New Pro Tone Body Rot II Video

Today, just for fun I started working on a new riff of mine and building on it and used my Gibson Les Paul Studio with the Body Rot II going into my Fender Blues Jr. I used the bridge pickup only and really liked how easy it was to get squeals.

This is how I record demos right now. I find that recording videos helps me remember how I played what I played.

Anyway, when I was finished recording I figured I would put it up here so you can hear what I was getting from the Body Rot II. The controls for the BR2 was with the treble maxed out, the mids at about 9:00, the bass at about 1:00 and the gain at 1:00 too. There was plenty more gain on tap but I wanted clarity as much as I wanted guts in the tone.

I hope you enjoy:

-Pappy

The Supersuckers

The Supersuckers are doing it right. They’re doing it ALL right. Let’s break it down:

1) The Music

The music is great. Rock and roll at its raunchy finest. You can tap your feet to it and enjoy yourself listening to it. I wouldn’t say it’s “feel good” music because it’s rock after all, but it is great music.

What? You don’t believe me?

That’s OK because it brings me to point number two.

2) They’ll let you hear the music for free

That’s right. In a world where bands are either satisfied with thirty second sound samples on iTunes (who honestly believes that thirty seconds is really going to convey the whole song?) or non-downloadable full songs on MySpace the Supersuckers are right there offering you no less than eighteen full songs for free on their web site. The singer, Eddie Spaghetti also offers five songs from his solo albums at the same location so in total you can listen to twenty three tracks for free.

These aren’t tethering you to your computer or asking you to judge whole songs or albums based on thirty whopping seconds. You can drive and listen to them or run, walk the dog or put them on the boom box outside while you grill dinner on a summer evening with friends. This seems like common sense to me because honestly, unless you’re at work, how often do you sit in front of your computer and listen to music? Is it a greater amount of times than when you listen to music in your car? Or run? Or just hang out? These are the times when music is the most important.

In the case of their album Motherfuckers Be Trippin’ they are offering HALF of the album for free.

I guess some bands are worried about doing this themselves because they think that it will negatively impact their album sales. While this seems rational it also seems very knee-jerk. The hard truth is that all of your stuff is probably already out there on peer to peer programs anyway. I’m not a big music pirate anyway (sometimes it IS the only way to get certain things though) but if I were, I would feel less inclined to illegally download music from the Supersuckers because they negate the process. You always hear people say that they download to sample the artist or album and then if they like it, they’ll buy it. Well, the Supersuckers are giving that to you. If you can’t say after listening to half of the songs from an album whether or not you’ll buy it, you have really high standards.

Besides, if the Supersuckers are giving me the tracks for free in a non-spyware/virus ridden package, what motivation would I honestly have to go out and steal more of it (besides the fact that it rocks)? I like it. I’ll buy it eventually. I need to do a little survey but right now my instincts say that if an artist were to give you the load of songs that the Supersuckers do, most would be less inclined to look for even more from other places. This is good for the band because maybe bad outtakes or demos that they did not want to be released but were leaked in some way would probably be out there too. If I could say to a fan why download my stuff from their site (takes from a bad recording session or maybe just a song I don’t think deserves my band name to be attached to) when you can download and sample straight from the source at MY site, do you really think most fans would ignore me?

Anyway, I think it’s a great idea. Coincidentally it lines up with my new sample CD idea. More bands need to do this.

I know it’s tough to follow up free music, but there’s more to know.

3) Sales

I guess this kind of ties into the free music thing. I was on Amazon looking at Supersuckers albums (specifically looking for LPs because I want to start getting into records instead of CDs) and couldn’t find what I was looking for so I headed over to supersuckers.com and on the home page there was a huge section of sales. As of this writing, CDs are only $8.00, if you buy any LP you’ll get the Supersuckers Christmas 10” for free, if you spend more than $10.00 you’ll get the Must’ve Been High Demos CD for free, all Get It Together shirts are $10.00, if you spend $20.00 you can get the 20th Anniversary Show CD for $5.00 and if you spend $30.00 you can get their new album Get It Together for $1.00.

