One of those days

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Every single guitar related thing I have done today has resulted in utter chaos and failure.

I had been working on the rythem section for this song forever. I put it on ice when I started BLIM last spring. Then I forgot about it and started working on it pretty hard. It’s a meaningful song to me. I have the bulk of the song down and the small Solos down, and I transcribed the final and main solo last week. I have been working on it heavy since. I have it to speed now. I was thinking great oppurtunity to test out my new equipment.

Scarlett 4i4 and Shure SM57. I Downloaded a DAW, installed it the other day. The installation test worked, I heard sound, so ok its working. I have watched some videos the last few days, yea its softwear, I get it theres a learning curve. I just want to record a acoustic guitar and then another track of vocals. 2 channels whats the big deal? How bad can it be right?

Well lets just say it was way more difficult than I had expected. After a long time I finally got it to record some test test test patterns both chamnels, but. No play back. I must have spent another 90 minutes trying to understand why i xan not her the play back. Uhg.

Ok. You know what? Yeah Whatever.
I will not be stopped. I will record with my phone. I am doing this song.

So I set up the extra cell phone , set up a second one and load isolated bass and drum tracks on laptop. I did 2 attempts but each time my blue tooth speaker with the base and drum kept cutting out and i realize I have been stopped, it is now dark. This was not happening today maybe I can still do something befor dinner. Yes I have spent all day working on this. Walk away before I get too frustrated. :laughing: no biggie. Ok I have some acoustic guitar repair work waiting for me.

Number one job. A large tear out on the front side the head stock inbetween tuner holes and I have the new turners and I have fixed the neck pocket its just waiting for me to to do this last part before I can screw on the neck, string her up and test. Soesure once cut 3 tumes right. :ogre:

I always find relaxation with wood work so I put a movie on and got a chunck of walnut and got to work. I was doing great, cut a nice section of walnut with my Japanese saw. Everthing was the correct length width looks great and comming togeather nicely. Now to get that depth right. So I started sanding i dont have the power eqipment set up so its all by hand right now. Im ok with that. Like I said. Fuuusaaaa. Calming. Haha. I get it down so the depth would be just right acording ro my gauge. And I am already thinking about strings when suddenly as I am going to seat it in the spot its not correct. Somehow, I have no idea how, the piece is significatly shorter than it is supposed to be. This is impossible for anyone, well anyone but me.

So 10:35 saturday night, my sweet loving wife is grouchy because she got a bad hair color job and I missed dinner after she called for me 2 times. lol I have done the impossable and compleatly blown another 3 1/2 hours and wasted whole day and evening. :flexed_biceps:t2:

At the end of it, it was actually alright, because it happens to us all, poor planing or just bad luck, or being distracted. Sometimes setbacks just happens. I will just try again on Monday maybe again Sunday night if possable but unlikely due to an event I must attend. Ultimately its for fun and learning and no one died at work on my shift, my family is healthy, and I learned a few things about my DAW.

Also while tapping this out on my phone I am wondering If I maybe grabbed the wrong little piece of walnut on my work bench at some point and the good piece is sitting on the floor or maybe under the neck, just waiting for the sandpapper. :laughing::joy: that would be just about right. Haha maybe our puppy ate it.

I hope I didnt bore you all with my spewing of my trials and tribulations of todays blown weekend guitar work. I am sure everyone is familiar with setbacks. Rock on, head up, no surrender.

:victory_hand:t2::love_you_gesture:t2::sign_of_the_horns:t2:

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Sounds like you have really had one of those bad guitar days. I’m certain most of the people in the community know such days all too well. I sure have had my fair share of them.

Exactly. And honestly, how boring would it be if everything would always just work straight away? Maybe sometimes such small setbacks, where no real harm is done, are even useful to make sure that small successes get to celebrated in the end.

Sounds familiar. I don’t have a Scarlett but I have a Behringer UMC something something, and when I first started using it, it frustrated me to no end.
As to the DAW… What DAW is it? There are surely people here, who can help?

