With 170-something dollars left on my Daddy's credit, and no obligations for this fine Saturday, I drove up to one of their New Hampshire stores. Bigger selection, no sales tax. Heading off to a music store on a sunny Saturday just put me in the mood for hard "guitar music" rock. I grabbed Deep Purple, Aerosmith's latest album, Helloween's cover tune CD, and after reading a review of it, good ol' "Love It To Death" from Alice Cooper.

I looked around Daddy's for a long time. I already bought a great compressor/limiter rack. Or I'm at least assuming it's good; I haven't set it up yet. It's so damn hard finding room -- physical space -- for ANYTHING. I got a somewhat decent microphone, and a drum machine. The reverb on the recording software should be good enough. If not, I have that ancient rack collecting mold in the basement. And I have 4 basses.

Oh, wait-- I'm a bass player, aren't I? That's what I hear myself first say when I'm aksed about my hobbies. But I don't play every day anymore. I don't have that dying enthusiasm I used to have. I do still pick up my bass though, and after playing for a little while realize "OK, yeah, I still have all my chops." It was only tonight after I got home that I picked up one of the many issues of Bass Player magazine I still get and had hardly opened, to read a review of the piece I bought tonight.

So I tried out lots of big multi-effect units for bass. Damn, they don't make them like they used to 10 years ago, when you had at least 2 different parameters for each effect. I already have a Zoom unit that does that -- a little of everything, but a little of everything.

Anyway, I walked out of there with a great d.i. box and a shirt. I'll admit, the salesman's tactic of mentioning "you get $3 off any clothing for every $100 you spend" did work on me. But it was still a damn cool black Ernie Ball t-shirt. The total cost was only $5.03 over what was left of my credit. The box kicks ass. If I'm going to be sitting in a chair in front of a computer in a crowded corner of my room, a tiny box that adds what I need should be great. The distortion includes my absolutely necessary parameter knob, "mix". This thing is built like a tank too. And who knows, maybe, just maybe, if I play a show again, I'll now have a d.i.

I know plenty of people have this stern attitude of "new gadgets or better guitars won't make you a better player." Well, no kidding. But musicians and artists do run into walls where the ideas aren't coming, or the enthusiasm for the art is hitting a low. I do think getting a new gadget is certainly one way, even if it's not the only way, of getting more inspiration or enthusiasm. It worked when I got the 5 string bass a few years back. And the new MXR box seems to be doing the same thing now.