u/Lazy-Celebration-685

Hey y’all,

I’m a musician in SW Austin and I build, modify, and set up guitars and basses, with a particular focus on Fender-style instruments. I do basic setups on electrics starting at $60, and also do pickup and hardware installation, electronics work, and other upgrades.

I also put together Partscasters, which is a big part of what I do. If you already have the parts, I can assemble, wire, and set everything up. If you’re starting from scratch, I can also help plan the build, sort through the different Fender/aftermarket options, make sure everything is compatible, and put it together once the parts come in.

Basically, if you have a guitar or bass that needs some work, or you’ve been thinking about putting together a Fender-style build, feel free to shoot me a message.

This title of this post is obviously simplistic but hear me out. There were a multitude of factors that played a part in Jimi’s suffering and ultimate death, and they could’ve been avoided. But one of the biggest factors seems to have been this: Jimi had no real home, both practically and spiritually, and that lay at the heart of some of his deepest wounds. And touring constantly was keeping him from becoming rooted and grounded within himself.

He was just starting to find himself in 1970, and was putting down roots in his own studio, and his own apartment. And then the reality of his situation came crashing down on him - in order to maintain these newfound roots, he would have to continuously tour, i.e., remain itinerant. I don’t think Jimi felt he could get off of the ride. Management had its claws in him. And, not to mention, this type of life didn’t give him the opportunity to sustain meaningful relationships. He was alone.

After the luster of his rise to fame started to wear off in 1968 or so, I think Jimi was beginning to realize that touring was the biggest obstacle for Jimi’s ability to become rooted and grounded in himself. Being a commercial commodity was, essentially, keeping him practically and spiritually homeless.

I think Jimi’s fragile mental health was starting to improve once he began to record at Electric Lady, because he now had a place he could truly settle into and call his own, on his own terms. But in order to maintain these newfound roots, he had to keep up the circus, which kept him rootless. I think the feeling of “I can’t get off of this ride” was crushing him.

It seems that Jimi was mentally at his best when he was working toward a goal - an album, a creative vision, something along those lines - and throughout much of 1969, he had brilliant ideas but no clear and consistent goal-oriented outlet for them, especially once the Experience disbanded. Band of Gypsies was more of a contractual obligation than a passion project, and you can tell he wasn’t thrilled at the Fillmore shows in ‘69/‘70.**

**EDIT: Want to clarify that BOG is brilliant, and Billy Cox was an unparalleled fit on bass for Jimi up until his death. It just seemed like Buddy was more of a drummer of convenience/good-enough acquaintance over a band member that Jimi would’ve been happy with long-term. He just seems subdued during the shows, and I’ve read that he was in a bad way at that time (not bc of the band).

He seemed to have been on an upswing in the spring and summer of 1970, and all of his Electric Lady recordings seem to show a motivated and creatively-inspired person doing things on his terms.

And then came the Isle of Wight and all of the dates after that.

It seems like the final European tour ripped the rug out from under him, and just undermined all of the progress he was making, creatively and spiritually. He was depressed, and I do think he lost sight of the forest for the trees. But he had nobody around to truly help him.

It’s incredibly sad and I do think Jimi could’ve made it, if that fucker Mike Jeffries and all of the criminal business ghouls weren’t bleeding him dry, and if he had real friends to support him in a meaningful way.

I also think his early life was deeply lonely and traumatic, and probably left a huge imprint of isolation on him, which helped perpetuate it. He had been lonely and rootless for so long, I’m sure there were times he just became used to it, which would’ve made overcoming it a real uphill climb.

You can tell he was starting to come into his own and was beginning to truly know himself. But he was vulnerable. The man needed help and he never really got it.

He had tons of admirers and acquaintances, and was viewed as an idol by many. But I don’t think many people knew him, and that was a nail in the coffin. He likely kept people at arms’ length, and very few people, if any, knew how to help him, or even saw him enough to really be there for him.

It’s a cliche at this point, when people talk about “fame killing the artist,” but there is a lot of truth to it, in Jimi’s case.

