Now What Do I Do?

    This was the situation I was faced with the other day.  A year ago I bought an amplifier for my electric guitar.  One of the things I liked about the amp was the ability to adjust the sounds that the amp makes by using a computer.  You could set all kind of unique amp sounds by attaching the amp to the computer and using some software to tweak the sound.

    Shortly after getting the amp I tried it, but found that the software wasn’t working properly and I finally gave up in frustration.  After a year, I had forgotten all that frustration and decided to try again--I shouldn’t have.  Full of optimism, I downloaded the latest version of the software, plugged in my amp into the computer and started the process.  I got to the window above and then the software stopped dead in its tracks. 

    Nothing was happening, the software was frozen, and because of the warning on the screen, I was afraid to unplug the amp or shut down the software.  I was full of frustration and apprehension.

    I thought, well maybe the software is still working, but just isn’t showing any activity on the screen.  I decided to just wait a few hours to see if anything changed--it didn’t.

    What to do, what to do?  I didn’t want to make my amp “non-operational” but I couldn’t keep the amp plugged into the computer for the rest of my life.  I took a deep breath and unplugged the amp.

    Now the only thing my amp can do its blink a red light.  None of the controls work, it cannot make a sound.  I have spent a couple of days trying to get it going, but it remains technically dead.  The whole experience put me in a pretty black mood.

    I called Fender, the maker of the amp and software and they informed me that they were aware of the problem and were just a few days away from a solution (it is always a bit gratifying to learn you are not the only one in the universe to have a particular problem).  They assured that a solution should be available in a couple of days. 

    I sure hope so, an electric guitar amplifier than can do nothing but blink a red light is not much use to me.

You can view my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca