SweatyHands

Morning all! I've been meaning to start this thread for a while, but I always seem to get distracted when I come on here. For me, a big part of recovery has been exploring the parts of my life that were neglected during my active addiction. One big part of my life that I pushed away while drinking is music. I was a professional(ish) musician when I was younger, but over time, I fell more into the musician party lifestyle, and moved away from the actual music.

Now that I'm back to focusing on my recovery and rebuilding a life that makes me happy, I have been returning to music. I discovered, while on a two week retreat, that I have a lot of nervousness around playing in front of people sober. I have been working on that anxiety, and in the process, I have been looking for people to play with.

On returning to making music, I started rebuilding my guitar rig. I just traded some old gear in for a new Marshall 4X12 cabinet, and a used Orange Micro Terror tube head. I also am waiting for an Epiphone Les Paul Standard that my father bought me for an early Christmas present. I also have many other guitars and amps in my studio, but I am building a rig for playing mostly sludge/doom metal. My effects chain right now is: Behringer eq pedal - Joyo octave fuzz pedal - Boss flanger - Behringer delay pedal - Boss multiphonic octave pedal - Behringer noise reducer pedal.

I have been experimenting with building my own gear as well. I built one fuzz pedal, but I wasn't happy with the tone, so I shelved it. I am now working on a new one, with a deeper, chunkier Fuzz Face sound. Have any of you ever built your own gear? It's very meditative for me to sit down with the soldering iron and a circuit board, putting things together in a very meticulous way. I am also hoping to build a small tube amp head for my clean channel, once I scrounge up a few more parts.

What are you all playing? What do your setups look like?

ScottFromWI

I would fall into the category of a "home player" that used to play many years ago, but also started playing again - actually before I quit drinking, but I'm concentrating on it a lot more now that I've quit. I would certainly share your fear of playing in front of others but for me I've never done that drunk or sober so it will be a bridge to cross some day maybe!

I do find learning new songs and chords again is relaxing too. As my avatar might suggest, I am a big fan of Les Paul guitars. I have a few of those and also one Tele and a Gretsch Hollowbody. I enjoy purchasing/selling instruments and do so fairly often on craigslist/reverb/ebay. Finding instruments in need of repair/TLC and fixing them up & selling for a profit is also a hobby - but I've never actually built anythign from scratch before.

Since I only play at home I have a couple of smaller modeling amps that work great for playing through headphones or experimenting with different sounds.

ZenLifter

Lately I've just been playing my acoustic 6 string, as my Ibanez electric needs fixing and I haven't been very motivated to do it. Thinking about giving myself a Christmas present in the form of a new 7 string - I'm a metal guy too, played in a few bands when I was younger, mostly thrash, speed, death metal.

It's cool that you're building your own stuff, could be a great hobby. Never done that myself. I have a little line 6 practice amp that I play through now. I also still have my Crate blue ****** 120 that I haven't played through for a LONG time....and a Boss effects unit. Never really been much of a gear head....I couldn't even tell you what model my Ibanez is, lol.

asixstringnut

I am a player. I as well used to play in bands but now I just plat at home for my own amusement. Good to hear others are picking up the guitars.

asixstringnut

Thumpalumpacus

I built this speaker cab for my amp, salvaging one of the two 12" VK speakers from my old Peavey. The cabinet is solid white pine, and the baffle 5/8" birch ply. I started this thread about the build.



The cab's pushed by an Epiphone Valve Jr right now. I'm looking into getting an Egnater Tweaker 40 soon, so I can resume gigging. I'm putting together this rig after five+ years playing acoustic-only. The pic below shows two of my three guits -- a 2005 Ibanez AS-93, and a mid-80s Taiwanese Yamaha.



I also have this 04 Gibson Faded SG.



There's a Strat, a bass, and an acoustic 12-string in my future.

SweatyHands

Thanks for the responses! I actually just cancelled the order for the Les Paul Standard, and ordered up a used Epiphone Les Paul Special II instead. I played one at the guitar shop, and it has a great, sludgy metal sound. I'm going to replace the pickups on it this winter with some vintage style low output humbuckers, and I'm going to get rid of the cheap tuners that come standard on it. I'm meeting up with a bass player, drummer, and lead guitarist next week to see if we get along well enough to try to make music together. Hopefully, this will come together, and we can start gigging this winter.