Those are pretty great deals. I wonder if they’re cumulative. If I spend thirty bucks on LPs, am I going to get the Christmas album, the demo CD, Get It Together for $1.00 and the Anniversary show for $5.00? If so that would be pretty cool.

But moving ON!

4) Accessibility

While I haven’t tried reaching out and contacting the band, I do feel like you can get to know them a bit from their site. You have blog posts from the road, video responses from Eddie to fan questions, tour dates, and random videos.

There are also random fan club member photos which is pretty cool. It almost gives a feeling of one big hangout for friends.

Not only that, but the music itself is accessible. When I looked on Amazon someone had made a list including the Supersuckers entitled “real music for real people” and that is a great description. You always hear that Bruce Springsteen was the voice of the blue collar worker or the normal man, and the Boss is awesome, but I don’t feel a connection to his music like I do to the Supersuckers’. Perhaps it’s a generational thing.

All in all, while they do make great music, they’ve also done a bunch of things to give fans and music listeners in general something they can get behind. I feel more inclined to buy music and merchandise from them because they have a feel of a local band that you WANT to support, that you want to go out of your way to support and that’s awesome. I strongly believe that any band in the world, while they may dream of being the biggest thing since Elvis or the Beatles still wants to inspire that sense of dedication from fans and not lose touch with the people that would bring them to that bigger stage.

If YOU haven’t heard of the Supersuckers and like rock and roll, visit their site, download the songs and listen to them. They’re under the tab “Free Music and Downloads.” Let me know what you think.

And if you’re a band, this is the site to go to when you want to see how it’s done.

http://www.supersuckers.com/07website_dir/index.php

-Pappy

Relic Guitars

Relic.

Is there a word that causes more heated debate in the guitar community? I don’t even think the digital/analog debate gets more heated than talking about relics.

So hey, why not talk about relics?

The story that is associated with Fender making their relics is this: The Rolling Stones were on tour and were using new Fender guitars and the fans were saying it didn’t look right, didn’t feel right and something needed to happen. The band called up Fender and Fender said something along the lines of “we can fix that,” and proceeded to beat the guitars up and presto! Fender relics.

A lot of people don’t get relics and that’s fine. I don’t understand guitars with flames on them. It’s a personal thing at the end of the day and no matter how much I type I probably won’t change your mind but maybe I can calm down the vehemence on the topic, at least with those who read the 5th Fret.

Blue Jeans

A common statement from the opposition is a comparison to blue jeans. The funny thing about this is that this is actually a really good comparison. It doesn’t seem like it would be, but even NON-guitarists can get in on the fun with it. So let’s tackle blue jeans first:

Most of the opposition say that they buy their blue jeans dark and stiff and wear them out the natural way.

I do not. I buy mine worn out for not much, maybe five bucks, more than the uncomfortably stiff ones.

A common end to the opposition’s tale of jeans is “I wear them until they’re broken in and comfortable,” which is admitting that they were uncomfortable in the first place. I know they are. I’m sure everyone knows how uncomfortable they are and how great they are once they’re worn in. We’re all going to the same place, some are just taking the Interstate and some are taking the scenic route.

Of course, in the world of blue jeans you have the ones I buy at Old Navy that go for something like 25.00, and you have the designer jeans that go for over a hundred and some of the wear on them is ridiculous. Mine may be worn in but they are complete, without holes. Some of these jeans look like Rufio’s pants in the movie Hook. The point here is that, looks aside, the price difference between stiff, uncomfortable jeans and designer jeans that have been ripped to shreds is quite a bit of money.

If that is the reasoning behind not liking relics I can understand and get behind that.

But honestly, I am willing to pay five dollars more for jeans that don’t make me regret having legs. That seems like a fair price.

So that is jeans. I’m going to start a list of things I never thought I’d write about on the 5th Fret and that will most definitely be on it.

But what about relics? Why are they so popular?

