The "Geez, is it Sunday, already?" Thread for April 23, 2023

Good morning/afternoon/evening TFF-ers everywhere! I have the dubious honor of once again starting the nefarious Sunday thread.

After a relatively quiet week, where the only thing of importance (to me) was my announcement of my intention to retire, I'm looking to the week ahead where I will conduct two trainings, back to back. Even though my mindset has changed, I still have obligations to fulfill, so I intend to keep them.

Since baseball season is underway, I'll do my church thing this morning, then come home and change the strings on a couple of guitars while watching a game on TV. The weather is still doing the dipsy-do, as it was near 90° two days ago, and is only supposed to be in the low 60°s today. Still not time to put away the sweaters!

Wishing everyone in TFF land the best. Make it a great day. Unless you have other plans!

Good morning! I did my workshop yesterday - a board of education with a terrible reputation for dysfunction. I was blown away. A couple of the more toxic people have left and they have a new chair who is fantastic. I ended up having the time of my life. They were committed, inspiried and passionate about their work. It is days like that which keep me from retiring (that and not enough $$$ to maintain the lifestyle we've grown accustomed to).

The lawn went from Winter mode to lush/green in a week - but with one-two inches of rain predicted today, it's not going to get cut.

Friday we recorded a song I wrote back in the mid-70's. Back then I attended a concert at the then-new Hartford Civic Center. I don’t even remember who played that night but that concert inspired me. Out of it came a song entitled “Hartford”. My “vision” was to have a band named Hartford, and this would be the title track on an album of the same name. That never happened… life got in the way. Over the years I kept that song alive in my head, but it never seemed quite “finished”, so I only sang it in public once in all the intervening years. As you guys know, the past few years I’ve been working with a couple different studios to actually record the songs I’ve written, but I kept holding “Hartford” back, because it wasn’t quite done (the album IS entitled “Hartford”
Anyways, one night last week, at around 3 AM, I was inspired. So, there I was, in the dark with MS OneNote open on my phone, fixing the stuck lyrics and writing a killer bridge. Spent Friday afternoon at Long Hill Studios in Shelton, CT, and we got it recorded (except for some harmonies to be added later). We were going for a 70’s Rock Band vibe and I’m pretty excited with the results. Working with Paul is a blast (Thanks TeleBob for connecting us). We were trying to replicate a live recording - should have added a cheering crowd at the end... Anyways, enjoy... https://soundcloud.com/user-785746906/hartford

Nice work in progress Nick! Really cool vibe on the tune.

I just can't resist making the following suggestion for the hook.

Add the lines, Sing it from my Hartford! Tell it to my Hartford! Straight from my Hartford! Straight from my heart.

Put a gang crowd response on just the word "Hartford" for that LIVE feel and you've got a rock n' roll legend on your hands, LOL!

Yeah, so, Sunday Morning I am sitting here preparing for the arrival of my partner in crime who is coming to spend the weekend and valiantly sit through band rehearsal tomorrow night.
Going to see "Beautiful" today at The Thomaston Opera House and then doing some shopping for bicycle accessories, followed by my best Barry White attempts to lure her into my lair for the evening. LOL.
Lots of clean-up to do hear so, time to get busy!

Had an interview Fri that went well. Yesterday we did Thunder over Louisville. This morning played elec guitar for a couple services. A friend told me they tapped the 70k keg at his work so I’ll head over and have a couple pints. Expense reporting next week then a long weekend with a trip back to FL to see my best friend.

Somewhere in there I want to work on my Gretsch and Tele as I have some Bigsby upgrades. Also need to Mount the ToneWood in my Martin.

what a week! We got our new HVAC installed, took 4 days. New 2-stage gas furnace, Bosch heat pump/condenser. Lots of new duct work, new return grates. The results have exceeded expectations. The new system is eerily quiet. And it is truly set and forget. What you put on the thermostat is what you get in every room of the house, confirmed with thermometers stationed throughout. I'm almost in disbelief. The guy who set it up really knew what he was doing. It wasn't cheap but we were able to finance almost half of it through a program with the electric utility. The real impact is how comfortable I am. My hands have stopped hurting.

My brother is away this weekend at his girlfriend's. I cleared off my recording bench and did some recording for the first time since January. I hadn't played in nearly a month. I used my Strat>Guvnor>Dynacomp>audio interface. I've learned how to duplicate drum loops with just a couple of clicks. I played a first track with a Vox sim, and a second track with a Tweed Deluxe sim. The middle pickup of this guitar is amazing, just freaking incredible. I went for an ambient wide open sound, with lots of space. Playing to a drum track was super helpful. The second track was lightning in a bottle. I've finally got soaring leads on tape, LOL. I've never had it happen while I was recording before. The second track was much shorter than the first so I duplicated it a couple times end to end. I don't know how it happened but it worked with the first track. I also learned how to save stuff to my iCloud account so I could use it on this computer which still has my Waves plugins.

Now I really want to get my music room fully assembled.:dude I need to go grab some food, shower, run a few errands. Watch some playoff games and play guitar. And bass. I want to add bass to the recording from last night. I haven't been this chuffed to play in a long time.

I've got a guy coming down from New Hampshire to buy my Marshall JCM 900 MkIII 2501 combo. It's a nice enough amp, but not the amp for me. It'll be nice to move it on to a new home.

The JCM 800 isn't going anywhere!

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...035b8c5d_b.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don

I've got a guy coming down from New Hampshire to buy my Marshall JCM 900 MkIII 2501 combo. It's a nice enough amp, but not the amp for me. It'll be nice to move it on to a new home.

