Twilight Storm's Road Case

[Twilight Storm]

I decided to do something different I thought would be fun... (It was for a while) I'd mentioned I'd been doing single note melodies of xmas songs because I was tortured with the rotten things for 4 straight months daily, every year, working retail.... I decided to record one. Sort of one anyway.

I can't really say it's been too much fun yet because I keep breaking tracks somehow. I have no idea what i'm doing. So far spent 4 hours just to start over and have a mess of saves I need to find and delete.

Whatever is happening, I loose the audio playback on the track and can't make it sound. It just sits there not playing and I tried everything I could think of, and even watched horrible videos of "beat" people just having a conversation with each other or showing off their music while not explaining anything. Super helpful guys.... 👎 I very rarely thumb down videos. Congratulations.

However FL Studio got an update and they added Tuner which is great!!!!!!!!!! It's nice and big, and even works with voice, but i'm not a singer. On guitar, just pop it on a guitar track and away you go. I imagine the interface is like a guitar pedal, but it's awesome for me. It's way better than my clip on tuner because it reacts to the wahwahwah crud the clip on doesn't, once it gets in the clip on's green range. 👍 I get a visual now which takes guessing if the wah is just clashing with the hum of other junk in tne house. They also upgraded a couple other things I use, that i'm excited about.

Anyway, I'm going to post whatever happens with this project tonight before I sleep. It won't be quality. It won't even be music by definition I since melodies don't qualify, but it will be "something" as long as I can keep the tracks from breaking... It has an xmas theme.... So i'm being mildly festive I suppose.

[DavidP]

I'm sure whatever you post will be music and here of course it is much more about learning and giving it a go than the absolute quality relative to ... whatever you use to judge quality.

Unfortunately, I use Reaper so have no idea what might be going on with FL Studio, so no point in my actually asking for more details. Maybe some other folk might be users of that DAW and could help.

Stay well.

[frito]

I for one am looking forward to whatever video you post.  Know that it doesn't have to be sophisticated.  Every video I've posted so far has been record on my phone then uploaded to YouTube.  Any way you chose to share - it's all good.

[Twilight Storm]

Christmas day was okay. I didn't celebrate Christmas. Roger Waters even wished me a Merry Christmas randomly on youtube from a video I had commented on, which I thought was pretty cool. (Love Roger and Pink Floyd... Roger still IS part of Pink Floyd imo, he's just not currently playing with them, Anyway..)

My "surprise" Christmas tune train wreak was going to be Carol of the Bells. That's probably insane as is, but I had figured out how to do the parts in rounds? Where you play 1 part, then layer another, and another. I had recorded tubular bells to go under it all, and technically it should have worked, and pretty much DID, exceptmy timing SUCKS. (And I refuse to quantize or whatever for a progress piece, regardless if it's technically a performance.)

Well, day after Christmas got a call, my uncle passed away. Got another call, my friends grandmother passed away, looked online Tony Rice passed away, all on Christmas.

We got Chinese food on Christmas eve to eat on Christmas. My friend and I have a fortune cookie thing we do. My fortune cookie on Christmas was "Church Bells are in your future." Or something similar. I called my friend we joked that was the stupidest fortune because it insinuates marriage to me, and I felt ripped off by the random fortune cookie fate. He joked maybe a church bell from some movie set would fall off a truck. We laughed it off. There was one extra cookie, I opened it and got the same fortune. So fate was really going hard on this church bell thing.

Anyway, next day, deaths.
Church Bells...

I wasn't motivated to play, I got sad practicing stuff I was currently practicing at the time, because I get that way.

New Years rolls around. Mitch had his first installment of Pink Floyd Friday of 2021 and had High Hopes as the song. The way he introduced it still cracks me up. It's a pretty depressing song, and the video is kind of a jab at Roger, so I was like ummmm... Maybe I won't work on it, but it's a great song, so I was teetering back and forth. I started to learn it.

