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Charlie's World

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Charlie's World - Page 4 Empty Re: Charlie's World

Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Mon Aug 26, 2019 4:28 pm

I ordered this:


MXR EVH 5150 (STEREO) Chorus Pedal

Charlie's World - Page 4 111

This makes your guitar or vocal sound spacious & beauteous, with the Intensity turned off.
Sans the chorus effect, you get SUCH a nice tone - in stereo - you'll want to leave it on all the time!

I was hoping my Lester-G  would cover this need (along with being a vibe for organ), but it didn't.
So this pedal is to complete my stereo amps setup. It will give me now four choices for
sending a stereo output from the board, to the dual Fishmans. And I need multiple
choices available, because I've got both guitar and vocal to make stereo of.  

Charlie's World - Page 4 Fishma10  Charlie's World - Page 4 Fishma10

Charlie's World - Page 4 Board_11

Charlie's World - Page 4 Guild10


I oughta' be able to be so pleased with finally having all that I struggled to get. (It took 5-1/2 years!) But I
can't turn those amps on, without headphones. And they have no tubes because headphones. And I can't
sing or play harp here even with headphones. So I'll never play songs, or even hear what the rig I went
without things to get sounds like. It's pointless. Living in a city apartment is hell. I haven't even seen
the sky in 13 years. And no one wants anything to do with me anymore. I'm alone & without point.


- OBJECTIVE ACHIEVED - END OF BLOG -

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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Sun Sep 01, 2019 12:04 pm


Okay, I'm bored and have no one to talk to, so one more useless post won't hurt I suppose.

LET'S TALK PICKS

For 35 years now, I've occasionally looked for a pick like the one I had in 1984.
It was "the world's most exciting pick", Steve at McDuff's told me. And while he
was just joking around, the pick I had my eye on was unusual, and I bought it, and
it actually WAS the most exciting pick I ever had! I used it until the edges became sharpened
from the strings filing at it and it started cutting them. But it was SO good I wouldn't retire it till
I had to. (And even then I saved what was left of it in a box for 25 years.) I couldn't find another!

Now this pick may have been a different material than usual, which can make a difference. I don't know.
But I do know it was pointy, and had a diamond shaped cut out where your thumb goes, which went beyond
just helping you never drop it, it locked your grip in place which gave finer control (as did that pointed tip).

I recently noticed that Sweetwater has pages of picks to chose from, choices beyond any of the old physical stores.
So I looked. ( HERE ) The first one that attracted me was a Dunlop Ultex Sharp .73 (I usually get .60 thickness,
but this one is .73 for a reason we're told.) It's a different material ("Ultex"). And is said to be pointy, though it
doesn't look it. But.. users claim it's "PERFECT FOR ACOUSTIC". Well, I'll try it..the stiffness, the new material.

WHAT IS ULTEX?

Charlie's World - Page 4 310


The next pictures are the POINTY ones I found, which
I'm hoping will be like that "most exciting pick" I once had:

This one has a point but is not narrowed, so may be a good rhythm/lead combo pick.

Charlie's World - Page 4 210


And this one actually does narrow to a point like I wanted! (just no hole, for gripping it)

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This is a "Star" pick I tried, which doesn't taper to a point but does have a hole cut out for
the improved stability between forefinger and thumb. I'd rather have the diamond-shaped
cutout I had though. It felt solid, while these star picks are flexible & wobbly feeling because
the cutout is too big. I could look into cutting a diamond-shaped hole through a decent pick
myself somehow; and maybe grinding it to the needed tapered point, but I shouldn't have to.

Charlie's World - Page 4 61xbyl10


And so the quest is on, for a great - not merely okay - pick.

_________________________________________________

I also got replacement pins for my acoustic. THEY'RE EBONY.
Wood transfers string vibration to a wood body more truly than plastic,
and these do give a slight but noticeably improved tone. They're $12, but
I got 'em free with a coupon. I'll be swapping pins when I install the new pickup.

Charlie's World - Page 4 410

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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Thu Sep 19, 2019 2:56 pm


The picks I bought are great. I had been using shark's fin picks, because I was looking for a pointy tip,
but they were awful and the material they were made from would warp and twist and feel like junk.

These Tortex picks I found keep their shape though, and stay put between finger and thumb
(the material has a stay dry & stay put quality).  So I ordered this additional thickness.

I'm stocked up on GOOD picks to chose from now.


Charlie's World - Page 4 Captur21


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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Thu Sep 19, 2019 4:18 pm



I need to remember who I was, and be that guy again.


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Charlie's World - Page 4 Empty Re: Charlie's World

Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Fri Oct 18, 2019 7:47 pm



Charlie's World - Page 4 Dave_h11


Dave Hemingway died. At 55, from cancer. He was our drummer and great old friend.
He had a family, and a house on a lake, with his infamous cabana in the back yard.
He hosted beer parties for us all on Friday & Saturday nights, and the February Cookouts.
We went camping in the Deer Park with China and Keith. We drove to Mount Washington
in the middle of a loaded night, and oh man that was grand. And we had other adventures. Many,
including certainly the Dead Babies jam in 1983!!  Too cool. Dave, wherever you are, I hope you
brought your Ludwigs with you, because I'm bringing my shit too when I go, and looking you up.

