I was thinking about some of the odd habits I have when it comes to playing guitar and I’m wondering if I’m alone (or crazy).
1. Wash hands with good soap and dry thoroughly before playing. I also use a little rubbing alcohol on my hands from time to time, it seems to remove oil. Yep, my hands are dry and I love playing with super dried out hands. (Winter is my favorite time to play guitar)
2. I use one guitar at a time and put on fresh strings. After 3-4 weeks I choose another guitar and restring it. This allows me to spend time with each of my guitars and I can’t be bothered to change strings on all of them all the time. I like fresh strings.
3. I always wipe my strings down after playing.
4. boveda packs for winter. I load all of my guitar cases with Boveda packs in the winter to keep humidity at a safe level. Expensive, But they work great. I also use the Boveda packs for my cigars.
5. Warming up a tube amp, I usually wait around 15 minutes, probably not needed, but I like to let it sit a while. (Usually while washing hands)
6. I use a decibel reader to check my volumes. What a great little device to keep the neighbors happy and to save my hearing.
7. Happy little accidents. (Bob Ross on guitar). I’ve found that making mistakes has also made great discoveries for me on the guitar. Oops! Wait a minute, I like whatever just happened. What is that chord?
8. Spinning in circles to make the noise go away from my noisy single coils. My wife asks “why are you standing in the corner have you been bad?” I just tell her it sounds better standing in odd places and yes, I’ve been bad.
9. Watch guitar centers deal of the day every day, I never buy as many seem like scams but I’m always curious what will pop up. Add daily craiglist searches and eBay to this ritual, I’m always looking for good deals. Also, too much time here on the gear page.
10. Warm up with guitar scales for 5-10 minutes. I’m getting old and if I leave them I played too long I seem to forget.
I know I’m nuts, I don’t mind sharing,
1. Wash hands with good soap and dry thoroughly before playing. I also use a little rubbing alcohol on my hands from time to time, it seems to remove oil. Yep, my hands are dry and I love playing with super dried out hands. (Winter is my favorite time to play guitar)
2. I use one guitar at a time and put on fresh strings. After 3-4 weeks I choose another guitar and restring it. This allows me to spend time with each of my guitars and I can’t be bothered to change strings on all of them all the time. I like fresh strings.
3. I always wipe my strings down after playing.
4. boveda packs for winter. I load all of my guitar cases with Boveda packs in the winter to keep humidity at a safe level. Expensive, But they work great. I also use the Boveda packs for my cigars.
5. Warming up a tube amp, I usually wait around 15 minutes, probably not needed, but I like to let it sit a while. (Usually while washing hands)
6. I use a decibel reader to check my volumes. What a great little device to keep the neighbors happy and to save my hearing.
7. Happy little accidents. (Bob Ross on guitar). I’ve found that making mistakes has also made great discoveries for me on the guitar. Oops! Wait a minute, I like whatever just happened. What is that chord?
8. Spinning in circles to make the noise go away from my noisy single coils. My wife asks “why are you standing in the corner have you been bad?” I just tell her it sounds better standing in odd places and yes, I’ve been bad.
9. Watch guitar centers deal of the day every day, I never buy as many seem like scams but I’m always curious what will pop up. Add daily craiglist searches and eBay to this ritual, I’m always looking for good deals. Also, too much time here on the gear page.
10. Warm up with guitar scales for 5-10 minutes. I’m getting old and if I leave them I played too long I seem to forget.
I know I’m nuts, I don’t mind sharing,
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