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Hi my name is Gary and I live in Clarksville Tennessee. I normally stay away from social media but here goes. I have been playing guitar and other instruments on and off for over 50 years. Currently I am semi-retired with strings, still working full time as a Core Faculty for one University and teach online courses part time for another university. So I basically get to set my work schedule which seems to be 24/7.
I love the blues and what got me into this site was an email stating there were 25 blues tracks. Since I am trying to work on my rhythm playing this was perfect timing. Although I should have a lot of free time to practice I normally get up early and get my exercise in then I get sucked into the Matrix trying to grade assignments, helping my students, or working on projects for one of the universities. Sometime around four or five in the afternoon I try to talk myself into practicing which some days works and other days I am too burnt out to talk myself into it, so I hit the back deck to veg out with my pup. I have been trying to set up a schedule where after my morning exercise I hit the studio for an hour or so before plugging into the Matrix. Then taking a break in the afternoon from work related activities to hit the studio again. One of these days I will hopefully start that.
I have a nice studio set up with several amps (guitar and bass) and a Roland keyboard, mixer, and digital record. I have a nice collection of guitars include Eric Clapton Custom shop strat, a 62 reissue strat which I built, 62 reissue Telecaster, several Ibanez guitars (AS-50, AM-400, SDGR bass), Greco SG, a no name hollowbody Bluesbird with an Ohm symbol, and my new favorite Aria Pro II SH-800.
Since I am online so much with my work I do not use any of social media sites. So do not be surprised if I only check in here once in a while.
Posted : September 8, 2017 12:25
Hi and welcome, Gary! I am glad you joined our group. We have a very supportive group here, and there are many lessons available.
What do you teach at the university?
By the way, bring yer guitar to that back deck! That is a good combo - deck, guitar, pup!
Posted : September 8, 2017 13:21
Hi Gary.
Welcome aboard. You're going to love it here. Looking to forward to learning from you and hearing you play.
Enjoy.
Posted : September 8, 2017 16:16
Hey Gary,
Are you in the "Last Train to Clarksville', Clarksville! I think the song referred to Clarksville, TN. Welcome to the MGA Train!!!
I'd love to hear about your Strat build. If I read yout intro correctly it sounds like you may have built a Strat... I'd love to hear the details... where did the parts come from, what pickups... If you don't mind!
We have a couple of folks htat have done a bit of building in here... Esteban has built a couple of great electric guitars which you can hear on his recordings. I built an acoustic some years back when I was more acoustic oriented.
Have fun and be sure to chime in with any questions or comments you may have!
Chris
Posted : September 8, 2017 18:23
Topic starter
I teach Masters Level Information Systems Management courses for one university and computer programming and information security courses for the other one.
Posted : September 9, 2017 11:49
Topic starter
Yes I am sure this was the Clarksville in the Last Train to Clarksville song. Several local artists have paintings and sketches of the Last Train.
The strat I built was a collection of a solid ash White body, with a 62 neck I picked up on ebay. I installed Lindy Fralin Blues Pickups with two push pull switches to reverse polarity from parallel to series on middle and neck pickups. It gives it a real telecaster twang. Also in most of my Strats and telecasters I have added shielding and noise reduction using copper tape in the pickup cavity.
Posted : September 9, 2017 12:08
I'm sorry that you no longer have trains... !
Thanks for the info on the Strat ... i hope we get to hear it some time.
I have thought about assembling an electric guitar but I see 2 problems for me...
- If I price it out using Warmoth... I get carried away and would need to mortgage my home to afford it.
- There are so many options and I don't have a clear enough picture regarding what I really would want.
Sometime I think about buying a couple of used beater guitars for cheap and then trying to create something really sweet from them by swapping out a piece at a time.
Posted : September 9, 2017 17:38
"One Piece at a Time" that's a fun Johnny Cash song! That would be fun to see in a guitar build.
Gary, you said the magic words: working on rhythm; and, studio. I hope you get some good use of the materials and camaraderie here. Please post a recording from time to time, it's good for whatever ails ya!
Posted : September 9, 2017 21:25
Welcome Gary!
Posted : September 11, 2017 19:26