Got the RP355 replacement yesterday - yum! And it works :-)

Now to make patches for all the songs …

The Digitech RP355 has to go back - one of the editing buttons doesn’t work :-(

This is now the forth guitar-related item I’ve had to return recently:

• The Marshall amp stopped working after two weeks.
• An amp cover I bought didn’t have all the handle-holes it should have had and had to go back.
• A 3/4 sized guitar we bought for our son had to go back when it stopped working 10 mins after we got it home.
• And now the Digitech hasn’t even lasted a day.

What’s going on? Can’t people just make stuff that works anymore? :-(

Got another new toy today - a Digitech RP355 effects unit.

Pretty sweet. Lots of nice sounds (including a Whammy for the Rage songs), practical features and sounds great through the amp. Can’t wait to use it at volume at the next practice :-)

It’s taken a while, but I’m finally getting my amp replaced. Note to self - don’t buy large, costly items from cheap German websites again.

My new amp arrived yesterday, just in time for last night’s practice :-)

It’s a Marshall MA50C combo. It’s 50 watts, all valve, single 12” speaker, and it sounded pretty good last night. I still need to work on getting the best sound from it, but I think it’s going to be great :-)

One bummer about last night’s practice was the decision to drop the Foo Fighter’s song The Pretender - we’ve been trying it for weeks and it’s just not working out. We’ll probably be replacing it with another Foo’s track - not sure which one yet.

Finally got my guitar properly fixed. I’ve been living with it for months - just had to stay away from the whammy bar really.

But my dad was up visiting recently and had a look - he knows a lot more about the mechanical side of guitars than I do. He reckoned the string was sticking in the nut, so he widened the nut-slot for the G string a little and it’s all fine now - stays in tune beautifully - even with some whammy bar action!

I had my first guitar lesson this week. Despite playing guitar for around 22 years now I’ve never had any lessons and know next to nothing about music theory. I’ve been stuck in a rut for the last 10 years or so, just playing the same things and never really moving on at all. So I thought that some lessons could perhaps help me out of the rut. It’s only been one lesson, but already I’ve got a good feeling about it. The tutor really knows his stuff, and I think I’m going to enjoy learning from him.

I also got myself a Pocket Pod shortly after Christmas. I’ve had a Pod 2.0 for years now and it’s great for practising and recording. But it doesn’t have an auxiliary input and only works on mains power, so I got the Pocket Pod and it’s wonderful. It doesn’t sound quite as nice as the Pod 2.0 (which isn’t surprising as it’s smaller and cheaper), but the convenience of battery power and being able to play along with tunes on my iPod is great.

Gah! My earlier optimism was unfounded - the G string on the guitar is still going out of tune. Looks like I’ll be making another trip back to the shop - but not until after Christmas. Not going near town in the next week if I can possible avoid it.

I took my new guitar back to the shop on Saturday morning. Turns out it was just a kink in the string. The strings were fitted in the factory and could have been on there, under tension, for months. As a result the string developed a kink where is crossed the nut. The kink would then stick on the edge of the nut causing it to “ping” out of tune - literally, there was often a tiny pinging noise when it went out of tune. The guy in the shop realised what was going on, fitted a new string and it’s all fine now :-)

I felt a bit daft standing there as he changed the string - I could have changed it myself if I’d realised what the problem was - but it’s just not something I’ve ever come across before. I’ll know next time though :-)

My current obsession is my new guitar.

I’ve been playing guitar now for about 20-odd years but I’ve never had a particularly good guitar … until now. I finally got a nice guitar for my birthday a couple of weeks ago, a lovely new PRS SE Custom.

Here’s a video review of the guitar - it’s the one he’s playing at the start of the video, though mine is grey and black as pictured above.

It’s a lovely guitar. It’s incredibly solid and weighty with a nice chunky neck. It just feels a lot more precise than my old Epiphone - you can feel the quality as soon as you start playing. And it sounds great through an amp.

The only slight downside is that the G string sometimes just won’t stay in tune. About every second time I tune the guitar the G drops about a quarter of a tone within the first few minutes of playing and it’s starting to get really annoying. I think the string is sticking in the nut, but I’m going to take it back to the shop this weekend to get them to have a look.

But apart from that it’s a lovely piece of wood, that should keep me rocking for many years to come :-)