In essence, Mike Fuller vented online about the looters and how they were ruining businesses. People somehow conflated that with him making racist statements which, from what I’ve read at least, he didn’t make. Or that Mike cared more about business than people. Irrespective, it touched off a HUGE backlash on social media that forced Mike to eat a huge portion of humble pie and make a public apology.
But this is a perfect example of why words matter. Frankly, part of me agrees with Mike condemning the looting – he even stated that it was the work of bad actors and NOT the protesters. But the way in which he communicated his perspective could have been done so much more diplomatically.
One thing I’ve learned about having an online presence is to carefully weigh my words and do the best I can to not write when I’m angry. You tend to miss details and worse yet, especially with someone like me who wears their heart on their sleeve, overdo the emotion. People react to emotion – especially anger – and in an environment where all it takes is a spark to ignite a wildfire, it can get out of hand quickly.
So all that said, this is a good lesson. To be clear, I’m not saying don’t express your viewpoint. But there are ways to do it that people will hear and others that will, well, have a big box retailer remove your products from their shelves. Definitely food for thought.
Much love has been given out to the BOSS Katana amp line since it was released and over time, it has gained many devotees; myself included. Still, there are those folks out there who will argue that it’s still just a solid-state amp and could never be as good as a real tube amp.
I get that. I have eight tube amps ranging in wattage from 5 watts to 50 watts. They’re all set up differently and each has its own distinctive characteristics. With my Plexi-style amps, there really is nothing like the high-end sizzle when the amp is cranked. My Fender Hot Rod Deluxe has a hauntingly rich and beautiful clean tone. And let’s face it: There’s really nothing like the power sag of a tube rectifier.
But despite all those great things about tube amps, my Katana Artist (v1) is my #1 amp for both stage and studio. Why? For one, simply because it has a sound and feel that speaks to me and I’m inspired every time I play it. But perhaps more importantly, it has a sound and feel that’s all its own. I don’t look at it as a digital, solid-state amp. I look at it as a great amp that gives me the tone and dynamics that I expect out of any amp that I call my own.
That said, historically, there is a justifiable reason for the stigma around solid-state amps not being as good tube amps. Twenty-five or so years ago, with just a couple of exceptions, solid-state amps were definitely the cheap alternatives – at least the ones built for electric guitar.
Acoustic guitar amps, on the other hand, tended – and still tend – to be all solid-state. To me, SR and Genz-Benz have been my go-to standards, and I still play through my SR California Blonde. It’s a 75-lb. behemoth with a 15″ speaker. Even as old as it is, I’ll pit it against any other acoustic amp. Sorry, I digress. Back to electric guitar solid state amps…
Back in the day, solid-state amps sounded horrible and felt even worse with little to no dynamics, and don’t get me started with their “overdrive” sound. They totally sucked! They were bad enough that they left a lasting impression and a stigma built up against them that lingers even to today.
And it’s really unfortunate because there are amps like the Katana and the recent Fender Tone Master amps whose sound quality and dynamics are just simply stellar. But where the Tone Master amps are copping the Deluxe and Twin, the amps in the Katana line, at least to me, have their own sounds, and not trying to copy specific amps. And that’s the thing that sold me with my original Katana 50 and now with my Katana Artist. They both have their own sounds. But because of that historical stigma with solid-state amps, lots of people still frown upon them.
To be clear though, amps like the BOSS Katana and the Fender Tone Master are digital amps, which are a far cry from just a collection of chips. These amps are run by powerful digital signal processors that model the behavior of tube amps. Sure, they use solid-state components, but the DSPs set them apart from traditional solid-state amps.
But as with any amp, you have to take the time to dial it in with your playing style and equipment. When I got my Katana 50, I had to spend lots of time getting the gain, volume, and EQ dialed in for my guitars. Playing a Les Paul, I had to bump the mids and highs. With my Godin, I had to roll off the highs and bump up the bass. That’s not even taking into account the fact that I had to break in the speaker, which makes EQ adjustments a moving target!
The same went for my Katana Artist. But I spent even more time playing to break it in because that Waza speaker has just gotten better with time. I recently did a recording session with the Artist and at first, I was using the DI. But I noticed that the speaker sounded SO good that I ended up miking the amp.
The point to this is that no amp, whether digital or valve is going to sound great right out of the box with everything set in the middle. You have to invest time into getting it dialed in and broken in before you get a truly great sound out of it.
