2018-2019

So 2018 was pretty interesting overall musically on my end of things. It started off with a jump to Anaheim at the NAMM show. Tons of cool gear to check out, and of course I came home with a YUGE case of GAS. I have to say though cooler heads prevailed and while I did get some new gear in 2018, I kept myself under budget.

My resolutions for 2018 were to Play more, which I did!

My original band, The Goodbye Theory, wasn't as dormant, we actually did a gig this year, ST Patty's day at the Hard Rock Cafe in Boston! The gig went really well, and it was fun to play live. I'm hoping we have more good gigs like that for 2019!

On the cover band side of things, we started off slow, but really got alot of gigs in the Summer and Fall. The venue we played at said in October "we're booked for parties for November and December, but if we have openings we'll call you", usually that's not a good sign. However we ended up with 4 gigs at the same place after that! The gig money came in handy as well!

Guitar setups, and getting any mods needed for my instruments, were also on the menu for 2018, and while I did get alot of those sorted, I still have a long way to go overall. It's mostly tweaking and some refinements. I did get my mustang properly sorted though. It took a bit of work, with some amazing trouble shooting and work from Adam of AF Precision setups, but It's now a really fun and reliable guitar to play!

Recording. I did do a bit of it at home, it's been a learning process for sure, and I got alot of help from my friend Rob. I know I haven't shared anything with you, but I have some stuff coming for 2019!

Less gear obsession. I did acquire some new amps, my Blues Jr & Boss Katana. Both at good prices, and made deals that the previous owners were happy with. Pedals, I did win a Groff Imperial, as well as acquired EHX's ocean's eleven reverb. I downsized my pedalboard to a Pedaltrain classic JR, and went with a gig bag. Once I got that dialed in, I was more than happy.

I did get a new guitar, my PRS SE 277 Baritone. It's made some appearances at goodbye theory practices, and It may have a place in the band. But I know I'm going to use it alot on its own!

My final resolution was to be more interactive, through instagram, facebook and this blog. After all the facebook stuff that's come out, such as security, and negativity, I'm kind of making small steps to use it as needed, like when I have a gig, or an article I did for the magazine goes live. I do love instagram though. Twitter is ok too. I did drop the ball a bit on this blog in the fall. I'll blame that on the fact I got a promotion of sorts, and a bit more responsibility.

So,I don't think I really delivered on that. I kind of hoped that this blog would become a bit more of a dialog between my readers and myself. I admit that might be tough, as more people tend to gravitate towards youtube videos for music stuff. But even then, looking at the comments people leave on youtube, perhaps Its better this way. I'll admit when I was at NAMM last year I was standing next to Mary Spender, and I was about to say "hey!" then I realized that while I do follow her youtube and instagram feeds, its not a dialog. I have done some youtube videos, and this year perhaps I'll dive into that some more.

Overall it's been a great year, and I'm hoping and working on making 2019 a great year in itself!