entrty 35

Today was the start of a new band, Paranoid Phoenix, the members are Nate and Me. Last night Nate wrote the lyrics to our first song, Closer To Your Heart, and today I wrote the guitar part. Its pretty simple and its a slow song. I think a lot of people would like it the lyrics have a lot of meaning behind it. Just a little bit ago I was saying Santa Claus is on the prowl since I'm wearing a Santa hat. By the way did you know that if you mix the letters of Santa you get Satan. Weird right?

Entry 33

Apparently I forgot to do entry thirty three and skipped to entry thirty four. Anyways I'm just sitting here in study hall. Earlier today I was confronted by a couple of students and asked to do something for them. They asked me if I would be the lead guitarist for the variety show in a song that they would be doing, they said they wanted me to play the lead guitar part to the song "After Life" by "Avenged Sevenfold." So I listened to the song and I think I'm going to for sure learn the song then decide weather or not I have the confidence to play it live...

Entry 34

So once again today is Tuesday for some reason I always start my free writes off like this. Any ways I'm on some different medication today, for my depression and I'm not liking it its making my jaw hurt. I'm also very hungry, I think everyone gets gelous of me because I always have food. Like right now I have 2 chewy gronola bars in my pocket. Lately I've been bringing Cheetos to school Its pretty exciting. My computer seems to be running a little bit faster. The builders of my house are moving along pretty fast looks like they have gotten almost all walls up and will probably start the roof soon which i think will be very exciting, I got to walk into my room the other day its decent sized.

December 2nd Entry 32

So today is Wednesday the second of December. Today has been a pretty boring day, last night I come up with a new song on guitar and I think I'm going to call it essence or something similar to that. It's all clean guitar so no distortion. Also, story of my life, I called Warmoth and they said they do not build Ibanez necks. Then I called The Lutherie Shop in Des Moines and they said that they can build me one it would just cost me about one thousand dollars. So yea with that said I'm not completely sure what I'm going to do.

December 1st Entry 31

So today is Tuesday December first, on Friday my grandpa is supposed to go to Iowa City for surgery. Enough about the depressing part of life last Friday (black friday) I went to Guitar Center and I was there for probably about two hours. I originally went there to buy an Epiphone Explorer the guitar Ive been wanting to buy then trick it out. When I got to Guitar Center I asked a couple of guys if they had that guitar in stock and they said its online but they don't have it at the store but they could order it for me if I wanted to. Although I wanted to be able to take my purchase home so I walked around to find something that I liked and I found a guitar (the one I brought yesterday). At first I only seen that they only had one guitar like it and it was brand new like 499$ I got it down and played it at first I didn't like it because of the center pickup was raised to high then I seen they had a used one exactly like it 100$ less and they center pickup was lowered to my standards and I ended up buying that one along with a new hard case.

Entry 30

I can't wait till black friday, also November twenty - second will be the third year I've had my Ibanez GAX 70 the Gio series. So that means I've been playing guitar for about 5 years. To me I think its very impressive that over the 5 years that I've been playing guitar, all the things I've cumulated / boughten probably adds up to over five or six thousand dollars.

Entry 29

I've started a list of bands that I want to get music for and so far I have over 100 bands that I would like to get music for. The question is where am I going to get the music? Either ill have to download if from www.youtube.com or go out and order the cds online. Either way its going to tack awhile to achieve all this music.

Entry 28

I'm finally catching up on my blog posts, I think today we are supposed to be at entry 30 and this is my 28th post so only two more to go. So I guess today the junior class is leaving for a field trip to like the new Anamosa health clinic or something. Im still trying to figure out what this has to do with school but I guess I will just sit and wait. Also I think the sophomore class has a new student that should be interesting.

Entry 27

So two days ago we took the test over "Roots", I honestly didn't think the test was that hard but being very anxious to know what I got on the test. Lately I've been looking for bands that have come out with recent albums so I can order them. I found these two bands online that I've never heard of one of them is called "Absu" and the other is "Luna Mortis." It's weird most people that like the same kind of music I do would probably prefer a guy singer over a girl singer but me I like bands that are very instrumentally talented with the guitar and drums and also having a girl singer, theirs something about girl singers that sing in metal bands that just gets me.

Entry 26

A little bit about tone and volume knobs on a guitar, typically when you buy a guitar the factory puts 500k Ω controls in the guitar. There are aftermarket controls that are 250k Ω. I always replace the 500k with the 250k. The reason has to deal with ohms lets explain it like rocks in the river. for the 500k controls that means there is 500 ohms in the river when you have 500 rocks in the river the stream will flow a lot slower than if there were 250 rocks in the river. What Im getting at is the 250 ohm controls have less resistance than the 500 ohm controls, therefore the signal flows a lot faster with less resistance while using the 250 ohm controls.

