I Likely Don't NEED Any More Guitars

But there's a couple I have my eye on...

ESP LTD Deluxe EC-1000 Electric Guitar 

This would be a trade in/trade up from my Les Paul, if I were to do it. I love my Les, but I wanna go in and play this a bit. It's got the traditional Les Paul styling, but with active pickups and locking tuners.

My Les has always been a bit touchy in the tuning area. I've had a set-up done, tried various string gauges, lubed the nut (don't ask) and, while functional, it can still go out of tune at random, annoying moments. The active pickups would also give me more "pop" in my tome. The Les, with it's passive pickups, has a really cool "chunky" tone, but it can get a little muddy. The active pickups on the LTD should allow more of the higher frequency in. 

 Like I said, if I were to go after this, I'd have to trade in the Les, and I'm not willing to do that until after I give this a few spins at the store...We shall see.

Fender Standard Telecaster Electric Guitar Ash

Now, as anyone who knows me, knows...I am a Springsteen disciple. With this in mind, I find myself often wandering into the Fender room to play the Telecasters. The Boss has made quite a few modifications to his own Telecasters, but there's still somethign in the twang of a Tele that makes me think of Bruce.

The other advantage here is that a Tele would give me a new range of tones for my recording projects (Yes, I'm still working on it...more in a bit), rather than just improving the tools to get a sound I already have. It's also cheaper, although I have no idea what I'd get for trading in my Les Paul. turning, turning, in my head...

The new CD project has been at a standstill for a while. Totally my fault, with no help from my schedule. It's just hard to find 3-4 hours to just sit and muck around with songs when you're in rehearsal almost every weeknight, and all day on the weekends. Not to mention putting a show over that on weekend nights (plus, as my wife points out...she never sees me, either).

Still, I have a lot of recording equipment now, even if I haven't solved the drum problem yet (I can fiddle with mixes and effects to try to disguise the mechanical nature of a drum machine, but it's still a drum machine). I need to start moving forward. I have several songs "in progress" now, and one of the nice things about Bus Stop has been having my guitar around all the time. I've been figure out some new progressions and riffs, just while sitting in the dressing room after I tune up.

It's also reminded me how much I love my old, regular non-electric acoustic Takamine. The thing holds it's tune so well, and the tone is fantastic. It's the guitar I used on the entirety of my first CD, the all-acoustic one. I think it's showing me that I really need to rely on it for recording acoustic stuff in the future, rather than the acoustic-electric (which sounds great too, through an amp).

All that aside, I am not happy with myself that this project has drug on so long. I need to get focused, and get somethign accomplished. To Tony and Paul, who've both been promised samples, my apologies...I am planning to get my act in gear.

We'll see if I can keep that promise to myself...