But again Church Bells, the dudes walking around in the video with bells strapped on their backs. I'd been pretty much radio silent since Christmas, but that was odd with the song too.

I recently started working on getting Steady Thumb Blues ready to record again. I hadn't played it in awhile but it came back fairly quick. I need to work on thumb bass stuff anyway. I also figured I can change it up a little based on Justin's suggestions in the video.

I took the elements of the study, and the pentatonic scale, and decided to make a B part? Basically screwing around as long as I want to, between playing though Steady Thumb Blues the 2x. I recorded a couple days screwing around with it. Might just post one of those recordings train wreaks, mistakes and all, to show i'm alive still. It's been awhile, but I think i'm out of the emotional breakdown woods for the time being.

I didn't enter Mitch's drawing for a lesson. I couldn't / won't do Instagram. He said that was fine, but I felt weird about not being able to follow the rules. I DID video myself playing or practicing High Hopes, as far as I got anyway, which was to the chorus. "The grass was greener" or whatever. I even tried singing, now that was horrible. No, no, NO! Taped it again no singing and still had a horrible panic attack. I didn't send it. Unless I get Xanax no one past whoever saw my first video which I destroyed as soon as I could, is gunna see me on a video. Videos are like havi g your photo taken Millions of times, and most of them are bad, and I stay out of photos like the plague minus one or 2 every few years.

I ordered a guitar early for my birthday. One i'm scared about, but I couldn't help it.

Link to it:

https://m.glarrymusic.com/glarry-41-inch-full-size-eq-cutaway-spruce-top-grape-voice-hole-round-back-acoustic-electric-guitar-p259.html

I wanted a grape sound hole Ovation since they were introduced back when. I know this won't be the same quality as that. I hope I don't get a bad one. It should be really loud though with the moulded back. Plus I can plug it in.

I decided to buy it now before anyone reviewed it. (it's a brand new offering from Glarry.) I didn't want the price to go up IF it gets good reviews. Either way it was $109.99 Like $114.something with insurance, and back down to $109.ish after applying the 5% coupon. Our local pawn shops don't have acoustic or electric guitars for $100. If I could wait another year I'd have probably gotten one of the mini Mitchell Dreadnaughts from guitar center. They were out of my price range but I loved the one I played... And if the pandemic goes away any time soon I might be able to find a used one next year.

Again don't hold your breath for a recording, but i'll be posting some bit of what my 5 months "off" messing around brought me to. I can't say I got "better" I probably back-slid... But again whatever I post is about where my playing is. My 1 year on guitar happened recently, so I feel compelled to document my progress.


Either way, it should be arriving somewhere around Tuesday next week. I'm excited about my Ovation knock off. As long as it's problems aren't dire, i'm sure i'll enjoy it. The back texture looks kinda crap though. It looks like it might be loud. It definitely doesn't look like Ovation's back. I played one.

[DavidP]

Hey Becky, good to hear from you.

Glad you made it through Dec and are rocking on with a new guitar on its way in 2021.

Church bells story was kind of spooky.

Timing on multi-tracks is quite a challenge ... has taken me a few years to get to the point where my timing is solid, consistent and able to make double-tracks and multi-tracks.

Your playing with STB sounds cool. Would like to hear that.

Hope that new guitar sounds good and I'm ready for some more recordings from you when you get around to it.

[DarrellW]

Hi Becky, good to hear you got through the new year ok, we had the germ go through our house over Christmas but came out ok!
Those Ovation knock offs are pretty much ok, Harley Benton, Gear4music and several others sell them, looking at them they’re probably made in the same factory. They’re ok, I’ve got one that I keep at our caravan (trailer maybe?), they stand hot and cold better than all wood ones!
Good luck for 2021, looking forward to hearing more from you!

[Twilight Storm]

Two things I didn't think of at all.  😕 I need a 9 volt battery, and a set of strings... I'm an idiot. I can test the eq with the smoke detector battery. I'm stuck with the strings it comes with for a while.

