I just put new Rotosound strings on my Alembic. These replace the Elixir strings that I tried (and hated) the last time. I decided to try some Piano String Design strings this time around. I'm absolutely thrilled. With the Elixir strings, I felt like the Alembic wasn't as playable. Putting Rotosounds back on the bass has made a big difference with my comfort. And I can really tell how much brighter the Piano String Design is than standard Swing Bass Rotosounds. They do have a lot more sustain. I had sort of wondered if that was just hype.

I also bought some acoustic 12-strings from Rotosound for my Ovation, and will probably be wrestling with it here in a little bit. From the look of things I'll probably be stringing everything with Rotosound strings from now on. Hell, I didn't even know Rotosound made guitar strings, but I love them on my Strat. I can't help but scratch my head and wonder why no one around here has ever stocked anything but the bass strings.

In other news, we just lost an auction on eBay. I was looking for reel-to-reel recorders, just to see what some were going for. One was a Fostex Model 80. Now, anyone who knows anything about those models will know that this was a reel-to-reel 8-track. I didn't notice that. I thought it was a good track on a 4-track. When Mara pointed out that it was an 8-track, we decided that my student loan could be damned, this was too good an opportunity to pass up (the high bid when I noticed it was $160). But we lost. Someone was waiting and bid on it during the last 30 seconds, and we couldn't get our screen to refresh quick enough to beat it (thanks eBay). It would have been wonderful to have it. I could have remixed the old Roller tapes, and it would have made a great addition to a DAW setup. But it wasn't meant to be. I wish Mara would quit kicking herself over not being quick enough. As I told her, wouldn't couldn't lose something that we never had. I'll get one, or something like it, later. No big deal.

We had planned to take the truck to Charlotte today to get the EGR Cooler worked on. But we decided that it might be better if we wait and let Ray know, and give him a little time to adjust to the idea. We're honestly afraid that if we just up and called him and said "well, we have to go back in the shop" that we might lose this run. We don't want to do that. So we'll run the truck for another week, pray that it holds together, and give Ray time to get used to the idea that we might be having some more down time.