Two sessions this evening. Short, but focused.
First, Spring.
Five minutes in the master bedroom. No lights. Unplugged. Eyes closed the entire time. No looking at the fretboard, no checking finger positions. Just sound and touch.
I stayed around the E and A families, letting my ears lead. Notes weren’t “found” visually—they were reached for, sometimes missed, sometimes landed clean. The misses didn’t matter. What mattered was listening, adjusting, trusting the hand to follow the ear.
There’s something honest about playing like that. No tone shaping, no safety net. Just the instrument and what you can hear internally. It strips things down to the essentials.
Then Regent came out.
Plugged into the chain and into the X4C. I ran through the drives one by one—not stacking, just testing each voice on its own. Let each pedal speak clearly, then moved on.
Eventually settled on the JHS Legend of Fuzz Bender.
Gentle fuzz. Not aggressive. Just enough texture.
Paired it with the Black Country Customs Secret Path in spring mode, enhanced—what I think of as the “dream space.” Bridge pickup on Regent. Notes stayed clear but carried a tail, floating just enough without getting lost.
That was the sound.
Stayed there. No need to keep searching.
Two sessions. One without gear, one with it fully in play. Both pointed to the same thing in the end—listen first, then shape.
And no stacking. Just clarity in choices.