The Jam Room Blog Thread.

[RAGER]

Time do fly.

[Danny G]

I learned back in the mid 2000s that if I'm going to spend 9 months putting a lineup together around an album's worth of tunes I wrote it should be MY BAND.

I was crystal clear about my goals for the project and all agreed, but I made the mistake of making it a democracy.

What happened? After the first 3-day weekend of out-of-town shows I booked, we get back and half the band is bitching about travel, and didn't want to do it again until it was "worth their while."

"If we do this route 3 times, by the third it WILL be worth our while. That's how it works."

I get that some people have no desire to travel, or simply cannot due to life and family obligations etc.

But when I'm literally telling them on the phone "This will be a project that TRAVELS" and they say they are ok with it, then suddenly change their minds once we do.... ugh. Pussies.

I should have disbanded the project then and there or fired them both. But, I stupidly made it a democracy.

Singer wanted to use the business model of "Let's make a REALLY GOOD ALBUM and if it gets picked up, *then* we can travel."

I have never. Ever. Seen. That. Business. Model. Work. Ever.

And even *if* it did, the band would implode on the first actual tour, because (1) they are not already acclimated to touring as a unit and (2) the people who didn't want to travel would make life miserable for those in the band who did, which destroys morale.

"Build an army of PROFESSIONALS."
- Sun-Tzu, "The Art of War"


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RAGER]

The only way that's gonna work is if it doesn't cost anybody other than your self and you pay them a per diem. Just like if you were to play as a touring musician. I'm sure you've done exactly that. If it's gonna be YOUR band. Oh there's always gonna be bitching about something.

[Danny G]

Yup.

When I did put a band together that was my band, we couldn't do much cause I'm broke.
Haha well, shit.

So the least I could do was make it as pleasant and fun experience to be in as humanly possible.

We make any money, I give it to them. Work around their schedules. Help everyone load their gear. Drive everyone who wants a ride to/from the gig. Never EVER yell at or get mad at anyone onstage or off. Pay for the hourly jam room myself. Even tho I wrote pretty much every note on every instrument, let them still have their own voice and take on it.

Basically take everything from every good (and bad) band leader I've ever worked with, and be the type of band leader l would want to work with.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RAGER]

And still they complain.

[Danny G]

No, actually haha.

Since I knew I couldn't pay anyone and we couldn't do a whole lot, I made sure to get cool chill people who wanted to be there \m/,


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Submarine]

I've tried a different approach because of the pandemic.  I just write everything and play everything except drums.  I just tried AirGigs for the first time and found a great drummer to remote record drums for me.  I put in programmed drums to set a general vibe and I just let him interpret it as he saw fit. $75 for a song.  I'm really happy with the results.  I'm now feeling like I can do a whole album.

[Danny G]

Bad ass!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Lumpy]

Seems like the prices on used pedals is up by about 35%. The days of deals (and steals) seems to be long gone. On Reverb, the cheapest Boss Metal Zone is $50 plus shipping. They used to be found easily for half that price. The only DOD pedals on Reverb under $50 are just A/B switchers, Loop/Gates, and (terrible) Supra Distortions. Even the less desirable DODs are over $50. I think it's the pandemic, which caused a price increase in "home hobbies" across the board. But in recent years there's dozens of Chinese knockoff versions (Mooer etc) of everything, and even those prices are kind of high. You would think that having so many pedals on the market would drive prices down, but it apparently hasn't.

[Submarine]

I think on Reverb prices are generally higher but you can often throw out a lower bid.  I just sold a few pieces on Reverb and I got lower bids than my asking price on two items but only like 5-10%.

[renfield]

I've been running an extension cord out to the garage since I moved in here, on account of there's only a single two pronged outlet in there.

Finally did the diagnostics I need to replace it, and sure enough it's on the same ungrounded circuit as the office and bathroom.

I'm going to replace it with a GFCI but I really wanted a reliable source of power for the power amps and power tools and stuff. From cursory research it seems like a difficult thing to achieve.

[mortlock]

Power tools are dangerous and not recommended for home use. I prefer to let my shit fall into a state of disrepair. Dont fight entropy.

