Nothing to Fear ist einer von Franks (Badenius) Texten, die mich sofort zur Gitarre greifen ließen.

Der besondere Clou war hier, dass ich schon mehrere Wochen mit dem leicht wiegenden Groove herumgespielt hatte, ohne dass mir dazu etwas Passendes (und vor allem Sinnvolles) eingefallen wäre.

Dann landet plötzlich dieser Text in meiner eMail, und die Teile fügen sich gespenstisch von selber zusammen.

Es gibt mehrere Aufnahmen dieses Liedes; zuerst hatte ich versucht "clever" zu sein – es gab eine Version voller Synthies, und dann eine "klassische" Variante – aber ich war nie ganz zufrieden.

Nach längerem Hin und Her habe ich dann eine Version eingespielt, auf der der originale Gitarrengroove zu hören ist.

Im Solo versuche ich ein wenig an George Harrison zu erinnern, der einen himmlischen Slide-Stil hatte. Ich spiele meine Epiphone Casino.

Die Rhythmusgitarren sind neben der Casino, meine Les Paul Junior und eine Fender Telecaster. Der Bass ist ein selbstgebauter Bass, dessen Hals und MusicMan-artiger Tonabnehmer von Rockinger sind.

Hier ist der Song: Nothing To Fear (2005 version)

Greetings my dear readers. Do you like rock? Do you sing your favorite songs in the car, house, office or in a party? Have you ever dream to play a professional guitar? Yeah, like you favorite rock star. I DO!

I like to sing anytime and everywhere, I tried to learn music few years ago and also I had been in 2 or 3 amateur bands, but never as the one I joined recently "HE SHOT ME" remember this name cause you will hear more about it! XD And with this band my dream came true, I played an amazing, pink and beautiful guitar... The Fender Pink Paisley!

Ely Guerra used to play with the Fender Paisley in her presentations, Elvis, Ricky Nelson, Merle Haggard and James Burton also played this guitar and now the next in the list is Hilda Segur!

I was jamming! It was one of the best moments of my life. It was my first try so I apologize for the quality of the sound, video, interpretation, <fill the blank>.

Segur. Hey that guitar is pink! Woa...

C.J. Yes, it's your guitar...

Segur. Woot? <Stunned>.

Bisogna solo stare attenti all' uso che se ne fa.
Per zittire il chiacchierone della prima fila basta percuotere la chitarra e alzare a 11 il volume dell'ampli , mentre per la lingua del commensale antipatico è molto più difficile. Tagliargliela di netto a tavola è maleducazione e sporca i commensali simpatici , ma una julienne di patate croccanti e asiago di solito sortisce un effetto simile: resterà muto almeno per i minuti dedicati a consumare il piatto.

Per preparare questa delizia ci vuole circa metà Ok Computer o poco più . Arrivati a Karma Police dovreste aver quasi finito.

Patate di buona qualità (no supermercato please), sbucciate , lavate e tagliatele a julienne fine con il coltellazzo di cui sopra . Lavatele ancora una volta in modo che perdano tutto l'amido che possono , le aiuterà ad essere ancora più croccanti.
Tamponatele per bene asciugandole con un panno morbido.

Mettete sul fuoco una padella senza niente e fatela scaldare fino a renderla rovente, e nel frattempo prendete un bel pezzo di asiago e fatene delle strisce o dei cubetti di mezzo centimetro di altezza.
Appena la padela è rovente prendete un pò di patate con una schiumarola e "modellate" un disco di julienne , poi appoggiatelo sulla padella cercando di mantenere una forma tondeggiante.
Dopo qualche minuto le patate si saranno abbrustolite per bene sulla base , mettete ora i pezzetti di asiago al centro del tondo e coprite con un altro disco di patate julienne. Girate.

Lasciate abrustolire anche il nuovo lato , il calore farà ammorbidire il cuore di formaggio.

Passate l'hamburger di patate e formaggio per 5 minuti al forno , a 200 gradi.

Un pò di radicchio in padella , morbido e d amarognolo, si accompagna bene al piatto e bilancia la croccante delicatezza della patata e del formaggio.
Spolverata di pepe a caldo, e la lingua scomoda è occupata per un pò.

Armi molto pericolose.

 

I bought a Fender Telecaster over the weekend on eBay.  I’m so fired up to get it and the seller tells me it will be delivered to my work on Friday (tomorrow)!  Awesome.