Here I was before I even heard the news, listening to that jam, thinking about jamming now.

(See who the song was credited to, in the player?)

Charlie's World - Page 4 10910

I wanted to contact you for years, but I had no way to get your number
or even just go out there. I told Dean to give you my #. I tried your facebook.
I thought maybe you'd come up here once in a while now. But it was not to be.


We're gonna miss you a whole lot buddy.


Charlie's World - Page 4 Dave_s10

His dog, Hank.
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Charlie's World - Page 4 Empty Re: Charlie's World

Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Sun Oct 20, 2019 3:24 pm



A Yahoo Answers question I felt I had the answer to...


Charlie's World - Page 4 The_mt10


Charlie's World - Page 4 The_mt11
Charlie's World - Page 4 The_mt12

Charlie's World - Page 4 The_mt14



To DAVE, or anyone who may think the story "insensitively told":
I wrote this years ago when we were all still very much alive and well.
It was a cool story to regale some folks with at a Jokes Forum.
Truth is, that trip is one of my favorite memories. Thanks buddy.

By the way, a "muffery" is a place that bakes breads & muffins.
Smile



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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Sun Oct 20, 2019 5:26 pm


SO MUSICALLY, what's happening is...

A month ago, I got done 5-1/2 years of scrimping to buy music gear.
But I'd never settled on what the best strings and picks are to use.
I didn't have enough stuff yet to really use it, while I was still getting it,
so the crucial parts one uses to interface with guitars never got chosen and stocked.

Well, you saw above how I settled the need to find a great - not merely 'good enough' - pick.

Now I turn my attention to
STRINGS.
And what I sorted out is this:


BRONZE (acoustic) STRINGS
offer these choices:
80/20
phosphor bronze
or nickel bronze.

80/20 means: 80% copper / 20% ZINC (not tin), so while we call them 'bronze', they're actually brass!  They sound best,
but only at first. You get a new set to stop slipping and they sound dead already. I mean within five days, then
you have to keep using them in spite of their lifelessness, because you only just payed for them and put them on.

So string makers started adding 1% phosphorous, to a 92% copper / 7% TIN mix (and that DOES make bronze).
The added phosphorous makes the metal's grain SMOOTHER, so the strings don't stick then suddenly release as much.
Thus they tune easier and stay tuned. And they make less finger noise. Plus phosphorous prevents corrosion. So while
they don't sound as brilliant as 80/20's, they do sound good, and they STAY sounding good for the life of the string,
which is much much longer than the 80/20s'.  So Phosphor Bronze acoustic strings became the go to choice.

So why do they still sell 80/20's then? Maybe the same horse shitty reason people still buy Teles, idk. Rolling Eyes  But here's a
good use for them: you can put a set on for a show. They will sound BEST long enough for the night. Then toss them,
because they'll sound dead by the next day already. But you'll have sounded bell-toney great at the show!

Alright, so Phosphor Bronze strings are the ones right? Well..NOT SO FAST! There's now a third option: Nickel bronze.
(these are phosphor-bronze strings plated with nickel, which gives the string back the missing high end the phosphorous
smoothed away). And they're tough! They last 2 to 3 times as long. They're great for players who bend, or use
a whammy.  They're definitely the best offering yet. But..because they are..they're also $12 a pack, instead
of the $6 you can get regular phosphor-bronze for. But hey, these last longer so the price is a wash.  Try them!


So.. I've got four guitars to keep strung (2 with acoustic strings, 2 with electric). AND I'VE DECIDED:

The Casino
hollow body electric: is gonna get bronze strings, because it isn't that good
as an electric since it lacks the center block a SEMI-hollow has which creates the sustain and all
the ELECTRIC MAGIC...and the result is it's "boomy bottom-endy" too which isn't okay. BUT:
it's a BEAUTIFUL practice guitar, in that it's like a nicely quieted acoustic, and for apartment
playing you need that! And I want to put bronze strings on it, so I can do the John Huntington thing
with it since it's a spare guitar. (I've got the Guild AND Les Paul for electrics) (AND I got an acoustic) so
this is spare, but for practice it's indispensable, and doesn't require plugging in unless you want effects.
And it has a whammy, which adds an interesting 'nother dimension. And I just think it'd be a gas, bronzed!

SO I've gotten both Phosphor Bronze AND Nickel Bronze sets, to try each on The Casino.

NOTE: Nickel Bronze strings don't sound as "acoustic" as regular bronze.
They're silver even, like electric strings, though they do sound mostly like bronze. But I want
the full-on  'John Huntington BRONZE THROUGH AN ELECTRIC PICKUP sound' for my Casino. So while the
nickel-bronze do offer benefits, I'll most likely go with Phosphor-Bronze...but I'll try both anyway, to see.



The Acoustic: is getting a new pickup, ebony pins, and I'll be trying both types of bronze on it too.


