Time to "thin out the herd"...

It's an expression musicians I know use when they take a look at their equipment and realize that much of it is either redundant or unused, so they decide it's time to sell some of it off. The justification is that you reduce the amount of instrument clutter in your practise room or storage closet - but more often than not the money gets plowed into new gear anyways...

I'm finding myself in this situation right now - especially after talking with my new friend Neil Durant, keyboardist for UK bands IQ and Sphere3. Given the equipment I have in the two racks right now, there is a lot of redundancy especially considering the immensely powerful Muse Receptor and the V-Synth XT that are the mainstays of the rack. This means I've got some few hundred dollars in extra unnecessary rack synths I can put up on eBay (the Yamaha TX81z and the EMu XL-1 being the two of mine, with Paul getting his Triton back) and reclaim some funds, as well as re-purpose the extra road rack case into a rack for my various amp heads.

Speaking of amp heads, I now have 4 amp heads which cover a lot of ground, but also have significant overlap tonally. All my amps list out below:

• Hughes & Kettner Tubemeister 5 head (5W)
• Jet City JCA20hv head (20W)
• Egnator Tweaker 20 head (20W)
• Carvin Legacy 100W head
• Mesa Boogie Nomad 100 combo

There is a significant range of tones to be gotten from the amps above. The Egnator gets me Fender and boutique cleans through British Marshall grunt, the Tubemeister has modern rock down with brutally crystal cleans, Jet City has British and Metal down, while the Carvin and Boogie amps do it all with the power to cover off mid to big mid sized clubs/venues.

I have some decisions to be made...

At this moment, I'd likely let go of the Jet City head because it stands as the least unique of the 5. Next on the list would be the Tubemeister 5 - I'm torn on this since it's a very nice little amp great for just having in the office to plug into quickly. But I can take the money from both the heads and turn them into a Tubemeister 18 or 36 which would do the office but also be great for small to mid sized gigs paired with a 2x12 cabinet. Either of those choices would also be two channel units as opposed to the single channel 5 watt head I have. I bought it knowing it would be a one trick pony - but it's fine since I can move up the model level now that I know it's a great sounding amp.

So I think I just talked myself into that plan. I do also want to sell the Nomad and then grab a Mark V combo - that would seal my deal for amps and tones and likely would never need another amp again. But you never know... 

Now - next up is the guitar collection. This is an especially painful review since (with only the exception of one or two) every instrument is unique and I am reticent to selling even one of them. So I will need to do a net value appraisal of each one and then resolve to sell three total. I haven't started the thought process or appraisal - I guess I can do that now but as I said it's a painful one for me.

So I've gone through a quick check and have a short list of instruments I am considering:

1. 6 string Garrison acoustic guitar (model G40-E) - a very nice guitar, very Martin-y acoustic and very heavy due to the fiberglass infrastructure construction. That would really be the only reason I'm considering selling since its about 30% heavier than a comparable Takamine or Martin. Comes with the original heavy duty hard-shell case, and has a lot of very nice reviews online for those who are looking for info.
2. Yamaha AEX502 semi-acoustic - this is along the lines of the Epiphone Wildkat or Alley Kat guitars, it's got some rockabilly styling in a nice orange stain finish. P-90 pickups on bridge and neck, and perfectly straight maple neck with rosewood fretboard make this thing incredible to play. But now that I have the Godin 5th Ave Kingpin arriving, this is something that needs to go.
3. ESP LTD EC256 road worn singlecut - oh this one I'm on the fence over. Its an amazing guitar and I did a ton of modifications that make it beyond special - Seymour Duncan JB and 59 humbuckers with the split coil switching pickup rings, GraphTech Ghost Acoustiphonic AND MIDI guitar systems. Gibson fine tuning stop tailpiece is the final touch. Super light guitar, rocks like hell! I've also done a mod to the instrument that I worried about (and still do) which was to strip the finish off the back of the neck and then tung oil to get a faster playing instrument. It works very well, but the grain is a bit open on the mahogany and I get concerned since it's a bit ugly and also needs the continual oiling once a year or so. But it plays like a dream and sounds wicked - the MIDI system tracks amazingly well also. Piezo tones don't have the pingy-ness of the older systems either. Its a hard one to give up - but I really want the Alex Lifeson Axxess by Gibson, so its on the list to go...

So that's it - if you have any interest in the above named instruments or amps then drop me a line and we can work out the price and shipping details. Otherwise they're all going up on Craigslist, or as in the case with the Boom Theory drumkit - up on eBay for auction. Some of the stuff will go pretty quick so let me know asap if you're interested.

And - no, Sean, the G&L Tele is still doomed to stay in the collection ;)

May 2014 update

I missed my April update - too much happening, as both life and career took most of my time away from me. But I have made progress in setting up my office as I was able to find a very decent desk (modern and slightly industrial looking) for a very reasonable price. I've also set up pretty much everything now - just had an issue with my main PC's motherboard which Asus is remedying by supplying a replacement. Other than that, I'm now sitting in my office and executing on tasks for my day job and simply taking a few minutes for this update.

It may not be the neatest or most organized looking right now, but everything is set up and will be fully functional shortly. As you can see, most everything is within arms reach - now as spacious as the Bothell house media room, but very comfy cozy and simply needs to have some repainting to make it less of a cave.

I've gone through another round of gear swapping recently - in the process of swapping my recently acquired Yamaha AEX 502 in exchange for a Godin 5th Avenue singlecut with P-90 pickups. I also acquired a really nice La Patrie Etude (made by Godin) classical guitar in exchange for my Yamaha classical with someone at work. Both changes will get me a much better playing instrument, with a slightly different tonality that I think will work better for what I plan on doing.

One of the big challenges in the new office/studio is the echo from bare walls and high ceiling. I've got some instructions on building "decorative" sound absorption panels that will hang on the walls like artwork, and up in the cathedral sloped ceiling on the front and back side of the room. That will make the room less obvious for sure when recording, or in the case of executing on my day job - taking conference calls over the hands free feature. The high ceiling also has a dome type light which is very difficult to change bulbs out as well as even with 3 60W equivalent LED bulbs, the color of the room is so dark and not terribly pleasant color either, that the light just gets sucked up like a black body object. I get pretty fatigued working in the room as a result, so a new paint will be needed soon.

To close off the post, I'm getting more chance to play around with guitars and keyboards these days - the proximity of the instruments helps with that. I've been getting some interesting ideas, progressions, & riffs happening. Such that I think now that the new mobo is due to arrive today, once that's swapped out I can start doing some recording and lay the ideas down before they disappear. Don't expect anything to appear terribly quickly - this is still embryonic stage, but in a month or two I'll be able to call up the other guys and have something as a starting point to jam on.

Have a great month and I'll post next when I have anything to report. Hope to have audio tracks to demo here for you.