What guitar gear have you bought/are you buying/will you buy?

[cptgone]

^
She sure looks pretty, Bombadil

[The Noodlist]

I'm suffering burnout and depression (and early stage arthritis and presumably Alzheimer).

Cannabis does many things for me, including: lust to play.
(It also gets me in the mindset to get the creative juices running, but that's not the problem, I fully realise I can be creative sober, too)

Good luck with things.

I've had a long-time lack of motivation, often feel fatigued, even after waking up when I used to feel fresh and ready to take on the world as a youngster.

For me, it seems to be late evening when I feel like making music. I once did a recording stoned decades ago and thought it was really good, until I listened back sober, it was terrible, I realised I need to sober. I also found I can't play after alcohol, not touched the stuff since 2016.

[Bombadil]

It’s a shame you feel you need to be stoned to make music.

Not the case

I'm suffering burnout and depression (and early stage arthritis and presumably Alzheimer).

Cannabis does many things for me, including: lust to play.
(It also gets me in the mindset to get the creative juices running, but that's not the problem, I fully realise I can be creative sober, too)

Sober, I can't be arsed, and if I do try, I don't enjoy it.
I adapt by switching to mundane things to keep me busy.

Finally, the injustice and hopelessness of prohibiition doesn't help with my depressed state.
I've been on the receiving end of the War On Drugs for 34 years now. I feel beaten, done for.

I've been struggling to survive the last 4.5 years, cannabis helped me cope and recover.
Now I'm going backwards again, just as I was picking up the pieces, determined to get the things done that matter to me, while I still can.

I truly know how you feel. Feels like never being able to get to the water's surface in a dream, no matter how hard you swim.

[cptgone]

Thanks Bombadil, it's nice to hear I'm not alone.

I also found I can't play after alcohol, not touched the stuff since 2016.

Same for me. I've tried many times, thinking "if The Pogues can do it, why not me?" but don't enjoy playing under the influence, and when I forced myself the results were terrrible. Even half a glass of wine at lunch rendered me useless for 3+ hours.

Thanks for your support and thoughts.

[WatchTheGuitar]

Bought a cheap acoustic 12 string which has had good reviews, but so many reviewers have a connection with the products that I never know quite what to believe. It arrived today and I have to say I think it's an absolute bargain. Was beautifully set up with a low action and unlike the shitty Ibanez I bought a while back that had dead spots and bad frets, it was in great shape straight out of the box. It arrived at 2 PM, I tuned it in 5 minutes, even the built in tuner is great, and the next thing I know is it's 4PM and I've got a big smile and what more can you ask from a guitar?
It's one of these,

https://www.andertons.co.uk/acoustic-de ... gany-satin

I was really surprised too that I could plug it in and get away with running it through effects and my monitors and got pretty loud without a hint of feedback.

[Bombadil]

Nice!

[WatchTheGuitar]

Absolute bargain for £259. Has done an absolute number on my fretting hand fingertips though. Ouchy.

[Bombadil]

The beauty of that is strengthened hands and harder fingertips. Makes playing the others effortless.

[donkey tugger]

The beauty of that is strengthened hands and harder fingertips. Makes playing the others effortless.

Really weird innit going back to playing a six string after a twelve. A few years back I played nowt but 12 string for a few weeks and it was strange going back - felt like stuff was missing (6 strings!) and the neck was far too narrow.. Soon reacclimatize though.

[vurt]

The beauty of that is strengthened hands and harder fingertips. Makes playing the others effortless.

Really weird innit going back to playing a six string after a twelve. A few years back I played nowt but 12 string for a few weeks and it was strange going back - felt like stuff was missing (6 strings!) and the neck was far too narrow.. Soon reacclimatize though.

how is it after not playing anything but 6 bass for a while?

[donkey tugger]

The beauty of that is strengthened hands and harder fingertips. Makes playing the others effortless.

Really weird innit going back to playing a six string after a twelve. A few years back I played nowt but 12 string for a few weeks and it was strange going back - felt like stuff was missing (6 strings!) and the neck was far too narrow.. Soon reacclimatize though.

how is it after not playing anything but 6 bass for a while?

Disappointing.

[vurt]

[Bombadil]

I'm thinking of getting some Gibson '57 PAF clones for my Stanford LP. Probably for my birthday, later this year.

[Hink]

It’s a shame you feel you need to be stoned to make music.

Not the case

I'm suffering burnout and depression (and early stage arthritis and presumably Alzheimer).

Cannabis does many things for me, including: lust to play.
(It also gets me in the mindset to get the creative juices running, but that's not the problem, I fully realise I can be creative sober, too)

Sober, I can't be arsed, and if I do try, I don't enjoy it.
I adapt by switching to mundane things to keep me busy.

Finally, the injustice and hopelessness of prohibiition doesn't help with my depressed state.
I've been on the receiving end of the War On Drugs for 34 years now. I feel beaten, done for.

