atticus

Thanks @marc32137 and @THE_James_Champ means a lot! I would love to press the full length once I'm done with it.. I really appreciate you guys taking the time to listen

I've been debating doing this all week, I forgot how scary it is to share yourself with the world. I've been out of the game for a while, but I'm trying to make myself get back in. These are songs I recorded at home over the past few months and I figured what better day than my birthday to release an EP called "Growing Up." I have a bunch of download codes if you like it, pm me and I will shoot one your way. I only ask that you tell all your friends about it so that I can get rich and famous off of $4 downloads. Or if you feel like it's worth $4 that would be awesome too. I hope you like it. 

https://atticushicks.bandcamp.com/releases

On May 28, 2017 at 0:31 AM, batman said:

not very good detective work in here--the address of the church was in the OP.  

 

@atticus glad you finally got your guitar! 

Thanks! It's pretty awesome. Sits nicely in the range between the bass and other guitars. 

Haha.. Sorry to keep you all waiting.. I knew I had PayPal protection and I really wanted the deal on the guitar so I played the bullshit back and forth game with their "customer service" bots.. It was super frustrating, but after a while it became almost comical. It came down to ups sending someone out to "collect the damaged item for inspection" (still couldn't make anyone understand that the guitar never arrived). I took a bunch of time stamped photos of the packaging and even a selfie with the ups guy and the packaging and got a pickup receipt. Another week goes by and I didn't hear anything so I reached out again. They sent me a tracking link that showed everything was enroute to them and stalled out in New Jersey and told me to keep watching the tracking for updates. About a week later the tracking changed to say something like, "item unavailable for inspection" even though it had shown up as being sent back already. I reached out to customer service again and no joke, they respond that ups would be sending someone out to inspect the damaged item and collect it to return to them. I then sent them all of my photos and a copy of the pickup receipt. Without any sort of shipping notification or communication from Adorama 2 days later a new guitar showed up. Haven't heard a word from them since. 

Good news! I got my guitar!! It's pretty awesome. I may never play a standard tuned electric again. I definitely won't ever shop Adorama again, and I'll do my best to avoid ups if I can help it, but damnit if this isn't a sweet little instrument. 

As far as a non standard answer, check out the 500 series version of the JHS colour box. One of my favorite guitar pedals I own and a really cool preamp in 500 series format. 

7 hours ago, Sidney Crosley said:

I've been recording at home since I was 12, and have done my darndest to keep up with the hobby as an adult, but with a full career, two soon-to-be three kids at home, and limited space to record, I'm finding it hard to get my music done.  Last summer I put together most of an album, and I would say it's roughly 80-85% done, but it needs some help.  It's mostly an indie rock/bedroom pop/roots rock record wearing its Wilco influence on its sleeve, though I'm modelling the sound on Beulah's When Your Heartstrings Break, Wheat's Hope and Adams, Jim Guthrie's Now More Than Ever, plus a whole bunch of other things.

Here's where I could use some help: there are a few instruments that need to be added/replace my tracks, so that I can finish this, and I was wondering if there are any VC musicians who would be interested in laying down some tracks at their houses to add to my songs.

 

The rough list:

-I need some electric guitar rhythm and lead parts re-done. I don't have a proper electric guitar in my house and used an acoustic through Logic's 'amps'. It sounds how you think it would.

-Piano/keys/synth - my playing is barely passable.

-Backup vocals - would be helpful in different places

-ambient/electronic noise - if you're an experimental artist, I have a few tracks that may need some sound/noise/ambiance

-an electronic drum beat - I made one for a track that sounds like a Casio keyboard, and would greatly appreciate an upgrade

-any other non-traditional instrument (got lots of guitars, violin and viola, and keys on the tracks, but would love anything unconventional)

 

 

If you're interested or considering this, send me a message and I'll share the Dropbox folder with the songs in their current state. You can listen to some of my past music via my signature. 

I'm so in, lets fucking do this thing. 

5 minutes ago, vinyl addict said:

When they ask for a picture of the damaged item,  send a pic of the K-cups inside the guitar box.

 

Seriously though, have you contacted UPS as well? My guess is it was stolen somewhere in the UPS chain of custody.

