What does a PS3, 7-string guitar, being 18 and a pipe have in common?...

Give up? I shall tell you: They are all things I have wanted for a while now (Not necessarily in that order). So far I have 2 of the 4: 7-string guitar and being 18.

If any of you read my post about my quest for a 7-string guitar, this may interest you. In the end I bought the Agile Interceptor Pro 727 EB Silverburst (For those who don't know, I shall put a picture up). The guitar and case's cost overall is just over £580, which makes it the most expensive guitar I've got so far. I absolutely love it to be honest... It's a BEAST!! That's all you really need to know, unless you really want to know the details and stuff.

Here's the picture...

The second thing (As I said at the beginning) is that I'm 18. It's good to know that I can get alcohol whenever I like, but so far there's only been one occasion where being 18's been quite handy. I am sure that there'll be more before the rest of my friends are 18, seeing as it's only been one week since my 18th.

4 guitars (Well, 5 really) and I'm 18, there's not much else I could need to be perfectly honest. But...

For no proper reason, in the past few weeks or so I've wanted to have a pipe... I don't have a proper reason why, I just want one. I think a pipe'd look cool in the same colour scheme as my Agile (My new guitar that's in the picture in case you'd forgotten).

Hopefully I can have one for Crimbo. Oh yes...

The 4th thing: PS3. It is a possibility that I'll be getting a PS3 for Crimbo. If I do get one for Crimbo, I shall be asking for Killzone 2 ('T'is good) and also possibly Infamous (If anyone's got any suggestions for good games for the PS3, suggest away!). If I do get those other 2 things for Crimbo, there's almost nothing else I'll want, so I think Birthdays and Crimbos are gona be even more difficult for my family to get me presents.

Even though it's only been just over a week since I bought a new guitar, I'm already doing research for my next guitar-related-purchase: A Loop/Delay pedal. I think after I get one of those, I'll be sorted guitar-wise.

So far my guitar and gear list is:

4 x Amplifiers. Use 1 (Marshall MG50DFX). 2 are in my garage (Rockette something and a double Vox amp)

1 x Pedal (So far). Zoom G2.1u - 'T'is pretty decent, but there are better pedals out there, but they cost about 4 times more.

5 x Guitars. Nylon Acoustic Guitar (Don't use it much), Yamaha Pacifica (I've put thicker strings on it for lower drop-tunings for Metal), Ovation Celebrity Deluxe (Acoustic), Fender Telecaster (Blues mostly) and an Agile Interceptor 727 EB Silverburst (Everything else).

Those are the main things that I have for guitar, quite a lot really (especially cash-wise).

I shall leave it at that for now peoples.

I'll probably be doing another post after Crimbo,

unless I have something to say before then... Which I doubt.

One other thing: In my last post I've listed the songs I wrote so far, well I've now got

another two songs, part 17 & 18 (Part 16 is a song that's mostly Calum's for our band).

Catch ya later.

Bye for now.

Little More...

Still on the subject of guitar and music (Or mucus as my Dad calls it) - I thought I'd do a post about my songs so far. For those of you who don't know my songs have been titled Work In Progress (I usually call them WIP on msn 'cause I can't be bothered to type Work In Progress all the time... It's a lot of letters). I have currently reached WIP part 15 (I did have an idea for part 16 but I can't remember it now, but no matter, I'll come up with something eventually).

So far they've been quite a mixture of genres I'd say. Here's a list of the songs with a very full description.

Part 1 - Metal (Drop-C tuning). Rather bad since it's the first song I wrote, could do with going through it making things better, but I can't be bothered, I'd rather write new stuff.

Part 2 - Metal again (Drop-C tuning again). Wasn't much better than the first one (Except for the fact it had a solo and drums, and I think the solo's rather good), until I started to go over it a couple of days ago and, with a bit of help from Calum, edited and added bits in to make it sound and flow better and make the solo easier to play.

