Yeah, okay. I really get annoyed by the over cutsie-ness in a lot of Japanese export stuff. And, the song is a direct ripoff of Secret Agent Man, one of the greatest themes of all time. And the show is way too kiddie compared to the comics which I actually liked.

I still can't stop listening to the Theme to Teen Titans by Puffy AmiYumi

So kill me.

P.S. (Can anyone see what's flashing on Guitar Wolf's jacket?)
  ¶ 4:21 PM 0 comments

  I'm not much of a gearhead when it comes to musical equipment, which is funny since I'm a very technical boy otherwise. I guess the amount of unmeasurable, highly suspect, and just plain bullshit information that gets tossed around in musical equipment circles has always discouraged me. I feel like it gets in the way of the primary job of the artist as I see it, which is conveying and/or triggering emotions and points of view. (as an aside, the recent flap over some bullshit soundfield optimizer endorsed by Stereophile magazine is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about. Not instruments, but same idea)

However, I've always loved my guitar. It's been hard to admit that to other guitarists since my guitar a)is a brand nobody has ever heard of. and b)was bought for 100 dollars of some girl who didn't know how to play and was leaving town. So, defending it has always been difficult enough that I don't usually try. But man, I love it. I can put thick strings on it, play it like a drum kit, and still expect it to have beautiful sustain and perfect intonation. It also stays in tune better than almost any guitar I've ever played (short of my old Kramer knock-off with a Floyd Rose bridge that kept the strings clamped to the neck).

Twice, I've had an inkling that my guitar was a bit better than I gave it credit for. The first time was when I moved to NY and got it set up by Carl at Main Drag. I was all self-depreciating when I was dropping it off like: "Oh, you know, it's a cheap ol guitar, do what you can with it." And he sniggered a little when he saw that it was electric gold. But when I picked it up, he said "Hey, that actually turned out to be a really good guitar" and gave me some thing about how a lot of the nowhere knock-offs from Japan could randomly be good. I just thought I was lucky to get a middle of the road guitar for so little.

The second time was when the band played at the old Luxx bar. It was our second night out (and the night of the infamous headwound, which is another story). The sound guy saw my guitar and asked me about it. I told him the story of how I got it, and he told me that he collected Electra guitars. I mostly thought of this as an example of how people will collect anything, like Burger King glasses or social diseases. So whatever, I kind of didn't think about it anymore.

But now I'm facing having to get some new hardware for the poor little thing and I'm a little worried because it's an old Japanese guitar and therefore metric, and therefore harder to buy parts for. And, it's a weird saddle design, so finding one that works is going to be an issue. And I don't want to change how it plays, so I'm worried about that. However, in my search for info about it, I've discovered that I'm not the only one who digs these weird old guitars. Furthermore, there's some really cool looking ones for sale. And they seem to be seriously underpriced. Shopping spree, anyone?
  ¶ 9:55 AM 0 comments