Life is Great!!

Well, thanks to Judy chiding me for not keeping this up, she & I are suddenly seeing each other... and it's about as serious as one could get. Surprised us both... we had no intention of a relationship, but when one is handed to you the way that this one was, "yes" is the only answer that makes sense. So, our lives have become intertwined and much changed. More to follow!

Still busy with building and repair... did finally manage to get a couple of guitars listed on eBay, along with the links to the soundfiles of them being played... we'll see if that improves sales or values... will be listing a couple more after Thanksgiving.

Got the fretboard slotting template all made last week, so can now start slotting my own 24" scale fingerboards, since that size is not readily available thru any of the major guitar supply houses. Will also be building a simple fret-curving jig out of hardware store parts instead of paying Stew-Mac an outrageous price for one.

Getting ready to change my 8-string Dobro over to a C6 tuning... my buddy Byron just picked one up as well, so will be making 2 conversions at once... bone nuts from Paul Beard, and strings from Euphonon (we'll split a dozen sets). Probably end up using LT Zinn's C6 tuning with the F on the bottom, so the bottom 4 strings give you the F6 chord with the E on top.

Kicking around the idea of calling LT and see about getting a lesson from him... it's a 5 hr. drive, but would be worth it. Could learn a lot in an afternoon!! But, first, have to get the 8-string tuning figured out!! I can deal with the 6-string C6 now fairly comfortably, so am practicing on that most every day. Probably will be Spring before I could get up to see him.. Driving up there around Lake Michigan can get tricky once Winter starts!!

Lucked out and found some old (early 30's) Slingerland broadside ads and catalogs that came out a music store in Alabama... brought less than I was willing to pay, so I guess that makes them a bargain? Will be nice to be able to put an accurate date on some things... I have only 2 guitars that are dated out of about 135 instruments... the rest are all a guessing game.

Got the yard all "Winterized"... now all the garden, flower beds and young trees are mulched with shreaded leaves, and the compost bin is half full as well... get such a kick out of watching my neighbors raking up and throwing away the best fertilizer in the world... I gave up trying to make converts years ago, and hopefully by watching they'll learn something? At least the City of DeKalb does it right... they come by and harvest (read suck) all the leaves off the curbs, and they they compost them and make the compost available to residents.

The CD proofs should be in the hands of the folks at Oasis tomorrow, and we should have the CD in our hot little hands sometime during the 2nd full week of December! Finally! Told my buddy Jay how it was funny that we don't sound now like we did when we recorded the CD... his comment was "yup" :-)

Having a lot of fun with the bluegrass band we put together -- having played so much over the years with Maurie & Dale, and for the last 3 with Pete, when we come together, it's just very natural and easy... Mike fits right in on the bass, and it's a real hoot playing bluegrass again... Hopefully this will take off and be a good jam session on Sunday afternoons at The House...

Well, should go be productive and slot my first fingerboard -- I did break down and buy the $70 blade for my table saw from Stew-Mac as I didn't like the prospect of cutting all 18 slots by hand... much quicker to use power tools when appropriate!

Back to real time!

Well, it's been a hectic weekend.  Played at the Three Stags in Geneva on Fri nite...  an office party going on at the same time, so it was a tad noisy!  But, we consider that a challenge, and were able to play thru it with no problems, except for the occasional "I can't hear anything".  Judy came out to see us, as did Ralph and Ann.  They liked us, so we'll no doubt be back there in the future...


Then, Halloween party on Sat nite in Plainfield...  our 2nd annual appearance there...  no $$, just food & fun, and we had fun!  Resurrected several songs that we hadn't done in a long time.  Then Sunday was a day of rest after two nights out late...  tomorrow will be another day.


Lost a dear friend tonight...  Tim Tyner lost his battle with cancer about 9:30 p.m., passed peacefully away.  We played in 2 different bluegrass/newgrass bands back in the 80's, and had a ball...  He'll be missed a lot.  We were able to play music with him one last time about a month ago, and it was probably the best session we'd ever had!  Rest in Peace, buddy!!