The JCM 800 isn't going anywhere!

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...035b8c5d_b.jpg

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I'm on the lookout for the successor to that amp, the 4501. There's one in NJ. I'm a little daunted by the prospect of a 5 hour drive one-way that could just amount to a "try but not buy" trip. I'd actually could find a JCM800 like yours easier, but the prices are painfully high at the moment.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DanTheBluesMan

I'm on the lookout for the successor to that amp, the 4501. There's one in NJ. I'm a little daunted by the prospect of a 5 hour drive one-way that could just amount to a "try but not buy" trip. I'd actually could find a JCM800 like yours easier, but the prices are painfully high at the moment.

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The 4501 isn't the successor to the 2501. They came out at the same time. It's the channel switching reverb 50 watt 1x12 combo version of the JCM 900.

The 4501 was the successor to this amp- the JCM 800 4210. This one was mine. I prefer the sound of the single channel amps. There's no real clean* and no super high gain, just an organic dirty sound in between- "just right" for me.

(*actually, the 4010 is a great sounding clean amp when plugged into the low input)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fef9fffe_b.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don

The 4501 isn't the successor to the 2501. They came out at the same time. It's the channel switching reverb 50 watt 1x12 combo version of the JCM 900.

The 4501 was the successor to this amp- the JCM 800 4210. This one was mine. I prefer the sound of the single channel amps. There's no real clean* and no super high gain, just an organic dirty sound in between- "just right" for me.

(*actually, the 4010 is a great sounding clean amp when plugged into the low input)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fef9fffe_b.jpg

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My son has this amp and I think he uses it more than an Egnater Tourmaster amp and 412 cabinet he has. I got that Marshall for him in an interesting way. I had an old Gibson Thunderbird bass I bought for $50 that I swapped for a new Laney amp with two with 2 12” speakers (sort of a Laney Twin Reverb) that I took to my friend’s music store where I swapped the Laney for the Marshall.<

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don

The 4501 isn't the successor to the 2501. They came out at the same time. It's the channel switching reverb 50 watt 1x12 combo version of the JCM 900.

The 4501 was the successor to this amp- the JCM 800 4210. This one was mine. I prefer the sound of the single channel amps. There's no real clean* and no super high gain, just an organic dirty sound in between- "just right" for me.

(*actually, the 4010 is a great sounding clean amp when plugged into the low input)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fef9fffe_b.jpg

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thank you. I was leaning towards the JCM900 because I thought they were the first Marshall to have reverb, I was unaware a JCM800 did. I want 1x12, and 50 watts. I have no preference between single or channel switching, I'm only going to use one anyway. It's just that the JCM800 are considerably more expensive but I'll keep an eye out. How do you like the reverb? I'm not expecting Fender surf, I just remember not being overwhelmed with the DSL401 reverb.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DanTheBluesMan

thank you. I was leaning towards the JCM900 because I thought they were the first Marshall to have reverb, I was unaware a JCM800 did. I want 1x12, and 50 watts. I have no preference between single or channel switching, I'm only going to use one anyway. It's just that the JCM800 are considerably more expensive but I'll keep an eye out. How do you like the reverb? I'm not expecting Fender surf, I just remember not being overwhelmed with the DSL401 reverb.

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I don't have the two channel JCM 800 with reverb anymore- it's how I learned that I wanted the single channel without reverb. The reverb wasn't great. Not horrible, either. The 4501 can still be had at a fairly low price, but so can a Rivera like my Twenty Thirty. It does everything better than a dual reverb JCM 800 or 900! Better cleans, arguably better dirt, better reverb, better build... It's lighter, too!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don

I don't have the two channel JCM 800 with reverb anymore- it's how I learned that I wanted the single channel without reverb. The reverb wasn't great. Not horrible, either. The 4501 can still be had at a fairly low price, but so can a Rivera like my Twenty Thirty. It does everything better than a dual reverb JCM 800 or 900! Better cleans, arguably better dirt, better reverb, better build... It's lighter, too!

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I didn't have any luck googling rivera 20 30. I saw a Rivera R30-12

I'm in the Geez, is it already Wednesday? category this week. I have been busting my ass as a reporter. You'd think a county this size, ca 36,000 population, would give an old timer a break. Nope. I'm constantly on the move. And I love it.

Most of what I cover is upbeat feel-good event stories--yesterday, I covered an open house at a child abuse prevention and counseling center. These folks do excellent work and are a real asset to our community. The Carl Perkins Center. (He was a great guy. All kinds of stories from people in this area who knew and loved him.). In a sadly related story, last week I had to cover the arraignment of a woman accused of putting her baby in scalding water. I'm pretty glad that most stories aren't as grim.

I don't mind the hectic life. It's a lot more engaging than anything I've done in a long time.

In the way of all things musical, I'm trying to learn what I can about recording and production. It's fun and challenging. I've got several tunes revved and ready to go when I feel a bit more up to snuff.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DanTheBluesMan

I didn't have any luck googling rivera 20 30. I saw a Rivera R30-12

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Oops! It's a Thirty Twelve! R30 is correct. They made 55 and 100 watt versions as well. It was replaced by the Chubster (similar amp with a few more watts, controls, and a deeper cabinet).

Chubsters are fun amps to play. If I didn't already have more amps than I need I'd buy one.

I still have and cherish my Rivera Chubster 40. Such a great amp.

During a recording session a at well known and respected studio, the engineer asked what kind of amp I was playing and how I was able to capture so many great sounds so quickly.

The next time I went there, he had bought one and all the clients love it.