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  • New and Sold Guitars Guitars
  • The Hondo H-737: Are “Bad” Guitars Actually Bad? Gear Talk
  • Two New Songs On the Horizon KCWM
  • Goodbye Pedalboard Currently Owned Pedals
  • Goodbye, Pedalboard…maybe Currently Owned Pedals
  • The Release Plan for Volume Four KCWM
  • “It Feels Familiar” Volume Four
  • “Go On” Volume Four

1992 Fender Telecaster

The '92 Tele
One of My Best Deals
The Big John Wizadry
I Can Admit That I Was Wrong
The '92 Tele

Twenty years or so ago, having owned a Japanese E-Series Squier Stratocaster, a cheap Lyon Strat copy, and a $99 Les Paul Special II, I was as versed in cheap guitars as a kid in the late 90s could be. OK, so that E-series strat would prove to not be so cheap as time passed, but that’s not the point.

A friend of mine owned a Squier Affinity Telecaster. Those were, and I think still are, the cheapest of the Squier line. I hated that Telecaster and so I hated all Teles. I hated the headstock. I hated the “not quite Les Paul” single cutaway. I hated the silver neck pickup. I hated the control plate. It wasn’t a Strat and therefore it was inferior. I still played it when we hung out though. Hell, I think there’s even a picture of thinner, 19-year old me with a shit-eating grin on my face while playing it.

For years, that Tele shaped my opinion of all things Tele until I had the opportunity to buy one SUPER cheap. I never said my opinions were good.

One of My Best Deals

Pawn Shopping

This story is where you point to your kids and say “Kids, this is how NOT to do things. This is how to be dishonest and swindle a pawn shop”. In my defense, don’t most pawn shops take advantage of and swindle people who are desperate and in need of money? I mean, I’m no “Robin Hood of pawn shops” here, but I was just taking a little back for the little guy.

I used to stop at random pawn shops to see what they had. My wife and I called it “going pawn shopping”. There was a chain that used to have a very particular pricing system that displayed how much money they had invested in an item right on the tag. If you didn’t know the system, you just thought it meant nothing. Except, someone I knew who used to work there told me the code and I used it to score some killer deals.

Just a Look

My wife and I were coming back from doing something I can’t remember over in Dallas. I’d spied the pawn shop in question on my way there and pulled in on the way back.

“I’m just going to look,” I told her, stressing the word look. I was not being dishonest…I had no intention of buying anything. We walked inside and on the wall hung a Tele that had seen better days. It was a three color sunburst with a black pickguard. Remember, I was not fond of Telecasters, had not given one a single thought, and this one was no different. However, it was the only decent guitar on the wall.

I picked it up and noticed the bridge was odd. I used my phone to Google what it was and learned it was a Fishman VT Powerbridge, which contained a piezo pickup generally used in acoustic instruments. While I had a high level understanding of what it did, it wasn’t of much interest to me.

The guitar had a couple of Rio Grande Muy Grande and Halfbreed pickups. I had no idea what that brand meant, but it didn’t have the silver cover on the neck pickup, so that was a win.

I looked at the tag and the pricing scheme told me the pawnshop had $50 invested. They were asking $300, which wasn’t shabby for a Made in Mexico Fender. 

The sales rep came over and I asked for a cable to try it out. While I waited, I strummed a few chords. The neck was quite comfortable and was one of the nicer necks I’d played at that point in time.

When the rep arrived with the cable, I plugged the guitar up, turned up the amp a little, and strummed a chord expecting the worst.

Bzzzt-grrrch 

It was worse than the worst I’d expected. The guitar didn’t even work. It made this fizzy electronic sound. I recognized it as the sound that active pickups make when the battery they need to power them is dead. I turned the guitar over for the first time and saw a battery compartment.

“Of course the Fishman is active,” I thought to myself. I’d known this but didn’t even think about it. I took the battery out and put it to my tongue. It was dead as a doornail.

A Lie By Omission

I pulled my wallet out and saw $85 in cash from a pedal I’d sold a few days before. They had $50 bucks in so I was hoping they’d take a 70% profit.

I called the sales rep over, explained that the guitar wasn’t working right, plugged it in, and showed them the “bzzzt-grrrch” noise. He made a face. That particular sound isn’t all that pleasant.

The rep went over and asked the manager. The manager came over, I showed them the same noise, and he immediately agreed to $85 out the door. For the price of $75.83 plus tax, I walked out of the pawnshop with a beat up Tele.

Should I have told them about the battery thing? Yes, probably. I didn’t lie…I DID say it wasn’t working right. I just omitted how easy of a fix it would be.

It Worked Out

We got home, I put a fresh 9v battery in, and it work right away. In spite of the numerous chips, scratches, dents, and damage already done to it, the guitar played and sounded great. Normally, Telecasters are on the brighter side, but the Rio Grande pickups really tamed that. I eventually swapped the pickguard for a tortoiseshell pickguard.

