Remake, Remodel...

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There's a lot of stuff in this week's New Statesman and the papers & etc. that I will get to tomorrow; it's just my head's not up to processing it all as yet: I have been making notes, though - some very interesting and pertinent comment regarding the current shambolic economic situation and its roots - more later...

Pictured is my Digitech Guitar modelling processor which I bought about ten or twelve years ago, and which has pretty much remained unused in a drawer ever since. It has a hideously difficult to navigate user interface and a lot of very naff and questionable amp and effect models, and when I bit the bullet and bought a small valve amp, I put it to one side.

I wrote the other day of the glorious Vox Beast that I am temporarily the custodian of, and how that if I used it to its full potential, I would probably be mobbed by irate neighbours and possibly arrested for breach of the peace; so I thought I'd dig this thing out of its resting place and see what I could do with it. The first thing I discovered was that it has a pretty good drum machine.

I dialled in a nice solid back-beat rock pattern, found a nice tone and had a whale of a time - on headphones, and so disturbing no one - wailing to my heart's content. No substitute for the real thing, but pretty entertaining, nevertheless. The other aspect to my playing guitar is that it keeps my fingers and brain going: given my post the other day about age and the tenuous thread that links us to health and indeed existence itself, I rather favour such trivial activity over torpor and stagnation: better to wear out than rust out [as I've mentioned before: Dolly Parton].

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