My 'Happy New Year' Post

Well, it seems that this has become tradition for me the last couple of years.  I've only been posting once a year lately; and this is my 2016 version.  I wish everybody that reads this a Happy 2017!

I almost didn't post anything.  Blogger changed since I posted last, and I was lost there for a moment on how to post a new entry!  Anyway, I'm posting now, so it's all good.

This post is devoted to my New Year's resolution.  I'm not big on resolutions, because I never end up keeping any of them!  This new year I resolve to pick up my guitar and play something daily.  I would be a pretty good player by now if I had done this from the time I started this blog!  I have all it takes to accomplish this resolution:  I have my guitars and amps, and I have plenty of lessons to learn from; but what I lack is the discipline to play daily!  By writing my resolution out here, I hope to accomplish my goal!

In my last post, I mentioned that I wanted an acoustic-electric guitar to round off my collection, but I couldn't buy the guitar I wanted at the time.  Well, this past summer I found an acoustic-electric online for a price so low, I couldn't pass it up.  It's not the one I wanted in my last post, but it's a very good guitar IMHO.  It's a Rogue RA-090 Dreadnought, and I really enjoy playing it.  It has nice electronics and a built in tuner.  It sounds great (to my ears, anyway) either plugged in or unplugged.

When I ordered it, I also ordered a nice strap for it and I ordered some strings for my first ever real guitar that I got when I was about six years old.  That little old guitar became unplayable over the years, but I decided to try to get it playing again.  It had fret buzz throughout most of the neck, but I fixed it by putting a tiny wood shim under the saddle, thus raising the action just enough to eliminate the fret buzz.  Now it's my practice guitar that I have leaning against the wall next to my favorite chair.  It's sort of small for my adult-size fingers to do any chord work on it, but I can still finger pick and do melody work on it.  So I'm using that little old guitar as a stepping stone to achieve my goal of playing daily.  Wish me luck!  Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! As I started to write this, my neighbors finished shooting off fireworks to celebrate the new year. I could also see some great fireworks displays off in the distance. Despite the time stamp on this post, it is actually past midnight where I am, so it is 2011! Well, December was pretty uneventful as far as learning new stuff on the guitar goes. I did work out some Blues turnarounds in different keys, but that was it. I still have my Ibanez Jet King out. I've had it out since November - yikes! The Ibanez is one of my favorite guitars, and I want to try it out with all of the new 'toys' I have picked up since the last time I had it out.

Speaking of new 'toys', I did pick up a couple of new, older guitars for Christmas. I found them on Craigslist just before Christmas, and they were a bargain! I decided to get them for my son as part of his Christmas presents. One is an older Squier Strat, and the other is a no-name acoustic that was thrown in with the Strat. The Strat's trem. was too high off of the body, so I adjusted it and put on some new strings. It sounds pretty sweet! The acoustic sounds sweet too, except that it had some fret buzz at the second fret on the A string. Some tiny pieces of cardboard placed between the bridge and the A string solved the problem. My son is very happy with his 'new' guitars! He loves using the whammy bar to make the strings sound different (he is only six)! Hopefully, in a couple of years, I will have someone to jam with!

Aside from hoping to have a jam partner in a few years, this year I hope to get my first USA-made electric! I also want to devote more time to actually playing. I've gotten into the bad habit of reading more about guitars than actually playing them! I plan to remedy that this year.

Wishing everyone a great new year, this is G Man signing off for now!