My Guild Starfire III

Starfire-III-2
Originally uploaded by DixiePistols.

These days I mostly play my acoustic guitar. In fact, I last played one of my electric guitars on a regular basis back in high school. But, I do have two electric guitars, a Les Paul Delux from the 70s and a Guild Starfire III that I bought new, circa-1997, and pictured to the right. Guild is a funny company. They're mostly known for acoustics, not electrics. They got bought by Fender in 1995 or something, and since 2005 when they were merged in with Tacoma Guitars, they haven't made any electrics. Still, I always liked the Starfire, and I remember it playing well and sounding good.

Recently though I've been a lot more excited about electric guitar. I chaulk this up to some massive Guitar Hero sessions. Unfortunately, while my guitar still looks good, it's got some, uh, serious tuning issues since returning from its prolonged vacation. For one thing, it won't stay in tune for more than a couple of songs, even after I replaced the strings. Partially I attribute this to the Bigsby tailpiece. (Seriously, why did I ever get this? Did I think I was going to be in a Rockabilly band or something? The Starfire IV is basically the same guitar but with a regular tail. That's what I should have gotten.) But mainly I attribute it to the floating bar bridge, which I am only now coming to understand. Which brings me to my next issue.

The intonation of the guitar was also totally F-ed. For those of you out of the loop, when a guitar's intonation sucks, a string could be perfectly in tune when you strike the open note, but then flat or sharp when you strike a higher note. In my case, about 1/2 a step flat (!!!) when hitting the 12th fret.

See here's the deal: Basically for a very long time I did not understand intonation. I am only just beginning to understand how it works and how to fix it. On most guitars it's not too bad. Take this Epiphone Casino for instance. It's got a Bigsby, but it's also got a bridge that's screwed into the body, and a tune-o-matic bridge. With this guitar you can easily adjust the intonation by using a screwdriver and moving the little bridge piece for each string forward or backward.

Now check out my bridge. First, and more obviously, it's not no tune-o-matic. This is called a bar brige (I think) and it means that you cannot individually adjust the intonation for each string. That's not so bad. But if you look closely you will see that my bridge is NOT screwed into the guitar's body. Only the tension of the strings keeps it in place, so to adjust the intonation you just push it back and forth, which honestly feels really wrong. I wouldn't have done it if this forum I found hadn't confirmed that this was "best practice."

Anyway, the result is that it's much better, and I'm glad I know how to fix it, but it still needs a little work. My tastes in guitars has changed over time. At this point in my life, the only thing I care about at all is whether or not the guitar stays in tune. That's it! (Okay, this is not entirely true, but it's close enough.) My Acoustic, for instance (a Taylor 814ce) basically never goes out of tune, and always sounds great. I love it. My Guild still looks cool, and is sounding better, but still needs some TLC. Kids, get yourself a guitar that will stay in tune.

Why Georgia, Why?

The Georgian
Originally uploaded by DixiePistols.

When I got back from school today, I had an awesome surprise waiting for me... A $35 bill from the Mozart management group. Apparently, you see, when you get locked out of your apartment and you call them to let you back in, they aren't just letting you back in out of the goodness of your heart. I wish I had had a little heads up on that one. I would have tried harder to use that Domino's Pizza placard to jimmy open my front door. I guess I can understand in some sense. I know that it was my dumb fault for getting locked out, but it still sucks for me. Back in college, I used to lock myself out all the time! The DPS guys were always happy to let you back in. (I think they liked the conversation. They seemed a little bit lonely.)

Anyway, thinking about the Georgian, made me think of that old John Meyer song, "Why Georgia?" Since I have sort have been trying to get back into guitar lately, I thought I would give it a shot. (I found a decent tab online.) It's a neat song, especially the bridge, which is short but amazing. It's also a little bit harder than the things I've been trying to play recently, so I was really happy to be crank out a half-way decent version. Niiice!

Finally, since I had nothing else to do, I was watching a little TV, and I found myself watching "Crossing the Line," the story of some teacher who, uh, had an illicit affair with one of her 8th grade students. The whole show struck me as a little bit ridiculous. They were definitely playing up the whole, "she's really attractive" angle, and seemed to be asking her about a lot of the details... The whole thing just struck me as a tad bit creepy. Normally, committed sex offenders don't usually get a whole hour of TV time to tell their side of the story. It was a little bit amazing that they thought they could pass the whole thing off as news, but whatever I guess.

Update:
Oh wait, sorry. I am not sure if she has actually been convicted, so I may have spoken too soon. And yes, I guess I am still watching it...