Gave blood to the Red Cross again yesterday late afternoon. It was a great experience again. I even got a cool T-Shirt in the bargain! (Oh, and let's not forget the free "Little Debbies" snacks!!!)

I gave my 45th pint at the donor center. Only 3 more pints to go to hit 6 gallons!

Don't forget that if you want to donate blood, you can call the Red Cross toll-free at:1-800-448-3543! You can see the blood donation site here (but don't use their online appointment mechanism - use the phone call).

I tried an experiment today. To raise some music funds, I've made an auction on eBay. Normally, I just sell our stuff on eBay (collections, electronics, etc.), but this time I tried it with a twist. The auction is here:My Song Name Auction!


This auction is basically a contest for the high bidder to have the song named (the person's name)'s Song (like "Jane's Song"). It will be interesting to see what happens. There have already been 17 views of the auction so far (no bids off the .99$ price).

Coming soon: Monster professional instrument cable review!

Monster Cable Standard Instrument 100 Cable Review:

Several months ago we purchased a 12-foot Monster Cable Standard 100 instrument cable. It was fairly expensive-seeming, compared to the store brands and the unknown brands. The 12' cable seemed right for us because we have a small room for music, and I don't stray too far from my computer when I'm recording.

We purchased this particular cable from our local Guitar Center store. My first impression was that it was fairly light and seemed sturdy enough. The 1/4 cable ends are in form-fitted molded wrap that doesn't have screw-apart ends.

Now, months later, the cable is as sturdy and noise-free as when it was new. It has been stepped on numerous times (the music room has a wooden floor, which makes the steps more damaging), knotted, dropped, mis-plugged, and otherwise used roughly and has not changed in its audio quality one bit.

Quality of build, finish and hardware: 9
Value for the money 10
Sound: 8
Came set up properly: N/A
Would recommend to others: 10
Looks, extra features: 8

Monster Cable Instrument 100 Cables are more expensive than basic cables, and are worth at least twice the price.

My only recommendation: buy one if you want something to work for a long time.

The Bear Time Blues is finished and mixed.


You can listen to it on a link here.

The new tunes and my guitar/gear reviews will be moving to a new site as soon as I get a chance to write some web code.

The new site will be here: theguitarreview.com


See U There!

Fender California Cables Review:

We've had to buy a few guitar/bass instrument cables lately. Since we've got most of the instruments in the music room and a few downstairs where I record my music, we've needed a couple of extras. So I've been buying different brands and types of instrument cables to use and to try to settle on a given brand/type.

One of our latest purchases was to buy a 10' Candy Apple Red Fender California Cable. It came with a box of several other things we needed (picks, etc.) from Musician's Friend. The look was really cool, with the chrome instrument plug ends and the deep, dark red translucent look to the cable insulation.

The cable ends are tough and heavy. The cable is 20 ga, and seems quite flexible. We immediately started using the cable on an everyday basis. My son and I both began to use the cable for use with our bass and guitars as if it was just another cable from the shelf.

The first thing we noticed was that the metal ends like to be come loose. After a week of use, the cable began to be very noisy - especially when hooked to our better amp. Now, after several weeks of use, the cable actually makes the sound drop in and out. You have to fiddle with the cable ends quite a bit when using this cable.

Overall, it is a neat cable, but requires lots of maintenance, and isn't trouble-free. I can't use it when recording because it introduces additional noise in the channel. I love Fender products - they are always consistent and excellent - except for these cables. Sorry Fender, I'll have to use another brand on our cables.

Quality of build, finish and hardware: 4
Value for the money 5
Sound: 4
Came set up properly: N/A
Would recommend to others: 4
Looks, extra features: 8

Speaking of donations...

March 30 2005, I'll be eligible to, and will go to give blood again. It will be my 45th pint to the Red Cross. I'm really looking forward to it. I love the feeling of helping someone - especially since they don't know me - I can be there for them when they need me. My goal is to give enough times this year to reach 6 gallons lifetime (48 pints). Of course, I won't stop there, this is just my goal for 2005.

The Red Cross helps so many! Please give money, time, and blood to the Red Cross.

If you'd like to give money and/or time, CLICK HERE

If you'd like to give blood, make an appointment (and find a location) at 1-800-GIVE-LIFE (1-800-448-3543)

We are growing our hair for Locks Of Love (Mrs. Bear's hair doesn't qualify, but our two cubs are involved with our effort). Locks of Love is a great effort funded by regular people. Donated hair (not damaged or bleached) in hanks 10-12 inches or more can be directly donated to the organization - where the hair is bundled with other donations to make wigs or hair appliances for children who can't grow their own hair/are losing their hair/can't keep their hair due to illness. Check out the site linked above. It's educational.