The Les Paul: is getting all its electronics replaced (harness, pots, jacks...everything but the pickups themselves)
AND it's getting the harness channels shielded (to cut down on single core hum). So there's some work to do,
but it'll be getting D'addario NYXL strings (9's).  NYXL's are nickel-plated steel, with interesting new tech used
in the cores to create some sizzle in the 1-3.5 k range. They last 2 to 3 times as long as the regular D'addario
electric strings,  are more durable and return to tune better, which you'll appreciate if you bend a lot or use a
whammy. The only negative I heard mentioned is they're a bit stiff feeling. Well, I need slinky strings for the
Les Paul, so I can bend whole rock chords and have 80's punk fun slamming it like a rock n roll axe. So I'll try
the NYXL 9's on it, first, but if those really are 'stiff', then it's not as if REGULAR D'addarios are bad to use.

The Guild also needs slinky strings, because it has a stiff-feeling shorter neck
(some folks tune it down half a step to compensate, but I'd like to avoid that).
So I'll try 9-40 NYXL's on it too, and if they really are stiff, use regulars.


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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Mon Oct 21, 2019 7:41 am

For my friend Keith Boucher, who died in 1983.
He came to Job Corps with his girl, a 3' bong
and this poster.  And he meant it.


Charlie's World - Page 4 He_cam10



I wish you were still around, my friend.
You made an ordeal we both had to endure ok.

Here's hoping you can come back some day and do ..most of it all again. Wink




Charlie's World - Page 4 Lighte10







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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Fri Oct 25, 2019 12:07 pm


WHO was John Huntington?

THIS was John Huntington.

He had THIS Picasso print, on his wall. (though I don't think he made it that far himself. Sad

Charlie's World - Page 4 The_ol10


(The Old Blind Guitarist, by Pablo Picasso, 1903-1904)


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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Fri Oct 25, 2019 1:00 pm

People who died.

Keith Boucher was my room mate in Job Corps in 1981. He hung himself in jail in '83.

John Huntington was the coolest hippy music artist an aspiring young
musician could want to meet.  He tripped his way to Nirvana.

Chink died at only 40, from a cold.

Jeffrey Dunkerly ...car accident 2004.

Bob Decelles lived many years, but I wish he'd had 20 more...heart.

Richard Holland, Band Director SHS...heart.

Dave Hemingway...cancer.

Van Chauvin...heart.


There were others.. who turned contemptible.  Dead or not they're dead too.


I have no family or friends at all now...just a cat.



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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Fri Nov 01, 2019 2:15 pm



THE HISTORY OF ROCK RADIO I WITNESSED:


In 1969, the radio station to listen to (in Worcester, MA area) was WAAB 1440-AM.

Yup, AM. It was top 40. It didn't have too many ads. And though AM is mono, it's
all there was for radio so we didn't know it wasn't as good as it could be, we liked it.

In 1972, WAAB changed to talk, because FM radio had become the choice for music listening.
It offered much better sound quality, IN STEREO, and it was playing whole albums ad-free for us.
So we moved to WAAF 107.3 FM.    [NOTE: "WAAF" was actually WAAB-FM.   Hence: WAA"F".]

And this became what we had on the radio as we got ready for school each morning, 1973-1977.
It played the top 40, which was great then. They introduced songs from new albums as they came out.
They even had "God" explain why the weather would be that day, which was amusing.

But as the 70's ended, rock was waning. We had survived disco, but now Punk & New Wave were moving in.
They offered something temporarily, but music was no longer headed in a growing direction.
Companies were just scraping the pot for some/any marketable shtick to tell people they like
to keep their money train going. It'd take a few years of sputtering to play out, but music itself was dying.

and to be replaced by machine-produced goo, for the lucrative stupid people segment No

~~  ~~  ~~

Charlie's World - Page 4 _110

In 1978 we moved to WBCN 104.1 FM (Boston) because it was COOLER than WAAF had become.
(WAAF told us it "couldn't" say the name of Alice Cooper's 'Muscle Of Love' album, because "gosh!")
But WBCN wasn't afraid.  It was funny and outlandish.
It claimed to be "an experiment", did things others wouldn't, and was heroic for us.  
That stuff matters.

And it was a good place for Classic Rock AND New Wave & Punk..plus local stuff like J Geils.

We loved WBCN even more than we'd previously loved those other two stations.
(They had been good because of the music. But WBCN had interesting on-air personalities,
like Charles Laquidara on "The Morning Mattress"...and his alter ego, Duane Ingalls Glasscock,
who had a dog named Yoop, and would get weird, and once even took the station hostage (yes really).

And that was the 80's.

~~  ~~  ~~

By the 90's, music was on TV, and our radios had become just alarm clocks. For the same
reason TV has died now, radio was abandoned BECAUSE TOO MANY ENDLESS SICKENING ADS!

We had changed from listening to radio in our cars (and having to keep twisting the knob
as each ad started, trying to find another station that might be playing an actual song currently)
to making our own mix tapes so we could just listen to all our favorite songs commercial-free.
 Cool

Charlie's World - Page 4 230b10

In the 70's, FM-radio playing whole albums had given us a way to get albums free, by taping them off air.

That party ended, but then we had Napster & now youtube.

