I'm still alive!

It's amazing how time flies!  It dawned on me that it's almost been a year since I last posted!  Not good, particularly since the lat months of 2013 were pretty active as far as playing gigs, etc.

I'll try to catch up as best as I can in the coming days.  Topics may include: more live gigs, new friends, recording in the studio, "new" instruments/equipment and my usual musings about music, etc.

Needless to say, things are still going with the Janeen Leah Band and Cold Planet.  Stay tuned for upcoming dates since I'm hoping for another amazing summer of playing for y'all.  For now, this is my short update.

Stand by!  :)

This was taken yesterday (May 31, 2014) in San Lorenzo

Adventures of a 1968 lefty Fender Stratocaster Reissue (Part 3 - Epilogue)

Last time I wrote about about my lefty Strat, I had decided to leave it as is and sell it.  That was my intent and came really close one time, but unfortunately, the guy had to back out of the sale (nice guy).  I looked into a couple of ways of selling it, but didn't go beyond that and the guitar stayed in its case all these months.

About a month ago, I finally decided to get rid of it, so I took it out to clean it up and see how the strings were holding up.  I plugged it in, and man!  What a sweet sound it has!  I hooked up my Uni-Vibe pedal and started noodling with it, not really playing anything because I am not ambidextrous!  At that point I changed my mind.  I had to keep it and play it!  There is a place close to where I work called San Jose Rock Shop, which is really a cool place, so I took it there to see about the bridge, nut and strings.  They did a great job.  Very thorough and uber professional for a very reasonable price!  When I brought it back home... wow!  It played like a dream.  Very smooth, like buttah!

The positioning of the cable and knobs is taking a little getting used to, but it's not so bad since I don't move around a lot when I play.  It sounds great.

Back in December, I got me an Ibanez GRG120BDX for Christmas.  It is a really awesome guitar that feels and sounds great and is really easy to play (Wizard neck?)!  I may have joined a band as a rhythm guitarist, so if that happens, the Ibanez will be the one I take with me to gigs and use as my workhorse, but last week I took the Strat to practice and it sounded really great!

"Lefty" and "Wrath"

I've been playing the Strat a lot (considering the very little free time I have) and subjecting my poor family to interesting versions of Robin Trower songs!

Here's me taking a break from doing taxes on Saturday, April 13.  In order to just not post an old boring picture, I used a Photoshop 5.0 preset to touch it up!

 So there it is!  Right or wrong I followed my muse and now have a very nice looking and sounding 1968 replica Fender Stratocaster! Yay!

Adventures of a 1968 lefty Fender Stratocaster Reissue (Part 2 - the final chapter!?)

Well, it took me long enough!  :)  Well, to the point.  After my last post, I spoke to several people whom I consider experts in the matter, including a luthier, a guitar manufacturing guy, a guitar sales guy and someone from another shop.  A good friend of mine also helped me with the research and was basically told the same thing by the folks he spoke to: that the guitar should be left untouched.

I really tried to find reasons to keep it, but unless I learn to play left handed, it's probably best that the guitar goes to someone who will play it and enjoy it (and who can play left-handed as well!).

I still think the two guys I spoke to originally were pretty sneaky and dismissive.  True, they didn't have to be helpful since they're in the business of making money, but I think there's more to being a business person than that.  A few days after my original experience, I talked to a very reputable luthier in the area, and he in essence told me the same thing as the other guys.  The difference was that he actually took the time (about 20 minutes of his time) to explain to me why the modifications I wanted to make were more complicated than what I had thought, and he also went into detail on what it would take to make it work (at a significant expense) but basically, unless one's making a living playing in a Hendrix tribute band or something, in the end it's best just to leave the guitars as they are.  He explained things to me very clearly and in terms I could understand.  He didn't get any business from me at the time, but who do you think I will think of when I have guitar repair needs or when I am in the position of recommending someone?  There were other people to whom I spoke who were very nice and respectful.  They offered their respective services and depending on how this goes, I will definitely take them up on it.  However, I still won't be going to that original shop anymore!

There were some happy things that came out of this experience.  First, since I was itching to play, I went to the dark depths of my garage to retrieve an old Ibanez Electric I got back in the early 90's and that had sat, neglected for years!  I cleaned it up as best as I could, got new strings and now I have a wonderful-sounding electric guitar again!  Very soon, I will be taking it in for a nice guitar tune-up, and guess where I'll take it?  I also went and retrieved my old bass from a closet, wiped it clean, got new strings and got into playing it again!  I also have a nice Ibanez acoustic guitar that needs some repairs, so I'll be dealing with that, hopefully very soon.

Even though I'm still a little rusty, my bass playing apparently was good enough where I think I may have joined a band!  (we've been rehearsing once a week for about a month, and I * think * I got the job).

So all's well and I hope the lefty Strat finds a good home.  In the meantime, it'll be here, safe with me!  :)

Pics of my axes will be coming up soon.

So, what do you think?  Do you think I'm doing the right thing?  Any further advice?  Also, check out the band links and tell me what you think (it's not me in the recordings obviously), but we'll be playing some shows soon starting this coming Saturday.  Pretty exciting!