I buy what I want. Basic rule of American Capitalism, right? I guess it can be interesting to talk about what I don't buy, as well, right? For example- I've bought two guitars since starting this blog, right? Why didn't I buy some other guitars?
Right, well, I didn't buy a Gibson because while the cost is high, the quality control is about as varied as the cheapest guitars- so why spend the extra? Two grand expenditures seem like a heck of a gamble. Likewise, Fender guitars are more consistent than Gibson, but they're very little better than their much cheaper Squier range- so I would consider a Squier, well before a Fender- however, at the same price point, there are literally dozens of other brands that achieve the same thing as a Squier, so there's no real reason to go with Squier as opposed to Agile, SX, Douglas, Stagg, Jay Turser etc, etc.
Of course, I could try to find some hand built custom thing, but it's hard to justify paying the same price as a used car, when I could get very near to the same place at the price of a nice night out.
Likewise, there's a lot of "cork sniffery" with buying effect pedals. I believe the "cork sniffer" tag got applied to guys who, much like a buyer of fine wine, spent enormous amounts of cash to buy something with probably less actual use than a much cheaper variation. You don't drink a 6000 dollar bottle of wine, you might sniff the cork. Well, likewise with effects pedals- I've seen, very recently, bids higher than what I paid for my effects pedals on some Devi Ever aborted attempts- I mean three figures for an effect pedal that all it has going for it is that Devi Ever might possibly have touched it. Seriously! They're even clearly labelled as "non functioning". I've also seen high dollar bids on the box or instruction manual for an effect pedal- so, why didn't I buy a Devi Ever, or Earthquaker Devices, or Fultone pedal? Because I'm not interested in sniffing the cork, nor in spending quadruple the amount to get to the same place.
My basic point is that I don't buy stuff without thought, and careful analysis. So, why I'm not some kind of label groupie, or connoisseur should be obvious. Less obvious is why I don't have a bunch of the cheapest chinese made knockoffs- and the answer to that is simple - most of that stuff won't get me to where I want to go. Example- the Danelectro 600MS delay pedal I got just does not suit my purposes. The decay rate is too short, the depth is too extreme, it just doesn't sound right. So, I've got two of the Donner Yellow Fall echo pedals, and that gets exactly where I want. Costs more, but it was the most direct route to the sound I was after ( somewhere between Geordie and Surf Music)
The same thing goes for other purchases- jeans, Cars, Houses, you name it- I don't buy what I don't want, so one of the keys to this project is getting a clearer idea of what I want- and honing in on exactly that. Whether you do it in a blog, or with your friends, or just in your head- I'd suggest that everybody do that.
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Monday, June 16, 2014
A Quick Follow Up
My PureSalem now has a name! I have been emailing with Rick Sell, who not only confirmed that it is, in fact, a PureSalem protoype, and that the body is a solid piece of mahogany, attached to a solid Mahogany Neck- that he likes my name for the model- so, it's now officially a "Louie". I know, naming guitars is just a childish thing, but this is at a slightly different level. You can say it's yet more childish, but considering the names for his other guitars : Brave Ulysses, Tom Cat, and Sad Fester, I think it's a vote of confidence that he agrees with the name "Louie De Palma"- the guitar is short, dark, angry and has no tone control.
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Another Guitar??
Yes, I bought another guitar. Now, you might think that this blog is about buying guitar stuff, and in the micro-sense, it might be. What I mean for it to be is a documentation of how I'm finding my way, in what I purchase. I don't mean letting my stuff define me, but the reverse- how my self-definitions play into what I purchase.So, I'm finding that, as a complete music nerd, the most resonant ( geddit?) purchases are those that involve music. I don't know why I'm so stuck on music. My Dad played guitar, but not professionally. My Mom sang in the church choir, but again, nothing professional. I can't tell you why I started trying to be a roadie at 15, a sound engineer at 25, joining bands in between, and not really quitting that circus until I was 37, thus meaning that somewhere around half my working life was based on music and sound. So, at this point, me buying guitars isn't about fulfilling a fantasy of being a rock star or something. It's more like a woodworker buying a new Bosch circular saw, or a day trader buying some penny stocks. It's me asserting my little self over the course of my time, here.
That doesn't mean that I'm not aspirational. If I had the money for it, I'd have a Martin D-28, customized to be fully left handed, and a vintage Jazzmaster, again lefty, and a couple of Gibson guitars, most likely a vintage Melody Maker and an early 1970's SG, and a Mesa Boogie Mark II, and an Orange custom Reverb, and an H&H I/C 100, and so on, and so on. Two of those "aspirational" things are the lovely guitars from PureSalem, and vintage, early 1960's mutant guitars- you know Supros, Nationals, Burns, Danelectro, Silvertone, Teisco, and so on.