I've been struggling to survive the last 4.5 years, cannabis helped me cope and recover.
Now I'm going backwards again, just as I was picking up the pieces, determined to get the things done that matter to me, while I still can.

I truly know how you feel. Feels like never being able to get to the water's surface in a dream, no matter how hard you swim.

I quit cocaine (a drug), in 1993 (weed to for 4+ years), ftr I have not touched it since 8/26/93. The band I was in back in the day was all about coke, we sold it, we muled it, and it was always there. My gf and I would get to where we practiced, look at each other and say "ready"...walk in the the door

f**k you

no f**k you, you're an asshole

you're a douchbag, I dont know why I am with you

Then the drummer who had the connections and our supplier too would say "ok you guys meet me up in the back room, I want a good practice tonight".

I did get to the point where I could not play without cocaine, it was horrible and that first year after quitting it's amazing I didnt say f**k it and OD, or trash all my gear out of frustration.

Of course at the time I had no idea about PTSD, it was 3+ years after quitting (everything, including weed and drinking, everything and I used instead of 12step programs CBT and Rational Recovery) that I had my accident.

Weed is not a drug, it isnt a matter of playing high or anything else like that. We believed at first that my PTSD was from the accident but it wasnt labeled as that at first. For the first few years I struggled, but my doctor gave me valium (some people might remember in 06 I ended up in the hospital, the only time I have been admitted to a hospital my entire adult life, because of the valiums my doc gave me...valiums are a drug).

It's a matter of functioning with a disability, I am on no pharmaceuticals right now, in the morning I take a multi vitamin, at night I use over the counter sleeping pills if needed (Unisom, the active ingredient is not benadryl like most sleep pills, those are what the VA gave me too and they cause extreme restless leg far to often for me). After being diagnosed with PTSD when my sister died in 02 we discovered that my PTSD was not from my accident and in fact from a huge trauma at birth and the following few years.

Weed has helped give me the quality of life I deserve, that was with therapy with qualified therapists and a lot of groups as well. Like I said I used Cognitive Behavior Therapy, PTSD is irrational, the thoughts are relentless, waking up from nightmares (where I actually like a true scary dream these are much more upsetting but usually without a fear aspect in the dream).

Lets go back to valiums. I wake up in sweat, rocking, scared, almost always it's an anxiety attack in my dream that woke me. I start my 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, grounding techniques, take a valium and wait, and wait, and wait still doing the grounding stuff...should I take another?

Weed, it's right there, two or three hits and I can stop the grounding techniques, do I need another? I already can answer that, the results are close to immediate. I might not be back to sleep again for a bit but the physical reactions to my anxiety attack are already subsiding, with valium I am looking at the clock...in that same period of time? "Oh look, I only have 55 more minutes before this should kick in".

In 1996 after my accident* I moved from my home of 6 years the week after, I was suppose to the day after my accident. I moved to an area where I knew no one and my home quickly became a prison. A relative passed and left me 5k, I bought a yamaha 4track, a drum machine, a bass guitar and lived in the darkness if my livingroom studio until I met Denise in 98. At this point I was drinking very heavily (vodka, lots of vodka) and when I dont typically drink and play as it frustrates the crap out of me.

I was lost, completely...one night I decided I was done, I blew out pilots, turned all the gas on, I had a liter of 100 proof vodka and I sat in front of my stove with a shot glass figuring eventually I would pass out and not wake up. I was getting pretty drunk, getting sappy, crying and all. I saw my Kramer guitar (that I had just bout 3 or 4 months before this wit a lucky scratch ticket of 400 bux), thought I can come back, but I cant die without playing one more time. That has become a way of life with me, I gotta play one more time.

Then in 97 I thought, why the hell am I drinking, getting sicker, getting fatter, looking like crap so I bought a bag of weed. I do not not drink, but since Denise dying and I dont drink alone the last alcohol of any kind was March of 18. I am at the weight I should be, I am doing well and I have no doubt that I would not be here today if not for what weed did for my ailment.

*I actually ran over an 8 year old girl with a school bus, just to be clear. She is fine now, the bus went completely over her and only the back axle hit her hip. (ftr she got 3.2 million dollars and a great education, for which I am very pleased she did so well)

[Bombadil]

That's a rough road, Hink. I do beg to differ on cannabis being a drug, though.
I have mixed feelings about weed, tbh. I spent a good chunk of my adult life without it or booze when I was in uni and when I was working. It's only been since I started having health problems that I decided to break my 'fast' so to speak.
It's likely I would've found some way to end it through my chemo last year without the weed. It truly made it, if not tolerable, at least not unbearable. My mixed feeling comes with how lazy cannabis makes me. I don't have decades in front of me, and I want to be 'here' as much as possible. That said, time for my nightly decarb.