Darrell- Good to hear the guitar has a chance of being okay-ish. That's all i'm asking for. I'd prefer a solid "pretty decent", but sort of okay is perfectly fine. It means when i'm around drunk people who say: "Lemmie shlee yer guituar fer aminit! I wanna pay a shong fer yoooo guysh!!!" I will consider it.

I have my trusty fret end file and painters tape ready to do fret sprout. If the guitar doesn't arrive with it, after being in sub 0 temperatures at night, i'll be really surprised. If it doesn't have it, my house will DEFINITELY cause it when it adjusts to the winter house environment. It's a one time thing that all the ukes and guitars need their first winter with me. I am far from living in a perfect guitar humidor. Gotta roll with what you got.

It's good to know it can probably handle cold a tiny bit better too.... From experience, they just seem to slap a label on the triangular warehouse boxes and send it out. I'm not complaining, much. I have no idea how the acoustics ship. Shipping is free though. I did get the shipping insurance. Wherever it's sitting stationary today, I hope that it's somewhere that isn't too cold.

Also why i'm an idiot:

I decided to run the Windows malicious software removal tool for the first time yesterday at 9:44 am. I figured with someone's computer on the network acting weird with the impressive things the hacking community is doing right now, AND windows updated it yesterday, it couldn't hurt. It hurt. The tool did say "it could take hours." (I wasn't anticipating "hours" to mean many multiples of 24 hours..) It's around 1/4 done. I tried using FL Studio and it's wayyyyyyyy too laggy. I've invested over 24 hours into this stupid scan. I'm finishing it on principle now.

I'm still excited about the guitar, just can't get over not thinking about needing to buy the strings and battery. My budget was a bit less then I thought.

[DavidP]

I keep on reading, smiling, and enjoying, Becky.

Glad to have you around.

[CT]

Looking forward to hearing your new guit. I have an old Ovation in my arsenal, it's pretty much relegated to a hanging wall ornament and sometimes slide playing vehicle. The action is really high and I've worn down some of the frets. Interested in how much sound is generated acoustically on your guitar with those seemingly small sound holes. Still a good looking guitar and you can't beat that price.

[Twilight Storm]

CT- I just got a moment. The guitar came to my door with a smashed neck, and I need another saddle because that's smashed too, but playable with a capo over the crack tuned down to standard. I actually like this particular guitar. I'm seeing if I can maybe get the neck fixed because if I replace the guitar i'm rolling the dice again.

Going to just play some random junk and render it and toss it up here as soon as I defrost a bit.

[Twilight Storm]

Don't look forward to this. Totally garbage playing but it's what the guitar sounds like with me playing it. no additional effects other than the guitar's pickup. first bit is just noodling with an idea. second bit was me trying out smacking the strings with my fretting hand and going back to murdering Justin's steady thumb blues study, lol. The picture on the track is how it arrived.

https://soundcloud.com/becky-p-145846069/glarrybrknneck102262021-2/s-TyiXh3rHFpi

yes, yes, I realize it's time to get back on track, but I really have to figure out what I want to focus on in March first.

[DavidP]

Becky, have to say I have come to know what to expect from you so despite your caveat I was quite looking forward to what I would hear.

And I was not disappointed in the slightest. In fact, since I first listened I had to pop out and now I am taking a second listen.

I enjoyed the idea you were exploring. Yup I heard the moments when the movement didn't land well. But overall I enjoyed the saying you mixed the chord and melody notes, the melody sounded good. I'd say keep exploring that and from those beginnings, a fine song will emerge.

I wish I could "murder" STB like you do. You've taken it to the next level, throwing in some bass lines, full chords, plus messing with feel of the melody.

And now have to say you have pushed my how-we-use-language button. I know it is one of my buttons that is easily pushed, I guess I am a bit obsessive, but always well intended ...

