Friday, December 23, 2016

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 12

This has been a pretty interesting voyage tough a pretty narrow topic. Recalling certain pieces of gear, the bands I was playing in, and the music I was playing at the time was interesting.

I don't like to live in the past tho. I know guys that remember some pieces of gear, and go off on how awesome it was, and while I don't argue the fact that it WAS good, there's some new stuff that can do the best of what the old stuff ever could, and then some, with more options and flexability. Inevitably I get the "Naw, there was something about that" speech. Like the gear gods came together in a deux ex machina like event to make this one item, and there was something special, in a circuit board that was meant as a product. Gearheads can live in the amber of time, suspended and preserved in the past, best viewed with rose colored glasses. Gear that can be called "old faithful" is great, when it's faithful, and not just old.

Some of this old gear is just that, old gear, and this effect has it's place. It takes a certain player to develop their sound and make it their own. Eric Clapton shunned the wah wah pedal for years, then did "Bad Love" and brought it back. It's not the use of something that's bad, it's the abuse of something that is bad.

I talked about my current chorus choices and my use of them in the music I make. It's like a seasoning or sauce. I like Sirracha, but on ice cream, I'm sure it's not that great. So I use chorus now for an "effect", not part and parcel of my overall sound. It's a great application of this effect to drive something home, like the chorus of a song. Butch Walker commented that "You gotta have a chorus pedal to play the chorus". Kind of a no brainer statement.

Here's a great video of Butch talking about some of the past, as well as his use of a chorus pedal (around 2:10):



"A chorus pedal can be your friend sometimes" is a great statement. If that's the case I've had a more than a few friends that helped me make music over the years. Thankfully, that's a literal as well as figurative statement that stands true, in my situation. Throughout my musical experiences, I've had growth through the gear that helped me make my sound, and the friends that I've been lucky to play with.

This was a fun romp down memory lane, but as of now, I'm waiting to see what the future brings..in so many ways.

Thursday, December 22, 2016

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 11



So What do I use for chorus these days? Well I do have a Keeley restored Boss CE-2, but I did manage to grab one of TC electronic's John Petrucci Dreamscape Pedals, and now that one lives on my pedal board.

It does 2 modes of Chorus, Flanger, and vibrato. One of each is meant for clean guitars, while the other is meant for overdriven guitars. Now I use it for both clean and distorted sounds, so I defaulted to using the distorted modes. They don't seem to do as much processing on the low strings, meaning the bottom end doesn't get washed out. The Flangers and vibrato modes are ok, but I kind of don't like Switching or messing with settings things alot live, or even at practice.

I do however love the sound of Chorus and Delay at the same time, so I have a dedicated loop that has the Chorus and delay. My current delay of choice is the MXR Carbon Copy. When I hit the loop, they both enter my signal chain (chorus first, delay afterwards). This does add some cabling to my board, but the loop's true bypass switch does keep my signal path alot clearer.

Most of the time in my band I play with overdriven sounds. maybe 3 times in a set I engage these two together, usually for choruses of songs, for dramatic effect. In band when I was the only guitar player I used it alot overall to fill out the sound. Since I play in a band with another guitar player, I don't need to fill up any extra sonic space. Plus, that modulation with another distorted guitar can tend to make things mushy at times, so It really only gets used gingerly.

Here's a quick sample of how I use chorus and delay in most of my setup. This 2 minute clip really shows the effect of when both are engaged at the same time. It also kind of keeps the tap dancing to a minimum. The only Pedals that are on in this setup are the TC Dreamscape chorus, MXR Carbon Copy Delay, which are in the loop pedal's loop, and my BBE Sonic Stomp. The amp is a Hotone Diamond, and the cabinet is a Egnater with a 1x12 celestion.



Wednesday, December 21, 2016

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 10

Line 6 Modulation

So it's either Analog knobs, or fully digital with menus and software? no inbetween? Well there is an inbetween.

I was in this boat years ago, I liked having a leslie simulator, a flanger, a phaser, and a chorus. It unfortunately beat up my tone, filled up space, and made my pedalboard complicated. I went with Line 6's MM4 Modulation pedal.