So, by a fluke, I was able to meet several of those aspirational desires, this week. I got a PureSalem guitar. Don't look for it on their website, because, when Rick Sells was looking to make his guitar company, he tried out several designs at several different manufacturers. The prototypes that he made that represented manufacturers that he didn't ultimately go with, he sold on Ebay a few years back. One of these was bought by a fellow lefty less than 10 miles from me. I never knew that guy, but he decided to sell his prototype on Ebay, and I bought it. So, mark the "PureSalem" box checked. How about the mutant factor? Well, the design is about one half a Silvertone/Danelectro 1448, with the remaining half taking bits from the Silvertone/Kay 1410, and the 1963 Gibson Melody Maker. Doesn't that pretty much fill the bill?
See, it's a solid slab ( I can find no seams, joints, or bindings, and the stain and poly are fairly thin, leading me to believe it's real, solid wood) of what appears to be Mahogany, with a definite, and set Mahogany neck, and a single pick up- so you've got your Gibson there. The small scale (17 Fret) neck, the body shape, all on one side tuners with a paddle headstock definitely calls up the 1448. The red color, pickguard shape and humbucker voicing calls up the 1410, but really, yes, this is a mutant. It's got a few problems, typical of this kind of purchase- there's some glue on the neck from where they were sloppy installing the nut, the action is set on Slide ( almost a quarter inch up from the body, and about half that from the upper frets. The prior owner liked really thick strings) the Humbucker is a muddy no name, and the tone control has come loose and is therefore useless. But, all that is tweakable.
So, why should you care about my purchase of a guitar you will never, ever own? Why should it matter to anyone but me? In a way- it shouldn't. That's part of my point in this blog. Most folks when they talk about stuff, are trying to make you envious of their stuff. They are saying "I got this, it's cool, and you should want to get this, too". The ultimate aim is for their ego- I have cool stuff, therefore, I'm cool. Well, I know I'm cool enough for me. If you think I'm cool, well, good for you, I guess, but it doesn't matter to me. If you think my stuff is cool, again, good for you, I guess, but it's far more important to me that I think my stuff is cool. What's more important than any of that, is the question of your ego, your cool, and your stuff. See, I'm offering up my process to legitimize your process. So, if, let's say, you're a book collector, and a former Librarian- then, I'm presenting this as an encouragement for you to talk about what makes for a cool book, in your book. Let's say you dig cars- well, then, I'd want to hear about some obscure Auto that only you can explain- get the picture? I'm talking about the stuff as a way to get to the ideas.
In this case the ideas are as follows:
1. It's not magic, but if you follow your muse, your singular desires, eventually, your ideas will manifest. In my case, take a look at the manifestation- this little guitar checks off a lot of boxes, and not necessarily compatible ones, and yet, here it is, purchased for less than the price of a decent family dinner at a restaurant. I don't think it's a deity, or magic force. I think it's a matter of tuning your perceptions, and essentially, creating a radar for the way you want to see the world. I really dig the stuff I was describing above, so I was turning my attention towards it. When things conformed to that set of desires and aesthetics, I would pay more attention to it. That allowed me a better "eye" for what I wanted. I'm not saying we create our own reality, but I'm saying we choose what to put our minds into, and that affects our perception of our actual reality.
2. None of us are alone- think about this- wanting a guitar made by PureSalem, a lefty, and following both Gibson and Sears catalog aesthetics is a pretty obscure, lonely thing- and yet, there was somebody almost within walking distances to me who evidently at least partially shared that aesthetic. That's an incredibly comforting thing- none of us are truly alone, no matter how alienated our lives make us. If you look, you will find like-minded individuals.
3. If you examine both yourself and your "evidence" ( the physical traces of your mental existance) you might come to a different understanding than if you kept it to a purely mental exercise. For example, through this purchase, I've come to understand that most of the reason why I like PureSalem is that these are not "trash" guitars, they just reference guitars that are. So, not only does this guitar scratch the itch, it fills the desire- because nothing is more "trash" than an old Silvertone, but this is actually a fairly high quality guitar, and I wouldn't like it as much if it weren't.
4. Owning something is a collaboration. In this case, there is the guitar, as is, then, there's what I'm doing with it- playing, and tweaking, and adjusting. It doesn't matter if it's a camera or a fridge- it's all an interface between you and the manufacture.