FUCK THE CORPORATE RUINERS OF OUR GOOD THINGS.

   NOT that I'm adverse to paying. I payed $20,000 (in 90's dollars) for albums.
   But they price-gouge for them, then trick us into having to buy them all again.

   And as for radio, there's no way I'm gonna' PAY for THAT by listening to
   an entire hour of ads just to hear two songs I don't particularly like.


Those who had gained from bringing us music  were screwing up their own game  with their ever-increasing greed.



Then in the 90s  THEY STARTED RAP. 

Charlie's World - Page 4 Z_211   Charlie's World - Page 4 10211

Charlie's World - Page 4 10011


We moved to WZLX 100.7 FM "Classic Hits" then, because WBCN's playlist wasn't good anymore.
We still wanted to hear Bad Co, BTO, Cooper, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Allmans...

But WZLX ran too many ads and even more ads, like stations only did,
so we abandoned radio entirely in the 90's.

WBCN went off the air in 1997.

~~  ~~  ~~

Now..we're all just waiting to die. Wikipedia keeps a list of rock stars dying.
It lengthens depressingly. The grim march to the sea is on. And those who aren't
dead yet..have you seen what they look like at 70+?  (Do yourself a favor, don't.)

There is YOU TUBE currently, which can be used as a commercial-free radio. It and the internet in general gives us
SO MUCH we could never see or hear before...film of the bands we loved, in the way of interviews, documentaries,
memorabilia clips, and concerts we'd never been able to see. So there is good stuff now, but we're old. Young stupid
people abandoned our culture in favor of garbage, and Republicons took everything else...living wages, decent products,
rights, privacy, a factual uncensored press, solvency, pride, hope, even democracy itself. It's a shitty world now.
And people have proven to be entirely stupid and gutless. They won't stick up for what's theirs, when someone
takes it from them. In fact they're SO idiotic they parrot the excuses for their victimizers to do it! 


People should be purged.


Charlie's World - Page 4 10310

But the world really WAS once ours and cool.
Our great music.  Our classic cars.  
Being on the same decent page together.

So HERE are some recordings of WBCN, from when all was still right in the world. Forget today's skeevy reality,
my children. Go back to when a universe of amazingly cool things was still forming in the cosmic soup. Enjoy!

(Oops, thought I was Venus Flytrap for a moment. Dig...

____________________________________________________________________________________

NOTE: Radio in the fifties was what started EVERYTHING in the way of modern music.
But I'm writing what I observed first-hand, in my life time, I'm not pasting histories from
Wikipedia. So I can't tell you about the 50's here. I didn't live in them. But you CAN find
documentaries on you tube, and oh do watch those! Talk about DJ's "being heroic for us"!

ALSO: If your interest is to track the changing mediums used to broadcast the popular music of each decade,
it happened thusly: Radio in the 50's. Outdoor festivals in the 60's. TV shows of live music hall performances
in the 70's. And MTV in the 80's. (After that, who cares. I'm not gonna' tell you about the Li'l Waynes and
pitch-corrected Disney girl & nigger noises ..just as no one ever really needed to hear the Bathroom Boys
and In Stink. But you can always GO to a bathroom -  a mens room at a truck stop specifically -
and get yourself a whiff of WHAT THAT STUFF WAS LIKE  if it would really mean something to you.

____________________________________________________________________________________


A LIVED HISTORY  by Charlie Fiftywatts  a.k.a. Tree  -  c. Sept 2019





______________________________________________________________________________________________

WCUW 91.3 FM Worcester
(click to listen)


             And read the wiki. Interesting little college station
              started by Robert Goddard in 1920 at Clark University.

          [The call letters, "CUW", stand for Clark University Worcester]

This station is a discovery I made on my FM dial back in the 80's,
during the endless struggle ruinous greedy advertisers put us through,
to be ever having to twist the knob seeking a station that isn't playing ads.

This station had no ads, and played different music types in blocks. Sometimes blues, sometimes folk,
(& sometimes Irish stuff, which we dug on as a novelty a few times because we'd never heard it before).

But in the 90's, WCUW turned PC when asinine X'ers inflicted that on our society,
so everyone was suddenly "needing" to include EVERY different type of peoples
stuffs, "to be fair".  As impulses go it wasn't evil, but it was stupid and terrible.
All they accomplished by it was they watered down something really cool
& OURS, turning it into a morass of unwanted noise. I stopped listening.

 I used to hear blues and folk and cool stuff..and next thing we know, GONE!

Such was the 90's PC ridiculousness, the lone contribution of worthless Generation X.

I made a similar point regarding WBCN versus WAAF--> YOU NEED TO BE OUR HERO for us. It's NOT heroic
to abandon us, by replacing our cool stuff with other people's SHIT they could start their own station for.
(like MTV giving away our only music outlet and entire culture, because a minority threatened to sue
when MTV wouldn't play their stupid RAP, because it was a rock station. -> Why didn't MTV tell them
to start their own channel?  When music was on radio, was there only ONE station?

But MTV WAS NOT OUR HERO.

And people are stupid.

