As I mentioned back in February, I am again playing in a band (Note: In the updated version of the link to the band, it is me in the photo). I feel particularly fortunate, having fallen into a band that plays music from the Sixties — Poifect! Great fun, doesn’t begin to describe it. There are, however, some downsides and upsides when it comes to equipment, and those depend on whether the particular piece of equipment in question is simply “old,” or whether if has managed to slide through “old” and enter the world of “vintage.”

For example, the guitar I’m using in the band (this one looks like mine) qualifies as “vintage.” It is a Paul Reed Smith unit that I bought new back in the mid eighties. It sounds great. I naturally thought that my Shure Microphone, purchased in the Sixties, was also “vintage,” until I heard our keyboard player’s mic. I immediately realized that even though my mic sounded good, it was not “vintage. It was just, plain old.

I bought myself a new mic, one just like the one the keyboard player uses. I am stoked to put it through its paces this coming Saturday. Yo! Elvis is in the room!

Of course, all this got me to thinking. Am I “old” or “vintage?”

I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hope Door Number Two is the answer.

I think that at one time or other everyone learning to play guitar has blamed their difficulties on too-short fingers.

Phooey!

When I was a little boy, my father was the smartest man on earth. He stayed that way until I reached high school, which is when he began to become not so smart. By the time I was in college, he had become hopelessly dumb. That remained the case until I was approaching my mid-twenties, when a strange thing happened. He somehow began to become smart again. Amazingly, he became smarter with each passing year, until at the time of his death, he was again the smartest man alive.

Funny how that worked out.

Happy Fathers’ Day, Dad.