I have returned to playing music after a 6 year hiatus. I'm not sure why I stopped, I know my ex- (#4) absolutely hated my mandolin and seemed to be no fan of my guitar playing and singing. Other things, I guess, began to occupy my time. After losing so many activities I enjoyed, and a severe loss of energy, mostly due to the anti-seizure meds, I needed to find something I could do without having to leave the house and could pick up for a short amount of time. It was interesting to see I remembered how to play but couldn't make my fingers go where I wanted them to. I have been building hand strength and coordination for the past 7 months. To do so I have been collecting songs off the site Chordie, printing them out and playing through my folder, front to back, back to front. I've chosen songs from Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Gillian Welsh (Americana), Oasis (Rock), Chris Knight (country), Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, The Cure, and traditionals, just to name a few. I choose songs I like from any period or genre.
My chain is, either the Yamaha LLX26C or the Yairi 12 string (WY-1-12) (having electric pick ups) into a Zoom A2 acoustic guitar effects stomp box. The A2 offers many adjustments (47) to tone by adding reverb, chorus, delay among others. I only recently picked this up and have a fairly steep learning curse before finding the settings that work best for both guitars and any given song.
Next is the TC-Helicon GT-X which is a vocal harmonizer. I can basically split my voice into two harmonies, 5th, 3rd above and/or below what I am singing. On some songs the effect can be amazing. This seems to work best on Bluegrass, traditional and rock songs. There is also a feature called tone correction which helps by matching the vocals (either just one or with the harmonies) to the chords being played on the guitar. For the first time in my life I can hear myself sing.
After the harmonizer is the DigiTech Jamman. This is a device that allows me to play a phrase or a whole song and play it back and play over top of the original file. Then that part can be recorded as well. This can be done repeatedly. I have recorded the basic guitar and vocal track, added the 12 string and then the bass parts to create the whole song. It also serves as a great practice device to allow me to hear immediately what I have just played.
The signal is then sent to my Roland AC-90 acoustic guitar amp and also I use my Roland CB 30 bass amp through the subwoofer connection to add more bass tone to the track.
To record, I have a Zoom H2N recorder that I can use either with amplification or without. The sound quality is impressive. I can transfer the tracks to my Dell T105 (8 processors, 8gb RAM) for editing in the open source software, Audacity. I have yet to learn to match up the various, guitar, vocal and bass tracks into a coherent song.
When playing the Hofner Bass, I use my Sennheiser RS 120 wireless headphones. That way I can play without getting the tracks I'm listening to into the recording, making for a cleaner recording. Plus it is just great fun to blast Led Zeppelin into my ears and jam out on the bass. I have over 14,000 songs on my network attached 2TB drive, which can be accessed by any of my three computers.
You might be saying, "How can he afford all this?" I've been selling off the the things I no longer need or use. So for a guy who is somewhat housebound, I have lots to keep me engaged in new learning. My neuropsychologist thinks I've come up with a great way of engaging the various parts of my brain simultaneously.
I just discovered there is moderately high end guitar shop only 20 miles away. Moderately means $800 to $5,000. I plan on visiting soon, as my Guitar Acquisition Syndrome is is in full swing, lol.
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