The Feel

For me, it’s all about the feel. They are comfortable, just like a worn pair of jeans. The neck is either sanded to a satin finish or right down to the bare wood and it is EASY to play. Ridiculously easy. I’ll say that only one stock Strat has ever made me think of buying one (if you haven’t checked out the Jimmie Vaughan Strat, you need to. They’re magic) but all but one relic Strat I pick up feels amazing.

While I am not a usual fan of Strats I do love Teles and they feel just as amazing. As a matter of fact, I was completely unsold on Teles (and Fenders in general) until I picked up and played the Jeff Beck Esquire which is another absolutely magical guitar (with a hilarious price tag). The neck was amazing, the body’s finish was worn away and smooth to the touch and felt like it was the guitar that YOU had been playing for thirty years with your arm at the same place (the comfortable place) and through some crazy happenings you were separated from it and your memory wiped of anything but the feel of it in your arms.

And in my case I was reduced in age too.

On feel alone, I’m sold. If you haven’t played one and insist relics are a travesty, give them a shot and keep an open mind. If you like relics, hey, go out and play some more. Why not? They’re a joy to play.

The Sound

The issues with scratchy pots that can be found on non-relic guitars as well are sometimes jokingly referred to as “relic’ed electronics” but that’s a little unfair.

Speaking of the sound, I honestly don’t hear much of a difference. I’ll be honest though, there has to be a very discernable difference for my little ear to pick it out, so my opinion on the matter is kind of moot.

The Look

This is a huge issue in the matter. I’m sure Fender could just leave their necks unfinished and save a ton of money in production and you would have a comfortable neck to play, but that isn’t Relic, is it? No, there’s a definite look to it.

The maple fretboards with finger marks from decades of playing, the forearm contour that’s been worn to the wood, the back of the neck that has gone green or black from not only wearing through to the wood but played naked (the neck, not the player) for years and years allowing dirt and oil from your hands to get ingrained in the wood, the rusted bridges, the warped and scratched pickguard, etc.

I have never had a problem with this. I never considered it a lie (it’s a guitar, why so serious?). I never really considered it anything and then in episode 80 of Six String Bliss, where they talk about relicing quite a bit, PT mentions that he thinks it’s just another finish option.

Ah ha! This clicked with me. It’s just another finish option. Some guitarists like flames on their guitars, some sparkles, some matte finishes, some finishes that look like the guitar’s been around forever. Is it REALLY a big deal?

The fact that some people get so worked up about how dishonest it is to have a guitar with fake wear on it puzzles me to no end. I don’t think anyone is buying these guitars and trying to convince themselves that the wear is real or maybe that the guitar is actually a vintage guitar that was put on the wrong rack and sent to the shop with the wrong tag that said it was a relic and not the true vintage guitar that someone sent in for whatever reason and this buyer just lucked into it.

Once you start thinking it’s a finish option and NOT some non-vocal statement that the guitar is actually a vintage guitar or the player actually wore it out that much, I think that will put the burner on a much lower setting.

A common thing people say though, regarding the look:

“If you want a guitar with wear, wear it out!”

Poly wears differently than a lacquer guitar and while it IS possible to buy a non-relic Highway One Tele (their lowest costing guitar with a lacquer finish) the neck features a different radius and different accoutrements like fret size (Highway One Tele features Jumbo frets while the Roadworn Tele feature Narrow Jumbo frets), and headstock logo and while some of you may sigh and say “big deal,” don’t you think someone should be able to buy a guitar that they like the look of?

Fakes

While this is a hugely biased article (I am obviously a fan of relics) I do have to mention fakes and how this may impact sales of future instruments. It’s only fair.

But before I do, let’s talk about costs.

Gbase.com features the following from different sellers:

1959 Telecaster Control Plate: $999.00

1959 Telecaster ‘Slab-Board’ Neck: $5,000.00

1959 Telecaster: $37,500.00

Almost a THOUSAND dollars for a CONTROL PLATE. That is ridiculous. That is fifty dollars MORE than the 50’s Roadworn Telecaster in its entirety!

