Gotta Keep the Masses Happy

So I've been getting pretty high tech lately when it comes to my blog. I've added some analytic tracking so I can see what keywords are leading people here. One that has driven a decent amount of traffic is, "guitars used on haarp" and/or "guitars used in haarp." Since I'm pretty sure I haven't actually written about Muse's gear, I figured I better write up a quick post for the Google-driven-masses.

So here we go, Matthew Bellamy uses an assortment of custom built guitars by Hugh Manson of Manson Guitars. Since he pretty much changes guitars with every song, I'm not going to go through all the different models, but they are all Manson's. For more details on Matt's guitar specs, check out his guitar page on Manson's site here.

Bassist Chris Wolstenholme has an assortment of basses in his collection including both Fender Jass and Precision basses, custom built Mansons, Rickenbackers, and several others. I popped in the H.A.A.R.P. DVD to see what he's playing in the videos. On Map of the Problamatique and Knights of Cydonia, he is using a Rickenbacker 4003FL. For Time is Running Out, Supermassive Black Hole, Plug in Baby, Butterflies and Hurricanes, Hysteria, Invincible, and possibly others, he is using a red Fender Jazz bass. He also uses two other Jazz basses, a black one on New Born, and a white one on Starlight. Later on for Micro Cuts he uses a blue bass which I'm pretty sure is a custom built Manson (I could be wrong though, I can't get a clear view of it, but I'm pretty sure the headstock in a Manson).

Anyway, there you go as for H.A.A.R.P. guitars. If I have missed any, please let me know and I'll update the list.

-ggt

p.s. Next time we're going to be discussing Rivers Cuomos' gear (Franken-Strats, SG's, Explorers... it's gonna be fun!)

"The Decision" Update

Wednesday - "Hole in My Soul" Aerosmith (I'm not sure why Aerosmith has hit the list twice now, it's not like I'm a huge fan... for a while I even removed them from my Creative Nomad Mp3 Player).

Thursday - "Where is My Mind" The Pixies

Friday (today) - "San Dimas High School Football Rules" The Ataris

The Decision...

Wow, it has been like 3 months since my last post. I sure hope my lack of updates hasn't lost me my two faithful followers...

So today's topic is what I like to call "The Decision." It goes something like this, each morning I go to work and open my iTunes (I know, for how much I bash Apple, I use iTunes at work...) and brows through my list of nearly 9500 songs. I almost always leave my music on random play, so the decision comes in here, what do I start my random play with for the day? Sounds like a simple decisions doesn't it? But it isn't! The pattern of my entire day could be based on this decision. There are days, and I'm not kidding when I say this, where I literally take 30 minutes to make the decision (mind you, I am checking emails while making the decision, I don't just sit there and stare at iTunes for 30 mins with a blank expression on my face).

It was recommended by a friend that I just pick any song, and then hit the skip button and let iTunes randomly pick the song. This does sounds like a good idea, but do I really want to leave my entire day up to chance?

So my question is: Does anyone else deal with "The Decision" every morning, or am i just totally insane?

Here is a list of "The Decision" winners for last week/this week:

Monday 2/1 "Amazing" Aerosmith
Tuesday 2/2 "Rock You Like a Hurrican" Scorpians
Wednesday 2/3 "Put Me Back Together" Weezer
Thursday 2/4 Home Grown When It All Comes Down, the entire EP
Friday 2/5 "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" U2
Monday 2/8 "Good Times, Bad Times" Led Zeppelin
Tuesday 2/9 "Rock and Roll Lifestyle" CAKE

-Tim