Now I realize there will still be detractors. That’s unavoidable. All I can say is this: You do you. But I’m willing to bet that if a detractor kept an open mind and really spent some time dialing in a Katana, while they may not take the plunge and buy one, they may at least get over the notion that all digital amps are bad.
Summary: Smooth. That’s the one word I can describe these strings that applies to both sound and feel. Amazingly enough, even Elixir describes the feel as “smooth” on their website. They’re no making baseless claims. These feel and play as smooth as silk.
Pros: It’s a coated string, so it’s going to have a longer life by its very nature. Time will tell just how long. The sound and feel are dynamite, but its in the feel department where this string stands out.
Cons: None that I can think of other than these strings lose their brightness pretty quickly. So Elixir’s marketing that states these strings are bright, well, at least for me, that may just be initially. But for me that’s a good thing because I hate playing new strings.
Tone Bone Score:
I’m taking just a little off because I don’t quite agree with the tonal description from Elixir that these are bright strings. They become smooth-sounding pretty quick (I’ll talk about this more below). But as I mentioned above, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
It’s Practically Impossible to Be Objective with a String Review…
…so I won’t attempt to be objective, though I’ll do my best…
The thing about strings is that my experience with them is incredibly binary. I either like them or I don’t. For me to like a string I need to give a thumbs-up in two departments: feel and sound. If I give a thumbs-up to both, then I like the string.
But ‘Dawg, your rating suggests a degree…
True. But the degree I apply in this case is an indication of how much I like the string – and I really like these strings! Yes, I took a quarter point off because my personal experience with the string is completely different from how Elixir markets the string. I don’t think they’re bright at all; maybe in the first few minutes. But once they stretch, their tone – at least to me – is very well-balanced, and they really come into their own after several uses.
But then, as they say, YMMV.
How They Feel
For me, I really dig these strings; especially how they feel with my Taylor T5z. Combined with the silky-smooth feel of the ebony fret board, the perfect action and jumbo frets, it’s like butter. And they’re 11s!
When I was evaluating the guitar at Guitar Center, I asked the very helpful sales guy what gauge the strings were. He knew the product and said that it was strung with 11s, but immediately added, “But they don’t feel like 11s.” I laughed at that remark because I totally agreed.
Apart from the functional characteristics of the T5z, the strings have a soft feel. I do start feeling the gauge when I’m trying to bend above a whole note, especially in the upper bout. But around the 12th fret, these strings bend like 10s.
So if you go for a lower-gauge string, you’re in for a treat with these!
How They Sound
Here’s where it gets really subjective. The T5z is a semi-hollow body electric guitar with a body sensor to give it acoustic guitar-like qualities. In other words, you really can’t hear how the strings perform until the guitar is plugged in. Yeah-yeah, people say it sounds good unplugged, but sorry, to me, that’s BS. It’s like saying an ES-335 sounds good unplugged.
And then considering the amps I use with the T5z, it’s not a surprise why I feel their sound is balanced. I gig with the guitar using two different amps: An SR California Blond with a 15″ speaker, and my 100 Watt Boss Katana Artist. Both of these amps have big, round bottom-ends and the T5z sounds absolutely incredible through them.
On top of that, the T5z comes with independent bass and treble EQ knobs, so that affects the tone of the strings as well. Given that and the fact that I use fairly warm amps, my personal experience with the Nanoweb strings is that I perceive them as warm-sounding. Even my Les Paul which is strung with Ernie Ball Cobalt strings – which are super-bright – sounds full and rich when I’ve got the EQ balanced through the Katana that I have to bump the highs up. In other words, my signal chain makes the strings sound warm.
But in spite of that, my personal experience with the strings is that even with the rich sound of my amps, the strings get warm-sounding all on their own after several uses. That’s a GREAT thing for me because I prefer a smoother sound. But again… YMMV!
Overall Impression
I’ve already said it: I like these strings. And I will submit that I probably won’t play any other set on my T5z – at least until I go through the extra sets I bought. So it won’t happen any time soon because I bought a couple of extra sets. Plus, I just don’t go through strings that fast – never have.
To me, I feel Taylor tuned the T5z specifically for use with these strings, so I’d be hard-pressed to try anything new. But on their own, I think I may just try out a set on my Les Paul or maybe my Godin Artisan ST-V.