We have been growing our hair since about November, and we're getting pretty scruffy. However, it won't be too terribly much time before our hair can be combed back and maybe even tied up. My employer (excellent folks, great job) said they don't mind me looking shaggy for quite a while until I donate my hair. It looks like we've got about 2 years left to grow, but I know that (at least) I'm in it for the long haul.

No pictures at this point... perhaps sometime in the future.

WOO HOO! Cut the first draft of the Ursa Blues today on my Mac and with my M-Audio MobilePre USB. I used GarageBand 2.0 and sundry instruments to cut a complete recording! It's a first-rate quality recording that has excellent frequency width and accuracy.

I want to tinker with some of the tracks and re-cut the lead entirely, but overall, it was a good first effort.

I used our Fender Squier Strat (in black) to cut the rhythm part with a light West-Coast Wah sound and our
Squier Affinity Jazz Bass (in a really cool metallic red) to run the bass part. Our wonderful Ibanez AF-75D "punkin" was used to play a low-gain, bluesy lead part. I had to let GarageBand play the drum kit for us because we don't have any drums at this point.

What a wonderful experience! I burned a CD of the song and played it on our (fairly nice) stereo and was very pleased with the results!

At some point, I might post a compressed version of Ursa Blues for everyone to hear... right now, I'm still re-engineering it and experimenting with things.

Whew! It's good to be making music again! Thanks, Mrs. Bear!

What an exhausting day. Today was my daughter's birthday, had lots of work to do for the company, and ran some eBay stuff tonight.

Anyway, a bit more about the Ibanez Artcore AF75D...

Of the several guitars we have, this has to be the best-made one. We have some nice guitars that have different looks, sounds, feels, and playabilities..., but this one is put together the best of them.

I'm getting ready to try some different Earnie Ball Slinky strings on it to see how the sound reacts to a different winding and composition... the Hybrid Slinky strings. I'll let you folks know how this experiment turns out.

Our local Guitar Center's having a green tag sale, and they always have a few blems to play with and at which to look, so I'm going to stop by tomorrow afternoon and have a look around. Look to this space to see if I found anything interesting...

A review of our Ibanez Artcore AF75D Guitar.
It's a super-sweet Ibanez Artcore semi-hollow guitar I purchased from a local store Sam Ash. This particular store had pretty much the same price on this guitar as everywhere at $319.00. It's really a bargain!

I started out wanting the Blue one (I love blue guitars), but when I saw the wonderful transparent orange in absolutely perfect condition - it had to come home with me! It's beautiful! It plays like a dream, has marvelous details like cream bindings, gorgeous Mother Of Pearl inlays on the rosewood fretboard, and EXCELLENT tuners!


I brought it home (Mrs. Bear was very nice about it!) after buying it with our cubs and started tinkering with it right away. It has a floating bridge (that's the kind of bridge mechanism where the bridge isn't attached to the guitar body - it just sits there via pressure much like a violin, cello, etc.). The bridge wasn't in the right place for the harmonics, and the guitar buzzed a good bit because of this mis-adjustment. I set up the bridge adjustment with a little experimentation, then proceeded to put some of my favorite strings on it: Ernie Ball Extra Slinky, 09 size on the high E. (I usually buy my strings at Musician's Friend - I like their service and their prices - always good) Sorry for the digression - this stuff is great fun...

Now that the bridge and strings were set, I adjusted the harmonics on the tunable bridge. After all the other parts were set up, I lowered the bridge height slightly (the AF75 has an easy-change action height). Now all my string buzz was gone, and the guitar tunes great and on pitch with either harmonics or standard tuning. It sounds like no guitar I've owned!

I think I'm going to try some Fender Bullet strings on it fairly soon. Their traditional nickel strings are good for bending and last a good while. They don't break very often either.

Now that I've had several weeks to play it, I've come to a single, simple conclusion: This guitar is worth three or 4 times the price.
On a scale of 1 to 10, here are my ratings...
Quality of build, finish and hardware: 9.5
Value for the money 12.5
Sound: 9
Came set up properly: 7
Would recommend to others: 10
Looks, extra features: 10

My advice: if you'd like a nice all-around guitar that's really different, plays well with jazzy sounds and rock sounds, this is an absolute MUST HAVE.