[renfield]

Well surely you need to use a drill and a sander, I mean what sort of masochist do you think I am.

Shouldn't I be worried about damaging my amps and stuff though?

[RAGER]

You need to replace your garage wiring with 3 conductor romex 12 awg. Th gfci won't work if there's no ground. Ground fault circuit interrupter. You can have up to 5 outlets on gfci governed circuit including the gfci outlet itself.

[renfield]

I guess I'm misunderstanding what I'm reading on thee internet

[Danny G]

Certain vintage parts for pedals are becoming hard to find all of a sudden. Silver mica caps, germanium diodes and resistors.

Guess I'm not the only one who got back into building during the pandemic :/


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Danny G]

Looking into this guy for rewiring my LP Studio



Yeah seems a little cork-sniffingly/blues lawyerly steep, but the prewired set is actually cheaper than buying the individual parts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Muffin Man]

Been seeing those on webpages lately. There's also rsguitarworks. com who were very early in the pre-wired drop in kits. I've got one in my SG from 2004 or something, I'll have to open it up and see what it is (forgot) which model.

[RAGER]

That's doesn't seem too bad. I've done the RS kit on a couple guitars. I'll vouch.

[Danny G]

There was a sale that included a pre-wired toggle switch as well ($54 by itself).

Got that because fuck it at this point.

I've done so much rewiring to that thing that I should probably redo everything, but have since settled into a pickup configuration that works so I won't be rewiring it much if at all in the future.

And this is infinitely nicer than my own best soldering work haha ugh...

(It arrives tomorrow \m/,)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[neighbor664]

I'm bummed. My 1992 USA Strat took a fall from a wall hook. It fell face first pretty hard. There was obvious damage to the tone pot. I wasn't too concerned about superficial dings or paint as it's had plenty. I used to kick this thing around on stage. I pulled off the pickguard to put in some new pots. My heart sunk. Very visible cracks in the wood behind the bridge posts. I was gearing up to have the frets done on it, now they are the lesser problem. The cracks don't seem to go through or too deep. I've dripped wood glue down them in hopes that holds well enough. We'll see. What sucks even more is I had really got it dialed-in to a Jeff Beck whammy-tastic setup. I could pullup a step and a half. Now I'm just hoping its stable.

[mortlock]

that sucks. i once cracked the neck on my main bass and damn near gave myself a heart attack in the process when i realized what happened. i got it repaired but i find myself always worrying about bumping the headstock into the wall or amp in our tight jam room. they say the cracked area is actually stronger after a repair but i dont know.

[Muffin Man]

I'm bummed. My 1992 USA Strat took a fall from a wall hook. It fell face first pretty hard. There was obvious damage to the tone pot. I wasn't too concerned about superficial dings or paint as it's had plenty. I used to kick this thing around on stage. I pulled off the pickguard to put in some new pots. My heart sunk. Very visible cracks in the wood behind the bridge posts. I was gearing up to have the frets done on it, now they are the lesser problem. The cracks don't seem to go through or too deep. I've dripped wood glue down them in hopes that holds well enough. We'll see. What sucks even more is I had really got it dialed-in to a Jeff Beck whammy-tastic setup. I could pullup a step and a half. Now I'm just hoping its stable.

That is a total bummer.  I can feel the impact from here, I have a '93 and would freak out if it hit the floor that hard. Good luck, I imagine it'll fine based on your fix for it. I had mine re-fretted and plek'd. I haven't taken a microscope to it but speced the frets to not anhcor into the fingerboard any wider than stock - to keep the fingerboard tension the same. It's got to be different though I have't tried to hear it. - otherwise that would freak me out - every mod I've done on mine has been completely unneccesary (except frets) and I wish I'd kept it stock. Since it's a "good one" I doubt if I improved it much but the last 5% if that. I've never really used my whammy could do just as well with a hardtail. But been looking at a wiggler humbucker guitar though.

Looking forward to hearing more of your musics.

[renfield]

I'm taking all my guitars off their wall hooks now due to this traumatizing story

[mortlock]

ive never used the wall mount for that exact reason.