Bown's Opinion

Micheal Jackson's Funeral

2009-07-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

I can't take it anymore. Are they really renting the Staples Center for this? Come on. The guy had one monster album and a few others that were good. Yes he sold a ton of albums world wide but there are people who have sold more and didn't touch little kids. He is not Princess Dianna!!! I don't care how much his mom wants him to be or how much his dad wants to try and cash in on his son one last time, although Joe Jackson will find many more ways I am sure.

So what is next? They going to put in the something and display him at neverland ranch? Actually I wouldn't put it past them.

"Look son there is Micheal Jackson, did you know he touched me in very bad places when I was your age?"

Ok, so all that aside the guy had issue. Most of them come from the way he grew up and his family. Now in death his family is continuing the BS that caused this very talented man to be such a freak! Have a funeral and bury him (if the state of California will let you put all that plastic in the ground). Honor his memory don't make it something more than it should be.

Bury the guy and throw a benefit concert or something. To parade him around that is just sick. But I guess that is the Jackson family......

XM Still sucking

2009-06-30T22:06:00.001-07:00

Got another bill from XM today. This after they told me I owed them nothing more. I really can't believe this company and their complete lack of customer service. They tell you one thing over and over and then as soon as they get off the phone you start getting bills. Amazing!

Google Adsense for Domains

2009-06-27T15:32:00.000-07:00

So I have been testing out Adsense for Domains. Have a ton of domains and figured I would try to make some money with them. In the past two months I have gotten a reported 529 page impressions and 34 results page impressions but no money. Not sure how you are supposed to make money with this system. But I would recommend using something else.

On to another point to do with Adsense for Domains. Isn't this spam? So Google says that a page should be useful to a user. If you have seen these pages they are terrible. As a person or user of the internet the Adsense for domains pages are extremely un-useful. They just clutter up the internet as do most parking systems. My issue is that Google says don't do this, we will remove you and then turns around and basically builds a doorway page for their advertisers.

I don't get it.

June 25th 2009

2009-06-25T22:07:00.001-07:00

What a day, I can't not blog today. Today Micheal Jackson and Farrah Fawcet died. Crazy that Micheal Jackson is gone. I remember seeing him on tv as a kid and thinking he was bigger than life and he was.

Farrah, well all my buddies had that poster. You couldn't grow up without that poster.

The world lost a lot of talent today.

Chiefs to retire Derrick Thomas's number!

2009-06-23T19:42:00.000-07:00

All I really have to say about that as an Elway fan and growing up a Bronco fan. It is about time! Can't think of a player that has played for the Chiefs since that was half the player or game changer that guy was. Nice of the Chiefs to decide to retire his number so long after his death. The guy was the franchise along with Neil Smith on the defensive side of the ball.

It shouldn't have taken this long really!

XM will suck on the iPhone starting tomorrow

2009-06-17T20:32:00.001-07:00

So starting tomorrow (6/18/09) you can have XM radio on your iPhone. Can't wait for them to start trying to double bill me for that as well. I think that is one iPhone app I will stay away from!

XM Radio and extreme Suckage!

2009-06-14T19:52:00.001-07:00

So I got 3 bills this week. All on the same day for the same radio with 3 different amounts on them! I feel bad for you guys that bought the lifetime subscription. If they can't get their billing together better than that there is no way they are going to be in business for more than a year or so.

I heard something about their finacial report and how they lost a large number of customers and blamed it on slowing auto sales. That doesn't really make sense to me, if you are losing customers it is probably because your customer service SUCKS!!! The new car sales being slow would usually mean that you aren't getting new customers.

Really though 3 bills in one day with 3 different amounts "owed" all for the same radio. AMAZING!

Why Dave Mustaine will always be cool.

2009-06-14T19:02:00.001-07:00

There was a point in my life when I thought I was going to be a rock star. I was taking lessons like crazy and taking classes at one of the local community colleges (Scottsdale Community College). I was so intent I got a job at a local music store and the whole bit.

