I love playing with fire, so the Lichtenburg device serves me well, and having a studio has been a plus. My hope is to have a complete set of work by next spring, and take it out to art galleries, craft shows etc.
I was forbidden to paint my Strat, so I bought another style, heh. I purchased another guitar kit, this time a Telecaster, and hoping to do some cool paint. It turns out I had other Tele related issues to take care of.
Pretty wood
Pretty burnt wood
At this time I noticed some work that needed to be done on my ’95 Telecaster. She was rusting up a bit from palm sweat and storage, so it was decided she would be upgraded, yet keep all the original hardware in a container for safe keeping. OK, let’s see.
’95 Telecaster, single owner
The electronics are fine so I went after wear, mounting screws, cleaning the original chrome and rebuilding the hard tail bridge. In this I was successful and happy then I realized, “idiot, you have to completely setup the guitar from scratch”.
mmm, not so pretty…
The setup was quite easy, a doubling of the octave is the answer and the trick of proper intonation, fortunately I was working with a fine machine.
this is not the finished setup, the low E is at the correct length, very precise
I only roll extra slinky for my electrics
A nice finish, she looks rather nice
I have many Fenders, but She’s the one
Thats all for now, but I am building another….
Another Tele? Yes
Nice. I like the electrocuted one. I have no musical talent so I admire from afar.
I’m almost finished with the Burnt Tele, it’s rather interesting, you’ll see.
I need to setup my keyboard again and re-start my self-lessons. As soon as I put some bins of stuff in storage* and make some room for it.
*My current place does not have the spare bedroom that I used to have for junk/boxes/catboxes/home office etc. For the first time I am thinking of renting self-storage. I am not a hoarder!
It’s hard not to look like a “hoarder” in a tiny space with a reasonable amount of possessions.
word
I have 25 hard plastic moving bins. After a week or so of unpacking, 4 are full of books I never pulled off the shelf in the 12 years at my last place, 4 are full of junk I want to keep but not necessarily here, and 17 are empty. Storing all of that will leave my new place still looking reasonably sparse the way I like it 🙂
One of the weirder things to me with this move is that I no longer have anywhere to store the boxes that all my shit came in. Computer boxes, appliance boxes, dishware boxes – all that stuff I used to stuff into closets Tetris-like going back 20 years. I finally thought, why am I doing this, when I am paying movers to move my shit without wrecking it. I guess it was old habit from when I used to move my own shit. So I bought a boxcutter and spent another couple days breaking down all those boxes. It felt cleansing.
My brother ran a self-storage business for many years. Every once in a while a long-term renter would stop paying and, after 90 days, bro would legally be able to cut off the lock and seize the contents. He said that people would pay $25 per month for years to store three boxes of papers. Not his problem, he retired rich from such people. Three boxes of papers would easily fit inside of a closet.
However, there was one time that a guy gave up his space and there was a Suzuki Samurai inside. Another time there was an older model BMW motorcycle. Those remain the only times that he ever got even with past-due rent.
Nice.
It does feel splurgey to me – I am cheap. The one I’m looking at is 55 bucks a month for 5′ by 5′ – enough to fit what I need. But the stupid place is only open during my work hours so I can’t rent it until I take a day off. There are other ones open weekends but considerably more expensive.
I rented a construction bin a few years ago and filled it up with junk. And I am seriously thinking about doing it again.
It is amazing to me that a single human can accumulate so much crap in that short amount of time.
I do remember it felt pretty good when I watched the truck haul that bin away.
hoarder
I never went to much trouble, but over the decades I built an inventory of a couple of systems that did me we; boxes were general, but I used a minimum of energy to sort when it was as easy as not sorting. I was big on hardware and electrical: saving wire, switches, transformers, valves, and fasteners that came off this and that. When I needed a screw, I almost always had one in a a set of jars. When I went hunting, I tend to use the energy of going through things to improve the segregation so things would be a bit easier to find next time, but I never formally organized scrap or was serious about it.
As life went along, things became more disposable: lots of rivets and snap fittings, fewer parts that could be salvaged. FirstWife got most of the piles: stayed with the house; not that any of my old plunder would be accessible to her new buck, not that she’d find a guy who could fix anything at all….who knows. I surely saved more than a couple of thousand dollars, and it was nice not to need to ride into town. Good luck, missy, with that.
NewWife built a small place. There’s less you can fix. I do zero car work and even have a new truck. So it’s one small box of fasteners, some still in the original plastic baggies, and one box of electrical.
