Category: blog

  • New Guitars: Charvel Pro Mod SoCal

    New Guitars: Charvel Pro Mod SoCal

    From a peak of 7 guitars in my collection, I had pared it down to just three. One electric, one steel string acoustic, and a student grade nylon string classical in the stable.

    But with the pandemic shifting work habits, and the no-commute benefit translated into my picking up the guitar again. In 2021, I was playing more and more, realizing that my 60 watt Fender amp was WAY too loud for my office/den, I talked my wife into buying me a 15W Orange amp for Christmas last year.

    And the new gear-itis bit, making me look long and hard at getting a “Super Strat” back into the rotation. One thing I really missed was playing my mid 80’s vintage Charvel Model 4 that I sold when we left Tucson in 2012.

    Thus, I found myself browsing the Charvel website, and came to focus on the Pro Mod series. No, it isn’t made in the Fender factory in Corona (those start at about $2,300) but instead in the Mexico facility. I ordered one that was near new from a seller on Reverb, and I was delighted when it came in. It is the Robin’s Egg blue, with an ebony fretboard, 22 jumbo frets, a compound radius fretboard, and a Floyd Rose tremolo.

    There are three pickups in an H-S-H configuration, and the switching give access to tons of tonal variations.

    Some of my observations of 9 months of playing pretty regularly:

    The Floyd Rose: I was largely terrified of the prospect of keeping a floating tremolo in tune, and worse yet, the hassle of changing strings (you have to clip off the ball ends to replace strings). Turns out that this was a non-issue. The locking nut, and the locking tailpiece makes the tuning super stable, that after the strings stretch in, the thing is just in tune. All the time.

    The Neck: the reason I loved my 80’s vintage Charvel was largely because of the neck. Super thin, fat frets, and unbelievably fast to play. This nails it, and when I was shopping, I looked at a Fender American Professional Strat (that was about $800 more) that felt like a log. The neck is the reason to love this axe.

    The Electronics: while not active, the three Seymour Duncan p’ups are high output, bright, and versatile. A great sound, with tons of tonal variation that gives you a huge range of sounds. Want to play some gritty blues? Check. Some blistering melodic lead lines? Check. Some grungy metal power chords? Check? Back off the tone pot and play some soft lush ballads? Check. If you want to play it, this guitar can get you there.

    In short, it is an amazing package, at a fair price (I paid just shy of $900 for this) that just plays like butter. The Tom Anderson is safely tucked into its case, while the Charvel is what I reach for.

  • Merry Techmas!

    Merry Techmas!

    It is almost a tradition that in the annual holiday shutdown I take the time to do a bunch of overdue tech “honey-do’s”, items on my list to get done, and to fuck around with some techie bits.

    In the past I have often done some hardware hacking with an Arduino or similar board, or tried to learn Python quickly, or to refresh my online properties.

    This year, I had two goals:

    1. Move our main email from Google Suite to anything else
    2. Clean up my online properties, trying to get from two VPS’s to one, and reduce the clutter

    I am happy to report that I have already accomplished both of these goals. (more…)

  • Shaking off the Cobwebs

    Shaking off the Cobwebs

    It has been a very long time since I have posted here. Tons of reasons, but in short, it is largely due to a diverting site that I had been using as an outlet. But in a drive to simplify my life, this holiday shutdown I have made the decision to pare that out of my life, and to refocus my energies here.

    Glancing at what I was writing prior to my shift has brought a smile to my face. Plenty of posts on RC Cars, and my at the time passion for watching car repair videos (the pandemic has brought a lot of weird passions out in the open).

    What has been happening in the last 19 months since I posted here?

    • I began regularly playing guitar, bought a new amp and a bunch of pedals, as well as a new guitar
    • My father passed away from complications due to Alzheimer’s disease (most lousy experience, not recommended)
    • I have left Twitter
    • I still mostly work from home – a trend that will continue it seems for the foreseeable future
    • I have moved my professional blog to Substack and it is (slowly) growing readership
    • I have gone through 2 bosses and am on a third – yay! I guess
    • Avoided the ‘rona, mainly byu masking in public and by being vaxed up the wazoo

    and likely much more.

    What does reviving this blog mean?

    First, I will be posting regularly. Expect to see posts on guitars, guitar playing and other pursuits in the mix.

    Second, I might look to make it more enticing. Maybe re-theming it. It is a WordPress blog, so there are lots of options.

    Third, I plan to write about some of the high level goings on around the world of Tech. Musk buys Twitter, and Tesla shits the bed, you know, shit like that.

    Fourth, I will probably use a lot of salty language. Sorry, it is who I am.

    Hope you enjoy the ride!

  • The Hot Hatch

    The Hot Hatch

    I have a confession to make. I stumbled onto The Humble Mechanic on Youtube when I clicked on a video where he tore down a Volkswagen W12 engine. I had heard about that, and I had owned a 2000 Jetta with the VR6 motor so I knew that VW had some mojo for exotic engine design.

    And it was addicting. Watching him to disassemble it, show the cool bits, and the strengths/weaknesses was intoxicating. Since then I have watched a ton of his videos, especially as he rebuilds a well abused VW R32. Teardown, finding bad things, fixing them. All good gear head stuff.

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  • The NYTimes Crossword

    The NYTimes Crossword

    … and deficiencies in my education.

    A few years ago, I got addicted to the NYTimes Crossword. And I even paid for the subscription to access their past library, and to the app on my phone and iPad.

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  • Alien movie observations

    Alien movie observations

    I first saw Alien in a theater in 1979. It was a field trip, organized by my high school biology teacher, Fred Granger. He wanted to contrast what a real ET “contact” might be like, to counter the too cute by half “E.T. The Extra Terrestrial” that came out the year before.

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  • Birkenstocks

    Birkenstocks

    As the Covid shutdown started, I needed to get my trusty Birkenstocks resoled. They had worn through pretty badly, and I wanted to freshen them up without having to buy a new pair.

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  • Ruh Roh

    Sunday, I totally over did it. Started with a 4+ mile walk with Cerberus. He was on a tear. Then I felt compelled to get the bicycle down and do a modest ride.

    I had awoken with some pain below and behind my left ear, but it was more of a discomfort than anything worrying. I truly though I had just slept wrong.

    Then middle of the night Sunday/Monday I woke up to void my bladder, and I had the shivers. Crap. About 3:00AM I took my temperature, and it was 99.4.

    Ugh.

    Woke up about 6:00 and my temperature had risen to 100.8, and I was feeling achy all over. The pain behind and below my ear had moved both up and down.

    Crap.

    So, a quick telehealth appointment, and a referral for a COVID test, and now I wait.

    Never before have I hoped that this is either an early season flu, or something else. But I have my doubts.

    Sleeping, lots of gatorade, and tylenol to help cut the fever while I await the results of my test.

    Crud.

    One thing is positive, I have no respiratory symptoms. So there is that!

  • Drobo @#$%

    Drobo @#$%

    My first exposure to Drobo was when I bought a firewire version with 4 drives wayyyyyy back in 2011. Billed as the hassle free external storage, it uses proprietary algorithms (more than just RAID) to ensure that data isn’t lost when a drive goes bad.

    Prior to this, I had just used external drives to store stuff (way back in the 1990’s I used tape, but then in the early ought’s it became far cheaper to just buy bigger disks).

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  • Covid-19 and the shutdown

    Covid-19 and the shutdown

    Back in early March (March 9th for me), employers, and officials began acknowledging that the COVID-19 outbreak was spiraling out of control, and that the prudent course of action was to institute drastic social distancing to slow the spread and to prevent the healthcare system from collapsing.

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