For you git-heads, it’s not anything super collectable or rare, just a Fender Telecaster Custom ’62 reissue.  This is basically a replica of the double-bound pre-CBS Tele with a Bigsby.  The finish is a nice three-tone sunburst.  I like the rosewood fretboard and yellowed (faux aged) finish on the neck.  And dang if a double-bound Tele isn’t the best looking Tele of all time.  These Japanese-made Tele are really well made and have a nice vibe.  They are light but very solid and tight.

Why did I buy this guitar?  Well, it’s going to be a little customization project for me. 

Round One will be minor.  I’ll get it set-up and make sure the Bigsby is properly dialed-in.  And I’ll have the control plate flipped so that the switch is towards the back of the guitar and out of the way of my over-zealous strumming.  I’ll swap the position of the volume and tone knobs as well so the final product is volume-tone-switch instead of the standard switch-volume-tone.  Also, I’ll have the back of the neck lightly steel-wooled to make it slick and smooth (by the way, that is a non-permanent change as a little time on the buffing wheel brings the shine right back).  No major surgery.

Round Two is still in the planning phase, but right now it looks like it will involve removing the standard neck pickup, doing a little routing of the body and cutting of the pickguard to install two Gretsch DeArmond Dynasonic pickups.  It will then have three pickups, the Gretsch pickups in the neck and middle position, and the standard Tele pickup in the bridge position.  I’ll also put in a five-way switch so that I can mix and match up a storm.  I might even change out the knobs to be chrome Gretsch knobs?

On option for Round Two might be using Gretsch Filtertrons instead of Dynasonics.  Or maybe even Rickenbacker toaster pickups.  Or maybe some mini-humbuckers.  Or maybe… I can go on all day, but I think it will be the Dynasonics.  I like the single coil twang of those.

I doubt there will a Round Three.

I’ll keep you posted.  Let me know if you have any good ideas.

Nike has a sneaker called the Dunk SB. What makes them so unique and interesting is that they follow popular culture in design. Nike creates an individual sneaker series that follows different aspects of pop icons in movies, music, sports, and the entertainment world. The sneakers like rock posters can be very expensive due to limited editions and releases. Some of the Dunks Nike has made in the past are now worth over two thousand dollars.

Recently, Nike created a bunch of dunks modeled after different music acts. They have featured such bands as Guns & Roses , U2, De La Soul and the Clash just to name a few. Nike’s next dunks, due out in a couple weeks are another version of the already released Strummer Dunk Low. These sneakers are based around The Clash lead singer Joe Strummer’s 1966 Fender Telecaster.

"Seen here is the other model added to the Strummer equation.The previously viewed model can be considered the After model while this new look is the Before model. The sneakers represent the progression of Strummer’s guitar over the years from its brand new untarnished state to its eventual resting place after Joe Strummer’s death in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame."

-via Hypebeast

Fa temps, anys, que no li seguia el rastre i avui he pogut escoltar per la ràdio aquest single del nou àlbum. Radio Nowhere és una cançó rítmica, comercial que diríem i mostra l'Springsteen més teen. Em recorda el Bruce dels 80, deixant una mica de banda el caràcter més intimista dels seus últims treballs. Segurament està acompanyat de la E Street Band hi haurà tingut quelcom a veure. Sentir el saxo de Clemons, els teclats de Roy Bittan o les guitarres del mateix Bruce o de Nils Lofgren, ah! i les panderetes de Patti Scialfa (aquí guitarrista), quin gust!.

El vídeo és d'un directe de promoció gravat als carrers de NYC i té mèrit veure com s'aguanta perfectament tot el so de la banda tres dècades després. No podríem dir el mateix dels Police, però bé això és un altre post i amb fotos i tot.

Per cert, fem una col·lecta per comprar-li una nova Fender Telecaster al mestre?. La té molt futuda. Em sembla que ja no té ni cordes.

I was trying to find my way home,
But all I heard was a drone.
Bouncin' off a satellite
Crushing the last long American night.

This is radio nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?
This is radio nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?

I was sitting around a dirt dial
Just another lost number in a file.
Been in some kinda dark cove
Just searching for a world with some soul.

This is radio nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?
This is radio nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?
Is there anybody alive out there?

I just want to hear some rhythm.
I just want to hear some rhythm
I just want to hear some rhythm.
I just want to hear some rhythm.

I want a thousand guitars.
I want pounding drums.
I want a million different voices speaking in tongues.

This is radio nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?
This is radio nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?
Is there anybody alive out there?