Corporate jackasses feed their idiocy, then sell ad space to fleece a profit from it.
Money's money, they don't care. Everybody's tone deaf anyway, JUST TELL THEM
THEY LIKE SHIT. That way, shit = good enough. So more profit!  For nothin'!!  YAY.

And thus stupid wins.  

And shit is all that can be popular now.

__________________________________________________________________

NOTE: You can still hear blues, without ads,
        Fridays     5:00-9 PM
       Saturdays 6:00-9 PM

 at: http://player.streamguys.com/wcuw/sgplayer/player.php


AND THERE ARE STILL blocks of other kinds of musics. ALL AD FREE.

Here's a schedule: CLICK

THERE IS A GOOD RADIO STATION THERE.

Just use the schedule, because it doesn't stick to just the music you like.


Though -having said all that - I was just listening to Sami & Native American musics there
(The Puta Mayo Hour), and it was just as charming as the Ukrainian folk songs I once encountered
when I used to write for a holiday calendar. There is an entirely disarming innocence in the voices.
One could no more hate such music as hate a child for humming happily. Wonderful. Check it out!  Surprised  
_________________________________________________________________________________


A LIVED HISTORY  by Charlie Fiftywatts  a.k.a. Tree  -  c. Sept 2019





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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Fri Dec 20, 2019 12:58 pm


My landlord is a sociopath and retard. He's abusive and miserably cheap. It's horrible when he comes and I have to deal with him. He has no respect at all, is a pest, and abusive, and he says things that are full on nuts. Like today it was "I believe a landlord should NOT tell a tenant how much his rent is." Don't ask me to make sense of that. He's nuts! Like when I first moved here, I asked him where to put a full trash bag mid-week, and he said "Put it in the fridge, it will keep it cold so it doesn't smell." People like him can be dangerous as well as annoying. One time he let himself in at midnight when I was asleep, and assaulted & threatened me. And since the nazis you allow won't let me punch his ugly brain, he gets to! And then go off and defame my character in order to assign blame to his victim. And I'm STUCK in this hellish place without trees or a sky. And I'm unhappy. As I said, I invested in music equipment so I can write songs, post them online with some humor, maybe jam with some people,  do an act at clubs possibly. But I never get to, because I can't make noise here.  

Which brings me to today's point:

Its obviously time to wish for what I need next, but I'm afraid to. The last time I started
dreaming of getting the hell out of a constricted situation I was in, I got what I wished for
but the transition was dreadful! They say "be careful what you wish for". I know why.

But I do need a house so I can play out loud, or I'll have no life but to
be depressed and pet a cat and sleep instead of ever playing a note again!

And I cant take a walk here, so my health is collapsed. (I got mugged four times when I tried.) And I've seen 11 shootings and
a stabbing too, JUST outside. Its AWFUL HERE!!!! I haven't even seen the sky in 17 years. How would I? I'm squashed between
triple-deckers, with ethnics blasting "rap" and heaving garbage and peeing in front of my porch. I can't go outside at all. I'll never
have a car again. And I lost every single friend and family member. And this all goes very nicely with republicons stealing my
retirement insurance I bought, so I cant eat fruits or vegetables EVER, while parroting FUX idiots condemn me as if it's my fault.

So I need a house. But I'm afraid to wish for it. It was hell between the last place and this one..and a house is so much MORE to ask..
I may just have to die and come back in another life to get one! (or sue some assholes, and struggle for years to get the cash...fuck.
I'm old now. I cant wait years for what I need next. Frankly, if I cant just live TODAY, I ain't going to.

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Charlie's World - Page 4 Empty Re: Charlie's World

Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Sat Jan 25, 2020 4:53 am

Charlie's World - Page 4 3b11


The 'T'  of the 'Tree' montage I made
by cutting up Grand Funk posters
at Studio B in 1983.


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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Wed Apr 22, 2020 12:07 pm


FUCK! SOLD OUT IN FIVE MINUTES!!!

Charlie's World - Page 4 Captur22

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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Wed Apr 22, 2020 2:52 pm


Ha Ha!   YES!!!

Charlie's World - Page 4 Captur23

The price was nice even. YEA BABY!!




Charlie's World - Page 4 Astron10
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Charlie's World - Page 4 Empty Re: Charlie's World

Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Sat May 23, 2020 10:54 am


Charlie's World - Page 4 10810

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Charlie's World - Page 4 Empty Re: Charlie's World

Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Thu Jun 04, 2020 10:07 am


Charlie's World - Page 4 112b10

My pedal board is finally completed.
It cost $5,000 over 5-1/2 years.
And a LOT of work learning & wiring it, in the best order, noiselessly.

The last pedal I added was the amazing SPUTNIK III  drifting germanium fuzz!

And you can see 7 other choices for distortion, including 2 amp-in-a-box pedals:

One amp-in-a-box is the Catalinbread Sabbra Cadabra which provides the circuitry of Tony Iommi's rig (Black Sabbath).  
In a time before pedals existed, or even amps with two volumes, Iommi soldered a treble booster to his Laney Supergroup amp
to add the 2nd volume needed to make distortion.  Thus the 60's/70's metal magic of Black Sabbath was created.



