HighCastle of Geek

​A blog/journal about my life and the stuff I like. Popular subjects include music, guitars, gear, books, movies, video games, technology, humor.

NGD!

If you have to ask, this is probably not the blog for you. Ok, ok, the fact that you are actually reading this means you're the other person who reads my blog and for that I'll make an exception. NGD is New Gear Day, my friend. Yes, it's capitalized since it's essentially a national holiday (so why the hell am I at work?). I shipped out my two most recent Ebay sales (Charvel San Dimas and Line 6 Variax Acoustic) yesterday, and their sale essentially netted me a new James Tyler Variax (with the newest generation of L6 variax modeling hardware) and about $100 cash. I technically lost money on the guitars themselves, but I don't mind depreciation in a guitar that's not being used anymore since it allows me to replace it with something I will use. I didn't lose too much on either guitar, and I actually exceeded the most recent average auction prices for both guitars which made me very happy. I actually lucked out because I thought I had put a Buy It Now price on both, but I forgot to do that and I ended up getting more than the Buy It Now amount I would have set.

The Charvel was a good guitar but with the Suhr Modern, I really wasn't going to use it anymore. The intent with all my instruments is for them to fulfill a role sonically, and if they're redundant, I'll probably replace them or sell them. With the addition of the JT variax, my arsenal is going to be pretty stable until I add a PRS SE Angelus acoustic when they hit the market later this year. After that, it will probably be several years before the next new guitar (famous last words). It's a good thing my wife doesn't read this blog, or she would use it as evidence against me.

The L6 acoustic was good for what it did in its time, but I have grown more picky when it comes to acoustic tone, and I was just rarely using it at all. It would have been good as a swiss army knife guitar live, but once I saw the newer capabilities of 2nd? generation variaxes and found out that they were actually James Tyler designed guitars that were regular electrics in addition to being variaxes, it was an easy decision to replace the L6 acoustic.

One of the great things about the JT is that it has four times the processing power of the previous generation and they have used that power to make the most common alternate tunings as well as improved models of a variety of electric and acoustic guitars available at the flip of a switch. These guitars can be played like straight electrics, straight models, or a mix. In a way, this will give me capabilities that I haven't had since I sold the Brian Moore several years ago. To wit: dual guitar tones concurrently. I'm not sure how easy it will be (pretty easy I think), but it will be nice to be able to alternate quickly between electric and acoustic during the same song.

It's on the Fedexcellent express right now, hopefully it will be there when I get home tonight.