[Daryl Jones]

Jung, I really haven’t decided yet. But it will be fun just trying out the nuances of both the guitar and the amp. The board is a whole other animal. I have played the guitar at Josh’s place more than once, and it has a different neck profile and feel than either of my other two PRS guitars, but none of Paul’s creations are difficult to switch back and forth with. There’s less difference between this and my Custom than either of them to my Hollowbody. It has a hardtail bridge (no tremolo arm) so I’ll have more reason to rely on bends and vibrato technique. Not that I use the arm a whole lot, messes with tuning stability if you get stupid with them. They are fun though.😆

[Daryl Jones]

I forget his name, but the front man for Blues Traveller honked a mean blues harp. They lost a band member a few years ago, not sure but their drummer maybe.

[Daryl Jones]

Yep, “Sinter Klaus” came early to my house.
The amp is “only” 20 watts, but it’s incredible! Too many players think that if it’s not 100 watts it’s no good. I can’t even use my Katana 50w on anything over the 25w setting and usually when practicing in my room I’m on .5w. This one thankfully has an attenuator that drops the output to 2 watts. But the two channels (Clean and Overdrive) are more than I need in my little cave. The board is going to take some real getting used to, there’s so much in it already, that I think maybe a “wah” and a “delay” are all I’ll ever need really. Totally gig-able if I want to. And I used my Katana outdoors this past fall and that was plenty, this being a tube amp it’s plenty powerful enough for just about any hall around here. I can do Marshall sound, Mega Boogie, and the clean channel with the IFS is (I think) better/sharper than a Fender Twin Reverb Unless you’re in an arena setting.
As to the guitar itself it’s an almost new Paul Reed Smith S2 Mc Carty 594 Thinline. The Humbucker pickups are individually tap capable for single coil (think Stratocaster) and in humbucker mode they are very close to Les Paul territory. Not that there is anything wrong with my Custom 24, but this is just a big step up. It’s made in the Maryland factory so it’s in between the mega expensive “Core” line and my SE Custom/Hollowbody import builds. Even better when you consider it was way less coin than my Hollowbody was new. Josh bought it slightly used, and it certainly hasn’t been beat up in the year he’s had it. The amp he found on a crazy price too, had like one weekend of stage use on it, and it’s spotless, as is the effects board. If I was a good enough player, I could easily gig this setup with zero holdbacks. Why the bejeebers I didn’t take this up 50 years ago when I played keys with the guys I’ll never know. Youth is so wasted on the young…

[Daryl Jones]

Jung, that’s another one that is up at the top. I have a couple of his older albums that I used to play the heck out of: Harvest and After the Goldrush.

[Daryl Jones]

Awww.😢 What a sweetheart.

[Daryl Jones]

Normally we have a whole whack of snow by now. But this year it’s pretty bleak and barren looking. Somehow Christmas and winter just doesn’t have the magic without the snow cover. The view out my den window is serene but sort of dull and lifeless right now. But it’s still nice to look out when I’m at the computer. The other two pictures were just about this time last year. The plowed yard is pretty nice, but 5 days later the bottom fell out of the thermometer. The next day the power went off. Thank goodness for my wood stove in the living room!

[Daryl Jones]

Appreciate the boost guys. If you include my ukulele that brings my little clutch up to 9. But each of them are a different style and purpose for playing. And I don’t own a single Fender or Gibson. Not because I have anything against them really, I just find most of the ones I would have a desire for much too expensive. Same with my acoustic guitars, I can’t justify the coin for a Martin or a Gibson that compares in quality to my Yamaha and Seagulls. If I was filthy rich I suppose I might have them, but I’m far from that. Not that I’m cheap, but I am a bit em, spend conscious.
I would actually love a Rickenbacker or a Gretsch like the Twins have, but again, I can’t justify them and I refuse to part with my beloved PRS trio. I looked hard at a Gibson ES when I bought my Hollowbody, but they’re exceedingly heavy and large. I really don’t want a 12# monster hanging around my neck. PRS guitars are very light and the most comfortable fit of any guitar I’ve ever tried. I don’t like the necks and headstocks on Les Pauls, and I find the tone varies too much guitar to guitar on Strats. Some would say that each guitar is unique unto itself and I won’t argue that to a point. But too many times I’ve had friends buy Strats and be disappointed that it sounds way different than someone else’s. But I think maybe they don’t play them through the same amp they have at home and that’s huge. And speaking of amps, I’ve always wanted a tube amp just for giggles since I really don’t gig much at all. But again, it’s a lot of money to spend and be disappointed. There are a couple that I’d drool openly over (like the Vox that the girls have): A fender Deluxe Reverb, an EVH 5150, even a branded PRS Archon. But once you go down that rabbit hole… yikes.
And I’m not getting any younger. One day I’ll have to figure out where these things are going to end up too. I’d like to think I have 15-20 years playing left in me, but if anything I’ve learned, nothing is a given in this life.
So I won’t say I’m done, there are still a couple Holy Grails that call out to me once in a while. But it would have to be a smokin’ hot deal on a perfect instrument before I’d jump.