So, tomorrow it's back to the world of guitar repair and building...  also must record some for the eBay listings and get those up tomorrow night.  Already taken the pics, but have to reduce the size and trim them yet.  Then I can keep working on the ones that I've already started and start another one as well...  like to keep 3 in process all the time.


Still busy working on the C6 Hawaiian tuning...  Working on a couple of new songs from the 30's now as well as a couple of traditional Hawaiian songs.  Slowly getting my mind around the tuning and the odd (compared to the High-G Dobro tuning) double stops that exist.  And hearing when to throw in the 6ths, 9ths, & 13ths is really a trip...  when you hit it right, it sounds sooo sweet!  There were some pretty amazing players back in the 20's & 30's.  Don't particularly care for some of their material, but love the stylings!

Catching up!!

Well, after receiving a friendly reminder from Judy that I've been remiss in my duties as a blogger, I've learned my lesson and will continue this... I mean, it's only been since April that I wrote anything!

A very busy Summer! The OTCBR is playing a lot, did a couple of nice festivals and concerts, the most memorable being a house concert at our buddy Walter Kraft's house (& Carolyn's house, too!) up in Fall Creek, WI... what a wonderful time! Walter being the gad-about that he is invited people from all over, and so here we are in a beautiful house (newly re-modeled and added-on-to) on a quiet Wisconsin road a few miles from anything with people from Ann Arbor, Detroit, Cleveland, Eau Claire, Yorkville, IL, and Lord knows where else. Much good music that night... after the show we jammed, as several of the audience were also players -- what a surprise :-) Musicians at Walter's house!! Met Howard Ludke (sp), a fantastic player from the area and all around nice guy and did a LOT of blues with him!! He's got some primo instruments and knows how to play them!!

Also memorable was the Putnam County Festival outside McNabb... sad to say, this was the last year for that one... Having attended many of them when I was running the NIBA, it will be missed. But, Chris Vallillo says that a replacement festival is in the works!! Hooray... can't have too many festivals... But, having done a few, I know how much work they are, and hope that enough people can band together to make it work. We also did a show at Chris' Hickory Ridge Coffeehouse at Dickson Mounds... Got to meet a lot of new people, and see some old friends.

We also have started playing fairly regularly at the Village Squire restaurants... we did 4 months at their newest one in S. Elgin (has is really been that long ago?) and also a month at the W. Dundee one... There are a few new clubs opening up in the St. Charles/Geneva area, and we're starting to get some jobs there as well... always nice to play the small clubs/bars, as they are pretty intimate... it's always nice to establish a rapport with the audience and easy to do in a small club. Of course, we'd do house concerts every night if we could!

Guitar repair continues! I have about a dozen ready to sell, so must start measuring and writing descriptions, taking pics, and recording them -- I decided that if I put a link in the eBay listing to a couple of sound files of the instrument, it could help sales... Time will tell on that one!

And, the biggest news of all -- Guitar #1 was started and progresses nicely... So far the sides are bent, glued to the blocks, all the kerfing is glued on, the neck is rough cut, the top is ready to have the soundhole purlfling inlaid, and then it's time to slot and shape the fingerboard so that I can start shaping the neck... The back is all glued up and braced as well... Binding is all picked out, inlay cut... all I need is time! And ambition...

I also headed up this month to visit Rob Cook up in Alma, MI and Stan Werbin at Elderly Instruments in Lansing and collected some more materials for the Slingerland stringed instrument book... it's gonna take longer than we thought! We keep finding out new things, and heading down different paths digging for information, and generally finding a tidbit here and there... enough that we've re-thought some of our original dating ideas, and of course, leading to even more digging to corroborate the new ideas. We had hopes of it coming out this year, but I think that we've pretty much given up on that idea!! I have yet to head into Chicago and spend a day or two at the Library... I know that they have a lot of info there. I did spend a day and a half at the Chicago Historical Society, and discovered that they have absolutely NO information about Slingerland in their entire collection. I did find references to the various schools of music that HH and his brother ran in the City Directories from 1917, but absolutely no other references! So, that got me to wondering, and I started looking up the other companies: Harmony, Stromberg-Voisinet (Kay), Regal, Washburn, Bohmann, Gibbs, etc. ZERO!!!