This is sort of a confessional, and the disclaimer is that I’ve been doing these tapes for a while now, and the following feelings haven’t been super at top-of-mind throughout. I’ve just been doing the tapes with an open mind and by-the-book, to see what happens, from a curious but (trying to be) neutral place.

I’ve been pretty into this stuff for the past year and change, and after having taken a several-months-long break due to getting creeped out, I dove back in a couple months ago with newfound commitment. This time, I’ve gotten much farther than before (Wave 5, Tape 2, currently), and I’ve been diligently studying the preparatory techniques and not skipping tapes. I’m also not really trying for an OBE or having any concrete expectations for anything to happen, nor am I bogged down with skepticism. I just feel as if I’m struggling to get fully into the hypnogogic state in the prep process, and I’ve done the first 3 tapes multiple times to make sure I get it down.

I’m wondering if I’m struggling to fully get into F10, and F12 by extension, most of the time. While I’ve had some bizarre physical experiences while doing the tapes (feeling like something was lightly touching my head and arms, and my bed jostling like something bumped into it) I’ve so far had radio silence on One Month Patterning, Problem Solving and Five Questions, and I just have this left-brain aspect of me that remains alert during the tapes, even if it isn’t being actively critical/skeptical. It’s just a consciousness of lucid noticing that I don’t feel particularly suggestible while doing the tapes. There have been a few exceptions, but I don’t think I’ve come that close to an OBE or conscious contact with “non-physical friends,” so to speak. Minor vibrations a few times, and deep relaxation/time dilation and contraction, but that’s about it.

I’m just worried that I’m being passed over, cosmically, from experiencing the real meat of this stuff, although I really try not to wallow in that gnawing feeling.

Any thoughts?

** EDIT: I should have referred to the org as Hemi-Sync, not Monroe Institute, since HS owns the tapes.

This is just one person’s unsolicited opinion, but I think it would be mutually beneficial – for both the organization and the customers – if Hemi-Sync did a serious pricing overhaul of the Gateway Tapes at large, including offering half of the Gateway Tapes waves (I - IV) to premium subscribers of the Hemi-Sync app, at $99.99 per year in total for premium.

And for individual pricing of each wave, right now, $89 per wave is ridiculous. That’s for only an eighth of their flagship product, and even devotees are unlikely to shell out that kind of money piecemeal. Either way, customers and the org are currently losing, when their flagship product is priced at around $700 in full.

However, $99 per half of the Gateway Experience - around $200 for the full, official thing, with premium audio quality - seems much more reasonable. Of course it’s way less than $700, but more people are likely to buy the tapes and not use pirated versions if it were more affordable, and I’d be shocked if their numbers didn’t surge. There’s a reason why Amazon is such a giant - their prices undercut their competitors. Lower prices = mass accessibility, and mass accessibility = high volume of purchases.

Offering all eight waves at the current annual premium price might be unrealistic, but if they offered even just Waves I - IV in full, they would not only see a huge uptick in premium subscribers, but it would reduce piracy.

As of right now, the app has a disproportionate amount of short form meditations that are more or less completely unrelated to the gateway tapes and adjacent material, but I’m willing to bet the majority of customers who download the app do so after learning about the Gateway Tapes, since the amount of content and discourse about the tapes over the last few years seems to have skyrocketed.

Added proof that their popularity has surged is their own assertion that they’ve seen a huge uptick in people attending the Monroe Institute in person. And, they released the online voyage recently, most likely due to high demand yet in-person attendance being cost-prohibitive. However, $500 for the online voyage isn’t exactly cheap, and I’d be willing to bet their profits from it have been marginal, compared to what they could stand to gain from offering half of the gateway experience included within premium subscriptions. They could do this and up the annual premium price to $99.99, to account for this expansion.

Whomever gets through waves one through four in full may be willing to pay a reasonable rate to gain access to the remaining four waves, but the prospect of accessing half of the experience through a yearly subscription may be enough to entice a lot more people to sign up in the first place.

