Guitar
Oh dear, my ears are ringing from too much time mixing demos under the headphones. It's really a terrible way to mix, but my boy is asleep in a room close by, and if I want to get work like this done, this is when I get to do it- in the wee hours, after everybody has gone to bed and my familial duties are finished for the day.
The demos I was mixing are songs from the writing sessions I wrote about in my previous post, a couple of weeks back. We took this past week off due to some unexpected issues in the Burke family's life, but we'll be back at 'er this week. I burned nine songs onto a CD (yeah, I still use those things) tonight, and we have several more recorded on iPhones and a tablet as well, so I'd have to say we're maintaining our momentum.
In other news, I put new Grover tuners on the wacky telemongrel I wrote about here. I got a great deal on the tuning machines at Vancouver's Anchor Guitars, a store-frontless guitar workshop in downtown Vancouver. They build Anchor and Sparrow Guitars, both vibey and practical lines for traditional minded electric guitar lovers. Most of their instruments fall into the telecaster, Les Paul Jr., 335 zone, often with custom pin-striped, hand-painted embellishments. They also offer a very useful line of guitar parts at very reasonable prices. They may offer pre-wired control assemblies soon as well. Nice guys and very helpful.
I had to scrape out a pile of some sorta' mystery filler from the headstock's tuning-machine holes to install the Grovers, but they fit the pre-existing drilling perfectly and provided no hassles. However, while resetting the guitar post-install, I discovered something a little disheartening: there was an awful lot of sawdust and slop in the neck pocket, and sure as shit, the front two bolt holes in the neck are stripped out enough to cause some instability. This is one guitar I won't be bending the neck on too soon. I guess it's off to a legit guitar tech, where I suspect doweling will be driven in to the bolt holes and redrilled. Hopefully that won't cost me a small fortune, 'cause I'm already feeling a little sheepish about that trade, although I have been very pleased at the tone and sustain when I've played the crazy thing.
Happily my other acquisition in that trade, the Garnet stencil head is showing great promise. I had my buddy Fred at Vancouver Amp Repair solder in a new fuse holder, fired a couple of more-promising looking 6L6s I had lying around in the old girl and she fired up with no hassles. Well, I do have to Deoxit the volume knob, but that's really no big deal given the ease of access to the chassis in old Gar's design. The amp sounded rich and full for the few minutes I sampled it and I look forward to giving it a proper work-out. I'll also need to get a grounded AC cable installed as the ground terminal is missing on its plug, and I don't like being electrocuted particularly.
I also retrieved my brother's Kay/Univox Les Paul with onboard effects from Fred's expert care. Unfortunately, with no proper schematic to work with and a rat's nest of wiring to poke through, Fred had only limited success with the effects array. In his words: "After five hours of work, the love affair was over". As a result, only the fuzz and whirlwind are currently working, and the whirlwind is subtle to the point of being a bit lost. The fuzz however, is big and brutal, with a significant volume boost. I had an opportunity to use it to great effect the next evening at a gig. It definitely sounds more Muff-y than Fuzz Face-ish to my ears, but I've really only played it on a couple of tunes. I'll have the long promised demo of the guitar and it's (somewhat diminished) effects for you soon.
October has been a good month for music; whether it be gigging, composing or indulging my recent gear-acquisition streak, I have been plenty busy. Now that monsoon season is upon us here in the coastal rainforest, it's good to have some projects to keep your hands busy, your head absorbed, and your heart warming you against the cold and wet.
- Pedalboard Project
A man my age should have a proper pedalboard, thought I last week, mostly because I'm fed up loosing 20 minutes unpacking, plugging, unplugging and repacking my pedals each time I go to the studio to rehearse. Because I never have...
- Ephemera And Updates.
Howdy all. It's been awhile since I've posted and as usual this is for the best reason: I'm really busy making music, as opposed to just obsessing about it. Sandybone and me from a previous island journey. This last...
- The Kay Effector, Pt.2 - The Review
I love the elegantly curved tailpiece. It's the little things... It seems that a lot of readers worldwide have been very interested in the Kay/Univox effector guitar, and particularly the schematic, so I'll have to assume there are...
- The Kay Effector: Onboard Effects Madness!
The case is worth about as much as the guitar! Updated: go here to check out a review and video/demo of this guitar! A couple of years...
- The Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Jh-2 Fuzz
The much maligned JH-2 fuzz Here's one for the fuzz-heads and guitar-geeks! I offer for your edification, the Dunlop JH-2 Jimi Hendrix Fuzz, considered by many to be the steaming doggie coil of the fuzziverse. I purchased this stunning...