There were 16 modes of all sorts of modulation. I liked the Tri-chorus & dimension choruses the most. with 5 knobs that covered various parameters that worked on all the settings, once you found a setting you liked, step on one of the footswitches and hold. It saved that sound to that button and with 4 buttons it gave me plenty of options. I think I paid $150ish for mine, and it was great. The only bummer was that you needed to make sure you used a special cable for your pedalboard power supply, as the power was not the standard 9v style. I had 2 chorus modes, a flanger, and a Tremolo set in it, and It's easy to see how one of these paired with one of line 6's DL4 delay units could really make a nice pedalboard, and a very simple setup that still gives plenty of choices, with no option paralisis.

I had this with my mesa boogie MKIII rig, and eventually I went to POD Pro with a power amp. I parted ways with more than a few pedals, the MM4 was one of them when this change occoured, as my POD Pro had all of these modulations built into it already. I don't miss it, but it's one of those things that really gives a ton of bang for the buck. Too bad they don't make it anymore.

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 9

So we've covered Chorus in the form of pedals and racks, mostly with all analog controls, with mostly static settings, meaning, they get shut on and off, not alot of real time tweaking and the like.

In the 1980's, rack gear was the way to go, with multi effects units that could do all sorts of effects at the same time. Some players got tired of paramaters and menus, and eventually went back to analog pedals, or dropped effects entirely, because of the immedacy of getting results with knobs and switches.

But there are tone tweakers that miss that adjustability, and the ability to recall all sorts of variations. Strymon's Mobius is a pretty good example of all that.

Now this does ALOT. Autoswell, Flanger, Univibe, Envelope filter, Tremolo, oh and chorus. The ability to make so many variations (200!), and save them, without the hassle of navigating endless menus. With Tap Tempo, Expression pedal input, and MIDI, it's chock full of Hi-fi chorus goodness. It's not cheap tho, coming in at $450. Even for me this might be a bit much, but the Multi delay line chorus really caught my ears. Besides, Since I usually use chorus WITH delay almost exclusively, this could retire my delay..and my tremolo pedal, and my fliters, and my..well you get the idea.

Here's a great video demo on it:


Monday, December 19, 2016

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 8

Now Yes, Chorus is typically an 80's effect, and when I really came into myself as a player it was the 90's. I'll admit I wasn't much into Grunge or any alternative music from the start. I did like some; Alice & Chains, Soundgarden, but it took awhile for me to shake the influences that were so ingrained in my playing and sound that were so 80's.

Admittedly, I wasn't a big Nirvana fan. I blame it on every time I was in a music store some one was playing smells like teen spirit. It was an easy tune so many bands started to cover it. One night at a battle of the bands, EVERY band played it in their set. I can really appreciate them now, Kurt's approach was very refreshing in guitar playing, and songwriting that really brought a simplicity of what really makes things work in music, and it formed a pretty good foundation for a ton of musicians to build their future on.

Kurt did have a chorus, and like alot of his gear, was a piece that was pretty much relegated to swap meets, and pawn shops. The Electro Harmonix Small Clone.


These things were pretty cheaply made, with a sheet metal casing, a rate control, and a depth switch. It can be subtle, but it's like using a Lamborghini to deliver pizzas. It really does a great leslie, swirling like effect, and almost too much out of tune-ness. Listen to "come as you are", it's all over that. No tap tempo, no stereo spread, it's an effect that when you turn it on, you feel it!

EHX still makes this, in the sheet metal case, and also in a MXR Phase 90 like die cast case. Other high end chorus pedals say they can do this EHX sound, but it's almost like seeing a comedian do an impression of christopher walken, and then you see Christopher Walken in a movie. Nothing beats the real thing.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 7

Like I've said in previous posts, Boss/Roland pretty much invented chorus. Boss pedals may get poo-pooed by pedal aficionados, but they do make some great stuff that can work across alot of applications. Over the years tho, real pedal nerds have sought out the rare, and unsung pedals that Boss made, such as the Spectrum, Slow Gear, and the Dimension C & D chorus pedals:



Now I did actually have a Dimension C for a couple of months. In the late 90's I used to spend weekends cruising all the local music stores. I popped in to Wood & Strings in Arlington. It was kind of more of a Acoustic/Band/Lessons/sheet music type store, They might have an electric guitar, or maybe some inexpensive solid state amp. There was a guy in there with a bag, and was trying to sell them some pedals. The guy behind the counter kind of waved him off, saying they weren't interested, as they'd end up sitting on their shelf for a long time, and suggested he go to Daddys or Guitar Center. I followed the guy out the door, and flagged him down to see what he had. There was a Yellow DOD overdrive, a Boss BF-2 flanger (old version, with the black knobs), and a Boss Dimension C. 