I was driving thru the misty rain
Yeah, searching for a mystery train.
Bopping thru the wild blue
Trying to make a connection with you.

This is radio nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?
This is radio nowhere.
Is there anybody alive out there?
Is there anybody alive out there?

I just want to hear some rhythm (you swoon.)
I just want to hear some rhythm (you swoon.)
I just want to hear you swoon.
I just want to hear you swoon.
I just want to hear you swoon.
I just want to hear you swoon.
I just want to hear you swoon.
I just want to hear you swoon.

The Telecaster being the first mass-produced, solid body electric guitar already gives it some well-deserved pride in the realm of guitars. And since it is the first solid body, it sets the bar for conservative looks in solid body guitars. A plain finish, 2 single coil pickups, and a basic neck set the definition for the minimalist electric guitar. Oddly enough, it became one of the most iconic items in amplified music. Known to break out blues, rock, rockabilly, country, jazz, punk, and - Courtesy of John 5 of Marilyn Manson - even metal. The telecaster will be around forever, but the question this entry asks is, is the Made in Mexico Telecaster doing a good job to continue the legacy?

The Specs: The standard telecaster shape carved from a block of Alder, a maple neck, and your choice of a maple or rosewood fretboard. I'll discuss the differences later, but for the sake of this post we're going to be talking about the one with a maple fretboard. 21 Fret neck with Medium jumbo frets, fender Made in Mexico (MIM) telecaster pickups with a 3 way pickup selector, 1 volume and 1 tone knob. Unlike classic telecasters, the bridge on this has individual saddles instead of the 3, and this is another thing i'll address later in a little bit more detail as I try to keep my opinions and judgement out of the specs section.

The Neck: I've been wrestling with the possibility of being able to call a neck "boring." It might be a good thing because it gives you time to think about the other things on the guitar, but if being able to ignore the neck is what defines "boring", then the neck on the MIM Telecaster is far from boring. It has Fender's standard C neck profile (Still looking for exact measurements out there. If anyone has first fret and 12th fret measurements, send me an email or leave a comment) which has, to my knowledge, remained similar for a very long time.

Now I get to the maple vs. rosewood discussion (with myself, mind you) that I intended to come back to, and now here we are. There are a few pros and cons, each of which one should consider when purchasing a MIM Telecaster. On the maple pros side, the tone is brighter and classic Telecaster. On the rosewood pros side, it's warmer, has a little softer feel to the fingers because it doesn't get satin finished, and has the dark rosewood look, giving a very unique telecaster look. On the cons side of each, maple gets visually dirty quickly, you can see bad fretwork (Another issue I intend to come to in the neck section, guaranteed to be a long section) very easily, and the finish they use on the MIM Tele for the fretboard is pretty bad. On the rosewood side, you're not getting a truly real telecaster, it gets dirtier and is a lot harder to clean than a satin finished maple fretboard.

The biggest issue on the neck is the fretwork. I dare say some of the poorest i've seen. What's odd is that i've watched videos of the Made In Mexico factory, and they don't look like incompetent workers. They look like people who know how to make a guitar, but when I see the fretwork on the maple necks of MIM Teles, I start to cringe. I think of how my finger is going to feel running over those sharp edges when I move up the neck too fast. Stewmac sells fret finishing files for pretty cheap, so I can't imagine that they can't round the edges like Ibanez does on their Prestige models. It would take a few passes, but would make a world of difference.

The Body: Alder accompanied with maple is a pretty bright combination for a guitar. The old telecasters were made out of Ash and the Fender American classics are made out of ash, but Alder is the choice for the MIM. And one thing that made the telecaster notorious, leading to the invention of the Strat was the lack of a beveled body and carved arm rest. Players sitting and playing guitar would get the same fatigue they get from sharp acoustic edges, but faster because the body was heavier and more compressed into certain areas. I've seen modifications on the idea through Peavey guitars. They make a tele-style guitar for Jerry Donahue, the guitarist for the Hellecasters, and they round the edges just enough to keep the telecaster look but take away some of the faults of a squared body.

The Electronics: The MIM uses slightly more powerful pickups to make sure that their reasonably priced guitar doesn't have a sound too focused in one tonal direction. The lower output pickups being more aimed towards clean playing, and the hotter Highway One pickups aimed to be a little more rock oriented. These seem to land in the middle to be as versatile as 2 single coils in a bright body could possibly be.

