Christmas was great. We hung around here awhile and listened to the new hymn album I made Jill a bit and enjoyed the day. Then we headed over to the Merrills for lunch and snow fun. My arm got tired from throwing snowballs at the Nathan, Matthew, Mark, Ed, Steve, Julie, and Jill!
My birthday was today. Most of the day we hung out here, which ranks among my favorite activities! This evening we went out to dinner with Nate, Caroline, and Ryan. It was really great. Jill, Nate, and Ryan had lengthy toasts and heartfelt encouragement prepared in my honor, and I felt a little embarrassed but very happy to receive them all! What can you say about such friends? I am truly blessed by knowing them. Combine all this with pizza and beer, and you have a very memorable evening.
I had asked for no presents this year, and most people were happy to oblige me. My biological grandmother sent me a shirt that says “Redheads are Hot” in bright red lettering. I wore it this evening 🙂
Warning: Guitar Geekery Section Ahead
Recently I traded in my rack setup for a pedalboard and pedal setup. I was very proud of my rack system, but I wasn’t excited about lugging around the heavy 6-space rack and extra stuff. So I sold all the stuff and have been buying other things. The first thing about pedals is they’re more expensive than the all-in-one units I’ve owned in the past. So I can’t afford a lot of individual pedals, but the ones I was able to get so far I’m insanely happy with. So far I have:
Tech21 SansAmp Tri-AC – preamp, tube amp emulation, distortion
Eventide TimeFactor – extraordinary delay effects unit
Pedaltrain 2 with Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 – what holds the pedals in place, powers them, and lets me carry them around
So far I’m very happy with this setup. The Eventide unit was expensive (their cheapest rack unit is $2,000 or so, but this was fortunately much cheaper than that). With just these two pedals I can get almost any tube-driven distortion/overdrive sound, and many kinds of lush reverb and delays (even some modulation effects).
Another thing the TimeFactor can do is loop. It’s only 12 seconds, but it’s not a looper pedal, so this is just icing. But it is very fun to play with. It’s like having a guitar slave. I can tell the pedal, “Play G and C for three hours and don’t stop!” and he complies instantly. If only I had a drummer slave like that! For fun, I recorded some of my impromptu jams today. These were all spontaneous and have no mixing or editing – this is what it actually sounds like in my living room as I play.
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