Yea, I sent them all those pics that I posted in the first post and a couple more. I think they finally get it. 

Adorama has opened a claim with UPS and with all of this happening over the weekend I'm trying to be as patient as I can. If I don't at least have some kind of reassurance though by tomorrow that they are handling this, I will take a direct line with UPS. The little contact I have had with Adorama so far doesn't inspire a ton of confidence. 

1 minute ago, Derek™ said:

Nice, I kind of know what you're getting at – not specifically a Methodist church, but there's a fairly big one north of where I live, and they do a lot of social events throughout the week and have their own band, etc.

 

That being said, did you have any developments on the case of your missing guitar?  It's been a few days and I'm sure these things take time to resolve, but hopefully you have a bit more direction than when you first created the thread, by now.

Other than a few frustrating back and forth emails with Adorama's customer service department, no real developments. The emails feel like those automatic form filled emails with just a few personal details thrown in so you know you're not totally dealing with a robot. They've asked like 3 different times for me to send a picture of the damaged item for the insurance claim...... I think I finally have them on the same page as far as realizing that I didn't actually receive a guitar, so that's something I suppose.  

I did check the front desk footage today and the ups guy didn't walk in with a guitar sized box so I do have proof that it never made it inside the building. At the end of the day, I'm covered under the PayPal buyers protection, so if all else fails I should at least get my money back (hopefully). 

19 minutes ago, vinyl addict said:

What church is it?

7 minutes ago, Derek™ said:

I mean, what kind of church is it?

It's a Methodist church. Pretty vanilla as far as crazy denominations go. Just a lot of stuff going on. Like all the time. 

On March 19, 2017 at 7:31 PM, Derek™ said:

Not only that, but a church with a receptionist[?] that features a back studio / office, locked by keycard.  OP doesn't owe an explanation and we're just being nosey, but my curiosity is sparked for sure.  It sounds like it may be some Mormon level shit.

 

I hope things get resolved and the guitar is found or fully refunded, though.  I'm sure it wasn't a cheap purchase and I'd be pretty crushed if I were in a similar situation.

Haha thanks, its been a frustrating ordeal so far. Adorama's customer service department hasn't been very helpful.

And I certainly don't mind explaining.. I guess it can sound crazy if you don't have a reason to know about this kind of thing. Much like other places of employment, there are big ones and small ones. The one I work at is a Methodist church, kind of a large church, but not crazy. 

We do have a receptionist (I think most churches have that) and we do have keycard access areas for a couple of reasons. The first is because of the preschool we have, they have some kind of national accreditation and one of the certification requirements is a certain level of security. The other reason is because of incidents we have had in the past with some of the more aggressive members of our homeless community trying to take things or getting violent. 

We do a lot of in house production (audio, videos, graphics) for week to week stuff as well as bigger events. There is also a band, an orchestra and a choir and so all of that equipment is just secured during the week to be safe. 

On March 19, 2017 at 7:28 PM, vinyl addict said:

If the package is "signed for",isn't that claiming that the item was received? 

 

Or is this something UPS  will normally easily side with you on?

I mean, like I said, the lady who signed for it had no way of knowing that it was supposed to be a guitar and especially if it came in with a bunch of stuff that required signatures I guarantee the driver dropped it all of, said "sign here" and hurried on his way. 

On March 19, 2017 at 4:17 PM, youspinmeround said:

You work at a church and as you said they get many shipments a day?

 

I am curious what a church is receiving on a daily basis

I mean, we have a daycare, a preschool, a kitchen that feeds a bunch of people during the week, different groups that get together on most every day of the week, as well as a staff with different departments that all order stuff all the time. I would say UPS comes 2-3 times a day, FedEx once, USPS, and then any vendor shipments coming in (Maintenance supplies, kitchen supplies, school supplies, janitorial supplies, etc). It's a busy place.  

5 hours ago, marc32137 said:

Friend of mine had an issue with a UPS package stolen from her porch recently. They opened an "investigation" and closed it after a week because the driver refused to participate (which apparently they're allowed to do). 