I know you have a self deprecatory sense of humour and expression, but still I have a thing about describing your playing as garbage. I guess I'd have that feeling even if the playing was of an absolute beginners struggling level, but this playing was not that in my book. Maybe my bar is low and I don't set it high enough for my own good, am too accepting of my own level and it slows my own improvement.

OK enough of my own ranting and raving ... positively intended as I say. Hope you'll indulge me and not take it awry.

I'll just say I really enjoyed your recording, which by the way sounded great, and it is looping now.

As for the guitar, it sounds great. I suppose now there is the short term frustration and tedium of returning and waiting for another, and as you say perhaps not getting expected proper condition on a second cycle.

That aside, personally I'd say bite that bullet, suffer through the disappointment and frustration, and send it back. It sounds great on this recording so worth the effort to have an instrument in good condition as you'd expect.

Look forward to hearing what you decide to focus on, and as your own comfort levels dictate, more recordings like this one.

[Twilight Storm]

David no offence taken. Can't help it though. I'm happy about where i've gotten and about what I can do so far, but about where i'm at? Nope. I'm not even remotely close to where I am trying to go. I think I could defend my garbage playing comment successfully. lol.

I feel the same way you do btw, just not towards my own playing. Is it the goals we have set? Is it our musical influences that I can't help but compare myself to? (*cough*) Low self esteem? All of it? 😉

On STB, so far I only diad sometimes spontaneously.. I am fairly certain it's still mostly all one finger wonder stuff. I didn't play any triads, If I did, it wasn't a conscious effort. I'll check. Thank you for the compliment. I don't feel it's deserved, but I appreciate it. 💖 You had wanted to hear an example of what I was doing with STB.. That's about the gist of stuff going on in the "B" part so far. But meh. It's fun and I gotta start somewhere right? LOL.

The guitar's definitely not one i'd recommend for someone's only guitar because it has its problems, but I knew I was rolling the dice with acoustics. It sure isn't breathing on the same continent as a Romero Creations, and not even remotely close to an Ovation! lol!!) I can thumb over 6th string on it though.  I absolutely can't on anything else in my possession. Action is crazy low, it's got the old style low frets. Pickup knob will definitely break sooner rather than later, but it's a guitar that I can not worry too much out and about.

Glarry said they would exchange it if I couldn't get it fixed. It's looking grim, but I have to get a hold of two more places with luthiers in the area Monday, and get back to them.

Kind of panicking about redo-ing my practice schedule, but I'm going to continue on with High Hopes and i'll see if I can get STB recorded. Still have to record Anybody Out There for the challenge thread..... I can probably brush that off and get that posted.

Eh, i'll update anyway.

[CT]

Your clip sounded good, Becky! Nothing to be shy about at all. Some nice riffage there. 

If the guitar came damaged you should ship it back. I wouldn't wait too long to do it either. 

[DavidP]

Thanks for taking my little rant in the spirit intended, Becky. To waffle on a little more ...

For me comparisons with musical influences isn't something I ever enter into. In my mind, for me to compare myself with Neil Young, even at the start of his recording career, would be irrational and unhelpful. It is likely that even at that point he may have more hours devoted to learning guitar than I may ever achieve. Rather than a comparison, he is a North Star for me ... I take inspiration and direction from his music. 

But as I said, maybe I lack the most burning passion and ambition to achieve the most I possibly could achieve. So maybe making comparisons is helpful. And I suppose that is the crux of the conversation. If it helps you and the garbage playing comment helps you, keeps you motivated, positive, engaged then who am I to suggest otherwise.

As for the guitar, I'd suggest you take up Garry on their offer to replace. Buying a brand new product of A grade quality (whatever level of quality the instrument may inherently be) should ensure you have an instrument in perfect manufactured quality, unblemished, albeit within the tolerances of the grade of instrument purchased. It wouldn't sit well with me to have to get a new item repaired straight from the box.

Irrespective, look forward to more recordings from you as you press on with the learning and more enjoyable, thoughtful conversations.

