Who made Who
This is a new toy I recently acquired from a friend. The body seems hand-made (project guitar style) with a catalogue order neck.
After doing some paint the first modifications will be to replace the nut and bridge.
Here's some before shots. More to come.
MusicMan Bass “What’s that Jigglin’ around?”
My good friend Phil left his bass with me for a couple days to look into a mystery noise coming from his bass when you shake it. It sounded to me like there was something heavy like a 9v battery loose inside the body- which I thought at first might be likely as his bass has active electronics that require a battery.
Well I found the battery compartment snug and in great shape- so I started taking things apart and found that the secondary pickup (which is mounted underneath the first pickup) had come all undone, and broken a wire in the process.
To skip all the boring details- the pickup is re-glued, re-wired, and re-friggin-rockin!
My Gibson Gets Magic Acoustical Powers!!!
I set going recently on a big personal guitar project. I got a T-bridge, which is LR Baggs transducer bridge for Gibson style guitars. Of course the magic is only complete with a CTRL-X to accompany the pickup: giving the holder mystical powers to switch between or mix the electric and acoustic sounds.
I only had a few holes to drill in my 339: Two under the bridge for the new wires, and two near all the knobs for a couple new controls.
I took some time before installing on the phone with Bryan at LR Baggs, designing a new wiring setup that would give me the controls I want. The CTRL-X is designed to work in tandem with one master volume pot. That created 2 options for us Gibson players- give up independent pickup volume control, or - have no volume control pot when in acoustic mode. (YIKES)
Bryan's expertise with the CTRL-X was a huge help in creating a new setup that would add a master volume to the existing plan, and I get to keep my very important individual pickup volume controls.
To keep everything on the guitar looking as close to stock as possible, I modified some parts and made a bracket to mount the new additional volume pot in the F-hole, underneath the
pickguard, with a wheel rather than a knob: so it can be reached but not seen.
Thanks to my dad, who assisted with the install but importantly- photographed along the way. Here's Claire from start to finish:
Awesome iPhone apps
There are a lot of different applications available for the iPhone, and most of them are great. However, I think when I got up to 4 full pages of stuff on my iPhone, I had strayed way past useful and at that point it was just clutter.
So I've set out to find the best of the best in regards to the apps that I use on my iPhone. I want to get a huge return on my investment with each program. So I'm keeping a running list of my top apps for the iPhone on a separate page here at nathanfowler.com.
Yesterday I removed Jott from that list. Jott is an app that allows you to record yourself speaking list items, and then add them to your lists. But the follow-through was not as organized as I would have liked, so this has been replaced on my iPhone with Zenbe Lists.
I like Zenbe because
- It's very easy and intuitive to add and clear out lists as you go.
- I can tap the 'edit' button and then drag items to the order I like, and since I prioritize my lists from top to bottom- that is crucial for me to see what's most important in it's right place at the top.
- Any list can be shared with ANYONE! So my wife can see and edit my grocery list. Then my boss can see my work to do list. Or if I just want to create a list to hold notes I can share that with a friend or co-worker.
This is simple productivity management delivered in an aesthetically pleasing package that will integrate seamlessly into your day-to-day and it is VERY intuitive to use.
Did I mention it is free?
nate
SRV Strat-a-coustic
My dad calls me a several weeks ago and says "What do you know about the LR Baggs X-bridge pickup?" I had looked into that pickup a while back because it is supposed to sound just like am acoustic guitar, when it is installed on an electric guitar of your choice.
We've spent a few weeks working on getting it installed and working, and today it was all worth it! My dad's SRV strat now outputs electric as well as (really good!) acoustic sounds! It can even be plugged to a stereo cable that sends the two signals separately to two amps.
While we were in the guitar we chose to thoroughly shield the electronics cavity to protect the guitar from hum (normally caused by being near flourescent lights).
Here are a few shots during and after the setup:
Isaac’s Strat is ready to rock
Isaac and I put in some time today, and now his strat is rocking! The Humbucker-single-single pickup configuration is amazing. This afternoon we put on a new pickguard, neck, tuners and strings. We've still got a couple grounding issues to iron out, but we're really happy with the progress.
The Broken West
CD: Now or Heaven
Some cool indie-ish music. I'm liking it for chill rock.
This is track 2 - Auctioneer
Isaac’s Strat
A few weeks ago Isaac came to me with a really sketchy looking guitar and asked if we could make it play. After removing everything we couldn't use, we were left with a strat body that had some Aweful paint all over it.
We removed all the paint with carb/choke cleaner, and found a pretty cool looking stock paint job underneath!
After all that, we've sheilded the main body cavity with copper tape, then mounted a hard tail bridge and HSS pickup set.
More updates and photos to come!!!!
all photos shot with iPhone camera app.
