I woke this morning with a light heart and tranquil mind. It’s so good to be playing and creating again. Thursdays are great as this when we hold our regular Vibrationists rehearsal—the new live music and multimedia project with @Suzy Starlite, @Dave Boyd and myself. Dave normally arrives at the Supertone Sonic Laboratory around noon and after setting up, we normally kick off playing the trickiest stuff from our ever-expanding set list. It’s very interesting as we are reimagining our existing material for the three-piece format incorporating new instrumentation. Yesterday saw the first appearance of Dave’s BOSS monster looper pedal which really made a great contribution to the soundscape. Starlite is also really pushing the boundaries of her pedalboard and is making some very cool noises. We always have a relaxed lunch which is a great time to discuss in words what we don’t say in the music. Yesterday was Starlite's special salad with Halloumi and my version of tabbouli. As ever I am wrestling with the number of instruments I need to deliver a smooth live performance. Currently, the Springer Firehawk, Fender Nocaster and Gretsch G6120-1960 Nashville electrics will be making an appearance plus the Collings D2H and Fylde custom 6 and 12 strings acoustics. That’s six fucking guitars and I may need more. The big issue I have is during the set I use five-six tunings, ranging from a very interesting Csus right through to standard. Guitars don’t like to be quickly pulled all the way up from C and back down again—especially in this climate which plays havoc with acoustic instruments—so it’s best if you have dedicated guitars for dedicated tunings. It wouldn’t be so bad if we could program the songs that would best suit the tunings, but live sets don’t work that way as the song order is paramount to a successful gig. All I can say, it’s a good job we have the mighty Van Of Rock. ////// We have been gradually adding stuff to our website and now have a good summary of what we are all about - take a look. ////// Warning | guitar porn. The picture below was taken by Michael Springer at his workshop before I took delivery of this great Firehawk. Wonderful instrument.

track by Dark Wine

Then there's a pair of us - don't tell. They'd banish us, you know.

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