Part 3 - Melodic Acoustic (Standard tuning). The first song I wrote using one of the seven musical modes, D Mixolydian. Isn't that long of a song (I think I got bored of it), rather nice, relaxing, soothing sounding song (Unless you're listening to it on Guitar Pro then it's not so soothing or relaxing sounding).

Part 4 - *Deep voice* Heavy Metal! *Ahem, resume normal voice* (Drop-B tuning). I like this song, but I doubt many people that're reading this would like it but that doesn't matter. I'd love to play this in person as I have harmonies and octaves in the main riff and in other parts of the song. But I need to add drums to it... I think I've given Gareth a copy of the Guitar Pro for him to have a go at adding drums for me.

Part 5 - Heavy Metal once more! (Drop-C tuning). The intro's one of 2 riffs I've made up to try and catch out Beanz while he was trying to drum along with me. Sounds a bit like Funeral For A Friend in the Chorus-like part of the song. Only have 2 guitars and I haven't completed it yet.

Part 6 - Melodic Acoustic again (Standard Tuning). I was sat at the computer one night with my Ovation practising some songs when I realised the dishwasher was making a consistent thump sound and I ended up making up a few bars to the sound of the dishwasher... Need I say more?

Part 7 - Heavy Metal once more again! (Drop-C). First song where I've put some proper drums in and it has the other riff I made up to catch out Beanz on the drums and I turned it into a battle between the guitar, bass and drums with Metal riffage. Yet again, another song I haven't completed.

Part 8 - My attempt at an Emo sounding song with Orchestral Instruments (Standard tuning). I haven't completed it yet and the song's based around the Em9 chord which is quite a sad sounding chord and also it looks like the word Emo (Some of you just looked back). In case you're wondering it's no-where near as good as many classical musicians, namely Bach.

Part 9 - Rock/Metal (Drop-D). I used the song Just A Glimpse by Inme as inspiration for the song but just by chance when I was making it up I could tell that it wasn't in the standard time signature of 4:4 and it turned out to be in the time signature 14:8. It remains unfinished as I'm typing, I hope to finish it and put a solo in it somewhere at some time.

Part 10 (Beginning To End) - Rock/Metal again (Drop-D). I made up the main clean riff one day and kept playing it over and over and over and over on my guitar, so I thought I should write it down so I could get it out of my head. It's probably the longest song I've written so far, even though I haven't properly finished it yet. Also, I'm gona be using it for one of my Music Technology coursework's.

Part 11 - Rock/Metal once again (Standard). I was gona use this for my Music Technology coursework, but I'm now using part 10. Haven't written much at all. I've written it in E Phrygian, as if anyone cares about that... Anyway...

Part 12 (Dedicated To Charlie) - Acoustic (At the moment) (Standard). I made this up randomly, don't really know what key it's in or if I used a mode. It's a rather mellow sounding song. And don't ask about the name... 'Cause I don't know.

Part 13 - Rock/Metal (Standard). I last worked on it with Gareth on Thursday, can't remember exactly what I played, which is why it's blank at the moment.

Part 14 - Metal or Heavy Metal, depends which tuning I choose (Either Drop-D or Drop-A). It's called Industry and it's gona be very Metal... Haven't got much else to say since I haven't started writing it yet.

Part 15 - Heavy Metal (B-Standard). It's called 102 Damnations, inspiration for the name came from 102 Dalmatians and Slayer, never before have those two things come together like this (And I don't think that the Dalmatians have been used as inspiration for a Heavy Metal song before). I haven't got much to say about this one either as I haven't written anything for it yet, but It's gona be my first 7-string song (Part 14 will be the second, if I actually decide to write it in Drop-A, as I've sorted this is gona be 7-string before it).

Part 16 - I did have something for part 16, but I can't remember it...

Anyway, that's the best description I'm gona be giving of my songs so far. Oh and btw, there's no lyrics in any of them, at the moment they're purely instrumental. Unless I suddenly gain the ability to come up with lyrics, then I'll put lyrics in them.

Hope you enjoyed reading this. There'll definitely be more songs and I'll put more posts about them in case people enjoy reading this.

Catch ya later.

Bye for now.

