Wednesday Oct 14, 1992
Our hero, after yet another uneventful day of lab tending, hit the Sun Pawn Shop on a whim and there was enough there to inspire a trip to Duggard's Music out on the strip, which warranted a test of his yet unblemished Discover card.
They had a generic version of a Strat that was good enough to be dangerous, and a decent solid-state Peavey combo that even had a spring reverb, as pointed out by the owner himself who had obviously done his share of gigs and maybe (um, probably) a share of gig-related partying.
Nick had tried name dropping and asked if he ever stopped in at the Rad Shack but this didn't seem to resonate one way or another, oh well. But he still walked out with the above plus a gig bag and a gently used patch cable, not too shabby.
The single coils do buzz but one can always select two with the in-between setting. Nick didn't know it yet but this instrument has the reverse winding in the middle pickup that cancels hum altogether when paired with either of the others, as he’d picked up in an overheard conversation in an open lab once upon a time.
Polarity, man.
When dragging this stuff in he gets what he deserves from Irene, "Well there goes the neighborhood."
"Tips accepted but not expected," as he scuffles up the stairs he sees Ned just shaking his head behind the evening paper.
Along the way his parents, spout out the expected riffs, "Keep the door closed" and "Don't quit your day job."
Undaunted, Nick sets it up and sits on the floor, up against the bed, amp within reach and dials in some crunch.
Crap, needs tuned. This means leaning it so it won't fall, cut the pot, hell, cut the amp off, and start the process of tuning it against the acoustic.
Oh yeah, the acoustic hasn't been tuned since, yeah, Noreen at the piano. Too much work.
Note to self: get a damn tuner from Duggard. That would be a cool project to make one, though, max voltage for a discrete switchable frequency. Excuse to find a sound board for the IBM? Bleh.
So he does the ol' relative tune maneuver and gets the strings pretty close with one another and starts in with what he knows scale-wise. Every now and then you find pieces and parts of something from the classic canon when doing this.
Scales and leads are a new turf, but seems the key is learning to cross-pick, alternate the up and down, do the staccato then after a while mix in the pulls, lifts, hammers, etc.
So then why do power chords always creep up like weeds? Pretty soon he's found Sabb's Heaven and Hell and a couple of Scorps’ tracks. This prompts a try for that two-note lead tease at the beginning of Hurricane but remembers that turns into a double with two instruments, like, harmonized?
Time to take a break, he hadn't even gotten into the house clothes.
After a shower and pork chops, green beans and taters he gets settled in with today's letter from Deej, which had been personally handed to him by her roomate. He'd stopped by and started to check the shudder only to have a certain brunette pop out with a quarter-folded sheet (or sheets?) of notebook paper in hand, then expect one in return. Thankfully he had typed up something last night which she greets with a doubtful look,
"It's awfully thin, we'll see." Then she just looks up with a consoling expression and pinches his cheek like your favorite aunt would do, then scampers back into the house.
In her trademark perfect script, in itself a sight for sore eyes, along with her banter, marked last night at 11:30 pm,
OH Nick, tonight was a blessing, thank you a million times for getting me the car back and the Nick-el (hee hee) tour, bringing me into your workspace with all those scary wires, and a nice time at the snack bar even though you got that gross fish.
I think we need to do something for Noreen, she is giving up a lot and she must be a saint for babysitting you all these months (HA!), maybe some flowers for her desk?
Also yes I am still plotting to get Vance and April together at least once and so a double date is in order. Can you think of another pair to round things out, hmm? (HEE HEE)
Speaking of social experiments, I hear we're having dinner with you guys Saturday night, how crazy would it be to dress like we did back when? PLEEEASE? I never ask you for anything (HEE HEE) and I promise you won't be disappointed, still have some things that fit (NO laughing you dork!)
And then I'll probably head over and sleep on the couch at my folks', try to be a daughter at least. OH and then I said I'd go with them to a new church, to be supportive, then...are you UP for another walk on Sunday, BIG BOY? HEE HEEE HEE HEE
OK I'm too tired and laughing but think about it and let me know?
Love you like always (if not more)
Hope you sleep well and have wet nice dreams! :^)
DJ
So he flips on the ol’ Model 35 for another go-round, flips screens with some of the 2D games while composing in an old version of WordPerfect (with two - count em', TWO whole fonts) but is hesitant to do any modem-ing. He would never admit it, but getting calls these days has become more premium. Also, it be easy enough to carry a floppy into work and do some snazzy laser printing when needed, rather than be fancy and upload it.
It also seems good to pause for some electric geetar work. He can't decide if this makes him cooler or geekier. At some point he had brought up Great White, to which Duggard mentioned the keys of A, E, and F#, those scales with the minor and major notes all thrown in together.
Rock N Roll is a mixing bowl, man.
This rang true with a book he had gotten a while back when semi-serious about the instrument but more serious about college classes, it had those blues scales that were the go-to for solos. Blues always sounded like a serious, mystical deal mastered by those sweaty dudes on PBS that played with a special anointment only granted to a lucky flew, but then, this must have been where they started out, as mere mortals, lo these many years ago.
The phone only rang for one of his folks, and that's just fine. This weekend was sure shaping up to be a hummmm-dinger.