Daily Driver...

 

Definition:  A personally owned automobile driven on a frequent basis for standard and mundane tasks.  Alternate term: a grocery getter.

Wow, those make it sound boring.  I've heard some motorcycle/scooter folks who have multiple bikes refer to the one they use most often to commute as the above definitions. 

It works with other vehicles, too.  If I had a better option for parking on our property, the van would be my daily driver.  We do take it out when going further than to our local Fry's... like today, when we made a run to Sam's.

 I just like driving the van.  :-)

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I mentioned the Marshall amp I bought online.  It was scheduled to arrive today "between 1:00 and 5:00 pm."  Close.  It showed up around 5:20.  It was well-packed, wrapped in about 40' of bubble wrap.  Good thing, because the UPS driver plopped it off the two-wheel cart like it was a bag of potting soil.

Joan and I worked together to unroll and roll all the bubble wrap.  And there it is - it is used, but looks to be in excellent condition.  Digging further into the box, I expected to find a foot-switch pedal (to run the boost and an effects loop)... nope - no pedal.

I called the GuitarCenter.com number - they are actually quite efficient there: they knew who I was and that my amp had just been delivered.  I explained the situation with no pedal and Ben (the guy at the other end of the conversation) said, "Let me give you the phone number from the store that sent that out - if they still have the pedal, they'll get it sent out to you."

"IF??"  I called the store and didn't get an answer.  I called back to the GC online number and got someone else besides Ben.  This guy said, "I have your order pulled up and there is definitely supposed to be a pedal with that amp - it's right in the photo.  I will contact the store and have them get it sent out to you."  That's more satisfying than the "IF" from Ben.

I tried the store number again, someone answered, was very efficient, also, and said, "Let me get a manager for you - we'll get you taken care of."  The manager came on, knew what was going on, and said, "Let me go down to the floor; can you hold for a minute or two?"  Yep.  She came back on, said, "I have your pedal in my hand, and we will get it over-night shipped to you, going out tomorrow.  I'll e-mail you a tracking number."

People say a lot of crap about Guitar Center (OK, I have been one of those people), but they took care of me with this situation.  I can see how the pedal could get moved from one amp to another and missed.  But, they are making it right.

So, how's the amp?  Thanks for asking.  After getting off the phone, I plugged it in, grabbed my Virtuo (the reason I bought this amp), plugged it in and... it sounds great!  I didn't crank it up much, but I could get everything from a delightful clean sound to some nice "crunch" (what Marshall amps are known for).  It doesn't hurt that the Virtuo is designed to be a very versatile guitar.

Next up: I plugged my Emerald X10 into the Marshall.  The X10 is an acoustic guitar that just happens to have an electric humbucking pickup and individual piezo pickup on each string.  Generally speaking, acoustic guitars don't sound great in amps designed for electric guitars (that's why they invented acoustic amps).  It took a few adjustments on the tone controls, but I can get a nice tone with this guitar, too.  Winning!

 Joan is happy with the sound of it (she likes electric guitars)... but she did say, "That is louder than you will ever have to have it in the house."  Hey, it's new (to me) - you have to "open it up a bit" to see how the amp handles it.  For the record, I never had it even close to half on the volume... without any "boost."

This is the same model amp I used at my friend Allan's place, and those guys play loud.  This little amp isn't going to fill a stadium with volume... I have majorly cut back on my stadium gigs, so it should be perfect for the playing I'm doing with my music buddies and give me that rich tube sound for recording.  I'm looking forward to running it through its paces.

Joan reminded me: "Don't wear your fingers out tonight and tomorrow - you have about 3 hours of playing out to do on Saturday evening."  She didn't seem overly concerned about that when I was playing for her and Murphy this morning.  ;-)