Scottsdale Community College had a great music program at the time, not sure if they still do. But they had recording classes with ADATs and all, at the time that was some pretty solid stuff. So I was taking the Music Business classes and we had a project to write a paper and I was dreading it. So I decided to email Dave Mustaine to see if I could email him some questions and he send them back to me so I could write the paper. At that point Megadeth had their email addresses listed on their website and as it turned out it was really them answering.

So Dave emails me back and said he wouldn't do the q&a but "Maybe, your teacher would like a guest lecturor?". I was pretty stoked. Went to class the next time and the teacher was all for it. Kind of crazy, the teacher was a pretty well known local jazz cat. So I emailed Dave back and forth a bit, he told me to call his manager, I did and we set it up.

The morning of the lecture I was standing outside the building waiting for Dave to show up. All the sudden this guy with long red hair starts walking up. I was shaking be a young kid not far removed from Nebraska. He was super cool, asked me if I was in trouble in class or something. I said "no, why". He said you are shaking. I told him I don't meet rock stars everyday.

So he did the lecture and signed some stuff for the guys in the class. He told lots of stories about how he got screwed on some early contracts and what to look out for. Kind of the classic case of a band getting signed and owning nothing. Megadeth was transitioning labels at the time or had just finished it and he had some insight about all that. Wish I had video taped it.

I was super impressed that he did all of that. I guess he had told another kid he would do a talk at his school but something came up and Dave couldn't do it. He said he felt bad about it and did the lecture to try and make up for missing that other one.

After that the teacher kept bring up that I got Dave Mustaine to come talk and it got kind of old quick and I could feel the rest of the guys in class getting feed up with it as well. So I didn't go to class much after that. Oddly I got an A that semester and the next with going to class only a few times. :)

But got to say, I have met a few rock stars and not sure how many of them would have taken the time to come talk to a class like that. Dave is a really nice guy and it has been years since all this happened, but he still has my thanks for speaking to our class. It is a huge highlight to that period in my life and actually part of the reason I am a programmer now. :)

Thanks Dave!

Got to love it!

2009-06-11T19:43:00.001-07:00

You have to love security guys that go all office space on computer gear! Check out their podcast and info @ www.pauldotcom.com and/or the YouTube below.

Safari 4

2009-06-08T19:54:00.001-07:00

All I have to say is WOW! That is a super fast browser. Readying my Google Reader, it always takes a bit for each article to load. Lots of javascript with the ads and all in the RSS. Firefox takes a bit to load each time I scroll. Safari 4 does not have this issue. Facebook is crazy fast. Google Analytics loads super quick.

Not sure how secure it is right now, but it is FAST!

AdSense for Domains

2009-05-27T19:37:00.001-07:00

I set a few of my domains up on Google's AdSense for Domains. After looking at the pages that it produces I am left wondering, isn't this exactly what Google has said for years and years that it doesn't want? Low quality pages with no real content to speak of and a bunch of PAID links?

I guess ad revenue is what drives the big G now days.

Getting Organized

2009-05-26T22:31:00.000-07:00

I am starting to work on a lot of new things so I decided to get organized a little better. Hooked up Google Calendar, made it private and shared it with only a few people, not public which is super important. I sync'd it with my Outlook and iPhone via Outlook. Not so big on Google Mobile Sync right now. I have heard some horror stories. So I put a couple of new items in my calendar.

Also working on an outline for either an e-book or a series of blog posts. Not sure which yet, but am pretty excited about it. Lot of research to do and content to write.

I am working on a couple of new programming projects as well. They are all in the design phase right now but coming together nicely. Good to build stuff for myself. Pretty excited about 3 of the projects. Think they will be solid.

Also working on learning some stuff about penetration testing of applications, unit testing and methods to produce better and more secure products. As well as Java.

This is going to be a good year for expanding my skills. Love learning new things.