Look no further than Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue album released in 1959. I’m not even close to being a fan of jazz, but I could listen to that particular album over and over again. The reason for this is that the entire album was a study in modes.
In Kind of Blue, Miles Davis had his musicians play completely out of their comfort zone to push them to explore territories outside the conventional scale patterns, ultimately producing unexpected melodies that up to that point, no one had really heard.
The album is known for what is called modal jazz, which loosely means that the melodies fall out of the standard major and minor scales. I’m sure someone has taken the time to listen to the music and pick out the exact modes like, “Hey! There’s a mixolydian! There’s a dorian!” For me though, listening to that album as much as I have has helped me in trying out different things than the conventional.
Mind you, this isn’t meant to be an academic analysis and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a jazz player by any stretch of the imagination. But despite that, modal theory fascinates me. But for me as a learner, especially with music, I absorb information better if I have a context. Take the Dorian mode for example. If you asked me, “What’s D Dorian?” I’d intellectually know it as the second mode of the C major scale and its tonal center is D and it has a flat-3rd and a flat-7th.
Well, so what? It’s fine from an academic perspective and sure, I can drone a C, then play the D Dorian to hear it, but it’s not very musical. But on Davis’ Kind of Blue, you can hear it applied to the track entitled, So What. What those cats do with that mode is nothing short of incredible. Check it out…
Just listening to that puts the mode in perspective and clearly demonstrates what is tonally possible. I could never get that with just droning a note and playing a mode over it.
And that’s the point of this post. For me at least, no matter how many modes tutorials I’ve seen, it wasn’t until I actually heard them applied to a song that it clicked. What I wish some of these tutorials did was to have a section where they would apply a mode to an actual piece of music – maybe 32 bars or something like that. But instead they focus almost entirely on the note spelling.
That said, the academics are important. But I will submit that what we’re all trying to do is play music. And that goes way beyond academics.
P.S.Joe Satriani makes heavy use of Lydian mode in his music, so there’s another source to listen to how a particular mode is applied.
Summary: When I first saw ads about this, I thought: It’s just another thumb pick. But the spring-loaded “holster” changes the game, allowing you to move the pick to a comfortable position on your thumb – something traditional thumb picks can’t do. Plus, the pick is a regular guitar pick, so for flat pickers, it feels like you’re playing with a regular pick.
Pros: Nice, thick 1.5mm pick. For those that prefer thicker picks, you’ll feel right at home playing with this. As mentioned above, the spring-loaded “holster” allows you to move the pick to the most comfortable position on your thumb.
Cons: I can understand the design constraints in creating the hinge, but it would be nice to have the hinge be at a slight angle instead of perpendicular to the long side of the pick (see below).
That said, this is just a tiny issue and doesn’t take away from the pick’s usefulness. Perhaps in future versions, we’ll see righty and lefty thumb picks.
Price: 3 for $19.95, 7 for $49.95, and 12 for $74.95
Tone Bones:
Even with my little issue, this is a solid product. If you’ve avoided using a thumb pick in the past, this might be something worth checking out. I don’t give this rating lightly. I will be using this pick – a lot!
It shouldn’t work, but it does. I shouldn’t like it, but I do…
When I first saw a video of this pick on my Facebook news feed, I kind of rolled my eyes, thinking it was just some sort of gimmick. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense to me because like many players, I’ve avoided using thumb picks.
One thing that really intrigued me was that I often switch back and forth between flat picking and fingerstyle within a song. And though I’ve become fairly adept at tucking my pick and holding it with my index finger when I want to switch to playing fingerstyle (kind of like Brian Setzer), when I was first learning to do it, I hated the fact that I’d lose the use of my index finger because it was holding the pick! With the Black Mountain Pick, I can strum along or play a solo, then immediately transition to playing fingerstyle without losing the use of my index finger.
But I think the thing that really did it for me was that the Black Mountain pick is shaped like a standard plectrum. I’ve never liked the shape of a regular thumb pick. That the Black Mountain pick is a standard, familiar shape makes it feel much more natural to me.
I’ve been playing around with it for last few days, and I’ve taken to it rather quickly. But I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I’ve been playing fingerstyle and clawhammer for so long. So it wasn’t much of a stretch for me to start using the pick effectively. But if someone is new to fingerstyle playing, like learning any new technique, it’ll take time to learn and practice to become proficient, and let’s be clear: That lack of proficiency will not be due to the pick.