Another amp-in-a-box pedal I'm running is MXR's "brown sound" pedal (Van Halen): The EVH 5150.
It's the circuitry of a dimed Marshall. The secret of Eddy's sound was
he pinned the volume on 10,  and re-labeled it 'tone'  Very Happy

For tube-toned overdrive on my board (since I'm actually playing into a clean channel of a solid state amp),
there's a Boss Blues Driver 2.  I can't praise that thing enough.

And I've got a Wampler Velvet Fuzz which adds SUSTAIN and sounds amazing with single coils.

The Super Badass is straight distortion   - OR -   an EQ'd Clean Boost.

So dirt I got. Even my Talking Wah offers its own dirt.  (And that thing's tasty!)

Plus the Lester G has dirt.
(The Lester G is a rotary vibe, with dirt & sustain. It's used with the C9 organ pedal, on guitar.
--- Plus normally it's  FOR MAKING YOUR KEYBOARD a stereo output organ. ---

I have of of course a tuner and EQ.  And pedals needed for apartment living
(e.g., playing through headphones means I can't make feedback normally, so I got a Digitech FreqOut).  

That feedback pedal goes nicely with the swell pedal (the green Maleko Sneak Attack..which is an 80's-type tremolo I got
for its amazing swell feature (like Zeppelin, Song Remains The Same).  You swell until it feeds, and YEA..surf it!
And you can add or switch between other combinations of effects, and really CREATE with this many pedals.

I put my trust in MXR's EVH line for phase, flange & chorus.

AND I got a few ElectroHarmonix goodies because that hippy sure makes good stuff.  
For example, the C9 organ pedal  (with Lester G rotary vibe)   
turns your guitar into your choice of 7 organs,  IN STEREO

(Or the C9 can just add accompaniment to your guitar, which is inspiring, and what I was after.)

______________________________________________________________________________________

IF money and board space were no object, I'd  have added an *EHX Superego AND Stereo Polychorus
The Superego is a layerable FREEZE & GLISS pedal.    The Polychorus is about MODULATION.
*The demo at that link shows how those 2 pedals, along with my Memory Man Delay,
could fill a space with otherworldly accompaniment, taking full advantage of using two amps.

I also wanted a Soundblox 2 for its "Do not mix up the crystals, Will and Holly!" sound.
I'd probably only ever have used it once, but come on, how cool is that!!

These things go extinct if you don't grab 'em you know.
 Basketball


STILL AVAILABLE, but only just: soundblox 2  -- and required DUAL expression pedal (under $300)
______________________________________________________________________________________


Off the left side of my board (on the floor) those 4 pedals are stereo output. I have two GREAT Fishman amps, which pump out 20-20k hertz sound (the entire frequency range, evenly) through woofer, mid-range and tweeter in each, like a home stereo. Guitar amps usually ignore the highest
and lowest frequencies, emphasizing the upper mid-range unnaturally. But these Fishmans are Bose tech, i.e., closed cabinets which 
PROJECT SOUND IN A BIG FULL WAY.  So I added a section of stereo output pedals  to make use of this SOLO PA I bought.

The ElectroHarmonix 'Memory Man' Delay for instance is stereo output.
It ping pongs delay echoes between the two amps!
And it's a looper, and a 'hazarai' more functions.

Oh and that Ibanez analog delay you see (the pink mini, top middle) is a 2nd delay I placed BEFORE the dirt section.
You're not supposed to do that, but it creates an unusual tone effect (Neil Young).

And I did try to buy only analog pedals, knowing that transistors get a little warm,
so - compared to micro-circuitry -  they make nicer sound, for the same reason tubes do.

~ And analog means it's not a simulation. It's the real circuitry. ~

This clean-powered studio level pedalboard COST $5,000.

Charlie's World - Page 4 10810

Two of the stereo output pedals I didn't mention are the EVH Chorus, which - with the chorus effect on zero -
you want to leave on all the time, because it adds no effect, but makes your sound full and beauteous
which you realize when you turn it off and hear how dull it sounds without it. (I didn't even need chorus,
I bought it for that amazing quality,  and for its stereo outputs to two amps.)

Also there's a Keely 30MS  Beatles Abbey Road Studio  doubler.  
It duplicates a guitar or vocal track, and you detune the pitch & timing of the second track, slightly,
add a pinch of reverb.. now it's not just two identical tracks. It's spatial. It sounds good!


*sigh*  Well, I'm late for my Pedalholics Anonymous meeting.   Very Happy


LADIES AND GENTLEMAN,  THE SPUTNIK III
drifting ~  germanium ~ fuzz










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Charlie's World - Page 4 Empty Re: Charlie's World

Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Wed Jun 24, 2020 9:10 pm

This guitar..

Charlie's World - Page 4 Gtr210


This case..

Charlie's World - Page 4 Case11

Charlie's World - Page 4 Zz10


$900 TOTAL

It divebombs.  
It coil splits.
It's mahogany (for tone).
It's not heavy.
It needs no work.
It even comes in a really nice case.