Great Technology Podcast

2009-05-26T19:35:00.001-07:00

So I have been listening to a lot of podcasts lately. One of the best and absolutely most interesting one is from PaulDotCom.com. These guys are pretty damn funny which keeps it entertaining especially since the podcast is about technology security.

As a programmer I have learned a lot about writing better code and tools to use to test the programs and websites that I write.

Anybody that programs, is into security or basically has a home network should check out the podcast and the website.

Got to love their shirts. "Hack Naked"

XM Radio Customer Service SUCKS!

2009-05-26T19:25:00.001-07:00

I was supposed to get a call today from a manager from XM radio to talk about the issue I am having with them. Guess what, no call! Amazing.

Earlier I got an email from them saying my account was canceled. So I called them. Talked to a guy that actually wanted to fix the issue this time. So he did what I asked. I got my service for the money that I already paid and working on getting my money back for the over charges.

They do have the worst customer service ever though. Can't see how this company will be in business more than another year or two at this rate.

Actually while I was on the call the guy I was talking to put me on hold because one of the guys behind him was yelling at another customer. Got to love that.

Not happy, but better than yesterday.

XM Radio Sucks!

2009-05-25T17:08:00.001-07:00

So I have had XM radio for almost 5 years. I pay for it a year at a time. Always on time. You would think that they would treat a customer like this well. Nope, not at XM. I sold my old Corvette to my father a couple of years ago when I got my new one. He transferred the XM service to his account, well little did I know that XM didn't take that radio off my account. So they have been double dipping.

I called tonight because I know that my car is paid up. I got an email saying my service would be shut off if I didn't pay my balance. I talked to one girl saw that the '06 Corvette was on two accounts and removed that radio from my account and credited what was "due" back to my account. She then transferred me to another woman who was supposed to look stuff up and figure out the radios and credits. She did no such thing. She told me it is not possible for one radio to be on two accounts. Said I was never double charged. All this without looking at my father's account to see that the same radio was on there and paid through next year.

What she did do was try and charge me another $84 through next May. I paid $77 through November 09 last November. She said I couldn't stay on my current plan because I only have one radio, so I needed to give them another $84. Mean while she was telling me full price for 1 year with one radio is $142 but she is trying to get another $84 which would take my out of pocket for one radio this year to $161. Not to mention the over charges for the other Vette, which according to her can't happen.

So I was explaining my stance on not giving them another dollar till November and she transferred me to hold then another lady picked up. This poor woman gets me and I am really angry now. I kept it cool, but with a stern voice, not abusive to the person on the phone at all.

So I am waiting for a manger to call me. 3 weeks ago when I was trying to solve this issue, a manager was supposed to call. Never happened. So I am waiting for them to just shut my radio off.

I plan to write a letter to the FTC, FCC, my senators and representatives. This is why Sirius and XM should never have been allowed to merge. The new company doesn't care, they have the market and are screwing the customer every which way they can.

Sirus/XM Radio is losing customers left and right, this is exactly why. Last quarter they LOST customers. They said it was because the auto industry has slowed. Guess what maybe it is the complete lack of customer service and accountability that the company is displaying. I guess they must need to pay Howard this month and need me to kick in a bunch of extra so they can keep him around or something.

XM Radio owes me money and an appology for the monster run around. All this today and no resolution. Don't let them have your card to run as needed. They will run it over and over again.

This doesn't even touch the changes of programming that happened where I lost my 3 favorite stations in favor of the crap Sirius version.

I'll blog more about this later if they call me back or if my radio that IS PAID FOR THROUGH NOVEMBER gets turned off. Sirius/XM Radio customer service SUCKS!

Koders -- Search Engine for Open Source

2009-05-19T20:06:00.001-07:00

I have been doing some open source programming lately, actually more of contributing to some open source projects. It is a real change from what I am used to and a lot of fun once that mindset got changed.

Today I found this extremely cool site, koders.com, it is a search engine of a ton of open source code. Very nice tool. They have an addin for Eclipse and Visual Studio so you can search from the IDE. Great idea!

I am excited to use it in the new future.