I’ve got all the tools from 1/2″ sockets to soldering irons to sheetrock saws and will probably never use most of them again,
which leaves more time for playing guitar and drinking beer and chasing NewWife around hotel rooms.
I’ve got a drawer in the garage with hundreds of resistors in it. Never touched them in over 30 years.
My accounting system is a manila folder marked with the year and full of receipts. I have folders marked “1982” in the attic.
Slowly, slowly, I am discarding past detritus. After Mom died I’m realizing just how much crap my kids are going to have to go through. I’m trying to help them out by sorting out and throwing out.
Anyone want a set of Encyclopedia Brittanica from 1989?
I have a full set of Colliers from 1962-1972
Lucky guy, trade someone for their Nat Geos
I built a StewMac special years ago. It actually sounded pretty decent.
Unfortunately, I cannot play anymore with the tremors.
I sure do miss it.
Keep up the good work!
I am always impressed with you that have the artistic skills, be it music, art or craftsman ship. Combining any two is impressive, all three is off the scale.
So many Glibs have so much talent.
I was bored, Mr. Fourscore. Idle minds and all that.
Still, it was a nice little Strat knockoff. Nothing like the stuff Yusef does…Holy Crap. He needs to be a luthier selling to the big boys.
Gave my Honeyburst Les Paul to my sister. Sold my Nitro Strat. Sold all my acoustic guitars.
Still have some recording equipment, but I’m too lazy to sell it at the moment.
Kind of a sad day when you realize you can’t do something you love anymore. I know you know.
I’m working on my own line lest anyone steals my thunder, they may anyway. I have custom serialized neck plates for each build, by spring I’m hoping to have a dozen or so ready for market.
Good for you, man. I’m rooting for you!
Thanks, and since they are also art I will take them to some high end local studios and see what they say. I do a lot more than guitars.
Start with that. All you have to do is get a couple of famous guitarists going gaga for your stuff.
Listen to me.
You do what you think is right.
I have no idea what right is.
Rooting for you anyway!
my own line
My set-up guy is the brains behind StBlues.
I know a lot about manufacturing and am too old and hardened to get serious about producing something that was close to my heart: either I do something for love and don’t care what it costs or I’m brutally profit-driven and damn any art beyond form following function.
I played junk all my life and spent/saved my money for others’ needs. Five years ago I bought a real guitar and am never going back.
I never believed that there was a “real” guitar for years. Then I got one.
All of the sudden my guitar parts sounded like what I heard on the radio.
There is definitely something to be said for quality. Mostly on the pickup side.
The Tele in this post is the first “real guitar” I ever owned first buyer. That said quality is a good measure, but if you buy the right wood and have some Luthier skills you can make almost any wood sound good.
A friend tried to sell me one of the first American Standard Strats for almost nothing once, but I was a hardcore saver still in those days before my son’s education was banked. Lightning fast, playing that guitar reminded me of being a kid running downhill to where you get to going faster than you can churn your legs.
Serious question, Yusef. Is the wood that important on an electric?
I’ve always thought that the pickups mattered way more.
Acoustic, I can understand about the wood choice. It has to resonate.
Electric…it has to hold the pickups and stand up to a beating over the years.
Not being a dick here. I truly want to know what you think.
If you become a big time luthier, well then, I will adjust my opinion to whatever you say. HA!
@milo The wood doesn’t make enough of a difference to count. Pickups count far more as you can by sound shapes to fit the body.
Maple is tight and a bit tinny to me, Mahagony (sp) is light yet warm But always a Maple neck with ebony or Rosewood fretboards.
Thanks for answering, Yusef.
I have always preferred mahogany acoustics. Spruce always sounded too bright to me.
If you branch out into acoustics in the future, I will buy it for my niece.
*lowers head*
I can’t play it. But I can damn well pay for it!
I want to do an acoustic, let’s see how it works and I’ll let you know
The seconders will call out for help, and I’ll answer…No.
They tried to make me Bro-chett / I said no, no, no
Perhaps we need to leave the seconders alone. They have suffered enough.
Thirders and so on are next.
Fire away!
HEY YUFUS!
Once again, the Bee STINGS
Damn! That’s a good one, 🐝!
Bring it. I look forward to seeing part 2.
Watching The Last Witchhunter with Rose Leslie. Up Yusef’s alley.
https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/rose-leslie
Rose Leslie
FirstWife was a Fort Worth red, very much in that range: seemed like a good idea at the time. I miss cerveza on the patio at Joe T, and I need to get back out to the Big Bend, but escaping the red was a good move.
What does it say about the movie when I honestly do not remember her part, or Vin Diesel’s? I have it on my Plex Server. And there it has sat.