Unfortunately, as things sometimes go, money became tight and I ended up selling for the guitar for $450. A month later, I got a major bonus that would have kept it home. I really missed that guitar. But, life is full of quirky twists and turns.

As luck would have it, a few months down the road, the same guitar come up on Craigslist, emailed the guy, and it was the same guy I’d sold it to. I immediately offered to buy it back for what he’d paid me for it, he accepted, and the guitar was back home.

The Big John Wizadry

John Oliviera of Big John’s Guitars is a wizard.

John has worked on every guitar I own. While he’s out in Denton, TX, the drive is absolutely worth it. Over the years we’ve had a number of conversations and our time’s up before I even know it.

I think the very first work I ever had him do was swap the Rio Grande pickups out of this with the pickups in a ’96 American Telecaster I’d picked up after buying this. I ended up selling that USA Tele with the newly installed Rio Grande pickups to Guitar Center for what I was asking for it, which is a rare feat.

Shortly after quickly falling out of love with the USA stock pickups, I reached out to John and began inquired about a pretty significant bit of work. We went back and forth and discussed changing pretty much everything:

    • adding a vaneer and refinish
    • installing GFS Power Rock pickups and wiring them however he wanted
    • a refret with stainless steel frets
    • staining the neck a vintage amber
    • applying a spaghetti-style waterslide decal
    • changing the dot inlays to abelone
    • adding new tuners

Pickups/Electronics

Initially, John suggested a set of GFS Power Rock pickups. They are stacked humbuckers that look like regular telecaster pickups but with increased, noiseless output. He wired them in the following setup on a 5-way switch:

    • 5 – Neck in series
    • 4 – Neck in parallel
    • 3 – One coil from each pickup in parallel
    • 2 – Bridge in parallel
    • 1 – Bridge in series

Positions 2 and 4 offer this really mellowed out sound that really pulls back on whatever drive pedal I’m using. I often use it for playing cleaner parts with just a hint of drive. If you mix in a little bit of the Piezo bridge, you’ll find layers of sounds that the magnetic pickups alone don’t give.

We replaced the volume knob that controlled the magnetic pickups with a concentric knob, which are two knobs in one, so I could have both a tone and volume control. The Piezo bridge knob retained its single knob.

In 2021, and after 13 years, the neck pick up began to lose some of its oompf while the bridge pickup kept trucking along. I bought a Seymour Duncan Antiquity II Mini Humbucker, new pickguard, and John replaced it and wired things back up.

The Neck and Tuners

If the neck was comfortable before, John took that comfort to a luxury level. He has a service where he contours the fretboard and I had him make that adjustment to my tele. In the nearly 14 years since he worked that magic on the neck, it’s been back once for a very minor tweak.

I bought some Wilkinson vintage-style tuners off of the GFS site and installed them myself. I’ve always been fond of the way those looked and thought it classed the neck up a bit.

In April of 2022, it came time to change the strings in preparation of starting recording Volume Four. I swapped out the Wilkinson tuners for a set of Fender Locking Tuners I’d installed on my ’95 Fender Stratocaster. It’s hard to beat those locking tuners. It makes restringing a breeze.

With the serial number wiped away due to the neck refinish, I had a local shop at a nearby mall engrave it on a new neck plate. It looks terrible. It’s the one part I want to get redone, but I’ll have the Serial Number added to the back of the plate instead of the part you can see.

Are the Neck and Body Actually USA Made?

I will probably be corrected and I welcome the correction, but after Googling around, in the early ’90s (I think until ’93) the Fender plant in Mexico didn’t have the machining hardware available to make their own necks and bodies yet. American made necks and bodies were shipped down and the guitars were then assembled with the normal hardware and electronics found in the Mexican-made Fender line at the time.

That’s something that’s been debated, disputed, proven, and disproven on forums for years. Even if that isn’t the case, the wood in this guitar has held up quite well in the nearly 30 years since it’s construction. The electronics, with the exception of that Fishman Piezo bridge, have been completely replaced, the wiring upgraded, and some definite wizardry done to the pickup options I have access to.

I Can Admit That I Was Wrong

The Tele was my go-to guitar to play and travel with for a number of years. I look back on my initial opinion of them and realize just how wrong I was.

I once thought that Stratocasters were the superior guitar. Over the years, I’ve owned too many Strats from every country they’re manufactured in, but I never found that I felt a connection to. I even own one now that simply sits in the case and rarely gets played.

It took me one Tele to fall in love with the guitar. One, and it was even close to top of the line. Sure, the wizardry helps, but it was a great guitar when I picked it up off the hanger at that pawn shop so many years ago.

