I Don't Even Know Who I Am Anymore

Ahem. I guess some of you might know me from THE REAL FORUM aka The Bass Side, where I hang out and do the moderator gig. Some of you may even know that I actually play bass and have a veritable herd of Music Man basses, including a Bongo or two. For years, I refused to even acknowledge that there even WAS a guitar forum, but I guess that’s all over now.

I’m a little ashamed to be over here, really.

Nonetheless, while I don’t mind buying relatively expensive basses, I have always kind of cheaped out on guitars because….I guess I didn’t care very much. A MIM Strat was fine with me because they don’t cost much and they do sound a lot like a guitar most of the time. Also, I am not really much of a guitar player (some might say the same about my bass playing) but I have to keep them around because I have a little studio (“The Scream Parlour”) where I write and record my ideas of what music should sound like. I always prefer that a real guitar player do the guitar parts but sometimes none are available or they want to use that danged Yngsteen Walware tone and I can’t do that, so I end up playing mostly rhythm parts myself. Mostly.

This can be upsetting to some people, but I can’t seem to stop.

This year has seen some changes in my life and they’re not all centered around women’s underwear. But let’s not get into that. Let’s just say that I had some instruments (mostly not EBMM) that were not being played and some had been sitting in cases in The Bass Closet for a very long time. I decided to see if I could turn 3 or 4 of these into money and get myself some decent instruments aside from my fabulous basses. This worked out reasonably well.

So this year, I got myself a Taylor 614 and that solved every issue I’ve ever had with acoustic guitars, much to the chagrin of my 70s-era Yamaha. “Take that, you ugly creature”, I said, and the pickguard promptly fell off.

But electric guitars…..well, the MIM Strat was workable and somehow I also ended up with a Telecaster, too, which I guess is the law here in Texas. But I wasn’t entirely happy with either of those.
Based almost entirely on availability according to Dargin, I finally spent some actual money and got myself a Valentine. It is now – to me, at least – about 6 hours old. This is absolutely the finest electric guitar I’ve ever experienced. I have a photo so you can see it – it’s all baby blue and pretty fine. I know you boys like your Lukes (this was tempting) and your Albert Lees and I first thought I wanted an AL but I’m satisfied, to say the very least, with this Valentine (BFR). Are many of you playing these or all you all too metal-headed over here?

If you haven’t tried one, you need to remedy this situation. I am still figuring out why the knobs go not only around and around but also UP AND DOWN, which is absolutely cool but confusing for a man who puts flatwounds on all of his basses. I promise to not put flatwounds on the guitar, though, so don’t send me hate mail.

I’m really looking forward to using this on some recordings! But I fear that the 20 or so tunes I have ‘finished’ for the upcoming BOVINEHOST solo record may have to have all the guitar parts replaced.

Anyway, get a Valentine, eh?

Jack

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