I bought the John WIck 4 Bluray the other day. Went to rip it to my truenas server. Little Pioneer external BluRay drive can’t read it.
Still reads DVD’s OK.
Not sure if replacing that drive is worth it. I have not seen a good movie in years.
Last movie in theater was Iron Man.
I realize I may be an extreme outlier.
I have it on the big Halloween movie list. Lots to watch, free.
Free is good. I paid money for it from sheer boredom.
I am the idiot in this convo.
Not an idiot. Live and learn. Stop buying stuff. Free streaming will win out.
I only do it from the thought that they will “adjust” any older movies to reflect the new correct values.
I bought most of Mel Brook’s movies. I am convinced that I was right to do so.
I only do it from the thought that they will “adjust” any older movies to reflect the new correct values.
I bought most of Mel Brook’s movies. I am convinced that I was right to do so.
If you don’t own physical media, you are only borrowing it until the owner decides to take it bake.
I just bolted the neck on my next project and my does this guitar look great. I was having a rough spell for a week or so and building gives me peace.
OTOH I sold a 29K job today, of which I get 15%. 2 hours of tight attic work and a bit of salesmanship and they were happy to buy. Ad salesman to my resume I guess.
I just Firsted for the 14th time today.
That’s an off day for me.
Your Firsts are not worthy of our lowsome presence, so kindly,
Fuck Off
Aww, man. He’s doing the best he can. He found a shtick and is going with it.
Let him have his moments.
You need to concentrate on getting those electrical burnt, flamed Maple bodies ready for review.
Focus. Don’t get distracted.
I’m focused and driven by results, that’s why everyone loves me, I get shit done.
Add Salesman, jeez
sold a 29K job today
Just spent the day at a plant in southern Georgia, a third trip to look at a job, and every visit I want it less. When I first quoted it, it was maybe 300HP and some pipe; then some specs changed and it became 450HP and a bunch of controls, and then it needed to be certified to this and the design stamped and add in the electrical and the concrete and by the way can you demo this out while you’re at it and we can’t be shut down for more than nine days and there’s a three foot layer of organic material before you can even begin to get to load-bearing soil
but I had an excellent lunch in a small town with lots of nice people and drove through fields bursting with cotton or peanuts raked and dried; I could drive around the backroads of the South the rest of my life.
Mine was easy even with the attic action, but the rework/reestimates suck, it happens a lot.
Boy. My CE training colored my quick skim of that so differently. “load bearing soil” got me kind of out of breath.
Carry on. I will be OK over here in the corner.
I hate selling, I’m a technician, but when a smart customer with money wants something I’m happy to help.
I’m not complaining,
but lots of people can’t articulate what they want much less spec what they need, and who needs all the loose ends: there’s more work out there than I will live to finish, so why fool around with things that aren’t straightforward. It’s a Global 2000 firm with excellent resources, but you can get too much noise to signal with a firm like that on a project that’s only a million bucks: I could burn up a month chasing loose ends when I could have sold and built something else already…better to bag a job half that size and just knock it out clean. Lots of my clients say just tell me what I need: I built a 250HP job in Alabama this spring in 90 days from PO to flipping the go switch because he didn’t get in my way.
Selling technical projects turns into too much teaching any more, and I don’t have time to explain the engineering world to 30 different project managers each year. It’s turning me into a dick: I need to learn a nice way to figure out I don’t want a job and just get away from the people without needlessly hurting anyone’s feelings.
Thats why I quit commercial work, homeowners are easier and the scene is way less physical
I should mention that my main constraint is design, so I mainly want to use standards with as little customization as possible: that’s where the problems and cost come from anyway. I have enough fabrication and installation resources, so it doesn’t make sense to upset the balance with lots of new ideas.
nocaster
No
?
Really? The tones were mighty tasty.
just tubes and tweed for me, thanks
Different amp…different style.
I love Vince Gill.
More for his voice. Great guitarists are a dime a dozen. Vocals are the only truly unique instruments.
Different amp…different style.
if you turn the gain or overdrive up to 11, all guitars start sounding the same; give me something more post-war and less Tom Scholz
my heroes are songwriters: almost no one has anything worth saying and also knows how to couch it
some stunning turns of phrase, for example:
* And if I could move, I’d get my gun and put her in the ground
* You could have your choice of men But I could never love again
* Spring only sighed, summer had to be satisfied
* I have my freedom But I don’t have much time
* And I need you more than want you And I want you for all time
* It’s a penny for your thoughts, It’s a dollar for your kisses, Keep a running tab on the time
* She wore red dresses and told such sweet lies
You love the lyrics of the song. Nothing wrong with that.
