Growing up, there were a lot of dogs that came and went, but one of the longest lived ones of my childhood was a dog named Jasper. I do not think he was technically "mine", he was more my father's pet. I had a dog named Blackie, and years after that one named Buddy. Both of these dogs were jet black. Jasper was a dirty brown. He was some sort of mutt, mixed between a hound and a poodle of some sort. When it comes to that old dog that will never let you down "feeling", it is Jasper that I think of. I was young, and I probably played a little too rough with him, but by the time he was an old dog, we'd become trusted friends.
I got my first SG in 2004. I had just gotten my first full time, decent paying job, and I was going to do some things to get my credit going. The bank would not give me a loan on my own, so my father co-signed and put up collateral for no other reason than I had asked. One day I hope to trust a son of mine enough to do such a thing. So it was with my father's help that I got a Gibson SG Faded, a Marshall 2x12 SS amp, a studio "amp modeling" pedal, a matching brown leather strap, and a nice SKB case to keep the guitar in. The SG Special Faded was a model with a very thin finish on it. They had two goals with making these SG's, be inexpensive, and look like an old instrument. They only achieved being inexpensive, because these things were ugly. Except for a few of the brown ones. I had all 5 that the shop had in, and went by a purely cosmetic evaluation and chose the one I now own. No trapezoid inlays, no covers on the pickups, solid black knobs... but the thing had the same pickups as the $1000+ standards. They were also about 500 bucks less than a Standard, but they were made in the USA, same factory, I was proud to own a real Gibson. They also had thick necks, which is a plus for me, thin necks make my hand cramp. EDIT: additionally I have a pretty good "sweet spot" production year. By this time they had stopped reusing old SG Gothic materials. They also still used Rosewood fingerboards, which is a rarity even with 1000+ dollar les pauls, and the electronics are classic handwired instead of printed PCB.
I then went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some metal stamped letters, and on the back of the headstock, between the tuners, I put "Jasper". "That'll ruin the resale value" someone told me, "Great, I never want to be tempted to sell this guitar" I told them. This guitar is my trusty dog, it'll stick with me through thick and thin, it'll take my rough handling, but eventually I'll learn responsibility, and we'll be the best of friends.
Just like Jasper.
Day 11
Fixed a few things today.
The Duck Redux thing where it can not tell accurately which fret I'm using on the E string above the 5th fret? Well that's apparently solved by barely touch the string. Coming from bass I have a strong fretting hand, so its counter intuitive, but apparently a common problem in just regular playing. Pressing harder there doesn't make it more accurate, it makes it less accurate because its amplifying the natural flaw of guitar design. Anyways, 99% fixed. Played my usual warm up routine, did about twice as good as I have ever done in String Skip Saloon. I like that game for its challenge, you have to keep a cool head, and that's good for if you screw up a part of a song and have to steel your nerves to get the rest of the song right.
The 2nd thing that was fixed, the bend thing stems from my USB cable I would guess, or just something not calibrated the first time I tried playing the Bends lesson. I got it working and then stubbornly worked at memorizing and playing the bend practice lesson. It is tracking it well enough, though there are still some mysterious "missed" notes that get me cussing out my PS3. I got to 96% accuracy and called it a night for that lesson because that G string wants to shred my bass player callous.
I wasn't done for the night though, I started a few songs! I know! Crazy shit. Sixteen Saltines is something I would play bass over on Sunday mornings when I felt all rock, bluesy. So it is really cool that it is included in Rocksmith. I also tried "We are the Champions" and "Peace of Mind". Admittedly I pretty much just listened to Peace of Mind because I was in a Boston mood. A much better session than yesterday's.
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