[TCB]

Becky - I totally enjoyed your new guitar demo and playing STB. Thanks for sharing it!

I also think you should return the guitar and have them replace it rather than having it repaired. My thought is you should get what you paid for - not something that's been damaged and repaired. Just my opinion...

Tom

[Twilight Storm]

Well my birthday was the 2ond. I decided last minute I'd go out, it ended up being the worst night. It literally STARTED with me tripping over a damn curb trying to dig a mask out of my pocket. Then I sat in front of the store's door that I was trying to go to, like some psycho for a half hour+ because I couldn't walk, and they couldn't hear me in the car. People were walking around me as far as they could possibly get, and no one offered to see if I needed help. (Bonus negative points for humanity) Then I was getting yelled at because my friend was stressed, and we found out his friend's apartment was on fire right then... And there was an accident right down the road too which also happened as I fell, so emergency vehicles were everywhere not far away making tons of noise. My friend had to call someone to help me into a car, which took a while because of the accident and the fire.... Ironically I had started typing here earlier on the second, about not going out. I had declined but decided later to go out.... So yeah I ended up sitting and watching a Tenacious D movie, and a movie about a magical toy store...

Both had musical themes dealing sort of with (kind of) what me n' David were discussing. LOL.

Anyway I can put some weight on my knee today.

I'm keeping the guitar. They gave me a discount on it. If I didn't need the money for my stupidity now, I would have exchanged it. (I planned to) So yeah my birthday present fits the whole "crappy birthday to me" theme. I didn't think it would set the president for that night.

I meant to go buy a proper guitar slide too. We were supposed to go to the music store right after the restaurant since it was just down the road... I'd been trying to get a slide since Christmas. I give up.

On the sunny side of things:

I figured out a fun to play Tool sounding (probably bass) riff? or whatever it actually qualifies to be called, on the 3rd. Going to share that today. It sounds pretty cool. (It's short, and if I don't record it, i'll forget it sooner rather than later.)

TCB  and CT- Thank you.

David- No worries about me not staying motivated to play. There's maybe a total of 3 weeks in 3 years where I didn't pick up an instrument daily. One week was things I couldn't help, another week I was in the hospital, and the rest was a few days here and there, sick or injured, or I was dealing with a slump.

[CT]

Look on the bright side, any day above ground is a good day! LOL

I've been mucking around (off and on and off again) with slide guitar. My goto slide right now is the Dunlop Moonshine Ceramic. I'll be raising the action a bit higher on my Ovation and hope to pop out a jam sometime soon. Cheers!   

[DavidP]

Gosh Becky ... what a tale. What can I say ... life, lemons and tequila springs to mind but maybe not the appropriate thought.

Will wish you well for a speedy recovery, a year in which the lowest moment is the birthday saga, and hope the discount is sufficient to take care of necessary repairs to the guitar ... which as I said, still sounded pretty good in the demo.

Other than that ... I wish I'd picked up an instrument everyday with some exceptions. In my case it is more a case of I pick up my guitar a good few days a week every week, with weeks with no play mostly from memory being when I was away from home without a guitar.

[Twin Six]

Oh horror! But Happy Birthday anyway, as my brother is fond of saying. Sorry to hear it was so wretched.

My wife had a similarly rotten birthday years ago, when she tripped down the steps of a restaurant and cut her chin pretty deeply while I was inside paying for her birthday dinner. I came out to find her on the ground in pain. I helped her to the car, and she dabbed her chin with some napkins we keep in the car. Suddenly the police arrived, and while my wife was being loaded into an ambulance, the cops asked me if I was a wife-beater, explaining that they had to ask, ugh. Being America, we ended up $800 poorer for the hospital visit.

Hope you're feeling better. At least you've got your music therapy.

[Twilight Storm]

David - The discount isn't enough to fix the guitar. It's enough for a visit to a clinic for me though if I decide I should go in or need medication or something.

