I’m just narcissistic enough to relish the idea of a “Derek’s Corner” concept… a place where I can write whatever the hell I want, essentially. I almost bought the T-shirt that said “more people have read this shirt than your blog” but they wanted $20 and I wanted a beer, so I parted ways with the kiosk and went about procuring an adult beverage elsewhere.
I’ve recently decided I would learn how to do electrical soldering, more by necessity than actual desire, but I’m pleased to say that I was able (with Amanda’s assistance) to un-solder the remains of two broken quarter-inch input jacks from a circuit board, replacing them with two perfectly functional input jacks. And now I know how to order many different custom parts from Carvin, so it’s a double bonus for me, I suppose.
In the same vein of thought, I’ve joined a few close friends in a new venture, designing and building our own guitars. The first run will be the DMST80 “dart” model, a mahogany body with a (mostly) maple top, maple neck with rosewood fretboard in a 25.0” scale, fixed bridge design, with some seriously wacky wiring being applied to Johnny Hiland pickups. We’ve made the body shape somewhere between a Fender Stratocaster, an Ibanez RG, and a few ideas from Parker Fly… it’s going to be an awesome instrument, or a very expensive thing to hang on the wall and say “damn, wish that sounded better!” The first guitar should be completed around November or December. We’re taking our time, you can’t rush perfection, and you can’t rush procrastination…
I don’t really have a lot of news relevant to DML, I’ve got a solid 20 seconds or so of music demo’d for the new album (and it’s a good sounding 20 seconds, really), I’ve got the Ibanez Jem knocked a half-step lower so we can get some lower-end crunch this time around, and I’ve been working on my Phrygian Dominant Mode… mostly because I never really have worked on it before, and it sounded cool when Paul Gilbert did it, so what the heck?
I’m excited to get deeper into the original music again, it got somewhat left behind for a while. Right now Dodd and I are getting to try out new ideas on acoustics, arrange music for the new disc, even work on recording a little bit. We’re thinking of doing multiple versions of the same song here and there, but I don’t think we’re going to take things quite as far as Shania did, so if you’re looking for the “blue disc” version of our stuff, you’re not going to find that here. I’m figuring out how to get the home recording stuff flowing better, which frees me up to work on my own schedule, but unfortunately it also frees me up to be a little pickier about what is and is not an acceptable flub. Last night I found myself on take 40 and figured out that I probably wouldn’t be able to get away with that in the studio. If you thought I was picky before… you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Speaking of bad grammar, I actually heard somebody today (somebody with a Ph.D.) say “yous two just need y’alls stuff turned in on the right form, that’s all” in a professional business meeting. It was so awesome, I don’t even know if I’ve spelled it correctly! Someday I want to be that ballsy. So far, all I’ve managed to do is boycott the concept of wearing a tie every day. Apparently, my brilliant work trumps having to dress like a “rat race” kind of person. I told you I was narcissistic, don’t look at me like that.
Outside of work, that’s about all I’ve got going on today. The Rockets/Lakers drama is still going on, and the Rockets have nothing to lose at this point, so they’re in good shape. If they lose the series, we can say it’s due to injuries and the obvious need for the NBA to line up Kobe against LeBron in the finals, if the Rockets win we get to say “Kobe sucks!” so I’m prepared either way. Am I the only one that really enjoyed seeing him get T’ed up early in game 4 for running that mouth? One of my favorite Rockets memories is Shaq crying like a little baby after being swept back in 1995. Beating Kobe in a best-of-7 series would probably be a close second to that. (and football season is right around the corner…)
That’s it for me. Any questions? Class dismissed, then.
D
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