Well, having been doing this research thing for a couple of years now, I was astounded... so much so, that I drafted a letter to the Historical Society and offered to write a small article concerning the musical instrument industry that existed in Chicago prior to WWII. I got a nice form letter back stating that they weren't researching that now, but if they ever did, they would be in touch with me! Harumph!!

So, here we have Chicago, the center of stringed musical instrument manufacturing for nearly 3 decades, and there is no history of it? What's wrong with this picture??? Literally millions of instruments of all kinds came out of Chicago, and aside from the employees of the companies making these instruments, several thousands of other people were involved: Someone had to unload and move all the wood that went into these instruments... someone had to manufacture and move all the metal hardware for these instruments, pearl for inlay, cases for all the instruments (at least 2-3 companies existed in Chicago), the largest tanneries for hides for drums and banjos were located in Chicago, as well as Wards, Sears, and Lyon & Healy for distribution... and, in the case of Slingerland, Popular Mechanics was a Chicago-based magazine, and that's where Slingerland did most of their advertising... thousands and thousands of other people were involved in the music industry!! And not a mention of it!! So, I'll show 'em... I'll write my own article and get it published in a non-Chicago magazine! Ha!!

The musical madness continues with new developments all the time... Pete & I hooked up with our buddy Byron who is learning pedal steel, and discovered that we know a LOT of old country stuff, like when country music was good? Hank Snow, Hank Williams, Eddy Arnold, Ernest Tubb, Lefty Frizzel, Jimmie Rodgers, Gene Autry, Tex Ritter... you know, when country music was good!! So, yours truly has picked up the electric guitar and started working on my country chops... Pete is playing bass, and Byron on the steel... I also play the bass and Pete plays his Martin. So, something else to practice!!

As is that weren't enough irons in the fire, we've just put together a bluegrass band to host the bluegrass jam sessions at The House in DeKalb the 2nd & 4th Sundays starting in Nov. This one's gonna be a ball...

Maurie Grafton from Hanover (runs The Artful Lodger B&B with his wife Patricia - http://www.the-artful-lodger.com/index.html) & I were in The Pleasant Street String Band back in the 70's... we played most of the clubs in Chicago, Madison, Rockford, Cary, etc. and generally had a great time! We were one of the main backup bands for Vassar Clements when he came to the area and spent a lot of time with him. He just died in August, and will be greatly missed by the music community. He taught us all a lot about how to be a gentleman as well as a musician!! Maurie plays banjo, guitar, cittern, hammer dulcimer, and bagpipes and probably anything else he decides to... but for these gigs,he'll be on banjo & guitar.

Dale Ludewig, my oldest friend in DeKalb -- like we've known each other since about '67 -- (http://www.ludewigmandolins.com/) & I were in a couple of bands back in the 80's: Mispent Youth & Bluestem... we played all over the DeKalb area... Dale is now one of the premier mandolin builders in the world, and plays mandolin, banjo, & guitar.

Pete Norman, my bud and partner in the OTCBR plays... whatever he wants to: guitar, mandolin, bass, banjo, and makes 'fiddle-like' noises.

And yours truly will be on guitar, reso, and maybe some bass... we're too versitile for our own good sometimes! We will also have Stephen Briggs with us occasionally on guitar and vocals.

We all sing, can do multiple parts, so that's going to be the most confusing thing... figuring out who is going to be doing what!! Reminds me, I have to start a set list, along with everyone else, and clutter up the electrons with many e-mails.

Needless to say, we're looking forward to this, & I realized that after we started talking about this, that I am the common link between all these guys... Hmmm...