Jimmy58

Been playing for a long time too.
Haven't play live for years.
Have a Hammond XK-2, Epiphone
Emperor hollow body jazz guitar
and a Gibson acoustic.
Thanks, great post!

D122y

Sweaty,

I am a beginner but enjoy playing a bit.

I rock w an Ibanez, peavey amp, and a me 25 sound box.

I took about 10 lessons that gave me some foundation.

I get guitar tabs off the net, play some blues progressions, and work on reading music.

Great fun that adds to a sober lifestyle.

Thank.

Dee74

I sold a lot of nice guitars back in the madness.

these days I have a couple of epiphone SG electrics (ones a rebuild project), a Ibanez bass and Ibanez acoustic guitar, a bouzouki, a Westone Fretless bass, plus a no name P bass copy (my first one) and a no name mandolin.

Also have an acoustic bass onlong term loan from a mate.

I have a huge Peavey amp I never use cos it takes3 men to lift it - and a really small but ballsy Behringer amp I use, miked up when needed.

They all sound pretty good

D

SweatyHands

Dee, I have an SG that was given to me by a friend. His (now ex) fiancé had an SG that had been built for her, and they wanted to get rid of it since it was built be an ex of hers. It's an Epiphone body, a mish-mash of electronics, and some neck that is so heavy that the headstock points at the floor when I let go of it. It sounds really good, but it's just too heavy to play live for a full set.

Dee74

Yeah I have to take that kind of stuff into consideration too. I find the Epis are pretty light.

My Fretless is awesome - but its like a tree... I can literally barely stand with it, so it's a recording instrument not a gigging one.

D

TooMuchAlcohol

I used to play a lot of guitar and electric bass, along with some piano. Unfortunately, I guess, it always went hand in hand with drinking. It was the same for many of the other musicians I knew and/or played music with.

Dee74

I lost my career to my drinking, so this time around it's about the music.

I leave the rock star party hard BS to others

D

ChiefBromden

I sold most of my guitars and amps as part of the plan to de-clutter my life. I had 16 of them at one point. Now it's just the "blackie" Strat through a Rivera 30/12, and 2 acoustics. I also bought a grand piano, as it's a bit more difficult to collect those.

Still have to laugh with this though!

MrPL

Ahhhh! Love the music threads!

For me it has been the devil and the saviour at different periods. My craziest time started when I was lead singer in a cool band, but what helped me quit drugs years ago was setting up the first version of my home studio.

Fast forward a few years later and a lot of drinking in between I have now finally finished recording my first full (metal) album and am setting up a production company, writing, recording and producing for other artists. It is definitely keeping me sober!

Guitar wise I have a fender strat, a "Jackson" like guitar and a Martin acoustic, but also a bass, digital drums, lots of percussion and an m audio midi controller. I had to quit the analogue effects and largely playing live as have small kids, so I moved to a few digital choices, by combining line6, zoom and digitech libraries I get to the sound I am after.

Keep playing! It s the way to inner peace in my opinion!

P

teatreeoil007

I'm an acoustic player... love my Martin 000-15 6 string ...sounds better the more it's played...

teatreeoil007

There's a lot you can pick up online.... you can teach yourself tabs...

Dee74

I had a book showing me the basic chords and scales and I started from there, listening to records and working parts out...

but there's so many other ways to learn now from the internet - these days - Google 'beginner guitar' and you'll get so many hits

Thumpalumpacus

To cure neck-dive, use a suede strap.

Irnldy001

After a year I'm still in the beginner camp. I play a Fender with a pick up, but mostly I play unplugged (you know, like Nirvana's greatest live set....). Also have a Yamaha starter guitar I passed down to my daughter and she and I play together a lot. (any beginners out there, CCR is one of the best bands to find beginner tunes!)
I have lessons, but also do jam with a work band. Super good for me, as I'm forced to keep up with a very impatient drummer.
We're a mix of classics/campfire songs/ what's new

Right now we are working on Chett Faker's version of No Diggity. Very cool and jazzy. On my own I'm doing a lot of Cat Stevens, Aersosmith, Green Day, Pink Floyd, etc.... My teacher has me working on some Elvis!