He said one of his old tenants left it one of the apartments he owned, and he tried to get in touch with him over 6 months but to no avail. He knew he was a musician, and figured there was some value in these lil boxes.

I said, I'd be interested in the Dimension C. I already had the same Flanger, and the Overdrive I wasn't interested in. He had the original box, and even the BOSS sticker and directions in it. I got excited and let out a small "wow" unfortunately, and the guy was like "is it worth alot?" I knew it was kind of rare, but didn't know its value. I somehow pivoted it, by saying "they didn't make alot of these", partly because you can't really adjust anything, which was true. I had $35 in my wallet, and mentioned that I'd be interested in it. The guy hedged a bit, and said he wanted an all or nothing deal. I was like, well I have the purple one already, and I'm not into the yellow one. He again held his ground, and I said, oh well, and began to walk away.

I got about 3 steps, and the guy called out to me "ok, I'll do it-$35" I turned around, and the deal was made.

Getting it home, this thing was hyper clean, no dings or dents. With just 4 presets that don't go really far, it's more spacious than warblish. It was subtle but still rich. if you think 80's pop chorus, this is it! I had a Strat with EMG's, and this with some delay and reverb had that "studio strat" sound. With overdrive it was nice, as the modulation didn't seem to weep into the low end frequencies.

Remember I mentioned I had this for a couple of months? Well, I never put velcro or anything on it, as at this point I was using my Danelectro cool cat chorus. I kind of grabbed it on a lark. I was looking on Ebay for something else one day, and I looked up what Dimension C's were going for, and my jaw hit the floor. I put mine on there, for sale, and within a few days the bidding went to $300! Sold to a guy in some place I can't remember.

I don't have sellers remorse on this, it was a chorus that wasn't all that adjustable for my needs, even as a guy that is a "set it and forget it" player. My line 6 Pod HD has a model of this, and I hear TC has a toneprint for their corona chorus. So that sound is still available. I forget what I spent that $300 on, but from what I've seen they are still going for around that price range. At this point I'd rather try to track down a Spectrum Pedal!



Saturday, December 17, 2016

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 6

On the 6th Day of chorus, my true love gave to me..The Chandler Digital Echo.

Yes it doesn't rhyme, and yes it's not technically a Chorus unit. It's a Delay/Echo unit that has a modulation section in it.  Danny Gatton supposedly used one to retire his "Magic Dingus Box"/echoplex rig, and Eric Johnson said in some interview that he tried one, and he liked it, and "didn't screw with the tone". Chandler put that quote in their Ad's, which I'm sure helped them sell more of them. Joe Satriani had a few as well, retiring some delay and chorus pedals. He used a couple of them for delays (one short, one long) and an additional one for Chorus.

This is one of my "one that got away" items. In my neck of the woods these didn't surface often. Daddy's Junky Music in Nashua had one, used for $250. I made the guy pull it out of the display rack, so I could try it. He was the kind of guy that probably only had a Wah pedal in his rig. There's nothing wrong with that. I can cook, but don't ask me to make a 4 course meal. He had a tough time going through all the cables trying to connect it. I finally said, let me try to hook it up, I'm in no rush. He went back to the counter, and within 2 minutes I was up and running. I really liked how the delay/echo worked with the modulation section.



So why didn't I get it? Well I wasn't using alot of rack gear at this time, as I was more getting into pedals. The price was a bit out of my range of comfort, and my rig wasn't stereo. Also I kind of liked my DD-3 Delay alot, and it kind of filled my delay needs nicely.

It was nice as the delay & chorus was in 1 unit, analog controls, and with such a spacious sound. The delay was rich, and even at low levels the modulation was full and dynamic. It was like someone just took a couple of great sounding pedals, and just put them in a rack format.