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Cold the Winter · Skylines and the Horizon

Latest Instagram Posts

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I have a number of minis I’m working on at the m I have a number of minis I’m working on at the moment. Here’s my table of things in different stages of #tabletopquality for use in my #dnd campaign, some of which haven’t been started or might not be used. The kobolds you see will be painted green.

When I started the genie, I didn’t realized my pre-painted one was also blue. It still works though. 

I’m still not sold on the idea of a steel dragon but it could be cool and I already have a “large” silver dragon. I used magnets on the bottom of the dragon, the large and huge bases, and I can stack them if I need it to be an adult-sized dragon. I just need to decorate them in complimentary ways. 

 I have an idea for mini painting streams and these are some of the things I’ll be painting on there.
I have a soft spot for kobolds in my DnD campaigns I have a soft spot for kobolds in my DnD campaigns. My players have met one that has hinted at future quests, they fought some green-scaled kobolds, and I foresee more in their future. 

I pulled the old minion old rule from #dnd 4e…enemies that have 1 hp and auto fail most saves. Kobolds (and goblins) make great minions. 

 I have quite a few, so I foresee more red (two of them are pre painted), green, and blue scales in my future. They might be #tabletopquality but I’m ok with that. I have fun and painting is relaxing for me. 

The red plastic minis came from a D&D board game, and tall but one of the gray and white ones are from @reaperminiatures #bones4 and #bones5
In March of 2021, I discovered the Lovepedal Purpl In March of 2021, I discovered the Lovepedal Purple Plexi and it was finally the closest I’ve come to getting that Marshall-in-a-Box pedal sound. 

Earlier this year, I picked up a Lovepedal Vintage/Modern, which is a Purple Plexi and Church of Tone in one enclosure. 

Not too long ago, I came across a post @cklabofficial posted of their take on a Purple Plexi/Jubilee, two pedals I owned at the time. I really like CKLab pedals and would have loved to have it, but, alas, I missed out. 

I reached out and asked about the possibility of a 2-in-1 from CKLAB. This is the result. 

I am beyond stoked. This will make my 3rd CKLab pedal and I hope to own more. I love the idea of support local makers and, seeing as how the Vintage/Modern is my go to drive, this will be my #1. 

Visit their store on Reverb and buy their pedals so I’m not tempted to. Seriously. The LSDelay I bought is so damned cool. 

#supportlocalpedals #cklab #miabpedals #gooddudes #newpedalday
A couple of #WIP #dndminiatures projects from this A couple of #WIP #dndminiatures projects from this weekend. I intend to use both in the #dnd campaign im running, but it will be a while before I do. 

I need to add some white lines to the texture around the iris and add something to the black section of the base. 

The mold lines on the pumpkin dude are bugging me now that I see how clear they are in the picture. Will cut those down and fix the color. 

I intend to prime up some of these #reaper #bones5 minis I have sitting on my shelves and paint them on stream. I might only paint to a #tabletopquality but it’s still fun and relaxing to do.
After picking up almost all the paints in the thir After picking up almost all the paints in the third picture, I’ve taken up mini painting again. I decided to start with a treant to work into my #dnd campaign. 

This is still a work in progress. I started with some normal paints and then added some contrast paint on the beard and to accent some of the wood. I need to make some adjustments to the paint. 

I plan to add leaves to the top but my foliage is too crumbly so I need to get some bigger chunks. 

It’s been fun. I’m likely going to stream some #minipainting on stream. I have minis to paint to get on the #tabletop, which is also the level that I paint at but it works for my table.
This kid. This past Saturday marked 10 years with This kid. This past Saturday marked 10 years with our wonderful child…a blend of her mother and I in so many ways. 

I can’t wait to see what the next 10 years bring us. She has a good head on her shoulders. 

I’m a proud parent. She’s weird AF but I wouldn’t have her any other way.
Cross post from Twitter, but I have more room here Cross post from Twitter, but I have more room here. 

This is my current stable of electric guitars, minus my Epiphone ES339.

PRS S2 McCarty 594: “Fat” rhythm. This guitar has “coil tap” which  changes the sound of the respective pickups giving me a lot of flexibility. 

Fender Telecaster (sunburst): Lead/rhythm. I do 90% of my 2nd guitar and lead work on this. It’s on every track I’ve recorded since 2018. 

Squier Classic Vibe ‘60s Stratocaster: General rhythm. Newest addition. Everyone needs a strat, even if I rarely grab one. 

Fender Road-worn ‘50s Telecaster (purple): Bright rhythm. 

Gibson Les Paul Classic: “Fat” rhythm. My #1 guitar. It’s crunchy compared to the smoother sound of the PRS

PRS SC245 Ted McCarty: Bright rhythm. 

