Blues Be Gone

Didn't take long to bounce back, I'm not one for sitting around and moping about what I could have been or done or had, I picked up my guitar today, turned on my amp, used my distortion pedal and played along with some blues backing tracks that made me feel a whole lot better.

I've come to realize over the years, it's not about what guitar you have and what it sounds like on its own, although that's pretty much what you get with an acoustic. I do have an acoustic that I like to just grab and play from time to time but when I'm in the mood, I like to rock out with an electric.

With an electric, I'm sure that different woods, electronics in the guitar, the amp and speaker quality all play various roles. I've seen lots of videos where sound comparisons were done with various instruments, amps and accessories, to show how much difference each component makes but the bottom line is, an electric guitar is just a piece of wood, with some sort of inductor to pick up the sounds and or vibrations of the strings and fed into an amp, with or without various effects pedals altering the signal being amplified.

Component prices that should make the biggest differences don't always perform as expected, a poorly made expensive guitar, amplifier or effects pedal can sound worse than an inexpensive but well made guitar, amp or effects setup. If you eliminate the overly pricy or cheap trash, you'll discover that you can pretty well get whatever sound you are looking for with whatever's available. Of course, there is another factor that needs to be taken into account and that is the skill of the musician. The best equipment available isn't going to make a beginner sound anything else than a beginner.

For somebody to get the most enjoyment out of playing, and that should be the ultimate goal, not trying to impress people or make a career out of it, but just to play for self enjoyment, one needs to have gear that makes the experience enjoyable. I used to play a Gibson Les Paul deluxe but I have to say that I enjoy playing my Squire Telecaster, which costs less than one quarter the price, much more. It's a lighter guitar, with slimmer neck and no nonsense controls and a joy to play.

So, for anyone looking to start playing, I would say, try a few different ones in you budget range, avoid the hype of more expensive is better and find something you feel is the most comfortable to play. Don't worry about the sound or components, those can always be changed, just find something comfortable and that looks well made. Taking along someone more knowledgeable about guitars is helpful but don't let their prejudice about different brands influence your final decision. After all, once you get home, you'll be the one playing your guitar and not them.

Feeling a bit down right now, apparently I won a random pick on a YouTube channel, but I need to text the person using a format I am not familiar with and apparently it only works on a phone. I have a cell phone but it's a really basic model that lets me receive and accept calls, which, surprise, is the only reason I have a phone. I don't have a data plan, as I have enough trouble seeing stuff on my 22 inch monitor. So, even if I won a really special prize, I cannot contact the person using the format they requested and as such I have to give it a hard pass. The sun will still rise tomorrow and as I wouldn't have had this item anyways, I will survive. Kinda wonder what I would have won though. Oh well, time for bed, nite all.

The nice thing about blogging is that I can pretty well post whatever I want and nobody gives a crap.

This was going to be another rant about Windows 11 but life's too short to rant long and I have a big mess to clean up so stay frosty!

Life Goes On

 I told you the sun would rise today.

Speed of Light Limit

Yeah, a bit of a ramble coming up as I am not, nor do I pretend to be a theoretical physicist. On the other hand, theoretical means that any thing goes as long as it can be proven or disproven. I remember as a youth, watching a video where the narrator mentioned that common belief was that if someone where to travel faster than 10 miles an hour, they would suffer serious trauma and perhaps even die. This was a stupid belief, and not really a theory, as people had been riding horses and other animals for years and horses can run at speeds of thirty miles an hour. So, if this was a theory, then it was busted a long time ago.

Fast forward to current times. The current thinking is that the speed of light is an unbreakable speed limit. While I don't question this, I do believe that there are circumstances where this might be (I almost wrote circumcised) circumvented. I believe the speed of light is directly tied to gravity. "So what?" you may say.

So lets look at the primordial "big bang". Actually, let's look before the big bang. All the known matter and energy, anti-matter, anti energy(? maybe, maybe not), dark matter, dark energy and whatever else may have been out there, was all drawn together into one tiny point of existence, for one tiny infinitesimal period of time. Interestingly, for that tiny period of time, it was possible to reach any part of the universe instantaneously.

