A Day of Bad Jamming Is Better Than a Good Day At Work

I have a neighbor that through sheer grit, determination and no sense of when he is being a royal pain, hosts more jam sessions than the average bear.

I try to take advantage of these as sources of other contacts more than a chance to play...usually.

And while a good number of them eventually have become productive from my standpoint, there is still a fair amount of garbage to sift through.

Today was such a day.
It has been very warm this summer in California and having to endure withering heat and then to try to play is a tough road. Heat saps creativity. Causes drinking and excess of a cerebral sort that also sap the creative flow.

And this guy is so cheap - he thinks a fan and an open door will solve the air dilemma.
After some back and forth it was concluded to turn his window AC unit on...I could swear it belched dust, it hadn't been used in such a long, long time. After an hour or so, the heat in his living room began to dissipate.

Let the music commence! Ha...one participant was dozing...heat and beer, no doubt.
We began to play and the neighbors began to load up on Rics lawn, having a listen. Ric notices them and goes to open the door.
"The heat..."
"Oh yeah..." He waves. We go back to jamming. None of the invitees are spectacular, in my mind. Nothing clicks, and yet it had been a good session.

I learned something of my phrasing that was missing. I found relative keys without thinking about it...I sounded good at times.

Even the worst jam session beats a day slaving in the salt mines.

Turn A Few Knobs, Why Don'tcha?

In the quest for perfect tone, one aspect we lose sight of is that the target is always changing.
I mean always.

Today I am listening to Weather Report, tomorrow it is The Nazz. How far apart can those two be?
No wonder people start to pull out their hair and begin thinking of capacitor changes, or a new amp. Maybe boutique pickups would solve this weeks dilemma?

I have an equalizer in my pedal-board...to shape the frequency response. How often do I adjust the ten bands? We tend to fall into patterns...ruts.

My OD has two sets of tone controls. I do move them every time I change guitars; but only to recreate the same sound with the different pickups. Another rut.

My amp has knobs.

I don't use the "Drive" channel, but there is one knob for treble middle and bass bands.

If you were to reflect for a moment you quickly see that I have many ways to shape the basic sound as I play.

How often do I try for the opposite sides of the rainbow?
Not.often.enough.

Once we catalog a sound we like, why move the knobs? With so many, it is entirely possible to never recreate exactly the same sound. Should I be logging an entry for each sound?

Nah...the answer is craft a sound that matches the sound you are hearing in your head...and they are not all the same. Wayne Shorter does not sound like Todd Rundgren.
Easy, actually...but humans like the easy way out.

When I bought the many OverDrive pedals I have acquired through the years, it was looking for a particular tone. Why expect one pedal to nail Eric Clapton today and Hendrix tomorrow?
(Actually,  a HALO can...)
Harmonic Amp Like Over Drive

But it is a rare thing, indeed.

I tend to play Fender single coils, humbuckers or P-90s. Three very distinct sounds.
So why aim for the middle of the target only when there so many shades of sound and color if you vary from the center...think outside the box?