Pirated versions are ubiquitous and the official Monroe Institute channel has released videos condemning piracy themselves, yet they have done little to make the official GT audio accessible. This could be a remedy and a win-win.

The Gateway Experience is their flagship product, and it’s not even available behind their primary paywall that’s accessible to most people. Only a tiny percentage of people have the means to shell out $500 for a discounted Gateway online voyage package, in the even fewer can afford to go in person, so it’s only natural that most people would be forced to look for it through unofficial means. Basically, the Monroe Institute is shooting themselves in the foot by putting the tapes behind such a high paywall. People want to try the tapes, and 3 sample tapes isn’t enough for those who are actually committed to doing it, not just dabblers and beginners.

But I’m not in their marketing department, so I’m aware this is an uninformed opinion. Just one person’s thoughts.

Does anyone know where I can find genuine, long-form Hemi-Sync/Gateway-adjacent, audio exercises, binaural beats or meditations online? Preferably narrated by Bob Monroe and more geared toward OBE/deeper spiritual work, a la Gateway Tapes and “Journeys.” Trying to find genuine, old tapes online feels like a needle in a haystack.

I’ve looked on archive.org, and there’s some stuff, but I’m also not super familiar with their catalogue and the chronology, and there’s so much of it, I don’t know what I’m looking for half the time. I can’t find a master list of official Hemi-Sync audio releases in chronological order anywhere, and that would be super helpful.

I know there are a few on the Hemi-Sync YouTube channel - “Gateway Voyage Open Exercise,” the 8-hour pink noise playlist, etc., and those are certainly aligned with what I’m looking for, but the deep cuts I’m looking for are few and far between. There are so many non-official YouTube accounts that have binaural beats labeled “Hemi-Sync,” and it’s clear most of them are totally unrelated.

I did find one obscure source with authentic “Journeys Out of the Body” pink noise audio tracks, called Condition A, B, C and D, respectively, as well as some Lucid Dreaming guided exercises, and that’s the kinda stuff I’m after. But YouTube is oversaturated with misleading, non-official binaural beats videos with the words Hemi-Sync and Gateway slapped in the titles, and I’m sure some of the genuine stuff falls through the cracks.

I’d rather not pay for the premium app, if I’m being honest, since it’s not very well-designed and their selection of old-school, authentic Gateway/Monroe-era Hemi-Sync is very limited. It seems mainly stuffed with short-form, remedial meditations that are more day-to-day, “clear-your-head-for-work” material, which I might just as well find on Headspace or any other generic meditation app, and they aren’t really what I’m satisfied with.

Pretty sure the ClassicGears are compatible with the 10mm, 2-pin holes on the Am. Standard Strat headstock, since they were on the American Performer and now the Player II/American Pro. Classic, but can anyone confirm having done this?

I don’t want to have to mod my Am. Standard neck in any way, just want some solid Klusons in there without the rigmarole.

Looking to upgrade the stock Pings on a Squier CV ‘50s Tele (2009 Made in China). I’ve narrowed it down to Gotoh SD91, Fender Pure Vintage or Fender Vintage-Style.

Not looking for locking tuners; just standard vintage split-shaft. Tuning stability, accuracy and smoothness matter most to me. Period-accuracy isn’t a huge priority.

What do y’all recommend and why? I’d like to spend less than $50, and I don’t mind buying used/open-box, if they’re in good condition.

Last night, while in bed, I did 3 tapes back-to-back, the most I’ve ever done in a row (Vectors through Energy Food, Wave III). Midway through Energy Food, I felt my mattress wobble spontaneously, as if something had plopped down onto, or bumped into, the bed with some force. Nothing/no one in the room could’ve feasibly done it; my dog was asleep in his dog bed on the floor on the other side of the room, and my wife and daughter were in the other bed a few feet from mine (they co-sleep and it’s too cramped for me to stretch out, so I have my own queen bed a couple feet from theirs).