They are the vocals, you know?
Music is subjective. We are guaranteed to not like the same bands.
I’m OK with you being an uneducated idiot.
KIDDING!!!!
Fer Chrissakes. Ease up.
A long time ago I bought my wife a new car for Christmas, 1984, oh the irony. She chose a Mazda 626, coffee brown, ’85 model, 4 door. She drove that car for about 10 years and then quit driving after we retired. About 27 years ago I drove it into the garage at the cabin, took the battery out and covered it up with a car cover.
There it sat, year after year. This past Spring there was a big tree leaning over top of the garage, I pulled the car out with a tractor and brought it over to the garage at the house, pulled the tree away from the cabin garage anyway. My grand daughter’s husband decided to try to get the Mazda running and had it firing but it just wouldn’t keep running. Anyway, one of my oldest best friends that knows a lot about cars said he take a look at it. He stopped by today, two hours later had it purring like a pussy cat. Biggest problem was trying to reach around all the Japanese engineered components to find the starter and solenoid. He jumped the solenoid, a shot of starting fluid and it ran like a top. My friend is the same age as I but way more flexible and certainly more knowledgeable ref: cars.
Good to have friends like that.
After a couple minutes it began pouring white smoke from underneath. Seems like the mice had build a home around the exhaust pipe and that was drying out and trying to burn. Shut the engine off and the smoke quit. Car is 38 years old, Mrs Twoscore, at that time, covered the seats with soft covers so the upholstery is still like new. Back seat hasn’t hardly ever been sat on. 88K, I put collector plates on it at age 25 even though it wasn’t being used. In MN collector plates are good
forever and never have to be renewed. At this point I’m unsure what will happen to the car, not my decision I guess.
Anyway that was one of the last items on my bucket list.
Cool to hear that it is running
I have some stories to tell, but I think I’ll make a few more just in case I live as long as you Jack,
God Bless you and yours,
That is awesome.
People that can do shit are my favorite people!
My mom’s Mazda 626 is the last car I remember before I went to college in 88 and she remarried into Caddies and SUVs and stuff.
It was cafe au lait brown lol. Guessing late 70s model. It had the classic look. And like many of the cars from my childhood, it was a crapshoot whether it would start during the winter.
I might have to commission a bass for this lovely girl.
Great article, Yusef!
Who be that? I’m an old man, but I am not a dead man.
Never meet the girl of my dreams in this life.
I did, and we live happily everafter
I lost my soul mate. I envy you very much.
Wendy died of the covid, she is missed greatly
I know. I feel for you, brother. We are of the same generation.
You had many wonderful years together, right?
Focus on that in the long nights. I promise you two will meet again,
I have to believe that.
Holy crap. If that is family, I meant it in the nicest possible way.
Stupid MIlo. Milo…bad.
Heh, my older brother had the gift of two hot daughters. It was trying at times.
Yeah, snark aside….daughters. Trying times indeed.
*starts counting grey hairs*
Lol. You dorks.
That’s my daughter. Her band has been together since February. Last Thursday they headlined at the Fox in Boulder. They were absolutely amazing.
Rock on Girl! my Bass playing daughter turned 34 today,
Punk forever!
Happy birthday, bass girl!
Oh Dear God, Tundra.
That is your daughter, isn’t it? I seem to remember you mentioning her being in a band.
Bad MIlo.
I feel lower than snake shit in the Marianas Trench.
Bad Milo.
I apologize most profusely.
BAD MILO.
All good, my friend, It’s been such a fun ride watching the girls kick ass.
She is a good looking woman. my man. I would have been thrilled to have her been the bass player in my band…thirty years ago.
Let’s see.
Judith. A Perfect Circle.
OK. Now I’m depressed again.
You had better enjoy your blessed life.
I knew it. I am the worst MIlo that ever lived.
Snark has its time and place and I damn sure missed both of them.
Your daughter appears to be a lovely young woman and I hope she succeeds in the hellhole known as the music business. But then again, I hope she has a backup plan.
I met Ben Moody and Amy Lee at our “studio” outside Conway years ago. They were not that impressive at the time. Shows you what I know. They were all still in high school.
Tell her to keep on doing what she wants to do. There ain’t a single person that knows what to to do better than she does.
My niece is an RN in Denver. If she had listened to me, she probably would have a baby or two here in Arkanistan.
She’s a semester and a half away from an engineering degree.
I have no idea where she’s gonna end up. She has always been the most driven person I know. And the most unpredictable.