The Hardware: The tuners are fine. Nothing out of the ordinary there. But what I did say was different was the use of a bridge with individual saddles for each string instead of a 3 saddle classic style bridge. Fanatics out there will say that it's not a telecaster unless it's got the classic brass 3 saddle bridge, and I completely agree. However, this is trying to be as real of a telecaster as possible to the guitarist on a limited budget. The thing about the 3 saddle bridges is that they aren't that great for intonation, and just when you think you can angle one of those suckers, it moves. So for the sake of this guitar, I think a six saddle bridge is good. You can adjust each string's action and intonation, a necessity on a guitar with a neck that probably isn't as straight as it should be, and frets that aren't as level as they should be.

One of the big gripes about teles is the output jack. It's one of the worst parts of teles, and uses some seriously bad ideas. In order to have it stay in, you need to tighten a screw on the inside that pushes out a bent metal piece and locks it in place. Warmoth creates a jack plate with 2 screw holes so you don't have to blindly fiddle with the output jack to get it back into the guitar. It's too bad Fender didn't pick up on it or just switch to a recessed input jack like an ibanez or a standard flat jack plate. I've fussed with this thing for long times after some repair sessions, and this is definitely some bitter icing to put on a cake made with hours of guitar work.

The Whole She-bang: When you plug it in, you get something reminiscent of a telecaster tone, and reminiscent of a telecaster feel, but all in all this isn't such a great guitar. The only true possibilities for it are as a base for some massive Frankenstein experimentation like pickups, sanding, paint and finish. When you get one, it's poorly set up, it has bad fretwork, mediocre neck finishing, and the burdensome input jack plate that you know you're going to have to worry about in the near future. If you walk into a guitar store and you look at it from afar, and it looks like a telecaster, but when you get closer you figure out really fast that it's not a real Telecaster. There are some guitars that when you pick up, you feel like there's a reason you'd spend the money on it, and i'm not going to lie, this isn't one of them. I have yet to be slightly impressed, let alone blown away, by anything that has ever come out of Fender Mexico. I mean, at least Fender Japan created some good instruments and had some quality control, but Fender Mexico is about the same as a Squier, except the spelling is different on the headstock.

Do yourself a favor, if you're planning on getting a Fender MIM Telecaster, have a game plan. Plan on re-crowning the frets, filing the edges, replacing the bland pickups with ones more suitable for whatever style, be they tele-sized humbuckers or classic Fender Pickups, and plan on setting this thing up from scratch. If you can work magic on a guitar, this might be right up your alley as a project guitar. In fact, I think it's most redeeming quality are how much you can do to it to make a Tele unique. Say you get it at the start of your guitar career, you can update it to your preferences as you go along because it's a Fender, and has more replacement part options than a Honda Civic. On that note, it might be a perfect beginners guitar after a little TLC from someone experienced, but if you plan to buy the Fender MIM Telecaster and hand it to someone straight from the box/store without someone looking at it, be sure to give them the receipt too.

The Pros: Tele styling, semi-tele tone, Fender name, Fender neck feel, easily upgradeable and changeable

The Cons: Poorly done frets, mediocre satin-finish, boring sound, output jack, and pretty much everything else I missed.

The Grade:

Well the concert was great and I agree with everything said in the NZ Herald review, in fact it really stole my thunder and it's great to see a nice review in the paper that doesn't spend time aggrandising the reviewer and tells it how we all saw it. What a great night.

Elton flew in from Sydney in the late afternoon, came to town, did his sound checks, relaxed did the gig and within an hour was back on his plane to Sydney. Given that this is his 3rd trip down here in 3 years (I said not in Auckland remember?) I guess all I can be is grateful that he took the time to pop down and share with us. As he said, it is such a long way to come.

We love Elton down here (who doesn't) and he always gives a great show and although he didn't talk much, he took the time to do autographs for everyone in the front row of the stage which was awesome in these paranoic days and kudos to security for not getting carried away, which you see overseas all the time.

As to the music, it was awesome, it was a wonder I could play at my own gig last night after shouting and singing for almost 3 hours. There was some virtuoso piano playing which was awesome to listen to and watch on thebig screens. How does he play so well with his little hands? One of my favourites was his 10-12 minute rendition of Rocket Man and the others were almost everything he played.

I mustn't forget Davey Johnstone, the awesome guitar player from Scotland, now of Los Angeles, who's stage collection of guitars made my 6 look puny. Davey has played with Elton for many years as well as on the Tommy show. He ha also featured on a number of Elton John Albums including Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in 2001. He has worked with a Who's Who of artists in the past. He even merits his own page in Wikipedia. He first played with Elton as early as 1972 on Honkey Chateau which was Elton's first number one album in the US.

