Heavy metal thunder

When I was in Toronto last week, I tried out a fancy guitar in the music store that had a certain sound I wanted. In particular, what I wanted to achieve was the sound a guitar has when you take two pickups and coil them together, making a heavier more solid sound. Such pickups are called "humbuckers."

When I got home, I remembered that I actually have a loud, obnoxious guitar with a humbucker. In the 1980s, I bought one of those hairband guitars, a Kramer - a guitar popularized by Eddie Van Halen.

I don't know why I bought it to tell you the truth. I tried it in the store, and it could achieve a wide variety of sounds - from the mellow pop rock that dominated the era, all the way to the cheesy hair band rock that came in a close second. But I was in a blues band - I didn't really have a use for such a modern sounding instrument, did I?

I guess I liked the look of it - the sleek lines, the dark aqua-blue finish. It looked like a sports car more than a guitar.

Anyway, this guitar has been sitting unused in my basement for ten years. So last night, I thought, "What the heck", got it out, and spent a couple of hours dusting it off, screwing in all the loose screws, changing all the strings, and polishing it up.

Then the moment of truth - I plugged it into my recording machine. After I engaged the humbucker, the first chord I struck sounded like eighties hairband rock. So I struck another chord... and another... I tried to resist... I really did... but I ended up recording a bunch of hairband rock last night!!

I'm so ashamed!