As if that weren't enough, the 12th-15th of Oct. I attended the 20th Annual Hawaiian Steel Guitar Convention in Joliet, IL... Yes, Joliet!! I went last year for the 1st time, just to "check it out." Well, since then I've joined the Association, and done some experimenting with various tunings, most notably C6. This year I was actually confident enough to sit in a jam session with some primo players (carefully positioning myself slightly behind one of the best - Duke Ching - so I could watch his hands!) and actually took a couple of good breaks, or at least they said they were good... I was too busy concentrating on trying to play to notice!! But, after this year, instead of just being an acquaintence, C6 is now my friend. My goal is to be on stage for a 25 min. slot at next year's convention! Of course, my main goal is to learn as much music as I can!! Time's runnin' out, & I haven't learned nearly enough yet!!

So, that's pretty much the encapsulated version of "What I Did This Summer"!! Honest, Judy, I'll try to be more diligent in this ;-)

Rainy day blues

Yep, a rainy day today, but we sure needed the moisture... felt like I should have stayed in bed for an extra couple of hours... no energy today. The redbud tree is about one day away from bursting into full bloom... that's always a sure sign of Spring!

Did manage to get lots of pics taken for guitars and tuners to list on eBay... now have to edit all the pics and write descriptions. Descriptions are easy, but the pics are a pain... tedium.

Did manage to fix an electric guitar today -- it had been dropped while the plug was in the jack, so it shattered the finish and wood around the jack on the side of the guitar. So, installed a coverplate over the area, and it covered all but about 1/16" of one crack. Plus made the jack a lot more stable... I might just install a plate on my own guitar to avoid the possiblity of an accident... next time I do a Stew Mac order...

Major breakage on a guitar today... cut a new saddle and after shaping & installing it, upon tightening the strings the front half of the bridge from the saddle slot forward broke off... The bridge was walnut, and was (obviously) very dried out... So, I'll make a new bridge and get it glued on on Wed. The new one will be either coco bolo or ebony, probably ebony... will be much more stable than the old walnut one!

Eye Dr. appt. on Wed., so might be able to eliminate one of my eye drops if the pressure has stabilized in the right eye... this is from laser surgery (PRK) that enabled me to throw away my glasses after some 52 yrs.

Got some video clips today of Dubya's nominee for UN Ambassador, John Bolton... a very scary fellow... having him represent the US in the UN would be like having no representation at all! His goal seems to be dismantling the UN if the US can't run it... somehow not in keeping with the spirit of the UN! And definitely not in the best interests of making peace with the rest of the world, most of whom don't trust us at all after Iraq.

To much bad ju ju in Washington these days! Need an exorcist post haste!!

NOT a good day!

Well, being a retired computer support person, you think that I'd know better... I finally DID get my laptop to connect to the internet via my wireless router, but it took me several tries, and over 2 hrs. of messing around with settings. Grrr... I never liked networks or the like when I was doing it for a living, and nothing has changed!

I was able to get the Remote Administrator program configured to be able to look at one computer from the other, but it appears that I can't transfer files back and forth between them with that program... it's too late now to go hunting for a program that does that, but later today, I'll surely be looking for one.

Today was a "hurry up and wait" kind of day... have several calls into various agencies concerning the mechanical rights for the songs on the CD, and with any luck, tomorrow will bring answers to all the questions that happened today.

Hoping that the rain comes tonight as they predict... we need it... I dug all the dandelions from the yard today... ok, so I probably missed one or two... it's a small yard, they'll stand out. I see the neighbor across the alley has mowed their lawn already... groan... it's too early for this... I'm holding out for another few days.

Took many pictures of tuners that I'll be listing on eBay tomorrow... odd-ball sets of 3 & 4 tuners (would work well for dulcimers or tenor guitars) and a couple of stray 3-on-a-plate that match nothing that I have... way too new!

Playing the Gibson a lot as well... what a guitar! It continues to amaze me... and delight me at the same time... looking at the construction of it, I'm re-thinking my design for my own guitars a bit... will be more work, but worth it if it works as I think it will... Cut more pearl today using the diamond saw and jigs... had to add a board on the front of the dust collector, and now the dust is 90% taken up by the Shop Vac instead of heading for my lungs... a major improvement... still, I think that it will be a nice outdoor, windy day job... no need for dust masks if the wind is blowing...

