And in other news, The Scrivener asks, Do many or most professional guitarists’ guitar necks have those dot-marks on them?
The answer is generally, yes.
Also, Wordman’s on a trip and finds an interesting guitar store.
Me, I have a power issue. I plug my new amp in, and I get this transformer buzz. Only happens when it’s operating off the wall, so it’s probably my electricity. Batteries are perfectly clean. Any thoughts on how to deal with it?
Are you sure it’s not the guitar? Could be from your single coil pickups, which are notoriously noisy. Also, buzz tends to creep in if you’re playing next to something like a computer monitor. 
Speaking of new amps - I don’t have my Vox from my previous post anymore. 
Went an traded it in today for one of these:
And let me tell you - IT’S SICK!!:eek: This thing does everything well it seems. I’ve got it pushing my Marshall 4X12 cab (with Greenbacks in it) and it’s absolutely beautiful sounding. The “clean” gain setting is better than any Fender I’ve played lately and with a Blues Driver or Tube Sceamer in front of it - DAMN! The “hot” gain is damn close to (but still not as good as) my Marshall head, but more than useful.
It’s got 3 different EQ circuits - American, British, and AC - that emulate Fender, Marshall and Vox, respectively. Awesome amounts of possibilities here for different tones. The AC setting is particularly good. It really does give you that AC30 sound, specially when you turn the gain up a little to where it’s just beginning to break up.
The only thing that sucks about it is there’s no footswitch, so it probably wouldn’t be a very good stage amp. Good thing I’m not in a band anymore…
Wordman - you should try one of these. I think it’s right up your alley…
Amp hums even without a guitar plugged in, if on mains power. If on battery power, no hum. So I’m pretty sure it’s not the guitar. It’s pretty clearly a power hum, the kind you get when you play a ipod through your car stereo while it’s charging off the cigarette lighter socket.
What’s a head and extension cabinet? Hm. While I’m at it, I should ask what the stuff my Vox’s manual is alluding to. There’s clearly something tricky that I should know for each step.
A “head” is just the amp without the speaker. I bought the head version of the amp because I already have a Marshall cabinet to play it through. However, as a project I might build a new speaker cabinet for it…
Test that the outlet you’re using is properly grounded. You can get a circuit tester for minimal $ at a hardware store. If the outlet isn’t properly grounded, call an electrician, and don’t use that outlet. An SDSAB report on this can be found here.
If the outlet passes the test, and the amp still hums… well, you have an amp that hums, some just do that.
Looks very cool - 15 watts…can you get over drums with some room to spare? I love 6V6 tubes - that’s what my main amp, the Tweed replica runs on…
I think it’s plenty loud enough, unless you’re playing with drummer who thinks he has to hit the skins as hard as Bonzo ON EVERY SONG. (Even Bonzo didn’t do that :D) Still, it’s probably not a good stage amp because of the fact that there’s no footswitch to change settings on the fly. I think it’s more of a studio amp, which is great for me…
It does look like a cool amp. I tried their Rebel 20, and thought it was awesome, but with a cab it was more than I wanted to spend. Tweaker looks even better, the tone must be awesome.
The new issue of ***teemings ***is up, featuring a new column by me on the proto-punk band Death - link here.
I hope you get a chance to read it and I would appreciate your thoughts.
WordMan
I’d never heard of Death before (no surprise there), but even those primitive recordings show some really great musicianship, and a sound that was ahead of their time.
And, you’re right, WordMan, it does sound like Jimi singing punk. 
Another great article.
Trust me, **kenobi **- *NO ONE *had heard of Death before this stuff was recently released ;). It is just fascinating that bands like this go undiscovered for reasons that have little to do with their musicianship - it’s a right time, right place thing. Luck is weird.
And thanks for the kind words.
Oh, and here’s a thread about the Nashville Flood and losing some guitars and other gear…
I don’t know if anyone has mentioned it yet, but “It might get loud” is now available on Netflix “Watch instantly” streaming. I’m gonna go watch it this evening.
I slacked off from practicing for about six weeks. I’ve been working my way through some beginner’s books and the stuff at the end of book 1 just wasn’t very interesting to me. But I felt like I should master one thing before I moved on to the next (and I didn’t want to be swapping the play-along CDs back and forth while I was on the cusp of both books).
The other day I moved on to book 2 anyway. Great stuff, new chords and good songs; not super easy, but doesn’t feel like I really have to grind through them, either. I may try recording one and you can all tell me how I’m doing.
I just hit the first lessons on second position. Man, that’s gonna give me fits until I figure it out.
Please forgive my complete lack of theory-tude, but what is second position?
First finger at the second fret.
I knew that.
Like I said, beginner books.
And some people can learn an instrument by instinct and feel. I’ve heard of people who can hear a song one time, and then sit down and play it flawlessly on a piano (or probably on a guitar, too). I am somewhat in awe of those people, because I am the exact opposite. The only way I can learn to play is to be absolutely methodical about it. Learn the strings, learn the notes, learn the staff, etc. I can hear when I’m playing and get a note wrong, but I don’t think I could piece something together completely by ear.
The point is, I’m sure there are people who wouldn’t know “second position” from second base, and could still blow my mind by just playing.
I don’t know that I could “blow your mind” - nor am I a *guitaristic savant *who can hear something once and play it. But I am not schooled in theory and wouldn’t know a position unless it was introduced to me by an aggressive sorority girl back in my college days (a guy can dream).
Different genres of playing have different languages for discussing them - there is the famous Nashville Number system - fluency is a required ticket for many session players, but your average musician well-schooled in theory wouldn’t know it from Adam. For me, I am, for want of a better term, a “street smart rock/blues musician” so I can get into a jam/woodshed situation with a bunch of peers and be the floor general to get them through a song - and yet, as stated, I don’t know theory for squat. The language I use is an amalgam of chords, theory ideas (stated incorrectly, I am sure), and improvised phrases that somehow get the point across quickly and efficiently.
Talking about music is, as the saying goes, like dancing about architecture…