Today was a very, very long day for me. I had to work with an engineer who is a particularly difficult fellow. Despite his Grammy awards, and amazing accomplishments, he is physically and emotionally draining to work with. Ironically, he is the only engineer/producer that I have encountered in my professional career as a musician that exhibits this behavior. When I got home tonight, after a 2 hour commute, I put my feet up in the recliner and did something most out of character for me - I drank 3 beers. I thought to myself, as I sat quietly there, and tried to understand what it was that was causing me so much stress, besides our engineer friend.
As I read back over some of my recent TTR posts, I realized that since arriving here on December 6, 2016, I have invested a considerable amount of time into posting. A very recent post, in which I dared to describe the results of much of my testing in the area of EFI/RFI and general line noise on guitars and amplifiers, I found particularly distressing. Even with You Tube videos posted therein, which described the exact same problem as I have experienced here - on what seems like an all-too-often basis - my conclusions were dismissed with the assumption that I was sufficiently unintelligent - to such a degree of specificity - that I was unable to find a simplistic ground anomaly in over 20 guitars that I had successfully shielded for my colleagues & clients in the past 3 months. The fact that a contrary opinion was interjected did not bother me in the least. But, what I took away from the debate was a clear and present inference that I had somehow defrauded my clients, because I had somehow missed the "obvious" ground problem, which I likely corrected by sheer accident when re-installing the guitar's electronics - and did so 21 times in the past 90 days.
Transparency has always been a very important thing to me. It is why I post under my real name herein and why even my stage name (Von Herndon) contains an identifiable derivative of my real surname. The fact that this forum is indeed public means that colleagues and clients - should they desire to do so either by intent or by chance - could view the debate and might very well take issue with this assumption that they had been somehow defrauded, whether by my intentional action or by my ignorance of ground circuit anomalies. While I do charge for my guitar services in some cases, I find my greatest pleasure in doing things for others. It is not uncommon for me to embark on a project and have a change of heart about charging for my services. I am known to be a very accurate information source and to be an honest individual in both my life as a musician and in my part-time role as a guitar tech.
I have had the pleasure to meet but a handful of TTR members in reality, but the experience has been a very positive one, both in reality and digitally as well. In my time here, I have been pleased to share my experiences, even if they sometimes go against accepted societal norms, or otherwise expose certain guitar brands (Gibson comes to mind) for their shortcomings when the popular response among Gibson enthusiasts is to blindly believe in their infallible design and execution, and to decry anyone who dares speak against 'The Firm' as a heretic. The Gibson 'Faithful' are the musical equivalent of Holocaust Deniers. They refuse to accept the quality control issues, even when faced with photos and videos to the contrary. But the worst part of this is that they convince the unknowing that the noise emitting from their guitar has to be "in their head," and as such, the root causes of their dissatisfaction with a newly purchased guitar is overlooked or ignored. I fear that I cannot blindly subscribe to such a point of view, and to that end and in any event, I am likely becoming only that much more unpopular each time I submit yet another unwelcome and opposing viewpoint.
I believe in both freedom of speech and in the individual freedoms of people to assert and voice their respective opinions, even if they might not be well received by others. I am against censorship without just cause and believe that my greatest duty as a human being is to be helpful and kind to others that I may come into contact with, whether it be in reality or digitally. I served as a police officer in California for over 20 years, served our country in the USNR as a force protection specialist for 8 years and devoted a lifetime to humanitarian and philanthropic endeavors. When I have had occasion to incur a debt, I have expeditiously reconciled that debt in full as soon as was possible and communicated openly when delays arose. I recall a line in a Merle Haggard song that Mom pointed out to me when I was a young lad "...and Dad, a quiet man..whose gentle voice, was seldom heard...he could borrow money at the bank..simply on his word.." Mom told me that she expected me to live my life to this standard. While I am anything but quiet, I believe that I have - and continue to - live my life and abide by the words in this song.
As I began to think back over the past year and a half, I looked at my post count herein. Where once I viewed those 17,000+ posts as a sort of badge of honor, I suddenly saw them as so much wasted time spent debating opposing viewpoints, or scale lengths or pickup design or other musical things. While it is indeed entertaining, I cannot help but think...what if I had devoted some of that time to playing soccer with my Son??? Or, practiced my part that much harder...or devoted some of the time spent posting 17,000+ posts to a better understanding of music theory instead of relying on my ear???
