6th of November Blog Post

06-11-2024

A friend gifted me this dope vintage Zenith Stereo system for my Birthday on October 28th, and I've been spending most of my time since then restoring it as a DIY project.

It is most likely a Vintage Allegro Stereo Console by Zenith manufactured in 1974. It includes two fantastic 1x2 front speakers hooked up to an AM/Stereo FM Console that has Balance/Bass/Treble/Loudness Sliders, Main/Both/Remote Speaker switch, High Frequency Filter toggle switch, and AIC Switch, and 8-track player with standard 6.35mm line output. The Stereo console is hooked up to a cassette tape deck with record, rewind, fast forward, play, eject and stop buttons, as well as a floating turntable for vinyl records. This setup permits me to record onto cassette tapes from a variety of sources: vinyl records, AM/FM radio, or auxiliary input via the AV ports in the back that allows me to stream audio from virtually any device such as my laptop.

At the moment, everything except the turntable functions smoothly and I've been recording cassette tapes using my laptop for the past week or so. I have a replacement turntable stylus coming in the mail within the next month which I am extremely hyped for, as I have recently acquired some new records that are some of my favorite albums, on top of the vinyl collection I inherited from my parents.

Additionally, I have plans to produce cassette tapes and start my own independent label if I get good at it. I have some blank cassette labels coming in the mail that will allow me to print custom labels for tapes, and I have paint for coloring the outer cassette shell. If I get the quality down right, I could produce mixtapes on an independent label, advertise them on the Internet and its music websites, and ship them around the world, hopefully at some profit. I could buy cool blank cassettes in bulk, I know there's some transparent ones available which look awesome. But for the moment, I'm okay with honing my skills on making personal mixtapes as I'm most likely the only person in my life that has access to a tape player/walkman for my car's aux port.

I got bored of my guitar and traded it. I had a 2016 Squier Vintage Modified ICS Jaguar SS in Olympic White with Red Tortoise Pickguard. I traded for a 2016 Squier Affinity Fender Special Run ICS HH Stratocaster in Blue Sparkle with White Pickguard. I had the Jaguar for about 3 years before wanting to upgrade to something with a Humbucker pickup setup. I grew out my shoegaze phase and hadn't even had the tremolo arm on the guitar for months on end, so I was thinking of trading for an epiphone model of some kind. I demo'd a Gibson Explorer which had a really interesting ergonomic setup but there's something about the frets on Gibson-style guitars that I can't gel with. That's what convinced me to go for a Fender model with Humbuckers as I'm more used to their ergonomics. I found some cool humbucker guitars, including a Telecaster with neck humbucker, and an HSS Strat. Eventually I found one exactly like the one I ended up getting in Green Sparkle, which is still my ideal color. Unfortunately, they wouldn't take any trades. Eventually someone else listed the Blue Sparkle guitar and the rest is history. I see the trade as quite an upgrade for myself, as sure I lost the novelty and comfiness of the Jaguar, but I got the versatility of the Stratocaster on top of having a nicer finish, better quality hardware, tuners and bridge. It stays in tune much better and plays nice. I get access to more tones than my Jaguar could achieve without using any effects, and the Stratocaster's HH setup makes it sound really fat, somewhere in between a Jaguar and an Epiphone SG. In any case, I'm really digging this guitar and plan to hold on to it for the time being, unless a green one appears for trade. I have plans to modify the aesthetics to black out the pickups, hardware and pickguard. Alternatively, I have plans to plaster the white pickguard in custom stickers that are outrageous and punk rock.

Altogether, I've been doing great recently since I have a couple DIY projects to work on and keep me busy. I've taken up writing lyrics and have vague ideas of producing music albums and have a few concepts. I'm interested in Garage, Psychedelic, Progressive, Punk, Hard Rock and have pop sensibilities, I feel I could write some hits if I only put my mind to it fully. So far I only have some incomplete verses but I feel like I'm getting somewhere instead of having these ideas appear and fade away without being written down. Basically, I saw a video of American Film Director David Lynch saying "If you have a great idea and forget it, it creates a real yearning for suicide" which is hyperbolic but strikes at a totally real feeling. There is something to be said about consciously not striving towards your potential, in that small deaths are inflicted every time one takes the path of least resistence against the golden path of self-realization and the Good. I'm through dying small deaths and compromising for anyone, I am the master of my own destiny and I will it into existence. EXPECT BIG THINGS, GANG!

Also, I commited myself to the psych ward for about 11 days, no biggie. It was a rejuvenating experience and had to be done. Yes, I'm fine.