Entry 25

Im looking at buying an Epiphone Explorer at Guitar Center because its only one hundred and ninety nine dollars. The only set back is, is that it has passive electronics and the magnets for the pickups are made of alnico instead of ceramic magnets. For some reason ceramic magnets seem to be a more sensitive then magnets made of alnico. When using passive electronics with distortion there seems to be a hum coming from the amp when not playing and when using active electronics it seems to eliminate the annoying hum.

Entry 24

So far my shop class project has been coming along quite well. I've gotten a lot of the pieces cut to size for it. Im going to be so excited when its done. It will be very nice and convenient for me. Lately I've been recording music, not necessarily recording songs, but the riffs I come up with. Hopefully in the future when I get better people will notice what I've recorded and want to have me make a song out of it with them.

Entry 23

Living in the new house will be very nice. The house we are living in right now is pretty small for me, I think the size of my room is about 10 by 10 if not a little bit smaller. My new room will be about 14 by 17. In my head that sounds very large. Also my mother says that my room will be sound - proof. Having my room be sound proof would be very nice because I like to play guitar late at night and if my room was sound proof I wouldn't be annoying everyone in the whole house while I play.

Entry 22

So yesterday was a busy day for me. First thing yesterday morning we had amish people working on our house. Then I had a doctors appointment at nine forty five for my H1N1 shot. Then me and my mom went to Menards to get some supplies for my shop class project. Later that day we went to the place where they were digging the basement of our new house. If you have never watched it its very interesting you should stop what your doing sometime and go watch.

Entry 21

Lately as I've been reading more and more, I can tell that I am like to read more often also Im getting faster at reading. I've also been enjoying what I read. Pretty soon Im going to have to plug my computer in because I have five percent left on my computers battery.

Entry 20

So today when I was surfing the web at school, I realized that a certain website was blocked, www.guitarworld.com its a magazine that I read. I was quite shocked that it was blocked. I honest have no clue why they would block it. In my opinion I don't think it is all that bad of a website.

Entry 19

So today is Tuesday November 17th 2009. So lately there has been this car that Im looking at to buy its like an early 1990s Ford Taurus its like forest green, four door but it doesn't have any rust on it which is a good thing. Im not sure how much the dealer ship is wanting for it but I don't think it would be much more than one thousand dollars. Hopefully the dealership would let me do payments on the car, so that way I wouldn't have to spend all my money at once, like one hundred fifty dollars a month or something. I've also been creating my wish list for this year, Its not very big but its pretty expensive. I can't wait till the end of the month, thats when I get paid. It would be nice if I got paid every 2 weeks or something.

Entry 18

Things Im wanting to get within the next couple months. I've been really wanting to get a Marshall half stack and this other thing its called a Boss ME-70 multi effects pedal, also I'm wanting to get a Semi - Hollow body guitar, and an Epiphone Explorer with a floyd rose locking nut and bridge with active emg humbuckers 81 on the bridge and a 60 on the neck.

Entry 17

Its the middle of November and I'm wanting the end of the semester to come a lot faster. I can't wait for that time period because I should be done with my shop class project and I will hopefully be getting a pay raise. Hopefully will be able to spend my yearly large amount of over 1,000 dollars. I haven't been go Guitar Center in awhile but I was there the other weekend and surprisingly they never forgot me, I walked in and most of the people working there were like, "hey tyler what's up?" That was kind of nice to know that they still know me.

Entry 16

So this entry Im going to write about my cousin travis who is 19. This is one of the most musically talented kids ever. As of right now he has created his own record label and he has 2 CDs online for sale at 12$ a piece so really. He is making all the money he brings in. Compared to my cousin mallory she will have to take a price cut and only get a certain percentage of the total profit.

Entry 15

Im using the writing prompts for this entry. It says to think of 10 challenges you have faced in the past 3 months and write about one. So in the past three months I've faced a lot of challenges some difficult some hard some impossible that Im still trying to conquer today. One of the bigger challenges is coming up with original music. Like writing my own music and not copying anybody else's stuff. A set back that I just had which is really making me want to push harder in life is my cousin mallory. She just turned 18 last month and during that month she was signed to a record label to produce her music. Like she can go to their studio and record her music get it put on a cd then get it marketed. Its just been hard to think that this is really happening...

Entry 14

So right now id have to say that the band Metallica has got to be one of the best musically talented band out there. Especially the guitarist Kirk Hammet, He has come up with some of the most amazing guitar riffs. So Im running out of things to write about. Right now Im listening to Lose Yourself by Eminem. This is a very good song if you are a musician. Its very inspiring. Take me for example there has been times when I get in a slump and feel like I can't make it anywhere. I just play this song and some others by Eminem and my confidence is back up.