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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Thu Jun 25, 2020 3:59 pm

I'm thinking of getting that guitar,
and if I never get around to fixing the Les Paul, so what.
I bought new harness, pots & shielding to install.
And I COULD add a surface-mounted Floyd Rose
But it'd still have garbly pickups.  
And it needs the fret bars sanded lower (I'd have to buy more tools).  
BUT it has a fretboard made for a child-sized hand, so why bother.
AND IT'S HEAVY enough to take the fun out of EVERYTHING anyway
..I just don't want to keep adding to the price of that spending error.


I just want the light bendy magical  G & L  I once had.  
A slam-on electric that leads to places I'd never been able to go.
Can the Les Paul be that?

I need to do the harness & shielding, and a thorough real set up,
see if it makes enough difference, BEFORE I buy anything else.

That PRS dive-bombs and sounds like Zeppelin clean though.

While the Les Paul sounds like sweet BTO, in single coil OD.

Mmm.

Well I'd prefer the PRS. For an easy price I could
not have a jillion pounds on my shoulder just to sound like JUNK.
(The Les Paul does offer a couple tones one could use,
but the pickups actually sound garbly and muddly,
and the guitar is horribly heavy,
and the fretboard is 'scrinchy'.

Screw that.



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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Thu Jun 25, 2020 11:08 pm

I've changed my mind entirely. No PRS guitar.

I came to the same realization last time I checked out PRS: everything I said is true,

they're great guitars, but the pickups don't sound nice enough.

The only humbuckers I've heard that sound GOOD are on a Guild Starfire IV.

As for my Les Paul, that sweet 'BTO' tone in single core mode is worth something.

Fix that, without spending more, and make do.
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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Fri Jul 10, 2020 10:22 am

Besides, if I EVER got another guitar, it'd be a Strat.
Everything sounds better through a Strat.


And the expensive one isn't the only model which could be best for someone.

The Player Strat is a straightforward old school Stratocaster for under a thousand, case + tax included.
It lacks some modern changes (compound radius neck, yadda).  But changes aren't always better.
Some folks don't like compound radii or 'modern voicing'.

NOTE: Strats don't dive bomb, though for a hundred more you can get this with a Floyd Rose.
(But that'd be a different guitar, for just a few specialized songs.  And what we want is a Strat.)

This Strat.

Charlie's World - Page 4 Get_3-11


And with a David Gilmour pre-wired pickguard

it'll sound like Pink Floyd, with lots of sustain!  Cool  Very Happy

Total cost (Apr 2022) $1,497.06    ~ plus financing fee ($10 for 3-payment  OR  $15 for 6-payment)

So it'd be six $250 payments for this hot guitar.


And if the need arose, you could always swap the original pickguard back in, without even removing the strings.
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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Fri Jul 17, 2020 11:39 am

Where could a guitar like this go? Well,
maybe there's more worcester songs
and leading comedic fascination. - Wry Bred

Charlie's World - Page 4 Maybe_10
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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Sun Jul 19, 2020 3:06 pm


Well, a little window shopping, keeping abreast of what's out there. Always good occasionally.
But MY GUILD SOUNDS GOOD. And I don't think Strats sound good. They sound like they're
for people who don't care if their guitar has no tone at all, coming across as just twangy wires
stretched across a board. Shocked   Fenders have always struck me as being about clueless agreeal.
Consider the telecaster, a hacked together prototype which was never designed. Why do people buy it?
Probably the same reason they imagined country is a type of music  and Trump was a well-meaning genius.  Rolling Eyes

My Guild Starfire is a beauteous bucket of tone I can get all I need from.  It's my guitar.
It has a floating saddle (which makes it sustain and sound so tasty).
But those can move out of position if you play heavy-handed stuff,
so for chord-bending punk, use the Les Paul.
(And make it work for that, or replace it.)

The worthy virtue of the Strat I picked out would be the EMG pickups.
With that sustain & Pink Floyd-tone, it could be a fun light single-core electric to have.



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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Sun Aug 02, 2020 6:44 pm


THE STORY SO FAR..

"Come down from there, Batman."

I decided to pretend they must mean someone else.

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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Sun Aug 16, 2020 5:23 pm


I bought a real microphone.

Charlie's World - Page 4 Captur11

That's a $600 condenser mic. IT SOUNDS PERFECT.

I put the SM58 someone stuck me with in my toolbox
as a hammer, per Shure's recommendations for its use.


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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Thu Aug 20, 2020 11:11 am


My 8-track collection 1976 - 1978

Aerosmith
Dream On
Toys In The Attic
* ROCKS *


Alice Cooper
Billion Dollar Babies
Welcome To My Nightmare


Bachman Turner Overdrive
II
* NOT  FRAGILE *
Head On
Freeways


Bad Company
Burnin' Sky
Straight Shooter


Black Sabbath
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Technical Ecstasy


Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
CSN
4-Way Street


Foghat
Foghat Live

Grand Funk Railroad
Closer To Home
LIVE
Survival
E Pluribus Funk
We're An American Band
All The Girls In The World
Caught In The Act
Born To Die
Good Singin' Good Playin'


