Wiardgroup

RE: half a mil for a 58 Les Paul. I LOVE Les Pauls (even though I'm a
bass guitarist); in fact, had a used '76 (bought in '80 for $400) as
my first "good" guitar. And proceeded to run it through a Boss DS-1,
Small Stone, into an Acoustic 50 watt guitar amp with built in
overdrive and reverb. After that much processing, could anyone tell
the difference between that and ANY other guitar with humbuckers? I
dunno. I sold the guitar for the same $400 in '97 when I moved to
Vermont. I figured I got 10 years out of it for free, and I knew it
was in the hands of a player (my friend from Kinko's, Derek) who would
actually USE it...

RE: Buchlas, Wiards, etc. I also LOVE my modular (W/F City, Wogglebug,
Omni, Borg. All bought b-4 the price increase, but NOT cheap, along
with some Analogue Solutions modules and a Doepfer basic system). When
I lived in Vermont, I could wheel the rack down the block to the art
gallery we played (the Firehouse, if anyone's interested). Here in New
Orleans, the last show consisted of what I could fit into a Coke crate
(Nord MicroModular, minidisc player with some background ambience,
AKAI MPC 1000, and a Nintendo DS with Electroplankton and NanoLoop,
and a Boss Digital Delay pedal). I recreated the analog modular
patches the best I could in the Micro, and played over the minidisk
pieces with the rest of the gear. I'd have to say that as far as
audience reaction post show, there was at least as much interest in
the cheap/small gear as I used to get for the modular. And these were
mostly gear-heads. Just goes to show you that as long as you deliver,
it doesn't really matter what you use. For creating in the home
studio, NOTHING beats the hands-on creative rush from the modular, but
the "toys" are exciting also, and a hell of a lot easier to take to a gig!

To make a long story longer, make some music using whatever you have!
When I was in college, our professor asked "How many of you are
composers?" We all raised our hands. To which he asked "Then why
aren't you composing anything?" Even if 90% gets thrown away, keep
composing!

-andrew