Fit and Finish
The pick is very well-made. As you can see from the picture, the hinge is fairly hefty. I was a bit concerned about this when I first inspected it, but it doesn’t get in the way at all. And it helps that the spring is fairly tight – this won’t fall off while you’re playing!
The plastic doesn’t feel cheap at all. I’ve gotten some evaluation picks in the past that felt like they were made from the same plastic that’s used for toy soldiers. Needless to say, I didn’t write a review about them. But this pick’s materials are solid.
One thing I did do with one of the picks that was sent to me was to use some fine-grain sand paper to smooth out the sharp edge of the pick. Some players like a sharper edge, but I personally prefer a rounder edge to my picks.
How It Sounds
Just like with any heavier gauge pick, it’s going to bring out the mid-range a bit more. Sanding down the edge for me dampened the highs a bit and put even more emphasis on the mid-range which, again, I prefer.
Plastic picks are notorious for making squeaking sounds sometimes, but since I’ve been playing with this pick, I haven’t experienced that at all. But I also attack the strings at an angle, so the chance of making a squeak is minimal.
Why Would You Want to Use a Thumb Pick?
For me, the only answer to that question is one word: Tone. If I want to brighten up my bass notes when playing fingerstyle, there’s really no better option. It could be argued that I could get a brighter sound with my thumbnail. Absolutely. But a nail is much softer than a pick – well, at least this particular pick – and while I could get a brighter sound with my nail, it’s not nearly as bright as with a thumb pick.
Here’s a quick demo I put together that demonstrates the tonal differences between using my thumbnail vs using the Black Mountain pick:
The tonal difference is pretty stark. And at least for that particular song, Toulouse Street by the Doobie Brothers, the Black Mountain pick is totally appropriate. But that said, while I mentioned that I’ll be using it a lot, it will depend on what kind of tone I want out of a song, so I won’t be using it full-time when playing fingerstyle. But I like the fact that I have another tool in my tonal arsenal that I can use for fingerstyle playing!
Overall Impression
Other than my little nit with the angle, what’s not to like? I kind of solved that by cutting and sanding a notch in the holster so I could rotate the pick a few degrees. I have to admit that I kind of felt like Ian Roussel from Full Custom Garage, but on a much smaller scale when I did that. But the result was that I could rotate the point of the pick forward which also meant that I could lift my palm a little higher off the strings, which brings my fingernails more into play. My right hand position tends more to the classical position rather than a country style which has a flatter positioning. So being able to lift my palm is important.
But as far as the actual pick is concerned, I love it! And like I said above, I’m happy to have yet another tool in my tonal arsenal!
In closing, I’ll just say this: This is not a gimmick. This is a good, solid product that can do the work of a flat pick as well as a thumb pick. For songs such as Something in the Way She Moves by James Taylor where there’s both strumming and picking, this is a great tool to have!
With the lockdown, it has been such a great time to play guitar. But even before the lockdown, I’d normally play at least a half-hour a day. However, over the last several days, I’ve been putting in some serious time on my guitars, especially my Gibson J-45 Avant Garde acoustic.
One of the things I’ve been doing is recording videos to share on Facebook. Yesterday, I recorded a video with my daughters where we sang a song I wrote for church. This past Sunday, I recorded an old church song since I wasn’t able to play at Mass.
At the beginning of the lockdown, I purchased Carol Kaye’s Jazz Guitar book and CD. This ain’t no step-by-step manual. She just dives right in, assuming you already know what she’s talking about. Thank goodness I already knew my chords and note numbers!
The point to all this is that ever the optimist, playing my guitar and finding things to play has had an enormous positive impact on me during this lockdown.
Think about it: You go on social media and it’s nothing but talk from the shelter-in-place crusaders. It’s ads from news sources talking about the death toll (though they avoid discussions of comorbidities and percentages). It has been fear and panic. Then there are the anti- and pro-Trump factions at each other’s throats.
I certainly have my own views of this situation – and sorry, this isn’t the platform to share them – but in light of all of this, I’d rather play my guitars. Yeah, I share a lot of the stuff I produce, and frankly, it’s not meant to be a counterpoint to the Covid-19 hustle and bustle. My thought is just to do what I do, and let it loose. I couldn’t care less whether people watch it or comment on it.
