Spectraflex Original Series Right Angle Instrument Cable, 10 Foot, Violet

Remember when your mothers vacuum cleaner, or maybe it was grandmas had a tweed style fabric covered power cord? It wouldn't kink, no matter how you walked in circles during your cleaning.

I remember a few years ago, seeing some guitar player in a bar using a guitar cord that was covered by the same sort of fabric. I was intrigued.

So a year or so later I ordered one, in the ten foot variety. I planned on using it to connect my amplifier to the pedal board.
Violet color, extra cost natch. They come with one ninety degree connector - it goes into my Boss NS-2 noise gate. The other end is a straight end...which I insert into the amplifier. I'd rather have two ninety degree connectors but that is not an option form the manufacturer. (And I don't want to solder/crimp new connectors - I want a cable)

20 AWG Ultra Pure Copper Center Conductor

100% Copper and Conductive Polymer Shield Coverage

Low 39 pf/ft. Capacitance

Rugged, High Performance Connectors

Made in the USA-Lifetime Warranty

Durable, won't kink, and it's purple! A bit on the pricey side. $27.53 with tax ($2.27 to the state) & free shipping. I would love to see them making patch cables. Little one or two foot cords with two ninety degree connectors.
I am not ready to debate capacitance per foot et cetera; it hasn't broken and that is what I am after at this point.

Ordered it Thursday and received it Friday. Yay Amazon Prime.

Nothing To Change...Full Speed Ahead

My guitar is pretty much dialed in. The intonation, tremolo, action...they are all close to perfect.
What's next?

A gig.
A day job, or not. It doesn't matter.

My sound is perfect. My playing is far from that, but the voice. My guitar speaks.
I can get the sound I am after with a little tweaking of knobs.

What is left is for me is to tell a tale. Weave a story.
Maybe it has lyrics, maybe not.
I need a theme.

It works in "real life" as well.
A theme.

Fake it, until you make it.

Why I am satisfied? I have no idea. Well actually, I do. I am content, happy, need little in the way of things. I have what I want and need.

I am playing often enough, could be more, but it is good.

I see other bands/acts on a regular basis. I am eating better than a year ago.

I need to find something to complain about as most of my issues are clearly first world problems.

The human condition is one in which we constantly are on the prowl. Looking for something, someone, tone.

We seem to be chasing something...always.
What's the purpose?

Rocking My Ass Off In The USA

Well, actually...more of a North American thing, but then the reference to the song would have been lost.
Okay, start over.

I had two gigs yesterday, one after another and it was great.
Not the gigs, they were the run of the mill stuff - a birthday and a supper club mood thing at a posh sports bar.
Not the players...the same old Pomona people.

The best players make the rest of the band look good.
A drummer that no one notices but they feel a perfect beat under their feet.

The worst players make us all look stupid. The guitar player that does not turn the volume down. Maybe he is going deaf? Could be.
But when the singer is pushing it and still can't be heard...

But I was playing. Out and playing is better than most anything else. Watching a good band is close, but being in the spotlight is the best.

At one point a person seated yelled out, "Play some Hendrix..."
Someone hooks his iPod to the PA and there is SRV doing Voodoo Chile. It's not a bad cover at all.
Fine...I pick up my guitar and join in.
Twenty five minutes later the pianist announces the food is ready, time for a break. Um, you guys were on break. I've been jamming my ass off and grinning like a fool the entire time.

At the sports bar the crowd wants quiet and yet upbeat mood music.
Stevie Wonder works. So does Herbie Hancock or Booker T and the MGs.
The keyboard player in this band is unknown to me; I am an acquaintance of the drummer, but he and I pick up a riff in Watermelon Man and go with it.
Same thing with Green Onions - which is a guitar & keyboard jam as it was written. So this is real fun.

The people at the club were ignoring us. The way it should be. We were not the attraction. Basketball was.
But I was rocking - the way it should be.

Raw Vintage Springs

Raw Vintage Springs

Here is the ad copy from their site.