My Quest For a 7-String Guitar

As the title states, and as some of you probably know, I'm looking to get a 7-string guitar for my 18th birthday which is 13 days away. And all I've managed to do in the past couple of days is make the list of guitars bigger...

Before Friday I had my eye on the Ibanez S7320 (There are pictures in my last post) but when I came online on Friday I had a few offline messages on MSN waiting for me from Calum with a few links to the website Rondomusic.com showing me another 7-string guitar from a company called Agile, that guitar was now on my list. Then, I had a browse through the website and saw another 2 guitars, an 8-string (Reeeaally nice, I'll put a picture of the guitar after this paragraph. I also found a Bloodburst version of it, looks pretty nice too) and a 7-string which was the same model as the first but in a different colour and slightly longer (The length probably means nothing to non-guitarists or even makes sense to some guitarists reading this). But still, I had added another 3 guitars to the list in a few hours.

But after doing some research on Stringbusters.com and Google I noticed that there was no such thing as a pack of strings for an 8-string, and the only way I could get strings for the 8-string would be a 7-string pack and a thin bass string, which to me seems like too much hassle. So the 8-string was stricken off the list not too long after being added.

The looks and reviews of the Agile guitars were making me think more about the Agile's than the Ibanez...

These are the 2 Agile guitars that I was torn between on Friday and Saturday (Since the Ibanez was pushed to the back of my mind, also notice I said 'was torn between'). Even though most of the people I asked which one they preferred went for the Green, I went against them and decided that if I was to get an Agile, it'd be the Silverburst mainly because of the colour but also because it has a longer neck (If I wanted the Green one I'd be pretty gutted since they're out of stock at the moment and they're out of stock on the 8-string I looked at, so just aswel I chose the SIlverburst).

But I'm not 100% going for an Agile, as I listened to some Youtube reviews of the Ibanez S7320 and it sounds pretty good, so I don't know where I'm going at the moment with 13 days left until my 18th.

Either the Agile Interceptor Pro 727 EB Silverburst or the Ibanez S7320 (And either in Black or White)

I Do Not Have Anything To Do

Hello again reader, you are part of a small minority that bother to read my blog when I say that I have a new post on my MSN, be proud my friend. Anybeetroot, quick summary-ish-like-thing: As per usual I've not done much since my last post besides planning going to Cardiff on Saturday with my Dad to, hopefully, get a 7-string guitar and in white if I can. This is the guitar in White and Black.

My parent's said that they'd be willing to pay up to £300 towards the guitar, the price of the guitar is £540 and luckily I have the other £240 exactly, but after getting it I'll have about £10 left. That should be fun (!).

Anyway, onwards and backwards, I'm sat here at the computer with Slayer blasting in my headphones, just need alcohol and I'd be fine. Well maybe if Jade came online it'd improve some more. I honestly can't wait until 2 weeks Saturday, things'll hopefully perk up after the 21st, I think most of you can probably guess why.

My memory stick is still missing in school, I haven't actually lost any work from losing the memory stick, but I'd still like it back, seeing as it's got 12 of my songs on it and I do not want anyone nicking them. Also, if anyone's taken it as a joke, depending slightly on the person, I'll batter them, so good luck to them *thumbs up*.

I'm still sitting, waiting and wishing for a car even though I know the cost is too much unless I get a job... Which I can't be bothered. It'd make some things a lot easier if I had a car as I wouldn't be nagging my parents for lifts. But I think I'd have to get Converse or something, seeing as my current Vans are quite big and when I drove my mum's car my shoe was hitting the wheel arch while I was on the accelerator, either that or the front of my shoe would be bending against the top of the accelerator, I just can't win...

I think I'll leave it there for now.

Can't be bothered to type more to be honest.

Goodbye for now.

First post (again...)

