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!