Anyway, I apologize for that little tangent, but if you are willing to spend almost forty THOUSAND dollars on a guitar and you get suckered because you did not go through whatever verficiation should happen, you deserve it. Since you’re paying so much for the guitar you could probably convince George Gruhn to take a look at the guitar for another five hundred or thousand dollars to verify the authenticity.

And for those that want vintage specs but do not have the amount of money that you could buy just about any rational-minded car with lying around, the Roadworn guitars can be considered QUITE the deal.

But what about the market? How will this effect it? Will the used guitar market start to tank because eventually relic’ed Squiers and beat up guitars in general will be making their way into pawn shops? I doubt it. If anything, it would help it because now kids can buy guitars at used prices that look similar to the relic guitars that cost so much more.

The vintage market will probably remain untouched as well, regardless of the amount of relics flooding the market and the accuracy of them. A 1959 Tele is a 1959 Tele and nothing is going to change that. The rich folks can still play in their vintage market sand box while the less affluent can buy relics.

Conclusion

I hope I was able to calm some folks down because the level of seriousness on this topic is frightening, frankly. If I wasn’t, perhaps the amount of reading has made you sleepy. I do apologize for the length. This is why I’m not on Twitter.

-Pappy

Vintage Guitar

I like to think I'm somewhat familiar with the guitar and the common trappings that come with it. Pickup manufacturer's names, different materials for picks, magazines, etc. etc.

This one has been mentioned again and again and only now have I exposed myself to it and I have to say my life is better because I did.

I'm speaking of Vintage Guitar.

Right off the bat, I have to tell you that I did not go near this magazine because 1) it has "vintage" in the title and while I do love vintage guitars, I'm not so keen on bands that would now be considered vintage. I always felt that this magazine would miss what I like in favor of something my dad would like.

The second reason I didn't go near it is because, while I saw it on the shelf, I never thought it was actually a magazine. It looks like a classified ad for guitars. It is HUGE. By far, it's the biggest magazine I ever purchased. Every ad looks like a poster and the photography on the ads really have an opportunity to show their stuff with these larger formats (a Keeley pedal ad with Brad Paisley actually shows his Dr. Z amp in some pretty awesome glory thanks to the photographer).

But I heard that it was a favorite of the guys at Six String Bliss and was probably cheaper than a Guitar World so I figured why not pick one up and see how it is?

It's amazing.

I could go on and on about how awesome it is, but honestly, my words would just fall flat. Go down to your local Books-A-Million, Barnes & Noble, Walden Books or wherever you buy your guitar magazine and give it a shot. The articles are written well, it's a well put-together magazine and the fact that there are guitar shows listed in the back make me really wish I were retired and able to drive across the country checking them out.

I think that would be really fun.

I am super impressed with this magazine and I hope to soon be subscribed. It's amazing.

Go check it out and get back to me. It leaves most other guitar publications in the dust.

-Pappy

For The Record: Vinyl Comeback

A writer for the Gibson blog, Jonah Bayer recently proposed suggestions to bands and record labels in these trying times to help shape up the industry and rather than JUST reiterate what I read I wanted to add my own two cents about one of the suggestions.

The suggestion was to shift emphasis back to LPs as opposed to CDs.

I agree.

CDs were practical alternatives to records because 1) they had a constant quality of play where records degraded with each use, much like VHS and 2) they were smaller.

I have no idea why someone would care about the size of their albums or even if they DID care about the size, why they would want a SMALLER album. Album artwork is the one chance (provided the band releases just one cover) for the band to not only grab your attention but also convince you to buy the album. Why on earth would you want that SMALLER?

Have you ever tried to record an LP to a cassette? My father used to. He would sit us down on the couch, my brother and me, and say he’s about to put on a record and there will be absolutely no jumping, no yelling, no physical play, just sit here and play Nintendo. Then he would put on a Queen album and record to a cassette.

Unfortunately he had two young boys as sons and there was a little bit of jumping involved. We didn’t MEAN to make the records skip and Dad was never pissed about it but it was obvious that it was frustrating to have to go back on the cassette to find the right moment to stop the tape, then go back to the right song on the record and give yourself enough blank space or dead air as he would call it, to let the tape start winding and all the audio to transfer completely.