I was laying still, so it wasn’t as if I had shifted and rocked the bedframe somehow either. Basically, I can’t account for it, and I’m confident it wasn’t a sensory hallucination. It freaked me out a bit and I’m wondering if anyone’s had a similar experience.

Would love to hear one-month patterning stories, big and small, successes and failures. Recently did some one-month patterning and casually released them into the universe. Haven’t been thinking about it too much since then - neither want to fixate nor doubt - but I would love to hear y’all’s experiences in any case.

I’ve been doing the tapes and I’m just starting Wave III. This is my second attempt at the tapes, and I’m getting a better handle on it bit by bit, but I’m wondering how y’all approach the preparatory stages, since sometimes I don’t feel the preparatory stage in the beginning gives enough time to fully move through each step without rushing, which becomes its own cognitive AND practical distraction.

For me, doing the ECB, REBAL and F10 entry, in particular, take some time to both let go and focus (paradoxically), and sometimes I find I haven’t fully gotten to F10 before Bob starts getting into the meat of the tapes. Therefore, I feel like I need to rush the process so that I don’t have to pause the tapes or rewind mid-prep - i.e., interrupt the process, which takes me out of it.

I know the REBAL has the shortcut of the “breath and bubble with #10” in it, but for me, I need to really feel it, in some ineffable way, rather than just go through the motions of seeing the number 10 and telling myself I now have my REBAL around me. And getting into F10 takes some time to fully relax each part of my body in stages, and sometimes I’m not fully there by the time Bob starts talking again.

So, I’ve been doing some RT and REBAL ahead of starting each actual tape, using the Monroe pink noise audio loop - like a pregame - but I’m wondering how y’all approach it.

Also, is the deep breath/drawing energy during Resonant Tuning similar to the Joe Dispenza breath? I’ve been doing it that way recently.

So far, I’ve experienced very deep relaxation and almost a trance-like sense of time dilation, plus swirling visual patterns, but nothing close to an OBE, as far as I can tell, even though I’m not hardcore gunning for one, since I know trying to have an OBE is counterintuitive.

I’d consider myself pretty well-versed in Hendrix’s catalog - official, bootleg and as-yet-unreleased - so I’m 99.9% sure I know the answer to this one (no), but does anyone know if there’s a bootleg of Jimmy James around the time Chas discovered him, pre-England?

I’m well aware of/have listened to the Curtis Knight and the Squires at George’s Club 20, and I know those are considered to be very close to his sound during his Cafe Wah? days, but I’m wondering if anyone knows of any bootlegs wherein Hendrix - as Jimmy James, Maurice James, or whatever else he went by - is the bandleader, circa ‘66 Greenwich Village-era?

I’m sure it’s unlikely that any bootlegs have publicly circulated, since he was a relative unknown, but maybe one single person had the foresight to record this odd cat with the upside-down Strat playing in The Village.

I’ve recently been going through Wave I again after having taken a few months’ break (initially got to Wave III but got a little spooked while doing a tape during a ketamine therapy session; ill-advised, I know).

I’ve been doing the tapes at home, and my cat, who isn’t the most cuddly, will walk right up to me if I’m doing a tape, lay in my lap, stare at me and start purring like a motor. He does this when I do my breathwork separate from Gateway as well, but otherwise, he isn’t much of a lap cat.

Last night, I was on Wave I, Tape 5, and while going through Resonant Tuning, my cat suddenly appeared out of nowhere, starting biting me, and was looking around the room, really jittery and jumpy. He was looking right over my shoulder for a while and his pupils were massively dilated. He doesn’t get super skittish, although he is a young cat and has spurts of high energy. But it was just really odd. It was getting late and I had already done Tape 4 so I paused for the night and didn’t continue with Tape 5, and he stopped, but continued following me around the house and looking all around, super alert and hyper vigilant.

Could be reading into normal cat behavior, but it just seemed odd. Anyone else get reactions from their pets? Is this a negative thing, or just some sort of mechanical reaction of sorts?