What? :dog: Your puppy will have taken it as a trophy of course… :nerd_face:

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It is days like these that make the successful days all the more pleasing. When things like the part not turning out to be the exact size needed, it usually is because I cut on the wrong side of the line. It happens :anguished_face:

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You mean that isn’t normal for you? ;). It is for me!

All I can say is “sequences”. (Amazon link, read the first few paragraphs in the sample)

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Maybe i need to just fishing. :grinning_face_with_big_eyes:

Indeed this is a fact

Oh yeah I am sure but, just trying too many thing at once. I will figure it out, just venting and laughing. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

It would be awful

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Yep,

looked like it was “one of those days”. I know, i have 'em too. I think everybody has these some times.
There can’t be good without the bad.
Look at it this way, even if things went wrong, there’s something that can be learned from the experience.

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Jason, just wait until you have to pair your wife’s hearing aids to an iPhone running the latest iOS :rofl:

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I have those often enough. I’ve had to repair so many mistakes on my instrument builds lately that sometimes I just throw in the towel for the night, so to speak.

I’m getting ready to do the control cavities and I’m taking a TON of time to make sure I get my templates right. This is one job I definitely do not want to screw up. Last night I got the cover recess template and the full depth templates done for the uke - now I have to make one for the cover and that’ll take some tedious time sanding it to make sure it fits inside the recess template just so. And then I have to go through that same process for the guitar. As long as I’m not cutting anything on the instruments themselves, I’m not concerned about mistakes. But once it’s time to cut those - gah.

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We all have those days. You will have some good ones too :grinning_face:

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Hey Jason,
your post made me smile as it reminded me of when I’ve done similar things.
Then you realise it would have been better to listen to your wife (don’t tell her I said that :grin:) and go spend time with the people you love.
Later you can get back to your project with a fresh mind and get it done in no time.

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Well done Jason I know exactly were you are coming from mate, oooo do I not cheers HEC

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The good always outweighs the bad… hopefully :laughing:

Oh boy, she already has the selctive hearing. I can see it now. I will be telling her something of vital importance, She will look me dead in the eye and turn her phone off.

Very wise, I should make a sign and hang it in my work shop.

Good > Bad
Makes it all worth it :grinning_face_with_big_eyes:

Isn’t it almost always? I am so lucky to have her.

Thank you. I knew I could vent my frustration and there would be other here just nodding in solidarity and understanding. My friends in the Justin community never let me down.

:victory_hand:t2::love_you_gesture:t2::sign_of_the_horns:t2:

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Hi Jason!
Last year was “One of those Years” for us… lots of stuff happening & finished it up being nailed by a speeding pickup just after Christmas… nobody was hurt, thank goodness… hope 2026 is better!!!

Hope your year is better than this post, the title of which reminded me of this jewel by Eilen Jewell!

Wish me luck with my Christmas gifts… a new laptop, new audio interface (with Studio One DAW ) & new Eris by PreSonus monitors. All this new gear, my very first DAW… something is bound to knock me for a loop!!! :face_with_peeking_eye::zany_face:

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Oh man, thank god no one was hurt. Still that stuff can rattle you. My complaints are trivial honestly. And my year will be fine. I feel guilty for even complaining. I know looking back to just 2 years ago and instances from last year well yup. I always am trying to stay positive.

Now good luck with your gifts and your new set up. It seems like everyone has a little bit of a different set up. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: i guess they all work the same… sort of.

:victory_hand:t2::love_you_gesture:t2::sign_of_the_horns:t2:

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Car accidents definitely rattle one’s cage a bit!!!
That aside, when you’re having a “Day”, it’s always unnerving!

I hooked up my new monitors & the AI yesterday… been diving down a bunch of rabbit :rabbit: holes :hole: trying to figure out how to configure everything before I goof things up… the PreSonus Quantum ES2 AI came with a perpetual license version of Studio One Pro… my wife paid a few dollars less for the AI with the DAW than the price of the software… sweet holiday deal… but now I have to figure out how to get it up & running :roll_eyes::grimacing::face_with_spiral_eyes:.
At least the Bluetooth is working properly on the monitors! They sound pretty good!

Tod

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