Was invited to play with a band Sunday night. My first time Playing with people in almost 30 years. A friend was just brought in as the new drummer. He suggested me as a rhythm guitarist. I was pleasantly surprised that i hung in there fairly well. I knew none of the chord patterns for the songs, but when told by the lead guitarist, the changes i was able to keep up for the most part on all but one song.

I did not have a decent amp since i have been using software at home for the last few years and only had a Roland micro cube So i was down at guitar center and as i mentioned in another thread i bought a Fender Mustang III modeling amp. Here where it gets kinda interesting.

So I show up and set up my amp, and the lead guy comes in with a Marshall half stack, the bass player hooks up to a 6 foot tall Ampeg rig, and the singer is patched into a set of 4 foot tall PA speakers on the top of two massive subs. there is a full drum kit, and we are in a two car garage "man cave"! I am thinking i will be lucky to even hear my little Fender with one 12" celestion speaker. Believe it or not the little rascal busted right through the mix never set over "3" on the master volume. Great tone, in fact the lead guy asked me to turn down a tad once. (don't they always) grin!! I spent about an hour on my computer with Fenders Fuse software setting up the first 30 patches grouped by 3 or 4 cleans, followed by a couple nastier patches, and so forth. That Fuse software is great, and i look forward to really learning what it can do.

I gotta say this lead guitarist was very good, he could play anything, and well. Very innovative! The Bass player is solid as a rock, and anchors to the drummer like a barnacle. Oh and My friend the drummer he is pretty solid himself. I am certainly the weakest link (right now) Grrrrrrr!

Long story short I was invited back next week for a second look. Here is where the work begins. I already have charts on four of the songs done, and am practicing the chord changes. One cool thing is that they do a lot of original material, so they did not expect me to know it. Learning the songs should not be to hard as they are not super complicated. I hope to make the grade and play with these guys for a good long spell.

HP Win 11 12 gig ram, Mac mini Sonoma with 16 gig of ram, BiaB/RB 2026, Reaper 7, Harrison Mixbus 11 , Presonus Audiobox USB96