Somehow all of my previous posts have been deleted... I have no idea how... Anywho onwards and backwards

Since there's a lack of posts on my blog I'm not sure where I left off... So I shall do a quick recap of my life up to the past few days

School. Bit fed up of school to be honest, can't wait to go to Uni. I have had quite a bit of work to do, like everyone else in my year. Apart from the past few days, I have been reading through notes for Physics and Electronics, while trying to fit in writing and editing songs on Guitar Pro for Music Tech and sketching for DT, 't'is very joyful. But I chose them so I'll have to just try my best.

Outside of l'ecole. To be honest I've done almost nothing outside of school, a couple of weeks ago I went to my nan's to do some gardening... Don't think I've done anything else. What an eventful life I lead. The only things I really remember are the sixth-form party on Thursday night and then over Calum's house yesterday (Friday) to today (Saturday).

Sixth-form party was pretty good, had quite a bit to drink (Pint of Carling and 12 shots of Black Aftershock, which tastes like a cough medicine). Don't really remember that much - the main things I remember are: talking to Amy not long after arriving at the party; talking to Ellen; getting drinks off Calum & Rhys; giving Ellen my jacket; getting Aftershocks; talking to peoples; getting out of the Maltsters; waiting with my friends for lifts; then getting home; sleeping for 2 hours not long after getting home. Very detailed descriptions, I think you'd agree (!) Since Thursday I've only have between 2-3 hours sleep and I'm not doing that bad considering I normally have around 6-8 a night. Should sleep well tonight considering the amount I've drank since Thursday too.

Now to talk about going over Calum's. It was good fun - playing on the PS2 + eating Dorito's with salsa & melted cheese + drinking lots of lager & also Mickey Finn's (Couldn't get any Aftershock) = frickin' awesome. Got over to his at about 6-7, I thinks, with games and films and such. Calum and I had got the lager (2 x 10 can crates of Stella Artois) and Mickey Finn's (Raspberry I think) on Wednesday and carried them about 1.3 miles (According to Google maps) to his house.

Back to going over Calum's from the beginning if I can, most of it will be a bit hazy. If I remember right we tried to see if any of my games would work in his dodgy PS2 that he got from Ebay, whilst drinking some Stella... Already my memory's hazy hahaha, I think we started playing Killzone, but I'm not entirely sure. I remember Lewys arrived after a while when I was on my third can. We put Dorito's in trays with salsa and cheese (I say we - I really mean Lewys and Calum since I was a bit tipsy and I'm useless at cooking in every way, so I just watched), then the fun started. Going from racing to shooting games and taking in turns to play whilst eating Dorito's and drinking Stella and Mickey Finn's, was pretty awesome. Ended up watching Hellboy at about 1 in the morning, I fell asleep for about 40 minutes at one point, Calum threw the Hellboy DVD case at me to try and wake me up... I didn't wake up, I woke up after a while with the Hellboy case on me and a bowl of crisps, I still can't remember getting them (Calum said he brought them in, but I don't remember getting them... Unless he threw them at me aswel as the Hellboy case) I think I'd had or was having my 6th lager at this point, Calum was on 3 or 4 and Lewys, I think, was on 2. Calum and I were hoping to make a pyramid out of the empty cans, but we didn't manage to finish all of them and we had about 6-7 left by Saturday morning - I took 4 home and Calum's sister took the others. So, that's the alcohol covered, game-wise Killzone was our favourite game even though we sucked and couldn't aim properly, it was still fun even though we sucked, we also played Juiced, a racing game, which was quite fun, seeing as I was easily over the drink-drive limit, but I still won and I even lapped Calum.

These past few days have been quite a lot of fun, but it's been at a cost, quite literally, for the booze from Somerfield and also the party. Also, in total I had consumed 31.2 units of alcohol, the recommended weekly intake for a male in 21 units (if you didn't already know), and I had 31.2 in under 36 hours, almost a shot an hour (Sounds like a measurement of speed...). Anyway, although it was fun, in the long-run I wouldn't really recommend it, since I've been training for years, also it's in my blood... In more ways than one.

I think I'll leave it there for now.

Goodbye avid reader.

'Tune in next time for the great adventures of Sir Digby Chicken Caesar. Dun dun-dun-dun da-da daa da daaaaaaaaaaaaa'