This was the ultimate black hole, a gigantic gravitational force that for an instant, defied all attempts at escape. Of course, this resulted in the big bang but I believe that whatever started the the entire universal contraction is still at point zero, generating an enormous amount of gravity affecting most of the universe, I say most because this is where my uneducated theory comes in. You may laugh and scoff at my lack of understanding even a tiny amount of physics but I too can see what I see and base theories on those observations.

According to what I have read and heard, galaxies on the edge of what is currently the universe have been observed to accelerate beyond the speed of light. All kinds of theories exist, none that I understand but what I propose is this. The speed of light is determined by the most significant gravitational force affecting that light. What am I talking about?

OK, say you have a universe with only two objects in it, a five kilo mass and a one kilo mass that is orbiting the five kilo mass. As long as that occurs, the five kilo mass affects the speed of light. The one kilo mass may have some influence but it's not the most significant source of gravity.

Now, for some strange reason, the one kilo mass begins to accelerate and slowly begins to pull away from the five kilo mass. As it moves away, it begins to speed up and move away at a faster rate until it reaches escape velocity. Now it's free from the five kilo mass but if the one kilo mass stopped moving in relation to the five kilo mass, it would slowly return.

Now we place a light source on the one kilo mass. Even though it may be travelling faster than the five kilo mass, the five kilo mass is still affecting the speed of light as it's the most significant source of gravity. But then, one day it happens, the one kilo object travels to a point of where its gravitational significance is equal to the five kilo mass. Still, the light source is influence by the five kilo mass.

But then, the one kilo mass becomes significant as it moves further away, and becomes the reference for the light source. Observers on the five kilo mass will observe the light violet shifting as it begins to accelerate beyond the speed of light on the five kilo mass, but even though the observed light is moving faster than light on the five kilo mass, it is not accelerating according to the influencing gravity.

Eventually, the one kilo mass may even reach the speed of light but to any observer on the one kilo mass, the speed of light has not changed. To the observers on the five kilo mass, there is no light. This is similar to the Doppler affect but is not the same as the light beam is not being compressed or expanded. There is no change to the wavelengths of the various spectrums.

So, take it as you will, a way of looking outside the box or the ramblings of a tired, senile, old man. As most theories go, it makes no difference at all, as most likely, the sun will still rise and set tomorrow even if we don't see it.

I've noticed a few times on YouTube, people post videos about their "collections" or something else about their "possessions". I wonder how many people actually care, okay, maybe a few but in reality, as a person who hates clutter and maybe has one or two of certain items because they're expensive. I feel these types of posts are nothing but self indulgent drivel.

As a guitar player, I subscribe to various youtubers and it seems like every year they have to post and boast about their guitar collections. Who cares? Do you enjoy playing? Good for you. That's what is important, not what you have. I have four guitars in my "collection", one is a not working Gibson Les Paul Custom that I played to death as a working musician, a very nice Squire Fender Telecaster with humbucking pickups that I really enjoy playing, an Epiphone DR-100 which is actually very playable in spite of having 13 - 56 gauge strings, and a 12 string Vester Acoustic that I don't play any more because twelve strings are now too hard to push and I'd rather play my six string Epiphone.

So when I see a posting that starts off with "My best 10 guitars" or even more laughable "I have over 100 guitars...", I think to myself, so, open an bloody store or maybe, these people have a store and are just advertising. I would like to replace my poor dead Les Paul custom with perhaps a Sire Larry Carlton L7 2022 or whatever the going model year as I think these are way nicer than my Gibson and if I did and liked it, I would be getting rid of my telecaster as I don't need anything hanging around gathering dust. And that reminds me, if I get a good offer on my twelve string, with hard case, it's gone.

I'm loving this blog cause it seems like nobody ever reads it and if they do, nobody comments. That makes me think i can post whatever I want. So today's topic is about the way youtubers announce their new streams. I mean look at their faces. It's like somebody hit them in the face with a pie except that there is no splatter, just an expression of utter amazement. Whaaa?? I said what???? Yeah, like your content is a big surprise. Okay, stop trying so hard. If your content is really that amazing, people will watch. Oh well, I get a bigger kick out of their expressions than some of their content.