Twin Six - Jeeze, I guess i'm not alone. Sorry your wife had to spend the remainder of one of her birthdays in the hospital bleeding.  😞 At least i'm not alone in having at least one ultra crappy birthday I guess. lol.

Been walking without my friend's cane I borrowed since yesterday. Stairs still suck to walk up and down so I use the cane there still. I'm just glad I didn't take the fall on my arms again.

I ordered a Dunlop 222 from Amazon. It was the closest to a 7 1/2 ring size that *I* could find in brass that was within the $7 I had in a gift certificate. It's a ring size 9, so I stuffed some paper towel in the end to snug it against my finger. I want to find a red cap of some sort to pop in the end of the slide and it will look like a big shotgun shell lol. (Won er if a shotgun shell would work if I could get ahold of one.)

I watched Justin's beginner slide technique video and the video he made with that Ariel Posen guy. (probably mutilated his name.)

Playing on the front of the slide is easier than laying it flat on the Pacifica because of the fretboard radius. (imo) But the 222 is about an inch longer than my finger so that's probably not an ideal situation for technique. It's what I have at the moment though, and it beats using 3 fingers to hold and control a Bic lighter.

Just been messing around with the slide so far. Played a slide bit from a "support our out of work bartenders" commercial from Covid. It's the first thing I thought of when I jammed it on my finger. Tried to pull off a bit of the High Hopes solo.. rofl! I swear to god, David Gilmore made that solo to troll people trying to learn it. There is SUCH a fine line between AWESOME and torturing the myriad of small creatures he sings about lol. Anything after where they start tossing balloons on the bridge in the video has a high likelihood of sounding like a tortured cat if you aren't spot on. I'm definitely in the cat torture stage lol. I think I need to learn it without a slide first.

Slide is great to torture your family with too if they tick you off, especially if you have 150 watt studio monitors. Pretty sure I could piss off the entire neighborhood if I wanted to with those things.

What else am I working on...

I started over with the fretboard note names. I am trying a fretboard trainer this time. (I can't download Justin's so I found one usable off of a web page.) I decided one week per string no matter how well I think i'm doing, so i'm looking at 5 weeks.

Surprisingly I know more than I thought I did, but I'm still far from being constantly instant. I'm doing the Low E for roughly a half hour before I sleep since the trainer i'm using says "pick the note Ab" and then you poke at a picture of a guitar neck on the highlighted string. I'm running it on easy mode which lets you select single strings you want to work on, and it isn't timed to end after 60 seconds. It takes me roughly 1 second per question on the Low E. This is only my second day trying the trainer, but whatever it is that's different about using it vs quizlet, or trying to name and play the note on my guitar is working for me. I'm already linking fret numbers to note names freaking finally. Considering I've been working on this for at least a year it's about freaking time i'm learning the stupid note names instead of just kind of knowing where I should play a note im thinking a tone for with absolutely no clue what the note is called without spending 2 minutes figuring it out. Then needing to go and double check to make sure it's right, etc.

Other than the above, that's pretty much all i'm really focusing deeply on at the moment. Still working on some songs. I always work on random junk when I sit down and play.... That reminds me!!!!

THIS!!! is why I get weird about fingerpicking vs using a flat pick.

https://youtu.be/rSTefniYYOU

It's what I get kind of overwhelmed with when I start using a flat pick. There's just so freaking much to focus on separately using either technique. I'm not happy with my fingerpicking yet, starting from 0 with a pick that I don't really want to use to begin with 99% of the time, is really discouraging. I definitely don't have a list of 20 things to work on like that, but every time I sit down with an instrument I work on random things from that list on pieces of songs i'm currently working on. Even when i'm just messing around I usually am focused on working on something. (not that it's noticeable in my case. I still suck at practicing.)

Anyway, that's enough babbling. I do have that short Tool inspired thing recorded but haven't rendered it because my slide arrived, and I was just playing through FL Studio. It's my only way of amplifying my electric.