I brought the unit, and it's cables back to the Daddy's Salesperson, and he was pissed he went through all that effort, and I didn't buy it. I felt bad, so I bought some strings. That transaction was marred by some computer glitch they were having, so my act of kindness in buying those strings just aggravated the guy even more. I slinked out there, knowing the salesperson was cursing me.

During the week I started a "non-buyers remorse" and I came up with some justification to buy it. If I sold this pedal, and ate Ramen for a week, and didn't buy any CD's that month, well you get the idea. I went back to Daddys and it was gone. The same sales person was there tho, and I asked where the Digital Echo was. He replied, Sold it. The day after I was there. Bummer.

I've seen some people that do have these, actually fit the guts into a larger format stomp box, like the larger EHX pedals. In that form, with that sound, it's something that has put my ear to the ground in search of one for myself again.

Friday, December 16, 2016

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 5

So the big thing is getting that high end sound out of items that usually don't get thought of as such. One of the first companies that came up with the rack sound in a pedal was TC Electronic.


The problem with stuff like that is yes you get a rack sound, in a pedal, but the price is usually closer to a rack, than a pedal. I had one on loan to me for awhile, and when my friend started calling me asking for it back, I actually started dodging his calls for a day or two! The Sound was amazing, it had a nice Hi-fi like feel to it, certainly a modern sound that could get nice and glassy. It was one of those situations where it didn't clutter up what was already going on tone wise, but just added "more"

Recently TC said they can't make them in large amounts anymore, as some of the components aren't getting made as much, and as technology is progressing, there's less and less need for those components. Eventually the manufacturer will stop making them all together.

So TC decided to make one of their Corona Chorus pedals, with the retro graphics and a downloadable tone print (that works on the regular graphics version of the corona chorus as well). With a Street price of $129, its nice to see that rare-ish high end stuff I used to drool over, alot more available, and well within almost any budget.






If the Tone Print is as good as the original, It's worth getting either the green or the classic looking one, but I know I'd prefer the vintage looking one.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 4

Chorus is an 80's Effect, it was perfected then, and like the 80's it was overused like Aquanet, and Dayglow colors that was finally defeated by Seattle flannel, and College Radio.

So in the Spirit of things 80's I give you "That 80's Rack Chorus", by Fulltone:

Now Multi Effects were standard in the 80's, but this comes from an era where if you wanted a Rack effect, that one box did ONE thing. Need a chorus, well that's one rack unit.Need a Delay?, well, you got a rackmount Delay unit. Later on things got combined into things like Multiverbs and the like. But this is a re-creation of that classic "dyno-my-Piano" chorus effect. I haven't played through one of these myself, but If there's anything that could make me go back to a rack system it's this. 

This is a video of Pete Thorn putting one through the paces:




Wednesday, December 14, 2016

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 3

When you add something to a rig, you really don't want to have that new item take something away. Honestly, I used to think that Eric Johnson's ears were probably OCD the way he described how certain effects needed to placed far away from each other for noise reduction, cables that were to thin or too bassy sounding, different batteries sounding different in different effects.

Then it happened to me. I retired my aforementioned Fender Ultra Chorus and got a Fender Prosonic Tube 2x10. Boss/Roland always did the best chorus, in my opinion, as they kind of perfected that effect for the masses, so I got the Super Chorus CH-1.


My Mesa V-twin was retired and I used the Prosonic's overdrive (and at this point it's the only amp I regret parting with), the aforementioned DD-3, and a VOX Wah. But as soon as I plugged the CH-1 into the signal path, something happened. The top end of my entire sound lost about 20%. I was perplexed. I checked cables, knobs, tubes and each pedal to come the conclusion that this CH-1 pedal just sucked the tone out of my signal. Bummer. I kind of did without it, and I didn't really have any issue playing with no chorus. I returned it to Guitar Center, thanks to their liberal return policy.

I mentioned this issue to a friend, and he suggested a Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus. Danelectro had made a comeback of sorts, with some cool retro style guitars, and some effects pedals that had nods to the past. Their Dan-echo was very tape delay esque, and I heard good things about their overdrives being natural. My friend said it was as close to a Boss CE-2 that you could get and not break the bank.