Squier ‘51 (modified): Lead

Yes, some guitars overlap but they sound different than their role-siblings. Wood, pickups, etc. I compare guitars to chocolate…yes, they’re all guitars but they do things differently. Hersheys doesn’t taste the same as Toblerone or Ritter Sport. Milk chocolate differs from dark chocolate. Heck, I even threw a peanut butter comparison up there. 

I have two basses and an acoustic. One of those basses is new so I’m not sure of the roles just yet. 

#kcwmmusic #dmcafreemusic #guitarsarelikechocolate #gearaddiction #guitar
Bought a new caddy from Michaels and was able to s Bought a new caddy from Michaels and was able to stack my unopened #nolzursmarvelousminiatures and #reaperbonesminiatures to better see what I have. 

Left row is full of player mini and humanoids, the middle row is made up of monstrous humanoids and undead, and the right row consists of elementals and fiendish things. 

I have a lot of minis to paint, but this helps me visualize what I have left between the shelves and this caddy.
Well… Well…
Ever since having COVID last month, she’s been a Ever since having COVID last month, she’s been a constant by my side when she can get in. She will lay with me or on the other pillow. She might be ornery, but she’s the bestest of friends. 

#tortiesofinstagram #tortitude #tortie #catsofinstagram #imakittycat #frausafriend #cat
Hey, uh @walmart, this isn’t how rollbacks work. Hey, uh @walmart, this isn’t how rollbacks work. #rollback
Not too long ago, we picked up a KALLAX shelf syst Not too long ago, we picked up a KALLAX shelf system from IKEA to store my #dnd minis on. It’s been handy for sorting the minis by “collection” like my Bones 4 and Bones 5 minis, but, as you can see in the 2nd picture, I lost plenty of vertical space. 

A few weeks ago, I saw a video on TikTok where a guy used KVISSLE letter trays to store his minis on. They are easy to assemble and the trays simply slide in and out without rollers. 

For most minis on a 1” or smaller base, it’s absolutely perfect AND there’s room at the bottom for the box sets like the Essentials Kit or Starter Set. For larger minis, you can see I removed one of the trays and that shelf has plenty of giants on it and the KVISSLE still has two shelves out of the picture (Ellie took it and sent it to me). 

He used spray paint to paint the shelves black but I’m opting for the white on black look. You can also buy magnets to install on the bottoms of the minis but I’ve yet to do that. 

It’s easy to amass a big collection of DnD #miniatures through the #reaperbones collections or the #nolzursmarvelousminiatures packs and having an easy way to organize them is incredibly useful. 

Now it’s just a matter of painting them. Oof.
My newest single, “Go On”, is live on Spotify My newest single, “Go On”, is live on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/album/0bTGahUMwQnPrIECWapOby?si=aGrl3wvhQAOugU3Yo07EeQ for your DMCA-free listening needs. 

#Distrokid put this image together and I dig it. Check it, and the other 90s-infuenced instrumental rock music on Spotify and other streaming platforms!

#dmcafreemusic #dmcafreerock #streammusic #music #guitarrock #guitar #kcwmmusic
He’s a good #pickle @teresa.aldaco @moriaheliz He’s a good #pickle 

@teresa.aldaco @moriahelizabethofficial
Started on 6/7/21, shelved due to significant burn Started on 6/7/21, shelved due to significant burnout, and delayed due to health reasons, "Go On", the 1st song of #kcwmmusic Volume Four is moving along. 

The EZKeys you see plays a more front & center role on this song than the last time I used keys on "Sometimes It Works Out" on Volume One. I might end up going with a more traditional piano, but so far I'm digging the setting you see pictured. 

As with my previous KCWM releases, I'm using Superior Drummer 3, though I plan to dig more into some of the presets and expansions to vary the drums, especially on some of the more laid back songs.

This album is the first of mine to feature acoustic guitar on numerous tracks thanks to a pair of Rode M5 mics, another significant shift. 

I'm definitely looking to add some more songs to the more relaxed playlist on Spotify. Acoustic guitar and piano definite help keep me in that headspace. 

I have two days off and I'm hoping to get the 2nd, and maybe a 3rd guitar, recorded. Then it's just a matter of spacing things out before getting this up on Spotify as a single for people to use. 

I'll keep you posted

#dmcafreemusic #dmcafreerock #songwriting #ezkeys @toontrack @rodemic
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3 Feb

Any DFW 40k players interested in a massive blood angels/space marines collection? Texans even. I need to update the list because there’s more.

https://dallas.craigslist.org/mdf/tag/d/north-richland-hills-large-blood-angels/7578974479.html

1 Feb

My wife & youngest kid did @23andMe kits. We finally got the results & our kid shares 50% of my DNA, but only 49.6% of my wife's. Also, looking at all of our percentages & seeing how that turned out is fascinating. My wife is 52% Italian, I'm .2%, but Ellie is 30%. Interesting!

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