Today I officially proved that I have NO self control.

[DarkTirade]

I had to do a lot of errands today, but I had a break of a little more than an hour in the middle where I had nothing to do. So I stopped by a nearby shopping center and wandered around for a bit.

First I went into a Big Lots. I saw Easter candy at half off... and I couldn't resist buying a little bit of it.

Then I went into the guitar store next door. I saw a guitar for slightly more than half off... and I couldn't resist buying a little bit of it.

Well really more like ALL of it.



Seriously though, it was marked down to almost a third of its original price. It cost less than you'd normally spend on a beat-up old used guitar at a pawn shop, yet it's got the quality of a 200+ dollar guitar. It was some special sale and they were trying to get rid of it, I guess. I tried out several guitars when I was there, and this one was better than all the ones I tried. And thanks to the sale price, it was cheaper than all the ones I tried too.

I've been wanting/needing an electric guitar for a while now. Especially since I moved, since I now live with people who go to bed early. An acoustic guitar makes noise. An electric guitar only makes noise when it's plugged in. So now I can practice at 2 in the morning if I feel like it, and nobody's gonna complain.

I've already put it to good use recording something that I just couldn't do properly on acoustic guitar. This was one of the first songs I ever wrote... it's nice to finally be able to play it properly. :)

http://www.stickmanltd.com/practicesessions/indarkness-shortversion.mp3

[Cabcere]

1. Oooh...pretty!

:) That is a gorgeous instrument. :thumbsup: And as for the lack of self-control thing...that's not applicable when you come across bargains like that, dude. Well done! :toast:

[DarkTirade]

2. Those bastards just KNEW I shouldn't be spending money... and yet they priced a good guitar in a

range I could afford. :P

[Cabcere]

24. I was raised to believe

that if you saw something that was on sale at a killer price, it would be a sin not to buy it. :P This comes from my mother's side, of course - my grandfather was FAMOUS for bargain-hunting. One time, he bought an entire rack of personalized keychains because the store was going out of business and they were practically giving everything away...even though he didn't know anybody named Colleen, or Louisa, or most of the other names that were available. :rofl: My mom is much the same way, although quite a bit more toned-down. I guess I just inherited the "bargain" gene or something, lol. :hi:

[lost-in-nj]

3. Why not!?!?!!?

you deserve it!!!!


just post links to your music !!!!

live your dream... not someone elses.....



:hug:


lost

[DarkTirade]

4. I really shouldn't be spending money right now until I can get some kind of steady income...

but if I waited, I'd have to pay almost three times as much for the same guitar. :P

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. If you can afford it, then go for it :^) Besides, it looks purty! (the guitar, but maybe the candy 2

[DarkTirade]

6. I can, but I shouldn't. :P

The problem is I haven't had time to look for a job since I moved here, so I've been living off of savings. Which is fine, I don't have to pay rent or anything. Minimal bills. But still, school's sucked a lot out of that. Every time I forgot to bring a lunch with me I have to spend a couple bucks... books and school supplies sucked out a lot of money, ect. ect.

So I really shouldn't spend much until I have income. But this was just so cheap and I really do need something I can play late at night when people are sleeping... so it's worth it. :P

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. My hubby bought one.. not as pretty as yours, tho and an acoustic. He

is teaching himself to play. It wasn't cheap but you know what? The man has to have hobbies. He works hard. He never goes out with the guys. He needs something in his life besides his work.

And he also had the same reasoning of "It's cheaper if I buy it now". :)

[DarkTirade]

9. I learned on acoustic, 'tis the best way to learn.

But there are some things acoustic can't do. :)

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. Some songs you just can't unplug (like about half of Jimi's stuff)

[DarkTirade]

14. Yep.

With technology I can fake some stuff and make my acoustic sound like an electric to some extent... but there are limits.

[RadiationTherapy]

7. I like the aesthetic feel of it.

But since I am learning to critique others' art right now, some feedback.

It sounds like your 'fuzz' guitar sound was recorded too loud; like it recorded it clipping out.

I believe you mentioned you were classically trained? I think there is a lot of room for notes on your 'lead' guitar; the melody portion I guess.

Sorry about the semantics, but I am not educated in music. g.

[DarkTirade]

11. Nope, no clipping here. :)

That's one of the first things I learned when I started recording. It does get a bit much, I need to play with the balance a bit. But there's no clipping on any of the tracks.

This was one of the first songs I ever wrote, so it wasn't very complex. I really only wrote one main solo line that kept repeating. So I did some variations when I was recording this time, just to spice it up a bit. I'll probably write out a new solo line entirely.

I also made up the bassline on the fly. I hadn't written a bassline at the time. :)

[RadiationTherapy]

17. Then was there a name for that guitar setting?

Like and 'octave fuzz' or something?

[DarkTirade]

20. Nope, just turned the tone dial on the guitar all the way up

used distortion on my amp. Turned the gain up to about 3 or 4 on the distortion for the guitar and 4 or 5 for the bass. Left the tone dial on the amp right in the middle for the guitar and all the way up for the bass. I didn't want the bass to be percussive, just background tone. I probably should have turned it down a little bit more for the rhythm guitar to let it be more percussive, 's what the rhythm guitar is there for. :)

[RadiationTherapy]

25. Hunh, You're good...

[DarkTirade]

26. I'm workin' on it at least.

:)

I was working on some trippy, weird, ambient stuff recently that you might find interesting. Lemme find the mp3 of it.

http://www.stickmanltd.com/mymusic/underworldtheme-final.mp3

I wrote it to be a background theme for the Underworld in a game I'm toying around with. Not sure if I'm gonna actually make it or not, just trying to put a few things together to see if it'll work. :)

[RadiationTherapy]

27. Yeahhhhh, that's the shit!

Put a spoken word piece over it and you have radiation therapy!!

Oh.

Wait.

Don't do that.


g.

[DarkTirade]

28. Heh, don't worry. I'm not gonna steal your schtick.

I just like to dabble in a variety of styles to see what I can do. And once I get confident in a particular style, I can try to do nifty things like combining them.

Rock and baroque are pretty easy to combine, for instance. :) I wrote a creepy baroque/rock waltz a few years back that I should probably revise and do interesting things with.

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. Do you know I called you out last night?? And you didn't even anwser, afaik

[DarkTirade]

13. I missed it. Was it about the scanner?

:P

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. Yes indeedy. Was all cross about no body part. :^P So where's teh hair pic?

[DarkTirade]

16. I posted it in that thread. :)

Lemme find the link.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x7579584#7587415

[GreenPartyVoter]

18. Lovely color, but we're going to have to do something about those ends.

:P

[DarkTirade]

21. I trim 'em when I find 'em.

Unfortunately that's been all the time lately.

Side effect of three years of working in an open-air warehouse in Florida. Thankfully I'm neither working in a warehouse nor in Florida anymore, so it should get better as it grows out. :)

[opiate69]

19. Very nice! Is that an Ernie Ball??

[DarkTirade]

22. It's a Dean.

I don't have much experience with electrics so I don't know brand names that well... all I know was it felt right in my hands and it sounded right when I tried it.

They even had the same kind of amp there at the guitar store that I have, so I tried it out on there to make sure I knew how it would sound once I got it home. :)

[opiate69]

23. Ah.. ok.. kick ass!

[DarkTirade]

29. Next project...

find knobs that go up to 11 to replace the ones on there that only go up to 10.