I don’t really want her in the music biz, but I know she’ll be like the other Milo.
Thanks for the kind words.
Just be there for her when the first plan explodes. It always does.
Hell, the second and third one does too most of the time.
Having the family there…is more precious than gold.
I’m talking to the choir. You know.
Things I never thought I’d transcribe into a medical record: “This treatment sucks.”
Old style treatment for snake bite?
LOLno. Chemo.
Ooof, Barry Melrose retiring to deal with Parkinson’s. That sucks.
Great looking axes Yusef. Good luck with the business.
Here is a band I’ve seen a few times with a lead guitar player with what I believe is a Telecaster.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h-WNw4oGpAU
That is a hollow body; Not a Tele.
Cool band though. Thanks for the link.
Whelp the Dodgers were swept by the D’Backs. It’s good to have something good happen Mittwoch.
Hockey has started. That is also good.
Someone in CA just became very, very rich.
*tears up Powerball ticket*
What in the actual FUCK?
California…Florida…New York.
It’s almost like they have the highest populations.
Still…some poor redneck piece of shi* deserves it too.
My Powerball ticket was so perfect. The numbers were…cosmic.
Oh God.
Here is the heaviness again.
For those of you old enough, you will recognize a quote from Rodney Dangerfield.
*Hey Vonnegut I’m cancelling your check” doesn’t really seem apropo.
Good morning all!
Today, two divergent tunes.
First, Bruce Wooley and the Camera Club,
Clean Clean.
Then, Tuxedomoon,
Jinx.
Share and enjoy!
Good morning, you freedom loving people!
🌞🍳
Let’s kick it off 80’s style.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DeM3CmMA9K0
🎶🎶
Way to make assumptions.
Good morning, Sean, U, and Beau!
Morning.
Goddammit.
I should not find mold on brand-new (to me) food!
Ick! 😝 Don’t tell me – that’s what you just picked up for breakfast?
🤢 Yes.
I’m sorry! 😞 Do you have anything around you could have instead?
I’ve got plenty. It’s a remote day, so I have my choice of anything in the house.
Basically, I pulled cheese from my fridge to replace the curds from the store that were somehow allowed to grow spots.
😋👍🧀
Now I am out of cheese 🙁
😨
Good morning! It’s pitch dark and I am doing the dishes.
Good morning, R.J.! No lights in the kitchen?
*Narrator Whisper* We have secretly replaced RJ’s lightbulbs with Folgers Crystals. Lets see if he notices
::sockets start to smolder:: “Why does it smell like Starbucks in here?”
Yeah, I’ve been so tired I’ve poured the ground coffee into the water reservoir before.
I’ve did the opposite as well. Then I’m disappointed ’cause my coffee is delayed while I’m remaking it.
Just trying to not wake any humans or cats up. It did not work.
Aaaah!
Daddy’s Girl Baby Inflatable Adult Costume https://a.co/d/j54LozZ
No.
I was told there would be no kink shaming.
We lied.
Good morning!
Good morning, NA!
Morning NA and GT and all the rest.
This is fun*. I’m trying to troubleshoot the desktop client for one of the applications I support for a guy who works the opposite shift from me, so each of the diagnostic steps is happening one day at a time over email. We’ll eventually narrow down the issue and get it working, but it’s slower than molasses flowing uphill in winter.
*for some values of ‘fun’.
Like dating via snail mail.
I imagine what you are dealing with is similar to astronautical engineers go through. *Send command to craft 15 billion miles from earth* *wait a couple hours to confirm it worked*
I dont have all my kitchen stuff yet. Just a small sauce pot and a frying pan. Limits what I want to make for food. Like spaghetti last night.
While I absolutely love a gas stove I am coming around a bit to the glass top electric stove. So easy to clean and I think because we have high-end cookware, the heating is even and almost just as quick as gas.
Ooh la la.
I’m on basic bitch electric now. Slowly getting used to it.
I could not stand a basic electric stove. It took Forever to heat up, and was so uneven in heating.
I was dreading it. The house is natgas ready, but of course we have so many other things lined up to do before that as it isn’t a necessity.
The missus likes her stove for the same reasons. I have an extra glass top in the garage, needs an oven heating element. The Boss wanted a new one when the old one went on the fritz. She does the cooking, I do the eating, seems to work.
Good Morning, RJ, GT , UCS and any others whose initials I can’t spell,
38 this morning in the woods but at least no snow. It’ll be here, one day soon.
Windy and 75 here today, much like yesterday. Cloudy, but not raining. It’s nice.
I figured he was just always drunk on air. Does suck.