Entry 13

So today in shop class I started building my project. Everyone says its going to be very difficult but Im pretty sure I can build it. My project is basically a guitar rack that holds 8 guitars then it has 3 storage spaces in it. The top two storage spaces are for amp chords, midi chords, and power chords. Then the bottom storage space is more for when Im performing on stage. It holds all my amp effects and pedals and stuff like that. And it also has two cup holders on it.

Tuesday November 3rd

So today is tuesday tomorrow is wednesday which means its hump day. Friday we don't have school which will be super exciting. After this semester my mom says if i pass she will buy me a Marshall Half stack that is vintage white. Its approximate total value is around 700$. Then after that I want to buy a Boss ME-70 i think is what its called its around 300 dollars. It has almost ever effects pedal built into it. Then for the variety show i want to buy a new classy guitar.

October 27th

So yea today is tuesday. Sorry I haven't quite been up to date on my blogger here. Anyways Im not sure exactly what I would like to wright about. This weekend was pretty fun, I got to meet my girlfriend's friends. Which that was pretty fun. My mom says that we are supposed to start breaking ground this week for our new house that we are building which is pretty dang exciting. Lately I've been playing guitar about 5 to 6 hours a day which is very nice for me its very relaxing. If it was for school and my mom I would probably play at least 18 hours a day. The reason I say 18 is because you have to sleep sometime...

Entry 10

Hmmmmm List of pet peeves, I would have to say my largest pet peeve would probably be other people eating in front of me when its dead silent in the room or somebody chewing gum when Im trying to read. Its so annoying. Any ways Im pretty happy, I've heard lots of rumors online about the band Blink 182 being back together and I thought it was non-sense because of the plane crash which was said that all the members were on it but it was just a private jet and there was only like 5 or 6 people on the plane not including the pilot. When it crashed 4 people died and Travis Barker and some other guy survived with life threatening injuries. Then I guess this summer they were at the 51st grammy thing and they performed there. As Tom DeLonge said "When your in a band a sort of brotherly hood bonds all of you and its basically like you always have to be together and keep the band going" those weren't exactly what he said but pretty close and it makes a lot of sense. Its said that they are coming out with a new album in 2010.!

September 29th, Entry 9

Today is tuesday september 29th and on friday i get paid finnally! I love to get money then on saturday is homecoming! i suppose thats a good thing im going to the dance. Lately ive gotten into alot of older style rock playing like lynyrd skynyrd or foghat or maybe even the band free, thats just a couple that ive been playing. Oh don't forget poison they are a pretty good band. tomorrow is rockstar day i have a feeling im gonna bring a guitar along with me...probably not such a good idea but oh well i have like 8 others. Maybe swanson will jam out with me during 5th hour psychology. I guess i am opossite today one hand has painted fingernails and the other don't thats opposite right?...

September 24th, entry 8

So yesterday we went to the college fair and first i looked at some colleges found one up in minnesota that Im interested in. It has multiple recording studios on campus which i think is a big plus. After that i hung out w/ some friends of mine that were there first i hung out with kelly from metro ehh she was in a blah boring mood so then i found my friend kenzi from linn mar and i hung out with her and her grandma which was fun sort of? Walking around finding information a out colleges. I guess you could call that fun. Ive been recording some videos on my computer to put on youtube they are instructional videos on how to do certain things on a guitar. Then today I thought my male cat was dead but turns out he was just being super lazy and didn't even move when i was petting him then i put food in his dish and he came running as fast as he could idk y? Last night i learned how to play cowboys from hell by pantera. If you get a chance listen to it, it has some pretty cool sounding guitar parts in it.

September 22nd, Entry 7

So today is tuesday, anyways this weekend was alright but I didn't get to buy that one guitar that I was planning on buying because the kid's parents said they didn't want him to sell the guitar even though he doesn't play it or probably will never play it. On the other side of things Im about half done working on my epiphone flying v the one Im always talking about Im waiting for more parts to come in the mail. This weekend I went to Guitar Center and bought some parts for my favorite guitar that originally didn't need anything done to it but i got the bright idea that i wanna replace a part on it thats way better but i basically have to destroy my guitar to do it... But in the long run it will be a good investment on this guitar... hopefully. This weekend Im going to guitar center just to buy some more things because i got two 15% off coupons in the mail. Sometime i have to talk to Mr. L the choir teacher about the variety show because id like to use my own equipment as in my own sound system for the acts that i will be doing. Hopefully sometime soon i can bring in one of my guitars and play for everyone during one class period. It could possibly be this period maybe after the final test over the crucibles?