So I got one of the Cool Cat Chorus Pedals. The design was very retro looking, and only had a speed and "chill" knob. I Set the Speed to like 10%, and the chill to maximum. There was no tone suck at all. I was kind of amazed that a newcomer (as Im sure someone just bought the danelectro name) got the tone beat. The effect was nice and spacious, and if it was cranked it still had a musical warble that was nice and jucy. It had a special power supply (18V) and in the days before Multi voltage pedalboard power supplies being common, the extra wall wart on my pedalboard was kind of a bummer, but my friend was right, it was very CE-2 like. Years later, when I got my hands on a real CE-2, I did a quick comparison. and it's hyper close. Eventually I sold the cool cat, but it's a great value for the $.


Tuesday, December 13, 2016

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 2

 Admittedly this post isn't about a particular chorus unit, but to really hear a stereo effect, you need 2 sound sources, a left and a right signal. For guitar players that means two amps or an amp that has stereo capabilities. There are still some amps out there that have stereo options, usually a 2x10, or a 2x12. I've have some experiences with a few, and these still stick out in my mind, even years later.

The JC-120 is probably THE amp I have a love and hate relationship with. The cleans are beyond amazing, but the dirty channel is pretty weak for most applications. Joe Satriani used one with a Boss-DS1 for a few tracks on "surfing with the alien", so it's not a lost cause for dirty tones. The clean sound on Metallica's Enter Sandman is a JC-120, and that tone is instantly identifiable.



I had a friend that had a pair of them for awhile, and He let me try them out for a few rehearsals. Using a few various Distortion pedals, including my Mesa V-twin Pedal preamp.  I could get some nice tones out of them. I preferred the one that had the non metallic speaker cones. They seem to hold their value in the used market, so getting a good one at a cheap price is almost impossible. The price on new ones hasn't moved all that much either.

I did, however get a Fender Ultra Chorus (later called the Ultimate Chorus). It was kind of like a non tube Fender twin configuration. It was all solid state, with stereo Chorus (hence the name) and reverb, and 2 channels.

Honestly, the overdrive wasn't good, It was notchy, and blocky-ish. But the cleans could make a virgin look like a hollywood hooker. I ran a Boss DD3 delay in the effects loop, and a Mesa Boogie V-twin pedal in the front. It really was an amazing rig, with that warm tube tone from the Mesa Boogie, and those cleans with the chorus were spacious and rich. If you're going to get that true stereo effect, a chorus pedal into 2 sseparate amps is the way to go. But this configuration gave the same effect, in a smaller package. This lil rig did me well for a long time, and fit into the trunk of my 94 Ford Escort easily.





Monday, December 12, 2016

The Twelve Days of Chorus - Part 1

I remember the first time I heard it, a friend of mine had a DOD Chorus, He was running it in Mono, so wasn't true stereo, but the spaciousness it had was amazing! He was gracious enough to let me borrow it for a night, and that neat warble had me in it's clutches for years afterwards.


Working part time when you're a teen can suck cash wise, but eventually I got myself a used Digitech PDS-1700. The battery cover was missing, and the music store had it in their version of a "cut out bin". I think I paid $70 for it. It did Chorus AND a flanger. Digitech at the time was DOD's upscale brand, and while it might have technically been better. I think the DOD version sounded better. 


As the years went by, I delved into rackmount effects, and of course there was chorus. At this point I was playing in bands where I was the only guitarist, and I needed to fill out the sound, and this was an invaluable tool. 

Later on I got involved in bands that had a lead singer that also played guitar, and Chorus kind of just muddled things up in the mix. By this point I was primarily using it as a slight modulation, usually only on clean parts, with some delay and reverb for some ambient tones. 

I'm lucky to have an original Boss-CE2, and I had Robert Keeley go through it, replacing the leaky capacitors, and replacing some of the components for cleaner sound, and higher fidelity. He did a great job of it, and I have to say, I' never part with it.

Currently I'm using a Dreamscape by TC electronic. I did a review HERE on it a few years ago for Performer Magazine. It's very versatile, but again, I really only have it set for a wide spread in a shallow sense. We'll talk about that one in a future post.

I love inside jokes, and jokes that keep on giving. A few years ago at a NAMM show I ran into my friend Bobbo. He asked "did you see anything new that's interesting?' I just shrugged and pointed over to the nearby Tech21 booth, and said "well Tech21has a new chorus pedal" not thinking much of  my suggestion. Bobbo's response was simple and to the point:

"If you're into that sort of thing"

Admittedly it was funny, even now. He then was kind of like "aww shit". It was just such a knee jerk reaction that brings a smile to my face to this day. 