5. Pictures can be better than words- have a look-see:
That doesn't mean that I'm not aspirational. If I had the money for it, I'd have a Martin D-28, customized to be fully left handed, and a vintage Jazzmaster, again lefty, and a couple of Gibson guitars, most likely a vintage Melody Maker and an early 1970's SG, and a Mesa Boogie Mark II, and an Orange custom Reverb, and an H&H I/C 100, and so on, and so on. Two of those "aspirational" things are the lovely guitars from PureSalem, and vintage, early 1960's mutant guitars- you know Supros, Nationals, Burns, Danelectro, Silvertone, Teisco, and so on.
So, by a fluke, I was able to meet several of those aspirational desires, this week. I got a PureSalem guitar. Don't look for it on their website, because, when Rick Sells was looking to make his guitar company, he tried out several designs at several different manufacturers. The prototypes that he made that represented manufacturers that he didn't ultimately go with, he sold on Ebay a few years back. One of these was bought by a fellow lefty less than 10 miles from me. I never knew that guy, but he decided to sell his prototype on Ebay, and I bought it. So, mark the "PureSalem" box checked. How about the mutant factor? Well, the design is about one half a Silvertone/Danelectro 1448, with the remaining half taking bits from the Silvertone/Kay 1410, and the 1963 Gibson Melody Maker. Doesn't that pretty much fill the bill?
See, it's a solid slab ( I can find no seams, joints, or bindings, and the stain and poly are fairly thin, leading me to believe it's real, solid wood) of what appears to be Mahogany, with a definite, and set Mahogany neck, and a single pick up- so you've got your Gibson there. The small scale (17 Fret) neck, the body shape, all on one side tuners with a paddle headstock definitely calls up the 1448. The red color, pickguard shape and humbucker voicing calls up the 1410, but really, yes, this is a mutant. It's got a few problems, typical of this kind of purchase- there's some glue on the neck from where they were sloppy installing the nut, the action is set on Slide ( almost a quarter inch up from the body, and about half that from the upper frets. The prior owner liked really thick strings) the Humbucker is a muddy no name, and the tone control has come loose and is therefore useless. But, all that is tweakable.
So, why should you care about my purchase of a guitar you will never, ever own? Why should it matter to anyone but me? In a way- it shouldn't. That's part of my point in this blog. Most folks when they talk about stuff, are trying to make you envious of their stuff. They are saying "I got this, it's cool, and you should want to get this, too". The ultimate aim is for their ego- I have cool stuff, therefore, I'm cool. Well, I know I'm cool enough for me. If you think I'm cool, well, good for you, I guess, but it doesn't matter to me. If you think my stuff is cool, again, good for you, I guess, but it's far more important to me that I think my stuff is cool. What's more important than any of that, is the question of your ego, your cool, and your stuff. See, I'm offering up my process to legitimize your process. So, if, let's say, you're a book collector, and a former Librarian- then, I'm presenting this as an encouragement for you to talk about what makes for a cool book, in your book. Let's say you dig cars- well, then, I'd want to hear about some obscure Auto that only you can explain- get the picture? I'm talking about the stuff as a way to get to the ideas.
In this case the ideas are as follows:
1. It's not magic, but if you follow your muse, your singular desires, eventually, your ideas will manifest. In my case, take a look at the manifestation- this little guitar checks off a lot of boxes, and not necessarily compatible ones, and yet, here it is, purchased for less than the price of a decent family dinner at a restaurant. I don't think it's a deity, or magic force. I think it's a matter of tuning your perceptions, and essentially, creating a radar for the way you want to see the world. I really dig the stuff I was describing above, so I was turning my attention towards it. When things conformed to that set of desires and aesthetics, I would pay more attention to it. That allowed me a better "eye" for what I wanted. I'm not saying we create our own reality, but I'm saying we choose what to put our minds into, and that affects our perception of our actual reality.
2. None of us are alone- think about this- wanting a guitar made by PureSalem, a lefty, and following both Gibson and Sears catalog aesthetics is a pretty obscure, lonely thing- and yet, there was somebody almost within walking distances to me who evidently at least partially shared that aesthetic. That's an incredibly comforting thing- none of us are truly alone, no matter how alienated our lives make us. If you look, you will find like-minded individuals.
3. If you examine both yourself and your "evidence" ( the physical traces of your mental existance) you might come to a different understanding than if you kept it to a purely mental exercise. For example, through this purchase, I've come to understand that most of the reason why I like PureSalem is that these are not "trash" guitars, they just reference guitars that are. So, not only does this guitar scratch the itch, it fills the desire- because nothing is more "trash" than an old Silvertone, but this is actually a fairly high quality guitar, and I wouldn't like it as much if it weren't.
4. Owning something is a collaboration. In this case, there is the guitar, as is, then, there's what I'm doing with it- playing, and tweaking, and adjusting. It doesn't matter if it's a camera or a fridge- it's all an interface between you and the manufacture.
5. Pictures can be better than words- have a look-see:
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