For me at least, even though I’m working from home, it’s a perfect time to let my creative juices flow.
I love my BOSS Katana Artist. It has such a great sound. And on top of that, it’s incredibly versatile. I can use the Line Out and go directly into a board and keep my stage volume low. It has totally changed the way I approach live performance.
But there’s the rub. For live use, the Line Out is great, but I’ve discovered that for anything kind of dirty, it’s not so good. Or I should correct myself. It’s good enough for playing something dirty underneath the mix, but front and center, well… It’s a little lifeless.
I’ve had the amp for a while now and I only discovered this discrepancy this afternoon when I used the amp to record a track that required some overdrive. I was thinking that I could record silently and just tweak the sound like I always do. But for the life of me, I couldn’t get a good sound out of it, no matter what guitar I used.
I was a little nonplussed about this because I’ve used the amp on stage and my sound has been stellar through the PA. But into my audio interface? Eek!
I ended up just miking the cabinet, which is probably what should’ve done in the first place. Even at quiet volumes, the amp has a big sound. At one point, I looked down at the amp and it seemed to say to me, “Moron… You know I like to push SPLs.” Ha!
When I’ve performed, sure, the amp volume is not as loud as I’d normally have it when I don’t have good sound reinforcement. But I have to cut through the drums, so it has to push some air. And when it does push air, it’s magic.
For cleans, the Line Out works great, and I’ll continue to record clean guitar sounds with it. But there’s nothing that beats letting the amp breathe.
Today, Jack Johnson put on a live streaming event called the Kokua Festival 2020. This is an annual event to help raise money for various schools and to fund various programs in and around Hawaii. Usually, it’s a concert festival with lots of different acts, but because of the lock-down, he live-streamed the event and had other artists such as Willie Nelson and Eddie Vedder live-stream from their homes.
Now imagine my surprise to see Jack playing a J-45! That body profile is unmistakable and, of course, there’s no mistaking the Gibson head stock. And when he played, that round bottom-end and tight mid-range that’re characteristic of the J-45 sealed the deal.
That said, I could be wrong. But there’s no way that it’s a Hummingbird because that guitar has square shoulders, while the J-45 has rounded shoulders and much narrower at the shoulder as well. And no way that it’s an L-00 – it’s way too big for that.
It actually surprised me to see him playing a Gibson because I knew he played Cole Clark guitars from Australia. But hey! It’s always cool to see a big-name artist playing the same gear as you!
Now, what I don’t know at all is if it’s a J-45 Standard or J-45 Standard Walnut. I’m kind of thinking it might be the Standard Walnut because Jack is really big into sustainability and he cares a lot for the environment. Proceeds from the Kokua festival go to a variety of environmental concerns. Even his Cole Clark guitars are all made from sustainable Australian woods. Again, I could be wrong and I’m definitely interpolating here, but it makes sense.
Ten years ago, I was literally gigging over 200 days a year. I played in a band, did A LOT of solo acoustic gigs, and played weekly at church. Back then, I had a big electric board (I know, “big” is relative) that had anywhere from 10 to 20 pedals, depending on the gig. I’d have a wah, three or four overdrives, at least one distortion, a clean boost, various modulation pedals from a chorus, vibe, delay, and reverb, and some pedals that I’d categorize as “weird” such as an envelope filter – which I literally used once. 🙂
Fast forward to today and I’m in between bands right now, only do a few solo acoustic gigs a year, though I do play weekly at church (I’m doing videos from home right now during the COVID-19 quarantine). And here’s the thing: Most of my pedals are now collecting dust!
If I look at it logically, I’ve got a couple of good reasons for downsizing:
I’ve found my sound, so I don’t really feel the need for a lot of pedals.
I really don’t want lug as much gear around (that’s actually true)
But I was thinking this morning. Maybe I’m just getting old and don’t want to deal with twiddling and tweaking anymore. I’m not a crusty old guy who’s a grouch all the time. But I do have to admit that I’m kind of set in my ways. Exploring sounds was something that I just always did when I was a younger man. Now? I don’t have much interest in doing that unless I just happen to hear something that appeals to me.
So I let this post sit for a day so I could think about it some more…
I almost posted this article yesterday that included another paragraph that poked fun of my grey-hairedness. But this morning, as I drink my coffee, I have to admit that it’s not just getting older that has made me downsize, but especially during this quarantine period, I’ve discovered that I’m satisfied with what I’ve got.