Have you ever tried to record a CD to a cassette? Pop in the CD, start the tape, and walk away. No flipping of the record, no worries about the room shaking enough to make the CD skip, nothing like that. It’s easy.

So I can see why there was a huge exodus to the CD. But here’s the thing: not many people use cassettes anymore. I visited Japan recently and saw a three pack of cassettes in a music store and for a second did not know what they were. It’s just been that long since I’ve seen them. You may think that’s a little crazy, but when was the last time YOU saw a cassette for sale?

No, people are using their iPods to listen to music today and there are recording devices to transfer the LP to MP3 and then from MP3 to your computer and then your iPod.

My question to those out there in the know when it comes to records and recording them to other devices is this: does the sound that is associated with records (ask anyone and they’ll say records sound better than CDs) get transferred to the device? If I use an older, well-played record and then record it, will it transfer over the snap, crackle and pop that comes with well-worn records?

If the answer is yes, then honestly, why aren’t there more records in the shops?

Thinking about it a little more, another question to the record aficionado concerns the cost. Is it cheaper to make records than CDs?

I think it is because there are so many punk bands out there releasing their stuff on records, more stuff on records than on CDs. So if musicians that may very well be starving can afford to make a record and not put out the same material on CD, it MUST be cheaper, right? That’s just my line of thinking.

I also saw that the albums from the bands would be cheaper than the CD versions of the same album when they matched up.

So if you can get bigger artwork with better sound (or reportedly better sound) at a cheaper price, doesn’t it seem a little silly to buy a CD?

And if they are cheaper to produce like I think they are, more artists can do what the Misfits and other bands do and release collectible versions of the albums. Usually these are a different color of vinyl (the Misfits Project 1950 was released in limited numbers with a glow in the dark vinyl which is Wicked cool with a capital “W”).

They can also release more EPs with “rare” songs. I say rare because if the records are cheaper the bands can put more out there - or more than they could have on a CD - and fans would buy the records because they're cheaper which means stores would hopefully stock more of the band's catalog cancelling out any form of "rareness" about it.

This is the kind of thing that music lovers, or at least music lovers like me, love. If I find a band I love, I want to DIVE into the material and get EVERYTHING they’ve done. It’s the archivist in me. Perhaps I think that someday one of my kids will listen to love the band as much as me and want to hear everything from them just like I did. Whatever the reason, this is what I do and honestly I don’t see that many EPs out there on CD. Of course you have Opiate from Tool and the Early Years EP from Tiger Army, but I don’t think any of my other favorite bands have this.

What they DO have is very upsetting and that is releasing the exact same CD with two more bonus tracks available exclusively at a specific store. As much as I would love to own the entire catalog of whatever band I’m heavily into at the time, I refuse to play that game. If the band takes all those bonus tracks and puts them on one EP I would buy it, but that would be because EPs are usually cheaper than full-blown albums and it features none of the songs used on other albums. I can’t in good conscience buy multiples of the same CD for six more songs when I could have bought two CDs from another band or bands.

Back to the transfer from LP to CD, perhaps the reason this was accepted was because 1) CDs would look silly in a full LP sleeve, and 2) maybe storage is a little cramped in most homes. I could understand that.

But consider this: to quote infoplease.com: “According to the National Association of Home Builders, the average home size in the United States was 2,330 square feet in 2004, up from 1,400 square feet in 1970.”

And according to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the year 2000 the average family size in the US was 3.14 and covering 2005-2007 the average family number jumped up a massive POINT ZERO FIVE to 3.19 family members.

So if the extra 1,400 feet is going to waste on your extra 20th of an added family member you can use that space to store your records.

Again, perhaps it’s the archivist (archivist is a kind word for pack rat, by the way) in me, but scenes like John Cusack’s apartment in High Fidelity or Tom Everett Scott’s apartment in That Thing You Do with collections of records in the background always make me think how much cooler it is to see these huge rows of albums without any distinguishing sides, and how a CD rack just doesn’t compare aesthetically.

Maybe it’s just me.