I began to look deeply into myself in hopes that I could find the root of my seeming 'obsession' with all of these posts. To some extent, I enjoy learning and I have found our staff and membership fraternity here to be a wealth of knowledge and so many of my questions have been answered here and I honestly believe that I could not have found the answers gleaned herein anywhere else. Interestingly, I communicate with TTR members more via email, voice and text than I do here in the forum. So, then...what is my fascination with posting sound-clips containing subtleties that nobody else hears or deeply technical writings, which must be some of the most boring content on the Web???
I think when we enjoy a hobby, or, at the very least, when we are passionate about a hobby, we find great pleasure in sharing our discoveries. I have always been somewhat OCD about things, which has manifested itself as both a blessing and a curse, and nothing could be more accurate than to compare this perspective to my musical pursuits. But then, if indeed we are passionate about the hobby, should we then not devote more of your time to the hobby than we do discussing it???
I am speaking here solely of myself without inferring anything upon anyone.
As I look back, I see where have found great pleasure in philanthropic ventures - such as the fresh water wells we made operational in remote regions of Nicaragua recently - a new Gibson given to a financially struggling guitar student - a Gibson SG given to a friend who dreamed one day he could find another to replace the one that got away...it's really nothing more than building a legacy of kindness and generosity.
As I write, I look across my studio and I see the Gibson Les Paul Replica I received from Adrian...adorned with many parts given to me by our friend, the late Kevin Paul. I see the ingenious switching box Smitty built for me...the frequently used A-B-Y box and Satchurator effect given to me by Rob V....the wireless unit sent to me by Don O...the Tube Screamer I got from ChasFred. Indeed we have a great culture here in comparison to many other forums. But, I wonder why I have not done more with my time??? While it is true that - in many cases - I will take hours to write a post - in little bits here and there - but at the end of the day, it is still time spent.
Yes, even though a few of my "folly" pickups have been donated to online friends - both locally and herein - and a few Von Herndon guitars have found their way into collections here and abroad, I am - nonetheless - just a regular guy who has been blessed with some extraordinary opportunities. As I sat in the studio today between takes, it became somewhat surreal to me that I was the only one in the room without either a Grammy or a nomination for a Grammy. While I rather enjoy my work in a cover band, I wonder what could I achieve if I applied myself more to my work???
Maybe it's time to take a break and re-focus my energy.....
As I read back over some of my recent TTR posts, I realized that since arriving here on December 6, 2016, I have invested a considerable amount of time into posting. A very recent post, in which I dared to describe the results of much of my testing in the area of EFI/RFI and general line noise on guitars and amplifiers, I found particularly distressing. Even with You Tube videos posted therein, which described the exact same problem as I have experienced here - on what seems like an all-too-often basis - my conclusions were dismissed with the assumption that I was sufficiently unintelligent - to such a degree of specificity - that I was unable to find a simplistic ground anomaly in over 20 guitars that I had successfully shielded for my colleagues & clients in the past 3 months. The fact that a contrary opinion was interjected did not bother me in the least. But, what I took away from the debate was a clear and present inference that I had somehow defrauded my clients, because I had somehow missed the "obvious" ground problem, which I likely corrected by sheer accident when re-installing the guitar's electronics - and did so 21 times in the past 90 days.
Transparency has always been a very important thing to me. It is why I post under my real name herein and why even my stage name (Von Herndon) contains an identifiable derivative of my real surname. The fact that this forum is indeed public means that colleagues and clients - should they desire to do so either by intent or by chance - could view the debate and might very well take issue with this assumption that they had been somehow defrauded, whether by my intentional action or by my ignorance of ground circuit anomalies. While I do charge for my guitar services in some cases, I find my greatest pleasure in doing things for others. It is not uncommon for me to embark on a project and have a change of heart about charging for my services. I am known to be a very accurate information source and to be an honest individual in both my life as a musician and in my part-time role as a guitar tech.