You see, with my younger kids home from school, we’ve been recording videos and tracks that we share with friends. I, of course, edit the soundtracks to make them clearer and cleaner, and I especially listen to my guitar sounds. The only thing I’ve done with the guitar parts is EQ just a tiny bit. But I don’t feel as if I’m missing a component.
Compare that to 10 years ago, where oftentimes when I’d be mixing and mastering, I might’ve said, Hmmm… this needs X. Oops! I don’t have that, so I guess I should pick one up… Though I’ve either sold or given away a lot of gear since then, I still have lots of stuff – especially pedals – that I just don’t use.
I’ve got more years behind me than I have left, and yeah, I might say I’m getting old, but I like where I’m at right now. I don’t feel as if I’m missing a key sound. And here’s another thing I realized: If I don’t have a key sound, I still just use what I’ve got.
A couple of months ago, I wrote that I had burned out the pedals on my mini-board. I used the wrong power supply on the board, and when I plugged it in, I immediately smelled electrical smoke, so I played my gig without my effects. When I got home, I plugged in the power supply to the board, and nothing worked. I was heart-broken because that board had been a mainstay of my sound: A hand-wired Mad Professor Deep Blue Delay analog delay.
Fast-forward a couple of months and I was doing some recording. I needed a more “spatious” delay and was getting a little frustrated with my BOSS DM-2w. It’s a fantastic analog delay, but after playing with it for the last couple of months, it’s really best used as a subtle slap-back delay, at which it excels immensely, so it will stay on my board.
But while I was recording, I found that getting the DM-2w to a setting where it wasn’t too subtle or just too much was actually incredibly difficult, requiring super-precise, minute adjustments on the intensity knob. I knew I could get there easily with my old Deep Blue Delay.
So here’s where the title of my post comes into play…
I’ve always been deathly afraid of electricity. Not sure why. I’ve jumped out of airplanes, free climbed rock walls, skied super-steep, icy pitches and even bungee jumped off a bridge. I don’t do that stuff now, but they still don’t scare me. Professionally, I design complex big-data software systems. But despite all that, I’m terrified of getting electrocuted, so I’ve generally stayed away from working with circuits and such.
If something burns out, I either have someone else fix it, or replace the unit. So I admit it. I’ve chosen to be ignorant about working with electrical stuff. And I also admit that that ignorance also makes me have knee-jerk reactions when I think something’s gone wrong with some electrical gear.
Back to when I first burned out my board, what I didn’t think to do was test the pedals individually. I just thought all the pedals on the board died. But when I was getting frustrated with getting the right setting for my DM-2w, I remembered that I didn’t check the pedals individually. So I went to the storage box that I put my Deep Blue Delay into, brought it back to my workstation and plugged it in. The freakin’ thing lit up and worked!
I have to admit, I was a little embarrassed. But on the bright side of things, I did score a new BOSS DM-2w, and I have no remorse over that purchase at all, despite my frustrations.
Long story short, I was able to lay down my tracks and I was a happy man. The real positive thing that comes out of it is that I now have two great analog delays that actually complement each other quite well. The DM-2w is about the best slap-back delay I’ve played. When using a slap-back delay, I don’t like a heavy pulse. It just kind of has to be there, and the DM-2w satisfies that requirement implicitly.
On the other hand, when I’m playing finger-style or solos, I like to have a slow delay that has a longer pre-delay on it so I get the articulation of the notes, then this cool, smooth delay effect that tails a phrase. For that, there is none better than the Deep Blue Delay which, by the way, the DBD doesn’t do slap-back as well because of its longer pre-delay. So now I have two great delays that I can use for specific purposes!
Yeah… I’m still ignorant about electronics, but this time, at least something good came out of it.
As for the rest of the pedals, I’ll be damned – they ALL worked again! I explained what happened to my electrician son, and he said that I may have heated the circuits to the point where the devices didn’t function at the time, but not enough to completely damage them (I did tell him that I unplugged within just a few seconds). Once they cooled down, they worked again.
When he explained that to me, I just shook my head and chuckled. Then he chided me that here I was, this seasoned veteran of software engineering and I was an absolute pussy with electronics. I shrugged and laughed in response then said, “Well… I’d rather admit to my fear and ignorance than be dead.”
Guitar Gear 