BoomMF

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I'm slowly and with much resistance coming to the conclusion that random YouTuber with a guitar has chops that shit all over my heroes. Bassists, too. There's dudes out there with 500 subs that can absolutely wreak havoc.

Grooving is why I plucked Polyphia out of this new wave of chops driven math rock. They are skilled beyond whatever level exists 10 or so places above me, beyond what I thought the ceiling was, but they groove. (Like, can you listen to Danny Carey and also not think this Polyphia drummer is on that grooving spectrum? Flippin nay.) Polyphia isn't as angry as I'd like, but there is evil is that drummer and bassist. Can you listen to this and not feel grooved? Flippin nay. (And it's been some time since I watched a band's video and couldn't ID a single one of the guitars. That's kinda cool for a lot of reasons.) Chon is another mathy group whose songs tell a story musically. And they quite possibly groove. Edit: hope you like Animals as Leaders (I can take them or leave them), because Tapa decided everything needed to be a link to their videos. (Fixed.)

It's like someone looked at the calendar and realized it was once again time for someone from the Metroplex to change the way guitarists think about guitars and dropped this Henson dude on us. Like, here you go, have fun with the tab. Homes with a plugin ad playing a Jem without the silly handle, I guess, and I'm looking for my credit card to buy more software I already know I'll never learn... I mean, how beautiful must his brain be? What must it be like to think in that dimension?

When absolutely everything about the guitar needs to flex.

And this reaction. LOL And you get to stare at yet another unnaturally gorgeous PRS... Which reminds me, I'm right outside Pasadena ATM, which means Wild West Guitars and their bonkers collection of PRSs, Strats, LPs, and Gretches. Gonna have to stop in and look at guitars I have no business looking at.

NSIAP I know we're all old as fuck in here (I mean we just had about 3 pages of Rickenbacker posts), but here's a young Dallas guitarist doing guitarist from Dallas type things (changing the game the way Dallas guitarists seem to often do). What's in the water up there?

Installed a Next Level Racing Motion V3 into the rig. Rally racing just got an upgrade.

Gear inspires.

NSIAP: John Mayer playing an Epiphone LP Studio into some little dinky Roland combo. Dude's rocking about $50 worth of gear in public and sounding like John Mayer. His bearing reminds me of SRV - Could have just jumped out and took the spotlight, but homeboy is just sitting back letting the kids do their things. I don't know why I let people convince me he was an asshole. Yeah, the headstock on his signature guitar is an asshole, but he doesn't seem like one.

Where's the bar on violence set? Moss is a very cute and well-designed platformer, but you jump on enemies to kill them a la Super Mario. If the bar is lower than that, and regardless of where the bar is, Beat Saber is a crowd favorite. You can't go wrong with that one.

I have yet to come across a single person that's played a Silver Sky who doesn't like it, if not love it. Which is unfortunate for my efforts to maintain a certain worldview I've grown comfortable with.

There must've been a run on amps because there was only about a 10th the amount as before. That 1958 Twin isn't there, so at least someone's pandemic was niiiiice. Stock was generally hit or miss, except for acoutics. Even with the knowledge that we're all about to die you can still find yourself a ton of acoustic options on the shelf.

The Custom Shop relics have gotten pretty damn convincing. The EVH mural outside the Sunset Guitar Center looks stellar, but inside the guitar room in the back is still worth the price of admission. I don't know who homeboy on the left was, but he was super tatted and super nice and playing a non-reissue '54 gold top plugged into some old-ass Hiwatt (a brand I really don't know shit about) and the two sales dudes were fawning over him.

Yeah. Alienware m15 R4 with an RTX 3080 doing the heavy lifting. It can push that 49" monitor (effectively a 6k panel) at a comfortable 140Hz. It's crazy what laptops can do these days.

If not a chair, check out a wheel base of some sort (Wheel Stand Pro kind of thing) since a sturdy mount is the best upgrade next to a wheel. But for seats, if you don't want to go the aluminum profile route, check out Next Level Racing's rigs. I started with a GTTrack and that thing was rock solid. But they have quite a few good solutions up and down the lineup. In other news, I decided to upgrade the button cluster to a Podium Button Module. Should have just done this in the first place, those other buttons didn't really solve any problems. Now I can map far more than I can remember which is a perfect amount.

David Allen Coe.

Have we already done this one?

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CSL DD is the first big disruptor to hit this market. I was wave 1 for the pre-order, and while we're waiting for fulfillment I came across a killer deal on the DD2 (which was very lucky since there are NO deals to be had with sim racing gear atm) so I cancelled. Had I not I'd be eagerly anticipating it with the 180W power supply. I don't know how Thrustmaster intend to respond (properly), but they need to quickly. Once the CSL DD becomes stocked, that segment will be on lock.

Got to hang out with this dude today.

Very cool place to visit (and the Drum Exchange next door). Parking sucks ass, because Chicago. You're also not far from Wrigley, so if you can time it right... Hopefully the demo room where they had the cleanest '68 Super Reverb I've ever seen in person is open and the amp is still there. Pick a wicked guitar off the wall and check that thing out. Really, all the demo rooms had cool stuff to crank so I doubt you'll be left wanting. The wall of LPs is something else, too. Post some pics if it works out! It's a bucket-list-type place, imo.

We've jumped the shark 6 or 7 times now. Not a bad effort.

Coincidentally, some of my justification was along the lines of, "we can use it to teach the kids how to drive, safely, and without the need to carry some extra personal asset protecting insurance."

So I've been getting into racing sims and upgraded my trusty Logitech G29 to a direct drive setup by Fanatec. Brother, let me tell you, it's a whole different immersive experience. Covid sent racing sim interest into the stratosphere, and there are a bunch of products that elevate the experience - you can achieve quite a lot of fidelity nowadays. Here's what I ended up with so far: Fanatec DD2 wheel base Fanatec R300 wheel and a 2021 Limited Edition F1 wheel Fanatec Clubsport Pedals V3 Inverted Fanatec Clubsport Shifter SQ and Handbrake Sim Lab P1-X racing cockpit (Sparco Evo II US seat) Samsung Odyssey G9 49" curved display that switches duty with an Oculus Quest 2 Alienware M15 w/ RTX 3080 I'm looking into adding a seat mover (like Next Level Racing's Motion Platform V3), but there are options here, like those from DOFReality. Other than that, I might collect a few more wheels, but the setup is pretty done for a while. The way all the road information gets transmitted to the wheel is something else. You get some great force feedback with the Logitech, but it caps at around 2.5 Nm of force. That's not a lot of headroom to convey it all. The DD2, on the other hand, has 25 Nm of force at the ready, coupled with a free-floating, non-geared drive shaft that feels like butter to spin, which is enough to break your wrists (not broken bones, but broken grip - I GUESS it could break your bones too if you crank up the juice and don't pay attention, who knows...) and deliver an immersive experience like no other. After I skill up a bit, I'll try my hand at racing with the crazies in iRacing. Steam's current sale has the year membership at $30, so that's almost a no-brainer. If anyone else wants to hop on and race in Project Cars 1, 2, 3, Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, or rFactor 2, holler. I'll try any game, just pick your poison.