the happiness, excitement, and general contentedness thread

[Kacey Y]

i have to ask: how did the person in the video know what dog poop tastes like? though that might be way more information than i'm ready for.

(I hope)

[BitchPudding]

Things are coming up Milhouse for my personal life. My daughter is gonna be starting pre school soon. Shes a little social butterfly so of course shes excited. We are too! (If not a little sad that our last baby is heading to school. :,) ).

My son's grades are up in math! Dude is heading to high school next year, so I'm glad to see him put in some effort to up his grades before he starts. Math ain't easy, I myself completely sucked at it. So I'm very proud of his progress.

I'm still waiting on the results of my ADHD evaluation from my Psychiatrist, but I finally am on an antidepressant. Just gotta wait a month to start seeing the effects. Should notice a difference in time for the next Phantoms show, so maybe it'll be more of a spectacle if I'm able to live without fear.

[dubkitty]

one of the preamp tubes in my Princeton Reverb went wonky, and so i got out my box of tubes to find a replacement and popped in an old RCA short plate that was the first good tube i found. it improved the sound so noticeably that i went through all my other 12AX7s and found a GE and a reissue Mullard. replacing all three of the Groove Tubes 12AX7s made the amp even better, and i was already happy after replacing the awful stock Celestion with a Jensen. i downloaded a service manual so i can figure out which tube comes first in the chain etc.; i like GE and Amperex for V1 and Telefunken for the reverb driver which i want as clean as humanly possible. i’ll swap the AX7s around tomorrow so the GE is V1, and try the other 2 in either position of V3/V4 (v2 is the reverb driver, weirdly enough). i still have to get a 12AT7 for the reverb driver. RCAs are a bit crunchy for V1 but are nice in V3 or V4. but it’s so much better that it really raised my spirits. i guess i need more GE and Amperex AX7s because they’re my favorites. better preamp tubes would probably be good for the AC15 and the Hammond reverb conversion head. for the record, i don’t think power tube brands matter much, but the right preamp tubes can make a dull amp sing. i still might look for some old Tung-Sol 6V6s because i have an ancient one that’s a magic tube in my Electar Tube 10. small rig improvements make me disproportionately happy.

[D.o.S.]

Scooped mids are the bees knees.

[dubkitty]

i spent years trying to "get away from the Fender sound" in amps because i played Fenders with 6L6/6V6 power tubes most of my life. i really like my Laney VC30 which needs to be fixed because it's more or less an AC30 with a Marshall tone stack, and i have a couple of other EL84 amps, but when i got the Princeton it was like coming home. mids are fine and everything, but i like a lot of treble and a lot of bass. i mostly use a cabinet with a 12" Weber California JBL clone; if i could get away with running a 4-ohm extension cabinet with 2 8-ohm Webers, and i probably could because tube amps aren't strict constructionists about "AT LEAST 8 OHMS TOTAL," i would be a happy kitty. i still need some flavor of Marshall, though, and like the Origin combo amps a lot. like my guitar travels which are mainly about different pickup voices, i would like to have a selection of amps with different power tubes. i have a Kalamazoo Bass 30 amp that runs on 7591s like some of the old Gibson tube amps and a MusicYo Epiphone Electar amp with one 6V6 that's a tiny terror as well.

[echorec]

So I'm driving to the GA border from TN, and I see this guy next to me with a Strymon sticker on his car. --I like Strymon pedals, but I loathe fanboys of any brand. I can't imageine making myself a walking advertisement, in lieu of developing a personality. As a lifelong resident of the Bible belt, I can pretty much size up anyone based on their car and choice of personal advertising. Basically, I expect this guy to be a young douche.

Anyway...I'm coasting at 60 in a 45, just before entering a 55 (all the locals do 65+ on this road). Strymon sticker guy is way behind me and guns it to 65 and then immediately jumps into my lane (right side) and throws on his turn signal. Of course, I have to jump into the left now to avoid smashing into him.

I lower my passenger window, tap the horn, and give him the one-finger salute. (no, this wasn't road rage. I was fully anticipating this, and was mentally watching this unfold in slow motion.) Would I have flipped this micro penis off, if he didn't have a Strymon sticker? ---No. With basically anything else (MAGA, Roll Tide, Wide Spread Panic, Dixie Pride), I would've just ignored him. As I said, it's the Bible belt, you don't want to antagonize hostile cave people.

Anyway, that was extremely satisfying. I can't remember the last time I flipped someone off and it made me chuckle. Usually, I'm dealing with illogical, unstable people. This time, I was dealing with some dumbass kid, and it was more of a Dennis the Menace moment, rather than I hate your existence and I want you to be vaporized moment. (anyway....little pleasures)

[dubkitty]

i found two nice GE 12AX7s and an Amperex on eBay for like $25 each on average, so i’ll have exactly the preamp tubes i want in the Princeton. i’ll have to see what works best; in the past i’ve liked Amperex in V1 and GE for the rest. the RCA will come out because it’s inherently a bit fuzzier which isn’t great in the PR but should be good in the Hammond head.

i’m grateful that’s working out because things are kind of sucking right now…my gf’s having a depressive episode which has been educational as to how much of a drag it was for my partners to listen to me when i was like that. i’m staving off depression by working somewhat obsessively on guitar projects.

[BitchPudding]

One month of Lexapro. Big change from when I last posted. I have a waaaaay better handle on my emotions than I did before. I feel like I function way better now without this cloud of fear hanging over everything I do. Way less doomer about things now.

ADHD diagnosis was inconclusive. Potentially my anxiety was so bad it was causing ADHD like symptoms, so my meds have been upped. If I'm still having trouble a month from now then we'll know for sure.

But fuuuuuuuuuuuck it feels so good to not want to hurl from worry anymore.

[dubkitty]

when an antidepressant starts to work it’s a wonderful thing.