I have had the pleasure to meet but a handful of TTR members in reality, but the experience has been a very positive one, both in reality and digitally as well. In my time here, I have been pleased to share my experiences, even if they sometimes go against accepted societal norms, or otherwise expose certain guitar brands (Gibson comes to mind) for their shortcomings when the popular response among Gibson enthusiasts is to blindly believe in their infallible design and execution, and to decry anyone who dares speak against 'The Firm' as a heretic. The Gibson 'Faithful' are the musical equivalent of Holocaust Deniers. They refuse to accept the quality control issues, even when faced with photos and videos to the contrary. But the worst part of this is that they convince the unknowing that the noise emitting from their guitar has to be "in their head," and as such, the root causes of their dissatisfaction with a newly purchased guitar is overlooked or ignored. I fear that I cannot blindly subscribe to such a point of view, and to that end and in any event, I am likely becoming only that much more unpopular each time I submit yet another unwelcome and opposing viewpoint.
I believe in both freedom of speech and in the individual freedoms of people to assert and voice their respective opinions, even if they might not be well received by others. I am against censorship without just cause and believe that my greatest duty as a human being is to be helpful and kind to others that I may come into contact with, whether it be in reality or digitally. I served as a police officer in California for over 20 years, served our country in the USNR as a force protection specialist for 8 years and devoted a lifetime to humanitarian and philanthropic endeavors. When I have had occasion to incur a debt, I have expeditiously reconciled that debt in full as soon as was possible and communicated openly when delays arose. I recall a line in a Merle Haggard song that Mom pointed out to me when I was a young lad "...and Dad, a quiet man..whose gentle voice, was seldom heard...he could borrow money at the bank..simply on his word.." Mom told me that she expected me to live my life to this standard. While I am anything but quiet, I believe that I have - and continue to - live my life and abide by the words in this song.
As I began to think back over the past year and a half, I looked at my post count herein. Where once I viewed those 17,000+ posts as a sort of badge of honor, I suddenly saw them as so much wasted time spent debating opposing viewpoints, or scale lengths or pickup design or other musical things. While it is indeed entertaining, I cannot help but think...what if I had devoted some of that time to playing soccer with my Son??? Or, practiced my part that much harder...or devoted some of the time spent posting 17,000+ posts to a better understanding of music theory instead of relying on my ear???
I began to look deeply into myself in hopes that I could find the root of my seeming 'obsession' with all of these posts. To some extent, I enjoy learning and I have found our staff and membership fraternity here to be a wealth of knowledge and so many of my questions have been answered here and I honestly believe that I could not have found the answers gleaned herein anywhere else. Interestingly, I communicate with TTR members more via email, voice and text than I do here in the forum. So, then...what is my fascination with posting sound-clips containing subtleties that nobody else hears or deeply technical writings, which must be some of the most boring content on the Web???
I think when we enjoy a hobby, or, at the very least, when we are passionate about a hobby, we find great pleasure in sharing our discoveries. I have always been somewhat OCD about things, which has manifested itself as both a blessing and a curse, and nothing could be more accurate than to compare this perspective to my musical pursuits. But then, if indeed we are passionate about the hobby, should we then not devote more of your time to the hobby than we do discussing it???
I am speaking here solely of myself without inferring anything upon anyone.
As I look back, I see where have found great pleasure in philanthropic ventures - such as the fresh water wells we made operational in remote regions of Nicaragua recently - a new Gibson given to a financially struggling guitar student - a Gibson SG given to a friend who dreamed one day he could find another to replace the one that got away...it's really nothing more than building a legacy of kindness and generosity.
As I write, I look across my studio and I see the Gibson Les Paul Replica I received from Adrian...adorned with many parts given to me by our friend, the late Kevin Paul. I see the ingenious switching box Smitty built for me...the frequently used A-B-Y box and Satchurator effect given to me by Rob V....the wireless unit sent to me by Don O...the Tube Screamer I got from ChasFred. Indeed we have a great culture here in comparison to many other forums. But, I wonder why I have not done more with my time??? While it is true that - in many cases - I will take hours to write a post - in little bits here and there - but at the end of the day, it is still time spent.
Yes, even though a few of my "folly" pickups have been donated to online friends - both locally and herein - and a few Von Herndon guitars have found their way into collections here and abroad, I am - nonetheless - just a regular guy who has been blessed with some extraordinary opportunities. As I sat in the studio today between takes, it became somewhat surreal to me that I was the only one in the room without either a Grammy or a nomination for a Grammy. While I rather enjoy my work in a cover band, I wonder what could I achieve if I applied myself more to my work???
Maybe it's time to take a break and re-focus my energy.....