Amongst the guitars that caught my attention at the show were a Fender Strat and a Fender Tele, Gibson Les Paul, Gibson Flying V, 2 double neck guitars that I suspect might be Rickenbakkers, one tuned for slide and the other including a 12 string. Then there were 4 (I think accoustic guitars including a 12 string and a nylon string and then there was the banjo. I told my wife that I have some buying to do, but first of all I had better sell some songs. Anyone looking for a new country song?

Elton John aka Reginald Dwight is a legend. He's been around and started performing before I was born and I've been around a while. I could tell you what I was doing and where my life was at when a number of his songs were released and I'm sure you could do the same with songs like Rocket Man, Daniel, Song for Guy, Candle in the Wind......... I don't need to mention them all, you know them. Of course Bernie Taupin was a major factor in his success he has continued to write and reinvent himself and is still current in my book with recent works including work on Lion King, Billy Elliot and loads more including loads of benefits, the tribute to Princess Diana and some awesome DVD's and specials.

What impressed me more than anything was that at 61 years old and having been through so much in his life, his voice is as strong as ever, capable of bellowing out for 3 hours, his keyboard playing is if anything continuing to develop, especially creatively. Watching him on stage, other than his acrobatics being a little more subdued you wouldn't have thought him more than 40 years old.

Thanks Elton, for coming down to New Zealand again, you have adoring fans aged from 8 to 80 and you will always find a warm welcome and big audience, even at the crazy prices they charged. One final footnote on the Vector Arena. The accoustics aren't great, but the sound engineers did a brilliant job. It's hard enough to make sure people get good sound throughout a major venue, but even more so with such challenging accoustics. Kudos guys.

These are my thoughts after going to NAMM. It's been 3 months, and it's taken about that much time for my euphoria to wear off, and ideas to settle in, or at least have some effect on me. So lets get going.

Going to NAMM was a life changing experience for me. It really was. Being someone who wants to spend their life involved in musical instruments and music, experiencing something like NAMM was valuable and necessary. And while the experience NAMM gave me was inevitable, i'm glad it happened early in my life. Rather than dancing around it with pseudoartistic jabber, I might as well just come out and say it:

Music is a business.

You hear those words spoken - "Music Business" is household fodder for future (un)employees - but it took a very large event for it to set in.

My pre-namm experience was involved in blogs and magazines, seeing all the new gear surrounded by musical A-listers and scantily clad women who wouldn't know a Fender from a Gibson if the booths were right next to each other. And if you'll excuse the self-righteous NAMM booth humor (something I'll try to avoid it from now on) you'll get a slight glimpse at what I mean by "business." All I knew about NAMM were in journalist pictures and magazines, but they don't show you who is really there, and why it's really there.

I'm going to guess that 99% of the people there are just lookers, gawkers, rubberneckers and the like, enjoying the new eye candy of musical instruments that are being created. And out of a tens of thousands of people that go to NAMM, those (we, actually) aren't the people that matter much. We are dressed in musical oriented clothes, walking shoes, and our wallets don't have much in mind except for the food.

And then you see the people and sights they never show you in the magazines. The suits, ties, briefcases, back rooms, two-story booths, soundproof rooms, velvet ropes, business schedules, meetings, power lunches, special areas, the entire hotel 1st floor bought by Yamaha, the Roundtables with the candy dish in the middle, the paperwork, and the nicely combed hair. Guitar World/Player/One would never show you that. Well, why would they? It's not like it would sell issues (Re: Business).

You start to realize that the stores that sell a lot of guitars are not guitar meritocracies. The best guitars aren't sold at Guitar Center, Samash, Musicians Friend or Music123. They are merely (I should say "probably, because this is all hearsay now) there for their name, and the amount of money they bring in. For instance, a Fender Relic, now the basis for all things overpriced in the guitar industry, costs a few thousand dollars to sell. Chances are, that guitar cost the exact same to make as the Made In Mexico 70's reissues, and even they are overpriced.

So the manufacturers sell them wholesale to one of these big musical instrument selling companies for a low price, and then the company sells them to us for a higher price. I'm going to make an educated guess and assume the reason all of those guitars are at the big-name stores, is solely because they bring in the most money. Thus reducing your guitar buying options at the big stores to profit margins, rather than quality. Gibson, Fender, PRS, ESP, are only known brands because the people buy them, and the retailers get a good deal. You'd probably never see a Suhr or a Vigier at a big namer because they probably couldn't turn a good profit.

