Good conversation

Had a good ''band practice'' at my church last night. Supposed to start at 7pm, but because I got home late from work (went in to Uni with The Lady to do some library work), didn't get there 'til 7:10pm. Not a problem, though, as the other two guys were setting up. I'd brought in my two microphone stands on Sunday, and last night I brought in my mini-mixer (the keyboard guy brought mics and cables), so we had the capacity for vocals as well. On Sunday, The Lady will sing, to encourage the congregation's singing.

Anyhow, knocked off around 8:30pm or 9pm (I didn't look at the time). After the keyboard guy left, the pastor/guitarist guy and I hung around by my car and talked music gear, plus misc. life trajectory things. An enjoyable conversation -- as evidenced by the fact that I suddenly realized it was getting late, checked the time, and discovered it was 10:45pm! Whoops!

I had him give The Lady a call to let her know I was heading home. (Turned out she had started to worry; sorry, sweets...)


It was really nice to have someone to talk music gear with. Like, the electric guitar that I'll hopefully be picking up for my birthday, with the humbucker and single-coil pickups in the reverse-from-traditional configuration? He understood the implication in a way that The Lady (who had listened very politely when I raved about them a few days ago) couldn't.

The only other person I can really talk music gear with is my Guitar Cousin -- but he's in the States, and for whatever reason, we tend to only talk in person (or a little bit by e-mail), rather than phoning. And anyhow, my Guitar Cousin has a different attitude towards gear than I do. He's more efficient, in that he'll price out a few comparable items, and choose the well-priced, solid one in the middle or upper-middle range -- and only one. For example, he started out with a beginner electric guitar; when he upgraded to a better one, he sold the beginner guitar, whereas I would've just kept it. And, to my knowledge, he owns **a** mike -- whereas I own a few. And I have a bunch of bottom-feeder effects processors, etc., which I collect for the different ''flavors''.

The Guitar Pastor is somewhere in the middle. Unlike myself, who plays a bunch of no-name guitars, he plays an actual Fender Stratocaster, through an actual Fender amp (although it's solid-state; someday, he'd like to upgrade to a tube amp). His guitar probably costs as much as all my electrics put together (which, I suppose, isn't saying much...). On the other hand, he still has his original guitar, and original guitar amp, over at his parents' house. And, for what it's worth, it sounds like he and I both had the same ''first amp'': A 15-Watt Gorilla GC-15, with a ''Tube Stack'' on/off switch (as opposed to the knob that other versions have).


Anyhow: **Really** good to be able to talk music gear with someone. :)


--GG