Guitar
More Updates and Ephemera
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| The echo and trem remain elusive, whirlwind ineffectual, but the fuzz, ooh, the fuzz. |
Oh dear, my ears are ringing from too much time mixing demos under the headphones. It's really a terrible way to mix, but my boy is asleep in a room close by, and if I want to get work like this done, this is when I get to do it- in the wee hours, after everybody has gone to bed and my familial duties are finished for the day.
The demos I was mixing are songs from the writing sessions I wrote about in my previous post, a couple of weeks back. We took this past week off due to some unexpected issues in the Burke family's life, but we'll be back at 'er this week. I burned nine songs onto a CD (yeah, I still use those things) tonight, and we have several more recorded on iPhones and a tablet as well, so I'd have to say we're maintaining our momentum.
In other news, I put new Grover tuners on the wacky telemongrel I wrote about here. I got a great deal on the tuning machines at Vancouver's Anchor Guitars, a store-frontless guitar workshop in downtown Vancouver. They build Anchor and Sparrow Guitars, both vibey and practical lines for traditional minded electric guitar lovers. Most of their instruments fall into the telecaster, Les Paul Jr., 335 zone, often with custom pin-striped, hand-painted embellishments. They also offer a very useful line of guitar parts at very reasonable prices. They may offer pre-wired control assemblies soon as well. Nice guys and very helpful.
I had to scrape out a pile of some sorta' mystery filler from the headstock's tuning-machine holes to install the Grovers, but they fit the pre-existing drilling perfectly and provided no hassles. However, while resetting the guitar post-install, I discovered something a little disheartening: there was an awful lot of sawdust and slop in the neck pocket, and sure as shit, the front two bolt holes in the neck are stripped out enough to cause some instability. This is one guitar I won't be bending the neck on too soon. I guess it's off to a legit guitar tech, where I suspect doweling will be driven in to the bolt holes and redrilled. Hopefully that won't cost me a small fortune, 'cause I'm already feeling a little sheepish about that trade, although I have been very pleased at the tone and sustain when I've played the crazy thing.
 |
| Hopefully, most of the not-so-nice surprises are over... |
Happily my other acquisition in that trade, the Garnet stencil head is showing great promise. I had my buddy Fred at Vancouver Amp Repair solder in a new fuse holder, fired a couple of more-promising looking 6L6s I had lying around in the old girl and she fired up with no hassles. Well, I do have to Deoxit the volume knob, but that's really no big deal given the ease of access to the chassis in old Gar's design. The amp sounded rich and full for the few minutes I sampled it and I look forward to giving it a proper work-out. I'll also need to get a grounded AC cable installed as the ground terminal is missing on its plug, and I don't like being electrocuted particularly.
I also retrieved my brother's Kay/Univox Les Paul with onboard effects from Fred's expert care. Unfortunately, with no proper schematic to work with and a rat's nest of wiring to poke through, Fred had only limited success with the effects array. In his words: "After five hours of work, the love affair was over". As a result, only the fuzz and whirlwind are currently working, and the whirlwind is subtle to the point of being a bit lost. The fuzz however, is big and brutal, with a significant volume boost. I had an opportunity to use it to great effect the next evening at a gig. It definitely sounds more Muff-y than Fuzz Face-ish to my ears, but I've really only played it on a couple of tunes. I'll have the long promised demo of the guitar and it's (somewhat diminished) effects for you soon.
October has been a good month for music; whether it be gigging, composing or indulging my recent gear-acquisition streak, I have been plenty busy. Now that monsoon season is upon us here in the coastal rainforest, it's good to have some projects to keep your hands busy, your head absorbed, and your heart warming you against the cold and wet.
- Pedalboard Project
A man my age should have a proper pedalboard, thought I last week, mostly because I'm fed up loosing 20 minutes unpacking, plugging, unplugging and repacking my pedals each time I go to the studio to rehearse. Because I never have...
- Ephemera And Updates.
Howdy all. It's been awhile since I've posted and as usual this is for the best reason: I'm really busy making music, as opposed to just obsessing about it. Sandybone and me from a previous island journey. This last...
- The Kay Effector, Pt.2 - The Review
I love the elegantly curved tailpiece. It's the little things... It seems that a lot of readers worldwide have been very interested in the Kay/Univox effector guitar, and particularly the schematic, so I'll have to assume there are...
- The Kay Effector: Onboard Effects Madness!
The case is worth about as much as the guitar! Updated: go here to check out a review and video/demo of this guitar! A couple of years...
- The Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Jh-2 Fuzz
The much maligned JH-2 fuzz Here's one for the fuzz-heads and guitar-geeks! I offer for your edification, the Dunlop JH-2 Jimi Hendrix Fuzz, considered by many to be the steaming doggie coil of the fuzziverse. I purchased this stunning...