I am hoping that since it isn't an issue of the package going missing after delivery and is rather a very blatant theft before the item was delivered, the investigation won't be optional. There are touch points at every step along the way so somebody knows something and I hope they will be able to get to the bottom of this quickly. 

4 hours ago, vinyl addict said:

Looks like a fellow employee duped ya.

Did you ask the front desk is the package had any weight to it when she signed for it?

Are there any security cameras at work?

I certainly hope not, I work at a church haha. Although I concede there are certainly shitty people who work in churches too, but I feel like I know everyone who would have had access to the package well enough to know that none of them would have done it. We have keycard access to the production area where my office is  for this very reason, trying to minimize the tendency for expensive equipment grow legs and walk off.  

The package weight was supposed to be 12lbs. She said it came like that, she would have remembered having to carry a 12lb package to my office. We do have security cameras in the front so that's the next order of business tomorrow morning. 

21 minutes ago, shamrocks said:

who signed for it?

Yea that seal was not broken at all. Package was cut straight in half and re-taped with clear packing tape. I'm guessing there was a similar seal on the other end of the box wherever that may be. It's probably not broken either. The young woman who works at the front desk signed for it, but I can't be mad at her, I'm guessing she's making close to minimum wage and she signs for about a million boxes a day. She said we've never had an incident like this before so I'm sure she's not being hyper vigilant with every box coming into the place. 

Edit: the question isn't whether or not someone at ups stole my guitar, that's pretty evident.  My question is, does anyone have experience with this and what is my best course of action? 

7 minutes ago, shenanigans said:

Never understand why they put their logo on the outside of the box like HEY THERES A GUITAR IN HERE TO STEAL!

Right? Or at least box within a box that shit. With the markup on guitars, you can afford another cardboard box. 

15 minutes ago, Multiverse said:

christ that blows


sorry dude, I hope it gets sorted out

Thanks, me too.. The company I bought the guitar from says UPS will take at least 10 business days to figure it out and then they will determine the best course of action from there. 

So... I just bought a baritone jazzmaster. I got it shipped to work and it showed up in myUPS as delivered on my day off so I wasn't there to sign for it, but I swung by anyway because I was excited. I walked into my office and sitting there is a fender box that has clearly been cut in half and re-taped, no guitar, but there was a mangled box of keurig k-cups shoved inside. I reached out to the company I bought it from and they are opening a claim with UPS. Have any of you ever been through something like this with UPS before? I don't really know what to do other than wait, but if anyone has any advice as to what I can do to help my case, I'm all ears...

some pics for reference:

On December 27, 2016 at 10:59 AM, kylekrische said:

Anyone looking to add a new preamp to their setup? I'm looking to sell my Universal Audio 4-710D preamp. Can blend tube and solid state, 4 inputs, the DI is great. I think I saw someone post in this thread that has one too? Mine has less than 50 hours of use, just bought a second Great River preamp so I'm selling this to try and make back some of the money. Looking for $2000 CAD so if you're in the US that's just under $1500 USD. Open to talking numbers more.

Youtube info:

Let me know if anyone has any interest and I can send more info! my email is [email protected] and I can send pictures and answer any other questions. 

I might be interested. Give me the weekend to think on it. 

I just had a son on 11/19 and his name is Rowan. A friend got me a bottle of a bourbon called Rowan's Creek from KY. I had never heard of it before but it's fantastic stuff. 

Dump

I would like to see my Killers record on my doorstep. 

If I had to say one thing it would be, focus on the composition. I agree with ^^ it doesn't ever really do anything. It feels like all of the elements of a house song are there, but just because they are supposed to be.

The beat doesn't drive the melody it just sort of is there, and the melody doesn't serve the beat, and it isn't arythmic in an interesting way that subdivides or syncopates or anything, just feels like two different songs set on top of each other. And then the wobbles. They don't make sense, and they take away the identity of the song. Like it's not a dub step song. It could be a crossover, but the wobbles again, don't subdivide the beat or provide any shift in movement so they are just sort of noise. The vocals need something too, like a beat delay or something. I dunno. It sounds like you have an idea but you need to spend some more time developing what you want each element of the song to do. 

Bumpers