From The Top

New gear, old, wet gear re-furbed, old gear new to us. It's time to bury the dead and move on. Rehearsals started a couple of days ago in a secure, dry place in Nashville. We've got cardboard everywhere as we unbox shiny new toys/tools and put them to use. We've got a few old favorites still drying out but refusing to give up their place. We've got some killer used gear that is now new gear to us, including an exceptional Martin D-35.

The silver lining in the Nashville flood is the opportunity to make friends with new instruments. After playing the same guitars, basses, mandolins, drums, etc. for years, you get to know them well and their faults and shortcomings are known and unconsciously ignored or adjusted for. New instruments feel foreign initially and have their own faults, which you will discover over time. This keeps things fresh, I guess, and it's been less painful to say so long to old friends than I imagined it would be.

J. Bouvier has provided us with some amazing mandolins, both acoustic and electric. Two Martins have joined the new Gibson J-45 in the vault. All new wireless, racks, workboxes, hand tools, tuners, pedals, everything.

It's kind of fun to start over...but, as is the case in the flooding, once every 500 years or so is often enough.