Leave it for someone else - saying "no" to "the wanting Creature"

I left a good deal hanging on the pegs. If you can find a Peavey Predator, one made in the 1990's and made in the USA, and in good shape, snag it. I believe they play and sound much better than a USA Fender Strat. Or let me put it this way, you can tweak them, like someone tweaked the Predator I've got. What a range of tones, from fat to lean, from SRV to country and, put it the neck pickup and that's a fat, fat tone. I like the jumbo frets too. Peavey spared nothing to make this a very fine instrument. OK, that said, I left one hanging. I Could have had it for $100 bucks. Why walk on a deal like that? Delbert McClinton sings a song titled, "Too Much Stuff". Listen to it. That's why.

Its OK to say you've got enough. Rumi has a poem called "The Wanting Creature". He tells the story of a frozen snake that someone buys and thaws and when they thaw it, it turns out to be "the wanting creature". Rumi says once thawed that beast can never again be tamed. I'll never tame it, but every once in a great while, I say "no" to it.

I get caught between wanting and too much stuff. Right now one Peavey Predator is enough...right now!

Gettin' ready to smile for a couple of weeks

My wife says I smile for at least 2 weeks after a gig. I'll be subbing on bass for the guy who usually plays for Danny Duristanti. Danny and I met purely by chance. I stopped at Picker's Paradise Music Store in Stapleton, Alabama, just north of Foley on Highway 59. Its famous for being next door to Jody Payne's house. Jody's the guitar player for Willie Nelson since 1973. Last time I was in the store, Jody was there talking to the owner about how to get some kind of better sound out of something. I just listened. Five years ago I stopped and Danny was there with his old Guild acoustic. I'll strike up a conversation with anyone and did with Danny. He's quiet and thoughtful and he gave his phone number and said I could call him about playing rhythm guitar for his duo. I did and ended up, without ever practicing with them, doing a New Year's Eve gig at the now defunct "Three Spirit's Sports Bar". He invited me back, this time to practice! I met Joel, the guy who eventually built me a boat. Joel played bass. This Friday and Saturday Danny and I will be at Live Bait at the Wharf at Orange Beach, AL. You can Google it. Danny hails from Cleveland, Mississippi and is very proud of his Delta Blues upbringing. We'll do a lot of old time delta blues, some country, some Tom Petty, and if we need to, take a break. We like to just play. There's so little time to just play. Danny's good, real good! Our music makes me smile!

People who know how

He fixed it in five minutes. I had indeed reversed the polarity on the 2x12 cabinet. I did it at the input plug. I read somewhere that most folks who fail at fixing something do so because they don't look at the problem long enough. He looked hard at the input plug, found the connection for the tip and the stem and made sure the hot side and the ground side didn't swap sides somewhere in the muddle of connections. I plugged my Crate Powerblock into the speakers and my Ibanez classical guitar into the Crate amp. Sounded really good. I'll use the cabinet with my bass rig. I'm subbing for the regular bass player in a duo. The gig's at an outdoor bar at a local Marina, 5pm - 9pm. That's what I enjoy doing. I never know what song is coming next. I watch and listen and learn. Most of its 1,4,5 blues songs, occasionally something more complex. My job is to keep the root of things intact, nothing fancy, basic bass guitar: be there on the first beat. I can do that.

If its fixed, don't break it.

I bought an old Peavey 2x12 ported bass cabinet loaded with scorpion speakers. It came from the factory 4 ohm. I used it several times as part of my bass rig. I use a Peavey 2600 stereo power amp and a Peavey Bass Max preamp. Great sound till I decided I'd change it to an 8ohm cabinet. If its fixed, don't break it. I didn't really know what I'd done to it. But I eventually sold it and eventually bought it back. The guy I sold it to couldn't use it. He said it sounded real flat, no resonance, etc. I called a buddy of mine and asked him if he could return it to 4 ohm status. He said, "that's easy and I'll check the polarity. You have to make sure you have your polarity correct. If you don't, the speakers more or less cancel each other out, sound flat, no resonance." Hum. I guess I screwed up the polarity. Is this a parable? Kinda! Here's a quote from Walter Wink, a guy who studies parables:

"Parables are tiny lumps of coal squeezed into diamonds, condensed metaphors that catch the rays of something ultimate and glint it at our lives. Parables are not illustrations; they do not support, elaborate or simplify a more basic idea. They are not ideas at all, nor can they ever be reduced to theological statements. They are the jeweled portals of another world; we cannot see through them like windows, but through their surfaces are refracted lights that would otherwise blind us -- or pass unseen... Nor can parables ever be exhausted; they always contain more than we can tell. They are the precipitate of something ineffable; they percolate up from depths wherein the Kingdom itself is working its ineluctable work. They come from the same energizing reality that causes the seeds to germinate and the leaven to rise. They rise with the leaven. "

Maybe you'll discover a parable among your old guitars and stuff.