2009 Indy 500 Month of May

2009-05-17T09:10:00.000-07:00

Since I was a little kid I have always watched the Indy 500 and the month of May that leads up to the race. Over the years the month has shrunk and changes have been made that I didn't always agree with. My issue this year, they moved all the coverage to Versus. I missed pole day completely this year. You know if they had advertised that all the 500 coverage would be on Versus then maybe the guys that don't really care for Indy car racing anymore would know that they could watch 6+ hours a day of Indy 500 qualifying.

I think Tony George has once again dropped the ball but what else is new?

2008 WSOP

2009-05-16T10:42:00.001-07:00

How did Phil Hellmuth make it so long in the 2008 WSOP? All they show on ESPN is him getting rolled and winning little pots. I think someone at ESPN doesn't like Phil or they just like showing him melt down, which honestly is getting really old.

Testament, New Music, Buying Albums and That Metal Show

2009-03-23T21:03:00.001-07:00

I picked up some Testament albums on iTunes this weekend. Got to say I was missing out a bit back in the day.

I love finding new music that I dig. Especially albums. I was watching That Metal Show the other night and Eddie Trunk was talking about how people don't buy albums anymore and how it is all about singles. I personally disagree. I love to buy new albums. Can't tell you how many times I listen to an album and end up liking one of the tracks that wasn't released as a single better than the single tracks.

I never buy one song and actually have stopped buying greatest hits albums. I want the crap that they (the AR and Music Business guys) didn't think was good enough for a single. There is a ton of good music that you don't hear if you don't buy the album.

The one thing that I do have to agree with Eddie and the guys on That Metal Show about. Not having the packaging sucks. Nothing like busting out your new CD, tape or album and listening to it while reading the liner notes or checking out the artwork. Some artists do include electronic versions of that stuff with the download on iTunes but it isn't the same.

All in all, everybody should pick up the albums. If you hear one song on the radio that you dig, there maybe 2 or 3 more that are better on the album that you may never hear. There are those crap albums, I have to say, that have 1 song that is worth listening to. But for each of those I bet you find three or four that are worth getting the whole thing.

Also if you haven't checked out That Metal Show you should. It is on VH1 Classic. It is pretty good. Should be more like an hour so they could interview the guests longer, but pretty good.

What an end of the week and weekend

2009-03-22T10:14:00.001-07:00

So I got my pay cut on Friday by 15%. All contractors at American Express did. So I started looking for a new job yesterday. Actually have a couple of leads already. I am still kind of upset about the whole thing, so that is all I am going to say about it. But tough way to end the week.

Pat Bowlen

2009-03-16T22:06:00.000-07:00

I have to say, what is Pat Bowlen doing with the Broncos? Name one good coach that he has hired, other than Shanahan? Reeves, Philips this new guy that has pissed the starting QB off? I really wonder what Pat was doing this whole time? I am starting to think that Pat just wants to run around as the owner of the Broncos and doesn't really know or care anything about the team other than being the owner and maybe winning now and then.

If Bowlen took a little control his team wouldn't be such a mess.

Disappointment

2009-03-15T23:16:00.000-07:00

So I have been a KISS fan for a long time and still love the music.

But I was watching an interview with Paul Stanley the other day and he started in about people stealing music. I am against stealing music totally. My point here isn't to defend it. But for Gene and Paul to jump on that wagon pisses me off with some of what has come out over the years.

First KISS Alive, Paul said in an interview that they went into the studio and "touched" it up. How much they haven't said. All these years people were saying it was the greatest live album and the one that started all the live albums, now it is acknowledged that it wasn't really live.

Also interviews in the past Paul and Gene have said that you heard and saw who you thought you were hearing and seeing on KISS albums and KISS concerts. Then to learn that studio musicians were used on a lot of albums. That Ace doesn't appear much on Destroyer or many of the albums after that period.

