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The long nightmare is over. I am giving up on my Cannabis Rex. I gave it a year. That thing is just plain dull. I like the note separation, but not at the expense of openness, sparkle, dimension, harmonic content. I thought it would be good for jazz, but it's not: it's dull. I've twisted every...

i was watching the video below and it came to me that the purpose of any musical instrument is to make the movement, dancing if you like, of the player audible. You move a certain way, the sound comes out a correspondingly certain way. The guitar does this better than any other instrument. It...

For the past couple of years, techniquewise I've been focusing on my hybrid picking, and I've gotten to where I'm pretty satisfied with my skills there. The pick and three fingers are all happily plucking away. I like to work to an agenda, or several of them, when I practice. Sometimes it's...

This is Simon Shaheen, a Palestinian with Israeli citzenship:

Why is this forum named after a snake, or is it some sort of B-bender reference?

OK. I was thinking about Prince this morning, noodling around with the riff in "When Doves Cry," when I remembered that Prince had written the Bangles' hit "Manic Monday." The Bangles are one of my main guilty pleasures. This probably has a lot to do with ol' Susanna Hoffs, tbh, and her sexy...

I am making baked beans now, so I will be away from the screen for a while.

I see that the price of this really excellent little tube amp is down to $120 on Amazon. If you're looking for a present for a guitar player, or for yourself, it'd be hard to find a better way to spend the price of a mediocre reverb pedal than this.

I've been screwing around with (er, "assiduously studying") the half-whole, 'dominant' diminished scale and the Hungarian Major all day. I usually don't like scales that start off w/ a flatted 2, but I like this one. All I know so far is that the second scale is a subset of the first, that both...

He's brilliant. I sorta wish he were homely or something. Maybe I could beat him at arm wrestling or sharpening turning gouges.

Pardon the strong language. Everything I play today sounds like complete c--p. I wish I knew whether today's experience represents an interlude of clarity or of unwarranted self-loathing. Reminds me of a Norm joke: Husband: "I look in the mirror, and all I see is an ugly old man. Can you...

A couple of years ago, I bought a Squier Affinity Strat at a yard sale: sunburst finish, rosewood, and a bridge hb. The serials number tells me it's a Cort, made in Indonesia in 2012. I put a set of strings on it and set it aside, almost forgot about it. This morning I got it out, and have been...

I play hybrid: flat pick +3. I've developed really good facility with all my fingers. The problems is that due to age and a nagging medical condition, my nails are getting thin and weak. They crack. They split. They wear down. It's worse lately because I've been working on that string-popping...

I don't use a lot of effects. I buy them, fiddle with them, then put them in a box, generally. Every so often, though, one sticks around in my chain for a long time. One is my Danelectro TunaMelt tremolo. I have a full-blown addiction to that thing. I set it very slow with a light effect. That...

Three names come to mind: 1) Minnie Ripperton. 2) Aaron Neville. 3) John Denver. I'm pretty sure they're awful, but I might be wrong. Others in the same boat?

I have multiple problems with my hands: Gout , osteoarthtritis, a serious autoimmune disease, De Puytren's contracture, carpal tunnel, and just plain wear-and-tear from years of tree work and general jackassery. Fine. Not looking for sympathy: the deal is what the deal is. Anyway, in...

Well, I just discovered Robin Trower. I'm still early in getting to know him (I know: I am WAY behind on the hipness curve), and I am finding him fascinating. He's sort of a link between Hendrix and Van Halen. He plays with the wonderful happiness of EVH, and does the same sort of beautiful work...

Well, I just spent six days in the Cardiac Unit, hooked up via a web of tubes and wires to all sorts of beeping contraptions. Got out two days ago. The reason: "Heart Failure." Say now, that doesn't sound good! Many, many tests to go, but at least I'm out of that dump, back with my embarrassing...

I've always listened to a lot of classical music. The other day, while I was rooting around for scales on the web, I came across Alexander Tcherepnin, 1899-1977, Russian then American. (I'm thinking his modest fame may have something to do with that unpronounceable name.) I don't think I'd ever...

So much for the notion of "progress."

It's easy to list your favorite players: Jeff Beck, Django Reinhardt, Thelonious Monk, Knopfler, on and on through the pantheon of the yawnably Great. Even if you don't share the admiration, you know the name. But what about that next tier, somewhat (only) shrouded in obscurity? If you had to...

When you're retired. as I am, you have ample time to waste asking yourself idiotic questions. As I am a former teacher, I sort of miss asking idiotic questions. So I asked myself this morning, "Say, Bob (not my name but), what's your favorite note." The first thing is that a note doesn't start...

When I was a kid, in the weird afterglow of WW II, we used to talk about "cheap Japanese junk." I remember unraveling inexpensive toys made in Japan, only to find that they were made of newsprint, rolled up, glued and painted. I remember seeing photos of Japanese guys on the paper, and Japanese...

I’ve been thinking lately about how you build a phrase. Sometimes for example, particularly in the II/V zone, I just run a phrase into as weird a space as possible so that there’s the challenge and prospect of finding my way interestingly back home, to the I typically but not necessarily. Often...

Well, since there's so much c--p in the garage, my tractor is sleeping rough these days. Last night I put a tarp over. As of this morning, some reprobate has apparently replaced it with a haystack of snow. I live in a town with a population less than 300. I think I know who took it: that city...