Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Guitar Work


A lot on my plate today, so, in the interest of always posting something on every single day, I offer you the pleasant diversion:

What’s LE playing on his guitar nowadays?

In my heyday of guitar playing, oh, say, about 1986-1996, I had, at various times, a 1969 Gibson SG, a then-brand-new Les Paul and Stratocaster, a Washburn 12-string acoustic, and a couple of crappy basses. At shows and rehearsals my stack consisted of a Rockman pre-amp Alessis power-amp rack through a Marshall cabinet. At home I fiddled around on a Roland Jazz Chorus amp or tiny Marshall or Peavey practice amps. I had a half-dozen foot pedals – distortion and fuzz boxes, delays, flangers, choruses and even wore through two wah-wah pedals.

Since then, everything has been either sold, given away, or stolen.

My stepdad bought me an acoustic guitar, quite out of the blue, three years ago. Now it sits in a corner of our centrally-located dining room, and every now and then when I walk by I pick it up and strum or pick something.

I do this about twenty-five times a day, impromptu solo jam sessions lasting anywhere from thirty seconds to five minutes.

So, what am I playing?

Aside from tunes from my blues album, these songs, I guess:

Houses of the Holy, by Led Zeppelin
Nobody’s Fault But Mine, by Led Zeppelin
Life of Illusion, by Joe Walsh
Goodbye Blue Sky, by Pink Floyd
All Tore Down, by Johnny Winter
My Baby, by Pete Townshend
Jessica, by The Allman Brothers
One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer, by George Thorogood
The Core, by Eric Clapton

I also like playing Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’ by the Rolling Stones (even though I normally can’t stand the Stones, I think that song is the baddddddest song attitudinally you could ever play). But that’s in a tricky tuning so it’s a big to-do just to satisfy an itch.

There’s also a big book o’ classical ditties complete with accompanying CD down in the basement, but I haven’t really spent much dedicated time to it. I want to, though. I think the wife and kidlets are starting to get sick of Led Zeppelin, Johnny Winter, Eric Clapton, et. al., so perhaps a little Tárrega and Sor might be called for in the near future.

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