September 17th, entry 6

So today is thursday september 17th. Well finally I got to go to Guitar Center last night and buy some things for my birthday and I wasn't completely sure on what I wanted to buy so I just bought some things that I needed. Which was a strap for my dads bass and some tuning pegs for my flying v epiphone the one guitar Im always working on and I got home went to put the pegs on and they wont work which was a bummer but ill just have to go back down and return them within the next 30 days which ill probably be going down there this weekend so yea it will be all good. Im still looking for parts for my dads guitar that he like totally ruined when he was a younger kid... Yup the eiphone that i fixed up and put the new electrical system in the pots (volume control & tone control) started humming so Im taking it down to guitar center on saturday or tomorrow friday for them to look at it and possibly fix it. Maybe ill buy another guitar this weekend my cousins boyfriend wants me to buy his started pack that he got awhile ago. He was just not totally interested in playing guitar so he decided to sell it i guess. The guys at guitar center are telling me not to buy a crate amp because its to much of a beginner amp and its weird because my uncle has one and he is telling me to buy one so yea im not completely sure what to do...

Setember 15th, entry 5

Well yesterday was my birthday i havent gotten much for it yet but hopefully tonight my mom will be taking to cedar rapids to go shopping for my birthday that should be fun we would only be going to one store and if you know me you should know what one store that is... GUITAR CENTER!! So yea that will be fun, but the past couple of days have been really long and tiring. Staying up all night working on one of my guitars (the guitar that i bought from Aaron C in our class) but im not completely done with it yet i have to spend about another 100$ on it for the tuning pegs. and i already have over 200$ put into the guitar in parts and accesories. Some people might say its a bad hobby to get into but i think its well worth the money spent because each dollar you put towards a guitar it just makes the guitar that much better and that much more valuable. Not sure if you noticed but today i was wearing swishy pants and once again if you know me that usually means i feel very lazy today...

September 11th, Entry 4

Today is Friday end of the week, weekend starts once school gets out. Tomorrow my cousin is getting married that should be fun I think? Hopefully afterwards I will get to go to my uncles house and we can have a little family concert type of thing. I would like to go to guitar center this weekend hopefully I can ill have one of my other cousins drive me down there after the reception so I can get parts for my guitar. The latest songs I've been learning on guitar are Cannon Rock by JerryC, Eruption by Van Halen, Sweet Child o' mine by Guns n Roses, thats just a few of what I've been practicing lately. Im also wanting to clean my room this weekend its a complete disaster. Well I shouldn't say clean because it is clean its just disorganized with amp cords, pedals, guitars, amps, power cords, and a couple power strips. Oh and don't forget all the guitar magazines and catalogs lying everywhere. I also need to buy a new guitar rack or a bigger one because the one I have now holds 7 guitars and I have 8 guitars in my room now.

September 9th, Entry 3

Well today is Wednesday otherwise know as hump day, half way through the week. Next monday is my birthday september 14th. I brought my new guitar to school today... bought it last friday for 280$ it's a LTD by ESP Mirage series. A fender strat look alike but it plays like the ibanez GAX series and sounds a lot like the ibanez RX series. Everyones bagging me to bring my amplifier to school so I can play sometime. Im just kinda like maybe some other time, its such a drag to bring my amp to school and lug it around everywhere thats why im asking for the amp plug and play for my birthday it runs off of a 9 volt battery. Basically just a small speaker that plugs into your amp about the size of the palm of your hand. Its pretty handy for backstage practicing or just playing for your friends at school with out lugging around your big amplifier. Well sadly enough guitar center had their big labor day sale or memorial day sale which ever it was and i was too busy to get down there, what a bummer. Hopefully next friday my friend can shadow me here at school that would always be fun.

September 3rd, Entry 2

So this weekend is going to be great because tonight my mom is paying me for all this summers work. Which will be around 1200$. On top of that Guitar Center is having a blow out sale 83% off most in house items so yea you can about imagine what I will be doing. On Sunday ill probably be working on two guitars that are in the middle of being rebuilt one is an old 1950s gibson the other is a 1985 epiphone jupiter I have to cut a hole in the body and then cut almost through on the back side and a little bit on the front side also around the hole because I'm installing a Floyd Rose. Its a pretty complicated job. During my free time I've been looking for guitars that don't work anymore but have a good neck and head stock on them because I need a neck and a headstock for my custom 1950s gibson that I'm rebuilding. If you're interested just ask for pictures of both guitars. I can get pictures of them very soon. Im redoing all electrical work on both guitars also. It may sound very complicated and hard to do but honestly ill fix or install any thing on a guitar besides a bent neck because that means the rod inside the neck is bent and you cant really fix that.

September 1st, Entry 1

So this weekend I found out that back in the 80s koreans were not the greatest electricians because my epiphone jupiter guitar had bad pickups in it so i changed them and realized that all the wires were different. None of the same color.