Guitars and Life

My Hi-Fi is quiet old.  I say Hi-Fi as that still seems an appropriate term.  The bulk of the system is actually from a system that my brother-in-law (he never was but that is another story...) bought in the early 1980s.  He'd bought it in 1981 selling me his old music centre which replaced the huge stereogram that took up what felt like half my bedroom which my Dad had given me when he'd got a smart new Sanyo music centre a year or two before.  It was a Pioneer separates system all sold together in a glass cabinet.  The cabinet still sits in my music room with my amp, cd player and mixer that I play through to play along with stuff I'm learning.  The amp, tuner (never used these days), cassette player (also can't remember when last used) and the speakers all come from his original set up which my wife/I inherited on moving into our first house a couple of years after his untimely death - he passed away suddenly at 21 in 1982.  I replaced the record de...

Inspired by Wil's recent post . I don't have the prices like he did... I'll give rough guides where I can... all prices in GBP btw. Tata Classical Guitar - my Mum and Dad bought it for me when I was about 11 after my continual whinging I wanted a guitar.  Then my Mum insisted I had "proper" lessons and soon I was off learning classical guitar Grade 1 etc. from Pam who was an old school friend of my elder sister.  Price - no idea probably about £15.   Traded in when I got my FC40 - actually saw one recently at a second hand stall in Whitstable might have been mine... you never know. Old Italian Mandolin - I inherited this from my Great Aunt.  Not in great nick, the bowl back had a crack in it the neck had been repaired and the tuners were a mismatch as a result of that repair.  I tried to learn for a few years in my teens but it ended up being thrown away - which on reflection was a travesty I should have tried to repair it better. Columbus Strat Copy ...

A couple of videos from the Rochester Music Cafe recently... Firstly an oldie of my own - I used to Know Her... almost my signature tune if I could ever he in a position to have one ... LOL Then a Lady Antebellum number that I'd neither heard of the song or the band before we started to practice this a week before the gig... nice song though... Notice - first live outing of the infamous pedal board!

I got an email from Gibson as I'm on their email list. This had a link to A Guitar Geek's Guide to Gibson ES Models - brilliant... Now the little bit that really got me was side by side two new models... The new ES Les Paul - which is another attempt to make a hollow bodied Les Paul... And the 335-S - another attempt (there was one many years back) at a solid ES-335... errrr.... Odd when you think about this... but hey people out there might want them... I like the LP one better but there is a much cheaper option via Gordon Smith...

So a couple of new CDs have arrived... this is a good year for music isn't it?  Well is in my book any way... Linkin Park - The Hunting Party. I've liked these boys since the début album but Metorea really shone out for me followed too by Minutes to Midnight - both those are flipping brilliant.  One thing for me is that I love how they have more successfully than a lot of others been able to fuse rapping, scratching, loops etc from hip/hop and rap with great modern rock.  I saw them live at Sonisphere in 2009 and that only confirmed my love of them.  Also I can relate so much to their lyrics... Numb in particular is a lyric I could have written ... if I had the talent!! I have to say whilst good the latest albums haven't engrossed me as much as the early stuff.  So to their latest The Hunting Party.  Now I've seen some (brief) comments on-line from people who've dissed this album but I really don't see that I think it is close to their best and may gr...

Not sure why I bought this book I think it was a daily deal for the Kindle that was recommended.  Interesting book however.  Here is the premise...  the entire book is written in the first person by a woman who has been badly injured in a fire at her son's school.  She is experiencing an out of body experience whereby she is effectively walking around the hospital and elsewhere whilst her body is lying in a bed in a comma.  She can hear/see what is going on but cannot communicate directly with anyone around her... except...  her daughter who has been badly injured also in the fire and is experiencing the same out of body experience. The book is a whodunnit as at first the fire is blamed on the woman's son who is only 8 and it is believed by the police that he played with some matches near an art supplies store and caused the fire.  However there are things that don't add up...  how did the supplies all seem to be in one place, someone had opened...