Gene has said that all the little kids that download music illegally should be sued. Well if we look at KISS albums, the consumer was sold an album that they believed was played on by Gene, Paul, Ace and Peter or a formation there after. In interviews that was reinforced. Then in later interviews it was admitted that wasn't the truth. So basically KISS perpatrated a fraud on each person that bought a KISS album. Or at least each person that bought any of the live albums, Destroyer and a lot of the albums afterward. No mention of Bob Kulick or any other session musicians appear in the liner notes. Not to mention the Aton Fig rumors about him filling in for Peter durring live concerts.

So a law suit could be filed against KISS for fraud as consumers thought they were buying a specific product only to find out later that KISS knowingly sold them a different product. If fraud were to be proven, then the corporate veil could be breached and Gene and Paul could personally be wiped out.

These bands like to sue companies and fans, or posture like they will sue the fans. What if the fans have had enough? What if the fans sued KISS for fraud? How would that feel Gene?

Just so you know Gene, I own a solid copy of each KISS album and the few newer ones that I don't, I bought on iTunes.

I have downloaded music illegally. But I have lots of friends that are career muscians and stopped that years ago. I have since bought all the new music I listen to. I have no illegal music.

But as I said, this isn't a post about illegal music download. It is a post about my growing disappointment in Gene and Paul. I have grown to expect that from Gene. But for Paul to jump in. I guess it really is a business for them. They don't care at all about the fans anymore and I am beginning to believe they never did. Well except that they cared enough to take our money for albums, tickets and all the crap they can sell us.

I still love the music, just have no respect for Gene or Paul anymore. It saddens me a lot.

I should also say that I really hope that no one ever sues KISS for fraud. The interview I saw angered me and still does. This post is meant to show the other side of an issue. In my opinion KISS may have committed a fraud against its fans but I would really hate to see them sued for it just like I never want to see a fan or group of fans sued for downloading music. No one wins but the lawyers and I hate them more than anybody.

Broncos and Jay Cutler

2009-03-15T22:56:00.000-07:00

This is whole trade thing is stupid and I have to say completely Pat Bowlen's fault. He needs to get control of his team. He brought a young coach in that obviously has no experience as a head coach. He tried to trade the franchise QB, something that is very risky. If it doesn't work out then guess what, this is what you get.

On Jay's side, he should do what Elway did, wait the coach out. This new guy is a loser. Look at how he is doing business. Bowlen made a bad hire. The Broncos are looking more and more like the Patriots everyday. They are going from a classy organization to cheap in one off season. The Bronco fans won't back a coach like that. Denver isn't the east coast, they still have midwest values. Jay should bite his tongue as Elway did and win games despite the coach.

Just my opinion!

Check out this video, Vai is great.

2009-03-15T18:39:00.001-07:00

Not sure if I dig the pedal. But Vai cracks me up and the jam at the end is pretty sweet as well.

Back to the Guitar

2009-03-15T13:12:00.000-07:00

I have been playing guitar a lot lately.

From 1995 to 2000 I worked in a music store. I had been playing guitar for a few years before that, but while working at the music store that was the climax of my playing. I would work in the store for 8 hours or so, then go home and practice for another 4 to 8 hours. Toward the end of working at the store, I was pretty burnt out on the whole thing. In the years since I have played a little off and on.

I spent an enormous amount of money on gear over the years. I got my first guitar which was an Emerald Green Ibanez RG-570 in 1991 I think, along with a Park amp. I bought all kinds of different pedals, Ibanez delays, Marshall Govn'r and many more. My buddy Kieth sold me his Boss SE-50 processor and his wireless, I had some nice stuff and a crap amp.

Eventually, move from the Park to a 60 watt Tubeworks amp. It was a good amp, solid state power-amp and one tube in the pre-amp. Great spring reverb! Had that for a while. Bought a 50 watt Marshall SLX head, ran it through the speaker on the Tubeworks for a while. Then Marshall came out with the powerbreak. That allowed me to run the SLX cranked and keep the speaker volume low. Eventually I got a Marshall 4X12 cab that was a factor second. The screw holes that held the back on were splintered, so some long wood screws fixed that and it sounded great! That SLX was really nice in that setup.

