Obligatory "hope you had a good holiday" post:

> > > Obligatory "hope you had a good holiday" post:

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Byte-Mixer
Member Since: Dec 04, 2007

Er, yeah, what the title says.

Mine has been (mostly) good. About 5 days after I got to FL, I had a nasty stomach bug, which gave me a fever of 102.5. I haven't had a fever that high since I was a kid! If I'm really down and out, it usually hovers around 100. :P But yeah, that night was pretty violent out of both ends to the point I had a syncope. I.e., I fainted. I was standing at the sink cleaning up when my hearing went very dull, I got super dizzy, grabbed the wall then the towel rack, and next thing I know, I'm waking up on the floor to my wife and mom both asking through the door, "Are you okay?" I pulled the towel rack off the wall on my way down which made a lot of noise, and I think beaned me in the forehead as well. :P

I was out for maybe a couple seconds. All I know is when I came to, I thought I was in the bed, and was like, "why am I on the floor in the bathroom?" I somehow bruised a couple toenails too.

Anyway, I was pretty much well again by about the 3rd or 4th day, but yeah, that was totally not fun. >_< I'm still getting occasional slight dizzy spells if I get up or move around too quickly. I might have given myself a slight concussion from falling down. I had a little bruised feeling on the back of my head after falling, but it didn't swell up or form a bump. And it's healed up now anyway. But yeah, that night did a number on me.

Moving onto better things, I picked up some things for my guitar after Christmas. I ordered some 1/4" cables from monoprice for recording purposes, and also ordered a little pocket guitar amplifier/recorder thing which looked cool along with a "tube overdrive" headphone amp thing that plugs right into the guitar. Kinda like those little Vox headphone amp things. The pocket amp was only like, well, less than $30, and the headphone amp was only about $20. Thought I'd give em a try.

www.monoprice.com/Product...=1&format=2

www.monoprice.com/Product...=1&format=2

(don't know if I can post those links or not, you know, zzounds and whatnot, if not, remove em, or I guess deactivate em, hah)

Apparently Gainesville, FL now has a guitar center....but they were out of korg volcas (actually, nobody has em right now, so I have to wait until mid-January before I get one of the little beat boxes) I picked up some other things, though. I got some new guitar strings, D'Addario XL chrome/jazz light (ECG24), which are 11 to 50 gauge, and flat wound. Should give the guitar a nice mellow tone.

I have no idea what strings it has now, nor how old since I bought it used. All I know is the little balls on the end are colored. I don't even know what gauge the current strings are, or how old they are, or if it's still the factory set. They don't sound bad, so I'll keep them around as spares just in case.

Now I just need to go out to Lowes and get some high/fine-grit sandpaper, and some mineral oil so I can give the fretboard and frets a bit of a cleaning, and then set up the new strings.

I also found a bit more specific info about my guitar (Ibanez ADD120) ibanez.wikia.com/wiki/ADD120

Got some dunlop heavy (1.0mm) cellulite/tortoise shell picks which I'm liking a bit right now, and a small pack of "big stubbies" (also 1.0mm i think) gel picks to see how they do. So far, I'm liking the stiffness of the 1.0mm picks quite a bit. Last ones I had were mediums (0.80mm) and felt they had too much flex.

Also got a fender guitar pick mouse pad, because, why not? :)

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Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002

Dec 31, 2013 07:16 am

Yo bot, wishing you and yours a happy new year as well. Sorry about the illness on vacation, that had to suck, 102 is quote a fever!

Things are OK here, looking forward to a better 2014...it's starting good, having just paid off my mortgage, pretty stoked about that, I actually OWN my house!

Outside of that, job is going OK, working at a startup still, that is at a make or break point...not sure if it's gonna make or break...we'll see.

Gonna right an article shortly, a little DIY as I just built my own pedal board with plywood, power strip and velcro strips...turned out pretty darn good!

Regarding your links, I seriously need to figure out how to become an affiliate of monoprice, I like that place too!

Byte-Mixer
Member
Since: Dec 04, 2007

Jan 01, 2014 03:17 am

EDIT: Hmmm, on the monoprice affiliation bit, all I've been able to find are third party affiliations through stuff like sellfire. :P

I've used the little tube overdrive headphone amp thing a bit, and I gotta say, it sounds pretty good in the headphones and going into the DAW. Maybe I'll put up a recording soon. Not that I can really play anything yet, hah! Just some one and two string melodies. :P

The little 5W amp also sounds decent enough. The speaker does distort easily, but I've heard that it clears up a bit after some time breaking in. We'll see.

Guitar also seems to be staying in tune pretty well now. :)
----------------------------------------------------


First time I'm doing this, and ah bloody hell, the end of the B string broke off at the tuning peg, leaving it too short. >_< *sighs and puts the old one back on* All the other strings went on okay, though. :P Got it tuned, and I gotta say, I'm liking the tone of the flat wound chromes on this guitar.

I managed to find some wood polish at the grocery store. Parker&Bailey furniture cream. Non-toxic, no silicone, no waxes, no flammable solvents, but contains a little lemon oil for scent. I put a little on a cloth, and wiped down the fret board, let it sit for about 10 minutes, then wiped off again with a dry cloth. Looks a bit better/darker for sure, and feels smoother to me. It's not super glossy or anything, but I didn't use a lot of polish.

I went over the body and spaces between the pickups and between the bridge and pickups to give it a wipedown. Managed to remove some kinda grimey stuff, but there's spots where it just looks like something is kinda caked on. No idea what it is, just feels kinda dry/rough. I could try taking a damp cloth to it since the body should be sealed and whatnot.

The frets themselves looked okay, but I lightly sanded them with 600 grit sandpaper (couldn't find 800 grit)And I went along the fret edges with a toothpick and removed a fair amount of grime.

Also had some flavored cheese and a cinnful angry orchard cider for the New Year's ball dropping stuff. So yeah, fairly eventful day, haha, and the guitar is sounding a bit nicer, and looks a bit cleaner now. :D

I just hope I did the loops on the strings right. I was using this guide: www.ultimate-guitar.com/f...hlight=restring

I've tuned it a couple times, but that may be the strings adjusting to the tension.

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