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Post by pwfirst on Feb 9, 2015 2:34:13 GMT -5
Hi Guys, It has been a while since I was last on. 3 knee surgeries over the last 1 1/2 years have taken my mind off music. But I am back to 90% and playing and writing again. Nice to read the posts again. Phil
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Post by pwfirst on Apr 1, 2012 21:01:58 GMT -5
Looks sweet.
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Post by pwfirst on Feb 8, 2012 20:23:34 GMT -5
It is great to see the little family growing .
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Post by pwfirst on Feb 2, 2012 8:44:35 GMT -5
Well am back! While the cruise was OK, The guitar would have lasted longer. While on the cruise, I did take a medical class and met a Dr who builds cigar box guitars for the fun of it. He will send me some pictures in a few days. I went to a few bars on board and listen to some really good groups. But while we were at port we were next to a blues cruise, should have been on that cruise. Oh what we do for our wives! What did I spend my money on, T shirts / no, jewelry / no, Island junk, no---- I brought home some Johnny Walker double black scotch. The rest of my money is going into a secret guitar fund!
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Post by pwfirst on Jan 20, 2012 21:16:16 GMT -5
After 7 in of snow 4 degree temps ;)and shoveling it all day, my wife and I leave on our cruise tomorrow. It was either the 616 Taylor maple or a trip with my better half. Guess who won out. We are flying down to Florida tomorrow morning to get on the Allure of the Seas for 7 days. I talk to you guys when I get back
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Post by pwfirst on Jan 20, 2012 21:07:04 GMT -5
Nothing like a family band. Congrats on the new little boy family is the glue that holds us all together. We may need pictures.
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Post by pwfirst on Jan 17, 2012 22:00:23 GMT -5
I use two picks. If I am strumming hard I use a thin picks. They don't distort the sound like a thick pick can. I think thin picks let the mid tones out better. When I am picking I use a thicker pick , gives me a little more control and more volume.
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Post by pwfirst on Jan 9, 2012 18:21:28 GMT -5
Les, have you been talking to my wife?
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Post by pwfirst on Jan 9, 2012 8:34:20 GMT -5
Nice Job, You are on a roll.
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Post by pwfirst on Jan 9, 2012 8:32:19 GMT -5
Great news on the songs guy, I thought this CD was a step above the previous one. I still have it on my phone and give it a listen. Sorry about the pedal dysfunction, some days it is hard to find just that right sound.
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Post by pwfirst on Jan 9, 2012 8:19:50 GMT -5
My wife didn't buy in, after 35 years of marriage she knows all my tricks, Drat.
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Post by pwfirst on Jan 8, 2012 21:58:42 GMT -5
High guys, just thought you might be interested in what I have been up to lately.
I have just put the finishing touches On our praise team sound system, after 3 years of messing around it seems to be all worth it. Here is the equipment list: Amp #3 QSC 300 watt #2 run at 50% 1. Mains 2. Subs 3. front monitors Peavey 900 Watt run at 30% 1. back Monitor for the drummer. Board: Macky 24/8 EQ: dual Peavey mains and subs dual DBX front monitors. Sound processor: Beheringer : add a little studio reverb. PA controller: DBX Rack PA Mic's: Wireless System: #2 Audio technica 2000 leader and guitar #2 AKG drummer's vocal mic/ additional hand mic and paster's mic Wired: Shure 58 #3, 59 beta Audio Tech M5 Condenser Mic MXL for the Keyboard ( have tried several other options and she likes this best. Speakers: Custom design by Bill Fitzmaurice Mains and subs Monitors: #2 Peavey ( use to be our mains.) #1 small Kustom 10 in for the drummer. We put in #2 small wooden trap doors for the stage snakes and to store and keep the not used Mics out of the way. Worked great for almost no money. Stage boxes can get pretty pricey and still have no place to store the extra wires and mics. My favorite toy is the DBX Rack PA. With this little toy you can pink the room, set limits for feed back and it really helped balance all the speakers. We can fine tune with the EQ's for our preferences. We run the system in Mono and have full control of each speaker system. We can almost keep everyone happy. So in closing, we have discussed several options that our church has done over the last 3 years to meet the needs of the Pastor and the praise team on a small budget. Our praise team has now split in to two teams. Why did we do that? 1. Gives our praise team leader a little break. 2. Allows more people to participate in the praise team experience. 3. Gives us more flexibility in our music selections. But it doubles the works of keeping the logistics of setting up the sound every Sunday. So I have set the stage up in quadrants and not by individual performers. 1. Back up singers and monitor and piano Lt side of the stage. 2. Lead section with monitor and Keys and my guitar Rt side. 3. Drums with monitor. We just repositioned the drums off center and is helped decrease the volume. We play at 85 Db so it is hard to keep the drum volume under control.
Yellow Team little yellow dots on the board at the levels Purple team little purple dots on the board at the levels Blue team ( on both teams ) don't have to use dots same people play every Sunday. The board is color coded , every member always uses this same piece of equipment which is numbered too, same location on the board. I walk in before the practice. and un-mute the colored tracks, put the sliders on the colored dots and we are ready to go.
That's the way we do it and it is much better than the unorganized fly by the seat of our paints that we use to do. Our sound is now consistent from Sunday to Sunday. The Boomy sound we started with is now gone, vocals are now clean and clear and out front , all is happy. One last note. I use a small hand held digital recorder at the back of the room to listen to each Sunday and reset the next Sunday if there are any sound problems. I need a new hobby.
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Post by pwfirst on Jan 6, 2012 23:01:08 GMT -5
Well I am back in business. The New Mother board and quad processor , the I-7, is up and going. And it is twice as fast as my old system. I doubled the cooling as well. For all you Geeks, this thing is a screamer. I did have to redo my audio setting. The ASIO setting I use to use, did funny things with the processor so I used the new WMD I think it stands for Weapons of Mass Destruction, just kidding. Now the whole things works even better than before, I was able to decrease the latency setting to 1/2 what I was using before. Still tweaking but I am up and going again.
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Post by pwfirst on Jan 2, 2012 8:36:42 GMT -5
That's why I play a Yamaha $800 and a USA Ovation Elite $480. BUT if you keep a guitar for 20 years+ the cost of ownership per year is quite low. My wife didn't buy that either. I would have a real problem letting go of $3,000 too.
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Post by pwfirst on Dec 30, 2011 22:05:30 GMT -5
Just got back from a hospice visit in Dubuque Iowa and had to stop in at Uncle Ikes Music for a look see and a little drooling session at his new store. I made the mistake of picking up the Taylor 616 CE Maple. It may be the best sounding guitar I have ever played. The sound was full range beyond anything I have ever heard. But $3000 and did I mention I am married. So I don't see it in my feature.
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