Music at the bar in Sandwich tomorrow nite... haven't been there for 2 weeks... they probably think we died :-) They'll say that, no doubt, when we show up... Should have 2 new songs ready by then... and good ones they are... Gus Canon and Blue Highway, altho' you wouldn't recognize the Blue Highway one as I changed it a wee bit to make it fit the OTCBR mold... The Folk Process lives!!

The end of a relaxed day

Well, yessir, it was great to sit outside in the 70 degree weather and hook up the new mics to Pete's PA system... and, as we suspected, they worked just fine... meaning that the gig that we tried to use them at had something funky going on with their PA system... incredible mics!! AT4040's... put them both on a single stand, and since Pete & I sit close together for all our gigs, the setup works perfectly... seems like a 14-16" working distance is about right... and clean!! Yes, crisp and clean... of course, outside usage brings hazards unique... the sparrows in the background were coming thru the speakers just fine, as was the conversation of the people around the corner in the yard next door! And, as the pattern is wide enough, the wind noise is very minimal... unlike a "regular" mic that has a tube of audio for the wind to blow across...

So, we're set for the Thurs. nite 4 hr. gig... should provide us with ample opportunity to learn the mics well...

Now, back to things mundane... see that there are a couple of new May Bell instruments on eBay, but don't know (yet) what the woods are... might be something unique... did receive an e-mail from a person that has a "different" Style 7, in that the Slingerland name is not burned inside... I have 6 of them, and all have the name inside... so, yet another "different" one to throw into the mix.

The trip into Chicago to the Historical Society for the Slingerland research will likely be next month now... They're closed for a week this month, and our Thurs. nite gigs make it hard to go in and stay from Wed. through Sat.!! Don't want to deal with the traffic unless I really have to!!

Relaxed day

Well, I've recovered from my trip to Canada and am back into the "routine", such as it is... Busily fixing guitars, and getting ready to send one off to Texas on approval... old Slingerland Songster... had to set it up with light gauge strings, and that was a trip... I'm so used to Mediums for everything, and putting lights on changes lots of things... ended up having to dress a few frets and re-crown & polish them, having already re-crowned and polished when the strings were off! Now it's been sitting for a day to settle in, and I'll work on it tonight if it needs tweaking.

Yep, it's Spring here in N. IL -- in the high 60's, hazy, and very nice. Trees are budding out, peonies are up, flowers likewise...

I'm getting ready to head over to Pete's to attempt to figure out the why's and wherefore's of our new mics... We bought a couple of AT4040's after seeing my buddy Jay Ungar and Molly Mason using similar mikes... Jay said that they were wonderful, and we've been fighting the 4 mic set-up that we use for some time... too damn much clutter... we have short stands, with telescoping arms, but still there's 4 of them, and it's just a pain... if we could travel with one stand and a suitcase (already have everything fitted into a suitcase that my neighbor put out for the garbage!) life would be a lot simpler.

Now to try to figure out how to make my wireless router let me connect my laptop to the web without a cable... Just doesn't seem to want to do anything. I think a detailed e-mail to Linksys is in order a bit later today!

Leaving Canada

Well, the rain that they promised is here... at least it's not the freezing rain that they said we'd have! But still, a gray, dreary-looking day... But, not to be negative... Good weather for driving! No glare and bright sun to deal with.

Now to plug the addresses into Street Atlas and see the route that I'll take... I pretty much know the way from looking it up before, but getting out of Hamilton will probably be the worst part of the whole trip. And, Tim warns me that getting back into the US can be a bugger... fortunately I didn't buy a lot of stuff here, so won't have anything to declare or have to pay any duties... But, he says that the American Customs people are generally assholes, lots of former military people... we'll see... I'm not worried about it! What will happen will happen.

Tim & I both agreed last night that this trip has worn us both out mentally... we've explored the book and things in general, and both got a high from that... yesterday, we both started coming down from that high, and were both sort of "computer potatoes" last night as we looked at various sources searching for book info....

Well, enuf for now... need coffee!