Then Marshall released the 30th aniversary amps. I bought one in a combo setup. That thing was smokin! 100 all tube watts and a speaker. It weighed a ton, something around 100 lbs. Crazy heavy, but great amp. It really had it all. I regret selling it, one of two items I bought that I regret selling.

Some time around here I bought a Peavy 5150 2X12 combo. I had that amp for one weekend. It sounded great, but I bought it from a store that the owner smoked in and it smelled so bad that I couldn't sleep in the room it was in. I tried everything I could to clean it. Eventually I put it in the garage till Monday when I took it back. That amp was so bright it was amazing.

So with all the guys I hung out with and that worked in the store, the Mesa Boogie TriAxis was the holy grail. My guitar teacher Darren brought his rig in one day and we did lessons on it. I was in instant love. It wasn't a rig though that was easily accessible to a person making the money I was at the time. But through all the amps I bought, I was always searching for that sound.

Durring this time I was buying guitars as well. I had my RG-570, the neck was so thin that I put my thumb through the back of it, so I got a new neck for the guitar with the Shark Tooth inlays, so now it looks like a RG-770, the orginal neck was so great, the new one doesn't play as well.

Bought an Ibanez PS10 for the KISS convention in 94. I sanded the clear coat off the back and had Paul, Gene, Bruce and Eric Singer sign it, then had it re-clear coated. It looks amazing.

Bought a Ramondo clasical, but sold that after a while.

I bought an Ibanez 540S7, the first Ibanez S series 7 string, only about 450 of them around. My guitar teacher Darren has one as well. He and I had to send the orginal pickups back to Dimarzio to have then re-sealed, they were super harmonic at medium to high volume.

The RG-770 has had tons of pickups over the years, it came with crap Ibanez pickups. I change the bridge out with a PAF-Pro, which sounded really good, tried a Tone Zone for a bit and a couple of other pickups that escape me right now. Then Dimarzio came out with the Steve Vai Evolution. I got one of the very first sets of bridge and neck pickups in purple. It has a Dimarzio HS-2 in the middle. I replaced the tone pot with a push-pull pot. I can split the two humbuckers by pulling up on the pot, depending on which pickup is selected with the 5-way switch, which needs changed out today. :) I am thinking of throwing a Super Distortion in it. But need to change the 5-way out first.

I wanted the Evolution for my 7-String but at the time it didn't exist. I called Dimarzio because they said they did custom pickups. I argued with Steve Blucher for about an hour. He said the custom pickup thing was a misprint and that it would be very expensive to make one and it would never work. 2 years later, there was a 7-String Evolution. I bought one, but it didn't sound as good as I had hoped, so I went back to the Blaze II. The 540S7 is my main guitar today. It sounds great. Thinking of trying a 7-String Tone Zone in it, but we will see.

I found a 540P in a pawn shop. It was bright yellow. Went back to the store called Ibanez to see if they had a neck for it as the neck on the guitar was shattered. They did, so I bought it. The yellow was so bright you could turn the lights off and still see the guitar in a pitch black room. Sanded that off and had it painted a transparent cherry. It looked great. Problem is that it sounded terrible. I tried 4 sets of pickups in it. The body was so small that it had no low end. So I sold that guitar shortly there after. It looked cool though.

So I saved my money for months and finally bought a Mesa Boogie TriAxis. I was so happy when I unboxed it. I bought it from Neil at the Guitar Shop. That was a great store. It wasn't some music store with trumpets and what ever in it, it was a Guitar Shop! The amp room in the hay day had 2 refrigerator size racks in it. They were loaded with all the stuff you wanted! Neil had Boogie, Soldano, Bogner and everything else you dreamt of. Not to mention the guitars, Tom Anderson, Gibson, Jackson, ESP, Fender and one I can't rember the name of, but it had a composite neck and sounded great.