[Daryl Jones]

Cool, that will go on my list of collectibles haha.
Wonder if they did that in Neil’s signature “drop D” tuning…can bet Imma find out real quick!😉

[Daryl Jones]

Bummer, the video won’t activate/play. I’ll search it though…

[Daryl Jones]

Thanks Tim, and like I mentioned to Chris, we love it here. The fire is such a joy when the temps hit that crazy zone. When I was still working (typically 60 hours weekly) I got pretty tired of the maintenance workload, but now I really enjoy working in the yard again and have a whole list of things I want to do that I put off for the last 20 years. One of them being removing a whole whack of trees (yay for firewood) that have become a bit of a hinderance to both views and appearance. Not to mention the threat of falling damage. Some of those white poplar (you likely call them Aspen) bams are close to 70 feet tall! Lots of black poplar too (otherwise known as cottonwood but still an Aspen) on the lake-bank and they are just getting old and ugly, and they die off fairly young in comparison to the white. They burn OK, but leave a lot of ash without producing as much heat for what they cut up into. The wood is very porous and the centers are often hollow. Plus they leave those nasty sticky seed pods on everything in the spring, can ruin vehicle finishes, outdoor furniture and siding. White poplar is a hardwood and burns very well and doesn’t drop the stickys near so much. But they both run ground shoots from the root system and drop seed that spring up in the lawn. Really hard to control at times. Deciduous weeds haha.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Daryl Jones.

[Daryl Jones]

Thanks Chris. While we never seem to cease to complain about the extra work the snow makes, and the bitterness of the ridiculous cold we so often see, I wouldn’t live anywhere else really. Even though our close town is only 3000 souls, it’s still too big for me. I ain’t no city boy and love being in the sticks. When we built over 30 years ago, there was only two of us full time residents in our cul-de-sac. And there is still only seven of the 14 that are full time, the others are weekend and holiday folk. All great people of course and with no through road we don’t get the race track fools from the big smoke tearing around. Just the occasional rubber-necker that I think are dying to get a glimpse of my part time next door neighbor friend and NHLer. Johnny is retired from playing, but still works for the Islanders. Awesome acoustic guitar player!
Blissfully quiet, even on weekends.

[Daryl Jones]

I love rockin’ out to this song. Myles and crew did such a great job on this when I saw them live here in town. The rhythm part is pretty straight forward unless you fill in the combo riffs and then it can get pretty neat and exciting. I never have learned the lead part, but one of my buddies is an old rock vocalist and he keeps threatening/promising to sing this at one of our party nights so I might have to do that. Could get by with just the rhythm but he’ll have a bird if I don’t do the lead/solo break. Be a good one to work on with my new axe.
And no, we didn’t “hide” them up here. The last 20-25 years they did do mostly small venue gigs in the US and Canada. But they could still kick it like they did in their popular days in the 70’s and 80’s.
April Wine – You Could Have Been a Lady (youtube.com)

[Daryl Jones]

I’ve always been curious about those. Cool to have the Tele/semi hollow combo I think. Should be very interesting tone capability.

[Daryl Jones]

I certainly will. I have a pic of one like it, but that just isn’t right. What I’ll have to watch now is the desire to get more pedals for that board, all I have right now is a Hotcake overdrive. Already I can see me “needing” a wah…😄

[Daryl Jones]

Yeah, saw that a couple days ago too. But I don’t remember him from the days when the band first came out. Mostly it was Burton, not even Randy got much limelight or mention at the start. A few mentions of him being lead guitar (but not writing) here and there. Until the BTO days he was sort of silent. Kind of weird given Burton was/is such an introvert. And Randy being a Mormon he didn’t like/fit the R&R lifestyle either.