Daydreams of Aske and Panzerfaust

After being disheartened by my acoustic which I was not enjoying playing, coupled with being paranoid about bitchy neighbours downstairs laughing at my newbie mistakes, I thought for some time about acquiring an electric guitar.

Not only is it better suited for the styles I want to learn, but I can also plug my headphones into the amp and play without bothering anyone (or rather, making anyone aware of my fumbling).

Meeting Linda in Allan's Music in the city, I wandered through and was helped brilliantly by a young gentleman whose name I can't recall. Initially, I had planned to pick up a beginner Fender package (after being scorned by some friends online the night before for even considering it).

The store assistant warded me away from the packages, and we approached some Fenders and Yamahas sitting on some racks. He played around with them for me, and I quickly realised the Strat style instruments were too Bluesy for my taste, the tone was very twangy and thin (they had only 3 single coil pickups if memory serves). Plugged into a Fender practice amp (which wasn't too bad for around $170), I found that there simply wasn't enough punch in the instrument. I needed a thicker sound, a dirtier sound but at the same time, I didn't want to blow too much of a dent into the bank.

Almost at random, he pulled out a Les Paul style guitar (as I found out later, an Epiphone Les Paul Special II) Secretly, I've always admired the Les Paul shape (Arve from Enslaved sports a gorgeous black Gibson Les Paul), and I do find "metal" style instruments somewhat tacky... I wanted something with a bit of class. Ironically, Ikil had said the night before that he had a hunch I would pick up something similar to a Les Paul.

Before he plugged in the Les Paul, the store assistant advised me (much to my alarm) that certain woods, even to those used on the neck and fretboard, can effect the sound of the instrument. We walked about to other instruments, and he pointed out various fretboard woods and body woods, describing the differences in each instrument due to materials. I was shocked - I never considered that for an amplified instrument, that the construction material would effect the sound so much - I always thought the pickups, Humbuckers and strings would do all the work for amplified instruments.

He plugged in the Les Paul (and started playing the opening riff to Two Minutes To Midnight), and after playing on it for a few minutes myself, I was already firm in my decision.

We started to talk about the Fender practice amp and its limits. He wandered over to a rack and pulled down a Vox amp, only $70 more, and the sound differential was incredible. For a $250 amp it was quite impressive and it also boasted a decent set of manual controls for gain, tremolo etc, whereas the Fender amp was quite primitive in comparison. The Vox, with volume low and gain up high, even gave off a decent Burzmic sound.

With my budget possibly blown and price doubled instantly, I considered my options: losing $300 to an instrument I would not enjoy playing, as opposed to paying double for something easily more than twice the quality, and far more beautiful to play. With a dry gulp, I nodded to the store assistant and uttered the words which would spell temporary doom for my bank account - "I'll take them".

Since then I have had little time to play with work kicking back in. But I feel comfortable now knowing that I have an instrument which will go where I want it to, and most importantly, I can progress in privacy. I feel pretty confident in my new acquisition, it will bring me a step closer to someday being able to play the music I love. Already I feel less scared than I did with the acoustic, and that in itself is a good sign to me.

Crimson Velvet: Sydney Tour Comes to an End

Well it was with great anticipation that I awaited meeting Crimson Velvet when he came to my shores from Norway. Over the months we've formed a strange, but good friendship. It was good to finally be able to talk to someone my own age for a change, as (musically) I tend to be surrounded by younger people which can make conversations limited and difficult at times.

While we had our opposing views at times, I also found that we surprised one another at not only how parallel we see some things, but also that we were both probably more open-minded and more flexible with things than we both thought.

Crimson Velvet is a good new friend who I enjoyed spending time with while he was here. On his last night here in Sydney, he came up with a great suggestion - we closed his trip with some respect to Darkthrone and went with camera and beers in tow to Bronte to celebrate a beautiful moonrise, and the eternal rest of those departed! It was almost funny closing it off this way, as we had started the day off with a winter swim at Bondi.

Nevertheless, while I felt funny about it at first, the evening was a blend of admiring the beautiful epitaphs and statues (and looking the old desecrated ones with much disdain), combined with moments of humour.

It was a fitting way to end our time hanging out and will be a memory I'll definitely hang on to for years to come.