So I got my TriAxis and had nothing to run it through. I bought a SKB rack to mount it in. Sold the SLX, the PowerBreak and put the 30th aniversary Marshall up on consignment. Started saving for a Mesa Boogie 2:90.

All my buddies either had odd power amps with their TriAxis or a Boogie 50-50. I wanted the switch tracking and to have the power amp that was made for the TriAxis. Also besting my buddies might have played a little into it. :)

Eventually I sold the 30th Marshall and went down and bought the 2:90. Went home and slapped it into my rack. Wired it up and it sounded AMAZING. I sold my orginal 2:90 to my buddy John and eventually bought a new one. The new one blew the fuses and 2 tubes when I got it home. It never sounded as good as the orginal one. Thinking of buying a new one direct from Boogie and selling the one in my rack.

I bought a Rocktron Intellifex to go with it, a Furman AR-1215 to keep the power clean. I was running it all through that Marshall cab and that didn't feel right. About that time Neil decided to close the store, so I went down to Guitar Shop and he sold me a Boogie Rectifier 4X12 cab for $450. Amazing deal. I went back a few weeks later to get another one and he said he shouldn't have sold me that cab for that. Oh well. That cab is great. 4 Celestion Vintage 30 speakers. Wish I had the diamond plate sides for it.

I bought a 12 space Boogie Rack for it, wish I had gotten the rear rack rails, that great rack.

Got an Alesis Data Disk to dump the midi to. Got a Digital Music Corp Ground Control, the orginal version with an Ernie Ball volume pedal as a continous controler so I can move setting in the TriAxis in real time. An Alesis stereo compressor and a Furman PL-Plus for the rack lights. Have to look like I am ready to tour right? lol

The rack has 4 spaces still open that were supposed to be filled with an Eventide Harmonizer and a TC Electronics 2290. That never happened.

I had also bought a Boogie V-Twin pedal and a Boogie Bottle Rocket. I regret selling those as well.

I got a Mesa Boogie Subway Rocket at GC one day, they had them on close out. Great amp. Everybody who comes over and hears it offers to buy it. It is NOT for sale. Sounds almost better than my rack.

So today the rack from top to bottom looks like this.

Mesa Boogie 12 space rack
Furman AR-1215
Furman PL-Plus
Alesis Data Disk
Mesa Boogie TriAxis
Alesis Stereo Compressor
Rocktron Intellifex
Mesa Boogie 2:90
Furman Plug Lock in the back.

The future of my gear.

I have been checking stuff out online over that past few weeks. Worked with the amp a bit and got some really great sounds. Guess my ears have gotten much better over the years. But the Intellifex just doesn't cut it anymore. So I am thinking of replacing it with an Eventide Eclipse. Kind of shoots 3 birds with one stone. Great processor with the pitchshifter and delays I want.

Would like to get a rack tuner, but not sure that I want to spend the kind of money that Boss wants for their rack tuners. So I might just stick with my TU-12H on a rollout rack shelf.

I am thinking of picking up a Voodoo Labs Ground Control GC-X. It would be great to switch things in and out of my signal path with a little more control than I have now and I can lose the power supplie completely for the Ground Control pedal. Right now I Phantom power it from the TriAxis, but I understand that the GC-X allows you to Phantom power the ground control but don't need the power supply plugged into the back.

Want to get rid of the Data Disk, I never use it and can back everything up to a laptop.

I think that is about it. Got my Crybaby 535 that sounds great. Might find a couple of pedals I would like. Maybe an MXR and what not.

Need to get a hard disk recorder or some recording software for my laptop. A couple of Mic's. I have an Alesis SR16 drum machine which sounds great.

I would love to pick up a Boogie MKII C+ one day as well. Then I will need a high gain amp switcher as well.

Looking back I have had a lot of gear, sorry I sold some of it. But had a lot of fun with it all.

I think that is it for now. I will be posting some more music and guitar related posts in the near future, so if you are interested, look for those.

Blog ya later.

CB