Since then I post and share videos of new Chorus devices and tag Bobbo, just for fun, At least I have fun. "if you're into that sort of thing" is a great tag line (ahem, new album title?) In this day and age it's nice to have a laugh at something that really doesn't matter in so many ways. So to take the laughs to another level, I bring you the "Twelve Days of Chorus". Every day from now until December 24th 2016 I will be sharing some of the best (maybe worst, depending on your tastes) examples of this wonderful effect that the internet has to offer.

Bobbo this one (and the next 11) are for you!



Saturday, December 10, 2016

Telecaster Upgrades!

Tele Upgrades.
Now when I first started playing in the mid 1980's I actually took my first few months of lessons on a friend’s blonde 68 Telecaster, so while back then I really couldn’t play, I knew that there was something in that sound that only a tele has, and now I was on a quest to recapture it. But, my current tele was missing something. It had the standard bridge, and I wanted it swapped out for a Wilkinson vintage style one. I was nervous, as I liked the idea of each string having its own saddle, as opposed to 2 strings sharing one on a vintage style bridge. But seeing a lot of high end “clones” like Suhr, Nash, and Danocaster using these vintage style bridges I figured if those fairly high end instruments came that way I shouldn't worry.

Why not change the pickups? Wouldn’t that be easier? In theory yes, it would. But I already changed the pickups from the stock ones to a set of Vintage Hot hum cancelling set from Guitar fetish. Some people may scoff at their stuff, but in talking to a lot of people, it’s a “your mileage may vary” situation with any pickup. I have one of their “VEH” (guess who they’re referencing there) humbuckers in a parts caster, and It really delivers a nice slightly hotter vintage PAFish pickup sound. Their prices are beyond reasonable, too. So I had good luck with them, and tried them out. The hum cancelling feature was good, but the pickups were lacking something. So I went down the rabbit hole again, and started looking at pickups again.

After having a talk with a few people, I realized changing the bridge might fix my tonal mojo. I found out that after switching the bridge of my PRS Mira, that such a major tonal change happened, I stopped looking at pickups to mod that guitar. 


Before, with the American Standard Bridge


The replacement

I looked at various high end bridges, and saddles that could work. A friend suggested making a “backwards” upgrade, and go with a vintage style bridge.  After a little research, I found a few people that did this mod to Mexican and American tele’s that had the bridge I currently had, and faced the same issues I was experiencing. Again the 3 vs 6 saddle situation kind of made me worried, but I think the brass saddles, combined with a thinner, pressed steel bridge, as compared to the thicker steel would brighten things up just enough.

After getting it back from Mouradian guitars (who I can’t say enough nice things about) it was amazing! Acoustically it snapped much more (I’ll admit new strings help) but it felt tighter too. The only bummer is the “butt crack”; on vintage tele’s about 1/16” of the tele’s pickup rout stick out on the sides of the bridge. They’re, only visible when playing, or looking at it when the guitar is a certain angle. It doesn’t affect the structure or tone, and if that’s the way it was back in the day, I can deal with it. My idea was to get a more “tele” tone, and a vintage look.



Afterwards



The "Butt Crack"

Plugging it in, I was extremely satisfied. There’s plenty of that extra snap/high end that I was looking for, and the low end tightened up a lot! The raised edge of the bridge is really nice to anchor my pinky on, but doesn’t get in the way of any palm muting. Problem solved. The bridge cost me $40, and the installation was $40. 

I do have some future mods in mind, locking tuners are on the list, and that should be the last structural/tonal mods. I might upgrade the nut to a Tusq or an actual bone nut, as well. There are some cosmetic changes I’d like to do, possibly change the pickguard & control plate to an unfinished aluminum, as well as changing the knobs to a dome knob with a big knurl (almost cheese grater style). It’s also a very clean guitar, I’d like it to get some wear on it, but now I can get that wear from actually playing this one, rather than generating some faux patina or “relic-ing”. 
So does this keep me from drooling over other guitars, of course not, but it does keep the GAS at bay, at least for a Tele. Still want that Short scale fender or a Baritone. But that’s another story.