one edge are worn quite ragged, and part of the words beneath the logo are worn off. I get this kind of wear and tear on my own picks after I’ve played with them, but only after a while; I suspect this is a function of the fact that a) I don’t play that often, b) I play on a nylon-stringed instrument, and c) I don’t play with anything resembling the amount of power that Alan Doyle does! Metal strings would tear up picks a lot faster, of course. I have observed this directly with any pick I play with for a while on my zouk or my octave mandolin.

I’m amused though to note the thickness of the pick as well. It’s pretty thin as guitar picks go and comparable to several I’ve got. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this exact brand of guitar pick either at Trading Musician or at Dusty Strings, too. The logo on it is familiar!

I have had it suggested to me that I should frame this thing. My immediate plan for it is, I think, to use it for exactly one purpose: getting footage of me playing the guitar for our little contest video. And hope that maybe some of Alan’s guitar fu may wear off.

Then I’m going to put this thing safely away so I won’t lose it. :D