The wear and tear of parts from vintage guitars that were manufactured few decades ago can cause functionality problems. What vintage guitar users fear the most when these parts need to be replaced is if it will cause the sound to change significantly.

RVTS-1 (5-pc set)
Wire Diameter : 1.3mm
Overall Diameter : 8.86mm
Nickel Plated
MSRP: $27.00/set

Online shop (USA & Canada Only) > 

 Sound Sample

Raw Vintage products Dealer List >

Tremolo Spring is a part just as vital as the saddle and they are responsible for the fat sound of the 50's and 60's Stratocaster. Most newly manufactured springs have different characteristics from the vintage. They are hard with strong tension. 
As one of the raw vintage product, we researched the vintage and matched the tension of the spring. And with the prerequisite of using 5 or 4 springs together, we were able to achieve superb torque feel and stabilized arming that were made possible from the difference in weight and contraction percentage. And with the increased weight, we were able to create Fat Tone.
These can be used as a replacement parts for the new reissued guitars, enabling their owners to enjoy the characteristic closer to the original.

We recommend you to use this in set of 5

Clicking that BUY NOW button takes you here - Prosound Communications Inc,
I found them for $17 elsewhere online.


I usually am of the mind that things outside the pickups & tone circuit have very little bearing on the sound of my guitar.
I do believe that there are differences, but I think for the most part, we humans can't hear them, or if we can hear them then have trouble distinguishing one from another.
All things being subjective; there was a piece in the NYTimes by Nicholas Wade;
In Classic vs. Modern Violins, Beauty Is in Ear of the Beholder


"...and had them compare three high-quality modern violins with a Guarneri and two Stradivari instruments...."
"Despite a general belief among violinists that Stradivari and Guarneri violins are tonally superior, the participants in Dr. Fritz’s test could not reliably distinguish such instruments from modern violins. Only 8 of the 21 subjects chose an old violin as the one they’d like to take home. In the old-to-new comparison, a Stradivarius came in last and a new violin as the most preferred."


Fascinating stuff...

Back to my tremolo.
I had purchased a set of these five springs once before and liked the effect. The idea behind them is five springs instead of the OEM supplied three. But each of the supplied springs are softer, less tension. The claw got tightened a bit to pull the bridge closer to the body.

There was a distinct difference in the timbre of the harmonics. Normal adjectives and descriptors would include, bell like, chime,  clarity, ring,  The pickups needed adjusting after the springs pulled the bridge closer to the body.
This should be voodoo.
This should be a placebo effect.

If I am wrong about this, what other bits of hardware have a profound effect?
Many of the suggestions to improve tone are voodoo. I heard nothing after removing the back cover, although other people will swear by this.
The world is full of myth and most people buy in at a cheap price. So my inner cynic strikes first.

But if this is something, then new worlds have just opened.

The operation of the trem arm is as planned, easier to break the body at rest and set the bridge in motion. It feels smoother.

But now, even more so than yesterday, I love this thing. The sound is so close.

Sometimes Your Shit Doesn't Stink!

You went vegan...or.

When things are good - when are they good?
Such a subjective idea.
One man's ceiling is another man's floor.

While I know I am a pig in the material world, I have a spiritual side that gets frequent expression - I feel grateful. I can't tell you you how many times a day, week, month that I truly am thankful for the trials, tribulations and all the other first world dilemmas I suffer.
Not only are there more worse off than better off...I have what I want and importantly, need.

The Stones said that one. Paul Simon the other.
One man's...

I have the purple people eater almost dialed...I mean stinging.
I was noodling...as I am wont to do, when I realized I was playing really poorly, and yet...it was working.

Not a declaration that I am that good, merely my mind is where it needs to be. My heart, is where it needs to be. My body may be in the wrong place...I suspect, I am not alone. Sure doesn't look like me.

I have a chance to play this weekend, and open networks.

Attifunkingtood is the key. And mine is faking it, until I make it.