Jimi Hendrix
Electric Ladyland

Joe Walsh
The Smoker You Drink The Player You Get

Led Zeppelin
II
Song Remains The Same


Lynyrd Skynyrd
Gimme Back My Bullets
One More From The Road


Peter Frampton
Frampton Comes Alive
I'm In You


Sly & The Family Stone

Steve Miller
The Joker
Living In The USA


Styx
Equinox
The Grand Illusion


Thin Lizzy
Jailbreak

ZZ Top
Fandango
Tejas


Charlie's World - Page 4 1_1c10

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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Fri Aug 28, 2020 1:51 pm


I did have that car. Though mine wasn't a GTX, it was this



This guy did a beefy good restoration, including suspension and wheels. Well mine were stock, but this is the car I had.
I didn't care much for the bench seat interior though, and it was a depressing dark green inside and out, so I traded it
for a sky blue '72 Charger which I put racing wheels on, and air shocks, and a mighty quadraphonic 8-track system, and CB!  Very Happy

I bought these, my first 2 cars, when I was 17, working for $2.30 an hour at The Fair Department Store.
I made my favorite two best friends ever there..Wayne Landry, and Fuzzy (Isaac) Grant.
They both gave of themselves to help put that '72 Charger together. It was our car. And we cruised!
And my god the times we had. It was just joy and no worries, finding cool stuff in every direction.  For a year.
Very Happy
We took that '69 Satellite to see Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Cape Cod Coliseum, August 27, 1976.
We'd do beers Friday nights, then Saturday morning bacon & eggs at a diner
and drive to the beach/arcade with the 8 track blaring in the sun. Cool
We crashed graduation parties.  Saw fireworks.  Carnivals.  Racing at the Marlboro Flats.
We'd drink beer & smoke pot at a drive-in movie (saw Blazing Saddles & Young Frunkensteen).
There were trips to The Cape to buy bootleg 8-tracks & amy, and see weirdos, babes and beach.
And we cruised and listened to music most every night regardless, as boomers all did.


Charlie's World - Page 4 Spare_12

1972 Dodge Charger
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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Wed Sep 02, 2020 11:58 am


That was a tough time to think through and write about because, though it was all about joy,
it was loss & sorrow ever after when it was over.
 They got terminally angry and done with me.  WHY?

Well, they took it as 'fuck you' when I drove past them one day.

And Wayne was unhappy I didn't get along with his baby friend.

And they figured I'd thrown away everything we'd worked for and been (the car).  

Wayne and Fuzzy had both contributed to that car. It was our cool ride and great times.
And they blamed me that it was gone.
And one day they surprised me with hate and banishment.

But I DID NOT SELL the car.  It was taken from me.

At 17, I had asked my father to co-sign a loan and he agreed to, but then just took the loan out himself.
I fully expected the car was mine and had been making the payments for months, when he suddenly claimed I did not legally own it,
advertised it on the bulletin board of the factory he worked in, and sold it for the amount owed on the loan.  I didn't get a dime.

There was no reason.  This was simply the malfunctional asshole I had instead of a father.


Why didn't my friends care that I got screwed!?



Three years later, I got a Teamsters Union job in a warehouse. I only had to be there 7 hours, to get payed for 8.
And this was in New Hampshire. I had hit the jackpot to get such a job. I'd gotten an apartment with a girlfriend, and we
were starting life. I had to get through that first week of work where you show you can meet the quota daily, which would
have been easy, but we ran out of food. I was dizzy from not eating.  So I asked my Dad for $20.  I told him of the
exciting score of a job I'd gotten, and I just needed to get through the first week. A LITTLE FOOD AND BODY SOAP.

He gave me nothing.  

It cost me the job.

and the relationship.  

And I ended up alone, working for minimum wage again,

unable to afford living independently.

Thanks for the send off into life Dad. 


So at 17, he'd taken my car, my credit, everything I'd worked for and built, even my respectability and friends.

Then three years later, I was starting an independent life, and he took that from me too.

And he spread terrible rumors to harm me.  


He had told himself I was junk,  not worth investing in.

It was his excuse to get out of fatherhood, which was too much work I guess.

Causing me harm was fun for him though.

That's the SICK asshole my father was.    And yours?


Anyway, thanks for casting me out my tremendous friends Wayne and Fuzzy.  
You made me feel terrible the rest of my life, but that made you feel better, right?  
Because you needed to feel better, after suffering.. NOTHING!  
It was ME who got screwed.   You had nothing to even be mad ABOUT.

YOU DIRTY ASSHOLES

FUCK YOUR GOD DAMN MEMORIES
ESPECIALLY YOU FUZZY, YOU GOD DAMN SCUMBAG.



Arrow  cyclops  silent   

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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Wed Sep 02, 2020 11:58 am

The next car I had was a 1968 Dodge Coronet, which looked like the car in this video.
(The Coronet, GTX and Super Bees were the same car, just with engine upgrades and added decals.)

(Just as Satellites & Roadrunners were the same basic car.)

And be they  Dodge  or  Plymouth
these were the Mopars.
 


Maybe you can see why I was fond of them.

Look at the way this beast sets on its haunches.




The '71 Cuda I wanted:

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Post by Charlie FiftyWatts Fri Sep 25, 2020 7:08 pm










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