I'll try to fling it up soon. Like I said, it's really short and just fun to play for a minute or so once your fingers get it.

[DavidP]

Always enjoy your updates, Becky.

Slide definitely somewhere ahead for me. I have one. I have a resonator which I know can sound great with a slide.  And that's about it.  Lots of learning, including finger-picking technique, chord shapes, open tuning ... one day

Speaking of, if you don't really want to use a pick and all the recordings you've shared were made finger-picking then I'd not worry about using the pick, just focus on the finger-picking.  And maybe one day you may come across some music that inspires you and requires a pick. 

Keep plugging away with the notes. Sure you'll get there.  And I wish I could play more by ear.

Look forward to when you fling up that recording ...

[Twilight Storm]

Tomorrow I do string 4 in the fretboard trainer. As much as I thought I was getting the note names, I'm not any better off then I was. I'm still seeing this through, but it's like doing everything else. I guess I just keep doing the same thing and expect different results. Insanity, or is it simply dumping the bucket?

I've been working on slide. I guess I'll be able to play a relatively simple, but hopefully okay sounding melody to Amazing Grace at some point since that's the first thing I thought of to play, and I keep working on it.

I was using Tuner to get the notes right. I stopped doing that. I check some notes, but for the most part i've been trying to hit notes like I'd be singing them... If I was singing out loud.... This causes copious amounts of weird uncontrolled mouth movements and facial expressions as I try to hit the note... I don't care if other people do it. I do care when I do it lol.

I think if you are a guitar teacher and have people who refuse to sing, like me, give those students a slide and say "Fine, you don't wanna sing? Learn slide then." Because it's exactly like singing.

Knowing the slide position over frets is important to hit the note, and I need practice with that of coarse, but in reality... It's singing.
 
Been playing the opening to Wonderful Tonight to work on my bends. Wonderful Tonight is a good song to work on how i'm shaping notes actually too. If i'm playing a string too hard it's really noticeable. I should see if there's a lesson for the song.

Other then that, haven't done much else today. Been playing Take My Breath Away by Berlin, but that doesn't count really as "playing" it since its just the melody.

[DavidP]

Glad to hear you continue to press on, Becky.

Slide is one of those things that are in my future.  Just don't have the time available to focus on it right now

Did you see the video that was posted up with an approach to learning the notes on the fretboard.  Builds on what I recall Justin's lesson on this taught.  Just another process to invest 5 minutes a day in.

How did things wrap up on that guitar that arrived damaged?  Hope I'm not re-opening a wound ...

[Twilight Storm]

David- I took a discount for the guitar. I've watched a million youtube videos with the fretboard notes, practice on my guitar and a trainer. I'm just a moron.

-----

Been practicing slide mostly. Got a decent wolf whistle from Boston down tonight.

My muting is improving. using my pinky planted on high e, my other fingers planted on the next 3 strings, and I'm laying my thumb down to mute low E and A like bass muting. (Yes, I know that's probably not how to mute, but it's the only way *I* can.)

I took the pickup off the new guitar. It turns out there was a silica pack trapped inside the guitar that was sliding around.

I also had to take the saddle out to get the pickup out. They shimmed above the pickup with a thin slice of plastic inlay, which I found interesting. The pickup itself I have questions about, but another time.

I think i'm going to order a bone saddle and nut and some cheap nut files off Amazon and see if I can do it. The saddle it came with is trashed. The nut literally popped right off when I tried to remove it. 👍

I took paper from a guitar string since it seems popular on youtube, and shimmed under the nut to play with raising the action. I haven't tried shimming the saddle up yet.

CT mentioned playing slide on his ovation, which gave me the bright idea to try to turn this guitar into something like a lap steel. lol. I'm just not sure I can get a premade saddle high enough. (I'm not trying to make anything from a blank with no tools.)

I'm busting open a Mikes hard mango and going to practice. I'll see if i'm up to chopping audio after. Might post something if i'm awake all night.