But again, if the sound is indeed better on a record and that quality can be transferred to iPod and it’s cheaper for bands to produce these which means more albums, EPs, or collectible records, then I say stop buying CDs and start buying records. Write your favorite band’s record label and say you want your band’s material released on vinyl. Start the revolution!

-Pappy

Project Green Amp: Going Green Against All Odds

In case you didn’t know, I’m a bit of a nut. Sometimes crazy ideas pop in my head and I have no choice but to follow them until they either work out or I give up (or fail completely).

To date I have never followed through with one of the ideas. This has less to do with my lack of dedication and more to do with time. Over time I sit back and really THINK about the idea and realize it’s impossible.

For example: when I first started playing guitar I was borrowing a Harmony electric guitar that had a lot more headstock than needed and I thought it would be awesome to add a seventh string to the guitar. I didn’t even attempt to go through with this idea though because within minutes I realized what was required for a seven string guitar and it was a lot more than room enough for another tuner.

And while some people may laugh at that (go ahead, it’s funny), this is an example of the ideas I get. They’re very “wouldn’t it be cool?” until you realize just what is involved.

Now that I wrote that though, I’m a little nervous to reveal my idea. What if it’s incredibly silly?

Oh well. If it is silly, you’ll get a laugh out of it. I know the people that know right now think that it’s silly so why not?

I thought wouldn’t it be cool to recycle cans, save the money, and get an amp?

Then I started thinking why JUST an amp? Recycling cans is going to take forever to save up enough money to get an amp, and it’s already virtually impossible to do, requiring a TON of dedication, so why not shoot for the moon? Why not pick a RIDICULOUSLY pricey amp?

Of course, when I say “ridiculous” I mean relatively. Of course there are always going to be more expensive amps out there, but an expensive amp is an expensive amp.

The amp I chose is a Gretsch 6163 Executive amp.

This amp retails on sites like Musician’s Friend for almost $3,000.00 which is REALLY pricey to me. This is an amp that I’ve wanted since I first saw it, but there’s no way I would ever be able to justify spending that much money on an amp. Essentially, there’s no way I would ever buy this amp and yet it’s always there, always looking cool and I know that it would look awesome in my living room. Well, not in MY living room because I have cats that LOVE to scratch stuff and a small child (soon to be small childREN) that behaves like, well, a child. I once left a Digitech Bad Monkey on a shelf when I deployed and when I came back it had moved to a different shelf and was now somewhat attached to the shelf. My little one had spilled orange juice on it.

To Digitech’s credit, it still works amazingly.

But back to the amp! Let’s talk about this!

It weighs fifty pounds, has twenty watts and one 15” speaker (an Eminence Legend). It has one channel with two inputs and features (according to Gretsch’s website) an all hand wired chassis, chrome control panel, spring reverb, and tremolo.

The controls are volume, treble, middle, bass, reverb level, tremolo intensity, and tremolo speed.

It features a ton of tubes, mainly 1 5AR4, 2 6V6’s, 3 12AX7’s, and 2 12AT7’s.

It also features a two button footswitch to turn the reverb and tremolo on and off.

By the way, the Gretsch specs say (and I quote): “Sound: Ridiculous.”

The looks of the amp are just BEAUTIFUL. I love it. It’s just a great looking amp and when I had the chance to play it last year it sounded amazing, so yes, I want it.

I priced it out, recycling these cans and it came to this: I would have to recycle 60,000 cans. SIXTY THOUSAND cans. How’s that for ridiculous? Especially considering that if I just quit drinking soda and started throwing in three bucks every time I would have normally bought a twelve pack I would only have to do that 1,000 times before I could afford the amp.

Alas, I like soda way too much.

But more than that, I just want to see if this is possible. Do people even pay to recycle cans anymore? This is a crucial issue to address before this ball starts to really roll.

To make this even more legendary, there will be self-imposed rules. My caveat is that these rules are subject to change in case I just plain give up. Say by some crazy case I recycle 20,000 cans and have $1,000.00 as a result, I reserve the right to say this is way too big of a hassle and give up. A thousand bucks can get you a pretty great amp anyway.

