Recently…

When we last left our hero, we had a broken neck joint and a splintered heel cap. I’m happy to report the surgery was successful and the patient has fully recovered. Ah, but friends, there is even more to this adventure.

I dropped my bass the other night. It was in its heavily-padded bag, but it took a pretty solid hit to the back of the scroll on the cement. The glue line at neck joint is cracked, and the heal cap is splintered a bit, but it still holds tension. I can’t move the neck even when the string tension off, so I don’t think it’s super bad, but I plan to have it checked out before I play it again.

My pandemic staycation project: a Rick-Tone Trem-O-Drive for my Champ, Airline, and Rickenbacker single-ended amps.

I lost and old friend this week. We hadn’t been very close for quite a while—the last time I even spoke to him was a few years ago now. He was a pretty important person in my life for a good decade or so, though. Since funerals and celebrations of life aren’t really an option during a pandemic, I sort of feel the need to say a few nice things about a guy who frustrated, hurt, and offended, but also loved a lot of people. And a lot of people loved him back. To me, he was a compassionate and genuine friend.

Two years ago today, I got word that my office was moving to another city about 20 kilometers away, and that I would have to saddle up for a big kid commute. Well, two months ago, that day finally came. This is how it’s going.

I have been sufficiently scared and socially pressured into being a militant face mask influencer. The problem is that all of the pressure is on to make your own masks, and all the how-to videos I have watch have decimated my confidence.

I’ve been watching (and tipping!) a bunch of my favorite artists live stream on Instagram over the past few weeks. Some are better at it than others. Here are some tips to make the experience more pleasant for your viewers, and make it easier for them to tip you.

Alright, now that the Grammy Awards have all been passed out, let’s have a little reprieve, shall we? Each of the 15 albums in this list made a deep impression on me this year. Why 15? Because there were 15 of them. Here they are in alphabetical order.

My buddy Ivan uses this combo-ified 1963 Band-Master as his backup. It suffered from a phantom crackle that would only appear after being warmed up for an hour or two. It had been in and out of another shop for over a year, and the problem was never successfully addressed.