🤑 University Preparations

So university unofficially just started for me. I stepped into Singapore Institute of Technology for the second time in my life today (the first being my interview last year). It's a brand new season for me. The old season of SAF is no more.

I also kind of unofficially left Impact Life Church last week due to some disagreements with the leadership. This was foreshadowed by the fact that I quit ILC band just after one session with them. The music they play just isn't my style.

That said, with studies incoming, and me not being part of a band, changes are inevitable. The first of many changes comes in the form of a big sale. I realised I have literally hit a wall with MIDI and Helix Native. It's super troublesome to use it in a live rig and a pedalboard is way simpler.

Therefore, I disassembled the Morningstar MC8 board and my big sale began. Actually wait, let's start with the biggest sale this year, the sale of the LTD EC-1000.

Sadly, these days, my hands cannot play non-stainless steel frets. Weather is really too damn hot in Singapore and my sweaty palms just melts everything I touch. It's a really nice guitar, one of the nicest I've ever owned. But non-stainless steel frets are a no-go for me.

As of now, after selling off the EC-1000, I have no plans to get a second guitar. Sure, I've been looking around at some Gibson Les Paul Standards, but the right colour and right electronics configuration have to appear for me, plus I have to re-fret the guitar with stainless steel frets. So for now I have no desire to get a second guitar.

Then we arrive at the sale proper. Dismantled the MC8 board and the first to go was the Pedaltrain Nano. I realised this Nano is the reason why I keep building new boards. From a pedal-rig, to a Stomp flyrig and then to the MC8 rig, it's all because I didn't wanna waste the Nano.

For the first time in many years, I don't own a Pedaltrain Nano anymore, considering at one point in time I even owned two. With the Nano gone, I should have lesser desire to build new boards and just focus on my Metro 16 board for a good long while.

Then I chanced upon a super small Hotone Jogg audio interface at Swee Lee and I knew this is my chance to downsize once again. I wasn't using the full Focusrite Solo with the mic input and stereo out. So it makes sense for me to downsize. Clears up a lot of space too because the Jogg is like a quarter the size of the Focusrite Solo.

Then there's this pedal. Traded a faulty Zvex Distortron for this Boss OS-2. Thought that it'd be nice to keep it on display because this was the first pedal I ever bought in my life. But with the income from SAF halted after I quit, I literally can't afford to have pedals on display. Sold this off in a jiffy.

The last item I'm still hoping to sell is this Morningstar MC8. The wall that I hit is one of technical difficulties. To run a live rig via MIDI requires a myriad of factors to function properly, and that is too much a risk to take compared to a traditional pedalboard rig. (*Sold as of 8th September 2022)

The MC8 is a huge liability to me right now because it's a $400+ item sitting on display. Sure, I can fire it up once in a while to explore around but damn, I need the money to survive. Some other items I'm planning to sell soon includes all the patch cables and MIDI cables. Those could fetch me a good bit of money too.

With this sale, I have essentially reduced my rig to a minimal one. One guitar, one bass, one acoustic, one MIDI keyboard, one pedalboard, one audio interface, one MacBook, and a couple of cheap guitar effects pedals that are worth nothing. Life is looking real good right now.

Edwin Ang