Anyway, back to the rules:

1) ALL money will be generated from recycling cans. There will be no monetary donations from either myself or any kind souls. If a grandmother sends me ten bucks for my birthday (for instance) it will NOT go in the Green Amp fund, it will go somewhere else.

2) Any donations of CANS will be considered strictly voluntary and without expectation. If a friend at work or something hears about this and wants to help out I will insist that, as far as they’re concerned, I’m just taking them to the trash. I don’t want anyone to be disappointed if I do give up along the way.

3) It will not be a second hand Executive. Even though it would be cheaper and more easily attainable (if you can FIND one second hand) it would take away from the wow factor here.

Those are the rules.

My wife asked me if this made me feel… poor, this idea of mine. It does not. I mean, I’m sure if I was out collecting cans from irrigation ditches I might think twice about that answer, but this is money from where there was no money before.

Besides, this is legendary stuff we’re talking about.

Imagine if it actually works out and I recycled enough cans (sixty THOUSAND cans!) to get this amp. That’s a ridiculous amount of cans and it reminds me of the guy who traded a paper clip all the way up to a house except I’m just saving money made from cans to get a ridiculously pricey amp. If it does work out, I WILL make a big deal out of it because it is completely WORTH making a big deal out of. Look at a normal 12 ounce can. Now imagine ten of them. Now imagine fifty. Fifty cans takes up quite a bit of counter space, let me tell you. Double that and you end up with a hundred and probably no counter space. That’s only a HUNDRED. Can you imagine a THOUSAND? Not me. My mind can’t fathom that amount of cans. It’s like those crowd scenes that start out on one or two guys and you think to yourself those guys have wives, mothers, kids, etc. and then the camera pans out to something crazy like in Lord of the Rings and you can’t fathom that each one of those dots is a real person with a story and history and future.

That is what 60,000 cans is to me.

And I know that you may want to keep up with this little (ridiculously huge) project of mine so every time I go to the recycling center (if they pay for cans mind you. If they don’t, the whole project is off) I will update the blog. Perhaps I’ll put something off to the side that’s a little more permanent. Who knows? Right now the plan is in development and not in the works so there’s still some time.

I mean besides the vast amount of time I will have between can One and can Sixty Thousand.

I mentioned earlier that this project is called the Green Amp project because every penny spent on the amp will come from recycling and I hear there’s nothing more green than recycling. That, and it sounds cool.

If YOU want to start your own project Green Amp, write in and let me know. Be sure to include the amp that is your goal and if you want to play with the same rules I am. If you keep sending me your updates, I’ll add them when I add mine and we’ll see how far we can all get. I think it would be pretty amazing if I can do this, but I think it would be STAGGERINGLY amazing if more than one person was able to do this project and get their desired amp. That would be Fox News worthy. If they did a story on people that like to pull snakes from trees and shake them around for a little while, I’m sure they would like to do a story on this. So keep your books up to date with recycling center receipts and ledgers and whatever you’re going to be using.

Personally, I can’t wait to get started!

-Pappy



Follow Up: While there is certainly no lacking in enthusiasm for this project from myself, I did some research and found out that recycling programs are greatly diminished. It used to be that everyone was after recycled materials exclusively for menufacturing and who knows, this may be something that comes back what with the economy being in such a poor state and the demand from consumers for companies to go green, but right now, demand is low.

As a result, the value of goods to be recycled has gone down too. While some folks are in states where the nickel for a can is still in full swing, in the state of Georgia, one can is worth a little more than a penny. So, a three thousand dollar amp equates three hundred thousand cans.

Of course, three hundred thousand cans is absolutely ridiculous, right?

Sure it is.

I was all set to give this up too. I was torn for a little while about whether to post it for someone else to do or to delete it and pretend that the idea never entered my head, but my wife (who's a bit of a nut herself) convinced me not to throw away my cans, saying she liked the idea and then she clammed up on the subject. I told her not to be coy with me and if she had input on the idea to let me know because I was feeling completely put out on the subject. She said she didn't, but who knows what she was REALLY thinking?

