I don’t know why guitar gear fascinates me the way it does. I am generally a minimalist where effects and instruments are concerned, sticking mostly with a tuning pedal and a compressor. I’ve added an overdrive (Danelectro Daddy-O) and a volume pedal to my pedalboard, but I’m not sure I like the Danelectro, and I have never really understood how best to use a volume pedal. Apparently I could get a new range of tones from my guitar by playing with the levels coming from the guitar into the amp, but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet. Mostly I just adjust the amp and the guitar settings. The volume pedal is supposed to add a gain stage to the setup.

But really, I need to find a good overdrive tone I can use regularly. I like overdrive that just adds a bit of a nasty edge to the guitar’s tone but that backs off when I play more softly. I just want a tad of bite and grit added to the signal, not a full on rock and roll fuzz.

One idea I got from watching a great blues band (the Crawling Kingsnakes) is to use a Pignose amp as a preamp for a small combo amp, breaking up the guitar signal in a really nasty way. The guy I saw playing that rig got a really clear, biting tone which worked great for blues. I should give it more of a try than I have in the past.

I need to sell my Fender amp and buy a Princeton Reverb or something like it. My current Fender amp has a 410 cabinet, so the thing is about 70 lbs. I hate bringing it to gigs, but it sounds so fucking good. I’d like that sound in a smaller package: either a 210 or a 112 cabinet. Of course, I could always go for a separate amp head and cabinet, which would reduce the weight of any one piece I have to bring out.

I guess I should also think, at some point, of selling the Gibson. In fact, I think I would only sell the Gibson in order to buy another Gibson. I love Gibson guitars, but the ES-335 is heavy. I’ll have to think about that one. What I really need is a good guitar for playing fingerstyle jazz, and I have a feeling that another type of Gibson hollow-body or semi-hollow might suit my playing style better. I need to find a music store somewhere that has a bunch of Gibsons so I can try out a bunch of different types.

Let me run down my guitars again, commenting on the changes I’d like to make.

  1. Gibson ES-335: Think about selling this guitar in order to buy a hollow-bodied Gibson.
  2. Fender Strat: This instrument is a keeper. I would like to stabilize the tremolo bridge at some point, though.
  3. Warmoth custom Tele or Strat: This is the guitar I would like to put the Gibson humbuckers into. I have the pickups, but I just need the right instrument. This instrument should be setup for slide playing.
  4. A cheap guitar setup for MIDI: I have the MIDI pickup and box. I just need to install the pickup on something.
  5. A new National Duolian: I need to sell my current National since it is not so gig friendly.
  6. Some kind of parlor guitar acoustic.
  7. A cheap guitar strung for Nashville tuning.
  8. A Fender bass: I’d like to be able to work up my bass playing to where I could play out.
  9. A mandolin: just for some sonic variety. In fact, I wish I had never sold the mandolin I used to have.