Red Rocker

I'm taking an involuntary break from school for a while, so in order to keep busy, I'm throwing myself into my music. For the last 30 years, I've been a bass player. In 1996, I sold all of my gear to focus on art, and went a great many years not playing. About ten years ago, I picked up an old Fender Precision from a pawn shop for $75 and began noodling with it again. When an opportunity to play in the church worship band cropped up, I got more serious, and bought myself a Steinberger five string, which has been my main instrument for a long time now. Among the things I sold in '96 was a Rickenbacker 4001. I've always regretted parting with that and for years have been trying to find my way back to one.

A few months ago, I decided to take up guitar. I picked up a candy apple red Fender Stratocaster, and have been teaching myself chords from YouTube videos. It's actually been going pretty good. I'm not doing any solos yet, but I can play rhythm for a pretty sizable number of songs. I'm still a bit awkward with it, but I expect in the next few months I'll be good enough to embarrass myself in front of people. I've been pretty dedicated with my practice routine.

I had a horrible week with news that I wouldn't be able to continue with school, and have been feeling pretty down. In a hugely generous effort, my son Kyle bought me a brand new ruby red Rickenbacker 4003 to cheer me up. Words cannot express how much I appreciate this kindness. I certainly don't deserve it. I'm not such an awesome player that should have one of these based on skill. But it brings a great deal of joy to my daily existence. I grew up with this sound, and my heroes have always been artists and musicians, so to have an instrument like this is just a privilege and an honor, and I am grateful for the gesture Kyle has made. It doesn't make me a better player, but it certainly makes me want to be one. If he wanted to cheer me up, this was way above and beyond the call!

I took it onstage at church this morning, so it was broken in before a crowd a few hours after I received it. My wife and I are working on our own music projects as a duo and I have great plans for the red instruments in the years to come.

Thanks Kyle!

Random Thoughts for September

For the past month, I've been expanding my contacts in social media. I've added a few hundred folks on Linkedin and Facebook, primarily in the comic book creator and fan area. To date, I've had a few people who remember me from The Tick and the Malibu Comics days, but so far, I have not been asked to ink anything, or gotten any inquiries on collaborating on a project. The experiment to see if all this is worthwhile is interesting, but still remains to be seen if it gets any results. I'm not looking for full-time work in the field - just an occasional project to keep my hand in and get something fun into print or on the web in front of readers.

I left my home church after a few years there. Changes in some key positions have resulted in some drama, and my family needs stability right now, and that's all I'm going to say about that. We've decided to try out a different church each week and see if we can find a place where we fit in, and where our gifts are needed. There are a few we've put on our bucket list to try out. I want to avoid any that are "weird" and not biblical, or have alternate versions of the bible. No snakes.

Not being in that church anymore, I don't have a gig playing bass on a weekly basis, and that's kind of sad.  I most likely won't get another opening like that again, which leads me to the next thought.

I'm playing more guitar lately, trying to teach myself chords. A guitarist seems to be able to find an opening with other people fairly easily, but in this town, you can't throw a rock without hitting a bass player, so that instrument is not very much in demand.  I'm not doing too bad for never having had any lessons, and picking everything I've learned up from books and YouTube. I have a long way to go, though.

Math class at AIO is almost over. These have been the hardest classes I've had to date, and I can't wait until they're in the rear-view mirror. Eleven weeks of this crap has really worn on me.  I've actually learned a few things, but I don't see myself ever needing this. My next class, which starts on the 26th, is Introduction to HTML, which I already know quite a bit about. I started writing web pages about 12 years ago, having to write all the code out by hand.  This class should be a breeze.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is in beta now, and will be released soon. Money is tight, so I haven't pre-ordered yet, and I'm not likely to have enough for the full release, so I probably won't be getting in on the ground floor. Stupid economy.

Desktop for Today - Rickenbacker 4003

Someday, I'll get another one of these. Still kicking myself for selling my 4001 in the 80's. Another dream I have...

Family Praise Time

The youth band we work with had their first gig in church today. My wife was singing, my daughter Miranda joined in singing with her, and my son Max played bass for the first time in front of people. Donnie and Josue are on guitars, and Patrick is on drums. This is the first time a lot of them have played in public. 

Desktop for Today

My desktop for today - a Rickenbacker 4001 bass - sunglow finish. This is the exact one I had back in the 80s. Selling it is one of my biggest regrets in life.

Fender P-Bass Refinishing Project

I had a minor setback with the paint being too think in a few spots, so I added some more and am putting more varnish on it now. I hope to have it back together soon.

Fender Refinishing Project

I re-attached the neck tonight. It still needs to have the pickups and knobs put back, the bridge re-installed, and then re-strung.