I think perhaps she wants to see me go through with it because it is truly a feat and if it works out it will be amazing. She did remark that I should NOT get the Executive because it is ridiculously priced (she was absolutely amazed that an amp could cost that much), so maybe she thinks I should shoot for something that is either cheaper (a ton of amps ARE cheaper, like the Dr. Z Prescription Junior or a Carr Viceroy or an Satellite Atom which are my top three boutique amps that I'm interested in), or sexier (like a Gretsch Black Phoenix, or 2005 Silver Falcon with Bigsby, or a 6120 Rverend Horton Heat).

I'm going to have to talk to her about this...

But anyway, I'm still in, the game is still on, I'm just going to be going RIDICULOUSLY slow here. I'm still excited too, even though I found out the average American family recycles 900 cans per year (that's ONLY 900 cans per year) which gets about nine bucks and trading in enough cans to get the Executive would take about oh, a little more than 666 (how about that?) families a year to attain.

Looking at that number, I know I'll be at this for a while. Oh well though, like I said earlier, I'm making money from something that was nothing more than a can, and in the end I can look at my expensive purchase and say I paid for it all with money earned from CANS. And that will be something to brag about.

-Pappy

VOX AmPlug

Hopefully by now you've seen these: http://www.voxamps.com/amplug/. If you haven't, they are amazing sounding pieces of equipment. I bought an AC30 one to bring out with me to Iraq and played around with it for about a week before leaving and was immensely satisfied with the tone.

I will say, though, that the durability of the amplug leaves a little to be desired. At least for me. I bought the amp specifically to bring to the desert and I'm fully prepared to admit that the trip would never constitute "normal wear and tear" in any way, but after a mere week out there it did not work.

Even though this isn't a normal thing to ask of a tiny guitar amp, I did buy it and it ended up dying. I feel pretty bad about it. The tone WAS good.

But besides the fact that it died, there were other things I was unsatisfied with, like the fact you couldn't use it to drive a cabinet. Or the fact it did not have a speaker.

I have been thinking about this tiny thing for months on months too and today, in a moment of insanity emailed Zinky Amps who make the famous Smokey Amp, if it was possible and, if so, how much would it cost to take an amplug and make it durable. Bruce Zinky himself wrote back and said that while he won't make a custom amp for me (and thinking about it, it was incredibly rude of me to ask, especially after Steve Benford posted about asking custom guitar makers to copy guitars) I can buy an amp from them and I can rest assured that not only is the amp made in the US, supporting jobs here, but they can rebuild it in any condition, "even if a truck runs over it." The current cost to rebuild the amp in ANY condition is $17.00 including shipping.

He then recommended the Supro Mini, a high gain amp in a Smokey package saying not only does it drive incredibly well and can even be used as a fuzz box in front of your amp, but if you roll off the volume on your guitar it will clean up nicely.

AND it can drive a cabinet.

He also recommended the Polycarbonate Smokey amp which is virtually indestructible. A definite plus in my case. It is actually made with the same plastic you can often find on bank windows.

Honestly, I don't know why I didn't go for the Smokey in the first place when I was looking for a deployment amp. They're small, durable and sound great. I remember my first one that was in a pack of Marlboros and it sounded amazing. Jazz guitarist Rick Wurzbacher flung it into a pool though and in an act of impatience I tried to turn it on before it fully dried out and it made a sound like an old TV being turned off WEEeeeeoooooo. I blame my age at the time. I know that if I had waited until it was fully dried out it would have been fine. Bruce even confirmed this for me. He went so far as to tell me that it would have been fine anyway, and all I needed to do take out the battery, dump clean water on the amp, wait for it to dry and them hook up a new battery and I would have been good to go.

But now that the lesson has been learned I'll be sure to pick up one (or maybe even two in case someone wants to jam out there) before I head out again.'

If you haven't heard of Bruce Zinky, Zinky Amps or Smokey Amps, do yourself a favor and check them out. They're located here: http://www.zinky.com/index.html

-Pappy