Thread for Old BossArea Memebers

[DasBeef]

Not exclusively. Don't want to alienate anyone. Just wanted to check in, say hello, and see how you all are.
Not been posting much lately, on any forums to be perfectly honest. Not been the best at keeping in touch with anyone to be honest. Sorry. You know who I'm apologising too.

Anyway, I thought I'd start this thread, just as a 'blether' thread for anything goes chat. I've not been messing with any equipment lately and therefore feel I haven't had much to contribute to the forum. I do still regularly check in. (And GAS a bit for those Waza pedals or whatever they're called) Since I last posted I have joined a band, unjoined a band, visited NYC, San Fran and Vegas, been to Stockholm, then back to NYC and then Chicago. (Actually only got back a week or so ago). I have also started brewing beer. Being a beer hound for so long, I finally decided to find out exactly how it's made first hand. Making 5L (1 gallon for our US friends) batches. Feel I have sucessfully conquered American style IPA's, but struggling with stouts. On brew 11.
I have also bought a ukulele (so much for not messing about with equipment huh?).....

....and learned how to play the Super Mario theme tune. (I'm delighted with that by the way)
I have also sold my old house and now reside permanently (for the time being) in Edinburgh. If any of you are visiting and like beer, whisky and food, I'd make an excellent tour guide. Don't be shy. If you want culture, well, I'm sure there's an app for that!
So how the hell are the rest of you guys?

[natthu]

Hey Beef,

Good to have you back
You've been sorely missed.

We may be coming to Europe early next year. If we do, I'll see if we can drop past Edinburgh. I still have not been there.... maybe I'll bring my uke, or better yet, my U-Bass
...we can rock out...

I've been slowly moving away from music gear myself (I've sold 4 guitars and about 20 pedals in the last month... and maybe I've bought 5 pedals... so net loss).
I've tried out most of the gear I've always wanted to. So rather than messing around with gear, I'm now concentrating a bit more on learning to play better.

Nothing much else to report. Same old same old here.

[Laurie]

Who are you calling "old"?

[Dirk]

You! you grumpy old bastard!

Hi Beef, great having you back!
Hope you stay a little longer this time, or frequent more often.

Speaking of beers, I'm a fan of Blondes and Triples myself, mostly Belgians. No, I'm not referring to girls for all you non-beer drinkers out there!!!

[The_Doc]

Hi Beef. Great to hear from you

I've been guilty too of neglecting this forum a bit. I've been changing my life and adjusting to early retirement and, more recently, welcoming my new grandson to the world - man, he's only a month old but what a little time stealer he is !

I've also started up a new blues band side project, whilst still working with my covers band. The covers band has now been going for over 12 years with only one band member change over that period; which must be unusual ! I can't think of a better way to spend my time but it is surprising how much effort it takes to learn and arrange new songs, put sets together, rehearse & prep for gigs and recording, etc, etc.

I've also been spending a little time away in Italy with Mrs The_Doc and in my usual haunts in the UK - Cornwall & Devon.

I still have incurable GAS and although I'm almost finished finding every Boss pedal I 'need', there are still many more out there from other builders that can light my GAS fire

So, please, forgive my reduced post count and, hopefully, I'll be back here more often in future.

[Franzoni]

Howdy all

Nice to still see some familar faces....

Congrats on the grandchizeller Doc.... ...similar story here....busy with the family and keeping the band on the road i do most of the legwork these days it's almost a full time job.....!.... also trying to get a second more blues/rock based outfit up and running for fun on a Sunday afternoon or odd midweek gig ....

I got a message from DeFrag so i told him about this thread hopefully he swings by....

[DB Cooper]

Hey Beef! Hey all!

I haven't been around much, either.It's cross country season - and I am an obsessively committed coach to my 90 runners, so that leaves little time for anything else. Of course I love it, and wouldn't have it any other way, but my own fitness and certainly my playing take a backseat during the in-season. In reality, I coach all year long, with winter conditioning, spring track & field, and summer conditioning - but it's the fall and spring seasons which really consume me.

But I still check in occasionally - and like to see how everyone is doing!

Cheers!

[Franzoni]

Good man DB...important to keep the fitness levels up.....especially when one is trying to keep one step ahead of the Feds... ....

My kids have followed us into the swimming and the Water Polo also keen Gaelic footballers and hurlers..very important these days with so much junk food and crap constantly pushed into peoples faces.....i don't have much time with the band and stuff.. but Mrs F is coaching and giving the benefit of her experience ...

[The_Doc]

Thanks Franz - I think the new grandchizeller is a tube screamer in disguise - well, a screamer at least

It would be great to see DeFrag here - I remember him - a really interesting guy and very knowledgable & helpful. If you do get in contact with him again, please say hi from me. Thanks.

Hope the gigging is going well - it looks like you've got a few regulars now. I like those - it's good to get to know the audience

[Pepe]

Maybe you have noticed that I haven't contributed to the forum too much in the last months, because I have been very busy lately. I have moved with my family in late October and in the meantime things are running smooth in our new and bigger flat. But things have become rough at work in the small music shop. The owners, who run the shop on their own for several years now have gone through severe health problems in the last third of 2017. I only work there on saturdays or whenever my wife has a free day at her work and since autumn I help my bosses out, whenever my wife is at home with the kids. Seems like the shop will be closed forever later this year. Sad to see an era end this way.

On the other side I have been successfully busy with repairing my gear. In the last few weeks I finally fixed my KORG Trident 8-voice analogue synthesizer. Big thanks to our dear nathanscribe who helped me investigate what could be wrong - and also thanks to cctsim, although he might have forgotten about his helpful e-mails in the meantime, because it has been almost two and a half years that this enormous beast didn't show any sign of life. For a long time I haven't had the energy to approach the problem. But now the synth is running again and after a proper calibration it sounds better than ever. My three kids love it. Nice to see that my second son finally shows interest in making music - or at least cool noise. At the moment I still have another problem child - my KORG Mono/Poly that seems to have power problems somewhere. Synths can be time-consuming if they don't run as they should. But successful repairs are so rewarding!

I will come up with a few great demo videos in the next months. Last Thursday a friend gave me his BOSS CE-1 so I can try it out for a while. Expect to see a cool video soon!