I think what solidified my ideas that it's a business was being in the ESP booth. It was all rock-and-rolled, videos playing, cool guitars on the wall. Then I standing in a certain place, and a door opened. Out of the door came around 8 men in business suits, shaking hands and smiling. Not a single one looked like a guitar player, or even a guitar player in disguise. I am in the room which is a large upstairs conference room, dressed to the nines in the finest in metal regalia, and there went what looked to be wall street's finest. They probably just sold a couple thousand guitars in futures, or made a deal with an overseas manufacturing company to lower the manufacturing costs of parts fifteen percent.

That's when it dawned on me to look at everything there in a different light. All of the manufacturers of cheap guitars probably couldn't play one if handed to them. They were there for a profit, and turning plywood, lumber scraps, and cheap mass produced parts into money was why they were there.

You go to a hardware store, and there are rows and rows and rows of screws, big and small, costing a couple cents. Metal door brackets and hinges, a few dollars. Plastic knobs and plates for switches, a dollar or two. Lumberyard's full of wood, a couple bucks for large pieces. All of these mass produced parts parallel to guitars. Tuners, bridges, knobs, switches, plates, and all of the simple things don't add up to the cost of a Squier strat, especially when they are being mass produced. Necks, bodies, pickups, and everything but painting and assembly are automated, but we are still paying big bucks. It's what we expect, as guitar players.

Want something with a clear finish? Extra 70 bucks. Gold plated hardware? 50 bucks. Floating bridge? 200 bucks. Hollowbody? Upper range. Thin nitro finish? Upper range. Locking tuners? Extra 100 bucks. New pickups? 70 bucks. You all know this, and you've come to expect this.

But knowing the details is not very rock and roll. This hobby of mine was born and raised in the ear canals of rock and roll Venice, and I didn't want it to be sold to the lowest bidder. I didn't want to know that the reason Guitar Center had my Gibson SG was because they probably made a huge deal of money off of it. I didn't want to know that my gear heaven known as NAMM, is really just for big businesses to make deals. I didn't want to see the Chinese manufacturers sitting at a table, waiting for one of the big companies to come to them so they could make the most profit.

You try and justify the price you pay that there's some guy working in a factory on your guitar. That the measly 400 dollars you spend on a Mexican Strat is worth it. Then you realize that there are a good amount of people who specialize in that part, and they spend the better part of 5 minutes on it. Bolting on a neck, clamping the sides, installing tuners, drilling holes, removing things from giant machines. They get paid wage a few bucks above minimum, if not minimum. Aside from the paint and finish drying, it probably spends very little time in someone's hands. Probably a good 15 dollars out of the company's pocket worth of labor, and that's pushing it. 20 bucks total for the parts, pushing it again. Manufacturing has been paid off, so probably a dollar or two for maintenance of the machines. We're talking anywhere from 8 to 30 times the profit for something people yearn for.

The problem is there's no competition. I'm beating the dead horse of my ill-fated "Why I Hate Guitar Center" post, but unlike the computer industry all prices just keep going up for us while quality drops.

I saw NAMM. I saw the celebrities paid to be there. I saw the small companies trying to break into the market. I saw the new gear, the booth babes, the lights, the smells. I got the blisters from walking, I saw Johnny Demarco (!!!), I saw the elaborate booths. And I realized that none of it was for me. Any guitar player would be happy with a booth full of guitars, and had the bar not been set so high, i'm sure that's what NAMM would've been like. Instead it was the largest building i'd ever been to, enormous booths, louder than hell, and it was an overload.

But what does it all mean? Will it change a thing that I know this? Nope. I'm still going to go to Guitar Center, i'm going to pay 1700 dollars for the Eric Johnson Strat (someday...) which cost probably under a hundred to make. I'm going to keep on truckin through the business part of it. Pay a dollar for a song, 2 for a ringtone,
50 for a doorknob or whatever I buy, and continue to realize that music is a business. But so is everything else, so I should shut my mouth because some day i'm going to be in this business, and you're going to pay for my Eric Johnson strat.

The end.

I await loads of criticism, both foreign and domestic. Including the job offers from Fender and Gibson for a billion dollar a year contract for me to sit around in the Charvel office or the Gibson Supreme office being the guy who criticizes everything, but still enjoys it all.

Me and music, we have a love/hate relationship. I love all of this stuff, but I hate seeing people in suits.