Fender Refinishing Project

I got the body all painted, and then applied a few coats of varnish today.  It was coming along pretty well, until I got a bit too much on it, and got a run on the front, near the top.  I touched it, trying to smooth it out, and that just made it worse. I sanded it some after it dried, and re-painted the area, and did another coat of varnish.  It looks pretty good, but that area is not smooth now.  Oh, well.  Other than that, it's looking pretty good.

I hope to get it all put back together this week and see if it works!  I think the metallic dark brown will look pretty sharp with the wood on the neck.

Fender Refinishing Project

Finally got around to putting the first coat of paint on my old Fender Precision refinishing project. It's not going to be as fancy as I'd once hoped it would be, but I need to get it back to a playable state.

Random Thoughts for July 2011

I don't like algebra.

I enrolled in online classes at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh at the beginning of the year, and classes have been going great. I had a 4.0 grade average until I got to my current class - algebra. This stuff kicked my ass 30 years ago, and it's not changed a bit. I have another math class after this one, so it's 11 weeks of swallowing a bitter pill, and then I get back to the fun courses.

The finger I broke last year has healed up very well, and I'm playing bass again regularly now.  I still don't have a place to play that I feel good about. I've got a weekly gig in church every Sunday morning, but it's only a few songs, and we don't practice enough for me to feel competent with the material.  In my old band days, we'd practice for a few hours on a weeknight and then play for 8 hours over Friday and Saturday night, so we had things down pretty good.  I still want a Rickenbacker, but I'm also thinking about picking up the regular guitar again and making an effort to learn that.  The guitar shop here in town had a sweet 12-string Fender acoustic/electric for about $350 last year that I wish I had bought. There's always another guitar, though. Rickenbacker makes 12-strings, too, so they still make what would be my ultimate goal.

I have a Fender Precision that I took apart last year that I need to finish painting and put back together.

Been really getting into marketing on the web lately.  I'm doing the website for the company I'm working for now, and most of it is active at www.wwspwear.com.  We're a large silk-screen t-shirt company, and we have almost 30 years worth of work to showcase, so I chose to put it in a Picasa gallery rather than on the site.  That way, I can update the gallery and arrange however I want, and not have to keep editing multiple webpages.  I've also got drawings for business cards, window lettering, and packaging to create an overall image for the place.

I have my own sites that I need to update as well.  My web design company I have with my wife at www.brickhousedigital.com, and my comic book site at www.skulfrak.com.  I used the Skulfrak site as my portfolio when I was job hunting, but hopefully I won't need it again for that purpose for a long, long time.  I'm going to switch it over to my idea for comic book publishing, but between work, family, school, playing bass, and some gaming, I don't have a great deal of time for anything else right now.

I wish Obama would just mint two trillion dollar coins, throw them in the treasury, and put this debt ceiling crap to rest. You're the POTUS, dude. Grow some stones and show the tea party you're like a BAWS.

A Man's Gotta have Goals

Last year I broke a finger on my left hand - shattered the knuckle, and gave me a big set-back in my bass playing come-back.  I had given up playing years ago, and had just started playing again.  A year later, the finger is almost good as new.  I used to play by ear, but I've actually been learning the fret board, and can read lead sheets when I play in the church band.

Last year I picked up a Fender acoustic-electric and Steinberger 5-string.  They're both excellent guitars, but what I really want is another Rickenbacker.  I had one back in the 80s, and I sold it when I stopped playing before, and it's one of my larger regrets.

A goal I have now is to get another one.  And exactly the one I want.  I'm picturing a brand new Jetglow 4003,  I have no idea how I'm going to pay for it, but I'm certain that at some point in the not too distant future, I'll get one.

I really missed not having music in my life, and I won't be without it again.

Me with my sunglow Rickenbacker 4001 back in the early 80's.

Bass Effects!

On the musical side, I've been playing the bass again.  I gave it up many years ago after playing in a band for a while, but I picked up a pawn shop junker a bit ago and am building my skills back up.  I've gotten a real cheap multi-effects pedal, and I've gotta say, it's pretty impressive!

It's called the Zoom B1X, and it has a tuner, volume, flanger, chorus, wah, distortion, you name it.  There's a ton of patches simulating many different bass players or song styles.  Cool echo effects, turning single notes into a chorus of sounds, fretless simulation, etc.  It also has a drum machine built in for rhythm and everything can be activated with a tap of your foot.

I need to work more on reading music.  I've got an online course I picked up a while back that I need to start studying when I can, but I've found I'm really enjoying the music again.  I've gotten to play with my friends Charlie and Chris a few times, and my wife Trish and I are planning some duo work.